indonesians’ contribution 1 analyzing errors in academic essays written by english department students ruri fadhilah kurniati rurifadhilah@gmail.com universitas teknologi surabaya abstract english department students are expected to be able to write an academic essay as they learn the theories of writing an academic essay in writing courses. yet, their academic essays still contain structure errors. this study aims to analyze the structure errors in the fields of unity and coherence. the methods of this study are first identifying the structure errors on the data and second classifying the errors on whether the error is about the unity or coherence. the finding shows a significant number of errors on unity and coherence in most paragraphs of the essays. keywords: essay structure errors, unity, coherence, academic essay introduction being able to write an academic essay is one competence that must be mastered by english department students since they learn the theories of writing an academic essay in writing courses as requested by the curriculum. in writing courses, students learn how to write academic essays appropriately. they also have an experience of writing some academic essays. unfortunately, some of the students’ academic essays still contain errors on the structure. seeing that there are several kinds of errors on the academic essay structure, this study does not analyze all the errors but errors in two fields only. the reason of choosing these two fields of errors is because they are important elements of effective academic writing. they are the errors on unity and coherence of each paragraph in an academic essay. theoretical framework theories on the structure of essay used to analyze the data of this study are proposed by some experts found in such books on academic writing as effective academic essay 2: the short essay by savage and mayer (2005), writing academic english by oshima and hogue (1999), college writing skills by langan (2008), and discoveries in academic writing by leonhard (2002). these books mention that among the standards of effective academic writing are unity and coherence. therefore, this study is limited to analyze the data from the two standards only; namely unity and coherence. it is essential that an appropriate writing must have unity. unity in a paragraph means that all sentences support one main idea (savage & mayer, 2005). this is in line with a statement that every effective paragraph has unity, 2 which means that there is only one single idea is discussed (oshima & hogue, 1999). furthermore, another important point of unity is that every supporting sentence must directly describe or provide evidence of the main idea that is stated in the topic sentence (oshima & hogue, 1999). accomplishing unity means that all the details in a academic writing related to the thesis and to the supporting topic sentences (langan, 2008). it is then clear that a paragraph having more than one idea or the supporting sentences support more than one single idea does not have unity and neither does a paragraph having a supporting sentence that does not directly explain the main idea of the paragraph. thus, these kinds of paragraph are considered inappropriate. another standard of effective writing that is used as limitation in this study is coherence. to build coherence in a paragraph, the ideas must have a rational movement; meaning that the connection between the sentences is clear and one idea links to the next (savage & mayer, 2005). in other words, the flow from one sentence to the next must be logical and smooth in order to have coherence in writing (oshima & hogue, 1999). being coherent, or “stick together”, means that all the supporting ideas and sentences in a paper must be organized (langan, 2008). when the sentences follow each other smoothly and logically, the english writing is coherent (leonhard, 2002). so, if there is jump among the sentences of a paragraph or the sentences do not flow smoothly, the paragraph is not coherent and regarded as inappropriate paragraph. research method this study employs descriptive qualitative design. qualitative research is designed to provide description of a specific program, practice, or setting (mertens, 2010). the study provides explanations of errors on unity and coherence of paragraphs in academic essays. the data being studied here is academic essays which are obtained from natural setting without any manipulations or controls. the source of data was ten academic essays written by english department students of third semester in airlangga university. random sampling was used to choose the essays. after collecting the ten academic essays, analysis was made. there are two steps in analyzing the data. first, the structure errors on the data are identified. second, they are classified into the limitations of the errors. since unity and coherence are standards of effective academic writing, they then are chosen as the limitations of the errors in academic essay structure. as a result, the identified structure errors are classified on whether the error is about the unity or coherence. data analysis 'the data analysis is presented in two parts: errors on unity and errors on coherence to provide further description and deeper understanding on the findings of errors on students' essay structure. the descriptions are in the form of words or pictures rather than numbers, and cannot be achieved by reducing pages of narration to numbers (mcmillan, 2008). 3 errors on unity the data analysis shows a great number of errors on unity. the causes of errors are various. one is because the paragraph contains a supporting sentence that oshima and hogue (1999, p. 31) call “off the topic.” another is because the paragraph has more than one idea. to know more clearly about the errors, the following paragraph is one of paragraph that is error on unity. it is the introductory paragraph of an essay titled role of television. (1) for decades, we have seen many parts of our world rapidly change because of technology (1). today’s society has been transformed by means of communication and the available information through mass media (2). many people rely on television for news, sports, and entertainment (3). television is just one of the many examples of how technology has changed our life (4). since the invention of television in the early 1900’s, it has played a very important role in our life (5). having television set in home has become very essential in today’s society (6). we depend on it to entertain and to inform us about current world issues (7). in excerpt (1), it can be easily known that the clause which is bold in sentence 1 (s1) is the idea of the paragraph. the following sentences should support and prove this idea. but s6 is irrelevant sentence because it is “off the topic” and does not support the idea of the paragraph. because of this irrelevant sentence, the paragraph is considered error on unity. another example of paragraph that has error on unity is the second supporting paragraph out of two supporting paragraphs from an essay titled traffic jam. (2) if most of people like using public transportation, traffic jam problem will be decreasing (13). however, public transportation is unusual for our people because of the condition of the transportation itself (14). the government must repair and maintain the public transportation so people will not afraid to go by bus or the government has to convince the people that using public transportation is better than using private transportation (15). and also, there are many advantages that we can take from public transportation (16). that’s why, to solve traffic jam problem, the government and the society must have a good cooperation (17). the paragraph in passage (2) has more than one idea: first, public transportation can solve traffic jam problem and second, the government must repair and maintain the public transportation. as stated by oshima and hogue (1999, p. 30), a good paragraph has unity when only one idea discussed. thus, it is clear that this paragraph is error on unity because there are two main ideas discussed. errors on coherence the data analysis shows a wide range of errors on coherence. the most common cause is because the movement from one sentence to the next sentence in a paragraph is illogical and not smooth. there are sometimes jumps on the supporting sentences of a paragraph. 4 to see more clearly an error on coherence, here is the same paragraph like the one presented to show the error on unity. it is the introductory paragraph of an essay titled role of television. (3) for decades, we have seen many parts of our world rapidly change because of technology (1). today’s society has been transformed by means of communication and the available information through mass media (2). many people rely on television for news, sports, and entertainment (3). television is just one of the many examples of how technology has changed our life (4). since the invention of television in the early 1900’s, it has played a very important role in our life (5). having television set in home has become very essential in today’s society (6). we depend on it to entertain and to inform us about current world issues (7). the words that are printed on boldface form in text (3) above indicate that the movement from one sentence to the next is not smoothly. the first term used is technology in s1, followed by mass media in s2 that does not directly relate to technology, and then the next term is television in s3 and s4 that is closely related with technology. after these three terms, a sentence mentioning that television is part of technology has just been stated. so, this paragraph contains some jumping sentences. that is why the paragraph is regarded error on coherence. this finding is in line with mali’s (2014) study stating that one of coherence problems that he found in analyzing 18 essays was irrelevant supporting evidence. he found jumping ideas among the supporting sentences written to support a topic sentence in a paragraph. conclusion important elements of good academic writing are unity and coherence. unity is that all sentences of the paragraph support one single idea. coherence is about the smooth and logical movement from a sentence to the next sentences in a paragraph. these two standards, unity and coherence, are the limitations of this study in analyzing the data which are academic essays. based on the data analysis, it is clear that the data show a significant number of errors on unity and coherence in most paragraphs of the essays. so, it is a fact that students’ academic essays still contain errors on the structure though they have learned the theories of writing an academic essay in the writing courses. references langan, j. 2008. college writing skills (7th ed.). new york: mcgraw-hill. leonhard, b. h. 2002. discoveries in academic writing. boston: heinle & heinle. mali, y. c. g. 2014. coherence problems in academic essay writing. yogyakarta: the graduate program in english language studies: sanata dharma university. mertens, d. m. (2010). research and evaluation in education psychology: integrating diversity with quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods (3rd ed.). thousand oaks, ca: sage publications, inc. 5 mcmillan, j. h. (2008). educational research: fundamentals for the consumer (5th ed.). boston: pearson education, inc. oshima, a., & hogue, a. 1999. writing academic english (3rd ed.). new york: pearson education. savage, a, & mayer, p. 2005. effective academic essay 2: the short essay. oxford: oxford university press. microsoft word 2219-article ate g. s latest .edited-clean.docx acuity (5) 1, 1-10 1 mentoring style, self-description, and academic achievement in english class. ate gueen simanungkalit, joppi jacobus rondonuwu faculty of education, universitas klabat agsimanungkalit@unklab.ac.id doi 10.35974/acuity.v5i1.2219 abstract the study intended to examine student mentoring, self-description, and academic achievement in a selected private university in jakarta, indonesia. there were 150 respondents in the study. the 2 instruments used for collecting data were adopted from cohen (1995) for identifying the mentoring style of the mentors of the students, and from marsh (1999) for identifying selfdescription of the students. the analysis of data employed descriptive statistics (independent ttest) as well as chi-square, one-way anova, and two-way anova. the research inquiries focused on the following issues: (1) identifying the mentoring style, self-description, and academic achievement of the students; (2) the relationship of mentoring style, self-description, academic achievement, and demographic profiles; and (3) the interactive effects—individual and joint—of mentoring style, self-description, and student academic achievement. the findings of the study showed that 2 mentoring styles were predominant among their mentors: relationship emphasis and mentor model; students perceived themselves with a self-description focused on spiritual values, and students had high academic performance. both male and female students perceived similar mentoring styles among their mentors, while, 1st year and 2nd-year students perceived mentoring style to be different among their mentors. in selfdescription, differences were found between genders while there was no difference found between 1st and 2nd-year students. there was no difference found between gender and year of study in the academic achievement, the students showed high performance. mentoring style and self-description did not have a significant individual or joint difference in academic achievement. since the students, as a whole had high academic achievement, this study seemed to suggest that the different mentoring styles did not have a difference in their academic achievement. however, that did not mean that mentoring did not work. on the contrary, it seemed that mentoring, regardless of style—based on the high academic achievement scores— did work. however, there was also the possibility that high achieving students might not need mentoring for improving their academic achievement. keywords: mentoring style, self-description, academic achievement introduction amid global competition in education, "teachers are thus instructed to better prepare students for the new world of work" (flynn, 1995, p. 53). indonesian colleges and universities, facing global competition in education, have been reported as being ranked as one of the lowest in their performance (asiaweek, 2000). this makes indonesia a particularly appropriate place to acuity (5) 1, 1-10 2 do this study since differences created by mentoring might be more visible. also, indonesian colleges and universities in some way could benefit or be challenged by the findings of this study, and it might help them improve in facing the global competition of education. with the improvement of the student mentoring services and self-description, the students of the selected university, in particular, would be better guided or directed to achieve success in their academic and social life. as a result, the university would also benefit in terms of increase in student enrollment and proficient graduates, more specifically in curriculum awareness and students' holistic development. in general, other colleges or universities of similar characteristics might find the results of this study useful for their improvement. student academic achievement, which is regarded as one of the major indicators of student success, has been traditionally associated with student mentoring and self-description, in spite of the controversial findings. it has also been identified as one of the relevant indicators of quality of schooling (cleary, 2001). the present study primarily investigated student mentoring and self-description in a selected private university in jakarta, indonesia. specifically, it examined the extent of the effect of mentoring style and self-description on student academic achievement. it also investigated the effect of mentoring style on student achievement based on self-description. mentoring experts on mentoring have identified various mentoring style. it is important to choose a style of mentorship that works best between the mentor and the mentee. a set of mentoring style suggested by anderson and shannon (1988) present a continuum that ranges from (1) directing (where the mentor tells the mentee exactly what to do in a situation; this type of mentorship is more formal) to (2) coaching (where the mentor gives suggestions and examples, encouraging the mentee to practice the lessons; the relationship between the two is friendly and rather casual) to (3) support (where both the mentor and mentee work together, with the mentee praising the mentee’s success experiences; the mentor may even assist the mentee with certain selected tasks) to (4) delegating (where the mentor gives more freedom to the mentee to work on his/her own with the mentor giving advice in certain crucial situations; the mentee is expected to make most of the decisions on his/her own). another mentoring style that meets the needs of adult learners is suggested by cohen (1995). he developed the following six discrete mentor functions, which he named the principles of adult mentoring scale: 1. relationship emphasis, in which the mentor genuinely understands and accepts the feelings of the mentee through active and empathetic listening. the purpose of this relationship is to establish a psychological trust in which they honestly share and reflect upon their personal experiences (negative and/or positive) as adult learners. in this case, the mentor is expected to practice skills such as (a) listening responsively, (b) understanding and using verbal and non-verbal reactions, (c) asking open-ended questions, (d) providing descriptive feedback based on the observation rather than inferences or motives, and (e) using perception checks to ensure comprehension of feelings. (adapted from cohen, 1995, pp. 20, 48) 2. information emphasis, in which the mentor offers suggestions or advice to the mentees about their current plans in achieving their personal, educational, and career goals. the acuity (5) 1, 1-10 3 mentor's advice is based on the information given by the mentee. in this case, the mentor is expected to (a) ask questions to understand the factual current condition of the mentee, (b) review relevant background to develop adequate personal profile, (c) probe questions which require concrete answers, (d) offer comments and solutions to the current problems, and (e) make decisions based on facts. (adapted from cohen, 1995, pp. 21, 60) 3. facilitative focus, in which the mentor facilitates the mentees through review and exploration of their interests, abilities, ideas, and beliefs relevant to academia or the workplace. the purpose of this facilitation is to assist the mentees in considering alternative views and options in making their own decisions. in this case, the mentor is expected to (a) pose hypothetical questions to broaden individual views, (b) make assumptions based on experience and information, (c) offer multiple viewpoints before making decisions and choices, (d) examine the seriousness of commitment to goals, (e) analyze reasons for current pursuits, and (f) review recreational and vocational preferences. (adapted from cohen, 1995, pp. 22, 74) 4. confrontative focus, in which the mentor challenges the mentees' explanations for their decisions and actions concerning their academic development. this is to help mentees attain insight into unproductive strategies and behaviors and to evaluate their need and capacity to change. in this case, the mentor is expected to (a) assess carefully the psychological readiness of the mentee to benefit from different viewpoints, (b) reveal the possible negative consequences of constructive feedback on the relationship, (c) confront the primary goal of self-assessment of apparent discrepancies, (d) focus on most-likely strategies and behaviors for meaningful change, (e) use only the carefully stated feedback necessary for change, and (f) offer comments (before and after confrontative remarks) to reinforce belief in a positive potential for mentee future growth. (adapted from cohen, 1995, pp. 22, 91) 5. mentor model, in which the mentor shares appropriate life experiences and feelings as a role model to the mentees to personalize and enrich their relationship. the purpose is to motivate the mentees to make decisions and take the necessary action. in this stage, the mentor is expected to (a) offer personal thoughts and feelings to emphasize the value of learning from unsuccessful or successful experiences; (b) select relevant examples and experiences from his/her own life or other people's; (c) provide a realistic assessment and positive belief in the mentee's ability to attain goals; (d) express a confident view of appropriate risk-taking as necessary for personal, educational, training, and career development; and (e) encourage the mentee to act in order to attain the goals. (adapted from cohen, 1995, pp. 22, 107) 6. mentee vision, in which, the mentor stimulates the mentees' critical thinking concerning envisioning their future and to developing personal and professional potential. the purpose is to encourage the mentees to function as independent adult learners. in this stage, the mentor is expected to (a) make statements which require reflection on present and future educational, training, and career attainments; (b) ask questions to clarify perceptions about his/her personal ability to manage change; (c) review individual choices based on a reasonable assessment of options and resources; (d) make comments on the analyses of problem-solving and decision-making strategies; (e) express confidence in carefully thought-out decisions; and (f) encourage mentee to develop talents and pursue dreams. (adapted from cohen, 1995, pp. 23, 121). from a search of the literature (cohen, 1995; foster, 2001; otto, 1999), the most common model of student mentoring is a one-to-one relationship between a more experienced mentor acuity (5) 1, 1-10 4 and a less experienced mentee, who needs the mentor’s support to achieve personal, academic and social development, and career goals. there was a variety in mentoring models, but the two basic categories of models related to student mentoring are formal and informal. floyd’s (as cited in brewster & fager, 1998) three general types of mentoring might overlap with each other in a given student mentoring relationship. the present study focused on two of floyd's three types of mentoring: academic and personal development mentoring, leaving aside the idea of career guidance mentoring since the respondents were the fulltime university students. it also explored mentoring style using cohen’s six principles of adult learner mentoring. self-description the terms self-esteem and self-concept which stand for self-description have been used interchangeably and inconsistently (reasoner, n.d.; strein, 1995), when they may relate to different ideas about how people view themselves. self-description is the information that someone has about himself or herself, the perceptions of himself or herself which is based on experience and interpretations of the environment including ideas, feelings, and attitudes about self (zahra, arif, & yousuf, 2010). thus, self-description is the sum of both self-esteem and self-concept. the difficulty here is that the meanings of these terms have changed over time depending on the particular definition and measure used in the analysis. the global view of self-concept is self-esteem or general self-concept. it is an overarching, global characteristic of an individual or a set of self-evaluations specific to different domains of behavior. the famous rosenberg self-esteem scale (n.d.) is a very good example of showing the essence of the global self-concept idea. on the other hand, self-concept refers to a conscious, cognitive perception of how one sees oneself. so, it could be said that an individual had multiple self-concepts with academic, social, physical, and religious aspects (reasoner, n.d.; strein, 1995). marsh, craven, and debus (1999) have developed three multidimensional measurements of self-concept based on the model proposed by shavelson, hubner, and stanton (1976): sdq i, ii, and iii. the sdq-i questionnaire has been designed to measure multiple dimensions of selfconcept of preadolescent primary school students, sdq-ii for adolescent high school students, and sdq-iii for late adolescents and young adults. each of the three instruments is made up of the following 13 scales: math, verbal, academic, problem solving, physical ability, physical appearance, same-sex peer relations, opposite-sex peer relations, parent relations, emotional stability, spiritual values/religion, honesty/trustworthiness, and general esteem. self-concept is important because it is viewed as a desirable outcome of education (snow et al., 1996; tracey, 2002). when self-concept was improved, it would yield improvement in the student motivation for learning, and thus academic performance. methods research design this is a cross-sectional survey research design. data was collected through questionnaires in the same period. the study investigated the responses of college students to a questionnaire to determine their perceptions about mentoring practices and further to identify the practices and acuity (5) 1, 1-10 5 other background factors that were associated with establishing high self-description and high academic achievement. in particular, this study investigated the strength of associations among student perceptions of student mentoring, student self-description, and student academic achievement. overall, several statistical tools were employed to answer the three research questions stated in this study. the statistical tools included descriptive as well as inferential statistics. respondents the sample of this study was the undergraduate students enrolled for the second semester of school year 2010-2011 school year at a selected private university in west indonesia. the university was selected purposively due to its mentoring program, an important criterion to serve the purpose of the study. this study conveniently selected students who were involved in the mentoring program. there were 400 questionnaires distributed equally to males and females (200 males and 200 females). instrument the questionnaire consisted of the following sections: respondent’s identification number, mentoring style questionnaire, and self-description questionnaire. the instrument provided to each respondent had a cover page, a letter to briefly describe the purpose of the study, and instructions on how to complete the instrument. since english is the medium of learning in the university where the respondents studied, it was not necessary to translate the questionnaire into the indonesian language. the respondent’s identification data (id) is needed because it would reveal the student's academic achievement. in the mentoring style questionnaire, the responses to the questionnaire items were indicated by a 5-point likert-scale with the following description: 1 (never), 2 (infrequently), 3 (sometimes), 4 (frequently), and 5 (always). the mentoring questionnaire was about the way the respondents perceive the mentoring relationship. the mentoring style section was the instrument from cohen’s (1995) principles of adult mentoring scale: postsecondary education instrument. it was designed to measure six behavioral factors with 55 items. the six behavioral functions were made up of the relationship emphasis (10 items), information emphasis (10 items), facilitative focus (6 items), confrontative focus (12 items), mentor model (6 items), and student vision (11 items). cohen (1995) reported that the reliability coefficient of the whole original scale was .95, which meant that as a whole the instrument was used to measure the complete mentor role competencies. the self-description instrument was adopted from marsh’s (1990a) self-description questionnaire iii (sdq iii) had 13 factors with 136 items. ten of the 13 factors consisted of 10 items in each factor, and the remaining three of the 13 factors consisted of 12 items in each of the factors. the 10 factors with 10 items each were the following: math, verbal, academic, problem solving, physical ability, physical appearance, same-sex peer relations, opposite-sex peer relations, parent relations, and emotional stability. the three factors with 12 items each were the following: spiritual values/religion, honesty/trustworthiness, and general esteem. negative and positive items were included in each scale. as a whole, the questionnaire was designed to measure how people describe themselves and to find the most important characteristics of how people thought and felt about themselves (marsh et al., 1999). acuity (5) 1, 1-10 6 the reliability coefficient of the sdq-iii was high, with cronbach alpha = 0.89 and the correlation coefficient between the factors was low, r = 0.09 (marsh & o’niel, 1984). an 8point likert scale used in the original self-description questionnaire iii was indicated as follows: 1 (definitely false), 2 (false), 3 (mostly false), 4 (more false than true), 5 (more true than false), 6 (mostly true), 7 (true), 8 (definitely true). data analysis and interpretation the data was analyzed by using the software statistixl to firstly find the frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation which described the respondents. in testing the hypotheses, inferential data analysis techniques of t-test, chi-square test of independence, and anova were used. the chi-square test of independence was found to be suitable for this study of nominal variables—self-description, and mentoring style. if the sample data in the contingency table, the expected frequency count is less than 5, it must be removed, or the expected frequency must be 5 or more. in the data analysis where the expected frequency count is less than 5, it was removed. levels of mentoring effectiveness were based on the mean scores of the students’ perception for each of the six factors as suggested by cohen (1995). a score that fell in the category of not effective and less effective indicated a need for professional improvement. a score in the effective category indicated a general competency with opportunity for improvement, and very effective and highly effective as indicating positive mentoring behavioral competency (cohen, 1995, p. 168). results pallant (2007) asserted that a two-way anova can be used to “look at the individual effect and joint effect of two independent variables on one dependent variable” (p. 257). hence twoway anova was used to test the effect of mentoring and self-description on academic achievement. the results of this test will be presented as follows: the individual effect of mentoring style on academic achievement and the individual effect of self-description on academic achievement the effect of mentoring style on academic achievement the null hypothesis was formulated and there was no effect of mentoring style on academic achievement and was also tested using a two-way anova. two-way anova is appropriate when you have one measurement variable and two nominal variables. the assumption was variance was homogeneous among variables. however, since two-way anova is robust, though heterogeneity, "variation among the results beyond that expected from chance alone" (engels et al., 1999, p. 4) was found, it did not affect the result. for a 3 x 5 between-subject factorial, anova was calculated to find out the effect of mentoring style on academic achievement. out of the six categories of mentoring style, three categories were removed. this reduction of categories from six to three was due to few factors of mentoring styles in the removed categories. the remaining categories were mentor model (35), relationship emphasis (33), and information emphasis (22), which all in all had 90 respondents out of 150. the findings showed that there was no significant effect of mentoring style on academic achievement f(2) = 0.38, p = 0.68 (see table 1). this indicates that none of the mentoring style had a different impact on the respondents’ academic achievement. since the respondents had acuity (5) 1, 1-10 7 high academic achievement, one can assume perhaps that the different mentoring styles worked for these students. the effect of mentoring style on academic achievement was seen as not significant implying that the six categories in mentoring style did not make any difference in respondent academic achievement. no study was found that indicated the effect of mentoring style on academic achievement. the closest studies to this finding (campbell & campbell,1997; lechuga, 2011; santos & reigadas 2005; sorrentino, 2006) all show positive correlations between mentoring and gpa. table 1 test of effects of mentoring style and academic achievement source df f prob. mentoring style 2 0.384 0.682 the effect of self-description on academic achievement it was hypothesized that there was a significant effect of self-description on academic achievement. the null hypothesis was formulated that there was no effect of self-description on academic achievement. the null hypothesis was tested using two-way anova. the assumption was that variance was homogeneous among variables. however, two-way anova was robust. for a 3 x 5 between-subject factorial, anova was calculated to know the effect of selfdescription on academic achievement. out of 13 categories of self-description, eight categories were removed. this reduction of categories from 13 to five was due to few factors of selfdescription in the removed categories. the remaining categories were spiritual values/religion (34), parent relations (18), general esteem (16), physical ability (13), and same-sex peer relations (9), which all in all was 90 out of 150. the finding shows that there was no significant effect of self-description on academic achievement f(4) = 1.86, p = 0.13 (see table 2). this indicated that none of the self-description affected the respondents' academic achievement. it implies that the way the respondents described themselves did not make any change in their academic achievement. their academic achievement was still high. table 2 test of effects of self-description and academic achievement source df f prob. self–description 4 1.863 0.126 acuity (5) 1, 1-10 8 the interactive effect of mentoring style and self-description on academic achievement the final hypotheses highlighted the interactive effect of mentoring style and self-description on academic achievement and stated that there is no such interactive effect. the null hypothesis was tested using anova and is described below. for a 3 x 5 between-subject factorial, anova was calculated to know the effect of mentoring style and self-description on academic achievement. after removing three categories, the remaining categories were spiritual values/religion, parent relations, general esteem, physical ability, and same sex peer relations. the findings show that there was no significant interactive effect of mentoring style and selfdescription on academic achievement f(8) = 0.67, p = 0.72 (see table 3). this indicates that neither the mentors’ mentoring style nor the respondents’ self-description affected the respondents’ academic achievement. it implies that respondents were already smart, even without mentoring style or ability to describe themselves. the mentoring style and the way they describe themselves did not make a difference to their academic achievement. table 3 test of effects of mentoring style and self-description on academic achievement source df f prob. mentoring style*self-description 8 0.666 0.720 discussion as one of the significant indicators of student success, student academic achievement has had contentious findings related to student mentoring and self-description. this present study was an endeavor to investigate student mentoring and self-description about student academic achievement in a selected private university in jakarta, indonesia. undergraduate students enrolled for the second semester of school year 2010—2011 at a selected private university in indonesia were the population for this study. the purposively chosen university closely followed a mentoring program, which was an essential criterion for this study. the students were selected using convenience sampling and numbered 400 (200 males and 200 females). during the research procedure of data gathering and data processing, some respondents were eliminated as outliers. the final number of respondents used for the statistical analysis was 150 with 100 females and 50 males. the three parts of the instrument were information about self (the demographic profiles), mentoring style which was adopted from cohen (1995), and self-description which was adopted from marsh (1990a). mentoring style of cohen (1995) contained six factors with 55 items was used to study the variable of mentoring. the sdq iii of marsh (1990a) had 13 factors with 136 items and was used to study self-description. acuity (5) 1, 1-10 9 due to some limitations of this study, several recommendations are made for further studies: 1. use purposive sampling for selecting the respondents than by other sampling types to get individuals with certain selected criteria with mentoring. fraenkel and wallen (2003) specified that in purposive sampling the researchers "use their judgment to select a sample that they believe, based on prior information; will provide the data they need" (p. 105). even though in purposive sampling there is weakness in the researcher's judgment, a proper number of respondents can be directly taken based on the need for the study. 2. for improved outcomes, the administration of the questionnaires needs to be reconsidered. attention must be given so that respondents can clearly understand the items in the questionnaire, feel more comfortable during the process of filling out the questionnaire, and have enough time to answer the questionnaire. 3. select a larger population for the study that includes several tertiary institutions where mentoring is practiced. generalization can be more definitely possible with much larger groups. 4. in this study, it is not clear whether it is mentoring that helped to produce high achievement. taking tertiary institutions with lower academic admission criteria to see the effect of mentoring on academic achievement would be helpful to find this. conclusion several significant findings were identified in this study. mentoring style, the focus of this study, was investigated from the vantage point of the students, the mentees, unlike most studies that reported the data from the mentors themselves. that the students in the study showed high academic achievement pointed out different possibilities about the mentoring style. one possibility is that students achieved well whatever the mentoring style of their mentors be, proving that mentoring style seems to have differentiated and inclusive characteristics. in other words, mentoring helps in high achievement through the use of different mentoring styles of the mentors or it does not matter at all when the students are really good in academic achievement. this would be true if the academic achievement was proven to have improved compared to before mentoring. but this study did not focus on that aspect. therefore, the other possibility could also be true. that is, the students in the mentoring program started as high achievers and remained so in spite of the different mentoring styles. whichever it is, the findings are significant, and for high student achievement is the acid test of quality education. therefore, this study indicated that mentoring is a practice that must be encouraged in tertiary levels, whatever the mentoring style of the mentors. references flynn, p. 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(2006). the seek mentoring program: an application of the goal-setting theory. journal of college student retention, 8(2), 241-250. retrieved from http://www.eric.ed.gov/ericwebportal/search/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&erice xtsearch_searchvalue_0=ej744662&ericextsearch _searchtype_0=no&accno=ej744662 118 acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.6 no.2 2021 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity media framing in south korean drama “crash landing on you” towards north korea lambok hermanto sihombing1, saffira dellavia2 correspondence author: lambok h. sihombing lambok@president.ac.id universitas president1,2 doi: 10.35974/acuity.v6i2.2398 abstract the korean wave or well known as hallyu has become more popular overtime. it is proven when the entertainment industry could reach overseas audience, such as k-drama called “crash landing on you”. this k-drama received a lot of reaction not only from south korea, but also from around the world. this k-drama is perceived as a controversial but entertaining tv series because it is a romance series but the setting is taken in south and north korea. with limited knowledge about north korea, this k-drama dares to give a lot of information about the closed and restricted country. many people agree with the description, but few people disagree. this essay aims to explain and describe how a k-drama through “crash landing on you” depicts the condition and situation of north korea. by using the theory of goffman and entman, the writers draw some explanation about what kind of framing that is implemented in this drama. the result of this study is how the media, especially in south korea portrays or describes north korea as a restricted country. keywords: crash landing on you, k-drama, media framing, north korea, south korea. introduction south korea is one of the most developed countries that are well known for their technology, economy, futuristic architecture, and entertainment industry (kim, 2018). the entertainment industry from korea mostly known as korean wave or “hallyu” that includes several products such as television programs, pop music, films, online games, fashions and smartphones. this term was originally coined by the chinese press due to the unexpected popularity and success of the k-drama in 1998-1999 that made k-drama is very popular in other countries, outside south korea and outside asia such as north america, european and latin countries (ju, 2018). the history of korean drama began in 1910-1945 when they started to create dramas through broadcasting on radio (hae, 2012). after that, korea established their national television in 1956 called hlkz-tv that became korean broadcasting system or known as kbs in 1960 and during 1960s there were two broadcasting networks called tbc (tong yang television company) and mbc (munhwa broadcasting company). the first drama that aired in 1960 has become the government tool in order to spread awareness about the anti-communisms and continued in 1970 that in this era, soap operas began to overtake movies as a platform for https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity mailto:lambok@president.ac.id 119 video entertainment. however, the storyline became different and it mostly talks about the everyday life without forgetting the political agenda. in 1980 the drama that the broadcasting network became more diverse in plot and genres which also continued to develop in 1990 with various plots that can be seen in mbc’s drama called “jealously”. this drama mostly tells about the romantic life between the main actors through urban life. from 2000 until now, with the globalization and the technology that is more advanced, the k-drama is still developing until now with more various genres such as romantic dramas, actionadventures, palace life and many more (korean culture and information service ministry of culture; sports and tourism). k-drama does not only gain the popularity from inside the country, but it also has million viewers outside south korea. this phenomenon occurs as the result of globalization that happened during the asian financial crisis in 19971998 that made economic downturn across asia that also affected korea. this led to the government action to maximize the utilization of cultural industry and made the television stations, broadcasting associations, and telecommunication industries. the government also tried to create the proactive commercial conditions for home-produced media content in order to capitalize the domestic and foreign markets (ju, 2018). until now, the hype of this phenomenon still continue and getting more attentions from many audiences. for k-drama enthusiast, they can stream their favorites drama from video streaming sites such as hulu and netflix. through these sites, the drama could reach bigger audience (bacon, 2019). since the drama is available in video streaming sites that many people love it, the attractiveness of the drama also comes from the component of the drama itself. bacon also added that several things that increase the appetite of watching this drama are the casts or the actors, the culture, the fashion, and how the drama promote their food as one of their points of promotion as a culture, and also various plots that the dramas could offer their audiences and many more. there are a lot of dramas that catch the audience attentions, such as vagabonds (2019), crash landing on you (2019), memories of the alhambra (2018), strong girlbong soon (2017), signal (2016), cheese in the trap (2016), and those dramas can be watched in netflix (komonibo & roberts, 2020). however, some of the dramas are not available in video streaming. people have to watch it in cable tv or have to download it from other sites. k-drama is like any other films. they are popular because they offer a lot of dramas with various genres such as romance, romantic comedy, melodrama, satire, workplace drama, action, sci-fi, thriller, mystery, and many more. it does not only offer a lot of genres, it also offers various themes and plots which talk about daily life, family, workplace, schools or university life, medical, marriage life, and even politics which involves other countries just like on “crash landing on you” (kao, 2018). as previously mentioned, there are several k-drama that catch the audience attention in several years. the recent k-drama “crash landing on you” that aired in netflix and tvn tells about a woman named yoon se-ri who will inherit her father’s big and wealthy company in south korea. seri who is played by son ye-jin has to make an emergency landing in north korea because of strong wind that blows her away while doing paragliding. after succeeding to do the landing, she met ri jeonghyeok who is played by hyunbin, who is a north korean army officer. while trying to protect her, ri jeong-hyeok falls in love with yoon se-ri. this drama has 16 episodes and caught the audience attention from seoul as well as nationwide. this is proved by the first episode that aired on december 14, 2019 who has great rating in seoul with 6.5% and in nationwide with 6.07%. this rating increased until the end of the episode in february 16th 2020 with 23.2% rating in seoul and 21.6% in nationwide (asian wiki). considering the high popularity in south korea, this drama reached its fame around the world. 120 despite the popularity, this drama also has criticism because this drama tells about south korean citizen and north korean army officer. this drama also received comments from north korea media. “recently, south korean authorities and film producers are releasing anti-republic films and tv dramas that are deceptive, fabricated, absurd and impure, putting all their efforts on making strategic propaganda” (mi, 2020). critics continues with several comments from north korean, as well as south korean that said this drama glamorizing north korea’s reclusive neighbor as peaceful and also as a live-able place. the criticism did not stop there, it continued with some responses such as this drama is picturing north korean as an underdeveloped country and this drama turns the tragic situation into sources of entertainment (kang & twigg, 2020). however, the response is different when it comes to north korean’s defector. kang na-ra as one of the north korean’s defector gave a comment that the drama is 60 percent accurate when it comes to portraying north korea (choon, 2020). research question through the explanation that has been explained previously, the authors come up with the question about how south korea did a media framing in k-drama “crash landing on you” towards the north korean and what are the implied messages resulted from media framing towards north korea. theoritical framework in order to analyze the case of media framing in drama “crash landing on you” towards north korea that receives the different reaction from south korea and north korea, the authors use framing theory from goffman and entman. according to goffman, framing theory has a meaning of how the choice of people and the process of information are influenced by something that is presented to them (mass communication theory, 2011). in this case, the director of serial drama “crash landing on you” presents a story that influence the audience about what north korea is really about. the framing theory was coined by erving goffman. this theory based on his perspective about the framing theory as an interpretation and he called it as a primary framework because it is not depending on the original interpretation, but more focus on how a meaningless aspect of a scene turns into meaningful aspect. in other words, there are lots of scenes that seem meaningless—but in contrary, they contain meaningful message behind them. moreover in goffman’s theory, primary framework can appear without having apparent articulated shape, providing a lot of understanding and an approach and perspective that allow the user or audience to locate, perceive, identify, and label a seemingly infinite number of concrete occurrences defined in its term (liotta, n.d.) other perspective on framing theory comes from robert m. entman. he stated that frames are difficult to be determined reliably if the narratives are not compared (entman, 1991). this theory explains that it is hard to determine whether the narrative being presented is accurate or not, unless there is comparison. therefore, authors will provide some information from both sides, the north korean and south korean. entman explained about the benefits of a consistent concept framing, the first one is audience autonomy. this concept provides an operational definition about polysemy and how audience independence in decoding text that consists of problem, causal, evaluative, and treatment interpretation with the probability of being noticed, processed and accepted by the most people. the second benefit is about the journalistic objectivity. this benefits talk about how journalists 121 may follow the rules in order to do ‘objective’ reporting and convey dominant framing of the news text that prevents most audience members in order to making a balanced assessment of the situation. however, there is a bit of disadvantage because there is a possibility to have a lack of common understanding of framing and with this situation, the journalists allow the most skillful media manipulators to impose their dominant frames on the news and also through this situation where require more active and sophisticated role for reporter to have more balanced reporting than choosing sides in producing the news. the next benefit is about the content analysis. this benefit is about the major task that determines the textual meaning that should identify and describe frames. this content analysis would avoid treating the negative and or positive terms that has an equally stand out and influential that led to conclude the messages on that moment based on their judgment whether it is positive or negative and make the conclusion about the dominant meanings. this also has a disadvantage which is they neglect to measure what point stands out in the text and fail to have a relation between the message, and from this situation it can lead to another problem that might occur, which is the misrepresent of the media messages from the audience that receive the messages. the last benefit is public opinion and normative democratic. this benefit of framing can appear as a central power in the democratic process, especially in politic elites that can control the framing of the issues on that moment. through this benefit, the framing can influence the public opinion and it can be seen in political events when the government do a voting, the role of framing can be seen in the way of public chooses the option of the candidate (entman, 1993). methods to help the writers analyzing and answering the research questions about south korea doing some media framing towards north korea, the writers use qualitative methods through content analysis. for analyzing content, the writers watch the drama “crash landing on you” and analyze the characters and the plot. the writers also use secondary data such as news and articles from the internet. to support the writers’ statement about the media framing, writers use the theory from goffman and entman. first step of the research, the writers watched all 16 episodes of this drama, identify them and explain the plot and scenes that describe the framing towards north korea. the writers also selected several scenes that show the framing that south korea does in this drama. after that, the writers insert the preview of the scene in order to explain what happened on that scene. writers also relate the scenes with the theory of goffman and entman. discussion the main characters of this serial drama are hyun-bin as captain ri jeong hyeok, son ye-jin as yoon se-ri, seo jihye as seo dan and kim jung-hyun as gu seung-joon. figure 1: the main cast for crash landing on you. (asian wiki) 122 this drama is about a rich woman from south korea, yoon se-ri, who is also the heir to a big and wealthy company. when se-ri is doing a paragliding sport, a big tornado appears and blows her away to the north korea portion of the dmz or (demilitarized zone). this makes all of the family and her brother fight for the position of the empty heir. on the place, ri jeong-hyeok, who is also the captain in north korean army, is patrolling around the border area and suddenly finds se-ri and saves her from the accident. the drama continues as captain ri wants to take seri back to south korea. however, his plan is prevented by other north korean army who wants to expose him to higher chief. realizing the hard situation, captain ri decided to hide her from another north korean army and keeps her in north korea until it is possible to send her back to south korea. as the time goes by, they fall in love and decide to make the escape plan for her together. at the end, se-ri succeeds to get out of north korea and live his normal life. throughout this series, there are some scenes that the director portrays about north korea. the first example is about law. there is a scene when north korean army, led by captain ri encounters their people being captive to south korean army in the dmz. an army captain from south korea tells captain ri that those north korean trespass the border and search for cultural artifacts illegally. the situation becomes more intense as both group hold and point guns to each other. captain ri then tells south korean army to lower the gun and give those captives to him or the north korean army. he also adds that south korean army does not have to worry about punishing those people as the law enforcement in north korea is better and stricter compared to law enforcement in south korea. figure 2: intense scene of north and south army figure 3: captain ri pointing a gun to south army from the scene above, it clearly shows that the director wants to deliver a message that the law enforcement in north korea is stricter than in south korea. using goffman’s theory which says something presented can influence the choice of audience, this clearly shows that the director wants to tell the audience that whether north korean law enforcement is better, stricter, or sadistic, considering death penalty does exist there. this explanation is also supported by entman, because compared to law enforcement in south korea, north korea indeed is stricter and even cruel. the director also wants to show how intense the diplomatic situation in both countries. it can be seen from the scene where both sides are pointing their guns to each other and making a heart-stopping negotiation. in the next scene, the writers explain about the condition of north korea based on how the drama shows the settlement. this drama focuses on one of many villages where captain ri lives. it is shown in the drama that the village is underdeveloped. the people still use briskets for lights and cooking. limited of electricity also causes the village to have a blackout for unpredictable time. there is no internet connection in almost entire country, and phones are only available for some people like captain ri. people in north korea really value the goods from 123 south korea. the goods are actually illegal because they are contrabands or confiscated goods from south korea. figure 4: the village is out of electricity figure 5: using briskets for cooking considering the most restricted and closed country, north korea in this drama is shown as a country as a place where there are still many people do the smuggling, goods or people, in and out the country. this is contradict to the statement that north korea is very strict and closed. this contradiction is also supported by captain ri’s action where he decided to keep se-ri alive. a real north korean army would never compromise people who trespass their territory, especially those who are from south korea since they are enemies (lee, 2019). many people around the world know that north korea is famous for its communism ideology and dictatorship leader. the leader will punish people who abandon the job and break the law. it is believed that if there is someone, especially people from military break the rule, they will be punished. when the main character, se-ri arrives in the village, she thinks that she is in south korea. she is confused by the village which is dark and so quite. after observing for quite some time, she realizes that the people use different accent. she also notices that the village looks different compared to the village in her place. the drama gives a vivid description about how north korean looks like and how the people do their daily activity. kids march and sing while going to their school. some wives and women make kimchi, a traditional korean cuisine, in a traditional and different way. it is also mentioned that in other villages, they still use dried leaves and weed to lit fire. cars are very rare coming to the village. there are lots of homeless kids who steal food to eat every day. it shows how hard the life of people in that country. however, despite the poor and lack of technology, the sense of warm neighborhood covers up all the flaws of this village. people are so nice to each other, they are happy with their condition. sometimes in the morning, there is even a music comes from the loudspeaker to tell that it is the time to do some gymnastic. this drama series is only an entertainment show; however, according to the director, this drama is inspired from a real event where a south korean actress and her three friends accidentally strayed into disputed waters between the two countries when doing a boat trip in 2008. it is even said that they talked to north korean fisherman. there are a lot of interpretations about the movie that display the description of north korea. how the media, in this case a drama series portray the description of north korea is still debatable. according to min joo kim, a reporter for the washington post, there are some similarities and differences about the north korean shown in the drama. kim interviewed some people both north korean and south korean who lives near the border. in her article, she wrote: kang, who now lives near south korea’s border with the north, recently watched the show with her husband. her husband kept asking her about what he was seeing on tv, she said. “he couldn’t believe that was the life i lived before meeting him, but 124 yeah, i also made kimchi out of seawater and showered in a makeshift steam bath under plastic sheets,” she said, noting scenes from the series. kang said she used to avoid watching south korean films and dramas that involved north korea, because the north was depicted as “so dark.” “my life in north korea had hardships, but it was not just suffering,” she said. “there are real people living in the country, and all kinds of things happen there. what i liked about this series is that it showed different kinds of people living in north korea” (kim & denyer 2020). related to entman’s theory that is mentioned above in the theoretical framework, which says that the narratives should be compared first in order to get a reliably frames, a clear description can be drawn clearly because there is a comparison between what is said in the drama and the real informant who used to live in north korea. kang agrees for a part where people in north korea make kimchi traditionally, and take a shower with a makeshift steam, as shown in the drama. however, when it comes to the suffrage, she tends to disagree. it is shown when kang says that she rarely watches south korean drama about the north korea because it is usually “dark”. she also adds that even though it is hard to live in north korea, she is not suffering, compared to what is depicted in the movies that many kids are homeless and steal for food because of have nothing to eat for three days. the writers assume that what is usually depicted in the drama is not always the same with the reality. many scenes are made only for entertaining. min joo kim in her article also interviewed a north korean army named jung ha-neul that had a job exactly like captain ri. the interview says: “the border guard unit i experienced was much more rigid and hierarchical,” he said, adding he has “hardly any happy memories” of the 15 months he spent in the army. jung sneaked across the heavily mined front line in 2013, when a typhoon knocked out some of the electric fences — just as a typhoon does in the tv drama — but he said he never would have risked his life to run away if the army had been as warm as it is portrayed. but in one respect, he says, the show is accurate.“when the soldiers first come to seoul in the show, the sense of surprise and marvel they feel is real,” he said. “the burgers i tasted for the first time in seoul were amazing” (kim, 2020). this testimony above shows the support to the movie. it can be seen from the interview when ha-neul says the show is accurate. a lot of speculation about north korea spreads among people around the world. however, it is hard to determine its accuracy unless we live there and witness ourselves. many people accept it outright what is shown in the drama, but many disagree too. it is related to what goffman’s theory which says what is presented can influence the choice of people. entman’s theory says that the narratives should be compared to gain the true information. conclusion through the media of k-drama, south korea wants to show the audience about the description of north korea. the media sometimes gives some framing that north korea is a https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svfgt-kjxsq 125 strict, underdeveloped, and not so livable country. through “crash landing on you”, all the framings can be seen from the scenes that have been mentioned in discussion above. media framing is made for some reasons. the media framing on k-drama “crash landing on you” shows that the armies are nice people because they save and help people from south korean, which is not true in real life. this framing shows that the north korean armies are not that tough when it comes to law, integrity, and punishment. however, people in north korea can live peacefully despite the hardship that they go through. in contrary, people in south korea are fighting over money and position just like se-ri families do. media framing in this drama brings the audiences’ attention that north korean and south korean are good people. even though north korean armies are famous for their discipline and strict law enforcement, they help a woman from south korea. nevertheless, it is the audience part whether to believe what is presented or do more research. some comparisons of evidences were presented to show whether the drama is accurate or not and it is up to the audience to decide how to react towards the media framing that delivered on the k-drama “crash landing on you.” . references crash landing on you asianwiki. 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(2011). passport to korean culture. https://www.korea.net/resources/publications/aboutkorea/view?articleid=2226 lee, h. k. (2019). 3 north korean defectors talk about what it was like crossing the demilitarized zone. abc news. https://abcnews.go.com/international/north-koreandefectors-talk-crossing-demilitarized-zone/story?id=63345777 mass communication theory. (2011). framing theory. mass communication theory. https://masscommtheory.com/theory-overviews/framing-theory/ mi, a. s. (2020). pyongyang calls fans of hit tv drama ‘crash landing’ ‘immoral’. the korean herald. http:// http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20200304000745 references acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 23 indonesian university efl learners’ perspectives toward self-assessment in writing processes kristian florensio wijaya kristianwijaya500@gmail.com cita hati international school, indonesia doi: 10.35974/acuity.v8i1.2605 abstract concerning the sophisticated, contextual, and valid development of language learning assessment in efl writing fields, it is highly recommended for efl teachers to advance their learners’ writing skills progression under the supervision of self-assessment. it has been a widespread belief by previous researchers that the continual utilization of self-assessment in writing learning processes can potentially breed more proficient and independent writers. coupled with this premise, this present small-scale qualitative study was conducted to profoundly investigate indonesian university efl learners’ specific perceptions toward selfassessment in writing learning dynamics with the help of qualitative content analysis. 10 online likert-scale questionnaire items along with 5 open-ended written narrative inquiry questions were distributed to 15 english education master students, sanata dharma university. the obtained research results unfolded that the ineluctability of self-assessment activities is pivotal in breeding more professional efl writers capable of creating more qualified writing products. for the further advancement of this current investigation, future studies are strongly prompted to thoroughly involve ample research participants to be accompanied by more comprehensive research instruments. keywords: self-assessment, efl writing processes, qualitative content analysis introduction in the efl realm, one of the essential skills that should be mastered fully by our modern learners is writing. in the indonesian efl learning context itself, it has been a high demand that qualified writing competency is a must for university learners to accomplish various college courses for a better purpose. taufiqulloh (2014) postulates that all university efl learners are commissioned to possess more robust writing skills at the onset of their college life unless they will encounter varied frustrating learning experiences throughout the chosen disciplines. this issue has simultaneously induced more acute impediments in this archipelago when discerning the ubiquitous fact that university efl learners are easily demotivated while confronting a vast range of writing learning barriers such as organization, grammar, dictions, and ideas they need to incorporate in their designated writing products. this perspective is in line with the finding of taufiqulloh, yuvita, and sulistianingsih (2018) discovered that the majority of indonesian university efl learners did not exhibit a higher level of writing endeavor due to the complex nature of writing learning dynamics requiring them to inculcate richer vocabulary, advanced writing knowledge, and appropriate deliverance to the wider audience. in the same respect, another taxing obstruction hindering https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity mailto:kristianwijaya500@gmail.com acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 24 indonesian efl learners in developing their writing competencies to the utmost potentials is the lack of teachers’ supports. it has been a common ground that efl writing instructors in our nation solely become more product-oriented than appraising the ongoing writing learning enterprises learners have already strived for. as a result, learners only obtain the written scores without becoming more aware of the particular mistakes forming in their writing results. this issue is in partnership with the theory of one-way writing assessment adduced by ratminingsih, marhaeni, and vigayanti (2018) stating that since a considerable number of indonesian efl writing instructors intensively accentuate more exhaustive concern on the final writing products produced by their learners, the fruitful writing learning outcomes and holistic writing skills growth cannot be fully attained by them. to better overcome all these aforementioned writing learning hurdles, authentic writing assessment is one of the best and rewarding pathways for efl teachers to wholly gauge their learners’ real-time as well as contextual writing competencies. this may be due to the nature of this assessment necessitating learners to constantly hone their writing skills in obvious writing learning trajectories and tangibly internalize those obtained specific writing competencies in everyday real-life events. this aforesaid description is closely interlinked with the theory of authentic writing learning assessment proposed by marhaeni (2015) avowing that authentic writing assessment can bring about a wider array of advantageous values for learners’ writing motivation along with skills development since they are continually requested to incorporate all the attained knowledge in the manifestation of apparent writing practices. furthermore, one of the precise forms of authentic writing assessments inextricably associated with nowadays efl writing learning contexts in colleges is self-assessment. by conducting continual self-assessment writing practices, indonesian university efl learners are capable of profoundly reflect on their writing products, improve their writing skills more prolifically, and navigate their future writing learning venture in a better direction. this argumentation is tightly interwoven with the theory of self-assessment devised by buyukkarci (2014) avers that the appropriate utilization of self-assessment will potentially navigate the present writing learning enterprises in a more meaningful manner due to the constant evaluative nature of this assessment in a way that learners are fully empowered to elevate their writing competencies, volition, and perspectives. it is also worth emphasizing that in the optimal presence of self-assessment, university efl learners can also transfigure into more self-regulated writers ingraining a higher level of confidence, awareness, and positive writing perceptions. these above-explained conceptions are germane to the theory of self-assessment put forward by butler (2018) asserting that university efl learners having been consistently exposed to self-assessment will have more tendency to transform into more autonomous writers confidently participate in every challenging writing learning dynamic. all these rewarding efl learning merits are holistically obtained since learners engaging in self-assessment processes are more prone to make a clearer discernment toward the writing products they have enacted. simply saying, learners are capable of exerting a vast range of appropriate writing learning actions in an attempt to generate high-quality writing products after observing specific aspects in breeding meaningful writing results. spiller (2012) theorized that it is because of self-assessment efl learners can yield more meaning-making writing products by the end of writing sessions since every evaluative action is pondered more conscientiously by them leading them to exactly realize how to fine-tune their writing results. the soundness of self-assessment in efl writing learning venture is also determined by the proactive learners’ evaluative participations. meaning to say, learners have to play more active roles in judging, evaluating, monitoring, and planning on the particular topics they are going to write. by doing so, they https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 25 are more liable to bridge the huge gap between their prior and existing understanding of the targeted subject-specific matters resulted in a more gratifying writing learning progression. this line of perspective has mutually adhered with the theory of self-assessment advantage propounded by weisi and karimi (2013) strongly suggesting university efl learners exhibiting more proactive writing learning behaviors in the guidance of self-assessment to increasingly maximize their desired writing learning outcomes as well as prolifically cultivate a more exhaustive understanding of the chosen writing topics. to fully promote these positive writing learning climates, efl teachers are also prompted to rejuvenate their existing roles as supportive writing learning facilitators always readily helping learners to forge their writing awareness, objectives, concerns, and preferences to reach the targeted writing learning benefits. brown and harris (2013) consented that it is of crucial importance for efl teachers to play their roles as supportive writing learning facilitators and loyal counselors in the maximization of self-assessment implementations to sustainably foster learners’ writing learning accountability directing them to seize more satisfying writing learning outcomes. in like manner, efl teachers are jointly advocated to conduct more in-depth need analysis before applying self-assessment in diverse wide-ranging writing classroom contexts to familiarize themselves with the specific writing learning objectives and hardships generally undergone by learners. by carrying out this careful-planned analysis, teachers can devise ample effective writing solutions compatible with their learners’ writing learning situations. in the same line of argument, nation and macalister (2019) assert that it is extremely pivotal for efl teachers to run more exhaustive need analysis before implementing self-assessment in their writing classes to better inform learners concerning their strengths along with weaknesses beneficial to promote high-quality, pleasurable, and meaningful writing learning enterprises in the upcoming events. to restate, since a robust construction of self-regulation levels will lead efl learners to fully obtain more gratifying language learning outcomes as well as achievements, it is of critical importance for language teachers to train their learners to be more strategic thinkers, planners, and managers for the ongoing learning dynamics. by becoming more strategic academicians, efl learners will be more capable of exhaustively reflecting on their ongoing learning venture leading them to capitalize on various strategies beneficial to heighten their learning effectiveness. this argument is closely correlated with the advantageous value of self-regulation theory invented by lavasani, mirhosseini, hejazi, and davoodi (2011) arguing that the exuberant proliferation of self-regulated learning behavior can bring about a significant degree of benefits for efl learners in terms of becoming more autonomous, responsible, and proactive academicians desirous of magnifying their learning outcomes by vehemently controlling their learning circumstances as well as expendable actions. as such, strategic efl academicians can also be presumably assumed as the figures capable of harnessing a vast range of second language learning strategies more flexibly in responding to the current learning obstacles they are facing. this kind of adaptive attitude emerged since these self-regulated learners uphold a strong contention that diverse wide-ranging of employed learning strategies will lead them to be more innovative, creative, and perseverance academicians readily to adapt themselves toward following unpredictable learning situations. this above-explained perspective is compatible with self-regulated efl learners theory devised by yilmaz (2010) articulates that efl learners infusing more robust growth of selfregulation are more liable to harness a considerable number of variegated language learning strategies harmonious with their existent learning vicinities since they strongly believe that these chosen appropriate strategies can guide them supportively to achieve the desired learning outcomes. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 26 there are still plethoras of advantageous values potentially promoted by self-assessment internalization in efl writing learning dynamics. through the appropriate use of this student-centered writing learning approach, learners will be more capable of constantly exhibiting a higher level of advanced writing learning performances amid adverse writing learning circumstances. nielsen (2014) unfolded that most university efl learners are capable of maintaining their best writing performances in the light of self-assessment since they heed more profound concern on developing their writing progress gradually. selfassessment can also elevate learners’ higher-order thinking, metacognitive, and selfregulatory skills since they are constantly advised to reflect on their writing products critically based on the facts as well as writing conventions approved globally. sadeghi et al., (2017) strongly encouraged globalized efl teachers to introduce their learners with selfassessment at the onset of writing learning processes to progressively improve their critical thinking skills, metacognitive awareness, and learning independence. the thoroughness of self-assessment advantageous values and efl writing achievements can also potentially bring about more conducive, efficient, and time-saving writing learning activities where learners can steadily focus on enhancing their writing skills, motivation, and products harmonious with the expected learning outcomes. amo and jareno (2011) highly advocated that the majority of efl teachers and learners infuse more positive perceptions on the use of self-assessment in variegated writing classroom vicinities due to the pleasurable as well as stress-free nature of this student-centered learning approach. coupled with this fact, selfassessment can intensively elevate efl learners’ writing learning responsibility since they are commissioned to consistently showcase a greater degree of reliability while evaluating their writing products. mazloomi and khabiri (2016) exclaimed that it is vitally essential for worldwide efl teachers to impart more mushrooming attention to the more proper utilization of self-assessment in their writing learning dynamics to foster learners’ writing learning responsibility into the utmost levels. there are 4 relevant previous studies closely associated with this prospective study. the first study was conducted by nawas (2020) revealed that the majority of indonesian university efl learners encountered serious hurdles while engaging in self-assessment writing activities since they did not believe in their evaluative capabilities. abas and aziz (2018) unveiled that most indonesian university efl learners ingrained more robust writing learning desires and improved their writing skills progressively after being exposed to the use of authentic writing assessment. in another investigation, warni (2016) highly encouraged globalized efl teachers to sustainably address more supportive writing learning supports for all learners to ensure the desired writing learning objectives come into the realization. suherman (2019) strongly advocated indonesian efl teachers provide better, contextual, and compatible writing learning scaffolding instructions for learners by critically informing their particular writing strengths along with weaknesses to promote more gratifying writing learning outcomes for them. the underlying reason motivating the researcher to run this present small-scale qualitative study is to better promote more rewarding insights for indonesian elt experts, educators, practitioners, and policy-makers concerning the importance of self-assessment implementations in diverse wide-ranging writing classroom circumstances. english education master students were the participants taking part in this study since they have been trained in harnessing the accurate usage of self-assessment in varied writing tasks during their study journey. thus, the researcher felt assured that the obtained research results could shed more enlightenment for indonesian elt parties regarding the more proper utilization of self-assessment through various writing learning dynamics resulted in more https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 27 holistic writing learning practices that may happen in the future efl learning enterprises. to fulfill this research objectivity, one following research problem was posed: (1) how do indonesian university efl learners value the use of self-assessment in their writing processes? methods the researcher runs this qualitative investigation under the guidance of qualitative content analysis to obtain more specific portrayals out of the observed life events. mayring (2014) articulates that the major advantage of harnessing qualitative content analysis is to enable the researchers to attain the most vivid depictions concerning the intended specific phenomenon. to contribute to this area of study, the researcher prepared 10 online likert-scale questionnaire items to be distributed to 15 english education master students batch 2019, sanata dharma university concerning their specific perspectives they uphold while harnessing self-assessment in various writing learning activities. to corroborate this first data, the researcher also made use of 5 open-ended written narrative inquiry questions investigating more exhaustively the way english education master students value the utilities of self-assessment during their writing learning journey. by relying on this second research instrument, more trustworthy data could potentially be obtained by the researcher due to the truthful, authentic, and judicious sharing disseminated by the targeted research participants. clandinin and caine (2013) theorize that with the support of open-ended written narrative inquiry questions, more robust data gathering processes can be ensured since the research participants have extensive freedom to openly share their tangible stories. the major aim of selecting graduate university efl learners as the participants of this study is they have been trained intensively in harnessing self-assessment whenever they participate in a wide variety of writing learning processes. considering the ages, maturity, and richer experiences gained by these adult learners, it is conceivable to be hypothesized here that self-assessment had transfigured them to be more independent, critical, and competent writers. during the online data gathering processes, the researcher made use of google form in distributing 10 likert-scale questionnaire items for the targeted research participants. while whatsapp application was also harnessed to openly distribute 5 open-ended written narrative inquiry questions for randomly chosen 3 interviewees derived from similar populations. results and discussion in this section, the researcher attempted to thoroughly expound all the obtained findings disseminated by the research participants taking part in this study. more specifically, there are 2 themes concluded from the taken research results namely: (1) self-assessment leads efl learners to become more professional writers and (2) self-assessment enables efl learners to yield more qualified writing products. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 28 figure 1.1: self-assessment leads efl learners to become more professional writers (97% participants agree) with a detailed look at the above-mentioned table, it can be phrased that a substantial number of graduate university efl learners had progressively transfigured into more professional writers after being immersed in self-assessment activities. as can be noticed from the first strand of finding, 15 participants strongly agreed that the continual implementation of selfassessment allowed them to become more proficient efl writers. this positive matter happened since self-assessment constantly required them to conduct more profound evaluation toward their finished writing projects by devising a wide array of effective solutions to create more high-quality works in the end of writing session. a similar research result had also been acquired by heidarian (2016) revealing that the majority of university efl learners had progressively fostered their targeted writing competencies in the light of self-assessment since they were strongly motivated to evaluate their writing products in an indepth manner. in the same respect, 15 participants also consented that after proactively engaging in self-assessment activities, they had instilled a higher degree of positive perceptions toward efl writing learning dynamics. this positive value was marked by their potent willingness to constantly elevate the targeted writing competencies, even under the adverse writing learning circumstances. by infusing this positive premise, these participants had simultaneously transfigured into more life-long writers during their academic life. anchored from this second research result, fristiara et al., (2018) highly motivated efl teachers all around the globe to continuously implement self-assessment technique as one of the learning approaches in their writing classes to optimize learners’ writing learning processes potentially promoting life-long learning behaviours for them. three chosen interviewees also shared similar notions in the following lines. [interviewee 1: i do believe that self-assessment can improve my writing skills because we can learn from our mistakes.] [interviewee 2: self-assessment is the first thing that we can do before we show our writing to our peers or lecturer. through self-assessment i can improve my writing first before i share to my college.] 0 0 2 0 0 15 15 13 15 15 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 transforming into more competent writers ingraining more positive perceptions toward writing preserving a higher level of writing motivation becoming more responsible writers increasing writing learning autonomy disagree agree https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 29 [interviewee 3: yes, i believe that self-assessment will guide me in the learning process because i can monitor my writing progress and manage myself to be a self-regulated writer.] the constant utilization of self-assessment can potentially guarantee a considerable improvement of efl learners’ writing motivation. there were 13 out of 15 participants showed their agreement to this third finding. however, it takes extensive time for this core benefit to emerge since language teachers are crucially demanded to promote more holistic, appropriate, and real-time self-assessment activities in varied writing classroom vicinities. by fully integrating all these essential elements, efl learners will be more highly encouraged to deal with a vast range of laborious writing learning challenges directing them to be more resilient writers. this aforesaid argumentation is inextricably associated with the finding of mazloomi and khabiri (2016) strongly encouraging worldwide efl teachers to incorporate a more accurate, contextual, and authentic self-assessment activities compatible with existing learners’ writing learning conditions to simultaneously elevate their self-confidence, motivation, and preparedness in confronting various writing tasks. in the long run, it is also becoming progressively important for language teachers to internalize self-assessment activities at the onset of writing learning enterprises to gradually establish a higher level of writing learning responsibility within their learners. 15 participants exhibited their agreement with this fourth finding. it is optimally understandable at the same time that the suitable utilization of self-assessment can cultivate efl learners’ writing learning responsibility since they are urgently commissioned to ceaselessly plan, monitor, and reflect on their existing writing learning processes in the light of more holistic as well as critical frameworks. these above-explained conceptions were also confirmed by the attained finding of ratminingsih et al., (2018) mentioning that it is of crucially pivotal for efl teachers to internalize selfassessment method at the commencement of writing learning venture to instill the robust construction of writing learning responsibility within learners. this positive value took place since learners could plan, monitor, and evaluate their ongoing writing learning processes in the light of higher expectations set by teachers. in the ultimate finding, all research participants strongly agreed that the judicious use of self-assessment could terrifically augment their writing learning autonomy. it is worth underscoring that the robust construction of writing learning autonomy can be fully attained by learners when they were more capable of taking controls over the specific writing learning venture they engaged. in other words, it can be stated that those autonomous learners had more tendency to employ various effective writing strategies to overcome the targeted writing learning impediments to successfully reach their writing goals. this finding agreed with the study of panadero et al., (2012) finding out that a considerable number of university efl learners had successfully transformed into more independent writers capable of exerting more potent controls over their taxing writing learning enterprises after being immersed into self-assessment activities. these following 3 interviewees’ excerpts also shared some identical perspectives. [interviewee 1: i make sure what i did wrong in previous writing projects are not repeated in the future through self-assessment. i mostly write according to what i have previously planned.] [interviewee 2: it is about self-reflection to what we write. in my opinion self-assessment is about evaluating our writing. we are trying to be aware to some parts that need to be improved, some part to be maintained to have a better writing.] https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 30 [interviewee 3: this tool can be used to measure our writing performances and find our strengths and limitation in the writing process.] figure 1.2: self-assessment enables efl learners to yield more qualified writing products (99% participants agreed) concerning the depicted data forming in the above table, it can be parsed that the continuous incorporation of precise self-assessment activities will potentially allow efl learners to generate more high-quality writing products. this assertion was well-evinced by the first strand of the finding forming in this second theme where all research participants agreed that self-assessment had supportively assisted them to better revise the existent writing products. there are a host of factors influencing this positive contention. first, under the guidance of self-assessment, efl learners can forge their higher-order thinking and critical skills upon evaluating their writing products. second, they showcased more proactive writing learning participations in the light of self-assessment to achieve more gratifying writing learning outcomes. these aforesaid delineations were compatible with the research results of birjandi and tamjid (2012) forthrightly acknowledging that the proper utilization of self-assessment in varied writing classroom contexts would bring about more positive learning influences like activating learners’ higher order-thinking skills, magnifying learners’ proactive learning participations, and leading them to be more critical in improving their works. moving forward to the second finding, all research participants were also in agreement that selfassessment approach supportively helped them to specifically identify their particular writing strengths and weaknesses. by precisely noticing their specific writing strengths along with weaknesses, these participants can potentially reap more fruitful writing learning outcomes in the upcoming writing events since they know exactly the areas they need to maintain or improve to elevate their writing skills into the utmost potentials. this positive matter accorded with the study of mungai (2020) unveiling that a great number of university efl learners were more capable of identifying their specific writing strengths along with weaknesses after being acquainted with self-assessment activities, reciprocally resulted in more gratifying writing products as well as robust writing volition. it is worth highlighting to correlate these aforementioned conceptions with 3 interviewees’ excerpts in these subsequent lines. 0 0 1 0 0 15 15 14 15 15 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 effective writing revisions successful identification of writing strengths and weaknesses the creation of engaging writing ideas well-structured writing organizations the employment of varied useful writing strategies disagree agree https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 31 [interviewee 1: i have become more thoughtful, careful, and critical writers through selfassessment because i am told to recheck my writing for many times.] [interviewee 2: so with self-assessment in writing i can be more careful and have the opportunity to revise my writing.] [interviewee 3: to maximize the use of self-assessment, i commonly question myself with several specific questions which can help me to regulate myself better. i believe that the use of self-assessment can lead me to an opportunity to construct a meaningful writing.] in correlation with those above-explained perspectives, it is also interesting to discern that 14 out of 15 participants concurred that with the help of self-assessment, they would be more capable of inserting a wide array of captivating, engaging, and meaningful ideas in their writing products. again, these rewarding writing learning values had been acquired by them since they were persistently willing to evaluate their writing outcomes in harmony with the high writing standards stipulated by teachers resulted in more qualified writing products. this line of perspective is tightly interwoven with the finding of bing (2016) suggesting university efl teachers introducing learners with a self-assessment approach at the onset of writing learning enterprises in order to better navigate the overall quality of their writing ideas, structure, and mechanics in a more positive direction. this positive value might occur since learners had thoroughly noticed that more exhaustive self-assessment could lead them to become more proficient writers. moving on to the fourth finding, it is apparent to be spotted that all research participants concurred that the appropriate utilization of self-assessment could supportively assist them to produce more well-organized writing products acceptable to worldwide readers. concerning this basic premise, efl teachers are specifically commissioned to play their major roles as supportive writing learning facilitators, judicious counselors, and attentive listeners for their learners. by embodying these new acts, learners will feel highly supported and appreciated obviously illustrated in their well-structured writing products. these above-mentioned arguments were corroborated by the theory of sharma et al., (2016) who theorized that under the constant supervision of self-assessment practices, efl learners would be more capable of expounding all their written ideas more efficiently, obviously, and comprehensively due to the supportive writing learning guidance imparted by teachers. ultimately all research participants strongly agreed that self-assessment activities had also brought about a vast array of rewarding benefits for their cognitive and metacognitive development aside from writing proficiency. these meritorious benefits emerged since they were able to plan more obvious writing learning goals, conduct more indepth monitoring toward the onward writing learning venture, and critically reflect on the writing results they had just generated. armed with these major writing driving forces, it can be posited that the research participants increasingly cultivate their targeted writing proficiency in a more directed, meaningful, and highly motivated manner. these aforementioned conceptions were amplified by self-assessment theory devised by lush et al., (2020) articulating that the continuous implementation of self-assessment through diverse wide-ranging writing classroom contexts could bring about a substantial number of both cognitive and metacognitive benefits for all learners in terms of planning clearer writing objectives, monitoring the existent writing learning dynamics, and reflecting on the designated writing learning outcomes concurrently impacting their final writing qualities. these 3 interviewees’ excerpts are resonated well with these arguments. [interviewee 1: i have become an organized writer and easily construct my ideas after being engaged in self-assessment.] https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 32 [interviewee 2: if i know my weakness and strength in writing, i can produce a better writing and train my responsibility in writing.] [interviewee 3: self-assessment can greatly help me to improve my specific skills, especially in writing. it can also assist me to evaluate my potential in the writing process.] conclusion as the final point, it can be safely concluded that the incessant utilization of self-assessment activities should be well-integrated within diverse wide-ranging efl writing classroom contexts in order to mutually assist learners into more competent, strategic, critical, and confident, and independent writers. taking into consideration all these rewarding insights, language teachers are strongly suggested designing more contextual, authentic, and engaging self-assessment activities corresponding to learners’ existing writing learning situations. conversely, some drawbacks forming in this study should be taken into account. firstly, since this small-scale qualitative study only involved graduate university efl learners enrolling in one private university, it is worth advising for future researchers to invite a considerable number of both undergraduate and graduate university efl learners derived from the state as well as private universities in order to generate more robust research findings. secondly, due to the absence of in-depth classroom observation sessions, it will be worthwhile for future researchers to conduct more intensive classroom observation activities with regard to self-assessment internalization in writing classes in order to produce more enlightening research results for global along with nationwide elt parties concerning the accurate implementations of self-assessment activities through varied writing classroom settings. references abas, i. h., & abd aziz, n. h. 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(2013). the effect of self-assessment among iranian efl learners. procedia-social and behavioral sciences, 70, 731-737. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 34 yılmaz, c. (2010). the relationship between language learning strategies, gender, proficiency and self-efficacy beliefs: a study of elt learners in turkey. procedia-social and behavioral sciences, 2(2), 682-687. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 17 gender-based students’ listening ability of auditory learning modality dadang cunandar stkip muhammadiyah kuningan, indonesia a_dadang28@upmk.ac.id abstract the ability to listen to fifth-grade students at sd negeri cigugur is still less than 68. this study aims to determine the characteristics of gender-based auditory learning modality, supporting aspects of listening ability, and gender-based listening abilities. this study used a qualitative approach with a case study design. the research subjects were the fifth-grade students of cigugur state elementary school. data was collected through literature studies, observations, interviews, documentation, and field notes. the validity of the data is checked by data credibility and data dependability. data is analyzed by data reduction, data presentation, and conclusion or verification. the results of the study showed 85% of students showed the characteristics of auditory learning modality, but there are 15% of students who have visual learning modalities. the characteristics of students 'stereotypes are different, the characteristics of students' stereotypes tend to be independent, strong personalities, and ambitious. the characteristics of female students are more cheerful, spoiled, and obedient to teachers. supporting aspects of listening ability are physical aspects, psychological aspects, aspects of students based on gender, and learning media. the ability to listen to female students in class v of sd cigugur is superior. male students are only able to summarize the contents of the conversation and only 20% can respond to the results of the conversation. female students can respond to the results of the conversation, assess the results of the conversation, summarize the contents of the conversation, and respect the people who are talking in front of the class keywords: listening ability, auditory, gender introduction teaching the indonesian language to indonesian is not as easy as it seems. it has several problems that cannot be solved quickly. the students think that learning indonesian is an easy lesson (arifin, 2012: 2). however, based on the results of the evaluation, the score of the indonesian language obtained by students is still low, especially in listening. listening must be done effectively following the goal determined so it can be absorbed properly by students. listening in learning (indonesian language) has not been fully directed, under the expected orientation. another problem that arises in the fifth grade of cigugur state primary school is that the teacher treats listening to the same as they teach reading. the researcher assumes that “listening” (listen carefully) is the same as listening skill. therefore, the researcher uses the term listening is still used in the current curriculum, namely ktsp (education unit level curriculum). while in the following presentation of several theories, researchers still use the term listening. another fact that was obtained from the early study in the fifth grade of cigugur state primary school that the results of listening in bahasa indonesia of male and female students were still low compared to passing grade determined by the curriculum which is 68. the average of male students was 50 while female students were 68. students’ success will be achieved when the teacher provides good modalities. therefore, based on the background described above, the researcher would like to focus on the analysis of genderbased listening abilities in terms of auditory learning modalities in the fifth grade of cigugur state primary school. mailto:a_dadang28@upmk.ac.id 18 research statement not all listening material can be heard and produce a good score if the teacher has not paid attention to the learning modalities to effectively provide learning material. the success of students will be seen if the teacher provides good modalities. therefore, based on the background described above, this study is focused on how is gender-based listening ability analysis in terms of auditory learning modalities in the fifth grade of cigugur state primary school and this study is focused on learning indonesian and this research uses qualitative research. research questions based on the research background above, the research problem that proposed are as follows : 1. how is the characteristic of learning modality of auditory gender-based in grade fifth of cigugur state primary school? 2. what aspects are supporting students’ listening ability in grade fifth of cigugur state primary school? 3. how is the gender-based students’ listening ability in grade fifth of cigugur state primary school? research purposes based on the research questions above, this study has several purposes as follows: 1. to figure out the characteristic of gender-based learning modality of auditory in grade fifth of cigugur state primary school? 2. to figure out the aspects that supporting students’ listening ability in grade fifth of cigugur state primary school? 3. to figure out the students’ listening ability in grade fifth of cigugur state primary school? method this study uses a qualitative approach where it is an approach that directs research on reality, symptoms, phenomena in the real condition of natural objects. in this study, the researcher used a case study method that includes a very thorough examination of people, topics, issues, or programs. in this study, the researcher as a participatory observer. the researcher observes what people are doing, listen to what is said, and participate in their activities. the location took place in cigugur state primary school in grade v. in connection with research data, the researcher took two data, primary and secondary. primary data in this study were 20 students of fifth grade, three teachers, school principal, pai teachers, and sports teachers. while secondary data in this study is taken from library sources related to this study. data collection techniques used to obtain extensive and accurate data are through several efforts such as literature studies, observations, interviews, documentation, and field notes. the data analysis in this study uses a descriptive narrative technique. it is applied through three phases; data reduction, data presentation, and conclusion or data re-examination. for the testing validity data stage, the researcher used data credibility with triangulation techniques and extended observations. besides, in the use of credibility data, the researcher also uses dependability data. 19 result the results of the study were obtained through unstructured interviews and observations of fifth-grade students of cigugur state primary school. the observation was carried out by the researchers for 2 months from march to april 2016. all informants interviewed by the researcher were teachers of cigugur state primary school, a school principal, pai teachers, and sports teacher. whereas the observations involved in this study were all the fifth-grade students of cigugur state primary school. 1. the students’ characteristic of auditory modality in fifth grade related to it, respondent 1 as a teacher of class va explained that the characteristics of students differed. it is due to each student having different nature and character, but students in the va class tend to have characteristics of auditory learning modalities. the interview results about the characteristics of gender-based auditory learning modalities carried out by respondent 2, which were carried out as follows: “the characteristics of students in class v in cigugur state primary school are different from one another. some like listening to music, some use pictures, some like reading aloud, quiet condition, focus, some prefer to see videos while learning, some prefer to do learning directly and many more.” while on auditory learning modality, he added as follow: “characteristics of gender-based auditory learning modalities in fifth-grade students of cigugur state primary school include lack of attention, likes to read aloud, prefers listening, and to draw. the characteristics of the male are different from the female student. male students tend to be unfocused, like to read aloud, and prefer to listen to music. whereas female students tend to focus, prefer to draw and listen, and like to give their opinions” related to learning characteristic on auditory modality, respondent 3 as a teacher of vc explained as follows: “the learning characteristics of the students are varied, there are students who focus on learning, like joking, quiet, slow in learning, even there are students who do not understand the learning material given. however, students in the vc class are more likely to have auditory learning modalities because students will more quickly understand learning through listening, for example when they are learning reading, students prefer to read aloud than to silent reading, and students prefer music than drawing.” following what respondent 2 has stated earlier, the school principal, respondent 4 gave her explanation as follows: “a successful learning can be achieved when a teacher pays attention to the characteristics of the students. the first thing to do is to find out the background of students, the students’ hobbies, and how a student is learning well. after knowing the characteristics, the teacher can provide the learning style according to the modalities of the students.” the researcher asked the school principal on what kind of modalities in cigugur state primary school, she responded as follows: "the modalities of the students are varied, some have visual, audio, and kinesthetic learning modalities. visual learning modality is the learning style of students who tend to use images. for example, in the learning process students will have a better 20 understanding when the teacher uses a picture as media. audio learning modality is a learning style that is owned by students using the sense of hearing. in the learning process, students will more quickly understand by listening to the explanations given by the teacher. so, in giving the material, the teacher must pay attention to the grammar, the rhythm of the sound, and the loudness of the volume. while kinesthetic learning modalities are the students’ learning style using images and sounds. this means that in the learning process the teacher must use several images in providing material so students will understand the material provided by the teacher.” another information was given by respondent 5 as pai teacher on the learning characteristic that can be seen from the students as follows: “the characteristics of the fifth-grade students of cigugur state primary school, which i know are very diverse, some are focused on learning, some are silent and do not understand, some are like to joke, and many more” further, he added: “my way to find out the learning modalities of students, i try to understand the students’ hobbies first and what habits they often do. for example, there is one student who likes to draw in any study. the student is less focused, but when instructed to draw, the student quickly executes the teacher's instructions. thus, i conclude that the participants have a visual learning modalities. however, some students have auditory learning modalities because these students like music, prefer to read aloud, but their attention is less" meanwhile, respondent 6 as sports teacher explained as follows : “in my class, the characteristics that will be preferred are the characteristics of students who have auditory learning modalities because in sports students will prioritize the sense of hearing to follow the instructions that i give. however, there are still some students who are not responsive to carrying out the activities that i command. for that, i like to punish these students" 2. supporting aspects of students listening ability the supporting aspects of gender-based listening skills in the fifth grade of the cigugur elementary school are divided into several sections including learning media, students’ learning interests, students' initial attitudes, and teacher motivation that accommodates students in the learning process. ibu lala laelasari, s.pd explained that supporting aspects of gender-based listening ability is the readiness of the students in receiving the material from the teacher. while respondent 2 stated as follows: “the first time we need to do as a teacher is how we provide fun and enjoy learning. to overcome this, we must prepare several supporting aspects to support listening ability. the use of learning media in teaching is very important. it will help the teacher in delivering the material. however, the problem faced by the teachers at this time is the lack of media makes it difficult especially for elder teachers. furthermore, the other supporting aspect is the students' attention. the students will quickly understand the learning when they pay attention. for example, in delivering drama, the teacher must use kinesthetic learning modalities. the next supporting aspect is student concentration. it is very significant because it will be difficult for them to learn when the concentration is lacked. for example in class v, students are very difficult to concentrate because students still joking during the learning process. the last one is motivation and preparation. these are also very important which in this 21 case the teacher must encourage students’ motivation to have enthusiasm in teaching listening if students already feel motivated automatically the initial preparation of students will feel comfortable and pleasant” on the other sides, respondent 3 has his explanation on supporting aspect in students listening ability as follows: "supporting aspects of listening ability are things that must be considered by the teacher in the process of learning so that students can receive learning well. first physical aspects, this is very decisive in learning. this physical aspect is in the form of a balance of nutritional value, height, weight, readiness in learning, even body condition. furthermore, the gender aspect, this aspect must be understood by the teacher, because the thinking power between male and female students is different. the last aspect of psychology, in providing a learning teacher must understand the psychologist aspects of students so that the teacher can provide good learning” the school principal has also her opinion as follows: “media plays an important role in the learning process. the use of it has to be on the same level that can be adapted to students' knowledge. besides that, the lesson plan is also important. the teacher is demanded as creatively as possible so that learning can be conveyed.” 3. the gender-based students’ listening ability the ability of students in cigugur state primary school is very different from one another, especially in class v. the students' listening ability between women and men is influenced by the students’ learning modalities and other supporting aspects. the researcher tried to interview informants who could provide information about the ability of students in gender-based listening learning. the first informant was respondent 2 who explained as follows: "the ability of fifth-grade students between females and males is different according to their achievements. the listening ability of female students is on a good level because, in teaching listening, they pay attention to the learning and focus on the learning process. whereas for male students, they are still lacking in teaching listening due to the students' concentration that is easily disrupted. so, female students' ability is better than male students.” the school principal explained a different point of view as follows: “in the learning process between male and female students must be different depending on the teacher in developing their abilities. for the v class students' ability, i don't know much, but it can be seen from the achievements that show female students are better than male students.” respondent 5 as pai teacher explained: "the ability of fifth-grade students in teaching listening is very different between men and women. in my opinion, female students' listening skills are better because they focus on learning and they understand the material. meanwhile, male students are less responsive but they are more active when practicing in front of the class." in accordance to what respondent 5 has explained, respondent 6 as a sports teacher stated as follows: 22 “the listening ability of male students in sports learning is better. it can be seen when i order to do gymnastics, male students are faster to carry out my orders. sometimes, they play around the command i gave. so, it can be concluded that the ability to listen, in my opinion, male learners is better than female students.” discussion based on the result, the points that can be discussed regarding students’ listening ability are as follows: 1. the character of gender-based auditory learning modality in general, the class v students of cigugur state primary school characteristics tend to have auditory learning modalities. however, some students have multiple modalities such as gsr, hh, and jhda with visual learning modalities. when learning sbk, they were happy because the drawing skills possessed could be conveyed. based on the different stereotypes of the students, the researcher can conclude that the character of the students in class v tends to be independent, strong with ambitious personalities. whereas the characteristics of the female students are cheerful, spoiled, obedient towards the teacher. 2. the supporting aspects of students' listening ability the supporting aspects of listening skills in the fifth grade of cigugur state primary school consisted of 5 (five) aspects; they are physical aspects, psychological aspects, sex, and learning media. 3. gender-based students listening ability in cigugur state primary school based on the analysis of listening ability, the female students were better than the male students. before the learning process begins, students are more likely to prepare physically and mentally well so the learning that will be delivered by the teacher can be understood quickly and the learning delivered by the teacher can be well received by students. related to this, the female students can respond to the results of the conversation and can provide value to the results of the discussion. besides, without an order from the teacher, the female students can summarize the contents of the conversation. when someone is speaking in front of the class, they always respect and listen objectively and selectively. conclusion based on the result of the study, it can be concluded into several points are as follows: 1. the characteristics of the gender-based auditory learning modalities in class v of cigugur state elementary school are varied. the characteristics of learning modalities in the fifthgrade students of cigugur state primary school are more likely auditory, with a percentage of 85%. furthermore, 15% have visual learning modalities. besides having the characteristics of auditory learning modalities, students in class v have different characteristics of stereotype between male and female students. the characteristics of the male are being as muscular, tend to be independent, strong, and ambitious personalities. while female students are more cheerful, spoiled, obedient to the teacher. 2. the supporting aspects of students’ listening skills in the fifth grade of cigugur state primary school consisted of 5 (five) aspects. these aspects are related to learning (indonesian language) especially in supporting listening skills. these aspects are the physical aspect, psychological aspect, sex, and learning media. 3. the ability of students in gender-based listening ability in the fifth grade of cigugur state primary school is different between male and female students. women's listening ability 23 is better than male students. the listening ability possessed by male students is still low because male students are only able to summarize the contents of the conversation. when learning indonesian takes place, there are only 20% of male students who able to respond to the results of the conversation. whereas female students can give responses to the results of the conversation, provide value to the results of the conversation, can summarize the contents of the conversation and they always respect those who are speaking in front of the class. references abidin, y. (2012). pembelajaran bahasa berbasis pendidikan karakter. bandung: pt refika aditama. arifin, z. (2008). cermat berbahasa indonesia. jakarta: akapress. creswell, j. w. (2013). penelitian kualitatif & desain riset. yogyakarta: pustaka pelajar. creswell, j.w. (2013). research design pendekatan kualitatif, kuantitatif, dan mixed. yogyakarta: pustaka pelajar. dalyono, m. (2012). psikologi pendidikan. jakarta: rineka cipta. damayanti, a. k. (2012). gaya belajar ditinjau dari tipe kepribadian dan jenis kelamin. jurnal psikologi indonesia. malang: persona. daryanto. (2010). media pembelajaran. bandung: satu nusa. deporter, b., & hernaccki, m. (2005). quantum learning. bandung: kaifa learning. deporter, b., readon, m., & nouri, s. s. (2014). quantum teaching: mempraktikkan quantum learning di ruang-raung kelas. bandung: kaifa learning. fatuhurrohman, p. (2007). strategi belajar mengajar. bandung: refika aditama. hamid, m. s. (2011). metode edutainment. jogjakarta: diva press. herman, b. 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(2011). penilaian status gizi. jakarta: egc. tarigan, dj. (2006). pendidikan keterampilan berbahasa. bandung: universitas terbuka. tarigan, h. g. (2009). metodelogi pengajaran bahasa. bandung: angkasa tarigan, h. g. (1986). menyimak sebagai suatu keterampilan berbahasa. bandung: angkasa bandung. 12 acuity: journal of english language pedagogy literature , and culture, vol. 6 no.1,2021 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity pros and cons of learning style: an implication for english language teachers aji budi rinekso ajibudirinekso@upi.edu universitas pendidikan indonesia, indonesia doi: https://doi.org/10.35974/acuity.v6i1.2396 abstract learning style becomes a familiar theory for english language teachers. with a hypothesis of matching instructions and learning styles resulting in effective learning, many of the english language teachers apply learning style theory within their teaching practices. however, recent studies found that learning style is a myth since there are flaws appearing in the learning style instruments and hypothesis. this study presents in-depth discussions of the pros and cons of learning styles. also, detailed descriptions about the implication for english language teachers entails at the end of the discussions. this study concludes that english language teachers may focus on (1) assessing students’ background knowledge and interests, (2) identifying students’ lacks and necessities, (3) providing more engaging teaching media and materials, and (4) boosting students’ autonomy, rather than merely getting involved in the raging debates of learning style. keywords: pros and cons of learning style, pedagogical implication, english language teachers introduction teaching english is not merely about the matter of how teachers create learning materials and explain them to students. more than that, teachers have to face various ways of their students in learning english. some students may be active to listen any audios given by the teacher. however, the other students learn best through visualization and movements. this issue refers to the term ‘learning style’ which is defined as the most preferable way of learning in which the learners feel comfortable to perceive, remember, and use information or knowledge (ortega, 2009). in this case, teachers have to explore, identify and recognize the students’ learning style in order to provide the most suitable way of teaching (oxford & anderson, 1995). thus, teaching methods and materials suiting to the students’ learning styles is assumed to result on an effective language learning. over the past two decades, many studies have discussed learning style in educational context (oxford, holloway & horton-murilo, 1992; reid, 1995; peacock, 2001; zhou, 2011; gilakjani, 2012) and confirmed that learning style is an important aspect to be obeyed by all teachers including english language teachers. knowing that learning style plays a vital role in instructional processes, english language teachers are encouraged to master the concept of learning style as well as to practice identifying their students’ learning styles. likewise, various instruments for assessing learning styles have emerged and some of the popular instruments include the feldersilverman index of learning styles, the gregorc style delineator, kolb learning style indicator, dunn & dunn productivity environmental preference survey and the vark questionnaire (hawk, 2007). these instruments help teachers to identify their students’ learning preferences. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity mailto:ajibudirinekso@upi.edu https://doi.org/10.35974/acuity.v6i1.2396 13 although learning style is believed as one of the important aspects in instructional process, some studies conversely challenge this idea (dembo & howard, 2007; riener & willingham, 2010; newton, 2015; kirschner, 2017). these studies claimed that there were no strong evidence-based reports showing the significant correlation between learning style, way of teaching and students’ achievement. the viewpoint of learning style highlights that teachers should provide multiple ways of teaching including various teaching methods and materials in order to match with the preferred style. however, there are some criticisms against the idea of learning style such as (1) students with tall body are easy to play basketball, not because of they are kinesthetic learners, (2) students learn better when they can relate what they are learning with their prior experiences, knowledge and interest, not because of their learning preferences (3) students may learn based on their preferences – for example, they may choose to learn by watching video, but this does not give impact on how well they learn, and (3) mixing audio-visual media may work but this is not because of addressing different learning styles, instead the media are just successfully attracting the students (westby, 2019). taking into account the different point of views of learning style position and its impact for instructional context, this study provides: (1) general overview of learning style, (2) pros of considering learning style for language learning, (3) cons of considering learning style for language learning and (4) pedagogical implications for english language teachers. the discussions result in a prudent decision for responding to the debate of learning style. thus, this study expects to be beneficial for elt teachers, educators and practitioners in considering the employment of learning style in their instructions. discussions general overview of learning style 1. definitions of learning style what makes learners easy to learn may refer to the concept of learning style since commonly people know learning style as the preferred way of learning. since 1980s many experts already studied the concept of learning style. they came up with various definitions in accordance with their perspectives. gregorc (1979) defines learning styles as distinctive and observable behaviors showing some clues of how the people’s minds learn or process information. through the clues, teachers can identify their learners’ preferred way of learning. for example, when students show high engagement and motivation in learning english with some visual aid, this indicated that the students are visual learners. likewise, dunn and dunn (1993) define learning style as an individual way to concentrate, process and retain new information. the way may vary for each individual and it is influenced by various stimuli such as environments, emotions, social, physic and psychology. different from dunn and dunn who rely the concept of learning style based on stimulation, kolb (1984) defines learning style as the individual orientations in learning regarding to the four basic learning modes in experiential learning theory, namely concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization and active experimentation. the experiential theory which refers to an individual learning stages becomes the base of kolb’s learning style model. moreover, oxford, ehrman and lavine (1991) define learning style as the learners’ general approaches that are used to gain new knowledge or information as well as solving new problems. in this case, cognitive, affective, physiological and behavioral aspects contribute to the theoretical base of learning style concept (wallace & oxford, 1992). the idea of learning style also influences the field of second language learning. likewise, some second language acquisition (sla) experts give ideas about learning style. dornyei (2005) argues that learning style becomes the representation of our students’ learning profile. it can be seen from how our students perceive, interact with and respond to learning materials. it is relevant to the second language learning where different types of learners perform different approaches/ways of learning to achieve the same goal, acquiring a language effectively. this 14 idea is supported by selinker and gass (2008) who agree that learning style refers to ones’ preferences in obtaining, processing, and retaining information. in connection to this, language acquisition is successful when learners can easily and quickly understand the target language with the most comfortable way of learning. actually, there are others definitions of learning styles proposed by experts which are not listed here. however, pritchard (2009) summarizes how learning style is defined variously by some experts. generally, learning style is known as: a. a specific way in which an individual employs to learn b. learning modes – the most preferred way for thinking and processing information during the learning process. c. ones’ preferred way for acquiring knowledge and skills. d. behavioral actions or habits that an individual employs for learning. in summary, learning style can be defined as a particular way of learning that the learners prefer to use in order to maximize their learning performance including obtaining, processing, and retaining information/knowledge. 2. models of learning style some models of learning style have been introduced by experts. the models reflect on humans’ brains activity (cognitive), humans’ senses, and humans’ emotions. in the beginning era of learning style popularization, briggs and myers (1975) introduce a model of learning style, namely the myers-briggs type indicator (mbti). this model classifies learning style into some types based on the derivation of psychological theories. eight types of learning preferences are presented as follows: 1. extroverts – refers to learners who like to try new things and love making relationships/friendships/group work with many people. 2. introverts – refers to learners who are often quiet, thoughtful and not willing to get involved in social communities. this is the opposite of extroverts. 3. sensors – refers to learners who have strong senses ability. they tend to be always practical, detailed-person, and focusing on facts or procedures. 4. intuitors – refers to learners who tend to be concept-oriented and imaginative. they like to find the connection of ideas and meaning. 5. thinkers – refers to learners who have high curiosity and tend to make decision based on logic and rules. 6. feelers – refers to learners who have strong feelings and they tend to make decision based on their personal considerations. 7. judgers – refers to learners who like to follow plan and rules strictly. they are also decisive and task-oriented. 8. perceivers – refers to learners who are adaptable to any situations. they are easily to adjust with the changes of their environment. different from mbti which is designed on the basis of psychological theories, kolb (1984) classifies learning style based on the cyclical process of learning, namely experiential learning. as shown in figure 1. there are four stages of learning: 1. concrete experience – when learners do or experience something. 2. reflective observation – when learners think about the connection between their ideas and experiences. 3. abstract conceptualization – when learners conclude what they are learning based in accordance with their ideas and abstract concepts. 4. active experimentation – when learners apply what they get from learning process. 15 figure 1. kolb’s learning style model source: author’s synthesis on kolb’s experiential learning derived from those stages of learning, there are four types of learning style generated by kolb. table 1. the four types of learners based on kolb’ learning style model types of learning styles description diverging (concrete, reflective) diverging learners prefer to learn by observing, brainstorming, gathering information. imaginative and sensitive are their characteristics. assimilating (abstract, reflective) assimilating learners learn best with well-organized and logical concepts. converging (abstract, active) converging learners are very concrete. they are best at assembling the practical use of theories and ideas. they prefer to work alone. accommodating (concrete, active) accommodating leaners learn best by doing. they like practical and experiential learning process. mostly they rely on feelings rather than logic. source: author’s summary on kolb’ learning style model continuing the idea of kolb’s experiential learning, honey and mumford (1986) generate another model of learning style which is designed on the basis of people’s natural tendency of concrete experience (ce) abstract conceptualization (ac) active experimentation reflective observation (ro) diverging (ce + ro) assimilating (ro + ac) converging (ac + ae) accommodating (ae + ce) 16 learning. the model consists of four distinctive types of learners, namely activists, reflectors, theorists, and pragmatists. 1. activists – learners who prefer to learn by doing and experiencing. they like to try new challenges in learning. they avoid learning with full of theories, analysis, and reading. 2. reflectors – learners who love to learn by doing observation and then making reflections. they process knowledge by considering multi perspectives. 3. theorists – learners who like to think deeply when learning. they enjoy data analysis, concepts, and facts. they involve less feelings in learning and they do not like ambiguous instructions. 4. pragmatists – learners who learn based on practicality. they always see the application of what they are learning. the do not like too much theories and abstract concepts. moreover, dunn and dunn (1993) design a model of learning style based on five learning stimuli, namely environmental, emotional, sociological, physical and psychological. the model confirms that the stimuli reflect on learners’ preferences for retaining and absorbing information. table 2. dunn and dunn learning style model types of stimuli elements descriptions environmental sound, light, temperature, design learners learn best based on the environmental situation. e.g. prefer to learn in quiet or with music/noise, in cool or warm temperature. emotional motivation, persistence, responsibility, structure learners learn best based on emotional attributes. e.g. they persist in doing task or not, they need lots of structure or needs lots of emotional support. sociological colleagues, self, pair, team, authority, varied they learn best based on social effects. e.g. they like to learn alone or in group/ pair. physical perceptual, intake, time, mobility they learn best through their physical aspects. e.g. they may prefer to learn by visual/audio/read/write/movements. psychological analytic-global, cerebralpreference, reflectiveimpulsive they learn based on how they think about information. e.g. they love to think globally or analytically, like to have more reflection or just think rapidly. source: author’s summary on dunn and dunn’s learning style model next, gardner (1993) proposes a model of learning style based on humans’ intelligences. the model categorized 8 types of learners based on their intelligences. 1. linguistic – learners who love to gain information through verbal expressions such as texts and conversations. 2. logical/mathematical – learners who like learning materials related to quantifying things, creating as well as proving hypothesis. 3. musical – learners who have high ability to gain information in form of sounds or audios. they are good at identifying pitch, tone and rhythm. 4. spatial/visual – learners who prefer to learn learning materials in form of 3d visualization. 17 5. kinesthetic – learners who learn best by involving body movements. they are good at coordinating their body and minds. 6. interpersonal – learners who have good ability in understanding other people feelings, desires, motivation, and intentions. 7. intrapersonal – learners who have good capacity for self-management. they really know who they are. 8. naturalistic – learners who love to learn materials related to nature such as flora, fauna and natural phenomena. lastly, fleming (2001) introduces simpler model of learning style, namely v-a-r-k model. vark stands for visual, auditory, reading, and kinesthetic. the model classifies learners based on how they perceive information optimally. 1. visual learners – they learn best through the aid of visual media such as pictures, graphic, and illustrations. 2. auditory learners – they like to listen to audio such as listening to music, recordings, and oral explanations. 3. reading learners – they process materials optimally by reading. therefore, the materials should be in form of texts. 4. kinesthetic learners – they love movements. they are so energetic. the learning activities should be attractive involving body movements. as a simple learning style model, vark is mostly recognized by many teachers. moreover, due to some limitations, this study only reviews the most frequently used learning style models while other learning style models can be found and explored freely through online resources. pros of considering learning style for language learning many studies have been conducted to explore the role of identifying students’ learning style for optimizing the learning effectiveness. most of the studies show that matching learning styles and teaching methods/styles gave positive effects in learning process including higher motivation, engagement, and achievement. peacock (2001) examined the reid’s hypothesis (1987) that a mismatch between learning style and teaching style may result on failure of learning, frustration, and demotivation. he invited 206 efl students and 46 efl teachers to participate in his study. reid’s perceptual learning style preference questionnaire (plspq) was employed to identify students’ learning style and teachers’ teaching style. the results of his study supported the reid’s hypothesis that a mismatch between learning style and teaching style gave negative effects on learning. as a result, he suggested that efl teachers should balance their teaching styles in order to accommodate all of their students’ learning styles. next, damrongpanit and reungtragul (2013) conducted experimental study to see the effects of matching learning styles and teaching styles on students’ academic achievement among four subjects, namely mathematics, science, english and thai language. there were 3,382 ninth-grade students and 440 teachers (110 teachers for each subject) who participated in the study. honey and mumford’s the learning style questionnaire (lsq) and grasha’s teaching style inventory were used as the instruments. the data showed that matching learning style and teaching style resulted variously for each subject. the main value is that the match between learning style and teaching style causes positive impact on students’ learning progress. moreover, akbarzadeh and fatemipour (2014) examined the match/mismatch between teaching style and learning style preferences of efl learners. they involved 725 efl students and 10 english language teachers. the reid’s perceptual learning style preference questionnaire (plspq) was employed as the instrument of this study. the results showed that teachers already knew theories about teaching style preferences but they did not apply them to their teaching practices. based on teaching performances, the teachers neglected their students’ learning style. they used fixed teaching style instead of varying the teaching styles in order to accommodate different learning styles. in this case, akbarzadeh and fatemipour reminded other english 18 language teachers to be aware of students’ learning styles issues and to teach based on students’ learning styles. another study comes from karabuga (2015). he investigated the match/mismatch of learning styles between prep-class efl students and efl teachers. there were 132 prep-class efl students and 15 english language teachers participated in his study. for the instrument, he used the grasha-riechmann learning style survey and the grasha teaching style survey. the findings confirms that there should be a match between learning style and teaching style for the sake of accommodating students’ different learning preferences. lastly, toyama and yamazaki (2020) investigated the effects of matching learning style and teaching style on students’ english proficiency and learning motivation. nine efl teachers and 331 students participated in their study. meanwhile, the kolb learning style inventory and the kolb educator role profile were used as the instruments. the study confirms that matching learning style and teaching style affects on students’ english proficiency and learning motivation. some of the matched groups shows significant effects on proficiency while the others affect on motivation. for example, accommodating style and coach role significantly increased english proficiency while diverging style and facilitator roles affected students’ motivation. in short, the matching effect depends not only on the type of pair but also on the student variables (proficiency and motivation). actually, there are still many studies supporting the issue of matching learning style and teaching style. this indicates that learning style concept is already accepted by many people especially language researchers and teachers. it is crystal clear that the concept of learning style looks logical to be applied in educational context. when students learn through the way that they really like, it makes their learning performance optimal and it results on higher achievement. moreover, clear definitions, frameworks, and instruments make learning style to be looked as a strong and valid theory amidst educational research. cons of considering learning style for language learning when the idea of matching learning style and teaching style is getting popular, some studies appear to criticize the concept of learning style, especially the hypothesis of matching instructions and learning style for an effective learning. the critics mainly focus on two issues namely the validity and reliability of learning style instruments and evidence-based or empirical study proving the learning style hypothesis. firstly, talking about instruments for assessing students’ learning styles, it is an obligatory for every instrument to meet the standard of validity and reliability. coffield, moseley, hall and ecclestone (2004b) conducted a systematic review on 13 most popular learning style models. the review process was based on psychometric criteria including internal consistency, test-retest reliability, construct validity, and predictive validity. the results showed that only one instrument met the four criteria (allinson & hayes cognitive style indicator). in fact, this instrument focused on assessing cognitive style not learning style. meanwhile, two of the models met three criteria (vermunt; apter), three met two criteria (herrmann; myers-briggs personality type indicator; entwistle), four met just one criterion (gregorc; dunn & dunn; kolb; honey & mumford) and the last three models did not meet any of the four criteria (stenberg’s multiple intelligences; riding; jackson). with thorough review, the study confirmed that the concept of learning style was vulnerable since most of the instruments were doubtful. besides, too many theoretical perspectives among those instruments led to low construct validity (coffield, et al., 2004a). another study investigated the questionnaire items of learning style instruments (stahl, 1999). the results showed that forced-choices in some instruments lead learners/participants to make the same choices. everybody prefers to join demonstration in science class not because of they are visual learners, but that good demonstrations are quite proper for explaining the materials. similarly, when students want to learn how to play basketball, it is better to directly practice playing basketball rather than watching the videos of playing basketball. this is not because the students are kinesthetic, but learning sports require practices (stahl, 1999). to put in 19 language learning context, for example, students prefer to read letters/email rather than listening to the story of sending letters/email. this is not because they are linguistic or read/write learners but letters are in form of texts and therefore students learn it by reading or writing letters. likewise, ones’ learning styles may change and this cause problems related to the reliability of the instruments (stahl, 1999). as there are lots of problems found in the learning style measurement (kirschner, 2017) and it makes the instruments were questionable (dembo & howard, 2007), teachers should consider the idea of identifying students’ learning styles. reading more studies examining the validity and reliability of learning style instruments is totally recommended. the second issue relates to the idea of matching instructional methods and learning style for achieving an effective learning. this idea is supported by reid’s hypothesis (1987) stating that a mismatch between learning style and teaching style may result on failure of learning, frustration and demotivation. however, many studies criticize that there is no strong evidence or empirical study supporting the idea of matching instructions and learning style. matching instructional methods and learning style is just a belief without any strong scientific evidence (kirschner, 2017). a study conducted by clark (1982) found that low ability students prefer to learn using permissive instructional methods because they want their failures are not too visible. in fact, low ability students need structured instructional methods where more directions and attentions will help them to achieve learning objectives. meanwhile, high ability students prefer to learn with structural instructional methods since they believe that it will make their efforts more efficient. as a matter of fact, high ability students actually need permissive instructional methods where they will be more active, autonomous and independent in learning. this findings indicated that learning preferences are not always guiding students to what they really need in learning. learning preferences are just the students’ beliefs and it does not automatically reflect on effective learning when the instructions are matched with their preferences. likewise, smith, sekar and townsend (2002, p. 411) stated “for each research study supporting the principle of matching instructional style and learning style, there is a study rejecting the matching hypothesis”. furthermore, some factors may cause bias in the idea of matching learning style and teaching style for an effective learning. students’ background knowledge, ability, and interests can interfere the results of matching learning style and teaching style hypothesis (riener & willingham, 2010). having a large of vocabulary mastery will make a student read wider variety of books. similarly, prior knowledge of some topics of stories results on better performances in reading and understanding the stories. in this case, having good performances in reading are not because the student is a read/write or linguistic leaner. in fact, it happens because of their prior knowledge. likewise, it happens for students’ ability and interests. although dyslexia students learn with matched teaching style and learning style, their achievement results might be not better than other non-disability students with mismatched teaching style and learning style. similarly, for example, a student is interested in technological topics, fortunately, he/she is identified as a read/write learner, then he/she easily understands texts presenting issue about computer. he/she comprehends the texts easily not because he/she is a read/write learner but rather he/she loves technological issues. besides, another study conducted by husmann and o’loughlin (2018) found that there is no correlation between study strategies, student performances and vark questionnaire results. lastly, to sum up the rejection of learning style concept, table 4. shows a list of the researchers, years of research publication and their criticism towards the concept of learning style. table 3. studies rejecting the concept of learning style. researcher (s) year criticisms clark 1982 • low ability students prefer permissive instructional method, in fact they really need more direction and attention 20 • high ability students prefer structured instructional methods, in fact they are actually better to learn with permissive methods. stahl 1999 • forced-choices in learning questionnaire lead learners to make the same choices. • the level of reading skills may cause bias in the learning style identification. smith, sekar & townsend 2002 p. 411 • “for each research study supporting the principle of matching instructional style and learning style, there is a study rejecting the matching hypothesis” coffield, moseley, hall & ecclestone 2004a 2004b • too many different theoretical perspectives in learning style instruments lead to decrease of construct validity. • the hypothesis of matching learning style and teaching style seems equivocal. dembo & howard 2007 • validity and reliability of learning style instruments are questionable • no evidence-based of getting benefits from matching learning style and teaching style/instructions riener & willingham 2010 • background knowledge, ability and interest become bias within the hypothesis that matching learning style and teaching style leads to an effective learning. kirschner 2017 • matching instructions and learning styles is just a belief without strong scientific evidence. • lots of problems appear in the learning style measurements. • limited theoretical base supporting the interactions between instructions methods and learning styles. • no significant empirical evidence for supporting the learning style hypothesis. husmann & o’loughlin 2018 • there is no correlation between study strategies, student performances and vark questionnaire results. source: author’s summary pedagogical implication for english language teachers a theory is always being valid as long as there are no other studies proving the flaws of the theory along with the official acceptance of many research communities. similarly, it happens for learning style. now, learning style becomes a controversy where two sides of researchers are debating the idea of matching learning style with instructional methods for raising an effective learning. one side believes that identifying students’ learning preferences is significantly important because it helps teachers to navigate their teaching styles in accordance with students’ preferred way of learning. many instruments for assessing learning styles are also introduced. logically, when students are taught with methods that match to their learning preferences, it will increase their learning performances and result on higher achievement (gilakjani, 2012). conversely, the other side claims that lots of learning style instruments are not valid and reliable. forced-choices in questionnaires may lead learners to make the same choices. likewise, learners preferred way of learning may change over a period of time (stahl, 1999). 21 besides, background knowledge, ability and interests interfere the results of learning style hypothesis testing (riener & willingham, 2010). as many of our english language teachers are already familiar with learning style and applying learning style to their teaching practices, while learning style is still debatable, we cannot force english language teachers to solely remove learning style from their part of teaching practices. believing as well as applying the theory of learning style are absolutely their rights. similarly, newton and miah (2017) reported that 32% of their participants (uk higher education academicians) were still willingly continuing to use learning style despite of the controversial issues hitting the learning style theory. however, it is suggested for english language teachers to widen their view points towards the practical use of learning style. english language teachers might focus on other issues contributing the effective learning instead of merely getting involved in the raging debates of learning style. firstly, assessing students’ background knowledge and interests are more valuable than devoting lots of time to assess learning styles (riener & willingham, 2010). as the effect of matching instructions and learning styles is still debatable, recognizing students level of prior knowledge as well as their interests for navigating teaching strategies is more feasible and promising to achieve an effective learning. secondly, related to the previous point, identifying students’ lacks and necessities can be very useful for designing more strategic lesson plans. thirdly, it does not matter whether your students are auditory, visual, kinesthetic, or any other styles, the more important thing that should be done is providing them with more engaged teaching media and materials. once they are interested and engaged with your teaching, an affective learning process and higher achievement will be obtained not matter what learning styles they belong to. lastly, an effective learning can also be achieved by pushing your students to be more autonomous. practicing more learner-centered approach encourages students to be more autonomous. likewise, employing ict is also relevant for promoting autonomous learning (rinekso & kurniawan, 2020). in conclusion, english language teachers have to be wiser for achieving effective learning. conclusion and suggestion the theory of learning style has been acknowledged in many educational contexts including english language teaching. yet, some controversial issues encountered the existence of learning style theory. also, it leads to confusion and sense of incredulity towards the theory. this study purposed to shed light on critical discussions of learning style theory and its pedagogical implication for english language teaching. thus, it is suggested that english language teachers have to focus more on creating an effective learning rather than devoting time and energy for merely debating the pros and cons of learning style. four points are suggested to be done by english teachers including (1) assessing students’ background knowledge and interests, (2) identifying their lacks and necessities, (3) providing them with more engaging teaching media and materials and (4) pushing them to be autonomous learners. moreover, further research focusing on investigating english language teachers’ awareness of the controversial issue of learning style and their plans for effective learning ought to be carried out. references akbarzadeh, m., & fatemipour, h. 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(2011). learning styles and teaching styles in college english teaching. international education studies, 4(1), 73-77. https://doi.org/10.1080/17501229.2019.1575386 https://doi.org/10.1177%2f1048395019879966a 1 acuity: english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.6 no.1 2021 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity enhancing vocabulary performance through mobile assisted language learning at a rural school in indonesia caroline v. katemba email (ctobing@unai.edu) faculty of education, english dept. universitas advent indonesia, indonesia doi: 10.35974/acuity.v6i1.2457 abstract living in this era of globalization and in the 4.0 industrial revolution, we cannot get away from technology because it has integrated into our lives and has penetrated the educational system. there were studies done on the use of mobile-assisted language learning (mall) to improve students’ vocabulary achievement in other parts of the world and also in some urban schools in indonesia, but this study seeks to find whether the students’ vocabulary improved through the use of mall at rural school in bandungindonesia. this study was carried out to find the enhancement of using mall in vocabulary teaching to 79 grade 8 students in bandung. this study was designed for quantitative and experimental research. the students were separated into two groups, experimental and control groups. a day before coming to class, 15-20 words to learn the following day was sent to the experimental group through a short messages system (sms) for them to read, find the synonyms and meanings of those words before coming to the class. the result of the study showed that students in the experimental group performed better than the control group. it also proves that technology makes a significant difference in the learning of vocabulary in school. keyword: educational technology, english language learning, smartphone. introduction based on the researcher’s experience, that vocabulary is the most important words to be learned in the language, without vocabulary learners cannot speak, write, read, or understand what is being said in the listening and speaking process. if we lack vocabulary it may hinder us to understand the words that consisted of the sentences. language development has become important in the education system for all age levels, especially for the english language because english is an international language, and english is useful in our lives for example in politics, economics, social and education. erkayana and drower (2012) stated that the nucleus components to learn a language is vocabulary, it means that vocabulary is very crucial when the students want to learn a new language, that is why to increase vocabulary in the english learning for efl context, is stronger to understand among the students, as their based knowledge to learn a new language, in other word vocabulary is basic components to arrange sentences in a language. in a study done by andrici (2012), she found that students who lack vocabulary, are students with a low capacity to understand the words and also those who lack the motivation to learn the language. in this case, parents and teachers should have good collaboration in https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity mailto:ctobing@unai.edu 2 giving motivation to their children/ students. at school, the teacher should use the attractive and interesting method in teaching, and the parents should push and motivate the children t learn. when learning english, especially vocabulary, indonesian students frequently encounter problems because english varies in its structure, pronunciation, and vocabulary from bahasa indonesia (the indonesian language) (katemba, 2019). furthermore, tanjung (2011) explains that students have a hard time learning vocabulary. they lack motivation, making them not interested in learning vocabulary and most of the students cannot memorize the vocabulary, because they have a low intelligence quotient (iq). therefore, to motivate the students to learn their vocabulary, this study sent target words (the vocabulary) to students directly to their mobile phones in a form of sending messages. moreover, daniella (2013) said that words are the currency of communication it means that vocabulary is really important for communication. based on the importance and the problems in learning vocabulary above, there are many strategies and techniques to help students and teachers in learning english, one of the ways that can help teachers in teaching vocabulary and that can help students in learning, is the use of mobile phones which are dominant in most student’s life. they are not just communication devices anymore, they are useful computers that fit into students , pockets, always with them so nearly always on, and can be used in any kind of learning (prensky, 2005). huang (2012), investigated that technology has brought about a new type of learning a language called mall (mobile assisted language learning). it has become a really interesting strategy for learners. applying a kind of technology in learning language is a great chance for the students because they learn the technology, they also can use the technology in their learning, it means they use their time inappropriate activities with their mobile phone while they use it as a tool of communication. besides, katemba (2020) stated that schools demand teachers to use technology fluently especially in the classroom at the time of teaching. basoglu and akdemir (2010) conducted a comparative study of vocabulary learning with mobile phones and with paper flashcards of undergraduate students' at turkish. the experimental group used the vocabulary program on the phones to study the target words for six weeks in their extracurricular hours while the control group worked on the same words on paper flashcards during the same time. their findings reveal that "vocabulary learning programs running on mobile phones improved students' acquisition of english vocabulary more than a traditional vocabulary learning tool, flashcards" so, for knowing this case the researcher intended to find out an alternative method for teaching vocabulary to young learners by using a mobile phone in increasing the vocabulary of the learners by helping them to memorize the words easily and enjoyable. this study is entitled “ enhancing vocabulary performance achievement through mobile assisted language learning at a rural school in indonesia. this study poses a challenge to traditional, and formal ways of teaching and learning methods that learning a language or vocabulary may take place also outside the classroom with the use of mall. kukulska‐hulme (2012), claimed that mobile technology introduces greater flexibility into classroom teaching and it takes learning out of the classroom, often beyond the reach and control of the teacher. therefore, this study is the focus to answer the following research questions: (1). does mobile phone sms improve students' vocabulary performance? (2). “is there any significant difference in the performance between students who were taught using mall and the students who were taught using the conventional method”. the hypothesis tested in this study were (1). “there is no significant difference in the performance between students who were taught using mall and the students who were taught using the conventional method”. (2). “there is a significant difference in the performance between students who were 3 taught using mall and the students who were taught using the conventional method” to be able to answer the question the following research methodology applied. methodology this study used an experimental design to see whether mobile assisted language learning (mall) technique enhancing students' vocabulary performance. the method of this research used pre-test and post-test, to check the group’s performance before and after the treatment begins. the difference between the experimental group and the control group was the treatment given. the experimental group used the mall technique, while the control group used the conventional method. population the population in this research is all students in grade 8, and the sampling in this research uses two classes, which both are from grade 8 students. both samples are taught by the same teacher. the first class was the experimental group, while the second class was the control group. the researcher did the study at smp advent setiabudi bandung in west java bandung. the students participated in the study for 14 weeks which is equivalent to 40 hours of classroom meetings. research instrument the instrument of the study was a vocabulary test which was administered at the beginning and the end of the program. the researcher constructs the vocabulary test by having it pilot tested to the 30 participants who are not included in the study for its validity, reliability, discrimination index and its index of the difficulty level of the instrument used. the interpretations of each criteria's: the reliability, validity, discrimination index, and the index of difficulty level are found in the appendix of this paper. data gathering procedures in gathering the data needed as explained previously that the instruments (or each item) were pilot tested to measure the validity, reliability, level of difficulty, and discrimination of the instrument. if the instrument is valid and reliable, it can be used for the research instrument. the result of the pilot test was computed and analyzed then the items were selected to be used for the instrument in the study. the pre-test was administered to the students before they join the programs. treatment after administering the pre-test, the treatments were given to the experimental group, but in the control group, they were treated using the conventional method, both groups used the textbook from the school. the following were several steps in using mobile phone as mall method, for the experimental group: (1). the teacher introduced the lesson and the use of mobile phones as the mall method to the students. (2). the teacher sends the sms about ten of the new vocabularies/words from the student's textbook that the students had to memorize before the meeting. (3). the teacher asked the students to retell the vocabularies that they had received the night before the meeting. (4). the teacher discussed and explained the 4 vocabularies/words that were included in the lesson for that day, taken from the student's text book. (5). after the explanation, the students had to do the worksheet that has been prepared by the teacher, for measuring the student's understanding of the use of vocabularies/words in the sentences. (6). the teacher checked the result of the student's work and their achievement. after the treatments, a post-test was conducted to find out whether the use of the mall method made an impact on the student's vocabulary improvement. the post-test instrument was multiple choice forms and it consisted of 40 questions. result and findings in analyzing the data, the researcher analyzed it from the pre-test and post-test scores of the experimental and the control groups. before analyzing the data through normality and homogeneity data the researcher calculated first the mean standard deviation and gain score. the data was calculated through excel and spss computer software programs in the campus laboratory. the calculated data can be seen in the table. 1 table 1. the result of pre-test, post-test, st. deviation, and normalized gain experimental group control group mean st. deviation mean st. deviation pre-test 20.125 6.750 20.692 5.648 post-test 37.075 2.903 25.102 5.245 normalized gain 0.805 0.167 0.295 0.328 table 1 shows the excel calculation of the mean and standard deviation in students’ performance on the vocabulary enhancement, the mean of the experimental group on the pretest is 20.125 with a standard deviation of 6.750, and the post-test it is 37.075 with a standard deviation of 2.903, based of the experimental data show that have normalized gain 0.805 with standard deviation is 0.167. while the mean of the control group on the pre-test is 20.692 with a standard deviation of 5.648 and post-test it is 25.102 with a standard deviation is 5.245, based on the control group data shown that the control group have normalized gain of 0.295 with standard deviation it is 0.328 the gain of the test has been conducted on both groups that were based on the pre-test and post-test results of each group. the researcher discovered for the control group it is 0.295 and for the experimental group, it is 0.805. it already showed that there is an improvement for both the experimental and the control group after the treatment. however, the conclusion should be drawn after the statistical process, to see the significant difference between the two groups. to calculate the significant difference between the two groups, the normality test needed to be done to direct the kind of statistical to be used. the researcher used spss to calculate the normality of the data in examining the probability distribution of the data. the result for the normality test is then calculated as shown in table 2. 5 table 2. the result of the normality test based on the data above, data is normally distributed if both data have 𝜌value (sig) larger (>) than 𝛼=0.05 and data is not normal if 𝜌value smaller (<) than 𝛼= 0.05. and based on the result from the table above, the result of the calculation is asymp. sig. (2-tailed) a value of sig (.029) for the data score on the experimental group, and a value sig (.005) for the data score on a group class. since both of the values is smaller than the alpha (asymp. sig, > 0.05), it can be concluded that the data of the experimental group and the control group were not normally distributed. based on the result of the data above, since the data was not normally distributed, therefore the researcher used the non-parametric test. for that the researcher set two assumptions to know whether the hypothesis is accepted or not: if, pvalue (sig.) ≤ α (.050): ha is accepted, ho is rejected. it means there is a significant difference in the improvement, between students who were taught using mall and students who were taught using the conventional method if, pvalue (sig.) ≥ α (.050): ha is rejected, ho is accepted. it means there is no significant difference improvement between students who were taught using mall and students who were taught using the conventional method. the result calculation can be seen in the following table: kelas kolmogorov-smirnova shapiro-wilk statistic df sig. statistic df sig. gain class control .167 39 .008 .912 39 .005 class experimental .099 40 .200* .938 40 .029 a. lilliefors significance correction *. this is a lower bound of the true significance. 6 based on the data in table 3, shows that sig. (0.000) ≤ α (0.05). it means that ho is rejected. therefore, it is concluded that there is a significant difference in the performance between students who were taught using mall and the students who were taught using the conventional method. thornton &houser (2005) said that using mobile phone as one of the types of mall technique can improve students' vocabulary. so, the result of this study using mobile phone as one of the mall technique at smpn 1 parongpong, bandung, west java showed that there is an improvement in students’ vocabulary achievement discussion the result and findings section shows that there is a significant difference in the performance between students who were taught using mall and the students who were taught using the conventional method, it shows in table 1 on the data of pre-test, post-test, a normalized gain of the experimental and the control group. seyyedrezaeia, kazemib, & shahhoseinic, (2016) in their 12 weeks study entitled mobile assisted language learning (mall): an accelerator to iranian language learner's vocabulary learning found that the experimental group successfully performed much better than the control group. similarly in the experiment of lu (2008); thornton & houser, (2005); kennedy and levy (2005) they sent 9-10 words in new contexts through sms to their mobile phones. the results revealed that the words sent were very helpful in vocabulary learning. also thornton and houser (2005). using mobile phones in their study on english education in japan. they compared the effect of different vocabulary learning modes, one using paper material and the other supported by mobile phones, and the results showed that the mobile phone group gained significantly more vocabulary than the paper group. those studies showed that students who were treated with mall performed better in their vocabulary enhancement, and the use of the mall method in teaching is very helpful, supported the students’ in learning. burston (2012) claimed that mobile devices have brought a vast number of learning possibilities that are convenient and compatible to the mobile lifestyle and it can be supported by the teacher and students in learning, including learning a new language. therefore, the result in this study showed that there is significance in enhancing students’ vocabulary performance through mobile assisted language learning (mall) at grade viii students. test statistics gain mann-whitney u 18.000 wilcoxon w 798.000 z -7.473 asymp. sig. (2-tailed) 0.000 a. grouping variable: kelas 7 conclusion after a thorough analysis of the data gathered, as discussed previously, the researcher can conclude that: “there is a significant difference in the performance between students who were taught using mall and the students who were taught using conventional method furthermore, the researcher concludes that there is a significant enhancement of using and teaching through mobile phone as a kind of mall techniques to improve students’ performance in vocabulary, as it can help the students to learn unconsciously, enjoyable, and they can use the vocabulary to construct a sentence that they can use it in their daily life communication. references andrici, a.(2012), enriching students’ vocabulary by using word wall strategy. solok selatan: program study pendidikan bahasa inggris. basoglu, e. b., & akdemir, ö. (2010). a comparison of undergraduate students’ english vocabulary learning: using mobile phones and flashcards. the turkish online journal of educational technology, 9(3), 1–7. burston. j.j (2012) mobile language learning: greeting it to work. in.j.burston, f. doa & d. tsagari, foreign language instructional technology (pp. 81-99). nicosia, cyprus: university of nicosia press. daniella. p. (2013). the teaching of vocabulary in the primary school foreign language classroom. grin verlag, 2013 erkayana, o, r, & drower, 1.5 (2012). perception of an el learner on vocabulary development. international journal of special education, 27 (1), 81-92 huang, y. m., huang, y. m., huang, s. h., & lin, y.t. (2012). a ubiquitous english vocabulary learning system: evidence of active/passive attitudes vs. usefulness/ease-of-use. computers & education, 58(1), 273–282. katemba, c., v. (2019), students’ vocabulary enhancement at grade 10: a comparative study using call & mall in indonesia. call-ej, 20(1), 87-114. http://callej.org/journal/20-1/katemba2019.pdf katemba, c. v. (2020). teachers’ perceptions in implementing technologies in language teaching and learning in indonesia. acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture, 5(2), 123-136. https://doi.org/10.35974/acuity.v5i2.2299 kukulska‐hulme, a. (2012). mobile‐assisted language learning. the encyclopedia of applied linguistics, 1-9. levy, m., & kennedy, c. (2005). learning italian via mobile sms. in a. kukulskahulme & j. traxler (eds.), mobile learning: a handbook for educators and trainers (pp. 76– 83). london: routledge lu, m. (2008). effectiveness of vocabulary learning via mobile phone. journal of computer assisted learning, 24(6), 515-525. prensky, m. (2005). what can you learn from a cell phone? almost anything! the innovate gateway. http://callej.org/journal/20-1/katemba2019.pdf 8 seyyedrezaeia, s. h., kazemib, y., & shahhoseinic, f. (2016). mobile-assisted language learning (mall): an accelerator to iranian language learner's vocabulary learning improvement. international journal of research in linguistics, language teaching, and testing, 1, 7-13 tanjung, a. s. (2011). reinforcing students vocabulary through scrabble game. jakarta: universitas negri islam syarif hidayat tullah. thornton, p., & houser, c. (2005). using mobile phones in english education in japan. journal of computer assisted learning, 21(3), 217-228 9 appendix table 1. interpretation of coefficient validity coeffisien validity interpretation 0.90 <𝑟𝑥𝑦 ≤1.00 very good 0.70 <𝑟𝑥𝑦 ≤0.90 good 0.40 <𝑟𝑥𝑦 ≤0.70 average 0.20 <𝑟𝑥𝑦 ≤0.40 low 0.00 <𝑟𝑥𝑦 ≤0.20 very low 𝑟𝑥𝑦≤0.00 not valid 10 table 2 interpretation of coefficient reliability coeffisien of reliability interpretation of reliability 0.90 <𝑟𝑥𝑦 ≤1.00 very good 0.70 <𝑟𝑥𝑦 ≤0.90 good 0.40 <𝑟𝑥𝑦 ≤0.70 average 0.20 <𝑟𝑥𝑦 ≤0.40 low 𝑟𝑥𝑦≤0.20 very low table 3. criteria of discrimination index discrimination index interpretation < 0.00 very bad 0.00 -0.20 poor 0.21 – 0.40 satisfactory 0.41 – 0.70 good 0.71 -1.00 excellent table 4 criteria for difficulty level index of difficulty difficulty degree 0.70 -1.00 easy item 0.30 – 0.70 moderate item 0.00 -0.30 difficult item 11 table 5. clarification of gain score value gain level interpretation 0.710.100 high 0.310.70 average 0.00-0.30 low 138 acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.6 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity professional competency of pre-service english teachers and ict during covid-19 pandemic siska rizkiani siska.rizkiani@ikipsiliwangi.ac.id ikip siliwangi, indonesia doi: 10.35974/acuity.v6i2.2462 abstract professional competence of pre-service english teachers needs to be done to find effective ways in improving their teaching performance, which requires the proper implementation of ict during online learning. this study aims at investigating the level of professional competence of pre-service english teachers in vocational high school in applying ict in learning during the covid-19 pandemic. it adopts a quantitative approach. it is a type of survey research because it only describes the condition of the research respondents without any treatment being carried out. the respondents of this study were 83 pre-service english teachers of the ikip siliwangi who were undergoing teaching training subjects at various vocational schools. this research was conducted by distributing questionnaires and conducting interviews. the results showed that the professional competence of pre-service english teachers in implementing ict is at a very good level, which means that pre-service teachers have performed excellent competence. this can be proven from the preferences of the three assessors (in-service teachers, supervisors, and students) to state that almost all aspects of pre-service teachers are at a very good competency level. these aspects are teaching and learning activities, teaching administration management, assignments, implementation of evaluation, and using the right tools. only on the delivery of information aspect, pre-service teachers get a good competency level. keywords: ict, pre-service teacher, professional competence introduction one of the factors that influence the success of the teaching and learning process in schools is competent teachers following national education standards. in education, teachers play a significant and strategic role in shaping students to become mature, autonomous, and independent individuals. in other words, the role of the teacher can determine the success of the educational process. teachers have strategic functions and tasks in the success of the learning process, starting from curriculum updating to implementing new teaching methods. no matter how good a curriculum is, if it is not supported by the ability of teachers to implement it, then the meaning of the curriculum will not mean much for the effectiveness of the education process (achruh, 2016). for this reason, for the learning process to be effective, teachers are required to have high competence. of course, with the competence of the teacher, a conducive and effective learning atmosphere can be created. competence is a synchronization formed from knowledge, skills, values , and attitudes which are implemented in habits of thought and action (yamin in mas, 2012). in the law of ______________________ corresponding author: siska rizkiani, english education study program, ikip siliwangi, indonesia. email: siska.rizkiani@ikipsiliwangi.ac.id https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity mailto:siska.rizkiani@ikipsiliwangi.ac.id 139 the republic of indonesia no. 14, competence is stated as a set of knowledge, skills, and behaviors that must be lived and controlled by a teacher or lecturer in carrying out their professional duties. thus, competence can be interpreted as an effective tool and method, to direct a person in shaping himself toward maturity and independence. in the national education standards of indonesia, there are four competencies that a teacher must have, personal, professional, pedagogical, and social competencies. this then makes the teacher a professional. teacher professional competence is the ability to design and implement learning with the mastery of learning material widely and deeply to guide students in achieving learning targets. personal competence is the teacher's ability to become a person who is mature, stable, authoritative, and is a role model for students. pedagogic competence is the ability to manage to learn such as understanding students in developing their various potentials and talents. meanwhile, social competence is the ability to behave and communicate with school members or the community. without any regardless to the role of other competencies, this study focuses only on professional competencies which include the ability to apply ict in online learning during the pandemic period. it is well known that controlling the spread of the covid-19 virus has shifted technical learning from face-to-face to online learning. this is of course a concern where a teacher is not only expected to be competent professionally when teaching in class using faceto-face methods but also reliable in the use of ict so that learning remains effective and is not technically constrained. professional competence is considered essential since it has turned out to be one of the fundamental formulation for learning materials (apriliyanti, 2020). teacher professional competence is a series of abilities that teachers need to have to be able to carry out successful teaching assignments (hermadi, 2016). in other words, professional teachers are teachers who can design and implement learning programs. professionally competent teachers will be more capable to create effective and optimal learning as an effort to achieve the learning targets of their students. more comprehensively, a teacher has demanded in carrying out his professional competence. this is stated in the law of teacher and lecturer 2005 (undang-undang guru dan dosen tahun 2015). first, a teacher is required to be able to plan lessons, carry out a quality learning process, and evaluate learning outcomes. second, teachers are expected to be able to improve and develop academic qualifications and competencies on an ongoing basis in line with the development of technology and science. third, teachers are also required to be able to act objectively and not to discriminate based on considerations of gender, religion, ethnicity, race, and certain physical conditions, or family background, and the economic status of students in learning. fourth, teachers are asked to uphold regulations, laws, and teacher codes of ethics, as well as religious and ethical values. finally, teachers are expected to be able to maintain and cultivate national unity and integrity. tobing (2016) stated that leadership structure, school culture, and management strategy of primary and secondary schools in west indonesia influence teachers' working and teaching performance positively, significantly, and very strongly. the teaching profession according to law no. 14 of 2005 concerning teachers and lecturers, must have professional principles. this is stated in article 5 paragraph 1, stated that the profession of teachers and lecturers is a field of calling and idealism, a special job that requires professional principles, namely having talents, interests, calling and idealism, having educational qualifications and educational background by their respective fields of work, having the necessary competencies under their duties, comply with the professional code of ethics, have the rights and obligations in carrying out their duties, receive an income determined according to their work performance on an ongoing basis, obtain legal protection in carrying out their professional duties, and have a professional organization that is a legal entity. in particular, attachment of permenristekdikti law no. 55, the year 2017 states the formulation of learning outcomes for graduates of the teacher professional education 140 program. they are: master the subject matter broadly and deeply (analyzing competencies (learning outcomes) as a basis for material selection; and implementing and evaluating the material, structure, concepts, and supporting scientific mindsets development of science, technology, and art), mastering theory, application, approach, technique, or relevant scientific, technological or artistic methods; and discovering a concept, approach, technique, or method new in science, technology, or the arts relevant; disseminating academic work or other forms equivalent to an accredited national journal or reputable international journals and/or works of which presented or exhibited; applying technical knowledge and skills information in the context of scientific development and implementation of areas of expertise; and able to use at least one language international in listening, reading, speaking, and write. as previously explained, this research focuses on professional competence. the professional competence in question is the ability to apply 4.0 teaching patterns where the use of digital media and ict must be juxtaposed in every lesson, especially during the covid-19 pandemic where every learning must be done online. this becomes important because, in the end, professional competence in online learning has a significant effect on the success of the teaching and learning process. in detail, the professional competence of pre-service english teachers in the use of ict in online learning is discussed. professional teachers in online learning are teachers who have broad knowledge and competent abilities in ict, social media, and various applications (galeshi & taimoory, 2019). moreover, philipsen, et.al (2019) mentioned the aspect that a professional teacher should master in online learning. this includes: 1. teaching and learning activities. a teacher is said to be a professional in online learning if s/he has the knowledge and ability in virtual teaching and learning activities. the learning strategy referred to includes teaching activities, such as discussions, reading, assignments, presentations, and evaluations. in general, its implementation depends on one or more of three basic modes: communication between teachers and students, communication between students and learning resources, and communication among students. 2. learning administration management. in this case, the management of learning administration can be interpreted as the efforts made by the teacher in organizing, recording, storing, and serving various things related to learning activities, such as student attendance lists, curriculum and syllabus, lists of daily, weekly, monthly and semester, exam questions, teaching materials, and so on. all of these things are stored using digital technology, some of which can be accessed by students. 3. assignments. the assignment can mean everything that is designed and prepared by the teacher to be done by students. the implementation of these tasks is then reported to the teacher. the reporting uses ict. in this case, a teacher not only should master the material but also ict. 4. delivery of information. one of the competencies of a professional teacher is having the ability to build communication with students. in this communication, one another provides information to each other, so that various ideas, messages, and ideas are shared. in delivering this information, digital technology equipment can be used. in in relation to this, a teacher can convey materials that must be read by the students or they could worked on by answering questions or doing their tasks on it. 5. implementation of evaluation. the implementation of various evaluations is one of the duties of a professional teacher. the evaluation is carried out in an objective, transparent, fair, and accountable manner. to achieve this goal, accuracy and strict supervision are needed, so that there is no cheating or plagiarism. through the digital system, it is hoped that a system can be created that can easily track out, whether the 141 answers in the evaluation given by the students are original of their work or the results of cheating or plagiarism. 6. the right tools. teachers in the digital age must have high quality to become inspiring educators. however, such teacher qualifications will not work if they are not accompanied by the right educational technology tools. to educate students in the digital era, internet-based tools are needed that can be easily accessed and used by them. of course, this access does not only contain a base of information and material regarding the knowledge being studied. besides, it must also have other features that fit students more freedom to experiment in mastering a certain branch of knowledge. this research is focused on the professional competence of pre-service english teachers. a pre-service teacher is a student who is currently undergoing teacher education and is undergoing teaching practice subject at schools. the consideration of focusing on pre-service because, in indonesia, one of the problems of teacher professionalism is connected to pre-service education development (kholis and murwanti, 2019). the pre-service teachers referred to in this study are pre-service english teachers at smk (vocational high school). pre-service teachers are students who take part in various activities and courses in the field of teacher training and education. pre-service teachers are expected to develop their skills and abilities as future teachers. these characters are formed during their learning period, especially from courses or activities related to pedagogy and teaching (maulana & rizkiani, 2019). this aims to train the abilities and competencies of pre-service teachers and improve the professional character of pre-service teachers. in a teacher training environment, competency can be a significant context. the competency in question is that as a language teacher, the scope of the learning process includes recognizing, selecting, and acting on phenomena that arise during their involvement with students (jackson & cho, 2018). to be able to work well (samuda, 2015), pre-service teachers must be able to pay attention to various aspects of involvement, including cognitive, behavioral, social, and emotional aspects during the learning process (ivanova & skara-mincāne, 2016). in other words, pre-service teachers certainly have to practice teaching skills to achieve effective and successful learning. learning a language is a conscious process of every language component starting from understanding to its application (krashen as stated in harmer, 2007). furthermore, abdurakhman & rusli (2017) suggests that if the target in learning english is to gain competence in communicating english, then communicating while learning is one of the most recommended ways. therefore, it is recommended that english teachers provide students with the opportunity to practice their english competencies. learning english in vocational schools is included in the english for specific purposes (esp) where english learning is specifically focused on the initial goal of learning english. this is because the orientation of english learning at vocational schools depends on the majors or vocations that students take. in defining esp, hutchinson & waters (1987) explains that esp is an approach to language teaching, where the materials and methods used throughout the learning process are entirely based on students' reasons for learning english. so, it can be concluded that esp learning is carried out according to the needs of students. in other words, esp learning focuses on students as the main consideration in the learning process learning english at smk is different from sma (senior high school). learning english at vocational schools is more focused on preparing students to enter the world of work and business. this prepares pre-service english teachers for vocational schools has its challenges because the teaching of english that is designed and implemented is the embodiment of esp (english for specific purposes) in which the english learning process depends on the department or vocational field that students are participating in. 142 through direct observation, it was found that there are pre-service english teachers who still experience awkwardness and doubts in carrying out their duties as english teachers at the school where they practice. some look less prepared personally or professionally, such as feeling insecure, uneasy about the various characters of students, lack of mastery of the material that must be provided, also do not have sufficient knowledge and experience in the use of ict in which the learning is carried out. it was also found that the implementation of ict can improve their teaching performance, as stated by katemba (2020). she claims that despite the challenges faced in the online classroom setting, the application of technology remains accommodating. further, it has become a popular teaching and learning tool for teachers both in and out of the classroom ( katemba & sinuhaji, 2021). based on the explanation above, it appears that further research on the professional competence of pre-service english teachers needs to be done to find effective ways for lecturers and pre-service teachers to improve their teaching performance, especially during the covid19 pandemic, which requires learning to be done online. this is expected to be able to create more prepared and competent graduates professionally in the future, both through face-to-face and online learning. therefore, this study aims to investigate the level of professional competence of pre-service english teachers in vocational high school. competency in terms of professional competent having the ability to apply ict in their teaching and learning during the covid-19 pandemic. methods this study aims to investigate the level of professional competence of pre-service english teachers in vocational high school. competency here is the ability to apply ict in teaching and learning during the covid-19 pandemic. in detail, the method conducted in this study is described in the following steps: research design seeing the objectives to be achieved, this study adopts a quantitative approach. this study is a type of survey study because it only describes the condition of the research respondents, without any treatment being carried out. research participants and sampling procedures the respondents of this study were pre-service english teachers of the ikip siliwangi who were undergoing teaching training subjects at various vocational schools. sample size, power, and precision the population of this study was 83 pre-service english teachers of ikip siliwangi. this study involved all pre-service english teachers mentioned to become the respondents. data collection the data collection of this study began by reviewing various previous research results regarding the competence of teachers and pre-service english teachers. furthermore, the instruments were compiled based on the results of those previous researches which then be validated by two experts in this field. after the questionnaire was validated, it was distributed and followed up through interviews to get more reliable results. results 143 the professional competency criteria for pre-service english teachers in this study are based on the level of teacher competency indicators whose levels are obtained through empirically calculating the percentage of scores which are then compared with the ideal score. the following is a categorization guide in assessing the performance of pre-service teachers. table 1. guide for categorization of teacher candidate professional competency assessment no range of percentage (%) level of competency 1 81 – 100 excellent 2 68 – 80.9 very good 3 56 – 67.9 good 4 43 – 55.9 fair 5 0 – 42.9 poor adapted from mas (2012) the professional competence of pre-service teachers is assessed from the results of the total comparison of all aspects of the professional competence of pre-service english teachers from each assessor. the assessors in question consist of in-service teachers, supervisors, and students. the total overall professional competence is obtained from the combined score or the average score of the assessment results of the three assessors. when viewed from the assessment of the in-service teacher, the achievement of professional competence of pre-service english teachers in the application of ict showed the very good level of the three assessors even though the resulting percentage was different. according to in-service teachers, the competence of pre-service teachers was at the 76.9% level which meant very good. the same thing also happened to the competency achievement of preservice teachers according to the supervisor, which showed 76.1%. likewise, the professional competence of pre-service teachers was seen from the students' assessment showed achievement of 71.6%. a summary of the teacher competencies in terms of each assessor can be seen in table 2 below. table 2. description of professional competence level aspects assessors result (%) level of competency teaching and learning activities in-service teacher 83.3 excellent supervisor 80.7 very good students 76.7 very good learning administration management in-service teacher 79.5 very good supervisor 76.7 very good students 63.3 good assignments in-service teacher 75.5 very good supervisor 78.5 very good students 66.7 good deliveryof information in-service teacher 56.7 good supervisor 60.2 good students 66.7 good implementationof evaluation in-service teacher 81.3 excellent supervisor 80.4 very good students 77.8 very good right tools in-service teacher 85.1 excellent supervisor 80.4 very good 144 students 78.2 very good mean of assessors’ judgment in-service teacher 76.9 very good supervisor 76.1 very good students 71.6 very good from table 2 it can be seen that the level of professional competence is achieved in every aspect. in the aspect of teaching and learning activities, the assessment of in-service teachers showed excellent achievement, while according to supervisors and students, the professional competence of pre-service english teachers in implementing ict was at a very good level. similar results also appeared in the aspects of the implementation of evaluation and right tools. unlike the case with the assignments aspect, in-service teachers and supervisors gave very good ratings. meanwhile, students assessed that the level of professional competence of pre-service english teachers in implementing ict in this aspect was good. different results can also be seen in the delivery of information aspect. although the percentage results obtained vary, the assessment of the three assessors in this aspect was the same, at the level of good competence. based on the descriptive analysis, the professional competency assessment of the preservice teachers from every aspect was in the level of very good. of the six aspects, only the delivery of information aspect is at the good competency level, while the teaching and learning activities, learning administration management, assignments, implementation of evaluation, and right tools aspects are at the very good level. the assessments of the three assessors for each aspect can be seen in the following illustration. chart 1: assessors’ judgment on every aspect discussion based from the results , it can be interpreted that the professional competence of pre-service english teachers in the field of ict still need improvement, especially in the aspect of delivery of information, where pre-service teachers were expected to be able to convey information well, correctly and clearly in english. this was not only in the delivery of information related to the material being taught but also in the conditions of online learning. this is in line with what was stated by philipsen, et.al (2019) that a professional teacher should have the ability to build communication with students. in this case, a professional teacher should provide information 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 teaching and learning activities learning administration management assignments delivery of information implementation of evaluation right tools in-service teacher supervisor students 145 so that various ideas, messages, and ideas are shared properly. in delivering this information, various digital technology equipment can be used. if viewed from the aspect that had the highest assessment of the three assessors, the aspects of right tools, teaching and learning activities, and the implementation of evaluation were the aspects that get the advantage of top three. however, the three assessors also agreed that the aspect of the delivery of information was the aspect that received the lowest assessment among them. from the assessor's point of view, even though the results of the in-service teacher and student assessments are at different competency levels, both assessments have advantages in the aspects of teaching and learning activities, implementation of evaluation, and right tools. this is possible because in-service teachers and students both have an interest in new things in learning that are used by pre-service teachers, such as learning applications, software, social media, or other digital media. this is in line with philipsen, et.al (2019) who stated that professional teachers in online learning are teachers who have broad knowledge and competent abilities in ict, social media, and various applications. this is different from the supervisor who gave a very good assessment in almost all aspects, except for the delivery of information. the similarity of the results of the assessment which is almost similar in all these aspects showed that supervisors were more consistent in providing assessments. from the overall assessment, it can be said that the results found indicated that the professional competence of pre-service english teachers in implementing ict had not shown optimal results. as stated earlier by kholis & murwanti (2019) that there are at least three skills a professional teacher must have: the skills to plan, implement, and evaluate learning. this is also stated in general by mas (2012) that the picture of a professional teacher is not just a means of transmitting learning but can be a means of transforming mastery of knowledge and skills. conclusion based from the results of research and discussion, it can be concluded that the professional competence of pre-service english teachers in implementing ict is at a very good level, which means that pre-service teachers have not performed excellent competence. this can be proven from the consistency of the three evaluators stating that almost all aspects of pre-service teachers are at a very good competency level. these aspects are aspects of teaching and learning activities, learning administration management, assignments, implementation of evaluation, and right tools. only on the delivery of information aspect, pre-service teachers get a good competency level. to improve the professional competence of pre-service english teachers in the application of ict, it is hoped that the findings of this study can be used as a reference in decisions making on the teaching training subjects at ikip siliwangi, especially for the english education study program. the results of this research are expected to be useful in the development of similar research on other teacher competencies. references abdurakhman, o. & rusli, r.k (2017). teori belajar dan pembelajaran. https://unida.ac.id/ojs/jtdik/article/viewfile/302/173. [20 maret, 2020] achruh a.b. & pasinringi, a. (2016) eksistensi guru dalam pengembangan kurikulum. jurnal inspiratif pendidikan, 5 (2). pp. 416-426. issn (p) 2337-6767 (e) 2655-4445 apriliyanti, d.,l.(2020). enhancing teachers’ competencies through professional development program: challenges and benefactions. acuity: journal of english https://unida.ac.id/ojs/jtdik/article/viewfile/302/173 146 language pedagogy, literature,and culture, 5(1), 28-38. https://doi.org/10.35974/acuity.v5i1.2042 galeshi, r. & taimoory, h. (2019). online education: influencing teachers' perception of professionalism. international journal of online pedagogy and course design. doi: 10.4018/ijopcd.2019100101 harmer, j. (2007). the practice of english language teaching. harlow longman. hermadi. (2016). kompetensi profesional guru. a newspaper article. https://www.kompasiana.com/hermadiskw74/5840c365ee92736f048b457c/kompetensi -profesional-guru. [20 maret, 2020] hutchinson, t. & waters, a. (1987) english for specific purposes: a learning-centered. approach. (pp. 53-‐ 64). cambridge: cambridge university press. ivanova, i., & skara-mincāne. (2016). development of professional identity during teacher's practice. procedia – social and behavioral sciences, 232, 529-536. jackson, d.o, & cho, m. (2018). language teacher noticing: a socio-cognitive window on classroom realities. language teaching research. https://journals.sagepub.com katemba, c. v. (2020). teachers’ perceptions in implementing technologies in language teaching and learning in indonesia. acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture, 5(2), 123-136. https://doi.org/10.35974/acuity.v5i2.2299 katemba, c. v., & sinuhaji, g. v. (2021). can esa method through quizizz games enhance vocabulary knowledge?. international journal of game-based learning (ijgbl), 11(3), 19-37. doi: 10.4018/ijgbl.2021070102. kholis, n., murwanti. (2019). teacher professionalism in indonesia, malaysia, and new zealand.tarbiya:journal of educationin muslim society, 6(2), 179-195. doi:10.15408/themes.v6i2. 11487. mas, s.r. (2012). hubungan kompetensi personal dan profesional guru dengan motivasi belajar siswa di smkn 22 kota gorontalo. jurnal pendidikan dan pembelajaran. vol 19 no 2. maulana, a. & rizkiani, s. (2019). pre-service efl teachers' cognition of english textbooks in vocational schools. eltin journal. vol.7 no.2 http://ejournal.stkipsiliwangi.ac.id/index.php/eltin/article/view/1368/823 peraturan menteri riset, teknologi dan pendidikan tinggi republik indonesia no 55 tahun 2017 tentang standar pendidikan guru peraturan menteri riset, teknologi dan pendidikan tinggi republik indonesia no 14 tahun 2017 tentang guru dan dosen philipsen, b., tondeur, j., pareja roblin, n., vanslambrouck, s., & zhu, c. (2019). improving teacher professional development for online and blended learning: a systematic meta-aggregative review. education tech research dev 67, 1145–1174. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-019-09645-8 samuda, v. (2015). tasks, design, and the architecture of pedagogical spaces. in m. bygate (ed.), domains and directions in the development of tblt. (pp. 271-302). amsterdam/philadelphia: john benjamins tobing, j. h. l. (2016). school leadership, culture, strategy and teacher’s working performance. journal of international scholars conference education/social sciences, 1(2), 119-134. retrieved from https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/jiscedu/article/view/288 https://doi.org/10.35974/acuity.v5i1.2042 https://www.kompasiana.com/hermadiskw74/5840c365ee92736f048b457c/kompetensi-profesional-guru%20%5b20 https://www.kompasiana.com/hermadiskw74/5840c365ee92736f048b457c/kompetensi-profesional-guru%20%5b20 https://www.kompasiana.com/hermadiskw74/5840c365ee92736f048b457c/kompetensi-profesional-guru%20%5b20 https://journals.sagepub.com/ https://doi.org/10.35974/acuity.v5i2.2299 http://e-journal.stkipsiliwangi.ac.id/index.php/eltin/article/view/1368/823 http://e-journal.stkipsiliwangi.ac.id/index.php/eltin/article/view/1368/823 http://e-journal.stkipsiliwangi.ac.id/index.php/eltin/article/view/1368/823 147 microsoft word dewi-latest-edited.docx enhancing teachers’ competencies through professional development program: challenges and benefits dewi listia apriliyanti ikip siliwangi corresponding email: apriliyanti.dl@ikipsiliwangi.ac.id doi 10.35974/acuity.v5i1.2042 abstract teachers’ professional development program is considered to play an important role in enhancing teacher competencies. an observational case study is conducted to observe teachers’ learning process and teachers’ outcomes after learning on the program. five english teachers who have participated in the professional development program in indonesia and passed the teachers' competency test in the program have become key informants of this research. the objectives of the research are to investigate the learning process on the program and challenges faced by the teachers in implementing their teaching knowledge and outcome of teachers after participating in the program. the research has found three essential findings. first, the research found that pedagogic competencies and professional competencies have become the basic formulation for learning materials that are taught in the program. second, the research found four obstacles and challenges to implement teachers’ knowledge from the program in their classroom, for instance, innovative teaching methods and creative lesson designs. third, the investigation also discovered the challenges and the benefits in the implementation of professional learning development as one of the solutions in enhancing english teachers’ competencies in indonesia. furthermore, this research recommended the stakeholder to consider the financial aspect and the demography aspect in the implementation of the professional teacher development program. keywords: english teacher; teachers’ competencies; learning; professional development introduction nowadays, the discussion of education has become an endless hot topic because education is the main foundation in forming the characters of nations (fullan, 2001; apriliyanti, 2018). in nurturing dignified nations, the main pioneer is needed as the key successor in the education process itself (dipaola & walther-thomas, 2003). in this case, teachers are considered as the main agent to guide the generation of a nation towards a better direction (fullan, 2001). hence, discussions related to education cannot be separated from the topic of discussion related to the teachers. besides, the success of an education system cannot be separated from the quality of the teachers themselves. in other words, the qualities of education process outcomes are closely related to the qualities of teachers when the learning process happens. also, the industrial revolution 4.0 has an impact on the advancement of education that is required teachers to be more enterprising in developing their qualities so that they are not left behind by the revolution progress on education. lifelong learning not only applies to students but also applies to teachers who are evolved from subject material sources to lifelong learning teachers. this is a demand that is increasingly imposed by teachers but has a positive impact on the quality of the teacher's output itself. speaking of teachers’ qualities, stronge (2018) argued that the teachers’ qualities should cover five specific characteristics of teacher responsibilities and behaviors as follow: (1) the teacher as a good personality representation; (2) the teacher as a good classroom manager and organizer; (3) the teacher as a good instructor; (4) the teacher monitors students’ progress and potential; (5) the teacher possesses professionalism. besides, goldberg (2003) mentioned that to be great teachers, they should have certain qualities, namely, willingness to put learning in the necessary time, love for the age group they teach, and effective classroom management style, positive relationships with their colleagues, consistent excellence, expert use of instructional methods, in-depth content knowledge, and steadiness of purpose a teaching personality. in other words, teachers’ qualities should cover four main competencies, namely teachers’ competencies in the pedagogic aspect, personality, social, and professional to become great teachers. moreover, stakeholder of educational policy has regulated teachers for being competent teachers to update the quality of conventional systems. in regulation law no. 14/2005 and law attachment no. 55/2017 (menristekdikti, 2017), stated that teachers in indonesia should hold four competencies, namely, pedagogical competencies which cover classroom management and organizing, personal competencies which cover teachers’ personality as role models and inspirations, social competencies which cover teachers’ skills to be socialized with the colleagues and other school members, and professional competencies which cover teachers’ professions as academic figures. based on law attachment no. 55/2017 formulated that teachers’ four competencies are inseparable from teachers’ ability to deliver learning material that is integrated with science, technology, and arts (menristekdikti, 2017). the framework of this regulation in detail will be discussed in the english teachers’ competency framework and the aforementioned regulation will become this research foundation in formulating research instruments. both experts’ theories regarding teacher qualities and the standard regulations that are regulated by education stakeholders in indonesia is formulated to enhance the quality of teachers and play an important role in the progress of a nation. regulations are intended to meet the educational needs that are currently integrated into the industrial revolution where teachers are expected to literate in technology and more innovative teaching methods (sangrà, 2010; netp, 2017). unfortunately, to change the pattern of teacher teaching habits in traditional ways such as the lecture method and the use of non-digital media, more time and effort is needed. plenty of english language teachers in indonesia are x generation category where the generation is not digital native generations. thus, professional development training is important in efforts to enhance the qualities of teachers whose qualities meet the standard regulatory criteria in law attachment no.55/2017. hence, the minister of education and culture (later on moec) as the stakeholder in education policy in indonesia organizes teacher training program as an effort to accelerate the number of competent teachers in teaching. they consider that this training can contribute greatly to enhancing the quality of teachers. based on the aforementioned arguments, this research is carried out in investigating whether the activities and outcomes of this training is by the expectations in terms of benefits to conduct the teacher training program as a means of enhancing teacher competencies and challenges faced by teachers whilst implementing the teaching knowledge after the program. therefore, this paper will discuss in detail the findings from the field facts carried out on a teacher training program in 2017. the framework and research methods that are used will be discussed in the following section. literature review 1. english teacher competencies competencies are defined as “the set of knowledge, skills, and experience necessary for future, which manifests in activities” (katane et. al., 2006, p.44; apriliyanti, 2018). regarding the teachers’ competencies, in law no. 14/2005, competence is defined as "a set of knowledge, skills, and behaviors that have to be owned lived, and controlled by teachers or lecturers in performing professional duties." in other words, competence can be interpreted as the capability that must be possessed by teachers to be able to perform and accomplish their duties well. in line with attachment law no.14/2005, schnekenberg & waildt (2010) stated that academic staff—teachers—in this digital era should hold four competencies, namely pedagogical competence, personal competence, social competence, and professional competence. pedagogical competence refers to the ability to plan the learning activity, to manage the learning activity and evaluating the learning activity (apriliyanti, 2018). in detail, according to law attachment no.55/2017 stated that pedagogical competence is “a set of knowledge, attitude, and skill in designing, planning, scoring and evaluating the teaching and learning activity” (menristekdikti, 2017). personal competence is the capability of a stable personality, noble, wise and dignified as well as being exemplary learners (undang-undang no. 14 tahun 2005 tentang guru dan dosen). teachers also acted as a learning agent in which the role of the teacher as a facilitator, motivator, encouragement, learning planner, and learning inspiration for students (apriliyanti, 2018). meanwhile, social competence is the capability of teachers to communicate and interact effectively and efficiently with learners, fellow teachers, parents/guardians of learners, and school community (apriliyanti, 2018; undang-undang no. 14 tahun 2005 tentang guru dan dosen). the meaning of professional competence is the capability of english subject mastery widely and deeply (apriliyanti, 2018; undang-undang no. 14 tahun 2005 tentang guru dan dosen). also, professionalism in english teachers is the interconnection of all domain, namely, language ability, cultural understanding, instruction ability included planning for the standardsbased efl and content instructions—, and classroom-based assessment for efl (kuhlman & kneževic, 2017). there are at least four characteristics of a professional teacher. first, english teachers can give the instruction. second, english teachers have to improve students' english skills and students' english competencies. third, english teachers have to be proactive and innovative in the classroom situation. fourth, teachers are good role models for their students. in fulfilling their obligations as teachers, teachers should provide their extra time to improve their competencies as professional teachers. the characteristics of each competency in this research are extracted into four conditions, namely preparation before teaching, core activity of teaching and learning, assessment and evaluation of the learning outcome, and teachers’ personality as presented in figure 1. figure 1. teacher competency framework in this research (adapted based on law no. 55/2017) 2. professional learning development training is a central feature of most social sector development efforts. the training program gives a good impact on teachers’ improvement (wati, 2011). wati (2011) found that english training programs were effective in improving teachers’ beliefs but basic english knowledge. she claimed that english teachers need long term training to be a useful forum for effective english teachers. educational training provides the trainers who are helped the trainee to enhance their ability to be more productive in teaching behaviors (katane, 2006; apriliyanti, 2018; fullan, 2001). fulan (2001) argued that "significant educational change consists of changes in beliefs, teaching style and materials which can come about only through a process of personal development in a social context" (p. 124). impact measurement center stated that ‘english as a foreign language training program can change a school or company’s culture for the better and it can show how much is the improvement after training’ (cited in apriliyanti, 2018). therefore, teacher training is the program which helped the teachers to improve their ability to be better teachers in personal attitude and to advance their knowledge in english subject. research methodology this research is a part of broader research ranges of teacher training program evaluation (apriliyanti, 2018). this research employed a qualitative method with observational case study as a design of this research to capture and to understand the behavioral changes of person under investigation and observation in its natural or real-life settings (creswell, 2012). the research data is gathered by using non-participant observation, legal documents, and interview. pedagogy personal social professional learning preparation teaching and learning process learning outcome teachers' personality figure 2. the design used in this research (adapted from miles & huberman, 1994; creswell, 2012) to investigate the challenges experienced by teachers in implementing the knowledge and methods they obtained during the training program, a semi-structured interview was conducted on the five key informants (see table 1). the aspect of which is questioned in this investigation is the teachers' teaching experiences after attending plpg including the experiences in developing lesson plans, teaching and learning activities, and their problem solving while the teaching activities after plpg. the primary key informants were five english teachers at senior secondary public and/or private schools who have similar characteristics. they have a bachelor's degree in english education (s.pd.) and have passed the national examination (utn) of competence test of professional learning development program (later on plpg) in 2017. the entire key informant names are kept confidential due to research ethics. the characteristics of the key informants is presented in table 1. table 1. key informant characteristics ki g d/c ta te tct et-01 male s1 english education homeroom teacher of 12 ipa 5 english teacher for 12th grade 12 years (2-year while he was a college student & 10year after graduation of s.pd.) 77 et-02 female s1 english education staff of the curriculum division homeroom teacher of 12 english teacher subject for 10th to 12th grade 17 years 77.8 et-03 female s1 english education homeroom teacher of 12 ips 3 english teacher subject for 10th and 12th grade 11 years 77.3 et-04 female s1 english education homeroom teacher english teacher subject for 10th and 11th grade 12 years 77.8 et-05 female s1 english education vice principal of public relations english teacher subject for 11th grade 10 years 77.7 abbreviations: ki = key informant g = gender d = degree ta = teaching assignment te = teaching experience tct = teacher competence test score findings and discussion 1. enhancing teachers’ competencies through professional development program based on the results of research, the research findings will be elaborated in two parts, namely, the learning grid applied to professional learning development programs for english teachers in indonesia and challenges faced by teachers in applying the knowledge gained during learning. a. english teachers’ learning grid on a professional development program observation and document analysis has been carried out in one of the professional learning development programs implemented by the ministry of education and culture (moec), in indonesia, namely plpg (education and training for the teacher profession). the training program in enhancing teacher competencies has been conducted for two months— online mentoring and 100 hours of lessons on face-to-face mentoring. the findings of this study found that of the four teacher competencies mandated by law attachment no.55/2017— pedagogical competencies, personal competence, social competence, and professional competence—, two main competencies were used as the basis for formulating the learning grid materials lecturing in the training, namely, pedagogical competence and professional competence. the summary of the learning materials is presented in table 2. table 2. training materials in plpg 2017 main competence training form platform training materials pedagogic online mentoring ksg.kemdikbud.go.id (exclusive learning platform; user id and password needed) the materials cover teachers' skills of: understanding the students’ characteristics; learning theories; 2013 curriculum; designing the learning activities; learning media and tools; designing the lesson plan; learning holistic assessment and conducted an action research face to face mentoring convenient training place in bandung provided the deepening explanation of training materials in practice; professional guidance in all workshop; and peer-teaching simulation. professional online mentoring ksg.kemdikbud.go.id (exclusive learning password; user id and password needed) english subject materials of logical connector, modality, text and non-text, notice and announcement, discussion, advertisement, description, news item, narrative text, hortatory exposition, critical reading and writing with its references face to face mentoring convenient training place in bandung deepening the materials from the module in online mentoring discussion forum with the expert instructors about how to teach the english materials well; deepening the english material subject for both oral text and written text based on the grade level of formal school; demonstrating the proper method and approach to teach the materials in the class to attract the students in the classroom. although theoretically, there are only two competencies taught by instructors to english teachers, however, the other two competencies—personal and social competence—are indirectly acquired by english teachers during the program. this evidenced during the training, the role model shown by the instructor influencing english teachers to become better teachers. whereas socially, english teachers who took part in plpg 2017 built the networking among english teachers from various institutions by joining discussion groups on social media platforms and exchanging information regarding the conditions of their schools. b. teachers’ challenges in implementing their knowledge after plpg the aspect of which is questioned in this investigation is the teachers' teaching experiences after attending plpg including the experiences in developing lesson plans, teaching and learning activities, and their problem-solving while the teaching activities after plpg. the investigation found that in designing lesson plans, teaching and learning activities, and their problem-solving process, teachers faced challenges and difficulties during their implementation as follows; 1) difficulty in determining the appropriate teaching approach for teaching english materials that could interest the students in designing lesson plans for teaching, based on the interviewed, teachers sometimes experienced hardships in designing teaching methods that could attract students' interests. the diversity of students’ backgrounds and the ability to comprehend basic english is mostly low, is the most difficult challenge for teachers to be able to make them to enjoy learning english. besides, majority of the students in this study claimed that learning english is difficult, so this is the teacher's main task to break that negative mindset about learning english. additionally, implementing a new approach or teaching method is not easy. even though the teachers received training materials related to how to make an interesting english classroom, but the investigation found that the majority of english teachers in this research have failed to implement it. three of the teachers used the conventional methods in teaching english, such as in lecturing. the students did not actively participate in the learning activities as observed, it is because the lesson is not interesting to them and that the teacher was not able to improve her/his teaching skill although she/he has joined the training program. this is because of the administrative burden on these teachers in this study is more time consuming than the time teachers use to formulate effective and efficient teaching methods. in other words, no matter how good the material provided during the training, this will not have any effect on the ability of the teacher if not given enough time to absorb the knowledge learn and apply it in the actual context. 2) difficulty in determining appropriate english teaching material to meet students’ needs of the five teachers who were key informants, one of them was an english teacher at the vocational school. the learning topics and competency standards in the 2013 curriculum, for both senior secondary level (sma) and vocational school (smk) have the same topics. even though the needs of each school type are different. as in the case of et-04 key informants. students are intended to get a job after graduation. while still using the ktsp curriculum, et04 suggested that it was easier to adjust the english materials with materials needed in the world of work later such as writing job applications using english, or how to deal with interviews in english. however, in the 2013 curriculum, english subject matter in smk is synonymous with english language material in high school. learning achievement was equated as well as in the senior high school. 3) general obstacles faced by the teachers in teaching english as a foreign language in their schools this research found that english teachers found three major obstacles in teaching english as a foreign language in their schools. the obstacles are motivating students to learn enthusiastically, teaching the proper english pronunciation and considering to enrich students’ english vocabulary. 4) the challenges in publishing a scientific paper in the criteria of professional competence in law attachment no.55/2017, it is mentioned that one of the measured indicators for being a professional teacher professional is by publishing a scientific work from the results of classroom action research. the research found that from the five key informants, no one had published a paper. nonetheless, two of the key informants (et-04, et-05) stated that they were drafting the results of their class-action research. and one key informant (et-04) expressed his desire to continue to the master's level of education. 2. challenges of implementing professional development program in indonesia the implementation of a professional development program in indonesia has been through various transformation phases from 2006 to 2017, for instance in the plpg program, as a means to enhance teachers’ competencies. however, the challenges have been found during the transformation phases. for instance, in the middle of 2017, the government announced a teacher-training program (later on ppg) for in-service teachers instead of the plpg teacher training. the in-service teachers’ ppg activities are held in 2018. plenty of teachers opposed this governments’ decision. one of the factors is training costs. unlike plpg, in which all training costs has paid by the government, the cost of ppg development program will be charged to the teachers. another factor is training duration. the duration of the ppg professional development program is longer than plpg. such conditions will have a negative impact on teachers who teach in private schools in remote areas far from universities designated by lptk. on the one side, if in-service teachers want to participate in the program as their effort to enhance their competencies, they have to dismiss teaching sessions because of the distance from the college. a substitute teacher is needed for this dilemma situation as well. however, if their learning session in the program has completed, then the substitute teacher has to stop teaching. if it will be done online, it is necessary to reconsider the quality of the signal network for teachers at the border. this problem should be reconsidered for the stakeholders in organizing the program for a better quality of teachers trained. conclusion and recommendation based on the research findings and discussion, this research summed that english teachers have faced the obstacles while teaching and learning process. then, they enhanced their competencies as english teachers by learning new knowledge on the professional development program to help them encounter obstacles in the teaching process. the facilities and time experiences in learning and practicing have become two of their reasons for the failure in implementing the innovation in the teaching process. however, the awareness in learning new knowledge has arisen in themselves for further following up after the program. the professional development program is perceived to be beneficial in enhancing the teachers' competencies. to implement a professional development program, the stakeholder should consider the following two aspects, the financial aspect, and the demography aspect. firstly, in the case of the training costs, training costs should not entirely charge to the teacher. the conditions of teachers in indonesia does not equal, economically and demographically. ppg program should be free of charge for those who are teaching in private schools whose teachers' incomes are low from teaching and for schools located in 3t areas. it is intended that there is equal distribution of quality of education for teachers teaching in low school income. in terms of demography, the mentor should have come to give the lecture for teachers who are teaching at the border area. if the teachers have to follow ppg at the chosen university, it will be difficult for the teacher to join the activity because they will leave the class for a long period. this also applied to teachers who are far from the training location. thus, teachers will not be hesitated about attending ppg. references apriliyanti, d. 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(2011). the effectiveness of indonesian english teachers training programs in improving confidence and motivation. international journal of instruction, 79-104. 38 teachers’ perceptions in implementing technologies in language teaching and learning caroline v. katemba linakatemba@gmail.com universitas advent indonesia, bandungindonesia abstract technologies have swept the world in every aspect of life including the education system. and therefore, the purpose of this research is to find the challenges encountered in implementing technologies in language teaching and learning in indonesia. this study was a quantitative method in nature. the participants of the study were randomly chosen 30 teachers from bandung in the rural area. the data were collected by using questionnaires and were analyzed by using mix method that is quantitative and qualitative procedures. the result showed that using technology in the classroom was helpful. in addition to that, more tools and facilities provided by schools are increasingly helping them improve their ability to use technology. though the school has prepared facilities there were several challenges found in the implementation of technologies in the language learning classrooms. additional results of this study give meaningful insights for policymakers about the implementation of ict for teaching and learning in the classroom. keywords: teacher’s beliefs and perception, challenges in technology, educational technology introduction teaching english using technology is not a new concept or practice for teachers around the world, especially when english is taught in non-native speaking countries. there are two effective ways to improve students’ language skills; staying abroad and using multimedia (muslem & abbas, 2017). the last two decades witnessed a worldwide proliferation of information and communication technologies (ict), henceforth it penetrates into the field of education. the global adoption of ict into education has often been premised on the potential of the new technological tools to revolutionize an out modeled educational system, better prepare students for the information age, and/or accelerate national development efforts. in developing countries, in particular, the above promises have generated a whole set of wild speculations about the necessity of educational reforms that will accommodate the new tools (pelgrum, 2001). governments in most developing countries have responded to the challenge by initiating national programs to introduce computers into education. one developing country that is currently pursuing the technological track in education is indonesia included bandung. bandung is in the west of java island and is known as a student city, its students come from several cities across the nation and there are many prestigious schools and universities in bandung. therefore, every school competes healthily and one of the criteria people are looking for it has complete facilities including technological facilities following the progress of the era. in fact, increasing numbers of teachers are using computers and the internet in their classrooms (katemba 2019). in addition to facilities, schools also demand teachers who are not outdated in the sense of being able to follow and use technology fluently, especially in the classroom at the time of teaching. however, as time goes by, there are still some teachers who have not been able to use technology in the classroom while teaching or do not need technology. in the context of mailto:linakatemba@gmail.com 39 technology use in the classroom, studies have also shown that teacher beliefs and attitudes influence teachers’ use of computers in the classroom (ertmer & hruskocy, 1999; marcinkiewicz, 1994; tearle, 2004; katemba 2019), and there is a relationship between teachers’ beliefs and their instructional decisions (haney, czerniak, & lumpe, 1996; mumtaz, 2000). for example, teachers are more likely to adopt new technology if they can use it following their existing beliefs and practices (veen, 1993). many teachers encountered the problem of perception when using ict in the teaching and learning process in the classroom (kurniawan, 2014). various studies have acknowledged that although teachers appear to recognize the value of ict in education, difficulties nevertheless continue to be encountered during the process of technology/ ict integration (balanskat, et al. 2006; silviyanti and yusuf, 2015) furthermore, few studies have examined these effects in the longitudinal context of a technology-enhanced learning environment. the present study seeks to fill this gap. particularly, it seeks to learn: 1. what are the perceptions of english teachers in public high schools in bandung on the use of ict in english language teaching? 2. what are the challenges encountered in the use of ict in english language teaching? literature review teaching english using technology is a method that is in demand especially during this era of lockdown due to covid-19 where everybody is using online in teaching. rank, warren, and millum, (2011) said in his study cited by muslim et al. that “teaching english using technology is not a new concept or practice for teachers around the world”. wadmany (2006) entitled “teachers’ beliefs and practices in technology-based classrooms: a developmental view". the result of this study finds out that following multi-year experiences in technologybased classrooms, teachers’ educational beliefs had changed quite substantively, demonstrating multiple views rather than pure beliefs. the study argues that teachers’ beliefs form a mosaic of complementary visions, even conflicting ones. it also shows that it is easier to change classroom practices than educational beliefs. which is in this study, the researcher selected 6 teachers, initially, four were chosen from the fourth and fifth grades, and two more teachers were added in the second year. in a study done by albirini (2004) entitled “teachers attitudes toward information and communication technologies: the case of syrian efl teachers” reveal the result that the findings suggest that teachers have positive attitudes toward ict in education. teachers' attitudes were predicted by computer attributes, cultural perceptions, and computer competence. the results point to the importance of teachers’ vision of technology itself, their experiences with it, and the cultural conditions that surround its introduction into schools in shaping their attitudes toward technology and its subsequent diffusion in their educational practice. the researcher used the methodology of a descriptive study of an exploratory nature. the teachers were selected randomly 887 (214 males, 24%; 673 females, 76%). meanwhile, in a study done by nikian, et al (2013) entitled “malaysian teachers’ perception of applying technology in the classroom” said that the findings indicate that although malaysian english teachers were using technology and have positive perceptions towards using technology in the classroom, they feel they must undergo training in this aspect. they view time constraints and access to equipment as the main obstacles to implementing technology in the classroom. this research concludes that although malaysian teachers are faced with some difficulties in implementing technology in the classroom, they see a value in 40 technology and want to use technology in the classroom. the research was done by using quantitative survey methods and using questionnaires. methodology the design of this study uses a mixed method of quantitative and qualitative research design. this study involves 30 english teachers in bandung which were chosen randomly from different schools to represent the study. ten teachers were selected randomly to join the focus group discussion (fgd) or interview to get their perception and challenges based on their experiences on using this technology in their classroom. they join the fgd voluntarily after they have answered the written questions. the 30 teachers consist of, 7 teachers aged 31-35 years, 10 teachers aged 36-40 years, 9 teachers aged 41-45 years, 4 teachers aged 46-50 years. in terms of gender, there were 9 male teachers and 21 female teachers. in degree, they were mostly bachelor's degrees. in terms of teaching experience, there were 10 teachers with 7-10 years of teaching experience, 13 teachers with 11-15 years, 3 teachers with 16-20 years, and 4 teachers with 21 years of experience and above. the teachers were assured that the information they gave was confidential and used strictly for research and academic purposes only. in this study, the researcher used quantitative & qualitative mixed-method research by using questionnaires analysis. the research questions were designed to see the teachers’ perceptions and challenges of the implementation of ict in english language teaching classrooms. the questionnaire was designed and modified from muslem, yusuf, juliana, (2018) for the mixed-method approach (qualitative and quantitative research). all section and basic information are modified from muslem, et.al. (2018) including the 20 questionnaires are provided. it focused on english teachers’ perceptions and challenges of the implementation of ict in their teaching. the questionnaire was formatted by using the likert scale of (1) strongly disagree (sd), (2) disagree (d), (3) neutral (n), (4) agree (a), and (5) strongly agree (sa). the questionnaire is available in the appendix. the instrument was given to 30 english teachers in bandung, indonesia. they were given 35 minutes to answer all the questions in the questionnaire completely in front of the researchers. the data from questionnaires were analyzed quantitatively using microsoft excel 2010 for the frequency and percentages of each item. findings & discussion the results of the questionnaire: english teachers’ perceptions and challenges encountered in implementing the technologies/ict. there are twelve items out of 20 in the questionnaire focused on english teachers' perceptions of the implementation of technologies in english language teaching (elt) classrooms. the questionnaire was formatted by using the likert scale of (1) strongly disagree (sd), (2) disagree (d), (3) neutral (n), (4) agree (a), and (5) strongly agree (sa). the questionnaire is available in the appendix. the pie charts display the results. figure 1-6 showed the positive responses of the teachers toward the questionnaire, on the other hand, figure 8-12 showed that they strongly disagree and disagree with the statement in the questionnaire. though their responses geared to give an answer to the english teachers' perception upon implementing technologies/ict in the english language teaching classrooms. 41 english teachers’ perception upon implementing technologies/ict in the english language teaching classrooms. figures 1-6. english teachers’ perceptions on the use of technologies (responses on agreeing & strongly agree to the statements) fig.1 fig.2 fig.3 fig.4 fig. 5 fig.6 figures 1-6 showed that about 93% agree that technologies/icts increase teachers’ knowledge and skills as english teachers, about 70% agree that technologies/ict is highly needed by teachers in teaching english, about 84% agree that technologies/ict can be used as advanced instructional tools in teaching english to students, and about 77% of the respondents agree that technologies/ict can spread knowledge and information fast, about 77% of the teachers agree that technologies/ict can be used as curriculum material at school. meanwhile, there are about 63% of teachers have used ict in their teaching and daily life, and to support the implementation of technologies/ ict corroborate that claim some excerpts from the teachers are put in the following taken from the interview of what happened in the field (e refers to excerpt from the interview and t refers to teacher): 1 0% 2 0% 3 7% 4 50% 5 43% item 2: icts (referring generally to computers, videos, hardware, software, and networks) increase my knowledge and skills as an english teacher. 1 0%2 0% 3 30% 4 47% 5 23% item 3: icts are highly needed by teachers in teaching english. 1 0% 2 3% 3 13% 44 64% 5 20% item 4: icts can be used as advanced instructional tools in teaching english to my students. 1 0% 2 6% 3 17% 4 27% 5 50% item 7: i know that icts can spread knowledge and information fast. 1 0% 2 10% 3 13% 4 60% 5 17% item 12: in my view icts can be used as curriculum materials at school. 1 0% 2 14% 3 23% 4 50% 5 13% item 14: i use/have used icts for teaching and in daily life. 42 e1, t (1): i agree that technologies/ icts (referring generally to computers, videos, hardware, software, and networks) increase my knowledge and skills as an english teacher. i can learn through technologies/ict how other english teachers across the nation and across the globe deliver their lesson in the elt classroom differently and so i tried it in my class and it was so exciting for my students. i have never thought that ‘kahoots games’ could be used in teaching english in the elt classroom. i also learn about giving tests paperless through proprofs and also now i am using edmodo and many more which i learned all through ict. and most of all i saw that my students enjoyed, excited and were motivated to learn the lesson. rusanganwa, j. (2013) in his study found that the integration of technologies/ict in education can facilitate teaching and learning with the use of call and showed better vocabulary recall. similarly, alavinia, p., qoitassi, k. (2013) found that text messaging tools, like cell phones, help foster the development of practice and learning words and also motivate them to do more writing. tengku, m., s. & yusus, y., q. (2015) in their study pointed out that teachers who were using technology in teaching language have positive perceptions towards students’ motivation and make learning enjoyable, interesting, and effective. similarly, another excerpt was taken due to 84% agree that technologies/ict can be used as advanced instructional tools in teaching english to students. e2, t(8): i do agree that technologies/ict can be used as advanced instructional tools in teaching english to students because when my students browse on a topic that i gave them, they can find something new that is not in the text that we are discussing in the class but rather they found that from the internet while browsing. for example, we were discussing the kind of (oranges) and one of my students said, teacher, i found a new variety of jeruk (orange) which is called jerpait means jeruk papaya. it's a combination of orange and papaya so it is called jerpa. the skin is thick like papaya but the covering of the skin is just like orange, the most inner part is like orange/lemon. from there i do learn something new and due to ict is used as advanced instructional tools in teaching english to my students. e3, t(9): i do agree that technologies/ict can be used as advanced instructional tools in teaching english to my students because from my experienced, once i asked them to make a conversation on “greetingshow do you greet people” and at that time i was not able to give them samples of greetings because my principal called me because we were having school accreditation at that time. so, i asked my students to browse youtube while i was away, and, to my surprise, most of my students can perform very well with perfect pronunciation and accent because they watched that on youtube and perform that in class. according to chow (2015) and gorra and bhati (2016), most students are likely to use technology in the classroom for positive consequences in enhancing learning-related activities in the classroom. and so, the use of technology in the class really helps the students and the teacher to achieve their goals together easier. moreover, marieanne, kupczynski, l., kee, r.(2013) pointed out the increase in the use of technology in the classrooms has resulted in growth in student engagement, excitement, acceleration of learning, and proficiency. 43 figures 7-10. english teachers’ perceptions on the use of technologies (responses on disagreeing & strongly disagree to the statements) fig.7 fig.8 fig.9 fig. 10 fig.11 fig.12 in figure 7, the responses from the 30 teachers showed that roughly 70% of the teachers disagree that technologies/icts are more powerful tools of teaching than discussion and teaching without the use of ict, roughly 67% disagree that technology has noteworthy values for human societies in general, roughly 84% of the teachers disagree to the statement "i think technologies/ict use does not offer educational/instructional values for the student in learning english. so, it means to say that they in favor that technologies/ icts offer educational values for students in learning english. and it showed that the teachers have a positive attitude towards the use of technology/ict. further, technology is an important aspect of successful teaching. the results showed that teachers had a positive attitude towards technology, especially computers (mollaei & riasati, 2013). in figure 11 & 12 showed that nearly 37% neutral that icts are more effective for teaching and learning than books and other printed materials, and nearly 47% neutral that ict can be used to effectively manipulate instructional contents and materials. nonetheless, 57% of teachers disagree that ict can replace the teacher in teaching english. it is principally concluded that teachers do believe that technologies/ict supports their teaching and learning processes in the elt classrooms but cannot replace the teacher. some excerpts from the teachers that support the implementation of technologies/ ict in teaching corroborate that claim as follow (e refers to excerpt from the interview and t refers to teacher): 1 20% 2 50% 3 23% 4 7% 5 0% item 1: in my view, icts are more powerful in teaching than discussion and teaching without the use of ict. 1 20% 2 37% 3 20% 4 20% 5 3% item 5: in my view, icts can replace teacher in teaching english. 1 7% 2 60% 3 23% 4 7% 5 3% item 9: i think ict use does not have noteworthy values for human societies in general. 1 14% 2 70% 3 3% 4 10% 5 3% item 10: i think ict use does not offer educational/instructional values for student in learning english. 1 0% 2 27% 3 46% 4 17% 5 10% item 6: as far as i know, icts can be used to effectively manipulate instructional contents and materials. 1 7% 2 23% 3 37% 4 23% 5 10% item 8: in my view, icts are more effective for teaching and learning than books and other printed materials. 44 e4 (t5): i agree that technologies/ict are powerful tools of teaching. compared to printed books, technologies/ict are more interesting, why? it is because the students will not feel bored when learning english. for example, the information that we give through technologies/ict is colorful, alive, or animated and students can find many related pictures or topics to fascinates their understanding of the lesson, besides that, the students can directly watch conversation videos. ict makes teaching more interesting and time-efficient because as a teacher i can get supported or back up materials for my lesson and that makes teaching easier. if we do discussions using ict, the information that we get is more varied. it makes discussion alive, motivating, and easier. as evidenced in e4, t5 agreed that icts are powerful tools in teaching and this is as what gonne (2018) in his study, the results indicate that the teachers believe that using technology in teaching is inevitable, they like and want to learn more. a similar study by granito and chernobilsky (2012) stated with ict, students can watch videos that are closer to real life presentation compared to printed books. furthermore, most teachers believe that technologies/ict has noteworthy values for human societies in general. an example is the fast spread of important information for the society, as provided by t10 on the following excerpt. e5, t (10): yes, through technology/ict i can get important information for the society, for example, when we had the tsunami in palu we were able to get that very important information very fast through ict. i was able to call my family in palu though i am in java island updated of information is fast with the use of ict. english teachers’ challenges in using technologies/ict figure 1320 shows the findings from the questionnaire the teachers completed on the challenges they face while implementing technology in the classroom. figure 13-20 english teachers’ challenges in implementing technologies/ict fig.13 fig.14 fig.15 1 0% 2 3% 3 30% 4 67% 5 item 11: i know that many forms of ict tools and techniques at school are accessible for use in teaching english. 1 0% 2 0% 3 47%4 53% 5 0% item 13: i can avoid problems in many areas such as in handwriting and in organizing ideas when i use ict. 1 3% 2 3% 3 10% 4 44% 5 40% item 15: i have no difficulty in using ict. 45 fig.16 fig.17 fig.18 fig.19 fig.20 figure 1320, proves that most teachers know how to access the internet and get some information from it, about 67% of the teachers agree that many forms of technologies/ict tools and techniques in their school are accessible for use in teaching english, roughly 53% agree that they can avoid problems in many areas such as in handwriting and in organizing ideas when they use ict, and roughly 83% agree that they have no difficulty in using ict. nearly 87% know about ict materials related to english language learning that can be used for their teaching. likewise, 90% of the teachers know how to access the internet and get some information from it. similarly, about 77% agree that the internet is easily accessible and available at their school. however, 83% have enough experience and training in using available computers and/or software, and nearly 73% have limited time to integrate ict in their teaching. hence, it can be concluded that most public schools in bandung provide many forms of ict tools and techniques accessible for use in teaching english and most teachers know how to use ict tools. even so, problems exposed by the teachers on its accessibility in schools, and these become the challenges in implementing technology/ ict are as follows: 1. lack of teacher’s confidence excerpt taken from teacher 3 stated: e6, t (3): i am not confident when using ict/ technology in the classroom because i am not expert, lack of skills in using it. e7, t(2): i am not confident to use technology because my students are better than i am. 1 0% 2 0% 3 13% 4 67% 5 20% item 16: i know about ict materials related to english language learning that i can use for my teaching. 1 0% 2 0% 3 10% 4 33% 5 57% item 17: i know how to access the internet and get some information from it. 1 0% 2 3% 3 20% 4 60% 5 17% item 18: the internet is easily accessible and available at school. 1 0% 2 0% 3 17% 4 70% 5 13% item 19: generally speaking, i have enough experiences and training on available computers and/or software. 1 20% 2 53% 3 17% 4 10% 5 0% item 20: i have limited time to integrate ict in my teaching. 46 e8, t(9): i use the computer for personal purposes onlybrowsing. 2. lack of teacher’s qualification. key among all challenges is the lack of adequate, ongoing professional development for teachers who are required to integrate new technologies into their classrooms yet who are unprepared or unable to understand new technologies. about 8 teachers said that they did not have enough experience and training in the use of technology/ict in the classroom. t5, who lacks experience in using ict, bluntly explained: e9, t(5): the tools are accessible in my school. the internet is also connected, but the problem is that i cannot use it. i do not know how to use any of the tools. so, i decided to not use it for my teaching. all too often, when schools mandate the use of a specific technology, teachers are left without the tools (and often skills) to effectively integrate the results are that the new investments are underutilized, not used at all, or used in a way that mimics an old process rather than innovating new processes that may be more engaging for students. 3. resistance to change resistance to technology comes in many forms, but one of the key resistance challenges identified in the report is “comfort with the status quo. according to the research, teachers and school leaders often see technological experimentation as outside the scope of their job descriptions. e10, t(6): anyways, i am comfortable with teaching traditionally without the use of technology/ict 4. negative attitude this negative attitude is also one of the factors that hinder technology integration in the classroom for the teachers (binginlas, 2009) e11, t(7): i do not know how to use any of the tools. i decided to not use it for m y teaching. i know a teacher who can use ict but rarely uses it teaching, because like i said, a lot of paperwork to do. so, he came to class and teach by the textbooks; no time to search for new materials from the internet and prepare them for teaching. anyways, i am teaching traditionally without the use of ict. 5. insufficient time lack of computer, time, and technical support can be faced by teachers because they were motivated in undergoing training in the use of technology. (nikian, nor, aziz. 2013). moreover, using ict without careful planning and well-defined objectives will 47 more likely be a waste of time and effort. ict uses in english language teaching and multisensory delivery, in particular, have their limitations as well. poor pedagogical planning is likely to undermine the use of ict in the efl classroom. (azmi, 2017). this is confirmed by the following excerpt from t(7): e11, t(7): i do not know how to use any of the tools. so, i decided to not use it for my teaching. to learn it would need more time, i think. i don’t have time; there is a lot of paperwork and also administrative work that i need to do for school, no time to search for new materials from the internet and prepare them for teaching. based on the explanation by t7 in e11, extensive paperwork from the school also hinders the teachers’ motivation and effort to implement ict in the classroom. much of their time at school is about completing paperwork, and this becomes even harder when classes comprise large numbers of students. in indonesia, it is very typical that a classroom of a public school consists of 40-50 students. besides, this negative attitude is also one of the factors that hinder technology integration in the classroom for the teachers (binginlas, 2009) 6. lack of effective training a study done by liu, lin, zhang, zheng (2017) stated that to enhance teachers’ perception of the usefulness of technology, better facilitate access to technical support, abundant resources, and technology-related pedagogical training. some studies (dellicarpini, 2012; levy, 2009; meskill, anthony, hilliker-vanstrander, tseng, & you, 2006) reveal that the challenges faced by both in-service and pre-service esl teachers in the u.s. regarding their technology integration in esl classroom include (1) teacher’s uncertainty about the effectiveness of instructional technology, (2) inadequate teacher knowledge and skills, (3) lack of technological resources, time, assistance, and (4) policymakers’ ignorance of teachers’ voices and experiences in making decisions about technology use (ramola.2013). so, it is a challenge to upgrade teachers in their skills to know the use of technology/ ict. as t4 and e12: e12, t(4): i have never attended a workshop or a seminar regarding education technology especially on ict. i am an autodidact learner on the gadgets that i have. it seems that the school did not put that into their plans for training all the teachers in the school to be able to teach through ict. some teachers have difficulty using technology/ict and need to learn more to improve their knowledge and skills. a suggested solution to that the school should send teachers to join conferences to gain new insights when attending a conference. “the main challenges of the teachers were lack of industry exposure and opportunities to develop communication skills; english is a second foreign language where most of the professional students have no good language and the lack of contemporary training facilities (career and language laboratories, e-learning).” (renuga, m. & ezhilan, s., 2016) 7. lack of accessibility 48 most public schools in bandung and other parts of indonesia provide many forms of ict tools and techniques accessible for use in teaching english and most teachers know how to use ict tools. even so, problems exposed by the teachers on its accessibility in schools are as follows: e13, t(9): in my school, i have all the ict tools but, we have to take a turn in using it. so sometimes i have to wait several hours just to access the ict tools. so, honestly, i am always the last one to access it and i can feel that i have a lack of chance to access the ict in my school. i wish the school could provide the tools in every room so that we do not wait for one after the other. 8. lack of technical support as barriers to ict/ technology e14, t(1): in my school, we do have computers, projectors but the internet connection is very slow. we do have wi-fi but it works very slow because of so many users. so, if i want to browse, i use my hotspot from my smartphone to look for teaching material, or when we do need the internet for teaching like video conferencing with other class from another country or across the nation. 9. teachers are generally weak kolbakova (2014) suggests that using ict in the teaching and learning process adds more work and additional struggle from teachers to meet the needs of every student in the class. ict may not be appropriate for all learners in all situations and purposes, and, therefore, it requires considerable learner training to make use of it successfully e15, t(7): teachers are generally weak in preparing our lesson through the use of ict because we are mostly autodidact learners of the ict tools. so, we do have problems in the planning of the activities through ict especially for the writing class because we do not have yet the plagiarism checkers. 10. delivering informal learning e16, t(8): i think that when we use ict tools in teaching it to connotate informal teaching. because we teachers are stuck to the traditional method where the teacher does the teaching. but with the use of ict tools, the students can just do their class activities on their own. it's a challenge for the teacher to be able to shift from the paradigm of the formal classroom to informal classroom through learning takes place. conclusion based on the results of the research on english teachers’ perceptions and challenges to the implementation of technology/ict in elt classrooms, several conclusions can be drawn and it can be concluded that teachers in bandung have a positive perception of the use of technology to teach in the classroom to help students facilitate their lessons. ict helps them 49 obtain information easily and swiftly, besides that, they also think that ict makes the class more interesting than discussion and teaching without using any tools. the teachers in this study all agree that technology is very useful as it can assist them in teaching english. nevertheless, ict can never replace teachers because it cannot be the living role model that the teachers can offer the students. the computer cannot comfort the students when they are sad, ict can never take the place of the teacher in the classroom, but it can assist the teacher to be able to teach efficient and effective. they tend to feel helped by technology, and they also assume that technology can give them a boost in their knowledge of technology. although, on the one hand, they also have a struggle or challenge in using technology. age, gender, or experience does not prevent them from using technology. however, at different ages they continue to use to make it easier to get information, making teaching and learning more interesting. the interviews showed that they proposed that: 1. the school should have enough funding and provide sufficient facilities for the teachers to be encouraged to use ict in their teaching 2. limited ict tools and low internet connection at schools are the dominant challenges 3. the teachers have to share the tools with other teacher and this wastes time to wait for their turn to use ict. 4. the lack of knowledge and training experience that teachers’ have. references alavinia, p., qoitassi, k. 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(2015). a pedagogical framework for technology integration in esl classrooms: the promises and challenges of integration: journal of educational multimedia and hypermedia (2015) 24(2). pp. 179-203, retrieved from: https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/147474/ https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/82290151.pdf https://doi.org/10.1177/0021909614547603 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0021909614547603 https://www.researchgate.net/deref/http%3a%2f%2fdx.doi.org%2f10.1080%2f09588221.2013.784708?_sg%5b0%5d=h5pgeeexubqo0deonjflkumc8bybufinzp6glqoyuglrdobqhxxuzuh5imua7uggcomsvjzpzaehs-3qacx7lmpyaw.nxldz_u5-ww2oilch5l6y46fjwaakp_c903b8-xus-x-e26-mcpmgosnaqbcsmfkqahiavgfnwrgdky8rq1zoq https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/147474/ 52 keywords: teacher’s beliefs and perception, challenges in technology, educational technology introduction literature review methodology fig.4 fig. 5 fig.6 e1, t (1): i agree that technologies/ icts (referring generally to computers, videos, hardware, software, and networks) increase my knowledge and skills as an english teacher. i can learn through technologies/ict how other english teachers across the... fig.7 fig.8 fig.9 fig. 10 fig.11 fig.12 figure 13-20 english teachers’ challenges in implementing technologies/ict fig.13 fig.14 fig.15 fig.16 fig.17 fig.18 fig.19 fig.20 references improving students vocabulary mastery through guess my move game arsyi rizqia amalia universitas muhammadiyah sukabumi, indonesia arsyirizqiaamalia@ummi.ac.id abstract in learning a language, vocabulary is the most important thing that should be mastered by learners. the english ability of primary school students is very closely related to the vocabulary mastery that they have. this research aims to find the answer to the following questions: 1) how is the application of guess my move game model in learning english in primary grade school students? 2) how the students' english vocabulary mastery improve by using the guess my move game model? and 3) are there differences in the mastery of english vocabulary in male and female students using guess my move game model? the research method was used in this study is classroom action research with kemmis and mctaggart design. the total population was 24 students of first primary school grade. the group was divided by gender. based on the performance of group scores, it indicates that the female group gets the highest score, but the average highest score is achieved by the male groups. the result of this research shows that the guess my move game learning model can improve students’ english vocabulary mastery both in individual and group scores. keywords: vocabulary, gender, guess my move game. introduction a language is a communication tool between community members in the form of symbols that have their specificities where people can interact with each other. regarding the purpose of learning english, harmer (2007) states that: "students throughout the world with all ages learn to speak english, but their reasons for wanting to learn english can differ greatly." in indonesia, we have a variety of languages that will not be found in other countries, such as regional or local languages, national languages, and foreign languages. ellis, gass, & slinker in djonhar (2012) stated that in indonesia, the indonesian language is placed as a second language, because the first language is a regional language or also called a local language, while the position of other languages such as english is placed as a foreign language as marpaung (2019 cited in marpaung, 2017) stated that, “in the case of indonesians, there is a high level of acceptability and tolerance of the use of english because english in indonesia considered as a foreign language" english has an important role in social life, this is because english is the international language in the world and english is important to be learned in order to be able to communicate with people from other countries and to help some people improve their careers (marpaung, 2017). “indonesian students often experience problems when learning english, specifically vocabulary, because english differs from bahasa indonesia (the indonesian language) in its structure, pronunciation, and vocabulary” (katemba, 2019). based on this role, indonesian government includes english as a subject taught in educational institutions starting from elementary school to high school even university as subjects that must be taken in each semester. “therefore, in indonesia, english is viewed not only as an indispensable vehicle of access to scholarly disciplines but also as a medium for international communication” (katemba, 2013). mastering vocabulary is important for every language learner because vocabulary is the basis for someone to master a language. in teaching english, especially at an early age, there are many things to be concerned about, one of which is vocabulary (katemba, 2020). "vocabulary is a number of words a language has" (kamus besar bahasa indonesia, 2017). based on the theory, it can be seen that the more languages we want to master, the more vocabulary we need to have. this is in line with nurigiyantoro (2001) which states that "vocabulary is the wealth of words owned by a language", so anyone who masters one or more languages has a wealth of words from the language they mastered. linse & nunan (2005) explain that the development of vocabulary in children is an important aspect in the formation of their language acquisition, however the strengthening of language in the environment of children outside of school is still weak, especially for foreign language. in connection with students' english ability, there are some obstacles faced by the english teachers, one of them is the response or interest of students who are still diverse even some students expressed prefer other subjects rather than english. another obstacle is that there are some students are not fluent in reading or writing in indonesian language, so it is influencing their english ability. some of these obstacles need to be solved with some efforts to develop sustainable learning activities. in learning a language, especially english, vocabulary has a very important role. the more vocabulary we have, the easier it will be for us to learn and understand a language since language is made up words (marpaung & sinaga, 2019). seeing the importance of vocabulary mastery, efforts to improve vocabulary mastery to minimize the problems faced in learning a language are considered necessary to be implemented. considering the characteristics of primary school students who are young and like to play, learning methods that are able to invite students to play while learning can be used as an effort to improve the teaching and learning process and to improve the students’ learning outcomes. play is an activity that requires the body to move according to one's own desires without coercion from others. there are several opinions about play explained by dwijawiyata (2013:7), such as: playing means moving while having fun doing the things you want by involving feelings at certain times and places, and learning to adapt to the environment, using the objects around it, and done together with the people around. suyadi (2009:18) stated that "when children are playing, unconsciously they learn hard to be able to portray themselves in the game, even with games with a certain level of difficulty, children are required to learn more serious to finish the game." therefore, seen from nature of the game, it certainly can be used as a good method in learning activities. in learning activities with a certain level of difficulty, children can master the lesson if the learning is carried out in a fun way by using game. improving language skills using the game method is not a new thing, hudges (2010: 225) explains that there is a very strong relationship between language and games, both games and languages have a parallel development, especially in the growth and development of students, language skills and play abilities can develop harmoniously. the use of group learning models or cooperative learning that can make all the students become active can be used as a choice in dealing with an imbalance student activity and learning outcomes. farida, et.al (2016) also stated that teaching english has to delivered in fun ways, so the students can learn better. further, katemba (2020) stated that “ the importance of vocabulary is a reason for teachers to give serious attention in teaching it, especially to children, because vocabulary is the foundation on which to build language plays a fundamental role in communication”. based on the theory above, the researcher took the initiative to make a game to hone students' vocabulary in groups by using the cooperative learning model type guess my move game (gmg). with the application of this gmg learning model, it is expected that both female and male students can be actively involved in learning activities and students learning outcomes can be improved. in previous research, another study was carried out by sudarmono (2015) with a focus on research was on the development of team sports games for learning physical education, sports and health. the study aims to see the impact of the use of the game method on students' motoric abilities, in contrast to the research that will be conducted which focuses on language skills in students. previous research related to the method of learning english also has been carried out by wijayatiningsih (2014) with the title, the utilization of the total physical response model and repetition for the development of english language learning. this study focuses on the use of learning models and audio visual media in learning english, this is different from the research that conducted by researchers, that is learning english by using game method. based on the results of interviews with primary grade english teacher at al-azhar primary islamic school, language acquisition in primary grade students is still very closely related to the mastery of the vocabulary they have. four language skills, such as speaking, listening, writing and reading are strongly influenced by the vocabulary possessed, in other words students’ language ability can be seen from the numbers of vocabulary they have. in learning english at school or class, the teacher sometimes uses media such as pictures/flash cards and also videos of learning. the responses of students in the class are so varied, some are happy, and some are still do not pay attention because they feel english as a subject that is considered difficult. in terms of age, primary grade students tend to be active inside and outside classroom activities, but these activities do not define the students’ learning outcomes. based on classroom observations carried out, almost all male students are very active in the classroom both in learning activities where they are actively asking or answering questions and actively doing activities outside the learning process such as play with friends, run in and out of class, taunt each other, etc. in learning period. this is different from female students who tend to be less active even sometime very quiet. the activities of female students are more passive, and this can be seen from the rarity of female students who want to ask or answer questions, especially when they are not paying attention to the teacher's explanation. female students usually talk or whisper to each other, so they are not making the classroom atmosphere become noisy not like the male students. the formulations of the problem in this study are: 1. how is the application of gmg model in learning english in primary grade school students? 2. how the students' english vocabulary mastery improve by using gmg model? 3. are there differences in the mastery of english vocabulary in male and female students using gmg model? method research is essentially a question-answer process, but between the questioning and answering activities there is a process or method that is systematic and controlled in determining the answer to the questions asked (gulo: 2010). research design the research method used in this study was classroom action research with kemmis and mc. taggart design with the implementation of four main stages for each cycle, namely: planning, implementation, observation, and reflection. the implementation of the research cycle are continued if the indicators of success that are marked by an increase in value or score have not been achieved. research participants and sampling procedures participants in this study were students of first grade at al-azhar primary islamic school sukabumi, with 24 students. the reason for choosing these participants was based on the initial observations of the researcher who discovered the uniqueness and problems at the class after being compared with other primary schools. data collection the research procedures in this study refer to moloeng (2016) who grouped the research stage into the pre-research stage, the implementation stage, and the data analysis stage. the procedures carried out in this study are: 1. pre-research, the stages are a) choose a place of research, b) conduct an initial interview to get an overview of the characteristics of students, c) class preliminary observations, and d) prepare research instruments. 2. research implementation, the stages are: a) class orientation with direct observation of teaching and learning activities, b) provision of pre-cycle practice questions to determine students' initial abilities, c) plan the implementation of research by developing a lesson plan to be used in the class, d) give out treatment in the form of applying the gmg learning model in learning english based on the steps that have been written in the lesson plan, e) carry out observations of learning activities to see the extent of the impact of treatments that have been given, f) carry out a reflection as an activity to restate the activities that have been carried out along with the strengths and weaknesses in the implementation, and g) provide practice questions at the end of each research cycle. 3. data analysis, the stages are: a) process data that has been obtained, b) compare the acquisition of data from each treatment, and c) sum up the data by looking at the achievement indicators of research success based on the predetermined problem formulation. in connection with the implementation of classroom actions research using guess my move game designed by the researcher, this game is a modification of the cooperative learning model type of team games tournament and number head together which is then re-developed with adjustments to the age and characteristics of primary grade school students. the steps for implementing gmg are as follows: a) students are divided into groups of five to seven people based on gender, b) each group member were given a hat and they lines up according to the serial number in their hats, c) the smallest number stood in front of the other group members, while the group members line up based on the smallest to the largest number, d) the teacher distributed boards and answer cards, e) the teacher explained the rules of the game, e) the student with the smallest number demonstrated the movements listed on the teacher's question board and group members are allowed to discuss for one minute and then one student (the member with the smallest order number) answered the question based on the results of their group discussion without being helped by his group mates. if the member can guess the name of the movement correctly then he is allowed to move to the very back position and the members behind him took the position and did the same as the previous students until all cards have been played, the group with the biggest score become the winner in this game. based on the steps described, the implementation of the classroom action research is carried out through the learning cycles with four main stages, such as: planning, implementing, observing, and reflecting. this research can be stopped at a certain cycle when the indicators of the research has been achieved. the success indicators in this study are when the class average score is more than or equal to 80, with the percentage of completeness in passing minimum score achievement more than or equal to 70%. results a. initial conditions based on the class orientation with direct teaching and learning activities observation, it was found that students' responses in learning english were so diverse. the male students’ characteristic tended to be very active inside and outside learning activities. it is the opposite with the female students’ characteristic who tended to be passive and this affected the english learning atmosphere in the classroom. to see the students' initial mastery of english, the researcher gave pre-cycle test with the specified minimum passing score of 75.00 with the following results: table 1: preliminary research data indicators information highest score 100 lowest score 20 average score 57,08 achieved minimum passing score 8 (33,33%) did not achieved minimum passing score 16 (66,66%) based on pre-cycle test, students’ learning outcomes still tend to be low with an average value of 57.08 and students who reach minimum passing score only 33.33%. b. findings the implementation of english learning using gmg learning model is carried out in two cycles with the stages of classroom action research such as planning, implementation, observation and reflection. the findings were as follows: 1. planning in this activity, researcher developed a lesson plan based on the car plans that have been designed and the identification of problems encountered. the lesson plan drafts focused on developing learning objectives by using the gmg model in learning english. the lesson plan is made for two cycles with three meeting for each cycle with two different materials, first material was about pet and the second material was about kind of toys. 2. implementation the implementation stage in this classroom action research was giving treatment in the form of applying the gmg learning model in learning english based on the steps that have been written in the lesson plan. the steps of gmg learning model implemented in 2 cycles are as follow: a) the first meeting was filled with reinforcement of material for students. the material delivered each cycle is different, based on students’ book written bymukarto (2016). the material in the first cycle was about pets, and material in the second cycle is about kinds of toys, b) students are divided into groups of five to seven members, the division of this group was based on students' english abilities/heterogeneous and also by gender with the results of the formation of 2 groups of male students and 2 groups of female students, c) each group member lined up according to the serial number in their respective hats, d) the smallest number stood in front of the group members, while the group members lined up based on the smallest to the largest number. the position of the student with the smallest number is positioned in front of the class while the other members is positioned behind the student's desk, e) teacher distributed boards and answer cards that contain english vocabulary for all groups. the answer card is given based on the material being studied, in cycle 1 the answer card consisted of the words "i have", names of pets, and numbers from 1 to 10 in english. in cycle 2 the answer card consisted of the words "i have", names of toys, and various colours in english, f) teacher explained the rules of the game that were implemented, g) at the second meeting of each cycle, the teacher as a researcher modelled the movements listed on the question board and at the third meeting, the student with the smallest number demonstrated the movements listed on the teacher's question board based on the examples given at the previous meeting. after that, the group members are allowed to discuss the answer for one minute and then one student (the member with the smallest order number) answered based on the results of the discussion without being helped by his group friends anymore, if the member can guess the name of the movement correctly then he is allowed to move to the very back position and the members behind him moved forward to took positions to answer. each correct answer got 1 sticker on their group's score card. every violation, especially violations in maintaining conducive learning activities gave an impact on reducing the group score because researcher took back one sticker from the score card for each violation. the activities continued until all cards have been played and the group with the biggest score was the winner of the game. 3. observations observation in this learning activity aims to see the extent of the impact actions or treatments that have been given. at the end of each treatment cycle, the researcher gave individual test questions based on the material that has been studied. the results of the first cycle test are as follows: table 2: cycle 1 data indicators information highest score 100 lowest score 40,00 average score 71,04 achieved minimum passing score 12 (50%) did not achieved minimum passing score 12 (50%) when it is compared with pre-cycle tests, there was good improvement and the comparison can be seen in the following graph: figure 1. comparison of pre cycle and cycle 1 scores based on the figure above, it can be seen that there was an improvement on students’ test result of 13.96 points. however, since the indicators of research success have not been achieved, the class action research continued to the next cycle. the results of the second cycle test are as follows: 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 pre cycle cycle 1 57.08 71.04 table 3 : cycle 2 data indicators information highest score 100 lowest score 55,00 average score 82,29 achieved minimum passing score 17 (70,83%) did not achieved minimum passing score 7 (29,17%) when it is compared to cycle 1, there was an improvement on students’ test result of 11.25 points and the comparison can be seen in the following graph: figure 2. comparison of cycle 1 and cycle 2 scores 4. reflection reflection is an activity to restate what activities have been carried out along with the strengths and weaknesses in its implementation based on the treatment given. based on the learning process that has been carried out, all students can be actively involved in learning english activity. for its weaknesses, student responses were very varied. most students were enthusiastic in the class and it made the classroom atmosphere became very noisy and some students needed special attention so the researcher needed to work harder than usual. discussion 1. the application of gmg model in learning english in primary grade school students the steps of the gmg learning model in 2 cycles were carried out well with the following indicators: a. the presentation and reinforcement of material about pets in cycle 1 and material about kind of toys in cycle 2 were carried out well. the materials presented were not new things for the students because most students are already familiar with some vocabularies in the material s before they became students at primary school, but almost all students were only able to pronounce it without knowing how to write the vocabulary properly. b. in group divisions, it was based on students' various english abilities. based on the initial problems encountered relating to the differences in the character of male and female students, then the division of groups were also divided by gender with the results of the formation of 2 groups of male students and 2 groups of female students. c. the implementation of gmg learning model steps started from demonstrating the movement based on the vocabulary written in the question board, students answer the questions by using the prepared answer board. this step was done well because all students were actively 64 66 68 70 72 74 76 78 80 82 84 cycle 1 cycle 2 71.04 82.29 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% pre cycle cycle 1 cycle 2 33.33 50.00 70.83 66.66 50.00 29.17 not achieved minimum passing score achieved minimum passing score 0 20 40 60 80 100 pre cycle cycle 1 cycle 2 57.08 71.04 82.29 involved in learning activities even though the classroom atmosphere were very noisy. substitution players went well because all students wanted to come in front of the class to play and each group member always reminded each other when it was time for their group to play. d. the final step was the announcement of the winner, each correct answer is given with an award sticker. at the end of each meeting, the winner group are announced. students’ responses were good that they wanted the game to be continued so the whole group had the chance to win the game. based on the explanation above, it can be concluded that the implementation of english teaching and learning process by using the gmg learning model was well implemented and students’ responses were very positive during the learning process. 2. students' english vocabulary mastery improvement using gmg learning model. one of the objectives of this classroom action research was to improve the students' english vocabulary mastery especially in pets and kind of toys materials by using the cooperative learning model of gmg type. based on the findings explained earlier, the students’ vocabulary mastery improvement based on pre-cycle, cycle 1 and cycle 2 grades could be seen in this following graph: figure 3. students’ individual average scores based on the graph above, it can be seen that the average score of individual students has increased in each cycle. from the indicators of the success of this study, an improvement in the students average score was more than or equal to 80, then this research can be said to be successful in increasing students’ individual average scores. figure 4. completeness of students learning outcomes based on the graph above, it can be seen that students' learning outcomes completeness has increased in each cycle. based on the indicators of the success of this study, the completeness of student learning outcomes was more than or equal to 70%, then this research can be said to be successful in increasing the completeness of student learning outcomes with minimum passing score achievement of 70. based on the data that has been presented, it can be concluded that the indicators on this research has been reached, so this study was stopped in cycle 2. 3. the differences in male and female students’ english vocabulary mastery by using gmg learning model. implementation of cooperative learning model certainly requires the division of groups, while in this study the grouping was distributed based on students' abilities and also based on students' gender. in each meeting, group assessments are carried out at the second and third meetings in each cycle, the group score based on the acquisition of the stickers they got. the explanations are presented in table 4: table 4: group scores group/ pet 1 pet 2 toys 1 toys 2 material male 1 10 12 10 12 male 2 9 10 8 13 female 1 4 7 8 13 female 2 8 11 12 14 based on the group scores for each meeting described in the table above, it can be seen that the student group scores were varied. even so, the scores at the second game or third meeting in each cycle always gained a good improvement. this assessment was based on the accuracy of the answers given and the students’ ability to work well and in an orderly manner in a group. every violation, especially in maintaining conducive learning activities were result an impact on reducing the group score was given. based on data scores in each meeting, the accumulation of group scores on the application of the gmg model to improve english vocabulary in students was as follows: figure 5. accumulation of group values in the implementation of the gmg model the acquisition of gender-based group scores showed good grades with the highest score being achieved by female 2 group, but the average highest score was achieved by the male students. with two assessment criterions in this game, they were an accuracy answers and order in group work. these criterions gave a positive influence on the acquisition of group scores. seen from the characteristics of students who have been presented in the background of the problem, the results obtained are interesting because the first criterion was an accuracy on the answers, the highest score was achieved by the male group. even though the characteristics of male students 0 10 20 30 40 50 male 1 male 2 female 1 female 2 44 40 32 45 were very active, it made it more difficult to maintain the instruction in the male group which result an impact in score reduction in their group. the final score indicated that the female 2 group received a higher score because their group worked well. as a result, these make the female group did not experienced a score group reduction. conclusion the implementation of the gmg learning model is well implemented, and this can be seen from the students’ positive responses and students' willingness to engage in learning activities were very high. the gmg learning model can improve the english vocabulary mastery of al -azhar primary islamic school students in sukabumi both in individual and group scores. based on the performance of groups divided by the gender, group scores indicated that female group got the highest score, but the overall highest average score is achieved by the male groups. this shows that the students activeness inside and outside the classroom does not guarantee to the students’ learning outcomes either individually or in groups. references djonhar, s. c. (2012). introduction to language acquisition: acquisition of english as a foreign language. jakarta: uhamka press. dwijawiyata. (2013). mari bermain (edisi revisi). yogyakarta: kanisius. farida, euis ida. trisno, rudi. kurnaesih, esih. 2016. fun with english competency based learning for elemementary school. bogor bina pustaka gulo, w. (2010). metodologi penelitian. jakarta: pt. grasindo. harmer, j. 2007. how to teach english (new edition). essex: pearson longman hudges, f p. (2010). children, play, and development. california: sage publications, inc. kamus besar bahasa indonesia. 2017. jakarta: badan pengembangan dan pembinaan bahasa kemdikbud katemba, c.v. (2013), anxiety level of indonesian students and its relationship to academic achievement in english. journal of education and practice vol.4 no.27 pp. 1-9. retrieved from http://www.iiste.org/journals/index.php/jep/article/view/9873/10097 katemba, c., v. (2019), students’ vocabulary enhancement at grade 10: a comparative study using call & mall in indonesia. call-ej, 20(1), 87-114. http://callej.org/journal/20-1/katemba2019.pdf katemba, c.v., sianipar, e.,j., (2020). students’ vocabulary enhancement in grade v, acomparative study using total physical response storytelling and jigsaw iv, huma behaviour development and society, vol. 21 no. 2. https://so01.tci thaijo.org/index.php/hbds/article/view/156406 linse, c. t., & nunan d. (2005). practical english language teaching: young learners. new york: mcgraw-hill esl/elt. marpaung, m. (2017). the effect of the direct method on the reading comprehension ability of second year students at sltp advent 4 paal dua, manado. acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature and culture vol 2(1), 61-69. doi: https://doi.org/10.35974/acuity.v2i1.588 marpaung, m. (2019). the correlation between self-confidence and students’ english achievement of tertiary students at universitas advent indonesia. acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature and culture vol 3, 98-100. doi: https://doi.org/10.35974/acuity.v3i2.648. marpaung, m., & sinaga, r. (2019). the use of read, cover, remember, retell (rcrr) strategy in improving students’ reading comprehension ability. acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature and culture vol 4(2), 153-176. doi: https://doi.org/10.35974/acuity.v4i2.1068 moleong, l. j. (2016). metodologi penelitian kualitatif. bandung: pt. remaja rosdakarya offset. mukarto, dkk. 2016. grow with english (a thematic english course for elementary students). jakarta: erlangga nurgiyantoro, b. (2001). penilaian dalam pengajaran bahasa dan sastra. yogyakarta: bpfesudarmono, m., et.al. 2015. jurnal penelitian pendidikan vol. 32 no.2. suyadi. (2009). permainan edukatif yang mencerdaskan. yogyakarta: power books (ihdina)wijayatiningsih, t. d. & mulyadi, d. 2014. jurnal penelitian pendidikan vol. 31 no. 1. http://www.iiste.org/journals/index.php/jep/article/view/9873/10097 http://callej.org/journal/20-1/katemba2019.pdf https://doi.org/10.35974/acuity.v2i1.588 https://doi.org/10.35974/acuity.v3i2.648 https://doi.org/10.35974/acuity.v4i2.1068 acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.2 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 13 from communicative competence to communication proficiency: a theoretical study sabri thabit saleh ahmed e-mail: sabri-t2010@hotmail.com department of english, university of aden, yemen doi: 10.35974/acuity.v8i1.2739 abstract this study revisits the term ‘communicative competence’ and delves into its details. it presents briefly various models of communicative competence to show what has been written on this term, and then it introduces the term ‘communication proficiency’ as a broader term that includes all competencies and skills required for communication. it contributes to the field of research in applied linguistics as it helps scholars avoid the confusion associated with the term ‘communicative competence’ which is used differently by different scholars due to their different perceptions of the term ‘competence’. competence has been perceived by some scholars as knowledge of language while others have perceived it as an overall ability that includes all what we need to function in real life and fulfill communicative needs. keywords: communicative competence, communicative proficiency, competence, performance introduction communicative competence has become the major goal of language learning though its meaning and underlying details are still debatable. while some scholars view communicative competence as language knowledge others view it in a broader way as an overall ability that includes both language knowledge and performance skills. chomsky (1956) differentiated between competence and performance where he viewed competence as “the speaker-hearer’s knowledge of the language” and performance as “the actual use of language in concrete situations” (p. 4). on the other hand, hymes (1972) introduced the term ‘communicative competence’ to refer to both ‘the tacit knowledge’ of the language and ‘the ability to use it’ for communication. this view reflects his perception of communicative competence as a broad term that includes all skills and abilities required for communication. this view was later on emphasized by savignon (1972) who viewed communicative competence as “the ability to function in a truly communicative setting” (p. 8) and rivers (1973) who considered communicative competence as a synonym of “spontaneous expression” (p. 26) which means an ability to express oneself spontaneously and automatically in any interactive situation. canale and swain (1980) provide a detailed description of communicative competence similar to hymes and they considered communicative competence as abstract knowledge that can be manifested in communicative performance. prior to this, widdowson (1978) considered language usage (knowledge of rules) and language use (skills to use this knowledge for communicative https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity mailto:sabri-t2010@hotmail.com acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.2 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 14 purposes) as two sides of the performance. on the other hand, wiemann & backlund (1980) argued for incorporating competence and performance under one term called ‘communicative competence’. as these views regarding competence and performance may create some confusion for scholars, this study surveys these various views on communicative competence and then introduces the term ‘communication proficiency’ as an alternative term that includes language knowledge and performance skills required for communication. 1. communicative competence the term communicative competence came into existence by the end of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s and it has been then developed to become a major area of research in the field of applied linguistics. to understand what this term means, one can define the two words comprising it. communicative competence means a competence to communicate where competence refers to a broad term of ability that involves language knowledge and the skills to use such knowledge while the word communicative relates to interacting and sharing ideas (ahmed & pawar, 2018). communicative competence appeared as a reaction to chomsky’s (1965) distinction between competence “the speaker-hearer’s knowledge of the language” and performance “the actual use of language in concrete situations” (p. 4). chomsky related competence to the linguistic theory while performance was viewed as concerning with discovering the mental reality underlying the actual behaviour which, according to him, “surely can’t constitute a subject matter of linguistics” (p.4). as a reaction to this, hymes (1972) introduced the term communicative competence where he argued that what we need for communication is not merely the linguistic competence but an overall competence called ‘communicative competence’ whose framework can be viewed in four levels: 1. whether (and to what degree) something is formally possible; 2. whether (and to what degree) something is feasible in virtue of means of implementation available; 3. whether (and to what degree) something is appropriate (adequate, happy, successful) in relation to a context in which it is used and evaluated; 4. whether (and to what degree) something is in fact done, actually performed, and what it doing entails. (hymes, 1972, pp. 281) by introducing this framework, hymes (1972) referred to the linguistic competence as one element of the communicative competence and raised the significance of the sociolinguistic competence as well as the ability to actually perform communicative functions as components of the communicative competence. to hymes (1972), the term ‘communicative competence’ is ‘the tacit knowledge’ of the language and ‘the ability to use it’ for communication. this leads us to the fact that the communicative competence is not only about grammatical knowledge but a combination of several competencies or skills of which grammatical competence or linguistic competence represents merely one element of this communication system. this was later on emphasized by rivers (1973) who considered communicative competence as a synonym of “spontaneous expression” (p. 26) which means an ability to express oneself spontaneously and automatically in any interactive situation and savignon (1972) who viewed communicative competence as “the ability to function in a truly communicative setting” (p. 8); i.e. a https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.2 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 15 comprehensive system that allows us to communicate and it should include all what we need for communication. since the emergence of the term ‘communicative competence’ by hymes (1972), several models have been proposed for this competence, each of which has been viewed as a further development for the previous ones. these models aimed at making communicative competence more comprehensive to include all competencies and skills required for communication. among these models, the most common one is the model introduced by canale and swain (1980) and then developed by canale (1983). canale and swain’s (1980) model of communicative competence included three components, namely grammatical competence, sociolinguistic competence, and strategic competence whereas canale’s (1983) model was developed to include discourse competence as a fourth component of the communicative competence. the grammatical competence here includes students’ knowledge of lexical items, grammatical rules, syntax, morphology, semantics, and phonology and it seems to be similar to hyme’s (1972) and chomsky’s (1965) linguistic competence while sociolinguistic competence is made up of the sociocultural rules of language use. it refers to the knowledge of what, when, why, to whom and how to say something in a given situation. the discourse competence refers to the rules that relate structures and meanings to form a larger discourse in oral or written language or the rules of coherence and cohesion in the terms of halliday and hasan (1976, p. 8). the strategic competence refers to the verbal and non-verbal compensating strategies that may be called into action to compensate for the lack of language knowledge. these strategies were raised before in tarone (1978; 1980) as strategies that are used by the individual to overcome communication problems when his language structures or vocabulary are not adequate to convey his thoughts. as mentioned earlier, other models have also been proposed later on to include other components for such an ability required for communication. bachman (1990) proposed a model for communicative ability in language assessment that was later on developed by bachman and palmer (1996). in this model, the pragmatic competence was conceptualized as a component of the communicative competence or what was called ‘communicative language ability’. this model consists of three components, namely language competence, strategic competence and psychophysiological mechanisms. language competence includes organizational competence and pragmatic competence. organizational competence or knowledge was viewed in this model as a competence that comprises grammatical competence, as in canale and swain (1980) and textual competence which is similar to canale’s (1983) discourse competence. on the other hand, the pragmatic competence was conceptualized in two parts, namely illocutionary (functional) competence and sociolinguistic competence. illocutionary competence refers to the competence of expressing or perceiving the intended meanings or functions, and comprises four macro functions, namely ideational functions “use of language to express propositions or to exchange information about knowledge or feelings” (pp. 92-93) such as descriptions, presenting knowledge in a lecture, expressing feelings…etc.), manipulative functions “those in which the primary purpose is to affect the world around us” (p.93) and comprise three types of functions, namely instrumental functions (using language to get things done such as requests or suggestions), regulatory functions (controlling others’ behaviour as stating rules, laws, and norms of behavior) and interactional functions (using language to maintain interpersonal relationships like greetings, exchanging compliments, apologies, …etc.), heuristic functions (using language to extend the knowledge of the world such as learning and teaching, problems https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.2 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 16 solving, conscious memorizations…etc.) and imaginative functions (using language to create or extend our knowledge of our environment for humorous or esthetic purposes such as telling jokes or creating figurative language and metaphors). these functions constitute a major part of language and communication and they seem to be similar to those language functions presented by halliday (1975, pp. 11-17). the second component of the pragmatic competence is the sociolinguistic competence which refers to “the sensitivity to, or control of the conventions of language use that are determined by the features of the specific language use context; it enables us to perform language functions in ways that are appropriate to that context” (p. 94). this sensitivity can be related to variety in dialects, register or cultural references. the second component of this model was ‘the strategic competence’ which somehow differs from canale’s (1983) strategic competence because it refers to a broader ability of assessment, planning and execution strategies. the last component of this communicative language ability is the psychophysiological mechanisms which refer to performance skills. (bachman, 1990, pp.81-108) celce-murcia, dornyei and thurrell (1995) also proposed a model of communicative competence for language teaching purpose in which they added actional competence to canale’s (1983) model to become five components, namely linguistic competence, sociocultural competence, strategic competence, discourse competence, and actional competence. the actional competence here refers to learner’s ability to perform speech acts. it was then developed in celce-murcia (2007) to become interactional competence which refers to three competencies, namely actional competence (performing speech acts such as apologizing, blaming, requesting…etc.), conversational competence (how to begin and close conversations, how to establish and change the topic…ect.) and non-verbal/paralinguistic competence (such as body language and other non-verbal signs and non-linguistic utterances like time fillers) (pp. 48-49). one more component was also added in this model called ‘formulaic competence’ which refers to “fixed and prefabricated chunks of language that speakers use heavily in everyday interactions” such as routines (how do you do?/ i am fine, thanks. how are you?), collocations (spend money, statistically significant) ….etc. (p. 46). communicative competence, as shown above, refers to an ability to communicate rather than merely the underlying system of language. even if some models might create some confusion regarding the term competence itself and the position of language four macro skills in this competence, the researcher thinks that this term should refer to a broader ability that includes language knowledge and performance skills. in this regard, alcón, as cited in jordà (2005) and belmonte and mccabe (2004), proposed a model of communicative competence in which the language four macro skills (listening, speaking reading, and writing) were conceptualized as a component of the communicative competence called psychomotor skills. in this model, two other components, namely discourse competence and strategic competence are there to interact with these skills to constitute the communicative competence. the discourse competence comprises linguistic competence, textual competence and pragmatic competence while the strategic competence refers to the strategies used for compensating linguistic or sociolinguistic deficiencies. usó-juan and martiníz-flor (2006) also proposed a model of communicative competence appealing for integration of the four skills in communicative competence. their model is composed of five components, namely discourse competence, linguistic competence, pragmatic competence, strategic competence and intercultural competence. prior to this, littlewood (1981) summarized four domains that make up students’ communicative competence, https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.2 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 17 namely a. linguistic competence, b. communicative functions, c. skills and strategies for using language for communication and d. sociolinguistics. the researcher hereby highlights the importance of the language four macro skills as a major component of the communicative competence that should be developed simultaneously with the other competencies. he believes that grammatical and sociolinguistic knowledge has nothing to do if a learner does not have the skills to use such knowledge in communication. therefore, these macro skills should be considered as a part of learner’s communicative competence if such competence is viewed as an ability to communicate. it can be highlighted here that the term ‘competence’ has created some confusion among linguists due its widespread interpretations as some linguists conceptualized it in an absolute sense while others conceptualized it in a relative and dynamic sense equating it to an ability or proficiency (taylor, 1988, p.148). chomsky (1965) ignored some aspects of the communicative competence but he did not ignore the performance skills as he conceptualized competence in an absolute narrow sense that means linguistic competence while he perceived performance as something different from competence. other linguists like widdowson (1978), for example, considered language usage (knowledge of rules) and language use (skills to use this knowledge for communicative purposes) as two sides of the performance. on the other hand, wiemann & backlund (1980) argued for incorporating competence and performance under one term named communicative competence. the researcher hereby emphasizes that since the communicative competence has become the main goal of language learning and it refers to an ability to communicate; it should include both the underlying knowledge and the performance skills required for functioning in communicative settings. he also prefers to use the term ‘communication proficiency’ to refer to such an overall ability that includes both the underlying knowledge and the performance skills as a way to avoid the confusion related to the concept ‘competence’. 2. communication proficiency to avoid the confusion above-mentioned, this section suggests a model for the ability that efl users need to communicate effectively in english. the previous discussion on communicative competence and performance skills led the researcher to suggest a model that integrates language skills and competencies under one concept called ‘communication proficiency’. communication proficiency refers to language user’s ability for communication. it includes all the competencies and skills required for communication whether oral communication or written one. the communication proficiency model introduced by this study has its roots in nunan’s (1999), shumin’s (2002), and east’s (2016) arguments which highlighted that all the various components of the communicative competence are considered as abilities underlying speaking proficiency; in addition to alcon as cited belmonte and mccabe (2004), and ahmed and pawar (2018) who considered language macro skills as a part of learners’ communicative competence. it seems that some scholars highlighted the relationship between competence and performance and viewed competence as the underlying knowledge of the performance skills while some scholars highlighted communicative competence as an ability to communicate which includes both knowledge and skills. to this end, east (2016) considered the components of canale’ (1983) communicative competence as underling competencies of the https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.2 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 18 communicative proficiency. the communication proficiency construct he proposed consists of the three elements, namely a. underling communicative competence, b. four similar proficiencies namely, grammatical proficiency, sociolinguistic proficiency, discourse proficiency and strategic proficiency which refer to learner’s skills to use the communicative competence in communication, and c. automaticity (pp. 26-27). hence, this study emphasizes that for enabling efl learners to communicate well in english, we should help them develop a good level of communication proficiency in english. this communication proficiency comprises all the elements of the communicative competence in addition to the performance skills as shown in the fig. 1 below. fig. 1. communication proficiency communication proficiency in this model can be defined as an ability to communicate effectively and appropriately in english. it is a proficiency to function in real-life situations and achieve communicative needs. this proficiency includes all the components of the communicative competence suggested by canale’s (1983) model together with fluency and automaticity skills; i.e. the skills of using the underlying communicative competence effectively in communication through the four language skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing). fluency and automaticity skills stand at the heart of the communication proficiency of this model. the researcher hereby emphasizes that learner’ acquisition of grammatical and sociocultural knowledge does not guarantee his ability to use it in communication unless he has acquired a good level of fluency and automaticity skills that enables him to access, retrieve and https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.2 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 19 use his underlying linguistic and sociocultural knowledge smoothly and rapidly in communication. each of these components of communication proficiency represents a crucial part of efl user’s system of communication without which the system will not work properly to achieve communicative purposes. these components will be explained briefly in the following lines. linguistic competence in this model is similar to canale’s (1983) linguistic competence which includes learner’s knowledge of linguistic aspects such as grammar, morphology, lexis, phonology, semantics...etc. linguistic knowledge is very crucial for language users. it represents the fuel that language users need to function. learners cannot communicate through a foreign language unless they have mastered good linguistic knowledge. they should be aware of what vocabulary and grammar they need to express meanings they have in mind. they should also know the rules of phonetics as spoken language cannot achieve its purpose well unless it is well uttered according to the phonetic rules. all these aspects of linguistics knowledge constitute the backbone of the language without which communication will not be possible. such importance of linguistic knowledge sometimes makes some teachers and students overestimate its value in teaching and learning process at the account of the other competencies and skills. it should be highlighted here that linguistic knowledge is very important component of language user’s ability for communication but it is not all what language users need to communicate. linguistic knowledge alone does not allow language users to function in real life as other components such as sociocultural knowledge for example is very important and languages user’s lack of such knowledge may make him face serious difficulties while communicating with native speakers of english. in the same time, having linguistic knowledge without having the automaticity and fluency skills that enable languages users to use this knowledge through the four language skills is meaningless as it will be just a knowledge in language learner’s mind that can be used only in pencil and paper examination, and not in communication. the second component of the communication proficiency is sociocultural competence. sociocultural competence in this model refers to learners’ knowledge of sociocultural rules in general, including sociolinguistics and pragmatics (language functions). sociolinguistic competence refers to learner’s knowledge of the social rules of language use. each language has its social rules which can be different from other languages. these rules includes the rules of how to start interaction, how to close interaction, manners of communication with people of different ages or social statues as well as rules associated with communication settings such as interaction in street, tv meeting, friendly meeting, formal meeting …etc. the other element of this competence is the pragmatics which refers to learner’s knowledge language functions or the pragmatic use of language, i.e. using language to express functions such as apology, requests, invitations…etc. a linguistic form usually has semantic and pragmatic meanings. the semantic meaning usually refers to the literal meaning expressed through the words used while the pragmatic meaning refers to speaker’s intent from the linguistic form. discourse competence refers to learner’s knowledge of coherence and cohesion rules. these rules are very important for forming a text whose phrases and sentences are well connected linguistically and logically. in other words, cohesion means tying words, phrases and sentences together in a good manner to form a larger text through using different linkers that express the relationships between these phrases and sentences. on the other hand, coherence https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.2 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 20 refers to tying ideas of a text or an article in a logical and consistent manner that makes it interesting to readers or listeners. this type of discourse technique is very important as putting ideas randomly in a text or an article makes it lose its meaning and boring for readers. therefore, it should be highlighted here that a text or speech will achieve its function only when it is coherently and cohesively interconnected. strategic competence refers to the compensating strategies that a language user calls upon to compensate insufficiency of linguistic or sociocultural knowledge and to keep his communication channel on. they play a crucial role in communication and in language learning as well. they do not only help learners to pass meaning in their communication but also help them to participate in classroom interaction and activities regardless of their linguistic background. there are various types of these communication strategies such as paraphrasing, body language, asking your interlocutors for help, using time fillers, repetitions, asking interlocutor for repetition or clarification …etc. so far as fluency and automaticity are concerned, the two terms are used in this research to refer to the smooth and automatic use of the language in communication through the four language skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing). however, the researcher views fluency as a broader term that includes automaticity. these terms ‘fluency and automaticity’ were discussed by the cognitive and developmental theorists and they have been considered as major issues in any skill acquisition including language acquisition (segalowitz, 2003). fluency was defined by crystal (1987) as the “smooth, rapid, effortless use of language” (p. 421). it was also viewed by schmidt (1992) as an “automatic procedural skill” (337); i.e. a skill for using the underlying language knowledge automatically. therefore, fluency and automaticity skills in using language orally and in writing are a major part of our communication proficiency. learners should not develop only language knowledge in terms of grammar, lexis, sociocultural rules… etc but they should practice language as a whole to develop their fluency in the language four skills. 3. conclusion this paper revisits the term ‘communicative competence. it attempts to survey 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(2005). third language learners: pragmatic production and awareness. clevedon, buffalo and torono: multilingual matters. acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol. 6 no. 2 2021 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity developing teaching guidelines and learning module of speaking for general communication: students’ perception and needs lilis suryani1, dewi listia apriliyanti2, fauziah nur rohmat3 correspondence author: dewi l. apriliyanti deedeliezta@gmail.com ikip siliwangi1,2,3 doi: 10.35974/acuity.v6i2.2440 abstract covid-19 is still spreading in all over the world, including indonesia and it has big impact to education sector. online learning is a way to reduce the spread of covid-19 outbreak. educators and students, whether ready or not, have to do online learning because to avoid the spread of this pandemic. hence, this research would like to know students’ perception and needs toward speaking for general communication. this study is conducted using a survey method based on kirkpatricks’ model. the survey accumulated and investigated learners' perception on speaking for general communication course after they learned and practiced it in the online lecturing class. the respondents of the survey were selected using purposive sampling method. the subject of this study were 165 students of a first semester, the english language study program at ikip siliwangi bandung, who was taking a speaking for general communication course. based on the result, most of the students had positive perception and they could improve their speaking skill after teaching session. however, there were three things that were not really appropriate with the students’ needs, namely, handout/teaching materials, technological confidence, and topics of materials. therefore, further research is needed to develop the module/handout based on students’ needs. keywords: online learning, speaking, perception, need introduction nowadays, the world of education is facing a crucial situation because of the covid-19 pandemic (kapasia, et al., 2020; un, 2020; oecd, 2020). the learning system that originally could be done face-to-face becomes online learning. online-based teaching is something that must be done during the covid-19 pandemic, including in indonesia. educators and students, whether ready or not, have to do online learning because to avoid the spread of this pandemic. sarvestani, mohammadi, afshin, and raeshy (2019) stated that e-learning in education have been one of the most important achievements of higher education which can solve many of the problems of this system. in addition, stem (2019) cited in yulia (2020) said that online learning is teaching that uses the internet. in other words, students do not have to study at school but they can study at home (keengwe & kidd, 2010; condie & livingston, 2007). this is certainly not an easy because many things are done both from the readiness of educators, students, and teaching materials that are adjusted to online-based teaching, especially in the preparation of speaking teaching materials. corresponding authors: dewi l. apriliyanti, english education study program, ikip siliwangi, indonesia. email: deedeliezta@gmail.com https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity mailto:deedeliezta@gmail.com mailto:deedeliezta@gmail.com 85 speaking is one of the four skills in learning english (burns & siegel, 2018; bailey, 2003; inayah & lisdawati, 2017). in fact, a person can be categorized as having learned a language only if he is able to produce it through interaction. in addition, speaking skills are used in many aspects and for various reasons, including communication in social environments. speaking is a very complex interactive skill that adds complexity to trigger anxiety for foreign learners (woodrow, 2006; hutabarat & simanjuntak, 2019). thornbury (2012) shows that there is a gap for foreign language learners who have limited knowledge of english grammar, vocabulary, and phonology. in other words, it is not an easy for foreign language learners to master the ability to speak fluently. hence, that is a challenge for the teachers who teach speaking to foreign language learners online (bakar, latiff, & hamat, 2013; apriliyanti, 2020). as a first step to be able to speak english is to start from the basics, namely basic skills for general communication skills in everyday activities. speaking for general communication are speaking skills which include aspects of using interactive language as a daily communication tool. learning speaking for general communication is required at least four micro skills, namely, basic grammar skills, good vocabulary, proper pronunciation, as well as proper intonation in a particular context (saito, 2017; richards, 2005). to be able to get used to the four micro skills, it can be familiarized with facilitating learners to practice the language function in self-introduction, description of something, asking and giving help which is used daily. as thronbury (2012) recommends a more systematic three-level approach to teaching speaking, which combines cognitive skills learning theory and sociocultural theory, which consists of increasing awareness (reminding learners of the features of speech), appropriation (training and practicing targeted features), and autonomy (performing various types of oral genres). considering the complexity of the material that foreign language learners will learn with situations where they have to learn it remotely online with the teacher and practice speaking matters which basically require direct feedback from the teacher is a challenge in itself for the teacher, especially in preparing the teaching materials that will be delivered to students who can be studied independently. students’ perception is needed to know about their opinion about the particular subject. in addition, perception is what person or student feels about particular things (lamatokan, 2018; trisnendri syahrizal, 2017; katemba, 2020). therefore, this paper discusses the findings of investigating students' perceptions of the learning process and students' needs in the speaking learning process as a means to help english teachers to develop proper materials in online-based teaching on speaking for general communication course. methods this study is conducted using a survey method based on two levels of kirkpatricks’ model, namely, reaction and learning (apriliyanti, 2018). on reaction level, the survey measured of how students react to the course activity (apriliyanti, 2018). the aspects in which measure in this level are the students’ engagement on the course, material relevances, and students’ satisfaction during the learning activity. on learning level, the survey measured the increase in knowledge or speaking ability from the beginning and after the learning experienced in the course (apriliyanti, 2018). the aspects in which measure in this level are students’ knowledge, skills, and attitude toward the course. then, the survey accumulated and investigated learners' perception on speaking for general communication course and their learning needs in the online lecturing class. the indicators of the instrument are presented in table 1. 86 table 1. domain and indicators of the study domain indicator level 1: reaction/ perception • engagement • relevance • satisfaction level 2: learning • knowledge • skills • attitude • confidence • commitment reseach participants the respondents of the survey were selected using purposive sampling method. the subject of this study were 165 students of the first semester, the english language study program at ikip siliwangi bandung, who was taking a speaking for general communication course. results this result is divided into two parts; students' perceptions on online learning process and students' needs in learning speaking for general communication through online learning. here is the detail result. a. students’ perception on online learning process toward speaking for general communication. this research was done to the first semester and there were three lectures who taught speaking for general communication. below is the data of the lecturers and the total of the students in his/her teaching and learning process. the result of data is presented in figure 1. figure 1. lecturers who teach speaking for general communication based on the data, most of the students (73%) were taught by mr. a, 13% students were taught by mr. b, then 3 % students were taught by mr. c. nevertheless, some of students (12%) did not answer appropriately, such as ms. d and unrelated answer. after 73% 13% 3%5% 6% lecturers who teach speaking for general communication mr a mr. b mr. c ms. d unrelated answer 87 getting the information of the lecturers, then the data were analyzed to answer the research questions. online learning was conducted from august to december, 2020. every meeting was conducted by using learning platform and it was held in 100 minutes in each meeting. according to data from the students, most of the students always come to online classroom. the detail information can be seen in figure 2. figure 2. students’ attendance figure 2 describes about students’ attendance and 58% students answer they always come to online class. 21% students answer that sometimes they come to class, 14 % students say that they often come to class, and 7% students state that they rarely come to class. overall, even though the students learn in online learning but most students always present and learn. it means that they involve in teaching and learning process in the classroom and it shows they have high motivation to learn. then, next question was about learning platform. based on the data, the lectures taught the materials using different kinds of learning platform such as zoom, google classroom, youtube, whatsapp, etc. pie chart below presents about percentage of learning platforms that be used by the lecturers. figure 3. learning platform it can be seen from the figure 3 that the highest percentage of learning platform is zoom (56%). in other words, most of students learnt using zoom, then the rest of them, they learnt using different kinds of platforms such as google classroom, whatsapp or other 7% 21% 14% 58% students' attendances rarely sometimes often always 56% 14% 3% 8% 19% learning platform zoom zoom, gc, & wa zoom, gc, wa group, instagram, youtube zoom & youtube other platform (u-dictionary, and unrelated answer) 88 platforms. it is also can be interpreted that lecturers not only used one platform but also more than one platform. after getting information about learning platform, then the survey asked the students about their perception on speaking for general communication subject. here is the result. figure 4. students’ perception on speaking for general communication subject figure 4 describes 47% students like learning speaking for general communication subject, 50% students answer somewhat liked or disliked, and 3% students say they do not like learning this subject. it can be concluded that the most dominant answer that they somewhat liked or disliked about learning. then, the reason was asked to the students who liked the teaching session. below is the data of the students’ answer about online learning and speaking for general communication subject. bar chat presents the percentage of the result. figure 5. the reason of ‘like” online teaching session based on the data, it can be indicated that lecturers have an important role in teaching and it can be the biggest influence in terms of goal of teaching. then, time flexibility becomes the second percentage (18%), then training materials is the third percentage (15%). overall, the lectures give a lot of exposure to students in online learning and it is good thing for imporving stundents’ skill. 47% 3% 50% do you like the speaking for general communication course session? yes no somewhat liked or disliked 14% 15% 18% 14% 12% 27% 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% class content training materials time flexibility place flexibility the efficiency in giving materials lecturer's style in giving the … reason of 'like' the online teaching session 89 figure 6. the reason ‘dislike’ the online teaching session figure 6 explains that most of students do not like teaching session because the lecture’s style in giving the materials. it has same reason as the students who like teaching session. they do not get the materials in ppt so they do not understand and they cannot review the materials after the class. then, the next survey asked about material relevance. below is the detail result of students’ perception of material relevance. figure 7. students’ perception of material relevance 25% 12% 16% 20% 22% 4% 1% 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% lecturer’s style in giving the materials class content teaching materials materials and concepts are … concepts that apply to my needs in … too many assignment/project other: students don't get handout/ppt reason of 'dislike' the online teaching session 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% s01 s02 s03 s04 s05 s06 s07 s08 s09 s10 s11 s12 s13 students' perception of material relevancies strongly agree (5) agree (5) fair (3) disagree (2) strongly disagree (1) 90 table 2. students’ perception of material relevance according to table 2, the students had positive perception of material relevance. 41% students agreed that their speaking skill improved after teaching and learning session. in other words, teaching speaking for general communication achieve the goals of teaching to improve students’ speaking skill. it can be indicated the learning run successful. in addition, only 2% students answered strongly disagree about the improvement of speaking. it means most students could improve their skill. b. students' needs in learning speaking for general communication through online learning. after getting students’ perception and here is the result of students’ needs based on survey. brief explanation is presented in table 3. table 3. students’ needs questions mr. a mr. b mr. c what is your suggestion that you think need some improvements on speaking for general communication course in online teaching session? teaching materials/handout: the students don’t get handout or ppt in this course. they only get the material from lecturer’s whatsapp. technological confidence: some students said that the lecturer needs an assistant to operate the zoom. besides, the voice of the lecturer is too loud. it might be connection or audio setting. connection: sometimes, the connection is bad. the students gave positive respond. the lecturer gave the handout and ppt. overall, the students give positive respond. teaching materials/handout: the students need handout so it will be easier to check the materials again. 91 what is your suggestion that you think need some improvements on materials taught during the course program? materials content: most of the time the lecturer explains in english and some of students don’t understand. they still have limited vocabulary. method of teaching: every meeting, the students are asked to analyze but it’s still hard for them to analyze. lecturer’s speed when he explains the materials. some students don’t get the point coz it’s too fast. sharing screen is needed by students when teaching and learning process. method of teaching: students ask more time to practice (limited time) students still have limited vocabulary. students ask more game what are the topics that you want to learn in this course? mention and give the reasons! guessing the meaning of song lyrics sharing the story with friends something that they like for e.g k pop or we can say describing idol talking about hobby reading news asking and giving direction describing something tourist attraction hobby describing about us what does speaking for general communication course mean for you? most of them said speaking for general communication subject is very important subject because they have to speak up and it is basic skill for them. they hope they can speak fluently after taking this course. -the students say this subject can encourage their motivation to talk in front of the people. they have good confidence. they are more confidence to talk in front of the people. it’s time to practice in this course. it can be a good habit for them to speak up. table 3 concluded that there are three things that can be concluded form the data. the first is about teaching materials/handout or course book. the second is technological confidence. the third is about the material topics. most of students want to learn about something that related to them, especially about hobby, idol, telling story, etc. discussion this section is going to discuss two fundamental aspects in this study, namely, students’ perception towards course activities, and students’ needs in learning activities. students’ perception towards course activities. this study revealed three aspects that perceived by the students: 1) students’ engagement with the lecturer and learning platforms used in the learning activities; 2) material relevances with their daily lives experienced by the students; 3) students’ satisfaction with the learning activities. this is in line with kirkpatricks’ indicators (2018) on the reaction level that stated at least there are three aspects that should be measured and discovered to seek students’ satisfaction toward the certain program. first, students responded that they have enganged with the lecturers. even though the students learn in online learning but most students always present and learn. it means that they involve in the teaching and learning process in the classroom and it shows they have high motivation to learn. 92 in addition, 58% of students prefer using zoom conference meeting application as their learning platform to other applications, for instance, google classroom, whatsapp. second, students responded that the materials received during the learning activities are useful for their daily conversation and formal conversation. lecturers’ style has become the main role for successful learning activities. the lectures give a lot of exposure to students in online learning and it is a good thing for improving students’ skills. this evidence has resolved one of the challenges faced by teachers and lecturers who teach speaking to foreign language learners online as stated in bakar, latiff, & hamat (2013) and apriliyanti (2020). in other words, teaching speaking for general communication achieves the goals of teaching to improve students’ speaking skill. third, the majority of students responded that they are satisfied with the learning activities as evidenced in this research (see figure 4). students’ needs in learning activities. online learning was conducted from august to december 2020. every meeting was conducted by using a learning platform and it was held for 100 minutes in each meeting. according to data from the students, there are three fundamental aspects that are needed in learning speaking for general communication course. the first is about teaching materials/handouts or a coursebook. the students ask for the handout in the teaching and learning process, for instance, video material or digital module that can support their independent learning. handout is used for reviewing the materials at home and it makes them easier to recheck the materials. this is in line with chou (2010) who reveals that teachers who adopt a course book may also find it easier to teach. in other words, it can be a guideline for teacher to teach the materials in the classroom. the second is technological confidence. andersson (2008) says that technological confidence can be one of the challenges of e-learning. in this case, the lecturers have to be aware of how to use technology especially in doing online learning. if the lecturer can use it well, so teaching and learning process can run smoothly. the third is about the material topics. most students want to learn about something that related to them, especially about hobbies, idols, telling stories, etc. it is supported by howard and major (2004) who say that student’s learning preferences can be one of the important factors in designing the materials. so, the students’ needs analysis can be a guideline for the lecturers to know and develop the materials for the students in order to meet the students’ needs. in other words, the materials can be appropriate to the students’ needs and can be more meaningful for them. conclusion this research concluded that most of the students have positive perception and they can improve their speaking skill after teaching session. it can be seen from the tables and figures that have already explained in the previous part. in fact, there are some shortcomings during online learning process for example handout/teaching materials, technological confidence, and topics of materials. therefore, further research is 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(2020). online learning to prevent the spread of pandemic corona virus in indonesia. . eternal (english teaching journal), 11(1). https://doi.org/10.26877/eternal.v11i1.6068 introduction methods results discussion conclusion references acuity (4) 2, 204-213 life and death in diary of a mad old man by junichiro tanizaki, aku by chairil anwar, the jilting of granny weatherall by kathrene anne porter and the tinkers by paul harding yanti rahayuningsih , arlisa indriawati corresponding author yanti (yan_sada@yahoo.com universitas teknologi surabaya abstract even every work of arts especially in literature has unique story style yet also has similarities in the idea or problems of a human being. the similarities appear in their works because they share some common aspects of life which are also called the intertextuality. themes and motives in the work of arts are similar because of the universal consciousness among the authors. and by these works diary of a mad old man by junichiro tanizaki, aku by chairil anwar, the jilting of granny weatherall by kathrene anne porter and the tinkers by paul harding deals with the same theme about life and death. the analysis is using qualitative method to evaluate the similarities and the differences concept of life and death from four above. from the analysis, it is found out that there is correlation of each work related with the intertextuality among them. even from the analysis, there are 6 difference aspects regarding their perception in adjusting their death but also proving that four text voices the similar notion, about human reaction depicted when they are confronted by death. keywords: intertextuality, life and death’s themes introduction every piece of reality in this world about some other piece of reality. literature as the highest expression of human life can’t be separated from reality. furthermore, tailor stated that literature like other parts is essentially an imaginative act, that is, an act of writer imagination that presents information and value as work of art, but is not only to entertain, but also to give the readers information and valuable experiences about human life. the prominent theme about human life is related to life and death which becomes the ultimate journey of every human. death is an inescapable fact of life that touches everyone sometimes. throughout history we have seen evidence of man’s obsession with mortality. the idea that everything has an end has been considered. to understand the unknown, humans often come up with stories and poetry that give them an explanation of what they can grasp. the problem with this way of dealing with impermanence is that it often shows just how insecure and un-accepting of these unavoidable changes we can be. literature often can show just how vulnerable humans can be and yet somehow managing to find elegant, beautiful and dignified ways to show it. four examples of these written masterpieces are mailto:yan_sada@yahoo.com acuity (4) 2, 204-213 diary of a mad old man by junichiro tanizaki, aku by chairil anwar, the jilting of granny weatherall by kathrene anne porter and the tinkers by paul harding deal with the same theme about life and death. moreover, three main characters also in the same age, they are old people who fought their lives before death took it away literature is a media to explore human lives which are communicated by each author by using their unique writing style. in spite of each author’s characteristic, they sometimes tell the same ideas or problems of human being. the similarities appear in their works because they share some common aspects of life. it also called the intertextuality as stated by the roland barthes “every text, being itself the intertext of another text,” and umberto eco her book, the name of the rose, intertextuality is an inevitable condition of textuality. books speak of other books, and stories tell what has already been told. themes and motives in the work of arts are similar because of the universal consciousness among the authors, and four works above also told about the human point of view toward death. some old people may not experience a great deal of fear about death but no one has a neutral attitude toward it. it is virtually impossible for old person can’t avoid the question of their death. there are simply too many reminders of our eventual fate as we grow old. thus by analyze each work above, we can gradually grasp the similarities and the concept of the differences of life and death and also to be able to find out any correlation of each work-related with the intertextuality among them. there some aspect in death and life as motive which is prevalent in four works above, they are self-esteem, death anxiety, guilty, life optimism, wholeness and incompleteness. based on those aspects the writes tried to examine the differences or similarities from the works related with death and life as a prominent motive in those 6 novels. methodology this analysis completely focused on life and death theme in 4 works, diary of a mad old man by junichiro tanizaki, aku by chairil anwar, the jilting of granny weatherall by kathrene anne porter and the tinkers by paul harding. because of the tool in this analysis is intertextuality then by using it we can know about the stream unconsciousness of the authors. intertextuality refers to the interdependent ways in which texts stand in relation to one another (as well as to the culture at large) to produce meaning. they can influence each other, be derivative of, parody, reference, quote, contrast with, build on, draw from, or even inspire each other. knowledge does not exist in a vacuum, and neither does literature. as kristeva wrote, any text can be considered a work of intertextuality because it builds on the structures that existed before it. there are countless examples of authors borrowing from the bible and from shakespeare, from titles (william faulkner’s go down, moses and the sound and the fury) to story lines (john steinbeck’s east of eden and jane smiley’s a thousand acres). a single novel or poem can never be considered independent of the system of meanings in which it relays its message; indeed, each new work of literature transforms and displaces discourse which predated it. authors are influenced cumulatively by what they've read, whether or not they explicitly show their influences on their characters' sleeves. sometimes they do want to draw parallels between their work and an inspirational work or influential canon—think fan fiction or homages. maybe they want to create emphasis or contrast or add layers of meaning through an allusion. in so many ways literature can be interconnected intertextually, on purpose or not. in this analysis, 4 authors junichiro tanizaki, chairil anwar, kathrene anne porter and paul harding describing their characters with the same acuity (4) 2, 204-213 nuance in life and death theme. by using qualitative method to evaluate and describe their self-esteem, death anxiety, guilty, life optimism, wholeness and incompleteness, the writer tried to find the intertextuality among them. diary of a mad old man by junichiro tanizaki diary of mad old man, written by junichiro takizaki is a story of an old man by the name tokusuke utsugi who is told as a lunatic old man, which is set in 20th century where japan is still struggling with the effect of world war ii. utsugi, like another of tanizaki’s characters, driven by obsessive erotic desires. this aged diarist is struck down by neuralgia, which brought by an excess of sexual excitement. unfortunately, at that time he is infatuated with his daughter in law which made his condition worse. despite his awareness of his condition and death that comes on his way, utsugi is lost in his sexual desire. by the end he is captivated in his image and unable to sense his real self. formerly, utsugi realizes that he has dark personalities which mostly triggered by his obsessive thought toward beauty. he appreciates and even felt attract with something aesthetic, in the woman and also in man. because of that, he disgraces toward his old hideous appearance. he felt that his ugliness made his life pathetic. furthermore he tried to search for another beauty in another person, in this case in his daughter in law, satsuko, to make his life more meaningful and peaceful. those feelings showed that utsugi tried to maintain his self-esteem by the search for beauty in his life. related with his opinion toward death, he seems unafraid and ready to embrace the afterlife. he even regularly visualizes the condition when he finally died. he enjoyed the dream what his family will do about it. on page 17, when he heard that he had a crucial decease, he almost felt relieved, because he thought that his long life finally coming to an end. even though, he believes his attraction to the opposite sex would last until he died, but he hasn’t the slightest desire to cling to life. ironically, even he seems already prepare and ready to lose his life, utsugi as a normal human, also having death-anxiety. it showed when he felt ultimate pleasure after licking satsuko‘s feet, “…long as i had been prepared for death, the thought of ‘dying’ frightened me…”(tanizaki: 68). also when his grandson, keisuke, suddenly showed affection for him, he hardly able controlled his emotion. as a cold-hearted, violent and perverse man, utsugi’s nature not allowed him to showed weak emotion, fear, and loses control toward anything, death also. but on page 118, he realizes that he can’t escape from his fate, his aged body, his weakened soul and incoming death made him change. his feeling toward satsuko, his daughter in law, actually is the main conflict between his life instinct and death impulse. it’s like two sides of coin, when he thinks of satsuko, he felt like gambling on the slightest chance to live again but when he looks at satsuko, when she treated him like a tiresome invalid, made him want to die right away. because of that, when he wants satsuko’s feet in his future grave personified his worship. his adoration resembles with the human love for their god. utsugi thinks he will find peace if he rest his body and soul under the power of god. even though he believe in buddha, he prefers satsuko, because he believed and felt attract to her and hopes that he would remain forever inside of her. acuity (4) 2, 204-213 aku by chairil anwar ‘aku’ becomes one of memorable poetry in indonesia. even though, chairil creates it in the middle of dutch's colonization, around 1943, the spirit is still enchanted every reader’s souls. this poem enlighten a man courage, even he has suffered from anything, like danger, poison, obstacles, and even death, he will stand straight and keep forward. from the first verse, the speaker understand that death is inevitable fate, the utmost stage in human’s journey, because of that he acknowledge the power of death and ready to embrace it. so thus, he doesn’t want anyone pity his destiny, not even his beloved. he wants if the death comes in his front door, anyone or anything won’t block his grip on his door handle, slowed his step, or made him hide. no, he won't life as a coward. although, in the next verse, the speaker admitted that he was not a good man. as ‘binatang jalang’, human symbolization, he might be not educated, alienated, weird, and unusual, not socialize person, and life lonely but he is a strong man. and even he hindered by human’s obstacles and unlucky destiny, his wound will not suppress his life spirit. the speaker believes time will heal anything, every wound he suffered over and over will be made him less suffer, and so, that's why the speaker said “aku mau hidup seribu tahun lagi”... he will endure any pains, because, without it, human life is boring, stagnant, and meaningless. the speaker thinks, each wound, pain, loss, happiness, sorrow, love, hatred, etc., will carve the human soul beautifully. then if death takes the soul away, it can be said, i love to be alive. the jilting of granny weatherall by kathrene anne porter this unique short story, tells the last moments of an old woman’s long hard struggle through life. porter examines the mind of granny weatherall describing the key moments of her life that influenced her outlook. her life was not only a struggle against the emotional and physical obstacles to survival, but also a struggle to define herself and her purpose in life. porter presents the disillusionment and meaninglessness associated with modern thought through the failure of granny weatherall to find and fulfill a purpose in her life. granny’s abandonment by those she loved in her life creates the psychological need for her to control in order to have purpose in her life. lying on her deathbed, she contemplates that “…she found dead in her mind and it felt clammy and unfamiliar. she had spent so much time preparing for death …” (porter: 2). even though she thought she made her peace with death once already, in the end she realized that this was not so and her last thoughts are one of a very confused elderly lady. even though, she did become physically stronger and weathered by the sun as she took up quite a few manual duties such as fencing in acreage and sitting up with sick people and animals. when she had a fever in her sixties, it was then she was prepared to accept death, but it never came. this death coming now has caught her by surprise and grief. surprise because it seems sudden and she had made plans for tomorrow, all little things that needed to be done and now would not be at all. (since she does not believe her children can get by in life without her.) grief because that once “again no bridegroom and the priest in the house”. before she slips away and dies, granny thinks she is facing the ultimate loss, the loss of god himself, as her internal monologue indicates: "… god, give me a sign! for a second time acuity (4) 2, 204-213 there was no sign. again no bridegroom and the priest in the house. she could not remember any other sorrow because this grief wiped them all away. oh, no, there’s nothing crueler than this—i’ll never forgives it..." (porter: 8). it has seen that even though granny weathered by all her loss, in the end, because her loss, her sorrow, her pain, she unable to believe anything, she has unfair prejudice toward herself, god seems to leave her side. she flew alone without anything to hold, it such bitter fate for her. so that’s why, she said with typical impudence “i’ll never forgive it." the tinkers by paul harding "tinkers" is a complex elegiac meditation on the insubstantiality of human life. a dying man witnesses the collapse of his personality structure and with that his obscure ties to those with whom he has shared the experiences of a lifetime. to convey the unfathomable substance of life, harding uses a cacophony of voices, stylistic techniques, and writing styles, as if to suggest that the examined life is nothing short of ponderous and unsatisfying. the beauty of nature and knowledge of the workings of things are all man can hope to fill his hungry heart. to seek beyond that limited understanding is absurd. thus was george washington crosby's vocation as a high school mechanical drawing teacher and guidance counselor apropos for a man who intuitively recognized life's limitations. harding’s use of the apple image becomes apparent in the middle of the novel in which george is sitting on the couch reading. this is significant because this is when george starts to realize that his father is a lunatic because he bit george’s hand during his seizure and george knows that his father will probably be sent off to a mental institution. the apple exemplifies the fact that george is starting to realize his father is a madman. this foreshadows the same struggle that george may face in the future. george later ponders about running away himself just like his father. he thinks that even his brother joe “…would be sent to the madhouse too, sooner or later…” (harding, ch. 2). the apple foreshadows that later on, george follows his father’s footsteps and runs away. because the apple serves not only as a symbol but foreshadows events to happen, whenever harding uses the apple in the story, the struggle is presented. in terms of characterization, one might argue that all three men: howard, his father, and george, are self-absorbed, meditative loners whose bewilderment with the world might be rooted in their inabilities to connect with people. most disturbing is the fact that the people with whom george shares his last days and moments are ghostly presences, only one of them seemingly a companion on that final lap to unconsciousness. this person is, of course, his deceased father, a tinker, who first exposed the young and confused george to the grandeur of the natural world. one might argue with george's death bed glimpses into the hollowness of life. perhaps had he committed his time to others deeply and profoundly he might have left the world differently, perhaps in the warm cocoon of humans loving him and wishing him well through the awaiting journey. time as the motif, george as a clockmaker, is a man who obsessed with keeping time. his life is measured in very definite time as well; throughout the novel, what happens is framed by how long george has to live. harding compares human life to the intricate workings of a clock. they are reliable, complex machines that can be put to careful use, but they cannot make life anything other than absurd. both howard and george can distinguish the blending of light and dark in the landscapes of their lives, but neither can perceive any acuity (4) 2, 204-213 truth that lies beyond their mere struggles to survive. both are consoled by the beauty of the physical world, but like howard's father who dies in an insane asylum, both men realize the impossibility of fathoming meaning beyond the physical world. it seems that building a bird's nest or repairing a clock cannot fill the gaps created by a loveless marriage or open up for a despairing woman. the short moments of feeling connected to nature cannot explain why a father would abandon his children or a woman would commit her husband to an institution. howard's father, a minister, is so baffled by his inability to grasp the meaning of life that he goes crazy. as a result of his father's insanity, howard engages in a lifelong search for meaning, tinkering his way among people in a hopeless quest for meaning. however, nothing changes; nothing gets any better. at one point howard notes that a clock or "the universe's time cannot be marked. such a crooked and flimsy device could only keep the fantastic hours of unruly ghosts." and so it is that as george transitions into the netherworld he experiences a "shifting mass, the tiles of a mosaic spinning, swirling, portraying, always in recognizable swaths of colors, familiar elements, molecular units, intimate currents, showing him a different self every time he tried to make an assessment." and although "george never permitted himself to imagine his father," he finds their lives inextricably bound by doing the same conventional, simple activities of the living being. because life is hard and needs an explanation, he also forgave his mother, even though her actions break up the marriage of his parents and separated him from his father. george realized that she was simply unable to rise above her despair. it is the existential lot of all humans. for howard, the pictures of angels in the family bible mean fear; for george, his intuitive leanings are not gifts of faith, but it's opposite, more depicted in his final hallucinations of the collapse of his house, the house being the classic jungian metaphor of the personality structure. likewise, harding implies the transcendental elements when a man dies, like bryant's "thanatopsis": george realizes "the dark tablets of my death" will be a "scrolling" which will move about and be "mingled within endless ways of other people's memories. man is part of the whole of nature "back to adam". george also notes: that although the "mystery" of life is man's to think about, the condition of life itself is a "puzzle" that never quite fits together. and howard further notes, "and when you resent the ache in your heart, remember: you will be dead and buried soon enough." life is a struggle; make the most of it by "blending with the elements." conclusion four works of art above are beautiful tales depicted a simple while a complicated matter of human life and death. utsugi, the speaker in ‘aku’, granny weatherall and george washington crosby are some examples of how the human would react if death appears in their life. by analyzing it, we can gradually grasp the similarities and the differences concept of life and death which defined from self-esteem, death anxiety, guilty, life optimism, wholeness and incompleteness theme inside the story acuity (4) 2, 204-213 differences: diary of a mad old man aku the jilting of granny weatherall the tinkers self-esteem     death anxiety     guilty     life optimism     wholeness     incompleteness     death is the end of one's life. adjustment to death indicates the personal adjustment of each person to the inevitability of death. some human action is taken to ignore or avoid the inevitability of death. the terror of absolute annihilation creates such anxiety in people that they spend their lives attempting to make sense of it. moreover, people commonly think of themselves as beings of value and worth, a concept in psychology known as self-esteem, that somewhat resolves the realization that people may be no more important than any other living thing. self-esteem is used as a buffer for people to help them cope with anxiety; it defenses mechanisms to control their terror, along with realizing that humans are animals just trying to manage the universe around them. four main characters have a different perception of adjusting their deaths. even most of them stated that they are prepared their final time, but actually there are some aspects which made them different, and it’s related with how they valued their life. the similarities: as stated previously, there are similarities among texts, which related to intertextuality. intertextuality forms one of the crucial grounds for writing studies and writing practice. texts do not appear in isolation, but concerning other texts. as stated by allen, intertextuality reminds us that all texts are potentially plural, reversible, open to the reader’s presuppositions, lacking in clear and defined boundaries, and always involved in the expression or repression of the dialogic ‘voices’ which exist within society (allen, 2000:209). “… i dreaded so much as premonition of death, but now that is no longer true…yet, haven’t i been saying i don’t care when i die…” (tanizaki: 17 & 121) “kalau sampai waktuku, 'ku mau tak seorang 'kan merayu” (chairil) “…she found death in her mind and it felt clammy and unfamiliar. she had spent so much time preparing for death there was no need for bringing it up again. let it take care of itself now…” (porter: 2) “… the quilt of leaves and light and shadow and ruffling breezes might part and i’d be given a glimpse of what is on the other side” (harding: 54) and also acuity (4) 2, 204-213 in “… looked like the end of the road was…howard feel as if he were walking through a kaleidoscope…dropped leaves and spear of grass and wildflowers and tree branches into the blueness and, as it rolled back down toward its proper place, …it turning in hushed and peaceful exchange…” (harding: 142) from four quotations and previous analysis, it is shown that there is similar notion, an intertextuality, about how humans will react when their life confronted by death. it is natural as a human to always facing the death at any time. although, on the certain stages, fearing it is also human automatic characteristic but human eventually will came to the stage of acceptance. they realizes that their life is priceless because it has a limit. the dreadfulness and the holiness are precious too. therefore, eventually they learn to enjoy ther life and death. both differences and similarities previously exemplified that the four works even having different authors, cultural background and time setting, they have same notion of life and death. because it is described that "life" is not just "stop," but "simply ends." life is best summed up: "the ache in your heart and the confusion in your soul means that you are still alive, still human, and still open to the beauty of the world, even though you have done nothing to deserve it." in the end, according to harding, we are all tinkers, tinkering away at life, plumbing some of its complex mechanics, such as the inner workings of a clock. after all, it is man's self-reliance that equips him both to acknowledge and accept the limitations of being human. by using aspects, self-esteem, death anxiety, guilty, life optimism, wholeness and incompleteness, it is proved that there some intertextuality between them. references allen, graham (2000) intertextuality new fetter lane, london: routledge. anwar, chairil. kumpulan puisi-puisi chairil anwar (pdf) eco, umberto. 1983. the name of the rose. boston: houghton mifflin harcourt harding, paul. 2011. the thinkers. london: windmill books porter, katherine anne. 1930. the jilting of granny weatherall (pdf) kristeva, julia. 1980. desire in language: a semiotic approach to literature and arts. new york: colombia university press tanizaki, junichiro. 1965. diary of a mad old man. new york: alfred a. knopf, inc. http://crimealwayspays.blogspot.com/2010/07/nobody-move-this-is-review-tinkers-by.html http://www.helium.com/items/2198239-psychological-and-physicall-turning-point-grannyweatherall-katherine-anne-porter http://tomakeamends.wordpress.com/2007/09/04/idolatry-guilt-vs-self-destruction-33/ clugston, r. w. (2010). journey into literature. san diego, california: bridgepoint education, inc. https://content.ashford.edu/books http://www.wikipedia.com/items/2198239/death-adjustment-self-esteem-anxiety/45 acuity (4) 2, 204-213 http://www.medpedia.com/news_analysis/89-literature-arts-and-medicineblog/entries/92152-humanity-out-of-context-tinkers-as-a-touchstone-fordissection 128 acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.6 no.2 2021 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity curating the human experience: introducing an inquiry of literary texts into historical research beth walsh-moorman ewalsh@lec.edu lake erie college, usa doi: 10.35974/acuity.v6i2.2484 abstract this case study follows the process as four high school students curate literary sources in preparation for historical arguments. results indicate that the use of literary texts prepared students to build nuanced historical arguments by helping them identify subtexts and divergent perspectives through their research. the underlying ela skills complemented the literacy demands of historical argumentation. keywords: cross-disciplinary writing, digital curation, evidence-based writing, multimodal texts introduction standing at his computer in the school media center, nate 1called his four groupmates to his table. before him was a digital collection of the racist political cartoons drawn by theodore geisel. nate was disturbed that the man who went on to become dr .seuss and write endearing stories such as horton hears a who could be responsible for these images of hate. nate wanted his friends to see what “my childhood hero” had done. nate’s powerful response to the images before him surely impacted him as he went on to compose an evidence-based video essay about the japanese internment camps. these were images that he found and curated on his own, and that personal exploration went on to shape his argument. this article will share how a digital curation process that included an exploration of literary texts in preparation for a historical argument allowed students to explore and draw connections to historical content in very personal ways. review of literature digital curation refers to the use of digital tools to “select, preserve, collect, sort, categorize, and share digital assets,” (tsybulsky, 2020, p. 429). because curation mimics the everyday social media practices of learners, it facilitates student-directed learning and “ethical, factual, rigorous and balanced storytelling,” (mihailidis, 2015, p. 453). therefore, through digital curation “additional elements can be leveraged, such as the inclusion of social media to 1 all names are pseudonyms https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity mailto:ewalsh@lec.edu 129 disseminate collected content, the ability for other users to suggest content or leave comments and the critical evaluation and selection of aggregated content,” (ungerer,2016, p. 6). it is important to note that digital curation involves the use of multimodal texts, requiring students to consider the “meaning of systems of signs” that may be specific to different modes and genres of texts (kress, 1997, p. 6). semiotics, the theory that explores how humans create such signs to bring forth abstract ideas, includes the study of symbols, icons and indexes that can vary across modes (dewey et al., 2007). importantly, sign systems are not universal, and meaning is context-dependent; therefore, from a semiotic point of view, literacy is “the ability to use a variety of sign systems appropriate to contexts” (harste & carey, 2003, p. 494). the use of digital curation offers students expansive choice but also requires them to engage in complex meaning-making as they make sense of the various texts that might be curated in the process. at the same time, learners must also consider what texts to curate for their purposes. disciplinary literacy is an instructional approach to the teaching of reading, writing and literacy practices that emphasizes the “specialized knowledge and abilities” used by skilled readers and writers within specific disciplines (shanahan & shanahan, 2012, p. 7). those skills and abilities become the practices which allow the learner to develop discipline-specific understandings (moje, 2007). therefore, disciplinary literacy focuses on the discourse practices within the field to develop mindsets and practices inherent to the fields. for instance, research has suggested that content area knowledge is not the most important aspect of expert reading of history; rather, it is the ability to interpret texts through the use of subtexts and by studying how rhetorical choices within the text reveal writer’s purpose, audience, beliefs, and worldviews (wineburg, 1998, 319). socio-linguistic views of literacy are highly informed by semiotics because they posit that signs are learned through culture (smith, 1975). disciplinary literacy takes such an approach because it views learners as working as an apprentice within a discipline (moje, 2015). therefore, the content of the disciplines function as social semiotic systems, and teachers must develop and plan for authentic assessments that allow learners to draw from each discipline’s frames, scripts and schemas (bain, 2008). ela holds a unique position because of its emphasis on discourse among texts, but ela-specific literacy practices include emphasis on divergent perspectives (rainey & moje, 2012). disciplinary literacies inherent to literary texts offer readers the chance to gain an understanding of perspectives beyond their own. offering windows into other experiences has lasting implications. former harvard university president drew gilpin faust praised the humanities for its ability to widen the world and teach “empathy for people outside yourself,” (gilbert, 2016). unesco publishes resources for educators, such as a framework for teaching for tolerance of muslim people. key among its strategies is developing critical media literacy skills, incorporating theatre, and using the arts to allow learners to “bring a new understanding of muslim youth that challenges common misconceptions and stereotypes, and allows the struggles of those youth to be discussed” (unesco, 2011, p.41). the use of literature in professional development for health care professionals (bladon & bladon, 2019), and social workers (turner, 2013) has demonstrated increased empathy among providers. bibliotherapy, which employs books and other forms of literature, is an accepted therapeutic approach that can support patients with a variety of mental health disorders, in part because the use of literary texts can increase empathy, tolerance for others and interpersonal skills (rubin, 1978). methods 130 in 2017, mary wanted to create a purposeful final project for her advanced placement u.s. history classes. because she had a full month of class meetings after the students took the college board’s end-of-course exam, she decided to focus on skills often pushed aside in a survey class designed to cover a lot of content quickly. mary chose to develop a unit around historical thinking skills, focusing on the thematic strand of “time, continuity, and change” in the national curriculum standards for social studies (2010). among the important questions posed by the national council for social studies within this strand is: “how do perspectives about the past differ, and to what extent do these differences inform contemporary ideas and actions?” mary opted to partner with kathy, the ela teacher responsible for teaching most of the same students in honors english 10 classes. as the school literacy coach at the time, i was asked to join the planning. we opted to place students into inquiry groups to locate and curate sources about specific time periods. this curation process prepared them to compose individual video essays which addressed this question: “they say facts don’t change, but our understandings of them do. why do understandings of history change through time even though the events and the facts have not?” this article documents the curation work of one group of four students, two boys and two girls, in a case study. study participants were observed in classes and interviewed in small-group settings, allowing them to share their understandings and perceptions as they undertook various aspects of this project. all four participants (hailey, nate, mike and sarah) expressed an interest in the history of world war ii, so they quickly selected the time of japanese internment camps for their inquiry. their curation was organized around a shared digital bulletin board (padlet) in which students uploaded or linked curated materials, annotating the shared items (see fig.1). separate padlets were maintained for history and honors english 10 classes. in history, students were responsible for curating and analyzing historical documents; in ela class, they did the same for literary documents. informal writing assignments asked students to synthesize and analyze the contents of both padlets. after the curation and analysis process, the students created multimodal, evidence-based essays for history class. while the overall study focused on the role of multimodal composing in cross-disciplinary contexts, strong evidence of the value of the curation process emerged during data analysis. 131 fig.1. a screenshot of the shared padlet for student curation in history class. results and discussion during the curation process, students identified and shared 36 literary texts to the ela padlet. those texts included political cartoons, photographs, artwork, videos, poetry, and music. several students shared pictures and articles about memorials dedicated to internment camp survivors. unlike the historical documents, which largely included the government perspective using primary documents, most of the literary texts (33 of the 36 texts) focused on the japanese american experience, with much of it written and shared by camp survivors. for example, nate linked to a ted talk by actor george takei, in which he recalled living in the camps as a young boy (takei, 2014). while historical texts were used to trace shifting perspectives and often included milestones past the time (such as a documentary about the reparations movement during ronald reagan’s presidency), all the literary texts were situated in the time period itself, even though several of the texts were published more recently. in this section, i will share trends that emerged through careful analysis of data coded as “literary analysis/insight,” allowing me to find balance, nuance, and detail in the process (rubin & rubin, 2012). literary texts evoked strong emotions from the students during classroom observations of the curation process in both history and english classes, i observed two incidents when group members gathered to respond to a text that was curated by another member. the first incident occurred when nate found a website of political cartoons drawn by theodore geisel, who went on to become the famed children’s author dr.seuss. standing at his table, mike called the others over so he could share his laptop screen with them. as he clicked through the images, the other members expressed dismay at the blatantly racist images. after four images, nate simply said, “my childhood hero.” at that, mike patted his back and said, “that’s rough.” in history class the next day, hailey called sarah over to show her a picture of protestors at an airport shortly after president donald trump’s announcement of a travel ban from seven majority muslim countries. in the picture, a protestor stands before a sign that reads: “japanese jew against targeting entire groups of humans #never forget #never again.” as the girls talked softly about the image, sarah turned the conversation back to a painting she uploaded to the padlet the previous day. “i guess it’s just like another fence,” she commented. both nate and sarah used those powerful images in their essays, and they discussed their strong response during follow-up interviews. nate said that he could not believe that somebody whose life work was dedicated to messages of love and inclusion could be so manipulated by fear. in his video essay, nate began with frames of text that talked about the bombing of world war ii. his next frame reads, “artists, such as dr. seuss, expressed the hatred and racism that was growing in our country” as three racist images from the collection appear (see fig. 2 and 3). 132 fig. 2 and 3. screenshots of early frames in nate’s video essay. in the first frame, he introduces the political cartoons before showing the racist images in the second frame. the images were drawn by theodore geisel, who went on to become dr. seuss. nate was very upset when he discovered this images by his favorite childhood author. sarah showed the news photo of the airport protest directly after a clip of japanese internment camp survivors reacting to news of the passage of reparations in 1989 (see fig. 4). when asked why she chose that photo, sarah replied that the literary texts helped her to see what had not been shared in the primary documents – the voices of the japanese american, noting an absence of muslim perspectives in the news coverage of the travel ban. “i think now, knowing that there could be even more manipulation through what the president is saying, what congress is saying, because they are all on the same team that sees muslims as a threat,” she said. by putting the images of reparations and muslim ban together, she indicated a desire to show viewers the u.s. was making a similar mistake. upon reflecting on the photograph, sarah said she worried that muslims were being silenced in the same way japanese americans were during world war ii. fig. 4. screenshot of photograph sarah used in her video essay. why those emotions mattered all four students entered the study with significant evidence of content knowledge; they had a history of success in advanced-level high school history courses, and they often shared their historical knowledge of world war ii while discussing the project in interviews. in fact, it was that knowledge and interest that had led them to select the internment camp as the topic of the project. however, even high achieving high school students often fail to read for subtext when engaging in historical inquiry, often because secondary students are offered anthologized, historical texts that are “merely the shell” of those that are considered by academic historians (wineburg, 1991, p. 500). these texts are usually excerpted and stripped of much of the context that could be used for sophisticated and nuanced understandings. in short, the texts are dull. the emotional response to the texts described above indicates that the curation process allowed students access to deeper and richer texts. the students engaged in meaning making through a personal process that evoked strong emotions and situated their understandings within their own experiences, values and beliefs. this helped them to contextualize their arguments in ways that brought purpose to their multimodal essays and helped them to think critically about the topic. during observations of their classwork, both sarah and nate shared 133 their reactions with their group members; this social nature of their learning demonstrated that the students were, indeed, creating a community with a shared disciplinary purpose. in summary, the strong emotional responses to the texts helped the students develop a greater sense of purpose and identity that positioned them to make more authentic historical arguments. literary texts humanized history all four of the students indicated that the literary texts helped them understand the human cost of the internment camps. sarah and hailey identified a theme of silencing within the literary texts. “a lot of sources talk about silence and being fenced in, and when you read (a historical document) that reports that the japanese are doing fine..love it…are safe in the camps…it just shows how the japanese americans were being silenced by these people, who were trying to keep their opinions low, minimize it.” hailey added, “the historical texts showed what actually happened, but i liked the literary ones because you could see the reactions and how we got to the point of (changing our attitudes about the camps).” for the boys, the literary texts required them to draw inferences and engage in a difficult process of meaning-making to truly understand the impact of the internment camp on the victims. the literary texts required them to take a more active role as researcher. “looking at someone else’s viewpoint is hard. i have to think about what they are saying, not what i want to say,” mike explained. nate agreed, adding, “history is about what happened, but in english it was more about what was relevant and important.” in their final projects, all four of the students brought their video essays to a discussion of how fear harmed the japanese americans. mike concluded his video with a frame that said “today, there is more sympathy for the japanese americans affected” as sombre music played. nate, on the other hand, used video clips and pictures of survivors and wrote a simple line, “people became aware of the personal experiences of those in the internment camp” to demonstrate the consequences of unchecked fear. hailey and sarah both made more direct comparisons between the fear americans felt during world war ii and current fear of muslims. for example, hailey ended her video with the text, “hopefully we can apply the lessons learned from japanese internment camps to the issues in our country today.” why it mattered that history was seen as a human endeavour in a written analysis and reflection of the curation completed in her honors english 10 class, hailey took time to share the literature about the camps that she discovered during curation. these stories, hailey wrote, tell “the story of those who fought to survive in the camps, and it gives a new perspective to people like fdr, showing how to them, they were villains.” in his reflection, mike wrote, “art and writing has shifted to wanting people to understand the suffering when it happened and giving (sic) the real facts.” to both hailey and mike, the literary texts allowed them to consider perspectives and voices that had largely been silenced in the historical moment. disciplinary literacy in the ela classroom is often focused on rhetorical aspects of the text; that is, ela scholars often explore how author’s identity and purpose intersect both with the situational context and the audience in ways that are discursive and open to interpretation (warren, 2013). because history textbooks often share texts with limited perspective, the students may rely heavily on the understanding of history that is shared through those textbooks. however, genuine historical argumentation restores agency to the reader, allowing them to select from a wide variety of texts (wineburg & reisman, 2015). such wide variety will naturally mean that students are forced to consider perspectives to understand these 134 historical texts. this sense that history is open to interpretation and is dependent upon perspectives may feel unnatural to students whose history education has been dominated by textbook accounts of history. bridging those skills between history and ela classrooms offers students a familiar model for such work, inviting them to consider history as a discipline that requires them to create meaning through interpretation. literary texts slowed down the meaning making process including the curation of literary texts in this historical inquiry complicated the process. during observations of class workdays, i witnessed some frustration as students synthesized their understandings of the different types of texts. i even overheard one student (not a participant in the study) tell mary, “i just wish you’d tell me what to put in here.” nate explained that the literary texts required careful consideration. “yeah, you had to pick their opinions out from the texts, and that was hard. the historical documents were pretty straightforward with what people thought and what they were doing.” still, students saw value in the choice that the curation allowed when composing the video essay. as sarah told me, “i feel like selecting sources was a big part (of the video essay).” it was clear that the literary texts required students to slow down their inquiry into the historical time period. curating the literary texts introduced different genres and modalities into the process. as nate shared with me, “i feel like it was a lot easier to find historical documents.” students drew inferences from the various literary texts, and then they considered how those inferences related to the historical documents they found. reflecting on her students, mary shared, “you can see (the students) thinking about the background of the documents and not just the words they were saying.” kathy agreed, adding, “(they) had a better appreciation for the cultural contexts… in history, you might have a section that glosses over the cultural elements ...but not so much on the impact.” how slowing down helps in today’s classroom, literacy is a complex idea that moves beyond reading and writing. digital technologies shape the nature of literacies both in academic and social life. in 1996, the new london group called for teachers to embrace new pedagogies for new literacies (new london group, 1996). two key ideas that emerged were situated practice and critical framing. situated practice is premised on the idea that students already bring vernacular practice from their lives outside of school that must be bridged with academic learning (gee, 2004). critical framing allows the learner to ask questions of socio-cultural contexts and purposes of learning, increasingly important as our life experiences become more globalized through technology (new london group, 1996; cope & kalantzis, 2000). often, teachers and students do not stop to consider just how complex a given text may be, especially if those texts are not traditionally seen as academic. requiring students to slow down their meaning-making process allows them to make observations that may have been missed otherwise. much of the information we receive in today’s world is synthesized and multimodal; that is, we often gather information in various forms. in this case, students probably brought their vernacular knowledge about video texts, knowledge they may have drawn from watching social media or youtube videos. because the literary texts challenged students to synthesize different genres and perspectives, students were given time to consider how this may impact the texts they want to compose in response to the prompt. the visual nature of some of the literary texts, such as the paintings and memorials, invited them to share that understanding in multiple modes. 135 conclusion the study of rhetoric is central to ela disciplinary literacy and can prepare students for literacy tasks across other disciplines (warren, 2018). because they understood the perspectives of the victims of the internment policies, participants in this study were better positioned to use their rhetorical skills to analyze what was left unsaid in historical texts. such literary argument requires the consideration of subtexts, and this prepared students to engage in historical arguments as interpretive and deliberative (monte-sano, 2011). the literary texts invited the students to see themselves as active participants in historical thinking. the different opinions and perspectives introduce through the literary texts helped students identify differing accounts of history, an important aspect of historical reasoning (monte-sano & de la paz, 2012). importantly, because the participants actively found and selected these texts, they were positioned to bring their own interpretations and experiences to the task. this can be seen by the unique ways each chose to use the found literary texts. for instance, nate’s strong response to the geisel cartoon spurred him to explore why americans became so consumed by fear. on the other hand, hailey and sarah found several poems and paintings that demonstrated the lack of voice and silencing of victims. this led them both to spend much of their argument exploring how such silencing of others might continue today. while few of the literary texts were used in the video essays, the understandings they helped illuminate were central to them. the english language arts classroom is often the heart of research skill building. ela teachers often invite students to practice evidence-based writing that is more rooted in other disciplines. in my own teaching, for instance, i have had students research underage drinking, vaccination laws and food stamp initiatives. in that process, i taught my students to take strong notes, track their resources and formulate appropriate arguments using style guides and academic conventions. but in doing so, i may not have considered how to use the literacies and text types specific to ela and related humanities to enhance and support students in those tasks. ela teachers focus students on building rhetorical analysis – asking students to consider author’s identity, purpose, context and audience so that students are better able to both analyze others’ arguments and create their own (warren, 2018). in this study, the students naturally considered such rhetorical concerns as they responded to literary texts, and that allowed them to craft historical arguments that were nuanced and deliberative. the students understood the need to consider various perspectives and made composing choices focused on amplifying those perspectives. by curating and responding to literary texts, these students understood research as more than just a system of steps, but an exploration of ideas. references bain, r.b. 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(2015). disciplinary literacy in history. journal of adolescent and adult literacy, 58(8), 636-639. acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol. 7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 88 vocabulary enhancement through presentation, practice, production(ppp) method in the rural efl classrooms caroline v. katemba linakatemba@gmail.com faculty of teachers training & educational sciences universitas advent indonesia doi: 10.35974/acuity.v7i1.2774 abstract the purpose of this research was to look into how to improve students' vocabulary achievement by using the presentation, practice, and production method. this study used both quantitative research and an experimental design. in this study, 68 seventh-grade students from smp negeri in bandung barat participated. they were split into two groups: the control and the experimental. both groups received the same pre-test. the presentation, practice, and production method was taught to the experimental group, while the traditional method was taught to the control group. statistical analysis of the data revealed a significant difference in enhancement between the experimental and control groups. both groups improved, but the control group did not outperform the experimental group. the researcher recommended that the teacher teach vocabulary using the presentation, practice, production method because it is effective in increasing student vocabulary in rural efl classrooms.. keyword: ppp, vocabulary improvement, experimental vs control. introduction all types of english as a foreign language teaching can be effectively developed if we have a thorough understanding of the learner as well as the teaching and learning process. teaching english as a foreign language necessitates not only brains but also the ability to make students comprehend, appreciate and interested in learning english as a foreign language. english consists of both skills and sub-skills. it has the following abilities: reading, writing, speaking, and listening. its sub-skills include vocabulary, grammar, and collocation. among these sub-skills, vocabulary is one of the most important aspects of english, and learning it effectively is crucial. according to swan and walter (1984), "vocabulary acquisition is the largest and most important task confronting the language learner." course books began to include activities that focused on specific vocabulary." what is the significance of vocabulary? according to wilkins (as cited in thornbury, 2002), "you can say very little with grammar, but almost anything with words." https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity mailto:linakatemba@gmail.com acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol. 7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 89 today, all second language theorists and practitioners recognize the importance of vocabulary in language teaching. for a long time, it was thought that vocabulary could only be taught in isolated word lists; however, there are now numerous ways to teach vocabulary. the most common belief among them is the critical importance of vocabulary in communication and language teaching; the more words we know, the more fluently we can communicate. (schmitt 2000, richards and renandya, 2002) aside from the previously mentioned statements about the importance of vocabulary, "it is to emphasize that there have been a great number of different approaches to language learning, each with a different outlook on vocabulary" (richards & rodgers, 2001). "vocabulary learning is now widely regarded as one of the most important aspects of both native language acquisition and foreign language learning (morra & camba, 2009). the importance of vocabulary learning and retention in the minds of learners cannot be overstated. as a result, it should be taught in such a way that learners will be able to recall them easily, knowing how to use and when to use words. until recently, vocabulary had a significant problem in that it was not regarded as an important factor in language teaching. vocabulary was not as important as it is now, and vocabulary instruction was relegated to a secondary role in foreign language instruction. furthermore, vocabulary instruction was regarded as unimportant, ineffective, and time-consuming. vocabulary instruction was not given the necessary importance in foreign language teaching around the world. fortunately, there has been a lot of interest in vocabulary teaching over the last few decades (richards & renandya, 2002). similarly, katemba (2019; 2021) stated that indonesian students struggle to learn english vocabulary due to differences in the form and structure of the language. students only learn english in primary school; however, not all primary schools in the country introduce english; however, students generally learn the language in junior high school. furthermore, taebenu and katemba (2021); katemba (2022); emphasized that when teaching english vocabulary, the teacher should use a variety of approaches to pique the students' interest in learning the language and overcome challenges in the classroom. furthermore, berliani and katemba (2021) stated that vocabulary is the most important aspect to learn because it is used for communication to communicate ideas, and vocabulary knowledge is required to comprehend a text. teacher should have a strong influence in the classroom (tobing, 2016). based on these specific cases, the researcher in this study intends to investigate a method for improving vocabulary learning. apparently, there are numerous operative vocabulary learning methods; the researcher employs presentation, practice, and production (ppp) as one of several methods for teaching vocabulary. the researcher demonstrated how effective the presentation, practice, and production method is in improving students' vocabulary achievement. this method has been used for many years, but researchers modified it to include communicative activities to learn vocabulary as the foundation for https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol. 7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 90 learning english as one of the foreign languages for indonesian students, which must be learned from junior high school until university level. knowing this case, the researcher wanted to find an interesting method to teach vocabulary as the way to enhance students learning in english. the researcher applied the modified presentation, practice, and production (ppp) method. practicing the modified presentation, practice, production in teaching can increase students vocabulary in the classroom, and the students will not be bored with the communicative activities material given by the teacher, and the students will feel it likes a game but, it will be able to enhance their vocabulary. pham & do (2021) did a study on a quasi-experimental comparing two classes one used the ppp( presentation, practice, production) method and the other uses tbi (task based instructions) found that the tbi group increases their grammatical performances in speaking and writing but did not outperform the ppp group. based on the information presented above, the researcher wishes took a topic in titled " vocabulary enhancement through modified presentation, practice, production (ppp) method in the rural efl context" at smp negeri cisarua in bandung. this study then intended to answer the following questions: is there any significant difference in the vocabulary enhancement of grade vii students between those who are taught through a modified presentation, practice and production (ppp) method and those who are taught through conventional method? based on the problems mentioned above, especially supported by previous researchers about the use presentation, practice, production in learning strategy in improving students’ vocabulary, the researcher provided the hypothesis as follows: null hypothesis (ho):there is no significant difference in the vocabulary enhancement of grade vii students between those who are taught through a modified presentation, practice and production (ppp) methods and those who are taught through conventional method? alternative hypothesis (ha): there is a significant difference in the vocabulary enhancement of grade vii students between those who are taught through a modified presentation, practice and production (ppp) methods and those who are taught through conventional method? with this study, the writer hopes that this study may be useful for the teachers, curriculum planner and the future researcher: (1). english teacher: this study is expected to make sure it can help teachers to become a skillful teacher in teaching vocabulary through presentation, practice, production method. (2). future research: this study helps the english major students as future researcher to consider for another study using this method in different context. (3). https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol. 7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 91 curriculum planner: to help the curriculum planner to consider this methodology/method to be included as a part of teaching vocabulary achievement at the beginner level. methodology this research uses quantitative research and experimental design, where the researcher started to test the understanding of the students through pre-test giving the treatments and the last is post-test to find out if learning vocabulary through a modified presentation, practice, production method gave a significant effect towards students’ vocabulary achievement. the research design is described in the following table: table 1: research design note: o : students’ vocabulary pre-test and post-test x : using modified presentation, practice, production method participants the population for this study was all students in grade vii at smpn cisarua in bandung, which consisted of five classes. and the sample in this study consisted of two classes from grade vii b and grade vii d, with grade vii b serving as the experimental group and grade vii d serving as the control group. the experimental group consisted of 37 students, while the control group consisted of 39 students. the total number of respondents was 68 students. research instrument this study's instruments were a pre-test and post-test vocabulary test. the pre-test is intended to assess students' vocabulary abilities prior to implementing the presentation, practice, production method. the post-test is intended to assess the study's outcome after employing the modified presentation, practice, and production method. the vocabulary tests are in the form of fill-in-the-blank questions and a picture test. in this study, visual aids were used in the presentation and practice stages, as well as communicative activities. data gathering and procedures in gathering the data and procedures, the researcher employed the following steps: experimental o x o control o o https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol. 7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 92 preparatory phase a. construction of all instruments needed preparation of the lesson plan preparation of the teaching material of a modified presentation, practice, production from the text book of grade vii and internet. constructing of the pilot test to be administered b. pilot test or try out of instructional to other group of students at smpn cisarua, bandung. c. submission of instructional materials such as pilot test and teaching preparation to the english language expert. d. polishing the instrument to be used in this study and submitted to the language expert. actual research pre-test pre-test is conducted to diagnose the students’ prior ability in vocabulary knowledge, and it is conducted before the researcher gives the treatment. pre-test instrument was in the form of multiple choice question, fill in the blank, matching test form and picture test. treatments on the daily lesson following the administration of the pre-test, the treatments were administered to the experimental group. the control group, on the other hand, used the traditional method, relying solely on the school's text-book. for the experimental group, there are several steps in teaching vocabulary using the presentation, practice, and production method: presentation the teacher introduces the day's lesson. the teacher introduces new words or structures through activities such as: displays the image as well as its name. demonstrates the brevity of the conversation provide a matching game provide a simple song. using a puppet, tell a story. practice students practice controlled use of words or structures, such as making sentences from prompts, asking and answering questions, and providing sentences based on a picture. oral or written practice is acceptable. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol. 7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 93 production the teacher instructs the students to create a list of pictures and their names, to hold a group conversation and to perform it in front of the class, and to create a list of words in the form of flashcards. post-test after the treatment, both the experimental and control groups of students were given a post-test. by calculating the data, the researcher discovered that there is a significant enhancement in students' vocabulary after implementing the presentation, practice, and production method, particularly to see if there is a significant difference between the mean of the experimental class's pre-test and post-test and the mean of the control class's pre-test and post-test. the post-test instrument consisted of multiple-choice questions, fill-in-the-blank questions, and a picture test. several statistical tests were done for the instruments used such as finding the validity, level of difficulty, discrimination index and the reliability in which it was calculated through statistical package for social science (spss) and excel software and the result can be found in the following recapitulation table. recapitulation table from this table, the researcher knows what number that can be used in this research as the pre-test and post-test. the recapitulation table can be seen in the table 2. table 2: recapitulation number of questions validity level of difficulty discrimination reliability 7, 12 not valid moderate very bad high 13, 36, 66, 67 not valid difficult very bad 17 not valid easy very bad 3 very low moderate satisfactory 8, 64, 69 very low difficult poor 10 very low difficult very bad 11 very low moderate very bad 24, 57 very low easy poor 46, 48 very low moderate poor 2, 34, 40, 63 low moderate poor 4, 15, 19, 33, 37, 41, 44, 45, 47, 49, 50, 68 low moderate satisfactory https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol. 7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 94 9 low difficult good 16 low difficult satisfactory 20, 21, 22, 23, 26, 31, 32 low easy poor 27, 56 low easy good 38, 54 low easy satisfactory 42 low moderate good 1, 5, 6, 18, 28, 29, 51,70 moderate moderate good 30, 52, 55, 59, 61 moderate easy good 39, 43, 60, 62 moderate easy satisfactory 65 moderate difficult satisfactory 14, 25 high moderate exellent 35, 58 high easy good 53 high easy exellent based on the recapitulation test, this research used 50 questions for pre-test and post-test; it is based on the result of the researcher’s observation and used testing instrument through anates v4 and also consideration from the advisors. there are 63 questions were valid and then the researcher decided to take 50 questions and the researcher used number 8, 9, 10, 16, 64, 65, 69 (7 questions) as the difficult questions. as the moderate questions, the researcher used 31 questions, and the number of the questions are; 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 11, 14, 15, 18, 19, 25, 28, 29, 33, 34, 37, 40, 41, 42, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 63, 68, 70. for the easy questions, the researcher took 12 questions, and the number of the questions are; 30, 35, 39, 43, 52, 53, 55, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62. for the questions with the number 7, 12, 13, 36, 66, 67, 17, they are not used for this research because they are not valid questions. there are also several numbers that are not used and it is based on the validity test, level of difficulty and discrimination test and the number of the questions are; 24, 57, 20, 21, 22, 23, 26, 31, 32, 27, 56, 38, 54. they are not used because from the level of difficulty in the recapitulation table they are classified easy questions. so, there are 20 that were questions are not used from 70 questions for this research. data processing the researcher used statistical package for social science (spss) to calculate the data. spss is a kind of computer program for statistically computation. the level of significance is 5%. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol. 7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 95 normalized gain gain is the result of the test which is achieved by a student in an examination in certain subject through deduction process of pre-test and post-test,. so, this formula is used to find whether an improvement of students’ achievement vocabulary appeared in both experimental group and control group from the result of the pre-test and post-test. (g) = % 𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑠𝑡− % 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑡𝑒𝑠𝑡 100 %−% 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑡𝑒𝑠𝑡 where: (g) : normalized gain % pre-test: percentage of pre-test scores % post-test: percentage of post-test classification of gain score: table 3 : classification of gain score test of normality normality test is done to see whether the population normalized gain score are normally distributed or not. in this normality test, normalized gain may be considered normally distributed if the significance (sig) > α 0.05. shapiro-wilk test is the most powerful normality test and because the data were 60 above. (razali and wah, 2011). criteria of normality test: 1. if p-value (sig.) ≥α = 0.05, means the population normalized gain score is normally distributed 2. if p-value (sig.) ≤ α = 0.05, means the population normalized gain score is not normally distributed. homogeneity test homogeneity test is a test to discover whether the population variances of the two groups is distributed homogeneously to one another or not. criteria of homogeneity: 1. if p value (sig.) ≥ α= 0.05, means the population variance is homogeny 2. if p value (sig.) ≤α= 0.05, means the population variance is not homogeny gain score value interpretation 0.00-0.30 low 0.310.70 moderate 0.710.100 high https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol. 7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 96 hypothesis testing the researcher used this formula to find the differences between scores of pre-test and post-test from both experimental group and control group after being given the treatment. the hypothesis to be tested: ho: µ1 = µ2 ha: µ1 ≠ µ2 where: µ1: average normalized gain of the experimental group of students’ vocabulary achievement µ2: average normalized gain of the control group of students’ vocabulary achievement criteria of t-test: if, pvalue (sig.) ≤ α (.050): ho is rejected. it means there is a significant difference in the vocabulary achievement of grade vii students between those who are taught through modified presentation practice production (ppp) method and those who are taught through conventional method. if, pvalue (sig.) ≥ α (.050): ho is not rejected. it means there is no significant difference in the vocabulary achievement of grade vii students between those who are taught through presentation practice production (presentation, practice, production) modified method and those who are taught through conventional method. discussion and findings in gathering the data of the research, the researcher gave vocabulary test to see the enhancement of students’ vocabulary through modified presentation, practice, production method. the data was calculated through excel and spps computer software programs. table 4: pre-test, post-test and normalized gain experimental group control group mean st. deviation mean st. deviation pre-test 27.230 3.786 30.108 2.903 post-test 43.205 2.627 35.513 3.678 normalized gain 0.710 0.087 0.278 0.116 based on the result of the table 4, the average of the control group in pre-test is 30.108 and the post-test is 35.513, and the mean in the experimental group of pretest is 27.230 and the post test is 43.205. standard deviation each group in spss https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol. 7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 97 16, the results is 0.116 for the control group, while the experimental group is 0.087. so, from the table above, the normalized gain of experimental group is higher than control group. normalized gain in this research gain of the test has been conducted in the vocabulary achievement of grade vii students between those who are taught through a modified presentation, practice and production (ppp) modified method and those who are taught through conventional method, and it was based on the pre-test and post-test result of each group and it can be seen from the table 5. the researcher discovered an average gain score for the control group is 0.278 and for the experimental group is 0.710. it shows that there is an increasing of experimental group after treatment. however, the conclusion should be drawn after the statistical normality test after gain has been conducted and the researcher discovered an average normalized gain score for the control group is 0.278 and for the experimental group is 0.710, and the researcher used the spss 16 to calculate the normality of the data for examining the probability distribution of the data. table 12 shows the result of the normality test: table 5: the result of normality test tests of normality a. lilliefors significance correction based on the data result in the table 5, this research used the output from the shapiro-wilk, because shapiro-wilk is the most powerful normality test and because the sample of the data were 60 above (razali and wah, 2011). according to the criteria of the normality test, the data is normally distributed if both data have p-value (sig) larger (>) than 𝛼=0.050 and data is not normal if p-value smaller (<) than 𝛼= 0.050. and based on the result from the table above, both data was normally distributed because the significant score of the gain score for the experimental group was (sig) .098 larger (>) than 𝛼 =.050 and the significant of the gain score for the control class was (sig) .070 larger (>) than 𝛼 =.050. group shapiro-wilk statistic df sig. gain control group .950 37 .098 experimental group .948 39 .070 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol. 7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 98 homogeneity test based on statistics if both of the data were normally distributed, then homogeneity test was used. the result of the homogeneity can be seen in the following table: table 6 based on the table above this research used the data that based on mean because the data was normally distributed. according to the criteria of the homogeneity tests the data is homogenous if p value (sig) larger (>) than 𝛼 = .050 and the data is not homogenous if p value is smaller (<) than 𝛼= .050. based on the result of the data above, it can be conclude that the population variance are homogenous. hypothesis testing because it was proven that the value of the gain score of the students was normally distributed, the researcher had to perform hypothesis testing by using parametric independent sample t-test. independent samples test based on the data above, the researcher used the data of equal variance assumed concern that the population variances are homogenous and sig (2-tailed, it is according to the criteria of independent of sample t test, if the value (sig) is smaller (<) than 0.05 it means that ho is rejected, if value (sig) is larger (>) it test of homogeneity of variances gain levene statistic df1 df2 sig. based on mean 2.401 1 74 .126 levene's test t-test for equality of means 95% confidence interval of the difference f sig. t df sig. (2tailed) mean differenc e std. error differenc e lower upper gai n equal varianc es assume d 2.40 1 .126 18.43 1 74 .000 .4324160 .0234612 .479163 5 .385668 5 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol. 7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 99 means that ho is not rejected. and based on the result sig (2 tailed) the sig. value is 0.000 and it is smaller < than 0.05. discussion the study sought an answer to the question, "is there any significant difference in the vocabulary enhancement of grade vii students between those who are taught using a modified presentation, practice, and production (ppp) method and those who are taught using a conventional method?" based on the data presented above, it was discovered that there is a significant difference between the experimental and control groups. it is clear that the experimental group outperformed the control group. according to lagalo (2013), learning vocabulary through the presentation, practice, and production method is effective and interesting, and it has been demonstrated that students' post-test scores are higher than their pre-test scores; additionally, it has motivated students to learn vocabulary as a foundation for learning a language. so, to determine the effectiveness of the method in teaching, the researcher can look at the results of the post-test from the students in the experimental group, and presentation, practice, and production method is the most effective method in teaching english vocabulary. thamrin (2008) stated that the presentation, practice, and production methods produce significantly different results, implying that the presentation, practice, and production method is a more effective method than the traditional method for improving students' vocabulary achievement. the presentation, practice, and production method is an engaging way for students to learn english. as a result, the researcher used the presentation, practice, and production method in this study to improve student vocabulary achievement, and the presentation, practice, and production method is beneficial in improving student vocabulary achievement in grade vii students at smpn 3 cisarua. otherwise, the researcher can conclude that using the presentation, practice, and production method can improve students' vocabulary because it has been proven and supported by several theories and studies that show the presentation, practice, and production method is the most effective in teaching vocabulary. conclusion as a result, it is concluded that using a modified presentation, practice, and production improved the vocabulary knowledge of efl students in a rural area of bandung, indonesia. it can help students learn vocabulary in an easy way, and they can be more active by doing the presentation. it can also help students understand better by practicing, and it can help students be more creative by creating a product from their learning, which can make them interested in learning english. recommendation after the findings of this research, the researcher gave several recommendations to increase students’ vocabulary achievement through presentation, practice, production method: https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol. 7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 100 english teacher: the presentation, practice, and production method is recommended for english teachers when teaching vocabulary because it can pique students' interest, motivate them, and make them more active, understandable, and creative in their use of the vocabulary in their daily lives. future researchers: the researcher also advises future researchers to use the presentation, practice, production method in teaching vocabulary to students for a longer period of time and to compare several classes to see if there is a significant difference between students who were taught using the presentation, practice, production method and those who were taught using the conventional method, and this result can be used as a reference, resource, and guidance for the same research in getting the same results. references berliani, n., a. & katemba, c., v. (2021). the art of enhancing vocabulary through technology. journal of english language teaching and applied linguistics (smart). vol.7 no.1. https://doi.org/10.26638/js.1340.203x bui, t. l. d., & newton, j. (2021). ppp in action: insights from primary efl lessons in vietnam. language teaching for young learners, 3(1), 93-116. katemba, c., v. (2019), students’ vocabulary enhancement at grade 10: a comparative study using call & mall in indonesia. call-ej, 20(1), 87-114. http://callej.org/journal/20-1/katemba2019.pdf katemba, c. v. (2021). enhancing vocabulary performance through mobile assisted language learning at a rural school in indonesia. acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature and culture, 6(1), 111. https://doi.org/10.35974/acuity.v6i1.2457 katemba, c.v. (2022), vocabulary enhancement through multimedia learning among grade 7th efl students. mextesol journal, vol.46 no.1, 2022. http://www.mextesol.net/journal/index.php?page=journal&id_article=46009 morra, s., & camba, r. (2009). vocabulary learning in primary school children: working memory and long-term memory components. journal of experimental child psychology, 104(2), 156-178. pazmiño vargas, r. j. (2021). effectiveness of presentation, practice and production method on the development of speaking fluency (master's thesis, pontificia universidad católica del ecuador). pham, v. p. h., & do, t. h. (2021). the impacts of task-based instruction on students' grammatical performances in speaking and writing skills: a https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity https://doi.org/10.26638/js.1340.203x http://callej.org/journal/20-1/katemba2019.pdf https://doi.org/10.35974/acuity.v6i1.2457 http://www.mextesol.net/journal/index.php?page=journal&id_article=46009 acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol. 7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 101 quasi-experimental study. international journal of instruction, 14(2), 969-986. razali, n. m. and wah, y. b. (2011), power comparisons of shapiro-wilk, kolmogorov-smirnov, lilliefors and anderson-darling tests. journal of statistical modeling and analytics, vol 2 (1):21–33. richard-amato, p. a.(2003). making it happen: from interactive to participatory language teaching: theory and practice, 2nd ed. new york: longman. richards, jack c. and renandya willy a. (2002). methodology in language teaching: an anthology of current practice cambridge: cambridge university press. schmitt, norbert. (2000). vocabulary in language teaching: cambridge language education. cambridge: university press. swan, m. (1984). basic english usage. oxford university press. taebenu,s.f., & katemba, c.,v. (2021). vocabulary enhancement through memrise and google classroom. language literacy: journal of linguistics, literature and language teaching. volume 5, number 1, pp: 228-241. https://doi.org/10.30743/ll.v5i1.3813 tarina, f. n., & yana, y. (2021). an analysis on the eighth students’ perception of the aplication ppp (presentation, practice and production) technique in teaching writing descriptive text. project (professional journal of english education), 4(5), 783-788. thornbury, s. (2002). cited in david wilkins. 1972. how to teach vocabulary.(london: person education limited, 2002). tobing, j. h. l. (2016). school leadership, culture, strategy and teacher’s working performance. journal of international scholars conference educational/sciences 1(2), 119-134. retrieved from https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/jiscedu/article/view/288 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity https://doi.org/10.30743/ll.v5i1.3813 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/jiscedu/article/view/288 microsoft word caroline & rafael-r.docx acuity (5)1, 12-28 building grade 10 students’ vocabulary achievement through reading the news paper at smk 45 lembang caroline v katemba1, rafael r parillia2 corresponding author: caroline (linakatemba@gmail.com) universitas advent indonesia1 attila management, flow health & mitigate cyber services, ca. usa2 doi 10.35974/acuity.v4i2.1089 journal’s name: acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature & culture vol. 5, number 1. published january 10,2020 abstract using the newspaper as a medium of learning english is a unique way to stimulate students’ interest in reading, since students at this age is a student who has dropped their interest in reading. therefore, the researchers decided to use the newspaper as a medium to build students’ vocabulary. researcher chose participant in the study of class xb and xe in smk 45 lembang. the school gave these two classes as the sample, because believed that each class has the cognitive abilities and knowledge that are relatively equal. in this study, researchers randomly selected from among the two classes used as a sample for the control and experimental class. as the result, researchers found class x e as control class, and x b as an experimental class. the study lasted for a full month, in which each class received different treatment. as a result, the gain value of experimental class is higher than the control class. moreover, based on the result of the data analysis with the mann-whitney u test method, it showed that that there were significant differences in students’ vocabulary growth, between control class and experimental class. based on the calculation of non-parametric mann whitney u test, the gain data between experimental class and control class show the value of asymp sig. (0.000), zα (0.05) and the value of z (4.847). z α (1.96). therefore, it can be concluded that the method of using newspaper as a teaching material has a positive impact in the absorption and growth in students’ vocabulary. keywords: vocabulary achievement, reading, newspaper introduction “now a days, the mastery of english competence is needed in facing the globalizations era. that makes the government of indonesia do some efforts. one of them is by promoting english as a local content at elementary school, to start the proficiency of english from the early age. therefore in indonesia, english is viewed not only as an indispensable vehicle of access to acuity (5)1, 12-28 scholarly disciplines but also as a mediun for international commnications as mentioned by katemba (2013). today, there are many problems in education. the problems occur no only in terms of the government’s limited funds to provide adequate facilities for the school and students, or the moral decline of students, which recently became widespread in media discussion because of frequent fights among school students, but also from what might be considered important by most people, that is about the students’ interest in reading especially reading when then text is written or printed in english. this problem actually will have a considerable impact on the continuity of education, especially in indonesia. one of the consequences of the reading problem it will decrease student’s interest in a literary quality. the researcher’s argue is that it is impossible for someone who has not no interest in reading, will have a good insight in education. this will lead to poor quality of the paper to be produced, because a little insight will influence the content and scope of the writing itself, especially in english language education. furthermore, the researcher assumes that the lack of insight into a particular student in english, due to lack of vocabulary that is owned by the students. as explained above, the lack of insight due to student disinterest in reading will result in a lack of quality writing produced. well, the poor quality of the writing is the result of lack of vocabulary owned by a student or a writer. for example, according to time4writing.com that the researcher cited on november 18, 2012 depicts a writer as a mechanic. in addition, every good mechanics definitely have a mailbox full of tools. some tools are more commonly used more that others are, but of course, each of those tools has a specific purpose. it has the same idea with the chef who has a lot of menus and ingredients that contained in the menu. some ingredients are more commonly use than other ingredients, but each ingredient has a specific purpose, such as the use of chili intended to make the food spicier and people who eat it will be more excited. in much the same way, writer or student has a “recipe”. this “recipe” is continually increasing and filled with items like grammar, punctuation, and other things, especially vocabulary. just as a good chef can choose the right groceries or ingredients to make a tasty food even more tasteful or delicious, a good writer can choose the right words to make their writing even more “tasteful”. moreover, one “recipe” that can “flavor” the writing is a strong vocabulary. time4writing.com stated that people use either spoken or written words every single day to communicate ideas, thoughts, and emotions to those around us. in addition, the most important thing to make them successful in conveying their ideas is vocabulary. when students face a writing assignment, a good vocabulary is an important tool. if they have several synonyms in their repertoire (“recipe”), they will be able to choose the best word for the job. for example, if students use a word like “stuff” or “things’, when they write an essay, then their writing will become ‘tasteless’ or flat. here is an example: @poor: people do a lot of things @ better: people perform a lot of tasks that is why the researcher argues that it is impossible for them to have a good “recipe” if they do not have an interest in reading. one cause of the lack of student interest in reading is because they spend more time to other things that they consider more attractive. one of them is to open social networking sites like facebook and twitter. it cannot be denied, that there are also important and actual information that these sites provide, but they usually did not read it. based on the data that the researcher gets from ipsos survey on october 4, 2012 it was stat that there are 64 percent’s habits of internet users aged 15-29 years in indonesia, just open the social networking site to chat with friends and update their status. acuity (5)1, 12-28 therefore, in the researcher’s opinion, one way to build vocabulary is to get them interested in reading. one good medium for students to read is the newspaper, either the printed or online newspapers on the internet or what we now call e-paper or electronic newspapers. the reason why the researcher chose newspapers a s medium to attract interest in reading for students, especially to build their vocabulary, is that the newspapers have many advantages over printed books or textbooks. one of the advantages of newspapers that a printed book is a material that is always updated everyday, while the printed book is to be revised every five years. moreover, newspapers serve us with all kinds of news. people can understand the newspaper because they have a general capability of a language. anisha (2011) stated that it is quite possible to teach english with the help of the newspaper. we can use the language written by experts in the newspapers to teach and improve language, especially to build students vocabulary. according to anisha (2011), teaching through newspapers is effective because they stimulate content learning and improve language skills. at this time, the newspaper has been used widely in many countries as one instrument in teaching the english language, as it is considered more economical than textbooks and lks (students” worksheet), which trigger high school students to be indolent in reading. some articles on education in indonesia have recently argued that the lks triggered students to be lazy in reading. lks is a summary of some of the lessons at the same time also contents sheets questions that should be done by the students. in the research’s opinion, the reason why lks cause students to be lazy to read a printed book is because lks provides the instant information that the students needed in their lessons. this makes the students become accustomed to instant information and felt that was enough information for them to do the tasks given by the teachers, without the desire to underrated the lesson deeper. this is one of the factors that cause shallow understanding of the students in their lesson. atmojo (2011), in his article said that lks reduce the thought ability of the students. another article on malang-post.com also show the same idea that lks gives the student instant information without giving them a chance to evaluate and conclude the lesson by their own. it makes the student to just memorize the lesson but not comprehend the lesson. back on the newspaper agaub, anisha (2011) stated that newspapers are a flexible and adaptable learning resource that can be used effectively in almost all subject and in any instructional situation. newspapers are much more current than course books as they make an excellent springboard for lessons, and they reargue different types of language (arrives, stories, problempage letters, advertising, reports, weather forecasting, horoscopes, spiritual nuggets, reviews, etc.). this makes the newspaper has many advantages when compared to textbooks, because the newspaper proved many up-to-date references. moreover, there is always a place in newspaper columns to add interesting information and replace the old columns of the newspaper with the new one in order to adjust the reader’s desire. research question based on the background that the researcher described, the researcher wishes to make a comparison between learning english by using regular methods and learning english by using the newspaper as a learning tool and material. in addition, based on this conceptual background the question can be formulated as follows: acuity (5)1, 12-28 is there a significant improvement in student’s vocabulary achievement after using newspaper as teaching material? obviously, the question will be examined by conducting a paired samples t-test. the researcher will also dispose of learning methods that will use the newspaper as learning material tot eh fullest, and not just as reading material. purpose of the study in general, the purpose of this research is to search for more information on vocabulary mastery by using newspaper as a teaching material in grade 10 students, in order to know exactly the extent of use off newspaper as a teaching material is able to provide an improvement in student’s vocabulary. this study especially intended to identify the known vocabulary at grade 10 before using the newspaper as teaching material. also, it analyzed the extent to which an increase in vocabulary of grade 10 students through newspaper use as a teaching materials significance of the study theoretically, this research is expected to contribute to the application of the theory of the use of newspapers as teaching materials, especially in learning english as a foreign language for indonesia students. in this study also, it can be concluded that the use of newspapers as teaching materials, can provide benefits to the advancement of language, especially in english education. in practical, the results of this study are expected to provide benefits to students, teachers and researchers who discuss the same thing. this study benefits the following: a. for students: it is expected to help students learn vocabulary in a way that is good and fun through the newspaper. b. for teachers: the results of this study are expected to provide a better understanding of the advantages of learning vocabulary by using newspapers as teaching materials. c. for the schools: this research is expected to urge the schools to provide high quality literature in schools, and to make a requirement for students to read at least the daily newspapers and at least two books in a semester. d. for other researchers: this study can be used as a reference in conducting other study to get a better in a different level of students to get a better result. this study is expected to give inspiration for english teachers to encourage students to refamiliarize reading as a critical need, especially in improving vocabulary of the students. scope and limitation this study focuses on examining the impact of the grade 10 students in reading the newspaper, as an instrument and learning the english language, especially for the development of their vocabulary by using the newspaper as a learning tool. the researcher examined the effects of grade 10 students to read newspapers in grammar and other areas in learning english. acuity (5)1, 12-28 hypothesis the hypothesis of the study is constructed as follow: null hypothesis (ho): there is no significant improvement in student’s vocabulary achievement after using newspaper as teaching material 𝜇 experimental class = 𝜇 control class alternative hypothesis (ha): there is a significant improvement in student’s vocabulary achievement after using newspaper as teaching material? methods research design this study was carrying out with two groups pre-test and post-test design. in this experimental research, the implementation of using newspaper as a teaching material (independent variables) was monitor, and the impact of using newspaper as a teaching material (dependent variables) was measure. the vocabulary points in this research are english academic situation. the method of this study using the pre-test and post-test, where one sample was gave a treatment. a pre-test and post-test are designed to be different. pre-test was use to measure and equalize the two group’s prior knowledge while the post-test is used for developmental differences in the two groups after the experimental group was given a treatment. the design of experiments is presented in the following table. table 1 group pre-test treatment post-test experimnet t1 x t2 control t1 o t2 experimental design description: x = using newspaper as teaching material o = not getting treatment (normal class) acuity (5)1, 12-28 t = test in the same proportion population and sample according to statistic glossary, population is the total of individual occupying an area or marketing up a whole. the population in this study was all students in grade 10 at smk 45, lembang in 2012-2013, which consists of 2 classes (84 students). according to statistic glossary, sample is limited number of observations selected from a population on a systematic or random basis, which (upon mathematical) yield generalizations about the population. this means that sample is the entities or observations randomly selected to represent the behavior and characteristic of the entire group (batch, group, population, or universe) they are associated with or from which they are dawn. sampling in this study has done purposively, and obtained samples of two classes, class 10 b and 10 e. this is done so that students as sample are students who are taught by the same teacher in order to assure that both sample have the same level of knowledge and cognitive ability. class x b used as an experimental class that receives a treatment of newspaper, while class x e used as a control class that receives a conventional methods. location and time of the study the researcher was conducted his study at smk 45, lembang during the second semester of 2012-2013 school years. the samples was selected from two classes of the grade 10 students, which is experimental class that use newspaper as teaching material and control class that use the traditional method. the experimental class was get the treatment as usual schedule i.e. on wednesday at 16:00-17:00, and thursday at 16:00-17:00 variables and research instruments the variable in this study, consisting of the independent variable, and dependent variable. the independent variable is the variable that affects or the cause. the independent variable in this study is a method of learning vocabulary by using the newspaper. the dependent variable is a variable that is a result of a cause. the dependent variable in this study is the result or the learning outcomes by using newspaper as teaching materials. the research instrument is a data collection tool that was used to get the data in the study. the instrument used in this study is a test of student learning outcomes in the form of multiplechoice, and matching-point. ten questions are included in multiple-choice and fifteen questions for matching-point test. one point was given in multiple-choice section for each question and two points was given in matching-point section, so the maximum score for the test is 40 points, and both the pre-test and post-test have same number of questions, which is 25 numbers. each correct answer was being given 1 score and incorrect answer was bee given 0 score. the data was collect at the beginning (pre-test) before giving a treatment and at the end of the study (post-test), after giving the treatment. acuity (5)1, 12-28 data gathering procedures data collected in the study was done by: observation observation was done to retrieve the data of students from the school in connection with the determination of the sample and the population. the observations in the form of the number of populations and samples, a list of students, duration of student learning, teachers who teach in schools, and the availability of facilities to support this research. the results of the observations is as the researcher expected, where there are adequate facilities such as lcd projector and other learning tools that helps student to learn and absorb lessons maximally. testing procedures the test is a series of questions or exercises and other tools used to measure skill, knowledge, intelligence, ability, or talent possessed by individuals groups (arikunto, 2006). test methods used to obtain data on student learning outcomes in the experimental group and the control group, which carried out the pre-test and posttest. in giving the test to the sample, the researcher used two ways, namely multiple choice, and matching. pre-test in pre-test step, the researcher has given 25 questions that consisting of 10 multiplechoice questions and 15 matching questions. questions were taken from ptk guru smk, which have been standardized. as mentioned previously, the purpose of the pre-test is to know and measures the capabilities of both samples, and ensure that both groups have the same ability. the ascertainment of their capabilities and knowledge was intends to make sure that these two classes have value homogeneity. treatment in giving the treatment, the researcher was use six methods gradually in each meeting for one month. therefore, each method that was use was apply intensively and in accordance with the curriculum in order to assure that both samples get the same materials but with different methods. below are six methods that was use as treatment to increase student’s vocabulary that has discussed in the previous chapter. a. identify the noun d. words and advertisement b. sports glossary e. daily puzzle c. look a say f. comic, and caricature methods a, b, c, d, and e, was gave in class hour in 60 minutes and was matched with the applicable curriculum or has been used this time, while methods f was given as homework. post-test at the end of research, the research gave the students the post-test, that also consisting 10 multiple-choice questions and 15 matching-point. the questions of post-test retrieved from bank soal smk grade 10 that has been standardize. the post-test was given in order to measure how well the students engross the lessons during the treatment. therefore, the questions that has given to both samples, is the questions that have the same amount and level of difficulty with the pre-test. acuity (5)1, 12-28 data analysis in this study, the data was obtained from the experimental class and the control class after class of the data is obtained, then the steps taken are as follows: a. tabulating the data obtained b. finding the mean value of each class normality test in testing the normality of the data that has been collect, the researcher has used the method of shapiro-wilk. shapiro-wilk method using a database that has not been processed in a frequency distribution table. the data has been sorted, and then divided into two groups to be converted in the shapiro-wilk. transformation can also be continued in the z value can be calculated for an area of the normal curve. here is the formula: 𝑇% = & ' [ ∑ 𝑎*+*,& (𝑋./*0& 𝑋*) ]2 description: d = according to the formula below = coefficient of shapiro test x 1 = the first number on the data d = ∑*,& . (𝑋*x)2 description: xi =the i number on the data, where, x =data average g = 𝑏.+ 𝑐.+1n ( 6789: &/67 ) description: g =identical with z value that normally distributed t3 =according to the above formula bn, cn, dn =conversion of shapiro-wilk that close to normally distributed gain test (improved learning outcomes) according to savinainen & scott (in subbagyo, 2006), a score of pre-test and post-test that shows mastery of concepts can be analyzed to determine the gain or improvement by using the formula: normalized gain (g) = 𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑠𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑒 − 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑡𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑠𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑚𝑎𝑥𝑖𝑚𝑢𝑚 𝑠𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑒 − 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑡𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑠𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑒𝑠 as has been describe earlier, the maximum score of the test is 40 points, so the formulation of the gain is as follow: acuity (5)1, 12-28 normalized gain (g) = stuvvwuv uxtyw/sywvwuv uxtyw z[ /sywvwuv uxtywu savinainen & scott classifies gain as follows: g = height: g>0.7; g = medium 0.7>g>0.3 g = low: g<0.3; hypothesis testing the hypothesis to be tested is: ho = μ1 = μ2 & ha = μ1≠ μ2 whereby: μ1: average normalized gain experimental class student learning outcomes μ2: average normalized gain control of a class of student learning outcomes the statistic technique that was use to test this hypothesis is the analysis of the two-tailed test. the purpose of this test is to examine differences in the man values of two independent samples that representing the two populations. mann-whitney u test was use on ordinal data (data in the form of rank). if the data is in interval/ratio form, it needs to be change first into the ordinal data form (rank). actually, if the data in form of ratio/interval and normally distributed, the researcher can use the independent sample t test, but in this case, the assumption of the t test was not met, because the data are not normally distributed, therefore, the researcher uses mann-whitney u test. in general, the unpaired test is using unpaired wilcoxon test, if the data to be processed are not eligible for the t test or wilcoxon unpaired f. the unpaired wilcoxon test can also be approximated by z test (normal approach), this has been done by mann and whitney in 1947, dodge (2013). this test method known as the mann-whitney unpaired test, which seeks to approach the mean and standard deviation of the normal distribution (n1<n2) by the following formulas: µ = .&(.&0.20&) 2 α = \.&.2(.&0.20&) &2 𝑍^ = 6/_ ` whereby t is the number of the ranking of the first treatment) t1) or second treatment (t2). in between t1 and t2 there is a relationship of equality, namely: t1 = n1(n1+n2+1)-t2 if z<zα=0.05), then ho is accepted (p>0.05) if z>zα=0.05), then ho is rejected (p<0.05) ho (2006) stated that the mann-whitney u test is a nonparametric test that use to find the significance difference between two samples when the data does not meet the assumptions for using thee t test. it is often used in place of the t test for independent groups when there is an extreme violation of the normality assumption or when the data are scaled at a level that is not appropriate for the t test. acuity (5)1, 12-28 result and analysis of data data obtained from the research is the value of pre-test of experimental class (appendix 1), the value of pre-test of the control class (appendix 1), the value of post-test of experimental class (appendix 1), and the value of post-test of control class (appendix 1). the results of tabulation of the four data can be seen in the table. based on the calculation of the average and standard deviation of student learning outcomes has gained an average of the results of an experimental study of a class of student, for the pre-test the result is 25.44, and for the post-test the result is 27.79. while the average outcomes control class student for pre-test is 24.60 aimed for post-test is 26.90. after that, the researcher has done the normality test on each of these data. normality test normality test is done by using thee shapiro-wilk method with significance level α=0.005 (table 3-8). the results of calculations of data normality test pre-test and post-test control and experimental classes can be seen in the table below. table 2 𝐊𝐨𝐥𝐦𝐨𝐠𝐨𝐫𝐨𝐯 − 𝐒𝐦𝐢𝐫𝐧𝐨𝐯𝒂 shapiro-wilk pre-test statistic df sig. statistic df sig experimental class .091 43 .200* .981 43 .689 normality test of pre-test of experimental class data from pre-test experimental normally is distributed, because the shapiro-wilk table show the significance value (0.689)>α (0.05). table 3 acuity (5)1, 12-28 𝐊𝐨𝐥𝐦𝐨𝐠𝐨𝐫𝐨𝐯 − 𝐒𝐦𝐢𝐫𝐧𝐨𝐯𝒂 shapiro-wilk pre-test statistic df sig. statistic df sig experimental class .098 43 .200* .981 43 .687 normality test of post-test of experimental class data from post-test experimental normally distributed, because the data in the table show the value of the shapiro-wilk significance is (0.687) >α (0.05) table 4 𝐊𝐨𝐥𝐦𝐨𝐠𝐨𝐫𝐨𝐯 − 𝐒𝐦𝐢𝐫𝐧𝐨𝐯𝒂 shapiro-wilk pre-test statistic df sig. statistic df sig experimental class .175 43 .002 .924 43 .008 normality test of gain of experimental class data of the gain from the eexperimental class shows that it is not normally distributed, because the table above on shapiro-wilk show the significance is (0.008) <α (0.05) table 5 𝐊𝐨𝐥𝐦𝐨𝐠𝐨𝐫𝐨𝐯 − 𝐒𝐦𝐢𝐫𝐧𝐨𝐯𝒂 shapiro-wilk pre-test statistic df sig. statistic df sig experimental class .175 43 .002 .175 43 .008 normality test of post-test of control class data of the control class’s pre-test is not normally distributed, because on the shapiro wilk table the value of significance is (0.008) <α (0.05). acuity (5)1, 12-28 table 6 𝐊𝐨𝐥𝐦𝐨𝐠𝐨𝐫𝐨𝐯 − 𝐒𝐦𝐢𝐫𝐧𝐨𝐯𝒂 shapiro-wilk pre-test statistic df sig. statistic df sig experimental class .171 41 .004 .921 41 .007 normality test of post-test of control class post-test data of the control class is not normally distributed, because the shapiro-wilk table show the value of the significance is (0.007) <α (0.05). table 7 𝐊𝐨𝐥𝐦𝐨𝐠𝐨𝐫𝐨𝐯 − 𝐒𝐦𝐢𝐫𝐧𝐨𝐯𝒂 shapiro-wilk pre-test statistic df sig. statistic df sig experimental class .124 41 .113 .873 41 .000 normality test of post-test of control class the gain data of the control class is not normally distributed, because the shapiro-wilk table show that the value of the significance is (0.000) <α (0.05). gain test (improved learning outcomes) gain test has been conducted on the experimental class and the control class based on the value of pre-test and pro-test that was obtained on each class. based on the results of the calculation of gain test student (table 9 & 10), the researcher has obtained an average score gain for the experimental class is 0.176, while the average gain for the control class is 0.137. gain value on each class proved as not normally distributed based on the results of normality test from experimental and control class (table 6 & 8), so the researcher must use the mann-whitney u test to test the hypothesis that had been developed previously. below are the brief results of the gain test between each class: table 8 table 9 pre-test post-test gain 24.6098 26.902439 0.137073905 pre-test post-test gain 25.44186047 27.79069767 0.176145279 control class experimental class acuity (5)1, 12-28 hypothesis testing because it proved that the value of the gain of the students do not normally distributed, the researcher had to perform hypothesis testing by using non-parametric mann-whitney u test two-tailed test method. the result calculation mann-whitney u test table can be seen below. table 10 testing methods gain mann-whitney u 340.000 wilcoxon w 1201.000 z -4.847 asymp. sig. (2-tailed) value p.000 based on the calculation of non-parametruc mann-whitney u test, the gain data between experimental class and control class show the value of asymp sig. (0.000) <zα (0.05) and the value of z (4.847)> zα (1.96). it means that there is a significant difference in vocabulary improvement between experimental class and control class. the data indicates that the z value is in the area where ho is rejected, where z (4.847)> zα (1.96). it means that the learning outcomes of the experimental class are higher than control class. from this data, the researcher can conclude that the method of buildings student’s vocabulary achievement through reading the newspaper has a positive impact on the learning outcomes of the syudents. answering the research question and hypotheses researcher has made the following statement to answer the research question that has been formulate in chapter 1: is there a significant improvement in student’s vocabulary achievement after using newspaper as teaching material? based on the result of the hypothesis testing analysis, the researcher can briefly answer that there is significant improvement in the experimental student’s vocabulary achievement after using the newspaper as their teaching material than using conventional methods in control class. the researcher also has made the following statement as a proof in answering the three acuity (5)1, 12-28 paired hypotheses in chapter 1: 1. null hypothesis (h0): μexperimental class = μ control class based on the result of the data analysis in table 11, the researcher can conclude that the null hypothesis is rejected, and the alternative hypothesis is accepted, because there is a significant difference in student’s vocabulary growth after using newspaper as a teaching material among class 10 student’s of experimental class and controlled class in smk 45, lembang. 2. null hypothesis null hypothesis (h0): μexperimental class post-test = μ control class posttest based on the data analysis result (appendix 1 & table 8, 9), the researcher can state that there is significant difference is in the post-test between the experimental group and control goup after using the newspaper as a teaching material. 3. null hypothesis (h0): μgain of pre-test= μgain of post-tets based on the data analysis in gain test, the researcher can conclude that there is a significant difference between the averages of pre-test and post-test of the two classes. findings after processing the data, and objectively observe the experimental class sample, the researcher found several points, namely: 1. results in learn english, especially in the vocabulary of the students who were learning through reading newspaper in class x b business management, smk 45 lembang 2012/2013 before being given treatment, has a pre-test value of 25.441, and after a given treatment, the average post-test of the students is 27.790, with a gain average (improved learning outcomes) at 0.17 (height category) 2. results of the control class on learning english, especially in the vocabulary development of the students who were given conventional learning in the class x e businnes management smk 45 lembang 2012/2013 before being given treatment has an average score of pre-test 24.609, and after treated the average post-test of the control class is 26.902; with the gain average 0.13 (height category) 3. learning outcomes in building vocabulary trough newspaper as a medium has positive effect. 4. student of smk 45 lembang have a fairly extensive vocabulary, and meet the demands of applicable curriculum. acuity (5)1, 12-28 conclusion the results of the data analysis based on the data that researcher get from pre-test and post-test shown that there is an increase of the student’s vocabulary achievement on experimental class from pre-test value 25.441 to 27.790 in post-test value, with a gain average (improved learning outcome) at 0.17 (height category). whereas, the results of the contol class on learning english, especially in the vocabulary developmant of students who were given conventional learning before get treatment has an average score of pre-test 24.609, and after treated as usual, the avergae post-test of the control class is 26.902; with the gain average 0.137 (height category). however, based on the mann-whitney u test, in comparing the gain of the two classes shown that there is a significant difference between the improvement of using a conventional or traditional method and using newspaper as their teaching material. therefore, based on the results of the data analysis and interpretation in table 10, in answering the researcher questions that stated: “is there a significant improvement in student’s vocabulary achievement after using newspaper as teaching material?” the researcher can certainly conclude that the methods in building student’s vocabulary achievement through newspaper have a positive impact on the class 10 smk 45 lembang in academy year of 2012/2013, and fit for use as a method to build vocabulary students in grade 10 references anisha, phil, m. (2011). teaching vocabulary through newspaper advertisements: an innovative experience. retrieved from www.languageinindia.com, strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow, volume 11 : 11 november 2011 issn 1930-2940 arikunto, s. (2006). prosedur penelitian, jakarta: rineka cipta. atmojo, mobit w., (2011). pentingkah lks (lembar kerjaa siswa) di sekolah?. retrieved from http://edukasi.kompasiana.com/2011/10/10/pentingkah-lks-lembar-kerja-siswa-di sekolah-400224.html katemba, c., v. (2019), students’ vocabulary enhancement at grade 10: a comparative study using call & mall in indonesia. call-ej, 20(1), 87-114. http://callej.org/journal/20-1/katemba2019.pdf katemba c, hulu g (2013). comparison of grammar translation method and eclectic method in ewnhancing students’ vocabulary achievement. journal of education and practice. issn 2222-1735 (paper) issn 2222-288x (online) vol 4 no.5. katemba c (2013). anxiety level of indonesian students and its relationship to academic achievement in english. journal of education and practice. issn 22221735(paper) issn 2222-288x (online) vol.4 no. 27. siagian, s., w., & katemba, c., v., (2016). comparative study between think aloud and visual imagery in enhancing students’ reading acuity (5)1, 12-28 comprehension. acuity journal of english language pedagogy, literature and culture vol1 no.1 2016. retrieved from: http://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity/article/view/602 tobing, j. h. l (2016). school leadership, culture, strategy and teacher’s working performance. journal of international scholars conference educational social sciences. retrieved from: https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/jiscedu/article/view/288 acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 77 making an english vlog project: students’ perceptions and their problems tira nur fitria institut teknologi bisnis aas indonesia, surakarta central java tiranurfitria@gmail.com doi: 10.35974/acuity.v7i1.2535 abstract vlogging can help language learners to practice and improve their speaking skills. the objectives of the research are to explore the non-english students’ perception and their problems of making an “english vlog” project at itb aas indonesia in the academic year 2020/2021. this research applies the quantitative method. the analysis shows that most students strongly agree that speaking is the most challenging skill. but, they agree that the english vlog is an interesting and fun task in english class in making them dare to speak in english. the topic/theme of "my description" is interesting. before, most students prepare a draft before recording an english vlog and prepare by writing an indonesian draft first. they do the exercises repeatedly to get the best result with more than five times in making an english vlog. but, the students also face problems in making english vlogs. most students having difficulty in grammar when speaking english. most students use a phone in recording their vlogs and they do not use additional devices when recording english vlogs. the audio and video quality on their device affects their vlog quality. besides, most students have technical problems in light conditions. they are easily distracted by their surroundings, lose concentration, feeling bored, feeling insecure when recording a vlog in front of the camera, and fear when making mistakes during speaking english. through this vlogging, the students can improve their speaking skills in a more fun way, practice expressing themselves, increase self-confidence, and follow trends in the digital era. key words: english vlog, video blog, speaking, english speaking introduction speaking skill is one of the skills that students must master when learning english. it is considered the most challenging of four skills which involved complex processes (usó-juan & martínez-flor, 2008). this skill requires students to be able to express what is on their minds not only through writing but also verbally. the problem faced by the writer as an english teacher while teaching speaking skills is the passivity of students. almost all students feel insecure to communicate or even only to issue one or two sentences using english. conley, (2013, p. 176) states that speaking is a skill that requires coordinated action to practice more. it is important to teach "speaking" and the english instructor continues to teach speaking as a further repetition of an activity or text/dialogue memorization. today's environment, however, demands that the purpose of teaching expression should strengthen students' communication skills, and only in this manner can students articulate themselves and understand how to obey the necessary social and cultural rules in all communication. any of the exercises that can strengthen speech skills are listed thus and they can be introduced directly in the classroom while teaching second language learners how to speak in the best possible way. for that, educators must build an atmosphere in the classroom where students have real-life contact, legitimate activities, and practical assignments that strengthen their english speaking skills. this may arise as learners cooperate to accomplish an indicator or complete a task in groups. to teach speaking, the researcher has analyzed some previous https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity mailto:tiranurfitria@gmail.com acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 78 research that states vlogging media to train students in communicating by using english while training their self-confidence. if we pay attention at this time, youtube and vlog are very popular keywords. one of the methods that the writer practices for teaching language are by performing recorded in short videos. in simple terms, learners make vlogs with various themes or topics. of course, the theme or topic is adjusted to the learner's language level. vlogs, which are defined as video blogs, have certainly been popular for a long time. vlog comes from the words "video and" blog ". in the past, we only knew blogs, as a means of a web application for writing, then the current trend has shifted to a more modern way through vlogs. simpson & greenfield (2007, p. 191) state that video blogging employs video documentary, interview, podcasting, journalism, diary, and streaming. a vlog is a short clip containing the thoughts and opinions of the creator or vlogger (clarkson, 2016, p. 10). while, according to (hiam, 2014), vlogs take their name from blogs, being the video equivalent. essentially, the objective of a vlog is to regularly deliver quality either in the form of useful information or entertainment (chan, 2015). kaminsky (2010) defines that video blogging as a dynamic medium that transforms the way we connect in a communication. while, daniels (2015) states that the art of the video blog is often called “vlogging”, “vidding”, or “vidblogging”. according to bryant, (2006, p. 15), videoblogging, video blog, vlog, vblog, vodcast, and video podcasting are all terms that describe the same thing. video blogs consist of a single entity speaking in front of a camera and are filmed in casual contexts to give the viewer an idea. (ronzhin et al., 2015, p. 97). vlogs contain video documentation about daily life, hobbies, travel, opinions, and other content. creating a vlog starts with planning because it is this planning that will determine the outcome. vlogs are beginning to show their existence as a medium used in learning activities. vlogs are also coming into more widespread use in listening and speaking practice (hansonsmith & rilling, 2006, p. 191). vlog is a learning method that is not always focused on results, but rather a more important process. in the process of making vlogs, learners compile conversations that must match good and correct pronunciation and grammar. having good pronunciation is important, but having correct grammar also is important in english speaking (fitria, 2018, 2019a & 2020). furthermore, in the recording process, learners will speak without reading the text. through this process, the learners have no other choice but to memorize the text. besides, learners are also expected not to be rigid in front of the camera because they are also required to act naturally. therefore, there are four advantages in this learning process, namely preparing the text, speaking according to correct pronunciation, memorizing the text, and behaving naturally as a native speaker of the target language. here, the students are expected to obtain expertise in functional video development for disabled learners (baylen & d’alba, 2015, p. 177). in the video blog project, students are expected to capture and display themselves along with their opinions on the subject or questions assigned. dressman & sadler (2019) state that the act of vlogging helps language learners to improve speech skills. to keep the viewers and the use of a camera, a vlog in a foreign language requires a daily speaking output. oral speech is mostly reserved for instructional reasons in a classroom atmosphere and is a somewhat artificial practice (not spontaneous). learners talk in front of an audience inclined to test them on a subject that has been presented to them, and the presentation is then judged by the teacher. owing to time constraints, this task is also uncommon and challenging to execute. a vlog’s environment allows students/learners to have a forum to express themselves to produce a vlog. some previous studies also have been conducted related to english video blogs (vlog). the first research is written by muzakki (2019) entitled “students’ perception of the use vlog in improving students’ speaking skill senior high school at solihuddin school https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 79 songkhlaa thailand”. the goal of this study is to find out the views of students on the use of vlogs in developing the speaking skills of students at senior high school. the second research is written by safitri & khoiriyah (2017) entitled “students’ perceptions of the use of english vlog (video blog) to enhance speaking skill”. this research aimed to learn how the perspective of students on the use of english vlogs to improve speaking skills and to study what the technique of students to use english vlogs to improve speaking skills was. the third research is written by abkary et al. (2018) entitled “students’ experience in using english vlog and their speaking fluency: a case study of efl speaking classroom at the state islamic university in bandung”. the goal of this analysis is to: 1) to figure out the success of the students in the vlog, and 2) to show the change in the fluency of students speaking before and after making the vlog. the fourth research is written entitled “students’ perspective on the use of vlog media for speaking class at smk negeri 01 pagerwojo”. the goal of the study was to explore the viewpoint of students on the use of vlog media at smk negeri 01 pagerwojo for speaking class. the percentage result for each is determined by the index range. the fourth research is written by taqwa & sandi (2019) entitled “students’ experiences of using vlog to learn english”. this study aims to explore the perspectives of efl students using vlogs as one of the technology items to learn english. regarding some previous studies above, it shows similarities and differences with this research. the five studies discuss the english vlog and concerns to the students’ perception, students’ experience, and students’ perspective toward the implementation of teacher’s media in using english vlog as media for teaching english speaking. but, in the difference, this research discusses the students’ perception related to their difficulty during making or producing english vlogs as an english project. therefore, this research is to explore the students’ perception of making an “english vlog” project (a study of non-english students at itb aas indonesia in academic year 2020/2021). research method this research applies the quantitative descriptive method. the use of this quantitative descriptive method is harmonized research that researches phenomena in the form of research results in the form of numbers have meaning. descriptive research may use statistics or numbers (usually percentages) to describe data (glanz, 2014). in this research, the research present then describes the data based on the questionnaire in the form of numbers or percentages. in collecting data, the researcher uses a questionnaire. a questionnaire is a set of questions written in advance of their administration (conway, 2004, p. 1). the researcher uses the form of an online questionnaire by using google form. the answer that given to this form are collected on a google spreadsheet or called google sheet (rebiere & rebiere, 2019). the respondents (students) can complete the questionnaire electronically, and the result can be seen by the researcher (gratton & jones, 2010, p. 127). as stated by (khan, 2011), the questionnaire method is widely used for collecting data because of the limitation in the observation method. here, the researcher takes a sample of non-english students at itb aas indonesia in academic year 2020/2021 especially the first semester students. some students are involved in fulfilling the online questionnaire. besides the questionnaire, the research also uses interviews with several students at itb aas indonesia related to making an english vlog project. regarding data analysis with descriptive statistics, here the researcher pays attention first to the type of data. here the researcher has data taken from the results of the questionnaire, therefore the data presentation that can be done is to find the percentage. after https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 80 that, explain the results of the percentage obtained and look for the percentage that dominates the answers from the questionnaire. results this research is to investigate the non-english students’ perception of making an “english vlog” project at itb aas indonesia in academic year 2020/2021. in these findings, the research reduces data, finds the important points related to the findings. then, the researcher displays it into tables and writes the chart’s result descriptively. based on the findings from an online questionnaire, the researcher finds some data results, as follow: table 1. students’ perception toward speaking skill and english vlog (1) no statement indicator strongly agree agree disagree 1. speaking is the most difficult skills in english 65 (54.6 %) 40 (33.6 %) 14 (11.8 5) 2. making an english vlog is an interesting and fun task in english class 34 (28.6 %) 77 (64.7 %) 8 (6.7 %) the result of 1st questionnaire shows that from 119 responses, there are 65 responses or 54.6 % said ‘strongly agree’, 40 responses said ‘agree’, and 14 responses or 11.8 % said ‘disagree’. the most response of the students is ‘strongly agree’ that speaking is the most difficult skill in english. these findings also supported by the result of an interview with the students related to english speaking skill, as follow: “kalau bahasa inggris kan ada 4 skill yang biasanya dipelajari. dari 4 skill itu, menurut aku speaking itu yang paling sulit. soalnya tulisan di bahasa inggris kalau dibaca kadang beda. jadi tulisan dan cara bacanya beda, jadi aku sering bingung mau ngucapin”. (in english, there are 4 skills that are usually learned. of the 4 skills, in my opinion speaking is the most difficult. it's because the writing in english is sometimes different when you read it. so the writing and reading are different, so i'm often confused about what to say (student a) menurut aku, speaking skill itu susah banget. aku harus banyak hafalin kosakata, soalnya kalau mau bicara bahasa inggris harus banyak hafal kosakata. (in my opinion, speaking skill is very difficult. i have to memorize a lot of vocabulary, because if you want to speak english, you have to memorize a lot of vocabulary (student b) reading itu sulit, listening itu sulit, writing itu sulit, tapi speaking paling sulit. aku orangnya pemalu, jadi kalau mau bicara bahasa inggris itu aku malu, bingung mau bicara apa. terus, aku mikir bagaimana susunan kalimat pas bicara. apa aku juga harus menurut grammar atau yang penting aku bicara saja dalam bahasa inggris tanpa grammar. (reading is difficult, listening is difficult, writing is difficult, but speaking is the most difficult. i'm a shy person, so when i want to speak english, i'm shy, confused about what to say. then, i thought about how to arrange the sentences when i spoke. do i also have to follow the grammar of what is important i just speak in english without grammar (student c) based on the result of the interview above, it shows that speaking is a difficult skill because several students’ opinions such as 1) writing in english is sometimes different when we read or pronounce it, 2) speaking skill is very difficult because we have to memorize a lot of vocabulary, 3) confusing about how to arrange the sentences because english speaking has to follow the grammar. these opinions support the result of a questionnaire that speaking skill is difficult in english. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 81 the result of 2nd questionnaire shows that from 119 responses, there are 34 responses or 28.6 % said ‘strongly agree’, 77 responses said ‘agree’, and 8 responses or 6.7 % said ‘disagree’. the most response of the students is ‘agree’ that creating an english vlog is an interesting and fun task in english class. these findings are also supported by the result of an interview with the students related to making an english vlog project, as follow: ini pertama kalinya aku buat vlog bahasa inggris. aku bisa belajar buat vlog kaya youtuber, meski aku tahu speakingku nggak bagus kaya mereka. tapi aku punya pengalaman, nanti aku bisa buat yang lebih baik lagi sambil belajar speaking bahasa inggris. (this is my first time making an english vlog. i can learn to make vlogs like youtubers, even though i know my speaking is not as good as them. but i have experience, later i can do better while learning english speaking) (student a) membuat vlog bahasa inggris itu seru dan menyenangkan ya, meski aku juga harus banyak belajar. tapi, project ini bisa jadi pengalaman yang tak terlupakan. making english vlogs is fun and enjoyable, even though i also have a lot to learn. however, this project can be an unforgettable experience (student b) projek english vlog ini banyak manfaatnya. aku bisa belajar buat ngomong dalam bahasa inggris meski didepan kamera. aku jadi tahu kemampuan bahasa inggrisku, dan aku siap mengasah kemampuanku khususnya dalam bicara bahasa inggris. (this english vlog project has many benefits. i can learn to speak in english even in front of the camera. i know my english skills, and i am ready to hone my skills especially in speaking english. (student c) while other results of the questionnaire show several findings, as follow: 1. making english vlog makes the students dare to speak in english. the result of the questionnaire shows that from 119 responses, there are 112 responses or 94.1 % said ‘yes, and only 7 responses or 5.9 % said ‘no’. it can be said that the students are ‘agree’ that making english vlog makes the students dare to speak in english. 2. feeling the theme/topic in the english vlog about "my description" is interesting. the result of the questionnaire shows that from 119 responses, there are 118 responses or 99.2 % said ‘yes, and only 1 response or 0.8 % said ‘no’. it can be said that the students feeling the topic/theme in english vlog about "my description" is interesting and fun. 3. making preparations by drafting the english vlog before starting to record the english vlog video. the result of the questionnaire shows that from 119 responses, there are 115 responses or 96.6 % said ‘yes, and only 4 responses or 3.4 % said ‘no’. it can be said that the students making preparations by making a draft of the english vlog before starting to record the english vlog video. 4. creating a previously created type of english vlog draft the result of the questionnaire shows that from 119 responses, there are 76 responses or 63.9 % said ‘writing indonesian draft”, and 43 responses or 36.1 % said ‘writing english draft’. it can be said that the students prepare by writing an indonesian draft then translating it into english. 5. having experience in making any vlogs before the result of the questionnaire shows that from 119 responses, there are 112 responses or 94.1 % said ‘yes, and only 7 responses or 5.9 % said ‘no. it can be said that the students having experience in making any vlogs before https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 82 6. doing the exercises repeatedly when starting english vlog to get the best result the result of the questionnaire shows that from 119 responses, there are 59 responses or 49.6 % said ‘yes, and 60 responses or 50.4% said ‘no. it can be said that the students doing the exercises repeatedly when starting an english vlog to get the best result. related to how many exercises when making english vlog recording, there is a finding as follow: table 2. number of exercices in making english vlog project indicator 1 time 2 times 3 times 4 times 5 times more than 5 times 7 responses 18 responses 28 responses 11 responses 12 responses 43 responses 5.9 % 15.1 % 23.5 % 9.2 % 10.1 % 36.1 % the table above shows that from 119 responses, there are 7 responses or 5.9 % said ‘one time’, 18 responses or 15.1 % said ‘two times’, 28 responses or 23.5 % said ’three times, 11 responses or 9.2 % said ‘four times, 12 responses or 10.1 % said ‘five times, and 43 responses or 36.1 % said ‘more than five times. it can be said that the students doing the exercises more than five times in making an english vlog. in making english vlog project, there are several types of device used when recording the english vlog as follow: table 3. types of devices in making english vlog project indicator handphone handycam camera 117 responses 1 response 1 response 98.3 % 0.8 % 0.8 % the table above shows that from 119 responses, there are 117 responses or 98.3 % said ‘handphone’, and 1 response or 0.8 % said ‘handycam’, and 1 response or 0.8 % said ‘camera’. it can be said that the type of device used by the students when recording the english vlog is using handphone for recording. there are other findings related to the students’ device during making english vlog project, as follows: 1. the video quality on the device affects your english vlog the result of the questionnaire shows that from 119 responses, there are 87 responses or 73.1 % said ‘yes, and 32 responses or 26.9 % said ‘no. it can be said that according to the students’ perception, the video quality on the device affects their english vlog. 2. the audio and video quality on the device affects your english vlog the result of the questionnaire shows that from 119 responses, there are 102 responses or 85.7 % said ‘yes, and 17 responses or 14.3 % said ‘no. it can be said that according to the students’ perception, the audio quality on the device affects their english vlog. while related to the video quality, the result of the questionnaire shows that from 119 responses, there are 35 responses or 29.4 % said ‘yes’ and 84 responses or 70.6 % said ‘no. it can be said that mostly the students use additional devices when recording english vlogs. 3. which do you prefer to do the english vlog assignment? the result of the questionnaire shows that from 119 responses, there are 78 responses or 65.5 % said ‘individual’, 24 responses or 20.2 % said ‘in pairs’ and 17 responses said https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 83 ‘group (3 people or more)’. it can be said that most students prefer doing the english vlog assignment individually. there are several technical problems experienced by students when doing english vlog, for example, low battery device, the device suddenly turns off, light conditions, other obstacles, and there are no technical problems as follow: table 4. students’ technical problems in making english vlog project indicator low battery device the device suddenly turns off light conditions other obstacles there is no technical problem 11 responses 15 responses 67 responses 19 responses 27 responses 9.2 % 12.6 % 56.3 % 15.2 % 22.7 % the table above shows that from 119 responses, there are 11 responses, or 9.2 % said ‘low battery device’, 15 responses, or 12.6 % said ‘device suddenly turn off. 67 responses or 56.3 % said ‘light conditions’, 19 responses or 15.2 % said ‘other obstacles’, and 27 responses or 22.7 % said ‘there is no technical problem’. it can be said that most students have a technical problem in light conditions. besides technical problems, the students also experience other difficulties related to english speaking such as english accent, vocabulary, pronunciation, intonation, grammar, other difficulties, and no difficulty, as follow: table 5. students’ difficulties in speaking skill during english vlog project indicator accent vocabulary pronunciation intonation grammar other difficulties no difficulty 32 responses 33 responses 91 responses 25 responses 42 responses 1 response 1 response 26.9 % 27.7 % 76.5 % 21 % 35.3 % 0.8 % 0.8 % the result of the questionnaire shows that from 119 responses, there are 32 responses or 26.9% said ‘accent’, 33 responses or 27.7 % said ‘vocabulary’, 91 responses or 76.5 % said ‘pronunciation’, 25 responses, or 21 % said ‘intonation’, 42 responses or 35.3 % said ‘grammar’, 1 response or 0.8 % said ‘other difficulty’, and 1 response or 0.8 % said ‘there is no difficulty. it can be said that most students having difficulty in creating an english vlog in the aspect of grammar. there are also found several other students’ difficulties in making an english vlog project, as follow: table 6. other students’ difficulties in making english vlog project no questions indicator yes no 18 easily distracted by the surroundings when recording english vlog 97 responses (81.5 %) 22 responses (18.5 %) 19. easily lose concentration when making english vlog 75 responses (63 %) 44 responses (37 %) 20. feeling boredom when making english vlog 15 responses (12.6 %) 104 responses (87.4 %) https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 84 21. feeling insecure when making an english vlog in front of the camera 74 responses (62.2 %) 45 responses (37.8 %) 22. feeling fear when making mistakes during making/recording english vlog 81 responses (68.1 %) 38 responses (31.9 %) the table above shows that there are 119 responses. in number 18, there are 97 responses or 81.5 % said ‘yes, and 22 responses or 18.5 % said ‘no. it can be said that mostly the students are easily distracted by the surroundings when recording english vlogs. in number 19, there are 75 responses or 63 % said ‘yes’ and 44 responses or 37 % said ‘no. it can be said that most students easily lose concentration when starting to do an english vlog. in number, 20 there are 15 responses or 12.6 % said ‘yes, and 104 responses or 87.4 % said ‘no. it can be said that the students feeling bored when making an english vlog. in number 21, there are 74 responses or 62.2 % said ‘yes’ and 45 responses or 37.8 % said ‘no. it can be said that the students feeling insecure when making english vlogs in front of the camera. the last, in number 22, there are 81 responses or 68.1 % said ‘yes’ and 38 responses or 31.9 % said ‘no. it can be said that the students feeling fear when making mistakes during making or recording english vlogs. discussion there are many methods of learning or teaching speaking english that can be practiced by teachers and students. from conventional methods to the latest, many have also been done since previous ago. it can be said that the method does determine the quality of learning and teaching. we see the method as effective and not by the results of someone who can master a certain level of english. conventional methods may increasingly be displaced by more innovative methods because learners are millennials or even generation z. this generation is in an age of digital convenience, so it is no surprise that someone can speak a foreign language only through online learning or with an app on their device. students can speak english because they are used to listening to watching movies, watching videos on youtube, playing games, watching memes, listening to the radio, listening to podcasts, and so on. one method that the writer practices for teaching language are an english vlog, coupled with having students work on a project to speak english which is recorded in a short video. in simple terms, learners create vlogs with various or predetermined themes/topics. of course, the theme or topic is adjusted to the learner's language level. vlogs, which are defined as video blogs, have certainly been popular for a long time. vlogs contain video documentation about daily life, hobbies, travel, opinions, and other content. creating a vlog starts with planning because it is this planning that will determine the outcome. vlogs as a learning method are not necessarily focused on results, but rather a more important process. as stated by (leccese & lanson, 2015, p. 123), “if you don’t have a video camera, use your phone”. students can start vlogging and they don't have to use expensive cameras. they try to use basic equipment such as cameras on mobile phones. nowadays technology is very advanced and students must have a good quality camera on their cellphone. at first, it might feel awkward to record their selves in front of the camera. it takes time to practice becoming a master. students record several videos of themselves to review and study. students also write scripts for the video if this helps them feel more confident. vlogging is a form of activity using video as a tool for devices such as mobile phones with cameras, digital cameras that can capture video, or cheap cameras fitted with microphones that are simple assets for video blogging operations, over the use of text or audio as a media source. through the english vog assignment, students speak english like vlogging on predetermined topics. the students are expected to have the confidence to https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 85 communicate in english. students can use grammar, vocabulary, and language skills to communicate in english. vlogs can be a means of channeling ideas, creativity, practicing speaking skills, and students' confidence. in the process of making a vlog, students are required to arrange conversations that must match good and correct pronunciation and grammar. furthermore, in the recording process, students will speak with or without reading the english text. through this process, the learners have no other choice but to memorize the text. besides, students are also expected not to be stiff in front of the camera because they are also required to act naturally. through the english vlog assignment, students speak english like vlogging on predetermined topics. the students are expected to have the confidence to communicate in english (spoken). students can use grammar, vocabulary, and language skills to communicate simply in english. the determined topic is “my description” or “introduction myself” or “my self-description”. this topic includes descriptive text by using simple present tense (fitria, 2019b). as in indonesian, self-introduction in english concerns matters related to personal data. matters that can be introduced are matters relating to personal data, such as full name, nickname, age, place of birth, origin, residential address, school/college, occupation, workplace, school, class, hobbies, family, and so forth. but of course, it is all returned to each student, which personal data other people can and need to know in their english vlog. this vlog theme is a learning medium for simple present tense material because it is appropriate to train students to master speaking skills. therefore, there are four advantages in this learning process, namely preparing the text, speaking according to correct pronunciation, memorizing the text, and behaving naturally as a native speaker of the target language. the author tries to practice this method with non-english students with a free or determined theme. because there are too many language learning themes, teachers and learners can decide for themselves according to their references or interesting things according to their environment and experience. based on the analysis of the questionnaire, it is found that: 1) most students are ‘strongly agree’ that speaking is the most difficult skill in english. 2) most students ‘agree’ that creating an english vlog is an interesting and fun task in english class. 3) most students are ‘agree’ that making english vlogs makes the students dare to speak in english. 4) most students feeling the topic/theme in english vlog about "my description" is interesting and fun. 5) most students making preparations by making a draft of the english vlog before starting to record the english vlog video. 6) most students prepare by writing an indonesian draft then translating it into english. 7) most students have experience in making any vlogs before. 8) most students do the exercises repeatedly when making/recording an english vlog to get the best result. 9) most students do the exercises more than five times in making/recording an english vlog. 10) the type of device used by the students when recording the english vlog by using a handphone for recording.11) based on the students’ perception, the video quality on the device affects their english vlog. 12) based on the students’ perception, the audio quality on the device also affects their english vlog. 13) most students do not use additional devices when recording english vlogs. 14) most students do not upload english vlog results to their social media account. 15) most students prefer making the english vlog assignment individually than in pairs, or groups (more than 3 people). 16) most students have technical problems in light conditions. 17) most students having difficulty in making an english vlog in the aspect of grammar. 18) most students are easily distracted by their surroundings when recording english vlogs. 19) most students easily lose concentration when starting to do an english vlog. 20) most students feeling bored when making an english vlog. 21) most of the students feeling insecure when making english vlogs in front of the camera. 22) most of the students feeling fear when making mistakes during making or recording an english vlog. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 86 several objectives of making english vlogs, including developing participant skills in presenting ideas and explaining procedures for making or operating something in english, as well as increasing participants' confidence through making a vlog. through english vlog, students can choose an interesting 'explainer video' topic and define their target audience. participants can determine the structure of the vlog content, create a storyboard, and a vlog script. students can deliver an introductory speech regarding video content with the right phrasing and delivery style that suits the target audience. students can explain the procedure for making or operating something according to the selected topic (main content). students can deliver closing speeches regarding video content with correct english well. conclusion there are several students’ perceptions and problems in making an english vlog project, they are: 1) speaking is the most difficult skill in english. 2) creating an english vlog is an interesting and fun task in english class. 3) making english vlogs makes the students dare to speak in english. 4) the topic/theme in english vlog about "my description" is interesting and fun. before doing english vlog project, the students prepare by making a draft of the english vlog before starting to record the english vlog video, writing an indonesian draft then translating it into english, doing the exercises repeatedly when making/recording an english vlog to get the best result, doing the exercises more than five times in making/recording an english vlog. in this type of device, the students use a handphone for recording the english vlog. but, video and audio quality on the device affects their english vlog. they also do not use additional devices when recording english vlogs. they prefer making the english vlog assignment individually than in pairs, or groups (more than 3 people). in making an english vlog project, the students face several problems, such as technical problems in light conditions, being easily distracted by their surroundings when recording english vlogs, easily losing concentration when starting to do an english vlog, feeling bored when making an english vlog, feeling insecure when making english vlogs in front of the camera, feeling fear when making mistakes during making or recording an english vlog. the students also have difficulty in grammar during making an english vlog. references abkary, n. s., kurniawati, n., & muhtar, s. n. 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(2008). current trends in the development and teaching of the four language skills. walter de gruyter. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity introduction 118 acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.6 no. 2, 2021 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity the role of mobile devices on online efl skill courses during covid-19 emergency remote education emrah dolgunsöz,1 bayburt university, dept. of elt, bayburt, turkey edolgunsoz@gmail.com http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1277-2177 gürkan yıldırım,2 bayburt university, dept. of computer education and instructional technology, bayburt, turkey gyildirim@bayburt.edu.tr http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1314-0275 doi: 10.35974/acuity.v6i2.2486 abstract the recent covid-19 based emergency remote education caught educational practitioners unprepared and caused learners to rely on any technology which offered them the best pedagogical solution. since mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets, and notebooks are widely used in daily life, efl learners also preferred to utilize them for online courses due to their undisputable mobility. however, using mobile devices in long online efl courses is not without its limitations. this study aimed to examine the mobile experience during efl skill courses in emergency remote education. 47 efl preparatory class students who were attending online courses for 4 months with their mobile devices were asked to write a reflection for each skill course based on three main categories: limitations of mobile devices, effects of mobile devices on in-classroom interaction, and device satisfaction rates. the initial findings addressed that efl learners commonly used smartphones or notebooks for online courses rather than desktop pcs and tablets. secondly, our results revealed various limitations for each efl course such as limited screen size, overheating, microphone problems, and internet connection efficiency. on the other hand, although mobile devices were reported to have worked fine for in-class communication, device satisfaction rates regarding online courses were low, especially for smartphones. keywords: emergency remote education, efl, mobile devices, online course introduction today, it can easily be observed that mobile technologies have diversified. in this context, small computers containing extraordinary computing power such as notebooks, personal digital assistants (pdas), smartphones, and e-book readers are among the mobile technologies (sung et al., 2016). recent rapid and stunning developments in mobile technologies have made mobile devices an indispensable part of our lives. they have also been corresponding author: emrah dolgunsöz, bayburt university, faculty of education, room 304, bayburt/turkey, dept. of elt, bayburt, turkey, 69000. email: edolgunsoz@gmail.com https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1277-2177 http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1314-0275 mailto:edolgunsoz@gmail.com 119 attached to education systems for more than a decade and became a crucial component of the online education experience. mobile devices even became prominent mediums of online education during the covid-19 pandemic. due to the pandemic, educational institutions had to go for a global cancellation of face-to-face practice for public health and adopted a new form of distance education system called “emergency remote education” (hodges et al., 2020). now that education in all fields and degrees was carried out online without compromising weekly class hours and curricula. emergency remote education (ere) is fairly new and emergent with viable optimization caveats (russell, 2020). it was adopted urgently due to the covid-19 pandemic and caught most institutions and instructors unprepared. one of the most affected fields and the focus of the current study was learning english as a foreign language (efl) which is a communicative practice by its nature. efl practice emphasizes a social classroom environment that exists in face-to-face classrooms but not in ere. efl courses have a multifaceted structure; learners need to listen, analyze, produce and practice when required which means that learners need to fulfill multiple tasks to have skill development now learners of efl are joining online classrooms with their mobile devices and spending at least an hour for each course and completing language tasks online. in this process, the devices they use to join efl courses and fulfill tasks became more and more important since students rely on them for their efl progress. hence, the current study aimed to examine the effect of using mobile devices on efl skill development and in-class communication along with learner satisfaction rates. mobile devices and online efl experience recently, mobile devices are getting more and more popular when compared to desktop computers. for instance, more than 90% of people in developed countries now use a mobile device, while desktop pc usage is about 40% (pew research center, 2017). mobile technologies are an indispensable part of our lives and they have recently attracted the majority of the world population with their increasing capacity, processing speed, and allowing more sophisticated practice while providing great mobility. the use of mobile technologies in learning and teaching practice progressed accumulatively and improved with new technological updates. mobility of learning also created new modes of learning experience which were more personalized, learner-centered, and lifelong (sharples et al., 2005). the new mobile learners can have a unique learning experience without any time, place, or age limitation. in the foreign/second language learning context, the term mobile-assisted language learning (mall) was first coined by chinnery (2006) and differed from computer-assisted language learning (call) with its purely mobile dimension which enabled learners to personalize their learning experience along with spontaneous access and interaction. (kukulska-hulme and shield, 2008). mobile application services for mall can be summarized as mobile social software (mososo) such as facebook, twitter, youtube, or flicker; mobile podcasting, course management service (cms), and automatic speech recognition (asr) such as bing, google voice, vlingo, or siri assistant (kim and kwon, 2012). in the context of mall, mobile devices and pdas attracted many researchers in the field as they provided easy access to information, immediate feedback, and easy interactivity (ogata and yano, 2005). several studies yielded positive results on the efficacy of mobile 120 learning on developing efl skills (balula et al., 2015; luo et al., 2015; teodorescu, 2015; and wu, 2015). these studies confirmed that mobile devices worked well in learning new efl vocabulary, developing writing skills, and decreasing anxiety. with different media modes provided by mobile apps and devices, learners were found to have remembered 10% of what they have read, 20% of what they have heard, 30% of what they have seen, 50% of what they have heard and seen, 70% of what they have said, and 90% of what they have done (klimova, 2018). however, mobile devices and the like were not without limits. especially for mobile devices and tablets, small screen size, limited graphic quality (klimova, 2018), and mobile network dependence may be some drawbacks. regarding usability, mall practices can be negatively affected by battery life, low storage capacity, and slow downloading speed in mobile devices. (franklin et al., 2007). some studies found out that learners were challenged by small keyboards (wentzel et al., 2005). limited screen size can hinder proper viewing or cause eyestrain. furthermore, web pages are not always designed for small screens (bachfischer et al., 2008). mobile devices also have limited storage and memory capacities along with limited document editing capabilities which may easily affect language learning tasks requiring typing (shudong & higgins, 2005). also, the limited availability of broadband wireless access bachfischer, dyson and litchfield, 2008) may hinder the mall implementation. most mobile devices have limited multitasking capabilities in which learners cannot fulfill multiple tasks at the same time. it may disorient learners which would surely adversely affect the learning process (dolittle et al., 2009). moreover, mobile phones and mobile internet services are not free. some studies showed that both the cost imposed by telecommunications and the mobile device itself may emerge as a barrier for many learners (duvall et al., 2007). because mobile device usage is common among efl learners during the ere period, the current study aimed to seek answers to the following questions. 1. which type of devices was commonly used by efl learners in ere online courses? 2. what do efl learners think about the limitations of mobile devices during ere courses? 3. what were the opinions of efl learners on the effect of mobile devices on in-class communication? 4. were efl learners contended with their current mobile devices regarding ere courses? 5. would they have changed them for better language learning gains if they had an opportunity? methods research design our study had a phenomenological qualitative design as we did not have any wellformed hypothesis on the effects of mobile devices on ere language courses. with this design, we aimed to investigate the common experiences of efl learners with their mobile devices. phenomenological design fitted well to our research aims hence this design works well to arrive at a description of the nature of the particular phenomenon with no well-grounded hypothesis (creswell, 2013). 121 participants 47 learners of efl (28 women and 19 men) age range of 18 to 21 in the preparatory class at the same state university voluntarily participated in the study. all of the learners have been attending online courses with their mobile devices 22 hours a week for 4 months. their curriculum consisted of intensive skill-based courses; writing, reading, speaking/listening, and grammar. the online reflection questions the instrument for this study consisted of 3 reflection questions prepared by the researchers in line with the research aims. the questions aimed to examine the efficiency and drawbacks of mobile devices used in online courses. the first question aimed to reveal limitations (if any) of mobile devices in ere efl courses. the second question required participants to reflect their experience on mobile devices and in-class communication during online courses. the last question was about learner satisfaction with their mobile devices. all participants were instructed to write a short reflection depending on three questions for each course (writing i, grammar i, speaking/listening i, and reading i). hence, each learner was expected to write 12 reflections in total. all reflections were asked to be written in l1 to make the process easier for the participants. the instrument was administered online due to covid19 restrictions. procedure the demographics and reflection-questions were prepared by the researcher(s) and validated by two other experts. we also piloted the questions with 10 senior students to ensure validity before the application. the instrument was prepared with google forms and links were send to volunteers’ mail addresses. the participants were given 2 days to send their written reflections to us. data analysis descriptive statistical analysis and content analysis were adopted in the analysis of the data within the scope of the present study. the online semi-structured interviews were analyzed by the researcher(s) and coded, categories and themes were created. at this stage, each researcher made his analysis, then these analyses were compared and a common result was produced. due to the need to examine learners' views on mobile devices in-depth, the opinions were analyzed in detail with content analysis. results finding 1: device preferences in ere online efl courses we initially asked learners about their device preferences to attend and carry out ere courses. the results were illustrated in figure 1 below. 122 figure 1. device preferences of efl learner for ere when the device preferences were examined, it was observed that learners did not use a specific device for each course. they commonly used a single device for every course. the participants frequently preferred mobile devices (notebooks and smartphones) in all courses rather than desktop pcs. tablet usage was also found to be minimal. finding 2: mobile device limitations during ere online efl courses secondly, learners were asked whether the mobile device they used in online courses caused any debilitating effects or not throughout the online courses. the results were presented in table 1. table 1. limitations of mobile devices during ere online efl courses writing speaking/listening grammar reading f % f % f % f % my mobile device has no limitation 23 46,94 21 42 31 60,80 28 54,90 my mobile device has following limitations 24 46,93 29 58 20 39,20 23 45,90 • hardware problems o technical problems (speed, overheating, freeze, crash) 5 10,20 5 10 3 5,88 3 5,88 o limited screen size 3 6,12 6 11,76 8 15,69 o battery problems 3 6,12 2 4 1 1,96 3 5,88 o multitasking 1 2,04 1 1,96 o speakermicrophone problems 1 2,04 2 4 123 o keyboard issues 1 2,04 o sound problems (echo, sound latency, lowquality sound) 11 22 2 3,92 2 3,92 • internet connection problems 7 14,29 6 12 4 7,84 3 5,88 • eye pain 1 2,04 1 1,96 2 3,92 • incoming call problems 2 4,08 3 6 2 3,92 2 3,92 table 2 above illustrated that around half of the participants mentioned that the mobile device they used during the courses affected them negatively in all courses. firstly, learners mentioned some technical problems, sound issues and internet connection problems in speaking/listening courses. participants also complained about screen size problems in reading and grammar courses. besides, freeze, system crash, overheating and internet connection problems were mentioned for writing courses. some learners also mentioned incoming calls were problematic during all of the courses. the participants commented: writing …since the course is more dependent on listening and taking notes, i can comfortably see the screen and take notes from each device (s39, translated by the author(s). the only annoyance is that the eyes are sore due to the small screen. other than that, i do not see any disadvantage. yes, there are some drawbacks. for example, when we write something in any writing software, my smartphone does not provide the flexibility offered by a desktop pc for a writing lesson. and it also causes problems due to the features of the phone…it brings me a lot of trouble. (s8, translated by the author(s). it can cause disadvantages because we are accustomed to using pen and paper in writing courses. we still need pencil and paper to collect things in our minds during the lesson. it takes some time to organize and sort things out on the screen. (s14, translated by the author(s). with a small screen and limited multitasking, the disadvantages of my phone outweigh its advantages. although i want to get more efficient, it cannot be said that i have succeeded. (s41, translated by the author(s). speaking/listening when i join online courses with my phone, it is a disadvantage in terms of my participation in cases such as receiving calls, receiving messages, notifications, running out of battery, etc. for example, someone may call while i was speaking… (s17, translated by the author(s). my phone is small and limited to multitasking. since these are not needed only in the speaking course, i can easily participate in the course. its microphone works fine (s134, translated by the author(s). 124 grammar since my phone screen cannot do multiple things at the same time, i have to investigate points that i cannot understand later on (s9, translated by the author(s). yes, there are some disadvantages. i cannot make use of the slides that the teacher shared on the screen during the lesson and this has a negative effect on my lesson experience and his exam (s9, translated by the author(s). because the screen is small and we are constantly taking notes, it is a little overwhelming. other than that, there is no problem (s28, translated by the author(s). reading yes, the device i use creates some disadvantages during the reading lesson. as i said, i cannot benefit from reading texts much because of their small screen size. the screen makes the reading parts too small to read. (s34, translated by the author(s). it causes some disadvantages. my eyes are on the screen for hours, and after a while, my eyes start to be affected negatively. (s14, translated by the author(s). no, but it drains my battery quickly because of the long lesson hours (s39, translated by the author(s). in sum, participants mentioned several drawbacks regarding smartphones rather than notebooks. these limitations can be summarized as small screen size, typing issues, overheating, battery life, and internet connection problems. finding 3: in-classroom communication and mobile devices during ere online efl courses in this research question, learners were asked about the limitations and advantages that mobile devices provided regarding in-class communication. the results were presented in table 2 below: table 2. mobile devices and in-class communication writing speaking grammar reading f % f % f % f % i have no problems in classroom communication 36 77,55 40 80 38 82,61 38 86,36 i have classroom communication problems due to… 11 22,45 10 20 8 17,38 6 13,64 • speaker-microphone problems 7 14,29 • internet connection problems 4 8,16 5 10 3 6,52 2 4,55 • sound problems (echo, sound latency, low-quality sound) 5 10 1 2,17 • screen size limitations 1 2,17 1 2,27 • hardware issues 3 6,52 3 6,82 125 as indicated in table 2, it was observed that a majority of learners did not have any classroom communication problems. the mobile devices they used worked fine to ensure communication with the instructor and their peers. however, a small number of learners emphasized internet connection problems interrupting in-class communication. besides, some of them mentioned that they sometimes had microphone problems. they also added that they had some minor sound problems during speaking courses. the participants commented: writing yes, it is enough, thanks to the microphone of my phone, which i use to participate in the writing course, i can express my opinion in the lessons and answer the questions given and at the same time, i can communicate with my friends in the class when necessary. (s40, translated by the author(s). my device is sufficient for this, but we turn on the microphone and read the homework we have done in the writing class, and then our teacher evaluates it briefly, passes it to the other friend and i think this is not enough for us. sometimes when other friends read their homework, their voices do not reach clearly and it is difficult to understand what they are reading, and this turns into a useless waste of time for us. (s32, translated by the author(s). speaking/listening my mobile device may cause a disadvantage at times. sometimes my voice is interrupted and what i am saying is not understood. that's why the person in front of me can't understand what i'm talking about (s27, translated by the author(s). unless the phone is frozen, it does not cause a communicative disadvantage (s2, translated by the author(s). grammar yes, it is enough, but when more than one student tries to ask a question, communication becomes difficult. (s11, translated by the author(s). as in every lesson, whenever i want, i can turn on the microphone and headphone feature of my phone, express my questions and opinions, answer questions, and hear my teacher and friends (s42, translated by the author(s). reading since we are constantly doing reading activities, it is hard to maintain communication for an hour on the phone. (s30, translated by the author(s). yes, my device is sufficient. i can talk to my instructor whenever i want. i am just having trouble with the internet connection sometimes. (26, translated by the author(s). our findings in the second research question revealed nearly no limitation of mobile devices for in-class communication. mobile devices worked well to maintain learner interaction during ere online courses. 126 finding 4. mobile device satisfaction rates learners were asked about their general satisfaction level with their mobile devices regarding online course experience and their ideas on replacing them for better online learning aims. table 3. device satisfaction details writing speaking grammar reading f % f % f % f % satisfied 14 30,43 20 42,55 21 46,67 18 40,91 not satisfied, i would like to have… 32 69,55 27 57,45 24 53,33 26 59,09 • better hardware 16 34,78 14 29,79 6 13,33 7 15,91 • a notebook 11 23,91 11 23,40 16 35,56 14 31,82 • a wider screen 4 8,69 1 2,13 1 2,22 4 9,09 • a tablet 1 2,17 1 2,13 1 2,22 1 2,27 table 3 illustrated that more than half of the participants would change their devices if they had an opportunity. participants were found to be least satisfied with their devices in writing courses (69.55%) which was followed by reading courses (59.09%). participants who used smartphones commonly desired a notebook with good hardware especially for reading and grammar courses and we inferred that their smartphones could not provide enough satisfaction for these courses. several participants mentioned that they would like to have a smartphone or a notebook with better hardware, especially for writing and speaking courses. they also would not like to change their mobile device with a tablet. the participants commented: writing i am not very knowledgeable about this subject, but i would like a much betterquality device that works faster and has a higher storage capacity. we use our devices for a long-time during courses. encountering problems such as the slow operation of the device both takes more time and makes us more tired. (s14, translated by the author(s). i am generally satisfied with my mobile device i used in writing lessons, but i would like to have a notebook since i could not provide the writing layout due to the small screen of my phone while doing my writing tasks. although i generally do not have any difficulties while attending courses and exams with my phone, i believe that a notebook is a better choice to participate in classes and exams and to do writing assignments. (s24, translated by the author(s). speaking/listening macbook…(s37, translated by the author(s). i am satisfied with my devices. they are fine for me. if i had the opportunity to change it, i would prefer devices with better hardware, functionality, or storage. i would buy devices that have a wider screen because it has more positive effects in terms of following the course and functionality. (s37, translated by the author(s). in fact, as i said, my phone can cause problems such as message alerts or calls at the time of conversation, but i have been in that situation just once until now. 127 i would replace it with a laptop if i had a chance, it would be more convenient for me (s42, translated by the author(s). grammar the phone i use to join the grammar course is sufficient for the course and it has sufficient features. however, when i need to write for the grammar assignments, i cannot adjust the writing layout. the same problem also emerges in writing courses. my problem is with the screen, it is too small. so, i would love to have a notebook. (s12, translated by the author(s). the phone i use to enter the grammar (grammar 1) course is sufficient for the course, as it has sufficient features. however, when i need to write for the homework of the grammar course, i cannot adjust the writing layout, due to the small size of the screen. so i would love to have a notebook (s23, translated by the author(s). reading …i have difficulty in reading because the paragraph size exceeds the screen size, and in this case, i think it will be more beneficial for me to replace my phone with a notebook or a pc because they have a wider screen than the phone. so, i would like to replace it with a computer, preferably a notebook (s30, translated by the author(s). i would have preferred a pc. i think it will be convenient for me because of its screen size, keyboard, and better hardware (s16, translated by the author(s). discussion the primary aim of the current study was to examine the ere experience with mobile devices in the efl context. we initially found out that efl learners commonly preferred notebooks and smartphones over desktop pcs and tablets. furthermore, the findings showed that these mobile devices offered some advantages along with several limitations. these limitations revolved around smartphones in general rather than notebooks. although all mobile devices offered acceptable in-class communication, the majority of the participants would like to have better hardware or change their smartphones with a notebook or a desktop pc due to some limitations such as small screen size, hardware problems, and typing. it has been considered that the worldwide tendency towards mobile devices has been growing, and rambitan (2015) stated that mobile devices today acted like mini computers with their features and the functions they provide. from this point of view, we assumed that mobile devices were preferable for efl learners since learners could perform multiple functions with a single mobile device in their online learning environment. besides, today mobile devices are budget-friendly and have higher processing capabilities compared to their earlier versions and these advantages might have made mobile devices good instruments for online learning (ergüney, 2017 and singh & samah, 2018). albeit, our findings showed that mobile devices, especially smartphones were not without their limitations in ere courses. we found out that limited screen sizes for reading and grammar courses were reported as problematic. ortiz and green (2019) stated that in addition to providing a flexible learning environment, mobile devices could adversely affect the learning experience due to limited screen size. similarly, yu et al., (2015) emphasized that screen size is important in performing learning activities. it can be assumed that screen size was an important factor in grammar, writing, and especially reading courses. for speaking courses, low-quality microphones were mentioned as drawbacks while typing, layout designing, overheating, crash, and freezing were reported as problems in writing 128 courses. especially in writing courses, learners were required to fulfill multiple tasks (i.e., reading, analyzing, and writing) which requires a flexible device supporting multi-tasking. in related literature, it was emphasized that especially hardware competence and system use skills are important factors in the success of distance education activities (balıkçıoğlu et al., 2019; bonk, 2001; eygü & karaman, 2013; and falowo, 2007). in this context, the lack of multiscreen use and keyboards, especially in devices such as mobile devices and tablets, did not make it possible to do more than one job at the same time or makes the process very difficult. also, it was observed that the participants experienced some internet connection issues which adversely affected their course performance. when the distance education process was examined, it is often stated that frequent network connection problems can interrupt learning progress (clough et al., 2008; i̇şman, 2011; and özgöl et al., 2017). it was considered that the synchronous continuation of the courses was an important factor in the formation of this problem and caused learning losses for the learners in any connection problem. it was obvious that a problem with an internet connection, which was one of the most basic components of distance education today, would deeply affect online learning activities. hence, we assumed a direct relationship between the demands of the course, the needs of the learners, and mobile devices. a larger screen size, a high-quality microphone, a robust ethernet card, and a proper keyboard made notebooks preferable regarding online course performance. our results related to in-class communication with mobile devices yielded positive results. the majority of our participants reported that they didn't have any serious issues in communicating with their instructors and peers during online courses. considering today's learner characteristics, the devices used in online learning environments were efficient mediums for learners to communicate effectively. when the literature is examined, it is emphasized that especially generation-z individuals preferred to carry out their communication processes online and were constantly active in these environments (ardıç & altun, 2017 and chawinga & zozie, 2016). in this respect, their familiarity with mobile devices supported a strong communicative behavior. our results confirmed clough et al., scanlon (2008) emphasized that modern mobile devices, especially mobile devices, were important for learners to communicate effectively in synchronous and asynchronous learning environments. however, it should be noted that in-class communication was dependent on two basic factors: robust internet connection and a proper microphone. some of our participants mentioned minor problems related to these issues. in case of such technical issues, learners and instructors might design their specific communicative environment which would yield some positive effects on the inclass environment. and finally, our findings showed that efl learners would have changed their mobile devices with a better hardware device or a notebook. although clough et al., (2008) stated that smartphones have computer skills as small and powerful tools, it was observed that most participants would have preferred notebooks in the ere online courses. indeed, learners have been going through an extraordinary and intensive online learning experience due to the covid19 pandemic. the courses were long and they actively use their smartphones for longer periods which naturally lead to some hardware issues such as overheating or crashing. direct power supplied devices such as notebook or desktop pcs surely have stronger electronic parts along with better cooling systems. smartphones are not designed for such long active use; they have smaller electronic parts with a less efficient internal cooling system. hence, confirming our expectations, the participants mentioned opinions that favored notebook or desktop pcs in ere online courses. 129 conclusions and pedagogical implications although our results indicated that the mobile devices helped to carry out the online courses and in-class communication to a certain extent, especially smartphones had some limitations such as limited screen size, typing problems and hardware issues along with internet issues. in long ere courses, such limitations threaten online course efficiency and inhibit enough pedagogical assistance for language skills which require multi-tasking and deeper analysis of linguistic input. hence, our final inference they do not fully meet the needs of learners, especially in synchronous online learning environments. within the scope of the current research, it has been observed that learners in the distance education process generally prefer high-end mobile devices with large screens and hardware. tablets which are recently favored by the governments are not popular. in this context, it seems more effective for learners to utilize notebooks in learning activities rather than smartphones since they allow multitasking. in general, it can be proposed that internet technologies, as well as mobile technologies, affect this process significantly. especially high-speed and uninterrupted internet service will play a key role in promoting efl skills in the ere period. for instructors, the following teaching implications can be proposed for a more efficient online teaching experience: instructors should design materials that are optimized for smartphones. although mall practice showed several benefits of smartphones in communication applications, an online classroom is a different experience. for reading and grammar, visuals and texts should be in short forms divided into paragraphs that fit the smartphone screens. texts can also be divided into lines with numbers which may help learners to follow easily. grammar exercises can be more multiple-choice forms as learners with smartphones may have some writing and screen issues especially in cloze tests. considering internet and lagging problems, instructors should be patient in speaking and listening exercises as not all learners have a high-speed internet connection. for these courses, chat boxes may be used as support when needed. instructors may also prefer to avoid prolonged course hours as many mobile devices have battery and overheating problems when used for long course hours. instead, instructors may divide course hours into smaller periods and design courses regarding shorter course duration. in each of these periods, brief warm-ups may also be needed. references ardıç, e., & altun, a. 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(2015). mobile learning: trends, issues, and challenges in teaching and learning. in advancing higher education with mobile learning technologies: cases, trends, and inquiry-based methods (pp. 60-87). igi global. acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 22022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 150 english education master students’ perceptions on metacognitive strategy in academic reading kristian florensio wijaya kristianwijaya500@gmail.com cita hati international school, indonesia doi: 10.35974/acuity.v7i2.2696 abstract metacognitive strategy can bring varied fruitful influential impacts toward academic reading enterprises endured by graduate program university efl learners. in this small-scale qualitative study, the researcher aimed to profoundly investigate english education graduate program students’ perceptions on metacognitive strategy in academic reading. to achieve this research objectivity, this study employed a qualitative content analysis method to obtain more specific portrayals out of the gathered data. 10 online likert-scale questionnaire items were distributed to 18 english education graduate program students, batch 2019, at sanata dharma university, yogyakarta. after obtaining the data, the researcher also planned to make use of 5 open-ended written narrative inquiry questions to be responded to by 3 randomly selected interviewees derived from similar research samplings. two major-specific themes were revealed namely: (1) metacognitive strategy has successfully promoted more positive academic reading behaviors and (2) metacognitive strategy allowed graduate program university efl learners to achieve more fruitful academic reading outcomes. the main conclusion of these aforementioned findings is the internalization of metacognitive strategy at the beginning of academic reading dynamics is indispensably crucial in which graduate program university efl learners can potentially transform into more mature, strategic, critical, and proficient l2 academic readers. keywords: metacognitive strategy, academic reading, students’ perceptions introduction reading is one of the essential 21st-century learning skills requiring learners to profoundly analyse and interpret the texts by utilizing analytical thinking to proceed with myriad information. floris and divina (2015) stated that to be successful readers, learners are demanded to foster their analytical thinking skills constantly to obtain more fruitful reading learning rewards. in nowadays efl teaching-learning context, it is also crucially indispensable to introduce learners toward a wide variety of l2 texts to enable them to thoroughly gain the target language learning outcomes and foster their reading skills into the utmost levels. despite the availability of second language texts, majority of efl learners still encounter serious obstacles while engaging in reading activities like struggling to get the main ideas, not being familiar with novel words, and not comprehensively understanding the whole contents forming in their texts. ahmadi et al., (2013) indicate that most efl learners continuously undergo various reading learning challenges like not comprehending the specific major ideas, lacking vocabulary, and failing to obtain important information. more complex reading learning issues also go similarly with graduate program university efl learners. in academic reading, graduate program university efl learners are required to read a vast range of academic texts to https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity mailto:kristianwijaya500@gmail.com acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 22022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 151 broaden their specific understanding of the subject-specific skills. nazhari et al., (2016) pinpoint that with the presence of academic reading learning enterprises, graduate program university efl learners have wider opportunities to widen their perspective toward the particular topics they are going to discuss in the classroom contexts. however, this process is not easy at all since graduate program university efl learners have to possess adequate background knowledge in reading their targeted academic texts unless they will not be able to accurately seize the major paramount information. dodick et al., (2017) strongly theorize that with the support of background knowledge, efl learners will have plenty of chances to precisely interpret varied information forming in the texts since they have gained more robust reading comprehension toward that information. a wide range of teaching-learning strategies has been utilized by efl teachers to elevate learners’ reading competencies. one of the effective strategies worthwhile to be applied to actualize this aforementioned reading learning objectivity is through metacognitive strategy. ahmadi et al., (2013) believe that under the supervision of proper metacognitive strategy, graduate program university efl learners are more liable to increase their likelihood of reading reciprocally impacting their further development of reading skills. this potential positive reading learning outcome occurred since graduate program university efl learners can regulate their cognitive processes by designing more in-depth planning, monitoring, and evaluating stages amid ongoing reading learning dynamics. zhang and seepho (2013) define metacognitive strategies as people’s capabilities of planning, monitoring, and evaluating their cognitive enterprises to fully achieve the pre-determined objectivities before academic reading processes. hence, it is strongly believed that highly metacognitive l2 readers will potentially obtain more satisfying reading learning outcomes and achievements since they heed their whole focus on both cognitive and affective aspects. anjomshoaa et al., (2012) discover that a great number of university efl learners have successfully improved their reading comprehension skills and gained more gratifying reading learning achievements after employing appropriate metacognitive strategies through their reading learning processes. thus, efl teachers are advocated to internalize metacognitive strategy at beginning of the l2 reading learning venture. to apply this learning approach successfully, efl teachers are highly recommended to activate their learners’ profound reading comprehension concerning the information they have not yet known, have known, and are going to know. by immersing them in these triadic metacognition conceptions, learners will be more capable of exerting stronger controls over their ongoing reading learning dynamics since they have been familiar with the in-depth planning, monitoring, and evaluating strategies helping them to holistically attain the major essential information. forrestpressley and waller (2013) strongly believe that by guiding efl learners in locating what they have already known, have not known, and are going to know, they will undergo more meaningful reading learning enterprises due to the robust establishment of exhaustive reading planning, monitoring, and evaluating cycles. as a result, it is worth suggesting for efl teachers lead their learners to a wide variety of metacognitive reading strategies after being equipped with conscientious planning, monitoring, and evaluating stages. this action should be carried out to enable learners to fully gain a deeper understanding of their particular reading strengths as well as weaknesses. after noticing their reading strengths and drawbacks, they will be more able to incorporate various metacognitive reading strategies compatible with their specific reading learning situations eventually leading them to experience more rewarding reading learning dynamics constantly. baum et al., (2020) frankly acknowledge that the successful identification of specific reading strengths and weaknesses will fully strengthen efl learners’ metacognitive reading learning strategies they are going to implement in their reading learning processes since they have known the best reading learning approaches working https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 22022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 152 best for them. in the academic reading learning realm undergone by graduate program university efl learners, metacognitive strategies can also bring about various impactful effects toward learners’ further reading learning dynamics. the first positive impact is they will transform into more strategic and resilient l2 readers capable of internalizing various reading strategies appropriately since they can devise their solutions to overcome the targeted reading hurdles. the second advantageous value of metacognitive reading strategies is graduate program university efl learners are highly motivated to engage in various challenging reading learning activities since they have gained a higher level of reading comprehension. this robust reading comprehension construction emanated from their success in managing all reading hindrances, which advance them to proceed into the higher reading learning levels. ahmed (2020) claims that with the continual existence of metacognitive strategies, graduate program university efl learners are more motivated to handle varied reading difficulties simultaneously resulted in more significant development of their reading comprehension levels. the last benefit of incorporating metacognitive strategies is graduate program university efl learners will potentially showcase constant proactive reading learning behaviors due to the enjoyable reading learning atmosphere promoted by this approach. five prior relevant studies were conducted to profoundly investigate the apparent utilities of metacognitive strategy toward indonesian efl learners’ reading learning enterprises. andriani and mbato (2021) strongly prompt indonesian efl teachers to provide clearer metacognitive strategies guidance for learners to fully reap more fruitful reading learning outcomes in future events. muhid et al., (2020) unveil that the majority of indonesian university efl learners possessing more advanced metacognitive strategies are far better in planning, monitoring, and evaluating their reading activities compared to those who lack metacognitive strategies. bria and mbato (2019) unfold that a considerable number of graduate program university efl learners have shown a higher level of reading maturity and higher-order thinking skills after being equipped with proper metacognitive strategies instruction. dardjito (2019) highly encourages indonesian efl teachers to introduce their learners to metacognitive strategies at the onset of reading learning activities to transfigure them into more competent, resilient, and well-organized l2 readers. in the last study, djudin (2017) strongly motivates indonesian efl teachers to promote various second language learning enterprises provoking the continual utilization of metacognitive strategies to generate more autonomous academicians capable of devising varied problem-solving approaches to overcome their particular learning hindrances. concerning all these findings, the researcher is eager to critically examine the significance of metacognitive strategies in academic reading enterprises based on english education master students’ perceptions. by conducting this present small-scale qualitative study, the researcher felt quite assured that the specific research findings could pave the new pathway for indonesian elt experts, educators, practitioners, and policy-makers to start implementing metacognitive strategies as one of the beneficial pedagogical approaches in diverse reading classrooms. thus, it is extremely indispensable for all elt parties in this nation to establish more solid collaborative networking to promote more favourable, meaningful, and transformative reading learning enterprises in which metacognitive strategies exist to continually assist efl learners to become more independent, strategic, mature, and proficient l2 readers. to fulfil this research objectivity, one research problem was formulated: “what is the significance of metacognitive strategies on academic reading learning enterprises?” methods this present small-scale qualitative study attempted to exhaustively investigate english education master students’ perceptions on metacognitive strategy in academic reading. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 22022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 153 qualitative content analysis was employed to obtain more comprehensive portrayals out of the observed phenomenon. mayring (2014) stated that the main benefit of applying qualitative content analysis is to enable researchers to attain more trustworthy data from the life-specific events shared by research participants. concerning the data gathering processes, the researcher utilized 10 online likert-scale questionnaire items about the metacognitive strategy to 18 english education masteral program students, batch 2019, sanata dharma university, yogyakarta. this first research instrument is of paramount importance since the researcher will be more capable of discovering graduate program university efl learners’ specific perceptions on metacognitive strategy in academic reading processes. specifically, these 10 online likertscale questionnaire items were distributed to the targeted research participants with the support of google forms due to the distant location hindering the researcher from meeting with the participants physically. to reinforce the data obtained from this aforementioned research instrument, the researcher also made use of 5 open-ended written narrative inquiry questions to be administered to 3 randomly selected interviewees derived from similar research samplings. the major utility of utilizing this second research instrument was the researcher will gain a more profound understanding concerning the significance of metacognitive strategy implementations in academic reading learning enterprises. clandinin and caine (2013) postulated that in the light of open-ended written narrative inquiry questions, researchers will potentially reap more fruitful and reliable data since the targeted research participants experience a higher degree of independence while disseminating their concerns, thoughts, and opinions. this set of written narrative inquiry questions would be sent via whatsapp. furthermore, one of the impetus triggering the researcher to involve english education masteral program students to participate in this study was their metacognitive strategy development has been well-trained by all lecturers teaching them in all compulsory and elective courses. for the information, all these specific knowledge-based as well as pedagogical courses commissioned each graduate program efl learner to constantly engage in academic reading enterprises both inside and outside the classroom contexts since the finalized academic reading learning results would be well-represented in their scientific writing publications at the end of each semester. after obtaining all the intended data, the researcher planned to cluster all the participant's responses in the form of a bar chart to enable the worldwide readers to easily follow the provided argumentations and explications. the researcher would explain each obtained data argumentatively to strongly convey to indonesian elt parties that metacognitive strategy is indispensably crucial to be internalized at the onset of academic reading learning enterprises. to holistically address more reliable and robust data descriptions, the researcher also attempted to attach some specific prior metacognitive strategy theories, findings, and interview excerpts taken from 3 randomly selected interviewees who emerged after each indepth argumentation. results and discussion in this section, the researcher attempted to profoundly explicate 2 major specific themes obtained from the research participants. these themes derived from the likert-scale questionnaire categorization are strongly supported by selected interview excerpts, relevant theories, and prior findings. those two themes are (1) positive academic reading behaviors promoted by metacognitive strategy and (2) more fruitful academic reading outcomes are progressively obtained. all complete delineations can be discerned in the following lines. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 22022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 154 figure 1: positive academic reading behaviour promoted by metacognitive strategy (93% participants agree) from figure 1 above, it can be fairly inferred that the majority of english education master students have successfully ingrained more positive academic reading behaviour after being armed with metacognitive strategy. one of the tangible indicators to judge whether these students have transformed into more positive l2 academic readers is they determine more obvious reading objectives at the commencement of reading activities. 17 out of 18 participants agreed to this first finding. by stipulating clearer academic reading goals, these students can utilize various useful strategies compatible with their specific academic reading contexts. as a result, they will reap more fruitful academic reading outcomes due to the versatile reading strategies they interchange every time in accord with the ongoing reading situations they are facing. othman et al., (2014) state that under the guidance of in-depth planning strategies, efl learners will be more capable of utilizing various effective strategies in reading plenty of texts leading them to obtain more fruitful academic reading learning outcomes. furthermore, activating robust background knowledge at the onset of academic reading enterprises is also extremely essential. this second finding is strongly supported by 17 out of 18 participants. the central idea of conducting this in-depth planning reading stage is to enable l2 readers to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the texts. a higher level of reading comprehension attainment can be correlated with the current reading proficiency, maturity, and advanced development of their readiness to confront more complex academic reading texts. with this in mind, it can be probably ascertained that graduate program university efl learners possessing a higher degree of reading comprehension will proactively explore a wide variety of academic texts since they can establish a mutual association between their prior knowledge with the targeted passages. muñoz and valenzuela (2020) strongly suggest university efl learners activate their background knowledge at the commencement of academic reading enterprises to 1 1 0 1 3 17 17 18 17 15 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 having clear reading goals activating background knowledge inculcating robust reading curiosity checking specific understanding transforming into highlymotivated readers disagree agree https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 22022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 155 gain a more profound reading comprehension in line with the specific texts they are currently reading. raising a more exhaustive academic reading awareness can also be deemed as one of the crucial reading behaviors necessary in breeding more positive readers. all research participants thoroughly assented to this third finding. thus, requiring graduate program university efl learners to write some potential predictions concerning specific academic reading texts will bring about plentiful positive influences. one of those apparent impacts is they can transform into morez strategic l2 academic readers due to the analytical thinking processes while analying some texts. due to this matter, they will be more confident in overcoming various academic reading barriers simultaneously resulted in the significant enhancement of the familiarization toward diverse texts. thuy (2020) scientifically theorizes that the internalization of proper metacognitive strategies can allow efl learners to implement a wide array of strategies compatible with their academic reading contexts and become more aware of the targeted texts they attempt to read. all these argumentations are closely interlinked with the following three interviewees’ excerpts. [interviewee 1: i usually employed metacognitive reading strategies to all academic reading activities.] [interviewee 2: yes, i do. it’s because by setting the objectives, i am directed and motivated to reading with deep understanding and purpose.] [interviewee 3: of course, before going to read particular texts or readings, i commonly set the goals and plan what to do to achieve the desired outcomes.] another paramount positive academic reading behavior that has been fully showcased by graduate program university efl learners taking part in this study is the stronger willingness to conduct an in-depth monitoring comprehension approach. 17 out of 18 participants concurred with this finding. more profound monitoring reading comprehension strategy has an intertwining relationship with the academic reading achievements learners aimed before since they will gradually minimize their particular reading weaknesses to be superseded by potential reading strengths. when their academic reading awareness is already well-built in terms of strategy, individuals, and texts, it will be probable for them to heed more intensive reading focus resulted in the successful attainment of academic reading achievements. bria and mbato (2019) discover that a great number of undergraduate and postgraduate program university efl learners are more capable of attaining more satisfying academic reading achievements due to the constant monitoring strategy they apply in their academic reading processes. concerning this conception, it is of utmost importance for graduate program university efl learners to transform into more highly-motivated academic l2 readers. 15 out of 18 participants agreed to this last finding. this commendable reading behavior is improbable to be obtained overnight since learners are required to critically reflect on the academic reading processes, strategies, and contexts they are dealing with to develop their reading proficiency to the utmost levels. due to the significant elevation of reading levels, these learners will potentially transfigure into more life-long academic readers strongly willing to explore a vast range of advanced texts. therefore, it is essentially pivotal for language teachers to maintain a higher level of academic reading motivation amid the challenging reading dynamics to implant a more positive mindset toward this pain-staking activity in their perspective. schwartz and diaz (2014) highly recommend university efl learners conduct more exhaustive selfreflections concerning their academic reading strengths and weaknesses to proactively explore plenty of distinctive texts transforming them into more critical, proficient, and life-long l2 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 22022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 156 readers. these above-mentioned conceptions are tightly interwoven with the excerpts taken from three interviewees. [interviewee 1: to monitor my reading i make summary or mind mapping, give some highlight to some important information because it’s really helps me to understand my reading.] [interviewee 2: i continuously monitor my exhaustive understanding of the targeted academic reading texts as long as my aim of exploring text is fulfilled.] [interviewee 3: yes, i commonly monitor my activities during reading in order to check my understanding of the particular readings and question myself whether i am on the right track of reading to achieve the outcomes.] figure 2: more fruitful academic reading outcomes are progressively obtained (99% participants agree) impressive academic reading performances are inextricably associated with more fruitful academic reading outcomes attained by learners. based on this figure, there are 5 rewarding strategies worthwhile to be implemented by graduate program university efl learners enrolling in other academic institutions since these aforementioned approaches have worked successfully in the academic reading contexts confronted by this study’s participants. the first strategy refers to becoming more strategic l2 academic readers. all research participants wholly assented to this strategy. in this vein, becoming more strategic means learners are capable of internalizing various academic reading strategies more flexibly. meaning to say, they possess a higher degree of wisdom in when, why, and how to operate some particular strategies working best for their academic reading situations. this first strategy should be well-applied in diverse wide-ranging academic reading classroom circumstances to holistically promote more meaningful reading enterprises where all learners’ comprehension levels, maturity, and motivation continually thrive. dilek (2017) unveils that by equipping university efl learners with precise metacognitive reading strategies, 0 1 1 1 1 18 17 17 17 17 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 becoming more strategic readers transforming into more resourceful readers profoundly reflecting on the specific information critically evaluating the applied reading strategies authentically judging the obtained reading achievements disagree agree https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 22022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 157 they will have broader opportunities to hone their critical reading skills as well as internalize the suitable reading strategies to experience more meaningful academic reading venture. all three interviewees strongly agreed with this premise. [interviewee 1: i use a bit different strategies in my long reading to tell the whole information that i got from the reading.] [interviewee 2: taking notes is also a good strategy to find out the gaps to be filled and criticize the text to be questioned and clarified.] [interviewee 3: if my previous reading strategies are not effective enough to help me achieve the reading comprehension and desired reading outcomes. i need to change or modify the strategies so that i can find the most effective strategies in reading.] after transforming into more strategic l2 academic readers, graduate program university efl learners are also commissioned to become more resourceful information seekers. 17 out of 18 participants agreed to this finding. put more simply, they should be more capable of utilizing a wide variety of potential resources supportively assisting their ongoing academic reading processes like the dictionary and relevant academic texts. to actualize this laudable academic reading behavior, language teachers are highly advocated to internalize metacognitive reading strategy and conduct insistent reading classroom training concerning the relevant academic reading sources learners can pick up, specific criteria in selecting those resources, and the significance of becoming more critical knowledge discoverers to readily prepare them to confront with more complex academic reading journeys. meniado (2016) unfolds that it is urgently important for worldwide efl teachers to introduce a metacognitive strategy toward their learners in diverse wide-ranging academic reading classroom contexts to holistically transfigure them into more strategic, resourceful, and resilient l2 academic readers capable of overcoming heterogeneous reading hindrances. concerning the above-explained academic reading strategies, it is also greatly essential for language teachers to strongly suggest their learners become more critical self-evaluators after reading plenty of texts with distinctive genres. 17 out of 18 participants are in accord with this finding. indisputably, critical self-reflection skills play such a major role in this monitoring reading stage since all learners will integrate their utmost reading performances to survive in adverse academic reading enterprises. these types of readers constantly hold a strong belief that every taxing academic reading impediment act as the stepping stone of success for them to achieve better reading learning outcomes, increase their reading competencies, and elevate their reading learning autonomy. razı and çubukçu (2014) adduce that highly metacognitive l2 academic readers are more liable to stipulate more well-organized reading learning planning, monitoring, and evaluating stages encouraging them to enhance their reading comprehension skills into the utmost levels harmonious with the specific reading learning contexts as well as objectivities. moving forward to the next strategy, successful l2 academic readers can also be assumed as the highly-aware academicians continuously reflecting on the reading strategies useful for them in future academic reading events. 17 out of 18 participants strongly supported this strategy. anchored on this contention, language teachers are urgently required to elevate their learners’ awareness concerning the advantageous values of incorporating metacognitive strategy in a vast range of academic reading dynamics. by actualizing this approach at the outset of the academic reading venture, graduate program university efl learners can exert more rigorous controls over the ongoing https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 22022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 158 academic reading processes, judiciously implement various appropriate academic reading strategies, and become more effective problem-solvers better in deciding whether the applied reading approaches are appropriately usable or not for future academic reading processes. ceylan (2015) strongly advocates globalized efl teachers to raise their learners’ awareness concerning the pivotal utilities of metacognitive reading strategy to better manage their academic reading processes in a better purpose, successfully overcome varied academic reading hurdles, and incorporate more appropriate strategies in the upcoming academic reading events. in the last finding, it is also interesting to be observed that 17 out of 18 participants agreed to judge if they have fully obtained more gratifying academic reading achievements. this ultimate strategy is overwhelmingly crucial to eradicate unmotivated academic reading behavior since particular reading achievements obtained by learners will work as one of the major driving forces for them to establish, maintain, and even enhance their academic reading performances. concerning this belief, evaluating the reading stage can simultaneously provide substantiate incentives for the further significant development of learners’ higher-order thinking, problem-solving, decisionmaking, planning, and monitoring skills since they have been fully aware of specific academic reading texts they are going to face. conrady (2015) believes that university efl learners have to be able to thoroughly evaluate the academic reading processes to progressively elevate their higherorder thinking, problem-solving, decision-making, planning, and monitoring skills. these aboveexplicated rationales are positively linked with the following three interviewees’ excerpts. [interviewee 1: i always evaluate my applied reading strategies to improve my specific understanding of the topics.] [interviewee 2: i often evaluate my reading progress and strategies in order to be a better reader.] [interviewee 3: evaluating strategies helps me to confirm whether or not my understanding of the readings is correct.] conclusion as a taken point, it can be briefly phrased here that the insistent metacognitive strategy can potentially bring about a wide array of potential academic reading benefits cognitively, affectively, and psychologically. highly-metacognitive academic readers are the academicians knowing the best strategies working best to overcome varied upcoming reading obstacles. they are also the figures who can manage their academic reading enterprises for a better purpose due to the in-depth planning, monitoring, and evaluating stages they repeatedly utilize. thus, language teachers all around the globe are strongly encouraged to incorporate metacognitive strategy at the commencement of graduate program university efl learners’ academic reading venture to breed more autonomous, proficient, accountable, confident, and mature future l2 academic readers. in contrast, this present small-scale qualitative study was also presented with two particular drawbacks. first, since this study has not yet touched upon the significance of metacognitive strategy toward undergraduate program university efl learners, it will be more beneficial for future researchers to profoundly investigate the tangible impacts of this approach in academic reading processes undergone by these undergraduate programs to provide more robust data. second, since this study merely heeds its investigation by collecting the data for a short period, longitudinal qualitative study is strongly suggested for future researchers aiming to replicate this study to generate more generalizable research findings benefitting worldwide https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 22022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 159 elt experts, educators, practitioners, and policy-makers concerning the precise applicability of metacognitive strategy in multivariate academic reading circumstances. apart from these aforesaid limitations, the obtained results derived from this present small-scale qualitative study had paved the way for all elt parties concerning the proper strategies of utilizing metacognitive strategy in the presence of heterogeneous academic reading vicinities. by internalizing corresponding strategies potentially supporting this approach, it can be reasonably stated that university efl learners enrolling in extensive reading levels will transform into more mindful, strategic, and competent academic readers. references al nazhari, h., delfi, s., & k, s. 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(2013). metacognitive strategy use and academic reading achievement: insights from a chinese context. electronic journal of foreign language teaching, 10(1), 54– 69. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity reading is one of the essential 21st-century learning skills requiring learners to profoundly analyse and interpret the texts by utilizing analytical thinking to proceed with myriad information. floris and divina (2015) stated that to be successful re... a wide range of teaching-learning strategies has been utilized by efl teachers to elevate learners’ reading competencies. one of the effective strategies worthwhile to be applied to actualize this aforementioned reading learning objectivity is through... as a result, it is worth suggesting for efl teachers lead their learners to a wide variety of metacognitive reading strategies after being equipped with conscientious planning, monitoring, and evaluating stages. this action should be carried out to en... five prior relevant studies were conducted to profoundly investigate the apparent utilities of metacognitive strategy toward indonesian efl learners’ reading learning enterprises. andriani and mbato (2021) strongly prompt indonesian efl teachers to pr... 1 enhancing students’ vocabulary through authentic materials and multimedia marlin steffi marpaung1 corresponding author (marlin.marpaung@unai.edu) universitas advent indonesia, indonesia hardi jhon pinondang situmeang2 graduate school of universitas maranatha, indonesia hardijps@gmail.com abstract vocabulary is a fundamental aspect of learning english. without adequate vocabulary, learners find it difficult to communicate, express ideas or opinions, comprehend simple text, and listen to instruction. authentic materials refer to pictures, photographs, video selection, and radio. this study sought to find out the following questions: how is the vocabulary ability of students who were taught using authentic materials through multimedia and authentic materials only? is the vocabulary enhancement of those students who are taught using authentic materials through multimedia is better than those students who are taught using authentic materials? what are the students' responses toward the use of authentic materials and multimedia? the study was a quantitative research method and a comparative design by using pre-test and post-test. the populations of this study were 10th grade of senior high school students. the instruments used in this study were the vocabulary test and questionnaire. the result of this study showed that both groups have enhanced the vocabulary ability with the mean score of the pre-test was 53.93 for authentic materials through multimedia and 59.97 for authentic materials. it indicated that the initial ability of the authentic materials group was higher than the authentic materials through the multimedia group. therefore, the mean score of the post-test was 73.80 for the authentic materials through multimedia group and 70.83 for the authentic materials group. it showed that the result of the authentic materials through the multimedia group was better than the authentic materials group. the conclusion of this study is the use of authentic materials through multimedia is very effective to enhance students' vocabulary knowledge keywords: real things, technology, vocabulary knowledge introduction english is known as the international language used by many people in the world. they use english for a variety of purposes such as to do business, to do exchange and trade, to study, and to travel as marpaung (2017, p. 51) stated that “english is the key to the international currencies of technology and commerce.” the english language has four skills; listening, speaking, reading, and writing, and also english has a vast vocabulary, though counting how many words of any language is impossible (marpaung & sinaga, 2019). nowadays, learning english provide many big opportunities such as have a good position at big multi-company both inside or outside the own country, have a business deal with other company, get a fully-funded scholarship from a well-reputation university or just to travel around the world. pandey and pandey (2014, p. 94) stated that "learning english in a country where it is not a native language opens several mailto:marlin.marpaung@unai.edu mailto:hardijps@gmail.com 2 opportunities for the individual.” robson (in marpaung, 2018) said that “english is spoken at a useful level by some 1.75 billion people worldwide – that’s one in every four. by 2020, we forecast that two billion people will be using it-or learning to use it. and it is the economically active, the thought leaders, the business decision-makers, the young, the movers and shakers present and future who are learning and speaking english. they are talking to each other more and more and english is the ‘operating system’ of that global conversation.” vocabulary is one of the essential aspects of learning english. every day we say thousands of words. to be able to communicate in english, vocabulary is needed and it is important to improve and have a variety of vocabulary. without sufficient vocabulary, someone is difficult to communicate with others, express their ideas or opinion, comprehend simple text, and listen to instruction. without vocabulary, there will be no language as rosyidah and giyoto (2018, p. 1) stated that "actually, vocabulary is the foundation to learn english and vocabulary is one of the components of language, there is no language without vocabulary.” to develop the students' english skills in speaking, listening, reading, and writing, students need to have the vocabulary. as viera (2018, p. 90) said that, “vocabulary knowledge is viewed as an essential tool for mastering any language skills; it also contributes to the understanding of written and spoken texts.” mastering vocabulary is not easy for the students, especially for indonesian students where english is considered as a foreign language. according to mthethwa (2018), the use of a combination of text, sound, graphics, video, or animation to teach vocabulary is becoming a common aspect of instructional practice in language learning. it will make it easier for students to learn vocabulary in a fun way. authentic materials refer to pictures, photographs, video selection, and radio. it is an effective material to be used in the teaching and learning process especially to improve students’ vocabulary mastery. authentic material is the real things around the students’ life that the teacher brings it into the class. so, learning english with authentic material makes students familiar with the target language particularly in learning vocabulary. nuriyya (2018, p. 11) said that "by using authentic material students deal with outside and real-world, they become interested when dealing with real language.” she also claimed that authentic materials increase learners’ motivation in learning vocabulary. the use of authentic material such as texts, songs, and audio-visual materials in the teaching and learning process will make the lesson more meaningful and successful for the language learners (ruiz, 2015). technology has changed and affects many things and it includes the english learning process. zazulak (2016, p. 1) said that "technology has gained a more prominent place in classrooms in recent times and is of particular use to blended teachers." the use of computers and technology is effective and helpful for learners to learn english. according to khiyabani, ghonsooly and ghabanchi (2014, p. 2), “computer technology, internet and web-based resources are now in many schools and offer teachers and learners vast resources and opportunities for language teaching and learning. maximum benefit from these resources can only be achieved through teachers’ use of technology in developing materials for the language classroom.” based on the background above, the researcher is highly motivated in enhancing students’ vocabulary mastery using authentic materials and multimedia. research questions 1. how is the students’ vocabulary ability who are being taught using authentic materials through multimedia and who are being taught through the use of authentic materials only? 3 2. are the students who are taught using authentic materials through multimedia’s vocabulary enhancement is better than the students who are taught using authentic materials only? 3. how are the students’ responses towards the use of authentic materials through multimedia and toward the use of authentic materials only? literature review richards (2001) declared that "authentic materials refers to the use in the teaching of texts, photographs, video selections, and other teaching resources that were not specially prepared for pedagogical purposes." hence, corley and esra (2007) stated that "authentic materials are print, video, and audio materials students encounter in their daily lives, such as change-of-address forms, job applications, menus, voice mail messages, radio programs, and videos. authentic materials are not created specifically to be used in the classroom, but they make excellent learning tools for students precisely because they are authentic.” ruiz (2015) said that "authentic materials should be put into practice in any foreign language classroom as they provide learners and facilitators the tools to make their lessons more realistic, for that, teachers must take into account the importance of the input inside the classroom, otherwise, students’ won´t able to learn what it is proposed.” the advantage of using authentic materials according to heitler (2005), first is authentic materials bring learners into direct contact with a real level. second is authentic materials drawn from periodicals are always up-to-date and constantly being updated. third, is authentic materials tend to work inconsistent areas of language, and fourth is authentic materials provide teachers with a source of up-to-date materials that can be directly relevant to english learners’ needs. katamba (1994, p. 1) said that, “… , words are a very rewarding object of study. an understanding of the nature of words provides us with a key that opens the door to an understanding of important aspects of the nature of language in general. words give us a panoramic view of the entire field of linguistics because they impinge on every aspect of language structure.” alqahtani (2015) exclaimed that vocabulary knowledge is often viewed as a critical tool for second language learners because a limited vocabulary in a second language impedes successful communication. he claimed that it is impossible to learn a language without words, yet the communication between human beings is based on words. according to viera (2017, p. 90), "vocabulary knowledge is viewed as an essential tool for mastering any language skills; it also contributes to the understanding of written and spoken texts. thus, while more frequent the exposure to vocabulary is, learners are more confident to understand and interpret the meaning of some unknown words from context.” he continued his statement with, “words are one of the fundamental components in the mental processes to acquire languages, which are learned in both ways: incidental and intentional.” the effect of multimedia in learning english led the teachers to develop the materials based on the need of the students as stated by mthethwa (2018, p. 69) that, “this has led some language teachers to develop their materials and present them using multimedia. the teachers’ creation of tailored learning materials allows the teacher to develop materials that suit both the context and cognitive levels of the students.” one pedagogical method involving technology that has gained the interest and attention of many researchers is introducing new words with computer vocabulary teaching programs or software (lu, in khiyabani, ghonsooly and ghabanchi, 2014). aninda (2015) states that "teaching vocabulary using multimedia is effective for the teacher because it makes them easily deliver the materials, especially vocabulary. the use of 4 multimedia will be helpful to students if the teacher is creative in combining it in teaching and know the level of the students' ability so that the students can follow the lesson well." therefore, hadley (2001) said that teaching language by using internet website and multimedia offer both teachers and students an ever-increasing source of authentic material for the classroom. related studies a study has been conducted by nurriya (2018) entitled, “authentic materials in vocabulary development process”. she has investigated the effects of authentic materials on vocabulary at kimiyae danesh institute, yasuj, iran. the study focused on how authentic materials facilitate vocabulary development. she found out that using authentic material is a very good way to the acquisition of vocabulary and it plays an important role in teaching a second language. she recommended using authentic materials to all the language teachers. the other study has done by hidayati & pratiwi (2016) entitled, “the use of authentic material in teaching vocabulary: an experimental study the first grader of sman 1 batukliang in academic year 2015/2016. this research was aimed to find out the use of authentic material in teaching vocabulary. the researchers found out that the use of authentic material was effective in teaching vocabulary. ruiz, aguilar, and orozco (2015) have done a study entitled, "the implementation of authentic material for teaching vocabulary in an esl context." it is concluded that it is important for teachers to prepare lessons using authentic materials to teach new vocabulary to students, but the teacher must take into account the needs, interests, ages, and capabilities of those students when planning the classes; also, preparing the lectures using these type of materials is timeconsuming, but it is meaningful and helpful for both teachers and learners themselves. shi (2017) has done a study about the use of multimedia entitled, "application of multimedia technology in vocabulary learning for engineering students." the purpose of this study is to test whether it is effective to use computer-assisted instruction (cai) in individualized learning and whether multimedia cai techniques can improve vocabulary learning and memory. according to the analysis of the experimental data, cai-supported vocabulary learning is more effective than traditional methods. the results showed that, through cai, knowledge can be learned faster and retained longer in the students’ memory. aninda (2015) has conducted a study entitled, “the use of multimedia in teaching vocabulary to the first grade students at smp muhammadiyah 7 surakarta in 2014/2015 academic year.” this was qualitative research and the purpose of this study was to describe the use of media in teaching vocabulary to the first-grade students and to know the students’ response towards the use of multimedia in teaching vocabulary. the result of the research showed that the use of multimedia in teaching vocabulary can make the students understand the material well. a study was done by khiyabani, ghonsooly, and ghabanchi (2014) entitled, “using multimedia in teaching vocabulary in high school classes.” the purpose of this study was tried to observe the impact of using multimedia on teaching vocabulary to see if multimedia could improve vocabulary learning in high school classes. based on the findings, they suggested that using multimedia was more effective in the acquisition and learning of unknown vocabulary than traditional methods. it had a positive effect on the retention of vocabulary knowledge. therefore, the use of multimedia provided the bridge to a deeper understanding. 5 theoretical framework several studies have been conducted on the influence of authentic materials to enhance students’ vocabulary during a language learning process. in a related study, nuriyya (2018) stated that using authentic material is a very good way to the acquisition of vocabulary and it plays an important role in teaching a second language, and the authentic materials are recommended to be used by all the language teachers. she has conducted a research study on the effect of authentic materials on vocabulary, this study was conducted at a kimiyae-danesh institute located in yasuj, iran where the population was 50 ielts students that were randomly selected. to carried out the research, the ielts classes were observed several times and then a self-reported questionnaire was distributed to all students of the chosen classes. the results showed that most of the students prefer using authentic materials for vocabulary acquisition. the other study has done by hidayati and pratiwi (2016). this research was aimed to find out the use of authentic material in teaching vocabulary. the population of this study was the class x1 of sman 1 batukliang, the first-grader students. each class consisted of 30 students, so the total population was 60 students. the data gathered for this study were taken from the pre-test and post-test which given to the experimental and control group before and after the treatment. they indicated that authentic material is an effective material for media classroom lessons using real media where all the real material around the students are brought into the classroom so that students can understand quickly. therefore, the use of authentic material affects teaching vocabulary. conceptual framework vocabulary skill issues word recognition background knowledge words function & content authentic materials through multimedia authentic materials posters, song lyric, menu, streets sign, video through youtube & ppt posters, song lyric, menu, streets sign vocabulary enhancement word recognition background knowledge wor words function & content 6 research methodology research design this study used quantitative research with a comparative design. this comparative research design was for the tenth grade of senior high school, both class a and class b. the pretest was given to the students before the treatment and the post-test after the treatment. table 1 research design group pre-test treatment post-test 1 2 a1 a1 x o a2 a2 (purnamasari, 2017) where, a1: pre-test a2: post-test x: authentic materials through multimedia o: authentic material population and sample the population of this study was 10th-grade students from one of the public senior high schools in parongpong, bandung barat, and the samples were taken from two classes. the quota sample was used where the participants were chosen based on the predetermined character. two classes were used in this study and different treatment was applied; one class was used authentic materials through multimedia while the other class was used only the authentic materials. the instruments vocabulary tests prepared, administered, and used in this study. a pre-test was given before the treatment. the test consisted of multiple choices, fill in the blanks, and match questions. the authentic materials used in this study were video, posters, and instagram posts through powerpoint. the powerpoint is functioned as the multimedia tool for the first class and the other class without using powerpoint, just the authentic materials. at the end of the research, the post-test was given to find out the students’ vocabulary enhancement after being treated. a questionnaire towards the students' response regarding the method that is used in the class is administered at the very end of the meeting. there were 10 statements on the questions consisted of positive and negative statements. the positive statements scored as strongly agree – 4, agree – 3, slightly agree – 2, and disagree 1 while the negative statements as strongly agree – 1, agree – 2, slightly agree – 3, and disagree 4. 7 validity test there are 60 questions of the self-made test was constructed by the researcher as the pilot test. after the self-made test was being piloted, it was found that there were 54 items were valid. 11 items were high, 16 items were moderate, 13 items were low, 13 items were very low, and 6 items were invalid. however, only 30 items from the self-made test were based on the criteria of validity that considered satisfactory. reliability test a test that said to be reliable if the result is relatively the same and reach 0.60. based on the calculation of the pilot test, the reliability level of the pilot test was 0.70, it meant the selfmade test has a high level. discrimination index from the discrimination index calculation, it was found 7 items were not valid, 14 items were in the poor category, 14 items were in satisfactory category, 21 items were in a good category, and 4 items were in the excellent category. table 2 discrimination index number of questions discrimination index interpretation 41, 42, 36, 7, 25, 45, 46 di≤0.00 very bad 38, 39, 37, 6, 9, 16, 21, 22, 23, 24, 43, 44, 51, 55 0.00<di≤0.20 poor 1, 2, 8, 12, 27, 31, 32, 34, 35, 47, 50, 53, 56, 57 0.20<di≤0.40 satisfactory 4, 5, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 17, 19, 20, 29, 30, 33, 40, 48, 49, 52, 54, 58, 59, 60 0.40<di≤0.70 good 3, 18, 26, 28 0.70<di≤ 1.00 excellent level of difficulty the level of difficulty of the pilot test was 31 questions were at the level of 0.31 – 0.70. it showed that the level of difficulty of the test was in the moderate category. based on the recapitulation of the pilot test, there were 30 questions used as the pre-test and post-test and those 30 questions were able to be used to measure the students’ ability in vocabulary and fulfilled the indicators of vocabulary enhancement. 8 table 3 difficulty level number index of difficulty difficulty degree 1 𝑃 =0.00 very easy 4, 19, 28, 29, 50, 52 0.00≤𝑃 <0.30 easy 3, 5, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 18, 20, 21, 30, 32, 33, 34, 36, 37, 38, 40, 42, 44, 45,46,48,49,51,54,55,57,58, 59,60 2, 4, 6, 7, 9, 15, 17, 22, 35, 39, 41, 43, 47, 53, 56 0.30≤𝑃 <0.70 0.70≤ 𝑃 <1.00 moderate difficult 16,23,31 p =1.00 very difficult research procedure the treatment was conducted in both classes, and it was divided into two classes, first-class was taught using authentic material through multimedia and the other class was taught using authentic materials only. in conducting the research, a lesson plan and a self-made test had made before the treatment was given. after the self-made test had piloted and calculated to find out the validity, reliability, discrimination index, and level of difficulty, then the pre-test was administered. the treatment was given to the students and then the pre-test was given, and the post-test was given at the end of the treatment to see the students’ vocabulary enhancement. spps was used to calculate and analyze the data. table 4 research procedure subject pre-test authentic materials through multimedia authentic materials post-test class a class b x x x x x x 9 treatment procedure the treatment was given based on the materials provided on the lesson plan. the first class was taught using authentic material by video, posters, and instagram posts through the use of powerpoint as the multimedia while the other class was treated by using authentic material without using multimedia where the students needed to read and listen to the material given by the researcher. then, the researcher gave exercises or tasks based on the material where the students should work on the task individually. at the end of the class, the researcher discussed the task together with the students to see if the answers of the students were correct. during the discussion, the researchers also examined the students' performance in their vocabulary understanding. table 5 class a authentic materials through multimedia class b authentic materials • tasks are given to the students to be done individually. • activity steps: a. receptive activity students are asked to listen for specific information, learn and read the material through powerpoint, video, and group online chat. b. productive activity students are asked to work on the task by using their gadget (phone, tablet, or laptop) and the prepared worksheet. c. language outcome vocabulary enhancement • tasks are given to the students to be done individually. • activity steps: a. receptive activity students are asked to listen for specific information, learn and read material from the book or on prepared paper. b. productive activity students are asked to work with the the task from the prepared worksheet. c. language outcome vocabulary enhancement data collection the pre-test was given to the students before the treatment to find out the initial knowledge of the students before the treatment was started. two strategies were used as the treatment for this study, authentic material through multimedia and authentic materials. the post-test was given at the end of the treatment to see the students' vocabulary enhancement after being treated. result and discussion this chapter provides the result and the discussion of the research. the result of the pre-test and post-test for both classes can be seen in table 6. 10 table 6 pre-test, post-test, standard deviation, and normalized gain authentic materials through multimedia authentic material mean st. deviation mean st. deviation pre-test 53.93 17.877 59.97 18.070 post-test 73.80 17.697 70.83 16.968 normalized gain 0.479537 0.2206606 0.309323 0.1993176 table 6 shows that the initial knowledge of the group who were taught using authentic materials through multimedia was lower than students who were taught using authentic materials. however, students’ achievement in a group who were taught using authentic materials through multimedia after the treatment was higher than students who were taught using authentic materials. on the other hand, the standard deviation for both classes class was decreased was the class that taught using authentic material through multimedia on the pre-test was 17.877 decreased to 17.697 and the standard deviation of the class that taught using authentic material was 18.070 decreased to 16.968. it indicated that the data points were spread out over a wider range of values for both groups. furthermore, the gain scores of both data were at a moderate level, and both the post-test scores were increased. normality test result to know if the data population of the pre-test was normally distributed or not, the normality test was conducted. when the normality test was done, the homogeneity test was administered to know if the populations of the samples were homogenous or not. the result of the normality can be seen on table 7. table 7 the normality test result for pre-test score pre-test group shapiro wilk statistic df sig. authentic materials through multimedia .914 30 .019 authentic materials .944 30 .116 the results in table 7 shows that both populations were not normally distributed, since the significant value were 0.159 > α (0.05) and 0.016 < α (0.05). since both data were not normally distributed, then the homogeneity test should be considered from the data based on the median row. 11 homogeneity variance test homogeneity was done to analyze the population homogeneity variances. the result can be seen on table 8 and 9. table 8 the homogeneity test result for pre-test score pre-test based on median levene statistic df1 df2 sig. .021 1 58 .884 the data shows in table 8 indicated the significant value was 0.884 > α (0.05), it meant that the population variances were homogeneous. table 9 the homogeneity result for normalized gain score gain based on median levene statistic df1 df2 sig. 1.336 1 58 .252 the data in table 9 shows that the significant value is 0.252 ≥ α (0.05), it meant that the population variances were homogenous. non-parametric test non-parametric test or mann-whitney test was used since the data population for both groups were not normally distributed, the result has shown on table 9 and 10: table 10 the mann-whitney test result for pre-test score pre-test mann-whitney u wilcoxon w. z sig. (2 tailed) 364.500 829.500 -1.268 .205 12 the result shows in table 10 that ρ. value (sig) ≥ α (0.05) meant ho is not rejected, where the significant value was 0.205 ≥ α (0.05), which showed that there is no significant difference in students' vocabulary enhancement. it indicated that the students who were taught using authentic materials through multimedia were not better than the students who were taught using only authentic materials. table 11 the mann-whitney test result for gain score gain test mann whitney u wilcoxon w. z sig. (2 tailed) 241.000 706.000 -3.091 .002 the result from table 11 shows ρ. value (sig) ≥ α (0.05): ho was not rejected, where the significant value is 0.002 < α (0.05), it meant that vocabulary enhancement on students who taught using authentic materials through multimedia was better than the students who taught using authentic materials. different between students’ vocabulary enhancement the normality test was conducted to get the result of the gain score. the result of the gain score has shown on the following table: table 12 the normality test result for normalized gain score gain group shapiro wilk statistic df sig. authentic materials through multimedia .949 30 .159 authentic materials .911 30 .016 based on the result from table 12, it can be concluded that both populations of the data were not normally distributed since the significant value was 0.159 > α (0.05) and 0.016 < α (0.05). because both data were not normally distributed, then the homogeneity test should be considered from the data based on the median row. students’ response the questionnaire had administered as additional data required to know the students’ responses toward the use of authentic materials through multimedia and authentic materials only in the classroom. the results were presented on table 4.8 and 4.9 below: 13 table 13 students’ response towards the use of authentic materials through multimedia student strongly agree (a) agree (b) slightly agree (c) disagree (d) total score total score (40*100) response criteria 1 12 18 2 0 32 80 positive 2 20 12 2 0 34 85 positive 3 16 18 0 0 34 85 positive 4 24 9 2 0 35 87,5 positive 5 4 27 0 0 31 77,5 positive 6 0 24 4 0 28 70 moderate 7 24 12 0 0 36 90 positive 8 20 12 2 0 34 85 positive 9 20 12 2 0 34 85 positive 10 0 30 0 0 30 75 moderate 11 24 9 2 0 35 87,5 positive 12 16 9 4 1 30 75 moderate 13 16 12 2 1 31 77,5 positive 14 0 27 2 0 29 72,5 moderate 15 12 21 0 0 33 82,5 positive 16 20 12 2 0 34 85 positive 17 24 9 2 0 35 87,5 positive 18 12 15 4 0 31 77,5 positive 19 16 18 0 0 34 85 positive 20 8 24 0 0 32 80 positive 21 24 9 2 0 35 87,5 positive 22 20 12 2 0 34 85 positive 23 12 18 2 0 32 80 positive 24 24 9 2 0 35 87,5 positive 25 16 15 2 0 33 82,5 positive 26 0 30 0 0 30 75 positive 27 24 9 2 0 35 87,5 positive 28 0 27 2 0 29 72,5 moderate 29 16 12 2 1 31 77,5 positive 30 12 15 2 1 30 75 moderate 14 table 14 students’ response towards the use of authentic materials the explanation of the result from table 13 and 14, can be seen on table 15: subject strongly agree (a) agree (b) slightly agree (c) disagree (d) total score total score (40*100) response criteria 1 0 21 6 0 27 67,5 moderate 2 4 18 4 2 28 70 moderate 3 0 15 10 0 25 62,5 moderate 4 4 15 2 3 24 60 moderate 5 0 12 12 0 24 60 moderate 6 8 15 4 1 28 70 moderate 7 0 9 14 0 23 57,5 moderate 8 0 21 0 3 24 60 moderate 9 4 18 2 2 26 65 moderate 10 0 15 10 0 25 62,5 moderate 11 0 15 6 2 23 57,5 moderate 12 4 15 6 1 26 65 moderate 13 0 15 6 2 23 57,5 moderate 14 4 15 2 3 24 60 moderate 15 8 15 2 2 27 67,5 moderate 16 8 9 6 2 25 62,5 moderate 17 4 12 6 2 24 60 moderate 18 4 18 2 2 26 65 moderate 19 4 12 6 2 24 60 moderate 20 4 15 8 0 27 67,5 moderate 21 12 6 8 1 27 67,5 moderate 22 8 15 0 3 26 65 moderate 23 20 3 2 3 28 70 moderate 24 0 15 6 2 23 57,5 moderate 25 12 9 4 2 27 67,5 moderate 26 8 15 2 2 27 67,5 moderate 27 20 3 2 3 28 70 moderate 28 0 12 12 0 24 60 moderate 29 0 15 6 2 23 57,5 moderate 30 16 18 0 0 34 85 positive 15 table 15 students’ response percentage response criteria authentic materials through multimedia authentic materials students’ response average positive 80% 3,3% 41,65% moderate 20% 96,6% 58,3% from the table 15, the first class (authentic materials with multimedia) response percentage was 80% positive and 20% moderate while the second group (authentic materials) response percentage was 3,3% positive and 96,6% moderate. discussion from the result of the finding, it showed that the students’ vocabulary enhancement who were taught using authentic materials through multimedia is better than the students who were taught using authentic materials. it can be concluded that the students' vocabulary enhancement for both classes was increased after the treatment where the finding showed positive results for both classes. yet the result of the study showed a significant improvement in the students' vocabulary, two problems occurred from this study. the first problem is there is no internet access or quota data at the school that can be used in the teaching and learning process. the second problem is the students are lack of motivation in learning english. this comparative study of enhancing students’ vocabulary through authentic material and multimedia is the first study conducted in indonesia. conclusion in conclusion, the use of authentic materials is one of the effective techniques to help students enhance their vocabulary ability. the authentic materials provide and facilitate the students to learn other languages in a real way where the teacher brings real things into the classroom. as a result, the students will have a positive motivation to learn english. the use of multimedia as teaching media gives another experience in learning vocabulary. multimedia such as powerpoint strengthens the lesson and has a positive effect in assisting the students to learn the vocabulary faster and retain longer on their memory, comprehend the material well and have a deeper understanding of the vocabulary knowledge. acknowledgment my sincere gratitude to gabrielle juliana purba for the data gathering of this study. references alqahtani, m. 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(2018). the correlation between self-confidence and students' english achievement of tertiary students at universitas advent indonesia. acuity journal of language pedagogy, literature & culture 3(2), 98-110. https://doi.org/10.35974/acuity.v3i2.648 marpaung, m. s., & sinaga, r. (2019). the use of reading, cover, remember, retell (rcrr) in improving students’ reading comprehension. acuity journal of language pedagogy, literature & culture 4 (2), 153-176. https://doi.org/10.35974/acuity.v4i2.1068 mthethwa, p. (2018). teaching vocabulary using multimedia: the case of u.s international students. global journal of foreign language teaching volume 8, issue 2, (2018) 6875. nuriyya, s. (2018). authentic materials in the vocabulary development process. world science. azerbaijan state oil and industry university. https://doi.org/10.31435/rsglobal_ws/12062018/5873. pandey, m., & pandey, p. k. (2014). better english for better employment opportunities. international journal of multidisciplinary approach and studies, 1(4). purnamasari, r. (2017). a comparison between a word tree branch and interactive word wall methods to improve students’ vocabulary. https://doi.org/10.35974/acuity.v3i2.650 richards, j. c. (2001). curriculum development in language teaching. united states of america; cambridge university press. robson, m. (2013). the english effect. united kingdom: the british council. rosyidah, m. t. l., & giyoto, h. (2018). teaching vocabulary for the second-grade students of smp a islam kartasura in the academic year 2017/2018. retrieved from http://eprints.iain-surakarta.ac.id/id/eprint/1268 ruiz, c. o. (2015). the implementation of authentic material for teaching vocabulary in an efl context. universidad technologica depereira. shi, x. (2017). application of multimedia technology in vocabulary learning for engineering students. luoyang institute of science and technology. https://doi.org/10.3991/ijet.v12i01.6151 sulastri, n. (2011). the effectiveness of picture chart media on students’ english vocabulary. journal on english as a foreign language, 1(2). viera, r. t. (2018). vocabulary knowledge in the production of written texts: a case study on efl language learners. revista tecnológica espol – rte, 30(3), 89-105. http://www.rte.espol.edu.ec/index.php/technologica/article/view/628/377. zazulak, s. (2016). technology trends in english language learning and teaching. retrieved from https://www.english.com/blog/technology-trends-in-english/ http://www.intelligent-/ http://www.intelligent-/ http://www.european-science.com/jaelt https://doi.org/10.35974/acuity.v2i1.588 https://doi.org/10.35974/acuity.v3i2.648 https://doi.org/10.35974/acuity.v4i2.1068 https://doi.org/10.31435/rsglobal_ws/12062018/5873 https://doi.org/10.35974/acuity.v3i2.650 http://eprints.iain-surakarta.ac.id/id/eprint/1268 https://doi.org/10.3991/ijet.v12i01.6151 http://www.rte.espol.edu.ec/index.php/technologica/article/view/628/377 https://www.english.com/blog/technology-trends-in-english/ the result shows in table 10 that ρ. value (sig) ≥ α (0.05) meant ho is not rejected, where the significant value was 0.205 ≥ α (0.05), which showed that there is no significant difference in students' vocabulary enhancement. it indicated that the stu... table 11 the mann-whitney test result for gain score table 12 the normality test result for normalized gain score students’ response discussion acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 296 efl learners’ performances on associating english proverbs with equivalent turkish proverbs: a cross-cultural study fatma ki̇msesi̇z fatmakimsesiz@ahievran.edu.tr kırşehir ahi evran university, turkey doi: 10.35974/acuity.v7i2.2643 abstract as verbal folklore genres, proverbs are an essential part of cultural, social, and linguistic patterns in a given language, yet with universal tendencies present in all languages. as cultural mirrors of a given culture, proverbs may pose a resemblance in meaning and structure across cultures. there are growing appeals for translation studies that revolve around contrasting and investigating equivalent proverbs in the source language and the target language. this is the focus of the current study that aims to examine the performance of turkish learners of english in translating selected english proverbs in terms of their interlingual equivalents in turkish based on the theory of re-conceptualization on a comparative basis. through the study, as an initial step 15 english proverbs were selected and examined under the scope of their re-conceptualization degrees to indicate their level of equivalency in three distinct levels as highly equivalent, roughly equivalent, and non-equivalent proverbs. as a second step, 80 learners of efl at a2 levels participated in translating 3 groups of proverbs, and later their performance in translating these proverbs was examined and analyzed. the study is a quantitative study and the data was collected through papers uploaded by the learners on an online education program that enables remote learning called aydep (ahi qualification-based education program), administered by kırşehir ahi evran university. the results indicated that learners performed better in translating maximally equivalent interlingual english proverbs than roughly equivalent proverbs, and they translated and interpreted non-equivalent proverbs differently. given these points, intertwining an intercultural affinity between the source language and the target language, interlingual equivalent proverbs prove to have facilitating roles in associating english proverbs with turkish equivalents. keywords: culture, efl, intercultural relationship, proverb introduction proverbs have been studied for centuries as descriptive and favorable linguistic items of cultural values and reflections and they continue to play an essential role in modern studies in literature and culture (mieder, 2004). they are distilled over many generations carrying a figurative (norrick, 1985) and universal (gözpınar, 2014) meaning in usage. linguistically, proverbs are sentential and framed in a fixed sentence form (norrick, 2014), mostly occurring in present tense form (škara, 1995). semantically they include polysemy, metaphor, metonymy, personification, paradox, and sharp contrasts that can be appealed in any situation (norrick, 2014). as traditional responses to various ethical problems, proverbs spring up from shared cultural wisdom and common sense that results from judgments and a rich heritage of collected thinking and human experience formed in different situations by the members of a society (norrick, 2014). that’s why some proverbs are common across languages. although phrased differently, most culturally-related proverbs are analogous expressing similar sentiments enabling them to be associated with their equivalents across languages (flonta, https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity mailto:fatmakimsesiz@ahievran.edu.tr acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 297 2011; lubis, 2018). despite distinctions arising from ethnic, geographic, historical, and language factors, and despite limited contact in some cases; proverbs are constrained by universal influences of human experience to refer to similar/identical situations and that’s why they can be expressed with similar or identical maxims across cultures (škara, 1995). jakobson (1975) said, as a component in all language transactions, translation is divided into three kinds of forms: intralingual, interlingual, and intersemiotic translations. literally to define, intralingual translation is related to the interpretation of verbal signs with the help of other linguistic manifestations within the same language; interlingual translation deals with interpreting verbal signs through some other languages. finally, intersemiotic translation manifests itself as an interpretation of verbal signs through signs of “nonverbal sign systems” (jakobson 1975, p. 233). in the potential of translating, as described by jacobson (1975; 234– 235), “all cognitive experience and its classification is conveyable in any existing language”. in case of probable linguistic ‘deficiencies’; ‘loan words’, neologisms’, and ‘circumlocutions’ aid to compensate for insufficient language items. in other words, anything, even cultural phrases such as proverbs, “expressed in the source language may well find its translation in the target language” (mandziuk-nizińska, 2020, 208). as asserted by mandziuk-nizińska (2020), common ground can be established between the source language (sl) and the target language (tl) although linguistic and cultural distinctions may preclude obtaining a direct equivalence in translation. since a given culture plays a fundamental role in translation (bassnett, 2002; lefevere, 1992, venuti, 2000), it is better to know the source language culture to perceive the culture-specific information in the target text (mandziuk-nizińska, 2020). on this ground, it’s notable that culture-specific themes need to be addressed in foreign language teaching for a variety of reasons (byram & feng, 2004). thus, foreign language teachers should involve cultural studies in their classes by comparing and contrasting both native and the target cultures (byram & morgan, 1994). there is a common tendency to presume that certain similar or identical situations are experienced in different speech communities, thus, that they are expressed with similar or identical maxims show that proverbs are constrained by universal influences of human experience to refer to these situations. as a result, findings from the cross-cultural studies reveal that a high percentage of proverbs are similar or identical semantically and linguistically. moreover, results of the contrastive analysis demonstrate that the majority of proverbs have common grounds despite distinctions arising from ethnic, geographic, historical, and language factors. (al –timen, 2015; buljan & gradečak-erdeljić, 2013; chakyroglu et al., 2018; lubis, 2018; mandziuk-nizińska, 2020; rusieshvili-cartledgea & gözpınar, (2014), syzdykov, 2014; xiangyang, 2016). in line with these result, translating proverbs requires a reciprocal insight into the meaning, moral, and values of the existing proverbs in both languages. (wilson, 2010). one of the issues worth mentioning in translating proverbs is glossing their literal and literary translations. essentially, literal translation provides one-to-one correspondence across languages (strauss, 2005), while literary translation renders the figurative meaning behind the proverb (landers, 2001). thus, information can be elicited for its denotative and connotative meaning. to achieve the intended translation effect, the items to be used need to conform to the lexical, phonetic, and syntactic practices (mandziuk-nizińska, 2020) without losing sight of all linguistic and cultural specifications (lewandowska-tomaszczyk, 2017). one sounding premise in associating proverbs across languages is re-conceptualization operations (given in appendix a) put forward by lewandowska-tomaszczyk (2010). the employment and the number of the operations can differ from translation to translation in a given context. the underlying concept of these differences compose degrees of reconceptualization which draw a direct proportion to the distance between the source language https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 298 and the target language translations (lewandowska-tomaszczyk, 2010). to be specific, as the number of re-conceptualization operations escalates, the distance between the target language and the source language expands. when translating proverbs, if a proverb is roughly attached to its equivalent in the source language, the degree of re-conceptualization operations will increase to compensate for the vacancy in meaning and structure. the other way around, those proverbs with the closest equivalent in the source language signify a very low degree of reconceptualization (mandziuk-nizińska, 2020). thus, when the sense employed for the construction of a proverb is almost the same and the degree of translation operations is low, then it can be claimed that a maximal equivalency has been attained (highly equivalent). on the other hand, proverbs with a low degree of re-conceptualization necessitate more translation operations. they carry a similar meaning with a different formulation and appear to be slightly corresponding. those proverbs which express a similar meaning appear to be roughly equivalent. expressing ‘an analogous kernel of truth’ (mandziuk-nizińska, 2020, p.215), those proverbs evoke utterly divergent concepts and different metaphorical scenes to convey nearly the same message. looking through an intralingual perspective, non-equivalent proverbs are unique within their native language, bearing no association with the target language. it seems futile to search for an equivalent version of them or to express them faithfully in the target language, hence learners resort to translation or interpretation to understand the message. without a doubt, even the practice of word-for-word translation is possible, it will yield confusing outcomes since, what was once a proverb will lose its edge and turn out to be a sentence with no proverbial sense. handling the issue from the point of interlingual and intralingual reconceptualization processes, it is possible to divide translation processes of proverbs into 3 groups to light up the distinctions by lubis (2018) and mandziuk-nizińska (2020): 1. highly (maximally) equivalent source language and target language proverbs with a relatively low degree of interlingual reconceptualization, 2. roughly equivalent proverbs with a high degree of interlingual reconceptualization, (mandziuk-nizińska, 2020), 3. non-equivalent proverbs that cannot be associated with any of the culturally or traditionally related proverbs in the source or the target language and that is amenable to intralingual analysis (lubis, 2018). there are a variety of english and turkish proverbs that seem highly equivalent in meaning and form. to restate it through the glasses of lewansdowska’s re-conceptualization operations, these proverbs seem to mirror a low degree of reconceptualization operations with minimal or no changes in meaning and style. when a proverb has the same meaning in literal and literary forms, it means that it is ‘translated in its precise wording’ (mieder, 2004, p.21). as an example for this group of proverbs, english proverbs ‘time is money’ senses maximally equivalent to turkish proverb ‘vakit nakittir’, signifying that time is a valuable source and it should be used properly especially to earn money (https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/time-is-money). thus, it is possible to notify that such kinds of proverbs stand for highly equivalent english-turkish proverbs, bearing no reconceptualization operation in translation. as to roughly equivalent proverbs, some parallel proverbs may envisage utterly divergent scenes, yet they indicate approximately the same message. for this group of proverbs, ‘the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree’ and its turkish version, ‘armut dalının dibine düşer’, (lit.: a pear falls beneath the pear tree) illustrates a clear instance. the hidden message is that a child usually has a similar character or similar qualities to his/her parents. the english version conjures up the image of an apple tree, whereas the turkish variant evokes a pear tree, yet both of these languages assimilate family to a tree, and its fruits to children, https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 299 illustrating that a child imitates his/her parents. although the proverbs are enunciated differently, the governing idea is the same on these proverbs. some of the proverbs may not be so lucky to reveal coincidence in the target language. they may have no direct equivalent in the target language, then the only thing that can be done is resort to translation. once it is almost impossible to restate a proverb in the source language with another one closer or identical in the target language, applying to translation or interpretation seems the best thing to be done. as clearly stated by kramsch (1993, 205), teaching a foreign language should employ “a reflection both on the target and on the native culture”. to route a parallel line for contrasting and teaching a foreign language and culture, zigzagging from l1 to l2 can be drawn and followed (byram, 1991). learners’ intercultural ability improves as they gain insights into understanding links and distinctions in the target culture and the source culture (byram, 2013). as culture-specific units, teaching target language proverbs is suggested for making learners feel a sense of cultural affinity in learning a foreign language (kimsesiz, 2021). investigating learners’ performance in translating culturally and traditionally associated expressions and maxims can shed light on their tendency in translating fixed language-specific items. for this aim, proverbs can be an acceptable way to build the bridge between culture and teaching a target language. hence, this study aims to examine learners’ performance in translating interlingual english proverbs into turkish equivalences concerning reconceptualization operations with the given proverbs in three groups. all things considered, the research questions are as follows: 1. what is the degree of reconceptualization of the selected traditional turkish-english proverbs in translation in terms of equivalency? 2. how did students score in translating maximally equivalent interlingual english proverbs into turkish? 3. how did students score in translating roughly equivalent interlingual english proverbs into turkish? 4. what is learners’ preference in translating non-interlingual english proverbs into turkish? methods research design the study employs a mixed-method design with a quantitative-based comparative analysis of proverb equivalence and a qualitative basis for the analysis of the translation performance of the participants. participants the student participants (f=60; m=20) in this study are a2 level english learners who are freshmen students at the department of counselling & guidance at kırşehir ahi evran university in turkey. the participants were selected through simple random sampling and they voluntarily took part in the study. their native language background is turkish and they had received english as a foreign language since 2nd grade at primary school. additionally, turkish students literally begin getting acquainted with turkish proverbs from the 2nd grade at primary school and learning proverbs is involved in the curriculum of turkish language classes since then throughout the educational process both in the primary and secondary schools (meb, syllabus for turkish language course, 2019). the ages of the participants in this study vary between 18 and 20 years and their socio-economic status is nearly the same with each other. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 300 instrument the main instrument used in this study is a test that asks learners to translate the 18 english proverbs into equivalent turkish proverbs. these proverbs are divided into three groups as described in the introduction part. the first group involves 5 maximally equivalent proverbs that have almost the same meaning and moral both in turkish and english, the second group of proverbs involves 5 roughly equivalent proverbs in english with a similar meaning and moral but slightly corresponding to a different scenario in turkish. the third group includes 5 non-equivalent english proverbs with no association in turkish. all the selected english proverbs under scope were taken from https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/proverbs.html and their turkish equivalents were verified at http://www.sozluk.gov.tr. procedure within the course of the study, initially, 54 proverbs were selected to be examined under the review of reconceptualization operations proposed by lewandowska-tomaszczyk (2010), and 15 of them were selected to be grouped in 3 distinct groups as highly equivalent, roughly equivalent, and non-equivalent english –turkish proverbs. the proverbs were juxtaposed with their correspondences in both languages, and turkish equivalents were also rendered with their literal and literary meanings. later, participants were asked to translate these english proverbs into turkish. data was collected through translation papers uploaded by the students on aydep a program that allows online teaching, meeting, and file sharing, that works with the license of big blue button, and is officially used for distance learning at kırşehir ahi evran university, turkey. firstly, the students were given the translation test with a time allocation of two days. due to pandemic restrictions, the learners uploaded their answers on aydep. as they uploaded their answers back, their scores were recorded and analyzed by the researcher. data analysis the analysis of the proverbs translation was recorded by the researcher and was documented in spss 21.0, a statistical program for studies in social sciences. the descriptive statistics were analyzed for the findings from the translation studies of the students. the descriptive statistics were valued according to the translation performance of the participants with 4 distinct labels as ‘correct equivalents (3), word-to-word translation (2), interpretation (1), and none (0) in nominal measurement. results based on the reconceptualization degrees, of the 15 proverbs selected, 5 of them have been labelled as highly equivalent, 5 of them roughly equivalent, and the rest (n=5) was labelled as non-equivalent respectively. the list of the selected proverbs with their number of degrees of reconceptualization and their literal meanings for equivalent proverbs and literary meanings for non-equivalent proverbs are displayed below. table 1. equivalency of selected englishturkish proverbs under the scope of reconceptualization degrees by lewandowska-tomaszczyk (2010) groups (degree of reconceptualizaiton) english proverbs turkish equivalents literal / literary meaning the number of reconceptualization highly equivalent 1 a rolling stone yuvarlanan taş yosun tutmaz. a rolling stone doesn’t 4 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 301 gathers no moss gather any moss. 2 better late than never. geç olsun da güç olmasın. better late than hard. 1 5 3 out of sight out of mind. gözden ırak olan, gönülden de ırak olur. he who is out of sight is out of mind. 1 5 4 strike while the iron is hot. demir tavında dövülür. iron is struck while hot. 3 5 5 the pen is mightier than the sword. kalem kılıçtan keskindir. the pen is sharper than the sword. 17 roughly equivalent 6 an apple a day keeps the doctor away. güneş girmeyen eve doctor girer. the doctor enters a house where sunlight doesn’t enter. 9 – 17 – 18 – 19 21 7 don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched. doğmadık çocuğa don biçilmez. any pyjamas can’t be cut off to an unborn baby. 5 – 9 – 10 – 17 – 18 – 19 29 8 many a little makes a mickle. damlaya damlaya göl olur. drip by drip becomes a lake. 5 9 18 19 29 9 the shoemaker always wears the worst shoes. terzi kendi söküğünü dikemez. a tailor cannot stitch his own rip. 4 17 – 18 – 19 10 the early bird catches the worm erken kalkan yol alır. those who get up early make way. 9 – 18 – 19 29 non-equivalent 11 a fool and his money are soon parted. akılsız ve kazancı çabuk ayrılır. 12 a little of what you fancy does you good hoşlandığın şeyin azı bile sana iyi gelir. 13 a picture is worth a thousand words. bir resim bin kelimeye bedeldir. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 302 14 to travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive umutla seyahat etmek, ulaşmaktan iyidir. 15 beggars can’t be choosers. dilenciler seçici olamaz. comparing the intended message and the structure of the mentioned proverbs, it is possible to notice the striking resemblance between highly equivalent english and turkish versions. as can be observed, the words that form the proverbs are almost identical and the metaphors involved in proverbs are in a fashion similar to each other in this group. moreover, the meaning and the values in one language correspond to the meaning and values installed in the other language enabling a clear and understandable tone. hence, proverbs that display an affinity in form, conceptualization, and axiological values of their equivalent saying reveal very low degrees of re-conceptualization with a few or no alterations. in other words, equivalency has been affirmed at the maximal level in the first group. the comparison of the roughly equivalent english – turkish proverbs reveals that although they are worded differently, they convey a similar message and moral. expressed differently, they share a common ground in meaning and value. given these points, equivalency between these proverbs has been outlined at a high level of re-conceptualization degree. thus, proverbs in the second group appear to be roughly equivalent. on the other hand, proverbs in the third group display a solid proof of non-equivalent english proverbs in turkish as they cannot be paired to any correspondent equivalent proverb in turkish. concerning the second research question that examines learners’ performance in translating maximally equivalent englishturkish proverbs, descriptive statistics are revealed in the table below. table 2. descriptive statistics of learner performance in maximally equivalent proverbs proverbs n correct equivalent translations n correct equivalent translations % mean std. deviation p 1 80 80 100 3,0 ,000 p 2 80 76 95 2,8 ,503 p 3 80 72 90 2,8 ,663 p 4 80 55 69 2,6 ,704 p 5 80 74 93 2,8 ,487 valid n (listwise) 80 as can be seen in the table, the majority of the learners (n=71; 89 %) performed successfully in corresponding english proverbs with their turkish equivalents. in other words, highly equivalent proverbs were seized easily by the learners due to their identical meanings simply evocating in turkish. related to the third research question, the following table displays the descriptive statistics of learners’ translation score of roughly equivalent english proverbs into turkish: https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 303 table 3. descriptive statistics of learner performance in roughly equivalent proverbs proverbs n correct equivalent translations n correct equivalent translations % correct equivalent w/w translations n correct equivalent w/w translations % p 6 80 22 27,5 31 38,8 p 7 80 38 47,5 36 45,0 p 8 80 51 63,8 11 13,8 p 9 80 36 45,0 42 52,5 p 10 80 63 78,8 16 20,0 valid n (listwise) 80 similar to previous findings, most of the learners (n=42; 53%) succeeded in translating these roughly equivalent english proverbs into turkish equivalents and several students (n=27; 34%) preferred to write word-to-word translations of the proverbs in this group. this result reveals an average level of success of the learners in associating proverbs with closer meanings in turkish. regarding the fourth research question, descriptive statistics of learners’ translation preferences of non-equivalent englishturkish proverbs are shown in the table below. table 4. descriptive statistics of non-equivalent englishturkish proverbs proverbs n interpretations n interpretations % correct equivalent w/w translations n correct equivalent w/w translations % p 11 80 17 21,3 60 75,1 p 12 80 42 52,5 25 31,3 p 13 80 7 8,8 67 83,8 p 14 80 47 58,8 27 33,8 p 15 80 6 7,5 72 90,1 valid n (listwise) 80 as can be viewed in the table above, learners’ preferences in translating and interpreting the given proverbs fluctuate. this may result from the fact that proverbs in this group do non-exist in turkish and consequently, learners preferred an understandable way for the meaning of the proverbs in this group as the learners were unable to associate them with any turkish proverbs. to sum up, learners performed better in translating maximally equivalent proverbs (89%) than roughly equivalent proverbs (53%). on the other hand, as it is impossible to translate nonequivalent proverbs, half of the learners (50%) translated them as one-to-one correspondence and some others (24%) interpreted them and the rest (26%) left it blank. discussion forming a genre of folk, proverbs are traditional and insightful expressions prevalent across languages (mieder, 2004). another key thing to consider in defining proverbs is that they may have closer or identical equivalents across languages carrying several figurative and metaphoric characteristics in common (mandziuk-nizińska, 2020). in the grand scheme of things, they reflect the ‘clear evidence of ethnos-specific worldview and consciousness, folk https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 304 wisdom and philosophical affiliation’ (chakyroglu et al., 2018). on account of this illustration, translation of proverbs may be rendered and attained at divergent levels (flonta, 2011; lubis, 2018) enabling several translation operations from source language to target language. for these operations, various factors such as linguistic patterns, culture-specific items, and discourse units should be considered to obtain a meaning at a maximal level. although jacobson (1975) asserted that it is probable to convey all cognitive experience in any existing language, sometimes it is impossible to convey the exact message through the other language as they involve units that block transfer. given the circumstances, alternative ways are applied such as using loan words, word coinage, transcription, and equivocations which may make up for any linguistic deficiencies in translation operations even in proverbs (mandziuk-nizińska, 2020). in the field of research, only a few studies focused on the translation of interlingual proverbs, yet they commonly highlighted the potential of natural similarities in translating proverbs across languages (al –timen, 2015; buljan & gradečak-erdeljić, 2013; chakyroglu et al., 2018; lubis, 2018; mandziuk-nizińska, 2020; rusieshvili-cartledgea & gözpınar, (2014); syzdykov, 2014; xiangyang, 2016). according to the findings of mandziuk-nizińska (2020), a meaning-oriented typology has been the most appropriate form of translation in a comparative analysis of equivalent proverbs in the source and the target languages. through the course of the current study, it has been manifested that the aforementioned proverbs in the first group carry a maximal similarity between the two compared variants. similarly, although phrased differently, proverbs in the second group coincide with the general meaning fixed on all the layers of the semantic model. in this context, it is worthwhile to consider that, based on the reconceptualization degrees, the number of translation operations is low in highly equivalent englishturkish proverbs; while this number is quite high with roughly equivalent englishturkish proverbs. however, it is hard to reflect some proverbs similarly in the source language. taking this drawback into account, non-equivalent english proverbs were inconvenient to be associated with any turkish proverbs. so, their literal meanings were figured with turkish meanings to sense their message and morals. the related literature clearly emphasized the facilitating effect of translating maximally equivalent proverbs. according to collis (1994), as soon as learners grasp the essence of proverbs, they tend to relate similar prompts in their own language. as asserted by ok (2015), rather than translating it as a form of one-to-one correspondence, learners tend to correlate a proverb in the target language to an equivalent proverb in their native language. in line with these findings, the current study indicated that students performed better at translating maximally equivalent proverbs than roughly equivalent ones. on the other hand, nonequivalent proverbs that belong to the target culture with a specific etymological or historical background may preclude exact translation. based on this fact, participants were not able to associate non-equivalent englishturkish proverbs; hence, they applied to word-to-word translation or interpretation of the proverb in suitable form in their language intending to convey a closer meaning in moral, message, and value. solely, it’s of utmost importance to bear in mind that such kinds of translations may employ a high degree of reconceptualization as explained with non-equivalent proverbs. eventually, any challenge to tailor them into another language will bring about a change or damage to their essential nature and they will turn out to be bare sentences with no perceivable proverbial and literal sense. conclusion this study was directed to examine the translation performance of efl learners in translating on 3 groups of proverbs. for this aim, 80 students participated in translation studies of interlingual and intralingual proverbs in english and turkish. the data were analyzed qualitatively. in conclusion, the current study revealed that learners performed better in https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 305 translating maximally equivalent proverbs than roughly equivalent proverbs. and they translated, or interpreted nonequivalent englishturkish proverbs as these proverbs don’t have a similar /identical correspondent in their native language. although it seems impossible to equate non-equivalent english – turkish proverbs due to potential linguistic and cultural distinctions between these languages, common ground can be established with highly equivalent and roughly equivalent english –turkish proverbs. hence as a pedagogical implication for teaching efl to learners with turkish language background, preluding with equivalent proverbs may inspire learners for noticing the cultural connection between english turkish. moreover, it can be recommended for efl teachers that to experience and analyze both source and the target language, teaching proverbs is essential especially for building a cultural relationship and affinity. especially equivalent proverbs can be identified and a warm climate through the target culture can be seasoned with such incorporations. as shown by the analysis of equivalent englishturkish proverbs, common ground exists across these languages. most importantly, the crux of the matter lies in the fact that anything that brings people closer to shared humanity supports the understanding of the human experience and cultural integrity across nations no matter what caused them to build up to this way. references al-timen, f. a. a. (2015). an analysis of translation methods for english proverbs: literal, literary, or substitution. european academic research ii, 11, 14016-14026. bassnett, s. (2002). translation studies (3rd ed.). routledge. buljan, g., & gradečak-erdeljić, t. (2013). where cognitive linguistics meets paremiology: a cognitive-contrastive view of selected english and croatian proverbs. explorations in english language and linguistics, 1(1), 63-83. byram, m. (1991). teaching culture and language: towards an integrated model. in buttjes, d. & byram, m. (eds.) mediating languages and cultures: towards in intercultural theory of foreign language education, clevedon, multilingual matters ltd. byram, m. (2013). foreign language teaching and intercultural citizenship. iranian journal of language teaching research, 1(3), 53-62. byram, m., & feng, a. (2004). culture and language learning: teaching, research and scholarship., language teaching., 37 (3). pp. 149-168. byram, m., & morgan, c. (1994). teaching-and-learning language-and-culture. clevedon: multilingual matters. chakyroglu, a. k., suiyerkul, b., aitmukhametova, k., turumbetova, z., & smanova, b. "analysis of the proverbs related to the lexemes" tongue/language"." opción: revista de ciencias humanas y sociales 85 (2018): 97-115. collis, h. (1994). 101 american english proverbs. lincolnwood: passport books, ntc publishing group. flonta, t. (2011). a dictionary of english and spanish equivalent proverbs. deproverbio. com. gözpınar, h. (2014). the role of proverbs in forming intercultural awareness (on the basis of teaching english, georgian and turkish languages). unpublished doctoral dissertation, ivane javakhishvili tbilisi state university. jakobson, r. (1975). językowe aspekty tłumaczenia [on linguistic aspects of translation]. in seweryn pollak (ed.), przekład artystyczny: o sztuce tłumaczenia księga druga. 109– 115 (trans. zofia sroczyńska). zakład narodowy im. ossolińskich. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 306 kimsesiz, f. (2021) investigating efl teachers’ perceptions of teaching english proverbs in efl classes: a cross-cultural study. rumelide dil ve edebiyat araştırmaları dergisi, (24), 1195-1210. doi: 10.29000/rumelide.997593. kramsch, c. (1993) context and culture in language teaching. oxford, oxford university press. landers, c. (2001). literary translation: a practical guide. great britain: cromwell press ltd. lefevere, a. 1992. translation/history/culture: a sourcebook. routledge. lewandowska-tomaszczyk, b. (2010). re-conceptualization and the emergence of discourse meaning as a theory of translation. in barbara lewandowska-tomaszczyk & marcel thelen (eds.), meaning in translation, 105–148. peter lang. doi: 10.13140/2.1.4989.4724. lewandowska-tomaszczyk, b. (2017). cluster equivalence, general language, and language for specific purposes. in marcin grygiel (ed.), cognitive approaches to specialist languages, 384–418. cambridge scholars publishing. lubis, s. (2018). the equivalence and non-equivalence of proverbs across cultures. international journal of social sciences, 1(1), 9-17. mandziuk-nizińska, j. (2020). to translate, or not to translate: a cognitive linguistic analysis of selected english and polish proverbs. meb türkçe dersi öğretim programı. (2019). at https://mufredat.meb.gov.tr/programdetay.aspx?pid=663 mieder, w. (2004). proverbs a handbook. westport, ct; greenwood press. norrick, n.r. (1985). how proverbs mean: semantic studies in english proverbs. amsterdam: mouton. norrick, neal r. (2014). subject area, terminology, proverb definitions, proverb features". introduction to paremiology, edited by hrisztalina hrisztova-gotthardt and melita aleksa varga, warsaw, poland: de gruyter open poland, 2015, pp. 7-27. https://doi.org/10.2478/9783110410167.1. ok, s. (2015). reflections of elt students on learning proverbs, international journal of language academy, 3-4, 251-269. škara, d. (1995). comparative analysis of proverbs: universals and specifics. studia romanica et anglica zagrabiensia: revue publiée par les sections romane, italienne et anglaise de la faculté des lettres de l’université de zagreb, 42, 365-370. strauss, m. l. (2005). form, function, and the literal meaning fallacy in bible translation. sage journals, pp. 153-184. syzdykov, k. (2014). contrastive studies on proverbs. procedia-social and behavioral sciences, 136, 318-321. venuti, l. (2000). translation, community, utopia. in lawrence venuti (eds), the translation studies reader, 468–488. routledge. wilson, f. c. (2010). a model of translation based on proverbs and their metaphors: a cognitive descriptive approach. translation journal, 14 (4). xiangyang, z. h. a. n. g. (2016). language as a reflection of culture: on the cultural characteristics of chinese and english proverbs. intercultural communication studies, 25(3). internet sources https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/proverbs.html. https://www.mufredat.meb.gov.tr/programdetay.aspx?pid=663 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/proverbs.html acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 307 https://www.sozluk.gov.tr appendix re-conceptualizaton operations proposed by lewandowska-tomaszczyk (2010) are listed below: 1) conventional coding; 2) conventional coding with different (subjective) construals; 3) language-convention induced conceptualization by language-specific (semanticized) syntax; 4) negation – shifting on the scale of negation; 5) figure/ground organization of the content; 6) viewpoint (deixis) shift; 7) subjectification; 8) iconicity of syntax and semantics; 9) prototypical phraseological equivalents – different effects; 10) culture-specific items: instruments utensils; 11) culture-specific items: social, educational, etc. structures; 12) class-specific conceptualization of pragmatic events; 13) culture-specific onomatopoeia; 14) proper names: domestication – foreignization; 15) cross-space re-conceptualization of proper names; 16) language/concept specific word games; 17) concept replacement; 18) metonymy: activation of parts of one domain onto the whole domain; 19) metonymy, metaphorical sayings, proverbs, compounds; 20) axiological markedness; 21) quantitative re-conceptualization: decreasing the prominence/salience of part(s) of the scenario; 22) quantitative re-conceptualization: changing the prominence (cultural convention/religious bias); 23) footnotes as lexical gap-fillers; 24) digression as the imposition of the translator’s ideology; 25) elimination of neologisms – conventionalization; 26) neologism for neologisms – attempts at small losses; 7) re-conceptualization by extending background knowledge; 28) re-conceptualization as an effect of foreignization; 29) domestication – reconceptualization in terms of familiar context; 30) re-conceptualization of a lexicalized term into a term and a definitional equivalent or substitution of a latinate term by a native term; 31) different metaphors – different conceptualizations; 32) literalness and granularity – metaphor – simile; 33) change in the mental image; retaining the same conceptual field; 34) intensification: addition of granularity; https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity https://www.sozluk.gov.tr/ acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 308 35) re-conceptualization by addition, and 36) simplification: schematicity. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 51 teacher-made youtube videos in online efl classes: non-english department students’ perceptions and practices arief eko priyo atmojo uin raden mas said surakarta, indonesia arief.atmojo93@iain-surakarta.ac.id doi: 10.35974/acuity.v7i2.2531 abstract this research aims to seek answers on the students’ perceptions towards teacher-made youtube videos for learning english online and how do they take advantage of the videos. eight non-english department students were invited to become participants and they voluntarily accepted the invitation. data were garnered through written reflections. it was then continued by three rounds of semi-structured focus group discussion. coding was performed to analyse the data and done thrice in different times to ensure the credibility of the results. the results indicate the students’ general and detailed perceptions on the use of teacher-made youtube videos which are very fruitful. the findings also show how the students use and take advantage of the videos and some difficulties they encounter. it implies that the students’ perceptions and how they use and take advantage of the videos should be considered by efl video creators in the future, including efl teachers. future researches may apply different methods, contexts, and participants. keywords: efl classes, non-english department students, online efl learning, students’ perceptions, youtube videos. introduction research and publication on the use of youtube for teaching english and facilitating students’ learning are currently growing. researchers have carried out investigations regarding students’ perceptions of learning english through youtube (gracella & nur, 2020), the use of ted and youtube in extensive listening (saputra & fatimah, 2018), students’ voices on the use of youtube to improve pronunciation in blended learning (purnamasari, 2018), grammar video analysis of brazilian youtube channels (de azevedo & matias, 2019), incorporating youtube clips to develop students’ cultural understanding (maryani & aguskin, 2019), the selection of learning materials from youtube for an esp course (simbolon & febrianti, 2020), and the use of youtube for learning spoken discourse (albahiri & alhaj, 2020). these aforementioned publications have reported that the use of youtube has had great advantages in facilitating english language learning in many aspects such as listening, pronunciation, cultural understanding, and spoken discourse. fakhruddin, usman, rahmawati, & sulvinajayanti (2020) also highlight that the efficacy of youtube for teaching english has been reported many times. obviously, some researches regarding the use of youtube videos are focused on developing english skills including vocabulary, reading, writing, listening, speaking, and critical thinking skill (maryani & aguskin, 2019). notwithstanding the array of researches on the use of youtube for teaching english (maziriri et al., 2020; wang & chen, 2020), literature still lacks of researches and publications addressing the use of youtube for teaching english to non-english department students in https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity mailto:arief.atmojo93@iain-surakarta.ac.id acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 52 tertiary education amidst the covid-19 pandemic whereas it is urgent since this global pandemic has changed many things including how the teaching and learning of english should take place (atmojo & nugroho, 2020; pasaribu & dewi, 2021) and youtube has great potentials to be utilized in a language class from primary to tertiary education (albahiri & alhaj, 2020). one relevant work contributing to this body of literature is derived from simbolon & febrianti (2020) who publish their work related to the use of youtube in a maritime english course carried out amidst the covid-19 pandemic at a vocational university in indonesia. however, they do not address the students’ perceptions towards the use of youtube for teaching english in the esp course amidst this global pandemic. particularly for non-english department students, english has been one of the challenging courses for them. therefore, it is necessary to investigate how they perceive the use of youtube for teaching english and facilitating their learning as students’ voice is one of important feedback to refine the teaching of english in an online setting due to the covid-19 pandemic (pasaribu & dewi, 2021). youtube has great advantages for teaching english and stimulating students’ autonomy. through internet connection, youtube can be used for teaching multiple foreign language skills such as listening, pronunciation, and conversation. it may also function as a realia to embed cultural understanding, provide exposure to world englishes, and develop authentic vocabulary mastery. moreover, youtube enables lessons and activities such as reading and writing to be well structured and detailed. it can also facilitate homeworks and projects which require supports from online streaming videos (watkins & wilkins, 2011). it is obvious that youtube has valuable potentials to function as a medium and resource for learning english such as enhancing listening skill. it can also create an interesting and interactive learning atmosphere (fakhruddin et al., 2020). youtube can be defined as an online video repository which facilitates digital videos storage and exhibition without charge. having been found in february 2005, youtube has grown tremendously as a multitude educational resource indicated from its fastly growing and much varied content and the interactivity of its community (watkins & wilkins, 2011). youtube is also considered as a source of teaching materials. it is a website which functions as a medium for online video sharing. youtube users are allowed to upload videos, share videos, browse videos, watch videos, and discuss or ask questions related to videos (fakhruddin et al., 2020). advancement in technology has encouraged more teachers and students to create and share their self-made videos. for teachers and students, there are, at least, three reasons for creating and sharing videos including giving instructions, practicing and acquiring language, and creating online learning environment (cowie & sakui, 2021). the shift of english course from face-to-face meeting to online learning amidst the covid-19 pandemic has altered how the teaching and learning of english take place. fortunately, this online english learning can be facilitated through youtube, for instance (nugroho & atmojo, 2020). in this digital age, the use of youtube as an educational resource has dramatically increased, particularly amidst the covid-19 pandemic which causes restrictions and closures in many places, without exception in english language classes (simbolon & febrianti, 2020). this global pandemic forces english teachers to have an attempt for creating self-made teaching materials in the form of videos to deliver their explanation and some tutorials through online learning environment (atmojo & nugroho, 2020). with these conceptions in mind, the gap has been identified. this research specifically scrutinizes the students’ perceptions on the use of teacher-made youtube videos which are employed by a teacher for teaching english to non-english department students at a tertiary https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 53 education institution in indonesia amidst the covid-19 pandemic. therefore, this research seeks answers to these following questions: 1) how do the students perceive teacher-made youtube videos for learning english online? and 2) how do the students take advantage of teacher-made youtube videos for learning english online? methods eight non-english department students were invited to participate in this research and they voluntarily accepted the invitation. the participants came from three different departments at a public tertiary education institution in central java, indonesia. they consisted of five females and three males. they were all freshmen who joined general english course. the course contained basic general english topics such as greeting, introduction, job, daily routine, family, time, telephone communication, food, grocery, transportation, direction, and hobby. it was taught fully online due to the covid-19 pandemic. the instructional languages were english and bahasa indonesia although all the participants had learned english when they were in primary and secondary schools. prior to this research, all the participants had declared their consent. all ethical issues were appropriately addressed. data were initially garnered through the students’ written reflections. it was then continued by three rounds of focus group discussion to dig deeper into the data. the focus group discussions really helped to ask new questions, reask unanswered questions, give responses to unique answers, clarify or confirm answers, and so forth. fortunately, all the participants were willing to create their written reflections and join the focus group discussions. each focus group discussion session lasted 90 minutes approximately. all the sessions were audio-recorded and transcribed with their permissions. the participants’ names were anonymized to keep their confidentiality. the focus group discussions were carried out semi-structuredly with some basic guidelines according to the results of written reflections. the written reflections were also guided by six stimulating questions to maintain the focus of the reflections. all the participants were encouraged to share their perceptions regarding the use of teacher-made youtube videos in general english course which was taught fully online amidst the covid-19 pandemic. actually, the data collection and analysis took over three months. coding was performed to analyze the data. first, the author read the data intensively for many times. emerging themes were then identified to create categories. the data were at least coded lexically and thematically. for all data, the coding was performed thrice in different times to ensure the credibility of the results. results drawing on the written reflections and focus group discussions, several facts have been discovered and grouped into two general themes according to the research questions. these two themes are the students’ perceptions on teacher-made youtube videos and the students’ ways of taking advantage of teacher-made youtube videos. the results are presented in this section by quoting some excerpts from the written reflections which are indicated as wr and the focus group discussions which are labelled as fgd. the participants’ names are written in pseudonyms. relevant previous researches and other forms of publications are also presented to further discuss the results. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 54 the students’ perceptions on teacher-made youtube videos the students’ general perceptions about teacher-made youtube videos which can be drawn include helpful, ease learning, good, effective, simple, and less effective. totally, there are six general perceptions they have which consist of five positive perceptions and only one negative perception. it can be unique and worthy to be investigated further about how and why this only one negative perception exists. here are some excerpts indicating the students’ general perceptions about teacher-made youtube videos. in my concern, the use of youtube videos as learning resources by showing presentation slides and providing the teacher’s voice is quite effective to understand the materials. it makes online learning easier and i easily understand the materials. (wr, inez) i perceive that the youtube videos are quite good since they are simple and helpful for learning english well. however, these videos still have weaknesses. i hope that these kinds of videos will be much better in the future. (wr, sony) according to me, the use of youtube videos for online english learning is already good but it is still less effective since the duration is too long. it distracts the students’ focus to watch the videos until the end. i reccomend to additionaly use google meet or zoom in this online learning to make sure that the students really listen to the lecture attentively. this also allows the students to directly ask questions when they experience difficulties. (wr, linda) besides the general perceptions, the students may have several other perceptions in terms of problems faced while using teacher-made youtube videos and the weaknesses of the videos. in fact, the students truly experience some problems when utilizing teacher-made youtube videos for learning english. these problems which include the instability of internet network, limited internet quota, forgetting to watch the videos, lack of understanding, and low vocabulary mastery are depicted in the following excerpts. i experience difficulties when using the youtube videos for learning english online. for instance, i have problem with unstable internet network. so, it is hard to play the youtube videos with long duration. sometimes, i also get trouble with limited internet quota. (wr, linda) i get trouble with unstable internet network and sometimes forget to watch the youtube videos. (wr, inez) i get difficulty to ask questions directly to the teacher when i have problems in learning english through the youtube videos. (wr, john) i still lack of vocabulary mastery so that i get difficulties when dealing with new vocabulary on the youtube videos which also affects my learning. (wr, anya) regarding some technological issues like unstable internet network, limited internet quota, and others, it is interesting to investigate why the students do not download teacher-made youtube videos when they are in stable internet network areas which help them to deal with unstable internet network and limited internet quota. there must be valid reasons beyond this phenomenon. moreover, the students admit that the memory of their smartphones is relatively https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 55 small. however, several students acknowledge that they have stable internet network at home since some of them are facilitated with home wi-fi by their parents. the evidence is shown below. my mobile phone does not support that, sir. the memory capacity is just small. (fgd, linda) the internet network in my house is excellent, sir. i use wi-fi at home. (fgd, anne) despite its advantages for learning english, these teacher-made youtube videos must still have several weaknesses which need to be improved for maximizing its impact and effectiveness for teaching english online. drawing on the students’ written reflections, several weaknesses of teacher-made youtube videos are mentioned. the students point out some weaknesses such as long duration, the inability to facilitate synchronous meeting for q & a, the absence of the lecturer’s face, fast explanation, less practice, less detailed explanation, the inability to monitor the students directly, and the absence of animation. the weaknesses include the absence of direct q & a and interaction among the teacher and students as well as less practice in the youtube videos causing difficulties to understand the videos. (wr, john) some videos have duration about 25 minutes. i think it should be shortened since the students easily get bored when watching long duration videos. (wr, nadia) i think the explanation is less detailed. however, it may be because my poor knowledge in english subject. the duration of the videos is also too long. (wr, sony) i think the teacher is too fast when explaining the materials so i do not understand them. (wr, roy) the weakness is that the videos do not display the teacher’s face. it is important to introduce himself to the students and make the students understand the materials better. (wr, inez) i think the weakness is the absence of animation which makes us bored and the youtube videos seem monotonous. (wr, anya) however, roy’s statement is refuted in the fgd since other participants are in agreement that the lecturer’s do not explain too fast in the videos. his explanation is clear enough. it is only his accents which are still difficult for the students to discern some words or phrases. still, the students are helped because the videos can be replayed. here is the evidence. the explanation is not too fast, sir. besides, we can replay the videos when we find some faster parts on the videos. (fgd, inez) no, sir. the explanation is not too fast. it is already clear. (fgd, nadia) i think the explanation is not too fast, sir. however, the accent is a little bit unclear for me. (fgd, sony) https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 56 having known some initial perceptions, it is interesting to discover them further. many followup questions are then addressed to the students through focus group discussions. having teacher-made youtube videos as the only medium to provide explanation on the materials, it is necessary to know whether the students perceive these videos as enough or not. drawing on the students’ responses in the fgd, three different kinds of answers are found. first, they choose streaming videos only such as youtube. the second group only select conferencing videos like google meet or zoom. third, they want to use both streaming videos and conferencing videos. several excerpts are presented to show the evidence. i personally choose conferencing videos since we can ask questions directly when we do not understand the materials. (fgd, anya) i think that it is better to use both streaming videos and conferencing videos since they both have their own advantages. we can watch videos freely through streaming videos and ask questions directly through conferencing videos. for example, we can have three or four times conferencing videos using google meet or zoom. alternatively, we can also have scheduled google meet or zoom sessions after watching the youtube videos. (fgd, nadia) in my view, it is better to just use streaming videos since they are easy to use and can be played anytime and anywhere. i think the explanation is also clearer and without sound pauses. the youtube videos can also be replayed for taking notes. (fgd, inez) some students perceive that conferencing videos are still necessary. they also support their arguments of choosing both streaming videos and conferencing videos with logical reasons such as the use of conferencing videos can enable synchronous meeting for q & a, some students have stable internet network, the students can use google meet instead of zoom due to its economical value, conferencing videos can be held occasionally and in short times only, conferencing videos can be scheduled after the students watch the youtube videos since they aim at facilitating q & a and enrichment. here are some excerpts depicting these facts. that is the consequence, sir. i personally understand the materials by watching youtube videos. however, i can understand the materials better by utilizing conferencing videos because we can ask questions directly when we get difficulties in learning and i also have personal wi-fi facility at home. (fgd, anya) yes, sir. conferencing videos are more expensive but we can use the cheapest one that is google meet. (fgd, nadia) in my view, we make schedules for watching the lecture through youtube videos and direct q & a through conferencing videos. so, the students can write down first their questions before the times of scheduled conferencing videos. it can decrease the duration of conferencing videos. (fgd, inez) reflectively, the students attempt to evaluate how communication can run in teacher-made youtube videos for learning english online. there are two responses regarding this issue. the first response means already good meanwhile the second one is less effective. they are also asked to reflect on the difficulties of materials which are explained in the videos. there are two answers, too, related to this question. the first answer is that the students never experience difficulties. the second answer means that the students, sometimes, ever experience difficulties https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 57 such as having difficulties at the beginning of the course. the evidence of these two issues is then presented below. it is less effective, sir. we almost never ask questions about the materials. the summary of each video is also written by not really watching the whole video. we only pay attention to the important points and skip unimportant parts. (fgd, nadia) in my opinion, the interaction and communication of the youtube videos are already good and responsive. however, we still do not understand new vocabulary on the videos. (fgd, linda) no, sir. the videos are clear enough and easy to understand. (fgd, nadia) sometimes, i experience difficulties since i must attempt to understand the vocabulary on each video. however, it can be handled since i can ask questions to my friends and share our understanding together. (fgd, linda) after learning english online through teacher-made youtube videos in one semester, the students perceive some improvement on their vocabulary. however, the students perceieve differently when they are asked whether their grammar has developed or not. several students perceive that their grammar has really improved. instead, some of the students feel that their grammar has only increased a little accompanied with what lies beyond. here are some excerpts which indicate their perceptions. yes, sir. it is because i attempt to search the meaning of the words from google translate when i find difficult words. so, my vocabulary increases. (fgd, nadia) yes, sir. i feel that my grammar increases after watching the youtube videos. it is because i have learned some materials in my secondary school such as positive and negative sentences, modal verbs, and imperative sentences. so, it enhances my grammar. (fgd, inez) i feel that my grammar only improves a little bit. it is because i do not get any feedback from the teacher when i already submit the summary of each video. (fgd, sony) the students’ ways of taking advantage of teacher-made youtube videos there are lots of advantages which can be taken from teacher-made youtube videos for learning english online. these videos have potentials to improve students’ vocabulary, enhance their knowledge and skills related to english language, and provide clear and detailed explanation on the materials. these teacher-made youtube videos are also beneficial because they are easy to use, publicly accessible, accessible anywhere and anytime, downloadable, rewatchable, and available for screenshots. moreover, these videos can remind english lesson which has been learned by the students at their secondary schools and generally make the students understand how to utilize teacher-made youtube videos for online language learning, especially english. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 58 the advantage of studying the youtube videos is increasing my knowledge on english subject. moreover, the videos also improve a little bit the way i use english correctly. (wr, sony) my vocabulary improves since i listen, read, and study new vocabulary on the youtube videos. the videos also remind me about english lesson in my secondary school since some materials are similar. (wr, nadia) the advantages are that the videos are very easy to use, publicly accessible, and accessible anytime and anywhere. we can learn by watching the youtube videos although we are away from home. (wr, inez) the advantages are that i can get new experience in this online learning and study english language through the youtube videos. it impresses me since i previously never use youtube videos for learning purposes. (wr, john) there are several steps which are carried out by the students to utilize teacher-made youtube videos for learning english online. to sum up, there are ten steps which are then organized and chronologically arranged. they include watching videos, pausing at unclear parts, rewatching videos, taking notes, writing summary, translating summary, studying summary, screen shooting slides, studying slides, and having practices. the evidence is indicated from the following excerpts. the way i use and take advantage of the youtube videos are by watching the videos, pausing the videos when i find unclear parts, and rewatching the videos again. i also screen shoot the presentation slides for minimizing internet quota usage and studying in different times. (wr, sony) for me, it is not enough to understand the materials by only watching the videos one time. so, i rewatch the videos many times until i understand the materials. i also take notes and make summary to be studied before examinations. (wr, anya) in using and taking advantage of the youtube videos for learning english, i watch the videos first. then, i rewatch the videos for taking notes from the presentation slides on the videos. i usually take notes on my note book. i learn in this way since i easily forget what i have learned. (wr, inez) i take advantage of the youtube videos by watching the videos, taking notes from the important points of the materials, and translating the notes into bahasa indonesia to make them easier to understand. (wr, roy) i take advantage of the youtube videos by practicing the materials in online trading through global online market. i can practice to communicate with foreigners using english. (wr, john) in fact, a few students do not take notes and make summary. they prefer rewatch the videos to take notes or make summary. however, they have exactly the same answers when they are asked about rewatching the videos or not. these are the evidence. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 59 i take notes to make the materials easier to study, particularly when my mobile phone is off or other conditions which hinder technology so that i can not watch the youtube videos. still, i can learn from my notes. (fgd, inez) i usually do not take notes. i prefer to rewatch the youtube videos. (fgd, anne) i often rewatch the youtube videos when i will deal with the examinations. (fgd, john) yes, sir. i often rewatch the youtube videos since it sometimes makes my memorization of the materials get improved. (fgd, linda) for facilitating synchronous meeting, conferencing videos can be employed. several questions which appear in mind are, for example, ‘must the q & a session be held synchronously based on course schedules exactly?’ and ‘how do the students want to communicate with their lecturer if they have questions on teacher-made youtube videos?’ to answer these questions, the students are asked to express their ideas related to these crucial issues. actually, there are two key answers which are basically synchronous and asynchronous along with each valid reason. communication through whatsapp and conferencing videos are still favorite among the students. the excerpts related to these two issues are provided below. it must not be directly asked, sir. we can collect our questions first and ask the questions on the scheduled times. (fgd, anya) no, sir. we must ask our questions directly when we get difficulties in learning. (fgd, linda) there are two alternatives based on my concern. the first is by conferencing videos and the second is by whatsapp group. (fgd, anya) maybe, it can be through whatsapp personal chat to get more satisfying answers. (fgd, anne) in spite of its advantages, these teacher-made youtube videos still need some improvement to make them better in the future. to garner accurate suggestions, the students’ suggestions are very important to be listened since it is the students who completely know the utilization of these videos for the benefits of online english learning. their suggestions include continuing to use it in the future, shortening duration, additionaly using google meet or zoom, showing the lecturer’s face, and adding something interesting like animation. by listening to the students’ suggestions, it is hoped that these videos will be more effective. here are some excerpts which denote the students’ suggestions on teacher-made youtube videos. i hope that the youtube videos can continously be used and beneficial for learning english. (wr, inez) i think the youtube videos can be used again in the future. additionaly, the lecture must also be delivered by using google meet or zoom to facilitate direct q & a. (wr, nadia) i hope that the duration of the videos will not be too long anymore. (wr, anne) i think the videos should display the lecturer’s face, not only his voice. (wr, sony) https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 60 i hope the youtube videos are added by interesting ideas to make the students better in understading the materials by watching the videos. (wr, john) in my opinion, the youtube videos should be added with animation to make them more interesting. (wr, anya) in the light of fgd, further evidence is discovered. it includes how long the youtube videos should be, whether the lecturer’s explanation is too fast or not, why the lecturer’s face should be displayed, what should be added anymore, and why animation should be added. this evidence begins with how long the youtube videos should be. 7 until 10 minutes, sir. it is because long videos make us sleepy and distract our focus on the videos which also disturb our learning towards the materials. (fgd, anne) around 20 minutes, sir. when the videos are too long, it decreases our focus. (fgd, inez) around 10 minutes, sir. it is since long videos make us bored causing many skips on the videos. the students only watch the important points for summary. (fgd, nadia) around 10-15 minutes, sir. the videos should focus on the core of the materials instead of unecessary explanation. (fgd, roy) it is then continued by some insights of why the lecturer’s face should be necessarily displayed. however, the students are not in agreement about this contention. there are two opinions among them. the first opinion is that it is necessary meanwhile the second one is unnecessary. the following excerpts evince the prior conceptions. no, sir. it is better by displaying presentation slides since the materials can be screen shot. the appearance of the teacher’s face is important but the videos are better using presentation slides. the lecturer’s face can be displayed through zoom or google meet if there is any session. (fgd, nadia) in my opinion, it is important since we can see how the teacher pronounces english words and how to communicate in english. we can get inspired and imitate the teacher. (fgd, john) in addition, several students perceive that these teacher-made youtube videos need some additional elements such as animation and subtitle. the followings are the evidence. animation which suits the topics, sir. for example, there is an animation for depicting a dialogue or conversation. so, the dialogue or conversation is not read by the teacher himself. (fgd, anya) i have an idea to add english subtitle, sir. it functions for supporting the unclear accent and making summarizing easier. (fgd, sony) however, the students are not in agreement about the addition of animation in the videos. some of them perceive it as necessary and the rests view it as unimportant. let’s see these excerpts. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 61 i think it is not necessary, sir. presentation slides are enough. (fgd, sony) i think animation is necessary to make the videos more interesting since they seem monotonous. animation must be based on the topics. for instance, there is an animation for a dialogue or conversation. (fgd, anya) in studying teacher-made youtube videos, several students have their own way. a group of students sometimes skip some parts of the videos and only watch the most important content. this happens due to the students’ mood, video duration, and internet network connection. another group of students often skip the videos and only pay attention on the most essential content they need without any valid reason of skipping. here is the evidence. it depends on my mood and the duration of the videos. however, i usually rewatch the videos in the following days. (fgd, anya) yes, sometimes. it depends on internet network connection. if the connection is fast, i watch the videos without skip. if the connection is slow, i choose to skip the videos for searching important parts only. (fgd, john) i often skip the videos and only take the important points. i do not understand the materials if watching the full videos since the duration is too long. (fgd, anne) the students also have some fruitful suggestions for the better use of teacher-made youtube videos in online english learning. they can contribute several suggestions since they have experienced using teacher-made youtube videos for learning english in one semester. for instance, it is suggested to include real-life example of language use such as conversation or speech based on the topic discussed. it is also good to assign the students to create some videos related to the available topics to facilitate them for using english in real-life context which can be uploaded on youtube too. to be highlighted, examples and practices of real-life language use are very beneficial for the students. some excerpts depicting their suggestions are shown below. providing real examples of practices in the videos is very reccomended. for example, the youtube videos can include the dialogues or conversations which based on the topics of the videos. the video about shopping may include some real dialogues or conversations of people who buy and sell things in shops, markets, or supermarkets. (fgd, john) i love the assignment, sir. by giving us assignment to practice the materials on the videos in form of videos to be uploaded onto youtube too, i think it is the most effective practice for online learning like this. for example, the assignment is to create videos containing dialogues or conversations based on certain topics and others. (fgd, inez) discussion elt scholars have paid much attention to foreign language movies and online media since few decades ago. past researches discover that exposure to various media brings a positive correlation with foreign language acquisition for both children and adults. it is also evident that secondary school students’ foreign language proficiency is developed through watching the target language videos (baranowska, 2020). https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 62 youtube plays role as a video-sharing website which enables us for uploading, browsing, viewing, and sharing videos as well as providing oportunities for innovative and dynamic ways of teaching and learning to promote efficacy. however, it has not been much explored in educational contexts (alwehaibi, 2015). having role as a video-sharing website, a wide range of authentic language environment is open through youtube which has many advantages to learn foreign languages (eisenlauer, 2020). it makes teachers over the world to utilize youtube videos for many purposes (tamim, 2013). mainly functioning as a video-sharing website, youtube does not provide features for language learning such as highlighting, memorizing, and practising language forms and meanings. the majority of youtube videos are also not specified for language learners. youtube still lacks of well-arranged topics based on learning objectives causing students freely jump from one video to other videos and watch various unnecessary contents (eisenlauer, 2020). moreover, teachers are reccomended to become video creators with their expertises. however, this role remains unexplored. we still lack of researches on teachers’ expertises on youtube videos (ho & tai, 2020). watching subtitled videos is accessible and beneficial for language improvement including incidental and intentional vocabulary learning. it is now how videos should be presented to students which still becomes the debate. in the light of these research results, it is revealed that watching foreign language movies particularly with subtitles can enhance vocabulary effectively. subtitling best suits with intermediate learners to study new vocabulary or promote listening comprehension skill. moreover, youtube comes up with relatively short and often available with subtitles or automated captions videos which facilitate students to have practices of the target language both inside and outside classrooms (baranowska, 2020). nevertheless, automated captions feature is not appropriate for learning languages since the automated captions results are often inaccurate. therefore, it is suggested to use subtitles which are made by individuals for language learning purposes (eisenlauer, 2020). teachers’ perceptions on the advantages of youtube for teaching purposes, its recent practices, and main obstacles are reported in a mixed-methods research carried out in united arab emirates. an open-ended questionnaire was filled by forty five teachers. the results of this research suggest that youtube is beneficial to support learning process, promote interest and efficiency, and provide enriched content. however, the results indicate that most participants only employ youtube videos for presentation in teacher-led classrooms. connectivity, technical issues, appropriateness of content, and administrative support also become main problems (tamim, 2013). szeto & cheng (2014) publishes their research carried out in a teacher education institution in hong kong. drawing on multiple data sources such as interviews, in-class observations, a questionnaire, and related materials, the results indicate that the level of ict usage is high and youtube is beneficial for educational purposes at all school levels namely kindergarten, primary, and secondary. the key advantages of youtube for teaching include ‘information’, ‘demonstration’, and ‘open-ended constructivist’. nevertheless, the participants have not fully employed youtube as part of the constructivist approach. the next relevant research is carried out by almobarraz (2018) involving saudi university students as the participants. his research reports perceptions and attitudes towards the use of youtube as an information resource for facilitating learning. the findings show that the use of youtube has impacts on student engagement. the findings also suggest that the participants understand well the importance of youtube and encourage teachers along with their students https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 63 to create youtube videos together. it additionaly implies that universities should provide videos which are relevant to their courses. maziriri et al. (2020) also report that youtube is positively perceived in a formal education institution. it is revealed that the correlation between the student attitudes towards youtube and behavioral intentions is significantly strong. it indicates that youtube is well received at tertiary education. drawing on t-test analysis, the results suggest that youtube brings positive impacts on efl students’ learning significantly as previously reported in other relevant researches. youtube can promote learning in various ways since it fosters students’ enjoyament and interest, encourages them to learn, and motivates them to get involved in class activities. therefore, youtube is reccomended for enhancing content learning of efl students. it is truly a valuable resource for teaching (alwehaibi, 2015). in addition, alobaid (2020) reports that writing fluency, particularly accuracy and organization, can be developed by exposing students to youtube videos. compared to other platforms, youtube is determined as more effective. ultimately, it is known that watching online videos becomes one of the most favorite online activities. youtube is determined as a valuable resource for learning foreign languages. it provides an ample of user-generated videos and broadcasts related to daily english language use through vlogs, product reviews, travel diaries, tutorials, soap operas, comedies, and movies which usually include the intercultural and pragmatic aspects and offer authentic input to acquire new phrases, idioms, and formulas (eisenlauer, 2020). conclusion this research expands on the positive values having been known by previous researchers in relation with students’ perceptions on youtube videos. it presents more detailed and fruitful perceptions of the students towards the use of teacher-made youtube videos for online efl learning amidst the covid-19 pandemic. the results also show how the students use and take advantage of the teacher-made youtube videos and some problems they encounter. it is reccomended that efl teachers are quite competent to create youtube videos for their own teaching purposes. it also implies that the students’ perceptions and how they use and take advantage of the videos should be considered by efl video creators in the future. future researches are encouraged to utilize a wider range of methods and contexts and involve a considerable number of research participants to generate more generalizable data. references albahiri, m. h., & alhaj, a. a. m. 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(2018). what efl learners say about youtube use to improve pronunciation in a blended learning environment. journal of english teaching, 4(3), 205–215. https://doi.org/10.33541/jet.v4i3.1338 saputra, y., & fatimah, a. s. (2018). the use of ted and youtube in extensive listening course: exploring possibilities of autonomy learning. indonesian journal of english language teaching, 13(1), 73–84. https://doi.org/10.25170%2fijelt.v13i1.1180 simbolon, n. e., & febrianti, y. (2020). the selection of learning materials from youtube resources for a maritime english course. indonesian journal of applied linguistics, 10(2), 460–470. https://doi.org/10.17509/ijal.v10i2.28587 szeto, e., & cheng, a. y.-n. (2014). exploring the usage of ict and youtube for teaching: a study of pre-service teachers in hong kong. the asia-pacific education researcher, 23, 53–59. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40299-013-0084-y tamim, r. m. (2013). teachers’ use of youtube in the united arab emirates: an exploratory study. computers in the schools, 30(4), 329–345. https://doi.org/10.1080/07380569.2013.844641 wang, h., & chen, c. w. (2020). learning english from youtubers: english l2 learners’ self-regulated language learning on youtube. innovation in language learning and teaching, 14(4), 333–346. https://doi.org/10.1080/17501229.2019.1607356 watkins, j., & wilkins, m. (2011). using youtube in the efl classroom. language education https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 65 in asia, 2(1), 113–119. https://doi.org/10.5746/leia/11/v2/i1/a09/watkins_wilkins https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 2. 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 236 pre-service and in-service teachers’ perceptions on the use of english children’s songs khurin in khumairo1, dian inayati2, peptia asrining tyas3 corresponding author: khurinkhumairo@gmail.com universitas brawijaya, indonesia doi : 10.35974/acuity.v7i2.2720 abstract english children’s songs have been commonly used as pedagogical tools to teach english to young learners. despite its popularity, few studies focus on its limitation. this study aimed to explore preand in-service teachers’ perceptions on the usage of english children’s songs in teaching english to young learners. this study applied a qualitative descriptive method involving two pre-service teachers, two in-service teachers, and four students. data were collected through pre-and in-service teachers’ interviews, students’ interviews, and classroom observation. the findings showed that english children’s songs offer numerous benefits for young learners in learning english. however, there were technical limitations such as lack of internet connection and school facilities and non-technical limitations such as selecting the right song for the students and providing various songs to prevent students’ boredom. to overcome those limitations, it is suggested that the school facilitate teachers with proper technology such as a projector and speaker to improve the students’ teaching and learning activities. the teachers could prepare the songs using rubrics based on learning needs and lesson plans. keywords: english children’s song, perceptions, pedagogical tools, teyl. introduction teaching children could be challenging since young learners have different characteristics than older learners. young learners, students less than 12 years old (fajarina, 2017), tend to be more energetic and eager than adolescent and adult learners. they are more interested in pleasing the teacher than pleasing their peer group. they will participate in an activity even if they do not understand why or how (cameron, 2001). nonetheless, young learners tend to have a short attention span, so they can rapidly become bored and lose interest after around ten minutes unless the activity is engaging (harmer, 2007). hence, teaching english to young learners could be challenging for teachers and thus requires teachers’ creativity as young learners may easily get bored and not interested in dull activities. “indonesian students often experience problems when learning english, specifically vocabulary, because english differs from bahasa indonesia (the indonesian language) in its structure, pronunciation, and vocabulary” (katemba, 2019, p. 88). keeping young learners motivated is one of the challenges that exist in teaching english. naturally, most children have characteristics to be keen on learning and motivated to explore things (copland, garton, & burns, 2014). the challenges in teaching young learners may result in various strategies and media used by teachers. further, katemba (2020) stated in the study conducted that more resources and facilities supplied by schools are increasingly assisting students in improving their language capacity,. one of them is using popular media that are relatable and entertaining for young learners, such as using english songs. english songs have been widely utilized as a pedagogical tool for teaching english to efl learners. some teachers use english songs to teach pronunciation (asmaradhani, evendi, mursid, & gani, 2018), to improve students’ listening comprehension (lestary, 2019), or to teach speaking (wijaya, 2018). numerous previous studies are in consensus regarding the benefits of songs on young learners’ cognitive development (see pogue, 2018, for instance). the usage of songs provides mailto:khurinkhumairo@gmail.com acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 2. 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 237 engaging activities for students to develop their english language ability. song, as an instrument, also serves as an effective tool for teachers to instill enthusiasm in the students’ english learning experience. young learners subconsciously practice their speaking, listening, pronouncing, and even imitating while singing a song. thus, teachers must be innovative and aware of their students’ favorite songs to make the learning process meaningful, so english learning goals can easily be accomplished. in learning a language, young learners begin to learn through the process of listening. thornbury (2002) states that because children have not yet learned to read, they will obtain the listening skill first. the listening process is supported by visuals, facial expressions, movement, mime, and pictures. the entire process is the young learners’ entry point into language learning, which underlies the essence of using songs in language learning. listening to english songs is necessary for developing young learners’ linguistic potentials by appealing to the multifaceted development of human intelligence through attractive melodies and various rhythms. lo & li (1998) recommend using songs as a teaching technique due to the benefits such as creating a relaxed and pleasant atmosphere for young learners while also helping them strengthen their language skills. additionally, it serves to entertain young learners instill a positive attitude while acquiring the structure of language through songs (saricoban & metin, 2000). according to hare & smallwood (2008), song and rhymes can also assist learners to enhance their listening and distinctive sounds and their memory and learning abilities. psycholinguistic research demonstrates that songs have the ability to engage language acquisition and learning in both hemispheres of the human brain (carroll, 2008). fairbanks (1997) also argues that learning through music can be helpful to stimulate the brain while it processes knowledge. their opinions strongly suggest that the employment of music will have a substantial impact on the young learners’ learning process. on the basis of the aforementioned theories, it can be concluded that the usage of songs is essential for language learners. songs are necessary to get their attention as it satisfies their curiosity and help young learners develop their language skills in a fun and meaningful way. additionally, the usage of songs facilitates a learning process subject to their language learning level. to sum up, songs have a positive influence as media in pedagogical activity, which is to improve students’ listening skills, speaking skills, vocabulary, knowledge on sentence structure and patterns, and increase enjoyment. however, teachers might face obstacles in using songs in teaching english (millington, 2011). although there are numerous grounds why songs can be considered effective pedagogical tools, there are several things to consider. for example, teachers have to be careful in selecting appropriate songs for students. certain songs use grammar, vocabulary, and sentence structures that are significantly dissimilar to common spoken english. to keep variation in the classroom, teachers must have a great song repertoire. while young learners are happy to sing the same song multiple times, their interest in it might eventually fade if used too frequently. several non-native english-speaking teachers might be concerned about teaching the correct tension and timing of songs and are thus more inclined to employ only songs they have already been familiar with. acknowledging the importance of using songs as the right and suitable pedagogical tool to teach young learners, this study is also important to explore teachers’ perceptions of the pedagogical use of english children’s songs. perception helps us to learn about something based on the way it is being captured and constructed by personal experiences (démuth, 2012). therefore, learning about teachers’ perception on using english children’s songs as pedagogical tools in teaching english will help teachers understand what needs to be improved from using songs pedagogically. children’s songs have been known to have an external, pedagogically oriented function that teachers are likely to use to deliver knowledge and values to young learners (see conesa & rubio, 2015). moreover, the teacher will determine which acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 2. 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 238 songs are used in the classroom. children might not have the capability to distinguish which music is considered good or bad, appropriate or not. in other words, for young learners, music is music (vinge, 2017). thus, teachers ought to have control to choose and utilize children’s songs to facilitate young learners in learning english. even though various studies on the use of english children’s songs to teach young learners have been conducted, they mainly focus on students’ perceptions instead of the teachers’ perceptions. even though there were also some studies about the teachers’ perceptions on the use of english children’s songs, it was rarely any studies that focused not only on the benefit of the use of english children’s songs but also the limitation. this study involved not only pre-service teachers who taught english for the first time at the school but also in-service teachers who previously only observed english learning activities but later helped teach english as well. the researcher combined all the teachers’ perceptions to get different perspectives according to their respective experiences. therefore, various benefits and limitations of the usage of english children’s songs in teaching english to young learners can be found. thus, this study focuses on the benefits as well as the technical and nontechnical limitations on the use of english children’s songs based on the pre-and in-service teachers’ perceptions. the main issue to be explored in this study is the pre-and in-service teachers’ perspective on the usage of english children’s songs as pedagogical tools in teaching english to young learners. this study was conducted during the implementation of the teaching campus program, and pre-service teachers were placed at a public elementary school in a rural area of banten. previously, there were no english lessons taught in this school due to a shortage of educators. therefore, pre-service teachers introduced and taught english through songs. besides pre-service teachers, in-service teachers, who taught second and third grades, also applied the use of english children’s songs even after the teaching campus program was done. in-service teachers taught various subjects such as indonesian language, civic education, mathematics, and other subjects included in thematic learning. thus, the objectives of this study are to: 1. explore the benefits of the use of english children’s songs in teaching english to young learners based on the pre-and in-service teachers’ perceptions. 2. explore the limitations of the use of english children’s songs in teaching english to young learners based on the pre-and in-service teachers’ perceptions. methods the qualitative research method was used in the study. this study applied a narrative inquiry which has the nature to describe phenomena and perspective through words. the participants of this study were two pre-service and two in-service teachers who taught second and third grades. both of the pre-service teachers were female in their 20s and were english education program undergraduate students from one public university in indonesia. they were placed at nambo tangerang public elementary school for three months during the teaching campus program organized by the ministry of education and culture. meanwhile, both of the in-service teachers were female in their 30s, earning a bachelor’s degree in elementary school teacher education study program and permanent teachers at nambo tangerang public elementary school. they taught various subjects such as the indonesian language, civic education, mathematics, and other subjects included in thematic learning and have been teaching for about five to ten years. four students were also selected to be the participants with the criteria that they must be familiar with the use of english children’s songs, and it was measured by how well the students knew the songs. prior to conducting structured interviews, the researcher ensured that all participants had acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 2. 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 239 given their consent to become participants and were willing to be interviewed. the researchers explained the purpose of the study, the reasons the participants were selected as research subjects, data collection procedures, and information about the amount of time the data subjects were expected to participate (the number of sessions, duration of sessions, total time spent). in addition, the researchers included information about the expected benefits for the community or society, as well as what scientific knowledge is expected to be obtained from the research. the researcher ensured the participants that their information would be kept confidential and would be utilized only for the aims of the study. to maintain confidentiality, the researcher used codes and pseudonyms to refer to the participants, such as pre-service teacher 1, in-service teacher 1, student 1, and so on, to identify the participants. once their consent was obtained, the data were ready to be collected. the data collection technique utilized in this study was structured interviews for preand in-service teachers, structured interviews for students, and classroom observation. the structured interviews for pre-and in-service teachers were the main data collection technique. it consisted of five questions about the usefulness of children’s songs and two questions about limitations in using children’s songs (millington, 2011). the structured interviews for students were used to increase the credibility and validity of the pre-and in-service teachers’ interview results. the classroom observation was used to record the happenings or occurrences of teachers’ implementation of english children’s songs in their classes. however, to answer the research problems of this study, the data discussed are mainly drawn from the results of the interview with the pre-and in-service teachers. the indonesian language was used for the interview to ease the participant. after collecting the data, the researcher analyzed it by transcribing the interviewee’s response verbatim from the audio recording into the written text and translating it from indonesian to english. next, the researcher reduced the unimportant data from the interview. then, the researcher validated the result of pre-and in-service teachers’ interviews by students’ interviews and classroom observation. finally, the researcher drew a conclusion based on the result of the data that has been analyzed. findings this section described the findings of pre-and in-service teachers’ perceptions of using english children’s songs when teaching english to young learners. this study’s findings covered two main aspects, the benefits and the limitations of the use of english children’s songs in teaching english to young learners. data from students’ interviews and classroom observation also enabled comparisons and increased the reliability of the pre-and in-service teachers’ interview data. additionally, the interview results with the participants were cited to substantiate the findings of this study. the benefits of using english children’s songs in teaching english to young learners the findings implied that pre-and in-service teachers reported positive perceptions of using english children’s songs when teaching english to young learners. the benefits were helping young learners improve their listening and speaking skills, memorizing vocabulary, helping in teaching about sentence structure and patterns, and increasing students’ overall enjoyment of learning english. the researcher examined the results for each category within the following subsections. improving listening skills the first question was related to the beneficial use of english children’s songs for students’ listening skills. in response to this question, the pre-and in-service teachers reported that english children’s songs improved students’ listening skills. the following statements acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 2. 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 240 are the results of the structured interviews that describe their perceptions. according to pre-service teacher 1, the usage of english children’s songs aided significantly in the development of students’ listening skills because they were required to concentrate more on listening to english songs that were being played or heard. similarly, pre-service teacher 2 thought that english children’s songs could improve students’ listening skills because students get used to listening to english and help students be more responsive when hearing english words. in addition, in-service teacher 1 stated that english children’s songs were definitely helpful because she believed that one of the keys to improving listening skills was getting used to listening to the language. likewise, in-service teacher 2 emphasized that english children’s songs, indeed, have many advantages in which one of them was to hone students’ listening skills from a young age. through repetition, young learners can get used to english songs. in conclusion, english children’s songs were beneficial to improving students’ listening skills. it could help the students form a habit of listening to english songs and help students be more responsive in listening to words in english. improving speaking skills the second question was related to the beneficial use of english children’s songs for students’ speaking skills. in response to this question, pre-and in-service teachers stated that english children’s songs improved students’ speaking skills. the following statements are the results of the structured interviews that describe their perceptions. pre-service teacher 1 stated that since listening skills were related closely to speaking skills, english children’s songs would also likely improve students’ speaking skills. the students were not only asked to listen to the song but also would be encouraged to sing along to the song, which would indirectly help students to exercise their speaking skills. similarly, pre-service teacher 2 said that it could be seen that students’ speaking skills were improved because the english children’s songs taught were also sung and repeated at every meeting. when singing, students also know how to pronounce a word in english. according to inservice teacher 1, there was an improvement in speaking skills. previously, some students were silent and shy in the class. however, the students were happy using english children’s songs, so they wanted to sing along. therefore, she thought that this pedagogical tool improves speaking skills, especially on students’ pronunciation abilities. likewise, in-service teacher 2 stated that listening to english children’s songs repeatedly and slowly helped students enhance their speaking abilities and helped them develop pronunciation skills with good intonation. in conclusion, aside from being beneficial to teaching listening to young learners, english children’s songs are also helpful to students to improve their speaking skills, especially their pronunciation. improving vocabulary mastery the third question was related to the beneficial usage of english children’s songs for students in improving their vocabulary mastery. in response to this question, the pre-and inservice teachers shared that english children’s songs improved young learners’ vocabulary mastery. the following statements are the results of the structured interviews that describe their perceptions. pre-service teacher 1 stated that since children’s songs usually have a repetitive style in the lyrics, it helped students memorize particular words and eventually helped them understand a new vocabulary in english. likewise, pre-service teacher 2 stated that students’ improvement in vocabulary mastery was the most observable change compared to other skill improvements because students have just started getting used to english in the last few months. in her opinion, this song media was effective maybe because the rhythm contained in a song could help to remember words better. in-service teacher 1 said that english children’s acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 2. 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 241 songs could increase students’ vocabulary because they were made familiar with english first through english children’s songs and sung repeatedly so that gradually the vocabulary stuck to students’ memories. similarly, in-service teacher 2 said that english children’s songs could improve students’ english vocabulary because repeating the songs’ lyrics helped students master new words quickly, like a repetition of ordinary words in english class but with background music. in addition to increasing the credibility and validity of the pre-and in-service teachers’ interview results for this question, the researcher added the data from the students’ interviews. the question was related to students’ perceptions of learning english through english children’s songs. in response to this question, the students reported positive perceptions about the usage of english children’s songs when teaching english to young learners. the following statements are the results of the structured interviews that describe their perceptions. according to student 1, she had never studied english before, so she knew more about english vocabulary by using english children’s songs. student 2 stated that she got to know some new english words. student 3 said that it was easy for her to memorize vocabulary because of learning through english children’s songs. similarly, student 4 said that he knew some new vocabulary using english children’s songs, and it became easy to memorize them. in conclusion, english children’s songs were beneficial to improving students’ vocabulary mastery because the rhythm in them can help students remember words better. helping in teaching about sentence structure and patterns the fourth question was related to the beneficial use of english children’s songs for preand in-service teachers in teaching sentences and patterns. in response to this question, the pre-and in-service teachers had different answers, but all of them had the same method in teaching sentence structure and patterns, that is, by indirectly teaching the young learners. the following statements are the results of the structured interviews that describe their perceptions. according to pre-service teacher 1, the main focus of using children’s songs was neither about the structure of the sentence nor patterns or grammar. however, the teacher could introduce particular patterns and structures to students by reading and learning the lyrics. similarly, pre-service teacher 2 stated that the learning did not directly aim to understand the structure of the sentence being studied but indirectly so that students were familiar with the english language structure. for example, with the song “what’s your favorite color?” and “finger family song,” students knew the structure of the subject + verb and also wh question words. likewise, in-service teacher 1 said that some songs indirectly taught the sentence structure, such as “counting 1 to 10,” which helped students be familiar with the concept of counting in english, singular, and plural. in conclusion, english children’s songs were beneficial for pre-and in-service teachers to teach sentences and patterns indirectly. increasing students’ overall enjoyment of learning english the fifth question was related to the beneficial usage of english children’s songs to increase students’ overall enjoyment of learning english. in response to this question, the preand in-service teachers asserted that english children’s songs made the students happy and interested in participating in the classroom activity and helped them enjoy learning english without getting bored in the classroom. the following statements are the results of the structured interviews that describe their perceptions. according to pre-service teacher 1, the use of english children’s songs made students happy so they could be interested and enjoy learning english in class. in addition, students did not feel bored quickly by using songs so that they would be more interested in the learning process. pre-service teacher 2 stated that students became more active in learning. previously they were silent and shy because they were not used to english lessons, and now, they had acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 2. 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 242 become more confident because they were getting used to it. according to them, learning english songs became more fun and less scary with the media. in-service teacher 1 stated that the students were very excited about learning to use songs because they not only sang but were also invited to move according to the lyrics of the song. sometimes, at the beginning of the lesson, someone asked to sing together first, so she felt that the students became more motivated in learning english. similarly, in-service teacher 2 said that students became more enthusiastic and did not get bored quickly in learning because the learning was not monotonous as usual but used songs that cheer up the classroom atmosphere. in addition to increasing the credibility and validity of the pre-and in-service teachers’ interview results for this question, the researcher added the data from the students’ interviews. the question related to students’ feelings about learning english through english children’s songs. in response to this question, the students reported positive perceptions of using english children’s songs to teach english to young learners. the following statements are the results of the structured interviews that describe their perceptions. student 1 stated that learning english by using english children’s songs was fun and made her enjoy learning english because it was not just singing, but some movements made me excited. student 2 said that the learning activity was fun and exciting because she liked singing. similarly, student 3 stated that it was fun and made him happy, so he was not afraid to learn english. likewise, student 4 said he felt pleased and not tense when learning english. in conclusion, english children’s songs were beneficial in increasing students’ overall enjoyment of learning english. students enjoyed singing and responded positively to the usage of english children’s songs in the classroom. it helped foster a relaxed and informal ambiance in the classroom, making it a less intimidating place. the limitations of using english children’s songs in teaching english to young learners the findings implied that after explaining the benefits of using english children’s songs to teach english to young learners, pre-and in-service teachers explained the limitation of the usage of english children’s songs in their classrooms. in this finding, the researcher divided the limitation of the usage of english children’s songs in teaching english to young learners into two categories, technical and non-technical limitations. technical limitations the first question was related to the technical limitations that pre-and in-service teachers had when using english children’s songs to teach the students. in response to this question, each pre-and in-service teacher shared their struggles of technical limitations in using english children’s songs to teach young learners. the following statements are the results of the structured interviews that describe their perceptions. pre-service teacher 1 stated that she had technical limitations when using english children’s songs to teach the students because the school did not provide additional facilities, so teachers must bring their laptops and speakers to play songs to students. the internet connection was also lacking because the school was in the village. therefore, the song to be played must be downloaded first. pre-service teacher 2 also had a similar problem because there were no sockets, projectors, or speakers in the classroom that could be used, so the teacher must be brought a laptop with a full battery and speakers. the internet connection was also quite difficult, so they ensured the song was already on their laptops. likewise, in-service teachers 1 and 2 said that the technical limitation was inadequate school facilities because, in the school, everything was lacking, so they had to prepare the media by themselves. in conclusion, pre-and in-service teachers had technical limitations in using english children’s songs to teach young learners, such as internet connection and school facilities such as a speaker, a projector, and sockets in the classroom. acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 2. 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 243 non-technical limitations the second question was related to the non-technical limitations that pre-and in-service teachers had when using english children’s songs to teach the students. in response to this question, each pre-and in-service teacher shared their struggles of non-technical limitations in using english children’s songs to teach the young learners. the following statements are the results of the structured interviews that describe their perceptions. according to pre-service teacher 1, the non-technical limitations that pre-and in-service teachers had when using english children’s songs to teach the students was that the teacher must have much time to determine the suitable material for students when using songs. the teacher must consider many aspects such as content, vocabulary, grammar, of the song, and whether it was appropriate to the students’ language levels. pre-service teacher 2 stated that the non-technical limitation she faced was because this was still in the introductory stage or what was being taught was still basic. the chosen song could not be too long and not too difficult in terms of vocabulary. therefore, the teacher must be selective in choosing which songs the students could easily memorize. in-service teacher 1 said that the songs used must be varied because if every meeting the song was the same continuously, the students would get bored, so to prevent this, she usually changed the songs depending on the student’s request. similarly, in-service teacher 2 thought that although the students were initially excited about learning by using the song, if the song were often repeated, their interest in the song would surely fade, and they would get bored. in conclusion, pre-and in-service teachers had nontechnical limitations in using english children’s songs to teach young learners, such as picking the right song for the students and providing various songs to prevent students’ boredom. discussion the study’s findings indicated that pre-and in-service teachers perceived english children’s songs as beneficial pedological tools in teaching english to young learners. the first benefit, listening to the english children’s songs could help students in improving their listening skills. because songs are easily accessible and can train students’ ears to listen, it could be utilized to develop students’ listening skills (listiyaningsih, 2017). the second benefit, aside from being beneficial to teaching listening to young learners, was that english children’s songs also help students improve their speaking skills, especially their pronunciation. students become more acquainted with english sounds and are able to enhance their speaking abilities, particularly their pronunciation, through the usage of songs (baltazar, 2017). the third benefit, english children’s songs can be used to practice vocabulary. they are frequently themed or subject-based and serve as a backdrop for vocabulary acquisition. the majority of english children’s songs contain monosyllabic words, numerous of which are repeated many times. this repetition exposes students to these concepts on a more frequent basis and may aid in vocabulary development (millington, 2011). the fourth benefit, english children’s songs were helping pre-and in-service teachers in teaching about sentences and patterns indirectly. numerous english children’s songs have simple sentence patterns or rhythms that might become ingrained in the learner’s mind. songs can also be used to enhance educational concepts. children’s songs are often brief in length and frequently employ simple conversational vocabulary (millington, 2011). the last benefit was that english children’s songs increased students’ overall enjoyment of learning english. most young learners enjoy singing and often respond positively to the use of songs in the classroom. it helps foster a relaxed and informal ambiance in the classroom, making it a less intimidating place. songs can help students develop an interest in and motivation to learn english by alleviating anxiety (millington, 2011). the classroom observation was used to record the happenings or occurrences of acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 2. 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 244 teachers’ implementation of english children’s songs in their classes and to increase the credibility and validity of the pre-and in-service teachers’ interview results. based on the result of classroom observation, while participating in learning activities, the students showed positive responses. they were excited and receptive to the implementation of english children’s songs in their classes. when the students knew they would be listening to the songs during their learning activities, they became incredibly enthused. nevertheless, at the initial meeting, the students were unfamiliar with the english language since previously there were no english lessons in their school due to the lack of educators. the teacher could handle this problem by playing the song that the students were probably familiar with, such as “baby shark” in the first meeting, and then change the song for the next meeting by considering the students’ language levels since the learning was still in the introductory stage. however, teachers might face limitations in using songs in teaching english (millington, 2011). although there are numerous grounds why songs can be considered effective pedagogical tools, there are several things to consider. the teacher has to take care when selecting appropriate songs for students. certain songs use grammar, vocabulary, and sentence structure that is significantly dissimilar to spoken english. there are additional issues that the teacher must deal with. the teacher must have a wide variety of songs to keep things interesting in the classroom. even if young learners are eager to sing the same song over and over again, if it is used too frequently, their interest in it may wane. the findings in this study indicated that after explaining the benefits of using english children’s songs to teach english to young learners, pre-and in-service teachers explained the limitation of the usage of english children’s songs in their classrooms. the limitation was divided into two categories, technical and non-technical limitations. the technical limitations that pre-and in-service had when using children’s songs to teach young learners were the lack of internet connection and school facilities such as a speaker, a projector, and a socket in the classroom. at the same time, the non-technical limitations they had were difficulty picking the right song for the students and providing various songs to prevent students’ boredom. to overcome those limitations, pre-and in-service teachers prepared the media themselves. due to inadequate school facilities, they brought their laptops with a full battery and speakers to play songs to students. because of the lack of internet connection, the song to be played must be downloaded first. to pick the right song for the students, pre-and in-service teachers considered many aspects such as content, vocabulary, the grammar of the song to be used, and whether or not it is appropriate to the students’ language levels. since the learning was still in the introductory stage, the chosen song was not too long and not too difficult in vocabulary. to prevent students’ boredom, pre-and in-service teachers provide various songs, and the song is usually changed every meeting depending on the student’s request. conclusion and suggestion based on the findings of the interviews conducted with pre-and in-service teachers at nambo tangerang public elementary school, a brief conclusion can be drawn from this study, which is that teachers have positive perceptions about the usage of english children’s songs in teaching english to young learners. as perceived by pre-and in-service teachers, incorporating english children’s songs into the classroom when teaching english to young learners can give numerous benefits to the students. when students listen to english children’s songs, they can enhance their listening abilities, which will subsequently enable them to improve their speaking skills, particularly their pronunciation. english children’s songs can also help students to practice their pronunciation by singing along to the song. even more, using english children’s songs also helps the students improve their vocabulary mastery since they can learn new words from the lyrics and memorize the new word by repetitively listening acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 2. 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 245 and singing to the song. teachers believe that young learners must first learn the basic level at a young age, hence they did not directly or explicitly teach the students about sentence structure and patterns. the use of children’s songs also motivates and entertains students in learning english in the classroom. aside from all the benefits and positive perceptions, teachers also have technical and non-technical limitations in using children’s songs to teach the young learners in nambo tangerang public elementary school. based on the limitations, some suggestions could be implemented by the school and teachers to improve the use of english children’s songs in teaching english to young learners in nambo tangerang public elementary school. the first suggestion, the teachers mentioned that the main technical limitation in using english children’s songs is insufficient technology support in the classroom. it is suggested that the school should facilitate teachers with proper technology to improve the teaching and learning experience in the classroom. the school can provide one projector and one speaker for the teachers, and they can use the media in turns. the second suggestion, another limitation, is non-technical for the teachers, that is, about the song selection. it is suggested for the teachers to prepare the songs using rubrics based on what the classroom needs from the song and the lesson plan. for example, the rubric consists of a list of verbs teachers want to teach and a particular theme. it will help teachers to find proper songs in a more structured way. the main contribution of this study in teaching english to young learners was the discovery of english children’s songs benefits as pedagogical tools as well as technical and non-technical limitations they faced as previously explained and how they overcome those limitations. therefore, by reading this study, other english teachers could consider implementing english children’s songs in their classes, and other schools could facilitate their teachers facilitate teachers with proper technology so that the teacher would not face technical limitations. the main limitations of this study 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(2018). the effectiveness of songs for teaching speaking. journal of foreign language teaching and learning, 3(2). https://doi.org/10.18196/ftl.3231 https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.200804.025 http://iteslj.org/techniques/saricoban-songs.html http://iteslj.org/techniques/saricoban-songs.html https://ojs.unm.ac.id/teflin65/article/view/6292/3631 https://doi.org/10.7577/information.v6i2.2278 https://doi.org/10.18196/ftl.3231 51 acuity: journal of english language pedagogy literature , and culture, vol. 6 no.1,2021 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity assimilation as the impact of diaspora reflected in mrs. parker’s family in karate kid film ikhsan baldatun1, afina murtiningrum2 correspondence author: afina@unissula.ac.id faculty of languages and communication science universitas islam sultan agung, semarang-indonesia doi: https://doi.org/10.35974/acuity.v6i1.2388 abstract concerning the major issue as to how the diasporan group faces the assimilation, diaspora brings to mind several assumptions; it can be positive and negative of adapting one’s identity. diaspora is affected by some aspects of life such as culture, language, people, and place. the immigrants who moved or scattered from their home countries depend on how they can adapt to the new cultures, languages to new communities in the host countries that are different from theirs. this study aims to find out how the impact of diaspora perceived by analyzing the main characters during their process of diaspora. the approach of this study is descriptive qualitative research through the process of gathering the data qualitatively and reporting them descriptively. this study shows how the issue of diaspora relates to assimilation as the impact of diaspora as reflected in karate kid film. the result of this study showed that the diasporan group integrates and it becomes a new type of human being as an immigrant in the new land. it represents assimilation in adoption values that exist in the host country. keywords: diaspora, immigration, assimilation, home country, host country introduction in this contemporary era, many people across the world intend something that they have not gained yet. “the factors leading to such a massive movement, inequalities within and among regions, the continuous expansion of capital, occupational mobility directly related to the people’s desire for a better life” (serban, 2013 : p. 96). it shows that a massive movement has been a common issue for a group of people who wishes a better life that moves from one place to one or more places. this movement can be called immigration. the concept of diaspora has been widely known and studied to view the aftermath of international migration and the shifting of the state border populations. moreover, the newer notions of diaspora in this category emphasize the cultural hybridity that illustrates the way these groups can be blended into the new society without totally erasing their origin culture. in an attempt to contribute a general-purpose, steven https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity https://doi.org/10.35974/acuity.v6i1.2388 52 vertovec (1997) argues that “the concept of diaspora refers at the same time to a social form created by the scattering, displacement of a population, a form of social identification, and a mode of cultural expression” (p. 36). hence, it is interesting to discuss the diasporic experiences as the process of diaspora itself. as the diasporans (people who move to a new place), it cannot be ignored for the diasporans to get confusing experience in adapting their new life. mishra (1996) argues that “diasporas are unhappy, but every diaspora is unhappy in its way” (p. 26). it can be defined that the uneasy about the feeling which used to experience to the emigrants because of the traumatic event that happened in their origin country, continued with the fact that the new place which they expect to be such a new community, does not give them a better situation. however, they should intercede to the memories of the homeland and tries to be mixed in a new community to exist as clifford (1994) underlined: based on the above statement, there is a memory of the homeland when a group of people is displaced from their home country (ancestor home) to the host country (new land) which makes them may get some trauma or treatment being there. also, talking about diaspora does not only relate to their experiences as the process that they will get as newcomers in the host country but also diaspora changes the condition and may affect to ethnic identity and culture of the people in the host land if a group of people does not maintain their identity and culture which that is possible to happen assimilation as the impact. “as with any exile, changes in conditions at home will affect subsequent relationships with the diasporan group. the distinction is made between forced and voluntary exile because the nature of the separation may affect the degree to which ethnic identity and culture are maintained or surrendered in favor of assimilation” (butler, 2001 : p. 201). based on the quote, it shows that when a group of people who dispersed or exiled from homeland to host land they will change some things and get assimilation as the impact of diaspora itself when they do not maintain their identity and culture in living there as a minority and yet they have to accepted and face that process. hence, talking about the impact of diaspora which is assimilation, bardis (1979) argues that “assimilation was the social absorption of an ethnic, racial, or cultural group, or of an immigrant, into an adopted society, which produced a new, common, and fairly homogeneous culture” (p.152). this quote shows that when a group of people lives in new surroundings they will adopt and applied every single culture that is different from their culture that they found in the new home. hence, in every single country in this world, there are so many cultures between one country and another that have their characteristics and differences symbolizing their attitudes, habits, etiquettes, and also something sacred. “culture is ordinary: that is the first fact. every human society has its shape, its purposes, its meanings” (william, 1958 : p. 3). based on the explanation above that culture involves an active personal quest and it has a meaning which is represented their characteristic. related to the statement that there are so many ways to rise, introduce, convey a message and respect the culture itself with something entertaining to make the people of the audience easily get more comprehension about the different cultures and respect the cultures that exist in this world. one of the best ways to introduce kinds of culture in this world is through film. 53 furthermore, a lot of things that the audience can get by the film itself such as message, values, feedback, interpretation and so on which cannot deny that watching the film can make the audience easily understand and get the point of the story directly. on the other hand, a film has a purpose to entertain and teach the audience based on the genre of the story itself such as drama, comedy, drama-comedy, tragic, war, and one of the best films that raise the different culture and especially reflects the issue of a diaspora is karate kid film. literature review a. diaspora a group of people or an immigrant that goes through the process of leaving homeland possibly succeeds to adjust to the new land but always longs for a homeland. “the factors leading to such a massive movement, inequalities within and among regions, the continuous expansion of capital, occupational mobility directly related to the people’s desire for a better life” (serban, 2013: p. 96). it shows that a massive movement has been a common issue for a group of people who wants a better life that moves from one place to one or more places. to find one’s own identity in the host country is quite difficult for immigrants. they have to pass the problem that might be possible to face in the way of adapting the new culture which makes them becomes new types of human beings when they live outside of the homeland. it is inevitably linked to a new kind of genre has formed that commonly discusses explores immigrant term it is called “diaspora”. diaspora is an encompassing term that denotes people who are displaced from their native place through migration, immigration, or exile. diaspora as a movement can be explicated as an annex from a discrete geographic locale that is inevitably linked to the homeland of the diasporic subjects. the crossing of the border as a geopolitical experience and reality encompasses a dispersed population that intersects diasporic cultures. diaspora implies a dislocation from the nation-state or geographical location of origin and relocation in one or more nation-states, territories, or countries (briezel and mannur, 2003: p.1). diaspora is inevitably linked to movement by a group of people who leaves or displaced or even exile to cross borders from the homeland to the host land. the concept of diaspora has been widely known and studied to view the aftermath of international migration and the shifting of the state border populations. moreover, the newer notions of diaspora in this category emphasize the cultural hybridity that illustrates the way these groups can be blended into the new society without totally erasing their origin culture. in an attempt to contribute a general-purpose, steven vertovec (1997) argues that “the concept of diaspora refers at the same time to a social form created by the scattering, displacement of a population, a form of social identification, and a mode of cultural expression” (p.36). 54 b. assimilation assimilation theories try to describe the integration of humans into the new host country, the spotlights within social science were directed towards explaining how and why different groups created their communities that they hold on to even when residing in the new host-country (anteby & berthomiére, 2005 : p. 264). when a group of people or it is called diasporan group who moved from ancestral home to the host land they will get some experiences as the process of diaspora itself and it possibly happens assimilation to them if the diasporan group does not maintain identity and culture as a minority in the host country. "voluntary exile, while also involving the intolerable relationship between the diasporizing group and the homeland, is the choice of the exiting group. “as with any exile, changes in conditions at home will affect subsequent relationships with the diasporan group. the distinction is made between forced and voluntary exile because the nature of the separation may affect the degree to which ethnic identity and culture are maintained or surrendered in favor of assimilation” (butler, 2001). furthermore, according to barna (2010) “assimilation is a particular process of socialization and individualization, a type of identification when the individual does not interiorize (build into his personality) simply an attitude, a value, a behavioral culture, but also the emotional, intellectual, volitional, cultural, political. values of another nation”. it simply said that “assimilation was the social absorption of an ethnic, racial, or cultural group, or of an immigrant, into an adopted society, which produced a new, common, and fairly homogeneous culture” (bardis, 1979: p. 152). “assimilation as a state and consequence takes place in the case when members of a foreign or minority culture take over the language, customs, and values of the host culture. in this context, acculturation means cultural assimilation and defines the opportunities gained by the assimilated person as a consequence of the assimilation as social (structural) integration” (barna, 2010: p. 66). barna (2010) states that assimilation also “integrates, it contains all the social and cultural changes characterized by accommodation, adaptation to and acceptance of the dominant culture” (p. 66). “the people who get assimilation it does not mean that they have intended to take over another culture, but simply realized that in certain social situations taking over that other culture gives access to new courses in society” (barna, p. 76). “assimilation just as the lifeworld is an intersubjective issue; the process is triggered in both cases by environmental changes” (barna, p. 69). moreover, park (1928) stated that “contact between people of various cultures leads to adaptation through competition and conflict, and results in assimilation. assimilation means losing the former ethnic and cultural identity and thus fully integrating into the host society. this approach states that assimilation supposes also called a process of acculturation in the course of which the immigrants change the culture, i.e., they integrate into the host culture, and that is the price of adaptation” (p.71). park also viewed “assimilation as a linear process and considered it an inevitable consequence of the immigration of groups of various ethnic background although in different cases it would happen in different rhythms and with different difficulty” (p. 72). 55 it is undeniably true that a minority group is possible to get assimilation. simply said, the diasporan group becomes a medium which favour assimilation if they are do not maintain culture and identity by the surrounding in the host country that makes them forced to adopt every single cultural value in the host country (butler, 2001). in another word, assimilation may affect their identity and culture as a result of the impact of diaspora. methods descriptive qualitative research is the methodology used in this study. “by the term of exploration, qualitative research openly preserves identifying issues, assessing new implementation, and looking at the real-life context or sensitive topic to avoid causing distress” (hancock et al, 2009 : p. 7). qualitative research aims to obtain a deeper or broader understanding of something that happens in social life. it emphasizes in exploring people’s experience and their views toward certain objects. this research method describes the characteristics of diaspora and assimilation using the script of the karate kid film by analyzing and interpreting the data research. five types used in this study in collecting data technique are: 1) watching the film, 2) reading the film scripts, 3) identifying the data, 4) classifying the data, 5) reducing the data, 6) reporting the data. the first step was watching the film, in this case is “karate kid”. during watching the film, the researcher had to get some issues to be exposed to the study. moreover, watching the film repeatedly gave a better understanding of the overall content of the film itself. reading the script was the next step to get the data. basically, it is a crucial step to deal with. by the act of reading the script, the researcher got more detailed information on the topic. after watching the film many times, the next step was identifying the data. here, the researcher identified and selected any related data toward the issues that wanted to be revealed in the study. identifying the data was also done while the researcher was watching the film to ensure collection data embeds the issues in the study. classifying the data concerned with data contribution in a column table based on problem formulation has made as a way to give the evidence for each problem formulation that is derived from the process of identifying the data. reducing the data was done to make sure that the data have strong power toward the issues in the study. reporting the data was the last process of analyzing the data. the researcher provided the final result of data that had to be written academically. in reporting the data clearly, this study used a descriptive technique to analyze the data. this technique was stated by descriptions, statements, and quotations or described through an explanation. 56 findings and discussion assimilation happens to the main characters in karate kid film when a group of people dispersed or exiled from homeland to host land they will change some things and get assimilation as the impact of diaspora itself when they do not maintain their identity and culture in living there as a minority and exactly they have to accepted and face that process” (butler, 2001). in china, there is a value that exists in the society that is confucianism. confucianism is a value that is generally accepted within chinese society which means they need to adapt the value to being accepted in that circle. chong (2007) stated, “there are six essentials qualities in confucianism; xi, zhi, li, yi, wen, ren”. it is dealing with the capacity of virtuous habit, the natural substance of a person, a social order, morality, and the loftiest of morals that are contained in confucianism. karate kid film itself depicts culture adaptation that is represented by a black american family who moves from detroit, america to beijing, china. the story is telling about a family is caught up between two different culture (american culture) as the original culture and (chinese culture) as an adapted host culture. as the story goes, this family (mrs. parker and her son, dre) is trying to adapt to chinese culture such as lifestyles, cultures, and language as the impact of the diaspora based on a value that exists in chinese society, which is confucianism. the further explanation about assimilation as the impact of diaspora will be presented in the next explanation. 1. capacity of virtues habit (xi) the first essential quality of confucianism is xi. “xi relates to one's capacity to "instill in oneself certain virtuous habits" and "the original good, evil or nothing" in human beings. the concept of xi provides a starting point for learning and assimilating ethics, compassion, truth, and morality. confucius posits that people must learn to act ethically because it is not an original part of their nature. xi is the capacity for learning virtue, but every person proceeds at their own step through practice” (chong 2007). dre : “so, what are we learning today?” mr. han: “chi. internal energy. the essence of life. it moves inside of us, flows through our bodies. give us power from within”. dre : “i get it” (00:52:26-00:52:46) the dialogue is conveyed by dre and mr. han, the maintenance man. in that scene, dre who learns kung fu on the next day with mr. han gives a question to mr. han that is what they will learn for that day because he seemed to be impressed. the fact is, dre already realized that he needs to learn more about kung fu itself and involved it in positive assumptions. it is based on his experience at the first time he wants to learn about kung fu with mr. han. in that time, mr. han answered dre's question by saying “chi, internal energy. the essence of life” as the result, according to dre, all of the 57 people who learned kung fu must learn it as well so he said to mr. han “i get it” because he realized about his capacity to learn it. to increase his kung fu skills, dre has to accept and adapting what mr. han will teach him about chi the values of kung fu itself into his life because dre realizes that he must learn to act ethically. this shows the avidity of attitude to adopt new things as one's own is an important factor responsible for the assimilation of the immigrant in the host land toward dre. 2. natural substance of a person (zhi) chong (2007) stated that “zhi is the natural substance of which a person is made, but it is not an innate human quality. the individual acquires zhi through education. the meaning of zhi is “native substance” or “basic stuff” relating to building character traits through learning and practice”. as social creatures that interact with other people, sometimes people do anything for learning and practice. people who learning virtue in a society when they are being surrounded by the people itself, it is the example of people acquire through education. shortly, it related to human sense. those who learn and practice through adapting value within society when they are being in a host land. it is also concerned with a natural substance of which a person is made. this point is revealed in the karate kid film when mrs. parker tries to apply what they have learned before they arrive in china. mrs. parker: “dre, look. we're already in lesson 10. how are you? remember what that one is?” dre : “no”. mrs. parker: “dre, you're killing me” (00:02:28-00:02:38) the dialogue presents the representative of black american people, mrs. parker as fulfilling the concept of a natural substance of a person. in the first line, mrs. parker seemed quite impressed at her son, how her son can greet in the chinese language. the dialogue shows what exactly her intention, adapting the language. mrs. parker who wants dre adapting the language can be categorized as assimilated people. instead, dre answered his mother's request by saying "no". on the other side, other words come from mrs. parker. she gets a bit mad at her son because he refused her demand. briefly, the point of this situation is that mrs. parker has already shown the value of adaptation in confucianism and represents the value of the natural substance of a person that relates to building character through learning and practice, asked her son who needs to practice the language. she realized that to interact within-host society they need to learn and practice the language itself to become one with society. this kind of action will build a better understanding of her son to build his character traits because of how important to adapt the host language among the groups as a minority in society. 58 3. social order (li) as explained by chong (2007), “for those students who are truly learning through this manner of education; zhi is utilized for the expression of li. however, confucius acknowledges that learned behaviors are easily mimicked, and consequently, only outer behaviors are affected without the development of inner values. li has another meaning of certain rituals within the hierarchical social order. in a society where everyone understands their responsibilities to the community, li is an essential attribute for motivating individuals to behave, desire, feel, and act in required ways”. as part of confucianism’s concept, social order contains the values of responsibility in society. responsible in this case means being realized towards other people in a society where everyone understands their responsibilities to the community for motivating individuals to behave, desire, feel and act in required ways. the point of this value is how the people understand the situation to adapt it, as described in the scene : dre : “are you okay?” mey ying: “my audition is tomorrow at 6:00”. dre : “but isn't that what you've been practicing for?” mey ying: “yes, of course”. dre : “don't worry. you got it”. mey ying: “what if they don't pick me?” dre : “mei ying, wait! okay, first of all, i'm gonna be there with you. and b, all you have to do is what your teacher says. play the pauses. it's easy, watch. see?” (01:01:20-01:01:44) the dialogue happens when dre and his friend, mey ying, are being in the schoolyard. mey ying seemed to be confused about her violin audition and dre asked her what happen to her. she was afraid if she is not picking on the audition. this scene shows that dre understands his responsibility as a good friend toward this situation for mey ying. he tries to motivating mey ying to the right action toward this situation that she does not have to worry about it. dre tries to convince mey ying to not worry about the audition. dre speaks to mey ying dealing with the situation at the moment. dre assumes that this is the best way to motivate mey ying from the situation that he faces now to do good action to her. briefly, by saying “don’t worry. you got it. and b, all you have to do is what your teacher says and it’s easy” watch. see?” to mey ying, dre shows the flexibility of attitude to motivate someone which is a social order in confucianism. to adapt the value as one’s own is an important factor responsible for the assimilation of the immigrant in the host land. 4. morality (yi) the next point of essential qualities in confucianism is yi. “yi translates as “morality”, but there are other meanings such as: “right action, duty, and righteousness”. yi is an essential concept in confucianism that is defined as the standard by which all 59 acts are judges. the essence of yi has influenced by the individual’s behavior by expressing ethics, values, compassion, goodness, and honesty” (chong 2007). it is all about right action, duty, and righteousness. in another word, morality proposes people's open minded-view that all acts are judges. the essence of yi has influenced by the individual’s behavior by expressing ethics, values, compassion, goodness, and honesty. mey ying: “i have to practice” dre :” wait. wu gi bi fan” mey ying: what? dre : i'm starting to think you don't speak chinese. wu gi bi fan. too much-a good stuff is bad stuff? mey ying: “oh...wu chi pi fan” (01:01:47-01:01:59) the dialogue happens when dre is in the schoolyard and mey ying is going to practice for violin. mey ying is in a rush about her violin practice and she was thinking she needs to practice more and more to picking her on the audition. this scene shows that dre’s open minded-view toward the situation for mey ying. he tries to do the right action dealing with the situation at the moment toward mey ying that she does not have to worry about it. dre tries to convince mey ying not to worry about the audition. dre speaks to mey ying dealing with the situation at the moment. dre assumes that this is the best way to express his compassion, goodness, and also the important one is a value which contained in morality that he learned from mr. han that is wu chi pi fan (too much of something is not good). he speaks it to mey ying from the situation that he faces now to do his duty as a good friend. briefly, dre shows the flexibility of a good attitude that refers to express ethic and value contained in the morality of confucianism in chinese culture as a host culture. it means that dre is the symbol of people who assimilates the essential qualities of confucianism that is morality in chinese culture. 5. loftiest of moral (ren) ren is defined “the loftiest ideal of moral excellence, the most difficult of attainment, and the highest development of the individual’s distinctive nature. additionally, ren is associated with benevolence, love, humaneness, and the summation of all the other virtues” (chong 2007). the ideas of the loftiest of morals are closely related to morality. loftiest essentially belongs to the way people achieve the highest level of moral excellence to the development of an individual's distinctive nature. it can be the form of benevolence, love, and humaneness. in this case, admitting someone’s mistake who feels guilty is the way of loftiest moral as well. dre: “sir......my name is dre parker. my actions have brought......dishonor to your family. your daughter has been a great friend to me. and from her, i have learned......that a true friend......is a person who makes your life better. but, if you give me a second chance......i 60 promise that i will be......the best friend your daughter has ever had. that's it” (01:17:50-01:18:26) this scene describes when dre feels guilty toward mei ying and her father. then he asked mr. han to help him make a letter in the chinese language. this letter is actually in the chinese language but it was translated into english. in this case, dre can just ignore this problem and tries to forget everything that was happened between him, mey ying, and also mey ying’s family. with the highest benevolence, love, and humaneness, this scene shows dre’s great moral. here, dre tries to admit his bad mistake toward a chinese girl named mey ying to achieve the highest level of moral excellence to the development of an individual's distinctive nature. he is equally comfortable in this situation. this shows his good intention through the value. simply said, dre is the symbol of people that represents the loftiest moral because of his attitude to admit his bad mistake and his avidity to learn something to achieve the highest level of moral excellence that is loftiest of moral within society as the minority in the host land. conclusion related to diaspora in this study, the existence of characteristics of diaspora gives an impact on the issue of assimilation. once they live in the new land they will get new values from the society that affects their identity. in the case of karate kid film, the characters have adopted some values that exist in beijing, china. it is revealed at the beginning of the story when they were on the plane. mrs. parker asks dre to greet in the chinese language. it is kind of like learning something new as a newcomer in the new land. on the other hand, although it is hard for dre to accept reality, he slowly accepts it by learning kung fu. similarly, day by day dre realizes that kung fu is not about fighting but making peace. he also does his responsibility as a mey ying’s friend. he tries to motivating mey ying when she gets a problem. it is kind of like a social order of chinese people when they understand their responsibility to society. he also shows his morality as a chinese society such as do the right action to mey ying by saying “wu chi pi fan” which means too much something is not good. furthermore, to complete the highest morality because that is the characteristic of chinese people, dre admits his mistakes to mey ying’s father that he is wrong. that is one of the ways how chinese people complete their morality as a good human being. in this case, to keep existing as a minority, the immigrant needs adoption. considering with better social condition means something bad appears in the previous impression. in other words, assimilation appears. it drags someone to integrates and possibly to become a new type of human being as an immigrant in the new land. as a result, the characters in karate kid film represent assimilation in adoption values that exist in chinese 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(1958). culture is ordinary. n. mckenzie (ed). . a. diaspora b. assimilation assimilation theories try to describe the integration of humans into the new host country, the spotlights within social science were directed towards explaining how and why different groups created their communities that they hold on to even when resi... assimilation happens to the main characters in karate kid film 1. capacity of virtues habit (xi) 2. natural substance of a person (zhi) 3. social order (li) 4. morality (yi) 5. loftiest of moral (ren) acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 264 a psychoanalytic reading of abdulrazak gurnah’s gravel heart rashad mohammed moqbel al areqi alarikirashad2018@gmail.com al-baha university, faculty of sciences and arts, al mandaq, english department, kingdom of saudi arabia doi: 10.35974/acuity.v7i2.2721 abstract psychoanalytic criticism probes deeply into human behavior, uncovering unconscious anxieties, desires, and problems. this study examines abdulrazak gurnah’s gravel heart (2017) from a psychanalytic perspective, highlighting salim’s different stages of life and tracing the troubles he encounters. psychoanalytic theory is applied to the concepts of family and early childhood experiences, as well as defense mechanisms: fear of abandonment, social shame and inferiority, low self-esteem, avoidance, fear of intimacy, and death and loss. the theme of death and loss becomes a hallmark of salim’s mysterious family, which is full of secrets. despite salim’s accomplishments as a teenager, he finds himself occupied by his family conflicts. later, he accepts his uncle amir’s invitation to move to the united kingdom (uk) to attend college. this study found that salim’s traumatic experiences at an early age influenced his future choices and behaviors, particularly when he moved to the uk and met friends of different races from all over the world, each with their own story, which was definitely varied from his own. keywords: family, gravel, inferiority, psychoanalytic, self-esteem, traumatic. introduction abdulrazak gurnah’s novel gravel heart takes its name from a phrase in the shakespearean play, measure for measure. the title seems to fit the narrative, which details salim’s search for an answer to his father’s voluntary isolation and his mother’s indifference. unquestionably, psychoanalytic criticism is based on the work of sigmund freud, the father of this critical approach. through research on his patients, freud uncovered the root of their problems, which was, in the first place, psychological and not physical. through the lens of psychoanalytic criticism, this paper attempts to outline the defense mechanisms that salim and his parents used to hide their pain. the narrative tells the story of salim and his family, and describes the internal conflicts salim is trying to resolve without a satisfactory answer from either of his parents. it also highlights salim’s immigration to the united kingdom (uk), a world that is totally different from his own in zanzibar, which is distinguished by the simplicity of place and people. salim, even after moving to the uk, is still eager to uncover the story of his parents and the secret they both have been very careful to keep hidden. in fact, the narrative takes place the late 20th century, revealing different stages of salim’s life, which is full of family mysteries. one of these mysteries is the decision of salim’s father to separate himself from the family and move out of the house. this perplexes salim, who attempts to understand the reality of the situation by asking his parents. salim’s uncle amir, the brother of his mother, comes to live in their house without consideration for the family’s situation because he knows the story and https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity mailto:alarikirashad2018@gmail.com acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 265 does not want to interfere. amir lives his life freely, away from the troubles that do not give salim any rest. later, amir becomes a senior diplomat and offers salim the opportunity to move to the uk to attend a college his uncle selects for him, without considering salim’s concerns. the two issues that cause an enormous amount of pain and trauma for salim, even after he moves to the uk, are his father’s voluntary exile without any explanation, and his mother’s regular disappearances with a strange man, also without any reasonable explanation for her absences. gravel heart traces the traumas in salim’s life and his confusion over the actions of his parents. the issues of belonging and home, of family and betrayal, and what is supposed to be an intimate relationship between his father and mother cause salim worry and bring him shame. gurnah’s gravel heart is divided into three parts, each with its own ideas and subplots regarding the narrative development. gurnah tells most of the story from salim’s point of view in the first person until the end, when salim’s father reveals his mysterious past that cannot be repressed in his consciousness for a long time. abdulrazak gurnah is the first tanzanian author to win the nobel prize for literature in 2021, also becoming the second black african nobel laureate. he was born in zanzibar in 1948, and left for england at the age of 18 as a refugee when the 1964 revolution broke out. gurnah’s experience with dislocation has created a solid foundation for his writing on migration, belonging, and identity. he is the fourth black writer to become a nobel laureate, after wole soyinka in 1986, derek walcott in 1992, and tony morrison in 1993. the swedish academy pointed out that abddulrazak deserves the nobel prize for his “uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism.” https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/2021/press-release gurnah wants his literary work to reflect the real feelings that correspond to his realities and truth. his is concerned with providing the world with interesting fiction that does not distort historical facts or diminish human values. gurnah believes in conveying honesty through words that do not succumb to the temptation of imaginative writing that distorts reality. in an interview with fabienne roth et al. (2016), gurnah restated these intentions when asked about his personal aims for his work. gurnah stated that “if someone says aim, it’ll sound pompous. i just want to write as trustfully as i can, without trying to say something noble” (p.3). gurnah’s literary works have attracted the attention of many scholars, whether african or others, to consider the critical issues addressed in his novels. generally, gurnah’s fiction gives special consideration to exile, immigration, identity, colonialism, and postcolonial contexts. in addition, he deals with the influence of political and historical context on the progress of the human race, as described in his narratives. gurnah has rich experience with fiction and other literary works that tackle issues concerning humanity in general, and africa in particular. his fictional works have brought good fortune and a positive reputation to gurnah, whose works reflect his unflinching examination of the colonial or postcolonial eras. he does not offer any concessions that would contradict his beliefs or values regarding colonialism and imperialism. gurnah was ultimately recognized with a noble prize, a testament to the honesty of his literary work that reflects the reality of colonialism and its impact on indigenous people. regarding previous studies, this paper highlights selected articles in a literature review that address some of the concepts discussed earlier. gurnah’s fictional works, including memory of departure (1987), pilgrims way (1988), dottie (1990), paradise (1994)—which firmly established gurnah’s position in the area of fiction and was shortlisted for the booker prize— admiring silence (1996), by the sea (2001), desertion (2005), the last gift (2005), gravel heart (2017), and afterlives (2021). kimani kaigai (2013) studied admiring silence (1996) and the last gift (2011) using different strategies to interpret the theme of silence. this included a reading of silence and its influence https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 266 upon the individual and the community, as well as how silence can reflect a meaning that words may not be able to explain. kaigai uses narratology as a framework to trace the hidden meanings of silence, and how the characters use it as a means of communication when the words cannot convey an accurate meaning. razia iqbal (2019) debated with the author during an interview about belonging, colonialization, and arrival in his fiction. iqbal asked gurnah: “looking back on your long writing career, could you say you belong in this country?” (p.39). in response, gurnah discusses his vision on belonging: …i feel part of a larger community writing is an enabler of that, people read and share their ideas. i’m also part of that writing constituency. my family, of course, are here-not all of them-several are in zanzibar. but my immediate family are here. i have friends. so in this respect, it’s good as home could be or should be. (p.39) gurnah attempted to explain how a person can be part of a new community, belonging to its people and sharing the same concerns, as well as the same style of life. gurnah’s oeuvre deserves more consideration and scholarly attention, enlightening scholars about many issues of colonial history, as postcolonial concepts that impacted the people who were found the cultural and social aspect of their lives exposed. gurnah’s fiction explores immigration and exile in changing situations controlled by power, beginning with old african problems of immigration and exile to colonial and postcolonial contexts. abdurazak gurnah, the storyteller-cum-novelist whose work is the focus of this special issue, often probes the efficacy of stories to connect people and geographies yet at the same time remains attractive to the divisive nature of stories of identity and exclusion. (steiner, et al., 2013, p.1.) luke brown (2020), who compared gurnah’s by the sea to michael ondaatje’s the cat table, investigated the disabled movement beyond metaphor. this study offered a precise analysis of disability and movement associated with travel and immigration. “it indicates the potential yield of bringing disability studies to bear on texts of the indian ocean…they reframe disabilities a site of colonial subjugation, containment, and resistance” (p.71). another study by erik falk et al. (2020) titled “‘that little space’: locating abdurazak gurnah in the global literary marketplace” explored the idea of using the author as a public product or marketing tool to engage with a particular place and culture. falk et al. (2020) pointed out “since gurnah remains persistently understood through actual and imagined connections to zanzibar even as he is a writer in english of the changing nature of england, there is no conviction, among some, that he is ‘really’ an english writer” (p.151). ezekiel kaigi (2014) did his doctoral research on selected works by abdulrazak gurnah, titled “encountering strange lands: migrant texture in abdurazak gurnah’s fiction.” kaigi focuses on what it means to be a migrant or a stranger in unwelcome circumstances, with gurnah providing new insights into the meaning of migrant and exile. “gurnah’s texts become discursive tools for understanding the complexity of migrancy and cultural exchanges along the swahili coast, in zanzibar, in the indian ocean and in the uk” (p. iii). meanwhile, marco ruberto (2009) discussed in his dissertation “itinerant narratives: travel, identity and literary form in abdulrazak gurnah’s fiction.” the term itinerancy and victor turner’s concept of liminality assist in a discussion of the notions of identity and history, which capture a particular aesthetic in the fictional work of gurnah that may not be found in other authors’ narratives. lucinda newns (2015) pointed out “the use of postmodern discourse to a valorization of displacement, which tends to be seen as both inherently resistant and creatively productive” (p.506). by the sea (2001) highlighted the historicized experience of homelessness associated with the character saleh omer, an asylum seeker. the concept of home reflects human values and should be associated with human comforts. a person can also reject their home because it https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 267 does not provide them with peace and security. once the person leaves home, nostalgia haunts them in their new place of refuge. godwin siundu (2013) studied honor and shame in the construction of differences in gurnah’s novels. he explained the manifestations of honor and its intersection with cultural, social, and religious values. such values demarcate the form and frame of identity. he focuses on women and youths who are helpless in such communities, mistreated under claims of protecting their honor and avoiding shame. the community enforces many restrictions to preserve honor, and keeps the family away from anything that may tarnish their reputation. this study attempts to trace another aspect of gurnah’s characters—those who are unable to solve their problems and fall into alienation and loneliness. sometimes these characters escape their destiny by exiling themselves from the community or immigrating to forget the place of trauma. the focus is on gurnah’s gravel heart, using a psychoanalytic approach to probe deeply into the psyches of the characters and their defense mechanisms, as well as looking back at their early childhood experiences and their association with the family, and their parents in particular. this study also examines how the characters’ relationships with friends or relatives drive them beyond the psychological barriers formed by traumatic experiences and an unhealthy atmosphere. gravel heart requires special attention to cover the many critical issues discussed in the novel. it addresses the dark corners of the human heart through a psychoanalytic lens that sometimes manifests as a heart made of stone. the following section will address the methods applied on this study. then, results and discussion part explores the different stages of salim’s life, as well as and his relationships with family members and friends and their impact upon him, through a psychoanalytic lens. methods the study traces different kinds of relationships between salim’s family, the father and the mother and how such a relationship affects salim’s life. through the psychoanalytic lens, the study focuses on selective concepts, for instance, mechanism of defense: fear of abandonment, inferiority in the community and its impact on salim and his family, low self-esteem, a voidance, fear of intimacy and death and loss. all such experiences leave its scars on salim’s life. family, in general, has a very important role in psychoanalytic theory and most concepts of the theory are based on family relations, whether indoors or outdoors and paying special attention to the relationship of the family with the community. defences addresses the selective perception that assists the person to go beyond his traumatic experiences. avoidance is one of the self-defences. it is “staying away from people or situations that are liable to make us anxious by stirring up some unconscious—i.e., repressed—experience or emotion” (tyson, p. 32). in addition, tyson (2015) discussed fear of intimacy, fear of intimacy—fear of emotional involvement with another human being—is often an effective defense against learning about our own psychological wounds because it keeps us at an emotional distance in relationships most likely to bring those wounds to the surface: relationships with lovers, spouses, offspring, and best friends. however, fear of abandonment relies on the belief of the person that his/her friends will leave him/her physically and emotionally. sometimes, it takes a different stage of fear of betrayal that let the person feels that his friends lie to him and he cannot trust them anymore. while low self-esteem takes more dangerous stage. it is “—the belief that we are less worthy than other people and, therefore, don’t deserve attention, love, or any other of life’s rewards. indeed, we often believe that we deserve to be punished by life in some way” (tyson, p. 33). such experiences with people around him and his feeling of alienation, low self-esteem affect https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 268 salim’s life and his family, particularly, his father’s relationship with his mother. eventually, his father favors to avoid his family and isolate himself from the family and the community. it is an escape from the shame and inferiority he begins to feel because of his wife’s behavior. he feels low self-esteem that makes him unable to meet his family or friends. the study will elaborate selective concepts of psychoanalytic theory and their influence upon salim and his family. furthermore, trauma bothers the person and turns his life upside down and it always reminds him of a painful experience, for example, loss, death, losing one of the parents or a brother or a sister will scar the human being psychologically. salim has lost his mother, his father, and his beloved that left a psychological scar on his life and it cannot be healed easily. results and discussion family conflict and its impact on salim’s memories an individual’s psychological history begins in childhood as a reflection of their relationship with their family and surrounding community. these types of relationships will control the psychological experiences the child will have in life. such experiences, particularly the traumatic ones, influence our future and impact our behavior without our realization. humans are motivated by the fears, needs, desires, and conflicts that capture our lives. however, fears, illegal and guilty desires are repressed in our unconscious. lois tyson (2015) pointed out that “the unconscious is the storehouse of those painful experiences and emotions, those wounds, fears, guilty desires, and unresolved conflicts we do not want to know about because we feel we will be overwhelmed by them” (p. 29). salim grows up at a home, where he finds his parents separated and everyone living their own lives. the intimacy and love that are supposed to be found between a husband and a wife are missing. at an early age, salim feels the familial conflict of his parents’ separation. gurnah makes this fact clear from the beginning, as well as the consequences it brings upon salim as a child, who is looking forward to a family union that brings peace and safety to his life. salim suffers when he becomes aware of the cold lack of intimacy between his father and mother. this becomes a permanent situation: “when i asked if i could go and see baba wherever he was, she said no. he does not want to see any of us” (p. 37). many years pass, and there is no hope for salim to see his family reunited. as a child, he cannot even imagine the reasons behind his parents’ behavior. he feels that maybe he is the reason his father abandons him, and that his parents do not want him. salim’s family does not answer his repeated questions about his father’s detachment: “my father did not want me. i came to that knowledge when i was quite young, even before i understood what i was being deprived of and a long time before i could guess the reason for it…” (p. 9). salim considers possible answers to his questions about his parents’ separation. he tries to find another way, after his parents do not show any concern about answering his questions. salim wonders whether his father’s voluntary isolation is connected to his father’s ill treatment of him in the past. salim’s father is always silent: “fathers are not always easy, especially if they grew up without their fathers’ love” (p.9). salim attended a koran school at the early age of five, later moving over to a public school to continue his studies. in both settings, salim demonstrates his competence by memorizing the koran, gaining the admiration of his teachers. his skill in writing stories emerges at early age: “my teacher liked it and showed it to the headmaster, who wanted me to make a fair copy in my best handwriting” (p.19). https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 269 defense mechanisms in salim’s family gurnah gives the father a voice at the end to narrate his story that makes salim feel relieved. the father uses silence as a technique to escape salim’s questions because he decides that it is not the appropriate time to inform salim. eventually, salim’s father narrates his story and explains his mysterious behavior and detachment from the family. saida, salim’s mother, sacrifices her honor to live with someone else, a man named hakim. saida does this to save her brother, amir, who is accused of raping hakim’s underage sister, asha. threatening revenge against amir, hakim makes saida agree to his conditions in order to release her brother. i want you to yield your body to me. i want to take charge of it and do with it as i wish. i thirst with desire for you. i will not harm you or cause you pain, do you understand? i want to make love to you, not just once, but to my satisfaction. that is how much i want you. in return, i will release your brother. (p.147.) saida finds herself torn between keeping her family and honor and responding to hakim’s outrageous demands. ultimately, she chooses to sacrifice her family and her honor to save her brother from jail. masud, salim’s father, chooses a voluntary exile in a rented room to escape the mean looks of the community. he also cannot bear watching his wife leave the house to go satisfy hakim’s sexual urges. siundu (2013) reflected: “gurnah’s fiction provides a narrative where honor is infused in the characters’ grappling with the challenges of their respective socio-cultural status, while simultaneously capturing the fluidity of the concepts and experiences of honor and shame” (p. 4). masud resorts to avoidance, staying away from his wife because her recurring absences to be with someone else make him anxious and stir up repressed emotions. he considers abandonment of the family a better solution, as well as a means of defense. fear of abandonment is the solid belief that our lovers will abandon us, physically or emotionally. from masud’s perspective, his wife has deserted him emotionally with her new connection, therefore, he prefers to abandon her physically. fear of intimacy is another means of defense used by masud. he maintains an emotional distance from that intimacy, the very intimacy that drives saida to send a basket of food to masud, her husband, despite his physical abandonment. saida does not respond to her brother amir’s request to stop sending food to her husband. masud is passive and cannot do anything to save his wife from hakim. he feels that the community cannot forgive him for his silence and denial. he recognizes his wife’s relationship with hakim and her absence, but he ignores the problem as if it doesn’t exist. saida, after coming from her intimate meeting with hakim, tries to avoid talking to her son to escape his questions. her silence is a means of defense but also, keeping emotions repressed in her unconscious. amir, after his mother’s death, moves to his sister saida’s house. salim is unaware that amir is the reason behind the breakup of his family. amir drives saida to accept hakim’s offer, giving no consideration to her husband and son’s reactions: “oh, amir, you have a heart of stone.” (p. 255). amir attempts to lean on saida’s feelings for him, pushing her to accept hakim’s offer and to forget his rape of hakim’s sister, they will hurt me here,” he said, pleading. “they may keep me here for decades … or worse … even kill me…how can it be wrong to save a brother’s life? however, he thinks of it, you can say that you are doing a noble and courageous thing, saving your brother’s life. (p. 255.) amir is selfish and lives his life normally, as if nothing occurs. he always laughs and smiles. salim admires his uncle’s happy life, and adores the gifts he brings him from time to time. however, he does not know that amir is behind his mother’s dishonor: “uncle amir was the prince of our kingdom and i grow up adoring him” (p.34). amir does not pay much attention to ties that keep the members of the family together. on the contrary, amir insists that his sister https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 270 accept hakim’s humiliating offer as a noble act to save him from jail, or from the powerful grip of hakim, because he is a member of the upper class and has great influence in the community. all of these events and traumatic experiences influence salim, whether he realizes it or not. his behavior in the future is determined by these childhood experiences, and what he has seen in his father’s defeatism. at the age of eleven, salim’s mother asks him to take food to his father, but he does not know the story of his father. he does not want to take the food to his father or even meet him. his father’s detachment stirs fear in salim’s heart. he sees in his father’s face that his father’s voluntary exile does not bring happiness to his life. instead, masud’s life is getting worse and he appears older than his real age: “i was once afraid of him in whose eyes, as i learnt to look into them, i saw only detachment and defeat” (p. 43). when salim turns fourteen, he begins to think seriously about his father’s isolation: “i thought my father was shameful, the owner of a shameful useless body” (p. 48). his father’s defeatism leaves scars on salim. he views his father as a weak man, irresponsible and avoiding his duties to himself and the family. he denies his problems but also internalizes with them in a new style of life. in salim’s view, his father is worthless and does not deserve his sympathy. at the end of the day, both parents keep silent and do not want to share their secrets with their son, resulting in everyone leading a different life that seems unhappy. salim can grasp that his father is not pleased with the life that he has chosen for himself. he can see grief in the furrows of his face. meanwhile, salim’s mother shows no comfort or satisfaction from her outings. this is very clear in her long silences after coming back from her outings. salim’s attitude toward his mother changes after munira’s birth. munira is his sister from another man. her father is hakim, who forces his mother to be with him to forget amir’s rape of his underage sister. salim imagines that munira has occupied his place in his mother’s heart. his perceived rejection manifests itself in his refusal to follow his mother’s orders. he always evades his mother’s orders by bringing her something other than what she asked for. salim has not witnessed hakim engaging in intimacies with his mother, and he is suffering because of what his father has become after that man intruded into his mother’s life: “i was made sad by the thought of the hard-faced man exchanging intimacies with her and mocking my poor baba” (p. 52). such psychological scars cannot be easily healed and their impact will be reflected in salim’s future life. to salim, hakim is “the destroyer of souls” (p.137). he destroys the lives of his parents, and proceeds with his life as if nothing occurred. gurnah portrays hakim and amir as selfish. they exist only to satisfy their instincts, no matter what damage they leave behind. amir’s views the sacrifice his sister makes as something noble she needs to do to save his future, ignoring the consequences to her honor and the shame he will bring to his sister, not to mention the destruction of her family. the most important thing to him is to guarantee his social position as an important diplomat or ambassador in the future. amir and hakim care only for their personal interests, regardless of the sacrifices of others. neither gives any consideration to saida’s family. they care only about how they can be happy, even if their happiness comes at the expense of someone else’s honor and dignity. their feelings towards others, particularly toward saida and her family, do not take anything or anyone into account, as they to live their own lives selfishly. unquestionably, amir and hakim are the destroyers of saida’s family, causing psychological scars that need a long time to heal or be forgotten. the inferiority complex felt by salim’s parents does not push him to take action. hakim has his position in the government and would use his position to cause physical harm to masud’s family. simultaneously, hakim’s social superiority not only subjugates masud and saida but also humiliates them, and it becomes impossible for them to escape or change their consequences. if they think through their unconscious, they can repress their pain and their https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 271 psychological wounds forever. however, even if such defense mechanisms help them to forget temporarily, their son might not escape its destructive impact. immigration and nostalgia for home salim’s uncle invites him to move to london, and salim accepts his uncle’s offer. salim views this as an opportunity to leave a home that has become a source of disturbing memories. staying with amir and his aunt asha, salim’s uncle suggests he study business in college. salim sees this as a discipline that could lead him to a brilliant future, while amir’s thinking is only about how to make salim earn money. salim was raised in a family that did not give him too much freedom to express his views, or to ask about what he wanted to find out about the secret behind his parents’ separation, particularly his father, who had left the house under murky circumstances. salim asked his father and mother individually about his father’s peaceful detachment from the house and the community of his relatives, however, he did not get any answers to his questions. the matter went beyond his expectation. at the beginning, salim’s mother attempted to satisfy part of his curiosity by telling him his father would be absent for a few days but that he would be coming back. masud stays in his voluntary exile for many years, which only fuels his son's desire to know the story of his father’s isolation. salim’s mother cannot tell him the truth, so instead: “she said that my father did not want us anymore” (p. 36). this is a kind of repression of salim’s questions, who at an early age was curious to know everything about his family. his mother and father behave in a way that makes salim realize that his questions are not welcome. this type of behavior creates a spirit of defeatism and withdrawal in the psyche of salim. he finds that he is a coward and cannot explain to his uncle that he is not interested in business, that he only likes to study literature. after skipping his business classes, salim decides to leave this department. at first, he doesn’t have the courage to tell his uncle about his decision to leave the business department. he favors avoidance as a defense mechanism, as well as and his inability to go against his uncle’s will. amir only expresses his concern in terms of money and other materialistic measures. he cares about how salim will make as much money as possible in the future. “make money! think of the outcomes: accountancy, management, consultancy, and at the end of it all plenty of money in the bank. are we agreed?” (p. 63). amir’s advice reflects his concern with money at the expense of other aspect of life. he pushes saida to sacrifice her honor as a noble action she must perform to save her brother. he is selfish and all of his interests are oriented toward how to be rich. he even married into a higher class, the daughter of the minister who accused him of raping her as an underage school girl. he thinks about getting a high position in the government, ignoring the price saida has paid to keep him out of jail. the problem is that when he lived with saida, he saw how she was humiliated by hakim, his wife’s brother. however, he continues to live his life normally, without paying any attention to the complicated situation of his sister’s family. he destroyed that family, and let salim spend his early childhood searching for answers to the mysterious demise of his family. salim goes through traumatic experiences that affect his life, even after leaving home and immigrating to london. in london, salim writes letters to his mother and father as an outlet for his repressed emotions, providing him with a sort of relief about a home he knows nothing about. salim writes his mother about how life in london makes him feel tired, walking in crowded streets. london is a cosmopolitan city with lots of people from different places around the world. they form a multicultural community, and every one of his friends shares a story about home and their emotional relationship with it, while the silence salim inherited from his father cannot assist him to tell his own story. in london, salim was exposed to many cultures, some friends from https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 272 africa and others from all over the world. his move to the aou house gives him an opportunity to mix with people of different cultures and races. sometimes salim receives insults and discriminatory looks from people who are islamophobes. “whenever something about islam came up on the news and i happened to be there, he turned to me as if i were the only muslim in london and in some way responsible for what he disliked” (p.106). amos, a nigerian, also does not hesitate to show his anger and racism against salim, for no other reason than he is a muslim, despite the fact that salim does not show any commitment to the rituals of his religion. amos is from africa and would presumably share some type of culture and concerns with salim, but he does not. “‘muslims are fanatics, imperialists, racists,’ he said, eyes bulging with rage. ‘they came to africa and destroyed our culture. they made us subservient to them and stole our knowledge and inventions and made us into slaves” (p. 156). this is blatant racism did not put salim at ease in a country that supposedly abides by the laws of justice and equality, and legally rejects discrimination. salim’s fear of intimacy and the lack of his parents’ love cause salim to spend many years learning how to approach a woman. he watched his mother’s intimate experience with a stranger, whose position as a minister in the government and his appearance on tv indicated his influential role in the community. salim’s psychological wounds drive him to believe that men forced his mother to be in that intimate relationship. thus, he believes that the intimate relationship between a man and a woman is a sort of oppression. then he was able to overcome these feelings through his connection with a woman in his new world, and discover sexual freedom with the approval of a second partner: “i had spent many years not knowing how to approach women, thinking of sexual intimacy as demeaning and an oppression, which enticed the victim into abjection” (p. 133). the passage of time healed salim’s psychological wounds. he managed to start a new relationship with a woman he loved, named billie or bindiya. her father was english and her mother was indian. their relationship did not continue because of objections from billie’s family. her brothers said: “a nigger is a nigger however nice he is. i had thought religion would be the issue … i’m sorry. i have to leave you” (p. 153). the failure of this relationship left an emotional void in salim’s heart. discrimination emerged again because of his color and race. billie’s mother threatened that if her daughter continued in the relationship, she would commit suicide. both situations caused harm to billie; ending an emotional relationship was a sort of loss or death for her dreams but if she proceeds with her dreams, she may lose her mother. the reaction of billie’s mother reflects how she is reluctant for such a relationship to continue and displays no problem threatening her daughter, which is another sort of loss, the possibility of her suicide or her death. billie’s decision to leave salim causes feelings of inferiority inside salim’s heart. salim lives three types of complexities: as a descendant of arabs, his name and family make his race and origin clear; his color, as billie’s family calls him “a nigger”; and his religion as a muslim makes him vulnerable to accusations of terrorism. death and loss in salim’s life salim’s first loss is his parents’ love. he needed that love to be raised naturally. he starts to lose the association with his mother and father. all of them are busy with the secret, which is very carefully kept hidden. in doing so, his parents drive salim to feel the loss of love and intimacy that any child requires. moreover, salim’s mother has given her time and care to a strange man salim has no information about. the second loss is the woman he loves. salim starts relationships with other women, reflecting his need for intimacy, but he cannot find in these other relationships. “i feel even more of a stranger here now. i hate it but still i stay. i feel like a traitor but i am not sure who it is that i am betraying” (p. 156). he writes to his mother about his feelings. he is perplexed: is he a traitor because he betrayed his culture and the codes of his country? or a traitor because he has https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 273 to start new relationships with other women? he begins to feel that homesickness for to his home, his culture, his race, and the codes of his country. salim also experiences other sorts of loss, such as his mother’s death when he was in london. how does salim respond to the death of his mother, and later his father? the traumatic experiences he went through in his life make salim acknowledge the deaths of his parents as something inevitable, that cannot be avoided. it is not only salim who goes through painful experiences during different stages of his life. his father’s narration of his story gives us insight into the psychological wounds that made him silent for so many years. masud prefers to stay home, refusing to leave with his father maalim yahya for dubai to show loyalty to his home. during his isolation, masud’s health worsens; his father took him to malaysia to help him forget the traumatic past that was about to lead him into madness. salim finds that his home is not a home after his mother’s death, so he decides to return to england. salim’s narrative at the end indicates that it does not make a difference to be at home or abroad, if someone cannot change the community they live in. salim’s mother believes her son is loyal to his home and has faith that he will come back, however, he comes back after her death, which he is powerless to change. what use was someone like me to this england? but then what use was someone like my father anywhere? some people have a use in the world, even if it is only to swell a crowd and say yeah, and some people don’t. (p. 268.) salim and his father could not change their worlds, so they drifted with the tide, unable to change their reality. they are useless and worthless, whether they are home, in england, or any other part of the world. these words reflect the desperation that overwhelmed salim and his hopelessness to make the world any different. to move ahead in this life, man needs a gravel heart. conclusion salim’s early childhood experiences were not promising. he suffered from the trauma of his parents’ separation, for which he couldn’t figure out the reason. he thirsted for his parents’ love and compassion, particularly at an early age. his father’s detachment from his family and home fostered salim’s defeatist spirit, which determined his future fate. when salim got an opportunity to immigrate to england from his uncle, he did not hesitate, hoping to forget his traumatic past with his family and community. however, his move to london did not help salim forget his past; instead, it pulled him into another sort of failure. he eventually achieved a degree in literature, the discipline he wanted, but he could not integrate into the community. salim was unable to stay with his love because of her parents’ prejudice and racism against him. he felt many complexes in his life: low selfesteem, social inferiority, feelings of loss and failure, loss of intimacy with his parents, loss of intimacy with the woman he loved, and loss of association with his home, culture, and even his language. then, the death of his mother, and later his father, left an emotional void that could not be filled. salim felt useless and hopeless to change his fate for the better. this study found that salim’s traumatic experiences in early childhood did not give him a chance to move through life peacefully. additionally, the community’s contemptuous view of him as an inferior social class increased his suffering in a place he expected to be a refuge from his past misery. instead, it pulled him again to his race, origin, and color. immigration was not the solution for salim’s psychological problems. on the contrary, it increased his suffering and exposed him to new experiences that reopened the psychological wounds of the past. ultimately, feelings of social inferiority, low self-esteem, alienation, betrayal, loss and failure pushed salim to believe that he is useless, and that the people around him at home and abroad https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 274 are cruel. he was unable to change the world and for that reason, he decided to return to england. references brown, l. (2020). “disabled movement beyond metaphor in michael ondaatje’s the cat’s table and abdulrazak gurnah’s by the sea.” journal of postcolonial writing, 57(1), pp. 60-74. the george washington university: washington, dc, usa. falk, e. (2020). “‘that little space’: locating abdulrazak gurnah in the global literary marketplace.” nordic journal of english studies, 19(4), pp. 150-168. uppsala, sweden. gurnah, a. (2017). gravel heart. bloomsbury: london, uk. iqbal, r. (2019). “belonging, colonialism, arrival.” wasafiri, 39:4, pp. 34-40. routledge: taylor & francis, usa. kaigai, e.k. (2014). “encountering strange lands: migrant texture in abdulrazak gurnah’s fiction.” university of nairobi: kenya, stellenbosch university publications: south africa. kaigai, k. (2013). “at the margins: silences in abdulrazak gurnah’s admiring silence and the lost gift.” english studies in africa, 56(1), pp. 128-141. university of witwatersrand: johannesburg, south africa. kearney, j.a. 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(2009). itinerant narratives: travel, identity and literary form in abdulrazak gurnah’s fiction. doctoral thesis. nottingham trent university, uk. siundu, g. (2013). “honour and shame in the construction of difference in abdulrazak gurnah’s novels.” english studies in africa, 56(1), pp. 105-116. university of witwatersrand: johannesburg. south africa. steiner, t. & olausson, m. (2013). “critical perspectives on abdulrazak gurnah.” english studies in africa, 56(1), pp. 1-3. university of witwatersrand: johannesburg, south africa. tyson, l. (2015). critical theory today. 3rd edition. routledge: tylor & francis group, london and usa. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/2021/press-release. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity microsoft word 2165-ralph.edited.docx acuity (5)1 ,67-84 tracing the epic tradition in the fantaserye: gma 7’s “encantadia” as an epic ralph edward sekito1,2 1the graduate school, university of santo tomas 2far eastern university, manila ralphedwardsekito@gmail.com doi 10.35974/acuity.v5i1.2165 abstract in the mid-2000s, the television landscape in the philippines was raised to a higher level. shows that incorporate folklore and combine it with today's realities started to dominate the primetime block. these shows are dubbed called fantaserye, a pun on the words fantasy and series, and in 2005, one of the biggest television networks in the philippines released its biggest fantaserye “encantadia”. as such, this paper is an attempt to fill that dearth by fleshing out the elements of the traditional conventions of the epic. through the theories on the conventions of the epic and the function of the epic hero propounded by damiana eugenio and isagani cruz respectively, the researcher looks at the possibility of the fantaserye as an offshoot of the traditional epic. john fiske and john hartley’s notion on television as today’s bard was also utilized in this study. the method used throughout the study is conceptual content analysis. results show that folk epics share similar characteristics such as having the epic hero, the hero’s moral and physical transformation which in turn paves the way for the hero to become the embodiment of the people’s beliefs and aspirations. as such, the folk epics did not die with our forebearers, but it has adapted, retold, and performed through a new medium that can be accessed by people from all walks of life. to conclude, the fantaserye gets its materials and inspiration not only from mythological tales, but also from the folk epics, thus making oral literature survive in another form, but at the same time deviates from these inspirations which makes it a postmodern take of the traditional epic. this proves that the popular culture as a field of study that can be associated to other similar fields such as literary studies. also, the folk epic did not die a natural death in the oral tradition; it adapted through a medium which is relevant and accessible to all: the television. keywords: epic tradition, epic conventions, fantaserye, encantadia introduction the philippines has a rich tradition of literature before the arrival of the colonizers. rosario-braid and tuazon (1999) contend that such literary tradition among the early inhabitants of our country exists and is best exemplified in the folk epics (293). the folk epics are revered literary works because they mark the highest point of the development of philippine folk literature (eugenio, 2001, xi) and have been part of the rich folklore that we boast today (mojares, 1998, 13). these literatures have also served as conduits for other folk and phantasmagoric tales due to its attribute as irredeemably elitist, stable, and canonical (hersh, 1993 1; santos, 1997, 125 & kumar, 2016, 793). manuel (1985) further defines the epics as acuity (5)1 ,67-84 “narratives of sustained length which are based on oral tradition, revolving around supernatural events or heroic deeds in the form of verse which are either chanted or sung” (69). these narratives are exemplary literary masterpieces of oral and written literature and an embodiment of one’s ideology and culture. roque (1967) probes on the cultural traditions embedded in these literary forms, particularly in the mindanaoan “bidasari," which featured an epic heroine instead of a male epic hero. in this study, the researcher posits that despite the existence of female epic heroes, yet their depiction and role are limited compared to the male epic hero figures. in the epic, the heroine bidasari was never involved in warfare, unlike the male epic heroes, whose masculinity lies in their prowess and strength in warfare and battle. roque also observes that “bidasari” provides the ideal female model in the mindanaoan context because it embodies how a female should conduct themselves in public. the epic underscores the traits of meekness, obedience, and chastity as characteristics practiced by mindanoan women. the philippine folk epics are not only monumental examples of oral literature; but they also serve as repositories of both culture and history that reflect a community’s identity (aligan, 1992, 21; mojares, 1998, 13; and eugenio, 2001, xi). these narratives also serve as the bastion of collective consciousness because they paved the way for uniting people of different communities (tolentino, 2006, 40) and have functioned as metanarratives of one’s culture, which later gave birth to the concept of the nation (tolentino, 2006, 58). demetrio, a jesuit scholar, points out the following characteristics of the epic: (1) the story must contain a body of ancient traditions centering around supernatural or heroic persons or deeds; (2) there must be a living faith in these traditions and contents; (3) these traditions must be molded into a single person or group of persons by specially gifted persons; (4) the poem must be invested with a certain sacred or venerable character, not only for their antiquity, but also for their cosmic, national, and social significance, in as much as they validate the beliefs, ideals, values, and life values of a people or race (quoted in eugenio, 2001, xi) calleja-reyes (1968) probes on the bicolano epic “ibalon” and how it reflects and preserves bicolandia culture and ideals. her study also attempts to restore as faithfully as possible the pristine context of that fragment of ancient bicol literature, which gives the epic a special value as it underscores a profound significance bicolandia pre-historic culture (321). she finds out that a great number of these songs of the ancient bicolanos, communicated orally as they have never been written down, which makes fr. castaño's fragment an important piece because it poses the possibility that it is the only written account of this cultural artifact of the ancient bicolanos(322). also, the fragment gives an interesting account of the dwellings of the ancient bicolanos when it mentions the muog which is a house constructed by the natives on a tree-top to protect themselves from wild animals. this form of house construction is defined in fr. lisboa's “vocabulario de la lengua bicol” and undoubtedly gives verisimilitude to the epic's account of the early dwellings of the bicolanos (323). this study points out that the epic is the compendium of one’s pre-colonial culture and history though it may come in several versions, acuity (5)1 ,67-84 which is why preserving this epic is essential to ensure cultural continuity and the region’s heritage. the folk epics are performed literary pieces, somewhat a precursor to the stage plays and street performances in the philippines. these are staged in communal gatherings and on solemn or religious occasions. these performances are accompanied by music, dance, and ritual action, which relate to religious or cultic functions (mojares, 1998, 9 and 10). they are meant to evoke "magical efficacy" on special occasions or ceremonies (santos, 1997, 116). highly trained singers and orators are handpicked to perform the said epics (baldick, 2001, 82). the central character in the epic is the epic hero who embodies the people’s beliefs, ideals, and aspirations, which reflects his maturity and moral transformation through a series of adventures. mythology and folklore serve as inspirations of these oral narratives. roque (1967) gives three distinct attributes to the nature of these heroic adventures. first, the actions in these adventures are exaggerated to highlight the moral or value the epic hero needs to project. second, these events integrate prominent and historical characters and events upon a common scene. lastly, remembered incidents with imaginary accessories drawn from myth and legend are fused which make up a conflation of fact and fancy (10). these oral literature mirror one's culture which also makes it historical documents. the birth of popular media revolutionized changes in society especially on the way people perceive and construct their truths. it cannot be denied that popular media made literature accessible to people from all walks of life. popular culture (specifically popular media) serves as "a potent force for persuasion and value building and the perception of consciousness" (fernandez, 1981). through popular media which are quite accessible, people's manner of thinking and behaving were affected by these forms of consumed literature. because of the technological advancements that began after the second world war, the television shows because of their multi-sensory attribute. they do not only attract in the visual sense of the viewer, but also in other senses such as the auditory and emphatic senses. television shows also have the power to transmit the spoken word through another medium which makes them hypertextual and anachronistic (tolentino, 2006, 24). these shows are the repositories of contemporary culture since they act as representations of signs, symbols, images, portrayals, depictions, likeness, and substitutions, seen and experienced in reality (sanchez, 2015, 347). they have not only captured but also influenced people’s way of thinking and their perception of reality (fiske and hartley, 2003, 2) to the point that the divide between simulation and the actual is blurred. despite their contribution to popular culture and media studies, television shows still faced criticisms. for instance, critics assert that television viewers only need minimum intelligence to be able to comprehend and make sense of what is shown on screen (fiske and hartley, 2003, 3). what the critics fail to see is a mismatch on the constructs used in pointing out the advantages and disadvantages of television viewing. television shows should not be read as a literary text because any attempt to decode a television “text” as a literary text is doomed to failure and would likely result to a negative evaluation of the material based on its inability to do a job for which it is fundamentally unsuited (3). the critics also fail to realize that the television as a material is an equal, if not more than demanding, compared to traditional forms of text such as the printed and written forms. acuity (5)1 ,67-84 in viewing television shows, there is no way for viewers to go back over the material unlike in the printed forms of text wherein readers can flip back and through printed materials (fiske and hartley, 2003, 4). also, television shows which are electronically transmitted have different features compared to the written and printed texts (fiske and hartley, 2003, 2 and 3), yet they have the capability to unite and examine one’s culture because of its storytelling functions (sauro, 2013, 80). these shows are not only for entertainment but also for being aware of one's reality. one of the contributions of television shows in the field of both literary and media studies is the emergence of the soap opera which evolved into what is known today as the teleserye. teleseryes have lured viewers on the boob tube since these shows can simulate realities and re-actualized them to a different medium. these are shows that mirror today’s experiences which are relevant in today’s society (aranda, 2014). also, these shows would operate on motifs which are quite relevant in the filipino palette such as family ties, personal relationships, morality, and politics. some studies, however, point out that the teleserye slowly loses its grip to attract and lure viewers to the television screen.teleseryes occupy various timeslots on television and still gain avid viewership. as observed by kantar media survey in 2012, filipinos spend an average of three to five hours in television watching teleseryes (quoted in aranda, 2014). because of its popularity, these teleseryes further morphed into what now known as the fantaserye. fantaserye is a sub-genre of the teleserye that would often combine folkloric characteristics in the narrative. sauro (2013) defines it as a variation of the conventional soap opera combining elements of magic, myth, and enchantment (1). its roots can be traced with the folk epic since both share roots in mythology and folklore. however, these two differ in terms of the mode it is transmitted: the former is transmitted through the television, while the latter is by oral tradition. in view of the above, this paper probes in the attributes of the fantaserye vis-à-vis the traditional roots of the epic. moreover, the researcher strengthens the association among media studies, popular culture and literary studies by probing into the literariness of the fantaserye. methods the researcher watched and scrutinized the one hundred and sixty episodes, which were downloaded in gma network’s youtube channel, to a qualitative relational content analysis in the course of the research work. this design zeroes in on the interpretation of the material examined (either in linguistic or visual formats) and to generate statements or findings which pertain to the explicit and implicit meaning of the material (sauro, 2013, 18). the advantage of doing a qualitative relational content analysis in literary studies is that it gives the researcher a focus on the actual content and internal features of the material. it is also used to determine the presence of certain words, phrases, characters, or sentences within texts or sets of texts through qualitative content analysis. also, qualitative, relational content analysis looks directly on the examined material which leads to its centrality. it also gives way to cultural and historical insights, which is one of the angles touched in this study. finally, qualitative content analysis is an unobtrusive means of analyzing the relationships and acuity (5)1 ,67-84 interactions within the examined material which is considered as a relatively exact research method if placed side by side and compared with discourse analysis (sauro, 2013, 24-25). through this paper, the researcher probed that the first release of “encantadia” in 2005 traces its roots in the traditional conventions of the folk epic which makes it today’s rendition of the oral lore. also, the researcher utilized mostly local theories especially that of eugenio (2001) and cruz (1985). the former’s theory looks in the conventions of the traditional epic and matches it with the characteristics and elements of the fantaserye, while the latter was adapted from propp’s morphological function of fairy tales, thus it concentrates on the epic hero’s journey. results “encantadia” as a traditional epic using eugenio’s epic motifs and conventions (2001), the following results were obtained: “encantadia” is “performed” through the aid of the television. this is somehow akin to the performances of the traditional epic in communal gatherings on special occasions; however, people do not gather in one place on special occasions and listen or watch the trained singers and performers chant and perform the epic. rather, these people are gathered in their own homes and are glued to the television, the representation of today's bard at a specific timeslot and watch the actors perform their character roles. unlike during the pre-colonial times where the epic singers and performers take days to complete the performance of the epic, "encantadia” is only shown at a particular time within the day, and it took months for the show’s entirety to be narrated. “encantadia" is performed through acting like the traditional folk epics. actors and actresses who portrayed the roles in the series auditioned for these roles and underwent a series of acting workshops and related training sessions to make their character portrayal authentic and more convincing. fighting and resuscitation as motifs in “encantadia” eugenio mentioned that one of the motifs of philippine folk epics is fighting. these fight scenes comprise most of the epic hero's adventures, which paves the way for the hero’s holistic development(eugenio 2001). campos echoes the same thought when he posits that fantasy films rely heavily on the motif of fighting or bakbakan. in the case of “encantadia”, the heroes’ sojourn revolved around these battles. these battles would be in the form of relative rivalries, kingdom warfare, and internal conflict. amihan lira relative rivalries pirena pirena, mira kingdom warfare hagorn (hathoria) hagorn (hathoria) internal conflict duty over love duty over own happiness acuity (5)1 ,67-84 table 1: summary of the conflicts encountered by amihan and lira as shown in table 1, the characters of amihan and lira were the major players in the narrative, so their characters were always engaged in these brawls. amihan’s battle in “encantadia” started when she and pirena vied for the queenship of lireo. pirena wanted to be queen because she thinks that she is the only rightful heir to the throne given her status as the eldest among the siblings as she said in episode 2; while, amihan wants to succeed her mother to avenge and bring justice to her father's tragic demise. following amihan’s success in the test that will determine the next queen of lireo, pirena protested that she was cheated and rebelled by challenging her mother to a duel. in episode 4, pirena was not able to win the challenge and vowed that she will avenge her defeat and will plot amihan’s downfall. she also cast a curse in the entire land of encantadia that it will never experience peace and happiness. as part of her scheme, pirena deceived amihan by acknowledging her queenship. little did amihan know that pirena’s scheme and hunger for power reached its peak, that pirena had sworn allegiance to hagorn of hathoria in episode 4 and switched the real heir to the throne with her own daughter in episode 7. pirena succeeded in executing her plan to destabilize amihan. she usurped the throne leaving the rightful queen defeated and powerless in episode 42 by destabilizing amihan’s line of defense in lireo, when hathoria battled with the troops of lireo. amihan’s battle is not only with pirena. it also involved pirena’s father, hagorn, the ruler of hathoria. hagorn used to be friends with raquim, amihan’s father, but the two became enemies after the battle of the four kingdoms. in the first episode, hagorn crossed the realm of the mortals to find raquim to finish him and his only daughter. hagorn succeeded in killing raquim after a long and bloody duel, but the young amihan attempted to avenge her father’s death. hagorn almost killed amihan by stabbing her with a sword. amihan was saved by aquil and muros who followed hagorn and his cohorts. as amihan finds out her true identity as a diwata and one of the heirs of the throne of lireo, she vowed to herself that she will become queen and avenge her father’s death. she says this in the first episode. when amihan finally succeeded her mother to the throne in episode 3, she devoted her reign in fighting hagorn and his legion of hathors. both exhibited their powers and abilities with the gemstones they possess. amihan was given the stewardship of the air gemstone, while hagorn stole from pirena the fire gemstone. the bloody battle concluded at the shores of adamya in episodes 157-159, where amihan finally ended hagorn’s life by thrusting a sword through his heart. as amihan reigns over the kingdom, she did not only have enemies who wish her downfall, but she also became enemies with herself when she was given the choice to choose between the queendom and the matters of her own heart. the edict of lireo clearly states that a reigning queen should never seek marriage for they are directly married to their responsibility as the leader of the kingdom. amihan almost defied this rule when she fell in love with her child’s father, prince ybrahim of sapiro also known as ybarro. what made the matter more complex is that she and her younger sister alena fell in love with the same man. nurturing and giving as she is, amihan suppressed her feelings towards ybrahim and focused on her reign as queen and her battle to reclaim the throne from the evil forces of hathoria. after the last battle acuity (5)1 ,67-84 among the kingdoms, amihan bestowed her blessing to her sister alena and her husband ybrahim as the new rulers of the re-established kingdom of sapiro. lira is the promised savior of encantadia and is one of the epic heroes in the series. in fulfilling her mission, which is to return the peace that was long absent in encantadia, she was subjected to trials and fights that tested her character’s maturity. after being estranged from her motherland and her identity as the future queen of lireo, lira returned through the help of her mother’s youngest sister, danaya, and helped amihan to reclaim lireo from pirena and hagorn. in episode 89, lira knew how to defeat hagorn and his forces with the help of inang reyna, who was revealed to be her spirit guide. lira’s mission proved to be arduous, but she still exerted her effort to convince her aunt pirena to withdraw her support from hagorn and join their force so that hagorn and his cohorts are defeated and peace will return to encantadia. she also persuaded her mother, amihan and her other aunts, alena and danaya to make amends with pirena. it will take some time for lira to persuade them because of their pride. this culminated in episode 142 when pirena realized that she was deceived by her handmaid gurna. because of this, pirena killed gurna by turning her into stone. the four stewards of the elemental gemstones united against the evil forces of hagorn. like her mother who had an internal conflict in choosing duty over self, lira also experienced it as her character undergoes challenges and fights. in the latter part of the series, she was left with the choice of choosing her mortal lover, anthony, over her duty as the savior of encantadia and heir to the throne. lira chose encantadia over her mortal lover despite her intense feelings for anthony. she sacrificed her own happiness in exchange of encantadia’s tranquility. as the final battle approaches, she led its planning and assembled the remaining forces that they have at the shores of adamya. in episode 156, after sending her mortal lover back to the human realm, lira embarked on planning the final battle with hagorn and his troops, and after the final battle, lira asked for her mother’s blessing to return to the mortal world and marry her lover. rivalry among relatives is one of the forms of fighting shown in this fantasy series, and lira was not spared from this. like amihan, lira had a feud with her cousin mira who crossed over the realm of mortals to escape the conflicted world of diwatas. mira fell in love with anthony, lira’s lover. when lira left for encantadia to fulfill her mission, she entrusted anthony to mira, not knowing that the latter developed feelings towards anthony. mira resorted to all forms of magic and incantations in order for anthony to eradicate lira from his heart. in episode 142, mira, out of desperation, put anthony under a spell through a gayuma so that he will forget lira and the love that he has for her. the rivalry between the two is only implied compared to their mothers, amihan and pirena, because there was no confrontation. the motif of fighting is seen in the narrative and comes in many forms. the nature of these encounters is to test the character’s maturity and personality if she is fit to be the hero and a revered figure in the realm. both characters fought with their siblings and relatives and kingdoms. both led the final battle which will finally defeat hagorn’s evil forces, and both had an internal conflict which led them to choose their satisfaction over the duty and responsibility that was given to them. acuity (5)1 ,67-84 unlike in the western great epics that heroes die after their series of battles, folk epics in the philippines do not end the epics tragically. heroes would be brought back to life with the help of some divine or magical person or creature through prayers or incantations. the process would usually take long and tedious. for “encantadia”, the idea of resuscitation is manifested in several occasions. amihan’s character experienced several near-death experiences and was brought back to life with the help of a magical thing or her own willpower. first of this is her first battle as queen of lireo when pirena and hagorn joined forces to kill her in episode 3. this episode marks the transition of power from minea to amihan, and as her first agendum, amihan faced hagorn’s forces, but she was almost killed. the latter was not successful because danaya used her earth gemstone to save amihan from death’s clutches. second was when asval struck a deadly blow to amihan’s heart during the encounter at sapiro in episode 111. despite danaya’s efforts in resuscitating amihan back to health, her efforts were put to waste. it was amihan’s willpower who prevented herself to succumb to death. this caused several changes for amihan’s benefit. first is the disappearance of the lines on her palms which means that she is in control of her own destiny. second is on environmental changes caused by mere utterance of her will, which included acquiring the ability to create her own twin or kambal-diwa named aera. lira's character also had her near-death experience. as she and her aunt danaya were on their way to encantadia, hagorn and his troops prevented them to enter the realm. hagorn abducted lira in exchange of the earth gemstone which was under danaya’s stewardship. danaya almost gave the earth gemstone when an avilan’s spirit stole the gemstone from her which led hagorn to stab lira using his sword. the future queen was fatally wounded and was brought to avila, the sanctuary of the mulawins. lira almost died, but danaya sought mercurio’s magical seeds with the help and guidance of the mulawins. this encounter fulfilled a prophecy that encantadia’s future savior would die and would resurrect through the help of mercurio’s magical seeds. resuscitation did not only happen in the lead characters. pirena, one of the antagonists in the series, was killed by asval after not surrendering the fire gemstone. she was struck with a spear to her heart which caused her immediate death. as she died, darkness enveloped the entire land and the power of fire died together with its caretaker. pirena’s remains were left in the mountains to be consumed by animals who feed on remains and carcasses. amihan and her sisters found pirena’s body and gave proper burial rites fit for a royalty, but lira stopped it as it will spell failure to her mission. in episode 128, lira sought the help of evades, the guardian of the tree of life. to be able to get some leaves from the tree, lira has to answer a riddle from the caretaker himself and she has three attempts to answer it, but she failed. despite her failure, she did not give up, to which evades commended; thus, allowing her to take some leaves, which saved pirena’s soul from going to devas. fighting and resuscitation are two intertwined motifs in the philippine folk epic because these oral literature always end on a happy note. it has never permeated the filipino consciousness that lead characters would die a tragic death even for a cause. this attribute is still evident in other forms of media such as films (specifically action films and epic films) and teleseryes wherein the lead character always triumphs over the villain. acuity (5)1 ,67-84 magical modes of transportation in “encantadia” magical transportation in folk epics as a motif is common, especially for the hero and even secondary characters are involved in many adventures. eugenio (2001) mentions that magic transportation can be part of the epic hero’s supernatural powers and abilities or a mode of transportation is described in the narrative which helps the hero and even secondary characters transport from one place to another (xxxiv). in “encantadia”, magical transportation is not only shown through physical depictions, but it was also part of the diwata’s supernatural powers and that means of transportation are provided, but only diwatas of royal lineage (sang’gres) are given this ability. also, this power makes them invisible from their enemies. they turn into smoke so that they can be transported from one place to another. in episode 1, when amihan was in danger of being kidnapped, she unintentionally vanished into smoke, which made her abductors stumble with fear. however, this power has limitations. diwatas cannot summon this power if they are tied or in the kingdom of hathoria where the diwata’s power does not affect because the kingdom is protected by prayers and incantations to disarm enemies, especially the diwatas. in episode 54, when alena was captured by hitano, she was bound to a chair which prevented her from escaping. in episode 57, hitano brought alena to the kingdom of hathoria to ask for hagorn’s blessing for their marriage. despite being a powerful diwata, alena's powers do not affect the kingdom. and lastly, it cannot be used to teleport from encantadia to the human world or vice versa. modes of magical transportation were created and used in the fantaserye. airships are provided for air travel possible. on several occasions, these airships were used in the series. in episode 37, alena and danaya were able to ride on these airships on their way to devas to look for the missing water gemstone that was taken allegedly by bathala from alena to alleviate her pain from losing ybarro. in episode 88, lira and danaya also used the same mode of transportation to go to devas to know her mission as the luntaie (savior of encantadia). apart from these air ships, hathors also made use of individual air packets that helps them fly while fighting in mid-air. amihan and lira: the epic heroines in “encantadia” the epic hero is the lead character in folk epics who also embodies the people’s ambitions, aspirations, and ideals of a community (eugenio, 2001, xvii). for the regional epics, male characters are often used to depict the epic hero since they are always portrayed to be physically strong and possessing unusual strength. in the case of “encantadia,” the heroes in the narrative are women: lira and amihan. it is in their perspectives that the majority of the fantaserye “encantadia” is told. anda ng epiko amihan lira the hero leaves his motherland brought by raquim to protect from hagorn brought by pirena to be killed on his journey, the hero will receive a sacred object or weapon father’s sword gemstone of air avatar (sword) acuity (5)1 ,67-84 the hero starts his journey and finds a distant relative finds out mother is still alive goes back to encantadia through aquil and muros’ help finds out she is heir to the throne of lireo goes back to encantadia escorted by danaya the hero gets into a fight fights with pirena and hagorn fights with marge fights hagorn and his troops the hero’s fight lasts long. mission: kill hagorn and reclaim lireo fights with her aunts to finally reconcile with each other an enchanted being mediates in the fight and stops it n/a n/a the enchanted being reveals to the hero that he is related to his archnemesis n/a n/a the hero dies and journeys to the underworld threatened by hagorn and pirena killed by asval killed by hagorn the hero rises from the dead declares her own fate defies death saved by danaya through mercurio’s help the hero returns triumphantly to his motherland reclaims lireo; passes the crown to her daughter reintegrates in the world of mortals the hero marries and lives a peaceful life remained single; married to the people even after her reign as queen marries anthony table 2: amihan and lira’s journey vis-à-vis isagani cruz’ anda ng epiko as shown in table 2, amihan and lira were both estranged from encantadia. in the first episode, amihan’s childhood was shown as she lived in the world of mortals together with her father raquim, which made her think that she is a mortal being until it was disrupted when hagorn and his forces killed raquim and plotted to kill her. amihan eluded death as she was rescued by aquil and muros and was brought to encantadia. lira’s situation was different. it was pirena who brought her to the world of mortals to have a horrific death since the infant was protected from pirena’s enchantments and powers because of danaya’s blessing. lira grew up in the world of mortals and has always believed that she is a human being. acuity (5)1 ,67-84 it was revealed to both amihan and lira that they were not human beings but diwatas. they were both heirs to the throne of lireo which make them sang’gres. in addition to this, amihan learned that her mother is still alive, something contradictory to what her deceased father used to say about her mother’s identity. lira also experienced the same. upon knowing that she is a diwata, she also knew that she was the true heir to the throne of lireo. lastly, both heroines returned to encantadia through the help of the realm’s denizens; muros and aquil escorted amihan as she was badly wounded; while, danaya went in exile to the realm of mortals and accidentally discovered that the true lira resides in the mortal world. amihan and lira were both engaged in challenges, ordeals, and fights along their journey. amihan had a sibling rivalry with her eldest sister, pirena, since she came back from the world of mortals. this further heightened when their queen mother minea had to choose her successor as the next queen of lireo. in order to be fair in choosing the successor, minea subjected her daughters to a test to challenge their capabilities as a ruler. at the end of the task, it was amihan who emerged victorious which made her the heir to the throne, to which pirena protested. to seek revenge after being cheated, pirena plotted to destabilize amihan’s reign by switching amihan’s daughter with her daughter, fooling amihan into thinking that pirena’s daughter was her flesh and blood. amihan did not only have pirena as archnemesis to the throne of lireo. hagorn of hathoria also vied to take control of lireo and the other three remaining gemstones to reign supreme in encantadia. he and amihan engaged in a long fight, which led to amihan losing control over lireo, but evil did not reign long, for hagorn was defeated in the shores of adamya where the sang’gres and the forces of good united and fought for peace. lira began to question her identity as a human being; she noticed she was different from other human beings as she had special abilities such as summoning the wind and sending bolts of lightning whenever in danger. her first archnemesis was marge, anthony's friend, who was evidently attracted to the latter. unfortunately, anthony had a liking towards lira which aggravated marge. because of this, lira suffered physical assaults and harsh words from marge, but lira can only endure so much; thus, she sent gusts of wind and lightning to finally stop marge's assault. upon returning to encantadia, her fight continued as she helped her mother in taking back lireo from pirena and hagorn. as the promised savior of encantadia, her mission was to unite all the four stewards of the gemstone so that once and for all, peace will return to the land. both heroines have sacred and magical objects that helped them in their journey. amihan, on the one hand, was trained to be a warrior by her father since childhood. she inherited her father’s sword which was her weapon in fighting hagorn’s forces and those that threaten the peace in encantadia. to secure the remaining gemstones after the fire gemstone was taken by pirena, minea entrusted the remaining gemstones to her three other daughters. as the heir apparent to the throne, amihan was given the stewardship of the air gemstone, the gemstone that was entrusted to the past queens of lireo before hathoria became greedy. the air gemstone can control air currents and lightning. it also has the power to track someone through the creature's breathing. also, it can send messages through gusts of wind. lira, on the other hand, was given the avatar. it is a sword wielded from pure gold and wielded by the first queen of lireo, cassiopeia. this is lira’s weapon in protecting herself from pirena and other forces who oppose her mother’s reign in reclaiming lireo. part of the hero’s sojourn is the journey to the netherworld by dying and resurrecting from the dead. in the fantasy series, both amihan and lira suffered death which made them acuity (5)1 ,67-84 journey to the netherworld. amihan, on the one hand, encountered death numerous times, but it almost took her life when asval stabbed her in an encounter in sapiro. as her soul waits to enter devas, the final resting place of encantadia’s denizens, she has a word with avilan, the spirit guide of the air gemstone and her personal guardian. when avilan told her that she is bound to die, amihan defies by willpower that she will not die and it is not her time to go especially that they are still in the middle of a fight against hagorn’s forces. lira, on the other hand, almost died when hagorn stabbed her when danaya did not give the earth gemstone in exchange for lira’s life. as her spirit waits to enter the gates of devas, avilan reveals her real identity and has subjected lira to use her supernatural abilities by taming a dragon. after accomplishing the task, lira went back to the world of the living. after the journey to the underworld, the hero completes the journey and goes back home to marry or to settle down for good. in the case of encantadia, amihan and lira observed this function. after the last battle, peace returned to encantadia. lireo’s power was given back to its rightful and anointed ruler, amihan and sapiro rose from being a deserted kingdom and was ruled by its new king, ybrahim. amihan passed the crown to, lira, her heir, but the latter abn egated it for she wanted to go back to the world of mortals and marry anthony. lira asked for her mother’s blessing, and soon after amihan bestowed her blessings, she entrusted the crown to her aunt danaya. as for amihan, she has remained single after her queenship and dedicated her entire life to maintaining the peace in encantadia. amihan and lira’s characters are today’s embodiment of epic heroes. through their characters, they celebrate the essential filipino characteristic: maternal love. this is quite ironic, however, as both characters missed the love and care of their mothers in their formative years, yet they were given the task to be the motherly figures of encantadia. on the show’s penultimate episode, minea appeared to her daughters and delegated to them a mission: to be the mothers of each other and the entire realm. contreras (2008) supports this that the fantasy soap is "undoubtedly female in character, with the male characters being defined concerning the female characters, and not the other way around" (7). also, he continues that male characters become merely the love interests of the major female leads, or as soldiers and followers of strong matriarchal leaders (7). amihan and lira’s characters as the epic heroes promote women empowerment, an issue that has been perennial today. also, some characters in the fantaserye were inspired by existing ancient folklore and classical tales. for example, gurna’s character is patterned after manthara’s character in the indian epic “ramayana”. dwivedi and soni describes manthara as the maid who "poisoned the mind of sweet-natured kaikeyi, who was a step-mother of lord rama but still the most doting one. the words of manthara were so ensnaring that kaikeyi lost all discrimination power. she was able to manipulate queen kaikeyi to believe that the throne of ayodhya belonged to her son bharata and that her step-son crown-prince rama (the hero of the ramayana), should be exiled from the kingdom” (430). in “encantadia”, it was gurna who poisoned pirena’s mind that she is hated by her immediate family, which pushed the latter to do all horrendous and treacherous acts on her mother and sisters. the only difference is that gurna, on the one hand, died at the hands of pirena, cursing her to be in the form of stone after the latter discovered that she was manipulated all along by her handmaid to loathe her mother and sisters in episode 141. it is also in this episode that pirena reconciled with her three other sisters. manthara, on the other hand, was about to be banished from the kingdom, but kaikeyi saved her by begging king bharata to spare her from banishment. acuity (5)1 ,67-84 another character that was inspired by other folklore is imaw, whose character portrayal and depiction is inspired by yoda of "star wars". both characters share the same short stature and facial features. yoda, on the one hand, is an experienced and legendary jedi master who helped luke skywalker in his ordeals (pianka, 2013, 12), while imaw’s characterization in “encantadia”, helped minea and amihan in difficult situations. he will always give them sound advice in times of difficult situations. imaw may not be an experienced warrior or jedi unlike yoda, but both share the qualities of a wizened being. both provide counsel and sound advice to their leaders for the betterment of the realm. imaw never resorted to violence and has always advised queens minea and amihan to always look on the good side of things and to never lose hope amidst the evil dominating the land. he always reminded these leaders to use not only their head in judging crucial situations but also their heart in discerning their actions. in episode 2, imaw guided minea on how to properly choose her successor as queen of lireo, since minea was hesitant and worrisome on who will replace her as the leader of the diwatas. another instance was in episode 38 when amihan was doubtful if the lira that she knew was her true heir. to solve this riddle, imaw proposed to the queen to look for the golden dagger that the first queen of lireo used to solve the dilemma of two mothers bickering over a child’s custody. with these examples, imaw’s character was inspired by yoda’s physical attributes and attitudes. and lastly, prince ybrahim’s character, the long-lost prince of sapiro, was patterned after an ilokano folk epic hero, lam-ang. in “encantadia”, ybarro never got to know his real lineage in the royal bloodline of sapiro until his foster father’s reveals it on his dying breath. similar to lam-ang, both characters avenged their father’s death by killing their parent’s tormentors. both characters were very showy of their manliness. lam-ang, on the one hand, showed this by beating all his enemies in a single combat and his dauntless acceptance of capturing the rarang to prove his manhood (eugenio 2). ybarro, on the other hand, showed this by courting one of the heirs apparent to the lireo throne, sang’gre alena. his manliness and machismo are only justified if he will have alena as his special someone. he persevered in capturing her attention despite their social status that prohibits them from pursuing their relationship at a more, intimate level until ybarro learned his true parentage. in episode 3, he intruded alena’s study to ask for her hand in marriage, to which the sang’gre resented, but ybarro was not discouraged. he exerted his efforts to earn alena's attention which culminated in the first battle of amihan against hagorn’s troops. in the long run, they became a couple and their love story ended happily as ybrahim took the helm of leading the re-established kingdom of sapiro. discussion through amihan and lira’s characters, the show was emulated selflessness. as queen of lireo, amihan ensured that the needs of the people around her were addressed. she is an epitome of a selfless leader. it even came to a point that she set aside her happiness for other people to be happy. this happened when she and alena had fallen with the same man: ybrahim. since she is the incumbent leader of lireo, amihan set aside her feelings towards ybrahim for her sister alena to be happy. lira, on the other hand, left her lover and her comfort zone, the mortal world, to fulfill her mission as the promised savior and heir to the throne of lireo. these fantaserye heroes echo the traditional characteristics of the folk epic hero. in previous teleseryes, feminine lead characters are victims of their circumstances (contreras, 2013, 7). the fantaserye “encantadia” countered this by establishing a new acuity (5)1 ,67-84 construct which is the feminization of violence. women garbed in armory and wage warfare against their opponents are depicted through the sang’gre’s characterization. this depiction has reversed the image of the male warrior which has long been used as a staple and frame of violence such as in other epics like the “iliad” of the greeks even up to carlo j. caparas’ “panday” (contreras, 2013, 6). some would say that shows and movies like “kill bill”, “charlie’s angels”, and “bionic woman” would belong in this genre. it may be the case; however, but what distinguishes the encantadia fantasy series is its mere adaptability to filipino culture which makes it a staple viewing for filipino viewers. because of this narrative, the idea of war and violence has been deconstructed by not only presenting it as violent, bloody, and evil but also graceful and beautiful. by using the sang’gres in the narrative, a balance was struck on the idea of feminization; it has both presented the feminine characteristics of grace and beauty and the masculine attributes of bravery and violence. for instance, amihan’s character as queen of lireo is not only limited to being the mother figure of the realm; her responsibility extends in defending the queendom from all threats through warfare and combat: a trope usually reserved for the male character. through these delineations, the show has empowered women that they can do roles similar to that of their male counterparts such as being warriors and rulers of a nation. “encantadia” is an example of a fantaserye in which real-life situations are included in its narrative, coupled with myth, enchantment, and magic. it conjures images that sanitize the lurid and obscure folkloric details which resulted in the projected image as more real and applicable; thus, enabling make-believe visual images and narratives destabilize established norms and institutions such as the machismo male. the sang’gre’s world of encantadia became an accessible piece of popular culture, despite that it dwells in the world of fantasy, but managed to find social meaning which ordinary people can relate and associate themselves with (contreras, 2013, 6). through the character's portrayal, viewers can relate and identify their realities and experiences to these characters. it provided a means for the viewers to realize that they are not alone in whatever situation they are into; it is experienced by people even those from the highest members of society. “encantadia” exhibits traditional epic conventions as propounded by damiana eugenio and isagani cruz. primarily, magical transportations, which can be part of the characters' powers and abilities or an aerial or land vehicle used to transport characters from one place to another, were evident. fighting was also a convention in which the heart of the hero's adventures lies. through these fight scenes, the character−the epic hero−transforms matures and projects heroic attributes that are valued by a group or a race. most importantly, the fantaserye showcased two epic heroes, amihan and lira, who share the same character arc. both were deprived of maternal love at a young age, yet their mission was to be mothers for the people under their care. though their characters, the show underscored a valuable, filipino attribute: selflessness. furthermore, women empowerment was also given importance because the writers preferred to make use of female characters rather than the typical and staple male epic heroes found in the recorded pages of some regional epics. it also validates the pre-colonial principle of the leader who does not only function in the political affairs of the community, but also in the military and religious affairs. acuity (5)1 ,67-84 conclusion by looking into the characters and their characterization, the researcher emerged with two epic heroes in the characters of amihan and lira. their characters follow the typical plot structure of the hero’s journey: being estranged from the native land, going on a set of adventures which will test their character as heroines of the land, and their triumph over these challenges and obstacles, which also manifests in their attitude transformation as the series progresses. throughout the plot, one sees that the heroes get stronger not only physically, but also emotionally as they surpass challenges that will make them project attitudes that are valued in society such as being kind, gentle, firm, and motherly. also, their characters echo relevant issues and ideas that are still relevant in today's society: women empowerment and motherhood. both characters' missions are to be stewards of the people around them. in the first episode up to the penultimate episode, motherhood has been emphasized several times. one of which is minea’s challenge to her four daughters. it was only amihan who succeeded in the challenge because she was able to figure out that her alleged enemy is the queen. it was only amihan who used her heart to see the 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(2016). ang epikseryeng filipino: diskurso sa amaya. scientia: the research journal of the college of arts & sciences, vol 5.1, june 2016, 92-120. acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 136 reasons that cause attrition and retention among english language teachers in a developing country ahmet erdost yastıbaş,1 ahmeterdost@gmail.com gazi university, turkey meltem huri baturay2 atılım university, turkey abdullah ertaş3 atılım university, turkey doi: 10.35974/acuity.v7i2.2616 abstract according to the literature, foreign language teacher attrition and retention (fltar) have been studied less, the studies on fltar have been made in developed countries more, and these studies have generally focused on the reasons of fltar. therefore, the present study aimed to find out the reason(s) that may cause attrition and retention among foreign language teachers (i.e., english language teachers [el]) in a developing country (i.e., turkey). 100 turkish el teachers participated in this qualitative study. the data collected through a semi-structured written interview were content analyzed. according to the findings, there were three main groups of el teachers with four or five sub-groups formed depending on the participants’ year of teaching experience: the ones who wanted to stay in the job, who wanted to leave the job, and who both wanted to leave and stay in the job. the findings also showed that the participants wanted to stay in the job and/or leave it for several reasons such as passion for teaching, working conditions, and learning something new, which is significant to know because understanding what may cause el teacher attrition and retention can help sustain teacher quality in english language teaching. keywords: english language teachers, teacher attrition, teacher retention, turkey introduction teachers are the practitioners of educational reforms and policies in the classroom and can make any education system effective and efficient through their instructional practices, beliefs, and thoughts. therefore, working with qualified teachers at schools is significant for delivering effective education, but it may not be that easy to sustain so because teachers may leave their jobs in any stage of their teaching careers, which is known as attrition that can cause negative consequences for students’ performance and the organization of schools such as the loss of knowhow. thus, it is significant to investigate the reasons for teachers’ attrition and retention. teacher attrition and retention can be considered as an educational issue that “refers to the need to prevent good teachers from leaving the job for the wrong reasons” (kelchtermans, 2017, p. 965). as the definition shows, teacher retention can allow schools and educational systems to have good teachers, so good teachers can help them to reach the planned academic goals and corresponding author: ahmet erdost yastıbaş, gazi university, turkey email ahmeterdost@gmail.com https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 137 objectives, to improve students’ performance, and to maintain a positive school atmosphere. yet, teacher attrition can be a threat to schools and education systems by preventing them from having such positive impacts of good teachers on them and students. thus, understanding the reasons for teacher attrition and retention becomes essential. reasons for teacher attrition and retention there are lots of studies on the reasons for teacher attrition and retention conducted in developed countries such as usa, england, israel and the netherlands with early career teachers, veteran teachers or teachers with varying teaching experiences (cohen, 2009; carverthomas & darling-hammond, 2019; clayton & schoonmaker, 2007; day & gu, 2009; den brok, wubbels & van tartwijk, 2017; gallant & riley, 2017; geiger & pivovarova, 2018; glazer, 2018; gu, 2014; kelchtemans, 2017; mansfield, beltman & price, 2014; mason & poyatos matas, 2015; newberry & allsop, 2017; peters & pearce, 2012; smith & ulvik, 2017; tobing, 2016; towers & maguire, 2017; tricarico, jacopbs & yendol-happey, 2015; wilhelm, dewhurst-savellis & parker, 2000; yinon & orland-barak, 2017). according to these studies, teachers can be under the effect(s) of several factors when they decide to leave the job or stay in the job. they could be affected by (a) the relationships with other teachers, administrators and students, (b) the administrations of their schools, and (c) other schoolrelated issues including school location, performance, culture, organizational structure, policies, salary, sources, and facilities. besides, students can affect them in deciding whether to leave the job or stay in the job through their behaviors, social and emotional problems, socioeconomic background, diversity, assessment, and feedback. also, teacher-related factors (e.g. age, health, passion for teaching, belonging to the profession, personality, teaching philosophies, autonomy, balancing work and private life, workloads, and accountability) can cause teachers to leave the job or stay in the job. feelings at schools, professional development, knowledge and skills, concern for children, satisfaction of their profession and the lack of alternatives can have a direct effect on them when they decide to stay in the job or leave the job. in addition, work ethic, mentors, holiday, job status in society, and national educational policies and reforms can affect their leaving or staying in the job. reasons for foreign language teacher attrition and retention compared to previous studies on teacher attrition and retention, there are very few studies having investigated fltar. nearly all of these studies have been conducted in developed countries such as england and america with the teachers with different teaching experiences (brown, 2001; ewart, 2009; mason, 2017; mason & poyatos matas, 2016; swanson, 2010, 2012; swanson & huff, 2010; tupy, 2017; wilkerson, 2000). according to these studies, several factors (e.g., their workload, personality, administration, and relationships with other teachers and with administration, and the value and place of foreign language education at their schools) affect fltar. teacher education, field expertise, value, and belonging can also result in foreign language teacher attrition. in addition, their efficacy of teaching languages and the similarity of their skills, knowledge and abilities with the job can lead to attrition among foreign language teachers. the case of turkey in terms of (foreign language) teacher attrition and retention unlike the studies aforementioned, fltar has not been studied a lot in turkey. several studies have been made with turkish prospective teachers at different departments to measure their intention of being a teacher (çakmak & kayabaşı, 2017; çermik, doğan & şahin 2010; külekçi, 2013; yurdakal, 2019). according to the findings of these studies, they have chosen teaching as a career for several reasons such as the positive status given to teaching in society, the satisfaction of teaching, personality, skills, and abilities. besides, their preferences are https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 138 affected by being employed much more easily as a teacher, their willingness to work with children, and being a role model for students. in addition, they have been attracted by more flexible vacation times, the encouragement of their parents, friends, and teachers, and by the economic and living conditions of turkey as being a teacher is secure and stable from these perspectives. as the studies are reviewed, it is clear that there is a need for more research on fltar to find out and understand why foreign language teachers with varying degrees of teaching experiences want to leave their jobs or stay in their jobs in different countries, especially in the developing countries. therefore, the aim of the present study is to find out the reason(s) that may cause fltar in a developing country (i.e. turkey) by focusing on el teachers due to the working context of the researchers. accordingly, the study tries to answer the following research questions: 1. what is/are the reason(s) that may cause el teacher retention? 2. what is/are the reason(s) that may lead to el teacher attrition? in addition to these research questions, one more research question was added after the data analysis since the findings indicated that there was another group of the participants who wanted both to stay in the job and to leave the job in addition to the ones who wanted to stay in the job and the ones who wanted to leave the job. this research question is as follows: 3. what is/are the reason(s) that may cause both el teacher attrition and retention? methods research design qualitative research enables researchers to explore an issue related to human beings because it helps them understand and find out the meanings given to the issue, so researchers can have a complex, elaborated, and detailed understanding of the issue (creswell & poth, 2018). teacher attrition and retention are closely related to human beings considering their effects on the individuals and societies. thus, qualitative research can provide a detailed and complex understanding of this human issue by enabling researchers to understand and have the meanings ascribed to it. as a result, the present study was designed as a qualitative study. participants 100 turkish el teachers (23 males and 77 females) participated in the research. their ages ranged from 22 to 60. 21 participants had 1-5 years of teaching experience, 35 participants 610 years of experience, 23 participants 11-15 years of experience, eight participants 16-20 years of experience, and thirteen participants 21 and more years of experience. data collection tool the data was collected through a semi-structured written interview which is composed of two sections. the first section is about the demographic information of the participants (i.e. their genders, ages, bachelors’ degrees and teaching experiences). the second section includes two statements given below to identify whether the participants wanted to leave the job or stay in the job and what may be the reason(s) for their preferences. (1) i want to stay in the education sector as an english language teacher until i retire because … (2) i want to leave the job and work in a different sector because … data analysis the collected data were content analyzed. the researchers derived codes from the data. next, they developed themes from the codes and categorized the codes based on the similarities and https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 139 differences between them under the themes. later, they organized the codes and themes without adding their comments. they interpreted their findings and did not conflict with the data description in their interpretation in the final step of the framework. trustworthiness of the study two strategies were used to make this qualitative study trustworthy. firstly, the researchers content-analyzed the data individually. then, they came together, compared their content analyses with each other and talked about the similarities and differences in their analyses as lincoln and guba (1985) mentioned. besides, the findings were supported with different excerpts from the data because according to lincoln and guba (1985), the thick description of the data can indicate that the content analysis of the data reflects what is found out in the data, but not the researchers’ own ideas or comments. results the results of the present study indicated that there were three main groups which were subgrouped according to the participants’ years of teaching experience because the reasons for the participants’ desire to stay in the job and/or leave the job showed similarities and differences depending on the years of teaching experience of the participants. table 1 shows these main groups with their sub-groups. table 1. the main groups with the sub-groups main groups n sub-groups n the el teachers who wanted to stay in the job until they retired 62 participants with 1-5 years of teaching experience 14 participants with 610 years of teaching experience 18 participants with 1115 years of teaching experience 17 participants with 1620 years of teaching experience 4 participants with 21 and more years of teaching experience 9 the el teachers who wanted to leave the job and work in a different sector 17 participants with 1-5 years of teaching experience 5 participants with 610 years of teaching experience 8 participants with 1115 years of teaching experience 2 participants with 1620 years of teaching experience 2 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 140 the el teachers who both wanted to stay in the job and leave the job 21 participants with 1-5 years of teaching experience 2 participants with 610 years of teaching experience 8 participants with 1115 years of teaching experience 5 participants with 1620 years of teaching experience 2 participants with 21 and more years of teaching experience 4 as table 1 indicates, there are five sub-groups in the first and third main groups, while there are four sub-groups in the second main group. in addition, the codes derived from the data were categorized under three themes which are (a) reasons that may cause retention among el teachers, (b) reasons that may cause attrition among el teachers, and (c) reasons that may cause both attrition and retention among el teachers. the findings were presented according to these themes in order. reasons that may cause retention among el teachers the codes under this theme are organized according to the participants’ years of teaching experience and are given in table 2. table 2. the codes under the theme “reasons that may cause retention among el teachers” theme main group sub-groups codes reasons that may cause retention among el teachers the el teachers who wanted to stay in the job until they retired participants with 1-5 years of teaching experience the passion for teaching helping to improve students being valued and satisfied teaching’s becoming part of the personality checking personal achievement colleagues participants with 610 years of teaching experience the passion for teaching improving oneself through learning helping to improve students lack of job opportunities insurance participants with 1115 years of teaching experience passion for teaching feeling good feeling competent because of their experience https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 141 helping to improve students concern for students learning something new work schedule participants with 1620 years of teaching experience the passion for teaching learning something new feeling satisfied participants with 21 and more years of teaching experience passion for teaching feeling competent as understood from table 2, each code serves as a reason that may cause el teachers to stay in the job. the reasons are explained according to the participants’ years of teaching experience respectively. teachers with 1-5 years of teaching experience eleven participants wanted to go on their teaching careers because of their passion for teaching. the quotations below clearly show this. participant 6: “i love this job... i do my job fondly.” participant 7: “i love working with my children.” helping to improve students was another reason for the desire of five participants who wanted to stay in the job these five participants included the ones who stated one more reason why they wanted to go on their teaching career. for example, participant 10 said “i like helping my students develop themselves” and participant 11 stated “i like the feeling of touching young individuals’ lives and helping them develop themselves not only in terms of their english levels, but also in many different ways.” being valued and satisfied was the reason for participant 1 to want to stay in the job as he mentioned “i feel satisfied with my work. i feel that i am considered an important part of the team.” for participant 4, teaching became a part of his personality, so he did not want to leave the job. checking personal achievement made participant 2 want to stay in the job, while colleagues led to the desire of participant 6 to stay in the job. teachers with 6-10 years of teaching experience nine participants wanted to pursue their teaching career due to their passion for teaching. the excerpts below support this. participant 25: “i love my job. i love teaching and being with my students.” participant 28: “it (teaching) is what/how i acknowledge myself. i love what i do and i want to keep on my career.” seven participants including the ones explaining more than one reason wanted to stay in the profession because of improving themselves through learning. for instance, participant 15 explained “it is a great opportunity to have a chance to learn something everyday… developing ourselves in order to meet the needs of our students is an invaluable advantage for us.” helping to improve students was one of the other reasons why three participants did not want to leave the job as illustrated by participant 18 who said “being able to touch the lives of so many people is a priceless feeling for me.” also, the lack of job opportunities made two participants want to go on teaching, while insurance was the reason for the desire of participant 31 to stay in the job. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 142 teachers with 11-15 years of teaching experience passion for teaching caused nine participants to want to stay in the job as understood from participants 34, 39, 45 and 46 who said “i love teaching.” four participants including the ones who reported a few reasons for their desire to stay in the job wanted to go on their teaching careers in view of their feeling good when they taught. for example, participant 37 stated “i feel good in the class and i like the class atmosphere,” and participant 41 reported “…i feel better when i am in classroom with my students and see them trying to learn what i show.” six participants including the ones who explained some reasons why they wanted to stay in the job reported that they did not want to leave the job since they felt competent because of their experience in their job as shown in the quotation below: participant 44: “… as i gain experience, i become a better language teacher.” three participants explaining a few reasons for their desire to stay in the job also wanted to pursue their teaching careers because of helping to improve students as indicated by participant 40 who told “teaching is important to me because i am happy to help my students learn something new.” concern for students, learning something new, and work schedule were also the other reasons for participants 32, 35 and 42 who wanted to stay in the job. teachers with 16-20 years of teaching experience two participants wanted to pursue their teaching careers since they had the passion for teaching as understood from participant 47 who said, “i love teaching” and participant 48 who reported “i love my job.” learning something new was the other reason for participant 47 to stay in the profession. three participants including participant 48 felt satisfied when teaching, so they did not want to leave the job. to illustrate, participant 49 explained “this profession is the one that makes me satisfied.” teachers with 21 and more years of teaching experience passion for teaching was the reason for the desire of six participants to stay in the job as illustrated by participant 53 who said, “i love teaching.” in addition, four participants including the participants who also mentioned one more reason did not want to leave the job since they felt competent in teaching as shown by participant 51 who mentioned “… this (teaching) is something i do very well” and participant 52 who stated “… this (teaching) is what i know best.” reasons that may cause attrition among el teachers the codes under this theme are organized depending on the years of teaching experience of the participants and are presented in table 3. table 3. the codes under the theme “reasons that may cause attrition among el teachers” theme main group sub-groups codes reasons that may cause attrition among el teachers the el teachers who wanted to leave the job and work in a different sector participants with 1-5 years of teaching experience having different future plans not wanting to do the same thing for years participants with 610 years of teaching experience teaching english’s not being able to improve them personally having different future plans https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 143 conflict between the teaching philosophy and the way english is taught earning more money discovering new motivations to do something new participants with 1115 years of teaching experience disappointment and not being valued the nature of teaching english participants with 1620 years of teaching experience working conditions and payment not being appreciated and finding teaching boring the codes in table 3 serve as the reasons that may cause el teachers to leave the job. these reasons are explained based on the sub-groups given in table 3. teachers with 1-5 years of teaching experience four participants wanted to leave the job because they had different future plans in which teaching english was not included. the excerpt below clearly shows this. participant 61: “i want to carry out on my academic research and be an academician.” the last participant in this group did not want to do the same thing for years, so he wanted to leave. teachers with 6-10 years of teaching experience three participants wanted to work in a different field because they did not think teaching general english could improve them personally as understood from the quotation below: participant 65: “i don’t want to teach general english till the rest of my life. i want to improve myself…” participant 66: “i would like to do something more in my life at some point. i can think of being a researcher for some time… so that i can improve myself and contribute to the field… i love my job and i love teaching profession itself; however, it is really difficult to improve myself professionally by working/doing that job.” having different future plans caused two participants not to want to stay in the field because participant 70 mentioned “i have other plans & dreams in my mind,” and participant 71 told “i want to explore new places and experience new fields in the future.” besides, participant 68 did not want to go on being an english language teacher because of the conflict between her teaching philosophy and the way english is taught since she explained “… the path we (educators – teachers) are expected to follow when it comes to teaching a foreign language makes it very hard to achieve the aim of teaching a language.” participant 69 wanted to leave the job because of earning more money as she said “… although i like my job and i do my best to help my students to learn english effectively, i prefer having a more well-paid job.” discovering new motivations to do something new might cause participant 72 not to want to stay in the job since she said “… when i realize that i have other motivations other than teaching, i’ll leave this profession although i’m passionate about teaching.” teachers with 11-15 years of teaching experience disappointment and not being valued might lead to the desire of one participant not to go on her career as a teacher as the excerpt below points out: https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 144 participant 73: “most of the time i don’t feel like what i am doing and what kind of a teacher i have become match with my hopes/dreams/goals that i had when i first started teaching. … yes, i want to leave the profession and work in a field where i can use my skills and experience and feel valued.” the other participant wanted to leave the job because of the nature of teaching english. she found teaching english repetitive and tiring as she told “… teaching english is repetitive and after a while it is tiring.” teachers with 16-20 years of teaching experience one participant wanted to change her job because of the working conditions and payment. another one wanted to do so due to not being appreciated and finding teaching boring as his statement below demonstrates: participant 76: “i think i have some over qualifications that are not appreciated in this profession and also teaching is boring…” reasons that may cause both attrition and retention among el teachers the codes under this theme are organized based on the participants’ years of teaching experience and are showed in table 4. table 4. the codes under the theme “reasons that may cause both attrition and retention among el teachers” theme main group sub-groups codes reasons that may cause both attrition and retention among el teachers the el teachers who both wanted to stay in the job and leave the job participants with 1-5 years of teaching experience the opportunity to learn and feel fulfilled (r*) enjoying teaching and trusting her colleagues (r) lack of connection with students (a*) the relationship with administration (a) participants with 610 years of teaching experience passion for teaching (r) being used to teaching (r) working conditions (r) helping to improve students (r) being able to have an opportunity to work in a different job (a) working conditions (a) burnout (a) participants with 1115 years of teaching experience self-development (r) being trained in this area (r) concern for students (r) not losing job gains (r) the repetitive nature of teaching english (a) salary (a) desire to explore herself (a) https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 145 participants with 1620 years of teaching experience being experienced in teaching (r) passion for teaching (r) salary (a) not balancing work and private life (a) participants with 21 and more years of teaching experience passion for teaching (r) being used to teaching (r) being experienced (r) salary (a) working conditions (a) the need to improve oneself (a) * r stands for retention, and a stands for attrition. the codes in table 4 serve as the reasons that may cause el teacher to want to both leave the job and stay in the job. since these reasons have been mentioned as the causes that may lead to attrition and retention among el teachers, r and a have been added to each reason to show which reason is related to retention and which one is related to attrition. these reasons are mentioned according to the order of the sub-groups in table 4. teachers with 1-5 years of teaching experience one participant wanted to stay in the field because of the opportunity to learn and feel fulfilled as she said “… it is a continuous learning process and i find it fulfilling to share knowledge, experiences.” yet, she also wanted to leave the job because of the lack of connection with students as she stated “… not being able to connect with students because of heavy curriculum and pacing.” the other participant wanted to stay because she enjoyed teaching and trusted her colleagues, but the relationship with the administration might have a direct effect on her desire to leave due to her negative experiences in her previous workplace. teachers with 6-10 years of teaching experience the reason for six participants to want to stay in the job was their passion for teaching. for example, participant 84 told “i love teaching and working with young people,” and participant 85 reported “i love what i do. i love interacting with younger minds.” being used to teaching was the reason for the desire of participant 80 to stay in the job as she mentioned “… that’s what i have done for 10 years.” working conditions and helping to improve students made participant 82 want to continue working as a teacher because she said “… it [being an english teacher] is a satisfying job in terms of seeing people flourish with the things you teach. working environment is usually calm and organized.” four participants also wanted to leave the job because of being able to have an opportunity to work in a different job. to exemplify, participant 83 explained “i love animals and if i encounter the opportunity of having my own farm with lots of animals, i won’t miss it.” three participants also did not want to stay in the job owing to the working conditions including salary, better rights, and administration. for instance, participant 84 said “… people earn better, and they have better rights (e.g. holiday, accommodation, private insurance, etc.)”. burnout was the reason for participant 82 to want to leave the job. teachers with 11-15 years of teaching experience participants 89 and 91 wanted to stay in the job for their self-development, and participant 90 wanted to stay because of being trained in this area. participant 93 wanted to go on teaching because of her concern for her students, while participant 95 wanted to stay because of not https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 146 losing her job gains as she stated “… embarking on a new profession is hard work which you have to start from scratch.” two of these participants also wanted to leave the job because of the repetitive nature of teaching english as understood from participant 95 who told “… teaching english for more than 15 years tend to repeat itself.” besides them, two participants did not want to stay because of their salary as participant 90 stated “… i want to make more money.” her desire to explore herself was the reason why participant 93 wanted to leave in the job. teachers with 16-20 years of teaching experience participant 94 wanted to stay in the job because of being experienced in teaching, but he also wanted to leave due to his salary. participant 96 wanted to go on his career as an el teacher because of his passion for teaching, but he also wanted to leave because of not balancing his work and private life as he stated, “i keep bringing work home and it interferes with my life.” teachers with 21 and more years of teaching experience two participants wanted to go on their careers as el teachers because they had the passion for teaching as understood from participant 98 who said, “i love my job (teaching).” being used to teaching was the reason for participant 90 to stay in the job. being experienced was the reason for the desire of participant 99 to stay since she stated “… having a sound base of job expertise. accumulation of knowledge base in the field and wanting to use it.” on the other hand, two participants also wanted to leave because of the salary, while one participant wanted to leave due to working conditions. participant 100 also wanted to leave the job owing her need to improve herself. discussion the common reason that may cause retention among el teachers is the passion for teaching. it may be one of the reasons for them to be an el teacher as mentioned in the literature (çermik et al., 2010; çakmak & kayabaşı, 2017; külekçi, 2013). it may motivate them to go on their careers as el teachers until they retire. helping to improve students is a common reason for the desire of el teachers with 1-5, 6-10 and 11-15 years of experience to stay in the job as this situation can help them fulfil the sense of meaningfulness (yinon & orland-barak, 2017) and feel satisfied (newberry & allsop, 2017). improving themselves through teaching can cause el teachers with 6-10, 11-15 and 16-20 years of experience to want to stay in the job since they would like to invest in their professional development to become effective el teachers and to help students learn better. as years of teaching experience increase, feelings such as being satisfied at schools have become a significant reason that may lead to retention among el teachers with 11-15, 16-20 and 21 and more years of experience as mentioned in the literature (gallant & riley, 2017; glazer, 2018; yinon & orland-barak, 2017) because el teachers’ self-confidence in their teaching skills increases, and they probably start to consider themselves as good el teachers as they become more experienced. colleagues, the lack of job options, work schedule, and insurance can be other reasons that may cause retention among el teachers, which is in line with the literature (clayton & schoonmaker, 2007; geiger & pivovarova, 2018; gu 2014; kelchtemans, 2017; mansfield et al., 2014; newberry & allsop, 2017; towers & maguire, 2017; wilhelm et al., 2000), but they are not among common reasons compared to the reviewed studies. it may be because el teachers prefer focusing on the joy of teaching though they encounter problems such as the lack of administrative support or salary which they may not overcome on their own. having different plans for future is a common reason for the desire of el teachers with 1-5 and 6-10 years of teaching experience to leave the job. such teachers may have chosen teaching https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 147 as a career because of their parents, friends, relatives or teachers or of finding a job easily after graduation (çakmak & kayabaşı, 2017; çermik et al., 2010; yurdakal, 2019). these reasons may cause them not to want to stay in the job when they have the opportunity to make their future plans come true. unlike the ones who want to stay in the profession, working conditions, salary, and the conflict between one’s teaching philosophy and the way a language is taught may have a direct effect on the desire of el teachers with 6-10, 11-15 and 16-20 years of teaching experience to leave the job as these reasons cause attrition in the developed countries (carver-thomas & darling-hammond 2019; gallant & riley, 2017; geiger & pivovarova, 2018; glazer, 2018; newberry & allsop, 2017; towers & maguire, 2017; wilhelm et al., 2000). these participants may have chosen teaching owing to the economic and living conditions of turkey, their parents’ encouragement, and being easily employed after graduation. thus, they may need something to be motivated at schools. because of the same reasons, feeling valued, being satisfied, and feeling appreciated at schools can become important for such teachers to go on their teaching career. yet, when they do not feel so, they may want to leave the job. besides, teaching general english may not provide opportunities to improve oneself though el teachers with different years of teaching experience may want it because professional development can hold teachers at schools. this may cause them to feel disappointed and demotivated to teach or find teaching boring, so they may want to leave. passion for teaching is a common reason that may cause el teachers with 1-5, 6-10, 16-20 and 21 and more years of teaching experience who want to leave and stay in the field to want to stay in the job. it may be one reason for them to become el teachers. being trained in el teaching for el teachers with 6-10 years of teaching experience, being experienced for el teachers with 16-20 and 21 and more years of teaching experience, and being used to teaching for el teachers with 6-10 and 21 and more years of teaching experience may help these teachers to feel secure since they may believe teaching experience and training can help them become better el teachers, so they want to stay in the job. opportunities to learn and improve oneself can make teaching motivating for el teachers with 1-5 and 11-15 years of teaching experience because professional development opportunities can attract teachers to stay in the job (mason & poyatos matas, 2015; wilhelm et al., 2000). feeling of being fulfilled for el teachers with 1-5 years of teaching experience and contributing to students’ learning for el teachers with 6-10 years of teaching experience may help these teachers feel valued at schools, so they want to stay in the job. on the other hand, administration may be a reason why el teachers with 1-5 and 6-10 years of teaching experience want to leave the job as supported by the literature (carver-thomas & darling-hammond, 2019; glazer, 2018; day & gu, 2009; gallant & riley, 2017; mason, 2017; mason & poyatos matas, 2015, 2016; towers & maguire, 2017) because they may not have a good relation with their administrators or find the administrative support as sufficient as they expected. salary is a common reason that may cause attrition among el teachers with 6-10, 11-15, 16-20 and 21 and more years of teaching experience as reported in the literature (carver-thomas & darling-hammond 2019; geiger & pivovarova, 2018; glazer, 2018; wilhelm et al., 2000) because having economical concerns may make teaching less motivating for them. working conditions are another reason for el teachers with 1-5, 16-20 and 21 and more years of teaching experience to want to leave the job because they may affect the balance between work and private life negatively (day & gu, 2009; den brok et al., 2017; glazer, 2018; gallant & riley 2017; mansfield et al., 2014; newberry & allsop, 2017; towers & maguire, 2017) and reduce the interaction with students. the opportunity to work in a different field for el teachers with 6-10 years of teaching experience and the need to improve or explore oneself for the el teachers with 11-15 and 21 and more years of teaching experience are the reasons that may lead to attrition among them as personal plans can be very effective in job-related careers. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 148 conclusion attrition and retention are two significant measures for the sustainability of an organization’s human resources, which is correlated with organizational know-how. this vital experience is very much related to its survival. this means that it is one of those factors to be focused on when the success of the organization is evaluated. the current study investigated the reasons that may cause attrition and retention among el teachers in turkey. the findings of the study show that the reasons that may lead to el teacher attrition and retention are similar to the reasons reported for teacher attrition and retention in general in the literature. the findings also indicate that these reasons can be country specific. understanding the reasons that may affect the desire of el teachers to stay in the job and leave the job in a developing country such as turkey can help improve the quality of el education at schools by employing and keeping qualified el teachers at work in educational institutions through eliminating or minimizing the attrition reasons mentioned in the study. however, this study is limited to turkey, so its results cannot be generalized. yet, future studies can be conducted about the reasons that may cause attrition and retention with el teachers in other developing countries by following the methodology of this study. thus, a better understanding of the reasons that may lead to el teacher attrition and retention in developing countries can be obtained, precautions can be taken to minimize or avoid attrition reasons, and the quality in el education can be maintained. references brown, k. 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(2016). school leadership, culture, strategy and teacher’s working performance. journal of international scholars conference education/social sciences, 1(2), 119-134. towers, e. & maguire, m. (2017). leaving or staying in teaching: a ‘vignette’ of an experienced urban teacher ‘leaver’ of a london primary school. teachers and teaching, 23(8), 946-960. tricarico, k. m., jacobs, j. & yendol-hoppey, d. (2015). reflection on their first five years of teaching: understanding staying and impact power. teachers and teaching, 21(3), 237-259. tupy, s. (2017). increasing english as a second language teacher retention (master’s thesis, hamline university, saint paul, minnesota, the u.s.a.). retrieved from https://digitalcommons.hamline.edu/hse_cp/39 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity research design teachers with 1-5 years of teaching experience teachers with 6-10 years of teaching experience teachers with 11-15 years of teaching experience teachers with 16-20 years of teaching experience teachers with 21 and more years of teaching experience teachers with 1-5 years of teaching experience teachers with 6-10 years of teaching experience teachers with 11-15 years of teaching experience teachers with 16-20 years of teaching experience * r stands for retention, and a stands for attrition. teachers with 1-5 years of teaching experience teachers with 6-10 years of teaching experience teachers with 11-15 years of teaching experience teachers with 16-20 years of teaching experience teachers with 21 and more years of teaching experience acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 123 the educational values as reelected in harper lee novel’s to kill a mocking bird herlandri eka jayaputri herlandrieka@gmail.com akademi perikanan kamasan biak-papua, indonesia doi: 10.35974/acuity.v7i1.2483 abstract this study aims to describe the good characterizations of the main characters, the plot, and the educational values in the novel to kill a mockingbird by harper lee. this current study employed the qualitative method. the research provided the secondary data derived from to kill a mockingbird novel by harper lee. for the data collection, document analysis was used as the researcher read the novel, collected suitable data, made sense of the data, and selected the unit of analysis (satu elo et al., 2014). the results of this research are as follows; the first, the good characterization of the novel is curious, diligent, wise, caring, creative, and brave. the second, plot of the novel is the regressive plot because the novel talked about the experience of scout and jem and it is described using the theory of tennyson in subhan as follows; exposition, rising action, crisis, falling action, and resolution. third, the educational values of the novel are divided into four elements namely; values of religious education, values of moral education, values of social education, and values of cultural education. keywords: novel to kill a mockingbird, pragmatic study, the educational values. introduction indonesia has an educational system as government legislation with the law numbered 20 of 2003. by doing so, education is a conscious attempt and designed to create a learning condition and process more active, build up student’s potency, religion, self-control, personality, intelligence, noble character, and ability which is advantageous for society, nation, the country, and himself. implementation of education should be appropriated with the educational purpose for evolving student’s potency—a man with faithfulness, noble character, good health, broad knowledge, creativity, independence, and responsibility (mahfud, 2009). literature can be an educational instrument (ratna, 2007). it appears from the message and content of its story that contains the ethical instruments. the ideal values of literary works deal with the value aspect of life mainly on the educational values. it consists of social, cultural, moral, and religious values. those can be a parameter as the good literature. thus, literature, education, and culture have a close relationship as the creative activity and part of the culture. consequently, education turns out an activity that is also a piece of culture. there are four educational values in the novel namely the religious education value, the moral education value, the social education value, and the cultural education https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity mailto:herlandrieka@gmail.com acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 124 value. understanding the novel values can be analyzed through pragmatic study. the pragmatic study shows the hidden meaning of a work (setyawan, & wiraatmaja, 2018). the characterization has an important role in the novel because each character has different behaviors both protagonist and antagonist. besides, it contains particular moral, intellectual and emotional. hence, it has some beneficial values, which can be taken from the characters. however, it only has not functioned as the message carrier, points, and their characteristic. the psychology method can be used to analyze the character and its motivation factor (garuba, 2020). according to subhan (2010), the character of the novel can be divided into two groups: major character and minor character. the plot of the novel is not similar to the compiler of events in history. it has to be chronological, while the events of the novel are compiled by the cause and result. foster (1953) said "this shock, followed by the feeling, 'oh, that's all right,' is a sign that all is well with the plot: characters, to be real, ought to run smoothly, but a plot ought to cause surprise." the story has the surprise element that relates to suspense or unexpectedness. it happens when the story comes out from our expectations. moreover, readers can be surprised through the various characterizations in the characters of the story. two various plots are the progressive plot (using foreshadowing) and the regressive plot (taking up flashbacks) (subhan, 2010). harper lee’s novel entitled to kill a mockingbird is a popular novel. the first published directly became a bestseller. it won the pulitzer prize in 1961 and turned out to be the winning film of academy award. harper lee was an american writer and this became a masterpiece of american literature. although it is a classic novel, many readers want to read this novel critically because it has a simple story and can bring readers to the bases of human behavior such as innocence, humor, and pathos. in addition, the readers for the content of the story and its value appreciate it. then, readers are fond of this novel since it has the social condition in alabama during the depression-era south and beneficial values. several reasons why the researcher analyses the novel to kill a mockingbird by harper lee. firstly, this novel becomes a must-read for students in the united states based on reporting of the bbc because it has a good value for how to be a good parent (maurinta, 2020). besides, the novel has a fascinating setting that talks about affection and prejudice in alabama within the depression-era south. secondly, it was written by a great american writer named harper lee. it also won the awarded with the pulitzer prize in 1961. the high popularity makes many researchers studies about this novel. maurinta (2020) analyses the family education in the novel to kill a mockingbird using the hermeneutic study. the result showed that it compresses a concept of equality and pluralism tolerance that is taught in pancasila education. the research of the moral value of jean louise scout in the novel to kill a mockingbird and go set a watchman revealed that it shows many moral values which are only shown from jean as the main character (nugraha, wiweko, kurnia at all, 2020). afterward, monica (2019) also studies the moral values of this novel to become the alternative of the character education. this study has a variance with those earlier studies. it concerns the good characterization of the main characters, explaining its plot, and finding the educational values of the novel. the https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 125 educational values of the novel to kill a mockingbirds written by harper lee consist of four aspects. they are religious educational values, moral educational values, social educational values, and cultural educational values (ratna, 2007). research questions through the earlier explanations, the researcher formulates three research questions. first, what are the good characterization of the main characters of the novel to kill a mockingbird by harper lee? the second, how is the plot of the novel to kill a mockingbird by harper lee. the last, what are the educational values that can be taken from the novel to kill a mockingbird by harper lee. methods this current study employed the qualitative method. the research provided the secondary data derived from to kill a mockingbird novel by harper lee. for the data collection, document analysis was used as the researcher read the novel, collected suitable data, made sense of the data, and selected the unit of analysis (satu elo et al., 2014). for the data analysis, the researcher coded the data (educational values), created categories (religious, moral, social, and cultural education), and made abstraction with the content of the categories defining the educational values in the novel (satu elo et al., 2014). besides, the pragmatic approach was necessary for identifying educational values. result and discussion the good characterization of the main characters the novel to kill a mockingbird has three main characters. they are scout (jean louise finch) as the daughter of atticus, jem (jeremy atticus finch) as the brother of scout, and atticus finch as the father of scout and jem. they are the main characters that are shown from beginning to ending of the story. thus, this study focuses on the good characterization of the main characters. the good characterization of them consists of curious, diligent, wise, brave, creative, and caring. they are shown in table 1 below. table 1. the variety of good characterization no the variety of good characterization curious diligent wise brave creative caring total 5 5 4 3 2 3 curious hornby (2000) stated that "curious is a strong desire to know about something." when someone asks many questions, she has curiosity or a strong https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 126 interest to understand something. one of the main characters is scout. she has a big curiosity to know new things. first, she was curious about her father's reasons to defend a negro, tom robinson. the quotation about scout's curiosity is shown below. “do all lawyers defend n-negroes, atticus?” “of course, they do, scout.” “then why did cecil say you defended niggers? he made it sound like you were runnin' a still." atticus sighed. "i'm simply defending a negro-his name's, tom robinson. he lives in that little settlement beyond the town dump. he's a member of calpurnia's church and cal knows his family well. she says they're clean-living folks. (lee, 1982:99-100) the quotation above shows that cecil, scout's friend, said "defended niggers" to his father. she was angry because she did not know the meaning of nigger and she was curious about the real fact. she asked her brother jem, but he did not answer scout's question. after that, she asked about her father's reasons to defend a negro repeatedly. she found his reason that atticus was a lawyer who has upheld justice and he always gives good behavior to his children. diligent according to hornby (2000), “diligent is showing care and effort in your work or duties.” the main characters of the novel have a habit to read a book. they always have reading time. reading can give people the benefit of knowledge easily. some people love to read a book and it becomes their hobby. scout was one of the main characters who loved to read a book since she was a child. it is reflected in the following quotation: “how old are you,” asked jem, “four-and-a-half?” “goin‘ on seven.” “shoot no wonder, then,” said jem, jerking his thumb at me. “scout yonder’s been readin‘ ever since she was born, and she ain’t even started to school yet. you look right puny for goin’ on seven.” (lee, 1982:8) the quotation above illustrates that scout and jem met a new friend named dill. he said that he could read but jem and scout were no wonder because scout, who was younger than dill, could read even she was a child. it describes that scout has a habit to read a book or article, so she could read fluently despite she was a child. wise hornby (1995) defines, “wise is having, or showing good judgment based on knowledge and experience.” a wise person could make a good decision in their life and it is reflected in the character named atticus. he has wise https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 127 behavior. he had many experiences and knowledge about life that can be seen from some descriptions. the first illustration is when jem, scout, and dill made a mistake and atticus gave advice. the following quotation supports the illustration. “son,” he said to jem, “i’m going to tell you something and tell you one time: stop tormenting that man. that goes for the other two of you.” what mr. radley did was his own business. if he wanted to come out, he would. if he wanted to stay inside his own house he had the right to stay inside free from the attentions of inquisitive children, which was a mild term for the likes of us..” (lee, 1982:65) the quotation describes that dill, jem, and scout tried to disturb their neighbor, mr. bob radley. he never came out from his house. then, they wanted to send a letter to him. the letter contains a message that asked him to come out. however, their plan was failed because atticus knew their letter. atticus said that they might not bother the other people because they would be annoyed if the other people interrupt their problem. it proves that atticus was a wise person because he could give useful advice and he practiced his advice caring hornby (1995) said, “care is the process of looking after somebody or something: the providing of what somebody or something needs for their health or protection and a cause of or reason for worry and caring is showing or something and cares for somebody can mean to look after.” the main characters have caring behavior. it showed from his or her attitude, which was caring and worrying somebody. when atticus cared about scout’s problem that would be illustrated in the following quotation. "i'm feeling all right." said scout. "thought so. now, what's the matter?" bit by bit, i told him the day's misfortunes. "-and she said you taught me all wrong, so we can't ever read anymore, ever. please don't send me back, please sir." (lee, 1982:32) the quotation above shows that scout loves to read a book but miss caroline forbade her to read a book because scout was in the first grade. she said to atticus that she did not want to go to school anymore. then, atticus asked the problem of scout directly. it proves that atticus, as the scout’s father, was caring for his child and he worried why his child did not present in the school anymore. creative according to honrby (1995), “creative is the involving of the skillful and imaginative using of something to produce example a work of art.” https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 128 imagination signs good creativity. the main characters in the novel show a creative mind. firstly, scout, jem, and dill loved to play a drama as follows: “thereafter the summer passed in routine contentment. routine contentment was: improving our treehouse that rested between giant twin chinaberry trees in the back yard, fussing, running through our list of dramas based on the works of oliver optic, victor appleton, and edgar rice burroughs. in this matter, we were lucky to have dill. he played the character parts formerly thrust upon me— the ape in tarzan, mr. crabtree in the rover boys, mr. damon in tom swift. thus, we came to know dill as a pocket merlin, whose head teemed with eccentric plans, strange longings, and quaint fancies.” (lee, 1982:9) the quotation tells that scout, jem, and dill loved to imagine something and read the book story. they always applied it in drama, such as; drama based on the works of oliver optic, victor appleton, and edgar rice burroughs. thus, they were creative people because they could play a drama with various characters. brave based on hornby (1995), “brave is ready to face and endure danger, pain, or suffering: having no fear.” braveness makes people unscared to do anythingchiefly good action. the main characters of this novel have some brave characterization. first, scout spoke out about cunningham’s family to miss caroline in the class. the quotation about scout is shown below. “ah—miss caroline?” “what is it, jean louise?” “miss caroline, he’s a cunningham.” i sat back down. “what, jean louise?” "he didn't forget his lunch, he didn't have any. the cunninghams never took anything they can't pay back—no church baskets and no scrip stamps. they never took anything off of anybody, they get along with what they have. they don't have much, but they get along on it."(lee, 1982:25) the quotation showed that walter did not accept the money from miss caroline because his family had a belief in recompense people. miss caroline did not know it and her classmate just kept silent except scout. she talked to miss caroline that the cunning family never take anything because they could not pay it. it showed that scout has a brave character although she did not like miss caroline who interacted to read anything, she kept speaking up about walter, so there was a misunderstanding between miss caroline and walter. plot the novel to kill a mockingbird is a classic novel and it has an interesting plot to analyze. the plot of the novel is regressive because the novel talks about the https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 129 flashback of the story. it also contains five parts namely; the first, exposition was begun when scout and jem remembered their incident and it happened when they were a child. the second, rising action happened when atticus got a job to defend a negro named tom robinson. the third, rising action is mr. ewel's grudge to everybody that was related to that case mainly atticus. he also tried to kill atticus's children. then, the falling action was begun when scout runs to her house and asked atticus to help jem, but she looked down at the street light and a man was walking with carrying jem. jem’s arm was dangling crazily in front of him. the last, resolution is mr. ewel passed away and jem woke up from his unconscious. the educational values values of the novel can be an instrument to transfer the educational values because the message and content of the novels concern ethics. some novel has valuable elements that can influence human behavior. there are four educational values namely religious education, moral education, social education, and culture education ratna (2007). this novel showed some values in table 2 below. table 2. educational values in the novel to kill a mockingbird no the educational values in the novel to kill a mockingbird values of religion education values of moral education value of social education values of cultural education total 3 4 6 2 values of religion education as the man of faith should be balanced between the world and hereafter affairs. when scout asked about the radley family that never comes out of their house. then, miss maudie answered that they were religious. they took the bible literally so they never come out of his house. besides they assumed women as sin, so they did not want to meet other people mainly females. it could be seen in the following line: miss maudie laughed. "wasn't talking about your father," she said. "what i meant was, if atticus finch drank until he was drunk he wouldn't be as hard as some men are at their best. there is just some kind of men who-who're so busy worrying about the next world they've never learned to live in this one, and you can look down the street and see the results." (lee, 1982:60) the line above has religious education value as the sentence who’re so busy worrying about the next world they’ve never learned to live in this one. it meant that humans live in two worlds. the first world is begun when a human is borns until he passes away. after he passes away, he goes to the next world that his behaviors will be responsible for his action to god. thus, the two things should be considered because he needs to learn worldly about human https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 130 life and human has to learn about the hereafter mainly religion that can make his life better. a bad attitude could lead someone to the wrong path. scout and jem came to calpurnia's hometown. then they visited a church and they heard the speech of reverend sykes in the following quotation. his sermon was a forthright denunciation of sin, an austere declaration of the motto on the wall behind him: he warned his flock against the evils of heady brews, gambling, and strange women. bootleggers caused enough trouble in the quarters, but women were worse. again, as i had often met it in my church, i was confronted with the impurity of women doctrine that seemed to preoccupy all clergymen. (lee, 1982: 162) the quotation described that the speech of reverend sykes has the value of religious education. all religions contain the good things and avoid the bad things. the quotation told that if people perform a bad action or crime, such as gambling, drinking, and a prostitute, their attitude is not fit to the belief. thus, those are forbidden because they can make people fall into sin. values of moral education a kind person can control his temper scout and jem had a neighbor; named mrs. henry lafayette dubose, an old lady who just stayed with a negro girl. she spent most of each day in bed and the rest in a wheelchair. jem and scout hated her because she liked to judge their behaviors badly, gave a melancholy prediction about them, and insulted their father innocently. then their father advises them in the following line: “easy does it, son,” atticus would say. “she’s an old lady and she’s ill. you just hold your head high and be a gentleman. whatever she says to you, it’s your job not to let her make you mad.” (lee, 1982:133) the line above describes that atticus taught his children to become gentlemen or good people. mrs. dubose was an old lady. she wanted jem and scout to behave well, although she responded unfriendly. sometimes someone judges another one just with his mind so he can speak out, as he wants. however, to become a good person, one has to resolve trouble wisely and control his temper. it is good to understand others wisely scout thought that mr. boo was a strange and evil person. however, one day he helped her when scout had an accident. then she remembered atticus word as follows: https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 131 atticus was right. one time he said you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them. just standing on the radley porch was enough. (lee, 1982:374) based on the quotation above, someone should understand others wisely. people could not assess others from their appearance. the attitude could reveal from their action. someone can try to walk around in their life, and he can understand their life wisely. value of social education humans should do kindness to others atticus told scout that he was a defender of a negro, and in the summer, they would get many insults from their friends, neighbors, and family. then atticus gave an opinion to scout in the following quotation: “come here, scout,” said atticus. i crawled into his lap and tucked my head under his chin. he put his arms around me and rocked me gently. “it’s different this time,” he said. “this time we aren’t fighting the yankees, we’re fighting our friends. but remember this, no matter how bitter things get, they’re still our friends and this is still our home.” (lee, 1982:101) the quotation above has social education value. it is illustrated in the sentence no matter how bitter things get, they’re still our friends, and this is still our home. it means that although someone does the bad action to another, one should not avenge the bad things too. humans should appreciate the diversity among people scout and jem came to the hometown of their housekeeping calpurnia. they only knew that she just spoke english. however, when she talked to another negro, she talked negro language. they understood negro language was not correct. they asked her about it. then calpurnia answer it that is shown in the following quotation: “well, in the first place i’m black—” "that doesn't mean you hafta talk that way when you know better," said jem. calpurnia tilted her hat and scratched her head, then pressed her hat down carefully over her ears. "it's right hard to say," she said. "suppose you and scout talked colored folks talk at home it'd be out of place, wouldn't it? now, what if i talked the white-folks talk at church, and with my neighbors? they’d think i was puttin‘ on airs to beat moses. (lee, 1982:167) the quotation above described that everyone is different such as differences in physic, characterization, and custom. the first value of the quotation is https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 132 appreciating every person's dissimilarity which is reflected when calpurnia talked to them about why she kept speaking negro language though it was incorrect because she was a negro and she has to speak negro language with her friends. second, people should be able to adapt to a new place so they can communicate with other people easily. values of cultural education a good woman always pays attention to their words the novel has value about the woman. some data describes that women should wear a dress, they do not behave like a man, and they can dress up. it illustrates that women are elegant creatures in the novel. however, scout was a girl, often said bad words to her friends and she behaved like a boy. her uncle jack knew about it. he advised her as follows: you like words like damn and hello now, don’t you?” i said i reckoned so. “well i don’t,” said uncle jack, “not unless there’s extreme provocation connected with ‘em. i’ll be here a week, and i don’t want to hear any words like that while i’m here. scout, you’ll get in trouble if you go around saying things like that. you want to grow up to be a lady, don’t you?” (lee, 1982: 105) the quotation above shows that women do not speak rude words. it showed when uncle jack talked to scout about being a feminine woman because she was a respectable woman. thus, they should have a good attitude and can keep their words. humans need each other and have to socialize with other humans. scout narrated about her city alabama. she talked about boo radley who never came out from his house though sunday was the day of gathering or it was the visiting time to their neighbors. it could be seen in the following line of all days sunday was the day for formal afternoon visiting: ladies wore corsets, men wore coats, children wore shoes. but to climb the radley front steps and call, "hey," of a sunday afternoon was something their neighbors never did. (lee, 1982:11) in the sentence, of all days sunday was the day for formal afternoon visiting: ladies wore corsets, men wore coats, children wore shoes. it describes that they have the spare time habit to their family and their neighbors. nowadays people do not have the free time to meet others such as family. thus, this value can apply in the modern family. the novel to kill a mockingbird illustrates the differences of social, economic, status, and ethnic. however, the educational values of a novel show in each characterization, behavior, and speech of characters. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 133 therefore, the novel to kill a mockingbird can provide educational values to readers mainly religious, cultural, social, and moral. moreover, the values of character education reflected in this novel can also be applied as an instrument for learning media for students. conclusion after doing the analysis, there are some conclusions of this study. the first is about the good characterization of the main character. the main characters of the novel to kill a mockingbird are scout (jean louise finch) as the daughter of atticus, jem (jeremy atticus finch) as the brother of scout, and atticus finch as the father of scout and jem. their good characterization is curious, diligent, wise, caring, creative, and brave. secondly, the novel has a progressive plot because it told about the flashback of the story. the plot has five parts that are exposition, rising action, crisis, falling action, and resolution (subhan, 2010). the resolution of the novel has a happy ending that is: all problem has been solved. the last conclusion is about educational values. there are four educational values namely values of religious education consists of some value as follows; as the man of faith should be balanced between the world and hereafter affairs, a bad attitude could doom oneself to the sins, and always feeling thankful for god who gives everything for men. secondly, values of moral education consist of some value as follows: a good person controls his temper when in trouble one should not give up resolving it, a kind person does the best with their sense, and it is good to understand others wisely. thirdly, values of social education consist of some value as follows; solving a problem needs a discussion with others, humans should do the kindness to others, children's curiosity should not be banned, humans should appreciate the diversity among people, judging something with justice is fairly wise, and all men are created equal. the last, values of cultural education consist of some value as follows; good woman always pays attention to their words, and one should spare time for others. in sum, the novel to kill a mockingbird can provide educational values to readers mainly religious, cultural, social, and moral. however, this study still has limitations because the researcher only emphasizes the pragmatic analysis of educational value. thus, others can have more attention to the psychological analysis of this novel. references abrams, m.h. 1971. the mirror and the lamp romantic theory and critical tradition. oxford: oxford university press abrams, m.h. 1999. a glossary of literature terms. bostom: wadsworth cengage learning. anonymous. 2012. analisis nilai nilai pendidikan novel sang pemimpi. http://serdadukataku.wordpress.com/2012/12/02/analisis-nilai-nilai-pendidikanhttps://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity http://serdadukataku.wordpress.com/2012/12/02/analisis-nilai-nilai-pendidikan-novel-sang-pemimpi acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 134 novel-sang-pemimpi. retrieved from website on friday 31 october 2014 at 04.20 p.m. creswell, j. w. 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(2018). the analysis of semantic and pragmatic context in toefl test simulation on listening section. celtic: a journal of culture, english language teaching, literature and linguistics, 5(2), 45-57. https://doi.org/10.22219/celtic.v5i2.7619 subhan, bustami. 2010. literary critism. yogyakarta: lppdmf subhan, bustami. 2013. lectures notes on understanding english drama. yogyakarta: lppdmf 2013 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 52 an analysis of moral values found in a korean tv series 'the world of married' tira nur fitria itb aas indonesia, surakarta indonesia tiranurfitria@gmail.com abstract being released in 2020, “the world of married” drama entails certain life-lessons that are seriously hearttouching. for all korean drama lovers in the form of tv series, there are some life-lessons or moral values from the story. therefore, the objective of this study is to find out the moral values or messages in “the world of married”. this research uses qualitative research. the analysis shows in “the world of married”, contains some moral values, they are 1) there is no perfect family life, 2) honesty is the key to family life, 3) have principles when choosing or deciding something, 4) loyal to a partner and have no affair with another person, 5) be careful in choosing a best friend, 6) love a wrong person (love is blind), 7) all decisions have risks, 8) revenge is not a good solution, 9) avoid violence in the family, and 10) children become the victims of the problems from divorced parents. moral values in the movie are easy to be understood by people where they can use it in making decisions whether they do is right or wrong. it also implicates something that needs to be done or not to is done in their life. keywords: moral values, korean tv series, the world of marriage introduction literature plays an important role in human life; it has given much entertainment, inspiration, motivation, and information for the audiences, readers, or viewers. literature also can be used for expressing attitude, behavior, and adjustment. literature produces literary works, for example, plays, novels, short stories, poetries, etc (davies, 2007, p. 1). for many people, literature can be one of the sources or media for delivering messages, education, and moral value to the readers or viewers. as stated by west (2015, p. 91), people sometimes choose something of moral value because it is valuable for life. the moral is concerned with the principles of right and wrong behavior (stevenson, 2010, p. 1149). according to merriam-webster (2004), the moral is conforming to the standard of right behavior. the moral is something that the author wants to convey to the readers. the moral is also the cause of the meaning contained in a work conveyed through a story (nurgiyantoro, 2018, p. 429). the moral is a high standard of behavior, belief, and attitudes in life (gulla, 2010a, p. 142). while, according to king & king (2002, p. 108) “moral is a lesson that may be learned from a piece of writing.” value is concerned with something is held to deserve or the importance, worth, or usefulness of something (stevenson, 2010, p. 1963). moral value is a set of principles that guide a person to evaluate what is right or wrong, good or bad in society (kadam, 2017). moral values help in forming individual characters and personalities. the moral values such as loyalty, integrity, truthfulness, honesty, determination, and others that should be inherited by an individual. according to collins (2015), “moral value of the attitudes might accompany the action.” sapontzis (2012, p. 74) states that moral values are social values concerning acceptable and unacceptable behavior and attitudes, and they originally do to other social conventions. motivating people to have morals has been another reason behind the theories of the origin of moral value. so, in this world, often the good people have rewarded and bad people have punished (sapontzis, 2012, p. 72). endraswara (2008) argues that moral values are entirely the whole of what each person’s belief within their strides. moral values are something that the readers or viewers can learn at every point of life. some moral values will be obtained from the characters that will reflect the moral value where the readers or audiences can see it. therefore, the moral values obtained will be being mailto:tiranurfitria@gmail.com 53 living descriptions for the audiences to see life. moral value is chosen because it is an important part of literary works. it is something to be conveyed by the author to the audiences. the moral value will direct someone to be more conscious of the responsibility toward other people. gulla (2010b, p. 139) states that moral value provides a type of happiness and comforts as it encourages fostering a friendship, coexistence, tolerance, love, gratitude, and compassion. moral value refers to the characters of the person and the spiritual relation between persons (d’souza, 2005). based on moral values, people believe to be right or wrong (moor, 1995, p. 31). kinneging (2016) states that “moral values usually reflected in the manner in which people carry out actions.” moral values are relative values that respectful towards the dual life value of self and others (mcnamara, 2012). literary works usually offer the moral value that relates to human traits and it also relates to the fact that happened in the world. according to hornby (2003) “literature as the writings that are valued as work of art, especially fiction, drama, and poetry.” literature has many forms; they are poetry, novel, comic, soap opera, electronic literature, graphic novel, film, or movie. watching a movie gives us more imagination in our mind and we have the freedom to control the movement when we think about the character in the book, wherein the movie is passive. literary work produced by people to express ideas, feeling, or to describe someone or something. people do not only enjoy exploring the story of literary works but also take messages that deliver in it because each literary work often includes many social values related to the values of the society in certain eras including in the film or movie. a movie or film is one of the genres of literature. a movie is one kind of literature that aired on the television screen. most of the people use film or movie to entertain, criticize, advertise, and educate. the movie will give us a message such as morals, motivation, believing in god, science, and so on. from the movie, we learn about moral values through profiles or character features. one example of a movie that is full of moral value can be found in "the world of married" tv series. "the world of married" is a south korean television series aired in 2020. the story is about sun woo (kim hee ae) is a family doctor. she is married to lee tae (park hae joon) and they have a son. she seems to have everything, including a happy family and a successful career, but actually, she is betrayed by her husband and her friends. meanwhile, lee tae wants to be a famous movie director. he runs an entertainment business with the support and love of his wife. although he loves his wife, lee tae falls in love with da kyung (han so hee) and runs into a dangerous relationship. “the world of married” drama ended with 16 episodes on may 16, 2020. this drama series won the highest rating in the history of television in south korea. some previous studies concerning moral value. first, a research entitled "an analysis of moral values in novel "oliver twist" by charles dickens" was conducted by fitriani (2017). second, research entitled “an analysis of moral value in maher zain's song lyrics” was done by faizun (2018). third, research was conducted by mustapa (2018) entitled “the moral value of james baldwin short stories.” that previous research has the same objective where they focused on finding or describing moral values, but those objects of research are different. in the first research, it focused on the novel, the second research was focused on a song lyric, and the third research was focused on a short story. however, in this research, the researcher is interested to analyze a korean drama in the form of tv series. therefore, the researcher is interested in conducting a research entitled "an analysis of moral values in "the world of married". the objective of this study is to find out the moral values or messages in this movie. method the research design is the conceptual structure within which research is conducted; it constitutes the blueprint for the collection, measurement, and analysis of data (kothari, 2004: 31). this research uses qualitative research. according to moleong (2002:3), qualitative research is a research of which data in the forms of a written or oral word are descriptively analyzed, which does not include any calculation or enumeration. the method of collecting data is the documentation method. it is founding data about the object or variable from the note, transcript, book, newspaper, magazine, and the others. this method is not difficult; it means that if it has a mistake, the source of data is still constant. because 54 of the documentation method data was observed from the lifeless object (arikunto, 2010:274). the data in this research is taken from a korean drama in the form of a tv series entitled “the world of married”. the researcher intended to describe the moral value based on the utterances and behavior of the main characters in the story. the data analysis method is an important step in a part of this research because it aims to examine the validity and reliability of the data collections. in analyzing the data, the procedures used are 1) the researcher selected the movie and downloaded “the world of married” tv series. 2) the researcher watched “the world of married” tv series. 3) the researcher tried to find the moral messages from “the world of married” tv series. 4) the researcher analyzed the data. 5) the researcher read some reviews about “the world of married” tv series from the internet. 6) the researcher drew the conclusion based on the data analysis. results and discussion results in every movie, a filmmaker always gives the moral values/messages that make the readers or viewers interested in watching it. the moral values of the movie make us learn about everything that can change our life to be better. “the world of married” drama entails certain life-lessons or moral values as follow: 1. there is no perfect family life. in “the world of married”, the researcher finds the first moral value that “there is no perfect family life”. the scene of dialogues/utterances revealed the characters as follow: episode 1 min hyun : you need to have what it takes to be able to take a step forward from where you collapsed. but you wouldn't know because you have it all. sun woo : i'm no different. min hyun : does your husband beat you? then what? does he steal money from you? sun woo : i think he's cheating on me. and i'm scared that it might be true. min hyun : why are you scared of that? you just need to find evidence and kick him out. isn't life supposed to be easy for successful women? sun woo : marriage isn't that simple. it's not a game where you can get up and leave just because you're out of money. it's a desperate matter that not only involves my own life but also the life of my child. episode 1 eom hyo : this is dr. ji sun woo from family love hospital. i told you about her, right? yeo byung : yes, i heard a lot about you. my wife kept on complimenting you and told me you're a great doctor. sun woo : this is my husband. he runs a regional event company called t.o. entertainment. he makes movies too. yeo byung : i see. sun woo : for the development of our community, i hope you'll take an interest in my husband's business. sun woo : my husband is so supportive of me. he's a hard worker. lee tae : gosh, don't say that. eom hyo : you're so competent. episode 2 je hyuk : you don't have to worry about being fired. your wife never nags that you don't make money. you live in luxury thanks to a rich and successful wife. why are you anxious? lee tae : what do you know? seriously. stop it. 55 je hyuk : why is that successful and perfect dr. sun woo so devoted to someone like you? teach us your secret. lee tae : don't you want to know too? je hyuk : how does she embrace your anxiety? does she do her best day and night? the utterances above shows in “the world of married” presents a happy home life. the initial scene opens with sun woo was showed that she has everything. this woman has a husband who loves her and a good son. she is also a successful doctor with a position as a young director. she has good and caring friends. everything looks perfect until something happens to slap sun woo and show that her life is not as beautiful as what she witnesses so far. 2. honesty is the key to family life. in “the world of married”, the researcher finds the second moral value that “honesty is the key to family life”. the scene of dialogues/utterances revealed the characters as follow: episode 2 sun woo : you have another woman, don't you? lee tae : what did you just say? sun woo : i want you to tell me the truth. we talked about this when we first got married. we thought we might fancy other people after a while. we promised to be honest with each other if it happened. do you remember that? if you admit to it, even now and get yourself sorted out, i might be able to forgive you. for a moment, you were just physically drawn to her. but, i can't forgive lies. lying would be truly betraying me, so be honest with me. are you having another woman? lee tae : did you ask me if i'm having someone? me? cheat on you? sun woo : i know you are. you did this last time too. what's the matter with you? lee tae : there's no other woman. is this how weak our trust is? sun woo : stop lying to me! stop disappointing me! lee tae : it's me who's disappointed! how can i speak to you when you're not making any sense? i'm a busy guy. why are you wasting my time? sun woo : gosh! lee tae : you're the only woman in my life. don't you know that? you're overworked and stressed. it looks like your emotions are unstable. are you okay? sun woo : you just said i'm the only woman in your life. the utterances above shows in “the world of married”, honesty is an indispensable thing in marriage. this is what lee tae did not do as a husband. in front of sun woo, lee tae acted as nothing has happened. on the contrary, behind it all, he kept a lot of secrets. the climax, lee tae betrayed sun woo's love by having an affair with another woman behind her back. 3. have principles in choosing or deciding something. in “the world of married”, the researcher finds the third moral value that “honesty is the key to family life”. the scene of dialogues/utterances revealed the characters as follow: episode 3 seol myung : how long do you plan to keep it from her? it's time to sell sun woo the truth and end it with da kyung. the moment sun woo finds out, it's over. lee tae : she'll demand a divorce for sure. i can't tell her. and she won't let me see joon young. i can't imagine a life without sun woo. seol myung : then end it with da kyung as soon as possible. lee tae : forget it. you'd never understand. seol myung : what's so complicated? lee tae : when i'm with her, i feel alive. my creativity gets going. i get inspired. i'm fond of her and cherish her. i love her. seol myung : what about sun woo? 56 lee tae : i love her too. seol myung : what gibberish is that? lee tae : the human heart doesn't feel just one emotion. you don't stop loving just because you're married. my love for sun woo and my love for da kyung is different. what drives me mad is that i love them both at the same time. seol myung : what insanity is this? how could you love two people at the same time? don't you think you're shameless? lee tae : you don't understand, do you? seol myung : you wonder how that's possible, right? lee tae : you don't know until you've experienced it. my heart is sincere to them both. seol myung : will you keep this going? the utterances above shows in “the world of married”, every human being is always faced with many choices, including matters of love. being in love is not a crime, but it is not justified if you fall in love with two people at once. like lee tae, who is blinded by love and power instantly. he loved two women at the same time. he still loved his wife sun woo, but he also chose to love da kyung as his affair. 4. loyal to a partner and have no affair with another person. in “the world of married”, the researcher finds the fourth moral value that “loyal to a partner and have no affair with another person”. the scene of dialogues/utterances revealed the characters as follow: episode 1 min hyun : he just went in. he hasn't come out for three hours. it is a woman. sun woo : do you see her face? what does she look like? take a picture or video. can you do that? min hyun : i can't get a good shot from here. hold on. min hyun : hello, ma'am. i couldn't get a picture of them together. sun woo : did you see her face? min hyun : no, just the back of her head. she had long brown hair and is about your height. ma'am. take a look at this. oh no. i guess you don't like it. min hyun : what do you plan to do? sun woo : i need more concrete evidence. min hyun : you should check your husband's trunk. he hid something in there. episode 2 sun woo : what seems to be bothering you? da kyung : i'm aching all over, and it doesn't seem to go away. sun woo : since when? do you drink or smoke? da kyung : i don't smoke. i drink from time to time. i haven't been drinking recently. sun woo : are you sexually active? da kyung : do i have to tell you that too? sun woo : it's one of the basic questions, so answer me honestly. is there anyone you're seeing regularly? or maybe you have more than one? da kyung : just one. we don't meet every day. we meet 2 or 3 times a week. he's married. sun woo : does his wife know? da kyung : she has no idea. sun woo : i see. are you sure about that? da kyung : he says his relationship is like wearing a mask. he says he's unhappy because his marriage is nothing but a shell. sun woo : if he's unhappy, why won't he get a divorce? da kyung : i'm sure it's complicated. they have a kid, and there must be money issues too. that's why getting married is such a headache. sun woo : you'll get the result in two hours. bring me your urine. don't you use protection? 57 da kyung : what do you mean? sun woo : you're pregnant. you're only seeing one guy, so you know who the dad is. you must be in a pickle since he's married. this is why being married is such a headache. the utterances above shows in “the world of married”, sun woo started to get suspicious about her husband's affair. then she asked min hyun to follow lee tae. min hyun saw lee tae is having an affair with another woman. in the next utterance shows that da kyung is a patient of dr. sun woo. before lee tae is caught having an affair, the secret was revealed when sun woo unpacked her husband’s car trunk and found a cellphone with a wallpaper photo of a woman named da kyung. sun woo then surprised to find out that da kyung is pregnant with her husband's baby. unfortunately, she can hold herself. 5. be careful in choosing a best friend. in “the world of married”, the researcher finds the fifth moral value that “be careful in choosing a best friend”. the scene of dialogues/utterances revealed by the characters as follow: episode 2 sun woo : you don't care about other people's feelings, do you? you don't care if people are miserable or not. you just watch everything from afar and have fun. seol myung : what do you mean i have fun? how could you say that? sun woo : you had fun when you told me that i'm being oversensitive, didn't you?. you told me it must be hard to live with a handsome husband. seol myung : do you know everything? sun woo : yes. i also know that you warned tae oh that i might go after him. seol myung : don't get me wrong. you see, listen. he told me that he's going to end it. he asked me to keep it a secret until then, so i had no choice. you have no idea how angry i was at him. sun woo : when was that? seol myung : about a month ago, he called me out for a drink out of nowhere. something felt a bit weird, so i asked him a few stuff, and he eventually told me everything. i'm sorry i didn't tell you. but i swear i didn't lie to you on purpose. it was tormenting for me, too. sun woo : you guys must be really good friends, seeing that he even shared that kind of secret with you. seol myung : i don't think of that jerk as my friend. you're my friend. sun woo : really? are you sure you're my friend? episode 6 go, ye rim : you think you're so cool, don't you? sun woo : you probably think others think the same, but get over yourself. go, ye rim : you are garbage. that's what you are. sun woo : what about you, who went on a trip with my husband's mistress? go, ye rim : you're garbage just like me. so? sun woo : did you want to get revenge on me? go, ye rim : is that why you slept with my husband? sun woo : yes. go, ye rim : you must have wanted to destroy our marriage because yours was destroyed, but no. you failed. you couldn't save your marriage, but i will save mine. this won't threaten our marriage at all. sun woo : i don't care one bit whether or not you get divorced. i simply wanted to tell you the truth. because that's how i felt. because deceiving even you, whom i considered a friend, made me unbearably sad. you are a total fake. i have never considered you a friend. 58 the utterances above shows in “the world of married”, sun woo is burned with curiosity, sun woo opened the gallery, there were some photos where her friends traveled together with her husband and da kyung. all her friends knew about lee tae's affair and kept a secret from her. she doubted whom she should talk to, sun woo was letting herself to share her problem to her friend seol myung in his office. sadly, seol myung is one of her friends that had helped lee tae to keep his secret about his affair. besides, her other friend go ye rim found out if lee tae is cheating but go ye rim did not tell sun woo about it. her friends seemed to help lee tae to keep his affair from sun woo. 6. love the wrong person (love is blind). in “the world of married”, the researcher finds the sixth moral value that “love a wrong person”. the scene of dialogues/utterances revealed by the characters as follow: episode 2 da kyung : if she's like your mask, how is she the best thing in your life? how can you love her beyond words? lee tae : you're too young to know, but... da kyung : don't treat me like a child. now i know you were playing with me. lee tae : does it look like we came all this way as a joke? look at me in the eyes when you answer me. does my love look like a joke to you? da kyung : i know you're lying. do you have any idea how miserable i feel right now? lee tae : it's only an act. my true heart belongs to you. fine. if you don't believe me, i'll tell your father about us right now. episode 6 lee tae : we won't break up anymore, right? da kyung : of course not. lee tae : we'll sleep in the same bed together, and wake up together too. da kyung : we can stay together all day long, right? lee tae : i'll stay by your side all day. by our baby too. da kyung : i'll be a supportive wife. your film is going to be a huge success. episode 6 da kyung : can't you help tae oh? he's talented. he'll succeed if you support him. yeo byung : is that why he bled his wife dry all these years? da kyung. why are you such a poor judge of people? shut it and get out. i'll pretend i don't have a daughter. da kyung : please, daddy. yeo byung : it's not too late. break up with him. if you do, daddy will take care of you and the baby. listen to me. okay? da kyung : i love him. i can't leave him. yeo byung : he hit his wife in front of his child and was arrested for assault. but what? love? have you lost your mind? it's not like that! that woman set him up. fine. pretend you don't have a daughter anymore. da kyung : daddy. i won't come back. episode 6 sun woo : i'm very angry right now. i'll apologize for yelling at you and for throwing out your phone. i'm also sorry for bringing you here against your will. you know why i'm acting like this, don't you? joon young : it's because dad has another woman, right? so what? what about it? sun woo : he betrayed us. you know everything, don't you? joon young : he betrayed you, not me. sun woo : that woman's pregnant. dad doesn't need us anymore, joon young. joon young : so? did he say he'll live with her? does he love that baby more than he loves me? 59 sun woo : it's okay. we can live happily on our own. it won't be a problem without him. joon young : no. i don't want to live with just you. don't get a divorce. you can forgive him this time. just forgive him. sun woo : i can't. dad decided to live with that woman. joon young : how can we live without dad? you're always busy. you care more about work than me. it was dad who stayed with me. you were never around. sun woo : don't you know why i lived that way? i did it for you, so i could give you everything you need. you're the most precious thing to me. you're all i have. the utterances above shows in “the world of married”, the affair between lee tae and da kyung revealed even though his married life is perfect. lee tae still in love with another woman and feels that his love for da kyung is different, though he still loves sun woo. in the next scene, da kyung is asked by his father to choose between sun woo or lee tae. his father is ready to accept and will help da kyung to raise the child that she is carrying. however, da kyung prefers lee tae. 7. all decisions have risks. in “the world of married”, the researcher finds the seventh moral value that “all decisions have risks”. the scene of dialogues/utterances revealed the characters as follow: episode 5 lee tae : what else can you do here? sun woo : divorce. don't even think about seeing joon young again. lee tae : he's my son! sun woo : how dare you say that?. if you decided to have fun with another woman, you should've been sure enough to never see your son again. lee tae : i admit i made a mistake. i couldn't help it. but i never intended on leaving my family. it's not a crime to fall in love! sun woo : what? "love"? lee tae : everything was already settled! if you hadn't done what you did, the investment and da kyung would have been settled well. episode 6 lee tae : where's joon young? sun woo : are you sure you want to live with him? did that woman agree? are you going to tell joon young to call that woman you cheated with as his stepmom? you make me sick. lee tae : didn't i apologize for enough? how much more should i beg? you don't realize it, do you? sun woo : you never apologized. it's over now. you can't see joon young anymore. lee tae : what's that supposed to mean? the utterances above show in “the world of married”, sun woo finally asked lee tae to tell her the truth about his affair but lee tae denied it. sun woo told about da kyung's pregnancy and asked lee tae to decide to choose between her or da kyung and lee tae has chosen da kyung instead of her. in the end, sun woo tried to hire a lawyer to fight for child custody. 8. revenge is not a good solution. in “the world of married”, the researcher finds the eighth moral value that “revenge is not a good solution”. the scene of dialogues/utterances revealed the characters as follow: episode 5 sun woo : i slept with je hyuk. lee tae : what? sun woo : i said i slept with je hyuk. 60 lee tae : did you want to get back at me? sun woo : at first, i wanted to get my revenge. but, it felt thrilling once we started. it didn't feel that way when i was with you. lee tae : how can you do this to me? are you out of your mind? je hyuk is my friend! how could you sleep with another man? sun woo : what's the matter? does it make you mad? does it disgust you? is the feeling of betrayal driving you crazy? whatever it is you're feeling right now, make sure you don't forget it. because that's what i felt. episode 6 go, ye rim : you are garbage. that's what you are. sun woo : what about you, who went on a trip with my husband's mistress? go, ye rim : you're garbage just like me. so? sun woo : did you want to get revenge on me? go ye rim : is that why you slept with my husband? sun woo : yes. go, ye rim : you must have wanted to destroy our marriage because yours was destroyed, but no. you failed. you couldn't save your marriage, but i will save mine. this won't threaten our marriage at all. sun woo : i don't care one bit whether or not you get divorced. i simply wanted to tell you the truth. because that's how i felt. because deceiving even you, whom i considered a friend, made me unbearably sad. you are a total fake. i have never considered you a friend. go, ye rim : is that right? had i known that was how you felt, i would've been less sad. the utterances above show in “the world of married”, sun woo began to set and organized a strategic and political way to commit revenge to pay back her husband's action to her. in doing her revenge towards her husband's actions, she slept with je hyuk, go ye rim's husband. they are close friends and close neighbors. 9. avoid violence in the family. in “the world of married”, the researcher finds the ninth moral value that “avoid violence in the family”. the scene of dialogues/utterances revealed the characters as follow: episode 6 lee tae : where joon young is! what did you do to joon young? sun woo : you're the one who destroyed our family. but he took your side. lee tae : stop being crazy if you don't want me to kill you. sun woo : why don't you just go ahead and kill me? i don't want to live anymore! lee tae : i can do anything to make you suffer. sun woo : how do you feel to have lost your child? lee tae : you're the one who made me do this. do you understand? you crazy witch. die. die! sun woo : you darn psycho. lee tae : joon young. thank goodness. joon young. no, it's not what you think. joon young. listen to me, joon young. joon young : don't call my name. i'm not your son anymore. seol myung : sun woo. sun woo. joon young : mom! seol myung : hello? 911? we need an ambulance. hurry. someone got severely injured. episode 6 seol myung : he hit his wife in front of his child and was arrested for assault. min hyun : but what? love? seol myung : have you lost your mind? it's not like that! that woman set him up. 61 min hyun : i reported in kyu for assault. the lawyer says he won't get out easily because he has several priors. sun woo : that's good. it's thanks to you. min hyun : i didn't do anything. it was all you. you showed me by example how to get out of it. i used your situation. i'm the one who said to use it as you wanted. episode 6 kim yoon : how's your injury? are you okay? sun woo : i'm okay. it's all better. kim yoon : joon young was shocked too, wasn't he? that psycho jerk. how dare he beat you up? you can live with a cheater, but not with someone who's violent. sorry about everything. i took our my annoyance at you. sun woo : don't be. i'm the one who's sorry. kim yoon : don't be. i'm the one who's sorry. the utterances above show in “the world of married”, joon young who inevitably has to watch his parents fight where he saw his father openly torturing his mother in front of him. joon young saw his mother fell with full of blood on her head. lee tae is relieved to see sun woo was still alive. after seeing what happened to his mother, joon young determined to choose his mother. he thought lee tae is not his father anymore. 10. children become the victims of the problems of divorced parents. in “the world of married”, the researcher finds the tenth moral value that “children become the victims of the problems from divorced parents”. the scene of dialogues/utterances revealed the characters as follow: episode 13 teacher : i heard you guys separated. may i know whom joon young lives with? sorry if it makes you uncomfortable. but i want to see joon young's situation objectively. lee tae : now he lives with me. i heard he fought with hae kang? is he hurt badly? teacher : joon young only got a few scratches. but, hae kang's condition is much worse. so, his parents took him home. judging from his condition, we think joon young beat him lee tae : what does it mean? are you sure about that? sun woo : we want to talk to joon young. : according to the kids, joon young hit him first."this happened on the basketball court after returning from school. many children witnessed this incident. some children even record videos. sun woo : can we meet with joon young? joon young : it is true. i hit him first. sun woo : why did you hit him? i'm sure you have a reason. you don't want to tell us? lee tae : you have to tell us, joon young. is hae kang mocking your mother again? is that why you hit him? joon young : i stole a bag of chips in an internet cafe. hae kang saw that. he said he would tell everyone. so i say go ahead. he was annoying and underestimated me. sun woo : looks like mommy heard wrong. what did you steal? lee tae : good. suppose you hit hae kang because you were angry. but why are you helping? "why do you do that? it was just a mistake. omma and appa just made a mistake. yes, right? sun woo : however, your actions are wrong. we have to fix it before it's too late. how can you correct the mistakes that have occurred? "isn't that too late? lee tae : you should apologize sincerely and apologize to hae kang and the owner of the cafe. let's do it one by one. the headmaster said, he would conduct a violent hearing at the school. don't we have to meet hae kang's parents first? 62 teacher : omma appa, this is very easy for you. is apologizing making my actions forgivable? is it like that for adults? joon young : i won't go to school here. i will go out. the problem is finished. episode 13 sun woo : "why do you ask if he smokes? i just ignored it at the time. but, did something happen? lee tae : da kyung said she smelled cigarettes. sun woo : that's probably because he was at an internet cafe. the smell of cigarettes will stick if there long enough. maybe he is uncomfortable in your house. he didn't do this while living with me. the worst thing he ever did was just play hooky. he looks like a very different child now. lee tae : you mean he has problems after living with me? sun woo : i'm asking if something happened that i don't know about? lee tae : how do i know that joon young just doesn't talk? do chul, hae kang's father said, they are in the hospital and will take the medical records. and will ask for a trial for violence. episode 12 sun woo : all of these problems started because of the divorce, right? it's over anyway. you saw each other's bitter ends. lee tae : you're not even sure. sun woo : did you have to ask him when he was going to school? do you think it's puberty that made him do this? could i see joon young right now? lee tae : why are you seeing him again after all that? you making amends won't resolve everything. you must know this well since you're a doctor…. kleptomania needs medical attention. sun woo : don't rush to leave here. lee tae : are you sure you can raise him well without me? the utterances above shows in “the world of married”, joon young is a victim of his parent’ problems. because of the scandals and the fights he had seen, it left deep psychological scars and mental development on joon young. joon young has a condition that often stole his friends' belongings and other things or kleptomania. discussion in literature, a writer or author can communicate with the readers of a literary work, they can understand what the author messages. literary work produced by people as a part to express ideas, feeling, or describing someone or something. people can enjoy exploring the story of literary works but also taking messages in literary work from the film or movie. the author expresses his or her feelings, thinks, ideas, arguments, and messages in a form of literary work such as in a movie or drama. moral value belongs to literature, therefore, the moral values within the literature are going to decide what the readers must do after reading a plot and understanding the characters’ utterances and behavior within the literature. in a korean drama tv series entitled “the world of married”, the characters in the story reflects some moral values. from the movie, the readers and audiences can find the moral values based on the explanation and descriptions given by the characters in the story specifically, both in the behavior or the utterances in the story. the description of the moral values found in “the world of married” as follow: first, there is no perfect family life. there are always problems that come up. in the story, sun woo is a woman who works as a family doctor. he has a husband named lee tae, a film entrepreneur. they have a very good life with a successful career. from their marriage, they have one son named joon young. sun woo and lee tae's marriage life seems very harmonious. until her husband committed betrayal to destroy their domestic life towards a divorce. 63 second, honesty is the key to family life. honesty is an easy word to say, but the fact is often difficult to do. this is what happened to lee tae, who at first glance saw no problems with his marriage life, although he kept a big secret that brought his family to the brink of destruction. third, have principles in choosing or deciding something. the affair can not be just onesided. married couples need to maintain their commitment and be firm in principle. in the story, lee tae has been blinded by another woman and betrayed his wife, sun woo. lee tae loves his wife and his other woman, a young woman named da kyung. fourth, loyal to a partner and have no affair with another person. it is not a sin to love someone, but the wrong thing is betraying your partner for another love. in the story, lee tae ‘loves’ two women at once, sun woo and da kyung. therefore, we must choose and must be firm from the beginning in making choices, especially when we are committed. in an affair, two people are wrong. not just the actor, but the couple who welcomed the 'temptation' was even more wrong. fifth, be careful in choosing a best friend. in sharing things especially marriage or our problems with friends, we must be more careful because it can backfire to us. in the story, sun woo recounted his marriage problems to seol myung as his coworker and go yem rim as her neighbor regarding her suspicions of her cheating husband where seol myung already knew about it and she lied and hid lee tae’s affair from sun woo. enemy characters in real blankets are also seen in this drama. not only seol myung but sun woo also betrayed by her other friends. sun woo's friends knew that lee tae is cheating but they decided not to tell sun woo instead they helped lee tae to keep his affair as a secret from his wife. sixth, love the wrong person (love is blind). love is indeed not a sin or a crime. however, loving someone while that person still in a marriage relationship is the wrong thing. in the story, lee tae had an affair with da kyung even his marriage life is perfect. le tae felt his love for dakyung is different and at the same time, he loves sun woo too. seventh, all decisions have risks. after suspecting her husband lee tae, sun woo decided to have a divorce. she tried to find and collect evidence of her husband's affair with da kyung. then he went to see a lawyer and tried to take custody of his son. every parent's divorce has always a risk. eighth, revenge is not a good solution. when she knew her husband, lee tae, was having an affair, she was struggling to deal with the problem. starting from meeting a lawyer, suing for a divorce, obtaining custody of her child then she decided to take revenge. sun woo has a 'love' relationship with go ye rim’s husband, je hyuk, sun woo’s friend. go ye rim is sun woo's neighbor and friend but she knew and hid lee tae 's affair with da kyung by having a vacation with lee tae, da kyung, and other sun woo friends. ninth, avoid violence in the family. joon young who originally intended to live with his father increasingly suffered when he saw his parents arguing. he witnessed how his mother laid on the floor in a weak condition and was seriously injured after being hit by her father. after seeing what his father did to his mother, joon young decided to live with his mother. he does not even think lee tae as his father anymore. tenth, children become victims of the problems of divorced parents. close to the end of “the world of the married” showed how their son became a victim. joon young, a good obedient boy then turned into a naughty child after the divorce of his parents. joon young has become a kleptomania. this is a behavioral disorder that makes people steal or shoplift. joon young is financially sufficient but he often steals his friends' belongings. conclusion literary work produced by people as a part to express ideas, feeling, or describing someone or something. people do not only enjoy in exploring the story of literary works but also taking messages or moral values that express in a literary work, such as in the drama/film/movie. the author expresses his or her feelings, thinks, ideas, arguments, and messages in a form of literary work such as in a movie or drama entitled “the world of married”. some moral values will be obtained and reflect from the characters. in “the world of married”, the readers and audiences can find the moral values based on the explanation and 64 descriptions given by the characters in the story specifically, both in the behavior or the utterances in the story. the tenth moral values are found from the story are there is no perfect family life, honesty is the key to family life, have principles in choosing or deciding something, loyal to a partner and have no affair with another person, be careful in choosing a best friend, love the wrong person (love is blind), all decisions have risks, revenge is not a good solution, avoid violence in the family and children become victims of the problems from divorced parents. references collins, s. (2015). the core of care ethics. new york: springer. davies, d. (2007). aesthetics and literature. great britain: bloomsbury publishing. d’souza, a. (2005). christian ethics and moral values. new delhi: mittal publications. endraswara, s. (2008). metode penelitian psikologi sastra: teori, langkah dan penerapannya. bekasi: media pressindo. faizun, a. s. (2018). an analysis of moral value in maher zain’s song lyrics. an analysis of moral value in maher zain’s song lyrics. http://repository.umrah.ac.id/186/ fitriani, r. (2017). an analysis of moral values in novel “oliver twist” by charles dickens. jurnal ilmiah mahasiswa fkip prodi bahasa inggris, 2(1), article 1. http://ejournal.upp.ac.id/index.php/binggrisfkip/article/view/668 gulla, a. (2010a). creating values in life: personal, moral, spiritual, family, and social values. bloomington: author house. gulla, a. (2010b). creating values in life: personal, moral, spiritual, family, and social values. bloomington: author house. kadam, a. (2017, agustus). what are the moral values? quora. https://www.quora.com/whatare-moral-values king, n., & king, s. (2002). dictionary of literature in english. great britain: taylor & francis. kinneging, a. (2016, july 13). defining moral values. intercollegiate studies institute: think. live free. https://isi.org/intercollegiate-review/defining-moral-values/ mcnamara, c. (2012, january 3). what are values, morals, and ethics? business ethics, culture, and performance. https://managementhelp.org/blogs/business-ethics/2012/01/02/whatare-values-morals-and-ethics/ merriam-webster. (2004). merriam-webster’s collegiate dictionary: eleventh edition. merriamwebster. moor, r. a. de. (1995). values in western societies. netherlands: brill. nurgiyantoro, b. (2018). teori pengkajian fiksi. yogyakarta: ugm press. sapontzis, s. f. (2012). subjective morals. usa: university press of america. stevenson, a. (2010). oxford dictionary of english. new york: oup oxford. west, r. (2015). marriage, sexuality, and gender. new york: routledge. acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol. no. 202_ https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity revealing students’ responds on the use of flipgrid in speaking class: survey on ict trisnendri syahrizal,1 , mundriyah y pamungkas2 trisnendri syahrizal, email: trisnendri@ikipsiliwangi.ac.id ikip siliwangi, indonesia doi: 10.35974/acuity.v6i2.2459 abstract along with the development of the 4.0 era, the use of ict media is not a new thing in the world of education. many previous studies have integrated various technology-based media (ict) with language learning including speaking lessons. one of the platforms that is, currently, being widely used is flipgrid. the main objective of this research is to reveal how students respond to the use of flipgrid as an ict-based media that focuses on speaking. the research method used is qualitative method. the instruments used in this study were questionnaires and interviews. from the results of the study, it was found that there were 26 respondents of positive responses from the accessibility, internet connectivity, psychological fulfillment, the interactive features and 16 respondents of negative responses of students to the use of the flipgrid application ranging from competitiveness, equipment, and originality. the most positive responses that arise are that this application is easy to use, while the most negative responses that arise are difficulties or the upload process is quite long. it can be concluded that the flipgrid application has more positive responses than negative responses, so that this application can be used by teachers and lecturers in the speaking class. keywords: ict, flipgrid, speaking skill introduction the new challenge for all people around the world including indonesia happen in 2019 due to the strike of covid-19. this condition crates a major and unique transformation in all spheres of life like in social, economic, politics, labor including education. all government including indonesia creates new emergency policy to support the continuity of education using certain technological supports and remote learning system to stop the spread of the virus (zhang, wang, yang, & wang, 2020). moreover, governments in most developing countries have responded to the challenge by initiating national programs to introduce computers into education (katemba, 2020). in march 2020 the minister of indonesia lunched the policy on revitalizing distance learning for all level of education. the main purpose of giving an online learning to give a meaningful learning activity for all students and protect the form the virus (kementrian kebudayaan dan pendidikan, 2020). this objective then initiates the greater use of information and communication technologies, teacher do more exploration on what kind of corresponding author: trisnendri syahrizal, english education study program, ikip siliwangi, indonesia. email:trisnendri@ikipsiliwangi.ac.id https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity mailto:trisnendri@ikipsiliwangi.ac.id 97 tool that may support the proces of learning and give a meaningfull learning for students. before the pademic, teacher has limited exploration on the tool used, but after the pandenic teacher uses more tools and apps. while teacher exploring various tool, on the other hand, students face a new form of chalenges and difficulties, they struggle to get involed in all activity using various techological tools. during the involment, students face dificulty to engage with all learning processes and it may display behaviors that prohibit them from accessing instruction, have attentional issues distracting them from instruction, or lack the confidence to participate fully in instruction (rila, estrapala, & bruhn, 2019). by this condition this reseach tries to reveal the students respond on the use o particular ict tool for teaching called flipgrid. there are various research related to the teacher perception toward the use of technology in learning but the research on what the students responds on the use of particular tools is fairly limited. besides, in the research from (bali & liu, 2018), they mention that students feel online learning is less satisfied compared to face-to-face learning, this condition may be caused by the limited engagement, participation, and comfort. furthermore, the fact that disclosing the students respon is as important as know how effective a prticular ict tools in teaching. students is the object of the learning, they should able to achive al the learning objective therefore their participation is crucial. besides the challenges that students’ face, teacher also have a problem in using ict in learning such as limited knowledge on what technology best supports specific learning aims and objectives (petersen, townsend, & onaka, 2020). by this conditions, teacher should do more exploration and self-improvement because the fact that ict can support the teaching and learning process is undeniable. as ghavifekr, afshari, & amla (2012) mention that schools and other educational institutions including teacher are supposed to prepare students to live in “a knowledge society” need to consider ict integration in their curriculum. in line with this chapelle (2002) states that utilizing computer technology in classroom is able to enhance students’ linguistic input. moreover, in technology-based procedures, a specific framework is required to integrate technology as a tool to aid learning (townsend & cronin, 2017). this explanation shows the urgency on the use of ict in teaching in order to bridge the students in their knowledge. in conjunction, another study showed that students tend to have a positive attitude towards online learning, especially if the activity promotes student friendliness towards others and it is socially engaging (dogoriti, 2015). moreover, purnawarman, sundayana, & susilawati (2016), mention that online learning can facilitate the students to have wider social interaction. in learning english having speaking skill is important knowledge that should be mastered by the students therefore teacher should help the students to reach that skill. speaking is a productive skill that may help students and the language user to communicate with other and built their relationships. speaking skill is the most important skill to acquire foreign or second language learning. among the four key language skills, speaking is deemed to be the most important skill in learning a foreign or second language (rao, 2019) (hutabarat & simanjuntak, 2019), but speaking also becomes a problem for some students in understanding english they feel difficult and uncomfortable when they have to speak. they are in doubt to express their sentences in english (inayah & lisdawati, 2017). in this current situation teacher have many options on what kinds of tool that might use for teaching speaking skill in order to solve the students’ problem. teacher can use any online discussion forum (abu bakar, latiff, & hamat, 2013), teacher can also use online conference tools, youtube, tedtalks and others (curry, 2020). other tools that majorly used in this era is flipgrid. 98 there are several researches related to the use of flipgrid in teaching; stoszkowski j (2018), mcclure & mcandrews (2016), mclain (2018), (carrie & timothy, 2020, (moran, 2018), all found that flipgrid has a lot of benefit for the students ranging from young to adult learner. flipgrid also can be use in many learning subjects such as language, egineering, physics, and many others. flipgrid is an online video discussion platform designed to empower learners and facilitate social interaction between students (stoszkowski j. , 2018). related to speaking skill, mcclure & mcandrews (2016) mentioned that flipgrid was recognized as a low-stakes platform that helped students in their public speaking skills. by this two pervious study we then can see that flipgrid provides alternatives for students to become more comfortable and easier to share their video in an ever-changing technological world. other finding on the use of flipgrid is a study from undergraduate business university students in south korea which reported that students became more comfortable speaking in english via videos after using flipgrid over the period of a semester course (mclain, 2018) in this era of social media, video has become more and more famous, and students are very familiar in using video for attracting their social living. video response technologies, which are social interfaces allowing people to engage and collaborate with others, have recently gained great popularity (katemba & ning, 2018). a specific video response technology, flipgrid, can be a valuable experiential learning tool, and enables educators to engage students in a variety of learning and assessment activities (carrie & timothy, 2020). moreover, flipgrid is an online platform that offers students a chance to connect with the instructor and materials more often, and within their comfort zone (moran, 2018). the impact of the view also felt by the teacher, video let the teacher has a wider time to assess the products of the students. as dunbar (2019) mention that when students demonstrate their knowledge and skills through video recording, it allows the instructor to provide a more critical and accurate assessment of their knowledge. by the definition, we can see there are two important variables, first is how teacher can support the students in having a meaningful learning by selecting a proper tool such as flipgrid for speaking so that students will not feel boredom during the learning process. as wood (2018) mentioned that the majority of current university students are millennials, who have exhibited boredom with traditional teaching methods so that the teacher should find a best way to escape the students from this issue. second is how to find the students respond on the use of particular tools. this research focuses on the second variable, this research has an objective to disclose the responds of the students at one of the university in cimahi, west java on their experience in using flipgrid in their speaking class. this research is expected to give a brief explanation on how the students reacts toward the use of flipgrid. the result of this research is also expected to give a brief information for the teacher who wish to use flipgrid in the class so they could optimize the benefits of the flipgrid and minimize the weakness of this tools. methods as a qualitative study, this research picturized detail information regarding students’ responses on the use of particular tool called flipgrid. as we know, the purpose of qualitative research is to describe and interpret issues or phenomena systematically from the point of view of the individual or population being studied and to generate new concepts and theories (mohajan, 2018). this research gives a detail point of view of students after using flipgrid, and can be used as an information for teacher whether this application is suitable for the students or can 99 be used to help the teacher to anticipate the issues that may emerge during the use of flipgrid. there are various settings that may be solved using this qualitative study such as case study, open-ended interview, participant observation, counseling, therapy and others (cibangu, 2012). this research reached its objective of the study by using open-ended interview and questioners. this research took one semester from september to december 2020, there are sixteen meeting in total and eight times using flipgrid. during the research the researcher who also act as teacher introduced flipgrid to all subjects. after all students have an ability to use the flipgrid, they begin to use the flipgrid bi-weekly in the 2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th, 10th, 12th, 14th, and 16th meeting. in every meeting students were asked to upload their speaking project to flipgrid, the teacher also asked the students to use all features form such as like, comments, video comments, reaction and others. in the fifteenth meeting, besides uploading the video, the students were also asked to fill the google form as an online questioner. after all the data from the questioner were gathered the researcher invited 25 students as the interviewee. the question of the interview is an openended question and used to validate the data gathered from the questioner. the 25 students were randomly selected and all interviewees participated in the questioner. all data from the questioners were then classified, identified and extracted using microsoft excel, while the interview were conducted using whatsapp call and was recorded so that the researcher can reobserved the content of the interview. research design this study utilized a qualitative design. the teacher assisted the students to use the flipgrid during the learning proses and using it as a media for submitting the speaking projects. during the proses, students are actively using the tools but faces several obstacles that leads them to a discussions with the teacher. on the other hand, students also face a new experience in their speaking class. by this phenomena, the research then facilitated students to express their respond on using flipgrid through answering the open-ended questions online. all the responses in both negative and positive were then recorded into excel. after all responses were collected the researcher initiated the interview. by this design the researcher gathered detail and deeply of the students’ opinion on the use of flipgrid, at the end of this research the students showed positive and the negative responses research participants and sampling procedures this research involved 177 students, all of the subjects use flipgrid in helping to understand the material and producing a speaking products. all subjects answer the questioners related to their response in using flipgrid in their speaking class. after filling the questioners, 25 students were randomly selected for an interview. both questionnaires and interview were delivered using online media, goggle form for the online questioner while whatsapp call for the interview part. data collection the data were collected using questioner and interview in order to have a valid and reliable information regarding the positive and the negative response of students in using flipgrid. the questioners were given to students after 14 meetings. the questions of the questioner are objected to reveal the response of the students. 100 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 a tt ra ct s tu d e n ts i n te re st e a sy t o f in d it in t h e a p p s… c a n g e n e ra te s u b ti tl le c a n g iv e c o m m e n ts c o n n e ct t o s o ci a l m e d ia c o o l a p p s e a sy t o a cs e ss e a sy t o u se f re e a p p s f u n t o u se h e lf u ll a p p s im p ro v e c re a ti vi ty im p ro v e d ig it a l lit e ra cy in te ra ct iv e w e b d e si gn lo o k lik e a s o ci a l m e d ia lo w b a n d w it h m o ti va te s tu d e n ts t o s p e a k n o t b o rr in g a p p s p e e r f e e d b a ck p re vi e w in g b e fo re … p ri v a cy s a ve r e fl e ct io n a n d s e lf … s a ve p h o n e m e m o ry s e e o th e r vi d e o … s e lf a ss e sm e n t h a ve s ti ck e rs 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 results the result of the study after analyzing the questioners and interview result it was found out that students have more positive than negative responses. there are 26 respondents of the positive responses on the use of flipgrid ranging from the accessibility, internet connectivity, psychological fulfillment, and the interactive features. the complete positive response can be seen in figure 1. figure 1: positive response on flipgrid other result found from this study, there are 16 respondents of the negative response ranging from competitiveness, equipment, and originality. the detail information can be seen in figure 2. figure 2: negative response on flipgrid 101 discussion positive response figure 1 describes that there are several responses related to the use of flipgrid ranging from the easiness in using the application to the psychological sector of the students such as feeling secured with their privacy, self-reflections, and having a good motivation. on the interview, the 6 interviewees said that this application helps them to feel save because they don’t need to share it publicly and that only a particular group of people who may get access to the video. on the other hand, participants stated that, flipgrid help them to access online social media and other social platforms, it indicates that some students feel comfortable to publish their works. this finding is in line with the idea of the compatibility, it says that flipgrid is a compatible platform that can engage with other application such as social media or the lms; google classroom, microsoft teams and others (carrie & timothy, 2020). similar opinion also conducted by antonius, sugeng, monika, & charito (2020) who mention that one of the respons from the students of online media is the compatibility of tools to access the media. the highest positive respond level is on the easiness of using this tools, 35 students agree that this tool is easy to use, this finding is in line with the study conducted by smart & cappel (2006). moreover, sixteen interviewees also mention that this tool is easy to use, students can follow all instructions given by the teacher to use and to exploration. students also said that even if the instruction from the teacher is limited they can simply follow the instruction in flipgrid or find some other tutorial from youtube. moreover, the other reason why this tool is easy it is that students do not need to create an account or ‘sign-up’; they simply just need the web link for their grid, which is free to access. this helps reduce any potential ‘overload’ of platforms in their existing digital ecosystem (stoszkowski, mccarthy, & fonseca, 2017). this finding also in-line with the data from the figure.1, there are 22 students who stated that this tool is easy to access. collaboration is another response that was underlined by the participants, this collaboration mostly discovered in the term of giving and responding the comments from the uploaded video. students said that by giving a comment in both video and text can facilitate them to discuss with their friends such as how their video look likes, what should be improved, and whether they like it or not. through this collaboration we also find the idea of peerfeedback. syahrizal and rahayu (2020) mentioned that peer feedback are very beneficial in sustaining powerful learning process. from the interview, the interviewees mentioned that the comments features give them access to assess their friend and their work. other term that emerged is the reflection and self-assessment, one participant in the question said about it and 5 interviewees also say that they can assess themselves and reflect what the weakness and the strength of their speaking projects. other related response is that the students feel convenient in using flipgrid, students said that flipgrid give the opportunity to work without time dependent, they can work asynchronously. this kind of learning really help students to manage their time, internet connectivity, and hardware availability. thomas and jones (2017) said that asynchronous and not timeor place-dependent, benefits ‘commuter students’ who live off-campus and are more likely to experience challenges in relation to their engagement beyond the classroom. from the interview, the interviewees also mentioned that they have more freedom to make a good quality video for their speaking project. students also love the flexibility. neves & hillman in 2017 also appreciate the flexibility offered by flipgrid. the web design and the features are other positive response that were stressed out by the students. students find that by recording the video they can use some stickers and filters 102 that make their speaking project looks more attractive. these features surely make students to be more creative, figure 1 also shows that flipgrid helps them to improve their creativity. we can see that students said it is fun to use the stickers and filters and that this app is not boring, it is fun. flipgrid is a cool application. other element mentioned by the interviewees is that video makes them less boring, they like to watch a video rather than reading. students appear to prefer watching one another speaking on video than reading written materials, which they perceive to be time-consuming and ‘boring’. students with less developed writing and reading skills also appear to prefer video-based interaction. (carrie & timothy, 2020). in relation to the use of internet connection, students agreed that this tool use fairly low bandwidth and small amount of phone storage. the students who participated in this research use laptop and phone and they can easily access it. antonius, sugeng, monika, and charito (2020) mentioned that the benefits of this tool can be categorized into three factors: first is availability and sustainability of internet connection, second is accessibility of teaching media, and the last is its compatibility of tools to access the media. negative response figure 2 gives a brief list of the negative responses on the use of the flipgrid. first negative response can be categorized as a competitiveness. as it is common that on many social media platforms, videos can be liked or hearted to show agreement or approval. this can lead to competitiveness, with the confidence of some students potentially dented if a video receives fewer views or likes than others. flipgrid also share the same idea where students can “like” or “dislike” a video, this situation leads to negative response of the students, they feel uncomfortable when they get less “like”. they feel to be liked when more “like” where they have the bigger score, so it is very important for the teacher to debrief the students that the function of ”like” is just to get a social interaction with other students but not as a scoring standard. in line with this, a few students were uncomfortable about being “on screen”, with some voicing concerns that their appearance would be “judged” by their peers. consideration should therefore be given to the suitability of the platform for introverts, although research has suggested that introverted students prefer communicating via social media and in person (voorn & kommers, 2013) to access and use the platform, students must have a suitable digital device (i.e. camera and microphone) and a good internet connection. students who have old or low specification phones or tablets with a low sound and picture quality may feel inferior to that of the newer and high specification gadgets, this may create problems. from the figure we can see that some students have limited phone storage, low internet connection, difficulty in uploading the video, low video quality, lagging apps due to low quality of the device, low video sound quality, and error in uploading the video also due to limited internet quota. students in both interview and questioner complained that this activity need a huge amount of internet data. students also feel worries about being duplicated by other students, they feel that there is a huge possibility that their work can be copied and eventually effecting the final score. conclusion from both questioners and interview we can see that students shared both negative and positive responses. there are 26 respondents of positive responds ranging for the accessibility, internet connectivity, psychological fulfillment, the interactive features of flipgrid. on the accessibility and ease of use of the tools students mentioned that this tool is easy to use, easy to access. they can use the tools from their pc, laptop, phone, or tablet. they do not need to “log in” as long as teacher shares them the link. on internet connectivity, students said that this tool uses a 103 fairly low bandwidth. and on psychological fulfillment they feel happy in using this tools it has various feature such as filters and stickers. moreover, they also said that this tool helps them to do peer-feedback and self-assessment in the same time, where they can improve the quality of their speaking projects. using flipgrid also allows them to communicate and collaborate with other students by using the comments features in both text and video. on the other hand, the negative responses of flipgrid were presented by 16 respondents. they mentioned of competitiveness, equipment, and originality. students feel the sense of competition in flipgrid is very high and it makes them feel uncomfortable. moreover, limited internet data, and limited supporting devise make them face a lot of difficulties in uploading the video, maintaining the quality of the sound, and having a good resolution of the video. these conditions cause their phone to lag and cause a domino effect to their speaking activity. in case of originality, they afraid their video will be duplicated. these two kinds of responses show that flipgrid has more positive rather than negative responses. by this the teacher can use this tool to support the learning process especially in the speaking class. in minimizing the obstacle in using the flipgrid teacher should have a clear and deep communication with the students and also giving then a continuous support and assistance. references abu bakar, n., latiff, h., & hamat, a. 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(2017). student engagement in the context of commuter students. london: the student engagement partnership. retrieved from www.tsep.org.uk/resources townsend, s., & cronin, a. l. (2017). the universal access framework: an architecture for uniting learning with mobile phones. . (29th international conference on teaching, education and learning (ictel). bangkok, thailand . voorn, r., & kommers, p. (2013). social media and higher education: introversion and collaborative learning from the student’s perspective. international journal of social media and interactive learning environments, 59-73. wood, j. (2018). college students in study spend 8 to 10 hours daily on cell phone. retrieved from https://psychcentral.com/news/2014/08/31/new-study-finds-cell-phone-addictionincreasingly-realistic-possibility/74312.html zhang, w., wang, y., yang, l., & wang, c. (2020). suspending classes without stopping learning: china’s education emergency management policy in the covid-19 outbreak. jrfm, 1-6. acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 179 learning styles and attitude toward achievement among english second language students nuning nur naenah naenah.nuningnur@gmail.com faculty of teachers training and educational science, universitas advent indonesia doi: 10.35974/acuity.v7i2.2607 abstract english as a second language (esl) is a mandatory class for international students when they come to study abroad, particularly those who come from unspoken english country. this study aims to identify the correlation between learning styles and attitude of aiias esl students and their academic achievement. the respondents of this study were thirty-two students. using pearson r correlation, this study showed that no correlation in the respondents' achievement among the six types of reid’s learning style (the highest r-value is ≤ 0, 209 while the lowest is ≥ 0, 263). however, in contrast, the attitude and achievement in this study showed a positive correlation. among the three aspects of attitude, the emotion and achievement are significantly correlated (r value: 0.487; p value: 0.005). meanwhile, the cognitive and attitude is significantly correlated with the r value: 0,427 (p value: = 0.05). the weakest correlation with their attitude is behaviour where the r value is only 0.201 (p value = 0.269). thus, students are aware of their own learning styles in learning new language. in terms of attitude, students maintain a positive attitude toward learning english to achieve good grades in their learning process. keywords: esl, learning style, attitude, achievement, correlation. introduction english as a second language (esl) is a class where foreign students should attend before regularly accepted in foreign university. one of the institutions where many students study is aiias (adventist international institute of advanced studies), located in silang, philippines. as an international institution, this school utilizes english as medium of teaching and learning. before attending regular classes, students coming from countries where english is not their mother tongue should take an english proficiency test. however, only a few can directly pass this test; most of them who fail to pass the test should take class in esl until they are proven ready to study regularly, either in seminary or in graduate school. as the students attend the esl class, most of them are not able to reach the passing score that allows them to be regular students, and so they have to spend more time and money in studying in the program of esl. they should pass the course where students learning english must be able to communicate effectively in order to overcome linguistic barriers ( katemba & buli, 2018) . further the esl students or the english as a foreign language learner students find it more difficult to read and comprehend reading in english (siagian & katemba, 2016). https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity mailto:naenah.nuningnur@gmail.com acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 180 studies show that there are various factors commonly found related to the learning process of esl students. kendal hanus (2016) demonstrated that international students in esl class mostly face challenges in academic achievement and their effort to survive in a foreign country and adjust to new social life, culture, and behaviour. further, katemba (2022) stated that learning a language is impossible without comprehending the words, and not knowing the words limits proper expression of thoughts and intentions to others. in terms of learning a new language, sham (cited in eshghinejad 2016), found out that the ability of the learners to study foreign language mostly related to their anxiety, attitude, learning style, motivation, personality, etc. el-omari (2016) studied four factors, namely, attitudinal factor, socioeconomic factor, social factor, and extracurricular factor, which affecting the achievement among esl students in jordan and arab countries. in the context of aiias esl class, solomon (2004) identified that another factor which affected students’ performance in aiias esl class was understanding the instruction from the teachers. among all the factors related to the learning process of esl students mentioned above, learning style and attitude of aiias esl class and their correlation to their achievement were the focus of this study. the rationale for choosing this topic was because the researcher wanted to inquire whether or not these two factors, learning styles and attitude, contributed to the students’ achievement. it was hoped that this study could help the students maximize their esl performance and, in turn, by understanding their learning styles and attitude toward learning english, minimize the number of failures. to the best of the researcher’s knowledge, very few studies found a correlation between learning styles and attitude to the achievement with the implication to the students’ performance in esl, particularly in aiias esl class. learning styles vaughn and baker (2007) explained that learning style is “learning variation between individuals in the way they approach learning tasks.” pashler et al. (2008) demonstrated that learning style is the technique in which each learner starts to "concentrate, process, absorb, and retain new and difficult information." pashler et al. also describe that learning styles can be seen as "a description of the attitude and behaviors which determine an individual’s "preferred way of learning." yasin (2012) demonstrated that by knowing their own learning process, students will be motivated to study and to engage in class’s learning activity. in turn, it can help to simplify the learning and teaching process. he also pointed out a conflict when teachers enforce a certain learning style to their esl students. students who insisted to learn in such conditions "may not interact in class which causes a lack of participation, lack of comprehension, and lack of attention and consequently low-test scores." seeing this importance, therefore, most current research shifts from language learning methodology to learning style (tuan, n.d). according to reid (1995), there are six learning styles: visual, tactile, auditory, group, kinaesthetic, and individual learning style. an individual with visual learning styles learns efficiently from seeing words in written material, whiteboard, chalkboard, workbooks, and understands and memorizes when reading the reading material directly. learning styles are pointers to help an individual in order to find his or her own best way of acquiring https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 181 knowledge. keefe (cited in reid, 1995) stated that “learning styles are stable indicators of how a learner perceives, interest with, and response to the required learning environment.” visual learner. an individual with visual learning style usually learn better alone with book without any oral explanations. ernest (2008) supported the above idea by saying that “visual learners need to see the teacher’s body language and facial expression to understand the content of a lesson fully. they tend to prefer sitting in the front row of the classroom and learn best from visual displays including; diagrams, illustrated textbooks, overhead transparencies, videos, flipcharts, and handouts.” moreover, he stated that visual learners tend to take notes to get and understand the information during the lecture. tactile learners. according to reid (1995), tactile learners learn intensively through experiencing the materials and doing things related to the lesson. activities such as doing experiments in a laboratory, using and construction models, touching, and working with materials will present a successful learning situation for tactile learners. according to etleen (2001), tactile and kinaesthetic learning styles are similar. tactile and kinaesthetic learners acquire the lesson material well when their physical activities such as hands-on activity. ernest (2008) pointed out that tactile learners “learn best through a hands-on approach, actively exploring the physical world around them. they may find it hard to sit still for long periods and may become distracted by their need for activity and exploration.” auditory learners. those who are auditory learners learn best by hearing words spoken and oral explanations. an individual with auditory learning styles remembers information well by reading aloud or moving lips, especially when learning new material. etleen (2001) said that auditory learners ideally learn by listening to a lecture and participating in group discussions. oral presentations and group discussions will be the best way for auditory learners to learn and acquire the lesson material. group learners. in terms of group learners, reid (1995) explained that students with this style learn best when studying together with others. an individual with a group learning style usually gets information better when working with at least two classmates. jigsaw (2005) supported this idea by saying, “not only do learning groups provide students with content information, but they provide ‘hands-on practice’ in areas of teamwork, responsibility, cooperation, and tolerance.” group learners always learn effectively through verbal language (verbalization), where the situation is never quiet for a significant length of time. kinaesthetic learners. reid (1995) stated that kinaesthetic learners typically use hand gestures and other body language on their way to communicate. by being active and participating in all learning activities, those with kinaesthetic learning styles will get all the information. in his website about perceptual learning styles, reid explained that kinaesthetic learners learn by doing and direct involvement such as gestures in speaking, often poor in listening, response to music, tries things out and likes to manipulate objects and uses movement to help in concentrate. individual learners. reid (1995) stated that individual learners usually learn effectively when working alone. the individual learner will be more private, introspective and https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 182 independent in learning. sprenger (cited in rangigisan, 2010) said that “it is true that many students, especially adult age students, prefer to work alone because that is the way they have operated over since they started going to school”. learning style has been found to influence esl students in studying english (wong, 2015). using the learning style survey instrument based on reid's questionnaire, abidin, rezaee, abdullah, & singh (2011) reveal that, in general, there is a significant relationship between learning styles and academic achievement. they have found that high, moderate, and low achievers at all achievement levels show a similar preference pattern. chermahini, ghanbari, & talab (2013), using kolb's learning style inventory, indicated that there was a significant relationship between learning styles and students' performance in studying english. according to this result, the students' performance differently resulted in four categories with different learning style preferences. this study encourages educators to improve students' performance based on their learning styles preference. in contrast to the result above, johari and ahmad (2016) and gohar and sadeghi (2016) revealed in their study that there is no significant difference between students' learning styles to their achievement. moreover, wilkinson, boohanand stevenson (2014), and ishak and awang (2017) found no correlation between learning style and achievement. attitude attitude can be influenced by and can influence beliefs, affect, and behavior concerning the attitude. allport (cited in alhmali 2007) stated that attitude is “a mental or neural state of readiness, organized through experience, exerting a directive or dynamic influence upon the individual’s response to all objects and situations with which it is related.” in relation to learning a second language, gardner (1985) pointed out that attitude, together with motivation, are “influential in second language acquisition.” gardner found out that the students who have a positive attitude “would take an assessment more seriously, would find it more rewarding to simply experience the language, and thus achieve more.” fakeye (2010) elucidated that attitude was one of the most important factors in language learning. in the initial part of their study, bot, lowie, & vespoor suggest that students can learn better a second language if they have a positive attitude toward the language they are studying (bot, lowie, & verspoor, 2005). attitude relates to “what they think and how they evaluate the target language, the target language speakers, culture and of course, the learning setting” (gheitasy, azizifar, & habib, 2014). in general, there are three aspects of attitude that have become the subjects of this study, namely: behavioral, cognitive, and emotional. these three components are called “pedagogical component.” (santilan, garcia, castro, abdala, & trejo, 2012). behavior. the behavioral aspect refers to how one responds to a particular situation (abidin, et al, 2012). kara (2009) demonstrated that students with a positive attitude could absorb the subject and learn more. they are also proved to handle or solve a problem, get what is essential for their daily life, and have a good emotional in their relationship. cognitive. the cognitive aspect deals with language learners’ beliefs about the knowledge they study and understand in the process of learning (abidin, et al, 2012). moreover, they stated that there are four steps of cognitive aspect: “connecting the previous knowledge https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 183 and the new one, creating new knowledge, checking new knowledge, and applying the latest knowledge in many situations. emotion. the emotional aspect is about the emotion involved in language learning. feng and chen (2009) stated that a learning process is a process involving emotion. both teachers and students are affected by various elements of emotion; as a result, the various fruits of emotion bear. according to them, emotion deals with “a series of psychological phenomena, such as feeling, inner experience, need, desire, value pursuit, and so on.” methods this study is descriptive correlation in nature. in terms of descriptive analysis, thomas, nelson, and silverman (2010) defined that descriptive research is “concerned with status”. in other words, the purpose of descriptive research is to describe and make interpretations about the current status of individuals, objects, settings, conditions, or events (mertler, 2005). therefore, information of the learning styles preference, attitude, their gender, length of study, and achievement of the esl learners were recorded. then, the researcher analysed the correlation of learning styles and attitude toward the attitude was tested with the proper statistical analysis. instruments to inquire about the learning style preference of the respondents, the researcher utilized the likert scale of reid's perceptual learning style preference questionnaire (plspq). the researcher had tried to contact prof. reid to ask her permission to use her questionnaire in this study, including contacting the english department of university of wyoming where was last informed that she used to work. however, as far as the researcher had tried, the result was null. examining that this questionnaire is publicly and commonly used by researchers as found on the internet, the researcher considered that this questionnaire is public domain. a questionnaire developed by eshghinejad (2016) was used by permission to inquire about the respondents' attitudes toward english. in terms of achievement, the respondents were asked to inform their final grade. subsequently, based on the result of the questionnaire, the correlation between the learning style preference and attitude to the academic achievement of was measured by the pearson r test. population and sampling techniques the population of this study was the students who are studying in adventist international institute advance studies and have attended esl class for the academic year 2015-2017. all in all, there are thirty-two respondents in this study with different nationalities. during the study, some of them had passed esl, and some were still taking the class. in this study, the researcher utilized convenience sampling. vanderstoep and johnston (2009) explained that convenience sampling is a way of choosing respondents which “involve people whom the researcher knows or people who live close to the research site.” therefore, the usage of this sampling method in this study is based on two considerations. first, it is based on the availability of the respondents during the time of this study. some international esl https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 184 students who failed in esl moved to other institutions or went back to their respective countries. therefore, the target respondents were only those who are still staying in and around aiias. second, this related to the fact that the researcher lived near the respondents. data collection the data was collected by distributing the questionnaire to the participants. in the questionnaire, the respondents were asked questions to indicate their learning styles, attitudes and achievement. regarding the achievement, the respondents were asked to inform their last grade in the esl class. to inquire the respondents’ learning styles and attitude, all the questionnaires were composed in likert scale for its question. however, for the negative question in the questionnaire inquiring the attitude of the respondent, a different treatment was applied as follows: for the positive items: strongly agree agree uncertain disagree strongly disagree 5 4 3 2 1 for the negative items: strongly disagree disagree uncertain agree strongly agree 5 4 3 2 1 ethical consideration before distributing the questionnaire, all respondents were made aware of the purpose of this research as a part of ethical consideration. they were also informed about their privacy and anonymity. moreover, participants in this study had no financial cost or expense except for the time required in completing the questionnaires. results the following part presents the finding and analysis of the data of the study based on the questionnaires taken from former aiias esl students. a total of thirty-two respondents from different nationalities. out of 32 respondents, fifteen respondents were from indonesia, seven from myanmar, three from korea, three from china, one from argentina, one from colombia, and two from mexico (see table 1). table 1. the profile of respondents’ nationality nationality respondents percentage indonesia 15 47% myanmar 7 22% korea 3 9% china 3 9% https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 185 argentina 1 3% colombia 1 3% mexico 2 6% 32 100% in term of gender, there were 20 males (63%) and 12 females (38%) (see table 2) table 2. the respondents’ gender participants gender total male female esl students 20 12 32 the profile of respondent’ learning styles the following sections present a brief description of the students’ learning style (see table 3). table 3. the respondents’ learning styles frequency percent valid percent cumulative percent valid visual 3 5.8 9.4 9.4 tactile 6 11.5 18.8 28.1 auditory 3 5.8 9.4 37.5 group 8 15.4 25.0 62.5 kinaesthetic 7 13.5 21.9 84.4 individual 5 9.6 15.6 100.0 total 32 61.5 100.0 missing system 20 38.5 total 52 100.0 table 4 indicates the classification of learning styles based on gender. table 4 learning style * gender crosstabulation gender total male female learning style visual 3 0 3 tactile 4 2 6 auditory 0 3 3 group 6 2 8 kinaesthetic 4 3 7 individual 3 2 5 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 186 total 20 12 32 as seen on the table, out of thirty-two students, the dominant learning style of the students was the group (25%). the second rank was the kinaesthetic (21.9%). the tactile was the third (18,8%), followed by the individual (15.6%). the visual and the group have the same portion (9,4% and 9,4%, respectively). based on gender, the distribution of the learning styles is not the same between males and females. among six learning styles, only auditory is not used by all males, while visual was the only learning style not used by females. the profile of students’ attitude the following result indicates the attitude of the respondents. table 5. the profile of the respondents’ attitude frequency percent valid percent cumulative percent valid behavior 6 11.5 18.8 18.8 cognitive 18 34.6 56.3 75.0 emotion 8 15.4 25.0 100.0 total 32 61.5 100.0 missing system 20 38.5 total 52 100.0 among the thirty-two students, six students are dominance in behaviour attitude. this indicated 18.8 percent of the respondents’ tendencies had better reaction, hope and confident in learning english (see table 5). in regard to the cognitive aspect, there are 18 of 32 students who had a cognitive attitude. this indicated 56.3 percent of the respondents are more knowledgeable in learning english. they have good mental action in decision making and problem solving (see table 5). out of thirty-two respondents, eight students are dominant in emotion. this indicated that 25.0% of the respondents have a better mood in receiving the learning information (see table 5). the profile of respondents’ achievement of the students’ achievement, from 6.50 7.00 is declared as “pass”, while below 6.50 is considered as “not yet pass.” based on the students’ achievement, none of the students got 5.50. in terms of gender, none among females got 5.60, but two males got this grade. as indicated in the table, the majority of the students could achieve a passing score (53.15%). while 21.9% of the students got 6.50 above, 24.9% of the participants got the lower score (see table 6). table 6. profile of respondents’ achievement https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 187 score gender total male female percentage 5.50 5.60 2 2 6.3 5.70 1 1 3.1 5.80 1 1 3.1 5.90 0 6.00 1 1 3.1 6.10 0 6.20 1 1 3.1 6.30 1 1 3.1 6.40 1 1 3.1 6.50 12 5 17 53.1 6.60 3 3 6 18.8 6.70 0 6.80 1 1 3.1 total 24 8 32 100 the correlation of learning styles and the achievement the data in the table 7 was gathered to answer the question” is there any correlation of the learning style preference to the achievement?” as indicated in the table, six types of learning styles were inquired in the questionnaire, namely visual, auditory, kinaesthetic, tactile, group, and individual. using the pearson correlation test, the result of data shows no correlation between each aspect of learning styles to the achievement. the data shows that the correlation coefficient ranges from 0.209 to 0.263, lower than table 0.349 (where n=32). in specific, the individual and kinaesthetic learning styles have a positive result. however, these two learning styles (0.209 and 0.183, respectively) indicate a very weak correlation. on the other hand, audio and group learning styles tend to negatively correlate because the correlation coefficients are -0.262 and -0.189. although the correlation is weak, the visual and tactile correlation coefficient tends to move to 0 (0.46 and -023, respectively). moreover, all the significant values of the relation between each learning style and achievement are higher than the significance level (<0.05). this signifies the tendency of the absence of correlation between these styles and the achievement. therefore, the test of the hypothesis would be that ho is accepted and ha is rejected. table 7. correlation of learning styles and achievement correlations total visual total tactile total audio total group total kinest total individual achieveme nt total visual pearson correlation 1 .484** .214 .373* .627** .401* .046 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 188 sig. (2-tailed) .005 .241 .036 .000 .023 .804 n 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 total tactile pearson correlation .484** 1 -.092 .253 .478** -.076 -.023 sig. (2-tailed) .005 .617 .162 .006 .679 .900 n 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 total audio pearson correlation .214 -.092 1 .164 -.129 -.181 -.263 sig. (2-tailed) .241 .617 .369 .482 .323 .145 n 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 total group pearson correlation .373* .253 .164 1 .121 -.328 -.189 sig. (2-tailed) .036 .162 .369 .508 .067 .301 n 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 total kinest pearson correlation .627** .478** -.129 .121 1 -.006 .183 sig. (2-tailed) .000 .006 .482 .508 .973 .317 n 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 total individual pearson correlation .401* -.076 -.181 -.328 -.006 1 .209 sig. (2-tailed) .023 .679 .323 .067 .973 .252 n 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 achievement pearson correlation .046 -.023 -.263 -.189 .183 .209 1 sig. (2-tailed) .804 .900 .145 .301 .317 .252 n 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 **. correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). *. correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). the correlation of attitude and the achievement table 8 is intended to answer the research question, ‘is there any correlation between english's attitude toward achievement?’ the data in the table shows that among three aspects of the attitude, the emotion aspect has a positive correlation to achievement. it is shown by the point of correlation coefficient in 0.487. meanwhile, the significant value is 0.005 which is lower than the level of significance (0.05). it means that the correlation is strong. the result shows that the correlation of cognitive aspect and achievement is almost as strong as emotion aspect where the correlation coefficient is 0.427 and the significant value is still lower than the significant level (p value = 0.015 < 0,05). in contrast, in terms of behaviour aspect, the data show that the correlation with this aspect is not as strong as the previous two. although the result test shows that this correlation is still in the positive area, the correlation coefficients showed that the relation between behaviour and achievement is weak, as seen in the table that the correlation coefficient is only 0.201 and the level of significance is higher than 0.05 (p value = 0.269). from the overall result, the hypothesis testing revealed that ha is accepted and ho is rejected. table 8. correlation of attitude and achievement https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 189 total behavior total cognition total emotion achievement total behavior pearson correlation 1 .447* .225 .201 sig. (2-tailed) .010 .217 .269 n 32 32 32 32 total cognition pearson correlation .447* 1 .597** .427* sig. (2-tailed) .010 .000 .015 n 32 32 32 32 total emotion pearson correlation .225 .597** 1 .487** sig. (2-tailed) .217 .000 .005 n 32 32 32 32 achievement pearson correlation .201 .427* .487** 1 sig. (2-tailed) .269 .015 .005 n 32 32 32 32 *. correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). **. correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). discussion this study aimed to identify the correlation of aiias esl students’ learning styles and attitude toward achievement. the result of the study revealed that learning style did not significantly correlate with the achievement of the targeted respondents. this result was confirmed by the finding of al-zayed (2017). in her study, she suggested that this condition can be explained by many teachers failing to accommodate the students' learning styles in teaching and learning. on the part of the students, it is possible that they are not aware of their learning styles that make them study only according to their teacher's teaching style. meanwhile, the correlation of attitude of the respondents toward their achievement is positive even though the level of significance is not more than 50%. this result was confirmed by a study done by faaz and khan (2019). it cannot be denied that the respondents mostly had a good attitude toward english because most of them wanted to study abroad. although some of them should be in the esl for several terms and not all of them obtained good grades, they likely enjoy learning english because they wanted to improve their english. this was a good indicator to be considered by english instructors that they should evoke a good attitude toward english in their students' minds. as this study revealed, by having a good attitude toward english, the students can improve their achievement in their learning process of english. conclusion the present study attempted to analyse the correlation between learning style preferences and the attitude to english achievement of esl students. this study revealed that the respondents had their preference of learning styles when they study english. in terms of attitude, all the respondents showed a positive attitude toward english. 76% of students got passing grades, while 24% got lower grades in terms of achievement. however, the test result shown that the correlation coefficient was very low between each learning style toward the achievement of aiias esl students. this means that the learning style preferences of the respondents did not have any significant correlation with their achievement. the level of significance affirms this result. in contrast, the test of the correlation between attitude and achievement shown different results. on average, all three https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 190 aspects of attitude, namely, cognitive, behaviour, and emotion, indicated a positive correlation toward the achievement. of these three aspects, emotion was the champion in terms of having a positive attitude toward the achievement. cognitive, on the other hand, was the second, and behaviour was the least. recommendation it is recommended to conduct more research with the emphasis on the factors that affects the students’ performance and achievement in esl class. some factors that need to be studied further are, for example, social, socio-economy, anxiety, and motivation of the study. this condition can create several low learning motivation and anxiety. conducting another research emphasizing on these aspects is important due to the fact that most of asian, specifically indonesian students who fail in english centre are self-sponsored students. moreover, it is recommended to conduct another study to examine the factor of failure from the perspective of the teacher’s role in teaching. the last, it is recommended that in the further studies, the number of respondents should be higher in order to get a more valid a reliable result. in the context of aiias esl class, this should be done by adding the range of years or by contacting more respondents. the latter option needs a special effort because most probably many of the respondent had gone back to their respective country. references abidin, m. j. z., mohammadi, m. p. & alzwari, h. 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(2015). a study of language learning style and teaching style preferences of hong kong community college students and teachers in english for academic purposes (eap) context (master’s thesis). school of teacher education college of education, health and human development university of canterbury. canterbury, new zealand. retrieved from https://ir.canterbury.ac.nz/ bitstream/handle/10092/11661/thesis_whole_1.pdf?sequence=5 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.6 no.2 2021 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity the important role of extensive reading strategy in indonesian efl learning contexts kristian florensio wijaya kristianwijaya500@gmail.com sanata dharma university, indonesia doi: 10.35974/acuity.v6i2.2482 abstract academic literacy is one of the paramount global competencies that should be mastered by worldwide university academicians including indonesian efl learners. to fully fulfill this holistic educational objectivity, extensive reading plays a key role in fostering the overarching indonesian efl learners’ target language proficiency due to the inducement of pleasurable, continual, and stress-free l2 reading learning dynamics proffered by this student-centered learning approach. furthermore, the researcher attempted to delve more profoundly regarding the important role of extensive reading strategy in indonesian efl learning contexts. this present qualitative study harnessed a document analysis approach to yield renewable insights for indonesian efl experts, practitioners, researchers, and educators concerning the influential impacts potentially promoted by extensive reading strategy implementations. the research results indicated that the inducement of contextual and continual extensive reading activities had successfully improved efl learners’ l2 reading interest and competencies. future researchers are advocated to conduct a more exhaustive document analysis on the contrary beliefs and perilous effects generated by extensive reading approach to better impart more appropriate extensive reading programs applicable for indonesian efl learners’ reading needs, interests, and levels. keywords: document analysis, extensive reading strategy, indonesian efl learning contexts introduction in these recent decades, our nation had cast such profound attention on preparing future academicians to fully mastering adorable social and communicative competencies while interacting with foreign language. contrarily, to breed more competent efl academicians, the indonesian government needs to integrate other indispensable english language learning elements in the daily basis of efl teaching-learning practices. husna (2019) mentions that the indonesian government should work hand-in-hand with efl educational experts, practitioners, and educators to bring about more meaningful efl teaching-learning climates beneficial to foster the overarching learners’ target language competencies. furthermore, one of the paramount second language learning competencies need to be incorporated by indonesian efl teachers while introducing the target language for learners in reading. through effective efl reading learning activities, efl learners will not merely have precious chances to broaden their knowledge of the targeted subject-specific fields but also improve their overall target language proficiency. this positive matter occurred due to the nature of reading commissioning the readers to mutually establish such a mutual interactive interaction with their texts to gain a considerable number of pivotal information. all of these above-explained conceptions are inextricably associated with the second language reading theory propounded by spada (2015) https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity mailto:kristianwijaya500@gmail.com 108 stating that to be more successful and proficient efl academicians, learners are demanded to continuously engage in meaningful l2 reading learning dynamics in which they need to renew their existent knowledge along with target language skills through the potent establishment of an interactive reading schema. anderson and nunan (2008) also argue that l2 reading processes are one of the crucial learning trajectories for learners to engage since they will be able to revive, rebuild, and revitalize their existing perspectives in accord with a chunk of new information obtained from the texts. undeniably, one of the efficient and meaningful l2 reading strategies language teachers should ponder exhaustively to be inculcated in their daily class basis is extensive reading. the utilization of an extensive reading strategy will potentially promote more striking influential impacts on efl learners’ target language proficiency, learning moods, behaviors, and engagement. through this strategy, efl learners will experience a higher degree of l2 reading learning enjoyment due to the maximum exposure of captivating reading materials, free-chosen reading texts attracting their reading interest most, and the feasible reading speed as well as accuracy suitably matched with existing learners’ reading proficiency. day and bamford (2002) exclaim that the major objectivity of extensive reading is to enable learners to possess mutual access to a plethora of interesting texts leading them to more pleasurable reading learning dynamics. in a similar vein, salameh (2017) also believes that the appropriate implementations of extensive reading strategy invoke a substantiate number of impactful l2 learning effects for learners in terms of establishing more positive reading attitudes, enriching vocabulary knowledge, increasing learners’ reading speed as well as accuracy, elevating the knowledge of the targeted particular specific fields, and ingraining more robust second language learning motivation. on the contrary, the challenges for indonesian language teachers to apply extensive reading strategy in their multifarious classroom learning circumstances have increasingly become more risk-taking, energy-draining, and pain-staking second language learning voyage. one of the serious matters hampering language teachers most in a further attempt to incorporate this reading approach in their classroom contexts is negative learners’ reading attitudes, behaviors, and judgments toward extensive reading activities. for the majority of indonesian efl learners, they have more tendency to do varied appealing activities outside of the classroom walls instead of continuing in an activity leading them to inhabit an anxietyprovoking l2 learning attitude such as reading. thus, it is easier to discover indonesian efl learners who are not passionately interested in reading learning activities, even extensive reading may impart another enticing l2 learning dimension they do not experience earlier in their traditional efl classes. all of these above-mentioned extensive reading learning issues are closely intertwined with the main challenge of fully applying extensive reading strategy proposed by martina, syafryadin, and utama (2020) arguing that asian especially indonesian efl learners are more liable to engage in various fascinating activities eroding their stress levels instead of proceeding through time-consuming and tedious activities like reading. another uprising l2 reading learning issue hindering language teachers to internalize extensive reading strategy in their second language classroom vicinities is the minimum or absence of rewarding information concerning nature, benefits, accurate implementations, and basic conceptions underlying extensive reading strategy authentic practices. in other words, language teachers have not yet been able to address all of the fruitful l2 reading values potentially reaped by learners through extensive reading activities eventually inhibiting them to form continual, proactive, and positive l2 reading habits in their academic life. these lines of emerging issues are in line with the extensive reading learning issues spreading out in this archipelago adduced by martina, syafryadin, and utama (2020) indicating that nearly all indonesian efl learners confessed that extensive reading strategy was a novel learning approach for them leading them to possess a particular misunderstanding of its further 109 implementations, advantages, and strategies to implement it in their daily life basis. to overcome these devastating reading learning hindrances, language teachers are advised to explicate all of the basic tenets, advantageous values, and specific strategies to harness extensive reading strategy into the fullest meaningful levels for learners to transform them into more life-long, autonomous, strategic, and proficient l2 readers infusing laudable target language competencies development. day and bamford (2002) underscore the key importance for efl teachers to introduce more obvious conceptions of extensive reading strategy at the commencement of l2 reading learning activities to dramatically increase their reading learning motivation leading them to the fullest acquisition of other target language skills such as listening, speaking, and writing. it should always be kept in mind that the major principle of extensive reading strategy is to promote more pleasurable, meaningful, and free-pressurized l2 reading learning events wherein learners are deliberately allowed to select a vast range of texts attracting their reading interest most and suitably matching with their reading levels. this definition is in agreement with the extensive reading theory expounded by keegan & stein (2015) arguing that the main aim of extensive reading activities is to bring about more enjoyable reading learning occurrences for learners to proactively and meaningfully engage with a plethora of chosen l2 texts without being heavily suppressed by the particular genres. in converse, the journey to experience all of these positive l2 reading learning merits is not without impediments since efl learners have to capable of identifying specific texts arousing their reading motivation most, regulating their amount of time as well as particular learning environments to read more efficiently outside of the classroom surroundings, and practicing their reading speed along with accuracy more rigorously to foster their target language proficiency into the utmost levels. azis & puspitasari (2019) argue that the further implementations of extensive reading strategy out of the l2 classroom settings have met a considerable number of obstructions due to the energydraining, pain-staking, time-consuming, and anxiety-provoking free-will reading activities wherein efl learners have to raise more profound self-awareness in selecting the texts mostly appropriate with their reading interest along with proficiency, and crucially they should also be able to exert better controls over their time as well as learning environments to engage more meaningfully in these kinds of autonomous reading activities. to better degrading all of those aforementioned extensive reading learning issues, day & bamford (2002) proposed the top ten major principles of internalizing more meaningful extensive reading activities. the first principle that should be obeyed by both language teachers and learners is the continual exposure of a great number of easy reading materials to maintain readers’ interests while meeting with those targeted texts. secondly, learners must be given the full authority to select the particular reading texts attracting their reading interest most. thirdly, learners need to read their chosen texts in a silent way to preserve their robust enjoyment degree in reading. fourthly, learners are commissioned to choose specific reading texts suitable to their existing reading comprehension development to elude them from unintended reading learning frustrating experiences. in the fifth strand, learners are suggested to avoid making use of a dictionary to improve their reading speed as well as accuracy. going further to the sixth principle, reading speed is one of the pivotal elements that should be embodied fully by learners resulted in more enjoyable reading learning enterprises. in the seventh principle, the reading materials selection should comprise of fewer of an absence of unfamiliar words to enable learners to be more fluent and efficient l2 readers. furthermore, extensive reading activities also function as one of the meaningful springboards for learners to significantly enhance their reading learning enjoyment along with proficiency simultaneously. the last two essential principles disseminate similar rewarding benefits since language teachers are strongly advised to be more supportive reading learning facilitators and encouragers for learners to constantly 110 proceed to their targeted texts eventually leading them to be more strategic, committed, tenacious, and competent l2 readers. concerning the crucial roles of language teachers in promoting more successful and meaning-making extensive reading activities for efl learners, there are also three major essential roles language teachers have to accommodate while incorporating extensive reading activities in their manifold l2 classroom environments namely becoming more supportive reading facilitators, transforming into the trustworthy ideas-spreading regarding the appropriacy of l2 texts utilization, and transfiguring into more effective problem-solvers for their learners encountering huge obstacles amid l2 reading learning dynamics. all of these rejuvenated roles are in harmony with the top three principles of conducting more rewarding extensive reading activities propounded by azis & puspitasari (2019) mentioning that language teachers have to engage continuously in reading a wider range of l2 texts as well as their learners to make this viable reading habits contagious for their learners. in a similar tone, they also advised language teachers to extensively provide a plethora of optional captivating l2 texts suitable with their learners’ reading proficiency to cogently convince them that they are not crammed alone in this pain-staking reading learning journey due to the continual series of learning assistances addressed by their teachers. eventually, language teachers should also be accustomed to playing their renewable roles as supportive encouragers and motivators for their learners, particularly when their reading learning motivation wane due to the serious hurdles impeding their pleasurable reading voyage. it can also be succinctly reiterated that teachers have to impart continuous reading learning assistance and effective problem-solving strategies for their learners to everlastingly cultivate their reading interest and competencies. this ultimate crucial role is in concord with the theory of extensive reading activities for language teachers proposed by celik (2018) adducing that teachers need to play their roles as proactive helpers and solution providers for efl learners undergoing particular reading learning obstacles amid extensive reading activities. ruminating over the advantageous values, appropriate implications, and strenuous challenges of incorporating extensive reading strategy in indonesian efl learning contexts, it becomes indispensably crucial for indonesian educational experts, practitioners, stakeholders, and teachers to work more mutually in designing extensive reading materials appropriate to efl learners’ reading learning interest, preferences, and levels. hence, by conducting this present qualitative study, the researcher attempted to impart such greater depth delineations regarding the gigantic l2 learning merits promoted by effective extensive reading strategy applications in a vast array of indonesian efl teaching-learning contexts. by doing so, the researcher feels certain that language teachers will be more prompted to dedicate their valuable teaching time to implement extensive reading activities in their efl daily-basis classroom practices due to the fruitful target language benefits waiting for the further amelioration of elt classroom climates as well as the striking improvements of efl learners’ l2 reading motivation and proficiency development. to fulfill this research objectivity, one research problem was enacted in this study namely: to what extent does extensive reading strategy is deemed as one of the important l2 learning springboards in indonesian efl learning contexts? methods this qualitative study was conducted in the support of document analysis. this research method was chosen to unearth the significance of prior findings generated by prior relevant studies. to comply with this research objectivity, the researcher conscientiously selected 30 chosen articles suitable with the major theme of this study; the important role of extensive 111 reading strategy in indonesian efl learning contexts. more specifically, two major considerations hovered in the researcher’s beliefs while stipulating those 30 articles namely the pros and cons underlying the implementations of extensive reading strategy in indonesian efl learning contexts as well as the influential impacts promoted by this l2 reading learning strategy for the betterment of efl learners’ overarching target language proficiency development. after successfully fulfilling those 2 above-mentioned criteria, the researcher explicated each major finding unveiled by the previous 30 articles argumentatively to cogently convince indonesian efl experts, practitioners, and educators to incorporate extensive reading strategy as one of the efficient second language learning approaches rewarding for the striking advancement of efl learners’ language learning competencies. to fully embody all of these stipulated objectivities, the researcher planned to categorize each main finding into a specific clusterization of research themes focusing on explicating the crucial importance of continually disseminating extensive reading strategy in indonesian efl learning contexts. those 3 major research themes could be discerned in these following provided lines namely: (1) extensive reading strategy enables efl learners to be more avid and proficient l2 readers, (2) an indispensable need to design more contextual and real-life based extensive reading materials, and (3) an emerging requirement to induce more rigorous extensive reading activities to better promote life-long reading characters for efl learners. to impart more in-depth delineations out of the discovered research themes, the specific relevant research results would be integrated into tables and more in-depth explications of these findings would be deciphered argumentatively. results and discussion as mentioned in the prior subsection, this present qualitative study attempted to shed new enlightenment regarding the crucial importance of incorporating extensive reading strategy in multivariate indonesian efl learning contexts. to fulfil this research objectivity, this section heeds more exhaustive attention on expounding all of the major rewarding insights obtained from the 30 prior studies of extensive reading implementations run in this archipelago. each categorization and explication will be supported by the table and potent argumentations. table 1 the advantages of extensive reading strategy theme 1 authors the advantages of extensive reading strategy iftanti and shofiya (2018); husna (2019); isnaini, faizin, and anisa, r. n. (2021); roza and khairani (2019); umam (2013); yanto, saefullah, and kwary (2020); yuliansyah (2019); ermerawati (2019); delfi and yamat (2017); delfi and yamat (2017); anindita (2020). regarding what had been stated in table 1, it can be conjectured that the previous 11 extensive reading studies compartmentalized in this table concurred that extensive reading 112 strategy allows efl learners to be more avid and proficient l2 readers. these positive l2 learning outcomes taking place due to the long-lasting pleasurable, stress-free, and selfcentered reading learning activities undergone by efl learners. these major notions of extensive reading strategy were well sanctioned by a prior study of the nature of extensive reading strategy plied by umam (2013) discovering that the further implementations of extensive reading strategy should be continually extended outside of l2 classroom contexts to enable learners to experience more enjoyable second language reading learning experiences, erect more robust self-confidence, and improve their target language proficiency into the fullest potentials. all of these aforementioned attributes are deemed as essential springboards to breed more passionate and proficient l2 readers. in a similar trajectory, the possibility to ingrain all of these admirable l2 reading characters within indonesian efl learners are widely open since extensive reading strategy can also bring about striking improvements for their vocabulary growth. of course, this success also reckons for teachers’ mutual reading assistance in which they provide a vast array of interesting reading learning materials suit their learners’ reading learning needs, interest, preferences, and competencies to better prompt them to be more independent l2 readers infusing more potent willingness to read a wide array of distinctive l2 texts finally transforming them into more competent l2 readers inculcating more advanced vocabulary development. this positive value is in concord with the major finding of an extensive reading program study conducted by yanto, saefullah, & kwary (2020) unfolding that the majority of university efl learners had successfully improved their target language competencies including their vocabulary knowledge after being constantly supervised by their teachers in selecting the most appropriate l2 reading texts suit them most. the beneficial influences promoted by extensive reading strategy do not halt in the higher educational institutions only since the great impacts of it also goes in a similar trajectory as well for efl young learners. as efl young learners still need to be supervised more intensively in developing more positive reading habits throughout their daily basis, extensive reading strategy plays such a pivotal role in this area since captivating and meaningful extensive reading activities will potentially enable efl young learners to foster their four major skills of the target language; reading, writing, speaking, and listening simultaneously, improve their particular reading interest, and inculcate consistent reading habits in their daily life. all of these rewarding benefits are in partnership with the major finding of an online extensive reading study run by ermerawati (2019) unveiling that nearly all of the indonesian efl young learners had formed more positive reading behaviour after fully taking part in the interactive online extensive reading activities incorporated by their teachers. based on all of these brief overviews, it has become one of the main duties for indonesian efl teachers to internalize extensive reading strategy in their multifarious l2 learning circumstances to transfigure learners into more competent l2 readers possessing a multitude of laudable reading attributes in their disposal enshrouding of richer vocabulary knowledge, passionate reading interest, and proactive reading attitudes. 113 table 2 the inducement of authentic extensive reading materials theme 2 authors the inducement of authentic extensive reading materials susani (2018); syofia delfi and yamat (2017); anisa (2019); azis & puspitasari (2019); astari (2018); iswandari & paradita (2019); kurniati & suthum (2019); seken & artini (2013); fithriani, paradisca, sugiarto, & drajati (2020); azzahra, gunardi, nugeraha, almuharam, hidayat, syukri, & aulia (2021); yulia (2018); anandari & iswandari (2019); permatasari & wijayanto (2020); waring & husna (2019). concerning a group of relevant studies integrated into table 2, it can be surmised that all 14 prior extensive reading studies mutually indicated that it is such a crucial matter for indonesian efl teachers to enact more contextual and real-life based extensive reading materials to cultivate learners’ l2 reading interest in a long-term trajectory, improve their reading learning achievements, get them closer to reap more fruitful reading learning outcomes, and foster their overarching reading competencies into the utmost levels. all of these 4 core values seem to concur with the 4 major advantages of internalizing more authentic extensive reading learning materials on an everyday classroom basis adduced by susani (2018) mentioning that learners will be able to enjoy the whole extensive reading processes, improve their reading scores, grab more gratifying reading learning outcomes, and become more competent l2 readers when teachers fully integrate authentic extensive reading materials touch upon their tangible real-life contexts. besides promoting significant target language competencies improvement and invoking more passionate l2 reading interest, the utilization of authentic extensive reading learning materials will also lead learners to become more broad-minded academicians skillful in searching for high-quality l2 reading texts completely matched with their reading levels and interest. another essential value worth highlighting here that through the use of authentic extensive reading learning materials, the mutual collaboration between language teachers and parents will be corroborated as well since parents can provide mutual reading assistance for their children at home due to the familiar topics tightly interwoven with their daily basis. these lines of arguments lend further support from the 2 out of 4 main findings unearthed by azis & puspitasari (2019) suggesting language teachers incorporating more authentic extensive reading learning materials in their classroom contexts to raise efl learners’ self-awareness in choosing qualified l2 texts best suit them and address such a purposeful indirect guideline for parents to rigorously monitor their children’s reading activities at their home-daily basis. similarly, continual implementations of authentic extensive reading learning materials can also possibly promote significant academic writing improvements as well as l2 learning autonomy for indonesia university efl learners since there is a mutual interplay among the designated extensive reading learning materials, academic writing tasks, and particular reading learning styles possessed by learners prompting them to continuously engage more proactively in reading a plethora of l2 texts indirectly impacting their academic writing performances. this argument seems to conform with the classic l2 learning principles denoting that the more we read, the better our writing performances are. these conceptions are germane to the main important findings of authentic extensive reading learning materials study plied by seken & artini (2013) encouraging language teachers to fully incorporate real-life based extensive 114 reading learning materials suitable for indonesian efl learners’ reading learning styles along with academic writing competencies growth to bring about positive impacts for their further academic reading and writing learning achievements reciprocally. in line with what has been stated above, it is worth accentuating here that the incorporation of authentic extensive reading learning materials should be released timely in multivariate indonesian efl learning contexts to drive our learners to become more autonomous, strategic, and skilful l2 readers who are not merely keen on reading plenty of diverse reading texts but also harness the impactful values taken from those selected materials to foster another paramount academic learning aspect indispensably needed for their future live pathways; academic writing skills. table 3 the nascence of life-long l2 readers theme 3 authors the nascence of lifelong l2 readers martina, syafryadin, & utama (2020); lestari & yusra (2014); taembo (2018); ariana (2016); retnaningdyah, tyasnurita, & prastyo (2020). although the last table only cast a glimpse of few prior extensive reading studies, the important values yielded by these 5 specific studies should be potently underscored since all these groups of prior studies agreed that there is an emerging requirement for language teachers to internalize more rigorous extensive reading activities to better promote life-long l2 reading characters for efl learners. to refresh our mind, the propelling factors cogently enable efl learners to become more life-long l2 readers are the gratifying reading learning achievements, supportive reading learning assistances continually addressed by language teachers, and striking vocabulary knowledge improvements. all of these 3 major encouragers strongly prompt efl learners to not merely foster their second language learning competencies along with invoking more positive l2 reading attitudes on their continuous daily basis. these rewarding l2 reading learning matters occur since learners had grounded more robust selfconfidence, self-awareness, and self-beliefs that they were capable of experiencing even greater l2 reading learning success beneficial for their future lives while by consistently committing to engage in extensive reading activities without being restricted by time and space as well as formal classroom learning constraints. three prior studies of the significant utilities addressed by extensive reading activities are also expounded succinctly in the following provided lines. the first study was conducted by taembo (2018) unveiling that the majority of indonesian efl learners had dramatically improved their l2 reading test achievements after engaging in extensive reading activities, which in turn, prompt them more rigorously to continue proceeding to this activity outside of the classroom learning surroundings. in an identical study, ariana (2016) also revealed that nearly all of the indonesian university efl learners undergone more significant vocabulary knowledge improvements after taking part in extensive reading activities. this may be due to the mutual correlations between their existent vocabulary knowledge and the immediate nature of incidental vocabulary learning induced by extensive reading strategy potentially broadening 115 their word amounts swiftly in an enjoyable manner. in the ultimate study, retnaningdyah, laksono, tyasnurita, & prastyo (2020) advocated language teachers to implant a substantiate number of l2 graded reading materials in their extensive reading activities to provide more supportive l2 reading learning assistances for efl learners to strive as well as thrive altogether, foster their target language literacy competencies, and transform them become more life-long l2 readers. as a taken point, it is of necessary importance for indonesian efl teachers to impart continual extensive reading activities in their varied l2 learning vicinities to bring learners closer to more efficient, meaningful, and fullest second language acquisition perhaps increasing their self-confidence to continue reading a wide variety of l2 texts indirectly shaping them to be more life-long l2 readers. conclusion in closing, the major big takeaways drawn from this present study were the continual, contextual, and rigorous extensive reading practices would possibly donate striking influential impacts for efl learners’ l2 reading learning motivation, target language competencies improvement, and laudable l2 reading learning behaviors indispensably required to breed more proficient, competitive, and skillful l2 academicians in the future life events. hence, although the extensive reading strategy is identical with self-independent readers emphasizing on student-centered approach, language teachers are advised to play their rejuvenated roles as supportive reading learning facilitators, solid encouragers, and judicious decision-makers, particularly while their learners are crammed with a plethora of l2 reading learning impediments that may hamper the enjoyable extensive reading dynamics. for the betterment of this current qualitative study, future researchers are recommended to overview a vast array of extensive reading articles in the identical arena by heeding more exhaustive attention on the contradictory beliefs along with the disadvantages of extensive reading strategy to righteously impart another side of the coin regarding the hazardous effect of this strategy and the proposals of probable solutions for indonesian efl experts, researchers, practitioners, and educators to overcome those specific shortcomings. references anandari, c. l., & iswandari, y. a. 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(2013). the effect of extensive reading and learning style on academic writing competency of semester five students of stkip hamzanwadi selong. jurnal pendidikan bahasa inggris indonesia, 1(13), 1-13. spada, n. (2015). sla research and l2 pedagogy: misapplications and questions of relevance. language teaching, 48(1), 69. 117 susani, r. (2018). the implementation of authentic assessment in extensive reading. international journal of education, 11(1), 87-92. syofia delfi & yamat, h. (2017). an analysis of studies on teaching and learning reading in indonesia. j-shmic: journal of english for academic, 4(2), 101-115. taembo, m. a. (2018). comparative study between extensive reading and intensive reading approaches towards students’ vocabulary growth to the year two of one of the junior high schools in kendari. tirai edukasi, 1(1), 1-10. umam, c. (2013). extensive reading: what, why, and how? al hikmah: jurnal studi keislaman, 3(1), 25-36. waring, r., & husna, n. (2019). expectations and experiences of indonesian teachers who have, and have not, done extensive reading. teflin journal, 30(2), 153-170. yanto, e. s., saefullah, h., & kwary, d. a. (2020). implementing a literary text extensive reading program through learning logs. the qualitative report, 25(5), 1393-1411. yulia, m. f. (2018). extensive reading for indonesian university students: an alternative framework for implementation. llt journal: a journal on language and language teaching, 21(2), 2072018. yuliansyah, m. r. (2019). the effect of using extensive reading approach on improving students’ reading rates at tenth grade of sma genta syaputra teluk naga–tangerang in academic year 2018/2019. al hikmah: jurnal studi keislaman, 5(1), 84-92. acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol. 7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 65 the important role of self-regulation in worldwide efl learning contexts kristian wijaya sanata dharma university kristianwijaya500@gmail.com 10.35974/acuity.v7i1.2578 abstract to better cultivate life-long learning characters within efl learners, they should be well-trained in activating their utmost self-regulation potentials. by becoming more self-regulated academicians, efl learners will be more capable of controlling their targeted learning environments, resources, strategies, and time in a better purpose to reach the desired learning outcomes. concerning this belief, this present qualitative library study was run to exhaustively unearth the crucial role of self-regulation in worldwide efl learning contexts. to fulfill this main research concern, 30 prior self-regulation studies were conscientiously selected to generate a new enlightenment for globalized elt educators to nurture their learners’ self-regulation growth in varied language learning situations. the obtained major findings unveiled that a higher degree of self-regulation enabled efl learners to transform into more life-long knowledge seekers fully reaping more fruitful language learning outcomes. for the betterment of this pivotal psychological investigation, a considerable number of self-regulation literature in line with the interconnected nature of other psychological constructs are highly suggestive for future researchers aiming to conduct identical studies. keywords: self-regulation, library study, worldwide efl learning contexts introduction responding to the ever-changing worldwide elt enterprises taking place in this present era, efl experts, educationalists, and practitioners are jointly commissioned to bring about a more profound connection between the targeted subject-specific fields in harmony with learners’ tangible life contexts. sholeh et al., (2019) postulate that the dramatic shift of elt dynamics should be well-responded by educational parties. it can be done by promoting more favorable and student-centered learning activities where learners’ learning independence is simultaneously elevated. in line with this holistic learning objectivity, efl teachers are suggested to rehearsing some indispensable skills, knowledge, and strategies that increasingly serve as a means of powerful learning assistance for learners to achieve their pre-determined goals. as a part of actualizing this aim, learners should value all these pain-staking effortful actions by expanding their perseverance learning endeavor. this notion is inextricably associated with the theory of second language learning independence proposed by nejabati (2015) asserting that to impart a more holistic efl learning venture, all learning community members need to heed identical strong learning commitment in regulating all of the potential resources efficiently to reach the targeted learning objectives. one of the learning autonomy characteristics which can favorably assist efl learners to be more independent, resilient and life-long academicians is self-regulation. through selfregulation, efl learners will be more capable of stipulating clearer learning objectives, monitoring their learning progress intensively, and relinquishing all rewarding learning mailto:kristianwijaya500@gmail.com acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol. 7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 66 actions to improve their learning competencies. this definition is well-calibrated with selfregulation theory propounded by maftoon and tasnimi (2014) believing that self-regulated learners are the types of knowledge discoverers vigorously designing well-constructed learning plans, dynamics, and ventures in a better purpose. the seminal theory of selfregulation remarked by zimmerman (2008) affirming that self-regulated learners are better at shouldering ample learning responsibility by exerting greater learning actions, time, and commitment amid laborious learning challenges resulted in the full establishment of life-long and highly motivating learning characteristics. thus, these learners have been more adept in navigating their learning trajectories since they noticed the precise learning strategies as well as efforts worthwhile to be incorporated in the ongoing learning processes. another positive learning characteristic yielded by this psychological construct is learners can be transformed into more proactive learning participants as they successfully manage all potential resources to attain their learning targets. this rewarding learning outcome surged since self-regulated learners are more capable of managing their existing emotions, feelings, cognition, and motivation in a better direction. in other words, it can be phrased here that self-regulated learners can diminish their unnecessary negative feelings along with emotions to magnify the optimal utilization of their cognitive and motivation streams. this argument is supportively endorsed by the self-regulated learners’ behavior theory adduced by panadero and alonsotapia (2014) mentioning that a higher degree of self-regulation levels will enable efl learners to be better learning managers capable of exhorting more potent controls over their both cognitive and affective learning aspects. hadwin et al., (2011) also disseminated a common ground with this innate nature of self-regulation. they accentuate the importance of corroborating efl learners’ self-regulation levels at the beginning of second language learning enterprises since they transfigure into better planners, managers, and evaluators proactively responsible for their learning enterprise. to fine-tune efl learners’ second language learning enterprises with self-regulation characteristics, educationalists are strongly advocated to promote more pleasurable, engaging, and moderately challenging learning environments potentially elevating their learners’ learning responsibility, positive emotions, and learning commitment. this suggestion is closely intertwined with the successful growth of self-regulation behavior theory devised by zimmerman and schunk (2011) arguing that when efl educators have progressively elevated learners’ self-regulation levels, it can be guaranteed that they will become better learning controllers in terms of time management, expendable appropriate learning actions, and resilient learning characters. in the long run, the further inculcation of self-regulated learning characteristics in the light of worldwide elt enterprises had been one of the hottest second language learning issues in this modern age since there is a strong contention that the generation of self-regulated learners will be more successful in obtaining fruitful target language learning outcomes, persistently work out through the arduous learning impediments, and consistent in managing their cognitive, psychological, and affective learning behavior. this perspective shared a close linkage with the specific findings of the self-regulation study plied by dornyei and ryan (2015) exhibiting that the majority of efl learners have been more successful in overcoming varied taxing learning obstructions resulted in the striking advancement of their language learning progression. similarly, ghonsooly and ghanizadeh (2013) encourage globalized efl educationalists to design more contextual second language enterprises directly forging their learners’ self-regulation behavior to transform them into more persistent academicians easily adaptable toward the second language learning rapid shift. another precious laudable learning behavior that can be potentially obtained by efl learners after cultivating a higher level of self-regulation level is they gradually transformed into more strategic decision-makers. strategic decision-makers acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol. 7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 67 connote learners’ conscientious awareness to select suitable, adaptive, and essential learning strategies that suit their existent learning situations. this definition is also in the perspective of grenfell and harris (2017) stating that a higher level of self-regulation concurrently enables efl learners to be more judicious strategic makers, particularly while confronting a wide array of learning adversity. a higher degree of self-regulation development can also negate efl learners’ procrastination learning behavior since they have been more aware of controlling their learning vicinities, resources, and actions in a proactive attempt to embody more supportive as well as meaningful second language learning enterprises for them to reap fruitful merits. anchored on this advantageous value, goulao and menedez (2015) avow that self-regulated learning behavior arms efl learners with a higher degree of learning responsibility averting them from becoming procrastinated academicians eventually transfiguring them into more autonomous academicians committing to their learning onus. in obedience with this positive rewarding learning outcome, savoji et al., (2013) prompt second language teachers to continuously foster their learners’ self-regulation levels by introducing them to some paramount learning strategies finally leading these learners to be more responsible academicians since they have been capable of taking greater controls over their learning circumstances, periods, and commitment. to restate, since a robust construction of self-regulation levels will lead efl learners to fully obtain more gratifying language learning outcomes as well as achievements, it is of critical importance for language teachers to train their learners to be more strategic thinkers, planners, and managers for the ongoing learning dynamics. by becoming more strategic academicians, efl learners will be more capable of exhaustively reflecting on their ongoing learning venture leading them to capitalize on various strategies beneficial to heighten their learning effectiveness. this argument is closely correlated with the advantageous value of self-regulation theory invented by lavasani, mirhosseini, hejazi, and davoodi (2011) arguing that the exuberant proliferation of self-regulated learning behavior can bring about a significant degree of benefits for efl learners in terms of becoming more autonomous, responsible, and proactive academicians desirous of magnifying their learning outcomes by vehemently controlling their learning circumstances as well as expendable actions. as such, strategic efl academicians can also be presumably assumed as the figures capable of harnessing a vast range of second language learning strategies more flexibly in responding to the current learning obstacles they are facing. this kind of adaptive attitude emerged since these self-regulated learners uphold a strong contention that diverse wide-ranging of employed learning strategies will lead them to be more innovative, creative, and perseverance academicians readily to adapt themselves toward following unpredictable learning situations. this above-explained perspective is compatible with self-regulated efl learners theory devised by yilmaz (2010) articulates that efl learners infusing more robust growth of selfregulation are more liable to harness a considerable number of variegated language learning strategies harmonious with their existent learning vicinities since they strongly believe that these chosen appropriate strategies can guide them supportively to achieve the desired learning outcomes. in accord with the above-explicated conceptions of self-regulation characteristics, it is worth underscoring in this following line that there are 3 major specific self-regulated learning strategies heavily affecting efl learners’ success in obtaining more satisfying target language learning outcomes and achievements namely carefully planning learning objectives, in-depth monitoring, and continual evaluation. in the beginning self-regulated learning stage, efl learners are required to conscientiously create more constructed learning plans by clearly discerning the learning tasks and processes they are going to engage. abun et al., acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol. 7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 68 (2018) spur efl educators to continually assist their learners in designing their learning objectives since the successful attainment of these specific pre-determined learning goals will augment learners’ learning motivation to maintain their gratifying learning performances in future events. in the subsequent phase, efl learners are assigned to carefully monitor their ongoing learning enterprises by profoundly considering the learning strategies along with efforts they have expended to accomplish the given learning tasks. putri and kuswandono (2019) have likewise noted that with the support of monitoring strategies, efl learners will be better at navigating their learning processes in a better direction by adjusting their employed learning efforts and strategies in conformance with the learning situations they are confronting. in the ultimate cycle, more in-depth learning evaluation is also of critical importance since efl learners can maximize other advantageous potentials of other probable learning strategies corresponding with their future learning enterprises. as a result, they will be able to gain a more overarching understanding of the targeted subject-specific skills and be more cognizant of unearthing various suitable learning strategies matched with their current learning dynamics. in partnership with this assertion, annalakshmi (2019) theorizes that highly self-regulated efl learners are also the efficient learning evaluators, reflectors, and judges toward the accomplished learning venture they have been participating in mutually ended in the complete attainment of targeted learning objectives as well as competencies. furthermore, it should be kept in mind that self-regulation is not a static or an innate psychological construct, yet it refers to a dynamic psychological dynamic functioning to assist efl learners to address more potent controls over their targeted learning behavior, efforts, and strategies to fully reach the targeted learning objectivities. in a particular investigation of chinese efl learners self-regulation conducted by lin and gan (2014), it was unfolded that the majority of participants ingraining more robust self-regulation levels had more tendencies to be more motivated to discover a wider array of knowledge, foster their target language competencies, and participate more proactively in their learning community groups. this finding was substantiated by the prior finding of self-regulation study run by hamedani (2013) revealing that highly self-regulated efl learners are better to be in charge of the allotted learning responsibility, objectives, and challenges leading them to be more resilient academicians infusing stronger learning volition in their particular second language learning processes. in his exhaustive investigation of main pertaining self-regulated learning characteristics cogently influencing indonesian efl learners’ target language learning volition, achievement, and outcomes, 6 major characteristics are highly suggestive for efl learning communities attempting to generate more proficient future l2 academicians instilling autonomous learning behavior. the first characteristic that needs to be fully possessed by efl learners is the strong desire to hone their cognitive target language skills intensively to help them thrive in the ongoing learning enterprises. secondly, highly selfregulated learners have to profoundly plan, monitor, and evaluate their learning enterprises in accord with their pre-determined language learning goals. thirdly, self-regulated learners should also be able to preserve their positive learning feelings, endeavor, and emotions amid adverse learning situations. fourthly, efl learners possessing a higher level of selfregulation are also able to instill adequate help-seeking behavior in response to the existing learning difficulties they are dealing with. long-lasting as well as perseverance learning efforts also epitomized the ultimate means to be highly self-regulated efl learners as they ceaselessly create varied attempts to accomplish the given challenging learning tasks. in the last stage, self-regulated learners can also be deemed as the knowledge strivers who are capable of preserving or magnifying their learning focus by not being externally disrupted with other potential learning distractions. by committing to releasing all of these acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol. 7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 69 aforementioned self-regulated learning characteristics, our globalized elt face will potentially yield competent future academicians holding life-long learning behavior in search of the fullest potential truth throughout their lifetime. the major impetus for the researcher to run this present qualitative library study is to generally showcase the essential role of self-regulation in worldwide elt contexts. globalized elt contexts were chosen since there are still self-regulation literature shortages lying in indonesian efl learning settings. concerning this assumption, the researcher held a strong contention that the major results of this current library study would bring about more profound striking positive impacts for both worldwide and indonesian future elt enterprises in the lens of rewarding findings generated by global self-regulation studies. to a lesser extent, 30 prior self-regulation research types were being capitalized on this present study to generate more robust, reliable, and trustworthy research results significantly contributable for the further advancement of all elt enterprise aspects in the light of self-regulation. one guided inquiry was presented in this current qualitative study namely: what is the important role of self-regulation in worldwide efl learning contexts? methods the researcher plied this qualitative study in the light of library study. the main purpose of selecting this research method was to uncover renewable insights out of the prior studies. to fulfill this research objectivity, 30 previous self-regulation studies run in elt contexts were chosen to motivate both globalized and indonesian efl educationalists to cultivate learners’ self-regulation levels in accord with the second language learning enterprises they are dealing with. needless to say, the researcher had 2 major considerations of not choosing selfregulation studies conducted in indonesian efl learning contexts namely there were still the drawbacks of investigation delving more exhaustively about the critical importance of selfregulation in this archipelago. the second consideration was some self-regulation studies held in indonesian efl learning settings repeatedly generated identical discoveries with the prior self-regulation researches. for the data analysis processes, the researcher acclaimed that some categorizations of each prior self-regulation research findings would be exhaustively analyzed and accompanied by some arguments to yield more reliable, robust, and generalizable research findings that can be pondered by elt experts, educationalists, practitioners, and policymakers to continuously elevate their learners’ self-regulation levels in the light of challenging second language learning circumstances. ordinarily, 2 major themes were yielded to impart more obvious delineations out of the data analysis processes namely: (1) highly self-regulated efl learners transformed into more life-long academicians and (2) the robust establishment of self-regulation allows efl learners to reap more fruitful learning outcomes. results and discussion to reiterate, this subsection focused more exhaustively on expounding 2 major big take ways closely correlated with the important role of self-regulation in worldwide efl learning contexts. all these obtained prior findings were derived from 30 prior self-regulation studies plied in globalized efl learning settings. the further depictions of each theme will be in the light of argumentative styles to better convince the readers regarding the criticality of this psychological aspect in the overarching elt realm. table 1: highly self-regulated efl learners transformed into more life-long academicians acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol. 7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 70 theme 1 authors highly self-regulated efl learners transformed into more life-long academicians rose et al., (2018); su, zheng, liang, and tsai (2018); amini, anhari, and ghasemzadeh (2020); morshedian, hemmati, and sotoudehnama (2017); naseri and motallebzadeh (2016); canbay (2020); zheng et al., (2018); mceown and mceown (2019); hemmati, sotoudehnama, and morshedian (2018); kiliroong (2020); lem (2019); tavallali and marzban (2015); wijaya (2021). in tandem with the first major research theme, it is undeniably pivotal for worldwide efl educators to sustainably cultivate their learners’ self-regulation levels into the fullest potentials amid the challenging l2 teaching-learning enterprises to transfigure them into more life-long academicians. one of the notable laudable characteristics of becoming more life-long academicians is learners can overcome a vast array of laborious l2 learning barriers by strategically employing ample appropriate learning strategies. by possessing this positive learning behavior, they will also exhibit more persistent learning ventures amid varied unpredictable challenges. this finding is congruent with the prior self-regulation research finding uncovered by rose et al., (2018) mentioning that efl learners having been endowed by robust self-regulatory skills growth are more desirous of working through all formidable learning obstructions. with this conviction, it can also be postulated here that efl learners infusing a higher level of self-regulation are also capable of conducting more in-depth planning, monitoring, and evaluating stages after participating in their current teachinglearning dynamics. by committing to carrying out all these exhaustive learning management cycles, these learners can also be handicapped as life-long academicians since they are strongly willing to rejuvenate their perspective autonomously outside of the classroom walls without merely waiting for their teachers to address the subject-specific learning materials. this contention can be tailored with the previous self-regulation research findings discovered by su, zheng, liang, and tsai (2018) reporting that the majority of chinese efl learners instilling more cogent self-regulation constructions are also capable of conducting more profound learning planning, monitoring, and evaluating streams significantly resulted in another striking enhancement of autonomous learning behavior. due to the multiple psychological complexities presented by the self-regulation aspect, it is worth advocating for globalized efl teachers to continuously hone their learners’ selfregulatory learning skills in the support of emotional, social, and motivational streams for them to infuse more positive feelings toward the targeted subjects strongly reinforcing their motivation to foster their target language competencies more efficiently. this finding is further supported by prior self-regulation research results discovered by amini, anhari, and ghasemzadeh (2020) avowing that when efl learners are fully armed with more holistic construction of self-regulatory learning aspects comprising of motivational, emotional, and social notions, they can potentially manage their potential learning resources, environment, time, and energy in a better purpose. furthermore, it is vitally essential for efl educators as well to promote more supportive, positive, and captivating learning circumstances boosting both learners’ self-regulation along with target language competencies development. a vast array of the most impactful self-regulatory learning activities can be manifested in the acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol. 7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 71 presence of open-ended discussion, problem-solving learning enterprises, and encouraging learning ventures intended to develop learners’ higher-order thinking skills. these suggestive opinions seem to concur with naseri and motallebzadeh (2016) revealing that the majority of iranian efl learners had sufficiently improved their critical thinking skills, reading proficiency, and self-regulated learning behavior after being introduced to more enjoyable hand-on student-centered learning activities. in a similar view, zheng et al. (2018) also highly accentuate the rigorous self-regulatory learning skills at the commencement of elt enterprises by demanding learners to be more accountable toward their learning onus in the light of various favorable language learning activities endured altogether with other learning companions. it is worth exclaiming as well that the robust establishment of self-regulation levels will simultaneously enable globalized efl learners to confidently undergo varied arduous language learning hurdles by becoming more strategic planners, judicious decision-makers, and efficient problem-solvers. these positive self-regulated learning benefits fully surge since these highly self-regulated learners have gradually cast more optimistic, positive, and motivating perspectives toward the designated learning challenges they are going to confront. as they have been growing more prudent through this significant elevation of self-regulation, their maturity, confidence, and readiness to cope with varied abrupt learning barriers are also dramatically increased. this notion is paralleled with the prior self-regulatory skills research results disseminated by mceown and mceown (2019) repudiating that japanese efl learners having obtained more insistent external moral supports from their parents and teachers will be more capable of bringing about more positive learning climates in their classroom vicinities by outgrowing varied strenuous learning barriers. in conformance with the aforementioned research finding, hemmati, sotoudehnama, and morshedian (2018) also repudiate that the holistic crystallization of successful self-regulatory learning skills inculcation heavily depends on efl teachers’ capabilities in designing more enticing, enjoyable, and positive target language surroundings substantiating their learners’ current feelings, motivation, and confidence. tavallali and marzban (2015) strongly suggest efl educationalists to heeding their mushrooming attention in enacting sustainable self-regulatory learning dynamics constantly cultivating their learners’ strategic thinking, optimistic behavior habituation, and robust positive emotions for them to progressively transfigure into more lifelong academicians as being stated in this first major theme. table 2: the robust establishment of self-regulation allows efl learners to reap more fruitful learning outcomes theme 2 authors the robust establishment of selfregulation allows efl learners to reap more fruitful learning outcomes mbato and cendra (2019); erdogan (2018); sholeh (2019); arkavazi and nosratinia (2018); yazdizadeh, shakibaei, and namaziandost (2020); abbasi and nosratinia (2018); morshedian, hemmati, sotoudehnama, and soleimani (2016); siswanto and mbato (2020); zahra (2020); kuswandono (2019); kurniasari (2018); marfu’i, nurihsan, and damaianti (2018); al-otaibi (2013); cho and kim (2019); miatin and wiedarti (2019); waluyo (2018); alanazi (2020). acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol. 7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 72 a higher degree of self-regulation will allow efl learners to reap more fruitful learning outcomes. this successful learning attainment is influenced by continual external moral supports addressed by their teachers along with educational institutions. hence, it is highly suggestive for educational parties to enact more lively self-regulated learning activities closely interlinked with the apparent learners’ learning contexts. in congruence with what has already been phrased above, mbato and cendra (2019) in their self-regulation study found out that the majority of indonesian university efl learners were capable of accomplishing their undergraduate thesis due to the continuous powerful learning assistances imparted by significant others; lecturers and learning companions. further, it is also spotted that the full attainment of target language learning outcomes are also well-endorsed by diverse learning enterprises set by efl teachers. in other words, educators progressively designing diverse wide-ranging language learning enterprises will be more successful in heightening their learners’ motivation, persistence, and self-regulation eventually shown in the proliferation of their target language outcomes. this perspective is consistent with the prior self-regulation finding unveiled by erdogan (2018) adducing that when efl educationalists put a vast range of language learning variations, learners will exhibit more gigantic self-regulation level mostly assisting them to obtain more satisfying target language learning outcomes. as we have known that proactive, confident, and tenacious characters are the inseparable parts of becoming self-regulated efl learners, it is also of paramount importance for efl teachers to exhaustively cast more attention in elevating their learners’ self-regulation development by creating a stress-free as well as less-threatening second language learning dynamics. as these learners uphold a strong belief that they have been fully embraced in their particular learning communities, their learning endeavour will also be magnified. as a corollary, they have superseded their demotivated learning behaviour with more positive, optimistic, and spirited learning efforts to obtain more gratifying learning outcomes. this finding is intricately linked with the previous self-regulated finding uncovered by sholeh (2019) encouraging indonesian efl educationalists to not merely focusing on fostering their learners’ target language competencies but also self-regulatory skills as well to bring them closer to attain more fruitful learning outcomes. in another relevant study, arkavazi and nosratinia (2018) also unfolded that the continuous internalization of exhilarating target language learning vicinities enabled indonesian university efl learners to forge their learning competencies more rigorously. as a result, their second language learning achievements as well as outcomes will be proliferated as well. since the resurgence of selfregulatory skills development can also be nourished in the light of external supports, efl educators should also strive to ascertain that the lower level of second language learning anxiety is resided within their learners. during the long-lengthy enterprises in acquiring target language competencies, it will be unfair to claim that self-regulated efl learners do not instil self-anxiety within themselves; even they have grown into more mature academicians. conversely, it is worthwhile to be underscored here that highly self-regulated efl learners generally inculcate a lower level of language learning anxiety preventing them from becoming frustrating, demotivating, and passive knowledge constructors. this belief hinged upon the prior self-regulation investigation conducted by zahra (2020) confessing that efl learners investing a higher degree of self-regulation levels will be more capable of managing their targeted second language learning resources, environments, and time wholeheartedly compared to those implanting lower level of self-regulation. kuswandono (2019) in his exhaustive investigation on the role of self-regulatory skills in senior high school students learning settings also discovered that one major difference separating more self-regulated and less self-regulated efl learners is they can tremendously exert more potent controls over their current learning efforts, vicinities, and motivation to arrive at their ultimate learning acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol. 7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 73 destination. furthermore, kurniasari (2018) reported that a considerable number of indonesian university efl learners were more liable to take the plunge into the challenging language learning enterprises by putting a higher level of learning commitment in a proactive attempt to obtain their pre-determined learning goals. the fullest maximization of self-regulatory skills also lies within the nascence of more supportive student-centred learning groups in which all learners can broaden each other’s understanding of the subject-specific matters, maintain more cooperation, support learning progression, and create more conducive networking in attaining the approved classroom learning objectivities altogether. in the light of this solid learning community venture, efl learners will have more extensive opportunities to significantly expand their target language competencies since they have highly addressed a higher degree of reverence toward other learning community members finally triggering them to dedicate all their heart, learning commitment, and vigorous learning actions in an tangible attempt to fruitfully enrich their knowledge as well as significantly foster their self-regulation growth. some previous selfregulation studies have illuminated this finding. the first study conducted by miatin and wediarti (2019) unearthed that the majority of indonesian university efl writers were gradually improve their motivation, skills, and perspective in writing classes after being introduced to self-regulatory skills reciprocally ended up in more qualified writing products. the second study plied by waluyo (2018) unfolded that supportive learning communities would potentially sustain efl learners’ self-regulation growth directing them to grasp more satisfying learning outcomes due to the expansion of positive learning moods entrenched within their mindset. in an eventual study, alanazi (2020) urged indonesian efl educationalists to enact more supportive student-centred learning communities to invigorate learners’ cognitive, affective, and psychological aspects as having been evinced by the prolific growth of their self-regulatory skills along with second language competencies. conclusion generally speaking, two major themes unmasked in this present library study consistently exhibited the significance of self-regulation internalization in globalized elt enterprises due to the higher degree learning perseverance, commitment, and effortful actions attained by efl learners. through the trajectory of these laudable learning behaviors, learners possess more robust establishment of self-regulation development in which they can strategically implement a wide array of language learning strategies suit to their current learning conditions, strive more vigorously to overcome varied second language learning obstructions, and dedicate their higher degree of commitment to reach their desired target language achievements as well as outcomes. irrespective of these rewarding research findings, 2 specific limitations of this present library study should be taken into account. firstly, since this study merely involved 30 prior self-regulation studies conducted in worldwide elt enterprises, it is of great importance for future researchers attempting to conduct an identical study to profoundly overview a considerable number of self-regulation researches to generate more generalizable research results. lastly, more exhaustive investigation on the mutual interplay between self-regulation and other paramount psychological constructs like selfefficacy, self-confidence, and volition, and metacognition should be done by future researchers to yield better enlightenment for the further betterment of elt venture taking place globally. acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol. 7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 74 references abbasi, h., & nosratinia, m. 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(2021). english education master students' self-regulated learning strategies in academic writing. journal of english teaching, 7(1), 15-29. yazdizadeh, z., shakibaei, g., & namaziandost, e. (2020). investigating the relationship between iranian undergraduate tefl learners’ self-regulation and self-efficacy. international journal of research in english education, 5(3), 12-23. yılmaz, c. (2010). the relationship between language learning strategies, gender, proficiency and self-efficacy beliefs: a study of elt learners in turkey. procedia-social and behavioral sciences, 2(2), 682-687. zahra, s. m. (2020). self-regulated learning strategies and vocabulary size among indonesian efl senior high students. retain, 8(3). zheng, c., liang, j. c., li, m., & tsai, c. c. (2018). the relationship between english language learners’ motivation and online self-regulation: a structural equation modelling approach. system, 76, 144-157. zimmerman, b. j. (2008). investigating self-regulation and motivation: historical background, methodological developments, and future prospects. american educational research journal, 45(1), 166-183. zimmerman, b. j., & schunk, d. h. (2011). self-regulated learning and performance: an introduction and an overview. handbook of self-regulation of learning and performance, 15-26. acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 220 academic procrastination in language learning: adolescent learners’ perspectives mehmet asmalı,1 alanya alaaddin keykubat university, turkey sanem dilbaz sayın2 hacı yılmaz emine urhan i̇mam hatip secondary school, turkey doi: 10.35974/acuity.v7i2.2637 abstract despite the abundance of studies investigating the impact of academic procrastination on several aspects of learning, less is known about how this construct is perceived by adolescent foreign language learners with different levels of academic procrastination and their reasons to delay tasks and potential suggestions to reduce it. this study was designed to find out the academic procrastination behaviors of 136 learners aged 11-12. additionally, another major aim was to find out how the participants’ reasons to procrastinate and suggestions to reduce it differed according to gender and their academic procrastination level. the participants were divided into three groups as low, average, and high procrastinators considering their mean scores on the academic procrastination scale. a focus group interview was conducted with 12 learners to create a list of reasons, replacement activities, and suggestions. the findings indicated that all three groups followed a similar academic procrastination behavior pattern. however, in terms of reasons, while boys preferred playing computer games as a replacing activity, girls were more inclined to read books. some suggestions were also provided by the learners to reduce it. the study provides implications for teachers, parents, and learners. keywords: academic procrastination, adolescent learners, differences between academic procrastinators, foreign language learning, gender-based differences introduction almost everyone has tasks and responsibilities to fulfill in several areas of their life. however, due to various reasons, it is a frequently observed phenomenon that the tasks or responsibilities to be fulfilled are postponed to the last moment. it is so prevalent that in some cases it becomes a way of life for some people (steel, 2007). however, although simply delaying what has to be done at a later date may take place in everyone’s life, procrastination corresponding author: mehmet asmalı, alanya alaaddin keykubat university, kestel mah. üniversite cad. no: 80, school of foreign languages, alanya / antalya, 07425, turkey. email: asmalimehmet@gmail.com https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 221 has become a modern illness appearing in both developed and developing countries (milgram & tenne, 2000). procrastination is regarded as the difference between people’s intentions and actual behaviors. there is a positive correlation between this difference and the procrastination level (schraw et al., 2007). it is considered a stable personality trait bringing negative consequences (choi & moran, 2009). from this point of view, it can easily be assumed that people may show the same characteristics in their academic life through having a tendency to intentionally postpone academic tasks (steel, 2007). students of all ages, degrees, and all educational institutions show academic procrastination behavior to some extent. the ratio of the students defining themselves as procrastinators reaches up to 80% (steel, 2007). however, despite the high ratio, procrastination causes stress and various illnesses in the long term despite the short-term pleasure it provides (tice & baumeister, 1997). hence, 95% of the procrastinators are willing to reduce it somehow (o’brien, 2002). although people tend to reduce it, procrastination levels of the people are reported to show consistency across time (mccloskey, 2011). in relation to this fact, studies have proved that one out of five adults suffers from chronic procrastination (klassen, et al., 2008). procrastination, especially in the context of education, may be seriously decisive for students’ academic success as it is mostly considered a substantial hindrance to learners’ academic achievement (scher & osterman, 2002). on account of its prevalence and significantly negative impact, the relationship between academic procrastination and several other constructs has been investigated in the research studies so far, such as achievement in science (bezci & sungur vural, 2013) and research methods (jiao et al., 2011), burnout (balkıs, 2013), assignment and test performance (yılmaz, 2017), motivation (klassen & kuzucu, 2009). language learning is not exceptional in this context. studies conducted so far have provided negative correlations between academic procrastination and academic achievement in language learning (akpur, 2017; aydoğan & akbarov, 2018). a negative correlation was also found between academic procrastination and motivation to learn a foreign language (bekleyen, 2017). however, surprisingly, it is also among the results that the level of academic procrastination of individuals increases as their language proficiency increases (lowinger et al., 2016). apart from providing students’ academic procrastination level and its potential relationship with some other constructs, several researchers have also worked on the solutions for academic procrastination (davis & abbitt, 2013; xu, 2015; yeşil, 2012). suggestions, such as encouraging students’ active participation in the lesson, easy use of library and internet resources, providing students with the methods of studying, the opportunity of having a study room for the student (yeşil, 2012), increasing tasks’ importance and appeal, using effective grading systems and some applications for smartphone and tablets (xu, 2015), and sms (davis & abbitt, 2013) have been put forward. however, the participants of the majority of the studies mentioned above have been adults or university students. perspectives of adolescents concerning academic procrastination have been ignored, and they have been the concern of only a few researchers (korkmaz et al., 2018). a brief literature review reveals the gap in the related literature regarding academic procrastination among adolescents and their potential suggestions about how to reduce it. considering this fact, this study attempts to bridge this gap to fully understand adolescents’ (aged 11-12) procrastination levels and their suggestions to reduce it. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11145-020-10111-8#ref-cr39 acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 222 academic procrastination procrastination is defined as “the act of needlessly delaying tasks to the point of experiencing subjective discomfort” (solomon & rothblum, 1984, p. 503). as it is so common in the life of people, there are different types of procrastination listed in the relevant literature. life routine procrastination referring to the difficulty in managing the daily routine tasks (lay, 1986) and compulsive procrastination meaning deferring tasks and decisions (ferrari, 1991) are among these types. following these two types, the most prevalent types are decisional procrastination (ferrari & dovidio, 2000) appearing in the case of choosing among the alternatives in complex and conflict situations, and academic procrastination emerging in academic settings where students, for one reason or another, postpone or dilatorily act on their academic tasks, such as writing a term paper, getting ready for tests, preparing their assignments, reading, and doing administrative and attendance tasks (schowuenburg et al., 2004; uzun özer et al., 2009). although procrastination, in general, is considered to be a personality trait (ferrari et al., 1995), the people who are not inclined to defer their daily tasks or decisions may procrastinate in academic tasks due to several reasons, such as study habits, underestimating the deadlines, or the idea that they can easily accomplish the task (mccloskey, 2011). this fact reveals the difference in academic procrastination from which a great number of students suffer. although particular emphasis is given to university students’ academic procrastination due to its being extremely common among these learners (mccloskey, 2011; uzun özer & saçkes, 2011), it can be observed among students of all ages (mccloskey, 2011). the factors influencing this construct have been investigated in the literature by several researchers (burka & yuen, 1983; solomon & rothblum, 1984; uzun özer et al., 2009; visser et al., 2018). individuals’ cognitive processes, evaluation anxiety, problems in taking a decision, perfectionist expectations (burka & yuen, 1983), fear of failure and task aversiveness (solomon & rothblum, 1984), risk taking, laziness, rebellion against control (uzun özer et al., 2009) are among the factors affecting one’s academic procrastination. steel (2007, 2010) makes it clear that learners delay a task specifically when one of the following issues come true: low possibility of being successful, no potential expectation of joy and value, and the long time between the task completion and meaningful benefit they will receive out of it. internet is also considered to be an important factor affecting academic procrastination with its games, applications, and entertaining content (thatcher et al., 2008). maladaptive thoughts and reduced hopefulness were other constructs that were associated with academic procrastination (mccown et al., 2012). as academic procrastination is so prevalent in students’ life, the number of scholars associating the relevance of this construct with others is rather high. nevertheless, language learning and language learners’ academic procrastination appear to be neglected in the related literature although it requires fulfilling several tasks during which the possibility of delaying tasks may increase. despite this fact, the scarcity of studies investigating language learners’ academic procrastination can easily be detected (bekleyen, 2017). in one of these rare studies, bekleyen (2017) investigated 313 freshmen studying english at university in their first year. the relationship among academic procrastination, gender, age, satisfaction with the major, and self-reported motivation of the students was examined. the results indicated a negative correlation between motivation and academic procrastination, and males reported to procrastinate more than females. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 223 in another study, akpur (2017) examined academic procrastination and its relationships with academic achievement in language learning, foreign language classroom anxiety, and motivation. data gathered from 211 university first-year students indicated a significant negative relationship between motivation and academic procrastination; and academic achievement in language learning and academic procrastination. a negative correlation was also found between self-reported english proficiency and english grades of 213 university students and their academic procrastination in the study by aydoğan and akbarov (2018). academic procrastination of efl learners was found to be positively and negatively correlated with extrinsic and intrinsic motivation to learn a foreign language respectively in their study. similar to the scarcity of studies on academic procrastination in relation to language learning, there are also a very limited number of studies investigating self-reported solutions or suggestions with regard to academic procrastination although 95% of the procrastinators are willing to reduce it in general (o’brien, 2002). one of the studies aiming to come up with some suggestions to reduce academic procrastination examines the views of 691 freshmen and senior students studying in different majors at an education faculty of a university in turkey (yeşil, 2012). the data gathered through a scale indicated that the techniques ensuring students’ active participation in class, the opportunity for students to easily use internet sources and library, possessing a study room of their own, the opportunity for students to ask questions and express their ideas in class, informing students about how to study, and mentioning some examples from teachers’ study habits are among the suggestions. interestingly, the scarcity of studies investigating language learners’ academic procrastination is even more apparent in the context of adolescents. although it has been reported to be observed with students of all ages (mccloskey, 2011), the main focus of academic procrastination studies has been university students, and the case with the younger learners has been partly investigated (klassen & kuzucu, 2009; korkmaz et al., 2018). yet, these studies were out of the context of language learning. one of these studies (korkmaz et al., 2018) examining academic procrastination of 496 turkish sixth, seventh, and eighth graders diagnosed as gifted and not gifted showed a negative correlation between academic achievement and academic procrastination for not gifted learners. their results also illustrated a positive relationship between academic procrastination and self-efficacy and the locus of control of gifted learners. another study was designed to find out the academic procrastination and motivational variables in adolescents studying in the ninth, tenth, and eleventh grades in a state secondary school (klassen & kuzucu, 2009). no difference was reported in terms of gender in their academic procrastination. self-regulation was found to be the strongest predictor of academic procrastination. writing was the task on which both genders procrastinated the most. whereas the most preferred activities by male students while procrastinating included getting something to eat and drink, playing computer games, and going online for web surfing; they were reading books and magazines, getting something to eat and drink, and talking with friends for girls. procrastination appears as a troubling issue that does not only create problems for the procrastinators but also affects the lives of other people who rely on them (steel & ferrari, 2013). the only advantage it provides is for the procrastinator to keep away from stress by deferring tasks and to obtain a short-term relief (boice, 1996). although this construct has mostly been notorious, the pressure stemming from deferring tasks may also improve performance (kim & seo, 2013). despite the abundance of studies investigating academic procrastination, another neglected aspect concerning this construct is the categorization of participants according to their levels of procrastination (visser et al., 2018). in one of these rare studies in which participants were categorized according to their academic procrastination https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10852352.2016.1198154?scroll=top&needaccess=true acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 224 levels, visser et al. (2018) compared learning characteristics and self-regulation behaviors of three groups of freshmen students studying in teacher education programs. six themes were found as the results of the analysis of the interviews. the factors leading to academic procrastination behavior among average-level procrastinators were found to be different from the ones with high or low-level procrastinators. though much is known about the factors influencing academic procrastination, especially in the university level, less is known and investigated about how these factors and potential suggestions to reduce academic procrastination differ for various adolescent learners procrastinating in different levels. considering this fact, to our knowledge, this study is the first study to investigate adolescents’ academic procrastination behaviors, the reasons for it, the activities taking place during procrastination, and their self-reported suggestions to reduce academic procrastination in the context of efl categorizing these learners as low, average, and high academic procrastinators. the research questions that guide the present study are as follows: 1. what are the academic procrastination perceptions of low, average, and high academic procrastinators in language learning? 2. are there any gender-based differences among the students with low, average, and high levels of academic procrastination in terms of the reasons for academic procrastination, replacement activities, and suggestions to decrease it in language learning? methods participants participants were 136 adolescents (aged 11-12) studying in sixth and seventh grades in an urban public school situated in the western region of turkey. these students have been taught english by the same english teacher since they started sixth and seventh grades. the participants started learning english in second grade. sixth graders had three, seventh graders had four hours of weekly english classes (40 minutes each). data collection the students’ academic procrastination was measured with the adapted version of the scale developed by çakıcı (2003) including 19 (12 negative and 7 positive) items. the adaptation of this scale was implemented by adding ‘english’ to all items in this scale to limit the context and let the students think of their procrastination behavior specifically in the context of english language learning. as for this, a sample item “i study for my lessons regularly” was transformed into “i study for my english lesson regularly”. the students were supposed to choose one of the five options ranging from ‘1never true of me’ to ‘5-extremely true of me’. those choosing ‘1-never true of me’ get 1, and those choosing ‘5-extremely true of me’ get 5 points. the high score obtained from the scale shows that students are academic procrastinators. the scale was originally developed in turkish, and it was administered in turkish in this study. to ensure the reliability and validity of the scale, some steps have been taken. first, two experts in the field of language learning were consulted to ensure face validity. their suggestions were taken into consideration for the wording of the items. second, a pilot test was administered with the participation of 30 participants who were not involved in the main study. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 225 students’ understanding of the items was checked during this study. the cronbach’s alpha coefficient of internal consistency of the scale was found to be 0.817. to know what level of academic procrastination the students experience just one week before their first english test, all students’ (n = 136; 61 males, 75 females) academic procrastination was measured with the adapted version of çakıcı’s academic procrastination scale (2003). the outcomes of the students were ranked and classified into three groups in line with their mean scores on this scale. the descriptive statistics run on the data showed that the difference between the student with the lowest mean score (m = 1.16) and the student with the highest mean score (m = 3.74) was found to be 2.58. this score was divided into three and the result (0.86) was added to the lowest mean score (m = 1.16) and subtracted from the highest mean score (m = 3.74). as a result of the calculations, the students were categorized into three academic procrastination levels. the mean score ranges were from 1.16 to 2.02 for the low procrastinators, from 2.03 to 2.88 for the average procrastinators, and 2.89 to 3.74 for the high procrastinators. the information regarding the distribution of the gender and academic procrastination mean scores of students across the groups is provided in table 1 below. table 1. distribution of genders and mean scores across the academic procrastination levels academic procrastination group gender female male f m sd f m sd low 26 1.70 .246 22 1.63 .226 average 37 2.39 .238 31 2.39 .228 high 12 3.13 .227 8 3.28 .341 total 75 2.27 .544 61 2.23 .59 following the analysis and grouping of the participants, a focus group interview was conducted with the participation of 12 students (6 males, 6 females). these students (2 males, 2 females) were chosen from each procrastination level. during the interview, three descriptive questions were asked. the students’ perspectives regarding the reasons why they procrastinate for their english studies, the activities they do while procrastinating, and their potential suggestions to reduce procrastination were gathered. the items (7 items for reasons, 7 items for activities while procrastinating, 6 items for suggestions) generated from the students’ responses were listed and pilot tested with the participation of 30 participants. with slight modifications, the items were distributed to the same group of students (n = 136). https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 226 figure 1. flowchart of the study design data analysis for the analysis, first, descriptive statistics were run to group learners into three procrastination levels. after the grouping phase, frequency and percentages were found for the participants’ responses regarding the reasons for procrastination, the activities they do while procrastinating, and their suggestions to reduce academic procrastination. results the findings found for the first research question to illustrate the academic procrastination perceptions of low, average, and high academic procrastinators are presented below in table 2. the mean score range was from 1 to 5. high mean scores represent higher academic procrastination. table 2. academic procrastination perceptions of low, average, and high academic procrastinators items/academic procrastination level low average high m sd m sd m sd 3. i give up studying english to do more enjoyable things. 1.81 1.04 2.57 1.01 3.60 1.18 5. whenever i start studying, i have other things to think of 1.83 1.01 2.60 1.24 3.90 1.48 6. even if they are important, i delay studying for the exams unnecessarily to the last day. 1.31 .657 2.32 1.28 3.00 1.33 8. i delay studying for the boring topics in english until the last minute. 1.89 1.07 2.79 1.31 3.70 1.38 adaptations of the scale including expert consultation and pilot study (n = 30) use of procrastination scale (n = 136) (19 items) grouping the adolescents based on their mean scores and categorising them as low, average, and high procrastinators focus group interviews with two male and female adolescents from each procrastination group (totally 12 students) listing responses of the interviewees about the reasons, replacement activities, and suggestions to decrease procrastination. pilot study (n = 30) use of the scale derived from the responses of the interviewees https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 227 10. while studying, i often take a break for doing something, talking to someone, drinking tea or coffee, etc. 1.58 .846 2.51 1.12 3.20 1.19 12. even if the date is announced beforehand. when the english exam day approaches, i deal with other non-priority work. 1.37 .815 2.50 1.21 3.05 1.05 14. i delay studying important english topics till the last minute. 1.27 .535 1.86 1.04 2.80 1.23 15. there are times i fail english exams, because i delay studying until the last day. 1.89 1.17 2.80 1.34 3.80 1.10 16. i cannot submit my english homework/projects on time. 1.41 .682 2.40 .90 2.85 1.26 18. i delay my english homework/projects to the last day for unimportant reasons. 1.41 .846 2.44 1.05 2.85 1.42 19. i am a student who delays his english studies to the last moment but says that next time he will start studying on time. 2.02 1.46 3.01 1.41 4.05 1.23 1. i study for my english classes regularly. 1.26 .639 1.76 .96 2.75 .911 2. i delay my english tasks/projects till the last minute. 3.08 1.64 3.32 1.35 3.90 1.33 4. i have time to revise what i have learned in english classes before the exams. 1.50 .945 2.20 1.16 2.85 1.56 7. i come prepared for english lessons. 1.54 .682 2.44 1.14 2.80 1.36 9. before i go to the english classes. i do all the reading required. 1.89 1.25 2.44 1.17 3.45 1.05 11. i submit my english homework/projects on time. 1.25 .483 1.66 1.00 2.75 1.51 13. if i have prepared myself for an english study program, i follow it. 1.37 .703 2.16 1.12 3.55 1.05 17. i study all english topics thoroughly before the exam. 1.56 .741 2.39 1.12 3.05 .94 as shown in table 2, there are mostly commonalities among the groups. to start with, total mean scores of the groups were 1.67 for low procrastinators (sd = .23), 2.39 for average procrastinators (sd = .23), and 3.19 for high procrastinators (sd = .28). the lowest scored items indicating low academic procrastination showed similarity among the groups despite slight differences. item number 1 ‘i study for my english classes regularly’ and item number 11 ‘i submit my english homework/projects on time’ were among the top two lowest scored items for all groups. additionally, item number 14 indicating deferment of studying english till the last minute was among the lowest scored items for all groups. in terms of high scored items, all groups agreed on item number 19 stating procrastination in studying english but feeling regret later. moreover, item number 2 ‘i delay my english tasks/projects till the last minute’ was among the highest scored items for low, average, and high procrastinators as well. in addition to these, boring topics (item 8) were another significant factor for the students in all groups to procrastinate in studying english. thinking of something else in the initial phase of studying (item 5) was rife specifically in low (m = 1.83, sd = 1.01) and high procrastinators (m = 3.90, sd = 1.48). likewise, failure https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 228 in english examinations due to procrastination (item 15) was another item on which all the groups reached a consensus. the second research question addressed in this study was related to differences between genders among the groups of low, average, and high procrastinators regarding the reasons for academic procrastination, the replacement activities, and suggestions to reduce it. table 3 below illustrates the reasons why boys and girls having different academic procrastination levels delay their studies. table 3. distribution of academic procrastination reasons for both genders among three academic procrastination levels reasons for procrastinating male female low average high low average high f % f % f % f % f % f % 1. i do housework and help my brother/sister 1 4.5 2 6.4 1 12.5 6 23 9 24.3 5 41.6 2. i feel tired 3 13.3 5 16.1 1 12.5 3 11.5 2 5.4 1 8.3 3. because of the homework i postponed earlier 3 13.3 3 9.6 3 37.5 2 7.6 3 8.1 4 33.3 4. to do more test 5 22.7 7 22.5 0 0 6 23 8 21.6 0 0 5. because i forget 2 9 2 6.4 1 12.5 2 7.6 3 8.1 2 16.6 6. because i don’t understand the topic 5 22.7 5 16.1 0 0 4 15.4 7 18.9 0 0 7. because it is boring 3 13.3 7 22.5 2 25 3 11.5 5 13.5 0 0 total 22 100 31 100 8 100 26 100 37 100 12 100 the results indicated some major gender-based differences in terms of the reasons for academic procrastination. the most important difference distinguishing girls from boys is the support they give to their parents about caring for housework and siblings. additionally, participants from both genders try to do more tests on other school subjects, and they procrastinate when they do not grasp the topic thoroughly. the differences are not limited solely to gender. while the low and average procrastinators defer their studies to do more tests on other school subjects and in the case of not grasping the topic in english classes, high procrastinators do not do their tasks on time due to the postponement of the previous task. the respondents were also asked about the activities they do while they are procrastinating to figure out what takes their attention. table 4 below shows the clear picture in this respect. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 229 table 4. distribution of activities preferred during procrastination for both genders among three academic procrastination levels the activities when procrastinating male female low average high low average high f % f % f % f % f % f % 1. watching tv 1 4.5 1 3.2 1 12.5 2 7.7 4 10.8 2 16.6 2. smartphone 7 31.8 10 32.2 2 25 6 23.1 10 27 3 25 3. playing computer games 10 45.4 15 48.4 5 62.5 1 3.8 1 2.7 1 8.3 4. do a test (other than english) 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 3.8 1 2.7 0 0 5. reading book 1 4.5 1 3.2 0 0 9 34.6 12 32.4 4 33.3 6. listening to music 1 4.5 1 3.2 0 0 1 3.8 1 2.7 0 0 7. get something to eat and drink 2 9.1 3 9.7 0 0 6 23.1 8 21.6 2 16.6 total 22 100 31 100 8 100 26 100 37 100 12 100 as illustrated in table 4, boys are more likely to spend time with technological devices, such as computers and smartphones while girls are more likely to read books and get some snacks and drinks when procrastinating. regarding the differences in academic procrastination levels, high procrastinators seem to watch tv more than the other activities during procrastination in both genders. the last aspect of the second research question is the suggestions of the students to reduce their academic procrastination. students’ responses are presented in table 5 below. table 5. distribution of suggestions to reduce academic procrastination for both genders among three academic procrastination levels suggestions to reduce procrastinating male female low average high low average high f % f % f % f % f % f % 1. study regularly 3 13.6 5 16.1 1 12.5 5 19.2 6 16.2 2 16.6 2. using reminder stickers 6 27.3 8 25.8 2 25 7 26.9 8 21.6 3 25 3. increase motivation to do homework on time 1 4.5 2 6.4 0 0 2 7.7 3 8.1 4 33.3 4. getting extra marks from the teacher 5 22.7 3 9.7 0 0 9 34.6 12 32.4 1 8.3 5. have a study room 2 9.1 3 9.7 0 0 2 7.7 6 16.2 0 0 6. the class should be like a video game 5 22.7 10 32.2 5 62.5 1 3.8 2 5.4 2 16.6 total 22 100 31 100 8 100 26 100 37 100 12 100 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 230 there are some immediately apparent differences between males and females considering their suggestions to reduce academic procrastination. the consensus among the males is that the classes should be as interesting or exciting as the video games. however, the females considered receiving teachers’ extra marks as the motivating factor to eliminate or decrease procrastination. for both genders, using reminder stickers is a popular suggestion to reduce academic procrastination. additionally, although having a separate room to study and getting extra marks from teachers are not considered a way to reduce procrastination by high procrastinators, increased motivation (for females) and using reminder stickers serve for reducing procrastination. discussion the present study was conducted to investigate the perceptions of adolescent learners’ academic procrastination in studying english and to extend the understanding concerning reasons for academic procrastination and suggestions to reduce it. the participants were divided into three groups (low, average, and high procrastinators) based on their mean scores. the results revealed that all three groups had quite similar perceptions regarding academic procrastination. the groups agreed on not studying english regularly and not submitting tasks on time which shows procrastinating behaviors. similarly, students in low, average, and high academic procrastination levels think that they delay tasks till the last minute with the belief in their mind that they will not repeat it. interestingly, it is obvious from the findings that boredom in class resulted in academic procrastination for all learners. this finding is in line with the results of several studies (blunt & pychyl, 1998; ferrari, 2000; vodanovich & rupp, 1999). supporting this view, steel (2007) also stated that “the more boring and difficult a task was made, the more likely people were to delay doing it” (p. 75). the results also indicated that the students in all three academic procrastination levels agreed on the deteriorating impact of academic procrastination on their test scores which is also in accordance with the results of the studies conducted in foreign language contexts (aydoğan & akbarov, 2018) and in other school subjects (bezci & sungur vural, 2013; korkmaz et al., 2018; yılmaz, 2017; you, 2015). surprisingly, the female students reported slightly higher academic procrastination than the male students did which contradicts the results of bekleyen (2017) investigating university students’ academic procrastination attitudes, and those of klassen and kuzucu (2009) who found no significant difference between academic procrastination levels in two genders with turkish adolescents. major differences were found between the females and the males concerning the reasons for procrastinating. helping their parents with home chores and taking care of their brothers and sisters was the highest scored reason for procrastination for females in all three academic procrastination levels which was reported as one of the least important reasons for males. this fact may stem from the culture they were born in, and similar findings have been found in the literature (rothchild, 2006). in terms of the views of turkish adolescents, although males were found to be doing fewer home chores than females, it was not the main reason for procrastinating for girls in the study of klassen and kuzucu, (2009), which is not in line with the findings of the current study. it may be concluded that despite educational reforms taking place in turkey where modernity is perfectly combined with traditionalism, societal gender roles which require more home chores from women can still be observed even at an early age (caner et al., 2015). the cultural bias against girls in socially conservative societies may result in the academic procrastination of girls in several school subjects. apart from this, it is https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 231 interesting that high procrastinators in both genders did not consider doing more tests on other school subjects a reason for procrastination despite its being one of the top reasons for low and average procrastinators in both genders. the results concerning the replacement activities when procrastinating showed that the males spend time with the computer games and smartphones, and the females spend time reading books and getting snacks and drinks. these findings were also in accordance with those of klassen and kuzucu (2009). the results also show the severity of the internet and video game addiction problem, especially among males, which offers instant gratification and serves as a distraction (nordby et al., 2019). although they have not found a significant relationship between video gaming and procrastination, students played it to escape reality and to reduce stress (nordby et al., 2019). moreover, as video games are mostly played online these days, internet addiction can also be considered in this context which has been found to increase academic procrastination in recent studies in turkish adolescents (can & zeren, 2019; demir & kutlu, 2018). the last concern of this study was to reveal adolescents’ suggestions to reduce academic procrastination and potential differences between the genders and among three academic procrastination levels. the most distinct difference could be observed in the suggestions of males and females. while the former favor the classes being like a video game, the latter tend to receive extra marks from teachers to reduce academic procrastination. it can be interpreted that traditional classroom design does not take the attention of males in english classes anymore, and they ask for a video game-based design in which they would receive instant gratification (nordby et al., 2019) to do the tasks on time. the popularity of this suggestion among the males may also stem from video game addiction which has also been on the rise recently. as these games target a variety of people, adolescents are not exceptions. although there are several reasons for these games to be popular, being sophisticatedly designed grasps learners’ attention by evoking and amazing their curiosity (eskasasnanda, 2017). the males’ overwhelming desire for video game-based design of the classes exhibits their higher addiction to video games compared to the females which is in line with the literature (altun & atasoy, 2018; zorbaza demirtaş et al., 2014). on the other hand, the girls’ response to receiving extra marks from teachers to reduce academic procrastination may be interpreted as they are extrinsically motivated to learn english. they are predominantly gradeoriented. interestingly, although female adolescent learners may have lower intrinsic motivation, their achievement does not get affected this much (corthright et al., 2013). pedagogical implications and conclusions in terms of implications, although adolescent learners’ academic procrastination may be frustrating, understanding the reasons, alternative replacing activities, and suggestions is a valuable initiative for parents, teachers, and other stakeholders working with these learners (klassen & kuzucu, 2009). therefore, considering its deteriorating impact on the academic success of the learners (akpur, 2017), teachers and parents should be aware of the academic procrastination perspectives of the learners by observing them with the ultimate aim of eliminating these factors that trigger procrastination. despite the parallelism in the perspectives of the learners in low, average, and high procrastination levels, the reasons for procrastination are markedly different between the genders and among the levels of procrastination. it is obvious that only the females feel responsible for home chores or taking care of their sisters/brothers rather than the males. the underlying assumptions of both students and their parents should be altered by reinforcing the idea that both genders are equally responsible for home tasks. only in this way could it be possible to enhance gender equality in the society and https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 232 it may help the females to have less academic procrastination by maintaining a balanced separation of duties at home. the difference between the high procrastinators and low and average procrastinators concerning the reasons to procrastinate indicated that high procrastinators defer the tasks since they had delayed the previous tasks, and it becomes a procrastination chain for them which never allows them to do the tasks on time. to overcome this, learners should be encouraged to do their tasks on time by providing positive reinforcement or to be organized by using some online schedulers or organizers that may take their attention. considering the suggestions to reduce academic procrastination and the replacement activities, the use of smartphones and playing video games seem to adversely affect learners’ performance. in this respect, a combination of the use of smartphones and game-like learning environments may be a solution since the majority of the studies provided positive impacts of the use of student response systems in classes (asmalı, 2018; wichadee & pattanapichet, 2018) and video game-based learning platforms (aydın, 2013; balçıkanlı, 2012). moreover, considering especially males’ technology use inclination, smartphone-based applications may be employed instead of reminder stickers as students suggested in this study to reduce academic procrastination (lukas & berking, 2018). despite the valuable findings that may encourage stakeholders and the learners themselves to reduce academic procrastination, further research is needed to address the limitations of this study. the first limitation is the small sample size of this research. therefore, a larger sample with the participation of younger and older learners may provide a clearer picture of academic 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(2014). relation between video game addiction and interfamily relationships on primary school students. educational sciences: theory & practice, 15(2), 489-497. https://doi.org/10.12738/estp.2015.2.2601 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.2224/sbp.1999.27.1.11 63 acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol. 6 no. 1 2021 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity the rhyme of joyful feeling in “to autumn” by john keats marlin steffi marpaung1 correspondence author: marlin (marlin.marpaung@unai.edu) faculty of education, english department universitas advent indonesia rahmadhan2 universitas balikpapan abstract rhyme is one of the important elements in poems. the function of rhyme is to attract the readers’ attention. this study focuses on the rhyme of joyful feeling in “to autumn” written by john keats. the objectives of this study are to determine the types of joyful rhyme reflected in john keats’ poem “to autumn” and to interpret how the rhyme reflected the joyful feeling in the poem. the semiotic theory by charles sanders peirce was used in this study. the methodology used is descriptive qualitative research and a triangulation strategy was used in this study as well as the use of data from library research to present a descriptive issue. the result of this study showed that there are twelve perfect rhymes, eight eye rhymes, and four light rhymes from the “to autumn” poem and there are twenty words used to interpret the icons, symbols and index based on charles sanders peirce theory. keywords: semiotic, stanza, poetry, symbols, triangulation strategy introduction literature is a piece of writing and considered as the smallest element of alphabetical writing and a personal expression of feeling including experience, idea, motivation, confidence in the concrete description by using language. literature most commonly refers to works of the creative imagination and one of the main important learning tools in learning how language is used as well as appreciated the beauty of literary works. from literary works people can learn how the language is used and analyzed various aspects in the text. an integral part of literature is where the alphabet translates spoken words into signs and not only means what is written but also what is voiced, expressed, invented in any kind of form (klarer, 2004, krystal, 2014). the everyday used of literary works from texts can be found from books, newspapers, legal documents, and scholarly writings. literature has three classical literary forms and known as epic, poetry, or drama. poetry is a part of text that written in a particular way. poetry is one of the oldest genres in literary history. it is closely related to the term of lyric and often associated not only with a special language but with a very deep use of such specialized language. poetry expresses the poet’s meaning with beauty, style and feeling through the using of sound and figures of speech to form language to higher levels. many of these definitions are limited to the characteristics such as verse, rhyme, and meter, which are traditionally regarded as the classical elements that differentiate poetry from prose. the genre of poetry divided into two major categories: narrative and lyric poetry. the narrative poetry includes the epic, long poem, the romance, and the ballads while lyric poetry focusses on the following comments https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity mailto:marlin.marpaung@unai.edu 64 where mainly concerned with one event, impression, or idea (guillain, 2015; farnen, 2018; lethbridge & mildorf, 2004; klarer, 2004). poem is a short written text that expresses the meaning in much less space than a novel or even a short story. each poem is an imaginative expression of human experience. poems are written where the sound and the meaning of the words make the reader feel and think in certain ways, it tells a story or just to create a mood, it uses rhythm to have an effect on the reader. a poem also involves rhyme. rhyme expresses the poet's feelings and thoughts. rhyme makes the poem to be more pleasing to read and hear, helps make a poem musical, aids the memory for recitation and offers predictable pleasure. rhyme is the repetition of the final sounds or sound of words, when two words sound the same when spoken. rhyme means the words at the end of some lines have similar sounds. however, some poems do not rhyme. rhyme in a poetry seems to be the most noticeable attribute involving the sound identity (guillain, 2015; farnen, 2018; harley, 1992). a rhyme is when two words have the same sound (phoneme) from the last stressed vowel onwards. there are numbers of rhyme forms that deviate from the exact observance of the full rhyme, there is a rich rhyme when the consonant before the last stressed vowel is also identical, for example, lap or clap, stick or ecclesiastic. therefore, the two rhyme words are in fact the same, it is an identical rhyme. there are two rhyme words look and sound the same but have different meanings and this is called a homonym. rhyme is utilizing the repeating words that brings rhythm or musicality in poems. a rhyme is employed for the specific purpose of rendering a pleasing effect to a poem which makes its recital an enjoyable experience. rhyme is an assonance and alliteration, rhymes are everywhere and is considered as part of rhythm. the structure of a poem can refer to several kinds of configuration. first, the structure often refers to the physical composition of a poem. the types of structure in the poem are rhyme, stanzas, meter, and rhythm (lethbridge & mildorf, 2004; bao-tong, 2002; bennet & royle, 2004). john keats was an english romantic poet. he wrote many poems in his era including “to autumn” poem. he was one of the main figures of the second generation of romantic poets, along with lord bryson and percy bysshe shelley even though his work has been in publication four years before his death. although his poems were not generally well received during his lifetime, his reputation grew after his death by the end of the 19th century. he had become one of the most beloved of all english poets. he had a significant influence on a diverse range of poets and writers. the poetry of keats is characterized by sensual imagery, most notably in the series of odes. this is typical of romantic poets, as they aimed to accentuate extreme emotion through the emphasis of natural imagery. “to autumn” has been regarded by the critics as one of the most perfect short poems in the english and is sometimes called an ode since its structure and rhyme scheme are similar to odes, that describe a progression through the season, from the late maturation of the crops to the harvest and to the last days of autumn when winter is approaching. the imagery is richly achieved through the personification and the description of its bounty, its sights and sounds. this poem is remarkable for its richness of imagery and it was inspired by the warmth of the reaped wheat fields at dusk as keats wandered through the countryside back then. it has three stanzas, the first stanza unfolds a fruitful autumn morning with bent apple trees, plump hazelnut, bulging gourds, blooming flowers, and busy bees. the second stanza explains about the busy harvest in the afternoon such as wheat reaping and juice pressing, in which the wheat fields dyed with sunset glow is highlighted, showing a warm picture with bright but not dazzling hues. in the third stanza, a symphony of nature is playing with gnats’ choir, sheep bleating, hedgecrickets singing, then whistle of red-breast and swallows’ twittering terminates the whole song and concludes the poem as well. “to autumn” is overflowed with harvest in terms of fruits, grains, and livestock, and for keats, his spring planting in poetry composition also bears fruits at that time. the poem expresses keats’s affection for nature through a creative 65 description of fascinating scenery, colorful harvest and enchanting sounds in autumn. (hough, 2020; huang, 2018; qinghong & su, 2020). today, his poems and letters are one of the most popular and most analyzed in english literature. hence, this study focusses on the joyful feeling shown from the rhyme of the poem and the using the semiotic analysis to find the joyful feeling in the poem entitled “to autumn.” this is the first study that focus on the rhyme of joyful feeling, and the next novelty is the using of semiotic analysis to find the joyful feeling in the poem. therefore, two research questions were formulated in this study: 1. what are the types of rhyme in “to autumn” by john keats? 2. how does the rhymes reflect to the joyful feeling in “to autumn” by john keats? literature review semiotics, or semiology, is the study of signs, symbols, and signification. it is the study of how meaning is created, not what it is. semiotics is concerned with everything that can be taken as a sign. a sign is everything which can be taken to substitute something. for semiotic everything can be a sign. thus, semiotics is the principle of discipline study that everything can be used in order to tell a lie. if something cannot be used to tell a lie, it cannot be used “to tell” at all. semiotic is, in fact, the recurring patterns that characterize sign systems to reflect the innate structures in the sensory, emotional, and intellectually that become the composition of the human body and the human psyche. there are three semiotic experts. the first one is saussure. for saussure, the important thing to remember about signs is that they are made up of sounds and images, what he called signifiers, and the concept of these sounds and images to recall. semiotics is the preferred one and emphasized that the study of signs should be divided into two branches, the synchronic and the diachronic. the former refers to the study of signs at a given point in time, normally the present and the latter to the investigation of how signs change in form and meaning over time. words are the sign as well as many other things such as facial expression, body language, clothes, and haircut. the second expert was jakobson. for jakobson, semiotics is often said to be the communication of any messages or the exchange of any messages and the system of signs which underlie them. the concerns include the considerations of how messages are, successively, generated, encoded, transmitted, decoded, and interpreted, and how this entire transaction (semiosis) is worked upon the context. the third expert was peirce. he has a different system of semiotic. for pierce, there were three different kinds of signs: icons, indexes, and symbols. icons indicate by resemblance; indexes determine by cause and effect, and symbols imply based on convention. although sign theories have a long history, peirce's accounts is distinctive and innovative for their breadth and complexity, and for capturing the importance of interpretation to signification (sebeok, 2001; sebeok & cobley, 2001; berger, 2004; danesi, 2004). for peirce, developing a thorough going theory of signs was a central of philosophical and intellectual preoccupation. the importance of semiotic for peirce is wide ranging. in addition, peirce also treated sign theory as central to his work on logic, as the medium for inquiry and the process of scientific discovery, and even as one possible means for 'proving' his pragmatism. its importance in peirce's philosophy, then, cannot be overestimated. it is stated that there are three types of semiotic theory. there are an icon is a sign which refers to the object that it denotes merely by virtue of character of its own, and which it possesses just the same, whether any such object actually exists or not. it is true that unless there really is such an object, the icon does not act as a sign, but this has nothing to do 66 with its character as a sign. anything whatever, be quality, existent individual, or law, is an icon of anything, in so far as it is like that thing and used as a sign of it. furthermore, an icon is a sign that the relationship between signifier and signified is simultaneously scientific shape or signs and objects are similarities. icon sign is a sign that resembles something as literally. a symbol is a sign which refers to the object that denotes by virtue of a law, usually an association of general ideas, which operates to cause the symbol to be interpreted as referring to that object. it is thus itself a general type of law, that is a legisign and it acts through a replica. not only is it general itself, but the object to which it refers is a general nature. moreover, a symbol is a sign that indicates the natural relationship between the marker and the signature, the relationship of arbitrator, and this relationship based on the convention (covenant) of society. a symbol has no logical meaning between the symbol and the object. symbol is a usual public use to express or represent something. an index is a sign which refers to the object that it denotes by virtue of being really affected by that object. it cannot, therefore, be a qualisign because qualities are independent where the index is affected by the object. it necessarily has some quality in common with the object, and it is in respect to these that refers to the object. therefore, it involves a sort of icon, although an icon of a peculiar kind, and it is not the resemblance of its object, even in these respects which makes it a sign, but it is the actual modification of it by the object. furthermore, an index is a sign that indicates a natural connection between the sign and marker that is causal or causal relationship, or a sign that directly refers to reality. index is a sign where there is a direct link between the sign and the object (albert, 2013; pierce, 2011; quiroz & aguiar, 2015). structure in poetry structure is generally described the structural framework that underlines the order and way a narrative is presented to reader, listener or viewer. literature is a structure. structures are here in the sense that literature is an arrangement of elements of the collection system, which between of a relationship is mutual, mutually determined. thus, the unity of elements in literature is not just a collection of things, but things were bound together and mutually rely on. structure is written in prose where the ideas come together in a paragraph. in poems, things are grouped together into what are called stanzas. both stanzas and paragraphs are a way of organizing ideas together. there are four types of structure in the poem. first is stanza. stanza is a group of lines that are separated from other lines in the poem by a space. stanza serves a specific function in each poem. there are no general rules about such functions. in addition, a stanza is a set of lines in a poem grouped together and set apart from other stanzas in the poem either by a double space or by different indentation. poems may contain any number of stanzas, depending on the author’s wishes and the structure in which the poet is writing. however, there are many strict poetic forms that designate the exact number of stanzas. in general, it is easy to think that stanzas in poems as being equivalent to paragraphs in prose. that is to say that both stanzas and paragraphs contain related information, while new thoughts and concepts become the next stanza or paragraph. in some poems, stanzas have regular meter and rhyme, though this is by no means a requirement for all stanzas in poetry. the second structure is rhyme. rhyme is when two words have the same sound (phoneme) from the last stressed vowel onwards. in a full rhyme, the consonant preceding the last stressed vowel of the two words is different, for example, night or delight, power or flower. there are a number of rhyme forms that deviate from the exact observance of the full rhyme, one talks about a rich rhyme when the consonant before the last stressed vowel is also identical, for example, lap or clap, stick or ecclesiastic. when the two rhyme words are in fact the same, it is an identical rhyme. when two rhyme words look and sound 67 the same but have different meanings this is called a homonym. both rich rhyme and identical rhyme have at times been considered bad form. additionally, rhyme expresses the poet's feelings and thoughts imaginatively and arranged with all accumulated. rhyme discovers the poet's mind in a more beautiful, fresh and freeway, the rhyme can be stronger to express the feelings that will be conveyed and for the reader, the rhyme can help to find clarity of impression and melodious of poetry. the third structure is meter. meter is important part of poetry since it will help the reader to understand rhythm as it relates to the words and lines in a poem and it used to help the writers to create poetry with clearly defined structural elements and strong melodic undertones. meter is the measured arrangement of accents and syllables in poetry. in any kind of utterance, we stress certain syllables and not others. for instance, most people would probably stress the phrase ‘and how are you this morning’ something like: and how are you this morning? or possibly: and how are you this morning? poetry employs the stresses that occur naturally in language utterance to construct regular patterns. in the other side, is the basic rhythmic structure of a verse or lines in verse. many traditional verse forms prescribe a specific verse meter, or a certain set of meters alternate in a particular order. the study and the actual use of meters and forms of versification are both known as prosody. the last structure is rhythm. rhythm is generally a series of alternations of build-up and release, movement and counter-movement, tending toward regularity but complicated by constant variations and local inflections. rhythm is set of patterns that make it easier to remember for recitation and rhythm are enjoyable because it reflects the natural movement for the human body. that is the reason why poems with regular rhythm are often set to music for matching and dancing, amplifying the effect of the beat. while poetic meter and metrical deviations contribute to the rhythm of a poem, rhythm itself is a more general phenomenon, relating mainly to the variations of speed in which a poem is likely to be read. furthermore, a rhythm is the pattern of stressed and unstressed beats. rhythm is most found in poetry, though it is also present in some works of drama and prose. the rhythm of a poem can be analyzed through the number of lines in a verse, the number of syllables in the line, and the arrangement of syllables based on whether they are long or short, accented, or unaccented. rhythm is also closely associated with meter, which identifies units of stressed and unstressed syllables. when an author combines metrical units into a pattern, he or she creates rhythm. there are some rhythms such as iambus, trochee, spondee, dactyl and anapest (lethbridge & mildrof, 2004; farnen, 2018; tucker, 2018; guillain, 2015, klarer, 2004) rhyme in poetry rhyme is when two words sound the same when spoken. rhyme also used to help the poem become interesting and create a pattern within a poem. rhyme is when two words have the same sound. in a full rhyme, the consonant preceding the last stressed vowel of the two words is different. there are several rhyme forms that deviate from the exact observance of the full rhyme, it is called a rich rhyme. where the two rhyme words are the same, it is called an identical rhyme and where two rhyme words look and sound the same but have different meanings, it is called a homonym. both rich rhyme and identical rhyme have at times been considered bad form. there are eleven type of rhymes. the first type is perfect rhyme. it is a rhyme between words in which the stressed vowels and succeeding consonants are identical although the consonant preceding the stressed vowels may be different such as part and hart and believe and conceive. the second type is assonant rhyme. this is a vowel rhyming in words but with different consonants. it is sometimes referred to as a slant rhyme, for example, tip and limp, dank and bat, bowl and home. the third type is consonant rhyme. this is consonants rhyming, not vowels, for example, bell and ball, dump and damp, meter and miter, mile and mole. the fourth type is dactylic. this is third syllable rhyme from the end, 68 for example, aristophanes and cacophonies. the fifth rhyme is eye rhyme. this rhyme type is based on spelling, not sound, for examples; move and love, cough and bough, food and good, death and wreath. the sixth type is feminine rhyme also referred to as double, triple, multiple, extra-syllable, extended. this type has different beginnings of the words, but rhymes on the letter syllables, for examples; backing and hacking, tricky and picky, moaning and groaning, generate and venerate. the seventh type is head rhyme also called alliteration or initial rhyme, this rhyme has the same initial consonant at the beginning of the words. for examples; blue and blow, sun and sand, merry and monkey. the eighth type is identical rhyme this is rhyming with a word itself, but often refers to a different meaning. for example, in emily dickinson’s “because i could not stop for death.” the nineth type is internal rhyme. this rhyming happens within a line of poetry. the example of this rhyme type can be seen from edgar allan poem’s “the raven.” the tenth type is light rhyme rhyming of syllable where one is stressed and the other is not. for example, frog and dialog, mat and combat. the eleventh type of rhyme is macaronic rhyme. this rhymes words come from different languages. for example, villa and manilla, amore and favor, sure and kreatur, lay and lei, sitar and guitar ((lethbridge & mildorf, 2004; literarydevices editor, 2013). joyful fear, sadness, anger, disgust, and happiness or joy are the type of emotions showed both on the human expression and pieces of writing. joyful is showing or expressing of joy, as looks, actions or speech. in the other words, joyful is causing or bringing joy, as an event, a sight, or news, delightful. joyful is feeling, expressing, or causing great pleasure and happiness. joyful is not dependent on others and something happens, as you have important people in your life (lewis, jones & barret, 2008; oxford dictionary, 2017). thus, joyful is your own decision anytime and anywhere you decide to be happy or not. related studies several studies related to the rhyme, john keats’ poems and semiotic were conducted. studies focus on john keats’ works (janiswara, 2012, huang, 2018, qinghong & su, 2020). investigation on the rhyme (list, 2020; meri, 2016; huang & luo, 2012; wagner & maccurdy, 2010; perfect, 1999; harley, 1992). studies exploring the semiotic analysis in poems (sipahutar & arianto, 2019; thesis & hermawan, 2010), semiotic analysis in novel (ridwan, 2013), and semiotic analysis on movie poster (rahmasari, 2010). methodology research design and data collection the study is a descriptive qualitative research and used a triangulation strategy. the researchers find the data from the library research and collecting the data from a variety of literature. the literature used in this study is not only taken from book, but also from journal, references article and internet. this study has two data sources which are primary and secondary data: 1. the primary data are gathered by the researchers are taken from a poetry entitled “to autumn” by john keats. to keep the main data in this poem, the researchers use the semiotic theory. 2. the secondary data in this study is the additional journal and books from the internet or other relevant information that related on rhyme and semiotic. this data supported the topic of the research which includes the people’s thought about the semiotic theory and journals that have the same theory. 69 in collecting the data and interpret the analysis, the researchers conducted this study in three steps. the first step is determining the poem the researchers have chosen to be used in this study that is “to autumn” by john keats. the second step is marking some of the transitive words or sentences in the poem and analyzing the rhyme. the last step is interpreting the poem using semiotic interpretation theory. the triangulation strategy is used in this study in order to make sure the findings are trustworthy. triangulation is done by comparing the findings data to the related theories by doing peer examination. the data triangulation is to support this study and conducted a thorough and detailed observation in an ongoing basis against prominent factors. then, the researchers examined the details of the data. for that purpose, a technique requires to elaborate the detail finding of the data during the process of discovery. denzin (1994) identifies four basic types of triangulation as follows: 1. data triangulation: the use of various data sources in a study. 2. investigator triangulation: the use of several different researchers or evaluators. 3. theory triangulation: the use of multiple perspectives to interpret a single set of data. 4. methodological triangulation: the use of multiple methods to study the problem. in this study, the researchers make the data list, then, select the necessary data that need to be analyzed. the next step is classifying the data and collecting the cases. the semiotic theory was used in this study and this approach focuses on the joyful feeling in the poem. the collected data was analyzed with the data interpretation to find the words or sentences in the poem that systematically using semiotic interpretation. this study focusses on the joyful feeling and the rhyme concentrates on three types out of eleven rhyme types which are the perfect rhyme, eye rhyme and light rhyme. after classifying the types of rhyme from the poem, the pierce’s approach on semiotic theory was used to determine the joyful feeling in the poem as well as interpreting the icon, symbol, and index. data analysis types of rhyme in the poem “to autumn” in the first stanza, it deals primarily with the atmosphere of autumn, the second stanza addresses autumn as a female goddess and the third stanza goes back to the beauty of autumn, advising her not to mourn toward the loss of springtime, for there is ample life in autumn and he notes that autumn and the sun are like best friends. it is plotting how to make fruit growth and how to ripen crops before the harvest. the ripening lead to the dropping of seeds, which sets the stage for spring flowers and the whole process starting over again. he tells about the bees that show summer can last forever as they buzz around the flowers. keats was never considered one of the high-brow poets, and in fact was criticized for his adherence to simple language (he believed, quite honestly, that poetry did not need to be complicated to be worth something). the second stanza describes autumn is viewed as a fertile female goddess. however, like the ‘faery’s child’ in ‘la belle dame sans merci’, there remains a hint of cruelty to autumn. keats’ dichotomy of beautiful women with an edge of cruelty is hardly something stunning, as it is one of the ideas that is brought up quite strong in his poetry; it could be because keats himself was unlucky in love, and so he drew his own experiences to draft the women in his poem and the period after the harvest, when autumn just hangs out around the granary where harvested grains are kept. most of the hard work has already been done, and autumn can just take a nap in the fields, walk across brooks, or watch the making of cider. it is the word ‘hook’ that provides many ideas that autumn means a woman. although ‘hook’ is a harsh implement, a sound of war, the next line is ‘spares the next swath and all its twined flowers’, implying a sense of fairness and kindness. the use of the phrase ‘oozing’ also implies a certain level of cruelty where there is a sinister, drawn-out sound to the word, which makes it seem far more threatening than the previous few lines. in the third 70 stanza showed that the music of spring is a distant memory, but that autumn's music is pretty cool, too. this music includes images of clouds and harvested fields at sunset, gnats flying around a river, lambs bleating, crickets singing, and birds whistling and twittering. all of the sights and sounds produce a veritable symphony of beauty and physically, implying that autumn is mourning to the loss of spring, and considers it at odds with her far more beautiful counterpart. keats writes, ‘think not of them, thou hast thy music too’, explaining that autumn is just as beautiful as spring and perhaps even more. he shows this by diving again into gorgeous imagery, describing the sun setting over the land, the stubbed land and the insects that come out at night, the animals that were born in springtime and are now full grown, and the birds that can find in autumn. however, as with all of keats’ poem, that melancholy shows up again in the last stanza, as keats’ use of words such as ‘soft-dying’ and ‘rosy’ implies a bloody end, despite his best allusions to the contrary. throughout the poem, keats alludes to the pastoral tradition in poetry, a form of poetic writing that celebrates the idea of the countryside and focuses primarily on the description of the surroundings. although one of keats’ simplest poem, and one of the most quiet in terms of plot, it remains one of his most lauded works though nothing much happens in it (it is, after all, following on from the pastoral tradition), the beauty of keats’ language and the skill of his mastery show that keats’ talent was really just begin at the time of his death. the rhyme scheme in the poem by performing table per line in each stanza shown below: to autumn john keats (published in 1819) stanza 1: season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, a close bosom-friend of the maturing sun; b conspiring with him how to load and bless a with fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run; b to bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees, a and fill all fruit with ripeness to the core; c to swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells d with a sweet kernel; to set budding more, c and still more, later flowers for the bees, a until they think warm days will never cease, a for summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells. d stanza 2: who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store? a sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find b thee sitting careless on a granary floor, a thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind; b or on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep, c drows'd with the fume of poppies, while thy hook d spares the next swath and all its twined flowers: e and sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep c steady thy laden head across a brook; d or by a cyder-press, with patient look, d thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours. e 71 stanza 3: where are the songs of spring? ay, where are they? a think not of them, thou hast thy music too,— b while barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day, a and touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue; b then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn c among the river sallows, borne aloft d or sinking as the light wind lives or dies; e and full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn; c hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft d the red-breast whistles from a garden-croft; d and gathering swallows twitter in the skies e perfect rhyme a rhyme between words in which the stressed vowels and succeeding consonants are identical although the consonant preceding the stressed vowels may be different. there are twelve perfect rhymes contained in the poem “to autumn” by john keats: 1. stanza 1: the perfect rhyme can be found in the first line of the word fruitfulness and bless in third line. these two words are assonant type because they have similar vowel but have different consonants: season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, conspiring with him how to load and bless the second perfect rhyme can be found in the second line of the word sun and run in the fourth line. close bosom-friend of the maturing sun; with fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run; the third perfect rhyme can be found in the fifth line of the word trees and bees in the ninth line. to bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees, and still more, later flowers for the bees, 2. stanza 2: the fourth perfect rhyme can be found in the thirteenth line of the word find and wind in the fifteenth line. sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind; the fifth perfect rhyme can be found in the sixteenth line of the word asleep and keep in the nineteenth line. or on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep, and sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep 72 3. stanza 3: the sixth perfect rhyme can be found in the twenty-seventh line of the word mourn and bourn in thirtieth line. then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn and full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn; eye rhyme eye rhyme is the rhyming that based on the spelling not on the sound. it is also a traditional rhyme in which the past identify on the rhyme is based on the preserved in the spelling. there are eight eye rhymes in every line on the “to autumn” poem: 1. stanza 1: the eye rhyme can be found in the sixth line of the word core and more in the eighth line. and fill all fruit with ripeness to the core; with a sweet kernel; to set budding more, the second eye rhyme can be found in the seventh line of the word shells and cells in the eleventh line. to swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells for summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells. 2. stanza 2: the third eye rhyme can be found in the eighteenth line of the word flowers and hours in twenty-second line. spares the next swath and all its twined flowers: thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours. 3. stanza 3: the fourth eye rhyme can be found in the twenty-ninth line of the word of dies and skies in thirty-third line. or sinking as the light wind lives or dies; and gathering swallows twitter in the skies light rhyme light rhyme is a syllable rhyme where one is stressed and the other is not. there are four words of light rhyme found only in third stanza. 1. stanza 3: the light rhyme can be found in the twenty-third line of the word they and day in the twenty-fifth line. where are the songs of spring? ay, where are they? while barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day, the second light rhyme can be found in the thirty-one line of the word soft and croft in the thirty-second line. hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft the red-breast whistles from a garden-croft; rhymes reflect the joyful feeling in the poem 73 the word of joyful as described earlier is showing or expressing of joy, as looks, actions or speech. in other words, joyful is causing or bringing joy, as an event, a sight, or news, or delightful. joyful in john keats’s poem often become the theme of his poem as contained on “a thing of beauty is a joy forever” and ode on a “grecian urn.” in the “to autumn”, the joyful feeling reflected by the author by using the specific diction. the author uses rhyme as an element that adds aesthetic in poetry. this poem tells about the work marks to the end of his poetic career, as he needed to earn could no longer devote himself to the lifestyle of a poet. a little over a year following of the publication money of “to autumn”, keats died in rome. the semiotic theory was used to interpret the selected rhyme in the poem. semiotics are the signs associated with objects that resemble them, a causal relationship with the signs or because of conventional bonds. in this part, to analyze the interpretation of rhyme in the “to autumn” poem by john keats is used triadic interpretation of semiotic theory by charles sanders peirce. there are twenty data found in the triadic interpretation shown below: a. line 1 and line 3 season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, (and) conspiring with him how to load and bless 1) iconic meaning (mellow) fruitfulness in the first line, the word of fruitfulness refers to the fact of an achievement to something that produces good result. in this poem, the word fruitfulness expresses the esteem of how the process of nature work achieves the results. bless in the third line, the word bless refers to the feeling of gratitude and thanks expressions to something. its literary means of show gratitude to the natural process. 2) symbolic meaning (mellow) fruitfulness fruitfulness symbolizes spiritual maturity and well-being. bless bless symbolizes productivity, spirit, delicate, providence, and healer. 3) indexical meaning (fruitfulness-bless) the speaker describes someone’s successful achievement in a maturity process on the relax of winter atmosphere, where in the process of success or achievement there is a process of mutual filling and blessing between someone or something to others. b. line 2 and line 4 close bosom-friend of the maturing sun; (and) with the vines round the thatch-eaves run; 1) iconic meaning (maturing) sun in the second line, the word of sun refers to the star around which the earth as the orbits and the light warmth received from the earth’s sun. in this poem, the word of sun literary expresses the blossom flowers. (the thatch-eves) run in the fourth line, run refers to a move at speed that is faster than a walk, having both or all the feet on the ground at the same time. its literary means the eves of a house are underneath the roof that develop from the walls and they are spreading with fruit vines. 2) symbolic meaning (maturing) sun the word sun represents life, power, strength, energy, force, clarity, and self. (the thatch-eaves) run 74 run symbolizes spirit, personality, ability, unpredictably in the “to autumn” poem. 3) indexical meaning (sun-run) the speaker describes a time to think about the future because someone who has succeeded is part with close friend who has been struggling with him. it shows advice about life where the shape of the earth and the sense of good and beauty is also a picture of one's life or something on earth. while the weeds are the opposite. it is a picture of someone’s sadness or ugliness on earth. c. line 5 and line 9 to bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees, (and) and still more, later flowers for the bees, 1) iconic meaning (the moss'd cottage) trees in the fifth line, the word trees refer to a woody perennial plant, typically having a single stem or trunk growing to a considerable height and beating lateral branches at some distances from the ground. its literary means stacked with delicious apples, it is made to buckle and bend under the intense weight. bees in the ninth line, the word bees refer to a large group of insects where the honeybee belongs, including many solitaries as well as social kinds. in this poem, the word of bees literary expresses a reflection of the complex and intricate workings of nature. 2) symbolic meaning (the moss'd cottage) trees trees shows positive energy, good health, and bright future in the line. bees bees symbolizes behavior, social habits, community, and environment in the poem. 3) indexical meaning (trees-bees) the speaker describes how weak a man represented on “trees”. we can imagine when we build a hut in a tree that may not last long because it may be difficult to clean it. this is already plain because in the real life, human beings are created in couples like bees and flowers. d. line 7 and line 11 to swell the gourd and plump the hazel shells (and) for summer has o'er brimm'd their clammy cells. 1) iconic meaning (hazel) shells in the seventh line, the word shells refer to something resembling or likened to a shell because its shape or its function as an outer case. in this poem, the word shells literary expresses allude to the point just beyond perfection. (clammy) cells in the eleventh line, the word of cell refers to a small room in which a prisoner is lock up in the place where a monk or nun sleeps. its literary means subverts the sweetness of what went before. 2) symbolic meaning (hazel) shells the word of shells shows wisdom, inspiration, and strength. (clammy) cells the word of cell symbolizes hope and born in this line of this poem. 3) indexical meaning (shells-cells) 75 the speaker describes the relationship in life is clearly seen because of a strong attitude, determined hard but also have a patient. there are good times and sometimes bad times. there are times when we succeed but there are times when we have to take risks where in this season the world is very beautiful as well as in the life of the world. e. line 16 and line 19 or on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep, (and) and sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep 1) iconic meaning asleep in the sixteenth line, the word asleep refers to a state of sleep and having no feeling. its literary means the peacefulness of the scene comes with a numbness. (dost) keep in the nineteenth line, the word keep refers to have or certain possession and continue or cause continue in specified condition, position, cause, etc. in this poem, the word of keep literary expresses a worker that carrying corn and try to have a balance while crossing a stream. 2) symbolic meaning asleep the word asleep shows innocence, purity, and peace of mind in the poem. (dost) keep in this line, the word of keep represents spirit, playful, optimistic outlook. 3) indexical meaning (asleep-keep) the speaker describes that they keep waiting even though some of them are too tired to wait and even fall asleep because it is very bad to describe the life of the scavengers. f. line 18 and line 22 spares the next swath and all its twined flowers: (and) thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours. 1) iconic meaning (twined) flowers in the eighteenth line, the word flowers refer to the seedbearing part of plant, and the finest individual of a numbers of people or things. its literary means make this pruning job extra difficult. (hours by) hours in the twenty-second line, the word hours refer to a period equal to twenty-fourth part of a day and night and divided into 60 minutes. in this poem, the word of hours literary expresses the slow pace of the preceding lines, maintaining the feeling of lethargy. 2) symbolic meaning (twined) flowers flowers symbolize daintiness, talisman of love and trusting in this poem. (hours by) hours hours shows about feel and comfort. 3) indexical meaning (flowers-hours) the speaker describes the textile industry of labor that need to practice the rule. it reminds us of the cloth that has not been sewed with additional accents of flowers sewn with threads. then, they constantly meeting the drunkards that they have seen, and it is not a surprise to them. 76 g. line 23 and line 25 where are the songs of spring? ay, where are they? (and) while barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day, 1) iconic meaning they in the twenty-third line, the word they refer to two or more people or things previously mentioned or easily identified. the word they express the reflection of mortality and the transience of life, by questioning the strong and beautiful fate. (the soft-dying) day in the twenty-fifth line, the word day to a period of twenty-four hours as a unit of time, reckoned from midnight to the next, corresponding to a rotation of the earth on its axis. its literary means a surprisingly natural-sounding juxtaposition. 2) symbolic meaning they in this line, the word of they represent peace and tranquillity in this poem. (the soft-dying) day in this poem, the word day symbolizes spirit. 3) indexical meaning (they-day) the speaker describes when we look at the life of laborer and scavengers we may think that their happiness is lost because the smoke conditions have been polluted by the factory. h. line 27 and line 30 then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn (and) and full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn; 1) iconic meaning (the small gnats) mourn in the twenty-seventh line, the word mourn refers to the feeling or showing deep sorrow or regret for (someone or their death). its literary means the hills present near the riverbank and by the willow trees. (hilly) bourn in the thirtieth line, the word of bourn refers to a small stream, especially one that flows intermittently or seasonally. in this poem, the word of bourn literary expresses a call for help or a fear expression of death. 2) symbolic meaning (the small gnats) mourn the word mourn symbolizes life, hope, renewal, and peace. (hilly) bourn in this poem, the word bourn shows strength, seriousness, power, authority. 3) indexical meaning (mourn-bourn) the speaker describes an insect was crying with the state of nature damaged by the industry. not only that, but the other effects are also experienced by the life of flora and fauna in the world. then, a picture of life experience, we must take the wisdom in every life. i. line 29 and line 33 or sinking as the light wind lives or dies; (and) and gathering swallows twitter in the skies 1) iconic meaning dies in the twenty-ninth line, the word dies refer to a person, animal or plant that stop living and used to emphasize that one wants to do or have something very much. in this poem, 77 the word of dies literary expresses accord with the season, autumn links the opposites of summer and winter. skies in the thirty-third line, the word skies refer to the region of the atmosphere and outer space seen from the earth. its literary means associated with the cosmos and heaven and even death. 2) symbolic meaning dies the word of dies represents hope and grief. skies the word skies symbolize clarity and eternity. 3) indexical meaning (dies-skies) the speaker describes a defensive or give up and reaffirms the importance of a strongminded as well as about actual shootings or poaching and environmental pollution are also caused by poaching. j. line 31 and line 32 hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft (and) the red-breast whistles from a gardencroft; 1) iconic meaning (treble) soft in the thirty-first line, the word soft refers to easy to mold, cut, compress, or fold, not hand or firm to the touch. its literary means the final song before it goes dark, wistful, and plaintive. (garden) croft in the thirty-second line, the word of croft refers to a small, rented farm, comprising a plot of arable land attached to a house with a right of pasturage held in common with other such farms. in this poem, the word of croft literary expresses the careful choice of words and concise compression of words. 2) symbolic meaning (treble) soft the word soft represents playful. (garden) croft the word croft symbolizes healing, enlightenment, and grounding. 3) indexical meaning (soft-croft) the speaker describes a cricket does not sound like before the nature is polluted because inevitably, we must face the reality. this poem contains advice on the importance of gratitude in life for people who have already gained success. in fact, there are still many successful people who are lulled by the beauty of the world and do not appreciate the gift of god. on the other hand, there are still many people who are difficult to get a job, some are trapped in a job because they must do it. it is not an obstacle to always feel grateful to god, because the real happiness is not merely luxury but a sense of gratitude in themselves. the world is cruel and violent, forcing them to survive in industrial can damage their lives. furthermore, we cannot turn a blind eye to the fact that those industries feed most people in the world. conclusion the using of rhyme on the poem expresses the poet’s feeling and imagination. from the rhyme, the readers could understand the meaning of the poem. as a conclusion from this 78 study, the poem “to autumn” written by john keats has twelve perfect rhymes, eight eye rhymes and four light rhymes. the joyful feeling of the rhyme from the poem are iconic and symbolic found in every end of the line but inversely proportional to the indexical meaning. it is proved that the emphasis of the joyful meaning can be found even though only from the rhyme interpretation. thus, the triadic meaning relation emphasises the meaning of joyful feeling. references albert, a. 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(2010). poetic rhyme reflects cross-linguistic differences in information structure. cognition, 117(2), 166-175. acuity (4) 2, 128-152 a comparative study between tps and lrd strategy to enhance students’ reading comprehension apricia tampubolon1, nelson balisar panjaitan2 perguruan advent pasir putih1, pekan baru, univ. advent indonesia2 corresponding author, nelson2 (sonnelunai@yahoo.co.id) abstract the purpose of this study is to find out if there is any significant difference in students’ reading comprehension enhancement between those who were taught using listen-read-discuss strategy and those who were taught using think-pair-share strategy. this study is a quantitative research method using comparative design by using pre-test and post-test. this study was designed to find out the answer of the following question: is there any significant difference on students’ reading comprehension enhancement between those who were taught by think-pair-share strategy and those who were taught by listen-read-discuss strategy. the sample of this study were two classes of grade viii smpn 10 cimahi, bandung. grade viii f were taught using think-pair-share and grade viii were taught using listen-readdiscuss. the instrument used for this study was a reading comprehension test, which contained of 39 multiple-choice questions. the result of this study showed from the mean score that both classes had an enhancement in their reading comprehension. in addition, there was no significant difference between those who were taught using tps and those who were taught using lrd strategy. however, it meant that both strategies were efficient in enhancing students’ reading comprehension. keywords: think-pair-share, listen-read-discuss, reading comprehension introduction english is an international language in the world, so learning english is very important in oral and written communication. indonesian students often experience problems when learning english (katemba, 2019). in indonesia english is not their first language that is why reading english text is not easy because english is a foreign language for them. according to morrisson (2014), english is a difficult subject because it is not the first or second language for them. “usually students face many problems in reading text. for example: difficult words, comprehension of sentences, how to read the word or sentence correctly and etc.” (katemba, c., samuel. 2017). so, english is a tense lesson for them. to improve learning english as a foreign language (efl) in developing countries like indonesia, one must start from an early age (marlina, 2012). meanwhile (karimi & veisi, 2016) argued that reading resilience can overcome serious problems of students (efl) in reading, understanding, and translating texts. in dealing with today's modern era, students are required to read a lot and be able to understand english texts so that they are not left behind in the development of science and in addition they are required to achieve academic success and social mailto:sonnelunai@yahoo.co.id acuity (4) 2, 128-152 success (lacina, bauml, & taylor, 2016). in learning languages there are four skills, namely reading, writing, speaking and listening. among the four skills, reading skill is something that is equally important to learn because by reading students will gain knowledge. there is a quote stating that reading is a window to the world. it means that through reading students can get in-depth knowledge and other information they need. in indonesia reading is a problem. people in indonesia are less interested in reading not only less interested in reading english books but also in reading indonesian books. it is showed by "most littered nation in the world" study held by central connecticut state university in march 2016. indonesia ranked 60th out of 61 countries about reading interest that is why the condition of indonesian people in reading is quite alarming (gewati, august 2016). meanwhile, has, et al., (2016) stated the observation result when conducted teaching practice in class ix of mts muhammadiyah 1 pekanbaru, the students’ reading ability is still poor. students cannot understand the main idea and get the content of the text. in fact, according to the experience of the researcher in learning english, the different background of the students affects the ability of the students in comprehending english text. according to hasanah (2016), there are several reasons why students were weak on reading. firstly, students are less efficient in reading because they lack reading books. in other words, if the students read rarely, they might have problem in acquiring vocabulary. secondly, students are unable to use context clues to guess the word meaning. if the students come across difficult words, they tend to ignore them, and this discourage and stop them from reading. the factor that creates the above problem is because students do not converse in english outside the classroom, as a result they do not have the ability to express their idea in english. the other factor that influence students’ reading skill is the teaching learning process. some teachers who teach reading still use the old method and strategy. their teaching style is teacher-centered, so the students do not have any chance to share their idea to their friends. their classroom environment is uninteresting because there is no discussion during the teaching and learning process (hasanah, 2016). in teaching and learning teachers rarely use cooperative learning model. the teacher just asks the students to listen to the explanation of the teacher and after that let the students do the tasks. they do not have any opportunity to discuss with their friends the subject matter, that is why students with low ability tend to ignore the lesson because they do not understand and when they ask the teacher, they feel ashamed to their friends. however, when the teacher forms the class as a pair or a group, the students will feel more ease to ask their friends in groups without feeling ashamed anymore. concerned with this matter, to improve the reading comprehension of eighth grade students of junior high school in smpn 10 cimahi, the researcher proposed the cooperative learning strategy to enhance students’ reading comprehension. cooperative learning gets more students’ participation. students work in pairs or in small groups. this strategy leads students to feel more positive about themselves, and about each other, and the subject they are studying. students can share with their friends what they think about the subject. this way is more effective and becomes essential for the students’ skills than when they learn apart from each other (has, et al., 2016). there are many models in cooperative learning that may be used for teaching reading, such as listen-read-discuss, circ, think-pair-share, snowball throwing, acuity (4) 2, 128-152 jigsaw, etc. from all the models in cooperative learning the researcher decided to choose think-pair-share and listen-read-discuss to help students overcome their problem in reading because both strategies are expected to be able to enhance students 'reading comprehension. many researchers have used this strategy to enhance students' reading comprehension and most of them have succeeded in enhancing students 'reading comprehension. therefore, the researcher decided to choose both strategies to enhance students' reading comprehension. think-pair-share is a strategy that encourages the students to think personally and give the students time to discuss in pairs so that they have a chance to help each other during the discussion then share their ideas in class as a whole so that all students can listen to their friends and get new knowledge. as ridwan (2016) said that think-pair-share strategy can be used to enhance reading comprehension because it requires students to think about what they will share, then ask them to have a discussion. the teacher gives students time to think, discuss with their partners, and ask them to share their ideas to create more important information. this strategy provides an opportunity for all students to share and express their ideas with other students. this increases their sense of involvement in learning activities in a more challenging class. another strategy is listen-read-discuss that give the students time to listen to the teachers’ explanation after that, the teacher ask the students to read and while reading, they mark the fluster sentences or words that they find in reading then they discuss it groups that consist of 4-5 students. as retmawasari (2013) said that the lrd strategy also can be used to improve students’ reading skill. the listen read discuss (lrd) strategy has three important elements related to capabilities, namely listen, read, and discuss. lrd is a strategy designed for learning reading comprehension. students get supplies from listen step before reading, so when reading students find it easier to get the right ideas and facts about a reading. students are also invited to compare their findings with other students in group discussion. concerned with the explanation above, in order not to make problems happen continuously, the researcher is interested in using tps and lrd strategies to improve students' reading comprehension, therefore the researcher decided to make a research entitled "a comparative study between think-pair-share and listenread-discuss strategy to enhance students’ reading comprehension.” statement of the problem based on the background above, this research focused on finding answer to this question, 'is there a significant difference in students' reading comprehension enhancement between those who were taught using think-pair-share (tps) and those who were taught using listen-read-discuss (lrd) strategy?' hypothesis the hypotheses in this study are: null hypothesis (h0): there is no difference in students' reading comprehension enhancement between those who are taught using think-pair-share and those who are taught using listen-read-discuss strategy. alternative hypothesis (ha): there is a difference in students' reading comprehension enhancement between those who are taught using think-pair share and those who are taught using listen-read-discuss strategy. acuity (4) 2, 128-152 related literature & studies reading is one of four skills in language. through reading, students can increase their knowledge and enrich their words. as students, they need to read because in understanding the lessons students must read material. as ergul (2012) stated that reading difficulty was the main reason for failing in class. according to supriyani, et al., (2017) "reading is one of the language skills and it is very important. the purpose of reading is to get information, especially knowledge about something they did not know before, to know." this means reading is needed by students. leipzig (2001) stated that reading requires words of recognition, understanding, and fluency. according to pang, et al., (2009) and richards and schmidts (2002), reading is to understand written text. this is a complex activity involving understanding ideas. reading consists of two related processes: word recognition and ability.word recognition refers to the process of understanding the writing symbols. readers usually use background knowledge, vocabulary, grammatical knowledge, experience with text and other strategies to help them understand the text. thus, for the explanation above the researcher make an inference that reading is very important because through reading readers can get knowledge and information, and while reading readers need to comprehend the reading so that readers can get the knowledge from the text that they have read. reading comprehension reading comprehension is very important because reading without understanding is useless. when students have good reading habits, they will have a lot of knowledge. some efl students find it difficult to understand what they are reading. based on sapsuha and bugis (2013) who stated that reading comprehension is useful to obtain information from texts and a skill to be able to evaluate students' vocabulary and also to analyze their meaning. reading comprehension is also explained as the process of regulating the meaning of the text, which uses one type of reading that is to get specific information. this is active learning that lead the readers to interpret specific ideas of text and information, whether it is about how to express details or inset details and textual references. reading is different from reading comprehension. most people can read but that does not mean that they can understand what they are reading. reading comprehension is not the ability to read, but the ability to understand text and interpret text based on the features of the text and their own knowledge (leon, et al., 2012). reading comprehension is considered as the real core for reading process (hasanah, 2016). according to gibson (2009), reading is thinking. think to understand written text while understanding is known as a skill that focuses on understanding. there are several factors that make reading comprehension a problem. they are environmental, emotional and physical (jennings, et.al. 2010). in english curriculum for junior high school, the basic competence of reading is students are able to respond to meaning and rhetorical steps in short simple essay accurately, fluently and acceptable in descriptive and recount text (purwanti, 2017). acuity (4) 2, 128-152 challenges in reading comprehension reading and comprehension are two different things. if the readers read the book without comprehending, it said that the readers are only reading. but if the readers read a book with knowing what they have read, it said that they comprehend the reading text. reading with comprehension is not easy. some readers get challenges while reading. according to nation (2016) cited from dwiono (2017) in teaching and learning reading comprehension there are some problems that will be faced by the students in reading comprehension, they are as follows: decoding students who have problems in reading have difficulty decoding words and sentences. students see words and read them without strive, even if they do not know the meaning of every word. (nation, 2016). inference making numerous studies have demonstrated that in comprehending they have difficulty drawing inferences when reading. (nation, 2016) working memory verbal working memory weakness may be a consequence of poor language comprehension. (nation, 2016) knowledge without an appreciation of the meanings of words, there can be no comprehension. (nation, 2016) prior knowledge prior knowledge about a text predicts comprehension of it and it is plain that complete lack of knowledge will result in a complete lack of comprehension. (nation, 2016). cooperative learning human beings are social beings by nature. therefore, people need to be complicated in social communication with others in various aspects of everyday affairs. one way to achieve such needs is socialization. it is the formation of groups that work for educational purposes. most likely no person has not experienced involvement in group work during his education (gurk, 2016). hasanah (2016) stated that students at the eighth grade of smp nurul islam semarang have a problem in reading comprehension. almost all of the students have difficult to understand the reading text and it affects the student achievement in teaching and learning process. pertiwi (2015) said that cooperative learning can be very good to enhance students’ reading comprehension, because students can work together and help each other to overcome the task at hand. there are many strategies in cooperative learning. among all strategies in cooperative learning, the researcher is interested in think-pair-share and listenread-discuss strategies. think-pair-share strategy think-pair-share is a technique of cooperative learning that was developed by frank lyman from the university of maryland in 1978 (slavin 2005, cited from fitrahady study, 2015). this is a cooperative learning strategy that includes three components; think, pair and share. think, pair and share is one of the kinds of cooperative learning. cooperative learning is group learning activity organized so that learning is dependent on the socially structured exchange of information between acuity (4) 2, 128-152 learners in groups and in which each learner is held accountable for his/ her own leaning and is motivated to increase the learning of others (rohman, 2017). tps is a collaborative learning strategy that make students work together to solve a problem or answer a question from the text. this technique expects students to think individually about a topic or answer to a question and share ideas in front of class (afrilianti, 2014). tps as one of the cooperative learning strategy which consists of three parts, such as thinking, pairing, and sharing. teachers are not the only the source of knowledge anymore (teacher oriented) but students are included to find and understand new concepts (suryanita & suditha, 2013). gusdin (2014) said that thinkpair-share is a cooperative teaching strategy that includes three components; time to think, time to share with partner and time for each pair to share again with a larger group. the use of think-pair-share brings together cognitive and social aspects of learning, promotes the development of thought and knowledge. this strategy is suitable to be applied in improving students' reading comprehension, where the focus is a meaningful discussion to exchange ideas and be able to understand skills and strategies to foster understanding (carss, 2007). tps strategy is a good way to improve students' reading comprehension because through this strategy students have the opportunity to work in pairs and share their ideas so that learning cannot be passive. the listen-read-discuss strategy (lrd) besides tps strategy the researcher was also interested to use listen-read discuss (lrd) strategy in order to enhance students’ reading comprehension. according to elfa (2017), lrd is a simple strategy, to help students comprehend the reading a text in a small group that consist of 4-6 students. moreover putri (2013) said that listen-read-discuss strategy is relatively easy to create because they can enhance student’s understanding of many lessons. the lrd is the strategy that builds students’ background knowledge in comprehending the text. it might be active teaching and learning process for the students and the teacher in teaching reading comprehension (hutomo, 2017). according to pariska (2016), listen – read – discuss strategy is a strategy which help students understand text. the teacher gives a short lecture to the students. then the students read the text that the teacher spoke about. after reading, the students discuss the information they have read and the lesson which the teacher gave. this strategy also helps the students use their prior knowledge. lrd strategy is a strategy help students in understanding the material because they listen to the teacher’s explanation and also read the text and discuss the material in group discussion and also discuss in class as whole. research methodology this research is quantitative method and it is a comparative study, where the researcher would test the comprehension of the students by giving the pre-test before and post-test after the treatment. the purpose is to find out if there is any significant difference of students’ reading comprehension enhancement between those who were taught using tps and those who were taught using lrd strategy. the research design is described in the following table: acuity (4) 2, 128-152 table 1. research design group pre-test treatment post-test 1 o x1 o 2 o x2 o explanation: o: reading comprehension test x1: treatment of using think-pair-share x2: treatment of using listen-read-discuss population and sample in this research, the population are students of smpn 10 cimahi, bandung. the sample was taken from two classes of eighth grade students in smpn 10, cimahi. further, this research was experimental and the strategies that were used in this research were think-pair-share and listen-read-discuss. research instrument the instrument of this research was reading comprehension test for pre-test and posttest. the pre-test was designed to measure the ability of the students in enhancing reading comprehension before applying the tps and lrd strategy while, the post-test was designed to see the result of the study after applying each of the strategy. the reading comprehension test is multiple-choice questions. hence, the teaching materials that is used in this study is the compilation of descriptive and recount text focused for grade viii that was made by researcher. data gathering preparation stage in this research, the preparations that were done by researcher were preparing the lesson plan for 8 meetings and preparing the research instrument. besides, the researcher asked the permission letter from dean of the faculty to conduct the research. data collection in gathering the data, the researcher did the following steps: a. pilot test b. the pilot test was being conducted to know the validity and reliability of the test. the test was adopted from previous questions of national examination (un) which focused on descriptive and recount text of junior high school level regarding the reading section. the pilot test consisted of 50 multiple-choice questions. and the test was given to third grade of smpn 10 cimahi. the students circled the correct answers on the options given, 2 points for the correct answers and zero (0) points for the wrong answers or no answers. acuity (4) 2, 128-152 c. pre-test the pre-test was used in order to know the students’ reading comprehension level before the treatment was given. the test was given to the respondents of this study, which was the 2nd grade of smpn 10, cimahi. and the pre-test was the result of the pilot test that had been conducted to find out the reliability and validity. further, the test consisted of 39 questions. the students circled the correct answers on the options given, 2 points for the correct answers and zero (0) points for the wrong answers or no answers. d. treatment after administering the pre-test, the treatment was conducted to the students. the treatment was conducted using two strategies, where one class was taught using thinkpair-share and while the other class was taught using listen-read-discuss strategy. there were several steps in exploiting the think-pair-share and listen-read-discuss strategy. the think-pair-share strategy was adopted from lyman (1981). the listenread-discuss was adopted from manzo, a.v., & casale, u.p. (1985). the several steps can be seen in the following table. several step of both strageies think-pair-share and listen-read-discuss think-pair-share listen-read-discuss 1. think: each member individually and silently thinks about a question posed by the teacher. 2. pair: two members are paired to exchange and discuss their responses. 3. share: each member may share his response, his partner's response, in a whole class by read it or say it directly. (the researcher formed groups of pairs which are heterogeneous based on the result of the last test given by the room teacher.) 1. listen: the researcher presents information to students about the text they will be reading. this can be in the form of a short lecture on a topic, using a graphic organizer to guide the lecture. 2. read: ask students to read a text selection. the content should be similar with the material presented during the "listen" portion of the lesson. 3. discuss: lead a classroom discussion of the material. encourage students to reflect on any differences between their reading of the content and teacher’s presentation. (the researcher divides students into heterogeneous group based on the previous test score of the students given by the room teacher). post-test the post-test was given after giving the treatment to the students to see their enhancement in reading comprehension. the post-test was used to examine the effectiveness of the strategy. the post test is the same as the pre-test which is adopted acuity (4) 2, 128-152 from previous national examinations (un) which focused on descriptive and recount text of junior high school level regarding the reading section. it consisted of 39 multiple choice questions. statistic procedure the researcher used the statistical program in analyzing the data such as spss, anates, and microsoft excel. data analysis on pilot test before doing the research, the pilot test was administered in smpn 10 cimahi that consisted of 50 multiple-choice questions to measure the validity and reliability of the instrument. validity test validity refers to the degree in which test or other measuring device is truly measuring what researcher intended it to measure. analysis of the validity of the items is done to determine the validity of an instrument. the following formula was used to test the validity of the instrument. 𝑟𝑥𝑦 = 𝑛 ∑ 𝑋𝑖 𝑌𝑖 𝑛 𝑖=1 − ∑ 𝑋𝑖 𝑛 𝑖=1 ∑ 𝑌𝑖 𝑛 𝑖=1 √{𝑛 ∑ 𝑋𝑖 2𝑛 𝑖=1 − (∑ 𝑋𝑖 𝑛 𝑖=1 ) 2} − {𝑛 ∑ 𝑌𝑖 2𝑛 𝑖=1 − (∑ 𝑌𝑖 𝑛 𝑖=1 ) 2} (arikunto, 2012) where; rxy = product correlation coefficient x = score item y = total score n = number of participants the criteria of validity test are shown in the following table 3.2 (arikunto, 2012): table 2. validity criteria rxy interpretation 0.80 ≤ rxy ≤ 1.00 very high 0.60 ≤ rxy ≤ 0.79 high 0.40 ≤ rxy ≤ 0.59 moderate 0.20 ≤ rxy ≤ 0.39 low 0.00 ≤ rxy ≤ 0.19 very low the result as follows: acuity (4) 2, 128-152 table 3. validity question number of questions rxy interpretati on 0.80 ≤ rxy ≤ 1.00 very high 2,19,32,50 0.606 ≤ rxy ≤ 0.654 high 3,14,17,18,20,22,27,28,31,33,34,35,36 , 39,40,41,48,49 0.408 ≤ rxy ≤ 0.586 moderate 12,16,21,30,37,44,45,46 0.215 ≤ rxy ≤ 0.342 low 4,6,10,15,23,24,26,42,43 0.031 ≤ rxy ≤ 0.161 very low 1,5,7,8,9,11,13,25,29,38,47 -0.044 ≤ rxy ≤ 0.447 not valid based on the result above, the questions that were valid if the score was larger than 0.00. from the table above, there were 39 items that were valid. there were 4 items that were high, 18 items were moderate, 8 items were low, 9 items were very low, and 11 items that are not valid. reliability reliability analysis is done to find out if the instrument of the question has given consistent results. the reliability of an instrument can be seen from the instrument itself. the formula that was used to find the reliability of the instrument is alpha’s formula: 𝑟11 = ( 𝑛 (𝑛 − 1) ) (1 − ∑ 𝜎𝑖 2 𝜎𝑡 2 ) (arikunto, 2012) where; 𝑟11: reliability all test 𝑛 : total number of questions ∑ 𝜎𝑖 2: total score of each question variance 𝜎𝑡 2: variance here are the criteria of reliability level according to arikunto (2012): table 4. classification of reliability coefficient reliability interpretation 0,00≤ r11 ≤ 0,20 very low acuity (4) 2, 128-152 0,21 ≤ r11 ˂ 0,40 low 0,41 ≤ r11 ˂ 0,60 moderate 0,61 ≤ r11 ≤ 0,80 high 0,90 ≤ r11 ≤ 1,00 very high here are the criteria of reliability level according to arikunto (2012): table 5. classification of reliability coefficient reliability interpretation 0,00≤ r11 ≤ 0,20 very low 0,21 ≤ r11 ˂ 0,40 low 0,41 ≤ r11 ˂ 0,60 moderate 0,61 ≤ r11 ≤ 0,80 high 0,90 ≤ r11 ≤ 1,00 very high the reliability level of the pilot test is 0.66, which means it has a high level. discrimination index the discrimination index of item is the ability to discriminate between good students (high ability) and the students who were less in intelligent (low ability). the following formula was used to calculate the item: 𝐷 = 𝐵𝐴 𝐽𝐴 − 𝐵𝐵 𝐽𝐵 = 𝑃𝐴 − 𝑃𝐵 (arikunto, 2012) explanation: d : discriminate index j : number of the test participants ja : number of upper group participant jb : number of lower group participant ba : number of upper group participants who answered the question correctly bb : number of lower group participants who answered the question correctly pa = : proportion of upper group students who correctly answer the test item pb = : proportion of lower group students who correctly answer the test item to interpret the value of discrimination index, use of distinguishing clarification from arikunto (2012), and it is shown in the table below: table 6. criteria of discrimination index of question discrimination index(d) interpretation 0,00 0,20 poor 0,21 0,40 moderate 0,41 0,70 good 0,71 1,00 excellent ba ja bb jb acuity (4) 2, 128-152 the result as follows: table 7. discrimination index of question number of question discrimination index interpretation 4,6,8,9,11,13,20,23,24,26,30, 37,44,46 0.00-0.0,11 poor 3,10,12,14,15,16,21,27,42,43,45, 48,49 0.22-0.33 moderate 2,17,18,19,22,31,32,33,34,35,36, 39,40,41,50 0.44-0.66 good 28 0.88-1.00 excellent according to the table above, there were 14 items in poor category, 13 items in moderate category, 15 items in good category and 1 item in excellent category. level of difficulty good question is a question that is used to determine the level of difficulty of that question. the aim is to find out whether the question is considered difficult, moderate or easy. the following formula are used to calculate the index of an item: 𝑃 = 𝐵 𝐽𝑆 (arikunto, 2012) where; p: difficulty level b: the number of students who answered the questions with correct answers js: number of students’ participants in the test calculating the result is to interpret the criteria classification from the level of difficulty according to arikunto (2012). table 8. criteria of difficulty level index of difficulty (p) interpretation 0,00 0,30 difficult 0,31 0,70 moderate 0,71 1,00 easy the result as follows: table 8. difficulty level number index of difficulty difficulty level 6,7,24,31,37,42,43,45,47 0.03 – 0.27 difficult 10,16,17,21,22,23,25,28,29,34 0.36 – 0.69 moderate 1,2,3,4,5,8,9,11,12,13,14,15,18,19,20,26,27, 30,32,33,35,36,38,39,40,41,44,46,48,49,50 0.72 – 1.00 easy acuity (4) 2, 128-152 according to the result above, most of the items are in the level 0.72-1.00, which are 31 items. so, the difficulty level of the test is easy. the recapitulation of the result of pilot test this research used 39 questions for pre-test as well as post-test. to analyze the result of the data, the anates program was used. the recapitulation of the test result can be seen in the table below. table 9. the recapitulation of pilot test number of questions validity difficulty level discrimination 1 not valid easy poor 2 high easy good 3 moderate easy moderate 4 very low easy poor 5 not valid easy poor 6 very low difficult poor 7 not valid difficult poor 8 not valid easy poor 9 not valid easy poor 10 very low moderate moderate 11 not valid easy poor 12 low easy moderate 13 not valid easy poor 14 moderate easy moderate 15 very low easy moderate 16 low moderate moderate 17 moderate moderate good 18 moderate easy good 19 high easy good 20 moderate easy poor 21 low moderate moderate 22 moderate moderate good 23 very low moderate poor 24 very low difficult poor 25 not valid moderate poor 26 very low easy poor 27 moderate easy moderate 28 moderate moderate excellent 29 not valid moderate poor 30 low easy poor 31 moderate difficult good 32 high easy good 33 moderate easy good 34 moderate moderate good 35 moderate easy good 36 moderate easy good 37 low difficult poor 38 not valid easy poor acuity (4) 2, 128-152 g = 39 moderate easy good 40 moderate easy good 41 moderate easy good 42 very low difficult moderate 43 very low difficult moderate 44 low easy poor 45 low difficult moderate 46 low easy poor 47 not valid difficult poor 48 moderate easy moderate 49 moderate easy moderate 50 high easy good based on the recapitulation test, this research used 39 questions for pre-test and post-test. they were question number: 2, 3, 4, 6, 10, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, 28, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 48, 49, and 50. those are based on the result of questions analysis; that the 39 questions was used to measure the students’ ability in improving students’ reading comprehension. data analysis the researcher used the statistical program in analyzing the data such as spss, anates, and microsoft excel. normalized gain to determine the improvement of students’ reading comprehension, the researcher will perform an analysis on the results of the pretest and post-test. analyzing will be performed using normalized gain. % posttest % pretest 100 % % pretest (hake, 1999) where; g: average normalized gain % pretest: percentage of pre-test scores % posttest: percentage of post test scores the criteria of normalized gain according to hake (1999) can be seen in the table below: table 9. the criteria of normalized gain: gain (g) category g ≥ 0.70 high 0.30 < g ≤ 0.70 moderate g < 0.30 low the researcher used the statistical program in analyzing the data such as spss, anates, acuity (4) 2, 128-152 g = and microsoft excel. normalized gain to determine the improvement of students’ reading comprehension, the researcher will perform an analysis on the results of the pretest and post-test. analyzing will be performed using normalized gain. % posttest % pretest 100 % % pretest (hake, 1999) where; g: average normalized gain % pretest: percentage of pre-test scores % posttest: percentage of post test scores the criteria of normalized gain according to hake (1999) can be seen in the table below: table 10. the criteria of normalized gain: gain (g) category g ≥ 0.70 high 0.30 < g ≤ 0.70 moderate g < 0.30 low normality test normally test is done to see whether the normalized gain score is normal or not. in this normality test, normalized gain may be considered normally distributed if the significance (sig) > α 0.05 for the normality test. shapiro-wilk test is used because; it is the most powerful normality test as said by razali and wah (2011). the formula is: 𝑊 = (∑ 𝑎𝑖 𝑛 𝑖=1 𝑥(𝑖)) 2 ∑ (𝑥𝑖 − �̅�) 2𝑛 𝑖=1 explanations: w: gain normality test normalized xi: sample data i ai: constants derived from the average value, variance and covariance of the sample distribution order n from normal distribution 𝑥 ̅: average sample data based on the statistical test of the rejection criteria, namely h0 rejected if wcount ≥ wtable then the data obtained was processed with spss. criteria based on spss data processing, in this study as follows: the hypotheses are; h0: normalized gain data is normally distributed ha: normalized gain data is not normally distributed h0 is rejected if the sig value is ≤ 0.05 h0 is not rejected if the sig value is > 0.05 acuity (4) 2, 128-152 f = homogeneity test to determine whether the population variances are homogeneous or not which means having the same basic qualities, the researcher will use the homogeneity test based on the result of normality test. the hypotheses will be used are: h0: the population variances are homogenous ha: the population variances are not homogenous the formula used for this test according to uyanto (2009): 𝑠1 2 𝑠2 2 where; f: f-value s1 2: the larger variance s2 2: the smaller variance the criteria of homogeneity test if the data is analyzed with spss: a. the population variances are homogeneous if sig. value > α (0.05), then h0 is accepted. b. the population variances are not homogeneous if sig. value ≤ α (0.05), then h0 is rejected. hypothesis testing from the hypothesis to be tested in this study are: where: average normalized gain for the group reading comprehension enhancement in group 1 average normalized gain for the group reading comprehension enhancement in group 2 if both of the normalized gain population normally distributed, the test used is ttest. where; 1 = mean score for think-pair-share 2 = mean of listen-read-discuss n1 = think-pair-share sample size n2 = listen-read-discuss sample size s1 = standard deviation of think-pair-share s2 = standard deviation of listen-read-discuss criteria of t-test: acuity (4) 2, 128-152 1. if, p value (sig) ≤ α (.050): h0 is rejected. it means there is significant difference in the students’ reading comprehension enhancement between those who are taught through tps and those who were taught through lrd strategy. 2. if, p value (sig) > α (.050): h0 is not rejected. it means there is no significant difference in the students’ reading comprehension enhancement between those who are taught through tps and those who were taught through lrd strategy. if one or both of the normalized gain population is not normally distributed, then the nonparametric statistic man whitney test will be used. data analysis and findings test of normality the researcher used the test of normality to observe probability distribution of the data. the result can be seen on the table below. table 11. normality test shapiro-wilk statistic df sig. gain_tps .964 28 .422 gain_lrd .979 28 .836 based on the table, it can be concluded that the population of the data are normally distributed for both classes with the significant value are, 0.422 and 0.836 > α (0.05). this research used the output from the shapiro wilk because it is the powerful normality test, as written by razali and wah (2011). if both data have p.value (sig) > α=0.05 it means data is normally distributed and if the p.value (sig) < α=0.05 it means data is not normally distributed. test of homogeneity of variance to see the homogeneity of population variances, homogeneity test was done. the result can be seen on the table below: table 12. homogeneity of variance levene statistic df1 df2 sig. 2.901 1 57 .094 according to the data above, the significant value is 0.094 > α (0.05), therefore it means that the population variances between tps and lrd were homogenous. the data is homogenous if p-value (sig) > α=0.05 it means data is homogenous and if p-value (sig) < α =0.05 it means data is not homogenous. hypothesis testing according to the result of the data calculation the data was normally distributed, therefore the researcher used independent sample t-test. researcher set two presumptions to know the hypothesis is rejected or not: 1. if, p value (sig) ≤ α (.050): ho is rejected. it means there is significant difference of students’ reading comprehension enhancement between those who were taught through tpr and those who were taught through lrd strategy. acuity (4) 2, 128-152 2. if, p value (sig) ≥ α. (.050): ho is not rejected. it means there is no significant difference of students’ reading comprehension enhancement between those who were taught through tps and those who were taught through lrd strategy. the result calculation can be seen on the following table table 13. the independent sample t-test levene's test for equality of variances t-test for equality of means f sig. t df sig. (2-tailed) 2.90 1 .094 -1.478 57 .145 the result of the data in table above showed that ρ-value = 0.145 > α (0.05). it means that ho is not rejected. therefore, it is concluded that there is no significant difference on the student’s reading comprehension enhancement between those who were taught through tps and those who were taught through lrd strategy. according to the data, the researcher used the data of equal variances assumed concern that the sample data was distributed homogenous and sig (2-tailed). discussion of the research finding from the result of the data, it showed that there is no significant difference on students’ reading comprehension enhancement between those who were taught through listen-read-discuss and those who were taught through think-pair-share. it can be said, both methods are applicable and good proven by the data previously discussed. the data from think-pair-share and listen-read-discuss class showed that the students’ reading comprehension increased. it can be seen from the mean of the pre-test score which are 52, 84 & 45, 96 to the mean of post-test score, 71, 35 & 71, 00. according to the researcher’s experience in the field, the students from both classes found that the strategies used were interesting to learn english by using lrd and tps strategy and during the lesson students could find their way to learn. the more they learned english through both tps and lrd strategy, the more they showed their enhancement in class. the researcher found that the students were more enthusiastic in reading english book. therefore, almost all the students really aimed to be capable to read english passages in order they can achieve their goals, so even though they found some difficulties while reading they still read it until it is finished. the researcher also helped when the students asked the meaning of some words and helped students how to pronounce some words that students cannot pronounce. in indonesia, there has been a study in juwiring, entitled: “the effectiveness of think – pair – share strategy (tps) to teach reading comprehension at the eighth grade of the smp n.1 juwiring” done by rohman (2017). the findings of this study revealed that the implementation of tps was successful when viewed from some dimensions. the students who were taught using think-pair-share have better reading comprehension. for listen-read-discuss strategy, students enhanced their reading comprehension. it can be stated that through lrd strategy students enjoyed more and become motivated to learn english. this study was also supported by purwanti (2017) with the study entitled: “the use of listen-read-discuss strategy to improve students’ reading comprehension of the eight acuity (4) 2, 128-152 grade students at smpn 2 tembilahan”, which said that the use of lrd strategy found that the students enjoyed more in learning reading and comprehend the text easily. conclusion after analyzing the data, the researcher came up with a conclusion to answer the statement of the problem in chapter 1, that there is no significant difference between those who were taught through tps strategy and those who were taught through lrd strategy. recommendation based on the research findings, the researcher gave several recommendations as follow: teachers: it is recommended that teachers use these two methods as an alternative strategy in teaching english reading comprehension, especially for junior high school students because, it is already proven by the researcher and the result showed that the students’ reading comprehension significantly increased. but lrd is better in enhancing reading comprehension, it is shown from the mean score, the standard deviation and also according to researcher’s experience in the field. students who were taught using lrd strategy had better comprehension of the material than students who were taught using tps strategy. researchers: the researcher hoped that the result of this study can be used as additional references for future researchers in different levels and contexts. references afrilianti, (2014). the effectiveness of using tps (think-pair-share) strategy to improve students’ reading comprehension of the first grade at mtsn aryojeding rejotangan tulungagung 2013/2014. tulungagung: state islamic institude (iain). ahmadi, m.r., (2017). the impact of motivation on reading comprehension. international journal of research in english education. 2(1). amelia, r.k., (2016). using think-pair-share stratey to improve vocabulary and reading comprehension achievement of eight grade students, the journal of english literacy education, 3(2). annisa, z., (2013). improving students’ reading comprehension through thinkpairshare technique (a classroom action research at the eight grade students of smp muhammadiyah sumbang in academic year 2012/2013). purwokerto: universitas muhammadiyah. arif, m. 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relationship between human beings and the issue of imperialism and colonialism and the final stage of colonialism which leads to racism. this paper deals with colonialism, imperialism, and racism in joseph conrad's novella, heart of darkness. the three stages colonizers implement during colonizing african countries. modern age and modern literature are sheld light on in general and more particularly, modern novel is focused on as it is necessary for the analysis of the novel. then the terms of colonialism, imperialism, and racism are explored in heart of darkness as these are interrelated words having close links to colonization. a postcolonial approach is used to analyze the novella. conrad demonstrates the colonization of the african countries in heart of darkness. he also shows how hard it is to legalize the illegal actions such as torturing the white people in their homecountries, but this was easy for the colonizers. it is in such a way that even the white people did not realize it. keywords: imerialism, colonialism, racism, african countries, heart of darkness. introduction this study is about “colonialism in joseph conrad's heart of darkness”, it covers the concept of colonialism in the novel “heart of darkness”. in the modern age, the policy of extending and retaining authority over a broad area of the world was common among greater countries. this was reflected in literature, and great authors brought this idea into their literary works. joseph conrad’s heart of darkness is one of these works and is the concentration of this research. this study aims to explain how colonialism is questioned in heart of darkness and sheds light on the concept of colonialism as given in the novel. the writer’s perspective of colonialism is explained in detail through the novel. the study explains how good conrad was in illustrating the modern age’s man and the policy of colonialism, and also the victims of colonialism in his novel. as the novel deals with the modern age, and how humans in the modern age encountered the changes in the stages of humanity, though studying this kind of novel is of great use to the https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity mailto:mariwan152@live.com https://doi.org/10.35974/acuity.v6i1.2385 37 reader of the current era. the link between what humanity faced, as mentioned in the novel, and what humanity faces today is quite important to know. this novel is one of the famous novels that is the subject of many literary critics and though of great matter to them, this research paper will include great volumes which covered colonialism in conrad’s heart of darkness. modern age it is important to talk about modern age before getting into modern literature, whether drama, poetry, or novel. that is elaborating on non-literary factors than influenced the construction of modern literature and also the readers and the audience who cared about it and gave it high regard and value. the crucial factor that has a great impact on modern literature, taking t.s eliot as an example, was the audience's interest in the twentieth century has been in a psychological phenomenon to an extent. psychology and mental aspects, as a subject of investigation, has been concentrated in the works of joyce and proust. another influential factor was emphasizing anxiety and insecurity, which differs this age from victorian mood which concentrates on confidence and assurance. on a spiritual level, this era rebelled against the old traditions and this resulted in insecurity. the politics was influenced and led by this rebellion. modern famous intellectual leaders spread a lot of conversations in the twentieth century. in the twentieth century, some ideologies spread in the world, and in this century, there was much talk about human freedom and human dignity and were put under doubt. sigmund freud introduced his determinism, and carl marx introduced marxism. freud suggested that humans are "determined beforehand by the formation or malformation of the unconscious parts of their minds in childhood." on the other way round, marx claimed that economic and historical considerations preoccupied human societies and historical organizations (barzinji 2012). modern literature modernism has got several descriptions and definitions over the years, but none has proved to be universally unique. it is widely agreed that the term refers to a body of innovative works produced during a period of extraordinary cultural, social, economic, and political chaos. but as soon as we turn to the question of modernists' precise nature as an artistic phenomenon or to the issue of its chronology; its beginning and its end. malcolm bradbury and james mcfarlane stated that the argument is not only about the beginning of modernism but it is also about its causes and characters, and eventually about whether it has ended or not. most critics would be willing to see modernist as an early phenomenon of the twentieth century, which was committed to the renewal of the arts through various kinds of experimentation, and which was under way by the 1890s or early 1900s and was more or less at an end by the late 1930s. (gasiorek 2015) but this view of the twentieth century has to be clarified what form its experimentation took, and it has to be acknowledged that its origins lie in the nineteenth century and can be traced back via various paths to several important influences. the twentieth century in england would be impossible without the poetry of charles baudelaire, tristan corbiere, jules laforgue, stephane mallarme, arthur rimbaud, and paul verlaine, the fiction of fyodor dostoevsky, gustave flaubert, theophile gautier, guy de maupassant, and ivan turgenev, the plays of guillaume apollinaire, anton chekhov, henrik ibsen, alfred jarry, maurice maeterlinck, and august strindberg, and the philosophical or political writing of such figures as freud, kierkegaard, marx, nietzsche, and schopenhauer. the different legacies of nineteenth-century aestheticism, moral decay, expressionism, and symbolism, to name only the most obvious european paths, all fed into modernist as it developed in england in the early 1900s and beyond. (gasiorek 2015) 38 nor is it clear that the twentieth century was finished after the second world war when several writers took their cue from modernists and its influences are still noticeable in the literature of the twenty-first century. (gasiorek 2015) the modernist novel, mainly concerned with contemporary life, and, as the name suggests, always after a new thing. but sometime around 1900. to be a modernist meant something more because suddenly modernism meant everything. it seemed to break the world in two, depriving all continuities with the past, putting human character and life itself into a state of continuous change. the novel also had to split to change. and so it became “the modern novel,” breaking with the past, making itself new, to pursue modernist into the future. (matz 2004 the first leading works of the modern novels as first breakthroughs might tell us about a modernist novel. it started with james joyce’s portrait of the artist as a young man (1916). and then the story of how gertrude stein came by the strange style of writing that made her infamous. (matz 2004) the third is the broken form of jean toomer’s cane (1923), and fourth is a debate, the debate about the real nature of reality that led virginia woolf in her novel to say that human character had changed forever. (matz 2004) a portrait of the artist as a young man tells a familiar story as heart of darkness: that of a boy growing too young manhood and finding a vacation. but the way begins is a surprise: "once upon a time and a very good time it was there was a moocow coming down along the road and this moocow that was coming down along the road met a nicens little boy named baby tucko". the first words here are quite familiar. the words seem to be derived directly from life itself, without planning or purpose; they let small nonsense talk weaken the language of literature; they make a joke of storytelling customs, and they push us directly into an unfamiliar world, without any kind of preparation that is scene-setting and introductory explanations, might normally ease us in. (matz 2004) literature review this novella by joseph conrad was first published in 1902 with the story "youth" and thereafter published separately. the story reflects the physical and psychological shock conrad himself experienced in1890 when he worked briefly in the belgian congo. (conrad 25). conrad's powerful writing is unique in its style and syntax. he is deliberate in telling of marlow's journey, his slow descent from england to the continent to the mouth of the congo, and finally to the inner station some eight months later. (clarke 2017). [conrad's] books are full of visionary moments. they reflect a whole character in a flash . . . the beauty of surface has always a fiber of morality within . . . he could not write badly, one feels, to save his life. (68) conrad is undoubtedly one of the great stylists of modern fiction and a good storyteller as expected. his works are classified as permanent literature, that mead they are read and taught and constantly evaluated by serious academics. (clarke 2017) conrad brings into the english fiction of the day, not only the artistry that is vastly more fluent and delicate than the general but also a highly unusual sophistication, a quite extraordinary detachment from all petty rages and puerile certainties. (clarke 2017) joseph conrad was one of the famous novelists in the history of english literature. his famous novel “heart of darkness” (1902) is the exploration of complex human nature as well as the relevant matter of colonialism. (murfin 20) 39 conrad’s novel is an interesting specimen in literature, it is more of a transitional book that has a foot in the victorian era but also has a foot in modern literature. the book is about one man’s journey into madness while he travels to the congo. (murfin 21) many commentators have seen conrad's representation of the "dark" continent and its people as very much a part of a racist tradition that has existed in western literature for centuries. most notably, chinua achebe accused conrad of racism because he refused to see the black man as an individual in his own right, and because of his use of africa as a setting—representative of darkness and evil. (murfin 22) heart of darkness follows the stories of an experienced captain marlow and a former officer kurtz. kurtz’s character is symbolic of greed and commercialism, power, and the influence of barbarism on the civilized world. marlow, on the other hand, symbolizes thirst for knowledge, and a spirit of adventure. (murfin 22) heart of darkness narrates the story of a sailor named marlow, who one day decides to join a naval company that takes him from london to africa. there he discovers how exotic the african continent is. the narrator refers to it as ‘the darkness’ – the obscure, the indefinable. (murfin 23). joseph conrad explores the nature of colonialism in his work “heart of darkness”. he sarcastically shows the terror of colonialism. to accomplish this, he uses numerous emblematic characters. the main one is kurtz, indistinguishable, and indefinable person, who is being described by conrad as representative of all europe (conrad 127). one critic called the novella a destructive experience and mentions that people must not suppose that conrad's novella is against colonization, expansion, or imperialism. it is above all an adventure experience, where the ending featuring the woman who idealises kurtz's memory acts as a way of signifying just how far the reader has travelled (clarke 2017). another critic commented on kurtz’s intended and her belief in the villain’s heroism (clarke 2017). in another review, the critic commented on the fact that conrad has moved past the two classes in fiction. heart of darkness does more than just deal with movement and adventure or offer a characterization of the human mind. conrad has both motives, adventure, and a philosophic presentation, of the human character (clarke 2017). according to one critic, the novella cannot be understood with one eye closed and conrad demands the full attention of his readers (clarke 2017). several critics found the prose beautiful and the novella atmospheric but one critic thought the narrative was unconvincing and felt that it too often lost its spontaneity and became too rhetorical (clarke 2017). one critic mentions that there is no prejudice in the novella (clarke 2017). there is however one early critic that does bring up the race aspect. edward garnett ends his review by stating that conrad's heart of darkness offers an “analysis of the deterioration of the white man's morale when he is let loose from european restraint, and to make trade profits out of the subject races” (murfin 99). joseph conrad was a thoroughgoing racist. that this simple truth is glossed over in criticisms of his work is since white racism against africa is such a normal way of thinking that its manifestations go completely unremarked (achebe 2006). colonialism talking about colonial morality relates to taking savage africans out of the darkness. lois tyson thinks that the colonialist ideology came from the assumption by the colonizer that they were superior, on the other hand, they regarded the native people who were the inhabitant of the land they invaded as inferiors (2006). conrad expressed his idea in 40 heart of darkness through marlow, who wants to conceal the immoral actions of the white people in africa: colonizers see that they are the ones to set examples for black people, as they see colonized ones as other, different and inferiors to the point of regarding less than fully human. (tyson 2006). the end of the novel reveals the dark side of europe, that’s dividing the world into two different parts the civilized ones "us" and the savage ones "them". the elaboration enhances the idea that europeans are more civilized and enlightened to a great extent of intelligence and ability than the african. (brannigan 1998). heart of darkness relates marlow's story as he traveled to congo and relates what he sees in his journey to reach kurtz. marlow works for a company that gathers and transacts ivory and deals with it. muffin says that the morality of the europeans gets worst when they are not abiding by european restrictions: "analysis of the deterioration of the whiteman’s morale" when he is free from european restraint, and to make trade interests from subject races (muffin 99). after reaching africa, marlow feels the place that's africa shores are saddening and dark: while going to kurt and the company's station, he saw isolated and abandoned native people. he notices black people working in the jungle. he never names black people humans. in hear of darkness, the place where europe and africa meet is displaying the meaningless of the morality of colonialism as stated by marlow. what kurtz and marlow talk about is imperial mastery, the enslavement of africans and that white european took over black africans and their wealth, their ivory, that's they think it is civilization over primitive dark continent (29). it is not only marlow describing the natives in animalistic terms but also other characters do the same (ali 2017). africa is shown as the fictional projection of european imaginations in which europe is the only truth (brannigan 1998). conrad, in this novel, shows the reality behind this truth. the novel condemns the evil of colonial exploitation. a point that made the novel different from other victorian novels, is that heart of darkness sheds light on the truth of colonialism and colonial morality imposed by england on africa. the issue of the morality of european exploration is discussed in the novel. through his novel and specifically its main character conrad explores the brutal activities of white people. booker states that conrad through his character marlow openly criticizes much of the european activities that he notices in africa, specifically the brutal treatment of many of the africans by the european masters (booker 219). chinua achebe thinks that heart of darkness shows the image of africa as being the other world, that is contrasting europe and so of civilization (338). this idea derives from the assumption that conrad and marlow are the same. conrad in his real-life traveled to congo too, and there saw slave trade and ivory trade. heart of darkness relates the story of ivory trade and slavery. marlow illustrates a terrible picture of congo. he shows the morality of how imperialists exploit native people rather than enlightening them. the colonists wanted to practice their morality in the invaded and colonized countries but they failed to implement their morality that they come with. (ali 2017). at the beginning of the novel, heart of darkness, there is a talk about darkness and gloom literally and consequently symbolically by the first and second narrator. both want to be torchbearers of light to that darkness and saviors. marlow who is an english seaman knows that england's achievements and civilization started by men who are dead long ago, and now he and his contemporaries relax under their achievements. what marlow sees on the english coast of darkness reminds him of the darkness of moral vacancy. marlow does not think that the morality of the whiteman in africa is simply the darkness ignorance of natives but far beyond is the darkness of the european colonizers who claim to be enlightening the natives but they blinded themselves and corrupted the natives. marlow comes up with the comparison between the english and the romans in the exploitation of the colonized ones, as the white man exploits the black, long ago, english people, were exploited by romans. 41 although once the current english exploiter was also exploited, they justified their exploitation and colonization by regarding themselves the civilizers of the black. if the reality is observed, it is quite different from what they justified. they did not justice with their morality, and they did not civilize nor change the social structure of the africans according to their european standards (ali 2017). marlow was sent to africa by his aunt and called an "emissary of light". africa was regarded as uncivilized, primitive, savage, uneducated, barbaric, and ignorant. so, the purpose behind marlow's attendance in africa was to enlighten the black, and this becomes a typical justification of colonialism. “wearing those ignorant millions from their horrid ways” (conrad 30). kurtz goes to africa long before marlow, and also for the same reason of civilizing the natives, but he forgets his real mission when he gets there, and he behaves like any other european exploiters. he suggests the international society that the savage customs to be suppressed "exterminate all the bursts". the reality of whiteman's morality is this: marlow describes the black men as they were dying slowly, and they were nothing but black shadows of disease and starvation, yet they were not enemies nor criminals. they were in a gloomy place, surrounded by similar sceneries, fed on unknown food, that makes them sick and inefficient. then they were permitted to rest after crawling away. (conrad, p: 44). this is how marlow thinks about the black, which means european pretend to put an end to the darkness of ignorance, savageness, starvation, and diseases. marlow's and kurtz through their thought and philosophy defend imperialism and colonization in civilized expressions. for the colonized are like animals and probably to them some animals are more useful than those people of congo, congo here stands for all africa (ali 13) marlow was a friend and admirer of kurtz who was educated partly in england and partly in other countries. kurtz was a great conversationalist who could take over the hearts of the natives. europe made kurtz a selfish character. when marlow and kurtz call the natives nonhuman, it means that the whole of europe is calling them such. kurtz is a symbol of evil with a defected morality, he is worshipped by the natives. heart of darkness is almost a story of devilish possession since marlow is forced to be convinced that there is a bond between himself and kurtz. he is the most successful agent of the company, and at first, he was hoped to bring the light of civilization into the darkness of africa (ali 13). as a result, the whole of europe including kurtz looted and exploited africa. they destroyed the natural resources and traditions of congo people for the sake of getting as much ivory as possible. kurtz works on behalf of white people's imperialism to apply their ideal values. he sets the rituals that relived the worries of the natives to maintain his position. the ritual is sacrificing a young and vigorous mind to make the worshipped man strong. to the extent that, after kurtz's frequent illness, the ritual was supposed to strengthen kurtz. the heads of the victims hang on the poles opposite kurt's hut. the barbarism and savageness practiced by the colonizers were more savages than of the black people. the exploitation by the colonizers is the worst type because the black are not in war with the colonizers and they are weak. consequently, the europeans fail in their mission to behave like civic people, and they only got wealth and power in their mission (ali 13). what is being unveiled in heart of darkness are several possibilities including knowledge of self, of the other, of the unconscious, and violence and oppression of colonialism, and also of corruption of european civilization, and evil in human nature (wake 48). marlow's tale talks about the horrific aspects of colonialism made public aware of that, while previously it was not revealed to them (bloom 2009). bloom also argues that marlow's weak defense of english colonialism is kind of a desire for the certainty once provided by religion, and also finding hope in colonialism to act humanly in the wilderness (2009). 42 lawtoo believes that conrad portrays both the horrors of colonialism and the constant greed for wealth especially ivory and consequently changing the country into a slaughterhouse for the natives to fulfill their goals (136). there is a contradiction in the novel regarding the european colonizing mission in africa; it shows the dehumanizing effects of colonialism on native people. heart of darkness examines the effects of economic and social exploitation that emerged from colonialism which makes doubts over european civilization, progress, and humanity. so, he was critical of colonialism (clarke, 16). edward thinks that colonialism is mainly about political and economic relationships, some of these relationships may fade after the independence of the state. here are some excerpts about colonialism in conrad's novel: “they grabbed what they could get for the sake of what was to be got. it was just robbery with violence, aggravated murder on a great scale, and men going at it blind—as is very proper for those who tackle darkness” (conrad 9-10). the quote above shows that there were robbery and atrocities to gain more wealth. their main goal was to earn more and more with no regard to the atrocities they conduct. ..., “where the merry dance of death and trade goes on in a still and earthy atmosphere as of an overheated catacomb. (conrad 25) it tells us how black people were oppressed and treated ruthlessly, and all their energy was taken to the edge of death. " this devoted band called itself the eldorado exploring expedition and i believe they were sworn to secrecy." (conrad 12) it means that that they took all the treasure from the native people of africa. the cruelty mixed with greed was the picture of colonialism in africa, digging the lands of africa to take out all the treasure with no moral purpose backing that, they act like burglars when breaking into a safe. (conrad 60-61). apart from gaining wealth and treasure, colonialism was a way to gain a reputation. the novella shows that colonialism is a cruel competition and race for power and domination on the lands of other people despite the causalities and catastrophe that it brings to the native people there. in brief marlow's journey to congo and into the heart of darkness, reveals the true purpose of colonialism and the european capitalist approach. (conrad 62) one of the overwhelming themes in heart of darkness is colonialism. the novel tells us that the europeans wanted to colonize african countries to civilize and educate their people since africa was dark, but far behind this purpose they went there and darkened the heart of darkness more and more. conrad shows the terror and horror of colonialism ironically, he wants to retell the story of colonialism through his work, and made marlow his representative in the novel and kurtz representing the whole of europe. (conrad 5) one of the aspects that supported european colonialism was religion, the europeans thought that africa was dark because they even do not have a religion and so they colonize it to spread the religion and make african people enlightened through introducing them to religion. so, they wanted to change the way of life of people there, in the name of colonialism, they thought that african people have to be taken out from this primitive way into a civilized educated way. (conrad 6) marlow explains that the british colonialism differs from roman colonialism, but we see it has not changed and even gotten worse. what changed was the era and the weapons. but the cruelty and merciless activities remained. the colonialism again exploited people and their wealth for their interests. (conrad 6) to the europeans who were colonizers? they were superiors and the native people of africa who were colonized ones were inferiors, that is why they thought the natives were 43 savages, and so they have to be taught how to live like europeans. this idea rejects freedom and the equality of humans with no regard for their race. (conrad 6) another aspect that heart of darkness reveals, is the hypocritic side of colonialism, marlow says that the forerunners of colonialism had the goal of educating, civilizing and enlightening the colonized ones, but when they took over a place, they started exploiting the people and the natural resources of the place. furthermore, the morality the europeans got worse through the colonialism, they practiced cruelty and savageness against the natives, they dealt with the natives like animals, and they even used animalistic terms for the natives. (conrad 7) conrad in heart of darkness showed the very bad effects of colonialism on the native african people. it illustrated how british colonizers fought for their ambitions and interests through damaging the culture, society, nature, ethics, and economy of black native african people. (conrad 7) imperialism human beings sometimes spoil their morality and lose their humanity, especially when there is no one around. we as humans share animal’s traits and tendencies naturally. when we face violence and uncivilized situations, we also take our violent however survival actions are instinct. this theme is seen in the teaching of joseph conrad's heart of darkness. as the setting of the novella is africa in the imperialistic 19th century, the environment is suited for someone who abandons his/her civility and loses their mind. but finally, we reach a point that the imperialistic dynamic that is created in the heart of africa leads to the loss of civility. (kanjilal 1967) at the start of the novella, the audience are told that the setting, a ship deck that is on a visit to africa. the main character relates the story as a storyteller, marlow, who traveled around the world, one of the journeys is more different than others that is his journey into africa through the congo river. conrad uses marlow to interpret the narration and does that through stories within stories. marlow starts by talking about the romans who conquered england a thousand years ago. he likens the conquerors' administration as a mere squeeze. (conrad 8) to marlow, they were brutal people who were blindly killing and robbing. marlow thinks that the english are different from romans on invading a foreign land because they are colonists, not conquerors. he thinks that efficiency and an idea save english as a colonist, and also an unselfish belief. (conrad 8). imperialism appears in two forms here; colonialism and the conquest of the land. marlow states that they are different and colonizing is justified due to efficiency and an unselfish idea. while in reality none of them are excused from the consequences they result in because, in the end, both have the same outcome. the conquerors and also colonists, destroy the land, the natives, and also their humanity. marlow sees the terrific and horrible outcomes of imperialism such as slavery and extreme human greed taking over a part of africa, and such a novella shows these through the eyes of marlow. the novella to some extent and indirectly accuses marlow of defending colonization while he is seeing the savage occurrences by himself. the novella makes a firm stance against all forms of imperialism and rejects the idea that it can be redeemed. even the title, heart of darkness, suggests a moral decline in colonists' consciences into darkness as the novella portrays the terrific and disgusting actions by men, particularly kurtz who is a colonist, as they have a corrupted mentality and they lack humanity. as the audience follow marlow into his own heart of darkness the outcome of imperialism becomes more obvious, as it affects horrifically both the colonists and the native people. (kanjilal 1967) marlow's argument to prove his excuse for colonizing is the history and using the romans to explain that. he thinks that romans who were conquerors, not colonists were 44 merely squeezing through their administrations, and they only used brutality to invade england. (conrad 8). on the other hand, marlow seems to have this in his mind that the english invasion is different in a way that is efficient so the english are not conquerors but they are colonists of africa. marlow states: efficiency saved english colonists while it did apply to romans. i.e. english colonists had efficient governance and administration, on the other hand, romans merely used force and brutality, that is why they were conquerors and it is not something to be proud of if you get your strength from the weakness of the others. they took and robbed whatever they could and in any way that they managed to, regardless of others' rights, they practiced violence and murder on a great scale. (conrad 8) here is the core difference that marlow believes to be between conquering and colonizing a foreign land, conquering is linked with violence, brutality, and murder while colonization is linked with efficiency, in the way the english's invasion of africa is excused by marlow, at the same time notions of robbery, murder and violence are found in marlow's own story not only as an approved action but also legally practiced. on the other hand, the strength of both the english and the romans have accidental strength. the english's strength comes from the fact that they gave industrialized weapons and the africans do not. so, there is a vast difference between the strengths of english and africans. yet, english would not face an opponent with strong weapons. criminal acts such as aggravated murder, violence, and robbery are all found in colonized africa through the institution of slavery where white men apply it in africa as law. the slaves are robbed of their future, bear harsh punishment, and are murdered if they object. one of the first horrific things that marlow sees at the company's main station is: "six black men [advancing] in a file…. [he] could see every rib, the joints of their limbs were like knots in a rope; each had an iron collar on his neck, and all were connected with a chain” (conrad 23). here in africa slavery is considered completely normal with the boundaries of the law by the english, and yet no one protests, including marlow, at the grave dehumanization and treatment indigenous people. the civilized and efficient dehumanization is an oxymoron and yet the white man back it by their law. (kanjilal 1967) through marlow's story, the horrific aspects of imperialism and colonialism are shown to the reader that is not previously revealed to the reader in such a way. something should be taken into consideration that the only subject of the novella is not imperialism and also it is not bound to a particular time, but it also exposes deep and universal issues of humanity and civilization. (bloom 2009) the novella is a quick overview to illustrate the legalization of slavery, which is associated with imperialism. it is clear that the novella is not showing slavery as something simple but highly disapproving of it as one of the outcomes of imperialism, conrad uses connotative phrases to show the horrific scene of slavery, such as "iron collar" and "[marlow] could see every rib" that shows the imagery of badly fed africans being pulled with iron collar (conrad 23). david ray papke states that law has its role in both political and economic aspects of imperialism… the law's function helped imperialist control largely… to the extent that imperialist does not only use the law but furthermore they claimed the right to define the law. (590). they were creating the law as a model to satisfy their desires and wants; so the invaders created their laws of governing. this is also seen as accidental strength that allows english to subject the natives to their form of civilizing or in other words slavery. more terribly murder is happening simply and easily as to be something normal. (kanjilal 1967). the novel's criticism of imperialist and imperialism is implied at the beginning of the novel, and the second half of the novel becomes an imperialistic adventure story. (wake 88) marlow is pleased to see the british territory expanded on the map when he looks at the map, and marlow often refers to the african people as inhuman and primitive, these show a pro 45 imperialist ideology. on the other hand, deeply thinking about the novella, it can be regarded as a masterpiece of irony, it means that conrad supports imperialism in his novel ironically, to illustrate how terrible imperialism was. since there is no frank attitude by conrad about imperialism, the novel can be believed as documentation of conrad's experiences during his voyage through africa. what may have influenced conrad's opinions in the novel is the social and political framework at that time, that was the popularity of imperialism so conrad in an indirect way tried to put the ideology of imperialism off people's mind through this work and by portraying what is being done under the name of imperialism. it is worth mentioning that conrad did not use the word imperialism in the novel. (firchow 2000) it is important to consider that, marlow raised in the era where "white man's burden" was praised and this eventually made marlow fall into the common way of thinking about colonizing the lands. so, the blame for justifying imperialism simply comes from the period in which he lived. anyhow, this does not prove marlow to be correct about his thoughts, because the white men are exploiting the africans, their manual labor, their lands, and also their beliefs instead of civilizing them. (kanjilal 1967) what is shown by this, is that the most crucial point is a slow mental collapse and gradual inhumanity in the colonizers. in the novella, this gradual change of the human's character till falling into inhumanity is shown by legendary kurtz. as the title of the novella, heart of darkness, suggests the moral indecency of human's heart towards being tempted with power, as it happened to kurtz, a colonizer. ivory affected kurtz and most of the colonizers and led kurtz to mental degeneration through his obsession with wealth since to collect ivory he committed violent and murderous acts. the colonizers got unhealthy with that, so ivory represents something more than a material, it was something that took morality, humanity, and mind from the colonizers. ivory was to be a symbol of having their wealth and escaping from economic boundaries and being only an employee. ivory was made a way for social advancement. here this quote tells us of how white people considers ivory: “the word ivory rang in the air, was whispered, was sighed. you would think they were praying to it" (qtd in kanjilal 1967) religion was used to justify the greed to gain ivory, which is native people's wealth, and it was associated with all forms of imperialism whether it is colonizing of conquering a land. (kanjilal 1967) conrad here wants to make an impression about the difference made between imperialism and conquering through marlow’s point of view. marlow thinks that the two are different, and marlow thinks that what the british were doing is colonialism but romans practiced conquering, marlow justifies british colonialism, while colonizers did as many crimes as people against africans. (kanjilal 1967) conrad, through depicting imperialism in heart of darkness, shows that british occupiers justified their cruelty against the africans. conrad tells the readers that imperialism made the british in africa forget the real nature of humanity and this is clearly shown in marlow's character when he tries to convince us that british imperialism is different from what romans did before. when they saw savagery and enslaved by their fellow imperialists, they try to legalize these actions, which is to keep their humanity away from them. the robbery, murdering, and enslaving africans is regarded as to be normal acts, and they have set laws for them. (kanjilal 1967) what can be confusing to the reader is that conrad shows the crimes of the imperialists but yet in other ways justifies them. this may tell us that conrad does not completely stand against or with imperialism. conrad through documentation that he encountered wanted to show that imperialism is going the wrong way now. so, conrad endeavored to break down the long and popular thought about imperialism in an ironic way. (kanjilal 1967) 46 conrad gives and reveals a universal humanitarian message through his covering of imperialism in the heart of darkness. he tells the reader that civilization should go alongside humanity; it is not only taking countries and expanding the territories. conrad distributes a humanitarian message to his contemporaries by cleverly criticizing imperialism. (kanjilal 1967) racism heart of darkness is a recount of a real story that is taken from john conrad's experience in the congo river and conrad used marlow as his character to tell the story. the novel depicted the terror in the colonial era and heightened the ambition of the colonizers to gain power and raw materials and wealth. the novel sheds light specifically on the hypocrisy of the colonial effort that was materialistic. heart of darkness also reveals the justifications and decorations of the civilization which were used to conceal the real goals of colonialism while the colonizers said they wanted to help the black africans who were considered as backward people. (sharmin 2018) many european writers including conrad tried to illustrate the issue of racism and imperialism through their literature, heart of darkness is an example. that means bringing the colonial world into an art of fiction. those writers shed light on the issue of race, power, and economic expansion, and the conflicts between europe and other continents. as a modern novelist, john conrad has been preoccupied with race, cultural and national conflicts. (sharmin 2018) joseph conrad was a sailor and also a writer, and heart of darkness relates to his experience in congo in 1890. the genre of heart of darkness is colonial literature and conrad used marlow as a character to tell the story and recount conrad's experience in africa and especially in congo in the early-mid of the 1890s during the colonial era. the story is a depiction of the world of colonialism and imperialism of european countries in africa and asia. (sharmin 2018) africa was the place for competing by the european colonizers who wanted to colonize more and more territories that made them long for reaching africa. they tried to deceive the native african with the idea they had come to educate and civilize them, they put these ideas into the minds of the primitive and innocent africans, but their actions show the opposite of what they told the natives. (sharmin 2018) being ambitious to get more and more resources and wealth was common among europeans during the 19th century, what they did was self-interest since they did give importance to how they did it. the europeans treat africans like animals, savages, or criminals because they thought that africa was a dark country with no civilization nor religion. so it is true that colonialism in africa based on racism, racial discrimination, and segregation because they wanted to gain wealth and raw materials. heart of darkness is a depicts what aforementioned well. it was set in africa in the 19th century when britain was the greatest power and controlled a great part of the world, particularly in africa. (sharmin 2018) congo is a real example that came from conrad's experience of how much colonial power was racist. heart of darkness revealed the hypocrisy of the colonial missions in africa. in the novel, strong images are used to show that the colonization damaged white colonizer's souls for they treated black africans badly and with greed. racism in heart of darkness was clear from the beginning of the novel. marlow relates his experience to his fellow and says: “i do not want to bother you much with what happened to me personally.” (sharmin 2018) marlow wants to say that his trip was disturbing and strange for what he had seen there, this statement by marlow affected his fellows. heart of darkness is a clear image of colonizer's ill-treatment to the africans, and also the greed of imperialism to the extent that 47 they treated them as slaves or objects instead of human beings. "black figures strolled about listlessly pouring water on the glow, whence proceeded a sound of hissing, steam ascended in the moonlight the beaten nigger groaned somewhere." (sharmin 2018) heart of darkness is a novel about racism, as the british saw themselves superior and believed that the blacks who they called niggers lived purposelessly because they have no civilization, education nor religion. furthermore, they thought of black people in congo as animals and a lot of annoyance to them. "it was paddled by black fellows… they had faces like grotesque masks these chaps; but they had a bone, muscle, a wild vitality, an intense energy of movement, that was as natural and true as the surf along their coast." (sharmin 2018) heart of darkness clearly illustrates how black people in congo were forced for hard work without any sympathy to them, marlow had seen them falling and carrying heavy packages under the control of white maters, that treatment was like the one to animals. "they were building a railway, six men advanced in a file, toiling up the path, they walked erect and slow, balancing small baskets full of earth on their heads, and kept time with their footsteps. (sharmin 2018) according to it, heart of darkness, is one of the novels that are no more than a weakly racist with regards to its attitude towards africans, the novel recognized the difference between africans and europeans but does not suggest any essential superiority to the africans, however, it implies a temporary cultural superiority. (firchow 2000) on the other hand, other critics think that conrad himself was a thoroughgoing racist, due to the fact the white racism against africa is simply thought of that its manifestations go unremarked. conrad is much more concerned about the deterioration of the european mind by encountering sickness and loneliness. so, the point of the novel is to ridicule europe's civilizing mission in africa. (bloom 2009) one of the critics who harshly criticize conrad is chinua achebe, he says that conrad saw and condemned the evil of imperial exploitation but he was unaware of the racism he used strangely (moore 2004). he thinks that conrad's racism demonstrated by his dehumanization of the african characters in his novel (clarke 2017). to him, the novel dehumanized and humiliated the native people of africa, and the novel used a human language for the europeans while used another for the native ones. as if he portrayed the african in a nonhuman way. (res 2013) the colonialism without any doubt founded on racist ideology, since colonialism constructed two separate communities of fear. (lawtoo 138) those who defend conrad in the issue of racism say that marlow's mimetic voice suggests that the words he used for the natives like "inhuman" and "ugly" have their origin in his listeners and marlow uttered them out for us to hear. (lawtoo 250) concerning conrad's charge of racism, it is quite obvious that the historical and cultural location of conrad's life should be taken into consideration. his views are can be shaped within that environment where he lived. (bloom 2009) there are long quotes which are separating the author from the character. the story shows that european colonialism was even worse than the romans, contrary to marlow's claims. the distressing depiction of men waiting for their death: "black shapes crouched, lay, sat between the trees leaning against the trunks, clinging to the earth, half coming out in all the attitudes of pain, abandonment, and despair. they were not enemies, they were not criminals". after this description, marlow confesses that he is respecting collars man who comes out to get fresh air, while they are surrounded by people who made them suffer till death. marlow goes on with admiration that "in the great demoralization of the land he kept up his appearance. that's backbone". he is committed to the appearances which show the difference between appearance and reality, assumption and fact, illusion and truth in this work. so marlow does not have 48 conrad's complete confidence. and also conrad's very forceful criticism of colonialism cannot be easily regarded as weak liberalism. the real enemies and rebels are the emissaries of light. (sarvan 7). this is to say that, it is not provided for conrad to have the same ideas as marlow to be regarded as a racist. the controversy over conrad's ideology in heart of darkness concerning race matters was growing among critics. the idea of colonialism as shown in heart of darkness was to take over the one's culture and identity in the name of civilizing, in heart of darkness natives looked as inferiors to the europeans and far worse they dealt like animals. the exploitation of the people and their wealth for the colonizers' interest is an act of racism and against the reality of just life for other races. (sarvan 7) heart of darkness depicts how european colonizers competed for wealth and power in africa, for whatever cost it took, regardless of the damage that goes to the natives. the colonial thought about the natives was considering the black african inhuman, savages, and barbarians; consequently, this means a racist attitude towards the natives. the same ideology resulted in barbarian dealing with the natives. in other words, the colonizers mercilessly acted with the africans for them though that they are at the animalistic level or lower. (sarvan 8) some critics like chinua achebe harshly criticizes conrad as not only relating racism in his novel but as being a racist himself. heart of darkness sympathizes mostly with the loneliness and deserted life of the european colonizers instead of focusing on the difficult life of the africans. the toil and too much daily work done by the natives and the tough behavior of the colonizers towards them were justified as colonialism's civilizing mission. to achebe, conrad dehumanized african people in heart of darkness, to the extent the language used for them was not a language used for humans, on the other hand, it was rejected that conrad himself to be a racist, he just depicted how europeans around him thought of africans at that time, and how colonialism led to racism in a bad way, it was considered cultural superiority of british over the africans but rather created race superiority. (sarvan 8) conrad's era and location reflected in the novel, that is the colonizers at that time carelessly oppressed different races of africa for their interest; therefore, the ideas that are shown in heart of darkness are shaped within that society. (sarvan 8) methodology the study has been conducted by a group of researchers who have used historical sources and used postcolonial approach to examine conrad’s heart of darkness. to know if conrad supports colonialism or he just showed how colonizers behaved badly with the poor people of africa. a number of writer’s works have been consulted to support our ideas about the role conrad had in showing the real life of the colonized people. also examples from the text are used to prove that fact that africans have been colonized and treated badly. conclusions to conclude, heart of darkness is a good example of illustrating and depicting the era of colonialism and the attitude of european colonizers in africa. imperialism, colonialism, and racism are core ideas that heart of darkness tackles. heart of darkness shows how imperialism made the british legalize their bad actions and crimes in africa, slavery, and illtreatment was a very common outcome of their imperialism. they exploited people and their wealth in the name of colonization, as they stated that their goal is to civilize and educate native africans, but on the contrary, they practiced so many cruel activities towards the native. heart of darkness also deals with racism, it shows how colonialism turned into racism, and how 49 black people were called by animalistic names and how bad they were treated, and that never suits treating a human. heart of darkness informs the society about the reality of colonialism, throughout his novella heart of darkness. conrad tells us that colonialism is a cruel and savage process to wipe out the old beliefs of people and control them with their wealth, with eagerness and thirst to gain more and more. the novella depicts the story of colonizer of how they raced to gain more power and domination in different lands around the world and other continents especially africa and then claiming them their own. heart of darkness depicts the ideology and thoughts that were overwhelming in that era, therefore, what is shown in heart of darkness was a reflection of the way of thinking and dealing with africans, and how the europeans thought of black africans at that time. references achebe, ch. (2006). image of africa: racism in conrad’s heart of darkness. heart of harkness ed. paul b. armstrong. london: norton and company, inc. print. ali, m. (2017). "whiteman’s morality, colonialism and heart of darkness”. international journal of english research: 12-13. web. barzinji, m. (2012). the image of modern man in t.s eliot’s poetry. bloomington, in: author house. print. bloom, h. (2009) bloom's guides, joseph conrad's heart of darkness. new york: bloom's literary criticism. e-book bloom, h, ed, (2008). bloom's modern critical interpretations: joseph conrad's hear of darkness. new york: bloom's literary criticism. e-book. booker, k. (1996). a practical introduction to literary theory and criticism. new york: longman publisher. print. brannigan, j. (1998). new historicism and cultural materialism. hampshire: palgrave macmillan. print. clarke, c. (2017). an analysis of chinua achebe's an image of africa: racism in conrad's heart of darkness. london: macat international. e-book. conrad, j. (1999). heart of darkness & other stories, wordsworth classics. london, wordsworth limited. print. conrad, j. heart of darkness. (1902). mineola: dover publications. print. conrad, j.(2018). heart of darkness. uk: blackwell. print. conrad, j. (2008). heart of darkness. watkins memorial high school: signet classics. print. firchow, p. (2000). envisioning africa: racism and imperialism in conrad's heart of darkness. kentucky: university press of kentucky. e-book. gasiorek, andrezj. (2015). a history of modernist literature. uk: blackwell. print. 50 hawkins, h. (1979). “conrad’s critique of imperialism in heart of darkness”. pmla 94.2: 286–299. web. jesse, m. the modern novel. usa: blackwell. 2004. print. kanjilal, d. (1967). “heart of darkness and imperialism’’. sosland journal.: 67-68-69 70. web. moore, m. (2004). joseph conrad's heart of darkness: a casebook. new york: oxford university press. e-book. nidesh, l. (2012). conrad's heart of darkness and contemporary thought. london: bloomsbury. e-book. papke, r. (2000). “joseph conrad’s heart of darkness: a literary critique of imperialism.” journal of maritime law and commerce 31.4: 583-592. print. raskin, j. (1967). “imperialism: conrad’s heart of darkness”. journal of contemporary history 2.2: 113–131. web. res, j. (2013). sex, money, disillusionment, psychoanalysis: aspects of colonialism and imperialism in selected texts by joseph conrad and rudyard kipling. czechia: masaryk university. e-book. said, edward w. (1994). culture and imperialism. new york: vintage books print. print. sharmin, s. (2018).“racism in conrad’s heart of darkness: a critical investigation” american research journal of english and literature, vol 4, no. 1, 1-3. print. tyson, l. (2006). critical theory today. new york: routledge. print. the imperialism of heart of darkness english literature essay. (2018). uk essays. web. 2, 2, 2020. <https://www.ukessays.com/essays/english-literature/the imperialism-of-heart-of-darkness-english-literature-essay.php?vref=1>. web wake, p.(2007). conrad's marlow. manchester: manchester university press. e book. abstract introduction modern literature imperialism conclusions acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 1 sentiment and sentence similarity as predictors of integrated and independent l2 writing performance kutay uzun,1 trakya university, department of english language teaching, turkey kutayuzun@trakya.edu.tr ömer gökhan ulum2 mersin university, department of english language teaching, turkey doi: 10.35974/acuity.v7i2.2529 abstract this study aimed to utilize sentiment and sentence similarity analyses, two natural language processing techniques, to see if and how well they could predict l2 writing performance in integrated and independent task conditions. the data sources were an integrated l2 writing corpus of 185 literary analysis essays and an independent l2 writing corpus of 500 argumentative essays, both of which were compiled in higher education contexts. both essay groups were scored between 0 and 100. two python libraries, textblob and spacy, were used to generate sentiment and sentence similarity data. using sentiment (polarity and subjectivity) and sentence similarity variables, regression models were built and 95% prediction intervals were compared for integrated and independent corpora. the results showed that integrated l2 writing performance could be predicted by subjectivity and sentence similarity. however, only subjectivity predicted independent l2 writing performance. the prediction interval of subjectivity for independent writing model was found to be narrower than the same interval for integrated writing. the results show that the sentiment and sentence similarity analysis algorithms can be used to generate complementary data to improve more complex multivariate l2 writing performance prediction models. keywords: efl writing performance, independent writing, integrated writing, sentiment analysis, sentence similarity, task type introduction natural language processing (nlp), which deals with the computational analysis of human languages for both comprehension and production (crystal, 2008), has been an ever-growing field of research since 1940’s. since then, it has been used for purposes such as machine translation, speech recognition, part-of-speech tagging, sentiment analysis, language production (e.g. chat bots), topic modelling or automated question-answer systems from computer science to political science. despite their wide use in various fields, including educational science (e.g. crossley, paquette, dascalu, mcnamara & baker, 2016), foreign language writing research make limited use of state-of-the-art nlp applications in that most studies which utilize nlp seem to benefit from automated feedback/essay evaluation (e.g. parra & calero, 2019) and the computation of cohesion (e.g. jung, crossley & mcnamara, 2019) or complexity indices (e.g. casal & lee, 2019) with a few exceptions such as decoursey and hamad (2019), hall and sheyholislami (2013) and wang (2020) who investigate sentiments in learner reflections, written feedback and syntactic complexity. corresponding author: kutay uzun, trakya universitesi, kosova yerleskesi, eğitim fakultesi, oda no:g-06. email: kutayuzun@trakya.edu.tr https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 2 emotions have been shown to influence second language acquisition (macintyre & gregersen, 2012), vocabulary acquisition (miller, fox, moser & godfroid, 2018) and performance in foreign language tests and lexical decisions tasks (dewaele & alfawzan, 2018). nonetheless, l2 writing seem to have fallen behind other aspects of language learning in terms of emotion research despite extensive studies on anxiety, a negative emotion, or related constructs such as motivation or attitude. although these constructs have been studied for decades and fruitful discussions have emerged consequently, it is seen that most of those studies are limited to psychometric scales for the measurement of emotions (e.g. cheng, 2004; han & hiver, 2018); therefore, they are not able to account for the instantaneous variations of those emotions. moreover, the reflection of emotion or a related construct within the learner text is yet to be discovered except for wang’s (2020) study. another problematic area within l2 writing research is cohesion, or the general connectedness of the parts of a text. traditionally, cohesion is investigated through explicit cues such as conjunctions or personal/demonstrative pronouns. however, cohesion can also be achieved implicitly and this cannot be tracked by traditional means of cohesion assessment. for this reason, certain computationally-available constructs such as type-token ratios, synonym overlap, connective frequency and semantic similarity within (and across, if necessary) texts should be used to assess cohesion (crossley, kyle & dascalu, 2018). however, due to the limited amount of studies regarding each of these constructs, further research is still needed to see how they interact with other constructs regarding l2 writing. in addition to the necessity to study emotion and cohesion in computational terms, an important distinction in l2 writing lies within the difference between integrated and independent writing tasks, which are inherently different from one another. integrated writing requires learnerwriters to utilize primary and/or secondary sources of information for the completion of the task (weigle & parker, 2012). on the contrary, independent writing is exclusively based on the learner-writers personal experiences and available linguistic resources without necessitating any use of sources. as such, it differs from integrated writing in lexical, syntactic and lexicogrammatical terms (kyle, 2020). the coverage of academic skills in integrated writing unlike its independent counterpart is among the major differences between two task types (kyle, 2020). related to this, integrated writing pieces include more specific lexis, longer words and a lower level of clausal complexity (cumming et al., 2006; kyle & crossley, 2016). biber, gray and staples (2016) also confirm more extensive use of clauses in independent writing and conclude that integrated writing is better marked by nouns, nominals, noun phrases and phrasal complexity. guo, crossley and mcnamara (2013) also confirm the differences between integrated and independent writing by identifying content word familiarity, content word frequency, third-person singular verbs, base verbs and sentence similarity as predictors of integrated writing scores. on the other hand, independent writing score has been predicted by noun hypernymy, conditional connectives and average syllables per word in their study. considering the limited use of nlp technology in foreign language research and the role of emotions in language performance, the amount and scope of the studies dealing with these concepts can be expanded. however, such an expansion should also consider the differences between integrated and independent writing tasks since they bear substantial differences. therefore, this study aims to contribute to this expansion by searching for the potential connections among l2 writing performance (l2wp), sentiment and sentence similarity as manifested within english as a foreign language (efl) learners’ texts, while comparing how these constructs interact with integrated and independent task performance. sentiment analysis and l2 writing performance https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 3 sentiment is defined as an individual’s emotions, opinions, evaluations or beliefs manifested as language (wiebe, wilson, bruce, bell & martin, 2004). therefore, sentiment analysis (sa) is the systematic analysis of those constructs using nlp methods (liu, 2010). the analysis of sentiments gives information about the polarity of emotions or opinions as positive, negative or neutral in the form of an index (munezero, montero, sutinen & pajunen, 2014). sentiment analysis typically involves pre-processing and matching or classification stages to produce results. the pre-processing stage involves the removal of stop words (e.g. function words) and symbols and checking the subjectivity of the text. then, polarity is computed based on a pre-labelled lexicon or machine learning classification algorithms which classify texts using polarity models (kumar & teeja, 2012). however, the removal of stop words in the preprocessing stage may not make a significant change in the accuracy of sentiment computation (jianqiang & xiaolin, 2017) or even reduce its accuracy (ghosal, das & bhattacharjee, 2015). numerous pre-labelled lexicons for sentiment analysis are available in the literature (liu, 2010). for instance, linguistic inquiry and word count, the general inquirer, hu and liu’s lexicon, the affective norms for english words, sentiwordnet or senticnet which can also utilize machine learning algorithms such as naive-bayes to automate labelling are the widelyused lexicons for sentiment analysis. these lexicons keep large lists of words and their sentiment orientations as classes (e.g. sad: negative, happy: positive) or indices (e.g. great: 3.1, tragedy: -3.4) and sentiment analysis algorithms compare texts to those lists to compute sentiment scores (hutto & gilbert, 2014). although it is possible to run sentiment analysis with many programming languages, pythonbased textblob and vader libraries are the simplest ones to use (kulkarni & shivananda, 2019). both libraries are based on natural language tool kit (nltk), which is a highpowered python package for language processing that is widely-used in research and industry (bird, loper & klein, 2009). textblob produces polarity and subjectivity scores for sentiment analysis. the polarity score is between -1 and 1, -1 indicating total negativity and 1 indicating total positivity. a subjectivity score of 1 indicates total subjectivity while 0 indicates total objectivity (loria, 2020). a library specifically developed for social media analysis, vader produces separate positivity, neutrality and negativity scores between 0 and 1. also, it normalizes these scores into a compound score between -1 and 1, -1 indicating total negativity and 1 indicating total positivity. for analysis, vader can also use capitalization, punctuation and emoticons (e.g. “this is good!!!” gives a higher positivity score than “this is good.”) (hutto & gilbert, 2014). both libraries are widely used in computer science with limited use in other fields such as finance (e.g. ranjan & sood, 2019) or education (e.g. peñafiel, vásquez, vásquez, zaldumbide & luján-mora, 2018). being related to motivation and self-regulation, emotion is considered as an individual difference in l2 writing (kormos, 2012). in line with this, most emotion-related l2 writing research focus on anxiety (e.g. cheng, 2004), attitude (e.g. yoon & hirvela, 2004) or motivation (e.g. lo & hyland, 2007). indeed, many studies such as graham, berninger and abbott (2012), guo (2018) and graham, harris, kiuhara and fishman (2017) confirm that anxiety, attitude and motivation predict writing performance. nonetheless, most studies on l2 writing rely solely on psychometric scales to measure emotional constructs; therefore, they cannot track or explain the momentary fluctuations in those emotions, which may affect written production partially or completely. furthermore, if and how emotions are reflected in the written production itself are mostly left unclear. given its potential for computer science, education and even clinical psychology (provoost, ruwaard, van breda, riper & bosse, 2019), sentiment analysis can provide information for l2 writing researchers and practitioners regarding how emotions, stances or evaluations are reflected in texts. one such study utilizing sa in l2wp research is that of wang (2020), which https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 4 analyses 2620 college-level essays written by chinese learners of english and reaches the following conclusions: emotions as manifested in texts are influenced by the emotionality of writing topics. textual polarity and syntactic complexity are related. positive and negative emotions cause higher cognitive load and hinder l2wp. optimal performance is achieved through textual neutrality. to our knowledge, wang’s (2020) study is the only one in the current literature which uses sa in relation to l2wp and it is limited to the syntactic complexity of texts written by chinese learners of efl. findings parallel to wang’s findings in l2 writing can be found in studies which test different skills using non-nlp methods. for instance, the effect of emotions on cognitive load and language performance has been confirmed for l2 listening (chen & chang, 2009), reading (azamnouri, pishghadam & meidani, 2020) and vocabulary (guo, zou & peng, 2018). moreover, lack of objectivity, which is a standard in academic writing (fulwiler, 2002; richards & miller, 2005) and also has cultural roots (hinkel, 1999; hwang & lee, 2008), has been shown to result in lower essay scores among non-native writers of english since it results in an infrequency of proper evidence or justification for claims (carlson, 1988 as cited in hinkel, 1999). however, sentiment as measured via sentiment analysis is not a component in these studies and there seems to be no research in the literature regarding the construct and l2wp except for wang’s study, which does not provide comparative results for integrated and independent writing. semantic sentence similarity and l2 writing performance semantic similarity is a comparative measure of semantic relatedness which evaluates semantic interactions among language units. in the process, taxonomic relationships and commonality are also considered on a hierarchical basis with corpus-based or knowledge-based methods (harispe, ranwez, janaqi & montmain, 2015; turney & pantel, 2010). corpus-based methods extract contextual information from different corpora and use this information to measure semantic relatedness. knowledge-based methods rely on wordnets, large lexical databases that also keep associations among words, to compute sentence similarity through the hierarchical relations among words. corpus-based methods are considered more suitable to account for all semantic relations while knowledge-based methods serve better the purpose of encoding hierarchical relations. (araque, zhu & iglesias, 2019). both methods can be used separately or in combination in word, sentence, paragraph or document levels. python libraries such as textblob (loria, 2020), nltk (bird et al., 2009) or spacy (honnibal & montani, 2017) can be used for similarity computations with only a few lines of code. these libraries produce scores between 0 and 1 where 0 indicates no similarity and 1 indicates sameness. for instance, the sentences “we should put an end to wars.” and “let’s finish wars.” produce a similarity score of .87 using spacy, indicating high similarity. among nlp libraries, spacy has been shown to be among the most accurate ones and the fastest one (honnibal & johnson, 2015). crossley et al. (2018) suggest sentence similarity as an indicator of discourse cohesion. cohesion refers to the connectedness of texts through surface elements, such as connectives or reference words, which make their meaning more accessible to readers (bailey, 2011). it is considered to be an integral part of understanding how readers are guided by discourse features towards text comprehension (baştürkmen & von randow, 2014). cohesion can be achieved grammatically through conjunctions, references, substitutions or ellipses, or lexically through collocations and reiterations (grabe & kaplan, 2014; halliday & matthiessen, 2014). numerous studies indicate a relationship between cohesion and l2wp (e.g. crossley et al., 2018; crossley, kyle & mcnamara, 2016; mcarthur, jennings & philippakos, 2019; yang & sun, 2012). https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 5 despite the established relationship between cohesion and l2wp, crossley et al. (2018) warn that the traditional measures of cohesion through overt elements (e.g. use of conjunctions) may be insufficient since it can be achieved explicitly or implicitly (sanders & maat, 2006) and in the latter case, the evaluation of cohesion becomes more difficult. for this reason, they propose an nltk-based tool, taaco, which assesses local (i.e. sentence-level) and global (i.e. paragraph-level) cohesion through connectives, type-token ratios, lexical overlap and sentence similarity to reveal underlying semantic relations among textual elements which constitute discourse cohesion. a part of cohesion, sentence similarity has been shown to be related to l2wp. for instance, crossley and mcnamara (2012) reveal a negative correlation between sentence similarity and essay score. in another study, they also find that sentence similarity predicts textual coherence (crossley & mcnamara, 2011). guo, crossley and mcnamara (2013), kyle (2020) and plakans and gebril (2017) conclude that sentence similarity can predict essay score in integrated tasks. in the light of these findings, sentence similarity is used in automated essay scoring (roscoe, crossley, snow, varner & mcnamara, 2014) and feedback systems (e.g. lee, wong, cheung & lee, 2009). nonetheless, gu et al. (2013) seems to be the only study in the literature that provides comparative results for the predictive strength of sentence similarity in integrated and independent writing. therefore, more research is thought to be beneficial to understand how sentence similarity interacts with integrated or independent essay quality in different contexts or genres. purpose and research questions considering the absence of a study searching for a link between sentiment and l2wp and the scarcity of those which link sentence similarity and l2wp, this study aims to contribute to the literature by showing if and how sentiment and sentence similarity can predict l2wp while comparing their predictive strengths in integrated and independent writing. the research questions are as follows: rq1. do efl writers’ sentiments as manifested in their essays predict their l2wp? rq2. do the prediction intervals of the sentiment model differ in integrated and independent writing? rq3. do sentence similarity scores of efl writers predict their l2wp? rq4. do the prediction intervals of the sentence similarity model differ in integrated and independent writing? methods due to the computational nature of nlp operations (crystal, 2008), a quantitative design was preferred. sentiments, semantic sentence similarities and l2wp were treated numerically. the corpora the corpus of integrated writing samples included 185 literary analysis essays (lae) previously collected and scored in author (2019) (n = 125) and author (in review) (n = 60). it had 61871 words, giving an average of 334.44 words per essay. the essays typically included four to seven paragraphs, responding to an essay question directed towards how a particular theme is handled in a given literary work. as such, the lae’s required writers to make use of primary and secondary sources for completion. the lae’s were scored using the genre-based literary analysis essay scoring rubric (glaesr). glaesr is an analytical rubric that is used to score each rhetorical move in a lae (stating the background, stating the thesis, https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 6 presenting arguments, supporting arguments, concluding arguments, consolidating the thesis, stating personal opinion) and produce a total score between 0 and 100 (author, 2019). in both author (2019) and author (in review), scoring demonstrated interrater reliability as confirmed by spearman’s correlation coefficients. for independent writing samples, 500 efl essays from the international corpus network of asian learners of english were used (ishikawa, 2018). the corpus as used in the study consisted of 114996 words with an average of 229.99 words per essay. the essays were reliably scored between 0 and 100 using the esl composition profile which is an analytical rubric that is used to score writing samples according to content, organization, vocabulary, language use and mechanics (jacobs, zinkgraf, wormouth, hartfiel & hughey, 1981). post-hoc power analysis with g*power (faul, erdfelder, lang & buchner, 2007) indicated that the sizes of the corpora were sufficient to achieve 100% statistical power for medium effects in all models. both corpora were compiled in higher education contexts. data collection the data set for the study included the sentiment, sentence similarity and essay scores as provided in the corpora. to avoid computing errors, the authors initially ensured that there was a space after each punctuation mark in the corpus manually and each essay was stored as a .txt file with utf-8 encoding. textblob was used for sentiment analysis (loria, 2020); therefore, sentiments were obtained by having an algorithm (appendix a) iterate through all files in the corpus directories and compute the polarity and subjectivity scores for each essay. for sentence similarity, spacy was used with its largest model of the english language (en_core_web_lg) (honnibal & montani, 2017). to compute a mean sentence similarity value for each essay, an algorithm (appendix b) was written by the authors. the algorithm worked as follows: 1. an essay was read. 2. the sentences in the essay were separated and stored in a list (i.e. tokenization). 3. each sentence in the essay was compared to all the others in the same essay. 4. the result of each comparison (0.00-1.00) was stored in a list using the following criteria to avoid duplicate comparisons: a. sentence similarity score should have been less than 1.00. b. sentence similarity score (15 digits after decimal point) should not have already been in the list. 5. the mean sentence similarity score was produced for the essay from the sentence similarity scores in the list using numpy (oliphant, 2006). 6. the mean sentence similarity score for the essay was stored in a dictionary as “filename: sentence similarity score”. 7. the process was repeated for the next essay in the corpus directory. data analysis https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 7 the algorithms for the computation of sentiments and sentence similarity were run on jupyter notebook (kluyver et al., 2016). linear regression analyses were run using jasp v0.12.2 (jasp team, 2020) to see if sentiment and sentence similarity predicted essay scores since residual distribution in both models were normal (see table 1), collinearity statistics were not problematic (see table 2) and there was no heteroscedasticity (larson-hall, 2010). for sentiment, a multivariate model which included both polarity and subjectivity as predictor variables were tested. sentence similarity was tested in a univariate model. table 1. skewness and kurtosis values for model residuals corpus model skewness se kurtosis se integrated sentiment -0.408 0.179 -0.354 0.355 sentence similarity -0.360 0.179 -0.260 0.355 independent sentiment -0.489 0.109 1.049 0.218 sentence similarity -0.404 0.109 0.844 0.218 table 2. tolerance and variance inflation factor (vif) values corpus model variable tolerance vif integrated sentiment polarity 0.967 1.034 subjectivity 0.967 1.034 sentence similarity sentence similarity n/a n/a independent sentiment polarity 0.993 1.008 subjectivity 0.993 1.008 sentence similarity sentence similarity n/a n/a prediction strengths of the models were investigated through their 95% prediction intervals, which provide estimated ranges of actual essay scores with 95% confidence. the difference between the lower and upper bounds in each interval was calculated as the width of the interval, smaller numbers indicating narrower and more precise ranges. results research question 1 the first research question aimed to see if sentiment could predict integrated and independent essay scores. the descriptive results are given below in table 3. table 3. polarity, subjectivity and essay scores corpus variable m sd min max integrated polarity 0.08 0.15 -0.29 0.43 subjectivity 0.51 0.09 0.26 0.74 essay score 55.01 17.98 8.00 97.00 independent polarity 0.12 0.13 -0.31 0.54 subjectivity 0.52 0.08 0.29 0.89 essay score 62.77 14.21 7.90 95.00 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 8 as seen in table 3, neither integrated nor independent writing samples were visibly polarized with scores around 0 in both corpora. the subjectivity values in both corpora were also around the midpoint of 0.50. regression results for the integrated writing sentiment model are tabulated in table 4. table 4. regression results for the sentiment model (integrated) ss df ms f p regression 2613.257 2 1306.629 4.180 .017 residual 56890.721 182 312.586 total 59503.978 184 r = .210, r² = .044, adjusted r² = .033, rmse = 17.68 as shown in the table, the multivariate sentiment model which included polarity and subjectivity scores as the predictors of integrated writing essay score was significant, explaining 4.4% of the variance (r² = .04, f(2, 182) = 4.18, p < .05). the coefficients for the sentiment model are given below in table 5. table 5. coefficients for the sentiment model (integrated) variable b se b β t p constant 74.816 8.141 9.190 < .001 polarity 6.941 8.699 0.059 0.798 .426 subjectivity -39.713 15.338 -0.191 -2.589 .010 analyses of the coefficients showed that polarity was not a significant predictor of essay score in the model (t = 0.80, p > .05). however, subjectivity was seen to be a significant negative predictor of integrated essay score (t = -2.59, p = .01). regression results for the independent writing sentiment model are tabulated in table 6. table 6. regression results for the sentiment model (independent) ss df ms f p regression 1541.240 2 770.620 3.863 0.22 residual 99153.164 497 199.503 total 100694.404 499 r = .124, r² = .015, adjusted r² = .011, rmse = 14.12 the regression model showed that the sentiment model could significantly predict independent essay score, explaining 1.5% of the variance (r² = .02, f(2, 497) = 3.86, p < .05). the coefficients related to the model are presented below in table 7. table 7. coefficients for the sentiment model (independent) variable b se b β t p constant 40.486 4.035 17.467 < .001 polarity 9.397 5.061 0.083 1.857 .064 subjectivity -17.164 7.729 -0.099 -2.221 .027 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 9 coefficient analysis showed that polarity was not a significant predictor of independent essay score (t = 1.86, p > .05). on the other hand, subjectivity was found to be a significant negative predictor of independent essay score (t = -2.22, p < .05). research question 2 the second research question aimed to compare the 95% prediction intervals of the sentiment models for integrated and independent writing. the comparison is tabulated below in table 8. table 8. 95% prediction intervals for the sentiment model essay score m sd min max u z p r integrated 70.33 0.38 69.96 71.94 125250.00 20.113 < .001 0.77 independent 55.67 0.14 55.56 57.18 as shown in the table, the mean 95% prediction interval for the independent essay scores was 14.66 points narrower than that of the integrated essay scores. the difference was statistically significant with a very large effect (z = 20.11, p < .001). research question 3 the third research question aimed to see if sentence similarity could predict essay score in integrated and independent writing. the descriptive results are presented below in table 9. table 9. sentence similarities and essay scores corpus variable m sd min max integrated sentence similarity 0.82 0.02 0.79 0.87 essay score 55.01 17.98 8.00 97.00 independent sentence similarity 0.88 0.01 0.81 0.89 essay score 62.77 14.21 7.90 95.00 considering that the maximum sentence similarity score could be 1.00, it was seen that the mean sentence similarity score was quite high in the data set for both groups, with a difference of 0.06. regression results for the integrated writing sentence similarity model are given below in table 10. table 10. regression results for the sentence similarity model (integrated) ss df ms f p regression 1482.015 1 1482.015 4.674 .032 residual 58021.964 183 317.060 total 59503.978 184 r = .158, r² = .025, adjusted r² = .020, rmse = 17.81 as seen in the table, sentence similarity could significantly predict essay score in integrated writing, explaining 2.5% of the variance (r² = .03, f(2, 182) = 4.67, p < .05). the coefficients for the model are presented in table 11. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 10 table 11. coefficients for the sentence similarity model (integrated) variable b se b β t p constant -54.531 50.684 -1.076 < .001 sentence similarity 133.072 61.550 0.158 2.162 .032 in the coefficient analysis, it was seen that sentence similarity could predict integrated essay score with a constant of -54.53 and a beta value of 133.07 (t = 2.16, p < .05). the regression results for the independent sentence similarity model are given below in table 12. table 12. regression results for the sentence similarity model (independent) ss df ms f p regression 756.355 1 756.355 3.769 .053 residual 99938.049 498 200.679 total 100694.404 499 r = .087, r² = .008, adjusted r² = .006, rmse = 14.17 analysis revealed that sentence similarity could not significantly predict independent essay score (f(1, 498) = 3.77, p > .05). research question 4 the fourth research question aimed to compare the 95% prediction intervals related to the sentence similarity models of integrated and independent writing. however, no comparison could be made since the variable could not significantly predict independent essay score. the 95% prediction intervals for the integrated essay scores in the data set were found to have a mean of 70.64 (sd = 0.14) with a minimum of 70.45 and a maximum of 71.18 points. discussion the study aimed to find out if sentiment and sentence similarity, computed via nlp methods, could predict integrated and independent l2wp. the results showed that the polarity component of sentiment could not predict l2wp in either task type; however, subjectivity was a significant negative predictor of both integrated and independent l2wp with a very small effect. the comparison of 95% prediction intervals showed that subjectivity as a negative predictor could predict l2wp in a much narrower range in independent writing. the second major finding obtained in the study was that mean sentence similarity could predict integrated l2wp significantly with a very small effect. the variable could not predict independent l2wp. the differences in integrated and independent writing as observed in the analyses confirmed biber et al. (2016), cumming et al. (2006), kyle (2020) and kyle and crossley (2016) who also indicated varying features of the two task/l2wp types. apparently, learner-writers undergo different thinking and written production processes during integrated and independent writing and this results in visible differences in terms of language use manifested as certain constructs such as word familiarity, verb use, subjectivity and sentence similarity. regarding sentiment, it is known that emotions, stances or personal evaluations are among the individual differences in l2 writing (kormos, 2012) and these constructs seem to be reflected in texts written by learners, making a difference in their l2wp. in the present study, https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 11 subjectivity was found to be a negative predictor of both integrated and independent writing, signalling that more subjective essays received lower scores. this finding can be considered parallel to that of wang (2020) although it is limited to syntactic complexity. in both studies, and regardless of task type in the present study, textual objectivity seemed to result in increased performance. the reason why higher objectivity results in better performance in both integrated and independent writing can be related to the objectivity standard in essay writing (fulwiler, 2002; richards & miller, 2005) as well as an increased cognitive load due to the emotionality as observed in learner texts. as suggested by carlson (1988) and hinkel (1999), a lack of objectivity in writing may indicate weaknesses in crucial concepts such as evidence or justification in texts. considering that both integrated and independent corpora consisted of expository/argumentative writing tasks, evidence and justification was a required component in all essays. successful justification of claims with or without source texts naturally requires an objective outlook which would allow learner-writers to present their arguments from multiple perspectives. in that respect, a high level of subjectivity may be signalling a lack of these justifications, resulting in lower essay scores in both integrated and independent writing. moreover, positive and negative emotions increase cognitive load as concluded by wang (2020). defined in relation to working memory (cooper, 1998), cognitive load is a crucial factor in l2wp because l2 writing, by itself, can overload working memory due to the intensity of the mental processes involved, resulting in poor performance and frequent errors (nawal, 2018). in addition to the natural cognitive load of l2 writing, the added load due to the emotionality manifested as subjectivity in texts may have further impeded the working memory, resulting in lower scores in both corpora. subjectivity as a negative predictor demonstrated higher prediction precision in independent writing than integrated writing. although the data set used in this study is not sufficient to explore the reasons behind this difference, a plausible explanation may be that the source-based requirements of the literary analysis essay more readily push learners towards a certain level of objectivity while independent writing may be more flexible in that regard, allowing the learner-writer approach the objectivity issue more liberally while writing an essay based on life experiences and opinions. this may, therefore, result in a larger negative effect of subjectivity on essay scores since its excess has been documented to result in lower scores in early studies as well (e.g. carlson, 1988). however, i believe a cross-comparison of integrated and independent writing samples in terms of objectivity and lexicogrammatical features is necessary for a more assertive conclusion. the results revealed sentence similarity as a positive predictor of integrated l2wp. however, the construct was not a significant predictor of independent l2wp. this finding corroborated those of guo et al. (2013) which indicated the same result. in their study, guo et al. explain the differences through the life experience and personal opinion-based nature of independent writing and the source-based nature of integrated writing which allows learner-writers to use the sources as models. moreover, sentence similarity is a component within textual cohesion. considering this, the necessity to integrate sources to produce a whole in integrated writing may be pushing writers to write more cohesive essays, which is also the case in expository writing (crossley, 2013; guo et al, 2013). considering that the integrated writing corpora used in this study consisted exclusively of expository literary analysis essays, the same reason may have applied for the finding that revealed sentence similarity as a significant predictor of integrated writing performance but not of independent writing performance. as such this finding was also in line with kyle (2020), plakans and gebril (2017) and crossley and mcnamara (2012), the last one of which indicating no relationship between sentence similarity and independent writing performance. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 12 conclusion the results of the study show that the subjectivity component of sentiment analysis can predict both integrated and independent l2 writing performance. in both task conditions, subjectivity serves as a negative predictor, indicating that more objective texts receive higher scores. the results also indicate the sentence similarity predicts only integrated l2 writing performance while it does not seem to be related to independent writing. as such, the findings bear importance as to the use of sentiment analysis in l2 writing performance research and confirm the previously proposed use of sentence similarity analysis within the same domain. bearing the findings in mind, consciousness-raising interventions can be developed and applied by teachers and researchers to improve objectivity and integratedness in learner writing. although effect sizes of the prediction equations were quite small in this study, the results revealed the contribution of these constructs to l2wp. the small effect sizes of the regression models should be treated with caution since prediction intervals in all models were rather wide in both integrated and independent corpora. in this regard, it is not recommended to attempt score predictions based solely on these variables. instead, the variables should be seen complementary to more complex multivariate prediction models. apart from sentiment and sentence similarity in particular, the results also confirm nlp in general as a beneficial tool for researchers of language learning/teaching as well as practitioners. using nlp tools for the analysis of learner language seems to provide insights that may not be accessible through more traditional forms of data collection. both automated and manual forms of written corrective feedback or assessment can benefit from the indices produced thanks to these tools. as shown in the literature and this study, task type influences how different variables interact with l2wp. in that respect, different genres should be tested using the same methodology for comparison purposes. moreover, the data set used in this study cannot explain why objectivity can produce a narrower prediction interval for independent writing than integrated writing. for a thorough explanation, the lexicogrammatical features of highly objective and highly subjective texts should be compared in integrated and independent task conditions. references araque, o., zhu, g., & iglesias, c. a. 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(2004). esl student attitudes toward corpus use in l2 writing. journal of second language writing, 13, 257–283. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jslw.2004.06.002 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 17 appendix a. sentiment analysis algorithm import os import glob from textblob import textblob #researchers can use the same algorithm by simply changing the file path below. os.chdir(r'c:\corpus_directory') corpus = glob.glob('*.txt') for essay in range(len(corpus)): f = open(corpus[essay], encoding='utf-8') content = f.read() text = textblob(content) sentiment_score = text.sentiment f.close() print(corpus[essay], sentiment_score) https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 18 appendix b. sentence similarity algorithm import os import glob import spacy import numpy as np nlp = spacy.load("en_core_web_lg") #researchers can use the same algorithm by simply changing the file path below. os.chdir(r'c:\corpus_directory') corpus = glob.glob('*.txt') similarity_list = [] similarity_results = {} for essay in range(len(corpus)): f = open(corpus[essay], encoding='utf-8') content = f.read() doc = nlp(content) sentences = list(doc.sents) for sentence1 in sentences: for sentence2 in sentences: similarity = sentence1.similarity(sentence2) if similarity < 1.0 and similarity not in similarity_list: similarity_list.append(similarity) similarity_results[f] = np.mean(similarity_list, dtype=np.float64) f.close() https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity appendix a. sentiment analysis algorithm appendix b. sentence similarity algorithm acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 19 examining english as a foreign language students' boredom in terms of different variables abdullah coşkun,1 bolu abant i̇zzet baysal university, turkey email: coskun_a@ibu.edu.tr yücel yüksel,2 ministry of national education, turkey doi: 10.35974/acuity.v7i2.2539 abstract the aim of this study is to adapt the boredom in practical english language classes-revised (bpelc-r) scale developed by pawlak, kruk, zawodniak and pasikowski (2020) into the high school english as a foreign language (efl) context of turkey and to reveal high school efl students' level of boredom. also, the study investigates whether their level of boredom differs depending on the variables of gender, grade level and selected academic track. the two-factor scale including 23 likert-scale items were completed by 680 high school efl students at different grade levels in eight public high schools in a city in turkey. the data analyzed by means of the spss uncovered medium level of boredom. it was also found that the most common causes of boredom are the monotonous nature of the english lessons and the dissatisfaction of the participants with these lessons. while no significant difference was observed in the level of boredom depending on the gender variable, students' grade level and the chosen academic track led to significant differences. the highest level of boredom was revealed for final year students and for those who chose the science track. some implications on how to reduce efl classroom boredom are provided. keywords: boredom, english as a foreign language. introduction emotions are regarded as mental activities affecting the learning and teaching processes (meyer & turner, 2006), and one of the deactivating emotions frequently experienced by learners is boredom (nett et al., 2011; pekrun et al., 2010) which is observed during approximately half of each lesson period (goetz et al., 2007). regarded as a serious problem of modern societies (klapp, 1986), boredom is generally described in psychology as a displeasure of routine, and it becomes noticeable when the environment has lack of novelty (watt & vodanovich, 1999) and stimulation (harasymchuk & fehr, 2010). other researchers describe it as an affective condition including unpleasant feelings (pekrun et al., 2010), an inability to determine what to wish for (greenson, 1953), a feeling that time passes by slowly and as a negative emotion preventing individuals from engaging in a task as well as maintaining required attention (eastwood et al., 2012). boredom is also referred to as a multifaceted emotion giving rise to the verbal expression of boredom and motivation to leave the situation that causes boredom (nett et al., 2010). corresponding author: abdullah coşkun, faculty of education, bolu abant i̇zzet baysal university, email: coskun_a@ibu.edu.tr https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity mailto:coskun_a@ibu.edu.tr acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 20 in addition to being a research topic in the field of psychology, boredom has been under investigation in educational research studies (pekrun et al., 2002; vogel-walcutt et al., 2012). although some researchers positively approach the concept of boredom in the field of education as a signal to teachers showing that learning is not occurring (bench & lench, 2013; mugon et al., 2019), academic boredom is generally considered as a negative emotion related to achievement which can result in high cognitive failures (sawin & scerbo, 1995) and dropout rate (bearden et al., 1989). additionally, academic boredom is known to be one of the causes of lower levels of motivation (preckel et al., 2010), school achievement (mann & robinson, 2009), perceived value attached to classroom-related tasks (pekrun et al., 2010; pekrun, 2006), learner engagement (sharp et al., 2020) and attention (pekrun et al., 2010). mostly because boredom is considered a less visible emotion when compared to other more observable emotions (e.g., anxiety), not many studies dealing with boredom have been conducted in the field of psychology (goetz et al., 2014). similarly, although boredom is closely connected with students' academic achievement, the concept of boredom is rarely investigated in the field of education (pekrun et al., 2010). the negligence of boredom as a construct is also true for the field of foreign language education (dumančić, 2018) even though boredom is among the most common emotions that can easily be observed in the foreign language classroom by focusing on student behaviors, such as looking at the clock, playing with some objects, yawning and talking with friends (kruk, 2016a). since most of the studies focusing on boredom have been carried out in poland, it is needed to investigate this phenomenon in other settings such as the turkish efl context; therefore, the present study aims to adapt the boredom in practical english language classes-revised (bpelc-r) scale (pawlak, kruk, zawodniak, & pasikowski, 2020) into the turkish high school efl context. boredom in the efl literature in the relevant literature, boredom is classified into the following categories (götz & frenzel, 2006; goetz et al., 2014): indifferent boredom (i.e., being indifferent to the external world), calibrating boredom (i.e., not knowing what to do and being open to options to reduce boredom despite not actively looking for alternative behaviors), searching boredom (i.e., actively searching for behaviors to reduce boredom), reactant boredom (i.e., having strong unpleasant motivation to avoid boredom-causing situations such as the teachers) and apathetic boredom (i.e., having strong unpleasant experience of negative as well as positive emotions and displaying helplessness). the terms known as trait boredom and state boredom are also frequently referred to in the literature as types of boredom. while the former refers to the tendency to experience boredom, the latter is associated with specific contexts not perceived to be sufficiently interesting (vogel-walcutt et al., 2012). especially in the foreign language classroom, although the individual affective factors including self-esteem, anxiety, attitudes and motivation (muñoz & ortega-martín, 2005) were extensively explored as constructs having a significant influence on the learning process (gardner et al., 2004; clément et al., 1994), the number of studies delving into the concept of boredom in foreign language learning contexts has only recently been on the rise in some specific efl contexts, such as poland, croatia, china and thailand. the majority of these studies were carried out in poland. for example, kruk (2016a) aimed to reveal the changing boredom levels of senior high school students in english language classes and concluded that boredom changed from one class to another and even throughout one single lesson. in another study, he examined philology students' language anxiety, motivation and boredom in learning the english language in second life (sl) and discovered that they were highly motivated to learn the language in sl while they had low levels of https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 21 boredom and anxiety (kruk, 2016b). in the same vein, zawodniak and kruk (2018) came to the conclusion that sl had a positive effect on learner motivation because of its relatively stress-free environment. in his most recent study, kruk (2021) also collected data from english majors visiting sl and unveiled the changing nature of individual difference variables such as boredom. the findings of another study focusing on the perception of boredom by english philology students during efl classes demonstrated that senior year students experienced the feeling of boredom more often than the younger participants maybe because they had been attending classes of a similar nature for a longer period of time (kruk & zawodniak, 2017). likewise, the study examining the causes and changes of boredom in four english language lessons attended by three students scoring the highest, average and the lowest on the english classroom boredom scale led to the finding that the fluctuations in boredom levels were related to factors, such as language activities and the lesson organization (zawodniak & kruk, 2019). changing levels of boredom was the research focus of another more recent study as well (pawlak, zawodniak, & kruk, 2020a), and boredom was found to be mostly associated with factors, such as monotony, predictability and repetitiveness (kruk et al., 2021). examining the diaries of students in which their positive and negative learning experiences were documented, zawodniak et al. (2017) ascertained boredom-evoking factors including language activities, teacher behavior and lesson preparation. in another study, kruk and zawodniak (2018) discovered that the level of students' boredom varied in terms of in-class and out-of-class contexts, the characteristics of the task and the phase of the lesson. it was found in the study that in-class contexts were perceived to contribute to boredom more often than out-of-school contexts, the repetitive nature of some tasks was the cause of boredom, and the end of the lesson was perceived to be more boring than the beginning. in another study in poland, two factors (i.e., disengagement, monotony and repetitiveness, and lack of satisfaction and challenge) were identified as reasons for boredom, and it was realized that there were significant differences in these factors depending on the achievement level of the learners and their proneness to boredom (pawlak, kruk, zawodniak, & pasikowski, 2020). also, connection was found between general proneness to boredom and individual trajectories as well as between contextual factors and feeling more or less bored at different phases of the lesson (pawlak, zawodniak, & kruk, 2020b). on the other hand, in the efl context of croatia, dumančić (2018) carried out a qualitative study with the intention of exploring primary and secondary croatian english language teachers' perception of boredom. factors, such as the subject matter and grammar-oriented activities were found to result in boredom. while many of the participants in the study indicated that boredom did not have an impact on the quality of their teaching, some of them stated that boredom had some negative effects on their instruction. in the chinese efl context, li et al. (2020) investigated boredom among university students and their english teachers. the participants recalled their experiences and described their perceptions of boredom in learning the english language. a large majority of students recalled situations causing boredom in or outside the classroom. similarly, each of the teachers in the study recalled a minimum of one episode when the learners felt bored. in another study, li (2021) revealed that efl learners who felt more competent in the process of learning the english language had the tendency to feel less bored and attached intrinsic value to learning the language which played a protective role against situations giving rise to boredom. in the university efl context of thailand, nakamura et al. (2021) investigated the antecedents of boredom and found that reasons, such as the difficulty of tasks, intensity of the https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 22 input, inadequacy in second language skills and unwanted behaviors of classmates lead to boredom in the classroom. to the best of authors' knowledge, no studies have specifically dealt with the concept of boredom in the efl context of turkey. given the fact that boredom is a construct which has not attracted adequate attention in the foreign language classroom (li, 2021; kruk & zawodniak, 2020), the present study has the main objective to adapt the bpelc-r scale (pawlak, kruk, zawodniak, & pasikowski, 2020) into the high school efl context of turkey and to reveal high school efl learners' levels of boredom and whether their levels of boredom differ significantly depending on the variables of gender, selected academic track and grade level. therefore, the current study addresses the following research questions: 1. what are high school efl learners' levels of boredom? 2. do high school efl learners' levels of boredom differ significantly depending on gender? 3. do high school efl learners' levels of boredom differ significantly depending on the selected academic track? 4. do high school efl learners' levels of boredom differ significantly depending on grade level? method participants a total of 680 efl students from eight different high schools affiliated to the ministry of national education (mone) in a city in the black sea region of turkey volunteered to participate in the study. throughout high school, efl students in turkey proceed through the common european framework of reference for languages (cefr) levels a2-b2. the english proficiency levels of students at 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th grades are described respectively in the high school english curriculum as follows: a1/a2, a2+/b1, b1+/b2, b2+ (mone, 2018). the demographic distribution of the participants in line with the grade levels is as follows: 236 9th graders, 202 10th graders, 161 11th graders, and 81 12th graders. also, 461 (67.8%) of the participants are female while the remaining 219 (32.2%) are male. the age range of the participants is between 14 and 17. in most of the high schools in turkey, when students are in the 10th grade, they choose academic tracks, such as science, turkish language-mathematics and foreign languages as the first step of career choice (güneş & korkut-owen, 2021; eren & coşkun, 2016) and start taking more courses in line with their selected academic tracks. while the majority of students had not yet made a track selection at the time when the scale was administered, the number of students is 106 in the turkish language-mathematics track, 98 in science and 57 in the foreign languages track. instrument the original scale under the shortened title of bpelc-r (pawlak, kruk, zawodniak, & pasikowski, 2020) includes a two-factor structure with 23 7-point likert items. the first factor having a high internal consistency reliability (α = .89) was named as "disengagement, monotony and repetitiveness" (henceforth dmr), and it contains items focusing on participants' perception of time, lack of stimulation, the monotonous nature of the lessons, reluctance to participate in the activities, and behaviors not related to the activities. in contrast, the second factor (α = .88) labeled as "lack of satisfaction and challenge" https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 23 (henceforth lsc) contains items related to the lack of satisfaction with english language classes, being engaged in unchallenging activities and the lack of challenge. adaptation into turkish the bpelc-r scale originally designed for university students was translated without any modifications from english to turkish for high school students. the translation was done by an english instructor holding a phd in elt and was named as boredom in english language classes scale. then, expert opinions of a group of instructors who have phds in the relevant fields were obtained. first, to maintain the accuracy of the translation, the original scale and the translated version were sent out to receive feedback from two instructors working in the department of translation and interpretation. after necessary revisions were made in line with their feedback, the opinions of two instructors in the field of teaching the turkish language were obtained in terms of the comprehensibility and the grammatical correctness of the items in turkish. afterwards, the face validity of the final scale was checked by an instructor working in the department of measurement and evaluation. finally, the opinions of five high school students were gathered to reveal whether any of the items were not comprehensible enough. data analysis as in earlier scale adaptation studies (yüksel et al., 2019; yüksel & yıldız, 2019), spss 22.0 and amos 23.0 package programs were employed while analyzing the data. exploratory factor analysis (henceforth efa) was used to examine the scale's factor structure, and the inclusion of the items in the scale was determined by considering their load values between 0.30 or above. on the other hand, confirmatory factor analysis (henceforth cfa) was used to understand whether the translated scale was compatible with the original scale in terms of factor structure when the data is collected from another sample (kline, 2011; tabachnick & fidell, 2007). item analysis was performed to identify the distinctiveness of the scale items. total item correlation above 0.30 is deemed to be sufficient (flury & riedwyl, 1988). in the item analysis based on internal consistency criteria, 27% of the upper group and 27% of the subgroup of the scale score distribution were determined. the t test was applied between these two groups, and the t values were calculated. also, item total correlation was included in the analysis. to reveal the reliability of the scale, the cronbach alpha internal consistency coefficient was computed and the following values were investigated to discover the convergent validity of the scale: standard factor loads, average variance extracted (henceforth ave) and construct reliability (henceforth cr). the discriminant validity of the scale was maintained by the comparison of the square root of the ave which is related to a specific construct (fornell & larcker, 1981). in this study, the normality kolmogrov-simirnov test was used (kwak & kim, 2017). to examine whether participants' boredom levels differ depending on the gender, mann whitney u test was applied, and to unveil the effect of grade level and selected academic tracks on the level of boredom, kruskal wallis test was run. the source of the differences among groups was identified by the application of mann whitney u test as pairs. moreover, the mean and standard deviation values of the variables were computed. results validity of the scale https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 24 the construct validity of the scale was investigated by means of efa. it was revealed that the data set is suitable to perform factor analysis considering the kaiser-meyer-olkin (kmo) fit coefficient (0.914) and the bartlett test chi-square value (15373.518, p <.001) (büyüköztürk, 2008). the efa results are presented in table 1: table 1. efa results rotated factor load values item dmr lsc 23 .854 20 .849 22 .842 6 .834 1 .819 21 .811 19 .793 10 .777 14 .760 15 .754 11 .747 16 .680 18 .550 17 .342 4 .883 3 .878 2 .836 8 .810 13 .799 12 .793 7 .749 9 .635 5 .393 explained variance: 66.64% factor 1: 51.22% factor 2: 15.42% as can be observed in table 1, two factors that explain 66.64% of the total variance and have an eigenvalue greater than 1 were obtained. the first factor consists of 14 items (23, 20, 22, 6, 1, 21, 19, 10, 14, 15, 11, 16, 18 and 17) and the second factor is comprised of 9 items (4, 3, 2, 8, 13, 12, 7, 9 and 5). the factor loads of the first factor items vary between 0.342 and 0.854, and the items in the second factor have factor loads between 0.393 and 0.883. it is an appropriate criterion for each item to be included in the scale to have a factor load value above 0.50 (truong & mccoll, 2011). therefore, items 17 (.342) and 5 (.393) were removed from the scale due to their low factor loadings. on the other hand, the cfa results presented in figure 1 showed a good fit with the data of this research (χ² / df = 4.78; cfi = 0.918; ifi = 0.925; nfi = 0.912; rmsea = 0.057) (zainudin, 2012). factor loads were found to be between 0.55 and 0.88, and thus they are sufficient values for the factor load of the items https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 25 (whitley & kite, 2012). as a result of the analysis of regression coefficients by means of significance tests, the factor loads of all items in the scale were found to be significant (p <.05). figure 1. structural model convergent validity findings in addition to factor loads, ave and cr values are also important to reveal the convergent validity (farrell & rudd, 2009). therefore, standard factor loads, ave and cr values are presented in table 2. table 2. standard factor loads, ave and cr values items dmr lsc 23 .854 20 .849 22 .842 6 .834 1 .819 21 .811 19 .793 10 .777 14 .760 15 .754 11 .747 16 .680 18 .550 4 .883 3 .878 2 .836 8 .810 13 .799 12 .793 7 .749 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 26 9 .635 ave 0.49 0.53 cr 0.618 0.699 as can be understood from table 2, the ave values of all factors are above 50%. also, the cr values were found to be between 0.618 for the dmr factor and 0.60-0.70 for the lsc factor. these results indicate that the scale has convergent validity (hair et al., 2010). discrimination validity findings for discrimination validity, the ave value of both factors must be higher than the square of the correlation coefficient between these factors (henseler et al., 2014). the squares of the correlation coefficients calculated for the factors and the ave values of the factors are illustrated in table 3. table 3. squares of the correlation values and ave values factors dmr lsc dmr (ave=0.49) 1 lsc (ave=0.53) 0.016 1 it can be realized from table 3 that the two-factor scale has discrimination validity (ave value for the dmr factor .49>.016; ave value for the lsc factor .53>.016). item analysis results of the scale the results of the t-test and the corrected item-total correlations are provided in table 4. table 4. item analysis and differences between top and bottom 27% items t values p item-total correlation 23 10.238 .00 .542 20 7.516 .00 .456 22 8.421 .00 .478 6 8.124 .00 .525 1 6.318 .00 .384 21 7.368 .00 .518 19 9.158 .00 .425 10 10.24 .00 .511 14 8.316 .00 .436 15 7.396 .00 .409 11 10.784 .00 .326 16 8.315 .00 .478 18 10.03 .00 .502 4 11.98 .00 .457 3 12.14 .00 .489 2 8.946 .00 .365 8 9.124 .00 .425 13 12.656 .00 .489 12 7.354 .00 .389 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 27 7 6.587 .00 .431 9 10.25 .00 .361 as illustrated in table 4, item-total correlations of the items were found to be between .326 and .542, and the t-values were between 6.318 and 12.656. the item total correlation values of the scale items were above 0.30. these values mean that the items sufficiently represent the whole scale (hair et al., 2010). the discrimination values of all the items in the scale were found to be sufficient (p <.05). reliability of the scale the cronbach alpha internal consistency coefficients found for each of the items are illustrated in table 5. table 5. reliability analysis results for the items item no cronbach α sub-dimensions cronbach α 23 .756 dmr .786 20 .745 22 .690 6 .750 1 .754 21 .912 19 .978 10 .866 14 .745 15 .698 11 .780 16 .862 18 .749 4 .779 lsc .745 3 .781 2 .780 8 .757 13 .845 12 .816 7 .784 9 .658 as can be realized from table 5, the cronbach α coefficients for the dmr factor (.786), for the lsc factor (.745) and for the whole scale (.762) demonstrate that the scale has sufficient reliability (nunnally & bernstein, 1994). results regarding students' boredom level in english language classes in line with the first research question (what are high school efl learners' levels of boredom?), students' boredom levels according to factors (table 6) and students' boredom https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 28 levels for each item (table 7) are presented. the mean and the standard deviations for both factors and the whole scale are presented according to factors in table 6. table 6. students' boredom levels according to factors (boredom in english language classes scale) n 𝑿 s dmr 680 4.34 1.22 lsc 680 4.40 1.16 the whole scale 680 4.36 1.31 as can be seen in table 6, for the dmr factor, the mean score was found to be 4.34 and the standard deviation was calculated as 1.22. in a similar vein, the mean score of the lsc factor is 4.40 and the standard deviation is 1.16. for the whole scale, the mean score was calculated as 4.36 and the standard deviation is 1.31. these results indicate that the boredom level of the participants in english language classes is at the medium level. the fact that the mean scores of both factors are close to each other also shows that students' perception of boredom does not differ depending on the factors. the answers given by the students (1-i completely disagree and 7-i completely agree) to each item are demonstrated in table 7. table 7. students' boredom levels for each item factor items n 𝑿 ss 1 2 4 4 5 6 7 f % f % f % f % f % f % f % d m r 1 680 4.35 1.92 80 11.8 51 7.5 105 15.4 91 13.4 120 17.6 161 19.3 102 15.0 6 680 4.49 1.88 55 8.1 69 10.1 85 12.5 114 16.8 112 16.5 121 17.8 124 18.2 10 680 4.46 1.97 76 11.2 62 9.1 78 11.5 108 15.9 90 13.2 142 20.9 124 18.2 11 680 3.61 2.08 159 23.4 96 14.1 73 10.7 123 18.1 75 11.0 57 8.4 97 14.3 14 680 3.76 1.96 115 16.9 105 15.4 91 13.4 125 18.4 73 10.7 99 14.6 72 10.6 15 680 3.69 1.87 118 17.4 80 11.8 116 17.1 148 21.8 77 11.3 78 11.5 63 9.3 16 680 4.26 1.87 71 10.4 69 10.1 91 13.4 136 20.0 100 14.7 119 17.5 94 13.8 18 680 4.66 2.06 90 13.2 44 6.5 67 9.9 81 11.9 76 11.2 164 24.1 158 23.2 19 680 4.57 1.90 61 9.0 61 9.0 73 10.7 108 15.9 122 17.9 117 17.2 138 20.3 20 680 4.77 1.94 61 9.0 45 6.6 84 12.4 78 11.5 105 15.4 143 21.0 164 24.1 21 680 4.52 2.02 75 11.0 65 9.6 75 11.0 114 16.8 77 11.3 115 16.9 159 23.4 22 680 4.40 2.07 94 13.8 55 8.1 85 12.5 106 15.6 71 10.4 123 18.1 146 21.5 23 680 4.44 1.94 76 11.2 59 8.7 86 12.6 98 14.4 94 13.8 158 23.2 109 16.0 l s c 2 680 4.90 1.87 52 7.6 47 6.9 55 8.1 100 14.7 94 13.8 167 24.6 165 24.3 3 680 5.07 1.95 57 8.4 38 5.6 67 9.9 60 8.8 81 11.9 166 24.4 211 31.0 4 680 4.33 1.84 66 9.7 64 9.4 93 13.7 120 17.6 115 16.9 133 19.6 89 13.1 7 680 4.57 1.87 74 10.9 85 12.5 115 16.9 123 18.1 100 14.7 93 13.7 90 13.2 8 680 4.17 1.80 65 9.6 76 11.2 92 13.5 156 22.9 102 15.0 108 15.9 81 11.9 9 680 4.43 2.00 72 10.6 42 6.2 71 10.4 72 10.6 84 12.4 162 23.8 177 26.0 12 680 4.58 1.89 58 8.5 63 9.3 62 9.1 134 19.7 113 16.6 104 15.3 146 21.5 13 680 4.05 2.10 147 21.6 105 15.4 91 13.4 92 13.5 63 9.3 92 13.5 90 13.2 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 29 table 7 shows that the mean scores for different dimensions of the dmr factor were found as follows: students' perception of time (items 1, 23= x̄ 4.39), lack of stimulation (items 6, 15, 20, 22= x̄ 4.33), the monotonous nature of the lessons (items 11, 16= x̄ 3.93), reluctance to participate in the activities (items 10, 14, 21= x̄ 4.24) and behaviors not related to the activities (items 18, 19= x̄ 4.61). the results indicate that efl students mostly experience boredom due to the monotonous nature of the lessons. on the other hand, the mean scores for the dimensions of the lsc factor were found as follows: the lack of satisfaction with english lessons (items 4, 8, 9= x̄ 4.31), being engaged in unchallenging activities (items 2, 3= x̄ 4.98) and the lack of challenge (items 7, 12, 13= x̄ 4.40). these findings reveal that boredom is mostly experienced because of the lack of satisfaction with english lessons. results regarding the gender variable in this study, the kolmogrov-simirnov test was applied, and the results are provided in table 8. in order to answer the second research question (do high school efl learners' levels of boredom differ significantly depending on gender?), the mann whitney u test was used, and the findings are presented below. table 8. kolmogorov-simirnov normality test results regarding the gender kolmogrov-simirnov test ks sd p the whole scale .065 680 .000 as illustrated in table 8, the research data were not normally distributed (p <.05). therefore, non-parametric methods were used to investigate the effects of demographic variables. mann whitney u test was applied to investigate the effect of gender on students' boredom levels, and it was ascertained that there is no significant difference between male and female students (u = 49139.0, p > .05). the mean rank of the female students (343.4) was found to be close to the mean rank of the male students (334.3). results regarding the selected academic track variable related to the third research question (do high school efl learners' levels of boredom differ significantly depending on the selected academic track?), since the data were not normally distributed, the kruskal wallis test was firstly run to reveal the effect of the selected academic track on students' boredom levels in english language classes. in table 9 summarizing the results, the category named as not selected refers to students who had not selected their academic tracks. table 9. kruskal wallis test results regarding the selected academic track factors track n mean rank sd χ2 p significant difference the whole scale turkish language-mathematics (a) 106 314.02 3 40.07 .000 a-b, b-c a-c, b-d a-d science (b) 98 255.98 foreign languages (c) 57 452.82 not selected (d) 419 351.69 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 30 as presented in table 9, the selected academic track is an important variable [χ2 (3) = 40.07, p <.05]. the results of the mann whitney u test unveiled differences between turkish language-mathematics and science (u=4251, p <.05), turkish language-mathematics and foreign languages (u=1795.5, p <.05), turkish language-mathematics and not selected (u=19682.5, p <.05), science and foreign languages (u=1259, p <.05), science and not selected (u=14725, p <.05) and foreign languages and not selected (u=8298, p <.05). the mean rank of the students in the foreign languages track (452.82) was found to be higher than the mean ranks of the students in the other academic tracks; conversely, the mean rank of the students in the science track (255.98) was found to be the lowest. from these findings, it would be true to conclude that students who selected the foreign languages track are the least bored in english lessons while students in the science track feel the most bored. results regarding the grade variable pertaining to the fourth research question (do high school efl learners' levels of boredom differ significantly depending on grade level?), the results of the kruskal wallis test performed to show whether the grade level had any influence on students' boredom level in english lessons are demonstrated in table 10. table 10. kruskal wallis test results regarding the grade grade level n mean ranks sd χ2 p significant difference the whole scale 9 (a) 236 368.78 3 11.27 .010 a-c a-d b-d 10 (b) 202 338.32 11 (c) 161 328.01 12 (d) 81 288.38 it can be realized from table 10 that grade level is an effective variable in terms of students boredom [χ2 (3) = 11.27, p <.05]. the mann whitney u test revealed differences in terms of boredom levels between 9th and 11th graders (u = 16704, p <.05), 9th and 12th (u = 7335, p <.05) and 10th and 12th graders (u = 6938, p <.05). additionally, the average rank of 12th grade students (288.38) was found to be the lowest, which indicates that their boredom level was the highest. in contrast, 9th graders' mean ranks (368.78) showed that their boredom level was the lowest. from these findings, it can be concluded that the higher the grade levels of the students, the more boredom they experience in english language classes. discussion the aim of the study was to adapt the bpelc-r (pawlak, kruk, zawodniak, & pasikowski, 2020) into the turkish high school efl context. 680 students from 8 different high schools took part in the study. the results of the efa showed a 2-factor structure with an eigenvalue above 1 and these factors explain 66.64% of the total variance. as a result of the cfa analysis, it was found that the model showed a good fit with the data of this research. factor loads varied between 0.55 and 0.88, and items 17 (.342) and 5 (.393) were excluded from the scale because of their low factor loadings (truong & mccoll, 2011). on the other hand, the convergent validity of the scale was maintained by the ave values of all factors which were found to be above 50% (hair et al., 2010). for item analysis, t test was calculated between https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 31 these two groups and it was found that the item-total correlations of the items vary between .326 and .542, and the t values vary between 6.318 and 12.656. the discrimination power of all the items of the scale was also found to be sufficient (p <.05), and the internal consistency of the scale was maintained by calculating the cronbach α coefficient for the whole scale (.762), for the dmr factor (.786) and for the lsc factor (.745) (nunnally & bernstein, 1994). the resulting instrument after the adaptation process was named the boredom in english language classes scale which is comprised of 21 items. the mean of the whole scale was 4.36 and the standard deviation was 1.31 which means that the boredom level of the students in english lessons is at the medium level. this finding concurs with the results of the report published by british council and tepav (2013) which unveiled boredom as one of the most important causes of not enjoying the english classes in the turkish efl context. item analysis statistics in the present study led to the finding that students experience boredom mostly due to monotony and lack of satisfaction with english classes. the findings related to the monotonous nature of the lessons are in line with the results of other studies carried out in other efl contexts. for instance, it was indicated that being monotonous, predictable and being taught by the same teachers are important reasons for boredom in english language classes (kruk & zawodniak, 2017; zawodniak et al., 2017; dumančić, 2018). repetition of language materials and using the same teaching methods with similar types of activities are also the causes of monotony, thus boredom in the literature (kruk & zawodniak, 2020). according to researchers in the field of psychology, emotions such as boredom and frustration can emerge when routines or monotonous activities are obligated (larson & richards, 1991; titz, 2001; hill & perkins, 1985). considering that boredom is a dynamic construct which can change from one lesson to the next and even in a single class (zawodniak & kruk, 2019), the study explored whether efl learners' boredom levels differ depending on variables, such as gender, grade level and selected academic track at high schools. contrary to the literature revealing significant differences in boredom proneness depending on gender (von gemmingen et al., 2003; jaradat, 2015), no significant difference was discovered in the current study between male and female students in terms of their boredom levels. on the other hand, it was revealed that participants' boredom levels differ significantly depending on their grade level, and boredom increases as the grade level rises. likewise, kruk and zawodniak (2017) ascertained that english majors in poland experienced the feeling of boredom more frequently than the younger participants and justified this finding by referring to the similar nature of the lessons students have been attending for a long time. an increasing trend of reported boredom was also observed between 5th and 8th graders in another study (larson & richards, 1991). additionally, the grade level was found to be negatively correlated with enjoyment of english language classes in the literature. for instance, while the majority of 5th grade students (80%) in turkey state that they enjoy english classes, the enjoyment rate reduces continuously every year and ends up with 37% when these students are 12th graders (british council & tepav, 2013). similarly, it was ascertained that although japanese junior high school efl learners displayed enthusiasm about learning the english language throughout the first semester in their first year, their enthusiasm decreased in later semesters (hatori & matsubata, 1980). another finding of the current study is that the boredom level of students who selected the foreign languages track was the lowest while the level of boredom in english classes was the highest for students in the science track. this finding can be justified with the intrinsic value attached by more competent learners (i.e., students in the foreign languages track would like https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 32 to pursue a career related to the english language in the context of the study) to the english language learning process (li, 2021). pedagogical implications and conclusions considering that the research studies related to boredom in language classes aim to uncover the reasons behind boredom and to conclude some strategies on how to reduce it (dumančić, 2018), some suggestions in accordance with the findings and the context of the present study can be made. for instance, as recommended by kruk (2016a), the medium level of boredom found in the study can be lowered if teachers try to understand the boredom proneness of their students and enrich their instructional practices and materials by introducing authentic materials. he also underlined the need to design a variety of exercises at different difficulty levels and to encourage students to find activities on their own on the internet. in order to reduce monotony which was discovered as one of the most common causes of boredom in this study, it is also deemed necessary by kruk (2016a) to expose students to different language teachers in a school year because students need to observe different teaching methods and techniques. if the similarity of the lessons, materials or teaching styles can be reduced over time, the boredom level which was found to steadily increase in higher grades in the current study can also be decreased (kruk & zawodniak, 2017). furthermore, now that grammar-oriented activities are one of the causes of boredom in efl classes (dumančić, 2018; kruk, 2016a), interactive learning activities combining meaningful hands-on activities and self-regulated strategies (e.g., goal setting, self-assessment) which can pave the way for student autonomy as language learners ought to be incorporated into the lessons to make students more satisfied with english classes (zawodniak et al., 2017). the importance of providing choices to learners in line with their most favorable learning environment is also highlighted by other researchers (vogel-walcutt et al., 2012). the discussions between students and teachers related to the responsibility to reduce boredom in the classroom are considered important as well (nett et al., 2011). according to the emotion theory, students need to identify, be aware of and explain their boredom to be able to deal with it successfully; therefore, a transparent classroom environment where instances of boredom experienced by the students can be openly stated should be created (eastwood et al., 2012). finally, kruk (2016a) emphasizes that students can be motivated in efl classes by focusing on their needs and desires after a needs analysis study involving students and their teacher/s. especially with students in the science track who were found in the current study to have the highest level of boredom in english classes, a careful needs analysis aiming to specify their proficiency levels, lacks and wants as well as a comprehensive investigation of factors such as their language learning motivation are essential to be able to make the english language learning experience interesting to them (nation & macalister, 2010). in conclusion, since the concept of boredom has not been investigated sufficiently in the foreign language classroom (li, 2021) and no such studies have been carried out in turkey, it would be fair to conclude this study with a call for more research inquiries in the turkish efl context. to fill the existing gap in the relevant literature, this study had the main objective to illustrate the reliability and validity analysis of a scale and to determine the boredom levels of students. the results revealed a medium level of boredom among the participants of the study. although the aforementioned suggestions can be made in line with the results of the current study, these results are limited to eight high schools in the city where this study was carried out and to a quantitative data collection instrument. therefore, more research studies involving larger sample sizes in a variety of settings (e.g., primary https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no. 1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 33 schools, 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(2017). towards conceptualizing boredom as an emotion in the efl academic context. konin language studies, 5(4), 425-441. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity microsoft word 2221-nelson revised.docx acuity (5)1, 39-66 1 a comparative study between frayer model and concept mapping strategy to enhance students’ vocabulary acquisition nelson balisar panjaitan, hana monica sihotang corresponding author nelson( sonnelunai@yahoo.co.id ) faculty of education,universitas advent indonesia doi 10.35974/acuity.v5i1.2221 abstract this study intends to find out what is the initial knowledge of the students before they were treated using frayer model and concept mapping strategy, ascertain of the significant difference between these two teaching strategies, and to know the responses of the students after they were taught using frayer model and concept mapping strategy are the aims of this research. this is a quantitative study with comparative design to know the students’ vocabulary acquisition test. the research instrument of this study is pre-and-post-test. this study was conducted among eleventh grader students at sman 1 parongpong. the results of this study showed that the initial score for both respondents are quite similar with the score for fm group which is 30.50 and for cms group which is 33.40. it is also known that there is a significant difference in students’ vocabulary acquisition between students who are taught with frayer model and those who are taught with concept mapping strategy showed by the result of the mean differences from both groups are 0.000 < 0.05. the questionnaire’s result also supports that both teaching strategies are eligible to be applied in teaching active and passive voice construction with the score for fm class which is 55% and for the cms class which is 80%, it can be categorized as “good”. it implies that the implementation of frayer model and concept mapping strategy enhances student’s vocabulary acquisition. keywords: language proficiency, vocabulary acquisition, frayer model, concept mapping strategy. 2 introduction english is an essential language to be learnt in order to meet the ability to communicate with the language itself and create connections with a wider range of the world’s population. considering the benefits of english, indonesia has established english as a compulsory subject to be taught in the formal schools. as stated by kemendikbud (2013), the teaching of foreign language especially english is the goal to develop students’ ability to communicate to the world. in teaching english includes the teaching of four skills, listening, speaking, reading, and writing. (panjaitan, 2016) stated that “in communication, students need vocabulary which can support them to produce and use meaningful sentences. that is why vocabulary is very important to be mastered. students sometimes experience difficulties in using vocabulary which have been studied for some reasons. one of important things in learning language, especially english is by mastering vocabulary. it is the basic thing in learning language because vocabulary is one of crucial aspects to support those skills. from the explanation above, vocabulary hold a crucial position in english learning (easterbrook, 2013). vocabulary acquisition is very important for a learner as it is related to proficiency and fluency in english. the process of learning the words of a language is referred as vocabulary acquisition. vocabulary acquisition helps learners to use the skills of understanding, reading, writing and speaking. therefore, as language learners, students are supposed to learn a lot of vocabulary acquisition (avadi, 2016). rohmatillah (2014) wrote that in accordance with learning english vocabulary, it is not the same as indonesian vocabulary language form, including elocution and spelling. additionally, how to articulate the word is unique in relation to composing sentences. hence, individuals particularly students who learn english regularly discover troubles in learning vocabulary. khan (2018), said that one of the reasons the students discover english troublesome is that they have restricted learning of words and their use in english. the vocabulary of students does not enable them to convey the appropriate words. nation (2015), who has taught in indonesia, thailand, the united states, finland, and japan said that he always finds a problem in teaching english language from his students. the main problem is vocabulary, that students need a complex information of the meaning to reduce misunderstanding. (virocky & simanjuntak, 2018) said that vocabulary is the most difficult aspect of english for foreign learners to master word meanings thoroughly. other difficulties in learning vocabulary include fixed word collocation, phrasal verbs, idioms, proverbs and regional. based on the problems that have been mentioned above, the researcher proposed frayer model and concept mapping strategy. hunt (2013) stated that the frayer model is a graphic organizer used for concept development and vocabulary building. this model requires students to think about and describe a concept. the model is designed to have students analyze a concept, synthesize the concept, and apply the information. the frayer model was designed by dorothy frayer (1969) and her colleagues at the university of wisconsin. using the frayer model is an extremely valuable tool for helping students grasp the meaning and understanding of a new concept. besides that, there is also concept mapping strategy which is defined as a vocabulary learning strategy. the strategy involves arranging words into a picture with a core concept at the center or at the top and related words linked with the key concept by lines. the visual display of a concept map emphasizes the connections between words (bauman, 2007). this study examines the following concerns: (1). what is the initial knowledge of students who were taught frayer model and those who were taught using concept mapping strategy towards the enhancement of students’ vocabulary acquisition? (2). is there any significant 3 difference in vocabulary acquisition between those who were taught using frayer model and those who were taught using concept mapping strategy? (3). what are students’ responses after they were taught using frayer model and concept mapping strategy? regarding the research questions above, the hypotheses of this study are: null hypothesis (ho): there is no significant difference between students who are taught using fm and students who are taught using cms technique to enhance students’ vocabulary acquisition. alternative hypothesis (ha): there is a significant difference between students who are taught using fm and students who are taught using cms to enhance students' vocabulary acquisition. literature review a. language proficiency several applied linguists and methodologists have been attracted towards language proficiency studies and have worked on it. one of the recommendations of that commission was developing a standard way of rating language proficiency. proficiency as having sufficient ability in language for a particular purpose. many misconceptions about students' abilities, capabilities, and even fundamental intelligence are related to the way in which language proficiency has been defined. specifically, students' conversational fluency in english is often mistaken as a reflection of their out-and-out proficiency in language. language proficiency is defined as an individual's skill in language use for a specific purpose, and it can be evaluated through the application of a proficiency test (gharbavi & mousavi, 2012). b. vocabulary acquisition to support the students’ language proficiency, they need to learn about vocabulary acquisition. naeimi and foo (2015) stated that vocabulary acquisition learning has long been considered as one of the essential components for developing language learning. however, language learners are required not only concerned about memorizing definitions but also integrating vocabulary meaning into their present knowledge. many strategies such as direct or indirect ones maybe integrated to enhance vocabulary acquisition. direct strategies emphasized that vocabulary can be learnt using tools such as dictionaries and vocabulary lists that make the students pay more attention into explicit interaction with the meaning and form of vocabulary. on the other hand, indirect strategies enhance learning indirectly. indirect learning of vocabulary acquisition is defined as a strategy of word learning which arises without the particular intention to emphasize on word as stated by avadi (2016), that vocabulary acquisition is very important for a learner as it is related to proficiency and fluency in english. the process of learning the words of a language is referred as vocabulary acquisition. vocabulary acquisition helps the learner to use the skills of understanding, reading, writing and speaking. c. challenges in enhancing vocabulary acquisition the researcher found four challenges for the students to increase their vocabulary. the first one is about idioms. basari (2015), stated that in the process of translation where there are units that cause a problem of transferring to its full meaning in the translation. one of the units is idioms; 4 this unit has been an interesting issue in translation. idioms or idiomatic expressions are often used in both formal or casual situation and written or verbal communication. idioms are colorful and fascinating unit of a language use; it shows the style in how a message is delivered. in matter of style, there are various ways and options to deliver a message. idioms is an expression that sometimes people find it difficult to understand the meaning of the word, but the phrasal verb sometimes have meanings that can easily be guessed. in other words, idioms are more complicated in understanding the meaning then compared to phrasal verb. al-otaibi (2018) said that phrasal verb is one of the english structures that pose great challenges among efl learners despite the uncountable benefits emanating from proper use of them. english phrasal verbs are hugely frequent in everyday communication, especially in the informal register. although, the common existence of phrasal verbs is in english conversational, but it does not mean the complete absence of this grammatical construction in formal written or verbal speech because understanding the language will be difficult if the students are not quite familiar with the meanings of phrasal verbs. the third is about collocations. collocation is the element that usually accompanys words. alotaibi also said that “while without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed”. it is accepted that choosing words carefully in specific situations is more necessary than choosing grammatical structures. consequently, one may argue that since collocations enhance second language learners’ knowledge of vocabulary in the target language, their acquisition is vital (alotaibi, 2015). the last is about pronouns. as stated by nguyen (2017), that in many academic writing textbooks and style guides the use of pronouns is not encouraged. this is particularly problematic for non-native speakers of english who are trying to express themselves in a second language as, although personal pronouns are a clear signal of the writers’ identity and presence in a text, they are usually advised not to use them. d. frayer model from the challenges that are explained above, frayer model is a good strategy to help the learners. (hidayah, 2014) stated that the frayer model is a strategy that helps students understand concepts and is an excellent graphic organizer that can be used as a basis for writing even with the youngest of students. it allows students to see what a concept is and what is not. the frayer model was designed by dorothy frayer (1969) and her colleagues at the university of wisconsin. students also demonstrate their understanding by providing examples and non-examples. the frayer model is especially useful for teaching vocabularies that describes concepts or vocabulary that describes concepts students may already know but cannot yet clearly define. the frayer model layout can be adapted to english language learners and younger students by asking them to write a definition and associated characteristics instead of essential and nonessential characteristics. in addition, teacher can model the frayer model with pictures and drawings. the frayer model is an effective model of teaching and learning vocabulary (urquhart and frazee, 2012). however, the reason for using the frayer model to teach vocabulary comes from its ability to provide an excellent format for students. it allows students not only determine the meaning of words but also provide their relevant characteristics, examples and non-examples. therefore, the model is very beneficial for students to develop their vocabulary knowledge. (talah, 2015). 5 e. concept mapping strategy bauman (2007) stated concept mapping is a vocabulary learning strategy. the strategy involved arranging words into a picture with a core concept at the center or at the top and related words linked with the key concept by lines. the visual display of a concept map emphasized the connections between words. concept-mapping would be an excellent strategy that depends on the purpose for using it may help learners from cognitive and meta-cognitive perspective. based on its structure, conceptmapping strategy can be used as a knowledge representation tool to provide opportunity for learners to focus on understanding the words, understand the connection between them, organize their thoughts, and build a logical connection between them, visualize the relationship between concepts in a systematic way, and reflect their understandings. the mapping strategy was useful to students not only in unifying related terms and concepts, but also in assisting them to visualize connections between vocabulary and their own interests and experiences (khoshsima and saed, 2015). adopting concept mapping in vocabulary learning provides a framework for organizing conceptual information in the process of defining a word. a typical concept mapping or graphic organizer places the vocabulary word at the center and includes additional links or concepts connected to the central word. before reading a text, it is advantageous to become acquainted with key vocabulary terms that will guide the reading and analysis of the text. the use of concept mapping was associated with the increase in vocabulary knowledge, comprehension, and inferential knowledge (liu, 2016). methodology in this research, the researcher used comparative design to compare the students’ enhancement about vocabulary acquisition by using fm and cms between the comparative groups. in the beginning, the two groups were given pretest to know the ability of the respondent. after that, both groups were treated with different treatment and finally, at the end of the meeting, both groups had a post-test to see whether there is an enhancement on student’s vocabulary acquisition or not. table 1. research design group pre-test treatment post-test 1 o x1 o 2 o x2 o explanation, o : vocabulary test x1 : frayer model x2 : concept mapping strategy 6 population and sample the population of this study were all the students of grade xi and the samples of this study are two classes of grade xi at sman 1 parongpong. the researcher used both classes to apply the different treatments, which are frayer model and concept mapping strategy. research instrument the instruments were pre-test and post-test that was administered at the beginning and at the end of the program. for the pre-test the students were given vocabulary test in the form of the total number of approximately 25 multiple-choice questions, to see students’ prior ability and vocabulary achievement level. procedures of data collection in gathering data, the researcher used the following steps: conducting the pilot test the pilot test was conducted to know whether the test given was valid or not, and to know if the questions provided are suitable for the subjects. the test was adopted from the material that was taught for the senior high school level. it consisted of 50 multiple-choice questions test. conducting pre-test the post-test which is the same as the pre-test was administered after giving the treatment to the students to see if their vocabulary enhancement increased. post-test was used to examine the effectiveness of the techniques. giving treatment after administering the pre-test, the treatment was given to both classes. the procedures of teaching through frayer model was adopted from hidayah (2014) while the procedures of teaching through concept mapping strategy was adopted from journal (2007). 7 table 2. procedures of strategies procedures of frayer model procedures of concept mapping strategy first step: teacher should first distribute copies of frayer model graphic organizer, which is a concept phrase or a single word, depending on the needs of the students and the lesson objective. second step: student must determine the definition of the concept. students can use their textbooks or a variety of resources to develop a definition that is clear, concise and easy to understand. third step: teacher helps the students to determine the characteristics or attributes of this concept. fourth step: finally, determine as a class what the concept is and what is not. encourage students to generate their own examples and allow time for students to discuss their finding with the class. first step: student will create the map using the concept. second step: consider the hierarchical structure of the map and where to place the question or word on the blank paper. third step: write the question or a word on the top of the concept map, write down important related concepts below the central question or topic (these become sub-concepts). fourth step: draw a circle or rectangle around each sub-concept, stop and look at the map and begin to categorize the subtopics. fifth step: revise and / or remove unnecessary words. use colored pencils or markers to thematically organize the sub-concepts by coloring in the shapes, draw arrows and / or lines to and from concepts to show their relationships, add a label on each arrow or line that describes the relationships between concepts sixth step: review the completed concept map by asking the question, “does this make sense to me?”. remembering that concept maps can be as unique as the individual who created it. post-test a post-test was conducted to check the result after applying the treatment using fm and cms strategies, at the end of the meetings. the post-test which contains the same question with a pretest in the different arrangement was administered to both comparative groups. data analysis on pilot test the pilot test was conducted to measure the validity, reliability, level of difficulty and discrimination of the instrument. baker (1994) stated that a pilot test can also be the pre-testing or 'trying out' of a research instrument. 8 validity the validity test was intended to find out whether the instrument is suitable to be used in the research. the following formula is used to test the validity of the instrument. 𝑟"# = %∑'()(∑")(∑() ,[%∑'.)(∑').][%∑(.)(∑().] (arikunto, 2009) where, 𝑟"# = product correlation coefficient x = score item y = total score n = number of participants table 3. validity criteria rxy interpretation 0.80 ≤ rxy ≤ 1.00 very high 0.60 ≤ rxy ≤ 0.79 high 0.40 ≤ rxy ≤ 0.59 moderate 0.20 ≤ rxy ≤ 0.39 low 0.00 ≤ rxy ≤ 0.19 very low the result is as follows: table 4. validity number of question rxy interpretation 45 0.80 ≤ rxy ≤ 1.00 very high 5,16,44, 0.60 ≤ rxy ≤ 0.79 high 3,7,13,19,21,22,23,25,26,30,40,41, 0.40 ≤ rxy ≤ 0.59 moderate 1,8,9,11,12,17,18,20,24,27,28,29 ,33,35,36,39,43,46,47,48,49, 0.20 ≤ rxy ≤ 0.39 low 2,4,6,10,14,15,31,32,34,37,38,42,50 0.00 ≤ rxy ≤ 0.19 very low based on the result above, there was 1 item that was very high. there were, 3 items that were high, 12 items moderate, 21 items low, 13 items were very low. therefore, it can be concluded that the items that were categorized as very low are not valid. reliability reliability of a test according to masriyah (1999: 9) is the level of stability or the stability of the measurement results. a reliable measuring tool is a measuring instrument that is used to measure the same thing repeatedly, and the results are relatively the same. the formula that will be used to find the reliability of the instrument is alpha’s formula: 9 𝑟 0012 334567 8.4∑9: 8. ; (arikunto, 2012) where, 𝑟00 : reliability all test n : total number of questions ∑=> : total score of each question variance 𝑆@ : variance here is the criterion of reliability level according to arikunto (2009): table 5. classification of reliability coefficient reliability interpretation 0.80 – 0.99 very high 0.66 – 0.79 high 0.50 – 0.65 low < 0.50 very low the result is as follows: table 6. classification mean 27.44 correlation xy 0.63 realibity 0.77 based on the result of realibility 0.77, then it can be categorized as high. discrimination index discriminate index according to ratumanan (2003) states how far the ability of the question is able to distinguish between smart student group with the weak group. the differentiation of the test items is calculated by the formula: 𝐷 = bc dc − bf df = 𝑃h − 𝑃b (arikunto, 2009) where, d : discriminate index j : number of the test participants 𝐽h : number of lower group participant 𝐽b : number of lower group participant 𝐵b : number of upper group participants who answer the question correctly 𝐵h : number of lower group participants who answer the question correctly 10 bc dc = : proportion of upper group students who answer the test item correctly bf df = : proportion of lower group students who answer the test item correctly to interpret the value of discrimination index with the use of distinguishing classification from arikunto (2009), and it is shown in the table below: table 7. criteria of discriminate index discriminate index (d) interpretation < 0.00 very bad 0.00-0.20 poor 0.21-0.40 satisfactory 0.41-0.70 good 0.71-1.00 excellent the result as follows: table 8. discriminate index number discriminate index (d) interpretation 2,10,14,15,18,31,34,36, 37,38,42,43,47,50 < 0.00 very bad 4,6,20,27,32,33,46,49 0.00-0.20 poor 1,3,11,12,17,28,35,39,40,48 0.21-0.40 satisfactory 5,7,8,9,19,21,22,23,24,25,26,29, 30,41 0.41-0.70 good 13,16,44,45 0.71-1.00 excellent based on the table above, there were 14 items in very bad category, 8 questions in poor category, 10 items in satisfactory category, 14 items in good category and 4 items in excellent category. level of difficulty the level of difficulty according to masriyah (1999) is expressed in the difficulty index (number of difficulty index) which shows the proportion of students who correctly answered the question. the bigger the index of difficulty, the easier it is. conversely, the smaller the difficulty index, the more difficult the item is. the difficulty index of a test item can be calculated by the formula: 𝑃 = b dk (arikunto, 2009) 11 where, p = difficulty index of test item b = the number of students who answer correctly 𝐽k = the number of participants in the test the classification of difficulty level according to arikunto (2009): table 9. criteria of difficulty level index of difficulty (p) difficulty degree < 0.00 very difficult 0.00 – 0.30 difficult 0.31 – 0.70 moderate 0.71 – 1.00 easy >1.00 very easy the result is as follows: table 10. difficulty level number level of different difficulty degree < 0.00 very difficult 3,4,10,11,19,20,25,40,41,42, 0.00 – 0.30 difficult 2,5,7,8,9,12,13,15,16,17,18,21,22,23, 24,26,29,30,31,35,36,37,38,43,44,45,48,50 0.31 – 0.70 moderate 1,6,14,27,28,32,33,34,39,46,47,49, 0.71 – 1.00 easy >1.00 very easy based on the result above, there were 10 items that were difficult, 28 items that were moderate and 12 items were easy. the recapitulation of the result of pilot test this research used (25) questions for pre-test as well as post-test. to analyze the result of the data, anates program will be used. 12 table 11. the recapitulation of pilot test number of question validity difficult level discrimination 1 low easy satisfactory 2 very low moderate very bad 3 moderate difficult satisfactory 4 very low difficult poor 5 high moderate good 6 very low easy poor 7 moderate moderate good 8 low moderate good 9 low moderate good 10 very low difficult very bad 11 low difficult satisfactory 12 low moderate satisfactory 13 moderate moderate excellent 14 very low easy very bad 15 very low moderate very bad 16 high moderate excellent 17 low moderate satisfactory 18 low moderate very bad 19 moderate difficult good 20 low difficult poor 21 moderate moderate good 22 moderate moderate good 23 moderate moderate good 24 low moderate good 25 moderate difficult good 26 moderate moderate good 27 low easy poor 28 low easy satisfactory 29 low moderate good 30 moderate moderate good 31 very low moderate very bad 32 very low easy poor 33 low easy poor 34 very low easy very bad 35 low moderate satisfactory 36 low moderate very bad 37 very low moderate very bad 13 38 very low moderate very bad 39 low easy satisfactory 40 moderate difficult satisfactory 41 moderate difficult good 42 very low difficult very bad 43 low moderate very bad 44 high moderate excellent 45 very high moderate excellent 46 low easy poor 47 low easy very bad 48 low moderate satisfactory 49 low easy poor 50 very low moderate very bad based on the recapitulation test, this researcher used 25 questions for pre-test and post-test. there were questions number: 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 13, 16, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 39, 40, 41, 44, 45, 48, 49. those are based on the result of questions analysis; that the 25 questions were able to measure the students’ ability in improving students’ vocabulary acquisition and fulfill the indicator of vocabulary acquisition. non-test instrument (student’s response questionnaire) non-test instrument was given to the students in order to know the students’ response toward the lesson and strategy that were used in teachinglearning process. this questionnaire was given after the post test was conducted. the statements in the questionnaire are about frayer model and concept mapping strategy in enhancing the students’ vocabulary acquisition. there are four alternate answers in this questionnaire, those are: strongly agree (sa), agree (a), disagree (d), strongly disagree (sd). the completed questionnaire is classified by arikunto (2012) as follows: the calculation of number of positive responses for each item is on positive items, strongly agree (sa), agree (a), and the negative items, disagree (d), strongly disagree (sd). 1. the percentage was calculated according to arikunto (1991) using the following presentation formula as follows: table 12. scoring of student’s response with positive item type alternative answer score strongly agree 4 agree 3 slightly agree 2 disagree 1 14 for the questionnaire with negative item the scoring reversed, so the criteria are as follow. table 13. scoring of student’s response with negative item type alternative answer score strongly agree 1 agree 2 slightly agree 3 disagree 4 the questionnaire has 10 statements, so the maximum score for the questionnaire is 40 and the minimum score is 10. after the data is obtained, then the percentage of student response were calculated with this formula: ri = student i response score si = total of score item of student smax = maximum score table 14. interpretation of students’ response degree in percentage interpretation 80 ≤ t ≤ 100 very good 60 ≤ t ≤ 80 good 40 ≤ t ≤ 60 moderate 20 ≤ t ≤ 40 bad t ≤ 20 very bad statistical treatment the researcher used statistical package for social science (spss) to analyze the data. spss is a computer program for statistic computation. the level of significance a = 0.05. normalized gain to determine the improvement of students’ vocabulary acquisition, the researcher performed an analysis on the results of the pre-test and post-test. 15 analyzing will be performed using normalized gain. 𝑔 = %𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑠𝑡 − % 𝑝𝑟𝑒 − 𝑡𝑒𝑠𝑡 100% − % 𝑝𝑟𝑒 − 𝑡𝑒𝑠𝑡 (hake, 1999) where, g: average normalized gain % pre-test: percentage of pre-test scores % post-test: percentage of post-test scores table 15. the criteria of normalized gain gain (g) category 0.71 < g ≤ 1.00 high 0.31 < g ≤ 0.70 moderate 0.00 ≤ g ≤ 0.30 low (hake, 2007) normality test normality test was conducted to see whether the population of the data collected from is normally distributed or not. to test the normality of the population the researcher used the kolmogorovsmirnov test. because according to santoso (2007), kolmogorov-smirnov is more accurate than any other test for testing normality. the formula is: 𝑊 = (∑vw"w). ∑("w)"). (ruseffendi, 1998) where, w : test statistic 𝑥y : statistic order x1, x2, x3, …xn 𝑎y : constant generated from the average value (mean), variance, and covariance structure sample distribution of and from a normal distribution. x : mean sample data the hypothesis will be as following: ho: the data population is normally distributed ha: the data population is not normally distributed the criteria of normality test if the data is analyzed with spss: a. data is normally distributed if sig. value is larger (>) than α (0.05), or ho is not rejected. 16 b. data is not normally distributed if sig. value is lesser or equal (≤) or α (0.05), then ho is rejected. homogeneity test to determine whether the population variances are homogeneous or not which means having the same basic qualities, the researcher used the homogeneity test based on the result of normality test. the formula: 𝐹 = k. 5 k. . (uyanto, 2009) where, f : value (variance variable data) 𝑆@ 0 : the larger variance 𝑆@ @ : the smaller variance the hypothesis that will be used are: ho: the population variances are homogeny ha: the population variances are not homogeny the criteria of homogeneity test if the data is analyzed with spss: a. the population variances are homogeny if sig. value > α (0.05), then ho is not rejected. b. the population variances are not homogeny if sig. value ≤ α (0.05), then ho is rejected. different mean pre-test and n-gain the significant value will be using either t-test or u-test to determine if there is significant difference or not between both data (different mean test). this step will be used to answer the second statement for the statement of the problem. if two populations are homogeneous, then the statistics that the researcher will use is the 2 sample t-test with the formula: 𝑡 = 𝑥0 − 𝑥@ 𝑆𝐷\ 1𝑛0 + 1𝑛@ 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑆𝐷 = b (𝑛0 − 1)𝑆0 @ + (𝑛@ − 1)𝑆@ @ 𝑛0 + 𝑛@ − 2 (supranto, 2009) where, 𝑥0 = mean score for frayer model 𝑥@ = mean score for concept mapping strategy 𝑛0 = frayer model sample size 𝑛@ = concept mapping strategy sample size 17 𝑆0 = standard deviation of frayer model 𝑆@ = standard deviation of concept mapping strategy however, if the data is not homogeneous, then the two-different test average used is a nonparametric test or mann-whitney, with formula: 𝑈 = 𝑛0𝑛@ + 𝑛@(𝑛@ + 1) 2 − e 𝑅y g. y1g5h0 (supranto, 2009) where: u = mann-whitney u test 𝑛0 = sample size one 𝑛@= sample size two 𝑅y = rank of the sample size the hypothesis of different mean test will be as follows: ho: there is no significant difference in the vocabulary enhancement between those who are taught frayer model and those who are taught concept mapping strategy. ha: there is significant difference in the vocabulary enhancement between those who are taught frayer model and those who are taught concept mapping strategy. the criteria of different mean test if the data as analyzed with spss: a. ho is not rejected if the sig. value > α (0.05), means that there is no significant difference in the enhancement of vocabulary enhancement in sman 1 parongpong. b. ho is rejected if the sig. value ≤ α (0.05), means that there is significant difference in the enhancement of vocabulary enhancement in sman 1 parongpong. research results and discussion analysis the result of pre-test and post-test of each group was calculated through excel and spss. it can be seen in the following table: table 16. pre-test, post test, standard deviation, and normalized gain frayer model concept mapping strategy mean st. deviation mean st. deviation pre-test 30.50 10.155 33.40 13.513 post test 87.00 5.023 84.40 4.419 normalized gain .8162 .06052 .7631 .06020 18 it can be seen from the table above that the mean pre-test of frayer model is 30.50 with std. deviation 10.155 and the mean for concept mapping strategy is 33.40 with std. deviation 13.513. it becomes the answer for research question number one. then the mean post-test of frayer model is 87.00 with std. deviation 5.023 and mean for concept mapping strategy is 84.40 with std. deviation 4.419. it can be concluded that the initial score for both classes are quite high. the mean gain of frayer model is 0.8162 and for concept mapping strategy is 0.7631, it can be concluded that the knowledge of both classes has enhanced in constructing the vocabulary acquisition. normality test of the normalized gain the normality test has a function to see whether the data is normally distributed or not. ho is accepted if p value was > 0.05 and ho is rejected if p value was < 0.05. the researcher conducted normality test for the result of the gain score. the result can be seen on the table below. table 17. result of normality test of normalized gain group shapiro-wilk statistic df sig. gain 3 4 .105 .104 40 40 .200 .200 based on the table, it can be concluded that the population of the data is normally distributed for both classes, it is because the significant value of fm is 0.200 > � (0.05) and the significant value cms is 0.200 > 0.05. homogeneity test of the normalized gain to see the homogeneity of population variances, homogeneity was done. the result can be seen on the table below: table 18. independent sample t-test levene’s test for equality of variances f sig. t df sig.(2tailed) gain .508 .478 3.931 78 .000 19 equal variances assumed equal variances not assumed 3.931 77.998 .000 since the data of gain was normally distributed and homogeny. the significant value based on mean 0.478 > 0.05, so it means that the population variance is homogeny. table 19. independent sample test levene’s test for equality of variances f sig. t df sig.(2tailed) gain equal variances assumed equal variances not assumed .508 .478 3.931 3.931 78 77.998 .000 .000 since the data of gain was normally distributed and not homogeny, then based on the table above the result of t-test showed that the sig (2-tailed) was 0.000 < 0.05 based on the hypothesis that meant (ho) was rejected and (ha) was accepted. thus, there was a significant difference between students who were taught using frayer model and those were taught using concept mapping strategy. questionnaire the additional data required for the present study were collected through administering questionnaire to the subjects in order to know their response toward frayer model and concept mapping strategy. the results are explained in the table below: table 20. fm questionnaire subject sa a d sd total skor (total score/40)x100 interpretation 1 24 9 0 1 34 85 very good 2 16 15 0 1 32 80 very good 3 0 21 6 0 27 67.5 good 4 8 18 2 1 29 72.5 good 20 5 32 3 0 1 36 90 very good 6 20 9 2 1 32 80 very good 7 20 6 4 1 31 77.5 good 8 0 24 0 1 25 62.5 good 9 32 3 2 0 37 92.5 very good 10 28 6 2 0 36 90 very good 11 32 3 0 1 36 90 very good 12 20 12 0 1 33 82.5 very good 13 32 3 0 1 36 90 very good 14 4 24 0 1 29 72.5 good 15 28 6 2 0 36 90 very good 16 4 24 0 1 29 72.5 good 17 4 21 4 0 29 72.5 good 18 20 12 0 1 33 82.5 very good 19 8 21 0 1 30 75 good 20 32 3 0 1 36 90 very good 21 4 21 4 0 29 72.5 good 22 8 21 2 0 31 77.5 good 23 4 24 0 0 28 70 good 24 0 24 4 0 28 70 good 25 20 12 0 1 33 82.5 very good 26 0 27 2 0 29 72.5 good 27 32 0 2 1 35 87.5 very good 21 28 0 24 2 1 27 67.5 good 29 16 9 2 1 28 70 good 30 12 18 0 1 31 77.5 good 31 20 12 2 0 34 85 very good 32 24 9 0 1 34 85 very good 33 0 24 4 0 28 70 good 34 32 0 2 1 35 87.5 very good 35 0 24 4 0 28 70 good 36 12 15 4 0 31 77.5 good 37 32 0 2 1 35 87.5 very good 38 0 24 2 1 27 67.5 good 39 16 12 2 1 31 77.5 good 40 12 18 0 1 31 77.5 good table 21. the result of fm questionnaire percentage degree in percentage interpretation 45 80 ≤ t ≤ 100 very good 55 60 ≤ t ≤ 80 good 0 40 ≤ t ≤ 60 moderate 0 20 ≤ t ≤ 40 bad 0 t ≤ 20 very bad from the table above, it is concluded that the mean percentage of students’ response in class fm is calculated as the sum of percentage of students’ response divided by the number of respondents, the result is 55, that can be categorized as “good”. 22 table 22. cms questionnaire subject sa a d sd total score (total score/40)x100 interpretation 1 4 18 6 0 28 70 very good 2 12 15 2 1 30 75 very good 3 0 21 4 1 26 65 good 4 0 27 2 0 29 72.5 good 5 20 9 4 0 33 82.5 very good 6 0 21 4 1 26 65 good 7 8 21 2 0 31 77.5 good 8 12 15 2 1 30 75 good 9 0 21 6 0 27 67.5 good 10 4 15 8 0 27 67.5 good 11 0 24 4 0 28 70 good 12 0 24 4 0 28 70 good 13 4 21 2 1 28 70 good 14 0 24 4 0 28 70 good 15 0 24 4 0 28 70 good 16 16 15 0 1 32 80 good 17 8 21 0 1 30 75 good 18 0 24 2 1 27 67.5 good 19 20 9 2 1 32 80 good 20 8 18 2 1 29 72.5 good 21 0 24 2 1 27 67.5 good 22 4 21 4 0 29 72.5 good 23 12 18 2 0 32 80 good 24 0 18 8 0 26 65 good 25 0 12 10 1 23 57.5 moderate 26 12 9 8 0 29 72.5 good 27 0 21 6 0 27 67.5 good 28 4 18 6 0 28 70 good 29 0 18 6 1 25 62.5 good 30 4 18 6 0 28 70 good 31 16 15 2 0 33 82.5 very good 32 0 24 2 1 27 67.5 good 33 16 12 2 1 31 77.5 good 34 12 18 0 1 31 77.5 good 35 20 12 2 0 34 85 very good 36 8 21 0 1 30 75 good 37 32 3 0 1 36 90 very good 38 8 21 0 1 30 75 good 23 39 32 3 0 1 36 90 very good 40 4 21 4 0 29 72.5 good table 23. the result of cms questionnaire percentage degree in percentage interpretation 17.5 80 ≤ t ≤ 100 very good 80 60 ≤ t ≤ 80 good 2.5 40 ≤ t ≤ 60 moderate 0 20 ≤ t ≤ 40 bad 0 t ≤ 20 very bad based on the result of the cms questionnaire, the mean percentage is 80 which means the response of cms group is “good”. from the data above, it can be said that most of the students from both classes agreed for the implementation of fm and cms strategy in enhancing their vocabulary acquisition. from the responses of the students’ data analysis and the discussion, it can be concluded that there is a significant difference between those who were taught using frayer model and those who were taught using concept mapping strategy. students in both classes enjoyed the strategies. discussion of the research finding from the result of the data, the initial knowledge of students in fm group is 30.50 and in cms group is 33.40. it is also known that there is a significant difference on students between those who were taught through frayer model and concept mapping strategy. from the result of normalized gain, it can be seen that the students who are taught using fm got 0.8162 and those who are taught using cms got 0.7631. so, it can be said that both treatments are applicable in teaching vocabulary acquisition and it showed that both strategies enhanced the students’ vocabulary acquisition. the response of both classes also showed that they enjoyed learning english, which was proven by the results of the questionnaire from both classes are 55 and 80 which are categorized as “good”. for additional explanation, in doing this study the researcher should do the treatment for both models at the same period of lesson. unfortunately, because of the english lesson timetable at sma negeri 1 parongpong did not match with the researcher’s timetable where the available timetable to do this study was only one class in the morning and one class in the late afternoon. consequently, the researcher agreed to do the research at different time of lesson where the frayer model was held in the morning while the concept mapping strategy was held in the late afternoon. the time of lesson did greatly affect to the success of the method itself. based on the result, the frayer model has a significant difference in vocabulary acquisition rather than the concept mapping strategy. 24 conclusion & recommendation after interpreting the data, the researcher concluded that there is a significant difference between students who are taught using frayer model and students who are taught using concept mapping strategy. in relation to the conclusion above, the researcher gives several recommendations: for teachers: it is recommended for english teachers to use frayer model in teaching vocabulary acquisition especially in senior high school, because it is proven by the researcher that the students can describe the characteristics, provide examples of the idea and suggest non examples of the idea, and use critical thinking skills. therefore, students’ vocabulary acquisition was increased after using frayer model. for students: it is recommended to learn english vocabulary using these methods, because they are interesting methods and are already proven that the students can understand words meaning appropriately and have a good grammar of word. so, they got improvement in their vocabulary acquisition. for institution: the institution of sman 1 parongpong, the researcher would like to suggest to increase the quantity of teaching and learning facilities such as more books on learning vocabulary acquisition in the library. for future researchers: the researcher hopes that the results of this study can be used as additional references for future researcher about using frayer model in high schools in different levels and contexts. references 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(2014). definition of vocabulary. language. retrieved from http://www.sltinfo.com/vocabulary/ acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2, 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 275 longing for symbolic capital in toni morrison’s the bluest eye: a bourdieun estimation md. mozaffor hossain department of english, pundra university of science and technology, bangladesh alirumashuhana74@gmail.com doi: 10.35974/acuity.v7i2.2777 abstract toni morrison’s the bluest eye portrays, among other both white and black lives in a less significant mark, the life of a young black girl named pecola breedlove whose desperate longing for owning the bluest eyes so as to free herself from the shame and disgrace of her birthed identity has inspired the author to name the novel so. morrison inserted into the protagonist her (morrison’s) depraved experience of injustice, inequality, racial discrimination, social stigmatization and, above all, inborn physical outlook, wielded upon the black communities in america during her (morrison’s) time. while brooding over the question why a black girl would hanker after the bluest eyes, i find the hints, specified descriptions and clarified answers provided by morrison in the novel logically matched with “symbolic capital”, the last of the four capitals delineated by the french philosopher and public intellectual pierre bourdieu (19302002). accordingly, this article seeks to appraise pecola’s yearning for the bluest eyes in toni morrison’s the bluest eye through bourdieu’s theory of “symbolic capital”. key words: toni morrison, the bluest eye, pierre bourdieu, symbolic capital introduction why, in toni morrison’s novel, the bluest eye, an eleven-year old black girl named pecola breedlove hankers after having her eyes as the bluest ones is what this study aims to unearth. while combing through the texture of the narrative for the relevant cause of the protagonist’s longing for blue eyes, this study intends to call it an urge for not just literally the blue eyes as have been mentioned, rather for the symbolic capital as has been elaborated by the https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity mailto:alirumashuhana74@gmail.com acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2, 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 276 corresponding author: md. mozaffor hossain, department of english, pundra university of science and technology, gokul, bogura, 5800, bangladesh. email: alirumashuhana74@gmail.com french philosopher and public intellectual pierre bourdieu (1930-2002). accordingly, this study ventures for presenting a critical interpretation of toni morrison’s the bluest eyes in combination with pierre bourdieu’s symbolic capital with a view to discerning the novel’s narrative in terms of deeper social, cultural, economic, and mostly symbolic-capitalistic considerations. methods for performing the target critical analysis of morrison’s, the bluest eye in the light of pierre bourdieu’s theory of symbolic capital, this study utilized qualitative content analysis method collecting secondary data from textual inspection, theoretical scrutiny, content analysis and the examination of available existing researches on both the selected text and philosophical theory. the study conducted in-depth perusals of the text of the bluest eye and bourdieu’s capital-related texts like “the forms of capital”, “social space and symbolic power” and “symbolic capital and social classes”, which offered a convincing understanding of the research question. the study, with a view to reaching the intended premise, chose to apply the qualitative content analysis method, for it is a social scientific methodology which helps make sense of documented human communication, including textual documents, oral or written discourse and literary texts (hsieh, 2005; bengtsson, 2016; baxter, 2020). in reality, content analysis engages the researchers or analyzers into dividing the texts into minor units: passages, sentences, clauses, phrases, or single lexis to unify and engender meaning from the data received and to make genuine inferences from it (hsieh, 2005; bengtsson, 2016; baxter, 2020). results a deep-structured analysis which is also called a latent analysis (bengtsson, 2016) of the bluest eye, available literary criticisms on it from myriad points of view, and the major contents relating to symbolic capital revealed that the craving for certain physical features presented in the novel can be more elaborately discerned in the light of the multifarious elements of symbolic capital instilled and prevalent both visibly and invisibly in the texture of the american society. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity mailto:alirumashuhana74@gmail.com acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2, 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 277 for instance, hosseiny and shabanirad (2015) had a du boisian reading of the bluest eye to come across the fact that the protagonist, pecola breedlove, a black girl in the white american society is labeled as ‘the other’ because of her not being like the community and not having the same color and beauty the white have. the members of the breedlove family including pecola are not both consciously and unconsciously happy with what and how they are. they long for the apparent complexion of the white since they are in a never-ending comparing and contrasting between themselves and the white americans, where they always find themselves at the inferior end (hosseiny & shabanirad, 2015). morrison’s the bluest eye has clear indication as to how pecola did manage her own ugliness in such a setting mentioned by hosseiny and shabanirad (2015) – “she hid behind hers. concealed, veiled, eclipsed – peeping out from behind the shroud very seldom, and then only to yearn for the return of her mask” (morrison, 1979, p. 29). as for pecola, her genealogic possessions are the color of her skin, her parents’ skin, their physical features, the kind of hair they (black people) usually have, their language, their way of speaking and, above all, their ugliness. all of these hereditary features do not, of course, count for symbolic capital, in accordance with pierre bourdieu’s theory, for they, in no way, signify any power or prestige. these lowly characteristics simply call for denial and disgrace in the eyes of those belonging to true symbolic power, i.e., fair skin, white americanhood, blonde-ness, and the like. so, pecola necessarily needs to possess any property accepted as a symbolic power. with her experience, she figures it out that only having blue eyes will serve her the purpose in the most befitting manner. accordingly, in her brain and mind, consciously and unconsciously, is the silent incantation for blue eyes. and, her constant invocation for pretty blue eyes gets amalgamated with her everyday deeds she performs and words she speaks. pretty eyes. pretty blue eyes. big blue pretty eyes. run, jip, run. jip runs, alice runs. alice has blue eyes. jerry runs, alice runs. they run with their blue eyes. four blue eyes. four pretty blue eyes. blue-sky eyes. blue-like mrs. forrest’s blue blouse eyes. morningglory-blue-eyes. alice-and-jerry-blue-storybook-eyes. (morrison, 1979, p. 34-35) praying for her eyes to be blue is what she ritually performs every now and then, especially at night; she multiplies her prayer without fail. “each night, without fail, she prayed for blue eyes. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2, 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 278 fervently, for a year she had prayed. although somewhat discouraged, she was not without hope. to have something as wonderful as that happen would take a long, long time” (morrison, 1979, p. 35). likewise, a detailed investigation into the available literature on pierre bourdieu’s symbolic capital and its careful comparison with that into the bluest eye as well as the critical works related to it helps to unearth that pecola’s longing for blue eyes is basically a longing for symbolic capital. lebaron (2014) regards symbolic capital as a sort of capital which is related to prestige and power, and, thereby, can be reproduced through the applications of genealogy, which people can perceive visibly or invisibly as a story of accomplishments, heritage or wealth, which help remember the past origin of a certain group, dynasty or individual. according to bourdieu (1958, p.86; as cited in lebaron, 2014), a title or name inherently gives vent to its power, and thus, claims the prestige it deserves. therefore, the suggestion of authority which a family or tribal name, by default, offers is to be referred as “symbolic capital” which is understood as “power” in terms of prestige, honor and moral authority (lebaron, 2014). bourdieu (1958, p. 87; as cited in lebaron, 2014) thinks that a charismatic link exists between the name and the named entity; to own the name means to own the attributes it carries innately. discussion mama had told us two days earlier that a “case” was coming – a girl who had no place to go. the county had placed her in our house for a few days until they could decide what to do, or, more precisely, until the family was reunited. (morrison, 1979, p. 11). the girl mentioned as a “case” in the above-cited part from toni morrison’s the the bluest eye is pecola breedlove, an 11-year-old black girl and the protagonist of the novel while the narrator is claudia macteer, one of the two young white girls of the family where pecola is to be given a shelter to. pecola has an ingrained penchant for white beauty. when she is offered with some milk in a blue-and-white shirley temple cup, “she was a long time with the milk, and gazed at the silhouette of shirley temple’s dimpled face” and she was having the conversation with https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2, 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 279 frieda macteer, the other white girl, about “how cute shirley temple was” (morrison, 1979, p. 1213). thus, the notion of worshipping whiteness is demonstrated in the psyche of both white and black minds almost from the starting point of the narrative. adults of the society spontaneously regard “blue-eyed baby doll” (morrison, 1979, p. 13) as the fondest wish of the female children. but, claudia, the narrator, desires to know what makes a blue-eyed baby doll a symbol of such an unwavering beauty. she says, i had only one desire: to dismember it. to see of what it was made, to discover the dearness, to find the beauty, the desirability that had escaped me, but apparently only me. adults, older girls, shops, magazines, newspapers, window signs – all the world had agreed that a blue-eyed, yellow-haired, pink-skinned doll was what every girl child treasured. (morrison, 1979, p. 14) as for pecola, she never cares for what is there inside; she is fond of what is there outside that makes someone look beautiful. “….she was fond of the shirley temple cup and took every opportunity to drink milk out of it just to handle and see sweet shirley’s face” (morrison, 1979, p. 16). but, why does pecola so desperately worship whiteness, blonde-ness, or fairskinnedness? she has things in reverse, which compel her intuitively to like these and/or long for attaining these. whatever she is by birth, whatever her parents symbolize racially, socially and economically, and whatever she belongs to, all profoundly coerce her to like what she likes and to want to be what she wants to be. similarly, that pecola’s family was living in an unlivable place was also due to the status they possessed and the capital they belonged to. morrison clarifies, they lived there because they were poor and black and they stayed there because they believed they were ugly. although their poverty was traditional and stultifying, it was not unique. but their ugliness was unique. no one could have convinced them that they were not relentlessly or aggressively ugly. (morrison, 1979, p. 28) https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2, 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 280 morrison thinks pecola as well as her family has an established conviction regarding the fact that each of them is ugly and they spontaneously surrender to anything people say as to their ugliness. you looked at them and wondered why they were so ugly; you looked closely and could not find the source. then you realized that it came from conviction, their conviction. it was as though some mysterious master had given each one a cloak of ugliness to wear, and they had each accepted it without question. the master had said, “you are ugly people.” they had looked about themselves and saw nothing to contradict the statement; saw, in fact, support for it leaning at them from every billboard, every movie, every glance. “yes,” they had said. “you are right.” and they took the ugliness in their hands, threw it as a mantle over them, and went about the world with it. (morrison, 28) by default, to the society and all, black people were synonymous with ugliness. in fact, black people were alternatively called “ugly people” (morrison, 1979, p. 149). evidently, the bluest eye focuses on the most susceptible member of the community – a minor girl – to illustrate the outcomes of dire social segregation and sheds light on manipulated destituteness that is, rather, imposed on people belonging to a certain criterion marked by ignoble economic status (baines, 2020). from everyday quarrels, naked fights and shameful scenes which her parents engaged themselves into, pecola longed for disappearing, but only to her utter and persisting dismay. morrison illustrates her helplessness, “please, god,” she whispered into the palm of her hand. “please make me disappear.” she squeezed her eyes shut. little parts of her body faded away. now slowly, now with a rush. slowly again. her fingers went, one by one; then her arms disappeared all the way to the elbow. her feet now. yes, that was good. the legs all at once. it was hardest above the thighs. she had to be real still and pull. her stomach would not go. but finally it, too, went away. then her chest, her neck. the face was hard, too. almost done, almost. only her tight, tight eyes were left. they were always left. (morrison, 1979, p. 33) pecola’s prayer was never granted. she could never disappear. so, “she had long ago given up the idea of running away to see new pictures, new faces ….” (morrison, 1979, p. 34). https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2, 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 281 she could deeply realize nothing would work to make her world less shameful. as long as she looked the way she did, as long as she was ugly, she would have to stay with these people. somehow she belonged to them. long hours she sat looking in the mirror, trying to discover the secret of the ugliness, the ugliness that made her ignored or despised at school, by teachers and classmates alike. she was the only member of her class who sat alone at a double desk. (morrison, 1979, p. 34) even pecola’s teachers at school had always treated her with utmost discomfort and avoidance. “they tried never to glance at her, and called on her only when everyone was required to respond” (morrison, 1979, p. 34). to escape all sorts of humiliations awkwardness for how she was, it had occurred to pecola some time ago that if her eyes, those eyes that held the pictures, and knew the sights – if those eyes of hers were different, that is to say, beautiful, she herself would be different. her teeth were good, and at least her nose was not big and flat like some of those who were thought so cute. if she looked different, beautiful, may be cholly would be different, and mrs. breedlove too. maybe they’d say, “why, look at pretty-eyed pecola. we mustn’t do bad things in front of those pretty eyes.” (morrison, 1979, p. 34) it does not matter if she looks beautiful or otherwise to herself, rather she cares for other people’s eyes, others’ reactions, treatments towards her, for once she possesses blue eyes, people’s eyes are going to shed welcoming lights unto her. “thrown, in this way, into the binding conviction that only a miracle could relieve her, she would never know her beauty. she would see only what there was to see: the eyes of other people” (morrison, 1979, p. 35). because she does not own, in her physique, any attractive feature recognized as such in the society, she is to go through humiliations and neglects wielded by anybody she comes across. mr. yacobowski, the white shopkeeper, does not directly look at her when she goes to his shop to buy mary jane candy. he suspends his eyes from pecola as if she did not exist. she is habituated to receiving such distaste toward her. she understands, https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2, 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 282 the distaste must be for her, her blackness. all things in her are flux and anticipation. but her blackness is static and dread. and it is the blackness that accounts for, that creates, the vacuum edged with distaste in white eyes. (morrison, 1979, p. 37) seeking a shelter in beauty represented by whiteness works, for pecola, as a panacea for all sorts of humiliations she goes through. when she receives noticeable avoidance from the shopkeeper who, while taking the money for the candy from pecola’s hand, even “hesitates, not wanting to touch her hand”, she “feels the inexplicable shame ebb” and at this, “anger stirs and wakes in her; it opens its mouth, and like a hot-mouthed puppy, laps up the dredges of her shame” (morrison, 1979, p. 37). what can pecola do? does she have the accepted sinew to send a worthy message to the man who has just lodged sheer neglect to her? no, she doesn’t have anything to do but shed tears. moment before tears overflow, she turns to the picture of mary janes on the wrapping paper of the candy she just bought. a picture of little mary jane, for whom the candy is named. smiling white face. blond hair in gentle disarray, blue eyes looking at her out of a world of clean comfort. the eyes are petulant, mischievous. to pecola they are simply pretty. she eats the candy, and its sweetness is good. to eat the candy is somehow to eat the eyes, eat mary jane. love mary jane. be mary jane. (morrison, 1979, p. 38) humiliations are hurled upon pecola, for how she looks, not just by the white, but, more severely in some cases, by her own folks as well. her own kind of people, black people, did enjoy inflicting suffering to her more than the white. young black boys would hold her a victim, dance a weird dance around her and sing humiliations to her, “black e mo. black e mo. yadaddsleepsnekked. black e mo black e mo ya dadd sleeps necked. black e mo…..” (morrison, 1979, p. 50). things that pecola does not have anything to do with, or does not have any control over are considered her faults, and accordingly or overtly, she is to be disgraced. the black boys “ had extemporized a verse made up of two insults about matters over which the victim had no https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2, 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 283 control; the color of her skin and speculations on the sleeping habits of an adult, wildly fitting in its incoherence” (morrison, 1979, p. 50). morrison (1979, p. 50) gives an explanation of the dehumanizing bully the black boys themselves hurl upon a helpless and innocent black girl, “it was their contempt for their own blackness that gave the first insult its teeth.” they seemed to have taken all of their smoothly cultivated ignorance, their exquisitely learned self-hatred, their elaborately designed hopelessness and sucked it all up into a fiery cone of scorn that had burned for ages in the hollows of their minds – cooled – and spilled over lips of outrage, consuming whatever was in its path. (morrison, 1979, p. 50) this desperateness of bodily owning something that is not there certainly has embedded social, cultural and economic explanations which we can elaborately understand through what pierre bourdieu explicates regarding capitals in his “the forms of capital” (1986), “social class and symbolic power” (1989) and “symbolic capital and social space” (2013). the idea of “symbolic capital” is the fourth common kind (“specie”) of capital in the line of cultural, economic, and social capital, which french sociologist and public intellectual, pierre bourdieu (1930-2002) deals with in his “forms of capital” (lebaron, 2014). in this regard, bourdieu expounds, the social world is accumulated history, and if it is not to be reduced to a discontinuous series of instantaneous mechanical equilibria between agents who are treated as interchangeable particles, one must reintroduce into it the notion of capital and with it, accumulation and all its effects. capital is accumulated labor (in its materialized form or its “incorporated,” embodied form) which, when appropriated on a private, i.e., exclusive, basis by agents or groups of agents, enables them to appropriate social energy in the form of reified or living labor. it is a vis insita, a force inscribed in objective or subjective structures, but it is also a lex insita, the principle underlying the immanent regularities of the social world. (bourdieu, 1986) bourdieu (1986) goes on elucidating, “it is in fact impossible to account for the structure and functioning of the social world unless one reintroduces capital in all its forms and not solely in the one form recognized by economic theory.” https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2, 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 284 capital can present itself in three fundamental guises: as economic capital, which is immediately and directly convertible into money and may be institutionalized in the form of property rights; as cultural capital, which is convertible, in certain conditions, into economic capital and may be institutionalized in the form of educational qualifications; and as social capital, made up of social obligations (“connections”), which is convertible, in certain conditions, into economic capital and may be institutionalized in the form of a title of nobility. (bourdieu, 1986) to bourdieu (1986), physical features and psychological disposition fall into “the embodied state, i.e., in the form of long-lasting dispositions of the mind and body”, one of the divisions of cultural capital. the idea of “symbolic capital” is the fourth form of capital advanced by pierre bourdieu’s sociological theory, in combination with cultural, economic, and social capital, albeit its being not on the same plane as the other species, for it emphasizes the “symbolic” dimensions of social life, which puts it in a dissimilar role. nevertheless, bourdieu elaborates its existence as an unaffected sort of capital with strong properties on life as a whole (lebaron, 2014). as to symbolic capital, ihlen (2018), while appraising pierre bourdieu, says, “priceless things have their price.” thus, symbolic capital stands for a status signifying social, cultural, economic and other holds of enviable attributes having roots in the other forms of capital that a social actor might belong to (ibid). to bourdieu, the term, capital stands for both a medium of exchange and a store of value, which provides an individual with the power to exercise influence on people, or which is something akin to electric power, a source of energy (wlaker, 2018). bourdieu regards that human society consists of, among other things, a couple of dimensions, materialistic and symbolic (ibid). symbolic capital can be perceived by the general notion of symbolic structures (“subjective” vs. “objective,” discursive” vs. “material,” etc.) which are determined by their “comparative autonomy they essentially participate to create and delineate the “exchange rates” among other mainstream capitals. therefore, it can neither be considered as an independent truth (which could be simply amassed, relocated, etc.) nor as a lesser property, which would be entirely and manually authenticated by the other species, rather it can be felt as something or anything that, through https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2, 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 285 social and cultural conviction and practice, demands an exchange rate of value (lebaron, 2014). it is, in bourdieu’s version, a multi-layered notion symbolizing reputation itself, and in fact, it is created on the basis of links to power and the extrinsic as well as intrinsic framework of society (iahlen, 2018). pierre bourdieu (1986) classifies capital into three forms basing on the field in which it works, e. g. economic capital, cultural capital and social capital. economic capital can instantly and straightly be converted into money and may be formalized into property rights while cultural capital can conditionally be transformed into economic capital and is likely to be institutionalized in the form of educational qualifications whereas social capital which consists of social connections can be circumstantially converted into economic capital and is likely to be recognized as a title of nobility. bourdieu, in his distinction: a social critique of the judgment of tast, interprets “taste” having symbolic value in all sorts of connectedness it has when it demonstrates one’s choice of dress, food, furniture etc. revealing stark distinction (bourdieu thinks so) of power and social class disparity (loesberg, 1993). in his language and symbolic power, bourdieu suggests that both linguistic and literary meanings of a language depend on as well as refer to power distinction and social difference (loesberg, 1993). in a similar consideration, a thorough and critical reading of toni morrison’s the bluest eye (1970) places one to the understanding that the novel reinforces the discourse of the blueeyed by re-asserting their cultural superiority (farshid, 2014). she presents the saga of a black girl lacking in the society-defined ingredients of beauty, i.e., white skin, blue eyes and blonde hair, and for her not possessing the symbols of prettiness, she receives harsh feedback and subsequently succumbs to it (farshid, 2014). that pecola and her family do not fundamentally have what their white counterparts have makes them suffer both individually and socially, and help them construct an accepted justification about anything bad happening to them. according to abusneineh (2018), the bluest eye focuses specifically on the lingering effects of internalized racism and black self-hatred. the novel portraits a community which replicates dominant cultural myths about beauty and value (abusneineh, 2018). pecola’s mother, pauline, feels isolated and disconnected for her community. her failed and chaotic relationship with her https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2, 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 286 husband, cholly, stabilizes her conviction that romantic love belongs to only those who are good-looking and as such valued in the community (abusneineh, 2018). that being the case, as pecola grows up, she yearns for blue eyes, a longing for whiteness which stands for beauty and worth. in fact, blue eyes symbolize universal beauty and to own them means owning whiteness (ibid). she gets devalued and bullied due to the kind of worthlessness she possesses, e.g., school boys laugh at her countenance, the grocer defies her as she attempts to purchase candy and maureen, a fair-skinned girl who befriends her for some time, cut jokes at her expense (abusneineh, 2018). pecola does not want to change her own perspective towards herself and the world, rather she wants to be seen and esteemed by the world through a different perspective which will be ensured if she possesses blue eyes that will let others see her anew, by means of a lens unobstructed by racism and white culture – characterized notion of attractiveness (isherwood, 2006). on a similar note, muhi & ridha (2010) opine that in the bluest eye, morrison marks western standards of beauty and explicates that the concept of beauty is socially fashioned. she presents a timeless problem of white racial dominance prevalent in the united states and addresses the impact it has on the life of black females growing up in the 1930's. morrison started writing the novel in the mid of 1960s, she came across the idea about two decades ago when one of her classmates divulged a clandestine fact that she had been praying to god for two years to grant her blue eyes but not receiving her wish fulfilled. during that time, there was this movement with "black is beautiful" slogan at the peak, which made morrison think about why color mattered and how it needed broader public consent (muhi & ridha, 2010). pecola, in her incessant pursuit for obtaining the emblematic source of power, the blue eyes, does not just limit her endeavors into prayer to god only; rather she tries almost every possible means to have her longing granted. that being the case, she believes the so called self-declared “spiritualist and psychic reader” (morrison, 1979, p. 137), soaphead whom she besought, “i can’t go to school no more. and i thought maybe you could help me.” “help you how? tell me. don’t be frightened.” “my yes” https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2, 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 287 “what about your eyes?” “i want them blue.” (morrison, 1979, p. 138) to soaphead, it sounded, “….an ugly little girl asking for beauty” (morrison, 1979, p. 138). morrison relates to the incident, a surge of love and understanding swept through him, but was quickly replaced by anger. anger that he was powerless to help her. of all the whishes people had brought him – money, love, revenge – this seemed to him the most poignant and the one most deserving of fulfillment. a little black girl who wanted to rise up out of the pit of her blackness and see the world with blue eyes. (morrison, 1979, p. 138) soaphead admitted to pecola his utter powerlessness in making anything miraculous happen. nevertheless, he wanted to give it a try if god would respond to the little girl’s longing for some beauty that might rescue her from the labyrinth of helplessness. he instructed the girl to make offerings through giving rotten food to a sleeping dog, which she complied to. hardly could pecola endure the odor of the dark and sticky meat which made her want to puke, and she held her stomach to resist nausea. as the dog dies from intaking the poisoned meat, soaphead church writes a letter to his god and in it, he mentions how much pecola has been longing for her eyes to be blue, “do you know what she came for? blue eyes. new, blue eyes, she said. like she was buying shoes. “i’d like a pair of new blue eyes.” she must have asked you for them for a very long time, and you hadn’t replied” (morrison, 1979, p. 143). eventually, pecola goes mad and believes she has “really, truly, bluely nice” (morrison, 1979, p. 153) eyes at which she continues looking through the mirror, and she doesn’t even blink them, she can look right at the sun with them. she finds people around her prejudiced because she has much bluer eyes than others. she boasts, “just because i got blue eyes, bluer than theirs, they’re prejudiced” (morrison, 1979, p. 155). she is obsessed with her presumed blue eyes and loves to keep looking at them. she cries, “oh, yes. my eyes. my blue eyes. let me look again” (morrison, 1979, p. 159) and she thinks, “they get prettier” (morrison, 1979, p. 159) each https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2, 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 288 time she looks at them. she rejoices at the thought that none should have eyes as blue as hers, which is why, she frequently has this conversation with herself comparing hers with others’ eyes. she wants to believe her eyes are “prettier than the sky”, “prettier than alice-and-jerry storybook eyes”, “prettier than joanna’s” and “bluer than michelena’s” (morrison, 1979, p. 159). and, if by any possible chance somebody possesses eyes bluer than peocola’s, she would pray for “the bluest eyes”. she says, “if there is somebody with bluer eyes than mine, then maybe there is somebody with the bluest eyes. the bluest eyes in the world” (morrison, 1979, p. 161). nevertheless, pecola hankers for company, for play mate, for a friend. she believes, deep down, that it’s only having the bluest eyes that could win her friends and companions. she cries to her companion, “oh. don’t leave me.” but she is determined to leave her, for she thinks pecola is acting silly. nevertheless, pecola asks her, “because my eyes aren’t blue enough? because i don’t have the bluest eyes?” (morrison, 1979, p. 161). she continues entreating her companion, “don’t go. don’t leave me. will you come back if i get them? the bluest eyes. will you come back then?” (morrison, 1979, p. 161). in the words of the narrator, one of the white sisters, morrison depicts a gory picture of how one type of sheer physical feature, as a whole, glows and rejoices at the assumed weakness of another, and thus loudly declares to be a symbolic power. we were so beautiful when we stood astride her ugliness. her simplicity decorated us, her guilt sanctified us, her pain made us glow with health, her awkwardness made us think we had a sense of humour. her inarticulateness made us believe we were eloquent. her poverty kept us generous. even her waking dreams we used – to silence our own nightmares. and she let us, and thereby deserved our contempt. we honed our egos on her, padded our characters with her frailty, and yawned in the fantasy of our strength. (morrison, 1979, p. 163) so, this white – black contrast, this white supremacy – black inferiority had been well established having its olden social roots ensuring no easy withdrawal. "mirror, mirror, who is the most beautiful woman in the world?" mirror answers, ''the whitesnow princess is." in addition https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2, 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 289 to the whitesnow princess, shirley temple, mary jane, and even barbie are the symbols of white prettiness engendered and upheld by the conventional aesthetic standardization (jiang, 2007). fair complexion, blue eyes, and golden hair are the signs of woman's physical attractiveness which noticeably shape supreme body prototypes, and insert the accepted aesthetic demarcation in one’s psyche (jiang, 2007). beauty, i.e., whiteness, is what the conventional belief admits, whereas ugliness, marked by other physical features, such as darkened skin, is categorized as the hideous and despised difference (jiang, 2007). bourdieu (1986) labels this sort of possessions socially and culturally defined as better identities, as cultural capital. to him, “cultural capital can exist in three forms, first of which is in the embodied state” (bourdieu, 1986). he regards the acquisition of a muscular physique or a suntan as a capital (bourdieu, 1986). bourdieu explains that although the embodied capital, i.e., the external wealth transformed into an inseparable part of the parson, cannot be instantly converted into economic material, it helps to estimate the distinctive value of the person to others (bourdieu, 1986). hamamra (2020), in one of the many other perspectives, assesses the bluest eye through eco-feminism and upholds the view that significant links lie between the way one deals with women, black people and those belonging to the lower-class, and how one behaves with animals and non-human elements of nature. morrison metaphorically intimates and reveals, in the novel, the similarity between the torture rendered on animals and the oppression unleashed on women in a masculine society (ibid). hamamra (2020) considers pecola’s dream of having blue eyes as interrelated with coils of racism, sexism and animal inhumanity. hamamra (2020) also connects pecola’s predicament with ecological feminism which believes that one’s treatment towards women, colored people and the underclass is identical to one’s treatment to non-humans and natural environment. in a different consideration, mckittric (2000) thinks that the bluest eye hints various experiences of geographic criteria and atmosphere that synchronously confound and restate the connotation of being black. locations, physical features and psychological statures while intertwining, vacillate and seemingly remain identical, and clash with each other in some convoluted manners in the novel. mckittric also (2000) draws on anti-racist theory and forms anti-racist and feminist topographies to inspect morrison’s novel and characters with a view to generate the connection among the correlated classes of race, racialism, sex and https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2, 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 290 habitation, illustrating how substantial actualities, bodily variances and individual discernment of geography, color and creed are reciprocally built. the narrative identifies what it means to be black in a white-dominated setting and what sorts of complicated individualities exist in countries, nations, societies and families, which negate harmonious and shared life experiences (mckittric, 2000). even though the bluest eye, through myriad researches (mckittric, 2000; jiang, 2017; abusneineh, 2018; hamamra, 2020), receives so many interpretations, its characters’ especially protagonist’s pining for one or more of the features of the white people stands out. whiteness is desired and valued, for it functions as an inexplicable agent for various beneficial results, analogous to how human capital has been regarded by economists when explicating revenue discrimination or resource inequality (reiter, 2020). reiter (2020) embeds whiteness into the literature on human capital, social capital and cultural capital to demonstrate how such an implicitly and explicitly established conceptualization that unfairly and overly benefits a certain section while wielding injustice on a certain other. samaluk (2014), while empirically exploring the evidence of the complexity of ethnic privilege and disadvantage through experiences of migrant workers from post-socialist central and eastern europe (cee) on the uk labor market, finds how whiteness molds racial privilege and hindrances at work. using a bourdieuian conceptual framework of symbolic capital, samaluk (2014) also reads the historical and macro socio-economic outline of european union expansion eastwards with a view to exploring whiteness and the intricacy of ethnic advantages at workplace, and comes across intricate racial dissection of the uk labour market, exposing various layers of whiteness that mark cee workers’ position and their agency and indicating interpersonal and transcontinental functions of whiteness and their impacts on varied workforce. as a matter of fact, whiteness works as a crucial capital in the creation of social standing because it qualifies those traditionally deserving to claim it, and designates a preeminent status in the prevailing social pyramids (reiter 2009). exploiting the figure of the ‘white theory boy’ or ‘dead white man’ across empirical interpretations of theory, scholastic annotations of manliness, and didactic approaches, burton (2015) posits that even the processes and practices of knowledge formation are continually https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2, 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 291 dominated by patriarchy and fairness of countenance. burton (2015) brings an intersectional analysis of gender, class, ‘race’ and ethnicity to depict an imagery which uncovers a more critical and fine-grained account of the relationship among power, knowledge, and social status. in such a consideration, why doesn’t pecola receive what she desires? the obvious answer is, she yearns for obtaining blue eyes which signify the predominant white archetype of beauty which discounts anyone representing african-american features. as such, she is not supposed to acquire that lofty standard of beauty. moreover, the feeling of deficiency is exacerbated by the beauty-based social frivolities defined by as well as practiced in the white americans. her own mother prefers serving white people to taking care of her own children, and peers constantly stigmatize her for ugliness, which entices her to be obsessed with the unattainable blue eyes (kozłowska, 2018). toni morrison explicitly exposes how western criterion of perfect beauty is formed and disseminated amongst the black people as she depicts how the darkened skin and its associated aspects impair the lives of the african-american people. simultaneously, she elucidates how the idea of whitened beauty, if enforced directly or indirectly on the life of a black boy or girl, their sense of self-respect, self-love and self-dignity can be severely injured (muhi & ridha, 2010). to signify the presence of symbolic capital in social life, bourdieu (2013) elaborates that social agents perform as factually marked by a couple of distinct kinds of properties: firstly, by solid properties which, starting with the physique, can be numbered and measured like any other object of the material world; and, contrarily, by symbolic properties which are fastened with them through an association with subjects able to perceive and evaluate them and which claim to be evaluated in accordance with their specific affiliation to value. bourdieu (1989) believes that things and values in the society act through some twofold ways, namely structuralism and constructivism which, he clarified, are different from the structuralism championed by ferdinand-de-saussure. bourdieu explains, by structuralism or structuralist, i mean that there exist, within the social world itself and not only within symbolic system (language, myths, etc.) objective structures independent of the consciousness and will of agents, which are capable of guiding and constraining https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2, 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 292 their practices or their representations. by constructivism, i mean that there is a twofold genesis, on the one hand of the schemes of perception, thought, and action which are constitutive of what i call habitus, and on the other hand of social structures, and particularly of what i call fields and of groups, notably those we ordinarily call social classes. (bourdieu, 1989) symbolic capital is not placed on the same level as the other types, since it emphasizes the “symbolic” aspects of social life, which produces an uneven consideration (lebaron, 2014). lebaron (2014) considers that bourdieu even argues on its presence as an original kind of capital. one of the definitions clarifies that symbolic capital is, precisely, identical to any other type of capital when it is about its “recognition” or its “perception” as per some specific “schemes” (bourdieu, 1987; as cited in lebaron, 2014). bourdieu elaborates, ….symbolic capital is nothing but economic or cultural capital as soon as they are known and recognized, when they are known according to the perception categories they impose, the symbolic strength relations tend to reproduce and reinforce the strength relations which constitute the structure of the social space…. (bourdieu, 1987; as cited in lebaron, 2014) bourdieu labels the underpinning of various social or cultural groups as the creation of a specific sort of buildup of capital, “a cumulative effect analogous to the one which gets capital to attract capital in another context . . .. this initial capital is apparently nothing but the name and the domination it confers to the group” (bourdieu, 1958, p. 85; as cited in lebaron, 2014). according to lebaron (2014), this kind of capital relates to prestige and power, and is replicated through the uses of family, which can be regarded as a story of accomplishments signifying the ancestries of the group and, thus, creating symbolic value(s) on this foundation. “the name in itself constitutes a power. the names conserved by tradition are those of victorious fractions or the main families to whom diverse groups will ask for protection” (bourdieu, 1958, p. 86; as cited in lebaron, 2014). therefore, “symbolic capital” is tacitly associated to titles of families https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2, 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 293 and affiliated to the specific power of clans and communities. it is next to the notion of “power,” when it is construed with regard to prestige, “honor,” and “moral authority” and not of straight solid or corporeal restraints. it is a sort of magic: “a magical link unites the name and named object; to borrow the name is to participate to the virtues of its owner and in particular, to the “baraka”, vital force, mysterious and well-being power which favors elite men” (bourdieu, 1958, p. 87; as cited in lebaron, 2014). conclusion the fact that humans, for themselves and for those they like or love, wish for things or possessions deemed as good and/or respectable in human society either in pre-historic time or now or in future is universally recognized, which is, of course, something usually experienced or a part of commonsense. bourdieu (1986) calls symbolic capital anything other than directly financial, which acts as an emblem of power, respect or goodness in human society. toni morrison’s protagonist pecola breedlove in the bluest eye pines for her eyes to be the bluest due to the established fact that blue eyes in whiteness-dominated society symbolize beauty, supremacy, power, respect and almost all expected features society values most. therefore, human aspects constituting bourdieu’s symbolic capital or symbolic power are real and logical, and consequently, longed for by the whole universe, except rare exceptions; so are blue eyes for black girls like pecola breedlove, toni morrison’s protagonist in the bluest eye. references abusneineh, b. (2018). blue eyes as black youth redness in the bluest eye. critical ethnic studies. baines, a. (2020). toni morrison and the culture of poverty. diaspora, indigenous, and minority education, 14 (2), pp. 110-116. doi: 10.1080/15595692.2019.1689389 banu, m. n. (2015). racialized beauty: toni morrison’s the bluest eye. shanlax international journal of english, 3 (4), pp. 5-9. baxter, j. (2020). content analysis. in a. kobayashi (eds.), international encyclopedia of human https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2, 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 294 geography (second edition), pp. 391-396. elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-08-1022955.10805-4. bengtsson, m. (2016). how to plan and perform a qualitative study using content analysis. nursingplus open, 2, pp. 8-14. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.npls.2016.01.001 bilal tawfiq hamamra (2020): deconstructing wo(man) and animal binary in morrison’s the bluest eye, anq: a quarterly journal of short articles, notes and reviews. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/0895769x.2020.1806022 bourdieu, p. (1986). the forms of capital. in richardson, j., handbook of theory and research for the sociology of education, pp. 241-258. westport, ct: greenwood. bourdieu, pierre. (1989). social space and symbolic power. sociological theory, 7 (1), pp. 14 25. bourdieu, p. (2013). symbolic capital and social classes. journal of classical sociology, 13(2), pp. 292–302. doi: 10.1177/1468795x12468736 burton, s. (2015). the monstrous ‘white theory boy’: symbolic capital, pedagogy and the politics of knowledge. sociological research online, 20 (3), pp. 167-177. farshid, s. 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(2007). transcending “the bluest eye”: an analysis of toni morrison’s body beauty. comparative literature: east & west, 9 (1), pp. 107-112. doi: 10.1080/25723618.2007.12015613 katherine mckittrick (2000) ‘black and’ cause i'm black i'm blue: transverse racial https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-08-102295-5.10805-4 https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-08-102295-5.10805-4 https://doi.org/10.1080/0895769x.2020.1806022 https://doi.org/10.1080/0895769x.2020.1806022 acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2, 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 295 geographies in toni morrison's the bluest eye. gender, place & culture: a journal of feminist geography, 7 (2), 125-142. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/713668872 kozłowska, a. (2018). yearning for beauty. the expression of melancholy in toni morrison’s “the bluest eye”. the gdańsk humanistic journal, 9. doi: https://doi.org/10.26881/jk.2018.9.07 lebaron f. (2014) symbolic capital. in: michalos a.c. (eds) encyclopedia of quality of life and well-being research. springer, dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-07535_2961 loesberg, j. (1993). bourdieu and the sociology of aesthetics. elh, 60 (4), pp. 1033-1056. morrison, t. 1979. the bluest eye. chatto & windus. great britain morrison, t. (1979). the bluest eye. chatto & windus. muhi, m. t., ridha, f. (2010). the quest for an ideal beauty in toni morrison's the bluest eye. journal of college of education for women, 21 (2), pp. 550-564. reiter, b. (2009). whiteness as capital: constructing inclusion and defending privilege. government and international affairs faculty publications, 26. retrieved from: http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/gia_facpub/26 reiter, b. (2020). a theory of whiteness as symbolic racial capital: bourdieu 2.0. international journal of humanities and social science research, 6 (5), pp. 111-117. retrieved from: https://hdl.handle.net/2346/86609 samaluk, b. (2014). whiteness, ethnic privilege and migration: a bourdieuian framework. journal of managerial psychology, 29 (4), pp. 370 – 388. walker, e. (2018). on pierre bourdieu part 4: symbolic capital. empty wheel. retrieved from: https://emptywheel.net https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/713668872 https://doi.org/10.26881/jk.2018.9.07 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0753-5_2961 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0753-5_2961 http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/gia_facpub/26 https://hdl.handle.net/2346/86609 https://emptywheel.net/ acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol. 7 no. 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 37 the academic writing needs of students: a case study on stakeholder perspectives hasan sağlamel1 department of english language and literature, karadeniz technical university, turkey hsaglamel@ktu.edu.tr zeynep merve aydoğdu2 karadeniz technical university, turkey doi: 10.35974/acuity.v7i2.2541 abstract the international appeal of english has resulted in an expansion of courses adopting english-medium instruction, and many institutions require students to pursue their studies in programs with english medium. however, to what extent these programs meet the expectations is yet to be understood. numerous studies have documented the effectiveness of emi particularly in english as a foreign language contexts. however, perspectives of different stakeholders were not adequately captured. the present study attempts to fill this void by exploring students' needs of academic writing from the perspectives of different stakeholders. a total of 9 participants, namely, 5 students, a language instructor, and 3 teachers of content professors were selected using the snowball sampling method. all the participants were selected from a department offering english-medium instruction at a state university in turkey. data were collected through semi-structured interviews. the results show that students require more investment in academic writing courses to get familiar with the disciplinary register and fulfil the requirements of future english courses. the stakeholders’ perspectives are compared to have a better understanding of students’ needs, lacks and wants. the study suggests some implications to approach language education policies more critically. keywords: academic writing, english medium instruction (emi), stakeholder perspectives, writing needs introduction emi can be described as “the use of the english language to teach academic subjects in countries or jurisdictions where the first language (l1) of the majority of the population is not english” (dearden, 2014, p. 2). with the thrust of globalization, the importance attached to english has been gaining momentum in higher education institutions. as a result, english has had significant demand both in education and in private sectors such as tourism, international industry and overseas business (kırkgöz, 2007). the widespread demand and use of english in an increasingly globalizing market, the internationalization attempts of universities and the stiff competition in the form of research publications have had a correspondingly growing emphasis in educational settings (macaro & akincioglu, 2018; macaro et al., 2017;). galloway et al. (2017) explain emi as an opportunity to ‘to kill two birds with one stone’ (p. 6). even though these developments make emi appealing especially with reference to its triggering of corresponding author: hasan sağlamel, kanuni campus, c-block, 2nd floor, c-210, department of english language and literature, karadeniz technical university, trabzon, 61080, turkey. hsaglamel@ktu.edu.tr https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity mailto:hsaglamel@ktu.edu.tr acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol. 7 no. 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 38 ‘global competitiveness’ (kim, kweon, & kim, 2016), not all stakeholders are equally receptive to emi instruction (ekoç, 2018) as such instruction brings substantial challenges (yıldız, soruç & griffiths, 2017). therefore, the effectiveness of emi was called into question in many studies (aslan, 2017; bozdoğan & karlıdağ, 2013; ekoç, 2018; karakaş, 2016, 2019; kılıçkaya, 2006; kırkgöz, 2009; sert, 2008; yıldız, soruç, & griffiths, 2017; zaif, karapınar, & yangın eksi, 2017). previous studies into the effectiveness of english medium instruction have yielded conflicting findings, and selvi (2014, p. 133) explains the multifaceted nature of the role of emi through the metaphor of a pendulum, which “oscillat[es] between national ideas and bilingual ideals”. the manifestations of incompatible perspectives are apparent in studies exploring perception or performance. in the one camp, we see the findings pointing to the positive effects of emi instruction. zaif, karapınar, & yangın eksi (2017), for instance, compared the performance of students who were taking courses either in their l1 or in english. the two groups did not show a significant difference regarding the medium of instruction. however, when the university entrance examination scores of students placed in the lowest and highest quartiles were compared, a significant difference in favour of the emi was observed. similarly, sert’s (2008) study drew a comparison of emi, english aided instruction, and turkish medium instruction. gathering data from 527 undergraduate students and 87 instructors, the study concluded that emi was the most effective medium considering skills development. in the other camp, however, several challenges were noted, resulting in turkish lecturers’ unfavourable views. kılıçkaya (2006), for instance, found that instructors in a turkish emi context held more favourable dispositions towards turkish as an instructional medium. similarly, research examining students’ perspective indicated some challenges of emi including linguistic challenges, challenges related to the instructors’ proficiency and effectiveness of courses (ekoç, 2018; yıldız, soruç, & griffiths, 2017); challenges in the comprehension of content and disciplinary register (bozdoğan & karlıdağ, 2013; yıldız, soruç, & griffiths, 2017); incongruence between the disciplinary requirements and what is taught (kırkgöz, 2009); a lack of coherence at the macro policy level (kırkgöz, 2009). since such challenges are context specific, there is a pressing need to understand the context in which emi is delivered. what might contribute to our understanding at this stage might be the perceptions of stakeholders who are most affected by the medium of instruction. therefore, lending a sympathetic ear to voices of different stakeholders might prove to be enriching. english has reached a considerable interest and speeded up among european higher education institutions that focus on internalization. these developments have not gone unnoticed in turkey. as cosgun & hasırcı (2017) noted: “emi is a growing phenomenon in turkey similar to the other part of the world” (p. 12). as a manifestation of the rising interest, many universities in turkey started the provide emi. students from different educational backgrounds enrol in universities, and universities require either turkish or english (100% or 30%) as their medium of instruction (ekoç, 2018). figures from arık and arık’s (2014) study reveal that 20% of all undergraduate programs execute emi at varying degrees. however, students’ scores from the student selection and replacement centre (osym), which is a high stakes test determining the programmes they are able to enrol, do not demonstrate their writing proficiency. due much to the washback effect of the examination-driven system, a considerable number of enrolling students’ performance in productive language skills especially in writing and speaking is not at a desired level. many universities, therefore, require their students to have or develop a mastery of the english language before taking departmental courses. this lack of emphasis on productive language skills makes these programs’ tasks more demanding as the possibility of a mismatch between different language skills increases. therefore, https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol. 7 no. 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 39 understanding the students’ needs in productive skills is critical. it is thought that understanding these needs from the perspectives of different stakeholders could give a better picture of the reality, providing multifaceted snapshots of individuals’ beliefs. to address such a critical need, this study aims to find out the academic writing needs, wants and lacks of the students enrolled in a civil engineering department. to achieve such an aim, stakeholder perspectives will be brought together to have a deeper understanding of the academic writing practices in emi settings. doing so will help us understand the practices of delivery and implications for teaching and learning. academic writing has received considerable attention in different disciplines. the premium placed on academic writing courses is evident in the integration of emi courses which are expected to be of significance for students to become professionals on discipline-specific writing (lillis & turner, 2001). despite such growing attention and substantial focus, academic writing investments have not always proved to be rewarding. for instance, the impact of a onesemester program was examined to see how effective the academic writing instruction in an l2-medium university was (storch, 2009). it was found that after a one-semester period the students improved their writing skills particularly with reference to idea development and structure even though no progress was observed in accuracy. in another study, kılıc (2018) revealed the perceptions of students, instructors, and professors on students’ needs for contentbased academic writing and the education that they have received in a preparatory school. it was found that the writing instruction offered in preparatory school and required disciplinary competencies were not congruent. given that many factors might play a role in the effectiveness of emi, identification of perspectives regarding the implementation of emi might be helpful to determine and develop students’ language proficiency (cosgun & hasırcı, 2017). a great many learners in efl writing contexts require practice and experience to produce texts with appropriate register and rhetorical genres (grabe, 2001), which might be frustrating for those who do not feel competent enough (hyland, 2002). therefore, developing familiarity with the conventions of the target language community or acculturation to disciplinary-specific context might bring difficulties (hyland, 2013). since content professors expect learners to be armed with at least a modest degree of background, their reactions towards students’ writing could be discouraging. as a result, it is likely that some students fall behind their expected progress and fail to socialize in the discourse conventions of the target linguistic and/or disciplinary community. research questions according to the stakeholders (students, language instructor, content professors) included in the study, 1) what are the academic writing needs of students enrolled in emi programs? 2) what are the academic writing lacks of students enrolled in emi programs? 3) what are the academic writing wants of students enrolled in emi programs? methods this study employs a case-study methodology. case-studies attempt to explore the complexities of events by elaborating on the details of an event, person or group, and the interrelationships of cause-effect and variables (çepni, 2018). to gather data, semi-structured https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol. 7 no. 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 40 interviews were conducted on a voluntary basis. the interviews consisted of a demographic part which contains some background questions related to respondents. the questions addressed to the faculty and students were adapted by kılıç (2018). all participants responded to the questions in turkish, which is the mother tongue of all participants. data were collected by using a voice record with the consent of the participants, and all answers were translated and transcribed into english by the researcher. research design qualitative research designs are mostly used for the sake of comprehending natural contexts, subjective opinions and personal feelings within a typically small group of respondents (dörnyei, 2007). since the study aimed to understand stakeholders' perspectives of academic writing needs, a qualitative research design was considered suitable for the purposes of the study. the data gathered were divided into different and related categories, themes and patterns (creswell, 2014) in order to develop an understanding of the respondents. after their transcripts were made by the researchers, the key terms were coded in light of research questions. the invivo coding method (saldana, 2013) was used for coding the data. participants to have a better representation of reality, 9 participants who are in a stakeholder position were chosen from a department whose language of instruction was 100% english. these participants represent different roles, 5 students, one language teacher who is teaching those students in a prep program, and 3 content professors teaching at the department of civil engineering. a snowball sampling procedure was followed. all students were enrolled in the preparatory school and were taking writing courses at the time of data collection. the content professors were all male, and they reported that they had a teaching experience ranging from 13 to 26 years. thirdly, one female instructor from preparatory school was also selected with snowball sampling. the instructor reported that she had been teaching for 18 years. all participants chosen were well-informed of the study. results & discussion the results of the data obtained from the students, course instructor and content professors were analysed, and the analyses are provided respectively. students’ perceptions students’ motivation for emi: four of the students (n=4) replied that the reason behind their departmental choice is their desire to work abroad. they claimed that in a globalizing world, english is required by companies and helps them to reach more resources, so it is a must for them to learn. s3, for instance, said that “in most of the companies, they are not even asking us if we know or not, they are accepting us as if we are professionals (in english) which we should https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol. 7 no. 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 41 be.” a similar sentiment echoed in s5’s excerpt: “one of the biggest advantages for me is when i start to pursue my career. english terms will not surprise me and will not be a trouble for me. ...it is not important which department i pick; i want to have an education in preparatory school first.” besides being a requirement for employment and career situations, english has a salient place as it is the language of science. this is made explicit by s2: “english is the language of science now, and if we want to reach more resources, we need to learn it.” as students mentioned, english has its own place in turkey in many fields, for both governmental and non-governmental organizations such as education, industry, tourism, and business (kırkgöz, 2007). its de facto use in various domains alone encourages many learners to become well-prepared for this reality. students’ investments in the preparatory program: to achieve their desires, students get considerable support from educational institutions. they told that they had considerably developed their writing in the preparatory school. since the majority of students enrol in the department with insufficient english writing competence, in general they were satisfied with their progress. their satisfaction is evident in the following excepts: “developed a lot! after seeing tons of grammar rules, structures, usages of the words, there was a significant process on writing” (s1) “i was even not a1; i was really terrible at english … in the middle of the year, i was really good because we were doing a lot of writing assignments during the classes” (s4) “i was literally zero, and always asking myself why i am here.” (s5) however, their reported progress was not commensurate with their preparedness for departmental courses. it can be seen from the findings that what they learnt were mostly types of essays and paragraphs, not much related to their department. for example, s2 pointed to the need for departmental courses: “they taught us fundamental structures like grammar and other rules, but not business english or something related to our department.” while another learner said that: “we learnt the most basic ones like types of essays and paragraphs.” s5. the learners taking the writing courses do not seem to have a proper degree of writing self-efficacy. it could be attributed to the students’ limited exposure to l2 writing practice. writing is a neglected skill in the students’ previous language experience (altınmakas & bayyurt, 2019), and due much to the negative washback of the exam-driven system in turkey, it does not get the due respect it deserves. what is more is that, when the students cannot establish a connection between the departmental courses and the preparatory program, connecting the dots might appear more difficult for them. such a need for a seamless transition seems to be evident about the perceived need for vocabulary. without a wide range of vocabulary, learners many not exhibit their potential and might be discouraged from using and learning the language effectively (richards & renandya, 2002). since the participants highlight the need to be equipped with departmental vocabulary, they did not seem to be self-confident about their language development. inadequate technical vocabulary of students is likely to curb their efforts in departmental courses, and insufficient knowledge of specialist vocabulary is also highlighted in previous studies (chang, 2010; evans & morrison, 2011). learning content-based writing skills: the issue of learning content-based writing skills is another issue the respondents were asked to elaborate on. a majority of the students (n=4) reported that it would be really better if they had a chance to receive that kind of education, so they would not be that unfamiliar with the terms and writing conventions of their department. the following excerpts bear testimony to the students’ expectancies: https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol. 7 no. 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 42 “learning something related to my department can be really great. we are always dealing with terms in verbal classes and this is really making things harder because you do not have a chance to guess them, either you know them or fail. in some exams, they ask us to describe some structures related to the classes, and most of my friends are failing.” (s1) “if we learnt more terms or topics related to our department, we would be definitely better now.” (s5) one of the students (s4), however, reported that, it would be really hard for them to do that at the very beginning of the preparatory year: “it sounds good, but if we had a chance to pick, i will not do that. the main reason is even though learning how to write papers related to my department sounds good, it still feels like so hard to learn. for me, learning the things related to construction is already so hard, but also writing about them can be really troublesome.” (s4). since some students were a1 at the beginning of the preparatory year, it would be not easy for them to comprehend the advanced writing skills well. such a move by the respondent is in line with the principles of pedagogy. the investment in content-based instruction should start at a level when learners feel confident. as wong & wu (2011) noted, poor proficiency learners who are exposed to emi education are not likely to demonstrate success in content knowledge as their l1 counterparts. writing in different genres: it can be seen from the findings where participants were asked about learning how to write in different genres, students reported that it would be great and beneficial so much for them right now. for example, s5 responded that: “it would be better for us to learn actually. now, they (the department) are asking us to write our reports in english, or giving us some assignments related to our topics which require english as well, so it would be really better for us. we would be well-prepared.” as mentioned above, students want to become more well-prepared and more familiar with the terms as such familiarity will help them not only for the language aspect but also for the content aspects. familiarity with the academic vocabulary: even though the students reported considerable progress, voices remarking several self-perceived weaknesses were apparent. these weaknesses are related to relatively poor writing background and lack of content-based vocabulary/terms teaching. for instance, student 1, 4 and 5 addressed the need for contentspecific vocabulary development. the following words were reported by s5: “i was quite good at writing, especially at the end. i am reading a lot, and i guess it helped me a bit. still there are some unfamiliar terms/expressions/structures to me…”. even though they had made great progress in preparatory school, a substantial progress with reference to discipline-specific vocabulary needs was still necessary. such need for department-specific words push learners to reconsider their investment in language learning. in the absence of department-specific satisfactory returns, the picture of effectiveness does not seem to be complete. when the respondents were asked about their adequate familiarity with the academic vocabulary, majority of them reported that they do not have it especially for two different reasons. the first one is, they are not studying enough on it: “i do not have it, but it is some problem coming from myself. i have some classmates who are really good at english, i am not studying enough.” (s5) “i do not have enough, because i am only studying exam-focused and lots of my friends are doing the same as well. before we take an exam, we memorize everything, and after the exam we forget because we are not practicing again.” (s4) https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol. 7 no. 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 43 the second reason is, the respondent claimed that they will learn more and more in the coming years by being exposed and repeating content-based terms in the classroom: “for now, i do not have it. most probably we will be better after the third grade.” (s3) solutions for writing improvement: majority of the students noted that doing extensive reading, e.g., reading content-based articles, and doing more writing assignments could promote their writing and vocabulary skills. however, as students have noted, their investment in writing is less likely to have satisfactory returns at the end of the day. for instance, s1 pointed out that “for writing, we are mostly dealing with numbers, so we need to write as much as we can.” while another student writing development could come with extensive reading: “for writing, we need a wide range of vocabulary knowledge, before that we need ideas, a good idea that we can think about within details. for the sake of doing these all, we need to search, we need to read more……” (s3). it appears from students’ excerpts that having field-specific assignments that could trigger them to read and write more might be one of the possible solutions for them to learn more vocabulary and practice writing structures as well as getting new insights. language instructor’s perspective data obtained from language teacher’s interviews reveal some information related to the students’ progress at different times of the year. the instructor said that even though they were definitely not good at the very beginning, with the tasks, and, most importantly, students’ efforts, the majority of them got better at the end. the reason is most of the students are coming from different numerical sections, and they did not spend much effort and started from zero. however, at the end of the year, they got better after following a process-writing procedure. for example, the instructor said: “i think they got so much better, because we are starting with paragraphs, giving them feedback and this contributed a lot i think. because they are seeing their mistakes and after that i am showing them how to do it better.” apart from the process approach, genre-based structures proved to be useful. this is evident in the following words: “since i am teaching them basic english, i am showing them how to write e-mail, and some formal structures, but none of them are related to their own department actually.” when providing reasons for teaching english that is not geared towards students’ departments, the instructor claimed that: “we found different types of paragraphs related to the students' departments. it was really hard for the teachers here since we are not familiar with the academic vocabulary/terms related with students’ departments.” tailoring the english courses according to the students’ majors requires training teachers for different content-specific englishes. since english teachers are not trained to do so, except for individual attempts, such an expectation does not seem to be realistic. the instructor pointed out that it could be really useful to each them discipline-specific writing even though it does not appear to be a realistic expectation for students with poor linguistic skills: “as i mentioned before, it can be really so beneficial for students when they can receive some help from the departments.” as the term “content-based” suggests, teaching with this method might give students new insights about the way of using language. that is, students are assisted not only in comprehending the language skills but also in the subject-specific topics at the same time. students’ familiarity with the academic vocabulary knowledge: when the teacher was asked if students have adequate familiarity with the content-based academic vocabulary, she mentioned that they actually do not have it and said: “they learn the department-specific terms after they start taking departmental courses.” since the majority of the students come to the preparatory https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol. 7 no. 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 44 school with a beginner level of english, it is not easy for them to comprehend and put low frequency words or department-specific terms into practice. that content-based instruction requires a proper degree of language background not only on the part of the students but also on the content-teachers’ perspective is supported in the documented literature (dearden, 2014; vu & burns, 2014). when the participant was asked about the possible solutions for improving the academic vocabulary, she claimed that working in tandem with related departments can be one of the possible solutions. through such collaborations, the instructors will have more insights about the related departments and know what they actually want them to learn and expect from students, and said: “it may work better if we could cooperate with the related departments, for example receiving help from the lecturers in related departments, we can create different student clubs and teach them what they need.” also, one of the possible solutions is reading. the instructor claimed that students’ need to do theme-based reading and said: “they need to learn as much as they can, like different articles related to their subjects.” as the instructor suggests, there is a great link between reading and learning vocabulary. also, vocabulary knowledge has one of the majority roles in the success of having good language skills and language competence (laufer, elder, hill, & congdon, 2004). to achieve this, reading is one of the essential parts. lastly, when the respondent was asked about ideas on emi, she said it was very beneficial for students: “i think it is a great opportunity for them to develop themselves. yes, we are teaching them english in here, but they should practice more in their daily life as well. learning in school is never enough.” as the instructor suggested, it is a great opportunity for them to develop themselves, and they should not see this as a burden. emi has been gaining momentum in many universities in turkey. however, reducing the attempts to get prepared for the content specific language to schooled instruction seems not to be adequate. professors’ perspectives the interviews with the professors of the content courses revealed some key findings about the students’ expected levels of english writing proficiency, difficulties encountered by students, and some suggested solutions to help the transition from language-focused courses to contentfocused courses less painful. the majority of the professors reported that students mostly failed to understand the classes completely. one of the professors (p2) reported that there are two main reasons for this comprehension problem: courses and students themselves. “i am doing my best and teaching them, and they are doing their best to understand me, forcing themselves to understand. i also cannot tell you that they understand me perfectly, because even though i teach you this in turkish, at the end of the class you cannot tell that “okay, i understand it perfectly!”. so, it depends on how hardworking they are. if you are asking me how they are, i would say they are intermediate.” therefore, even uneven scaffolding may not suffice if learners are not truly involved. apart from commitment, as professors argued, students should benefit from more articles both in turkish and english (p2; p3) and get familiarity with the terms even in turkish. in a situation where such preparedness is missing, things get more demanding for students and teachers. difficulties students face in writing assignments: writing in english is one of the most difficult language skills for english language beginners (al fadda, 2012). when respondents were asked about what difficulties students face in writing assignments, the professors mentioned problems related to correct usage of the words/terms. for instance, professor 3 said that: “i do give them writing assignments. but generally our students have some problem with writing, not only in english but also turkish as well. they cannot express themselves clearly in writing https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol. 7 no. 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 45 and cannot use words correctly.” since the majority of the students did not receive enough writing assignments related to their department, it is not that easy for them to express themselves clearly in a different domain. such competence is possible when students develop some self-confidence about the content of the target discourse community. considering all these, academic writing is also a complicated process. it requires correct usage of the word in an appropriate place, a wide range of vocabulary knowledge, clear ideas about the related topic and a combination and organization of those steps in the paper (rusinovci, 2015). moreover, an increased awareness of the demands of the target discourse community makes it necessary for students to be patient about writing development. however, the students and the teacher of content courses need to be less ambitious to achieve such fluency. possible solutions for writing development: when the professors were asked about possible solutions, the majority of the professors mentioned that doing more content-based writing/reading and doing more presentation during the class can be possible solutions for problems in writing. for example, professor 3 mentioned that: “i think giving them assignments and asking them to present in the classroom might be useful because in this way they need to do paraphrasing. while they are preparing their presentations, they need to write carefully and express themselves clearly.” on the other hand, professor 1 significantly mentioned that education must be in the mother language otherwise students cannot learn 100% and said that: “i do not accept education if it is not in the mother language. it will be possible only if they can understand the other language as well as their mother language. in my opinion, the proficiency exam does not prove anything.” what he believes is, one person can only comprehend 100% in their own language especially when it comes to technical disciplines such as civil engineering. on the other hand, vocabulary is a serious consideration for students who are taking departmental courses. one professor (p2) stressed that the students’ need to build vocabulary: “for our department, no they are not [enough], because they ask me the meanings in the classroom and i tell them. …because they are not checking the dictionary, they want to learn at that moment.” since students are not familiar with the academic vocabulary sufficiently, for the sake of understanding the topic they are learning at that moment, they want to know the meanings immediately. to improve the academic vocabulary, professors (2 and 3) suggested that students should be exposed to more reading related to their department. when expressing their complaints about students’ writing, the professors (p1; p2) reported the need for genre awareness: “while they are writing, they cannot remember the words completely which is quite normal, and they cannot remember the spelling as well. also they do not know which word is suitable for the usage of the passage. for example, conclusions. they are thinking they should say ``result, conclusion or outcome.” p2 pointed to the process students go through, and how their familiarity with the “englishes” bring about a decrease of uncertainties: “actually freshman students have some [problems], but it depends as well. because there are some students who can really understand me well and give me some great feedback. when they become sophomores, complaints decrease. i believe this year it will decrease as well, but, of course, it will not disappear completely.” the introduction of theme-based vocabulary was considered a big step to mitigate the pain of transition. for instance, professor 3 reported that: “they should learn vocabulary first and terms related to the department. also they should read a lot, try to understand the meanings and memorize them.” when citing the problems, the majority of the teachers of content courses reported that they actually do not have any information about what students learn in the preparatory program and https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol. 7 no. 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 46 how they learn it. lack of cooperation with the language school was made evident in the following excerpts: “actually i do not have enough information about the preparatory school, so i cannot say anything bad or good. but my students said they are actually teaching pretty well there. last year, i was thinking that “they do not know english, how am i going to teach them?” but this year the students are better, and i believe the coming ones will be much better.” (p2) “i actually do not know much about how they are learning there. for example, the way they learn, methods, curriculum etc. but students who come here do not have very high english knowledge. i think, all in all, it depends on the student at the end.” (p3) however, the professors of content courses reported that they would be willing to work in tandem with the preparatory school. professor 3 reported that: “if i have enough time, i will try to help of course.” however, one professor (p3) noted that he was against teaching them in english. last but not least, the participants were asked about english as a medium of instruction, and the majority of the professors reported that it is a must to learn. they explained that since we are living in a global world, we need to learn english as it is the common language as well as the language of science, just like what students mentioned before. for example, professor 2 mentioned that: “since our aim is to train students at an international level, it is really a must for them to learn as many languages as possible. the biggest benefit is they can understand science works better.” seeing english medium instruction as a manifestation of internationalization concurs with previous literature. english is growing rapidly and becoming a medium of instruction (dearden & macaro, 2016), attracting many international students and staff. emi can also be applied with the aim of developing students’ english proficiency so that they can run for a better position in the global industry (sener & erol, 2017). when the perceptions are compared, it is significant to point out that emi is considered a significant asset for many participants, except for a content professor who argued that education in learners’ l1 should be the medium of instruction. this indicates that participants hold entrenched beliefs fuelled partly by the significant role of emi in internationalization and attraction of a well-qualified workforce. regarding the language needs, the participants seem to be satisfied with the “language” aspect of education, while more emphasis on content-based english instruction is expected by the students and content professors. the disjuncture between the students’ language proficiency and professors’ expectations is in line with the previous literature (see harklau, 2001). since writing development takes time, people teaching writing at different levels are expected to encounter greater challenges and be patient (hyland, 2013). the preparatory program at this level serves as a transition period in which students should undergo acculturation to disciplinary-specific context. focused attention, therefore, seems to be necessary for learners to address discourse-level patterns. students’ exposure and adoption to different genres is highlighted as a viable solution by all stakeholders. moreover, reading articles and development of content-specific words are reported as working solutions to minimize the gap between the language-based and content-based instruction. conclusion the reflections on the academic writing needs of the students from the perspectives of students themselves, a language teacher, and teachers of content courses are given. it follows from the participants’ reports that students develop their english writing skills considerably in the prep https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol. 7 no. 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 47 programme. specifically, they develop a proper degree of competence in paragraph and essay writing. however, these genres are not considered sufficient by the professors of content courses who expect the learners to write reports of classes/laboratory classes. as a result, after taking content courses, students’ confrontation with “genuine writing practices” might make them unsettled as they are required to write for a discourse community, unlike their familiar l2 writing forms (altınmakas & bayyurt, 2019). moreover, all stakeholders seem to expect students to become more well-prepared for department-specific terminology. from the language instructor’s perspective, students’ progress has been found satisfactory considering their moderate level of proficiency at the beginning of the semester, while professors of content courses seem to expect more regarding the development of disciplinary registers. in such a case, a mismatch between the students’ actual and desired performance is likely to occur. the findings also reveal that english for specific academic purposes (esap) writing was found beneficial both by the students and professors while the instructor cautions that esap classes for learners with moderate language backgrounds might be overwhelming. however, the professors of the content courses expect content-based writing skills and vocabulary, which seems to be something beyond what english language instructors can do especially with lowproficiency students. apart from students’ proficiency, instructors’ investment in departmentspecific content might determine the success of the transition from a language-focused realm to a content-focused one. it might be an unrealistic expectation for many language teachers, if not all, to be equipped with field-specific vocabulary or other discipline-specific writing genres. the idea that department-specific terms and vocabulary should be mastered when students start taking department courses is shared by all stakeholders. however, to encourage the students to be receptive to the department topics, more emphasis on content-based writing tasks could be made. that is, to make the transition less painful, more department-based topics should be covered, and a variety of genres could be used to integrate a “department feeling”. such a move might encourage learners to feel that their investment is reasonable. even though students’ pursuit of studies in english is welcomed by two of the content professors, it is worth noting that such an idea is not embraced by a professor who is teaching content courses. such entrenched beliefs are likely to be reflected into teaching practices. therefore, commitment of all stakeholders is a repeated call to spend a concerted effort (airey, 2016; kırkgöz, 2009; macaro, akincioglu, & dearden, 2016; selvi, 2014). the fragmented picture of these diverse opinions could be considered an outward manifestation of the clashes between alluring internationalization attempts and pedagogical challenges. the findings from the study are limited to english-medium departments, and the civil engineering department was chosen as a representative of those departments. the findings to be gleaned from different studies could produce different findings and different perspectives as different language teaching contexts require different competencies at varying levels. even though the inclusion of the perspectives of different stakeholders is enriching especially for needs analysis, it is thought that more in-depth data might be essential to triangulate the data obtained from this study. for instance, keeping track of students’ writing over a long period could provide a better picture. moreover, this study is reduced to writing skill, and other language skills or components could be investigated to see different aspects. the study might prove to be beneficial for researchers, decision-makers and serve as a call for a better employment of english medium instruction. given that language learners are expected to be immersed in the target language and emi offers such an atmosphere to a certain extent, benefitting from such instruction could make the learners more motivated. however, what would excite the keen supporters and sceptics alike and give a more nuanced view of the hotly https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol. 7 no. 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 48 contested issue at this stage 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(2017). a comparative study on the effectiveness of englishmedium and turkish-medium accounting education: gazi university case. journal of education for business, 92(2), 73–80. https://doi.org/10.1080/08832323.2017.1279117 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity https://www.researchgate.net/deref/http%3a%2f%2fdx.doi.org%2f10.17265%2f2161-623x%2f2015.10a.006 http://www.asiatefl.org/main/download_pdf.php?i=59&c=1412065511&fn=11_3_01.pdf https://doi.org/10.30438/ksj.2017.5.4.1 https://doi.org/10.1080/08832323.2017.1279117 24 acuity: journal of english language pedagogy literature , and culture, vol. 6 no.1,2021 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity zaydi discriminatory decrees and their effect on yemenite jews in nomi eve’s henna house: a psychological and textual analysis dr. ebrahim mohammed alwuraafi ebrahimwarafi@gmail.com, e.mohammed@bu.edu.sa department of english language and literature faculty of science and art-al-mandaq, al-baha university kingdom of saudi arabia doi: https://doi.org/10.35974/acuity.v6i1.2389 abstract nomi eve’s novel henna house: a novel (2014) is the first novel to tackle the history of jews in yemen—one of the poorest and most forgotten countries of the world—in english. the novel revisits the last period of the jews’ history in yemen before their transportation to israel in operation magic carpet between 1949 and 1950 and is illustrative of the subordination and suffering of jews in yemen. it explores the experience of the yemenite jews in the first half of the twentieth-century yemen and reveals the explicitly racialized association of human repression of zaydi majority. it also explores the experiences of marginalization and segregation in the lives of yemenite jews. it raises questions on the relation between religion, politics and minorities and legal implications of the incorporation of a religious minority into the mainstream of national identity. the aim of the present article is to examine the effects of zaydi discriminatory laws particularly the orphans’ decree on the yemenite jewish community and explore the experience of the jewish children under the threat of being uprooted just to be planted in another soil. it argues that eve has been able to articulate the suffering experienced by yemenite jews at the hands of zaydis and that the novel presents a realistic picture of the jewish community during the first half of the 20th century. for the purpose of the study, the psychological approach as well as the textual approach are to be used. keywords: yemenite jews, orphans’ decree, persecution and discrimination introduction nomi eve’s henna house (2014) is the first novel to be written in english to address a topic which has never been discussed before—the marginalization and persecution of jews in yemen. the novel revisits the last period of the jews’ history in yemen before their transportation to israel in operation magic carpet between 1949 and 1950 and is illustrative of the subordination and suffering of jews in yemen. as a historical novel, henna house attempts to revive a lost and forgotten history, memory and identity. the novel is very illuminating and the reader comes to know the life conditions of the jews at the time, their struggle to preserve their jewish culture and https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity mailto:ebrahimwarafi@gmail.com mailto:e.mohammed@bu.edu.sa https://doi.org/10.35974/acuity.v6i1.2389 25 heritage and their adherence to the teachings of judaism. moreover, the novel focuses on the impact of the ideology of zaydi supremacy on the fate of yemenite jews who for several centuries have been treated as the “other” and therefore inferior. it demonstrates that the discriminatory decrees imposed on the jews were prejudicial and unfair and can be considered as the main force behind their departure to eretz yisrael. in other words, the jews’ longing for zion, and their dream of return to eretz yisrael are the outcomes of persecution and discrimination that they received at the hands of zaydi rulers of yemen. the aim of nomi eve is to remind yemenite jews of their past and the corrupt consciousness of those who ruled yemen in the first half of the twentieth century. historical context there are numerous accounts concerning the origin of jews in yemen. one account suggests that jews arrived in the yemen during the reign of the queen belquis of sheba, and the reign of king solomon between 965-925 bc (abu jabal, 1999, p. 16). according to tudor parfitt (1996) the jewish community was founded by a group of jews who disobeyed moses during the exodus and made their way to the southern parts of arab peninsula (p. 3). it is also said that following the destruction of jerusalem by titus in 70 ad, the jews left for yemen (parfitt, 1996, p. 7). another account believes that king solomon sent his men to yemen to bring gold and other ornaments to adorn his temple and some of them never returned (blady, 2000, p. 7). the ḥimyarite kingdom (2nd century bc-6th ad) was one of the most prosperous and wealthy kingdoms in the southern part of arab peninsula and was the last one before the advent of islam (tobi, 1999, p. 3). the himyarites were greatly influenced by judaism and during the reign of king tubba abu karib as’ad (385-420 ad), himyar converted to judaism. judaism then became the official religion of the himyarite kingdom. with the advent of islam in 7th century ad, yemenis embraced the new religion but some of them maintained their old one. when islam became the main religion in yemen, the jews became a minority. since then, “the status of the jews declined as they were no longer ordinary citizens but dhimmis—protected people—who were obliged to pay a poll tax” (tobi, 1999, p. 4). however, they were granted full freedom of religion and protection of the self and property. the jews’ history in yemen is “an unending chain of persecution and humiliation” (parfitt, 1996, p. 6). that is why “[d]uring the long centuries of exile, the jews had prayed for an abrupt and dramatic end to their existence in yemen, a time when their triumphant remnant would return to the holy land on the wings of eagles, as foretold by the prophets” (tawil, 1998, p. 14). the life of jews in yemen has witnessed many ups and downs. it was stable and prosperous at times and faced declination and oppression at other times. tudor parfitt (1996) argues that discrimination and persecution started with the arrival of islam in yemen: “in exchange for the protection of their persons and property by the state, their exemption from military service and their freedom to worship in their own way the dhimmis were expected to fulfill various requirements, all of them discriminatory” (p. 15). yosef tobi (2013) writes that since 629, yemen “was governed by islam and the jews became subject to muslim discriminatory rules of dhimmi and were forced to pay the protection tax (jizya)” (p. 248). however, discrimination and persecution of jews did not gain full force until the zaydis ruled yemen early in the 10th century. in jewish communities in exotic places (2000), ken blady writes “[a]ctive muslim persecution of jews did not gain full force until the shiite-zaydi clan seized power early in the tenth century” (p. 10). the jewish community of yemen was “a traditional, patriarchal society that lived its life according to religious law and in adherence to the codes of a society which was largely untouched 26 by the changes of the industrial world” (eraqi-klorman, 2014, p. 1). this community lived among the yemeni tribes and accepted much of their ethos and traditions. most jews were self-employed entrepreneurs, craftsmen and artisans. it is estimated that the number of jews during the first half of the twentieth century stood at around 65,000, while the yemenite population was estimated to be between three and four million people. religiously, the population of yemen can be divided into two main groups: the shafi’is, following the sunni stream of islam, and the zaydis, a branch of shite islam. there are other minor groups such as jews and christians. the zaydis have maintained political rule over yemen for hundreds of years. the zaydi state was first established by al-hadi ila al-haqq yahya al-rasi (859 –911), the first imam of yemen, at the end of the ninth century in northern yemen. in 1918, yahya al-mutawakkil took over the country and became imam of yemen. the zaydi regime ended in 1962. it was during yahya al-mutawakkil’s regime that nomi eve’s henna house is set. throughout their rule of yemen, the zaydis have issued various discriminatory regulations against the jews. in other words, a number of discriminatory ordinances and decrees were meticulously enforced by zaydi imams. these discriminatory regulations continued to be an obligatory part of the state law until the 1950s. summarizing these laws, ken blady (2000), writes: the jews of yemen were treated as pariah, third-class citizens who needed to be perennially reminded of their submission to the ruling faith…the jews were considered to be impure, and therefore forbidden to touch a muslim or a muslim’s food. they were obliged to humble themselves before a muslim, to walk on his left side, and to greet him first. they were forbidden to raise their voices in front of a muslim. they could not build their houses higher than the muslims’ or ride a camel or horse, and when riding on a mule or donkey, they had to sit sideways. upon entering a muslim quarter, a jew had to take off his footgear and walk barefoot. no jewish man was permitted to wear a turban or carry the jambiyyah (dagger), which was worn universally by the free tribesmen of yemen. if attacked with stones or fist by islamic youth, a jew was not allowed to defend himself. (p. 10)1 further, the jews were forced to wear sidelocks or peots. the wearing of such long and dangling peots “was originally a source of great shame for the yemenites. it was decreed by the imams to distinguish the jews from the muslims” (blady, 2000, p. 11). more degrading and insulting decrees to the jews were the atarot (headgear) and latrine decrees. the former was a seventeenth-century decree forbidding the jews to wear a headcovering or turbans.2 the lartine decree was a nineteenth-century edict in which the jews were forced to clean out public toilets and remove animal dung and carcasses from the streets (blady, 2000, p. 11). another discriminatory edict was the orphan decree which gave the zaydis the right to convert to islam any child under the age of thirteen whose father is dead. further, evidence by a jew against a muslim was invalid and a “jew was forbidden to pass a muslim to his right, and whoever did so, even unwittingly, could be beaten without trial; the jews were forbidden to make their purchases before the muslims had completed theirs; a jew entering the house of an arab or the office of an official was only allowed to sit down in the place where the shoes were removed” (tobi, 1999, p. 89). tudor parfitt summarizes some of these laws in the following: [the jews] were required not to insult islam, never strike a muslim, or to impede him in his path. they were not to assist each other in any activity against a 1 see also eraqi-klorma 2002, pp. 389-408. 2 for more details on these decrees see tobi 1999, pp.142-156. 27 muslim…they were not to build new places of worship or repair existing one...they were not to pray too noisily or hold public religious processions. they were not to wink. they were not to proselytize. they were not to bear arms. they were required to dress in a distinctive fashion in order not to be mistaken for a member of the muslim occupying forces. in other words dhimmis had all the times to behave themselves in an unostentatious and unthreatening manner, one appropriate to a defeated and humbled subject people. they were to avoid the slightest show of triumphalism and they were forbidden any activity that could lead to proselytization. (parfitt, 1996, pp. 15-6) yemenite jews were “excluded as it almost always…from affairs of state, and from the great institutions of the country” (parfitt, 1996, p. 2). most of these discriminatory laws and regulations remained in effect even after the last major jewish exodus in 1950. one of the harshest and most discriminatory decrees which yemenite jews had to endure was the ‘orphans’ decree’, by which jewish children who had lost their parents were taken by the government and subjected to forced conversion to islam. there are several accounts about the beginning of the enforcement of the decree: some accounts say that it was first introduced and enforced in the 17th century while others believe it was first enforced in the first decade of the 19th century (nini, 1991, pp. 21-23). however, the decree was not in full force until 1918 when imam yahya took over sana’a after the ottomans departure, it was revived in places under the zaydi rule. aharon gaimani (2004) writes: “some people considered this decree even harsher than that of pharaoh since the latter only applied to males, whilst the orphans’ decree applied to females as well” (p. 171). according to eraqi-klorman “the orphans’ decree has been preserved in the collective memory of yemeni jews as the single most threatening and oppressive act against their community” (2001, p. 23). avraham tabib labeled it “the mother of all the evil decrees” (as cited in eraqi-klorman, 2001, p. 23). to avoid the forced conversion of orphans, the jews of yemen had two ways: first, the arrangement for orphans to be married so that they are considered adults. this had some undesirable consequence such as child marriage and polygamy as some orphaned girls were married to older men as second and sometimes third wife. the other way to avoid conversion was to smuggle the orphaned children out of yemen (ariel, 2010, p. 97; ariel, 2014, p. 119; gaimani, 2004, p. 171). many orphans along with their relatives left their villages to aden as the first step in migration to israel. in aden the jewish leadership arranged for their permits and final transportation to israel. their journey from sana’a and other cities in the north was difficult and full of dangers. jews who helped rescue the orphans were at great danger. those who were suspected of doing this were imprisoned and tortured.3 to facilitate their departure, they, sometimes, paid the imam’s soldiers so that they could leave without being caught and other times 3 jews who were captured helping orphans leave the country were treated very harshly by the authorities. they “were put in jail and tortured with leg chains. they put two chains on each person” (as cited in eraqi-klorman, 2001, p. 34). eraqi-klorman also cites some other cases in which jews were tortured and who due to “the terrible agony, hunger, beatings, iron chains…converted to islam” (ibid). “economic pressure, in the form of fines imposed on members of the community, was also used to persuade the jews to surrender orphans who had been smuggled out” (ibid). 28 they pretended that they were on a trip to visit the tomb of rabbi shalom shabazi in taiz. (ariel, 2010, p. 99; gaimani, 2004, p. 171).4 henna house told in the first point of view, henna house tells the story of adela damari, a yemenite jewish girl who was born in 1918. the novel proceeds to document adela’s plight from “slavery” to freedom, interweaving cultural, social and political issues together. the novel rewrites this longinherited division between the zaydi community and the jews. the story takes place in qaraah, a day’s ride from sana’a in the kingdom of north yemen. the year was 1923, five years after imam yahye5 hamid ed-din became the imam of yemen. adela damari is the daughter of a jewish shoemaker. she is a bright, young, intelligent little girl and the youngest of nine brothers and the only girl in the family as well as her mother’s last and least favored child. she is part of a large, extended family clan—two uncles and many aunts and cousins. adela’s biggest fear is being taken away by the confiscator, a government official who snatches jewish orphans, and delivers them to the zaydi authorities to convert them to islam, and give them to zaydi families mostly as servants. his job, to use adela’s own words, is “to pluck children out by the roots from the soil of their birth and replant them in a different garden” (p. 8). adela’s father is ailing and his health is deteriorating very fast and the confiscator is waiting for her father to die so he can confiscate adela and force her to be a muslim. to avoid being taken away by the confiscator, adela needs to be betrothed. but unfortunately, all the boys her mother is able to find for her suffer tragedies and either die or leave qaraah altogether. adela gets betrothed several times but unfortunately none of them is successful. first she is betrothed to a boy in the village but he dies soon. then at the age of eight, she is betrothed to her cousin asaf but he leaves the village with his father for a trade journey and never comes back. then she is betrothed to mr. musa, an old man who dies just before their marriage. finally she is betrothed to david, hani’s husband, as a second wife. after the death of her parents and due to the difficult circumstances in qaraah, adela and her extended family leave their small village and head for aden which was a britain protectorate. she lives in aden for three years. life in aden is totally different. it is a very busy and modern port city with modern conveniences. adela goes to the port every day looking for her fiancé asaf. one day asaf comes back and they get married after a long waiting. but asaf betrays her with her cousin hani and therefore she gets divorced. then she marries her childhood friend binyamin bashari and both of them leave for israel shortly in the aftermath of wwii. it is within this framework that the dilemma of the yemenite jews is presented by nomi eve. the protagonist of the novel, adela, is a yemenite jewess and hence a minority figure. she belongs to a human species which troubles any simple designation of her as a yemenite jewish female protagonist. she is, in fact, a complex minority figure who is made minor and comes from a long line of minoritizations. her biggest fear is being confiscated by the zaydi authorities if her father dies. confiscation is a taking possession of orphaned children of a different religion by the zaydi regime which acts as if by a right of ownership. the confiscation of adela and other jewish 4 there were many tricks used during trafficking children such as disguising the orphans as arabs; removing their sidelocks; or using crates of the same used to kerosene and they loaded two crates on each donkey and put two children, sometimes one child, in each crate. during the journey they used only side roads. they stopped during the day and walked only at night (eraqi-klorman, 2001, p. 32). for details see gaimani, 2004, pp. 172-174. 5 the name yahye is better transliterated as “yahya” but the author is following the transcription used in the novel. 29 children registers the paradoxes of dwelling in yemen. acts of intrusion and dispossession in the novel point to the conflicts of uncertainties reigning in the kingdom of yemen. the confiscator visits them without invitation; he is an unwelcome visitor/an intruder whose visits go beyond the claim to buy a pair of slippers for his wife. the novel highlights the zaydis’ feeling of superiority and contempt for jews. the first visit of the confiscator happens when adela is five years old. when the confiscator sees adela for the first time, he says to her father “what is wrong with the girl’s eyes?...they are too big for her face…eyes like that see either too much of the world or too little of it. and the color—greenish gold? pretty and ugly at the same time” (p. 7). the confiscator’s comment about the size and different color of adel’s eyes shows his arrogance and sense of superiority and contempt for the child. adela feels this contempt: contempt for her jewishness. she understands that the nucleus of the problem lies in her jewishness which creates distaste in zaydi eyes. it is this jewishness which accounts for and which motivates him to comment on her eyes. further, the confiscator is applying his own standards of beauty—the dominant culture’s image of beauty—to define her beauty. the rich appearance of the confiscator, compared to that of adela’s father, adds to his arrogance and contempt for the jews and shows his authoritative status and richness. he wears a jambia sheathed on a belt around his waist. the curved ritual scimitar was exquisite —the blade a gleaming threat of forged iron, the hilt a mellow yellow eritrean ivory, overlain with two jeweled serpents wrapped around the handle, a band of rubies at the thumb point, and an embossed hawk’s head on the lip of the hilt, representing both mightiness and honor. he wore an expensive maroon silk djellaba with a black turban, and his beard was carefully tended. (p. 7) a jambia made of african ivory and inlaid with jeweled serpents is a symbol of richness and wealth. however, despite his wealthy appearance and strength, adela is able to see his reality. “even then, at only five years old,” adela says, “i saw him perfectly for what he was: a thief, an evildoer, and a descendant of amalake. i wanted to spit at him, but i knew i would be punished for it in this life and in the world to come” (p. 8). as a thief, he makes daily errands to the jewish quarters sniffing the odor of death and looking for victims. he seems to be keeping a health record for every jew who has children and patiently waiting for their death. adela knows very well “that the confiscator was a bad man. i knew that my father hated and feared him. but it was only later that i understood that he was a bringer of nightmares, a kidnapper. history, religion, and politics had conspired to make him such” (p. 9). the confiscator is a nightmare not only for adela who continues dreaming of him at night even years after she has left for aden but for the whole jewish community. eve’s novel explores the complexity of the look—confiscator’s look—as the controlling gaze of a dominant and oppressive society which constructs zaydism/zaidiyyah as the norm while viewing judaism/jewishness as the other. it is a mesmerizing gaze that leaves the gazed at the mercy of the gazer. the problem is that the look of the dominant social order represented by the confiscator is internalized by jewish characters; that is, they construct themselves through and against the gaze of the master. describing the constant gaze of the confiscator during his visits to her father’s stall, adela says: “and still he stared at me—looking at me, seeing me live a different life” (p. 8). the next time the confiscator visits the stall, he does not gaze at her: he didn’t mention my eyes, and for most of the exchange he ignored me completely. but even though he didn’t glance in my direction, i felt his gaze upon me. not his 30 ‘this-lifetime’ eyes…but his ‘next-lifetime’ eyes—the hooded eyes of the soul that can see into the heart of a small girl. and that is when i learned to fear him. when he saw right through me, making me feel simultaneously naked and invisible. (p. 11) the gaze shows how the jewish community is subject to intense scrutiny from zaydi political institutions and hence henna house is a story of a community that is constantly under the gaze of the dominant ideology. moreover, the problem for adela with the dominant gaze of the confiscator is that it conjures up the triple devaluation of being female, jew, and poor. the confiscator’s gaze is, as a gaze of hegemonic society, driven by racism and the power dynamic of subordination/domination as it is by the exploitation of those young orphans kidnapped by the zaydis—most of the orphans are used as servants at zaydi homes. here eve constructs the “circuit” of gaze relation, a relation between zaydi master and non-zaydi servant or the other, in which the zaydi/master looks upon the other and sees ugliness, an absence of humanity and ordinariness. in turn, adela, the other, looks upon the master, the confiscator, and sees omnipotence and omnipresence. one of the recurrent images in the novel is that of the jambia and the two jeweled serpents wrapped around the handle. the first thing that attracts adela’s attention the first time she meets the confiscator is his jambia. she gives a detailed description of the jambia and is particularly attracted to the two serpents. expressing the power of the serpents she recalls: i was making my way home when i saw the confiscator gesturing to me. he was standing by one of the spice seller’s stalls. i almost turned and ran, but his jambia pulled me forward, the jeweled serpents on his scimitar twisting around each other, tugging me closer, closer. i was in their thrall. they were alive, their emerald eyes looking deep into my heart, as the hawk on the hilt opened its beak to murmur into my ears, a wild bird-whisper that came to me in a language i knew but didn’t know. (p. 12) she also says: “whenever the man spoke, the snakes looked at me, opened their fanged mouths, and hissed” (p. 180). actually, snakes are traditional symbols of rebirth and fertility because of how they shed their skins. but for adela, the snake on the confiscator’s jambia signifies a rebirth into a new life as a muslim. so for her, the snake is an ominous reminder of what could happen to her were she to be confiscated. they also symbolize transformation and metamorphosis: “i thought of moses’s staff. how god had turned it into a snake, which writhed at pharaoh’s feet. this made me think of the confiscator’s jambia, and soon the fire of fear was igniting behind my eyes” (p. 43). the transformation of moses’s staff and the satan into snakes resembles adel’s the would-be transformation into a muslim child. eve’s novel delves deep into the child’s psyche to register adela’s fear and anxiety. the appearance of the confiscator installs fear inside adela—fear of losing her father, fear of being confiscated and converted and finally fear of losing her community. it is a natural response to the threat and the vulnerability that she feels. so, whenever, the confiscator appears, she will timidly crouch in the back of the shop feeling so afraid that he may kill her father with his jambia. her color changes and she becomes as “pale as a ghost” (p. 11). describing her reaction to one of the confiscator’s visits, she says: “i buried my face in my father’s legs—though at the last minute i pried myself loose and glared at the confiscator, a fatal mistake which turned me into a pillar of salt, like lot’s wife” (p. 12). even after being betrothed to her cousin, the feeling of fear of being 31 picked up by the zaydi authorities does not disappear. though she knows that she is protected from confiscation by her engagement to asaf, she knows very well that this protection was tenuous and that i was still at risk, simply because life was unpredictable and i was a jewish girl in yemen. occasionally i would see the confiscator in the market. each time my belly clenched up and i felt fire leap in my skull. whenever the long shadow of his maroon djellaba disappeared into a throng of marketers, i told myself, ‘i am safe, i am safe, i am safe’ but deep down, i didn’t believe it. (pp. 47-8) it is this unpredictability which is the great threat for adela because zaydi leaders do not have law to rule; they rule according to their whims and the only law available is one which suits their personal needs and gains. describing her constant fear of the confiscator, she says that she often hears the voice of the confiscator’s wife in her head. and her fear increases as her father’s health deteriorates. adela’s fear of the confiscator motivates her to devise a plan to free herself from confiscation and conversion if her father dies. she steals a poison satchel from her aunt rahel’s house one day and keeps it for herself to finish her life if her father dies. many times when she is alone at home, she takes out aunt rahel’s embroidered satchel, untied the cinch, and sniffed the bitter flakes of root…it smelled of death, decay, and all manner of miseries. it also smelled of freedom. i knew that taking my own life was against the sacred law of our people, but i also didn’t think that anyone would judge me poorly for my actions. after all, what else was there for me to do but take matters into my own hands, if my father should die, leaving me an orphan? (p. 110) adela’s decision to end her life rather than be converted to another religion demonstrates the yemenite jewish community’s adherence to judaism and shows their fidelity and loyalty to their religion. it is due to their total exclusion from the outside world and other jewish communities that “yemenite jews tend to be highly conservative…they did not easily adopt new religious ideas introduced by visitors or emissaries…in this respect they represent the most jewish figure of all.” (tobi, 1999, p. 206). they are so devout and religious: “to them religion is still the first and last consideration-a principle of life” (as cited in tobi, 1999, p. 206). hence, yemenite jews are “considered the most authentic element of the jewish people” (tobi, 1999, p. 206). adela’s fear of the confiscator and her loss of trust in her community lead her to find her refuge and solace in the cave. one day after meeting the confiscator in the market, she runs to a nearby cave and since then the cave becomes her safe sanctuary. she reminisces: after that day, that flight, i took possession of that blessed little cave. throughout that spring and early summer, i felt truly safe there. i knew the confiscator would never find me in my earthen sanctuary. but it wasn’t only the confiscator that i hid from. i also hid from my mother, whose cruelty toward me often took the form of verbal rebukes, but also manifested itself in beatings that left my behind black-andblue. i hid from my older brothers, and i hid from the future and whatever miseries it would hold. i grew to love that cave. (p. 23) 32 in the cave adela starts making her own gods and goddesses. she picks up stones and twigs, and using her embroidery skills, she makes them into idols—she has ten little idols ritualistically arranged for devotion. further, she constructs a small altar and sets her idols upon it. she becomes “an uncommonly pagan child for a jewish girl and imbued my stones with the names of goddesses i had heard mumbled by the fortune-tellers in the corner market stalls” (p. 24). besides the idols, she also has cast-off pots, rugs, and trinkets. she also has candles, knickknacks, a little copper pot and tray, an indigo wood-husk pillow and a small reed mat. in spite of the frightening nature of the caves, and in spite of the unpleasant consequences that she may face if discovered, adela feels very comfortable in her new home: “i knew then that my cave would always welcome me, and that i would always feel more at home there than i ever would in my parents’ house” (p. 115). there seems to be a sense of being in isolation. significantly, her visitations to the cave communicates her incompatibility with the existing social and political orders, thereby suggesting an engagement with a world free from all these conundrums. she seeks transcendence from the legacy of racism and discrimination. it is easy to notice that confiscation is not the only dilemma that adela faces. she is disliked by her mother and this feeling of detest on the side of her mother has a significant impact on her. adela’s father’s meekness, humbleness and his constant fighting with his wife shows the family’s inability to provide security to their daughter. hence, adela lacks the warmth and love at home. her mother is unable to nurture feelings of self-worth in her. though her father tries to give her affection she needs, his daily fights with his wife traumatize adela and show the fragmentation of the family and its carelessness about their daughter. so, adela struggles between an overwhelming desire to leave home and live in a private home represented by the cave and a profound wish that she could kill herself with the poison she steals from aunt rahel. this feeling of alienation is juxtaposed with the warmth that she feels in the cave with her idols. further, thrust into such a horrifying political and a deviant cultural milieu, adela feels vulnerable. partly due to her feeling of vulnerability (she belongs to a community surrounded by enemies who keeps attacking them for trivial reasons) and partly due to her suspicion and self-reliance, adela resists conventional filiation and starts her own community in the cave. this is not only a rejection of a community unable to protect her but also a rejection of a religion and a god that has totally left her and her people. she creates her own world in the cave with new religion and new gods. unlike that of her community, adela’s position is radical. her decision to create her own world and gods is revolutionary. adela’s childhood becomes a nightmare. though badly damaged whenever she sees the confiscator, adela is able to heal itself by resorting to her secluded home. she chooses the cave to familiarize herself with herself and her secret world. though she has a cultural, religious and historical past to serve her as a model, she rejects it and attempts to create her own cultural and religious present. thinking of her father’s old age and approaching death, she loses her sense of security and safety, things she recovers in the darkness of the cave. while living in a familiar society, adela enjoys discovering her own environment but she constructs her own childish view of the world in isolation. moreover, in the cave, as she ritualistically arranges the idols, adela’s friendship and love for benjamin is inscribed in its most perfected moment. the other side of adel’s transition can be attributed to her relationship with her mother. worse yet, adel’s relationship with her mother is governed by tension and pretension. her mother maintains a social distance between herself and her daughter through nonreciprocal conversations. adults in her family do not talk to her; they give directions and orders. in her family, 33 communication is hierarchically structured; it is a one-way conversation. maternal expressions are seldom verbalized in the novel; rather, adela is beaten and those expressions are inscribed on her skin. certainly adela does not feel coddled, and her mother never overtly acknowledges her claims for attention. however, this cruelty could be, as ralph ellison (2003) says, “an expression of concern, of love” (p.141). eve unveils moments in the history of yemenite jews which are too horrible to relate. eve’s job is, to use toni morrison’s words (1995), to “find and expose a truth about the interior life of people who didn’t write it” (p. 93). the novel examines what may happen to the most vulnerable member of a marginalized community, a jewish female child, in a muslim-dominant country where human rights and freedom have no access. she unveils the underrepresented and often unrecognized history of racial oppression in yemen. though the novel is set in a critical moment of history in yemen including wwi, the international war and the conflicts with outside powers are largely absent from the novel. instead eve focuses on local concerns as in qaraah, adela’s home-village, people are most concerned with the struggle of survival and the difficulties of this task in light of impoverishment, poverty, backwardness and ignorance. while the zaydis in 1920s celebrate their victory over the othman’s empire and the establishment of their newly born kingdom, eve offers a sharply different version of history. henna house presents orphans’ decree as a cross-racial metaphor for all kinds of persecution, discrimination and submission. focusing on jews’ distorted history and the effects of racial discrimination and marginalization of the jews, eve’s narrative seems to provide an important corrective version of the jews’ history in yemen. furthermore, the novel focuses on the oppression of female children under zaydi regime, which leaves them prey to all forms of abuse and which gives the novel a feminist tone. beside the portrayal of adela’s suffering to survive in a hostile and aggressive society, the novel presents a gloomy and painful portrayal of the jews’ life in the first half of the 20th century. it presents zaydis as the ruling class controlling every minute detail of the lives of the jews. the size of homes, the type of clothing, and the type of jobs are decided by zaydi majority. describing the condition of her family under the rule of imam yahye adela say: my family and all the yemenite jews dreaded the imam’s many decrees. the day the confiscator first came to my father’s stall, i couldn’t have told you a lick about politics, but i could have reported how often my father and brothers came home stinking like shit, death, and piss because they had been conscripted to carry dung, cart off sewage, and haul animal carcasses. the imam’s dung carriers decree relegated jews to the jobs of refuse and carrion collectors. (p. 9) adela’s father and brothers are forbidden from riding horses and therefore they have to ride only donkeys, and they are forced to ride sidesaddle. moreover, they are not allowed to build their homes as tall as the houses of muslim neighbors and when they walk in the street they are forbidden from walking on the same side of the street as a muslim (p. 9). further, they are assigned to perform certain mean jobs. actually, the superiority of the zaydis is seen in their refusal to work in certain jobs. they regard craftsmanship as inferior to their status as the offspring of the prophet: “working with one’s hands was considered beneath the muslim men in the kingdom of yemen, so the work was left to us jews. accordingly, the men of our community became jambia makers, metalsmiths, wicker workers, jewelers, potters, tailors, carpenters, tanners, and rope braiders” (p. 14). the zaydis claim to descent from prophet muhammad and have a divine right to rule. descent from muhammad means descent from al-hasan and al-husain, the offspring of fatima (prophet 34 muhammad’s daughter) and ali ibn abi talib (prophet muhammad’s cousin and the last of the righteous caliphs). they call themselves hashmites (descendants of hashim, the grandfather of prophet muhammad) and ahl al-bait (means belonging to the family of prophet muhammad). they have enjoyed a high status and respect due to their alleged ancestry. however, they have oppressed all other yemenites whose religious beliefs are different: including sunni muslims, jews and other minorities.6 they see themselves as god’s representative on earth and that imamate/leadership is their heavenly right.7 they were created to rule and not to work. conclusion eve in this novel skillfully invokes the traumatic history of yemenite jews as yemen’s paradigmatic minority through a jewish female protagonist and her treatment of historical racism. dramatizing an extreme form of the vulnerability suffered by yemenite jews, the novel demonstrates how jews’ lives are conditioned by the persistent and entrenched legacy of centuries of racial inequality and oppression. the novel probes deeper into the jewish community’s psychic dilemmas, tribulations and oppressions as symbolized by the tragic life of adela. the zaydi apparatus operates by establishing binary relations based on supremacist/racist premises of superiority and inferiority. through stereotyping the other into certain templates of representation such as jew, kafir and enemy, the zaydis maintain a dominant status preventing the other from sustaining a sense of self. hence, it seems vital for the inferiorized subjects such as adela and other characters to begin their journey to their new home which is a journey of freedom, selfaffirmation and self-discovery. henna house demonstrates that lack of liberty, subjugation, racial and religious discrimination are the driving forces that motivated the jews to leave their land seeking refuge in the newly born state of israel. in other words, the enforcement of laws such as orphans’ decree was a major cause of yemenite jews migration out of yemen in the first half of the 20th century. there were, of course, many other factors which were equally important such as poor economic conditions, political instability and religious freedom. however, the novel makes it clear that the majority of the jews migrated due political and religious persecution. yemen lacked political and religious freedom which put pressure on them to emigrate leaving their money, domestic possessions, dwellings, articles and everything they had behind. while eve seeks to analyze some aspects of the tragic history of jews in yemen, the entire narrative reflects the miserable life the jews led during the rule of the zaydis. in henna house, the orphans’ decree is a plot device used to frame the narrative trajectory and development of the main character of the novel, though the novel deals with other aspects of first half of the twentieth century history of yemen and the jewish community such as the child immigrants to aden and then israel, the danger and difficulties faced during the evacuation of children from regions under the zaydi rule and the difficult and miserable life of the jews under the oppressive regime. yemeni jewish orphans are seen as a commodity that can be owned by the zaydi muslims. they have no right and there is no law to protect them. betrothing and marriage are not perceived as an act of one’s own choice but rather as an unfortunate solution to avoid being deprived of one’s communal and religious heredity. in fact, the practice of orphans’ decree posed a great challenge to the yemenite jews by depriving them of the most basic human rights—choosing one’s own god. the orphans’ decree posed a great challenge particularly for female children as they faced 6 see al-muqri 2011, p. 126. 7 see hadi mohammed saleh (2016), p. 23. 35 double discrimination for being both female and jewish. further, when the female orphans were taken, they were subject to harsh treatment and maybe to rape also. eve in henna house has given the reader a vivid picture of the misery and suffering of the jewish community in yemen in the first half of the 20th century. the zaydis are portrayed as violent, cruel, and narrow-minded and the jews as a weak and poor working-class community doing mean jobs to survive. the novel sheds light on the vulnerability of the jewish community. they know the destiny of their children if they die but they are unable to do anything. henna house holds as its central concern a critique of religious marginalization and its power of destructiveness when imposed upon people of other religions. eve has this idea in mind as she asserts that the idea of religious superiority is one of probably the most destructive ideas in the history of humans. one can easily discern much about workings of religion by exploring the plight of the novel’s main victim as well as the whole jewish community depicted in the novel. references abu jabal, k. (1999). yahud al-yemen: dirasa siyasiyah, iqtisadia and ijtima’eya [yemenite jews: a political, economic and social study]. damascus, syria: dar alnumair publishering house. al-muqri, a. (2011). al-yahudi al-hali [the handsome jew]. beirut, lebanon: dar al-saqi. ariel, a. (2010). a reconsideration of imam yahya's attitude toward forced conversion of jewish orphans in yemen. shofar, 29(1), 95-111. ariel, a. (2014). jewish-muslim relations and migration from yemen to palestine in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. leiden, the netherlands: brill nv. blady, k. (2000). jewish communities in exotic places. jerusalem, israel: jason aronson inc. ellison, r. (2003). the collected essays of ralph ellison: revised and updated. (j. f. callahan, ed.). new york: the modern library. eraqi-klorman, b. (2001). the forced conversion of jewish orphans in yemen. international journal of middle east studies, 33(1), 23-47. eraqi-klorman, b. (2014). traditional society in transition: the yemeni jewish experience. leiden, the netherlands: brill. eve, n. (2014). henna house: a novel. new york, scribner. gaimani, a. (2004). the orphans' decree' in yemen: two new episodes. middle eastern studies, 40(4), 171-184. morrisn, t. (1995). the site of memory. in william zinsser (ed.), inventing the truth: the art and craft of memoir (2nd ed., pp. 83-102). new york: houghton mifflin. nini, y. (1991). the jews of the yemen, 1800-1914. (h. galai. trans.). london: routledge. parfitt, t. (1996). the road to redemption: the jews of the yemen 1900-1950. leiden, the netherlands: e j brill. saleh, h. m. (2016). asifat al-hazm [decisive storm]. al-janadria, ksa: al-janadria publishing. tawil, h. (1998). operation esther: opening the door for the last jews of yemen. new york, ny: belkis press. tobi, y. (1999). the jews of yemen: studies in their history and culture. leiden, the netherlands: brill. 36 tobi, y. (2013). jews of yemen. in a. meddeb and b. stora (eds.), a history of jewish-muslim relations from the origins to the present day (pp. 248-257). princeton: princeton university press. ariel, a. (2010). a reconsideration of imam yahya's attitude toward forced conversion of jewish orphans in yemen. shofar, 29(1), 95-111. ariel, a. (2014). jewish-muslim relations and migration from yemen to palestine in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. leiden, the netherlands: brill nv. ellison, r. (2003). the collected essays of ralph ellison: revised and updated. (j. f. callahan, ed.). new york: the modern library. morrisn, t. (1995). the site of memory. in william zinsser (ed.), inventing the truth: the art and craft of memoir (2nd ed., pp. 83-102). new york: houghton mifflin. acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 35 possible relationship among experience, age, income level, gender, and job satisfaction elham hasanzadeh,1 elhamhasanzadeh.eng@gmail.com urmia university, iran javad gholami,2 urmia university, iran doi: 10.35974/acuity.v8i1.2848 abstract discovering the causes of satisfaction and dissatisfaction is one of the primary goals of job satisfaction studies, and also it has a connection with several important factors. the present study investigates the relationship among iranian efl teachers' experience, age, gender, income level, and job satisfaction. to this end, 104 male and female efl teachers in urmia, iran was selected based on convenience sampling design. the participants were asked to fill out an online job satisfaction index (jdi) questionnaire. it evaluates a person in six areas: the nature of the job, supervision, coworkers, promotions, salaries, and benefits, and working conditions. the questionnaires were analyzed by spss. in order to investigate the hypothesis, a parametric correlation coefficient was used. the results revealed there was a connection between experience, age, income level, and job satisfaction. however, the gender-job satisfaction connection was determined to be insignificant. it implies that job satisfaction is irrelevant to gender. the implication of the present study can be beneficial to supervisors, institutes, and administrators. keywords: job satisfaction, age, gender, experience, efl teachers introduction many researchers have defined satisfaction in various ways, and it has been the principal subject of numerous surveys and studies. teacher's job satisfaction results from the perceived link between what a teacher wants from teaching and what a teacher feels it delivers to a teacher (zembylas & papanastasiou, 2004). job satisfaction is described by thiruchelvi and supriya as "an assessment of the perceived job characteristics, work environment, and emotional experience at work." (2009, p. 110). the work of herzberg, mausner, and snyderman has had a significant influence on job satisfaction studies (1959). job satisfaction and dissatisfaction, according to herzberg's dual-factor theory, are independent of one another and are influenced by a variety of working circumstances. the vast majority of scholarly studies on this subject focuses on determining and evaluating job satisfaction (chang & chang, 2014; fila, paik, griffeth, & allen, 2014; macintosh & krush, 2014; spagnoli, caetano, & santos, 2012). both internal and external variables influence a teacher's job corresponding author: elham hasanzadeh, english language department, urmia university, urmia, iran. email: elhamhasanzadeh.eng@gmail.com https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity mailto:elhamhasanzadeh.eng@gmail.com mailto:email:%20elhamhasanzadeh.eng@gmail.com mailto:email:%20elhamhasanzadeh.eng@gmail.com acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 36 satisfaction. it is controlled by a variety of factors, and it reflects an individual's overall attitude toward their job, as well as how they regard their profession, the working environment, and the working environment in general (anastasiou & belios, 2020). among the many parameters linked to teacher job satisfaction, years of experience, teachers' age, and gender have received significantly more attention in the literature. according to tsui (2005), teaching experience is a crucial and essential factor in teacher development. teachers with fewer years of experience face various challenges in the classroom than those with more. according to van maele and van houtte (2012) and menon and athanasoula-reppa (2011), teachers with more extensive work experience tended to be more content with their positions than those with fewer work experiences. the greater the teachers' positive influence, the higher their self-efficacy beliefs, job satisfaction, and passion in the classroom (buric & moe, 2020). age is another factor influencing job satisfaction (dewar & werbel, 1979; parasuraman, 1982). job satisfaction rises as one gets older and gains more experience. older teachers seemed satisfied with specific parts of their jobs in certain circumstances, such as more substantial relationships with their coworkers (de nobile & mccormick,2007). the correlations between gender and teacher job satisfaction are considerable for two main reasons: firstly, because teaching is a popular career choice for women in a few countries, it is necessary to investigate gender as a contributor to job satisfaction and to identify reasons for differences in male and female teacher job satisfaction; furthermore, female teachers have lower job satisfaction than male teachers. wilson (1997) found that female teachers who are dissatisfied with their jobs are more likely to face obstacles to their progression, such as prejudice and socioeconomic concerns. it is generally accepted that more salary equals greater job satisfaction. a higher salary equates to more financial stability. job satisfaction is impacted by a variety of factors, as mentioned previously. promotions are a vital part of each employee's life. a significant rise in an employee's salary or income has a substantial impact on their job. aydin, uysal, and sarier (2012) investigated the impact of gender on teacher job satisfaction in turkey. meta-analysis is utilized as a research tool to aggregate master's and doctoral theses written in turkey between 2005 and 2009. based on research, the effect of sex on job satisfaction is in favor of males. an iranian study by sarani and rezaee (2017) found a positive correlation between teaching experience and job satisfaction among english teachers. the study was conducted using a questionnaire developed by moafian and pishghadam (2009). an equal number of male and female teachers took part, with an equal number of each gender. yucel and bektas (2012) studied secondary school teachers in erzincan, turkey. they found that teachers' age could moderate the association between job satisfaction and commitment. school authorities need to develop strategies to deal with teachers who experience less job satisfaction. papanastasiou and zembylas (2006) look into the differences in work satisfaction between public and private kindergarten instructors. public school teachers had an average age of 36.28 years old, but private school instructors had an average age of 28.97 years old. this is hardly unexpected considering that private kindergartens in cyprus often provide fewer extrinsic benefits. moreover, instructors at public kindergartens reported their discontent with the way their school system handled merit-based promotions. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 37 the satisfaction levels of male and female teachers in various iranian institutes have not been examined despite the wide range of studies and reviewed literature on the topic. furthermore, there hasn't been any research on the impact of age and the relationship between age, experience, the income levels of young, inexperienced instructors and experienced instructors, and job satisfaction. moreover, unlike other studies, this study looked at diverse ages and levels of expertise. specifically, to pave the way towards a deeper and more thorough understanding of the claims as mentioned above, the following questions were formulated: 1. is there any significant relationship between age and job satisfaction among efl teachers? 2. is there any significant relationship between teaching experience and job satisfaction among efl teachers? 3. is there a significant relationship between income level and job satisfaction among efl teachers? 4. is there any significant relationship between gender and job satisfaction among efl teachers? 5. does teaching experience moderate the relationship between age, income level, gender, and job satisfaction among efl teachers? methods research design the relationship between experience, age, income level, gender, and job satisfaction of iranian efl teachers was explored in this study. correlational research, partial correlation type has been chosen to evaluate the research hypothesis and research questions. ‘partial correlation’ is a very useful technique, allowing us to examine the relationship between two variables after removing the correlation which is due to their mutual association with a third variable (for example, a background variable such as the learner’s intelligence/aptitude, which can easily modify the scores when computing correlations between motivation and, say, achievement). this is, in a way, the correlation counterpart of ancova. (zoltán dörnyei, 2007, p.223). research participants the majority of the teachers in this study were english-language students in west azerbaijan, iran, who worked full-time or part-time in schools or institutes. a convenient sampling design elected 31 male and 73 female efl teachers. the majority of the teachers had bachelor's degrees in tefl and english literature, and several were masters in tefl. and only a few held phds. the age range of the participants was from about 22 to more than 41. the years of experience ranged from one year to more than 20 years. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 38 instruments a job satisfaction scale was utilized as the main instrument in this research. there are numerous questionnaires available for assessing teachers' job satisfaction. the most widely used measures of job satisfaction include the job descriptive index (jdi). the jdi consists of 70 items and measures job satisfaction on a 5-point likert scale. it evaluates a person in six areas: the nature of the job, supervision, coworkers, promotions, salaries, and benefits, and working conditions. using the formal credit method and the perspectives of five experts and professors from the university of isfahan's faculty of educational sciences and economics, this test was discovered to be valid. cronbach's alpha coefficient was also used to assess the reliability of the jdi questionnaire. it was found to be significant at an alpha level of 0.10 (93 percent), demonstrating the tool's high reliability. procedure one hundred four participants were picked from some private language institutes in urmia, west azerbaijan province. the researcher created an online questionnaire and sent it to both male and female efl teachers via email and other social media applications. it's important to note that the total number of participants was 150, but 46 were not taken into consideration because of incomplete responses. the statistical procedures were carried out using the statistical package for social sciences (spss) to determine any significant link between experience, age, gender, income level, and job satisfaction. results based on the objective of the first question, the researcher used the pearson product-moment correlation test to determine the relationship between the participant's age and job satisfaction. table 1 provides these results: table 1 correlation between the efl teachers' age and job satisfaction age job satisfaction age pearson correlation 1 .746 sig. (2-tailed) .000 n 103 103 job satisfaction pearson correlation .746 1 sig. (2-tailed) .000 n 103 103 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 39 as shown in table 1, there was a strong positive correlation (.746) between the participant's age and job satisfaction. furthermore, the p-value (.000) was less than .05 and showed that the correlation between these variables was significant. based on the intent of the second question, the researcher used the pearson product-moment correlation test to examine the relationship between the participants' teaching experience and job satisfaction. the results of this test are provided in table 2: table 2 correlation between the efl teachers' teaching experience and job satisfaction teaching experience job satisfaction teaching experience pearson correlation 1 .779 sig. (2-tailed) .000 n 103 103 job satisfaction pearson correlation .779 1 sig. (2-tailed) .000 n 103 103 as shown in table 2, there was a significant relationship (0.779) between the participants' teaching experience and job satisfaction. moreover, the correlation between these variables was substantial because the p-value (0.000) was less than .05. based on the aim of the third question, the researcher utilized the pearson product-moment correlation test to determine the relationship between the participants' income level and job satisfaction. table 3 provides these results: table 3 correlation between the efl teachers' income level and job satisfaction income level job satisfaction income level pearson correlation 1 .848 sig. (2-tailed) .000 n 103 103 job satisfaction pearson correlation 0.848 1 sig. (2-tailed) 0.000 n 103 103 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 40 as shown in table 3, there was a strong positive correlation (0.848) between the participants' income level and job satisfaction. moreover, the correlation between these variables was significant because the p-value (0.000) was less than .05. in order to answer the fourth question, the researcher had to determine the correlation between a dichotomous variable (i.e., gender) and a continuous variable (i.e., job satisfaction). consequently, she used the biserial point correlation to determine the relationship between the above-mentioned variables. the point biserial correlation coefficient is equal to the pearson product-moment correlation coefficient when one of the variables is dichotomous. table 4 shows these results: table 4 correlation between the efl teachers' gender and job satisfaction gender job satisfaction gender pearson correlation 1 -0.039 sig. (2-tailed) 0.693 n 103 103 job satisfaction pearson correlation -0.039 1 sig. (2-tailed) 0.693 n 103 103 as shown in table 4, there was a weak negative correlation (-.039) between the participants' gender and job satisfaction. moreover, the correlation between these variables was not significant due to the fact that the p-value 0.693 was more than .05. in terms of the direction of correlation, there is a negative association between these two variables. a negative correlation implies that decreases in the other accompany increases in one. being weak means that the magnitude of the relationship between the two variables is less than 0.5. it can be said that the relationship between gender and job satisfaction is weak. in order to answer the fifth question, the researcher used three partial correlation tests to control the influence of the teaching experience (which may act as a confounding variable) on the relationships between the above-mentioned pairs of variables. table 5 shows these results for the correlation between the efl teachers' age and job satisfaction: table 5 partial correlation between the efl teachers' age and job satisfaction when the influence of the teaching experience on this correlation was controlled control variables age job satisfaction teaching experience -noneage correlation 1.000 .746 .509 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 41 significance (2tailed) . .000 .000 df 0 101 101 job satisfaction correlation .746 1.000 .779 significance (2tailed) .000 . .000 df 101 0 101 teaching experience correlation .509 .779 1.000 significance (2tailed) .000 .000 . df 101 101 0 teaching experience age correlation 1.000 .648 significance (2tailed) . .000 df 0 100 job satisfaction correlation .648 1.000 significance (2tailed) .000 . df 100 0 the top half of table, which is marked by the word none, shows the results of the pearson productmoment test in regard to the relationship between the efl teachers' age and job satisfaction (0.746) when the influence of the teachers' teaching experience on this relationship was not controlled. none denotes a partial correlation. the relationship between two variables when the third variable's effect is not taken into account. the bottom half of this table provides the correlation test results regarding the relationship between the participants' age and job satisfaction (0.648) when the influence of their teaching experience on the relationship between their age and job satisfaction was controlled. the comparison between these two correlation coefficients shows a moderate decrease in the strength of the correlation (from 0.746 to 0.648). nonetheless, the pvalue (0.000) in the results of the partial correlation test in the bottom half of table 5 was less than .05 and showed that the correlation between the efl teachers' age and job satisfaction was significant when the influence of their teaching experience on this correlation was controlled. consequently, it was argued that the observed correlation between the teachers' age and job satisfaction was not due merely to the influence of their teaching experience. table 6 provides the results of the partial correlation test for the correlation between the efl teachers' income level and job satisfaction: table 6 partial correlation between the efl teachers' income level and job satisfaction when the influence of the teaching experience on this correlation was controlled https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 42 control variables income level job satisfaction teaching experience -none income level correlation 1.000 0.848 0.666 significance (2tailed) . 0.000 0.000 df 0 101 101 job satisfaction correlation 0.848 1.000 0.779 significance (2tailed) 0.000 . 0.000 df 101 0 101 teaching experience correlation .0666 0.779 1.000 significance (2tailed) 0.000 0.000 . df 101 101 0 teaching experience income level correlation 1.000 0.703 significance (2tailed) . 0.000 df 0 100 job satisfaction correlation 0.703 1.000 significance (2tailed) 0.000 . df 100 0 as shown in table 6, there was a moderate decrease in the correlation coefficient between the efl teachers' income level and job satisfaction (from 0.848 to 0.703). notwithstanding, the p-value (0.000) in the results of the partial correlation test was less than 0.05 and showed that the correlation between the efl teachers' income level and job satisfaction was significant when the influence of their teaching experience on this correlation was controlled. therefore, it was argued that the observed correlation between the teachers' income level and job satisfaction was not due merely to the influence of their teaching experience. table 7 shows the results of the partial correlation test for the correlation between the efl teachers' gender and job satisfaction: table 7 partial correlation between the efl teachers' gender and job satisfaction when the influence of the teaching experience on this correlation was controlled control variables gender job satisfaction teaching experience -none-a gender correlation 1.000 -0.039 0.068 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 43 significance (2tailed) . 0.693 0.492 df 0 101 101 job satisfaction correlation -0.039 1.000 0.779 significance (2tailed) 0.693 . 0.000 df 101 0 101 teaching experience correlation .068 0.779 1.000 significance (2tailed) .492 0.000 . df 101 101 0 teaching experience gender correlation 1.000 -0.148 significance (2tailed) . 0.137 df 0 100 job satisfaction correlation -0.148 1.000 significance (2tailed) 0.137 . df 100 0 as shown in table 7, there was a slight increase in the correlation coefficient between the efl teachers' gender and job satisfaction (from -.039 to -.148). notwithstanding, the p-value (0.137) in the results of the partial correlation test was more than .05. it showed that the correlation between the efl teachers' gender and job satisfaction was not significant when the influence of their teaching experience on this correlation was controlled. therefore, it was argued that the observed correlation between the teachers' gender and job satisfaction was not due merely to the influence of their teaching experience. discussion the primary motivation for conducting this study was to evaluate the relationship between experience, age, income level, gender, and job satisfaction of iranian efl teachers in a systematic manner. despite the enormous review of evidence and evaluated literature on the subject, the satisfaction levels of male and female teachers in different iranian institutes have not been investigated. furthermore, no studies on the effects of age or the connections between age, experience, the pay scales of young, inexperienced teachers compared to experienced instructors, or job satisfaction have been conducted. in addition, this study looked at a range of ages and degrees of skill, unlike earlier investigations. according to the findings, there was a highly positive association between participants' age and job satisfaction. the findings of this study about the relationship between age and job satisfaction were in line with the findings of saner and zihni https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 44 eyüpolu (2012). their research showed that older academics are generally more satisfied with their jobs than younger academics. however, there was no statistically significant correlation between age and intrinsic satisfaction. also, it was in conformity with the findings of yucel and bektas (2012). they found that teachers' age could moderate the association between job satisfaction and teachers' organizational commitment. the correlation between participants' teaching experience and job satisfaction was strong and positive. this study's conclusions on the association between experience and job satisfaction were in line with the findings of sarani and rezaee (2017). they researched lorestan province, encompassing khoram abad, poldokhtar, and borujerd, iran. their findings showed a significant positive relationship between teaching experience and job satisfaction among english teachers. in addition, the results of this study also corroborate the findings of veisia, azizifara, gowharya, and jamalinesaria (2015), who found a significant positive relationship between experience and job satisfaction. all other dimensions of job satisfaction were higher for experienced instructors. furthermore, the participants' income level and job satisfaction had a strong positive association. the gender of the subjects had a weak negative connection with job satisfaction. it means that gender has no essential role. the findings of this research regarding the relationship between gender and job satisfaction were not in line with the previous study by aydin, uysal, and sarier (2012), who found the effect of gender on job satisfaction was in favor of males. meanwhile, in the present study, the participants' gender and work satisfaction had a weak negative connection. on the other hand, this research and reppa and menon's (2011) study were similar. in terms of gender, they found that no significant variations in work satisfaction were discovered between men and women, even though men's mean scores were often higher than or so close to those of women. finally, when the influence of their teaching experience on this association was controlled, the correlation between efl teachers' age and job satisfaction was substantial. as a result, it was suggested that the observed relationship between teachers' age and job satisfaction was not solely due to their teaching experience. like many other research investigations, this study had some limitations. the most significant was that teachers were given online questionnaires due to the universal quarantined, and several participants did not immediately respond to the online questions. it's worth noting that reaching male teachers was difficult due to quarantine and a scarcity of male teachers. therefore, the number of male teachers in this study is lower than that of female teachers. this may have an impact on the research conducted in this study. the findings of this study would be helpful for english language teachers in schools and people who want to be teachers. it would be better for teachers to be aware of the factors that affect their satisfaction. furthermore, the results of this research may assist the ministry of education in selecting young teachers. moreover, they present a range of facilities for experienced teachers. this research has the benefit of being related in this regard. it can open up a new perspective for those who want to do another related research, as it has done in the past. furthermore, the findings of this study will be beneficial to teachers. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 45 this research has thrown up some questions about the need for further study. further research can incorporate other variables, such as the effects of anxiety on teachers' job satisfaction and job performance. this could also be a useful subject for further research in this area. more research could be done to see just what variables cause job dissatisfaction and even minimize these factors in language institutes. eventually, it is essential to investigate and analyze teachers' job satisfaction in various locations and cities and explain discrepancies. conclusion the major goal of this study was to examine the relationship between iranian efl teachers' experience, age, income level, gender, and job satisfaction in a particular way. as shown in the outcomes, there was a significant positive relationship between participants' age and job satisfaction, as well as a strong positive relationship between participants' teaching experience and job satisfaction. also, there was a substantial positive relationship between the participants' income level and job satisfaction. job satisfaction was slightly negatively correlated with the individuals' gender. furthermore, there was no statistically significant link between gender and job satisfaction. it implies that gender has no significant influence. last, the correlation between efl teachers' age and job satisfaction was significant when the impact of their teaching experience on this association was controlled. as a consequence, it was implied that the observed relationship between teachers' age and job satisfaction was related to more than just their teaching experience. references anastasiou, s., & belios, e. (2020). effect of age on job satisfaction and emotional exhaustion of primary school teachers in greece. european journal of investigation in health, psychology and education, 10(2), 644–655. doi:10.3390/ejihpe10020047 aydin, a., uysal, s., & sarier, y. (2012). the effect of gender on job satisfaction of teachers: a metaanalysis study. procedia-social and behavioral sciences, 46, 356-362. aytac, t. (2015). the effect of gender on teachers' job satisfaction: a meta-analysis. the anthropologist, 20(3), 385–396. doi:10.1080/09720073.2015.11891742 basak, r., & ghosh, a. (2011). school environment and locus of control in relation to job satisfaction among school teachers – a study from indian perspective. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 29, 1199–1208. doi: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.11.354 burić, i., & moè, a. (2020). what makes teachers enthusiastic: the interplay of positive affect, self-efficacy and job satisfaction. teaching and teacher education, 89, 103008. doi: 10.1016/j.tate.2019.103008 halim, h. (2021). hotel employee retention: do workplace environment, leader communication and job satisfaction matter? doi:10.15405/epsbs.2021.06.02.39 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 46 khany, r., & tazik, k. (2015). on the relationship between psychological empowerment, trust, and iranian efl teachers' job satisfaction. journal of career assessment, 24(1), 112–129. doi:10.1177/1069072714565362 menon, m. e., & athanasoula-reppa, a. (2011). job satisfaction among secondary school teachers: the role of gender and experience. school leadership & management, 31(5), 435–450. doi:10.1080/13632434.2011.614942 rahimi, m., & asadollahi, f. (2012). teaching styles of iranian efl teachers: do gender, age, and experience make a difference? international journal of english linguistics, 2(2). doi:10.5539/ijel. v2n2p157 saner, t., & eyüpoğlu, ş. z. (2012). the age and job satisfaction relationship in higher education. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 55, 1020–1026. doi: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.09.593 smith, p. c., kendall, l. m. & hulin. c. l. (1969). the measurement of satisfaction in work and retirement. chicago, ii; rand mcnally veisi, s., azizifar, a., gowhary, h., & jamalinesari, a. (2015). the relationship between iranian efl teachers' empowerment and teachers' self-efficacy. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 185, 437–445. doi: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.03.362 yucel, i., & bektas, c. (2012). job satisfaction, organizational commitment and demographic characteristics among teachers in turkey: younger is better? procedia social and behavioral sciences, 46, 1598–1608. doi: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.05.346 elham hasanzadeh, m.a graduated in tefl at urmia university, iran, is a qualified and experienced english teacher who is dedicated and motivated to supporting student growth via academic advancement. her research interest is innovative methods of teaching skills. javad gholami is an associate professor of applied linguistics at urmia university, iran. his main publications have been on english for medical purposes (emp), incidental focus on form, teacher education, task-based language teaching, and esp/eap. recently, he has been working as a professional efl teacher convenient editor and researching on convenience editing and academic writing in eap. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity (4)2, 153-176 the use of read, cover, remember, retell (rcrr) strategy in improving students’ reading comprehension ability marlin steffi marpaung & risnawaty sinaga corresponding author marlin (marlin.marpaung@unai.edu) universitas advent indonesia abstract reading is one of the important skills in english needed by the second language learner. the purpose of this study is to find out is there a significant difference on students’ reading comprehension through read, cover, remember and retell (rcrr) strategy. the population were vii grade students of smpn 10 cimahi. they were divided into two groups, the experimental and conventional group. the experimental group was taught using rcrr strategy while the conventional group was taught using conventional method. this study used quantitative research method and experimental design by using pre-test and post-test. the study was designed to find out the answer of the following questions: are the students have same level of ability before the treatment? is there a significant difference on students’ achievement in reading comprehension between the experimental and conventional group? what is the students’ response toward read, cover, remember and retell (rcrr) strategy?. the instrument used for this study is reading comprehension test and a questionnaire. the result of this study showed that there was a significant difference on students’ achievement in reading comprehension with mean score of pre-test was 40.27 and mean score of post-test was 73.47. the result of the questionnaire toward the students’ responses was 68% positive. it indicated that students had a positive response toward the rcrr strategy. furthermore, the suggestion for the english teachers, it is recommended to use rcrr strategy to teach reading comprehension in their classes because it can improve the students’ reading comprehension ability. keywords: rcrr (read, cover, remember, and retell), conventional, reading comprehension introduction as an international language english plays an important role and must be understood by everyone in this world. in indonesia english is not their first language, therefore, they have difficulty in learning english. “indonesian students often experience problems when learning english because english differs from bahasa indonesia (the indonesian language) in its structure, pronunciation, and vocabulary” (katemba, 2019). further morrisson (2014) stated that “english is a difficult subject because it is not the first or second language for them”. so english is a difficult lesson to be understood by them. english language has four skills; listening, speaking, reading and writing and also english has a vast vocabulary, though counting how many words of any language is impossible. in dealing with today's modern mailto:marlin.marpaung@unai.edu acuity (4)2, 153-176 era, students are required to read a lot and be able to understand english texts so that they are not left behind in the development of science and they are required to achieve academic and social success (lacina, bauml, & taylor, 2016). reading is very important for the students in schools, from elementary level to senior high school or vocational high school level. as it is stated in permendiknas no. 23 year 2006, the aim of reading in the curriculum is to make the students are able to comprehend the meaning of written language, both interpersonal and transactional. reading is language, and language is made up of words. words reflect experiences according to gerald (2009). reading can also be defined as the process in which readers learn something from what they read and involve it in the academic context as a part of education (grabe, 2009). as reading is included in learning, the readers try to grasp the texts being read by interpreting, synthesizing, evaluating, and selecting the important information. three basic definitions of reading have driven literacy programs in the united states (foertsctr, 1998). the first definition is learning to read means learning to pronounce words, second is learning to read means learning to identify words and get their meaning, and third definition is learning to read means learning to bring meaning to a text in order to get meaning from it. klingner and vaughn (2007) stated that vocabulary mastery also affects reading comprehension. it is impossible to understand the text if the reader does not know much about a large number of words in the text. by mastering many vocabularies, readers can construct the meaning of text easily, so the readers must have the ability to understand english to overcome problems faced by them. karimi & veisi (2016) argued that reading resilience can overcome the serious problems of a large number of students (efl) in reading, understanding, and translating texts. background of the study the fact that there are many students in indonesia still have low ability in reading comprehension. a study was conducted by central connecticut state university, indonesia ranks 60th out of 61 countries in terms of reading interest (jakarta post, 2016). another fact that proves the reading ability of senior high school is low proved by the research done by the programme for international student assessment (jakarta post, 2013). they conducted a reading literacy survey in senior high school with students’ age between 15 16 years, they found out that indonesia is ranked 62 out of 70 participating countries. most of indonesian students do not understand the definition, the generic structures and the language feature in a narrative text. this reality was stated by aruan and sinur (2012) on their research based on initial observations they have made, the low ability of students to read is because they are less able to understand the text. so they unable to answer questions related to the text. these realities of students’ reading ability showed that the students’ ability of senior high school in reading comprehension was still low. the problems of students in reading can be solved through the application of various types of reading strategies. the problems can be solved through the learning process by the teacher, one of them by using appropriate teaching strategies. there are many teaching reading strategies for students who are active in doing comprehension activities and it needs an appropriate strategy to help them solve the problems. one of them is read, cover, remember, retell (rcrr) strategy. according to brummer and macceca (2008) that read, cover, remember, retell strategy is an effective approach to help readers who are good in reading is reading quickly and as a result, they do not understand what they have read. it is modeled for students during a whole-class instruction period and then is conducted with students who work as partners to read the same text. the students have an opportunity for giving mutual support and stimulation and students are also motivated to share their information or express their each other stories. it means reading with this strategy will be able to read quickly followed by good acuity (4)2, 153-176 results from the understanding of what they have read. then, reading comprehension by using this strategy is believed to improve students' reading abilities.yulimariza (2013) stated that read, cover, remember, retell strategy can increase students' motivation in learning english, especially reading and it can make them think more active and critical in understanding the text. anita (2013) concluded that strategy can also improve students reading comprehension. it is known that using read, cover, remember, retell strategy in improving students' reading comprehension ability will give good effects to the students. statement of the problem based on the background above, the problems were formulated as follow: 1. to find out the initial ability of the students before the rcrr treatment? 2. is there any significant difference on students’ achievement in reading comprehension between the experimental and conventional group? 3. what is the students’ response toward read, cover, remember and retell (rcrr)? aims of the study the purpose of this study was to investigate whether the rcrr strategy (read, cover, remember, retell) improve student achievement in reading comprehension and to find out students’ achievement in reading comprehension through the application of read, cover, remember, retell (rcrr) strategy. hypothesis based on the problems above, the researcher provided the hypothesis as follow: ho: null hypothesis. there is no significant difference between students’ reading comprehension between the experimental and conventional group. ha: alternative hypothesis there is a significant difference between students’ reading comprehension between the experimental and conventional group. related literature & studies reading comprehension is the activity of reading in which the readers build comprehension of a text. reading comprehension combined logical thinking that is owned by a collection of letters, words, and sentences that are in the text. this is in line with the statement of snow (2002) which stated that reading comprehension is the process of simultaneously extracting and constructing meaning through interaction and involvement with written language. according to shanahan (2006), “reading comprehension is the act of understanding and interpreting the information within the text”. scott and steven (2005) also said that reading comprehension is the ability to identify meaningful relations between the various parts of a text and between these parts and the readers' background knowledge. reading comprehension has become as the problem faced by the students were arise since the teacher never gave a clear explanation toward how to comprehend and understand the text. sam and premalatha (2013) notified that, “there are various functions of graphic organizers. in reading comprehension, they assist learners to clarify and organize information into categories (the main idea, supporting details, topic sentence, facts, opinion, etc.), organize information in a paragraph for better understanding, construct meaning of difficult words and sentence dividing into lexis, understand the context by associating with prior knowledge, and identify conceptual and perceptual errors that may occur in the course of reading a passage”. acuity (4)2, 153-176 spears (2013) said that skill is the important thing in reading comprehension because the reader can use it to prior knowledge, make connections, visualize, infer, ask questions, determine importance, and synthesize the materials that they read. teaching reading comprehension is essential because reading is the most important activity in any language class. teaching is an activity in which the teacher guides and facilitates learning, gives a chance for the learners to learn, and sets the condition for learning (brown, 2001). the teacher can help the students in gaining knowledge by giving facilities such as tasks. by giving these tasks, the teacher lets the students study by themselves. based on brown’s teaching reading comprehension definition, teaching reading comprehension was the guidance that is done by the teacher to make learners reach their reading comprehension of the text using a certain technique. the teacher can lead the learners to understand a text by using some strategies on reading comprehension (pang, et.al. 2003). teaching reading is a part of the activity in teaching english that must be done by the teacher. some teachers find problems in teaching reading comprehension. the problem is that the teacher cannot know exactly the students’ prior knowledge. although the teacher has taught some materials which are related to the topic that will be discussed, the teacher cannot make sure that all the students are able to understand the material well. it becomes a serious problem in teaching reading comprehension as prior knowledge is very important to the students’ reading comprehension (national research council, 2004). brummer and macceca (2008) stated that read, cover, remember, retell strategy is an effective strategy to help readers at all levels who think that good reading is reading quickly. there are some effective thing from read, cover, remember, retell strategy that involves alternating and summarizing or explaining. in this case read, cover, remember and retell strategy can reduce the opportunity of one participant is simply a passive recipient seem likely to be better for both motivation and learning. the framework of read, cover, remember, and retell (rcrr) strategy like a house has a phase to get the best skill in reading comprehension. the strategy of rcrr are: first is read, the strategy is only read the text with a small portion and think about what you are reading from part of the story or text. second is cover, the strategy is to explain and use your hand to cover some part of the story that you read and you must try to remember what you have read. the third is remember, the strategy is to explain what you have remembered from the text and prepare the words to tell the part of story or text, and the last is retell, the strategy is you must tell about the part of story or text by using your own words. yulimariza (2013) gave some procedures about read, cover, remember, and retell strategy in reading comprehension as follow: the first is a teacher may divide the students into some groups. second is students select a small text on a page that can be covered by their hand. the third is teacher or students determine the topic of the text. fourth is have students silently read as much text as they can and cover the words with one hand. the fifth is to ask each group to read and discuss the text that they get. sixth is after reading, ask them to cover the text again with their hand and think about what they have read. seventh is the students must remember what they have just read. eighth is have students retell the section they just read, either silently or with a partner and the last is summarizing is beneficial to readers in several ways. amira (2018) said that read, cover, remember, retell strategy has some advantages. the first advantage of making the students has an opportunity for giving mutual support and stimulation. second is, in addition, students are making a connection, sequencing events, and considering causes of action and the effects of this action and the last advantage is this strategy is a way which provides understanding and memorizing in the learning process. acuity (4)2, 153-176 related study a study was conducted by dahler, putra., zaim & fauzan (2019) entitled, “using read cover remember retell (rcrr) in teaching reading comprehension”. the method of this research was quasi-experimental research, the population was the second-grade students of smpn 16 pekan baru which amounted 240 students. the technique of collecting data was test. the technique used to analyze the test was t-test, u-mann whitney and n-gain. they found out that there was a positive effect and the rcrr strategy was effective to improve students’ reading comprehension of recount text. arinda (2018) was done a study entitled. “using read-cover-remember-retell (rcrr) technique to improve the hortatory exposition text reading skill of the eleventh graders of sma muhammadiyah 1 kota magelang in the school year 2017/2018. she conducted a classroom action research (car) which was divided into pre-cycle, cycle i, and cycle ii and to collect the data, she used test and non-test (observation, questionnaire, and documentation). the result of the study showed the rcrr technique can increase the learning motivation and there was a great improvement of the hortatory exposition text reading skill of the students. daulay & simanjuntak (2018) was conducted a study entitled, “improving students’ ability in reading narrative text through read, cover, remember, retell (rcrr) strategy at smp global prima national plus school medan.” the study was conducted by using classroom action research (car), both qualitative and quantitative were applied in this research. the quantitative data were taken from the students score in reading narrative text and the qualitative data obtained from the observation of the students’ activity in learning process. they have proved that rcrr (read, cover, remember, retell) strategy improved the students’ ability in reading narrative text. amira (2018) was done a study entitled, “the implementation of rcrr (read, cover, remember, retell) strategy to improve students’ achievement in reading comprehension. she used classroom action research (car) in this study. descriptive qualitative and quantitative design were applied. the quantitative data were taken from the students’ scores in reading comprehension, while the qualitative was obtained from the observation of the students’ activity and teacher’s performance in learning process. based on the result, the rcrr strategy improved the students’ achievement in reading comprehension. another study was conducted by djunaidi, noviati & oktariani (2017) entitled, “the application of rcrr (read, cover, remember, retell) strategy in teaching reading descriptive text to the eight grade students of state junior high school 50 palembang. the research was pre-experimental method with one group pretest-postetst design. it was taken by using cluster random sampling method. the data were collected by using written test. they have found that the rcrr strategy was effective in teaching reading descriptive text and could increase students’ ability and students score in reading descriptive text. acuity (4)2, 153-176 figure 2.1. class vii c class vii f reading indicators 1. students are lack of vocabulary. 2. student has difficulty in understanding the english text. 3. students are not able to find the gist and aim of the text. reading indicators 1. students are lack of vocabulary. 2. student has difficulty in understanding the english text. 3. students are not able to find the gist and aim of the text. outcome: students have increase in reading comprehension. rcrr klinger & vaughn 1987 conventional fig.1. conceptual framework methodology this study applied an experimental research design. experimental research designs are the primary approach used to investigate causal (cause/effect) relationships and to study the relationship between one variable and another (fraenkel, wallen & hyun, 2012). the design was applied pre-test and post-test for both the experimental group and the conventional group. this research was a true-experimental research, which was research about cause and effect design. this investigation was about how the students’ reading comprehension can be improved through the use of rcrr strategy so the pre-test was used before the treatment was being implied to evaluate their pre-existing comprehension. the post-test was administered at the end of the session to see whether there was an improvement in the students’ reading comprehension achievement after they have been taught reading comprehension through rcrr strategy. table 3.1 presented the design of research and treatments (creswell, 2003). table 3.1 research design sample pre-test treatment post-test g1 o x1 o g2 o o where: g1: experimental group acuity (4)2, 153-176 g2: conventional group x1: treatment of using rcrr o: reading test the population and sample the population of this study was students at smpn 10 cimahi. the samples were grade vii a and b. the range of age were about 13-15 years old. each of the class consisted about 30-35 students. one of the groups was the experimental group and the other group was the conventional group. the student in the experimental group was taught using rcrr strategy and the students in the conventional group were taught without using rcrr. research instrument instruments were used to facilitate this research and to collect the data or information which was important to find the result of this research, the pre-test and post-test were used, and both samples were acquired the same instruments. a pilot test was administered to validate the test. below was the explanation of the instruments: lesson plan the lesson plan was designed as a guidance for running the detailed description of the course step-by-step. lesson plan are designed to help to focus on the goals that need to be achieved. this lesson plan included the students and teachers’ activities, the teacher’s approaches, the time allocation, and the material used in the classroom. pilot test the pilot test was administered before giving the pre-test. the test was a reading test; adopted from some sources and students’ textbook. this test was validated by using anates. anates was used to facilitate in order to do the reliability test, difficulty level test, validity test and analyze the discrimination index. the pilot test consisted of 50 multiple-choice questions. pre-test after administered the pilot test, a pre-test was conducted to get the achievement before the treatment was given. the purpose of the pre-test was to know the initial students’ reading comprehension level. treatment the treatment was only given to the experimental group. before the treatment was conducted, a-week observation on the class was done and was taught the conventional class by using the usual materials and method used by the classroom teacher. the rcrr strategy is a reading strategy that helped the students to tackle textbook material in a strategic manner. the rcrr was used to improve the students’ reading comprehension. table 1. procedures of the treatment class a (conventional) class b (experiment) the teacher introduces about the material what will be taught. stage 1: introduction the teacher introduces the effectiveness of rcrr procedures in improving reading comprehension. the teacher explains the material and give the students worksheet to be done. stage 2: read acuity (4)2, 153-176 as the first step of rcrr procedures, read. read a section of text that is only as big as your hand can cover. it can be an individual reading or group reading. the teacher makes a discussion with the whole class and share the answers. stage 3: cover when they have finished reading the text, they can cover up the text they have read. they can write them on sticky notes, the teacher can collect them and the students make a list of the students’ words. the teacher writes down the points from the worksheet. stage 4: remember the students think about what they just read, and tried to remember what they write. the teacher reviews the lesson with the whole class. stage 5: retell the students must be able to remember what they write and remember. the students try to retell a post-test after the treatment, a post-test was given to the students. this test was used to see the improvement of the students in reading comprehension through the use of rcrr. the posttest achievement was given to the students to be compared to the pre-test scores. data collection procedures to collect the data, the pre-test, treatment, post-test, and scoring were administered then got the result of each test. the first was the pre-test which was administered to both groups in order to find out the groups’ achievement before the treatment was given. after the pre-test was conducted to the students, the treatment was given to the experimental group according to the procedures of the treatment. then, the post-test was given to both groups after giving the treatment. the third was scoring all the tests given, by using the rubric as the guideline to score the test. both pre-test and post-test scores were compared. statistic procedures the statistical program used in analyzing the data were spss, states, and microsoft excel. validity test the validity test aimed to find out if the instrument test was suitable to be used in the research. the following formula was used to test the validity of the instrument (arif, 2014). r xy= n ∑ xy (∑ x)(∑ y) √n (∑ x2− (∑ x)2)− (n (∑ y2− (∑ y)2) where: rxy : correlation coefficient x : item score acuity (4)2, 153-176 y : total score n : number of participants suherman (2003) figured out the criteria of validity test that is reflected in table 2. table 2. validity criteria 𝑟𝑥𝑦 interpretation 0,80 < rxy ≤ 1,00 very high 0,60 < rxy ≤ 0,80 high 0,40 < rxy ≤ 0,60 moderate 0,20 < rxy ≤ 0,40 low 0,00 < rxy ≤ 0,20 very low rxy ≤ 0,00 not valid the result was as follow: table 3. validity question number of question 𝑟𝑥𝑦 interpretation 0,80 < rxy ≤ 1,00 very high 17, 31, 43. 0,60 < rxy ≤ 0,80 high 2, 12, 15, 16, 22, 24, 25, 37, 40, 42, 44. 0,40 < rxy ≤ 0,60 moderate 1, 5, 7, 13, 20, 21, 23, 28, 32, 35, 36, 38, 45, 47, 49. 0,20 < rxy ≤ 0,40 low 4, 6, 8, 9, 18, 19, 26, 27, 29, 30, 46. 0,00 < rxy ≤ 0,20 very low 3, 10, 11, 14, 33, 34, 39, 41, 48, 50. rxy ≤ 0,00 not valid based on the result above, questions that were valid if the score was larger than 0.00. from the table calculation, there were 25 items were valid. there were 3 items were high, 11 items were moderate, 15 items were low, 11 items were very low, 10 items were not valid. reliability test reliability of a test according to masriyah (1999) is the level of stability or the stability of the measurement results. a reliable measuring tool is a measuring instrument used to measure the same thing over and over again, and the results are relatively the same. the formula used to find the reliability of the instrument was alpha’s formula (arikunto, 2012). r 11= ( n n−1 )(1− ∑ s1 2 st 2 ) where: r11 : reliability of the instrument n : total number of questions ∑s1 2 : total score of each question variance st 2 : variance total score the criteria of reliability level according to arif (2014) are shown in table 4. acuity (4)2, 153-176 table 4. classification of reliability coefficient reliability interpretation 0,80 < r11 ≤ 1,00 very high 060 < r11 ≤ 0,80 high 0,40 < r11 ≤ 0,60 moderate 0,20 < r11 ≤ 0.40 low 0,00 < r11≤ 0,20 very low r11 ≤ 0,00 not valid the calculation result of the reliability test was 0.50. it meant it has a moderate level. discrimination index discriminate index according to ratumanan (2003) stated how far the ability of the question is able to distinguish between the group of smart students and the weak group. the differentiation of the test items was calculated by the formula: 𝐷𝑃 = 𝑁𝐵𝑎−𝑁𝐵𝑏 𝑁𝑆𝑎 or 𝐷𝑃 = 𝑁𝐵𝑎−𝑁𝐵𝑏 𝑁𝑆𝑏 where: d : discrimination index n : number of the test participants na : number of a lower group participant nb : number of lower group participant ba : number of upper group participants who answered the question correctly ba : number of lower group participants who answered the question correctly pa = ba : the proposition of upper group students who correctly answer the test ja item pb = bb : the proposition of lower group students who correctly answer the test jb item value of discrimination index from arikunto (2009) was employed to interpret the distinguishing clarification, and it was shown in table 5. table 5. criteria of discrimination index discrimination index interpretation 0,00 ≤ 𝐷𝐼 ≤ 0,20 poor 0,21 ≤ 𝐷𝐼 ≤ 0,40 sufficient 0,41 ≤ 𝐷𝐼 ≤ 0,70 good 0,71 ≤ 𝐷𝐼 ≤ 1,00 very good the result was as follow: acuity (4)2, 153-176 table 6. discrimination index number of questions discrimination index interpretation 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 16, 18, 21, 24, 26, 30, 33, 34, 39, 41, 46, 48, 50. 0,00 ≤ 𝐷𝐼 ≤ 0,20 poor 4, 19, 20, 22, 29, 31, 32, 35, 36, 38, 44, 49. 0,21 ≤ 𝐷𝐼 ≤ 0,40 sufficient 1, 2, 5, 12, 13, 15, 17, 23, 25, 27, 28, 37, 40, 42, 43, 45, 47. 0,41 ≤ 𝐷𝐼 ≤ 0,70 good 0,71 ≤ 𝐷𝐼 ≤ 1,00 very good according to the table above there were 21 items in the poor category, 12 questions in sufficient category, 17 items in the good category, and 0 items in very good. level of difficulty the level of difficulty was expressed in the difficulty index (number of difficulty index) which showed the proportion of students that correctly answer the question (masriyah, 1999). the bigger the index of difficulty, the easier it is. conversely, the smaller the difficulty index, the more difficult the item is. arikunto (2009) figured out that the difficulty index of a test item can be calculated by the formula: 𝑃 = 𝐶 𝑁𝑃 where: p : difficulty index of test item c : the number of students who answered correctly np : the number of participants in the test the classification of difficulty level according to arikunto (2009) was shown in table 7. table 7. criteria of difficulty level level of difficulty interpretation 0,71 ≤ 𝐷𝑓𝑙 ≤ 1,00 easy 0,31 ≤ 𝐷𝑓𝑙 ≤ 0,70 moderate 0,00 ≤ 𝐷𝑓𝑙 ≤ 0,30 difficult <0,00 very difficult the result was as follow: table 8. difficulty level number index of difficulty difficulty degree 0,71 ≤ 𝐷𝑓𝑙 ≤ 1,00 easy 1,3, 4, 5, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 23, 29, 30, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 38, 39, 41, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50. 0,31 ≤ 𝐷𝑓𝑙 ≤ 0,70 moderate 2, 6, 8, 9, 20, 21, 25, 27, 28, 37, 40, 42, 44. 0,00 ≤ 𝐷𝑓𝑙 ≤ 0,30 difficult acuity (4)2, 153-176 7, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 22, 24, 26, 31, 43. <0,00 very difficult according to the result above that had had an index of difficulty level. based on the result of the table calculation above, 26 items were moderate, and 13 items that were difficult and 11 items that were very difficult. the result of recapitulation of pilot test this research used 25 questions for pre-test and post-test. to analyze the result of the data, anates program was used. the recapitulation of the test result can be seen in table 9. table 9. the recapitulation of pilot test number of question validity difficulty level discrimination 1 low moderate good 2 moderate difficult good 3 not valid moderate poor 4 very low moderate sufficient 5 low moderate good 6 very low difficult poor 7 low very difficult poor 8 very low difficult poor 9 very low difficult poor 10 not valid moderate poor 11 not valid moderate poor 12 moderate moderate good 13 low moderate good 14 not valid moderate poor 15 moderate very difficult good 16 moderate very difficult poor 17 high very difficult good 18 very low very difficult poor 19 very low very difficult sufficient 20 low difficult sufficient 21 low difficult poor 22 moderate very difficult sufficient 23 low moderate good 24 moderate very difficult poor 25 moderate difficult good 26 very low very difficult poor 27 very low difficult good 28 low difficult good 29 very low moderate sufficient 30 very low moderate poor 31 high very difficult sufficient 32 low moderate sufficient 33 not valid moderate poor 34 not valid moderate poor acuity (4)2, 153-176 35 low moderate sufficient 36 low moderate sufficient 37 moderate difficult good 38 low moderate sufficient 39 not valid moderate poor 40 moderate difficult good 41 not valid moderate poor 42 moderate difficult good 43 high very difficult good 44 moderate difficult sufficient 45 low moderate good 46 very low moderate poor 47 low moderate good 48 not valid moderate poor 49 low moderate sufficient 50 not valid moderate poor based on the recapitulation test, this research used 25 questions for pre-test and posttest. they were questions number: 1, 2, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 28, 31, 35, 36, 37, 38, 40, 42, 43, 44, 45, and 47. those were based on the result of questions analysis; that the 25 questions were able to measure the students’ ability in improving students’ reading comprehension and fulfill the indicators of reading comprehension. non-test instrument (student’s response questionnaire) the non-test instrument was done by using a questionnaire in order to know the students’ response toward the lesson and strategy that will be used in the teaching-learning process. this questionnaire was given after the post-test was conducted. the statements in the questionnaire were about rcrr and conventional method in improving students’ reading comprehension ability. there were four alternate answers in this questionnaire, those are: strongly agree (sa), agree (a), disagree (d), strongly disagree (sd). the completed questionnaire was classified as follows: 1. the calculation of number of positive responses for each item was on positive items, strongly agree (sa), agree (a), and the negative items, disagree (d), strongly disagree (sd). 2. the percentage was calculated using the following presentation formula as follows: table 10. scoring of student’s response with positive item type alternative answer score strongly agree 4 agree 3 slightly agree 2 disagree 1 for the questionnaire with negative item, the scoring reversed, so the criteria was as follow. acuity (4)2, 153-176 table 11. scoring of student’s response with negative item type alternative answer score strongly agree 1 agree 2 slightly agree 3 disagree 4 (arikunto, 1991) the questionnaire had 10 statements, so the maximum score for the questionnaire was 40 and the minimum score was 10. after the data was obtained, then the percentage of student response was calculated with this formula: 𝑅𝑖 = 𝑆𝑖 𝑆𝑚𝑎𝑘𝑠 x 100 where: ri = student i response score si = total of score item of student i smax = maximum score table 12. interpretation of students’ response degree in persentage interpretation 80 ≤ t ≤ 100 very good 60 ≤ t ≤ 80 good 40 ≤ t ≤ 60 moderate 20 ≤ t ≤ 40 bad t ≤ 20 very bad (arikunto, 2012) data analysis the researcher was used statistical package for social science (spss) to analyze the normalized gain to determine the improvement of students’ reading comprehension, the researcher performed an analysis of the results of the pre-test and post-test. analyzing performed by using normalized gain (hake, 1999). g = %𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑡−𝑡𝑒𝑠𝑡−%𝑝𝑟𝑒−𝑡𝑒𝑠𝑡 100%−%𝑝𝑟𝑒−𝑡𝑒𝑠𝑡 where: g : average normalized gain % pre-test : percentage of pre-test scores % post-test : percentage of post-test scores according to hake (2007), the criteria of normalized gain was shown below. table 13. the criteria of normalized gain gain (g) category 0.71 < g ≤ 1.00 high 0.31 < g ≤ 0.70 moderate 0.00 ≤ g ≤ 0.30 low acuity (4)2, 153-176 normality test normality test was being conducted to see whether the population of the data collected was normally distributed or not. to test the normality of the population the researcher used the shapiro-wilk. to calculate the data using spss. the formula was (ruseffendi, 1998): w = ( ∑ 𝑎𝑖 𝑥𝑖) 2 ∑ (𝑥𝑖 − 𝑥 ̅) 2 where: w : test statistic xi : statistic order x1, x2, x3 …, xn ai : constant generated from the average value (mean), variance, and covariance structure sample distribution of and from a normal distribution. x : the mean of sample data the hypothesis was as follow: ho : the data population is normally distributed ha : the data population is not normally distributed the criteria of normality test if the data were analyzed with spss: a. data were normally distributed if sig. value is larger (>) than α (0.05), or ho is not rejected. b. data were not normally distributed if sig. value is lesser or equal (≤) or α (0.05), and then ho is rejected. homogeneity test to determine whether the population variances were homogeny or not which meant that having the same basic qualities, the researcher used the homogeneity test based on the result of the normality test (uyanto, 2009). the formula was: 𝐹 = 𝑆1 2 𝑆2 2 where: f : value (variance variable data) s1 2 : the larger variance s2 2 : the smaller variance the hypothesis will be used are: ho : the population variances are homogeny ha : the population variances are not homogeny the criteria of homogeneity test if the data were analyzed with spss: a. the population variances were homogeny if sig. value > α (0.05), then ho was not rejected. b. the population variances were not homogeny if sig. value ≤ α (0.05), then ho was rejected. mean difference test the significant value was used either t-test or u-test to determine if there was a significant difference or not between both data (different mean test). this step was answered the second statement for the statement of the problem. if the two populations were homogeneous, the sample t-test was used with the formula (supranto, 2009). acuity (4)2, 153-176 𝑡 = 𝑥1̅̅̅̅ −𝑥2̅̅̅̅ 𝑆𝐷√ 1 𝑛1 + 1 𝑛2 𝑆𝐷 = √ (𝑛1−1) 𝑠1 2+(𝑛2 −2) 𝑠2 2 𝑛1+𝑛2 −2 where: 𝑥1̅̅ ̅ : average students’ score (experimental class) 𝑥2̅̅ ̅ : average students’ score (conventional class) 𝑛1 : number of students (experimental class) 𝑛2 : number of students in (conventional class) 𝑠1 : variance of students’ score (experimental class) 𝑠2 : variance of students; score (conventional class) however, if the data was not normality distributed, then the two-different test average used as a non-parametric test or mann-whitney, with formula was below (supranto, 2009). 𝑈 = 𝑛1𝑛2 + 𝑛2 (𝑛2 + 1 ) 2 − ∑ 𝑅1 𝑛2 𝑖=𝑛1+1 where: u : mann-whitney u test n1 : sample size one n2 : sample size two ri: rank of the sample size the hypothesis of the different mean test was as follow: ho : there was no significant difference in the improvement of reading comprehension between the experimental group and the conventional method. ha : there was a significant difference in the improvement of reading comprehension between the experimental group and the conventional method. the criteria of different mean test if the data as analyzed with spss: a. ho was not rejected if the sig. value > α (0.05), meant that there was no significant difference in the improvement of students’ reading comprehension. b. ho was rejected if the sig. value ≤ α (0.05), meant that there was a significant difference in the improvement of students’ reading comprehension. discussion and findings data analysis in analyzing the data, the researcher used microsoft excel and statistical program, spss. the result of pre-test and post-test of each class can be seen in the following table: table 14. pre-test, post test, standard deviation, and normalized gain control experimental mean st. deviation mean st. deviation pre-test 38.73 10.027 40.27 12.191 post test 67.07 7.367 73.47 6.279 normalized gain .460776 .0936729 .553128 .0143782 acuity (4)2, 153-176 based on the result in table 4.1, it can be seen the mean pre-test of the conventional was 38.73 with st.deviation of 10.027 and post-test was 67.07 with st.deviation of 7.367. for the experimental group, the mean of the pre-test was 40.27 with st.deviation of 12.191 and posttest was 67.07 with st.deviation of 7.367 and the normalized gain from the conventioanl was 0.460776 in moderate category and the normalized gain from the experimental group was 0.553128 in the moderate category. based on the increase of the mean and decrease the st.deviation from pre-test to post-test of both groups and the normalize gain from both groups, it can be concluded that there is an improvement on students’ reading comprehension ability. test of normality pre-test in order to know whether the data population of pre-test was normally distributed or not, the normality test was conducted. after got the normality then the researcher did the homogeneity test to find out the population was homogenous or not. table 15. the normality test result for pre-test score group shapiro-wilk statistic df sig. control experimental .852 .935 30 30 .001 .067 this research used the output from the shapiro-wilk. if both data had p. value (sig) > α = 0.05. it means the data were normally distributed and if the p. value (sig) ≤ α = conventional was not normally distributed, where the significant value of the conventional was 0.001 < 0.05 and the experimental group was normally distributed, where the significant value of experimental group was 0.067 > 0.05. table 4.2 showed the result of the normality test of pre-test from both classes. test of homogeneity of variance for pre-test to see the homogeneity of population variances, the homogeneity test was conducted. table 16. the homogeneity test result for pre-test score lavene statistic df1 df2 sig. .338 1 58 .563 the data is homogeneous if p. value (sig) > α = 0.05 it meant data was homogeneous and if p-value (sig) ≤ α = 0.05 it meant data was not homogeneous. based on the data, the significant value was 0.563 > 0.05, so it meant that the population variances were homogenous. the result can be seen in table 16 hypothesis testing for pre-test based on the result, where the data was not normally distributed, the researcher used the mann-whitney test. acuity (4)2, 153-176 table 17. the result of the mannwhitney test test statistica gain mann-whitney u wilcoxon z asymp. sig. (2.tailed) 403.000 868.000 -.705 .481 according to the data shown on table 17, it showed 0.481 > 0.05. it means that ho is not rejected. therefore, it was concluded that there is no significant difference for the results of initial ability between conventional and experimental group. test of normality for gain score the normality test for the result of the gain score. table 18. the normality test result for normalized gain score group shapiro-wilk statistic df sig. control experimental .970 .955 30 30 .529 .226 it can be concluded that the population of the data was normally distributed for both classes, it was because the significant value of conventional was 0.592 > 0.05 and the significant value experimental group was 0.226 > 0.05, can be seen on table 18 test of homogeneity variance for gain score to see the homogeneity of population variances, homogeneity was done. the result can be seen in table 19 table 19. the homogeneity result for normalized gain score lavene statistic df1 df2 sig. .923 1 58 .341 according to the data above, the significant value was 0.341 > 0.05, so it meant that the population variances are homogenous. independent sample test for gain score since the data was normally distributed, independent sample t-test was conducted. acuity (4)2, 153-176 table 20. the independent sample t-test result for gain score levene’s test for equality of variences f sig. t df sig.(2tailed) gain equal variences assumed equal variences not assumed .923 .341 -4.133 -4.133 58 56.388 0.00 0.00 from the result, the significant value was 0.00 < 0.05, so that meant ho is rejected, then it becomed the answer of the second statement of the problem that there is a significant difference between those who are taught using rcrr and those who are taught using conventional, can be seen on table 20. questionnaire the additional data required for the present study were collected through administering a questionnaire to the subjects in order to know their response toward rcrr. the results were explained in the table below: table 21. questionnaire subject strongly agree (a) agree (b) slightly agree (c) disagree (d) total score (total score/40) x100 interpretation 1 4 20 5 4 33 82.5 very good 2 4 19 2 25 62.5 good 3 7 20 2 2 31 77.5 good 4 1 22 3 1 27 67.5 good 5 20 9 6 2 33 82.5 very good 6 7 10 2 19 47.5 moderate 7 1 13 4 18 45 moderate 8 9 12 6 2 29 72.5 good 9 4 17 5 6 32 80 very good 10 5 19 3 27 67.5 good 11 5 20 4 3 32 80 very good 12 4 21 1 26 65 good 13 29 3 2 34 85 very good 14 3 20 3 2 28 70 good 15 20 2 2 24 60 modarate 16 4 4 10 3 21 52.5 moderate 17 23 3 26 65 good 18 23 2 6 31 77.5 good 19 24 1 2 27 67.5 good 20 21 5 26 65 good 21 24 6 1 31 77.5 good 22 1 22 1 2 26 65 good 23 3 21 2 26 65 good acuity (4)2, 153-176 24 2 3 12 2 19 47.5 moderate 25 2 20 3 2 27 67.5 good 26 1 3 12 3 19 47.5 moderate 27 20 7 27 67.5 good 28 5 21 7 33 82.5 very good 29 2 24 1 27 67.5 good 30 2 24 2 4 32 80 very good from the table above, the researcher might pulled out a conclusion as explained in the following table. so the result of the questionnaire was 68% good. it indicated a good response from the students . discussion the result of the data showed that there is a significant difference on students’ reading comprehension between those who are taught using rcrr (read, cover, remember and retell) and those who were taught by using the conventional method. from the result of normalized gain showed that the students in the conventional group was 0.460776 and the students who are in the experimental group was 0.553128. it can be concluded that the rcrr strategy was more applicable than the conventional method. the data from the experimental group and conventional group classes showed that the students’ reading comprehension increased, it can be seen from the mean of the pre-test score for the experimental was 40.27 and 38.73 for conventional and the mean of the post-test score was 73.47 for experimental and 67.07 for conventional. the researcher found that the treatment worked well for students to improve their reading comprehension. the students from both classes really enjoyed the learning process even though they found some difficulties. however, almost all the students really aimed to be able to read english so they can achieve their goals even though there are many difficult words that they do not understand but they still read to the end of the passage. in addition, the researcher also tried to do the best in teaching reading through fun ways and helped when the students when they were asking the meaning of some difficult words. to conclude, reading comprehension through rcrr strategy in the experimental group was better than the conventional method. nevertheless, looking up to the finding of the questionnaire result, the total of response were questionnaire is 68 % good. it can be said that most of the students agreed that the implementation of rcrr was improving their reading comprehension. conclusion based on findings and analyzing the data, the researcher pulls out a conclusion that there is a significant difference on students’ reading comprehension between students who are taught using rcrr (read, cover, remember and retell) strategy and those students who are taught using the conventional method. the rcrr strategy is really effective to help students enjoy the reading, achieve their goals and learn a new vocabulary. acuity (4)2, 153-176 recommendation 1. for teachers it is recommended for english teachers to use rcrr strategy to teach reading comprehension in their classes because it has been proven by the researcher and the results also show that students’ reading skill is improved. 2. for students for students, the rcrr strategy is useful and applicable to be used to improve their knowledge in reading comprehension, especially in vocabulary and reading mechanisms and rcrr strategies can help students to explore their ideas. 3. for future researchers the researcher hopes that the 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(2013). teaching reading comprehension by combining read, cover, remember, retell and three two one strategies at senior high school. journal of english education.vol.2, no.2. p 5-6. https://www.thejakartapost.com/life/2016/08/29/indonesia-ranks-second-last-inhttps://www.thejakartapost.com/life/2016/08/29/indonesia-ranks-second-last-inhttps://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2013/12/06/pisa-2013-lessons-indonesia.html acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.2 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 269 english education master students’ perceptions on teacher written corrective feedback in academic writing kristian florensio wijaya kristianwijaya500@gmail.com cita hati international school, indonesia doi: 10.35974/acuity.v8i2.2788 abstract in modern l2 academic writing enterprises, teacher-written corrective feedback can be either facilitating or debilitating depending on language teachers’ understanding, actual practices, and specific-classroom situations. through this present small-scale qualitative investigation, the researcher attempted to exhaustively investigate english education master students’ perceptions on teacher written corrective feedback in academic writing. methodologically speaking, this current study was supported by the presence of 10 online likert-scale questionnaire items and 5 open-ended written narrative inquiry questions. thus, qualitative content analysis was integrated into this study to obtain more authentic data from the targeted research participants. 18 english education master students, batch 2020, sanata dharma university were voluntarily invited to complete 10 online likert-scale questionnaire items. meanwhile, 3 randomly-selected interviewees from a similar research sampling were asked to accomplish 5 open-ended written narrative inquiry questions. two major themes came to the fore after the full accomplishment of data analysis processes namely: (1) an accurate utilization of teacher written corrective feedback and (2) the beneficial values of constructive teacher written corrective feedback. some specific concluding remarks and further recommendations were also portrayed in this study. keywords: teacher written corrective feedback, academic writing, graduate students, qualitative content analysis introduction writing is one of the pivotal competencies that should be fully mastered by modern university efl learners nowadays. in various discipline-specific fields, the ability to write properly can allow university efl learners to expound their thoughts accurately, elevate their productive language skills, and jointly disseminate valuable insights to others. saragih et al., (2021) avow that decent l2 writing competencies will potentially transform globalized university efl learners into critical thinkers, fluent written target language communicators, and independent knowledge constructors. contrary to all the aforementioned means, a considerable number of university efl learners easily lost their higher-level of motivation and confidence while generating their ideas by utilizing the target language due to the complexities forming in writing processes. this belief is closely interlinked with the theory of l2 writing adversity propounded by zumbrunn et al., (2016) averring that l2 writing enterprises frequently induce anxiety-provoking situations for diverse university efl learners resulting in the thorough abandonment of existing writing dynamics. these above-explicated hurdles are concurrently intertwined with graduate university efl learners’ academic writing mailto:kristianwijaya500@gmail.com acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.2 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 270 enterprises as well. since graduate university efl learners are commissioned to produce high-quality academic writing products to be published in designated national and international journal articles, they oftentimes undergo a higher level of perturbation to go through this hardship. this indispensable requirement is parallel with the contention adduced by li and faulhaber (2019) stating that it is easier to discover a vast majority of graduate university efl learners departing from academic writing enterprises concerning continual stress along with psychological pressure. all these ordeals have become more taxing for graduate university efl learners in which they are demanded to transfigure into more planful decision-makers, adept idea-creators, and knowledgeable academicians before plunging into real-time academic writing activities. these above-mentioned perspectives are mutually interrelated with the theory of cotos (2014) mentioning that excellent l2 academic writers are heavily required to gradually transfigure into more judicious planners, eloquent thinkers, and broad-minded knowledge co-constructors to yield more qualified academic writing products. in an attempt to generate more acceptable, comprehensible, and better-quality academic writing products, teacher-written corrective feedback can act as a means of escalating graduate university efl learners’ writing competencies, conventions, and expressions. these advantageous values are closely interlocked with budiana and mahmud (2020) putting forward that with the support of teacher written corrective feedback, university efl learners will have broader opportunities to foster their rhetoric, linguistics, and conventions in varied situation-specific writing processes eventually enabling them to create better-writing products. under the supervision of teacher written corrective feedback, graduate university efl learners can also progressively diminish unintended mistakes in their writing compositions due to the constant profound checking and evaluating stages conducted in this ultimate writing stage. this further advantage is positively linked with the theory of hyland (2020) propounding that on account of intensive and constructive teacher written corrective feedback, university efl learners can successfully execute various academic writing tasks with the presence of minimum errors affected their finalized writing qualities. lastly, graduate university efl learners can consistently exhibit gratifying academic writing performances in the support of teacher-written corrective feedback regarding the emersion of robust motivation and confidence to deliver high-quality writing outcomes for worldwide readers. this beneficial merit appears to fit with the major finding of lee (2020) pinpointing that an overwhelming majority of worldwide university efl learners having received facilitative teacher written corrective feedback were more liable to be more encouraged and confident in delineating their particular thoughts in the target language resulting in the significant enhancement of whole writing qualities. to release all these aforesaid rewarding values, language teachers are strongly prompted to impart meaningful, encouraging, and constructive written corrective feedback for their learners to better promote a more psychologically sound academic writing classroom atmosphere. this suggestive input is in agreement with the theory of teacher written corrective feedback devised by bitchener (2016) asserting that it is indisputable for worldwide university efl teachers to address more enlightening, meaning-making, and constructive written corrective feedback for diverse-wide ranging learners to terrifically advance their l2 writing competencies, minimize writing drawbacks, and improve the writing products. another pivotal teacher-written corrective feedback component that should be kept in mind by university efl teachers is the applicability of its internalization. applicability denotes the efficient suggestive inputs fully understood by learners for the betterment of their upcoming writing accuracy. hence, high-quality teacher-written acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.2 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 271 corrective feedback needs to be addressed in harmony with the learners’ particular writing proficiency, impediments, and compositions presented in tangible writing classroom circumstances. this perspective seems to concur with van beuningen et al., (2012) adducing that it is vitally essential for university efl teachers to bring about more holistic written corrective feedback responding to their learners’ specific writing products to significantly increase their writing accuracy, qualities, and organizations in the future writing enterprises. furthermore, university efl teachers need to cultivate more stress-free and relaxing academic writing classroom surroundings for learners in an attempt to magnify their writing endeavors and confidence. it has been a consensus that when learners are capable of substantiating their writing volitions together with confidence, they will have more liability to write longer, dedicate their valuable time to write, and began to inculcate positive perceptions toward writing activities. undoubtedly, these three supportive writing behaviors can potentially lead learners to improve their specific writing performances to the utmost potential. this account of contention also hinged on the main finding of wihadi and martiana (2017) discover that a great majority of university efl learners who are skillful in writing composing processes are the ones having been exposed to supportive writing activities, encouraging written corrective feedback, and positive writing experiences manifesting in the striking escalation of their writing competencies. similarly, the precise internalization of teacher written corrective feedback can gradually reduce graduate university efl learners’ grammatical errors while depicting varied conceptions in their academic writing products. this positive writing merit takes place since learners have made such a clear discernment toward the writing compositions that have been repeatedly evaluated by their teachers. through these iterative review cycles, learners are more aware of the repetitive grammatical mistakes they made eventually directing them to ameliorate these unintended errors in future writing occasions. this beneficial value is pertinent to the finding of kim et al., (2020) revealing that well-informed written corrective feedback can be functioned as one of the propelling forces for university efl learners to not insistently conduct identical mistakes in their writings. another potential benefactor promoted by constructive teacher-written corrective feedback is the prominent enhancement of learners’ autonomous writing engagement. it is worth accentuating here that when university efl teachers avoid utilizing a one-size-fits-all written corrective feedback approach amid the writing evaluation processes, learners will have wider chances to develop their ideas, conceptual frameworks, and writing conventions accordingly. as a result, they are transfigured into more autonomous l2 writers highly desirous of practicing their writing skills in concord with the specifically-given teacher written corrective feedback. in light of this ultimate beneficial merit, winstone et al., (2017) theorize that more contextual and versatile teacher written corrective feedback is considerably important to be incorporated in l2 writing processes to prolifically proliferate university efl learners’ independent writing behaviors outside of the classroom walls. to actualize those advantages, another action that should be continuously carried out by university efl teachers is to establish more solid collaborative networking while evaluating a wide range of writing products all together with their learners. it is principal to note that university efl teachers have to transform into more facilitative co-learners and facilitators amid writing ideation, clarification, and evaluation processes to create a more positivelysound writing climate. this paramount action is simultaneously evinced in the theory of carless and winstone (2020) signifying that the mutual collegiality between university efl teachers and learners is crucially essential for them to ascertain the prospective writing qualities in consonance with the imparted written corrective feedback they are working on. acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.2 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 272 there were eight previous related studies run to investigate the specific utilities of teacher written corrective feedback in l2 writing composing processes. the first study was conducted by budianto et al., (2017) unveiling that a considerable number of university efl learners were capable of producing more qualified academic writing products after receiving more comprehensive written corrective feedback from their lecturers. in another study, isnawati et al., (2019) unearthed that most graduate university efl learners could display more gratifying academic writing performances after being accompanied with meaningful teacher-written corrective feedback. janah et al., (2021) strongly prompted university efl teachers to become more conscientious while selecting some specific comments, words, and sentences in depicting written corrective feedback through learners’ writing products to not induce dispiriting feelings within them that might be one of the major reasons to depart from the writing enterprises. furthermore, sabarun (2020) unfolded that the majority of university efl learners had transfigured into more confident, thoughtful, and proficient academic writers after being exposed to contextual teacher written corrective feedback functioning to directly point out their grammatical mistakes as well as writing accuracy. furthermore, kencana (2020) highly recommended worldwide university efl teachers to address more positive, meaningful, and motivating written corrective feedback for the specific writing products created by learners to maintain their higher level of writing motivation longitudinally. uzun and ulum (2022) highly advocated globalized efl teachers to integrate more interactive, hands-on, and practical writing teaching approaches to amplify efl learners’ writing proficiency along with independent writing behaviors. saglamel and aydogdu (2022) strongly advised worldwide efl teachers to immerse their learners into academic writing activities in order to progressively transfigure them into more critical, strategic, and excellent l2 writers. in the last study, woottipong (2022) uncovered that the majority of university efl learners in the control groups showcased more satisfying writing performances compared to other learning counterparts assigned in experimental groups due to the cultivation of robust self-efficacy and self-regulatory learning habits. as important, this present small-scale qualitative investigation was one of the proactive attempts aimed by the researcher to open broader windows of perspective for globalized elt experts, practitioners, policy-makers, and educationalists concerning the accurate internalization of teacher written corrective feedback in varied academic writing enterprises. thus, to fulfill this research objectivity, the researcher attempted to profoundly investigate english education master students’ perceptions on teacher written corrective feedback in academic writing. by taking this action into the researcher’s account, the subsequent research results will be advantageous in which they will shed more enlightenment on the possible effective classroom learning approaches that can be capitalized on by l2 academic writing instructors in addressing comprehensive teacher written corrective feedback based on graduate university efl learners’ perceptions. to this end, one research problem was framed as a reference point guiding the pathway of this current qualitative investigation namely: to what extent did english education master students value the utilities of teacher written corrective feedback in their academic writing enterprises? methods the researcher ran this current small-scale qualitative investigation in the fashion of qualitative content analysis to attain more overarching depictions concerning the particular events endured by the research participants. mayring (2014) exclaims that one of the major benefits of applying a qualitative content analysis is more authentic and thorough obtained data can be potentially obtained by the researchers due to the specific life-sharing truth shared by the targeted research participants. to accomplish this aforesaid mission, the acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.2 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 273 researcher concurrently capitalized on two particular research instruments that functioned to affirm the trustworthiness of the specific-obtained data namely 10 online likert-scale questionnaire items along with 5 open-ended written narrative inquiry questions. concerning the first research instrument, the researcher designed all these 10 online likert-scale questionnaire items in line with english education master students’ perceptions on teacher written corrective feedback in academic writing to precisely notice the extent they valued a wide array of this feedback mode imparted by their lecturers. the researcher distributed this set of 10 questionnaire items with the assistance of google form to 18 english education master students, batch 2020, sanata dharma university. meanwhile, 5 open-ended written narrative inquiry questions were aimed to gain more in-depth insight for 3 randomly-invited interviewees derived from similar research samplings concerning the potential utilities of teacher written corrective feedback implementation upon the academic writing enterprises. clandinin and caine (2013) articulate that in the support of open-ended written narrative inquiry, the researchers will have more spacious chances to collect more robust, authentic, and reliable data due to the ingenious sharing disseminated by the research participants. one of the focal points prompting the researcher to involve english education master students enrolling in a private university in this study is due to their long-lengthy experiences as well as familiarity with teacher-written corrective feedback. as they were individually required to publish at least one scientific academic paper in a particular accredited national or international journal, this feedback type was sustainably employed to make significant progress toward their academic writing skills, conventions, proficiency, and products before they were being sent to the designated journal platforms. concerning the data analysis processes, the researcher categorized each obtained data taken from 10 online likert-scale questionnaire items in the tables to be corroborated with specific themes, theories, previous relevant findings, and selected 3 interviewees’ excerpts. by doing so, the in-depth argumentations represented those above-mentioned data would act as one continuum that may shed more obvious enlightenment for globalized elt practitioners dealing with teacherwritten corrective feedback incorporation in graduate university efl learners’ academic writing venture. results and discussion in this part, the researcher aimed to exhaustively expound 2 main particular themes attained from the research participants. the following specific delineations are fully affirmed by wellselected interviewees’ excerpts, theories, and findings yielded by previous relevant investigations. the major themes are (1) an accurate utilization of teacher written corrective feedback and (2) the beneficial values of teacher written corrective feedback. all integrated explications can be discerned as follows. acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.2 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 274 figure 1: an accurate utilization of teacher-written corrective feedback (92% participants agree) based on the above-depicted figure 1 above, it can be judiciously repudiated that a considerable number of research participants agreed that an accurate utilization of teacher written corrective feedback is crucially pivotal for them to improve their whole academic writing competencies. the first foundational pattern determining this rewarding academic writing outcome is the frequent constructive written corrective feedback addressed by their lecturers to assist these graduate university efl learners to delineate each written idea clearly and precisely. through this first strategy, these research participants will progressively transform into more competent l2 academic writers in the support of intensive writing supervision manifested in regular teacher-written corrective feedback. this approach is closely interlinked with the theory of kencana (2020) truly necessitating university efl teachers to grant a large amount of rewarding written corrective feedback toward learners’ academic writing products to explicate all their ideas clearly and accurately. this theory is also scientifically proven by the above-given table where 17 out of 18 participants admitted that their lecturers oftentimes addressed constructive written corrective feedback constantly toward their writing progression. moving forward to the second approach, 14 out of 18 participants forthrightly confessed that their lecturers continuously elude themselves from giving negative written corrective feedback that can potentially degrade learners’ academic writing motivation and confidence. from this statement, it is worth underscoring here that written corrective feedback should be given in more emphatic ways by university efl teachers to continually maintain, or even heighten their learners’ academic writing volition along with persistence while confronting a vast range of unintended obstacles. this second strategy is in conjunction with the finding of janah et al., (2021) strongly prompting worldwide university efl teachers to address more motivating, enlightening, and positive written corrective feedback that might as a means of the significant elevation of academic writing products enacted by learners. all these conceptions are closely aligned with the following three interviewees’ excerpts. 1 4 0 0 2 17 14 18 18 16 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 frequently imparting constructive feedback judiciously avoiding dispiriting feedback constantly reading specifically-given feedback thoroughly understanding the feedback successfully minimizing writing errors never always acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.2 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 275 [interviewee 1: sometimes there is some corrective feedback that i can't understand. for example, i have written with the appropriate rules and format, but the lecturer says that it is still wrong. it confused me but i defended what i thought was right.] [interviewee 2: discussing about lecturers’ action in improving students’ writing products, my lecturers tended to give readings related the students’ topics. it helped the students to enrich their understanding of the topics they discussed about.] [interviewee 3: my lecturers usually made a regular discussion every week or once every two weeks. in the discussion, my lecturers will give feedback related to the content of my academic writing product.] furthermore, those above-mentioned prerequisite requirements will not run accordingly when graduate university efl learners are not prone to iteratively revise their academic writing products in line with the particular written corrective feedback imparted by their lecturers. as can be observed clearly, all research participants were in accord with this further academic writing strategy. in agreement with their standpoint, the participants frankly sanctioned that a vast array of specific writing errors in terms of grammar, dictions, punctuations, and conventions had been progressively settled due to the intensive feedback evaluation enterprises they were committed to generating more high-quality academic writing products. this conception is in harmony with the theory of sabarun (2020) averring that university efl learners’ academic writing progression can be vested with suitable, acceptable, and applicable teacher-written corrective feedback where they can thoroughly value a vast array of writing inputs, impressively yield more organized writing compositions, and consistently ameliorate particular writing shortcomings in accord with those imparted teachers’ suggestions. graduate university efl learners’ ingenuity in generating more qualified academic writing works also shared common ground with the comprehensive understanding of the specifically-addressed written corrective feedback from their lecturers. by terrifically referring to this approach, learners will be more capable of inculcating a higher degree of writing excitement eventually directing them to yield more acceptable academic writing products fulfilling their lecturers’ expectations. this argument has shared compatibility with the theory of kisnanto (2016) articulating that the appropriateness of comprehensive teacher written corrective feedback can be attributed to its clarity and comprehensibility in which learners have broader opportunities to precisely revise their writing products in accord with the teachers’ particular objectivities. all participated research participants acknowledged that they had fully understood the main core of written corrective feedback imparted by their lecturers in academic writing enterprises. these above-explicated conceptions are paralleled with three interviewees’ excerpts as follows. [interviewee 1: i try to get the feedback point and equalize with the lecturer's perception. then revised the writing based on the corrective feedback given by the lecturers.] [interviewee 2: i used the feedback as the guideline so that i could re-arrange, add, or delete some of the ideas in my writing product.] [interviewee 3: after my lecturers did regular discussion with me and gave some feedback, i constantly revised my academic writing products based on the feedback to create better writings.] to fine-tune all these internal and external written corrective feedback processes, globalized university efl teachers must impart appropriate feedback specifically pointing out a vast acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.2 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 276 variety of learners’ academic writing shortcomings. without lessening the critical importance of learners’ feelings, emotions, motivation, and confidence while receiving this set of straightforward inputs, modern educationalists are highly advocated to integrate the further utilization of encouraging with in-depth written corrective feedback in an attempt to help their graduate university efl learners gain more exhaustive awareness of the unintended mistakes recurring in the academic writing compositions. this ultimate strategy sits well with the finding of isnawati et al., (2019) highly recommending university efl teachers to intensively address more contextual written corrective feedback concerning their learners’ academic writing products to enable them to gradually diminish common writing errors constituting of grammar, dictions, and conventions. 16 out of 18 research participants testified that more profound written corrective feedback, although daunting, had gradually assisted them to minimize general academic writing errors. figure 2: the beneficial values of teacher-written corrective feedback (99% participants agree) the indispensability of teacher written corrective feedback is corroborated by the consensus that this type of l2 writing input can potentially enable all graduate university efl learners to generate more high-quality academic writing products as observed in the first item of the above-depicted table. it is worth accentuating here that through more apprehensible written corrective feedback, graduate university efl learners will eventually elevate their life-long, autonomous, and responsible characters in accomplishing their academic writing tasks. by nurturing all these aforesaid laudable writing behaviours, they have more tendencies to put their utmost willingness, resilience, and endeavour to eventually yield more qualified academic writing products. this first rewarding value is in correspond with the finding of mao and crosthwaite (2019) strongly advocated university efl teachers hone their learners’ independent and accountable characters in interpreting a vast range of constructive written corrective feedback given by them to constantly assist them to generate high-quality academic writing products. the second impressive value having been fully obtained by graduate university efl learners in the light of constructive teacher written corrective feedback was they have progressively transformed into better academic writers. this term 0 0 0 0 1 18 18 18 18 17 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 generating more qualified writing products transfiguring into better writers accomplishing writing tasks contextual use of feedback the presence of supportive learning companions never always acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.2 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 277 does not necessarily deal with the designated academic writing qualities produced by the learners but also the holistic writing behaviors. concerning this study scope, all research participants forthrightly propounded that varied constructive teacher written corrective feedback had progressively enabled them to confidently face various writing hurdles, increase their self-confidence in writing, and significantly develop their target language skills through academic writing enterprises. all these positive influential impacts align with the finding of karimi (2016) unfolding that a considerable number of university efl learners having been armed with constructive teacher-written corrective feedback were capable of increasing their writing confidence, tirelessly handling varied writing hurdles, and fostering their targeted l2 writing competencies terrifically. these above-explicated means are strongly substantiated by the following interviewees’ excerpts. [interviewee 1: i am pleased to know the deficiencies of my writing and able to identify things that need to be revised.] [interviewee 2: i was fine. in my opinion, some specific written corrective feedback from the lecturer helped me in producing a better writing. it facilitated me to organize the words or ideas in my writing.] [interviewee 3: it will be better for the lecturers to not only give feedback but also motivation to help the students improve their academic writing products.] the thorough and satisfying completion of academic writing tasks also relies heavily on university efl teachers’ volition, commitment, and dedication in constantly imparting various rewarding written corrective feedback for the advancement of academic writing compositions generated by graduate university efl learners. this action has to be carried out by current l2 academic writing instructors all around the globe to sustainably preserve their learners’ academic writing motivation. to make all these impactful matters happen, university efl teachers are simultaneously encouraged to provide written corrective feedback compatible with learners’ academic writing proficiency, interest, needs, and results to deter them from departing their academic writing venture prematurely. keeping abreast of all these theoretical and strategy constructions, mulati et al., (2020) earnestly advised university efl teachers all around the globe to mobilize their dedication, energy, and commitment in providing more beneficial written corrective feedback harmonious with their learners’ specific academic writing tasks, preferences, and interests to continuously maintain their l2 writing motivation. all research participants received this meaningful feedback mode in their academic writing journeys. since l2 academic writing contexts are presently manifested in ethnically diverse learning community members, it is worth keeping in university efl teachers’ minds that they have to be more thoughtful, prudent, and conscientious in utilizing a vast array of written constructive feedback for the betterment of learners’ academic writing compositions. it has been a consensus that teacher-written corrective feedback can be either facilitating or debilitating. there is no other way around to forestall these probable side-effects, yet university efl teachers can invigorate their graduate university efl learners’ literacy skills along with awareness by devising varied written corrective feedback that can promote a higher level of writing learning engagement among them. this procedure is in accord with the finding of o’flaherty and costabile (2020) forthrightly acknowledged that the effectiveness and comprehensibility of teacher written corrective feedback are heavily stimulated by a wide range of l2 writing classroom contexts comprising of learners’ writing competencies, levels, and engagement. all research acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.2 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 278 participants were entirely exposed to this adaptive feedback type in their academic writing vicinity. the eventual, yet the most paramount action that should be realized by l2 writing instructors in harnessing constructive written corrective feedback through graduate university efl learners’ academic writing enterprises is the apparent role of becoming more supportive learning counterparts. it is principal to pinpoint here that l2 academic writing instructors need to bring about a more positive sound learning atmosphere in the presence of diverse learners by gradually transforming into judicious counsellors, proactive encouragers, and faithful companions. by doing so, it can be expectantly hoped that our graduate university efl learners can exponentially foster their targeted l2 academic writing competencies manifested in a more orderly writing fashion, which no doubt will benefit the whole ecosystems of prospective academic writing learning dynamics. this underlying premise is fairly correlated with the finding of shintani et al., (2014) strongly suggested globalized university efl teachers to rejuvenating their current authoritative become more facilitative roles by establishing more intimate rapports with learners while evaluating the academic writing products in harmony with the specifically-given written corrective feedback to produce qualified academic writings. speaking specifically, 17 out of 18 participants experienced these favourable academic writing learning characteristics reflected in the continual presence of their supportive lecturers. these aforesaid beliefs are terrifically invigorated by three selected interviewees’ excerpts as follows. [interviewee 1: lecturers must focus on the issues, not guilt or blame, listen to the response of the recipients, and help to formulate a plan to deal with the issues you raised.] [interviewee 2: my lecturers gave feedback related to the grammar and the content of my writing by using provided feature, namely new comment. in addition, the students could consult it to the lecturers so that the lecturers could explain the details directly to the students.] [interviewee 3: when my lecturers gave a lot of negative feedback toward my academic writing products, i will feel sad and disappointed with myself.] conclusion as a final point, the obtained research results strongly indicated that an overwhelming majority of english education master students valued ample utilities of teacher written corrective feedback during their engagement with academic writing enterprises. due to the unpredictable retardations and ideation in writing academically, these participated research participants consistently appreciated the usage of written corrective feedback addressed by lecturers for the advancement of their desired academic writing competencies, motivation, self-confidence, and compositions. to release all these rewarding academic writing advantageous values, worldwide university efl teachers are strongly recommended to promote more conducive-friendly classroom climates to progressively elevate graduate university learners’ academic writing motivation, positive beliefs, and qualities to a greater level. several shortcomings of this present study need to be signified. firstly, this small-scale qualitative investigation merely relied on english education master students enrolling in one particular private university, which propelled future researchers to replicate this current investigation model by involving a great number of research participants to avoid data bias. acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.2 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 279 secondly, this study only collected the intended data for a short period causing the trustworthiness of those above-explained findings. thus, future researchers are highly recommended to conduct more longitudinal investigations involving l2 academic writing instructors as well to yield more generalizable data. attach from those above-mentioned drawbacks, this current small-scale investigation can potentially act as one of the reference points for university efl teachers worldwide to discern their prospective academic writing journeys with rejuvenated viewpoints in which constructive teacher-written corrective feedback rewards can be increasingly magnified to breed more excellent, mature, and lifelong l2 academic writers from their graduate departments. references bitchener, j. 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(2021). written corrective feedback: students' perception and preferences. international online journal of education and teaching, 8(2), 676-690. language learning, 9(1), 17. https://doi.org/10.21580/vjv9i14652 shintani, n., ellis, r., & suzuki, w. (2014). effects of written feedback and revision on learners’ accuracy in using two english grammatical structures. language learning, 64(1), 103-131. uzun, k., & ulum, ö. g. (2022). sentiment and sentence similarity as predictors of integrated and independent l2 writing performance. acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature and culture, 7(1), 1-18. van beuningen, c. g., de jong, n. h., & kuiken, f. (2012). evidence on the effectiveness of comprehensive error correction in second language writing. language learning, 62(1), 1–41. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9922.2011.00674.x wihadi, m., & martiana, i. (2017). the effect of teacher written feedbacks on indonesian efl learners recount writing competence. indonesian efl journal, 1(1), 58. https://doi.org/10.25134/ieflj.v1i1.614 winstone, n. e., nash, r. a., parker, m., & rowntree, j. (2017). supporting learners’ agentic engagement with feedback: a systematic review and a taxonomy of recipience processes. educational psychologist, 52(1), 17–37. https://doi.org/10.1080/00461520.2016.1207538 woottipong, k. (2022). facilitating learners’ self-regulated learning skills and selfefficacy to write in english using technologies. acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature and culture, 7(1), 101-122. acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.2 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 281 zumbrunn, s., marrs, s., & mewborn, c. (2016). toward a better understanding of student perceptions of writing feedback: a mixed methods study. reading and writing, 29(2), https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-015-9599-3 acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol. 7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 195 age, gender, and anxiety as antecedents of willingness to communicate: turkish efl context ramazan yetkin1 hacettepe university, turkey zekiye özer2 niğde ömer halisdemir university, turkey doi: 10.35974/acuity.v7i2.2800 abstract individual differences in language learning have been under close scrutiny for several decades. however, there seems to be research ground to be filled in with new research to understand how and to what extent these differences relate to/effect language learning process. both foreign language classroom anxiety (flca) and second language willingness to communicate (l2 wtc) have been key individual differences research paradigm in educational psychology and applied linguistics. to this end, the current study aims to disclose secondary school efl learners’ flca/ l2 wtc levels and their relations and predictions by comparing and relating participants’ age and gender differences. the participants were 131 secondary school students in english as a foreign language (efl) context. statistical results pointed out moderate levels of flca and wtc among participants. when age and gender difference were compared, it was observed that both of the variables made significant difference on participants flca and wtc scores with females surpassing males in their mean values. also, regression analysis indicated age and gender as the significant predictors of wtc. it is clear from the study results that both age and gender are significant factors intervening in language learning process. teachers should be aware of these differences so that they approach each difference satisfactorily to create a positive learning environment in their classrooms. keywords: age, efl learners, foreign language anxiety, gender, willingness to communicate introduction communicating in another language is one of the key components of the 21th century skills, and plays a vital role in becoming a global citizen today (partnership for 21st century skills, 2002). this has heightened the need for learning l2. in this sense, being a competent communicator in a l2 have emerged as the primary concern in the language education field. therefore, improving learners’ communicative abilities has been attracting a lot of interest. within this direction, investigation of affective factors may provide useful account of how to improve students’ oral communication competences. the role of individual differences is a long-established topic of study inclusively in second language research, and both anxiety and willingness to communicate keep a pivotal position in learners’ proficiency levels as seen in variety of studies (e.g. rastegar & karami, 2015). to this end, the present study aims at focusing on secondary school efl learner’s wtc and flca levels to better understand how willing and anxious they are during their learning process. focusing also to their biographical differences of age and gender would reveal significant and valuable source data for researchers, teacher educators and more importantly for teachers on how to understand and value individual corresponding author: zekiye özer, niğde ömer halisdemir university, turkey email: zekiyeozer19@gmail.com https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol. 7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 196 differences in their classroom. even though the research on wtc and flca is vast and various, focusing exclusively on young english learners in a foreign language context would reveal valuable data for existing literature, learners and practitioners. this study, therefore, set out to assess wtc and its associations with age, gender, and anxiety. willingness to communicate thus far, a number of studies has been published on factors affecting learners’ communicative competence (hernández, 2010; saito, 2015). previous literature presented various affective and cognitive variables such as anxiety, age, and motivation which determine students’ oral proficiencies in l2. the findings indicated that wtc has contributed to development of learners’ oral language skills. according to cao (2014) wtc “concerns a person's intention to communicate with someone when free to do so” (p. 791). in this sense, while some interactants tend to be more verbal, others prefer to speak minimally and this difference was attributed to wtc by researchers. research into wtc has a long history. wtc is a concept, first proposed as a “personalitybased, trait-like predisposition” by mccroskey and baer (1985) to explain individuals’ tendency to initiate communication in their first language. the concept was applied to l2 education by macintyre and charos (1996) to better understand language learners’ communication behaviors. macintyre (2007) drew our attention to the issue that “wtc may be seen as both an individual difference factor facilitating l2 acquisition, especially in a pedagogical system that emphasizes communication, and as a nonlinguistic outcome of the language learning process” (p. 564). macintyre et al. (1998) published a paper on a wtc model for l2 education. their model indicated that both internal and external variables shape the learners’ wtc. a seminal study on wtc was the work of baghaei et al. (2012) who offered that “the higher wtc a speaker has the more likely he is to succeed in second language (l2) acquisition” (p. 55). hence, to increase students’ success in l2, investigating the factors associated with wtc is still a continuing concern among the researchers. previous studies indicated that motivation was among the most important determinants of wtc (asmalı, 2016; lin, 2019; macintyre et al., 2002; peng & woodrow, 2010). these studies illustrated that highmotivated students had high level of wtc. the existing literature emphasized that other individual differences such as age, gender, self-confidence, communication apprehension, and anxiety were partially responsible for learners’ wtc (altıner, 2018; de saint leger & storch, 2009; manipuspika, 2018). earlier research into wtc focused on gender differences (afghari & sadeghi, 2012; alavinia, & alikhani, 2014; ekin, 2018). for example, ekin (2018) used a survey to identify determinants of wtc and noted that wtc appeared to be unaffected by gender. this result accorded with an earlier study, none of differences between gender and wtc were statistically significant (afghari & sadeghi, 2012). when it comes to age effect on wtc, dewaele and dewaele (2018) indicated that older learners were more willing to communicate. these results reflect those described by uyanık (2018) who stated that older students tend be more willing to communicate in language classes. this data must be interpreted with caution as the ages of participants were in close range. to date, while plenty of literature exist on wtc, much less is known about casual role of age in wtc in turkish context. therefore, the findings of present study could make an important contribution to the language education field. foreign language anxiety the effects of anxiety on language learning has been a controversial subject among researchers because of the inconsistency in used survey methods and instruments. it is only since the work of horwitz et al. (1986) that the study of flca has gained momentum. the development of flca scale by horwitz et al. (1986) has led to a proliferation of studies on flca. a number https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol. 7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 197 of factors associated with flca have been explored in several studies (onwuegbuzie, bailey, & daley,1999; özer & yetkin, 2022; zhang & zhong, 2012). in this sense, young (1991) broadly classified the sources of flca as learner’s factors, teacher’s factors, and the instructional practice. above all, horwitz et al. (1986) classified flca as “communication apprehension”, “test anxiety” and “fear of negative evaluation (fne)” to understand flca more broadly. communication apprehension defined as “a type of shyness characterized by fear of or anxiety about communicating with people” (p. 127). test anxiety is generally defined as the fear of failure in situations in which learners’ performances are evaluated (wu, 2010). finally, fne refers to concerns about negative evaluations of other people. previous research focused on the impact of anxiety on achievement (aida, 1994; horwitz et al., 1986; macintyre & gardner, 1991). a number of authors indicated a negative relationship exists between flca and achievement (aida, 1994; liu, 2006; macintyre & gardner, 1991). earlier studies on flca and gender offered contradictory findings. some studies suggested that females are more anxious than males (e.g. öztürk & gürbüz, 2013; wu,2010). on the other hand, aida (1994) and özer and yetkin (2022) put forward that males tend to experience high level of flca. various studies assessed the link between age and flca (aydın et al., 2017; dewaele, & al-saraj, 2015; dewaele et al., 2008; er, 2015) and those studies revealed that age plays an important role in flca. for example, er (2015) showed that older learners were more anxious in the language classes. others (aydın et al., 2017; dewaele et al., 2008) highlighted that youngers experience low level of fla. previous research on willingness to communicate and foreign language anxiety having discussed wtc and flca in language learning contexts, this section addresses to the studies on the relationship between wtc and flca. in their pioneering examination of chinese efl learners’ flca and unwillingness to communicate (uc), liu and jackson (2008) concluded that a positive significant correlation between flca and uc was detected. this finding was also reported by birjandi and tabataba’ian (2012) and dewaele (2019) who noted that students with high level anxiety had less wtc. this result was contrary to the that of rastegar and karami (2015) who carried out a study to reveal the relationship among anxiety, wtc, and achievement of students. the researchers found a negative correlation between anxiety and wtc. bashosh et al. (2013) conducted a study with university students to identify wtc and its predictors. their results showed no evidence of significant associations between wtc and flca. it can be inferred that the predictors of wtc are not fully understood. this study attempts to show the turkish efl learners’ wtc and also analyze the impact of variables such gender, age, and flca on their wtc. this study addresses the following research questions: 1. what are the participants perceived levels of l2 wtc and flca? 2. what are the main and interaction effects of gender and grade over participants l2 wtc and flca scores? 3. how much of the variance in l2 wtc scores can be explained by the following set of variables: age, gender and flca? https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol. 7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 198 methods research design the study was designed based on quantitative research design and procedures. quantitative research, as stated by dörnyei (2007), “is systematic, rigorous, focused, and tightly controlled, involving precise measurement and producing reliable and replicable data that is generalizable to other contexts” (p. 34). in this sense, the priori purpose of the study to reach as many participants as possible, focus on the variable instead of single cases, and able to generalize study results objectively similar to creswell’s (2013) definition of quantitative research as primarily focuses on the variables to acquire information about the objective theories. as noted by dörnyei (2007), there are some characteristics of quantitative research. these are using numbers, a priori categorization, variables rather than cases (common features of groups of people), statistics and language of statistics, standardized procedures to assess objective reality and quest for generalizability and universal law (p. 33). quantitative data is numerical and deals mostly with large data and several variables, so the data in the present study were collected through questionnaires. as pointed out by dörnyei and taguchi (2010), “the main attraction of questionnaires is their unprecedented efficiency in terms of (a) researcher time, (b) researcher effort, and (c) financial resources” (p. 6). the questionnaires are also “very versatile, which means that they can be used successfully with a variety of people in a variety of situations targeting a variety of topics” (dörnyei & taguchi, 2010, p. 6). setting and participants the setting for the study was chosen as secondary level state schools in a turkish lower secondary education context. participants were selected through convenience sampling methods. convenience sampling was used when the researcher found the participants that were closest and accessible to take part in the study (crossman, 2020). a total number of 131 participants voluntarily participated in the study. table 1 presents detailed information about the participants. table 1. demographic information about the participants variables n min. max. % age 130 9 15 gender male 57 55.7 female 73 43.5 5 46 35.1 grade 6 42 32.1 7 20 15.3 8 22 16.8 missing 1 0.8 total 131 100 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol. 7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 199 instruments in the present study, the data were collected through two questionnaires, and a demographic information form as listed below in detail; foreign language classroom anxiety scale, which was originally developed by horwitz et al. (1986), was used to measure participants’ flca scores. in the original scale, there were 33 items in 5-point likert scale. in the scale, low scores given by participants to each item indicated their low level of participation to the relevant statement and vice versa. in the scale, the items were categorized under 3 subscales; communication apprehension, test anxiety and fne. the turkish version of the scale was used considering low english level of the participants. aydın et al. (2016) adapted into turkish. for the reliability of the scale, the cronbach alpha coefficient was calculated as .83. the l2 willingness to communicate scale, which was validated and adapted by peng (2013) to efl context, originally adopted from yashima (2009) to measure participants l2 wtc scores. in peng’s (2013) scale, there were 7 items in 6-point likert type ranging from “definitely not willing” to “definitely willing.” there were two subscales measuring l2 wtc inside and outside the classroom. in this study, the turkish version of the study was utilized, translated into turkish by ekin (2018). in the turkish version, 7 items in 6-point likert scale format with 2 subscales were preserved as seen in the original scale. the reliability check indicated .80 cronbach alpha coefficient score. personal information form was produced by the researchers and attached to aforementioned main questionnaires to obtain participants’ demographic information. in this form, participants were asked to disclose their names, ages, gender, and grade levels. data collection and analysis the data were collected from two different secondary schools via two questionnaires and a personal information form as explained in instruments in detail. ethical permission from institutional review board for each school was taken. before the administration of the questionnaires, participants were informed on how to fill out the questionnaires, the purpose of the study, confidentiality of the study, and expected results and implications. moreover, a written consent form was delivered to participants and unwilling participants were exempted from completing the questionnaires. all the obtained data were categorized and entered to statistical package for social science (spss 25) software for further analysis. the data were first subjected to test of normality to determine data analysis tests between parametric and nonparametric tests. kolmogorov-smirnov results (wtc= .055, flca= .081), mean/trimmed mean values (wtc= 4.41/4.46, flca=. 2.78/2.78) and histogram and q-q plot graph result indicated a normal distribution of the data. then, reliability of the scales was checked separately. descriptive results were run to reveal participants (dis) agreement levels on the (sub)scales. in order to see main and interaction effects of grade and gender over l2 wtc and flca scores, a two-way manova test was applied. a standard multiple regression analysis was performed to see the predictor variables of the l2 wtc including gender, grade and flca score. results the findings of the study were tabularized and explained by statistical terminology in this section. initially, descriptive analysis was used to measure participants perceived levels of https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol. 7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 200 flca regarding communication apprehension, test anxiety and fne scores as listed below in table 2. table 2. participants perceived levels of flta n m sd communication apprehension 128 2.81 .61 test anxiety 128 2.59 .80 fear of negative evaluation 128 2.85 .55 as seen in table 2, participants displayed a moderate stance towards flca variables in their classrooms. when sorted according to their mean values, fear of negative evaluation (m = 2.85) was followed by communication apprehension (m = 2.81), and test anxiety (m = 2.59). participants perceived levels of l2 wtc concerning their willingness inside and outside the classroom were identified by using descriptive statistics. table 3. participants perceived levels of l2 wtc n m sd l2 wtc inside the classroom 128 4.32 1.16 l2 wtc outside the classroom 128 4.48 1.17 table 3 indicated that participants were willing to communicate in english both inside and outside the classroom. for both of the variables, participants demonstrated “perhaps willing” according to l2 wtc scale points. participants willingness outside the classroom (m = 4.48) slightly surpassed their willingness inside the classroom (m = 4.32) and this probably occurred due to their anxiety in the classroom. in order to see whether participants l2 wtc and flca scores were stable across different grade and gender groups, a two-way manova analysis was performed. in the gender analysis, it was seen that gender exercised main effects on participants l2 wtc and flca scores as presented in table 4. descriptive statistics indicated that significant gender difference was in favor of female participants for l2 wtc (m = 4.66, sd = .88), male participants (m = 4.22, sd = 1.08) and for flca; female participants (m = 2.83, sd = .47), and male participants (m = 2.75, sd = .62). after the bonferroni adjusted level of .25, l2 wtc was the only variable reached at statistical significance between gender (males = m = 4.22; females = m = 4.66; f = 7.648; p = .007, partial eta squared .060). table 4. main and interaction effects of gender and grade over l2 wtc and flca scores variables two-way manova main effect interaction effect ʎ df f p ηp 2 ʎ df f p ηp 2 gender .933 2;119 4.241 .017 .067 grade .887 2;119 2.452 .026 .058 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol. 7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 201 gender*grade .972 6;238 .577 .749 .014 grade, also, seemed to exert a main effect on participants l2 wtc and flca scores as illustrated in table 4. descriptive statistics indicated significant grade differences for l2 wtc scores in favor of 5th graders and there was a steadily decrease over the years of education. results showed that participants descriptive values for l2 wtc were (5th grade = m = 4.62, sd = .89, 6th grade = m = 4.47, sd = .98, 7th grade = m = 4.50, sd = 1.06, 8th grade = m = 3.79, sd = 1.14). participants descriptive results for flca scores (5th grade = m = 2.83, sd = .49, 6th grade = m = 2.86, sd = .54, 7th grade = m = 2.89, sd = 1.06, 8th grade = m = 2.68, sd = .42) did not yielded any significant difference. after the bonferroni adjusted level of .25, l2 wtc was the only variable reaching statistical significance among grade groups (f= 4.347; p=.006, partial eta squared .098). further analysis of the data to see interaction effects of gender and grade on the dependent variables indicated no statistically significant interaction effect on l2 wtc and flca (ʎ = .972, f = .577, p > .05). by setting the l2 wtc as the dependent variable and gender, grade and flca as the independent variables, a standard multiple regression analysis was performed to identify how precise these independent variables predict and explain variance in the dependent variable. table 5. gender, grade and flca as the predictors of l2 wtc predictors β t p correlations zero order partial part gender .240 2.828 .005 .215 .246 .238 grade -.267 3.156 .002 -.248 -.273 -.266 flca -.059 -.698 .486 -.039 -.063 -.059 note: r2 for model = .120 as is visible in table 5, regression analysis revealed that all the independent variables entered into the model explained 12% of the variance in l2 wtc, f (3, 124) = 5.639, p = 001. among all these three independent variables, gender explained 5% of the unique variance (β = .240, t = 2.828, p = .005), and grade explained almost 7% of the unique variance (β = -.267, t = 3.156, p = .002) made significant unique contributions to the predictions of l2 wtc. discussion the current study set out to survey the relationship and difference among age, gender, l2 wtc and. findings show that learners’ overall flca levels are at moderate level. on the question of perceived level of wtc, this study finds out that turkish efl learners have wtc. these results may be attributed to the fact that learners are moderately anxious in language classes. these learners might feel comfortable while using l2 during oral communication tasks. as a result, they would not fear being put on the spot in the public sphere of the classroom. although no significant interaction effect is identified on l2 wtc and flca, it is found that flca levels of learners appears to be affected by grade and gender differences. the difference between the males and the females is significant. this observation is in line with what özer and yetkin (2022) reported in their study on high school students’ anxiety levels. moreover, it is observed that a significant difference is found between participants’ grade and anxiety levels. this finding broadly supports the results of other crucial studies (aydın et al., 2017; https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol. 7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 202 dewaele, & al-saraj, 2015; dewaele et al., 2008; er, 2015), which suggested that age was generally seen as a factor strongly related to anxiety. another finding of this study is that gender and grade levels are important driving factors of learners’ wtc. the study reveals that females are more willing to communicate than males. a possible explanation for the current result might be that female students have more positive attitudes towards the foreign language. additionally, females might be more willing to talk in their daily lives than males as a result of social and cultural stereotypes. this situation might impact their interaction skills in a positive way not only in their native language but also in foreign language. this outcome, however, is contrary to that of ekin (2018) who found gender was not an underlying factor for wtc. future studies on the gender effect are recommended. another observation is that older students are less willing to communicate. however, the findings of the current study do not support the previous research on age factor. these results might be related to the lack of motivation among older learners. as mentioned in the literature review, motivation was one of the important determinants of wtc. despite these promising results, questions related to age effect remained unanswered. that is why, future studies on the current topic are recommended. what is interesting is that wtc appears to be unaffected by flca. these results reflect those described by bashosh et al. (2013). however, this finding is contrary to that of dewaele (2019). this discrepancy could be attributed to the anxiety levels of students. literature has indicated that high anxiety levels might refrain students from initiation of communication. in this study, students have moderate level flca, and this seems not to block their wtc. it is possible to say that learners’ reduced anxiety can give rise to their increased wtc. conclusion the present study is designed to explore young efl learners wtc and flca levels during their learning process. it is also used to explore whether any difference occurs in aforementioned levels based on learners’ age and gender differences. the analysis of the quantitative data through comparison and correlation statistics indicated that turkish efl learners are moderately anxious and they are willing to initiate communication both inside and outside the classroom. it is understood from the study results that young efl learner’s do not have debilitating anxiety during their learning process and moderate levels of anxiety could flourish their wtc even though regression analysis did not yield any significant predictive power of flca on participants wtc levels. students’ unwillingness to communicate is a significant problem in foreign language education. therefore, examining the determinants of wtc should have high priority to increase learners’ proficiency in english. it is also noted that both age and gender make difference on participants wtc and flca levels and significant predictors of wtc. it is important to see that individual differences plays significant roles during learning process. teachers should be aware of these differences to analyze their students differences rightly to be able to reach each of their students and create a more positive learning environment. it is also noteworthy to see that a moderate level of anxiety do play neither debilitating or facilitating role on participants wtc in and outside the classroom. therefore, creating a moderate level of anxiety classroom could assure that participants anxieties would not intervene into their learning process. the study has several implications for teachers and teacher educators. first of all, teachers should be aware of students individual differences and their impact on learning process. in a learning environment where teachers are aware of students individual differences and their relevant impact on students learning process, teaching and learning would be more effective and enjoyable. then, they should encourage students and provide them with safe environment https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol. 7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 203 to communicate without fear of making mistake. teachers also need to identify factors that determine the students’ wtc and eliminate the ones hinder their intentions to speak. references afghari, a., & sadeghi, e. 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(2012). the hindrance of doubt: causes of language anxiety. international journal of english linguistics, 2(3), 27-33. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity http://dx.doi.org/10.17507/tpls.0511.25 william shakespeare’s “sonnet 130”: a reconsideration mariwan hasan 1 corresponding author: (mariwan152@live.com) english department, sulaimani university, iraq lara abdulkareem 2 lara star 3 english department, college of basic education, sulaimani university abstract how to know a person is in love with someone body? it is usually through expressing one’s love towards the loved one. it will be considered a strong love towards a beloved but if not expressing it or exaggerating it. shakespeare’s sonnet, in the beginning, is misleading its readers due to the beginning 12 lines but the end is opposite to its start. as it is a true love between the lovers but not announced everywhere and yet not exaggerated. this paper aims to analyze one of shakespeare’s great sonnets “sonnet 130”, which is a satire of petrarchan sonnets. the paper also looks at the form, and content of the “sonnet 130” and analyses it to gain a broader insight into the sonnet. finally, the study focuses on the literary devices used within the sonnet to comprehend shakespeare’s portrayal of the women image in the sonnet, using the analytical approach. keywords: sonnet, petrarch, watson, shakespeare, exaggeration, women & love introduction england in the sixteenth century was known as the renaissance period. the renaissance is the cultural and artistic movement that started from 1400-1600 which means the late fifteenth to the early seventeenth century. the word ‘renaissance’ designates ‘rebirth’, a metaphor applied, from its beginnings to a cultural vision that originated in italy. the word renaissance means ‘a new world’. it meant stepping out from a century in which was shaken by sickness and economic crisis (hattaway i; qanih 2003: p. 80). the impact of the renaissance on the english; their lives were how the way of their life changed. most of them abandoned churches or going to churches and they changed their ideas from religious into individualism and humanism, especially in literature where the poets changed from religious works into a secularizing form. the renaissance has had a long-standing effect on shaping centuries of english literature. the works of shakespeare and the metrical form that are still used up to our days (lumenlearning). renaissance period in england it started in the late fourteenth century in italy then to spain, germany, it started in the late fifteenth century in england untill the early seventeenth century. according to researchers that emerged in the late fourteenth century renaissance in italy, as a compliment of the ancient greek mailto:mariwan152@live.com and roman works. during the middle age, a period that took place between the fall of ancient rome in 476 a.d. and the beginning of the fourteenth century, europeans made few advances in science and art (history.com1). the medici family, which was also known as the house of medici ruled the florence of italy. they had a big impact on starting the renaissance also in improving it ‘the biggest accomplishments of the medici lay in sponsorship of art and literature’ (bl.uk). this era was a bridge between the middle ages and modern history. the most known cause that helped set a stage in the renaissance was the black death in europe, which is nowadays is known as ‘plague’. it was the reason for 60 % of european people’s death. (historycrunch.com). spain had a good impact on the renaissance period as well as germany in which the invention of printing by johannes gutenberg was made, which was one of the most important developments in human history. the main theme of this movement was the idea of humanism. it means the development of human personality, regarding man as the center of activity. (britannica.com). during the renaissance in england, there were extreme changes in the area such as in politics and economy, religion and thoughts, the life of english people especially children, education, culture, and ideas which rippled into areas of science, literature, and philosophy. (historycrunch.com). moreover, at its core, the renaissance was about new ideas (such as humanism) overthrowing old views and customs (such as religious beliefs and practices and feudal traditions). humanism is a system of education and mode of inquiry that originated in northern italy during the 13th and 14th centuries and later spread through continental europe and england. the term is alternatively applied to a variety of western beliefs, methods, and philosophies that place the central emphasis on the human realm. therefore, the invention of the printing press allowed these new ideas to spread and further enhance the overall renaissance. with the mass production of books and other literature more poor and middle-class people in europe began to read. this allowed normal people to read and understand the new ideas from the scholars, writers, and scientists of the renaissance. since more and more people could read they no longer had to depend on local priests and the catholic church2 for interpretation of the bible. many people began to read and interpret the bible for themselves. this ultimately led to the protestant reformation3 and fundamentally altered religious life for people in europe. (historycrunch.com ;britainnica.com). queen elizabeth was the most powerful and determined the laws of the lands, but still, she did have to get approval from parliament to carry out tasks. the private council which was another part of england’s political body at that time, the members were the queen’s closest advisors, also, the parliament, which was also made of two groups; the house of lords, which 1 because the information was taken from an online source there is no page numbers available. 2 catholicism is a denomination of christianity. its low is the bible and catechisms, which may be added to or amended by the pope. catholics believe that salvation to eternal life is god's will for all people. you must believe jesus was the son of god, receive baptism, confess your sins, and take part in holy mass to obtain this. 3 protestant is another denomination of christianity. protestantism a major branch of christianity. it is a movement that began in europe in the sixteenth century as a reaction to catholic ideas and practice. its low is the bible alone. each person must verify all teachings through the bible. they believe in that salvation to eternal life is god's will for all people. you must believe jesus was the son of god and that he has already paid the penalty for your sins to receive this. 3 was made up of nobles and high church officials, house of commoners, which were the common people. the economy at that time developed to banking, feudalism which was an economic and political system in which the individuals were working and serving the lords of the lands to use the land to work. the english people believed in humanism. (britannica.com; historyworld.net; bl.uk; slideshare.net; historycrunch.com)4. according to britannica ‘in this period england’s population doubled; prices rocketed, old social loyalties dissolved, and new industrial, agricultural, and commercial veins were first tapped.’ but these changes in people’s lives did not last long it is also stated that ‘when charles i lost confidence of his greater subjects in 1640, his authority crumbled. meanwhile, the huge body of poor fell ever further behind the rich.’ (britannica.com). also, the majority of english people were illiterate and that nearly all women were and that was assumed by that the people were marking on papers and other properties instead of signing them that is how it was known. however, during the renaissance people were helped to be educated, also women were helped too. even though at first school was only for rich children, especially the males, but then it improved to a point that even women were allowed to be educated. (brink 96-101). history was seen as an important thing ‘history was for educated classes of the later sixteenth and seventeenth centuries would have meant not english history but the greek and especially the roman historian’ (hattaway 2003). the changes in literature were huge outbreaks in england english poetry and prose burst into sudden glory in late 1570. a deceive shift of taste toward fluent artistry self-consciously displaying its grace and sophistication was announced in the works of spenser and sidney (britannic a). moreover, during the renaissance, english literature gained greater psychological complexity. the middle ages were largely dominated by plays more interested in imparting morals or presenting religious stories than anything else. poetry flourished during this period. english poets were inspired by italian poetry in particular. edmund spenser sought to write his own national epic in the faerie queen, a work as protestant as dante alighieri's the divine comedy is catholic. shakespeare penned his famous collection of sonnets during this period as well. english drama of this period was heavily influenced by the theatre of the ancient greeks and romans, a trend followed by science, visual arts, and philosophy, which also took cues from antiquity during the renaissance. (enotes.com). the renaissance movement had died out by the early seventeenth century, giving away to the age of enlightenment. (history.com). sonnet one of the main and most important forms of literature during the renaissance was the sonnet. there are many definitions of sonnet ‘sonnet, fixed verse form of italian origin consisting of 14 lines that are typically five-foot iambics rhyming according to a prescribed scheme.’ it is a poetic form ‘comes from the italian word “sonneto”, which means “a little poem” (literarydevices). the time that sonnet appeared was ‘in the thirteenth century, and though it has generally kept some of the original rules’ (literary devices). the modern definition of sonnet specifies a poem of fourteen lines in iambic pentameter, divided by its rhymes (aburt and mikics 3). the sonnet is a little poem with a big heart and at its core lie subjectivity and gender. the sonnet form originated in an age when poets were also political subjects to princes, when 4 because they are all online sources they do not have page numbers. emotions were perceived as external forces pressuring internal spirits and when the earthly experience was deemed subject to heavenly will (cousins and howarth 2011). the function of the sonnet is thought that the sonnet has become popular among different poets because it has generally a great adaptability to different purposes and requirements. it could be a perfect poetic style for elaboration or expression of a single feeling or thought. it gives an ideal setting for a poet to explore strong emotions. due to its short length, it is easy to manage for both the writer and the reader. sonnet has six types but there are two primary branches of the sonnet formthe italian or petrarchan sonnet and the english or shakespearean sonnet ( literarydevices). the other types are spenserian sonnet, miltonic sonnet, terza rima sonnet, and cultural sonnet. even though there might be some differences in the rhyme scheme of the sonnets but originally it has to be written in iambic pentameter. there are some types of sonnet; italian or petrarchan sonnet: is the first type of sonnet that was originated in italy. a sonnet with a group of eight lines (the octave) and then a group of six (the sestet) is called italian. the octave generally shows a problem, ask a question, or express an emotional tension. the last six lines, the sestet, resolve the problem, answer the question, or relieve the tension which might lead to a conclusion. the ninth line of this sonnet leads to a turning point which is called a volta. the italian sonnet is mostly known as petrarchan sonnet because the italian writer petrarch was one of the main proponents of the form. the rhyme scheme he used was generally abba abba for octave and cdc cdc or cde cde for the sestet (britannica; burt and mikics 2010). it is believed that the petrarchan sonnet became a major influence on european poetry. it soon became naturalized in spain, portugal, and france and was introduced to poland, whence it spread to other slavic literatures (britannica). the english or shakespearean sonnet is going to be discussed briefly in the next chapter. spenserian sonnet; according to researchers spenserian sonnets are slightly different and less common than other forms. the english poet edmund spenser, who lived and wrote during elizabethan age, used a slightly different rhyme scheme in his sonnets. these sonnets used the same structure as english sonnets (three quatrains and a couplet) but rely on a more complicated rhyme scheme: abab bcbc cdcd ee. this provides a tighter connection between the different stanzas. to differentiate between spenserian and shakespearean sonnets, we have to look closely at the rhyming pattern (prepscholar; literarydevice). researchers say that what makes the rhyme scheme of a spenserian sonnet more complicated is that it repeats the same end rhyme several times over. spencer used every two quatrains to develop a metaphor, question, idea, or conflict in a logical way. at the end of his sonnets, he uses the couplet to make bold statements that resolve the themes presented in quatrains (prepscholar). miltonic sonnet; the name of miltonic sonnet is named after the english poet john milton, in which milton used the same rhyme scheme and structure of a petrarchan sonnet (abbaabbacdecde). what distinguishes miltonic sonnet from the other types of the sonnet is that, instead of poems about love and nature, miltonic sonnets often deal with politics and moral issues (prepscholar). however, terza rima sonnet; which is also another type of italian sonnet, is an italian term for a poetic verse form that uses an interlaced, or chain, rhyme pattern of aba bcb cdc ded (prepscolar). shakespearean sonnets known as english or elizabethan sonnet because they came into popularity in the english language during the reign of queen elizabeth. it first appeared in the poetry of henry howard, 5 earl of surrey in fifteen sixteen till fifteen forty-seven, who translated italian sonnets into english as well as composing his own. many later renaissance english writers used this sonnet form, and shakespeare did the same. the sonnet was first introduced in england in 1527 when the poet, sir thomas wyatt brought back some poems of petrarch from italy. the english sonnet is called shakespearean sonnet since the poet william shakespeare was the most prolific and famous (rymond 1995). shakespeare who is an english author during the renaissance wrote many plays and poems. shakespearean sonnets have fourteen lines of verse, which consists of three groups of four lines (three quatrains) and then a group of two (a couplet). what makes english sonnet different from other sonnets, is that it is different in the rhyme scheme as well as a different breaking in the stanza. it is in abab cdcd efef gg in the rhyme scheme and in a stanza, there is a breaking of stanzasit is comprised of three quatrains and a couplet. while the volta sometimes occurs in the third quatrain, which is to say the ninth line. shakespeare usually saved his change of tone and conclusion just for the couplet (burt and mikics 2010). however, shakespeare’s sonnets as we know were first printed as a collection in 1609, towards the end of his career. but some of them had already been offered to readers either publicly or privately. the first mention of shakespeare as a writer of sonnets comes in palladis tamia, or wit’s treasury, a book published by cambridge-educated clergyman francis meres, who was well acquainted with the literary scene. the bulk of his volume is an anthology of supposedly wise sayings culled from classical and modern writers. he admiringly of shakespeare as both playwright and poet, saying that ‘the sweet witty soul of ovid lives in mellifluous and honey-tongued shakespeare, witnesses his venus and adonis, his lucrece, his sugared sonnets among his private friends, etc’. it shows that it was common at that time poems by shakespeare circulated in the manuscript. meres knew more of shakespeare’s writings than he could have learned from printed sources. he refers to several unpublished plays, providing our only evidence of the date by which some of them could have been written (edmondson and wells 3). shakespeare was born in stratford-on-avon in april 1564, early in the reign of elizabeth i. unlike many literary figures of his time, he was not university educated but his natural gift, yet he attended grammar school, where he received an education in latin, but he did not go into any universities. (bloom and foster 1; rymond 2008). he probably wrote most of his sonnets during the 1590s when sonnet sequences were extremely fashionable (rymond 1995). nevertheless, shakespeare’s sonnets have inspired a multiplicity of controversially biographical reading. all of these take their central assumption the hypothesis that the ‘i’ of the sonnets represents shakespeare’s point of view and so gives direct access to scenes and events of his life (edmondson and wells 22). although shakespeare’s sonnets were probably not written in a coherent order and although each sonnet is a distinct poem in itself, the sonnets also read like a whole poem because words, phrases, and images are repeated and echoed within them. many repeated images mirror repeated themes; others help us to make more oblique links with other sonnets (rymond 1995). the characters that shakespeare has referred to in his sonnets, it is thought that there were only four participants in his sonnets: the poet himself; a young man featured in the first 126 poems, a ‘black’ or dark woman with whom many of the reminders concerned; and a poet alluded to with various degrees of clarity in sonnets 78-80 and 82-86 who was a rival with the poet for the young man’s love. in essays in criticism, a. j. gurr plausibly suggested that sonnet 145, with its puns on ‘hate’ and ‘away’, is a love lyric addressed to anne hathaway, whom shakespeare had wooed, impregnated, and wed by 1581. it is set from the rest of the collection by its irregular form: though it has fourteen lines and uses the standard rhyme scheme, it is composed in octosyllabics, not iambic pentameters. if the collection could include one poem written early in shakespeare’s career, it could include others written at any point until the volume went to press. in theory, at least, this means that sonnets may have been addressed to more than one young man, and even to more than one ‘dark lady’. (whether anne was dark we don’t know.) (edmondson and wells 2004). in some cases love would be found between men in his sonnets rather than only love between the opposite sex, according to edmondson and wells; shakespeare could have been the kind of manadulterously involved with a promiscuous woman, and possibly a lover of men as well as womenthat the sonnets seem to imply. when he says ‘two loves i have, of comfort and despair’ (2004). shakespeare’s sonnets have also dramatization and self-introduction in them, a wordplay on shakespeare’s first name, will[iam], in especially, sonnets 135 and 136, along with explicit statement ‘my name is will’ (no.136), seems like clear self-identification (edmondson and wills 2004). sometimes shakespeare wrote for the behalf of another person, either they were love poems for the other person and for them to give it to their lovers. thus ‘he may have been writing love poems on someone else’s behalf. such as a patron or sponsor for some of the ‘dark lady’.’ (edmodson and wills 2004). literature review as many researchers argued, shakespeare’s sonnets are a series and arguably sequence (a deliberate narrative arrangement of poems) of 154 poems, which refer to three principal characters: first, the poet himself, the “i,” the speaker of the sonnets whose thoughts and feelings they relate. this “i” may be the direct representation of shakespeare, himself, or a more mediated figure, namely the persona of the poet (callaghan 2007). the second character in the sonnets is a fair young man, the “fair friend” or a “lovely boy” as the poet calls him in his sonnet 126. it is typically assumed that the sonnets refer to a single male addressee rather than to different young men. similarly, the remainder of the poems and sonnets 127-154, are understood to be mainly about a single “woman colored ill.” she has come to be known as the “dark lady,” even though shakespeare himself never calls her that (callaghan 2007). the identity of the characters is not described by the poet, where they come from, who they are, what their names are, never revealed. as stated by (callaghan 2007) , sonnet 130 is in anti-petrarchan tradition, that is, a tradition that reverses the traditional conceit of the beautiful, blonde, virtuous, and incidentally unattainable woman. in light of the sonnet that precedes it, the poet is all too attainable. going through the litany of petrarchan metaphors, the poet declares his love as beautiful as any woman ever described with such hyperbole. the deeply ambiguous final line adds humor to the game of reversal. there are many different ideas about shakespeare’s sonnet 130, “my mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” by william shakespeare. it is seen as an anti-metaphorical sonnet, unlike the other famous sonnets of the elizabethan age. it stands apart from most of his sonnets for its mocking voice, use of satire, and even its strange ideas. in this sonnet, william shakespeare forms an argument against conventions to flatter one’s lover with praise of her beauty as well as make comments about the way that love between two people can be expressed and interpreted. he used the example of a woman who is not physically perfect or even beautiful to emphasize and stress the idea that love is deeper and more important than these superficial and trivial 7 comparisons about body beauty. while his mistress may not have had silky and beautiful hair and sweet breath, he is still totally captivated by her and considers his love to be as rare as any other (al shawa 2017). steel in the traditional reading of shakespeare’s sonnet 130, argues that shakespeare cunningly employs petrarchan imagery while deliberately undermining it (qtd. in booth ). as implied, this “winsome trifle, is easily distorted into solemn critical statement about sonnet conventions.” he argues, shakespeare “does gently mock the thoughtless mechanical application of the standard petrarchan metaphors,” (qtd. in booth 1997: p. 452). sonnet 130 is starkly different in theme than shakespeare's other sonnets. most of his sonnets praise his lover's beauty, wit, and worth. women are almost deified in many sonnets. some are more melancholy than others, but no sonnet seems insulting except this one! (notary). steel also implies that the sonnet 130 can be taken as a sonnet that satirizes the conventional sonnets at that time where the poets praised the beauty of the woman by idealizing her as a goddess. sonnet 130 is an exposition of a dark lady and it rejects the conventional exaggerations of love poetry. in brief, the poem seems shocking for the readers who want to see women as dainty and idealized creatures, but to the readers who get attracted by real and tangible flesh and blood, the image will be more persuasive. in this poem, the readers can see how shakespeare had identified his lady (the dark lady of the sonnet) as an ordinary woman and a woman with normal human frailties and not a goddess. he creates a realistic picture of the lady by using different comparisons that contrast with the ordinary conventional comparisons (shakespeare's sonnets (130 & 138). form of “sonnet 130” edmondson and wells cited that as the collection was first printed and falls into two major divisions. the first126 poems include none that are addressed to, or concern, a woman, along with all the ones that are addressed to, our primary concern, a male. the sonnets from 127 onwards include all the poems that are overtly addressed to, or primary concern, a female. this is a deliberate and careful division. but it should not be assumed that the first part does not include any poems which might be addressed to a woman, and vice versa (2004).what we can understand from this is that shakespeare wrote a collection of 154 sonnets, in which he addresses them for both a man and a woman. according to spacey sonnet 130 is an english or shakespearean sonnet of 14 lines made up of 3 quatrains and a rhyming couplet, which binds everything together and draws a conclusion to what has gone before. the rhyme scheme is typical: abab cdcd efef gg and all the end rhymes are full, for example, white/delight and rare/compare. internal rhymes create resonance and echoes, binding lines and meaning, and sounds. for example: my/eyes/white/why/wires//wires/i/my/i/i/i/i/my/by/i/my/belied. more/more/more/saw/walks. breasts/breath/treads/heaven. seen/see/hear/speak/pleasing. her/her/hairs/there. (analysis of “sonnet 130” by william shakespeare). for meter of the sonnet as cited by spacey the dominant meter is iambic pentameter, five iambic feet per line, non-stressed syllable followed by a stressed in dadum dadum fashion. however, there are lines that differ from this steady, plodding beat. let's look at the whole sonnet: my mis / tress' eyes / are noth / ing like / the sun; coral / is far / more red / than her / lips' red; if snow / be white, / why then / her breasts / are dun; if hairs / be wires, / black wires / grow on / her head. i have / seen ro / ses dam / asked, red / and white, but no / such ro / ses see / i in / her cheeks; and in / some per / fumes is / there more / delight than in / the breath / that from / my mis / tress reeks. i love / to hear / her speak, / yet well / i know that mu / sic hath / a far / more plea / sing sound; i grant / i nev / er saw / a god / dess go; my mis / tress, when / she walks, / treads on / the ground. and yet, / by heaven, / i think / my love / as rare as an / y she / belied / with false / compare. (analysis of sonnet 130 by william shakespeare) however, iambic pentameter dominates this sonnet and there are a total of 10 purely iambic lines : 1,6,7,8,9,10,11,13 and 14. of these, lines 1,6,7,8,10,11 and 14 are unpunctuated, allowing the rhythm to flow. line 2 begins with an inverted iambic foot a trochee with the stress on the first syllable, which alters the flow somewhat before the iambic beat takes over. line 3 is ambiguous. some scan it as purely iambic, others find an inverted iamb a trochee after the comma: if snow be white, why then her breasts are dun. line 4 is also not straightforward. there is the possibility of two trochees after the comma: if hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. line 5 begins with an inverted iamb a trochee placing emphasis on the first person. (spacey) (“analysis of sonnet 130 by william shakespeare”). analysis of “sonnet 130” as cited by al shawa (2017) the poet breaks his mistress into body parts that are negatives praise. shakespeare’s “sonnet 130” begins with a quatrain that is filled with antithesis and makes good use of caesuras. in sonnet 130 shakespeare used antithesis as a useful poetic device to convey his ideas where he breaks his mistress into body parts that are negatives of praise: "nothing like the sun," "coral is much more red," "her breasts are dun" and "black wires spring from her head." the device fragments the mistress. shakespeare may not have been trying for all that, but his uses of antithesis also gives her reeking breath, unmusical sound, and an earthly tread. the overall effect of these devices gravitates toward the final lines, which express the sentiments you might expect from an antithetical, allusive parody of sentimental poetry. the poet loves the mistress, warts and all; he has no illusions of false poetic beauty. affirmation wins over alienation. also, it is mentioned that the sonnet 130 can be taken as a sonnet that satirizes the conventional sonnets at that time where the poets praised the beauty of the woman by idealizing her as a goddess. sonnet 130 is an exposition of a dark lady and it rejects the conventional exaggerations of love poetry. in brief, the poem seems shocking for the readers who want to see women as dainty and idealized creatures, but to the readers who get attracted by real and tangible flesh and blood, the image will be more persuasive. in this poem, the readers can see how shakespeare had identified his lady (the dark lady of the sonnet) as an ordinary woman and a 9 woman with normal human frailties and not a goddess. he creates a realistic picture of the lady by using different comparisons that contrast with the ordinary conventional comparisons (“shakespeare's sonnets 130 & 138”). sonnet 130 indicates that “the sonnets dedicated to the mistress referred to also as a dark lady allows to understand that she constantly betrays shakespeare” (qtd.in jackson 273). dubrow cited that the sonnet is addressed to the mistress, which makes it an example of intimate or love poetry. however, the general mood of the sonnet is closer to parody rather than to a serious message to the woman he loves, since the poet subverts and reverses the conventions of the love sequence established by petrarch (qtd.in dubrow, 531). this is an unconventional love poem. it was very customary, following the conventions set up by the italian lyric poet petrarch (1304– 74), to write sonnets praising the beauty of the woman you were in love with. this kind of sonnet would form a list of her beautiful features of face and figure, variously praising her eyes, lips, cheeks, teeth, breasts, etc. the comparisons of elizabethan love poetry for praising a woman’s beauty are, he implies, unrealistic and silly. he is not going to exaggerate the beauty of the woman he loves in this way (“sonnet 130”). nevertheless “sonnet 130 is a parody of the traditional love sonnet established as a separate genre by petrarch.” (“critiques of sonnets: sonnet 130 and the theme of pain example”). with writing this sonnet shakespeare wants to indicate that his lover is real and does not need any ‘false compare’ to imply her attraction, he wants to say that her real face and personality is much more important and beautiful than the compare that you are doing for your lover. also with his odd comparison unlike the other poets, he shows the unattractive sides of his lover and yet he thinks that she is still so much more beautiful and rare. “my mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun” (line 1). it is believed that the speaker is mocking the employment of a typical petrarchan conceit, in which women’s eyes were compared to the sun, stars, and other heavenly bodies; such expressions lose their subtlety of meaning with overuse and become clichés. but in refusing to describe his mistress in the expected way, the speaker has also identified her as an individual. her glance is not light or bright, but deeper and perhaps more profound (encyclopedia.com). as cited by al shawa (2017) the poet used the word 'mistress' as an indication to his beloved woman. yet in the same line he used in the word a negative simile 'nothing like' to say she does not have sun-like eyes. however, “the speaker describes the eyes of the woman he loves, noting that they are not like the sun” (“sonnet 130: my mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun”). the line indicates that there are, series of inversions. shakespeare knows the convention that the woman you love has eyes “brighter or more lovely than the sun”, and he simply denies it in the first line (“sonnet 130”). the poet uses a very different inversion than that of the previous poets who described their lovers’ eyes as two sun, two sparkling stars , shiny eyes with beautiful gaze, or comparing their eyes to a gazelle’s eyes or even comparing the blue eyes to the sea, but shakespeare made a completely different comparison of his lover’s eyes which he indicates that ‘her eyes are nothing like the sun’ which by only saying ‘nothing like the sun’ he made a whole inversion of all the beautiful comparisons that the previous poets did, in which he meant that they are not sparkly, neither beautiful nor have a gaze, his lover's eyes might be dark. perhaps her eyes have a dark color, or somehow not shining with a wit. however, by saying that her eyes are nothing like the sun might still mean that despite that her eyes are still the most gorgeous and beautiful but in their own qualities. “coral is far more red than her lips’ red;” (line 2). in the second line of the sonnet “he compares the color of her lips to that of coral, a reddish-pink, concluding that her lips are much less red” (“sonnet 130: my mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun”). the writer claims that her lips have a lifeless color, and that coral is far redder than her lips, in which during shakespeare’s time even today naturally red lips are more admirable, even the coral color of lipstick is more desired among people. however, shakespeare’s mistress did not have such beautiful red lips as coral. “if snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;” (line 3). as the poet proclaims his mistress’s features do not measure up to the typical standards of attractiveness; indeed, his description of her skin as a dull grayish brown sound like an insult. pure whiteness represented virginity. alternately, this woman’s coloring might not just represent her dirtiness, but also her earthiness, and perhaps her natural sexuality (note the play on the word “dun”). there is also the possibility that the mistress is of a darker-skinned race (“sonnet 130”). unlike the other poets’ lovers who proclaim that their lovers’ breasts are as white snow, shakespeare did the exact opposite in describing his lover’s breast as a grayish dun color, which is not as the same quality that was and still is admirable by others. “if hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.” (line 4). in the above line, he describes his lover’s hair as wires have grown on it which might mean that hair her was messy and curly, and perhaps her hair was short too according to the description of “wires” which might mean messy. here again shakespeare in contrary to the other poets’ beloved ladies who described their lady’s hair as a beautiful fair or blonde long hairs. “i have seen roses damasked, red and white, / but no such roses see i in her cheeks;” (line 5-6). some roses have a combination ‘damasked’ of white and red color which is a beautiful quality that the poets used to describe both the fair white skin and the blushed cheeks of their lovers. in contrast to their description, shakespeare assumes that he cannot see any roses like cheeks as he mentioned before in the previous lines that his mistress has dark skin which might be the reason for lacking blushed or red combined with white cheeks. nevertheless, “but no such roses see i in her cheeks;” here he might also mean by this that her skin was not soft either. “and in some perfumes is there more delight / than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.” (line 7-8). he notes that his mistress’s breath that she exhales stinks of bad breath that some perfumes are much more delight than her bad breath. this line shows that his mistress’s breath was not sweet-smelling and that he prefers the smell of perfumes than the smell of her breath. 11 “i love to hear her speak, yet well i know / that music hath a far more pleasing sound;” (line 9-10). he loves to listen to her talk but yet he knows that or sure that the sound of music is more pleasing than her voice, which here it seems that his lady has a rough, unpleasing, and disturbing voice. however, despite the annoying voice of his mistress he still loves to hear her speak yet he is completely aware of the reality that listening to music is more comforting. shakespeare surprisingly admires her voice and flatters it, unlike the previous lines in which no flattering were presented. nevertheless, this kind of compliment is still common in our present days and used by many poets. “i grant i never saw a goddess go; / my mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground.” (line 11-12). he admits that he has never saw a real goddess walking on the ground and unlike their mistress, his lady is very normal when she walks “she has earthy quality” (sonnet 130).without using any exaggeration he notes that his mistress is nothing like a goddess and walks normally. “and yet, by heaven, i think my love as rare / as any she belied with false compare.” (line 13-14). the poet made a shift of his speech and divested all the compares as indicating that she is still rare and he loves her. the speaker swears by heaven that she is rare despite all of her imperfections that he mentioned she is still unique in her own way not in the false compares that others do to complain about their lovers. this explains that these two lovers will still love each other and remain, lovers, even after 12 lines of describing imperfections and shortcomings. shakespeare claims that she is exceptional for him even without the traditional and unrealistic descriptions of beauty. what makes this sonnet rare and interesting is the way shakespeare described his lover with all the unpleasing flatters, but yet at the end he admits that he loves her and thinks that she is rare without any exaggerating, false comparison. shakespeare’s capability of getting the readers interest is unquestionable and this can be assured by reading this sonnet and looking at how he mastered to break the traditional rules of praising the other person, especially praising men for women, and by this he wants the reader to be more realistic and to not love according to the false comparisons that have been done before. he also showed how a person can fall in love even with the imperfections of his lover and love unconditionally. to clear the full and exact meaning of some vocabularies within the poem we are going to explain what the poet meant by using those vocabularies. mistress ( line1); in modern days the word for a woman who has an unlawful relationship with a man is called a mistress, in other words when a man cheats on his wife the woman who he cheats with her is called a mistress. however, shakespeare used the word ‘mistress’ to refer to a woman that he loves, more specifically he means his ‘sweetheart’ which is a completely different word and relationship that is used for the modern-day meaning. coral (line2); the word ‘coral’ can carry two meanings, one is that it is a reddish creature that lives in the sea, the second is the precious coral stone that is a red stone with a high price used by the royals and high-class people. it seems that shakespeare used the word as for the second meaning, to imply that her lips were not red like a coral stone. damasked (line 5); the word can have different meanings, one is a fabric with sketches on it and it is soft. another meaning is the combination of red and white color of roses or the damasked rose, which is a rose with a beautiful pinkish color. it mostly used for the combination of red and pink colors. shakespeare used it as the meaning of the combination of red and pink of rose petals to tell that his mistress’s cheeks are neither damasked with red and pink nor are soft as the rose petals. belied (line 14); means to give false ideas or to describe someone disguisedly to convince them, to lie about or to spread false rumors about someone’s character. content of “sonnet 130” shakespeare’s “sonnet 130” is based on the description of a lady whose qualities are not as beautiful or as attractive as other mistresses and lovers of others were. especially, those poets who were well known for describing their lover as the most beautiful creature on earth. however, the sonnet 130 is completely different compared to those poems that are full of compliment, and comparison to nature or supernatural words. this sonnet is especially a message for those petrarchan poets who took the same path after petrarch’s model of the sonnet; an italian poet and scholar, considered as the father of sonnet form. his sonnets are about his lover lady laura, who petrarch described her as beautiful from both inside and the outside as he mentions in his sonnet 90 all her beauty including her golden locks of hair, bright eyes, delicate breast, unique way of walking, angelic voice when speaking and describing her as a divined being. all her qualities are perfect and far from the lady of shakespeare’s. it seems that shakespeare completely opposed petrarch or any petrarchan poet with his sonnet by mentioning all the unflattering descriptions. perhaps shakespeare’s main point here in his sonnet 130 is to appeal the reality of no one is perfect, and perhaps he wanted to convey the message of true love without any perfections and wanted to say that you can love a person despite all their imperfections and that you can love the inner side of the personality, not just the outside. he might also mean by writing this sonnet to change the path of the traditional way of writing a sonnet and make a new path for them and he successfully managed to do so. sonnet 130 carries several themes including; love and beauty, appearance versus reality. the theme of love in this sonnet is different from any normal sonnet in which the poet’s love is rare and vacant of any false compare. we can see how the writer loves his mistress by indicating that her voice is not so good to listen to yet he loves to listen to her when she talks “i love to hear her speak, yet well i know / that music hath a far more pleasing sound;”. some might say that the theme of beauty presented in the sonnet is odd or there is no beauty in it at all since the poet mentions a series of beautiful things and compares his lover to them by claiming that she is less beautiful than them. yet, the speaker concludes that, even if his mistress does not have those qualities, even if she cannot be compared to the beautiful typical imagery of love poems, his love is still real and precious, and still she is beautiful in his eyes. at last, in the final lines of the sonnet, the poet rejects all the comparisons that he made between his lover and nature, who did not conduct the qualities of beauty and the beautiful comparisons. the sonnet appeals to all the reality of a person who is the poet’s lover. it seems that the poet once to point out that he is not deceived by the outside appearance of his lover even 13 though she is not beautiful. yet, he loved her reality, unlike some poet even normal people who would fall in love with the appearance that might have covered the reality either by makeup or devious actions. it seems that even the lady did not want to deceive her lover with the fake appearance and she might have made the poet love her with her true self, her reality, her attitude, and her actions. all these characteristics of the misters made the poet love her for her inner beauty, not her external appearance. this probability leads us to the conclusion that their love was real and apart of any fakeness. creativity & imagination shakespeare’s creativity and the use of imagination in the sonnet 130 are completely different and perfectly mastered. he typically managed to mention or show all the incomplete and imperfect sides of his lover, but yet he also managed to convince readers about the fact that a person can also fall for the deficient sides of his lover, such as the darker eye color that is not shaped as a gazelle nor shining bright as stars or the sun, a non-flowery colored soft lips, a dun and not a snowy breast or skin, even a sharp unpleasing voice. the use of imagination in sonnet 130 is quite the opposite of other petrarchan sonnets. throughout the poem, he overturns the traditional forms that poets have used to compare their lovers to nature and create a beautiful imagination for both the reader and the lover. they used metaphors and similes to compare between nature and human’s beauty, as comparing the eyes to the sun is shining brightly, the red lips to a coral or blood, skin to snow in whiteness, blonde hair to the sunlight, cheeks to roses, breath to the breeze of air, voice to never tiring music. they used all these tools along with supernatural compares too; these tools create a very beautiful image in the reader's mind. however, unlike them, shakespeare refused to use those repeatable tools and believes that they are all “false compare”. nevertheless, the imagination in sonnet 130 is not so pleasing to the reader by mentioning that her eyes are not bright, nor her lips are red, dun breast, black messy hair, non-blushed cheeks, stinking breath, and unpleasing voice. yet shakespeare could not escape from complete nonuse of comparison, wherein both lines 11-12, he compares his mistress to a goddess which is a supernatural being. both imagination and the climax in both lines are unexpected because the turning point happens when the poet compares his lover to a goddess and creates a beautiful image for her despite all the unpleasant comparisons he made in the previous lines. regardless of comparing her to a goddess yet, he prefers to reject the idea of that comparison and mentions that she “treads on the ground”. it seems that shakespeare did that again to remind the reader or even himself that his lover is from the real world and rejects the use of imagination. the literary devices used in “sonnet 130” literary devices are also known as poetic devices refer to the ideal structures used by writers in their works to convey their messages directly to the readers. the literary devices used in shakespeare’s sonnet, were of different types as follows: imagery: “means to use figurative language to represent objects, actions, and ideas in such a way that it appeals to our physical senses”. (literarydevices.net ). the use of imagery utilizes the five senses of humans to create a beautiful image in the mind of the reader. however, shakespeare has activated the sense of sight, smell and sound when he compares his mistress’s eyes to the sun, her lips to a red coral, her breast to white snow, and her hair to wires and her cheeks to roses, these are all the use of the sense of sight in imagery. nevertheless, he also uses the imagery of describing his mistress when she walks. then he uses the sense of smell when he mentions his mistress’s breath that reeks. when he describes her voice and compares it to the music he creates imagery in which the sense of hearing is used. hyperbole: is a figure of speech that involves exaggeration of ideas for the sake of emphasis and not to be taken literally. shakespeare exaggerated in mentioning and describing his lover’s characteristics and physical shapes, rather than mentioning the beautiful aspects of her he mentioned her unattractive figures, like her eyes which are not shining like the sun, her unattractive lips, breast, hair, cheeks, along with her bad breath and unpleasing sound. his way of using hyperbole made shakespeare’s sonnet different from other poets, in which he breaks all the rules by using the exaggeration in a different way in which he mentions his lover’s unattractiveness. alliteration: is the repetition of consonant sound in the beginning of two or more words in the same line of poetry. my mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun; (my, mistress’) (line 1). if snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; (be, breast, white, why) (line 3). if hair be wires, black wires grow on her head; (hair, her, head, be, black) (line 4). i have seen roses damasked, red and white (roses, red) (line 5). but no such roses see i in her cheeks; (such, see) (line 6). than in the breath that from my mistress reeks. (than, the, that, my, mistress) (line 8). i love to hear her speak, yet well i know (hear, her) (line 9). i grant i never saw a goddess go; (grant, goddess, go) (line 11). my mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground. (my, mistress, when, walks) (line 12). simile: is a figure of speech, showing similarities between two different things. they use “like” or “as” to show the direct comparison between the things being compared to each other. “my mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;” (line 1) the poet used “nothing like the sun” for comparing his mistress’ eyes directly to the sun, but not in a positive way instead he mentions that her eyes are not bright like the sun. metaphor: is a hidden comparison between two unrelated things, but share some common characteristics, mostly used to compare humans to other things. “if hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.” (line 4). he compares her hair to black wires, rather than flatter her by comparing her hair to something more beautiful and attractive; the poet chose to use unflattering comparison. “but no such roses see i in her cheeks;” (line 6). 15 he compares her cheeks to roses but not that he sees her cheeks like roses, instead, he says that if cheeks be roses in color, he does not see any roses on her cheeks, which means they are not pinkish or reddish. cacophony: is the use of harsh and inharmonious sounds. “i love to hear her speak, yet well i know / that music hath a far more pleasing sound;” (line 9-10). shakespeare describes her harsh and inharmonious sound that his mistress has, which is the use of cacophony to indicate that her voice was not good. repetition: a literary device used to make the idea clearer by repeating the same words or phrases more than once, especially in verse or prose. the repetition of the word ‘red’ in line 2, because the red color is related with love. “coral is far more red than her lips' red;” (line 2). it is used to highlight the matter that the comparisons that have been done are completely futile and different. red is applied to the redness of the lips and roses of women’s cheek. the repetition of ‘far more’ in both lines 2 and 11: “coral is far more red than her lips' red; / that music hath a far more pleasing sound;” (line 2-10). the repetition of the phrase is to indicate intensity. the repetition of the word ‘wires’ in line 4: “if hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.” (line 4). black is used for both ‘hair’ and ‘wires’. the repetition might also indicate how different the mistress was and how she was different for not having beautiful straight golden locks of hair. the repetition of the pronoun ‘i’ in the lines 5, 6, 9 and 11: i have seen roses damasked, red and white, (line 5). but no such roses see i in her cheeks; (line 6). i love to hear her speak, yet well i know (line 9). i grant i never saw a goddess go; (line 11). the repetition of the possessive pronoun ‘my’ four times in the sonnet and the pronoun indicates the ownership of the mistress to the speaker. however, the repetition of the pronoun ‘i’ indicates that all the events are related to his life. my mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun; line (line 1). than in the breath that from my mistress reeks. (line 8). my mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground. (line 12). and yet, by heaven, i think my love as rare. (line 13). juxtaposition: is a literary device technique in which two things are placed next to each other for the sake of developing comparison or contrast, whether it is a thing, a place, an idea or a character. shakespeare mentions a goddess, in which makes a contrast between his mistress and the mystical being. “i grant i never saw a goddess go; / my mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground” (line 11-12). the portrayal of women in shakespeare’s “sonnet 130” the lady in the sonnet is literally and metaphorically ‘dark’ and her descriptions can be implied on many women of the age that is one of the reasons we cannot be sure whether or not the poet meant one lady or all women in general. the sonnet 130 can be interpreted in two ways especially by women, in which in women’s perspective some consider it as a positive and some as a negative. the positive interpretation of the sonnet is that despite all the unpleasant descriptions in the second quatrain the poet shifts the tone by indicating and swearing by heavens that she is still beautiful in his eyes and he loves her with all her flaws. however, not every woman can accept that after several humiliating comments on her appearance then telling her that she is yet beautiful and he loves her, after the corruption descriptions of her image is not acceptable for some women. this can be considered as a negative representation image of presenting women. yet, some will think that it is alright as long as he indicated that he loves her, and it is love that all it takes for two persons to accept each other. nevertheless, this can be considered as a positive representation image of women. the representation of the ‘dark lady’ is the complete opposite of the petrarchan ideal image of women, which were all false compares. shakespeare’s dark lady is a notable exception, which focuses on human imperfections of a woman’s body, but yet it is a satire of the petrarchan poets to break the idealized and unrealistic image of women. the sonnet 130 takes women out of the petrarchan shadows of unrealistic comparisons and the ideal image that they created for them, which were all ideal identifications nearly not even realistic. with these false exaggerations it created an unrealistic ideal image for women in a way that those who do not have these qualities are neither beautiful nor worthy of love. in addition, shakespeare represented the exact opposite of petrarchan’s qualities of beauty for women. he indicates that all of those comparisons are all trivial, and women should not worry about their outside appearance and they should also care about their inside, to improve their mind and pure their souls, he might have wanted to indicate that the inside beauty is more important than the outside; a sweet soul and a tongue that conveys the beauty of mind are the most important than that of the outside appearance. he also marks his words about inner beauty by mentioning the word “goddess” which he might have wanted to view a positive image of women, to mock the idealized female image, to discharge the unrealistic standards, and also to indicate that love is more important than appearance. the poem indicates that society at that time even in our present days holds unrealistic expectations of women by imposing some rules for them whether the rules are about their beauty or attitude. its purpose is to show that all women have flaws and no one is perfect, just like men they deserve to be judged fairly without exceptions and rules. the poem also wants to mark that women are beautiful the way they are without being obliged to fit the perfect molds. the choice of the style of the sonnet represents realistic imagery, not that of godly comparisons. as women what we can learn from this sonnet is that we need to stop attempting to fill the perfect frame that 17 the society made for us, instead we can focus on our inside. as for men, the poet wants to tell them that no human is completely perfect and they should avoid the idealized beauty, instead, they should look for the inner beauty, to fall in love with both their lover’s flaws and their inside beauty, not the outside unrealistic beauty that everyone can see. yet we cannot be sure if there is positivity in the poem of a tone of misogyny in general, that is why we are going to talk about women’s reflection and feminism in the sonnet. women’s reflection and feminism in shakespeare’s “sonnet 130” to dig more deeply into “sonnet 130” and show how it reflects women and the feminist perspective of the poem, we are going to introduce the word feminism and its history briefly and those writers who have a glorious history of it, especially the women writers. the term feminism used for those advocators of the rights of women seeks cultural, political, economic, and gender equality. when the word “people” is mentioned, it means that even men sometimes ask for gender equality, either in the past and in the present days. the history of feminism is not clear, because its history is to some degree, destroyed. it comes in waves and till our present-day feminism has three waves. through western history, women’s rights were skipped and their value was not appreciated. since the history of feminism was not clear, for most recorded history, in late 1415th century france, christen de pisan, who was the first feminist philosopher who asked for the education of women. thus after that laura cereta, a 15th-century venetian woman who published a collection of personal letters from different females’ complaints of; the refusal of education, violence, and the futility of women’s clothing. the volume was published in 1488 under the name of “epistolae familiars” which means collected letters of a renaissance feminist. the history of writing among women flourished in 1970 and 1980s in britain, thus we are going to show a list of the most famous feminist writers of all time. the first feminist writer who is also known as the grandmother of british feminism was ‘mary wollstonecraft’. she was acknowledged as the first feminist philosopher and author. she was known for her most famous work ‘vindication of the rights of woman’ in 1792, which is a philosophical text encouraging and supporting the education of women. she was the mother of marry shelly the first novelist who published her works under her real name, who became famous in the late 18th century. then in the early 19th century another feminist writer appears named jane austen, whose works are the most famous and delightful in the past and our present days. her famous novels (pride and prejudice, sense and sensibility, mansfield park, emma, northanger abbey, and persuasion) in which you can explore the dependence of women in marriage and in her works she focused on the improvement of the female characters depending on themselves. after these amazing feminist writers come to another legendary name who is george eliot a victorian writer in england. eliot is a penname for born mary evans, her choice of using a pen name was not something that she had done in fear of exposing her name, but she wanted to get out of the stereotypical way. her most famous novel middlemarch its story revolves around common issues, but most importantly it includes a heroine that throughout the character she wants to change women’s role. later, these great writers come to the legendary virginia woolf, a british writer of the 20th century. her works like ‘ms. dalloway, a room of one’s own, and orlando’s characters were based on the independent women as men and focused on the personal growth of the characters, especially the female characters. her work ‘a room of one’s own’ especially demands equal consideration and respect for female writers. these were the most famous feminist writers of feminism and now we are going to talk about the waves of feminism briefly. before the first wave of feminism history as mentioned before was not clear that is why we can call it post-feminism or feminism of ancient history. the first wave: during the nineteenth century and early twentieth century there was an extended period of feminist activity in both the united kingdom and america. it mainly focused on the equality of working, marriage funds, and ownership of married women and their children, equality in working and the funds, and focusing on the needs of women. however, at the end of the nineteenth century, it focused on women’s power, especially gaining political power in which the first step was asking for allowance for women to vote. second wave: the second wave started in the early 1960s to late 1980s. the second wave is somewhat a continuation of the first phase. in addition, the second wave was mainly concerned with issues such as equality and ending of discrimination including suffragettes. third-wave: it started in the early 1990s as a response to the previous failures and the obstruction that were faced in the second wave. they often focused more on micro-politics and challenged the second wave feminist that appeared to be taking more care about the issues of upper-class women. there was also the issue of discriminating between the white and black women in which the third waver feminist tried to solve that problem and to eliminate it within society and especially the women themselves. fourth wave: as claimed by many this wave began about 2012 as a response for sexual harassment, violence, rape, and body shaming. the purpose was to use social media to highlight these issues. it seems that it especially began after a young woman was gang-raped at the end of 2012. we should also analyze how shakespeare reflected women and feminism in his poem, which can be analyzed in both a positive way and a negative way in which we are going to explain both. the sonnets he wrote were based on the modern belief that masculinity and felinity are divided by the line which is based on sexual desires between both men and women, in which straight men desire women and effeminate men desire other men. this perspective has led to arguments about his sonnets, in which we cannot find certain evidence, not even one that can assure us if whether shakespeare presented his personal feelings or not. however, even when reading his poems, we cannot be certain if shakespeare was a homoerotic or not. there might be a possibility that shakespeare’s lust for the dark lady was a representation of his desires, better said bodily desires, they are either directed for the so-named ‘dark lady’ or for the ‘fair youth’ that he had mentioned in his previous sonnets. his misogyny might be in that he thought that the love of women can be sinful and lust will only derive one into danger, unlike the love for the same sex that he thought that it can be safe and sound. he might have described her as a ‘dark lady’ to represent her as evil or saint. he might have also hated women in general and put all the hatefulness in one woman. he describes the lady as a ‘saint’ whereas he describes the ‘fair youth’ as an ‘angel’ he somehow did that to tell that the woman can be a corruption of the relationship between him and his ‘fair youth’ and that she is just like a saint who will come in between them to lure the ‘fair youth’ and separate them. in addition, even in christian’s misogyny, there were mentions that the love for women was lustful and ratified whereas it is allowed for the spiritual love between men. all these points of view can be put in the negative reflection of feminism in the sonnets. nonetheless, the sonnet 130 deserves more attention and analytical studies than it has given until now because it faces the petrarchan ideal rules that were put for women. it tells us that a woman should not necessarily be compared to these ideal beauties. in the first quatrain, the 19 poet uses some words that have been used in petrarchan sonnets too, such as sun, red coral, cheeks as roses, etc. he used these petrarchan words but not as a comparison of beauty, but as a way of claiming that she does not have these qualities. yet at the end of the sonnet, he claims that the comparisons are all inadequate and that she does not need those to be told that she is beautiful. the sonnet can awaken women’s consciousness about how petrarchan ideas were not correct and that it made women think of themselves as objects of heterosexual love and desire. it all made any woman who does not bear one or any of these ideal qualities to think of herself as someone who is incomplete, ugly, and disgustful. at last, these theories can put “sonnet 130” into a positive phase. in addition, the entire sonnet can hold a lot of questions. the reader may ask if the poet is honest or not. is he telling the truth? when he claims that he still loves her, some might think that he might not be honest and some might not. if we thought of it as a misogynistic poem, his misogyny might not be addressed to only one woman; rather he might have addressed it for all women, who he thinks that they should be treated like this. he might have thought that all women are deceitful and all are described with false compare. this might be a reason to admit the fact that the poet preferred men than women since they do not hide their faces with makeup and their personality with unrealistic actions and words. we can say that this is true since he compared the ‘fair youth’ to beautiful gems, eyes to the sea and described him in the finest ways, but yet some might think the opposite. we might also say that the poet is using the lady in the sonnet to make fun of the other petrarchan poets. she has been used as an object for verbal fighting. despite all of these there is a possibility that the poet did show his ability in turning the situations. conclusions sonnet 130 is closer to parody than having a serious tone; it is seen as an antimetaphorical sonnet. the poet breaks his mistress into negative body parts and gives negative praise to her. it rejects the conventional exaggeration of love poetry. all the academic papers demonstrate that shakespeare meant to show something through his sonnet different from the other sonnets, which is that love poems do not need to describe the beauty of the other person and contain exaggerations. he showed that it can be more realistic and out of exaggeration in comparison. shakespeare wants to say that a poet can still fall in love with his lover even without caring about her beauty. moreover, he intends to say that romantic or love sonnets can also be written even without false exaggerations and sparkly untruthful words with the same gist of the topic. the sonnet can be analyzed thoroughly in different ways; one is that the lady might be from an african reign from shakespeare’s descriptions of the lady; the dark-colored eyes, black curly hair, and dark skin. these all show that she might specifically be from an african nationality and that she might be a mixed-race with an african father and an english mother or vice versa. it also shows that his lover was not from a noble family, she might have been a commoner or an immigrant or even an african slave who worked as a maid or some noble family since slavery began in europe during the fifteenth-century. shakespeare’s descriptions of the lady in the sonnet create a sense of racism within it, he reflects through the poem that only those kinds of people have those kinds of unflattering qualities. nevertheless, the lady’s very existence is arguable that there is a possibility that she may not have existed and that shakespeare only created her in his imagination to convey his message through her. another possibility is that the lady might not have been dark she might have been covered in dirt and dust owing to working, also she might have had beautiful hair but she did not take care of it because of work. her eyes might have been lively and beautiful, but sadness might have stolen the gaze from them, and because of lack of food and an empty stomach she had a bad breath maybe that is why shakespeare fell in love with her. sonnet 130 most probably has been written because of the above possibilities. yet, we are not sure either the lady was aware of the poet’s love or not or she had the same feelings for him or not. we still cannot be sure about the origin of the dark lady, what we mentioned so far is just an assumption that we discovered throughout reading several sources and especially through reading the sonnet itself and shakespeare’s description of her as a simple human being. references shawa, a., khalid, w. (2017). a stylistic analysis of shakespeare's sonnet 130. al quds open university, 22: 3. print. analyzing the sonnet.(2019). www.study.com. web. accessed 29 january. an ensyclopedia of an artistic history. (2013). trans. hawraman qanih. tahran: rjaiy. print barzinji, m. (2012). the image of modern man in t.s eliot's poetry. bloomington: in: authorhouse. print. beard, adrian. (2001). texts and contexts: introducing literature and language study. london: routledge. print. bloom, harold. (2008). bloom’s shakespeare through the ages: the sonnets. ed. brett foster. new york: an imprint of infobase publishing,. print. bodek, richard.(2020). sonnet130. diss. college of charleston. web. accessed 11 march. booth, stephen, ed. (1997). shakespeare’s sonnets. new heaven: yale up. print. burt, stephen, david mikics. (2010). the art of the sonnet. london: the belknap press of harvard university press. print. callaghan, dympna.(2007). shakespeare’s sonnets. malden: blackwell publishing. print causes of the renaissance. (2018). www.historycrunch.com. web. published 18 august. critiques of sonnets: sonnet 130 and the theme of pain example (2020). .www.homework lab.com. web. 1 february. cousins, a.d., peter howarth, ed. (2011). the cambridge companion to the sonnet. cambridge:cambridge university press. print. edmondson, paul and stanley wells. (2004). shakespeare’s sonnets. new york: oxford university press inc. print. “english or shakespearean sonnets”. www.prepscholar.com.web. published 14 august, 2019. hattaway, michale, ed. (2003). a companion to english renaissance literature and culture. 2000. cowley road: blackwell publishing company. print. history of the renaissance.(2020). www.historyworld.net. web. accessed 5 march.. key features of renaissance culture. (2017). www.britishlibrary.com. web. published 30 march. philip, martin.(1972). shakespeare's sonnets: self, love and art. new york: cambridge university press. print.renaissance. (2019). www.britannica.com. web. accessed 15 december. renaissance. (2018). www.history.com. web. published in april 4. rymond, adrian.(1995). introduction. shakespeare’s sonnets. oxford: heinman publisher. print. http://www.study.com/ http://www.prepscholar.com/ http://www.historyworld.net/ http://www.britishlibrary.com/ http://www.britannica.com/ http://www.history.com/ 21 shakespeare, william.(2007). a companion to shakespeare's sonnets. ed. michael schoenfeldt.sussex: blackwell publishing. print. shakespeare, william.(1980). shakespeare’s sonnets. ed. thomas tyler. london: unknown,. print. shakespeare's sonnets. (2019). www.britishlibrary.com. web.accessed 13 december. shakespeare's sonnets (130 & 138)”. (2020). www.scholarspark.com. web. accessed29 january. sonnet 130. (2020). www.encyclopedia.com. web. accessed 29 january. sonnet 130: my mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun”. (2020). www.litcharts.com. web. accessed 8 february. sonnet 130. (2020). diss. university of buckingham. www.buckingham.ac.uk . web. accessed 26 january. sonnet. (2019). www.literarydevices.com. web. accessed 13 december.. spacy, andrew. (2020). “analysis of sonnet 130 by william shakespeare”. web. updated 8 january. stapleton, m.l. (1993) “my false eyes: the dark lady and self-knowledge”. studies in philology, 2: 213-230. print. the renaissance. (2020). www.courses.lumenlearning.com. web. accessed 7 january. vendler, helen. (1997). the art of shakespeare’s sonnets. massachusetts: the belknap press of harvard university. print. http://www.encyclopedia.com/ http://www.literarydevices.com/ http://www.courses.lumenlearning.com/ acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2, 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 206 a cross-national investigation of cultural representations in iranian and turkish elt coursebooks monireh azimzadeh yi̇ği̇t1 çukurova university, adana, turkey bayburt university in the elt department, turkey edolgunsoz@gmail.com emrah dolgunsöz2 bayburt university in the department of foreign language education, turkey monirehyigit@bayburt.edu.tr doi: 10.35974/acuity.v7i2.2780 abstract acquiring second/foreign language competence inherits target culture knowledge and awareness. in this regard, english language teaching (elt) coursebooks play a significant role in culture acquisition especially in an english as a foreign language (efl) context in which learners have little or no opportunity to practice english outside the classroom. therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate and compare the cultural content of local efl textbooks used in two muslim countries; iran and turkey. kachru’s concentric model was used to explore cultural contents of iranian and turkish 9th grade efl coursebooks and the data was analyzed through content analysis. results showed that the iranian coursebook was vastly filled with native culture along with a few subjects from expanding circle countries such as russia and china. on the other hand, the main cultural focus of the turkish efl coursebook was inner-circle countries while little emphasis was made on native culture. the results were discussed in terms of intercultural competence and material design in the efl context. keywords: culture, coursebook, efl, elt, kachru’s concentric model introduction the english language has long been considered an international language due to its widespread usage among non-native speakers of various languages from different countries. the status of english differs among countries all over the world; while it has a first language (l1) status in some countries; it is adopted either as an official language or as a foreign language (efl) in several countries. such diversity in the status of the english language led to a categorization decade ago and kachru (1985) classified the status of the english language into three main circles the inner circle, outer circle, and expanding circle. inner circle countries are countries where english has an l1 status which comprises countries such as the united kingdom, australia, new zealand, canada, and the united states. (crystal, 2003). on the other hand, outer circle countries adopted english as the official language and used it commonly in their borders having roots in the colonization period. there are also diversities of english such as standard, pidgin, and creole which were developed as the local language. these outer-circle countries include countries such as singapore, india, or the philippines. (crystal, 1997; kachru, https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity mailto:edolgunsoz@gmail.com mailto:monirehyigit@bayburt.edu.tr acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2, 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 207 1985). expanding circle countries refer to the third category encompassing countries in which english is regarded as a foreign language and intensively taught as a part of the curriculum. learners in this category learn english only to enable international communication effectively. examples of expanding circle countries can be countries such as iran, russia, turkey, and china. according to kachru’s concentric circle, iran and turkey, which are also geographically neighbors, are categorized as expanding circle countries where english is considered as a foreign language. due to the nature of the expanding circle, learners' communication opportunities are limited to the classroom context. in this category, the english language is only a topic of formal or informal education and no or little feedback is taken out of the classroom. this limited learning opportunities make english language classrooms more important and thus, increasing the significance of well-designed language materials including textbooks. textbooks are widely and intensively used in language pedagogy by these countries and they seem like the only chance for efl learners to acquire the target language and culture. however, it is still not clear how these two expanding circle countries approached and designed these coursebooks regarding intercultural awareness. this study aimed to evaluate high school (9th grade) local english coursebooks in terms of kachru’s concentric model by scrutinizing cultural themes from 3 circles. literature review for efl learners, gaining only systematic knowledge of the target language can never be enough to achieve competence; target culture motives are also vital elements of the learning process (alptekin, 1993). inclusion of target culture themes requires intensive scrutiny since l1 culture may sometimes do not correlate with the target culture. sensitive content (see gray, 2002) is commonly avoided by international publishers who regularly sell efl textbooks to the middle east and gulf region in which the majority of the population is muslim. cultural sensitivities and worries led muslim governments to design and publish their local textbooks in which they felt more flexible regarding cultural themes. these local textbooks are open to debate since designers were mostly local and native people rather than being international which causes several questions regarding culture acquisition. the rate and intensity of global and local cultures are not clear which may lead to some problems regarding intercultural competence. in these countries, as the key source of input for l2 learners appears to be textbooks, it is significant to embody unbiased cultural content in the textbooks. several studies have explored the cultural contents of english language textbooks used in iranian and turkish contexts for several years. in the iranian context, majdzadeh (2002) studied elt textbooks in iran to discover the extent to which elt textbooks develop learners' intercultural competence. he explored islamic culture and traditions in elt textbooks used at the eighth and ninth-grade levels. he stated that textbooks' local cultural contents were not enough, and he suggested that the integration of western culture with the local culture could promote the learners' intercultural competence. similarly, aliakbari (2004) studied the previous elt textbooks used in iranian high schools, stating that these textbooks were not useful and could not promote learners’ intercultural competence. his findings also displayed that iranian learners could not focus on cultural content since no cultural motives from other countries were given. in the last decade, naji meidani, and pishghadam (2012) studied four popular series of english textbooks in iran. they used kachru’s (1985) classification model to discover the extent to which these books represented cultural content of inner circle, expanding circle, or outer circle https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2, 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 208 countries, how these textbooks varied in representing foreign accents and other varieties of english and how did the learners’ own culture presented in these textbooks and the extent in which these textbooks varied in representing famous people. the result showed that although there were improved representations of cultural content about outer and expanding circle countries, there were biases in what content should be selected from these cultures. furthermore, only two out of four textbooks contained the demonstration of foreign accents and varieties of english. although in some of the textbooks, the learners were asked to contrast the existing culture with their own culture, there was no reference to the learners' own culture in some of the textbooks. finally, in the case of famous figures' presentation, the american way of living's values was generally represented by hollywood superstars. alimorad (2015) investigated the intercultural content that existed in the right path to english 1, and 2 and prospect 1 and 2. the study results showed that the right path contained inauthentic and cooperative dialogues while prospect 1, 2 consisted of consensual exchanges that lacked meaning negotiation. the study did not assess the textbook according to its potential to promote iranian efl learners' intercultural competence. moreover, saeedi and shahrokhi (2019) compared the cultural contents of vision (i & ii) and pre-university english (i & ii) textbooks recently. they used cortazzi and jin’s (1999) framework and the framework proposed by adaskou, britten and fahsi (1990) in their study. they found significant differences between these textbooks. the result showed that the vision series consisted of more l1 and neutralcultural contents while the pre-university series comprised of l2 and l1 cultural contents. and more recently, azimzadeh and özkan (2021) analyzed iranian high school efl textbooks. they used kachru’s model to explore the cultural contents of english language textbook that is being used in high schools in iran. the results of the study exhibited that the native culture dominated the cultural framework of the coursebook. in the turkish context, çakır (2010) studied three coursebooks from the 6th, 7th and 8th grades that are used in elementary education in turkey. he tried to find out culture-specific expressions within these course books. the results of the study showed that coursebooks do not include enough culture-specific expressions to foster students’ intercultural competence. in another study, iriskulova (2012) examined spot on, which was used for 8th grade, and results showed that the textbook contains a small amount of native cultural contents and cultural elements mostly referred to the target culture. demirbaş (2013) conducted a study to investigate cultural elements in ‘my english 5, unique 6, spring 7, and four seasons english 8’ for english language instruction in turkish primary schools. the findings demonstrate that all the textbooks mostly consist of cultural elements related to turkish, japanese, french, and german culture. arslan (2016) conducted another study to investigate cultural contents in efl textbooks that are utilized in 3rd and 4th-grade students in state schools in turkey. the finding revealed that although the cultural contents of the textbooks contain cultural contents of the native, target, and international, cultural contents are not distributed equally. it means that native cultural contents are less than target and intercultural contents in both 3rd and 4th-grade textbooks. rather than focusing on a single context, the current study aimed to compare an iranian local textbook to its counterpart in another muslim country, turkey, to see any similarities or differences regarding cultural themes and approaches to intercultural understanding. the research questions were as follows: 1. what is the rate of cultural themes regarding kachru’s 3 circles in iranian and turkish local textbooks? https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2, 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 209 2. what are the similarities and differences between the two textbooks in terms of target culture acquisition? methods research design the method used to investigate cultural representations in the textbooks is content analysis. this sort of analysis involves the analysis of the cultural contents of language course books. weber (1990, p. 117) defines it as "content analysis is a research method that uses a set of procedures to make valid inferences from the text". accordingly, krippendorff (2004) describes it as a "research technique for making replicable and valid inferences from texts (or other meaningful matter) to the contexts of their use". he then describes the text stating that it refers to any written interaction resources proposed to be read, understood, and agreed upon by people other than the specialists. in effect, it merely defines the process of summarizing and reporting written data – the main contents of data and their messages (cohen, manion and morrison, 2007). materials iranian and turkish locally developed english language textbooks were selected and analyzed for this study. prospect series have been approved and published by the ministry of iranian national education and have been used in iranian junior high schools since september 2013. among these series ‘prospect 3’ was used in this study. it is used in the ninth grade of iranian high schools and consists of 6 units and 136 pages. each lesson includes five parts: vocabulary, language melody, grammar, see also, and key language. the other textbook, “teenwise 9” was approved and published by the ministry of turkish national education and has been used in turkish junior high schools since 2017. it contains ten units and 142 pages. each unit includes sections such as function, grammar, vocabulary, listening and reading, speaking and writing, and pronunciation. the model of analyzing course books the model that was used to analyze the textbooks was kachru’s model. kachru (1985) categorized the use of english into three circles according to the natures of widespread, the patterns of learning, and the role which english plays as: a) inner circle countries: it includes countries where the english language is considered the first language. countries like the united kingdom, australia, canada, and the united states are included in inner circle countries. in these countries, approximately 320-380 million people use english as their first language. it contains about 20-28% of the total english users (crystal, 2003, p.61). (b) outer circle countries: english language nations colonized outer-circle countries and developed the english language in these countries. in countries such as singapore, india, https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2, 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 210 or the philippines english language was used as an official language in the 19th century due to british colonization. in these outer-circle countries, english varieties appeared and developed as the local language (kachru, 1985). 300-500 million people use english in this circle, containing about 26% of the total english users (crystal, 2003, p.61). (c) expanding circle countries: in these countries, the english language is used as a language for international interactions. in countries such as china, japan, or taiwan, it is studied as a foreign language. learners learn english as a result of understanding the importance of english as an international language. so, the codes are the names of the countries represented in the unit. cultural themes were described in percentages and frequencies regarding three circles for each textbook. the textbook was divided into units by theme, and the materials were then coded and divided into categories by following cohen, manion and morrison’s model (2007). results the textbooks were evaluated with kachru’s concentric model. cultural themes related to each circle were given in percentages and frequencies. for each circle, sample texts were given for each textbook. findings related to cultural themes in the turkish textbook were given in table 1 below. table 1. cultural themes in turkish textbook “teenwise 9”* unit number unit name inner circle (%/f) outer circle (%/f) expanding circle (%/f) 1 studying abroad 26%/9 2%/1 72%/35 2 my environment 30%/3 70%/7 3 movies 73%/27 37%/10 4 human in nature 48%/10 19%/4 33%/7 5 inspirational people 71%/22 3%/1 26%/8 6 bridging culture 27%/6 5%/1 68%/15 7 world heritage 6%/1 94%/15 8 emergency and health problems 9 invitations and celebrations 75%/15 20%/4 5%/1 10 television and social media 94%/15 6%/1 average % 45% 8,6% 37,4% *please see appendix 1 for a full list of countries mentioned https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2, 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 211 the analysis of the turkish book resulted in a total of 95 mentions for inner-circle countries, 98 mentions for expanding circle countries, and only 8 mentions for outer-circle countries. in the first unit of the turkish book, expanding circle mentions were dominant (72%, n= 35). a few inner-circle countries were mentioned but outer-circle countries were observed to be minimal. lesson one consists of historical places related to expanding circle and inner circle countries such as the taj mahal, eiffel tower, big ben, and cappadocia. similarly, reading passages and dialogues are related to people and characters in expanding and inner-circle countries. for example, in the reading and writing part, an egyptian engineer talks about himself. my name is ammon. i’m egyptian. i’m an engineer. my roommate adrian is from sweden. he is a fashion designer….(page. 17) similarly, “wise up” part of the textbook is about a turkish musician. this is the story of a talented turkish girl. melda umur saguner is a turkish musician. she is a successful double bass player. her music story begins from her childhood…..(p. 19) the second unit was very similar to the first unit. cultural contents of expanding circle countries were in majority (70%, n=7) while some mentions related to inner-circle countries were observed (30%, n=3). no cultural contents related to outer-circle countries were mentioned. it contains pictures of cities from expanding circle and inner circle countries such as vienna, tokyo, and hong kong, and just like the previous unit, the reading passage, and writing part were related to cultural contents of inner and expanding circle countries. for example, there is a text that a boy from japan describes his room as: hi, i’m hiro. i’m from japan. welcome to my world. this is my bedroom. there is a futon bed in my bedroom. it’s traditional japanese bed…..(p.31) likewise, a sweden boy describes his room as: hi, i’m benny. i’m from sweden. my bedroom is my favorite place in the house. there is a chest of drawers in front of the window….(p.31) in the third unit, cultural contents of the inner circle (73%, n=27) and outer circle (37%/10) countries were included in the textbook. no mentions were made for expanding circle countries. it contains movies, actors, actresses, and singers from the inner circle and outercircle countries. for example, in wise up part two biggest industries hollywood and bollywood were contrasted. hollywood: the first movie in hollywood was in old california. hollywood is in los angeles, california. bollywood: the first movie in bollywood was raja harischandra in 1913. bollywood does not exist in a physical place. it is in mumbai (formerly called bombay)(.p. 43). furthermore, the reading and writing part is about a film called eddie the eagle. some part of the text is as: https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2, 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 212 ……the movie is full of fascinating snow scenes and exciting ski jumps. it is the true story of eddie edwards. it is a comedy-drama. the stars are taron egerton (eddie) and hugh jackman (the coach)….(p.46). as observed in table 1, in the fourth unit of the textbook, cultural contents of inner-circle countries (48%,10) outnumber cultural contents of the outer circle (19%,4) and expanding circle (33%, 7) countries. for example, in the listening and speaking part, tribal people of inner and outer circle countries were introduced such as the huli, the cherokee, and the maori. similarly reading and listening part was about a turkish journalist and an explorer: hasan söylemez is a turkish journalist and an explorer. he is also a dream follower. he tries to make his dreams real, so he travels across the continent of africa by sahara, his bike (p.58). the fifth unit included 71% of the mentions about cultural contents of inner-circle countries. 26% of the mentions were about cultural contents of expanding circle countries. mentions related to outer-circle countries were at a minimal level (3%, n=1). there are pictures of famous people from inner, outer, and expanding circle countries such as nicole kidman, meryl streep, michael jordan, and canan dağdeviren. in the reading and writing part, a text describes norah jones's life. norah jones is one of the brightest jazz singers and musicians of our time. she is also a great actress. his father, ravi shankar, is a famous indian sitar player. (p.71) likewise, the reading and writing part is about messages that fans of brand fax sent to them. some of the messages are as follows: ervexw23 brand, can you please check out my latest post? i’d like you to send my sister a get-well wish! it really means a lot to her. she’s your greatest fan. (p.65) h45gfb this is exactly what we want to see, celebrities helping people from all walks of life. we’re extremely proud of you. (p. 65) in the sixth unit, cultural contents of expanding circle countries were in majority (68%, n=15) followed by cultural contents of inner-circle countries (27%, n=6). only 5% of the mentions were about cultural contents of outer-circle countries. it contains traditional foods of inner, outer, and expanding circle countries such as masala dosa, sushi, yorkshire pudding, and haggis. in the reading and writing part, a girl called camilla talks about her country’s eating habits. hi. my name is camilla. i’m from brazil. we usually have ham and cheese sandwiches at breakfast. we love eating tropical fruit, too. they are always fresh and juicy, aren’t they… (p.76) similarly, the wise up section is about a birthday party in different countries from inner and expanding circle countries. england: children like drinking squash at birthday parties. it’s a type of fruit juice. some families enjoy putting objects into a birthday cake. if the birthday person finds a gold coin, it symbolizes wealth in the coming year…. (p.79) https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2, 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 213 also, in the global understanding part, a chinese boy talks about their eating habits. ……..for breakfast, lunch, and dinner we usually have almost the same kind of food. rice, dumplings, and noodles are always on our menu. we use very little oil to cook the food so chinese food is rarely greasy…..(p.77) the seventh unit included a dominance of expanding circle countries’ cultural contents (94%, n=15). only 6% of the mentions were about cultural contents of inner-circle countries and no mentions were made on cultural contents of outer-circle countries. historical places of expanding circle countries such as the great pyramid in egypt, the temple of artemis in turkey, and the statue of zeus in greece were included in the seventh lesson (p.86). in the reading and writing part, a tourist talks about his journey to china and visiting great wall. …..i went to beijing four years ago, but couldn’t visit the great wall. i always wanted to see it but our tour guide didn’t take us there because it was winter…..(p.94) the eighth unit of the textbook was about emergency and health problems and no cultural contents were observed in this unit. most mentions to outer-circle countries were made in the ninth unit (20%, n=4). but still, inner circle dominance was viable (75%, n=15). only 5% of the mentions were related to expanding circle countries. the ninth unit of the textbook comprises different parties in inner, outer, and expanding circle countries such as birthday parties, surprise parties, barbecue parties, graduation parties, and farewell parties. the reading and writing part contains examples of invitations for a different part. an example of an invitation for a surprise party is the following. dear lana i’m planning a surprise party for my best friend erica’s 18th birthday. it is going to be at my place this sundayi invited her to study for an exam….(p.112) the reading and writing part also consists of a text about the basant panchami festival in india. basant panchami means the purity of spring. the festival celebrations take place in north india every year. most indians look forward to this colorful party. preparations usually start months before the celebration…. (p.118) in the final unit, the dominance of inner-circle countries’ cultural contents persisted (94%, n=15). mentions related to cultural contents of expanding circle countries were only 6%. no mentions were given for cultural contents of outer-circle countries. in the last unit of the textbook, there exist serials and films from inner-circle countries such as doctor who, star wars, and toy story 3. in the listening and speaking part, two friends, tina and brian, are talking about tv programs. tina: there is my favorite tv series, doctor who, on tv tonight. would you like to watch it? brian: well, not really. i don’t like it. i think it is too boring. tina: too boring?? i totally disagree with you. anyway, i will watch it on the net later. how about watching who wants to be a millionaire? https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2, 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 214 the findings related to cultural themes in the iranian textbook were given in table 2 below. table 2. cultural themes in iranian textbook “prospective”* unit number unit name inner circle outer circle expanding circle 1 personality 100% 2 travel 100% 3 festivals and ceremonies 100% 4 services 100% 5 media 100% 6 health and injuries 100% average % 0 0 100% *please see appendix 1 for a full list of countries mentioned analysis related to the iranian textbook yielded all mentions related to cultural contents of expanding circle countries while no mentions were made for cultural contents of inner and outer-circle countries. however, cultural contents related to expanding circle were mostly about iran and just two contents were related to china and turkey. the textbook said nothing about the cultural contents of inner and outer circles. for example, in lesson one, there exist pictures of students and a teacher with hijab in schools or there is a map with only the persian gulf mentioned in it. similarly, in the second lesson, pictures of a woman were included with a hijab working in a hotel as a receptionist. likewise, lesson three of the textbook talks about festivals and ceremonies related to iran and turkey. for example, in conversation part two friends are talking about norooz: elham: i just love the new year holidays! nasrin: oh, yes, me too. it’s really great. elham: we normally visit our relatives in norooz. it’s fun.!...(p.50) also, there is a text about fitr eid as follows: ahmed is from turkey and he lives in istanbul. fitr eid is an important religious holiday in his country. he likes this day a lot. it’s on the first day of shawwal. on fitr eid, muslims don’t fast. (p.57) similarly, there are pictures of the iranian national football team singing the national anthem, a family reading hafiz’s poem, people wearing iranian special clothes, or people going out on nature day. in the language melody part, two friends are talking about nature day. sam: shayan, do you like spring? shayan: yes, i like spring a lot. sam: do you like rainy weather? https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2, 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 215 shayan: oh yes! but not on nature day. sam: why not? shayan: because we always go out on the 13th of farvardin. (p.54) there are not so many cultural contents in the fourth lesson of the textbook. there exists just a woman with hijab in the bus station or bakery. just like other units, the cultural contents of lesson five are related to iran for instance in the conversation part two friends are talking about fajr international film festival. mina: did you enjoy your weekend? mahsa: yes, it was wonderful! i attended fajr international film festival. mina: really? i am also interested in its events and movies. (p.82) finally, in the last lesson of the textbook, in the conversation part, two friends are talking about helal-e-ahmar. reza: it sometimes happens. i twisted my ankle last winter. i stayed home for two weeks! ehsan: that’s too bad! i didn’t know that. reza: yeah…, but after that, i participated in helal-e-ahmar first aid classes. i learned how to take care of myself….(p.96) discussion this study was carried out to investigate and compare cultural elements of two elt textbooks used for 9th-grade students in iran and turkey. the analysis of the turkish english language textbook, teen wise, based on kachru’s model revealed that most of the cultural contents of this textbook are about the inner circle and expanding circle countries presenting a more homogenous distribution although outer-circle countries and l1 culture (turkey) were not mentioned much. on the contrary, almost all of the cultural content in iranian textbooks consisted of l1 culture (iran). no cultural content related to inner-circle countries or outercircle countries was mentioned in the iranian textbook. only a few expanding circle countries were included in the iranian textbook such as russia, turkey, and china. since our results related to the iranian textbook exhibited nearly no cultural richness, we concluded that iranian elt textbook designers ignored the notions of the studies mentioned above. although the iranian educational system went through a recent change and accepted english as an international language, our findings revealed that lack of cultural diversity and presenting mono-culture persisted in the iranian textbook. the outcomes of this study confirmed the findings of majdzadeh’s (2002) and aliakbari’s study (2004) who found that the cultural contents of efl textbooks in iran are mostly related to native culture, iran. apart from these two older studies, the results of this study also confirmed the results of a more recent study, alimorad’s (2015), which explored that cultural contents of iranian textbook could not promote students’ intercultural competence as too much native culture were imposed rather than inner or outer-circle countries. similarly, gholami and ghasemi (2018) evaluated three iranian efl textbooks (prospect 1, 2, and 3) by using the content analysis framework used by hillard (2014) to explore cultural elements. our findings were parallel with the results of this study. they found out that the range of cultural topics represented in the series was fairly shallow and superficial. they revealed that the textbook series evaluated were very limited in terms of intercultural elements and mostly local issues were remarked rather than target culture. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2, 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 216 and the most recent study related to iranian efl textbook evaluation, the study by derakhshan (2021), carried out a qualitative analysis by adopting the peircean semiotic theory (the textimage-task semiotic relationship) to explore cultural awareness in the iranian efl textbook, vision 1, from the perspectives of iranian efl students, teachers, and teacher educators. the results were in line with the current findings; cultural awareness and associations were almost untouched and the textual and images driving intercultural meanings were not in accordance with the tasks leaving no place for intercultural awareness. hence, depending on these studies from 2002 to 2021, we speculated that not much change took place in iranian elt policy at least for a few decades. unlike the iranian textbook which contradicted with intercultural notion due to its resistance towards inner and outer circle countries and cultures, our findings showed that the turkish efl textbook adopted the views of some researchers such as stewart (1982), valdes (1986), and garcia (2005) who believed that that target culture should be intensively taught in english language classes. hence, the findings of this study were more positive regarding intercultural competence. the results of this study are in line with the findings of iriskulova’s (2012) and arslan’s (2016) study who explored that the turkish efl coursebook contains a small amount of native cultural contents and cultural elements mostly referred to the target culture. arslan (2016) aimed to investigate the cultural content of turkish efl textbooks at 3rd and 4th-grade primary schools adopting descriptive content analysis techniques. she obtained quantitative data through a checklist and item frequency analysis. her results showed that 3rd-grade textbook was found to have more cultural items than 4th-grade textbook does in total. as was found in the current study, arslan (2016) also found that there was an unbalance among cultural items indicating that native culture items (turkish) were mostly ignored by presenting a dominance of target culture motives. the most recent study was the one by ulum (2021) who evaluated the turkish efl textbook named “net 5” which has been freely distributed. ulum used kachru’s model and found out that outer-circle countries were mostly ignored while inner and expanding circle countries were mentioned frequently. our results also confirmed his findings since we also found out that outer circle country mentions were about 8%. conclusion while the caveats for the turkish coursebook was the lack of outer circle and native culture representations along with the dominance of inner and outer circle cultures, the issues were more critical for the iranian textbook which left no room for inner and outer circles but filled the textbook with native culture representations and a few expanding circle countries. the findings clearly showed that the turkish textbook needs a few modifications such as adding some more native culture themes enriched with outer circle culture items by decreasing the inner circle cultural mentions. on the other hand, the iranian textbook contradicted the notion of intercultural awareness which was considered as a competence required for english language proficiency. inner and outer circles were ignored while only a few mentions related to expanding circle was made. this led to an inflation of native culture representations which dramatically decreased intercultural gains. our findings related to the iranian textbook indicated a need for the inclusion of more cultural topics associated with kachru’s concentric model and we emphasize more attention devoted to developing intercultural competence by including more target culture-related tasks. in this way, learners both would be more aware of foreign cultures and communities and become more proficient in efl. references https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2, 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 217 adaskou, k., d. britten, and b. fahsi. (1990). design decisions on the cultural content of a course for morocco. elt journal, 44 (1),3-10 aliakbari, m. (2004). the place of culture in the iranian elt textbooks in high school level. the linguistic journal, 1(14). alimorad, z. (2015). a critical evaluation of inter-and intra-cultural encounters of textbooks, modern journal of language teaching methods, 5(1), 20–27. alptekin, c. (1993). target-language culture in efl materials. elt journal, 47(2), 136–143. https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/47.2.136 arslan, s. (2016). an analysis of two turkish efl books in terms of cultural aspects. procedia social and behavioral sciences. 217 – 225. çakır, i. (2010). the frequency of culture-specific elements in the elt coursebooks at elementary schools in turkey. novitas-royal (research on youth and language), 4(2), 182-189. cohen, l., manion, l. & morrison, k. (2007): research methods in education. routledge; 6th edition cortazzi, m., jin, l. (1999). cultural mirrors: materials and methods in the efl classroom. in e. hinkel (ed.), culture in second language teaching and learning, 196-219, cambridge: cambridge university press. crystal, d. (1997). english as a global language. cambridge: cambridge university press. crystal, d. (2003). a dictionary of linguistics & phonetics (5th edition). oxford: blackwell publishing demirbaş, m. (2013). investigating intercultural elements in english coursebooks. ahi evran university kirşehir education faculty journal (kefad). vol.14 (2). pp.291-304 derakhshan, a. (2021). ‘should textbook images be merely decorative?’: cultural representations in the iranian efl national textbook from the semiotic approach perspective. language teaching research, 1362168821992264. garcia, m. c. m. (2005). international and intercultural issues in english teaching textbooks: the case of spain. intercultural education, 16(1), 57-68. doi:10.1080/14636310500061831. gholami pasand, p., ghasemi, a. a. 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(1985). standards, codification and sociolinguistic realism: the english language in the outer circle. in r. quirk & h. g. widdowson (eds.), english in the world: teaching and learning the language and literatures (11-30). cambridge: cambridge university press. krippendorff, k. (2004). content analysis: an introduction to its methodology. saga publication. majdzadeh, m. (2002). disconnection between language and culture: a case study of iranian english textbooks. (unpublished ma thesis). king saud university, saudi arabia. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2, 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 218 azimzadeh y. m, özkan, y., (2021, in press). investigation of iranian and turkish english language teachers’ views, perspectives and experiences of teaching cultural content in english courses. multicultural learning and teaching, doi.org/10.1515/mlt-2021-0006 naji meidani, e. and pishghadam, r. (2012). analysis of english language textbooks in the light of english as an international language (eil): a comparative study. international journal of research studies in language learning, 2(2), 83-96. saeedi, z., & shahrokhi, m. (2019). cultural content analysis of iranian elt coursebooks: a comparison of vision i & ii with english for pre-university students i & ii. international journal of foreign language teaching & research, 7, 27. stewart, s. (1982). language and culture. usf language quarterly, 20/3, 7-10. ulum, ö. g. (2021). who resists? efl textbooks or young learners. xi. umteb international congress on vocational & technical sciences proceedings book, 3/5, 76-83 valdes, j, m. (1986). culture in literature. in j, m. valdes. (ed). cultural bound: bridging the cultural gap in language teaching. cambridge: cambridge university press weber, r.p. (1990). content analysis. basic content analysis. thousand oaks: sage publications. appendices appendix 1: full list of countries mentioned turkish coursebook cultural content (teenwise 9) inner circle outer circle expanding circle lesson 1 the ukcanadaaustralia india spain -italy –greecefrance germanychinaportugalturkey-egypt-bulgaria-sweden. lesson 2 the uk. america-australia japan-morocco-sweden-italy-hong kong lesson 3 america-uk lesson 4 canadaamericauk south africa philippine-germany-italy-japan-turkey lesson 5 usa-uk-australia india france-brazil-turkey lesson6 scotland-englandaustralia-uk-canada india japan-brazil-italy-china-mexicojamaica-franceportugal-argentina lesson 7 india turkey-egypt-greeceiraqchina-peru-brazil-jordanmexico-italy lesson 8 uk-america lesson 9 uk india france lesson 10 uk-america france iranian coursebook cultural content (prospect 3) inner circle outer circle expanding circle https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2, 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 219 lesson 1 iran (native) lesson 2 iran (native)-germany lesson 3 iran (native)-turkey-china lesson 4 iran (native) lesson 5 iran (native) lesson 6 iran (native) https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 161 the effect of using de-contextualization and semi-contextualization teaching techniques on turkish efl learners’ vocabulary learning parisa yeganehpour1 and elham zarfsaz2 yeganehpour.parisa@gmail.com agri ibrahim cecen university, turkey doi: 10.35974/acuity.v7i2.2781 abstract information from television, the internet, and digital media surrounds us. multimedia links us to other languages and cultures. multimedia provides several benefits for foreign language learning. the goal of this research was to see how semi-contextualized television programs and subtitled tv shows help vocabulary retention during language learning. this study was conducted in a turkish state university. the instructor split the class into two experimental groups of 18-20 year olds. the study started with a pretest. then the newly condensed words were taught utilizing decontextualized and semi-contextualized education strategies. the research lasted a semester with 14 sessions. an immediate post-test was given at the conclusion of semester after teaching all new words. three sessions later, a post-test was given. then the participants' scores were analyzed statistically. the research found no significant differences between semi-contextualized (tv show) and decontextualized vocabulary teaching methodologies (board monitoring). focus should be given on the researchers' expertise as english teachers in predicting differences between two tactics (preference for semi-contextualized approach). keywords: semi-contextualized vocabulary teaching, decontextualized vocabulary teaching, retention, language learning, vocabulary learning, learning strategy. introduction today, we know that human language is founded on vocabulary. the use of internet resources in educational contexts has increased, positively impacting vocabulary learning (hanafiah, aswad, sahib, yassi, & mousavi, 2022). to be specific, vocabulary is a vital component of communication, which is made up of three fundamental language units: pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar (susanto, 2017). since two decades ago, language learning took a back seat to other priorities. however, the vocabulary area has been proven as one of the fertile research grounds for two prior decades. according to wilkins (1972) and alqahtani (2015) nothing can be transmitted without vocabulary, despite the fact that very little can be articulated without grammar. to begin with, emphasis was placed on grammar and functional use. language academics attacked previous grammar syllabuses and methodologies for their lack of attention for lexis. this is also true of more contemporary communication techniques. theorists of communicative linguistics have been criticized for 1 assist.dr, agri ibrahim cecen university, foreign language schools, agri, turkey. pyeganehpour@agri.edu.tr, orcid id: 0000-0003-2982-9085 2 assist.dr, tokat gaziosmanpasa university, education faculty, tokat, country. elham.zarfsaz@gop.edu.tr, orcid id: 0000-0002-6172-6388 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity mailto:yeganehpour.parisa@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6172-6388 acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 162 ignoring vocabulary and its education in favor of structures, functions, concepts, and communication tactics (o'dell, 1997). by advancing the schools of psychology in second language teaching and learning, there was a shift away from the audio lingual approach, placed a premium on the structure and form of the language, toward a communicative approach, placed a premium on language use rather than language usage and whose overarching goal was to bring language learners closer to the target language by prioritizing fluency over accuracy. another critical component of this technique is that all of the grammar and vocabulary that is learnt and used naturally emerges from the breadth of functional and situational settings included in the courses. then there is an information processing hypothesis, which emerged from cognitive psychology and emphasizes the importance of memory in storing and remembering data. cognitivists are a good illustration in this case, since willams and burden (1997) claim that the human brain is capable of thinking and even mental processes related to learning. cognitivists and neurologists studied the information processing system and how the brain works when it comes to retaining, remembering, and storing knowledge in the mind (chastain, 1998). for many years, the goal of instructors and students alike was to memorize and remember lexical elements. to help efl/esl students build all-inclusive language competencies it seems as if having an acceptable vocabulary is required. though the optimal method for acquiring and retaining new language has been a source of contention among researchers and linguists. numerous investigations have been conducted and a plethora of ideas have been proposed so far. nelson, vadasy, and according to sanders (2011), vocabulary is learned in two ways: via accidental encounters with words in dialogue and texts, and through formal training. fast mapping, or the learning of word meanings through single accidental exposures to new words in conversations, is a significant method for early oral language development through incidental exposure. celce murcia (2001) agrees that, in addition to accidental encounters with vocabulary, formal instruction supported with contexts should be offered to ensure that the learning program is successful and forceful. additionally, she states: “ new words should not be presented in isolation and should not be learned by simple rote memorization. it is important that new vocabulary items be presented in contexts rich enough to provide clues to meaning and that students be given multiple exposure to items they should learn. exercises and activities include learning words in word association lists, focusing on highlighted words in texts, and playing vocabulary games (hashemi, 2021). more recently, computer games and/or flipping the classroom that include the sounds of the words as well as illustrative pictures provide opportunity for practice with a variety of contexts, both written and spoken…. incidental vocabulary learning is learning that occurs when the mind is focused elsewhere, such as understanding a text or using language for communicative purpose” (celce-murcia, 2001; kneževic, županec, & radulovic, 2020). mizumoto and takeuchi (2009) argues that since studying vocabulary seems to be tedious to students, instructors will have a difficult time teaching the language. thus, instructors should use techniques and tactics in the classroom that have the potential to affect the learning process; in other words, teachers should be innovative in designing the most https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 163 effective approaches that meet students' expectations. teachers should strive to use the most effective approach possible for teaching lexical elements to learners. melisa and ahmad affendi (2021) compared different techniques, in which high and low proficient learners used to learn words. they conclude that language learners should be exposed to different techniques while they are young. other techniques of teaching vocabularies include mnemonic approaches such as the key word approach, in which the new word is connected with a known or familiar term (wei, 2014; cioca, & nerișanu, 2020). the traditional technique of providing learners with a list of vocabulary and asking them to recall the meanings was frequently employed by language instructors and students (sökmen, 2001; webb, 2007). nation (2002) and korkmaz and korkmaz, (2013) then distinguished between conventional or decontextualized ways of teaching and learning language and contextualized methods of teaching and learning vocabulary. contextualized strategies teach students new terminology in the context in which it happens. multimedia and visualization are two examples of contextualized teaching tools that might be beneficial. mayer (2005, p.38) lists five cognitive processes that apply to multimedia learning and retention: making acceptable word choices for verbal working memory processing, selecting acceptable images for visual working memory processing. constructing a verbal model from selected phrases, a graphical model from selected photographs, and connecting verbal and graphical representations to prior knowledge television episodes, when accompanied by subtitles, is a useful way to teach vocabulary. experiments demonstrate that teaching aids and strategies, such as decontextualized and semi-contextualized procedures, may help learners retain language effectively and forcibly. the purpose of this research is to determine the effect of two teaching strategies on learners' vocabulary retention: decontextualized (board monitoring) and semi-contextualized (tv program). statement of the problem and purpose of the study by far, the most critical aspect of language learning is vocabulary acquisition. the common sense idea of how languages are learned, according to a non-language specialist, is that you replace the words in your first language with their counterparts in the second language. words are seen as the building blocks for constructing second language knowledge (alqahtani, 2015). in the past, vocabulary education and learning in second language programs got little attention, but there has recently been a renaissance of interest in the nature of vocabulary and its role in learning and teaching (richards & renandya, 2002). they said that there are three approaches to vocabulary teaching/learning in general: incidental or indirect learning, explicit or direct instruction, and independent strategy development (practice guessing the meaning of the words from context) (richards & renandya, 2002). researchers such as martinez (2001), and pinter (2006) claimed three common decontextualizing strategies are word lists, flashcards, and ordinary dictionary usage. additionally, when using an indirect method, contextualizing strategies such as reading and https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 164 listening exercise, as well as speaking and writing practice, may be used (oxford & crookall, 1990). concerning the first two ways of vocabulary teaching/learning, there is an unresolved issue. the issue is whether the direct approach (through the use of decontextualizing methods) is preferable than the indirect approach (through the use of contextualizing techniques). slatterly and willis (2001) classified semi-contextualizing approaches for acquiring l2 vocabulary as: word grouping, word or idea association, visual imagery, auditory imagery, keyword, physical reaction, and physical feeling. while some context is derived via connections with other words or word-sounds (e.g., in word grouping, word or idea association, and to a degree in auditory imagery), some context is derived from extralinguistic sources (e.g., in visual imagery, physical response, and physical sensation). occasionally, context is presented by numerous methods, such as semantic mapping and keyword. indeed, an impressive number of research have addressed the problem, although the majority of these investigations have produced inconsistent findings. indeed, there is no unanimity on the superiority of one strategy over another. nation (2002) advocates for a systematic rather than an ad hoc approach to vocabulary instruction, arguing that such an approach is an integral aspect of any language course. he emphasizes the constraints of incidental learning and the fact that l2 learners often miss out on the benefits of incidental vocabulary development via reading due to their limited vocabulary knowledge. additionally, read (2004), abu algilasi (2010), hanoi (2010) argue that, although learners undoubtedly gain word knowledge incidentally when they participate in different language learning activities, a more systematic and direct study of vocabulary is necessary. according to testing scholars, examining vocabulary is crucial because words are the fundamental building blocks of language; they are the units of meaning from which bigger structures such as sentences, paragraphs, and whole texts are generated (schmitt, nation, & kremmel, 2020). however, modern technologies promote language acquisition and retention. vocabulary instruction, as defined by the national reading panel, is instruction in the meaning and recognition of words (national institute of child health and development [nichd], 2000). numerous research on the value of vocabulary training and visual vocabulary instruction demonstrate that all of the studies apply to instructors in all settings, including general education and inclusive environments. haniff, safinas, haimi, syafiq, and suzieanna (2020) found that using visuals such as drawings while teaching vocabulary in a foreign language was both more successful and easier to recall than using words alone. students who used a computer software with pictures were more attentive and learnt more vocabulary than students who were taught only by the teacher (çakmak, namaziandost, & kumar, 2021). gánem-gutiérrez, and gilmore (2021) claimed, after delving into the basic argument for a mixed approach to vocabulary acquisition in esl, that while basic or core vocabulary should be taught, less frequent vocabulary will be acquired 'naturally' through context, but even in that case, appropriate techniques should be taught. they concluded that a combination of approaches should be used, as there are advantages and disadvantages to using contextbased inferential strategies and some other explicit vocabulary learning techniques, such as https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 165 key-word techniques, pair translation, and the use of a monolingual or bilingual dictionary (gánem-gutiérrez, & gilmore, 2021). according to chen and hsu (2019), even if the majority of vocabulary is acquired via context, this does not mean that it is "the quickest or most effective method of acquiring specialized vocabulary." numerous studies have shown evidence that the use of explicit vocabulary teaching in combination with considerable reading is beneficial (tahir, 2017). indeed, language instructors use a number of ways when teaching vocabulary, and proficient students employ a broader range of vocabulary-learning procedures. the goal of this research is to assess the impact of decontextualized (board monitoring) and semi-contextualized (tv program) teaching strategies on learners aged 18-20 vocabulary retention in order to identify the degree to which these techniques might benefit learners. following this line of inquiry, the literature is lacking a comparison of the impact of teaching vocabulary to young learners using board monitoring and a television program in efl lessons. thus, the purpose of this research is to provide learners and instructors with information on the effects of decontextualized and semi-contextualized vocabulary teaching strategies on foreign language vocabulary learning and retention. thus, the purpose of this research is to determine the influence of decontextualized and semi-contextualized vocabulary teaching strategies on vocabulary retention. additionally, this research is unique in that it examines the effect of decontextualized (board monitoring) and semi-contextualized (tv program) vocabulary retention on teenaged learners, which has been investigated in a few previous studies. additionally, concentrating on the long-term impacts of both techniques (delayed) on learners' vocabulary retention bolsters its novelty. additionally, combining these two methodologies, decontextualized and semi-contextualized, provides another layer of uniqueness to this research. significance of the study for many instructors and scholars, the teaching of foreign language vocabulary would be a topic of debate (al farra,2014; aidinlou, & moradinejad, 2016). korouglu, and akbas, (2011) and lin, chen, and dwyer (2006) investigated the impact of teaching new vocabulary using images, and their findings indicated that both instructors and students had a favorable attitude toward the use of pictures. teachers use a variety of instructional strategies. thus, both english instructors and students would most likely feel that using decontextualized and semi-contextualized strategies enhances the learning process and makes the learning environment more enjoyable and memorable. in general, visual education would be useful for the acquisition and retention of vocabulary. students would be trained and assessed in order to demonstrate this concept. as a consequence, instructors and students are encouraged to use visual treatments to enhance teaching and learning. because all parties profit from this method, and the most significant point is that visual resources aid in the retention and reinforcement of vocabulary, and thankfully, both instructors and students agree on this point of teaching, learning, and retention. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 166 the primary issue in this experiment is that turkish efl students have difficulties with vocabulary retention. many students run into difficulties when they are required to learn new vocabulary, particularly in a single course. some students abandon their careers due to the perceived inability to memorize the words. on the other hand, some students attempt to remember a list of words. due to the difficulty of recalling the words and the prevalence of acquiring vocabulary in a meaningless manner, without any phonetic suggestions, among turkish students, turkish learners often claim that they forget the words and are unable to retain them in their mind. as a result, these teaching approaches resulting in a short term memory storage, frequent mispronunciations, and a lack of vocabulary use awareness. to this purpose, the researchers wanted to use decontextualized (board monitoring) and semi-contextualized (tv program) vocabulary teaching strategies to determine if these techniques may help students retain their vocabulary. it is intended that examining such a topic would inform language instructors and students about the efficiency of various vocabulary techniques acquisition and enable them to choose the ones that are most beneficial for vocabulary retention. language students need novel approaches to teaching and acquiring vocabulary, as well as strategies that promote memory recall. thus, language students are regarded to be those who might benefit from the current study results. similarly, language instructors may benefit from the strategies described in this research. they may adapt the ways to teach language on their own. additionally, learners need a vast array of motivation throughout the process of vocabulary acquisition and retention. concerning this matter, instructors might use these strategies to escalate students' motivation. additionally, the approaches described in this research may be included into teacher education programs, particularly for inexperienced instructors. additionally, syllabus and material creators might make use of various vocabulary teaching methods based on the outcomes of this study. the following issues emerged while examining the influence of semi-contextualized and de-contextualized vocabulary teaching strategies on learners' vocabulary acquisition and retention: • to what extent using de-contextualized (board monitoring) and semicontextualized (tv show) teaching technique affect learners’ vocabulary learning and retention? in the mind, the following hypotheses arise: • ho: using de-contextualized and semi-contextualize techniques have no effect on learners’ vocabulary learning and retention. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 167 methodology research design this is a quantitative research, referred to as a quasi-experimental comparison group design. the independent variable in this study was the teaching of vocabulary using a variety of techniques at two levels of de-contextualization (board monitoring) and semicontextualization (tv show), while the dependent variable was vocabulary retention in the short and long term. the research included two groups (both of which were female for the aim of neutralizing the sex effect), and these groups was separated as (i.e., de-contextualized (board monitoring) and semi-contextualized) (tv show) groups. for the first group, chosen vocabulary were taught de-contextually, i.e., by board monitoring. the english term was shown on one side of the board, while the l1 (turkish equivalent) was presented on the other. the second group (semi-contextualized method) received visuals or videos with the same phrases. the picture was shown on television without the turkish translation of the phrases. a pre-test was used to ensure that the groups were homogenous in terms of vocabulary knowledge before treatment, and post-tests (at two intervals (delayed & immediate) were utilized to determine the shortand long-term effectiveness of the treatment. participants the study's participants were divided into two categories. two homogeneous preintermediate-level classes (n= 30 in each class) were chosen for data collection at a public university in turkey. following that, each group used one of two vocabulary instruction strategies (i.e. de-contextualized (board monitoring) or semi-contextualized (tv show)). the first experimental group, assigned to receive treatment using the keyword approach and board monitoring, they would get treatment using the turkish version of the keyword method and board monitoring as a de-contextualizing teaching strategy. the second experimental group, received training based on utilizing a television program to demonstrate a picture and repeat the vocabulary, followed by subscribing underneath the image and saying the word again through television. the participants were between the ages of 18 and 20 (mean=19) and were preintermediate level. both groups, de-contextualized and semi-contextualized consisted of female learners and followed the same trend. each class's learners were required to pass a standard placement exam. as a result, the researchers approved of the groups' homogeneity. the participants attended two 120-minute lessons each week. data collection tools these instruments were used to gather data: placement test, pre-test, mediate post-test, and delayed post-test. placement test https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 168 placement test, which was utilized to determine the participants' proper level for the research at the outset. after administering the vocabulary unfamiliarity and placement tests, sixty participants remained and exam included fifty terms with which none of the students were acquainted. these words were then grouped into five or six-word groups for instruction during each session. the justification for exposing participants to 5-6 new words every session is based on o’neill (2014) argument that a limited number of new words should be introduced at a time; otherwise, the learners would get overwhelmed. the treatment would consist of 14 sessions, two days a week, lasting 120 minutes each. pre-test, post-test, delayed post-test it should be noted that the cronbach's alpha study indicated that the test was reliable (r=0.75) and that the exam's content validity was verified by three experienced professional efl teachers. the pretest was a vocabulary test developed by instructors, and the it was subsequently randomized and utilized as the immediate post-test and delayed post-test. exam questions consisted of fifteen items in which each item required students to match the meaning of the target vocabulary items. tangible and abstract terms were picked that were mutually exclusive and suitable for the learners' level, and the instant post-test was designed to assess learners’ short-term memory for the taught lexical items at the last session. finally, a delayed post-test administered to students to assess their lexical retention and recall. additionally, cronbach's alpha analysis demonstrated that the test was reliable (r=0.86), ensuring the content validity of both immediate and delayed post-tests. procedure prior to treatment, the researchers chose two intact pre-intermediate-level classes (i.e., two female classes) with thirty learners in each class using the placement exam at the beginning of the term. the sixty female participants were divided into two groups for the duration of the study: de-contextualized (board monitoring) and semi-contextualized (tv program) vocabulary teaching strategies. the researchers next conducted a vocabulary exam acted as a pre-test, immediate post-test, and delayed post-test. the targeted words were chosen from the texts they were expected to study in the subsequent terms. for the first set of learners, the researchers utilized the de-contextualized approach (i.e., board monitoring). to do this, the researchers posted the english terms on the board alongside their turkish translations, and the learners repeated the english words and learned the turkish meaning (the repetition was done chorally and individually). they were then instructed to construct a phrase utilizing the newly presented vocabulary. following that, teachers instructed the participants to write the terms in their notebooks, with the english word on one side and the turkish translation on the other. the researchers chose the same 50 concrete and abstract terms taught in the first group for the learners in the second group, namely, semi-contextualized. however, using a different means, namely a television program. the researchers used a television program that included https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 169 the targeted phrase. the photographs were shown on television with bolded captions underneath the images. the video repeated the english pronunciation three times, as did the instructor and subjects chorally and individually. finally, after the participants repeated the printed word, they were asked to spell the word and use it in a sentence. this method lasted 14 sessions. the last twenty minutes of class were devoted to teaching the vocabulary in the two styles stated before. each session, the subjects were taught 5-6 new terms. at the end of session fourteen, immediately after the instruction of the whole words, an instant post-test was administered to all learners. all learners received a delayed post-test three weeks later. the examinations consisted of 15 words chosen from taught vocabularies, and a score of 15 was awarded for accurately responding to all questions (1 points for each question). following that, the data were examined for vocabulary retention. data analysis and findings due to the non-normal distribution of scores, the researchers used non-parametric statistics. we did so by doing the u mann whitney test, which is a subset of the t-test. the findings indicated that there was no statistically significant difference between these two techniques. table.1 case processing summary group cases valid missing total n percent n percent n percent pretest tv board 30 30 100% 100% 0 0 0% 0% 30 30 100% 100% immediate posttest tv board 30 30 100% 100% 0 0 0% 0% 30 30 100% 100% delayed posttest tv board 30 30 100% 100% 0 0 0% 0% 30 30 100% 100% all subjects were present at the pretest, immediate posttest, and delayed posttest, as shown in the preceding table. table .2 descriptive statistics for tv group at pretest groups statistic std. error pretest tv mean 3.90 1.30 95% confidence interval for mean lower bound .951 upper 6.84 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 170 bound 5% trimmed mean 3.44 median 2.50 variance 16.98 std. deviation 4.12 minimum 1.00 maximum 15.00 range 14.00 at pretest, table.2 displays descriptive data for the tv group. as the table indicates, the mean and standard deviation for the tv group were m = 3.44 sd = 4.1. table .3 descriptive statistics for board group at pretest groups statistic std. error pretest board mean 1.9000 .458 95% confidence interval for mean lower bound upper bound .863 2.93 5% trimmed mean 1.88 median 2.00 variance 2.100 std. deviation 1.44 minimum .00 maximum 4.00 range 4.00 table.3 summarizes descriptive data for the pretest board group. as indicated in the table, the mean and standard deviation for the board group were m = 1.88 and sd = 1.44, respectively. table .4 descriptive statistics for tv group at immediate posttest groups statistic std. error immediate posttest tv mean 13.20 .359 95% confidence interval lower bound 12.38 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 171 for mean upper bound 14.01 5% trimmed mean 13.22 median 13.00 variance 1.28 std. deviation 1.13 minimum 11.00 maximum 15.00 range 4.00 the descriptive data for the tv group at the immediate posttest are shown in table.4. the mean score and standard deviation for the tv group were m = 13.00 sd = 1.13, as indicated in the table. the findings indicated that there was a difference in the mean scores of the groups. table. 5 descriptive statistics for board group at immediate posttest groups statistic std. error immediate posttest board mean 13.10 .566 95% confidence interval for mean lower bound 11.81 upper bound 14.38 5% trimmed mean 13.16 median 13.50 variance 3.21 std. deviation 1.79 minimum 10.00 maximum 15.00 range 5.00 the following table summarizes the descriptive data for the board group at the immediate posttest. the mean score and standard deviation for the board group were m = 13.16 sd = 1.79, as indicated in the table. the findings indicated that there was a difference in the mean scores of the group from pre to post-test. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 172 table.6 descriptive statistics for board group at delayed posttest groups statistic std.error delayed posttest board mean 14.70 .213 95% confidence interval for mean lower bound 14.21 upper bound 15.18 5% trimmed mean 14.77 median 15.00 variance .456 std. deviation .674 minimum 13.00 maximum 15.00 range 2.00 the following table summarizes the descriptive data for the board group at the delayed posttest. the mean score and standard deviation for the board group were m = 14.77 sd = 0.67, as indicated in the table. the findings indicated that there was a difference in the mean scores of the group from pre to post-test. table .7 test of normality groups kolmogorovsmirnov statistic df sig. pretest tv .386 30 .000 board .228 30 .152 immediate posttest tv .370 30 .000 board .192 30 .200* delayed posttest board .472 30 .000 the distribution of scores for various groups was not normal (sig>0.05), as shown in table.7. as a result, the researchers were forced to use non-parametric testing. in doing so, they used the u mann whitny-test, a kind of t-test. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 173 table .8 ranks for the groups at pre, immediate and delayed posttests groups n mean rank sum of ranks pretest tv 30 11.85 118.50 board 30 9.15 91.50 total 60 immediate posttest tv 30 10.50 105.00 board 30 10.50 105.00 total 60 delayed posttest tv 30 11.50 115.00 board 30 9.50 95.00 total 60 table.8 demonstrates that there is minimal variation in mean ranks between the tv and board groups. however, in order to determine whether or not this difference is substantial, we must consult table 9. table .9 mann-whitney u test pretest immediate posttest delayed posttest mannwhitney u 36.50 50.00 40.00 wilcoxon w 91.50 105.00 95.00 z -1.059 .000 -1.45 asymp. sig. (2-tailed) .290 1.00 .147 exact sig. [2*(1-tailed sig.)] .315a 1.00a .481a the difference between the tv and board groups at pretest, immediate posttest, and delayed posttest is not statistically significant (sig>0.05), as shown in table.9. as a result, the study's null hypothesis is validated. rh0: decontextualized and semi contextualized techniques do not have any effect on vocabulary learning and retention. answer to the research question concerning the study topic, it should be concluded that decontextualized and semicontextualized strategies have no influence on vocabulary acquisition and retention. as a consequence, it is possible to assert that the null hypothesis is not rejected. it may be stated that there was no significant difference in short run research for female groups between two methodologies. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 174 discussion the primary objective of this research was to demonstrate the efficiency of the tv program strategy for teaching and retaining vocabulary in efl learners. the results indicated that there was no statistically significant difference between the two groups: those taught using a decontextualized approach (board monitoring) and those taught using a semicontextualized technique (tv show). principally, both strategies have some beneficial impacts on learners' vocabulary acquisition and retention, however the effect of the semi contextualized strategy is somewhat greater than the effect of the decontextualized methodology. numerous studies having been compared visual aids to different strategies for teaching new vocabulary items concluded that visuals are more effective and increase creativity compared with traditional methods. the purpose of this research was to determine the efficacy of two vocabulary teaching strategies. semi-contextualize technique is a subcategory of contextualize method. according to sökmen (2001), the ability to guess/infer from context is a beneficial method for vocabulary acquisition and should be addressed in a language education (korkmaz & korkmaz, 2013). according to korkmaz and korkmaz (2013), learners employ contextualization to create meaning that is context-dependent. additionally, gánem-gutiérrez, and gilmore (2021) found that learners taught language via context and mixed methods retained more meaning than those taught decontextually. the researcher anticipated that the results would be consistent with the current study in terms of the superiority of semi-contextualized technique, a subcategory of contextualized method, over decontextualized technique; however, the findings did not meet her expectations. according to webb's (2007) research, determined that context had little impact on language acquisition. webb (2007) focused on repletion of new words and the findings of his study revealed that as the number of repeats increased, larger improvements in knowledge were discovered for at least one facet of knowledge. there may be significant learning benefits if learners encounter new words 10 times in context. however, it is possible that more than 10 repetitions are required to fully understand a word. these conclusions are consistent with the findings of this investigation. it should be noted that the researchers are also english teachers with more than 20 year teaching experience, have perceived the superiority of visuals over other methods and the significant difference between contextualized and decontextualized teaching techniques, but not in this study. numerous studies, such as cioca and nerișanu (2020); haniff, safinas, haimi, syafiq, suzieanna, (2020); and wei (2014), demonstrate that animated pictures are effective at fostering young learners' imagination and fantasy development because they feature colorful characters and engaging visual presentations accompanied by enjoyable sounds and music. conclusion vocabulary is a fundamental component of language instruction; it is thus important in the process of teaching and learning any language. effective communication requires a working grasp of an appropriate language. scholars and linguists have proposed a variety of https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 175 ways for educating learners about vocabularies. among the different vocabulary teaching strategies, visual teaching techniques are among the most successful. the goal of this research was to determine the influence on learners' vocabulary retention of utilizing decontextualized (board monitoring) and semi-contextualized (tv program) vocabulary teaching strategies. the study's overall conclusion was that television shows and board monitoring are comparable. if learners are exposed to films with subtitles, this results in a high level of retention of vocabulary. additionally, studying from the board benefits learners and promotes long-term memory of language. it should be noted that, contrary to the researchers' expectations, the data did not reveal a substantial difference between two groups. the researchers reasoned that since the findings were obtained using a small sample of pre-intermediate students and in a short-term inquiry without gender comparison, the results may be different in the long-term period, genderacross, and with a considerable research sampling. regardless of the level of study, learners experience anxiety while remembering new vocabulary and recalling previously remembered topics. as a result, they are seldom driven to acquire new vocabulary items. thus, there is a need to close this gap, and language learners may be deemed to gain the most from the study's results, as they need good methods of teaching and learning vocabularies that aid in recall. teachers should push students to learn and retain new vocabulary items. as a consequence, instructors should be aware of the most effective methods of instruction for motivating students. teachers might also benefit from incorporating these ideas into their own ways for teaching vocabulary. additionally, this research might aid language instructors by incorporating the approaches into their own vocabulary teaching procedures. activities that draw on learners' prior knowledge to concisely explain the meaning of new words in various contexts should be considered. references abu algilasi, m. 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(1997) psychology for language teachers: a social constructivist approach. cambridge university press, cambridge. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity http://doi.org/10.22216/jk.v1i2.2136 https://doi.org/10.1177%2f1362168814541734 due to the non-normal distribution of scores, the researchers used non-parametric statistics. we did so by doing the u mann whitney test, which is a subset of the t-test. the findings indicated that there was no statistically significant difference be... discussion conclusion references acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol. 7 no. 1, 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 101 facilitating learners’ self-regulated learning skills and self-efficacy to write in english using technologies kretsai woottipong western languages program, faculty of humanities and social sciences, thaksin university, thailand wkretsai@tsu.ac.th doi: 10.35974/acuity.v7i1.2581 abstract the purpose of this quasi-experimental research was to study the effects of self-regulated strategy development (srsd) instruction with explicit generalization training prompted by constructivist selfregulating virtual composing activities (csrvca) on students’ reported use of self-regulatory strategies, their self-efficacy to write and writing performance. the sample group in this study was 86 high school students who were selected through the use of convenience sampling, then 44 students was assigned to a control group and 42 students were in an experimental group. the students from the experimental group received regular writing class integrated with constructivist virtual writing instruction, while those from the control group received regular writing class, required by the school curriculum and syllabus. instruments included surveys, writing tests and students’ reflective journal. data were collected through semi-structured interviews and reflective journals to triangulate quantitative results. the results revealed that the students from the experimental group had a significantly higher level of deploying self-regulatory strategies than those in the control group. they also had a higher level of perceived writing self-efficacy than the students in the control group. although both groups showed improvement in writing scores, the experimental group outperformed the students in the control group in the post and the delayed post-tests. keywords: constructivist approach, self-regulation, writing, generalization introduction the self-regulated learning (srl) was rooted from educational psychology, and later the notion has been applied to the field of language education (mahmoodi, kalantarib, & ghaslanic, 2014). the approach has gained significant attention in research studies during the past few decades as a crucial factor of student academic and social-emotional competence, especially for schools and higher education (graham & harris, 2005; zumbrunn et al., 2011; benbenutty, cleary & kitsantas, 2014; de la fuente et al., 2015). self-regulated learning is referred to as a learning process in which an individual actively set learning goals, direct and regulate motivation, cognition and behavior to acquire skills or information during the learning process (pintrich, 2004). based on research review, competent self-regulated learners are confident to devise strategic plans to achieve self-set goals. they also regularly monitor and evaluate their goal progress ((de bruin, thiede & camp, 2011) and seek feedback to adapt learning strategies to further optimize their learning achievement (zimmerman, 2000; zumbrunn et al., 2011). https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity mailto:wkretsai@tsu.ac.th acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol. 7 no. 1, 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 102 it is suggested by research that the cognitive, affective and motivational strategies that learners employ to regulate their learning such as self-efficacy should also be investigated because they might influence learners’ performance and attitudes (cera et al., 2013; benbenutty et al., 2014; smit et al., 2017). the study conducted by schunk & zimmerman (2008) demonstrated that self-regulatory learning is positively related to self-efficacy beliefs. the more self-efficacy beliefs the individual possesses, the higher they employ self-regulation strategies in which it may contribute to academic success (as cited in stephanou & mpiontini, 2017). zimmerman and bandura (1994) discovered that highly-efficacious writers tended to achieve more satisfying academic achievements and become a critical self-evaluator. according to pajares (1996), self-efficacy helps to enhance learners’ academic abilities and achievement of their learning goals. low self-efficacy plays a central role in sufficient mastery experiences, selfmodelled experiences, forms of persuasion, and physiological levels such as understanding and distress (schunk & usher, 2011). thus, it is crucial to investigate how these variables of motivation and self-efficacy influence learners’ use of self-regulated learning (srl) strategies in fostering proactive learning in efl contexts. computer technology in efl settings has been viewed as a supportive tool, and it has promoted a great influence on language teaching and learning. in this era of globalization, we cannot escape technology because it has permeated our lives and the educational system (katemba, 2021.) blake (2000) recommends that the integration of technology can enhance learning processes due to several features of computers that are considered to facilitate writing development. keyvanshekouh (2012) and sun (2014) revealed that moodle is instrumental for efl learners’ proficiency and achievement in education (alavi & keyvanshekouh, 2012). in addition, tools and features in moodle can facilitate learners to acquire knowledge and skills, and to generalize what they learn in other settings (nedeva et al., 2010). the effectiveness of using technologies like moodle in the educational setting does not depend so much on the technology itself but how it can be utilized to provide a quality learning experience. the new south wales (nsw) quality teaching model proposes “generic qualities of pedagogy that have been successfully implemented in different educational contexts and are demonstrated to improve student learning” (nsw det, 2003, p. 4-5). these qualities are divided into three aspects: intellectual quality, quality learning environment, and significance for the learners. one way that these concepts can be achieved is through the use of constructivist learning activities. in constructivist environments, the function of new technologies can enhance and facilitate learning (sejzi & aris, 2012). in online environments, learners can benefit in terms of increasing their motivation, engagement, collaboration and confidence (costley, 2014). according to godzicki et al. (2013), one of the advantages of appropriate use of technologies in classroom environments is that both learners’ motivation and inclusion are fostered and supported. as a result, when learning involvement and participant occurs, students tend to make meaning and construct their own understanding of complicated concepts (futurelab, 2009). it is assumed that technology has an impact on learner motivation and self-regulation. therefore, it is expected that students’ behaviors will be affected by the use of virtual learning context as their motivation and behavior will be different if they were taught in the instructional approach and learning setting that makes them feel engaged and motivated (francis, 2017). https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol. 7 no. 1, 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 103 however, to the best of researcher’s knowledge, there was a small number of empirically supported interventions developed for the suburban high school youth, particularly those targeting self-regulation and motivation in thai high school context. due to the gap in the literature, this study examined the effectiveness of the instruction to promote the writing performance and self-regulatory skill of students in a suburban high school context. literature review self-regulated learning (srl) and writing in order to develop learning process to achieve academic goals, it is very necessary for learners to develop self-regulation learning skills in educational context. in self-regulated learning (srl), it involves three aspects of learning processes including metacognition, motivation and behaviour (panadero, 2017). it is mentioned that to be able to be a proficient writer, it requires an individual to possess a high level of self-regulation skills (zimmerman & riesemberg, 1997 as cited in türkben, 2021). studies have shown that self-regulation has characteristics of successful writer (graham & perin, 2007; harris et al., 2011; adaros, 2017). according to oxford (2017), the srl approach consists of essential components which result in developing academic writing performance and knowledge. it supports an integrated approach to writing instruction instead of applying only single writing method. this is because the srl approach presumes that textual products, cognitive processes, and sociocultural aspects of writing are mutually depend on each other (kern, 2000). studies revealed that there are positive relationships between the srl writing interventions, level of srl skills and improvement of writing quality, especially those with poor writing skills. moreover, the students who participated in srl writing interventions seemed to demonstrate higher motivation for writing when compared to those taught without srl writing interventions (graham & perin, 2007; harris et al., 2011; akhmedjanova, 2020). it is, therefore, srl in writing instruction has been recognized as one of the important areas of studies within educational psychology. ertmer and newby (1996) proposed a model of the metacognitive processes that may be employed by self-regulated learners. two core elements are included in this model, which are metacognitive knowledge and metacognitive control (see figure 1). for metacognitive knowledge, it covers (1) an awareness of task requirements and related strategies to achieve the task and (2) an awareness of their own personal resources, including knowledge of previously learned cognitive, motivational, and environmental strategies that can be used in the task. regarding the second element, metacognitive control, there are three interactive processes: (1) the development of a plan of action, (2) self-monitoring of progress and performance, and (3) self-evaluation of performance (e.g., "did i write well?") and the effectiveness of the plan itself (e.g., "did my writing plan help me to remember how to write effectively?"). moreover, ertmer and newby (1996) pointed out that reflective thinking is also important for evaluating performance and revising plans for improvement. learners are not able to use their metacognitive skills that would allow them to be able to master their foreign language learning autonomously (pressley & harris, 1990). https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol. 7 no. 1, 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 104 thus, learners who cannot make writing knowledge transfer may not possess metacognitive awareness in any of the areas described by this model. the continuous utilization of behavioral or cognitive strategies may not increasingly enhance the ability of generalization when learners do not possess self-regulated learning skills. many studies have shown that metacognition encourages students to develop their own learning regulation through planning objectives, adopting learning strategies, directing their own learning progress, leading to their learning success (winne & nesbit, 2010; kostaridouefklides, 2011; dimmitt & mccormick, 2012; efklides, 2014). this is consistent with zimmerman’s model (1990) who states that the important elements of metacognitive influences refer to setting objectives, managing, self-monitoring, and self-assessing. similarly, the elements are similar to those contained within the regulatory component of expert learning proposed by ertmer & newby (1996). while motivational and behavioral aspects indicated by zimmerman (1990) are almost the same as the motivational and environmental aspects, ertmer and newby (1996) have expanded his strategies to incorporate those of cognitive aspects. in this model, a learner's conscious awareness of the three strategies is grouped into the knowledge aspect of metacognition, but the model accepts zimmerman’s principle that this knowledge is used by an expert learner during the regulation process. besides, to gain deeper insight into metacognition, studies often explore both aspects of selfregulation and metacognition together (efklides, 2011; zimmerman & schunk, 2011), and puustinen and pulkkinen (2001) asserts that metacognition is recognized as one of the core elements in self-regulated learning because learner employs metacognition it to help regulate their own cognitive processes while learning (as cited in stephanou & mpiontini, 2017). self-regulated learners mean individuals who change, and sustain effective learning habits by utilizing these three strategies: metacognition, motivation, and behavior (zimmerman, 1990), apply suitable learning strategies (meltzer, 2007), assess their learning progress (de bruin, thiede & camp, 2011), possess high self-efficacy (labuhn et al., 2010), and plan goals and flexibly change approach (wolters, 2011). for instance, when self-regulated learners begin a new task, they combine their knowledge of personal learning strengths and weaknesses, the requirements of the task, and previously successful learning strategies in order to create and apply a strategy to achieve the task. in the present study, self-regulation refers to the youth's ability to generate and deploy strategies for automatically generalizing newly learned writing skills. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol. 7 no. 1, 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 105 figure 1: major components of expert learning (ertmer and newby, 1996) to successfully regulate the learning process, an expert learner is capable of choosing and regulating strategies in each of these groups. thus, the researcher integrated the strategy lists of zimmerman (1990) with that of ertmer and newby (1996) in this study. the four components included in this study were metacognitive, cognitive, motivational and environmental strategies to investigate their usefulness to enhance self-regulated learning during the phase of virtual writing intervention. constructivist approach the researcher proposes that integrating constructivist strategies with specially-designed instruction to promote self-regulated learning will result in improving the efficiency of generalization. this is because this approach focuses on three key characteristics: contextual learning, language knowledge construction and social contexts for learning a language. (ally, 2004). constructivist intervention in writing training focuses on “writing to learn” not “learning to write”. the constructivist approach suggests that learning is the learners’ construction of their own knowledge based on their experiences (isik, 2018). that is to say students’ prior knowledge and experiences are the starting point for new learning because both are viewed as facilitators of new ideas and experiences, and later they may be transformed during learning (cochran et al., 1993). thus, this approach views the learner as an active and self-regulating individual. learning is an active process in which learners are supported to construct their own meaning based on their experiences and fully participate in their own learning process (francis, 2017). instead of spotlighting only the products of writing training (i.e., correctness of sentence structure and grammatical skills) and providing evaluative feedback, the proposed approach concentrates on the development of the cognitive and metacognitive processes to enhance selfregulated generalization. this means that instead of only improving learners’ proficiency with writing targets, learners are motivated to seek and later they may acquire how they can apply relevant writing techniques in other writing situations (martin & rose, 2008; rindskopf & https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol. 7 no. 1, 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 106 ferron, 2014). when learners acquire how to write successfully and effectively, they are more likely to apply the knowledge in different writing situations without external assistance. the underlying theoretical framework in instructional design of csrvca the underlying theoretical framework in instructional design of constructivist self-regulating virtual composing activities (csrvca) is constructed within an integration of (a) constructivist learning theory (duffy & cunningham, 1996); (b) social cognitive theory (bandura, 1997; zimmerman, 2002) and (c) a model of the metacognitive processes (ertmer & newby, 1996). the instructional goals in the design of virtual activities are taken from duffy and cunningham (1996 as cited in reed et al., 2008). the design goals for constructivist approach include: (1) all knowledge is constructed; all learning is a process of construction (2) many world views can be constructed: hence there will be multiple perspectives (3) knowledge is context dependent, so learning should occur in contexts to which it is relevant (4) learning is conducted using tools and signs (5) learning is an inseparably social-dialogical activity (6) learners are distributed, multidimensional participants in a socio-cultural process, and (7) knowing how we know is the ultimate human accomplishment. based on self-regulation theory and social cognitive theory, the self-regulated strategy development (srsd) is composed of six recursive stages containing improving and stimulating background knowledge; discussing; modelling; memorising; support; and independent performance (milford & harrison, 2010). informed by a model of the metacognitive processes (ertmer & newby, 1996), three key features included in the design of virtual activities were metacognitive knowledge (awareness-raising), metacognitive control (planning of action, self-monitoring and self-evaluation of performance), and self-reflection. in this study, each self-regulatory strategy also included the specific writing tasks and learning goals as recommended by cohen and macaro (2007 as cited in mizumoto, 2018) who paid attention on the characteristic of learning strategies based on different tasks and settings. they argued for the concrete and specific feature of learning strategies based on different tasks and settings. for instance, during the instruction of text-analysis strategies, the intervention also integrated some sub-strategies such as pow (pick my idea/organize my notes/writing and say more) for planning and composing; tree (topic sentence/reasons/explain/ending) for organizing the structure of a written draft (see table 1 in appendix 1). for instance, when students were asked to check their own writing, they were given a pow + tree graphic organizer chart and self-evaluation worksheet to provoke their critical reflection on a written draft. components of the proposed steps of constructivist self-regulating virtual composing activities the proposed steps of the activities consist of two key phases: (a) awareness-raising phase and (b) self-regulated development phase. however, lecturers may find that learner motivation and/or metacognitive abilities require repeated attention throughout the intervention. in these cases, the sequence of activities can be adapted to meet specific goals as needed (see table 1 in appendix 1). phase i: awareness-raising this phase consists of a) awareness of the advantages of generalization and acceptance of the goal of generalization, b) awareness of the obstacles for generalization, c) awareness of https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol. 7 no. 1, 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 107 personal learning resources. the first intervention step of awareness-raising was conducted on moodle site. the two techniques employed in this study were guiding questions together with discussion among peers and metacognitive modelling. the first practice includes asking students to be involved in activities that help them develop metacognitive awareness. the second practice relates to explicitly modelling transfer-focused thinking to develop metacognitive thinking. to enhance the awareness of the advantages and the acceptance of goal of generalization, students are encouraged to examine where and how they will be asked to write such as for their intended majors and/or careers. students are encouraged to transfer in two methods (gorzelsky et al., 2017). the first activity helps cultivating involvement and motivation as bergmann and zepernick (2007) explained that many students paid attention to compulsory courses and career preparation. the second involves helping students understand how the concepts and skills they are developing in writing courses are preparing them to achieve their goals in future contexts, a form of implying what they have learnt to enhance transfer (national research council, 2000). for the awareness of the obstacles that impede students’ success in generalization, sample questions employed for group discussion to identify obstacles are: "who do you write for the most?" "how do you feel when you write?" “why is that?" and "when is it hardest to write— when you write to me, to your friends, or to your teachers? why?" after the obstacles to generalization have been identified, the student's personal learning resources can be considered as useful strategies. the researcher employed guiding questions to help the students themselves to identify and apply their previous experiences and learning strategies to new writing situations. the sample questions used in this study include "what do you do when you really want to write something?" or "if i asked you to write a message to your teacher today, what would you write to him/her?". this can facilitate the lecturer to guide students in fostering and increasing metacognitive awareness in writing, flexibility and serve as a linkage of the instruction to other efforts to strengthen generalization in new writing contexts. phase ii: self-regulated development the activities in the intervention in this phase contain six main steps integrating strategy planning, learning strategies, self-monitoring of performance and outcome, self-evaluation of performance and plan, and critical reflective thinking through the use of authentic tasks. table 2 shows the six recursive processes of the srsd model (graham and harris, 1996) with modification (appendix 1). application of social cognitive model and constructivist approach to design csrvca in moodle based on social cognitive theory, self-regulated learning (zimmerman, 2002) is viewed as mutual interactions between learners’ personal disposition and their environment (community, tools, rules), mediated by behaviour (enacted outcomes). the personal disposition itself consists of commitment to goals, strategies, and self-efficacy perceptions. all components of personal disposition interact with the externally revealed behaviour and environment and are affected by these factors. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol. 7 no. 1, 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 108 in the constructivist approach, the learning environments are technology-assisted and help language learners use their cognitive skills specified in bloom’s taxonomy (kaya, 2015). wilson (1996, p. 5) explained that this learning context may facilitate learners to collaborate and assist each other through utilizing various available tools and information resources in order to achieve learning targets. this means that learning should be achieved not only through oral and written communication, but also through the use of additional media such as video, computer, photographs and so on to provide rich experiences. in this study, moodle was the platform used for facilitating constructivist self-regulating virtual composing activities. in order to investigate the effects of these learning behaviours such as metacognitive strategies, cognitive strategies, and motivational strategies, moodle’s features were considered to apply these behaviours. the constructivist self-regulating virtual composing activities thus included: (1) a bulletin board discussion space in moodle which is used for students to post messages, questions, arguments, responses and requests for help from the lecturer or classmates and (2) a chat room in moodle which is used for structured group discussions on their drafts among teams and (3) a chat room for a specific group of students to interact with the lecturer. in addition, moodle allowed the lecturer to either present learning materials in word-processed or pdf documents, spreadsheets, images, or audio and video clips or design their own scaffolding activities to help students in applying the appropriate cognitive strategies. the draft feature in moodle also allowed students to edit their responses until the deadline and submit the final written work. in this study, students regularly reviewed their written drafts, possibly engaging in different types of metacognitive processes which were very important for the self-evaluation of their learning processes. finally, the researcher added an online revising and editing checklist in order to solve one of the major problems to a successful learning: the lecturer’s inability to spend sufficient time evaluating and providing quality feedback. virtual peer discussion was easier and less time-consuming than teacher-centred feedback. for the environmental factor, the applicability and functionality of moodle provided a valuable environmental influence on the facilitation and application of learning behaviours. in order to facilitate students’ maintenance and generalization effects of the virtual environment and investigate the impacts of learning behaviours and environmental factors such as peers’ and lecturers’ feedback, the virtual composing activities included two features: (1) an information channel for students to submit and revise tasks or review each other’s drafts and (2) a forum for the lecturer to announce assignments and requirements and students to post information and demonstrate their opinions about the course and the virtual composing activities. in addition, the lecturer could control the deadline and timeframes for assignments, quizzes, forums and chats. on the moodle course home page, the lecturer could effectively arrange and manage the learning process such as announcing written tasks, asking for peer review and feedback, posting review and feedback and maintaining students’ written files. in moodle, students submitted their assignments, reviewed others’ works and revised their assignments based on their received feedback. for the peer-reviewing process, moodle could be used to randomly assign one reviewer to each student. the assigned reviewer could rate and provided feedback on another student’s assignment in moodle. students received feedback from their peers and revised their tasks based on the received feedback. the lecturer was also able to grade and provide feedback to students’ works via moodle. thus, the aims of this research are to investigate: https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol. 7 no. 1, 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 109 • how the experimental group and the control group differ in writing test scores at the post-test and the delayed post-test, • how participants from the two groups differ in the use of four dimensions of selfregulatory strategies at the post-test, and • how participants from the two groups differ in their self-efficacy at the post-test. methods research design the observational and quasi-experimental research design were used in this study to facilitate self-regulated efl writers to achieve writing knowledge transfer from the perspectives of selfregulatory strategies, self-efficacy and writing performance. a mixed-methods approach involving self-report surveys, writing tests, student interviews and student reflective journals was used in this study. research participants and sampling procedures participants (n = 86) were voluntarily recruited from four intact classes in high school using convenience sampling. they were in grade 12 and had developed a certain degree of writing and language knowledge. all the participants were comparable in terms of period in english learning, age and educational background. they reported that they had never received any process writing or self-regulatory writing instruction. among these students, there were 49 female students (56.97%) in the experimental group and 37 female students (43.03%) in the control group. the average age of these students was 17.58 (sd = .677), with approximately nine years of english learning experience (m = 11.17, sd = .654). research procedures before the intervention period at the start of the semester, all participants from both groups completed the constructivist selfregulated learning in writing survey (cslws) to gain data on the use of self-regulatory strategies and self-efficacy in efl witting. a purposive sampling was used to keep representative and informative about the research. participants took around 25 minutes to complete the whole survey. a similar survey was administered at the end of the implementation as the result of the post-test. writing tests with three different topics were administered to students at the beginning, the end of and one month after the implementation to follow up whether there is any development in writing performance. the intervention period participants in the experimental group received the 18-week self-regulated strategy development (srsd) instruction with explicit generalization training prompted by csrvca. participants in the control group received regular writing courses, required by the school curriculum and syllabus (18-week, twice a week with 4 hours). in order to guarantee the comparability of the two conditions, both groups used the same contents and have the same inand-after class writing tasks as well as the same day of instruction. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol. 7 no. 1, 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 110 data collection constructivist self-regulated learning in writing survey (cslws) cslws was self-report surveys which were employed to assess two variables regarding the current situation of students’ self-regulatory strategies and self-efficacy. semi-structured interviews in this study, interviews were administered to two students from the experimental group regarding their perceptions of csrvca course, their use of self-regulatory strategies and their self-efficacy. data obtained were employed to triangulate the quantitative data and to investigate how srsd instruction with explicit generalization training prompted by csrvca affected students. writing tests in this study, students were required to complete a given-topic argumentative essay of at least 200 words based on the prompt (e.g., title of the topic and information outline) within 60 minutes. writing topics were designed as general, culturally inoffensive and familiar to participants’ daily life with the same difficulty to guarantee the fairness to every student. student reflective journals two case study students were selected from students in the experimental group based on their writing proficiency: one low and one high proficiency student. they kept reflective learning journals during the intervention to record changes regarding their attitude towards the csrvca course, their understanding and deployment of self-regulatory strategies and development of self-efficacy. they kept journals weekly from the start to the end of the intervention. by the end of the experimental study, the researcher collected copies of these journals and returned the original ones to participants. in total, the high writing-proficiency student completed three writing journals and the low writing-proficiency student completed two writing journals. validity and reliability constructivist self-regulated learning in writing survey (cslws) all the students completed a developing survey (cslws) in thai. the survey was composed of three sections: 1) demographic information, 2) students’ self-regulatory strategies and 3) self-efficacy in efl writing contexts. the first section aimed to collect participants’ demographic data in terms of their years of english learning, age and grade. the second section was the self-regulated learning in writing survey (slws) with 41 items examining students’ deployment of self-regulatory strategies in terms of cognition, metacognition, motivational and environmental aspects. the final part of tool, validated during the preliminary phase, covered the three areas of language, selfregulation and writing performance (woottipong, 2020). for the second part of the 47-item survey, three specialists in the field of in l2 writing and srl were invited to check the initial draft of the survey. the specialists must rate the statements on a five-point scale from “very low” to “very high”. the value of ioc was between 0.6-1.0. the items with the lowest rating (6 items) were deleted. the revised survey was administered to six efl students for clarity and readability. the finalized survey consisted of 41 items and a 5-point likert scale with rating from 1 to 5 was employed to explore the trait https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol. 7 no. 1, 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 111 characteristics of self-regulatory strategies. for this study, the internal-consistency coefficient alpha of the slws was .90 based on a pilot study. for the third section, a constructed 25 items focus on the three aspects of knowledge, behaviour, and regulation adapted to learning in l2 writing. the instrument was designed with a 5-point likert scale. three specialists in l2 writing or educational psychology were invited to assess the initial item list. the specialists must rate the statements on a five-point scale from “very low” to “very high”. the value of ioc was between 0.6-1.0. the items with the lowest rating (7 items) were deleted. the revised survey was administered to six efl students for clarity and readability. in this pilot test, the internal-consistency coefficient alpha of the final version of the survey was .92. writing test students’ writing performance was measured using an argumentative paragraph with a given topic. all participants were required to write an argumentative paragraph with at least 200 words within 60 minutes during the reading and writing class v. the time limit was one hour and the minimum requirement was 170 words. the overall quality of these essays was marked based on jacobs et al. (1981) esl composition profile. the weighting assigned to each rating scale of each aspect of writing was adapted as per the suggestion of language specialists in terms of content (30%), grammar (language use) (30%), vocabulary (10%), organization (20%) and mechanics (10%). during the pilot phase, a total of 318 essays were gathered. in the pilot phase, the intra-rater coefficient for the first rater was r = .87, p < .001 and for the second rater was r = .89, p < .001 and their inter-rater reliability between the raters was r = .84, p < .001, indicating satisfactory reliability. the high correlations more than the threshold value of .80 showed that both raters were measuring the writer’s performance consistently (hamp-lyons, 1990). then they were given the remaining writing samples to evaluate separately. data analysis for the quantitative data, independent-samples t-tests were used to investigate whether there were significant differences in self-regulatory strategies, self-efficacy and writing test scores between both groups at the pre-test. then, a series of paired samples t-tests was used to investigate the possible changes of self-regulatory strategies and self-efficacy within each group between the preand the post-test. the effect of the intervention on students’ use of selfregulatory strategies and self-efficacy were subjected to repeated measures of rm-ancova. for the qualitative data collected from student reflective journals and student interviews, they were reviewed and transcribed by the researcher focusing on teaching practices, the instruction of writing strategies, classroom interactions and students’ engagement. results and discussions comparison of baseline conditions at the pre-test the bivariate analyses were used to compare the difference regarding self-regulatory strategies, self-efficacy and writing test scores between the experimental group and the control group. social factor differences were also analyzed. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol. 7 no. 1, 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 112 social factor differences descriptive analyses showed that the average ages of students from the experimental group and the control group were mexp = 17.95 (sd = .582) and mcon = 18.09 (sd = .603). students from the two groups reported approximately 12 years of english learning experience mexp = 11.48 (sd = 0.862); mcon = 11.64 (sd = 0.942). a series of independent samples t-tests was used to evaluate the social contextual differences between the two groups. findings revealed no statistically significant differences among students in both groups regarding age and years of english learning experience (see table 3). for gender comparison, the result of a chi-square test of independence showed no significant difference with χ 2 (1) = .744, p = .388. table 3 results of independent samples t-tests of age and years of english learning between the experimental group and the control group variables group n m sd t p 95% ci ll ul age exp 42 17.95 .582 1.083 .371 -.116 .393 con 44 18.09 .603 year of english learning exp 42 11.48 .862 .821 .103 -.228 .548 con 44 11.64 .942 writing test scores independent samples t-tests found no significant difference in the pre-test writing scores between the experimental group and the control group (see table 4 in appendix 2). four dimensions of self-regulatory strategies descriptive analysis revealed that the average mean scores of the eight self-regulatory strategies of the students in the experimental group and the control group fluctuated between 3 (not true of me) to 5 (slightly true of me). independent samples t-tests revealed no significant differences in the deployment of all self-regulatory strategies between both groups at the pretest (see table 5 in appendix 2). self-efficacy no significant difference was found between the two groups in the three subcategories of selfefficacy that included linguistic self-efficacy, self-regulatory efficacy and writing performance self-efficacy (see table 6 in appendix 2). based on the findings above, the statistical analyses showed that the two groups were comparable in terms of their social factors, four dimensions of self-regulatory strategies, self-efficacy and their writing performance before the implementation. results of writing test scores the writing test scores of the experimental group after the treatment were significantly higher than the control group’s scores with a large effect size at the post-test and the delayed post-test. the result indicated that students who had received the csrvca instruction seemed to achieve a better learning outcome in writing than students who received the regular writing course (see table 7 in appendix 2). https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol. 7 no. 1, 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 113 the writing scores of both groups had increased at the delayed post-test; however, the sustained positive influence was large for the experimental group but insignificant for the control group. the significant difference between the two groups at the delayed post-test can be inferred that the intervention contributed to a more consistent result for students’ writing development than the regular writing course. the learning achievement indicated the positive influence of the intervention of csrvca on the enhancement of students’ writing performance in efl contexts. the significant differences between the two groups at the post-test and the delayed post-test confirmed the transferability of the sustained influence of the intervention from l1 to l2 contexts. for the magnitude of the difference of the control group, it became small at the delayed post-test, while the result of the experimental group was still sustained suggesting that the effect of the four and a half months intervention did not wane after the intervention. in addition, the pre-test writing scores as a covariate explained a large portion of the variance between the two groups at the post and the delayed post-tests. to conclude, the positive results in this study confirmed the effectiveness of csrvca instruction in promoting efl outcomes as it did in l1 settings. the findings supported the influence of social cognitive theory, a model of the metacognitive processes in the learning process, the on-going development of the srsd model and the constructivist approach. results of metacognitive, cognitive, motivational and environmental strategies the experimental group displayed significant development in utilizing four learning strategies between the preand post-tests, while there was no significant difference for the control group (see table 8 in appendix 2). it can be inferred that after the intervention, the experimental group had a better understanding of the strategies and tended to utilize them more frequently. another plausible reason might be that the virtual composing activities encouraged students to acquire new content knowledge and the targeted srl strategies with sufficient lecturer scaffolding and peer collaboration. this might have enhanced the students’ engagement in and perceived value of writing tasks. results of the interviews emphasized that the treatment enhanced the students’ willingness and capability to deploy srl strategies, particularly metacognitive strategies. in addition, the reflective journals and interviews showed that the developments were the effect of the integration of self-regulated process in the virtual composing activities. cognitive strategies the results of the rm-ancova demonstrated that there was significant difference between the two groups in the use of text analysis, f (1, 84) = 4.351, p = .040, partial eta-squared (ηp2) = .049 and rehearsal and mnemonics, f (1, 82) = 5.568, p = .021, partial eta-squared (ηp2) = .062. however, the covariate was significantly related to the use of these two strategies at the post-test with f (1, 83) = 4.87, p = .030, partial eta-squared (ηp2) = .055 for text analysis and f (1, 83) = 10.367, p = .002, partial eta-squared (ηp2) = .111 for rehearsal and mnemonics. this revealed that students’ pre-existing level of using cognitive strategies had a small effect on the use of text analysis strategies (partial eta-squared (ηp2) = .049) and a medium effect on rehearsal and mnemonics (partial eta-squared (ηp2) = .042) (cohen, 1988). https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol. 7 no. 1, 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 114 although text analysis was the target strategy during the intervention, the significant difference was reported in both cognitive strategies for the experimental group at the post-test (see table 8 in appendix 2). one possible reason might be that the length of the treatment was long enough to contribute to a significant effect on the improvement of using language knowledge strategies. results also indicated that only the experimental group had a significant increase in using text analysis and rehearsal and mnemonic strategies between the pre-test and the post-test. it can be inferred that the students in the experimental group were more likely to spotlight text analysis and rehearsal and mnemonic strategies such as grammar, word or structures during and after the writing treatment. this showed that the instruction of cognitive strategies contributed to a positive effect on student performance and attitude towards the processes. this assumption is supported by previous research which found that appropriate use of virtual teaching has been shown to enhance english writing in the areas of grammar (salaberry, 2001), pragmatics, and communicative competence (zhao & lai, 2008). metacognitive strategies results of rm-ancova showed significant differences in planning and organizing, f (1, 84) = 10.838, p = .001, partial eta-squared (ηp2) = .114 and writing monitoring, f (1, 84) = 20.696, p < .001, partial eta-squared (ηp2) = .198 between the two groups. the experimental group performed better in using these metacognitive strategies than the control group after the treatment (see table 8 in appendix 2). the clear positive influence of the treatment on the use of the metacognitive strategies indicated that the self-regulation instruction model, in its form as recursive procedures, may stimulate students’ awareness, enhancing their understanding and encouraging the usage of the focused metacognitive strategies when they did a writing task similarly to what harris et al. (2008) reported on l1 students. the findings of this study reveal preliminary evidence for the effectiveness of the instruction via virtual composing activities on nurturing thai students’ use of metacognitive strategies and self-awareness of regulating their own learning processes. environmental strategies results of rm-ancova demonstrated that the group difference had a significant, moderate effect on peer discussion, f (1, 84) = 5.811, p = .018, partial eta-squared (ηp2) = .065 and helpseeking, f (1, 84) = 11.406, p = .001, partial eta-squared (ηp2) = .120 with a medium effect size. as expected, the covariate was significantly correlated with participants’ reported use of peer discussion f (1, 83) = 7.381, p = .008, partial eta-squared (ηp2) = .082 and help-seeking f (1, 83) = 16.069, p < .001, partial eta-squared (ηp2) = .162 at the post-test. this revealed that students’ pre-level of using peer discussion and help-seeking strategies had a medium and strong effect on their use of these strategies in new learning or writing tasks at the post-test. the experimental group students reported greater improvement in using peer learning strategies than the control group at the post-test (see table 8). this suggests that the intervention helped these students develop a better understanding of the usefulness of peer checking. the peer discussion and cooperation then reinforce the reflective practice as they critically assess each other and themselves, through the process of participating in online discussions. this interaction seems to motivate their further learning. by providing a link https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol. 7 no. 1, 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 115 between past and future experience, reflective practice is viewed to possibly apply metacognitive knowledge to the changing contexts (von wright, 1992). this study focuses on high school students and the extent to which the integration of constructivist approach and a social-cognitive approach can support the development of selfregulatory attributes and enhanced academic self-efficacy. according to naylor and cowie (2000), the key issue of developing an effective intervention strategy for students with learning difficulties is the importance of metacognition and the part played by the peer group. social interaction with peers was found to promote effective thinking strategies and promoting metacognitive attributes. it is not just the encounter that brings about change but the internalization of this joint intellectual activity. motivational strategies results of rm-ancova demonstrated that the group difference had a significant effect on interest enhancement, f (1, 84) = 8.581, p = .004, partial eta-squared (ηp2) = 0.93 with a medium effect size. significant difference was also found in performance and mastery self-talk between the two groups at the post-test, f (1, 84 = )9.516, p = .003, partial eta-squared (ηp2) = .102 with a medium effect size. at the end of the instruction via csrvca, the students from the experimental group had an increase in utilizing two motivational strategies at the post-test, while the control group did not (see table 8 in appendix 2). this affirmed that students from the experimental group were found to apply more learning interest or performance and mastery self-talk after the eightmonth intervention. the result might be the effect of the virtual composing activities based on the integration of srsd and constructivist approach to teaching such as the cooperative assignment or group discussion. for example, the student wrote (reflective journal), “i like the way we are grouped together and time is given for discussions via moodle”. another student said (interview) “i like the online group discussions. everyone in my group gets to share our thoughts and learn from each other on the different aspects of argumentative writing”. in addition, the findings might also be due to the intervention steps of awareness-raising in which the lecturer generated students’ initial motivation by emphasizing the intrinsic value and the instrumental value of learning writing skills to the students (dőrnyei & ryan, 2015). in awareness-raising steps, the lecturer guided the students in stimulating metacognitive awareness in writing so that students acknowledged the need for the skills and then desiring to learn them to self-improve. when the student themselves see the need to acquire the skill, it serves as a link to apply the instruction to other efforts that promote generalization in new writing contexts. results of self-efficacy no significant difference was found for the three subcategories of self-efficacy in the control group between the pre-test and the post-test (see table 9 in appendix 2). the rm-ancova showed a significant effect of covariate on the three subcategories with large effect sizes: covariate of language self-efficacy, f (1, 83) = 11.139, p = .001, partial etasquared (ηp2) . =118; covariate of self-regulatory efficacy, f (1, 83) = 10.117, p = .002, partial eta-squared (ηp2) = .109; covariate of writing performance self-efficacy, f (1, 83) = 15.960, p < .001, partial eta-squared (ηp2) = .161 . https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol. 7 no. 1, 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 116 students in the experimental group had significant increases in writing self-efficacy, selfregulatory efficacy and writing performance self-efficacy at the post-test. this showed that after the treatment, the students in the experimental group were more confident in using writing knowledge and achieving writing tasks. based on the constructivist theory, it might be explained that the mediation and scaffolding during the virtual composing instruction may have increased students’ self-confidence in their task performance. scaffolding is a one of the essential tools used by lecturers to facilitate this interaction (lee, 2003 as cited in zou & thomas, 2018). it might be explained that the steps in virtual composing activities emphasized the lecturer to initially provide high support for the assignment to be achieved, and then the instructional scaffolding in the virtual composing activities cautiously removed to encourage the learners to be independent. scaffolding was important in online interaction, allowing the lecturer to lead the students to become more and more independent and therefore more confident in their interactions. in this study, a virtual learning community is created to encourage students to construct new knowledge that is well-connected to other knowledge held by the students. in this way, the virtual composing activities turn to be student-centered learning in which the participants can virtually interact, work together, and share their own views about writings with peers. students can have the chance to read their peers’ language and give/receive feedback interactively. in terms of pedagogical purposes, csrvca in the writing learning process stimulate dialogue between the participants and the lecturer through the exchange of ideas out of class. to illustrate, the use of virtual composing activities increases reflectivity of learners and their strategy utilization when written language is produced via virtual activities. due to the limited amount of allocated time to employ foreign language in the classroom, the use of virtual activities to stimulate and practice language out of class time is very beneficial for the efl learners. apart from the significant difference in their efficacy level, some of the students mentioned the usefulness of peer feedback and publishing written materials via moodle. the students explained that it is an important tool to help them write better. this result was explained by one of the students (interview): “because i know that i have to publish my written work in moodle and my friends would give feedback, i have to do my best to write carefully. i planned and reviewed my writings before publishing and while typing.” receiving online peer feedback or constructive criticism facilitates learners to construct their writing work through revising drafts and making error corrections, tracking their progress on several drafts, thereby stimulating self-efficacy and motivation in l2 writing (shudooh, 2003). moreover, the proposed virtual composing activities provided a partially non-threatening learning environment because the virtual environment gives students more time to prepare content and consider responses carefully prior to writing. this helps students in developing language learning while reducing psychological barriers. besides practicing writing via virtual activities to help activate their writing efficacy, receiving peer feedback also increased their reflectivity and monitoring skills. this result is in line with bartlett-bragg’s (2003) study in which he argued for the effectiveness of peer feedback through blogging. based on the self-efficacy perspective, when learners perceive high self-efficacy, https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol. 7 no. 1, 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 117 they try harder and utilize the knowledge and skills they have (kim & lorsbach, 2005 as cited in ewa et al., 2017). therefore, due to the significant change in the writing self-efficacy levels of students, it is possible that the impact of peer feedback stimulated and motivated the students to develop their skills. conclusion and suggestions the proposed steps in virtual activities designed to promote self-regulation for writing knowledge transfer were presented. the step primarily emphasizes stimulating students’ motivation, metacognitive knowledge and self-regulation to achieve writing knowledge transfer. in the proposed steps, the lecturer played an important role to facilitate the achievement of the goals in each step. in phase i, the lecturer promoted learners’ awareness regarding all aspects of generalization, while in the second phase, they proactively planned strategies for generalization during performance, monitor performance processes and outcomes, evaluate their performance and plan, and then use critical reflective thinking to adjust strategically to improve their performance in new situations or tasks. overall, it might be explained that students demonstrated improvements in writing competence and self-efficacy or confidence in deploying metacognitive knowledge and regulatory skills because they are given opportunities to use them in appropriate virtual learning environments and to receive informative, corrective feedback concerning their use. students were aware of a variety of metacognitive, cognitive, motivational and environmental strategies that could be used in achieving the assigned writing tasks. in addition, extensive long-term practice of four and a half months and feedback are considered important for the development of effective learning. to enhance self-regulated learning, extensive practice is still needed for a learner to be able to automatically and effectively generalize effective learning strategies. thus, extensive long-term practice and feedback are considered important for the development of expert learning (horowitz, 2019). this study has supported the socio cognitive view of srl (schunk, 2001), which spotlights the proactive engagement of self-regulating processes under the interaction of individual, behaviour and environments. this research collectively displays how human behaviour, the regulation of cognition and other personal factors worked as interacting elements of each other in the reciprocity loop, affecting learners’ academic performance (zimmerman, 2011). in addition, the self-regulation model mirrors a constructivist teaching view of self-regulation, stressing the mentoring of a learner by more capable others (e.g., teachers, or peers). according to schraw et al (2006), constructivist teaching methods and techniques develop intellectual abilities and self-regulated learning skills of students such as problem solving and critical thinking as in cooperative learning, etc. these findings demonstrate that constructivist approach in virtual practices can affect self-regulated learning skills of students that can control self-learning. methods and strategies together with the process of active learning, and teaching styles such as learning via discussion, programmed learning, etc. influence self-regulated skills of learners. positive effects have been revealed in self-regulated skills of learners who use their own knowledge and concepts, share their views with peers or teachers in a learning environment in which such methods and strategies are utilized (altun & erden, 2013). this intervention in this study was designed to integrate many perspectives to explain what and how srl strategies can be learned and taught more effectively in l2 writing contexts. the https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol. 7 no. 1, 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 118 exploration of the self-regulating process from two aspects of socio-cognitive and constructivist approaches is beneficial in assisting us develop deeper insight into how to foster development of self-regulated learners to attain lifelong learning strategies in l2 contexts. for the limitations and further research, regarding the sample, this study used only upper secondary school students in thai secondary schools. the findings cannot be generalized to other populations. moreover, the intervention of this study only emphasized on argumentative writing tasks in virtual classroom environments. thus, it is impossible to examine the influence of different text types on the effectiveness of strategy 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(1994). impact of self-regulatory influences on writing course attainment. american educational research journal, 31, 845–862. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol. 7 no. 1, 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 122 zou, b., & thomas, m. (2018). handbook of research on integrating technology into contemporary language learning and teaching. pa: igi global book. zumbrunn, s., tadlock, j., & roberts, e. d. (2011). encouraging self-regulated learning in the classroom: a review of the literature. metropolitan educational research consortium (merc), virginia commonwealth university. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity literature review validity and reliability data analysis horowitz, g. (2019). teaching stem to first generation college students: a guidebook for faculty & future faculty. usa: information age publishing inc. jacobs, h. l., zingraf, s. a. wormuth, d. r., hartfiel, v. f., & hughey, j. b. (1981). testing esl composition: a practical approach. rowley, massachusetts: newbury house. acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no. 1. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 1 english language teacher candidates’ pedagogical beliefs during covid19 pandemic zeynep çetin köroğlu zeynepcetin86@gmail.com aksaray university, turkey doi: 10.35974/acuity.v8i1.2798 abstract the pandemic has been affecting every side of our lives in a negative way unfortunately. teacher training has also been affected from the pandemic and student teachers have been taken their courses through digital environments. unlike traditional courses they have to study the entire courses online. as it is known that teachers’ beliefs have a profound impact on their classroom practices, decisions on their teaching strategies, their styles and even how they implement curriculum. for this reason, the current study aims to investigate whether covid19 pandemic has an effect on student teachers’ beliefs positively or negatively. the research was carried out in 2020 spring term of academic year when the pandemic first started. the research was designed as a qualitative study and to collect data a case and an interview administered to participants. totally, 74 student teachers participated in the study that participants were third and fourth graders of elt department at a state university, turkey. the results indicate that participants have negative perspectives towards taking all courses through digital environments and tools. however, their beliefs have not been affected negatively from covid19 pandemic. keywords: student teachers, pedagogical beliefs, english language teaching, teaching practice. introduction teacher beliefs are shaped by various factors that teacher candidates take teachers as models throughout their education life, the content of the courses and experiences of educational activities. it is thought that positive teacher models shape beliefs positively. like positive teacher models, negative teacher models also affect teacher’s beliefs negatively. another factor affecting teacher beliefs is the content of educational activities. if the teacher training programs provide the necessary content to the teacher candidates and the results are at the expected level, the teacher candidates develop positive beliefs. in this context, the content, application, and achievement of teacher training programs are of great importance. finally, teacher candidates' teaching experiences shape their beliefs positively or negatively. teaching practice 1 and teaching practice 2 courses, which are usually in the last year of teacher training programs, offer pre-service teachers the opportunity to apply the knowledge and skills they have learned at a micro level before starting the teaching profession. another important contribution of these courses is that they provide teacher candidates with the opportunity to observe and evaluate teachers who have worked in the teaching profession for many years and analyze the teaching process. these three factors that shape teachers' beliefs were affected by the covid19 pandemic, which affected the whole world in the first months of 2020, as in all other fields. during the pandemic, education and training activities were necessarily moved from traditional classroom environments to virtual classroom environments because of sudden decisions. course contents and durations were adapted in accordance with the tools used, and course durations varied based on educational institutions. for example, one university's virtual lesson time was 50 minutes, while another took 15 minutes. in this context, there have been changes in the course content. it is thought that updating the course contents and duration due to the pandemic influences the shaping of teacher beliefs. on the other https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity mailto:zeynepcetin86@gmail.com acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no. 1. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 2 hand, the attitudes and behaviors of teacher educators who moved from the traditional classroom environment to the virtual classroom environment play an important role in shaping the beliefs of teacher candidates. for example, a teacher who can provide classroom management and active participation of students in a traditional classroom environment has difficulties in using these skills in a virtual classroom environment. it is thought that the change in the attitudes and behaviors of teacher educators in virtual classroom environments is effective in the belief formation process of teacher candidates during the pandemic. another issue is that teaching practice one and teaching practice 2 courses are given with distance education during the pandemic period. education and training activities in primary, secondary and high schools affiliated to the ministry of national education (mone) were given by compulsory distance education. therefore, the senior students of the faculty of education who took teaching practice 1 and teaching practice 2 courses could not gain face-to-face teaching experience in these courses. in this case, like other factors, it has important effects on the formation of pre-service teachers' beliefs. to fill the research gap in terms of student teachers’ beliefs during covid19 pandemic, the current study investigates the beliefs of the 3rd and 4th year students of the department of foreign languages education at a state university in turkey towards the teaching profession during the pandemic. since there are not enough studies in the related literature about the beliefs of teacher candidates during the pandemic, the current study aims to fill this gap. the present study is guided by the following research questions. 1. how were the beliefs of prospective english teachers shaped during the covid 19 pandemic? 2. what is the novice teacher’s belief of being a good teacher? 3. how does online teaching interrelate with the novice english language teacher’s beliefs? before the covid19 pandemic, distance education, blended learning, flipped learning and computer assisted language learning were used as a supplementary education form to traditional face to face education in standard classrooms. however, with the outbreak of pandemic rapid and mandatory emergency remote teaching (ert) or emergency distance education (edt) has been utilized to carry out education (van lancker & parolin, 2020). in many countries, most of the schools and universities had to switch on fully online education due to the harsh conditions of covid19 pandemic in february 2020. similar to these countries, in turkey schools and universities switched on online teaching for a period of time and faced with closure in march 2020 (yükselir & yuvayapan, 2021). still, some courses at universities have been carried out in digital classrooms at digital environments. the swift and mandatory switch on online education brings debate on the quality of education in online environments, students’ and teachers’ satisfaction, students’, and teachers’ motivation on online learning. covid19 pandemic has continue to affect english language teaching practices like all other fields. the unplanned and unforeseen pandemic conditions changed teachers’ work and possibly changed their teaching perceptions. since, they had to change their instruction, with sudden decisions from face-to-face teaching to online teaching. (fagell, 2020; pirtle, 2020). the point is that most of the teachers tried to find solutions to carry out effective teaching during the pandemic. moreover, no matter how it is called as distance education, online education or emergency remote education, teachers have had really hard time to present meaningful content and experience to their students in this process (de witt, 2020; merrill, 2020). computer assisted language learning (call) or blended learning are not new terms for many teachers as stated by katemba (2020) but implementations of them is new. as baired (2020) states that being forced to work from home, not meeting with colleagues and students on regular teaching settings, being forced to change current lesson plans and learning necessary new technologies quickly many teachers have experienced the most complicating and renewal experience of their professional life. one of the bright sides of this severe conditions is that during this process, online teaching experience gives language teachers a chance to think, analyze and adjust their teaching beliefs. in this perspective, understanding teachers’ perceptions https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no. 1. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 3 and beliefs about teaching online is highly crucial to make changes and adjust teaching process effectively. in this context, student teachers’ and teachers’ perceptions should be carefully integrated into the process of designing an online curriculum. grasping their perceptions enables educational experts to design better curriculum and the curriculum can meet students’ needs (nambiar, 2020). belief is defined as the collection of ideas, and in this respect, it can be said that it is somehow accurate and plays an important role to filter everyone’s experiences (tondeur et al. 2017; lo & hew, 2020). on a similar basis, a pedagogical belief means teacher’s confidence on his/her teaching and knowledge through educational theory. scholar states that teacher’s beliefs and perspectives are shaped by their past teaching experiences, and these have a crucial role in planning teaching activities and classroom behavior (magulod jr, 2017a, 2017b, 2017c). similarly, pedagogical beliefs can be described as efl teachers’ assumptions on teaching (chen & kent, 2020). teacher beliefs research focus on teachers’ psychological understanding, suppositions, and perspectives in terms of classroom domains such as students, teaching materials and even themselves (zheng,2009). moreover, teacher beliefs are regarded as the ‘heart of the teaching’ that shape teachers’ behaviors in the classroom, their teaching practices, understanding of the teaching and instruction (harendita, 2017). during the pandemic most of the researchers focus their attention on how in-service teachers should carry out their online learning (eko et al., 2020; gunawan et al., 2020; moorhouse, 2020; pace et al., 2020; zhang et al., 2020; zhou et al., 2020), very little attention has been paid how future teachers see the online learning they are experiencing now and what they believe about it. if the field of pre-service teachers' perspectives is studied more, it can be highly fruitful. it allows them to gain a better awareness of their preconceptions about the use of technology, which will most likely manifest when they begin their careers as english instructors. furthermore, because advanced learners' views are thought to be more stable than rookie learners', preservice teachers' beliefs, as novice instructors, may still be changing during their teacher education programs (incecay, 2011). as a result, the findings may help to improve english language education programs by identifying what worked well and what may be improved during and after the pandemic. taş et. al. (2021) carried out research with 758 teachers from turkey to investigate teachers’ self efficacy beliefs and perceptions towards distance education that they switched to distance education during the pandemic. in their study the researchers utilized both qualitative and quantitative data collection methods. the results showed that participants are not satisfied with their capabilities of organizing effective online learning environments and preparing various evaluation activities. additionally, they thought that instructional materials which were used on digital platforms were not sufficient to enable students successful. another research was carried out by subekti (2020) to investigate pre-service english language teachers’ beliefs on implementation of online learning during pandemic. the participants were students of english language education department. in the study the researcher collected qualitative data. the results of the study revealed that three factors affect online learning negatively. these are inadequate supporting resources, teachers’ limited skills t to manage online education and lack of interaction between teacher to student and student to teacher (subekti, 2020). another study was carried out to search english teacher candidates’ perspectives towards their future career during covid19 pandemic (tunaboylu & inal, 2021). they investigated 127 prospective english language teachers of english language teaching department at a state university, turkey. qualitative data of the study revealed that teacher candidates became more sensible about pandemic related issues, and they are eager to integrate such issues in their future profession. another study was carried out by souza at. al. (2021) to investigate english language teachers’ and teacher candidates’ beliefs and https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no. 1. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 4 motivation during covid19 pandemic. the researchers found out that the more involvement in learning process in language learning process made them more engaged. related research indicate that online teacher training courses are not as efficient as the traditional face to face courses in terms of developing language teachers’ beliefs and identity. in this respect to reduce negative effects of online learning five principles can be followed bao (2020). firs of all is providing relevance between instruction and learning. clear and understandable instruction is needed to be given to learners in an online classroom. the second is again related with the instruction delivery which should be effective. the third principle is about teachers’ support to learners during online education (fu, 2013). if students have some difficulty in learning process, teacher should help students in an appropriate way. messer states that learners should be autonomous at a certain level to achieve social and academic growth. the last principle is that alternative plans should be prepared in case of unexpected situations. methodology the present study was conducted as qualitative research in the spring term of 2020. as it is known, qualitative research provides the opportunity to make in-depth examinations in understanding the perspectives of the participants and are important studies for forming theory. for this reason, qualitative data collection method was used to investigate the beliefs of english teacher candidates that they developed and changed during the pandemic. data collection tools a case containing a teacher's personal notes was used to collect the data for this study. in addition, an open-ended interview form consisting of three questions was used. in the current research openended question type was utilized to make participants answer freely. as it is known that there are three types of questions: interpretation, listing, and space filling. the interpretation questions enable participants more objective and give more detailed responses on a particular issue (büyüköztürk, kılıç çakmak, akgün, karadeniz & demirel, 2016). the responses of the participants to the given situation were collected. in addition, the answers to the interview questions were analyzed by thematic coding and content analysis method. research participants and sampling procedures convenience sampling method was used to select participants of the study. as mcintyre (2004) states “convenience sampling is the technique of selecting sampling units on the basis of availability rather than representativeness” (p. 105). the participants of the currents research are 3rd and 4th grade students of foreign languages education department at a state university turkey. the ages of the participants vary between 19 and 21. the participants are 51 girls and 23 boys. participants have similar educational background. it needs to be said that all the students who contributed to this study were volunteer to participate in the study and they shared their opinions and beliefs about online classrooms during the pandemic and the given case. procedure a case containing a teacher's personal notes were given to the participants. questions such as ‘what advice they would give to a teacher in this situation’ and ‘what they would do if they were in that teacher's place’ were asked. since the given situation includes the negative attitudes and thoughts of the teacher towards the teaching profession, the beliefs of the teacher candidates in the teaching profession were revealed. after using the data collection tool, a semi-structured written interview form consisting of three open-ended questions was administered. it was asked whether the https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no. 1. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 5 education they received in virtual classrooms during the pandemic affected their attitudes and beliefs towards the teaching profession, how the teacher's attitudes and behaviors in virtual classrooms affected their perspectives on the teaching profession, and how the teaching practice 1 and teaching practice 2 courses through distance education affected their beliefs through the interview questions. results students’ responses were analyzed due to content analysis and themes were created suitably. three different themes were utilized to categorize students’ beliefs about being an ideal teacher and teaching profession. the first theme was set as ‘‘attitudes towards teaching’. the second theme is ‘ideal teacher image’ and the third theme is ‘perceptions towards teacher profession’. subthemes were created for each theme. table 1. ‘attitudes towards teaching’ theme and repetition rates in participants’ responses attitudes towards teaching theme repetition being enthusiastic / enthusiasm about teaching 14 love your job 18 table 1 consists of the sub-themes as ‘being enthusiastic / enthusiasm about teaching’ and ‘love your job’. nearly all the participants think that a teacher should love his/her job because the subtheme ‘love your job’ has been written 18 times in students’ interview responses. the sub-theme has the highest rate among all sub-themes. additionally, most of the students believe that a language teacher should be enthusiastic about teaching profession. thus, the ‘being enthusiastic / enthusiasm about teaching’ subtheme has 14 repetitions. the findings can be interpreted that student teachers believe that being a teacher requires passion and enthusiasm. moreover, the result is an indicator of their conscious selection of the teaching profession. some first theme-related responses of students were presented below. s. r.: ‘i can clearly see the real problem at the first sentence. “i never wanted to be a teacher.” then don’t be. i know life can be tough and cannot give any chances, but you must chase the other opportunities that you love. a good teacher should be enthusiastic about their job and lifestyle. i can understand your situation because you had no “plan a” but in the end you become an office worker after few years. a good decision that i support because you were not into teaching and basically you were poisoning those students you were teaching. most of the teachers are bad teacher because they don’t have any kind of enthusiasm just like you. and in the end, they become impatient individuals which also don’t respect their students. respect and patience are the most important skills that every teacher should have because it determines our persona and our lifestyles. without these being a teacher would be meaningless. other problem is that people see teaching as a “plan b”, teachers are the bright future of a country and should not be treated like that. because of this viewpoint bad teachers are overruling the good teachers both in career and education sector and because of that tons of generations have lost their faith and enthusiasm to education and science. in a nutshell you did a mistake, everyone does! but you learnt from your mistake, and you quit from teaching that is a good decision. but you are a good teacher to yourself because you taught yourself a great lesson that you will never forget’. s. r.: ‘it is best that he dropped out. i never want my kid to study under those kinds of teachers. a teacher must love his/her job. if you don't like what you're doing, especially if https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no. 1. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 6 it is with younger age, do not ruin their life. if they don't get a good education at any stage of their learning, it will simply destroy them. i want to ask him that why didn't you drop out while you were studying it? why did you torture yourself among with the kids in that "few years"? such an irresponsible behavior this is... he doesn't have respect to those children. he doesn't have respect to himself either.’ the second theme was created as ‘ideal teacher image’ and two sub-themes were created for the second theme. these sub-themes were set as ‘skills & characteristic features’ and ‘professional features’. the first sub-theme includes ‘technology usage’, ‘creative’, ‘motivating’, ‘caring about students’, and ‘communication skills’. the second sub-theme includes ‘up to date information and knowledge’, ‘classroom management skills’, ‘no discrimination in class’, ‘being a role model for students’, ‘being prepared for lessons’ and ‘testing skills. the sub-themes and their repetition rates were presented below. table 2. ‘ideal teacher image’ theme and repetition rates in participants’ responses ideal teacher image skills & characteristic features professional features technology usage 3 respect 11 up to date information and knowledge (10) 10 creative 4 patience 14 classroom management skills 2 motivating 4 confident 1 no discrimination in class 3 caring about students 3 cheerful 2 being a role model for students 2 communication skills 3 life experience 1 being prepared for lessons 3 being a guide 1 testing skills 3 table 2 indicates that participants’ ideal teacher perception quite detailed in terms of different domains such as skills, characteristic, and professional features. the skills and characteristic features theme consists of eleven sub-theme which are presented above in table 2. ‘patience’ has been repeated 14 times in participants’ responses that indicate student teachers think that teachers https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no. 1. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 7 should be patient towards their students and even to their profession. the second highest repetition rate is at ‘respect’ sub-theme that is 11 times. nearly all the participants think that teacher should respect to their students in the classroom. additionally, student teachers generally think that teachers should be creative, motivating, caring about their students, and confident. moreover, the results show that an ideal teacher should be confident and has good communication skills. the second theme of the ideal teacher image is professional features. the sub-theme consists of six sub-themes that ‘up to date information’ has the highest repetition rate among all sub-themes with 10 repetitions. student teachers think that an ideal teacher should be knowledgeable person and have up to date information on his/her expertise. additionally, participants think that an ideal teacher should not do discrimination among students. teacher should be prepared for the lessons and have good testing skills. another finding is that an ideal teacher should have good classroom management skills and should be role model to his/ her students. some related responses of participants are presented below. s. t. : ‘here, she/he didn’t want to be teacher and had to be a teacher because she/he had no other choice. i am glad that this person later returns from teaching mistake because not everyone good teacher. he/she doesn’t like the job so, he/she cannot love teaching and students. on the other side, as everyone knows, teaching is a very sacred job and being a good teacher takes effort. there are some features required to be a good and quality teacher such as she/he be patient and not treat his/her students’ very strict way. teachers must respect for the students and treat everyone with the equal respect. except for these, being prepared for class, motivating the students, building student’s self-esteem and being creative in daily lessons are very important for being a quality and effective teacher. but that person cannot have these qualities so, if he/she didn’t give up this job he/she wouldn’t have been a good teacher.’ s. t. : ‘first of all, everybody should do the job which they loved and qualified. you were unqualified for being a teacher. you had lack of education. if you want to be a teacher, you should have up to date knowledge and information. you also should have good testing skills. but you don’t like your job (teaching). a good teacher should be excited about teaching to her/his students. you were zero enthusiasm. for lots of people, teaching is a fallback career. so, you didn’t have a career plan and you have to be a teacher. teaching to students is important job. thus, students are our future. if a teacher has bad communication skills, students can move away from education. you also talked about that you had taken nothing particularly useful. finally, you can’t teach well. because a good teacher should be patient, respect to students, have enough knowledge, good testing skill. teacher should know teaching methods. bad teachers have only rules, dictate something to students. they are unqualified. they have bad communication skills, talking about religious. they discriminate students. you see teaching as torturous. thank god, you dropped out to become office worker. to be happy, you shouldn’t be a teacher for our future. if you are unhappy, you can’t be helpful to others.’ s.t. : ‘because the teachers who don’t love to teach have a bad attitude toward their students. moreover, patient is important. you must up to date yourself to pieces of knowledge and info and you should respect to students’ thoughts. you must role model for them and if you don’t think you have these features, i would suggest you quit this job.’ the third theme was created as ‘perceptions towards teaching profession’ and totally three subthemes were determined for this theme. the sub-themes are ‘creates & shapes future’, ‘sacred & important job’, and ‘teaching is not a fallback plan’. results for the third theme are presented in table 3 below. table 3. ‘perceptions towards teaching profession’ and its repetition rates in participants’ responses https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no. 1. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 8 perceptions towards teaching profession creates & shapes future 5 sacred & important job 7 teaching is not a fallback plan 6 table 3 indicates that most of the participants think teaching profession is highly important to shape and create our future. thus, sub-themes ‘sacred & important job’ subtheme has 7 repetitions in participants’ responses. moreover, they also think that teaching should not be chosen as a fallback job. some related responses are presented below. s. t.: ‘first of all, at the beginning, they shouldn’t have even decided to be a teacher. they or someone should stop them first. if they keep going doing a job that they never wanted, it can hurt them. they didn’t want to be a teacher. teachers should be willing to teach. it is the main idea of being a good teacher. but they didn’t take anything useful to themselves. they started to this job because faculty advisor told them teaching is a fallback career. but to be a good teacher, they should have a good knowledge about teaching, they should be patient, they should respect their job and students, they should have good communication, they should have good testing skills and just like these but apparently, they don’t have any of them so they shouldn’t have thought to be a teacher at the first place. if this person continued to be a teacher, they would be so unhappy about his life. obviously, they have an interest about something else but they kind of started to teach. but at the end, they finally became an office worker which is good for them.’ s. t.: ‘anyone who doesn’t like teaching or pupils or anything about education ever should do this job. even if s/he does no one would love him and s/he never teach anything. i’m sorry to students of this man who trying to teach something before being an office worker. i’m sure that he didn’t teach anything well. so, this job is both hard and easy. everyone cannot do it and this man is one of them. if i met him before being office worker i would talk to him about children, difficulties, and positive sides of being teacher. we could talk some deeper topics. maybe he affected by a teacher from his school times. so, after all i would say not being teacher you did the best. because you don’t love it, and no one could achieve a work which doesn’t love. and because of not love s/he could be impatient, and patient is one of key factor in this job.’ discussion three questions were asked to the participants in the open-ended interview form. the aim of the first question was to find out how the course content taught in the online classroom environments of the participants affects the teachers' beliefs. the first interview question was ‘what do you think about course contents which were used in online classrooms during covid19 pandemic? how course contents affected your beliefs about being a teacher?’ the participants thought that the course content was less sufficient than the content of the courses they took in face-to-face classes. another important finding is that the contents do not change teacher beliefs. because the participants see the teaching profession as an important career. the purpose of the second question was to find out how teacher attitudes and behaviors in virtual classrooms affect pre-service teachers' beliefs about the teaching profession. the second interview question was ‘how teachers’ attitudes and behaviors in an online classroom affected your beliefs about being a teacher? please explain with an example’. the answers given to the second question revealed that the pre-service teachers could not observe the teacher's attitudes and behaviors sufficiently in virtual classroom https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no. 1. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 9 environments. for this reason, it was concluded that there was no positive contribution to their beliefs. the purpose of the third question was asked to investigate the effects of conducting teaching practice one and two courses in virtual classroom environments on the beliefs of the participants. the third interview question was ‘does taking teaching practice 1 and teaching practice 2 courses online affected your beliefs towards being a teacher?’ the answers given by the participants to the third question revealed that the pre-service teachers did not get enough efficiency from these lessons. student teachers’ self-belief towards teaching profession is an important area of research to investigate, as they are the future teachers who will shape the future generations by their applications and instructions. especially, teacher training programs and courses had to be shifted to online education during covid19 pandemic that the change can alter student teachers’ selfbelief. as scholar states teachers’ selfbelief may have many effects on their teaching style, teaching performance, work ethic and decreasing stress level (lohman, 2006). additionally, teachers who have high selfbelief and selfefficacy manage their classroom better than the teachers who have lower levels of selfefficacy and selfbelief. moreover, the teachers implement innovative teaching methods if they have high selfefficacy and self-belief (caprara et al., 2006). in this perspective, it can be said that selfefficacy and selfbelief play an important role for carrying out effective teaching in language classrooms. in the similar vein, teachers’ beliefs are interconnected with teaching and learning elements that they represent their belief while they are teaching. teachers’ belief also influences teachers’ method, attitudes, and classroom practices (supriadi, et. al 2020). in this perspective, the current research investigated student teachers’ belief towards teaching profession during covid19 pandemic when their belief may be affected from unprecedented and harsh living conditions. the results indicate that student teachers’ belief towards teaching profession was not affected negatively from pandemic conditions. additionally, they perceive teaching profession as a sacred job which should be done willingly. language teachers, as the practitioners of language, are the most important piece of in education systems, because teachers’ knowledge, belief and efficacy matters in attaining teaching goals (türegün-çoban & kuyumcu-vardar, 2021). in this perspective, student teachers’ high level of belief despite pandemic conditions present that they are capable of being effective language teachers. as palmer (1998, p.3) noted that “good teaching requires self-knowledge” and even though “good teaching” can be interpreted and described differently, it is the representation of teachers’ background, experiences, knowledge, and belief in the teaching environment. conclusion in the current study, it was investigated how pre-service english teachers' beliefs about the teaching profession were shaped during the covid19 pandemic. the current research is significant in terms of presenting pre-service teachers’ beliefs on their first-hand experiences in a digital learning during the pandemic, which has a big research gap despite student teachers’ possible role in the future as teachers. research findings show the effects of the contents of the courses conducted in virtual classroom environments during the pandemic, the attitudes, and behaviors of teachers in virtual classroom environments, and the teaching practice one and two courses being conducted in virtual classrooms on the beliefs of teacher candidates. the findings revealed that english teacher candidates perceives teaching as a valuable profession. on the other hand, courses they took during the pandemic were conducted in virtual classroom environments did not have a positive effect on the attitudes and behaviors of the teachers in these courses. moreover, participants are not satisfied because they took one and two courses in teaching practice through distance education during the pandemic. beliefs of prospective teachers in the teaching profession shape how they will carry out their future professions. richards et al. (2001) pointed out that student teachers’ observation of their teachers bestow their beliefs about teaching profession. moreover, these beliefs could reveal step by step https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no. 1. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 10 in their attitudes, decisions, actions and behaviors in their professional life (subekti, 2019a). additionally, it should be stated that student teachers’ beliefs about how and to what extend they will be willing to use internet and communication technologies in their future classes (sadaf et al., 2012). in this context, it is of great importance to develop beliefs in a positive way. however, during the pandemic, it is unfortunately not possible to create and develop the beliefs of teacher candidates and to change their negative beliefs, if any, in virtual classroom environments. as a result of the findings of this study, it can be said that virtual classroom environments do not contribute positively to teacher beliefs. on the other hand, the participants who choose to be a teacher as a career are conscious about their future profession. language teaching and learning has been impacted by covid19 pandemic from various dimensions, and its impact on this world will be lasting in an unpredictable future, this qualitative study suggests student teachers’ beliefs about teaching profession. in line with the results obtained in the study, the following suggestions can be made for teacher trainers to provide more teaching practicing opportunities to student teachers in following courses. online education and online education environments should be used effectively to foster student teachers’ beliefs on teaching profession. in this respect teacher trainers need to focus on their pedagogical and technological competences. an in-service training about utilizing online environment effectively can be provided to teacher trainers by the universities. to sum up, finding of the present research indicate that implementation of teacher training courses online needed improvements to foster student teachers’ beliefs in a positive way. further studies can be carried out with larger samples to have a broader perspective about the issue. additionally, future studies on the quality of teacher training courses will contribute to the field. references baired, k. 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"school’s out, but class’s on”, the largest online education in the world today: taking china’s practical exploration during the covid-19. ssrn, 4(2), 501–519. http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3555520. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11423-016-9481-2 https://doi.org/10.46827/ejes.v8i3.3666 https://sdg4education2030.org/sdg-educationhttps://doi.org/10.33200/ijcer.870732 https://doi.org/10.3390/jrfm13030055 acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no.2. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 228 verifying self-determination theory in efl context: considering the relationship between innate needs and motivation elham zarfsaz,1 gaziosmanpasa university, turkey elham.zarfsaz@gop.edu.tr fahime sadat hosseini2 iau of urmia, department of foreign languages, iran fs.hosseini@chmail.ir doi: 10.35974/acuity.v8i2.2943 abstract self-determination theory (sdt) is a hot topic in the field of applied linguistics, and it is getting more and harder to downplay the significance of the so-called theory in the growth of second-language learners (deci and ryan, 1985, 2000, 2002). the current study tried to test the theory in the iranian efl setting by throwing light on the relationship between innate or basic psychological requirements of competence, relatedness, and autonomy and (intrinsic) motivation. this was done as a commentary on other research findings. 324 efl university students from iran were contacted to take part in the study. a standard questionnaire created by agawa and takeuchi (on the students' motivation for learning a second language and their innate needs fulfillment) was used to collect data for the survey-style study (2016). sem, or structural equation modeling, was used to determine how well actual data matched hypothetical expectations. according to the sem model suggested, there was a strong positive correlation between iranian efl learners' motivation and their competency demands. however, relatedness needs appeared to have less of an impact on students' motivation, while the satisfaction of autonomy needs was found to have either adverse or demotivating impacts on iranian l2 learners' motivation. these findings can be applied to improve second language learners' motivation by posing engaging questions about the nature of the students' demands for autonomy, relatedness, and competence. keywords: efl learns’ motivation, self-determination theory, innate psychological needs, structural equation modeling (sem). introduction corresponding author: elham zarfsaz, gaziosmanpasa university, department of foreign languages email: elham.zarfsaz@gop.edu.tr mailto:elham.zarfsaz@gop.edu acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no.2. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 229 maybe the concept that has been studied the most in the context of learning a second or foreign language is motivation. in order to learn a second language successfully, motivation has been identified as a key element (lamb, 2017). according to ryan and deci (2000), motivation is recognized as a stimulant for reaching a specific goal. there is a ton of research that has been reviewed in the literature to investigate the function and nature of motivation in second language acquisition. the bulk of academics initially concentrated primarily on two elements of motivation (i.e., integrative and instrumental motivation). integrative motivation is characterized as the propensity of the learners to internalize the target language. under the socio-educational framework, on the other hand, instrumental motivation is characterized by learners' aim to acquire a new language in order to obtain external rewards. the assumption that the dichotomy of integrative/instrumental motivation may be the predictor of l2 learning has since been questioned by some researchers (e.g., lamb, 2004; gardner, 2000; yahima, 2000; dörnyei, 1990; gardner, lalonde, & moorcroft, 1985). hence, the self-determination theory (sdt) was put up as a general theory of human motivation (deci & ryan, 1985, 2000, 2002). it is well understood that treating psychological concerns in educational problems is essential for achieving a good teaching and testing process (farsi, 2014). when it comes to education, sdt is primarily concerned with inspiring students' desire to further their learning, the value of their education, and confidence in their abilities and traits. the alleged results are evidence of internalizing the values and regularizing the process, as well as being organically motivated (deci, vallerand, pelletier and ryan, 2011). self-determination theory has received significant attention in l2 research over the past few decades, and various studies have been done using this theory in efl and non-efl settings. to comprehend the motivation behind language learning better in their book, noels, et al. (2019), gave a summary of the self-determination theory (sdt) and reviews of how it has been used to the study of second language acquisition. the lack of demographic diversity, however, hurt the bulk of earlier studies in the educational framework that looked at the connection between motivation and innate requirements. a wider population should be included in psychology-related ideas in order to support their external validity as well, given the complex and chaotic character of human beings. although there is a wealth of literature on the evaluation of sdt in the field (e.g., noels, 2003; hiromori, 2006; sugita mceown et al., 2014; agawa and takeuchi, 2016; dincer and yeşilyurt, 2017; noels et al., 2019; alamer and almulhim,2021), the application of the so-called theory in an iranian efl setting has received little attention. in order to improve the theory's generalizability to the aforementioned setting and population, it seems vital to inquire about the theory's application in the iranian efl context. the goal of this study is to clarify this path by examining the connection between (intrinsic) motivation and the basic needs of iranian efl learners. for example, self-regulation, learning objectives, fundamental psychological requirements, personality development, the influence of learning environments on learning, the energy/vitality dichotomy, wellbeing, etc. are all topics covered by std (deci & ryan, 2000; rahmanpanah, 2017). three fundamental psychological requirements of people—relatedness, competence, and autonomy—are further considered by sdt to be natural motivational qualities (deci & ryan, 2000; jang et al., 2016). it claims that internalized orientation for language learning is linked to feeling our intrinsic (basic) psychological demands for relatedness, competence, and autonomy (ability to select and take responsibility for our behavior) (to interact and be connected to others in the society). these inborn psychological requirements are described as essential nutrients for increasing well-being and psychological acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no.2. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 230 development (ryan and deci, 2008). the best growth and operation of language learners depends on the satisfaction of the so-called needs (dice & ryan, 2012; ryan & deci 2017). agawa and takeuchi (2016) contend that greater underlying psychological need satisfaction leads to better intrinsic motivation in people. yet, the satisfaction of autonomy requirements does not have a favorable impact on intrinsic or even extrinsic motivation. mason (2012) revealed a favorable correlation between drive to continue and autonomy, competence, and relatedness among empirical investigations that examined the conceivable association between motivation and innate psychological requirements. in terms of learning a second language, substantial research has demonstrated that intrinsic drive results in less anxiety and a greater sense of self-determination (noels, 2005; noels, pelletier and clement 1999; ryan and neimiec, 2009; rahmanpanah, 2017). given that it places more focus on the types of motivation than the quantity of motivation, the concept of motivation has been clarified (dincer and yesilyurt, 2017). motivating pupils to participate in the learning process, which is a precondition, is fueled by self-determination theory (chiu,2021). figure 1 self-determination continuum, with types of motivation and regulation. adapted from deci, e. l., and ryan, r. m., (eds.), 2002, handbook of self-determination research, p.16 as was already indicated, the ability of sdt to represent human motivation has attracted significant educational appeal in light of a variety of theoretical and psycholinguistic backgrounds (e.g., mynard, 2021; deci & ryan, 2017; dincer, 2017; haya kaplan, 2017; agawa and takeuchi, 2016; edward barr, 2016; mc eown et al, 2014; m.mason, 2012). in addition, many researchers in north america are aware of the importance of including a crosscultural perspective in sdt (sugita mc eown et al., 2014), and they recommend using motivational constructs from the so-called theory to be investigated in a variety of social and cultural contexts to confirm its generalizability. the present study is a pure effort to examine the self-determination theory in the iranian efl setting with the goal of determining the extent to which it is related to the motivation of university students because little research has been done to look for the external validity of the sdt within the iranian efl context (e.g., ahmadi, 2013; rahmanpanah, 2017; alibakhshi & nezakatgoo, 2019; sardari & ghajarieh,2023). in acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no.2. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 231 light of this, the current study examined self-determination theory and looked at how the aforementioned model was adjusted to the real data by utilizing samples that were more typical of the prior population. the first focus was on researching the tangential connections between intrinsic psychological requirements for competence, relatedness, and autonomy and motivation. to this purpose, the current study has concentrated on the following stated research topics in order to meet the aforementioned niche: hypothesis 1: there is a significant relationship between iranian efl students’ competence and their motivation. hypothesis 2: there is a significant relationship between iranian efl students’ relatedness and their motivation.hypothesis 3: there is a significant relationship between iranian efl students’ autonomy and their motivation. methods participants 324 efl university students who were in their first, second, or third year of academic study at the university comprised the participants in the current study. agawa and takechi (2016) used the power analysis method developed by faul et al. (2009) to determine the lowest number of participants needed for their study while taking sem into account. the outcome demonstrated that such correlational investigations would require a minimum of 231 individuals. the researcher was determined to collect data from at least 300 subjects in order to increase the safety margin; 324 participants were ultimately recruited (148 females and 176 males). most of the students spoke azari as their mother tongue. all of them, who were between the ages of 20 and 29, had never had the chance to live abroad. at three academically diverse universities, data were gathered via clustered random sampling from several departments, including english, medicine, psychology, law, management, and persian literature (i.e., a high-level university: university a; a middle-range university: university b; and an easy-to-enter university: university c). there were 91 participants from university c, 134 participants from university b, and 99 participants from university a. the three universities' efl learners' english scores varied, with university a's average gpa of 17.2 being the highest, followed by university b's average gpa of 14.4 and university c's average gpa of 11.7. the samples of students were homogenized in terms of age, mother tongue, english proficiency, and english background using a demographic questionnaire created by the researcher. instruments and materials self-determination questionnaire in order to accomplish the purpose of the present study, agawa and takeuchi’s questionnaire (2016) was utilized with three different scales. scales of sdt questionnaire the questionnaire was divided into three sections: demographic data, a scale measuring motivation for learning english, and a scale measuring psychological need. the alpha values for each construct received an acceptable predicted level, demonstrating the questionnaire's internal consistency (cronbach's alpha =.74–.89). english learning motivation scale following the demographic section of the questionnaire, the second section asked students to indicate their propensity for learning english. according to the self-determination continuum, acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no.2. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 232 it sought information on the level of learners' motivation with reference to five rules (intrinsic, identifiable, introjected, external, and amotivation). the scale had 20 questions, and students had to rate each one on a five-point likert scale (1 being strongly disagree, and 5 being strongly agree), choosing the one they liked the most. the regulations and sample goods are described in the section after that. psychological needs scale the final section of the survey asked questions about the satisfaction of the english learners' innate psychological requirements. twelve questions and three subscales were included in this section (i.e., competence, relatedness, and autonomy). participants were given a five-point likert scale (1=strongly agree; 5=strongly disagree), which was analogous to the english learning motivation scale. procedure the learners were requested to respond to the back-translated version of the questionnaire (see appendix b), which was pilot-tested by 30 students, after the participants had been homogenized using the demographic questionnaire and the learners' gpa. three questionnaire scales were included in the back translation (demographic information motivational scale and psychological needs scale). the study supervisor verified the validity of the persian (translated) questionnaire and found that its reliability was 0.82. also, the questionnaire had a 15-minute time limit for responses. the gathered information was entered into the lisrel software (version 8.8) and spss (version 25) programs for processing and analysis in order to show the level of significance for the acceptance or rejection of the research hypothesis developed at the start of the investigation. results descriptive statistics descriptive statistics shown in table 1 include mean, standard deviation, skewness, kurtosis, and alpha cronbach's alpha coefficient. skewness and kurtosis values should be within the range of ±2 to accept the shape of the normal distribution of data in order to guarantee a reasonable level of normalcy of variables. table 1: descriptive statistics of research variables variables mean sd skewness kurtosis α competence 4.25 .76 -1.28 1.66 .80 relatedness 4.00 .75 -.66 -.20 .72 autonomy 3.68 .49 -1.50 3.06 .83 intrinsic 4.01 .83 -1.06 1.24 .82 identified 4.03 .74 -.84 .66 .70 external 3.07 .76 .24 -.32 .71 amotivation 1.71 .86 1.38 1.33 .84 acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no.2. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 233 according to table 1, all in all, the mean for all dimensions of basic psychological needs including competence (4.25), relatedness (4.00), autonomy (3.68), are higher than the average score (3.00) of scale. in addition, the mean for dimensions of motivational orientation including intrinsic (4.01), identified (4.03), and external (3.07) are higher than the average score (3.00) of scale, except for amotivation (1.71) that is lower than the average score (3.00) of scale. cronbach's alphas coefficients indicate good internal consistency (reliability) for all study variables in a way that both dimensions of basic psychological needs and dimensions of motivation were higher than .70. according to table 1, all skewness and kurtosis values are located in a range between ±2. therefore, the shapes of data distribution for all items are normal and univariate normality is achieved in the present study. bivariate correlations in table 2, a bivariate correlation matrix of variables including dimensions of basic psychological needs and motivation has been reported. table2. bivariate correlation matrix of the research variables according to table 2, the correlation between basic needs and dimensions of motivation were consistent with the hypothesized relations and direction, with the exception of external motivation. as expected, all three basic psychological needs including competence, relatedness, and autonomy were positively correlated with intrinsic motivation and identified dimensions. besides, it was negatively correlated with amotivation dimension of motivation. however, there was not any significant correlation between the three basic needs and the external dimension of motivation. variables 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1competence 1 .66** .57** .49** .50** -.08 -.34** 2relatedness 1 .53** .41** .42** -.05 -.29** 3autonomy 1 .38** .42** -.11 -.30** 4intrinsic 1 .71** .10 -.53** 5identified 1 .003 -.54** 6external 1 .18** 7amotivation 1 acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no.2. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 234 discriminant validity cfa cfa for basic psychological needs questionnaire maximum likelihood estimate was used during the analytical phase to test the model and look into the research ideas. to put the theoretical model to the test, gefen, straub, and boudreau's (2000) suggested criteria were used. these criteria include the indices x2/df, which must have acceptable values lower than 3, comparative fit index (cfi), goodness of fit index (gfi), which must have acceptable values higher than 0.9, adjusted goodness of fit index (agfi), which must have acceptable values higher than 0.8, and root mean square error of approximation (rmsea), which must have acceptable values higher than 0.08. figure 1 cfa model for basic needs questionnaire first, the discriminant validity cfa model for the basic psychological needs with 3 latent factors and 12 items (model 1) could meet the criteria for good fit and was greater than the proposed values by gefen, et al (2000). the cfa model exhibited adequate fit (x2= 119.94, df= 51, rmsea= .06, cfa=.98, gfi= .94, agfi=.91). cfa for motivation questionnaire second, the modified motivation cfa model (model 2) with discriminant validity could fulfill the criterion for excellent fit and was greater than the values suggested by gefen, et al (2000). (x2=352.44, df=129, rmsea=.07, cfa=.96, gfi=.91, agfi=.90) the cfa model showed a good match. acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no.2. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 235 figure 2 cfa model for motivation questionnaire the validity of discrimination the cfa model for the modified motivation, which included 18 items and 4 latent components, satisfied the requirements for excellent fit and outperformed the prior values. the cfa model showed a good fit. main analysis a sem was utilized in order to examine a model with direct paths from the dimensions of perceived competence, relatedness, and autonomy to motivational orientations of intrinsic, identified, external, and motivation. the structural model demonstrated a mild fit with the data. the fit indices are presented in table 3, the standardized coefficients are presented in fig. 3, and t values are presented in fig 3. acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no.2. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 236 table 3 the goodness of fit indices for tested model rmsea agfi gfi cfi x2/d.f x2 d.f .07 .83 .86 .97 2.08 808.52 390 table 4 designates goodness of fit indices for the tested model that demonstrated greater values than the proposed values by gefen, et al (2000) exception with gfi and agfi. figure 3 standardized coefficients of each path the results of the correlation between autonomy and learner motivation demonstrated to be startling. although there has been a negative and statistically significant path from autonomy toward intrinsic motivation, the values were relatively small. this fact suggests that iranian efl learners’ intrinsic motivation could negatively be affected by autonomy needs. furthermore, the second path from autonomy has demonstrated a negative and statistically significant value, which implies the fact that through identification, autonomy support may essentially impede the learners’ regulation. finally, the path autonomy to amotivation has been revealed a positive and statistically significant value. this is the indicator of the fact that discretion to iranian efl learners might further act as a demotivator factor for them. acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no.2. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 237 figure 4 tvalues for each path sem analysis was used to address a few problems with the self-determination theory (sdt) model. first off, the expected values did not fairly correlate to the observations, based on the theory (table 3). second, the external regulation component of the model could be eliminated because it did not significantly correlate with the other three basic psychological demands. outcomes of altered model the chosen fit indices of the model without outside incentive are shown in table 4. in contrast to the old model, the results show that all of the indicators in the current model were adequate, proving that the modified model provides a good representation of the data gathered for the current experiment. the modified model is depicted in figures 6 and 7 using standardized path coefficients and t-values, respectively. table 4 the goodness of fit indices for altered model rmsea agfi gfi cfi x2/d.f x2 d.f .06 .83 .86 .97 2.20 686.74 312 acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no.2. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 238 figure 5 standardized coefficients of each path all pathways beginning with competence have shown a significance of.005 or below. this shows that meeting learners' competency demands has a significant, positive impact on their ability to regulate their behavior and feel motivated internally as well as externally. similar patterns were found for relatedness as well, with the difference that the coefficient values showed that need fulfillment had only a negligible impact on identified regulation, intrinsic motivation, and amotivation. acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no.2. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 239 figure 6 t-values for each path figures 6 and 7 display the model's outcomes after being put to the test. in light of these data, hypothesis 1 has received strong support, while hypothesis 2 has received weak support. the current study, however, does not support theory 3. iranian efl learners' motivation and competency demands showed a substantial positive link, according to structural equation modeling (sem). the impact of relatedness demands on students' motivation was less pronounced. the satisfaction of autonomy requirements, however, had negative or demotivating impacts on the motivation of iranian l2 learners. table 5 results of examining research hypothesis hypothesis causal direction beta t result 1 competence>> intrinsic competence>> identified competence>> amotivation 3.54 4.14 -3.14 3,87 3,87 -3.75 supported 2 relatedness>> intrinsic relatedness >> identified relatedness >> amotivation 1.12 1,43 -.70 1.31 1.43 .89 weakly support 3 autonomy>> intrinsic -1,83 -1.66 not supported acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no.2. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 240 autonomy >> identified autonomy >> amotivation -2,09 2,08 -1,64 1.99 as described hitherto and according to table 5, only autonomy needs satisfaction was not in line with what self-determination theory postulates. discussion & conclusion the overall goal of the study was to confirm sdt's assertions about the connection between fundamental psychological needs and intrinsic motivation in the context of iranian efl. the goal of the study was to determine whether or not sdt is appropriate in this teacher-centered environment. notwithstanding its shortcomings, the sdt has the potential to be used in a teacher-centered framework, according to the study's findings. the first research question of the current study attempted to explore the connection between motivation and the satisfaction of competence needs in the context of iranian efl. according to the findings, which were consistent with earlier studies (such as dei, 2011 and elliot, mcgregor, and thrash, 2002), iranian efl students' motivation is positively and significantly impacted by the satisfaction of their competence demands. so, being able to comprehend and speak english would motivate efl students more. several strategies to increase understudies' sense of competence have been suggested by this field of research. for instance, according to elliot et al. (2000), receiving favorable feedback significantly increased people's feelings of competence, which in turn favorably impacted intrinsic motivation. the relationship between motivation and relatedness needs was examined in the second research question of the current study. the outcomes of the data analysis revealed that there was little correlation between these two factors. although the findings confirmed the applicability of self-determination theory, they lagged behind earlier research done in other global contexts (e.g., coccia, 2019; jang et al., 2016; ryan & deci, 2017). as hiromori (2006) found a negative relationship between relatedness and intrinsic motivation among highly driven students, his findings are at odds with those of the current study. according to him, highly driven students' propensity to learn english may be adversely affected by the fulfilling of their relatedness demands in regard to their classmates. hiromori asserts that pupils who have already increased their drive can learn on their own without needing to work with others. the third study topic attempted to examine the connection between motivation and the need for autonomy. surprisingly, the conclusions of the research differed from what selfdetermination admits. the findings showed that iranian l2 learners' motivation is negatively or demotivatingly impacted by the satisfaction of their autonomous requirements. the results of this section were consistent with the majority of studies in the literature, including those by uebuchi (2004), azuma's (1994), ahmadi (2013), hashemian and heidari (2011), wen (2009), and puteh-behak (2013), all of which used east asian students in their research. so, it is understandable that university students in the majority of asia may not be aware of how to practice autonomous behavior or autonomous behavior that is proactive. it follows that it is clear that pupils in this area favor the "spoon-feeding" method of instruction, also known as "jug and mug" or "bank account," in which the teacher determines what is to be taught. according to sdt, fulfilling the three fundamental demands of competence, autonomy, and relatedness helps to produce favorable results, one of which is intrinsic motivation. many researchers believe that these basic psychological demands are the foundation of sdt, and that satisfying them boosts intrinsic motivation (see agawa & takeuchi, 2016; edward barr, 2016; acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no.2. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 241 rahmanpanah, 2017; zainudding & perera, 2019). in actuality, with the exception of the satisfaction of autonomy requirements, the study's findings are consistent with the principles of sdt. this suggests that other factors besides the satisfaction of psychological requirements described in self-determination theory, such as educational policies, learner cultures, and even their attitudes toward learning, may result in different conclusions. despite the fact that the outcomes of the current attempts have been encouraging, a number of restrictions must be considered before making any conclusions. the process of filling out the questionnaires was the main drawback of the current undertaking. due to the fact that the questionnaires were completed at home or during class, there was some potential for participants, just like in any questionnaire-based study, to fill in the columns randomly without reading the questions. there were also a number of participants who for a variety of reasons did not return the questionnaire papers to the researcher. the research also had certain limitations because the idea of sdt could be quite culturally sensitive. one of these limitations was that it was only possible to generalize the results to efl students in the northwest of iran. also, the researcher had to omit the second section of the questionnaire because there wasn't enough time to complete it. in addition, only university students were included in the study, and other learning venues like schools or institutes were not considered. last but not least, the study was conducted regardless of the gender of the participants as a potential moderator or intervening variable. references alamer a., almulhim f. 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(2015). a review of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations of esl learners. international journal of languages, literature and linguistics. 1. 98105. 10.7763/ijlll. 2015.v1.20. noels, k. a. (2003). learning spanish as a second language: learners’ orientations and perceptions of their teachers’ communication style. in z. dörnyei (ed.), attitudes, orientations, and motivation in language learning (pp. 97–136). oxford, uk: blackwell. puteh-behak, f. (2013). using a multi-literacies approach in a malaysian polytechnic classroom: a participatory action research project (doctoral dissertation). the university of southern queensland, queensland, australia. rahmanpanah, hossein (2017). self-determination theory as a grand theory of motivation in efl classroom. journal of applied linguistics and language research volume 4, issue 6, pp. 153-164 ryan, r. m., & deci, e. l. (2016). facilitating and hindering motivation, learning, and wellbeing in schools: research and observations from self-determination theory. in k. r. wentzel & d. b. miele (eds.), handbook on motivation at schools (pp. 96–119). new york, ny: routledge. sugita mceown, m., noels, k., & chaffee, k. (2014). at the interface of the socio-educational model, self-determination theory, and the l2 motivational self-system model. zamzami zainuddin & corinne jacqueline perera (2019) exploring students’ competence, autonomy and relatedness in the flipped classroom pedagogical model, journal of further and higher education, 43:1, 115-126, doi: 10.1080/0309877x.2017.1356916 https://doi.org/10.1509/jppm.25.1.104 http://www.jallr.com/index.php/jallr/article/view/665/0 figure 1 self-determination continuum, with types of motivation and regulation. adapted from deci, e. l., and ryan, r. m., (eds.), 2002, handbook of self-determination research, p.16 descriptive statistics table 1: descriptive statistics of research variables according to table 1, all in all, the mean for all dimensions of basic psychological needs including competence (4.25), relatedness (4.00), autonomy (3.68), are higher than the average score (3.00) of scale. in addition, the mean for dimensions of mot... cronbach's alphas coefficients indicate good internal consistency (reliability) for all study variables in a way that both dimensions of basic psychological needs and dimensions of motivation were higher than .70. according to table 1, all skewness and kurtosis values are located in a range between ±2. therefore, the shapes of data distribution for all items are normal and univariate normality is achieved in the present study. bivariate correlations discriminant validity cfa cfa for basic psychological needs questionnaire figure 1 cfa model for basic needs questionnaire cfa for motivation questionnaire figure 2 cfa model for motivation questionnaire the validity of discrimination the cfa model for the modified motivation, which included 18 items and 4 latent components, satisfied the requirements for excellent fit and outperformed the prior values. the cfa model showed a good fit. main analysis table 3 the goodness of fit indices for tested model figure 3 standardized coefficients of each path figure 4 tvalues for each path sem analysis was used to address a few problems with the self-determination theory (sdt) model. first off, the expected values did not fairly correlate to the observations, based on the theory (table 3). second, the external regulation component of th... outcomes of altered model table 4 the goodness of fit indices for altered model figure 5 standardized coefficients of each path figure 6 t-values for each path figures 6 and 7 display the model's outcomes after being put to the test. in light of these data, hypothesis 1 has received strong support, while hypothesis 2 has received weak support. the current study, however, does not support theory 3. iranian ef... table 5 results of examining research hypothesis microsoft word acuity, vol 1 no.1 2017 12    exploring students’ difficulties in speaking english and their attitude in speaking english ratih inayah, s.pd, m.pd & ida lisdawati, m.hum ratih.inayah@gmail.com stkip siliwangi bandung abstract the purpose of english language education is to provide students with the capabilities to understand the language in appropriate way and to have good ability in written and oral (richard, 2008). if students are not able to speak english fluently and clearly, this purpose will be hard to achieve. so, it is essential to study this phenomenon in order to discover if students actually have problems with speaking, and then we can recognize what kind of problems and the reason of it also their perception in speaking english as a foreign language in indonesia. this study employed qualitative research paradigm as an intensive, holistic description, and analysis of a single instance, phenomenon, or social unit (alwasilah, 2011). the study employed a descriptive method with multi instruments as observation, questionnaires, and interviews. populations of this research were taken from a class of last semester students at stkip siliwangi bandung and the sample were taken from four high achievers and four low achievers from the classroom. the result showed that students’ behavior lead them to speaking difficulties, those who are not interested in speaking activity, relatively get trouble in speaking for academic purposes. this study showed that students who experience difficulties with speaking often have problems with their motivation and self-confidence so that they feel quite hard to recognize their true skill. somehow, many students have positive attitude and perception toward the concept of fluency in speaking english. they consider that fluency in speaking is something important to master; they think it will be very useful for their carrier in the future. keywords : speaking english, difficulties introduction students at english major must master english in both written and oral communication, because the aim of english language education is to provide students with the capabilities to understand the language and the ability to both write and speak it (richard, 2008). if students are not able to speak english fluently and clearly, this aim is hard to achieve. so, it is important to study this issue in order to discover if students actually have problems with speaking english, and if they do then we can recognize the kinds of problems and the reason that make it happened. somehow, since there are some students who have problems with speaking, they must be able to demonstrate their speaking skill in 13    front of many people in the future. for example, the prerequisite of finishing their study is they have to write a mini thesis and after that they still have to defense their argumentation orally in oral examination. that’s why speaking as oral communication plays an important role in students’ academic life and their daily life. the phenomena that the researchers see nowadays, some students understand the english language very well but then feel difficult and uncomfortable when they have to speak english. they are in doubt to express their sentences in english. however, they have to speak english in appropriate way and understandable. moreover, they are students of english major who will be english teachers in the future. richards and renandya(2002) stated that one implication of teaching and learning activity is focusing on both the forms of language and the functions of learning a language itself. in teaching oral communication, it’s better if we don’t limit students’ attention and opportunity to be immersed in the language. referring to those explanations above, the study were conducted to seek the students’ difficulties in speaking english and to know their attitude and perception toward speaking english as a foreign language in indonesia. therefore, the research questions are: 1. what are students’ difficulties when they have to speak english? 2. what are students’ attitude and perceptions about speaking english as a foreign language in indonesia? the aims of the study are: 1. to explore and discover whether the students experience difficulties in speaking english 2. to know their attitude and perception in speaking english as a foreign language in indonesia. the teaching and learning of speaking skills have a very essential role in using a language as a tool for communication. according to brown (2008) speaking skills and communication are closely intertwined and strengthen each other. the interaction of speaking as performance applies especially strongly to conversation. in the classroom, speaking is a skill that is most widely used for classroom interaction. in daily life, the skills of speaking are very useful to build a good or positive impression when we meet new people for the first time; it’s also very good to build and maintain professional relationship at works. the importance of communication in language learning can be so meaningful; through reception we internalize linguistic information without which we could not produce language. “in classrooms, students always do more listening than speaking “(brown, 2007). the researchers consider this as phenomenon, 14    where some students somehow feel safer to listen than to speak. the teachers already give opportunity for students to speak english in the classroom, however only few students can do it bravely. the mastery of speaking skills in english is a priority for many foreignlanguage learners. consequently, learners often evaluate their success in language learning as well as the effectiveness of their english course on the basis of how much they feel they have improved in their spoken language proficiency. teachers and textbooks make use of a variety of approaches, ranging from direct approaches focusing on specific features of oral interaction (e.g., turn-taking, topic management, and questioning strategies) to indirect approaches that create conditions for oral interaction through group work, task work, and other strategies (richards, 1990). subsequent pedagogical research on speaking skill made significant refinements in the process of speaking. studies looked at the effect of a number of different contextual characteristics and how they affect the speed and efficiency of processing oral communication. according to rubin (1994) there are five factors of speaking process elements; the first factor is pronunciation, the second factor is interlocutor, the third factor is environment, and the fourth factor is confidence, and last is process characteristics. mental process also becomes important element process in the language and learning of speaking. as we know that a person who speaks foreign language for the first time needs so much effort and courage to do it confidently, especially when they are adult learners. according to richards (1990) ‘the conversation class is something of an enigma in language teaching”. it is clear that the goals and the techniques for teaching conversation are very diverse; it depends on the student, teacher, and overall context of the class. pronunciation is also cannot be separated with the learning of speaking, even phonological details can be so meaningful in speaking english. it is now very clear that fluency in speaking english and accuracy are both important goals to be achieved in communicative language teaching. while fluency, may we find if someone can master communicative language courses such as phonology, grammar, and discourse in their spoken output. the affective factors can be one of the major obstacles to speak english fluently (brown 2007). because of the language ego that informs people that “you are what you speak”, so it makes students afraid of the judgment of the hearer. very often, we can recognize whether someone is educated or uneducated from the way she or he speaks and the content of the speaking itself. the interaction effect is also very important in speaking, the hardest part is because the learners must recognize the multiplicity of sounds, words, phrase, and discourse forms that characterize any language, at the same time the learner must create interactive communication. in other words, one learners’ performance is always colored by interlocutor he or she is talking with. in real life, we will be very glad if we can speak to an interactive interlocutor rather than the silent one. 15    because speaking is two ways communication, where there must be at least a speaker and a listener, so that it can be a communicative dialogue. the teaching of speaking in target language should enable the students to use the language orally for many purposes. the success of the teaching-learning process can be achieved if the teacher can present the materials in such a good way that can increase the students’ interest. the teacher should be creative in presenting english to the students. they also have to practice various techniques of teaching, carefully select the materials, and use interesting instructional media that are suitable for the students in order to help them to speak in the language. harmer (2001) states that there are many classroom speaking activities that can be used in teaching a language, such as acting from the script, communication games, discussion, prepared talks, as well as simulation and role play. in every classroom speaking activity, teacher must give students opportunity to speak what is in their mind, just like what is important and interesting for them to talk. it’s better if teacher give students opportunity to express their understanding in english. in efl classroom, the challenge may be happened in teaching and learning english. efl students need more effort to learn listening and speaking because they don’t live in a country which uses english as a main tool for communication. so, efl students must search the way to be immersed in english in so many ways, participating in the classroom may be the appropriate way to practice speaking skill. in indonesia, being an english student major means that the student must open his or her mind to media, such as printed media and electronic media which use english as the main language. so it needs so much motivation and efforts. according to eric (2014) “efl is an abbreviation for "english as a foreign language". this is mainly used to talk about students (whose first language is not english) learning english while living in their own country. (for example, an indonesian learning english in indonesia.) “ while eric also stated that “esl is an abbreviation for "english as a second language". this is mainly used to talk about foreign students learning english while living in an english-speaking country. (for example, an indonesian learning english in america or australia). research methodology this study employed qualitative research paradigm for a classroom setting. according to alwasilah (2001), the classroom qualitative research has many advantages. the study is based on descriptive method, according to alwasilah (2011) the descriptive method is claimed to have some benefits. the first is it goes deeply to the topic measured, it is to ensure a depth discussion on the topic. the second is it provides the researcher with data recorded, so it makes that possible for researcher to revise the data obtained in order to have in depth 16    analysis. as a case study, the present study is contextual and will be conducted in specific situation. research question number one and two are answered qualitatively. this research was conducted to find out students’ difficulties when practicing speaking material used in their class, also to know about their perception about the concept of fluency of speaking english as a foreign language. clearly, observational studies have been fundamental to this qualitative research. this study combines observation with interviewing, also questionnaire. this is because we have some research questions and because we want to use different methods or sources to strengthen each other so that we are using some form of methodological triangulation (silverman, 2005). site and participants this research was conducted in stkip siliwangi bandung. the population of this study are students of english education study program class a3 register year of 2013, they have already taken english for academic purposes subject in the previous semester. the samples were taken from four high achievers and four low achievers from the classroom. the setting of the research used both ‘closed’ or ‘private’ setting where access is controlled by gatekeepers, also ‘open’ or ‘public’ settings where access is freely available but not always without difficulty either practical or ethical. the procedures of the research are as follow. first of all, the researchers prepared the instruments to be used in the research. in the same weeks we also recruited the participants and asked them to be participated in the study. once this was completed, then the researchers begin to collect data. next, the questionnaires were then given to the students, after that the interviews were given to get more information. we tried to conduct a focus interview where we keep on to the issue, we interviewed the students, and we asked them that the question we analyzed was focus interview is to get students’ understanding. then the researchers code the answers of the students. in this qualitative research, “ethical issues are very essential” (silverman, 2005). for example, as a qualitative researchers who study human subjects often find dilemma of wanting to give full information to subjects but not ‘contaminating’ our research by informing subjects too specifically about the research question to be studied. moreover, when we are studying people’s behavior or asking them questions, not only the values of us as the researchers but also our responsibilities to those studied have to be kept. a way to keep participants’ privacy is to let them know that we have ethical code in conducting research. 17    findings and discussion this study has showed a meaningful insight into the academic speaking practices of stkip siliwangi students. it does not generalize these findings beyond the college but some significant findings are present in this study. in our findings, students’ behavior lead them to speaking difficulty, those who do not like speaking english activity, relatively get trouble in speaking for academic purposes. this study showed that students who experience difficulty with speaking often have problems with motivation and self-confidence. individuals with speaking problems are more likely to attribute failure to a lack of personal ability and the things that make them hard to recognize their true skill. the connection between speaking difficulty and self-confidence related specially with students’ feeling, especially their role as speakers. it is our duty as a teacher to motivate students to be more pay attention when they must listen to materials, and our duty as teacher too, to make students more confident to speak up what is important and interesting for them. students’ efforts to solve the problems this study has identified some characteristics that differentiate high achievers from the low achievers. both low achievers and high achievers, they try speak english appropriately. somehow, low achievers tend to be focus on find the meaning of single words, often fail to correct their listening and speaking skill for different purposes. low achievers tend to be less strategic. for example, low achievers focus energy on looking busy and following directions, but remain less aware of comprehension difficulties or strategies to understand the whole context. in fact, when given chance to start the communication, low achievers do not brave to start a conversation, and they fail to ask questions or request assistance to clarify difficulties. low achievers believe that the purpose of speaking is only to pronounce words correctly. when asked to speak, they often doubt to speak up their mind. in contrast, high achievers use efficient strategies that rely more on processing in an interactive communication. they aware that listening and speaking is intertwined, so they give more attention and willingness to speak up their mind in classroom activities. furthermore, high achievers conclude information accurately, clarify difficulties in appropriate way, and predict what is likely to come next. high achievers understand that making sense out of listening and speaking is important to comprehend a whole context of conversation and to reach a successful interaction. in conclusion, high achievers are seen as very active and strategic listener and speaker, they understand the purpose of listening and speaking in oral communication, they continuously pay attention to their comprehension, their fluency, and they brave to take corrective action when comprehension failure happens. the researchers emphasize that high achievers learn much more than low achievers do. 18    students’ attitude toward the concept of fluency of speaking english as a foreign language in the questionnaire, there were fifteen statements which covered the components of perceptions. the students’ responses to items were recapitulated by using likert scale and the data were then analyzed and interpreted. to answer research question `what are students’ perception about the concept of fluency of speaking english as a foreign language?` a questionnaire was given to twenty five students. if the statement is positive, it means that the scale is strongly agree= 5, agree =4, neutral= 3, disagree= 2, strongly disagree= 1. while if the statement is negative, it means that the scale is strongly agree= 1, agree=2, neutral=3, disagree=4, strongly disagree= 5 the lowest score was 375, while the higher score was 1879 after the answers of the 40 students were calculated, then it found that the result of students’ answer is 1350. table 3.1 students’ attitude toward the concept of fluency of speaking english as a foreign language according to the table, 1350 is included to positive level, because positive level is in range 1278-1578. so, it means many students have positive attitude and perception toward the concept of fluency of speaking english as a foreign language. they know about the importance of fluency in speaking english. fluency in speaking english will be very useful for their carrier in the future as an english teacher. conclusion teaching english in a world of change and challenge is a very complex process. somehow, oral communication can be so interesting and important to learn. the result indicated that students’ behavior toward speaking lead them to have difficulty in speaking for academic purposes. subjects in low achievers spent less time in speaking activity and they pay a little attention to speaking activity in the classroom. however subjects in high achievers spent more time in listening and speaking activity, high achievers always learn much more than low no range student’s attitude level 1 375-675 very negative 2 676-976 negative 3 977-1277 neutral 4 1278-1578 positive 5 1579-1879 very positive 19    achievers. somehow most of the students (70 %) have a positive attitude and perception toward the concept of fluency in speaking english, they think that fluency in speaking english is something important to achieve for their academic life as a student and or their carrier as english teacher in the future. in conclusion, speaking english can be seen as a very essential life skill and activities which we use in academic life and in our daily life. very often, we need to speak english clearly and understandable, so that the purpose of english education can be achieved. students need to realize that speaking english is not only life style but also a necessity or requirement. 20    references alwasilah, a.chaedar. 2011. pokoknya kualitatif: dasar-dasar merancang dan melakukan penelitian kualitatif. bandung. pustaka jaya brown, h.d. 2007. teaching by principles: an interactive approach to language pedagogy (3rd edition). white plains, newyork: pearson education. clark, h. m., and e. v. clark .1977. psychology and language: an introductio to psycholinguistics. new york: harcourt brace jovanovich. harmer j.1991. the practice of english language teaching. london: longma group u.k.limited. richards, jack c. 2008. teaching listening and speaking from theory t practice. new york: cambridge university press. richards, jack c& renandya, willy a. 2002. methodology in languag teaching. new york: cambridge university press. rubin, j. 1994. a review of second language listening comprehension reseacrch. modern language journal, 78 (2), 199-217 silverman, david. 2005. doing qualitative research: a practical handbook. london. sage publications ltd. 21    appendix questionnaire statements strongly disagree disagree neutral agree strongly agree affective 1. i like speaking subject 2. speaking english to other people makes me happy 3. speaking english gives me opportunities to listen to other people and at the same time i learn english and moral values 4. speaking english creates a lively and enjoyable classrooms atmosphere 5. i am confident that i can speak english through dialogue very well behavioral 6. speaking english arouses my motivation and learning interest 7. speaking for academic purposes is important subject to learn 8. i will not need much speaking english when i get out of college 9. i need speaking english for my future career 10. speaking english to other people arouses 22    my inspiration cognitive 11. speaking is one of my worst subject 12. speaking to other people is difficult for me 13. i got good grade in speaking for academic purposes 14. speaking english to other people can improve my vocabulary 15. speaking english to other people can improve my grammar adapted from: attitudes and opinions written by stuart oskamp and p.wesley schultz interview questions background 1. age: 2. gender: 3. urban/rural background: 4. mother tongue: 5. occupation: 6. education: 7. parents’ education and occupation: 8. what do you study at stkip siliwangi? 9. what languages do you speak? 10. what kind of a speaker are you in your own language? e.g. what have people close to you/your teachers said? are you a fast or a slow speaker, do you think carefully before speaking, do you talk a lot? english education 1. how long have you studied english? 2. how do you feel about studying english? 3. what kind of english teachers/education have you had? 4. have you rehearsed speaking in english on your english courses? how? 5. do you think that your english teachers have favoured a particular way of speaking/accent, for example an american accent? 23    use of english 1. do you use english a lot? how/where? do you speak it a lot? 2. do you need english at work? what for? 3. have you used/do you use english with your family? 4. have you ever lived abroad or do you travel a lot? 5. do you speak english with pleasure? 6. what kind of experiences do you have on speaking english? positive/negative? 7. is english difficult to understand? (listening, reading) 8. is speaking english difficult? 9. what accent do you like? 10. what accent do you dislike? adapted from: culturally speaking written by genzel, r.b & cummings, m.g acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 248 efl learners’ views on learner autonomy and foreign language anxiety ceyhun yukselir,1 ceyhunyukselir@gmail.com osmaniye korkut ata university, turkey omer ozer2 alparslan turkes science and technology university, turkey doi: 10.35974/acuity.v7i2.2824 abstract this mixed-methods research explores the views of efl learners about learner autonomy and foreign language classroom anxiety. the participants comprised of 126 efl learners studying at two state universities in turkey. in addition to the instruments developed by chan et al. (2002) and by horwitz et al. (1986), a semi-structured questionnaire was also employed to gain deeper insights of the participants’ understanding of autonomous learning and foreign language anxiety. the findings show that participants believed that they should have the ability to take responsibility for learning on their own. regarding the question about classroom anxiety, participants accepted the anxiety induced by the fear of speaking, especially in real-life situations in front of people or with native speakers of english. moreover, the data showed that 13 students felt highly anxious whereas 73 students were moderately anxious in their english classrooms. thus, the current study has contributed to our understanding about la and anxiety in terms of foreign language majors’ perceptions in the efl context, roles and responsibilities, motivation and abilities, inside and outside classroom activities and the reasons which cause fla. keywords: efl learners’ views, foreign language anxiety, learner autonomy, mixed methods research; turkish context introduction there is an abundance of research which has scrutinized the individual differences between successful language learners (benson, 2007; dörnyei, 2005; uştuk & aydın, 2018). it is not uncommon to see wide variations in foreign language (fl) proficiency level of students even in the same class (gardner, 1997). over the last decades, various studies have been conducted to determine the underlying factors which can lead to these differences (benson, 2007; guo et al., 2018; kabiri et al., 2018). learner autonomy (la) and foreign-language anxiety (fla) are two different variables which have been the focal point of many previous studies (benson, 2007; chan et al., 2002; spratt et al., 2002; tomita & sano, 2016). it is clear that autonomous language learning has been a topic of interest amongst scholars from all around the world (balçıkanlı, 2010; benson, 2007; lenkaitis, 2020; tomita & sano, 2016; yang et al., 2021). thus, individual freedom in an educational setting has found its place for corresponding author: ceyhun yukselir, osmaniye korkut ata university, department of english language and literature, 80000, osmaniye, turkey. email: ceyhunyukselir@gmail.com orcid id: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4781-3183 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity mailto:ceyhunyukselir@gmail.com mailto:ceyhunyukselir@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4781-3183 acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 249 making students active in the classroom. in language learning, it is worthy to state that students who take charge of their own learning has gained another dimension considering their different educational and sociological backgrounds. much has been written about the importance of integrating la into the classroom in order to promote language learning (balçıkanlı, 2010; hawkins, 2018; ozer & yukselir, 2021). it can be seen that a growing body of literature has developed regarding successful language learning and motivation (dörnyei & ushioda, 2011; gardner, 2001). in autonomous learning, benson (2007) stated that not only motivation but also identity are crucial factors for making learning autonomous. from this perspective, motivation can be viewed as an important agent for facilitating language growth. it should also be noted that motivation in autonomous learning, in addition to other variables such as aptitude and anxiety, can have an effect on learners’ achievement level depending on individual differences. afshar et al. (2014) found that autonomy and motivation had a considerably high level of positive relationships in fl learning process. horwitz (1986) stated that fla is a distinctive form of anxiety/stress or apprehension experienced in the fl classrooms. language scholars have investigated the notion of anxiety and its connection with motivation in educational settings (horwitz et al., 1986). fla is closely associated with a learner’s affective filter (yashima et al., 2009). dörnyei (2005) explained that it is acceptable for students to feel some level of anxiety about successfully completing a learning task in a foreign language. students are able to experience this facilitating effect of anxiety to optimise their performance (hewitt & stephenson, 2012; tran & moni, 2015). however, higher levels of anxiety have been extensively proven to produce a debilitating effect on foreign language production (lucas et al., 2011). there are many factors leading to fla, for example perfectionism (gregersen & horwitz, 2002), fear of negative evaluation by the teacher and by classmates, communication apprehension and test anxiety (horwitz et al., 1986). for many students, for example, speaking in front of their classmates seems to contribute greatly to their fla (horwitz et al., 1986; macintyre, 1999). fla is considered to have a profoundly negative impact on fl learning (horwitz et al., 2017; tran & moni, 2015). learners can show a variety of reactions to fla, such as a reluctance to speak in class and putting off completing assignments (horwitz et al., 1986). several factors have reportedly been in aid of reducing anxiety in fl classrooms. sağlamel and kayaoğlu (2013) investigated possible sources of language anxiety and found that students’ proficiency and sense of perfectionism negatively affected their fla in speaking classrooms. kabiri et al. (2018) studied the relationship between foreign language learners’ autonomy and anxiety and found a significant and negative relationship between la and fla. liu (2012) investigated efl anxiety in relation to autonomy and language proficiency and concluded that language proficiency and la had a high and negative correlation with fla. the relationship between la and anxiety has not been extensively studied. in addition, it seems that effect of fla on gender is context-specific (guo et al., 2018), so it is particularly noteworthy to investigate how https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 250 turkish efl learners’ scores on the fla vary by gender in different contexts. understanding how fla is influenced according to year of study and gender can offer critical insight into sources of anxiety in diverse educational settings and into the ways of reducing fla. in the light of the discussion so far, the rationale for carrying out this current quasiexperimental study is to try to bridge this gap in the related literature and raise greater awareness of la and fla in the efl classrooms in the turkish context. to this aim, the purpose of this current study is to investigate the views of english language majors about la and anxiety through an analysis of quantitative and qualitative data. the central research question for this mixed methods study is: “how do english language majors experience la and fla in the turkish context?” four additional research questions were formulated to investigate the central question in the light of quantitative and qualitative approaches in combination: (1) to what extent do english-language majors’ perceptions of abilities and responsibilities of learners and teachers in learning english differ? (2) how do english-language majors’ fla levels differ? (3) does fla vary according to gender and year of study? (4) what are the views of english-language majors about learner autonomy and foreignlanguage classroom anxiety? methods the current mixed methods study adopts a convergent design by using a combination of the analysis of the quantitative and qualitative data for deeper insights into the problem under investigation (creswell, 2015). participants the sample group in the present study included 126 efl learners at two state universities located in southern turkey. the participants were efl learners in their first/preparatory year of study. the students (74 females and 52 males) who participated in this research were studying in english language teaching or in english translation and interpreting departments. considering the ethical issues related to both quantitative and qualitative research, the researchers obtained informed consent of the participants (creswell & creswell, 2018). research context the data were gathered from the english language teaching and translation and interpreting departments. in each fall term, the freshmen in the target departments are first required to take an eligible score in the english language proficiency test. if they are unable to get an eligible score, they are obliged to take a full year preparatory education and to complete it successfully. the researchers had almost 17 years of teaching experience and had some opinions about the https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 251 syllabuses and the contents of the courses, specifically in the context of this study that autonomous learning practices in and out of the classroom are not much available in language teaching courses, and it was this fact that formed the basis of the current study. instruments to ensure the reliability and validity of the data, three instruments were used to ensure triangulation (yin, 2018) and to analyze the data comparatively from three resources: a learnerautonomy questionnaire, a foreign-language classroom-anxiety scale and open-ended questions. also, the description of the research, participants and contexts added on the validity of the study. first instrument by chan et al. (2002) was employed to obtain the views of efl learners regarding the responsibilities, decision-making abilities, motivation level and activities in and out of the classrooms in relation to autonomous learning. this instrument comprised four sections: responsibilities, abilities, motivation, and inside and outside activities, and there were 52 items in total. also, to collect the data about the respondents’ gender and year of study, some demographic questions were included at the beginning of the questionnaire. in four sections, there were items which measure both learners’ and teachers’ roles, responsibilities, decision-making abilities, the way in which they chose materials, motivation, and activities inside and outside class with a 5-point likert scale, apart from the section three, motivation. another instrument used to measure learner anxiety was horwitz’ et al. (1986) foreignlanguage classroom anxiety scale (flcas). it comprises 33 items on a 5-point likert scale ranging between ‘strongly agree’ and ‘strongly disagree’. the cronbach’s alpha was found to be .93. as stated before, multiple sources of evidence were utilized in this study. in the last phase, to gain extensive views of the respondents about la and classroom anxiety, open-ended questions were prepared and used to collect qualitative data. five questions were asked to the participants: (1) ‘what is learner autonomy from your perspective?’, (2) ‘what kind of activities do learners have in autonomous learning in and out the classroom?’, (3) ‘what do you think about the learners’ role and responsibility in language teaching?’, (4) ‘do you believe the curriculum fosters the learner autonomy? why or why not?’ and (5) ‘what kinds of situation cause anxiety for you in language-learning settings?’ data analysis procedure the questionnaires described above were distributed to undergraduate students at the two universities several weeks following the beginning of the fall term of 2021-2022. the participants of the study were volunteers and each of them took approximately 25 minutes to fill out the surveys. to analyze the data obtained from the la survey, percentages are provided for each section. cross-tabulations were conducted, and chi-square tests were conducted to https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 252 examine the relationships between the corresponding items in la questionnaire. statistical means and standard deviations were also used to show on which statements the learners experienced the most and the least anxiety. the results of the flcas were calculated in line with aida’s (1994) study. a participant’s anxiety score was calculated by adding up her/his ratings on all of the statements. the possible range of the scale was from 33 to 165. negatively worded items on the flcas (statements 2, 5, 8, 11, 14, 18, 22, 28 and 32) were recoded. in addition, content analysis, systematic coding and categorizing approach to analyze the text (krippendorff, 2018) were used to make inferences from the data for the purpose of obtaining more comprehensive insights about research topic. first, each researcher read and coded the data on his own and then reread the answers given to the questions. later, researchers came together four times within four months for the purpose of determining the contents and showing the remarks’ interconnectedness to each another. they then tried to understand the sense of whole text and the perceptions of the participants about la and fla and sought to find interesting and concrete contents. results perceptions of autonomous roles to answer the first research question, the learners’ perceptions of responsibilities were examined. all the statements under this theme were given in the first main section of the survey. for a reader-friendly presentation of the results, the two categories ‘not at all’ and ‘a little’ were merged and the same was done with the categories ‘mainly’ and ‘completely’. the descriptive results for students’ perceptions of responsibilities are given in table 1. table 1. students’ perceptions of their teachers’ and their own responsibilities. students’ perceptions of their own responsibilities (%) students’ perceptions of teachers’ responsibilities (%) n o t a t a ll / a li tt le s o m e m a in ly / c o m p le te ly n o t a t a ll / a li tt le s o m e m a in ly / c o m p le te ly chi sq df p. 1. make sure you make progress during lessons 5.6 25.4 68.3 7.9 24.6 65.1 6.927 4 .140 2. make sure you make progress outside class 8.7 14.3 73.8 34.9 24.6 27 14.245 4 .007* 3. stimulate your interest in learning english 7.1 17.5 71.4 9.5 23 61.9 17.203 4 .002* https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 253 4. identify your weaknesses in english 13.5 19 63.5 23 15.9 55.6 13.863 4 .008* 5. make you work harder 11.1 27 60.3 15.1 22.2 58.7 5.034 4 .284 6. decide the objectives of your english course 15.1 27 52.4 7.9 10.3 76.2 5.573 4 .233 7. decide what you should learn next in your english lessons 28.6 30.2 38.9 5.6 7.9 83.3 17.087 4 .002* 8. choose what activities to use to learn english in your english lessons 23 39.7 34.1 5.6 8.7 82.5 6.680 4 .154 9. decide how long to spend on each activity 34.1 25.4 38.1 7.1 16.7 72.2 3.355 4 .500 10. choose what materials to use to learn english in your english lessons 28.6 31.7 37.3 7.1 12.7 77 12.996 4 .011* 11. evaluate your learning 5.6 24.6 65.9 4.8 22.2 67.5 10.510 4 .033* 12. evaluate your course 10.3 27.8 60.3 4 11.9 79.4 7.552 4 .109 13. decide what you learn outside class 6.3 8.7 83.3 41.3 15.9 34.9 9.184 4 .057 *p value is significant at 0.05 level. note: cells representing significant differences between the groups are noted with an asterisk. as can be seen in table 1, in six of 13 situations, a significant difference was found. in three of these six situations, the students placed more responsibilities on themselves than on their teachers. the cases in which the students placed greater responsibility to their teachers were items 7, 10 and 11. to study how learners viewed their abilities to manage the aspects, the items under the second section were analyzed. in table 2, to facilitate the interpretation of the results, the categories ‘very poor’ and ‘poor’ were merged as were the categories of ‘very good’ and ‘good. table 2. students’ perceptions of their abilities. poor / very poor (%) ok (%) good / very good (%) 14. choosing learning activities in class 19.8 36.5 42.9 15. choosing learning activities outside class 19.8 29.4 50.8 16. choosing learning objectives in class 17.5 46.8 35.7 17. choosing learning objectives outside class 17.5 38.9 41.3 18. choosing learning materials in class 20.6 39.7 38.9 19. choosing learning materials outside class 19.8 31.0 49.2 20. evaluate your learning 9.5 31.0 50.8 21. evaluate your course 16.7 31.7 50.0 22. identifying your weaknesses in english 15.1 24.6 60.3 23. deciding what you should learn next in your english lessons 23.0 34.1 40.5 24. deciding how long to spend on each activity 21.4 42.1 35.7 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 254 the students’ responses were densely clustered in the ‘good / very good’ category. more responses fell into the ‘ok’ category than the ‘poor / very poor’ category. clearly students had a positive attitude towards their abilities. item 22 “identifying your weaknesses in english” was reported to be the statement for which students felt the most confident. table 3 shows how they perceived their responsibilities as opposed to their abilities in fl learning. table 3. students’ perceptions of their responsibilities and their corresponding abilities. section 1 items (responsibilities) section 2 items (abilities) chi sq df p. 4. identify your weaknesses in english 22. identifying your weaknesses in english 14.884 4 .005* 6. decide the objectives of your english course 16. choosing learning objectives in class .368 4 .985 7. decide what you should learn next in your english lessons 23. deciding what you should learn next in your english lessons 3.234 4 .519 8. choose what activities to use to learn english in your english lessons 14. choosing learning activities in class 6.378 4 .173 9. decide how long to spend on each activity 24. deciding how long to spend on each activity 3.016 4 .555 10. choose what materials to use to learn english in your english lessons 18. choosing learning materials in class 6.150 4 .188 11. evaluate your learning 20. evaluate your learning 15.652 4 .004* 12. evaluate your course 21. evaluate your course 14.289 4 .006* 13. decide what you learn outside class 17. choosing learning objectives outside class 6.700 4 .153 *p value is significant at 0.05 level. note: cells representing significant differences between the groups are noted with an asterisk. as can be seen in table 3, in three of the nine cases, a significant difference exists between learners’ abilities and their perceived responsibilities in fl learning. these statements were related to identifying weaknesses, evaluating learning and course evaluation. in the third section of the questionnaire, students were asked to self-report their level of motivation towards learning english. the results are given in table 4. table 4. students’ level of motivation. level percentage highly motivated to learn english 17.5 well-motivated to learn english 34.9 motivated to learn english 31.7 slightly motivated to learn english 9.5 not at all motivated to learn english 1.6 the students’ responses were concentrated in the ‘well motivated and motivated’ categories. there were six missing responses (4.8 %) for this item. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 255 in the fourth section of the questionnaire, there were statements designed to measure the learners’ engagement in some activities in and out of the classroom. table 5. students’ engagement in outside-the-class activities (%). statement: have you … often sometimes rarely never 26. read grammar books on your own? 7.1 39.7 30.2 21.4 27. done assignments which are not compulsory? 12.7 42.1 28.6 12.7 28. noted down new words and their meanings? 40.5 34.4 19.2 5.6 29. written english letters to pen-pals? 13.4 14.3 29.4 42.9 30. read english notices around you? 55.6* 29.4 7.1 4.8 31. read newspapers in english? 20.6 32.5 28.6 16.7 32. sent e-mails in english? 19.0 23.8 31.0 22.2 33. read books or magazines in english? 44.4 31.7 18.3 4.0 34. watched english tv programs? 73.0* 17.5 4.8 1.6 35. listened to english radio? 31.7 23.0 17.5 24.6 36. listened to english songs? 89.7* 4.0 2.4 1.6 37. talked to foreigners in english? 33.3 34.1 23.8 6.3 38. practiced using english with friends? 30.2 38.1 25.4 4.0 39. done english self-study in a group? 24.6 31.7 26.2 12.7 40. done grammar exercises? 19.0 31.7 34.1 12.7 41. watched english movies? 78.6* 12.7 1.6 4.8 42. written a diary in english? 11.9 9.5 19.8 54.8* 43. used the internet in english? 71.4* 17.5 3.2 4.0 44. done revision not required by the teacher? 12.7 34.1 37.3 12.7 45. attended a self-study center (e.g. cill)? 5.6 18.3 27.0 47.6 46. collected texts in english (e.g. articles, brochures, labels, etc.)? 23.8 25.4 27.8 19.8 47. gone to see your teacher about your work? 13.5 38.1 23.8 23.0 note: the categories noted by the majority of students are noted with an asterisk to ease data interpretation. of the 22 items in section 3 of the questionnaire, in six of the statements, the majority of the students’ responses were clustered in either ‘often’ or ‘never’. in five cases, most of the learners stated that they ‘often’ engaged in the given activity. in the other case, most of the learners reported that they ‘never’ engaged in the given activity (‘written a diary in english’). out of 22, 15 activities seem to have been either ‘often’ or ‘sometimes’ practiced. the final section of the questionnaire also contained five statements for inside-the-class learning activities. table 6 shows how the participants engaged in the given activities. table 6. students’ engagement in inside-the-class activities (%). statement often sometimes rarely never 48. asked the teacher questions when you don’t understand? 32.5 38.9 21.4 5.6 49. noted down new information? 59.5* 27.8 8.7 2.4 50. made suggestions to the teacher? 16.7 27.8 38.1 14.3 51. taken opportunities to speak in english? 31.0 47.6 15.1 4.8 52. discussed learning problems with classmates? 32.5 33.3 21.4 8.7 note: the categories noted by the majority of students are noted with an asterisk to ease data interpretation. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 256 the detailed analysis of the students’ responses presented in this section provided some interesting findings. the majority of students stated they ‘often’ noted down new information. in four of the five activities, they stated that they ‘often’ or ‘sometimes’ engaged in the given activity. thus, the results presented in tables 5 and 6 show that the respondents seemed to promote their autonomous roles through activities in and out of the classrooms. students’ foreign language anxiety the questionnaires described above were distributed to undergraduate students at the two universities to answer the second research question, the means and standard deviations were tabulated for each item. considering the possible range of the flcas, a score of 99 or above was selected as the cut-off point (lee, 2014). participants who had total scores of 99 or above were considered to be suffering some anxiety level. the mean for all the students’ scores on the flcas was 107.06 (m = 3.28; sd = 18.40), which is higher than the theoretical cut-off score of 99. of the 126 students, 86 had scores of 99 or higher. a score greater than 132 signified high anxiety in the fl classroom, and a total score of 99 to 132 signified moderate anxiety. the flcas data showed that 13 students felt highly anxious whereas 73 students were moderately anxious in their english classrooms. the top three highest mean scores are given in table 7. table 7. summary of students’ anxiety scores. statement m sd item 14 3.91 1.13 item 31 3.80 1.16 item 21 3.57 1.22 these top three items were ‘i would not be nervous speaking the foreign language with native speakers’ (statement 14), ‘i am afraid that the other students will laugh at me when i speak the foreign language’ (statement 31) and ‘the more i study for a language test, the more confused i get’ (statement 21). on the contrary, statement 10, which reads ‘i worry about the consequences of failing my foreign language class’ (m = 2.71, sd = 1.28), received the lowest mean. gender and year of study to examine whether there were any significant differences according to gender and year of study in the risk of fla, independent samples t-test analyses were carried out. means differences of groups together with the results of statistical tests are given in table 8. table 8. flcas mean differences of groups. n mean sd p. female 74 3.16 .53 .874 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 257 male 52 3.45 .55 pyp 51 3.29 .53 .414 1st year 74 3.27 .58 *p value is significant at 0.05 level. no significant differences in the scores for females (m = 3.16) and males (m = 3.45) were observed t (124) = 2.964, p = .883. similarly, the year of study variable was run through independent-samples t-tests to determine if it correlated to a measure change. the results for year of study showed no significant group differences in the participants’ flcas scores. students’ perceptions of autonomous learning and fla in relation to the fourth research question, the findings about qualitative data are presented next on the basis of the open-ended questions. as described before, content analysis was employed to the acquired data. each researcher followed the data analysis procedure on his own to get reliable results. first, they read and coded the data in person and reread the data several times and then came together to analyze the data. finally, they wrote up the findings drawn from the data. the findings of the qualitative data suggest that la is a prerequisite for the learning process and an inevitable part of creating a productive learning atmosphere. in addition to the responses to the first question which investigated the participants’ perceptions of la roles, answers to the open-ended questions provided more in-depth understanding. most of the participants thought that la is a means of learning on one’s own or taking responsibility for one’s learning process. one participant commented: “it is a kind of self-studying (sic) without being [in] a school.” (participant 9) similarly, some of the participants also stated that autonomy refers to explaining one’s individual states and learning process. for example, some participants made the following remarks: “learning with our own effort.” (participant 45) “self-learner. without any directions, students must work and make him/her self-obliged to it”. (participant 49) “actually, it is self-learning.” (participant 61) “learning by yourself with knowing your weaknesses and strengths.” (participant 74) the second open-ended question asked about the activities which autonomous learners had in and out of the classroom. the participants’ responses included how they used listening and speaking skills in fl classrooms, the importance of taking notes, watching movies and writing emails. the following excerpts show some of their comments: “searching about things which we don’t know is [an] effective way and presentation in the class can help us take some responsibility.” (participant 5) “watching movies or series, taking notes.” (participant 6) “listening to music, watching tv series, speaking with foreign people.” (participant 9) https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 258 the third question investigated learners’ role and responsibility in language teaching. most of the participants stated that learners are in charge of their own fl learning by making the following remarks: “learners’ role and responsibility is to be active in language learning and the learner should always be aware, and search for information.” (participant 2) “learners should be responsible for their lessons so they should work hard.” (participant 36) “i think students have [a] huge role and responsibility in language teaching because language teaching depends on [the] student’s activity.” (participant 53) however, quite a few participants stated that the teachers’ role and way of teaching are important in fl learning process and that teachers are responsible for everything in the class. for example, two participants commented that: “teachers can change the way which they use for teaching (sic) if learners don’t give positive feedback about what they learn.” (participant 4) “obviously, students have to study, but teachers should help them or don’t give learners too much responsibility.” (participant 9) the fourth open-ended question asked whether the curriculum fosters la or not. from the responses, it can be said that most of the participants thought that the curriculum does not help or foster la. for example, some participants stated: “i think the curriculum makes (sic) limitation over the students.” (participant 11) “no, curriculum is not a big part of learning. i think personal eagerness is more important.” (participant 34). “i think [the] curriculum doesn’t foster learner’s autonomy because it doesn’t cover all the things.” (participant 41) “i don’t believe the curriculum is beneficial for learner autonomy.” (participant 53) a few participants, however, thought that the curriculum does foster la as the following statements show: “i believe that [the] curriculum helps the learner autonomy because when [the] teacher teach[es] something according to [the] curriculum, students take responsibility more easily.” (participant 3) “yes, i believe [the] curriculum fosters the learner, because the lesson directs the learners.” (participant 6) the fifth open-ended question asked the participants about situations which cause anxiety in language-learning settings. the participants stated that the learning environment certainly affected their level of learning and motivation. for example, the following excerpts show their views about anxiety situations: “speaking in front of the class and presentation cause anxiety.” (participant 2) “making mistake[s], couldn’t speak or express yourself properly.” (participant 10) https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 259 “being afraid of [being] judged by teachers or classmates.” (participant 24) the overall findings show that some of the respondents were cognizant of the concepts of la and anxiety by referring to their definitions. they also gave their opinions about the target topics by guessing in their language learning settings. however, their knowledge and perceptions did not go beyond simple understanding. based on the participants’ remarks, the autonomous learning in and out of the classroom should be geared to improving learners’ productive skills such as speaking and writing, in addition to translating, watching films and using the internet. furthermore, most of the participants thought that the role and responsibility of the learning process are in learners’ hands. however, some of the participants also believed that the curriculum does not foster la. in relation to fla, the participants referred to their fear of speaking, especially in front of an audience, and this situation made them nervous. this may have been caused by various reasons such as being afraid of making mistakes, peer pressure and not exactly knowing the topic. discussion and conclusion the present study sought to provide a better and comprehensive understanding of efl learners’ autonomous roles and fla in efl contexts. as well as studying autonomous behaviors, the effect of motivation was also analyzed as motivation could be a precondition for la (spratt et al., 2002). oxford and shearin (1994) stated that motivation is a decisive indicator of learners’ active engagement in fl learning. the findings of this study, which explored la and fla among undergraduate student teachers, lead to four conclusions. first, the undergraduate efl learners placed many roles and responsibilities on themselves in foreign language learning, which shows that they can be seen as autonomous learners. this result is similar to the findings on their inside and outside activities, which can be promoted through activities such as speaking, writing and using social networks; the findings showed that activities such as listening to english songs, watching movies and tv programmes in english and using the internet were the most popular. the reason for the emphasis on these particular activities may be that they are easily accessible and inexpensive. this finding is in line with that of bekleyen and selimoğlu (2016). gurbanov and mirzayeva (2018) studied la and found that both learners and teachers were familiar with the concept of la and they had positive tendencies to the use of autonomous activities in the classroom, which is in line with the present findings about efl learners’ perceptions of autonomy. similarly, tomita and sano (2016) studied japanese efl learners’ perceptions of la from different proficiency levels and found that the students were willing to be involved in decision-making when they were selecting course materials and inside and outside class activities, and this too is in line with the findings of the present study. as for motivation, the students’ responses had a peak in ‘well-motivated to learn english’. as spratt et al. (2002) https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 260 concluded, motivation is a strong variable which can affect the extent to which learners are ready to engage in autonomous fl learning. the participants, despite being well-motivated to learn english, seemed to partially fail to exhibit some important autonomy related activities such as ‘make sure you make progress outside class’. this finding concurs with that of farahani (2014). second, the great number of the respondents seemingly experienced moderate to high levels of fla. this finding is consistent with those of several previous studies (amengual-pizarro, 2018; awan et al., 2010; russell, 2020). the participants also stated that they were aware of the concepts of la and fla in their literal forms, but they did not know exactly how to overcome classroom anxiety, for example, not being able to speak in front of their classmates for several reasons such as lack of confidence and proper use of grammar and vocabulary, fear of making mistakes and peer pressure. liu (2012) explored fla at tertiary level in relation to motivation, autonomy and proficiency and concluded that fla was clearly seen among the student participants and that motivation and la had higher correlations with each other. third, no statistically significant differences were found according to gender or year of study. finally, the current study has produced quantitative and qualitative findings which are in line with each other in terms of la, the inside and outside activities of autonomous learners and the classroom anxiety which the participants felt, thus the findings obtained from the quantitative and qualitative data complement one another. speaking more specifically, this current study has increased our understanding about la and anxiety in terms of foreign language majors’ perceptions in efl context, roles and responsibilities, motivation and abilities, inside and outside classroom activities and the reasons which cause fla. in the light of the results which have been given above, it is worth to state the pedagogical implications for efl learners about promoting the autonomous learning and lessening anxiety in efl classrooms. first, integrating collaborative and reflective tasks along with autonomyrelated activities might promote the la and contribute to enabling efl learners to have positive attitudes towards the notion of learning. as an example, öztürk (2019) stated that developing course content and activities based on autonomy could enhance the learner and teacher autonomy, which leads to the promoting the efl learners’ views positively. in relation this, there are also some studies showing pre-service teachers’ positive attitudes about applying autonomous principles into the course content, thereby facilitating learning (balçıkanlı, 2010; fabela-cárdenas, 2012). second, being aware of the anxiety among student teachers (farahani, 2014; liu, 2012), all stakeholders should be ready to raise learners’ motivation and prepare the course materials accordingly. last but not least, efl learners should be equipped with the practical information about how to overcome high levels of anxiety especially for speaking ability inside and outside classrooms. this should also be invigorated by syllabus design both in pre-service and in-service teacher education programs. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.7 no.2 2022 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 261 further research should also focus on larger samples in different contexts, together with classroom observations and focus interviews with different data collection tools. moreover, more research is also necessary for obtaining data through learners’ and teachers’ perspectives in the same setting about la and fla. finally, mixed methods longitudinal studies are needed to get a comprehensive picture of la and fla in turkish efl contexts. references afshar, h. s., rahimi, a., & rahimi, m. 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(2018). case study research and applications. sage. dr. ceyhun yukselir is an associate professor of english language teaching at the department of english language and literature, osmaniye korkut ata university, turkey. his research interests include teacher education, reflective teaching, learner autonomy, technology integration in efl classes and applied linguistics with elt focus. dr. omer ozer is an associate professor in the faculty of humanities and social sciences at adana alparslan turkes science and technology university, turkey. he has published extensively in the areas of multilingual policies in higher education, mobile-assisted language learning and autonomous language learning. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity https://doi.org/10.2307/329249 https://doi.org/10.1080/09658416.2021.1936539 http://dx.doi.org/10.17583/ijep.2019.4427 https://doi.org/10.1111/flan.12461 https://doi.org/10.1177/0033688213500597 https://doi.org/10.1191/1362168802lr106oa https://doi.org/10.5746/leia/16/v7/i2/a05/tomita_sano https://doi.org/10.1080/2331186x.2014.992593 https://doi.org/10.1080/09588221.2021.2008979 http://hdl.handle.net/10112/768 microsoft word acuity-articles-cetak.docx           daily journal writing to enhance students’ writing skills ester eveline sihite and debora chaterin simanjuntak english education department. universitas advent indonesia e-mail: esterevelinsihite@gmail.com abstract: this study aims to enhance students’ writing skills through daily journal writing. this research was divided into three stesps: giving pre-test, giving treatment (writing daily journal), and giving posttest. the result showed significant difference between control and experimental group. experimental participants was improved through the writing of daily journal, and the score gained by participants showed that there was a significant effect on students’ writing skills. the achievements showed that the mean difference of post-test scores between the two groups was -.45433 and for the standard error mean was .03840 with pvalue .050 (see table 3), means that ha is accepted and ho is not accepted. it means, writing daily journal is strong enough to improve the students’ writing skills. keywords: journal writing, writing skills, daily journal variations introduction as it is known, besides reading, speaking, and listening, writing is one of the most important skills, and need to be developed especially in learning english. (douglas, 1994). a study showed that the ability to write is not an option but a necessity, or obligation for everyone (alliance, 2006); writing helps learners to develop ideas or thoughts (watson, 2001). writing is an art in teaching and learning, which can teach you how to study in a right way. in other words it is a duty of an educator to guide students, so that they can learn and study better by training them in writing (scott, 2008). writing is not as simple as it seems. to get ideas in writing, students should read a lot before they write. however, there are many students who have low motivation level in reading and if there is no passion for reading it will be difficult for students to develop mechanism of writing: to plan paragraph, to edit errors, to organize ideas, and so forth (bacha, 2010). gupta (2010) added that students should not feel unmotivated when they are not able to produce good writing. writing in the classroom is an important academic requirement, but writing outside of the classroom can be a useful tool to improve writing skills. to become a good writer, students           should practice continuously, namely, by buying a small notebook and try to write their daily activities. it will make student interested in page by page (chanderasegaran, 2002). a study stated that one way to practice writing at home is through writing a journal in a form of a notebook, where the author or the writer will write the ideas, opinions, and descriptions of everyday life. daily journal writing helps students to create a better day from day to day, because that would give freedom to the students to write about what they want (hamp & heasley, 2006). it helps students develop their creativity (spaventa, 2000). the fact that students are given more opportunities to write about something which is relevant to them, called "active learning method" (chickering & gamson, 1987). by writing journal, students can record their personal activities. the value of a personal writing has been discussed by several scholars such as artof (1992) quoted in tin (2000) it is a great tool to showcase one’s untapped creative power, learn to see the world more clearly, heal unsolved issues, understand our fears, and explore his motivation. therefore keeping a journal is an enjoyable activity because the primary purpose of writing a journal is to motivate students to be immersed in writing, without involving a lot of errors and time pressure (white & arndt, 1991). writing journal gives students an excellent opportunity to improve their writing ability, skill and a good opportunity to record their thoughts and feelings (ngoh, 2002). furthermore lagan (2002) provided multiple benefits in daily writing journal, such as, writing a journal will help students develop the habit of thinking on paper and show you how the idea can be found in the process of writing, and a journal can make writing as a picture of their lives. by writing a journal instead of to improve the ability of writing, it is also helps someone to pour thoughts on paper correctly, that shows the correlation between the accuracy of a clear thinking with the accuracy of quoting teachers words when teaching in the class. dowrick (2009) said that it is briefly explained that if somone does not think clearly, he is not able to write clearly. teachers are the best observers in all the passion and interests of each student. that knowledge is what will determine what kinds of journal that they like and enjoy to do or write. stillman (1989) describes the types of journals as described below: everyday activities’ journal: this form is a form of journal or diary that writes all daily activities such as attend summer camp, winter holiday, or other activities. it is not limited by the timing of when and how long the experience happen. and this activity experienced to be written every day, complete with punctuation. scrapbook journal: many teens feel comfortable with the form of this journal. because it is usually the merger or the combination of the various kinds of photographs, advertisements, and souvenirs. for example, if a student ever attended a prom, then she would write into a diary or a journal by sticking from a variety of souvenirs such as attaching prom invitations,           flowers, or pictures with friends, overall describe or explain how the prom go on. brief journal (time in a capsule): this journal is part of the scrapbook journals, but the type of journal is more complete and concise answers. example questions such as: how can you arrive at school? how much money do you handle? are you saving up for something special? how tall and weight? what do you do when you have spare time? what types of activities do you often do? what subject do you like at school? and others. and can also include images from magazines, newspapers or the pictures in it. cassanave (1993) says that by writing a journal of the memories, they will be trained to be more creative and also train them to love writing. porter et al (1996) concluded that through journal writing students will be able to develop a professional approach to language learning and writing. dick (1983) showed that one technique to lead a class is introspection. and that introspection is through journal writing, where teachers can introspect and communicate to students through the writing of daily journal (bailey, 1990; porter et al. 1996). therefore this study is about how to enhance writing skills through daily journal writing (hyland, 2004). methodology the participants who have been chosen in this study are the second year of junior or middle high school students at smp negri 1 parongpong. they are devided into two groups; control and experimental groups, each consists of 30 participants. the participants for the control group were grade viii g, while for the experimental group were grade viii b. the reasons why the group was chosen because most of the middle high school students, like things that can express themselves and their own feelings. therefore, one way to support that desire is to write a daily journal. this study is based on four skills or expertise that are included in english, they are speaking, listening, reading, writing. and writing is one of the skills that the students should have and master in it. the research instruments of this study are pre-test and post-test. the objectives of the pre-rest were to see the background and the extent of the capabilities or the expertise of the students’ writing skills. in this study, there were two groups: experimental and control group. to see a comparison of the results of writing between the pre-test and post-test, the experimental group was given treatment to to write interesting daily journal. in the treatment, students were also taught how to use punctuation correctly, providing vocabularies that is very often used in everyday conversation, and also teach a term called onomatopoia the use of words (such as “hissing”, “giggling” etc.) that imitate the sound that associated with the object or           action they see or feel. while for the control group was given conventional treatment. after giving treatment, then follows a post-test, to see if there is any progress and ijmpact on their writing skills after being given treatment. and to assess the outcome of the final result, at the end of this study. to do the scoring, the writers calculated students’ writings based on a rubric; in which, using five categories and each category can be scaled from 1 up to 4 points (rubric is attached). presentation and analysis of data in this part, the writers used six factors or formulas to calculate all of the data. first, calculating the average using the mean formula. second, calculating the standard deviation to to know how much the dispersion exists from the average (mean) value. third, calculating the standardized of the gain to find out the improvement after giving the treatment to the two groups. fourth, calculating the normality of the data to know whether the data are normally distributed or not. fifth, calculating the homogeneity of the data to know the data between two groups for the post-test scores wether they are similar or homogen in nature or not. sixth, calculating the independent t-test, to determine that the data between two groups are not overlapping and not depend on other. a. calculating the mean of the pre-test scores for the control group x = 30.74 x = mean of the pre-test ∑ = sum of the scores x = individual observation n = the total number of observations/ pariticipants b. calculating the mean of the pre-test scores for the experimental group x = 44.63 c. calculating the mean of the post-test scores for the control group           x = 40.18 d. calculating the mean of the post-test scores for the experimental group x = 78.24 e. calculating the standard deviation of the pre-test for the control group 𝑆!                                    𝑆!        = 7.12 f. calculating the standard deviation of the pre-test for the experimental group 𝑆!                    𝑆!         = 12.90 g. calculating the standard deviation of the post-test for the control group  𝑆!          𝑆!             = 12.03 h. calculating the standard deviation of the post-test for the experimental group      𝑆!          𝑆!         = 8.11           i. standardized gain (post-test) – (pre-test) gain = (ideal) – (pre-test) ideal = 36 (perfect score) table 1 test of normality kode kolmogorov-smirnova shapiro-wilk statistics df sig. statistic df sig. data control .186 30 .010 .867 30 .001 experimental .146 30 .101 .940 30 .093 a. lilliefors significance correction according to the results it is concluded as follows: the data of the control group was not normally distributed because sig.(.010) < α (.050), it means ho is not accepted. the data of the experimental group was normally distributed because sig.(.101) > α (.050), it means ho is accepted. table 2 test of homogeneity of variance levene statistic df1 df2 sig. data based on mean 4.779 1 58 .033 based on median 3.631 1 58 .062 based on median and with adjusted df 3.631 1 52.201 .062 based on trimmed mean 4.766 1 58 .033           based on the statistics, if one of the data was not normally distributed, then for the homogeneity test, used the data based on median. (see table 1). and, according to the result, it is shown that the data between the two groups for the posttest scores are homogen because sig. (.062) > α (.050), it means that ho is accepted. table 3 independent samples test levene's test for equality of variances t-test for equality of means 95% confidence interval of the difference f sig. t df sig. (2tailed) mean difference std. error difference lower upper data equal variances assumed 4.779 .033 -11.832 58 .000 -.45433 .03840 -.53120 -.37747 equal variances not assumed -11.832 50.947 .000 -.45433 .03840 -.53142 -.37724 therefore, as explained at the table 3 it is shown that sig. (.000) < α (.050). it means, ha is accepted and ho is not accepted. therefore, the conclusion is, giving treatment through the writing of daily journal, is giving effect in improving writing skills. conclusion after a careful analysis, the writers drew the conclusion as follows: writing daily journal strategy succeeded on improving writing skills. it was shown by the ttest scores between both groups as explained in chapter four at table 3. writing daily journal strategy makes the students feel free to write, they can express their own feelings, teach them more creative and they know where their strengths and           weaknessness in writing, and they can learn from their own mistakes. writing daily journal can motivate the students to generate their ideas easily. the students showed that they were motivated to write new vocabularies that the researcher taught them to write. recommendation from the conclusion above, some recommendations are recommended as an effort to increase the uses of writing daily journal strategy in teaching english writing. writing daily journal can be used as an alternative form in teaching writing to the middle high school students. in teaching writing through daily journal, the teacher should let them to create their own creativity, so that they can explore their minds, feeling, dreams, and imagination freely. the teacher should know that writing activity using daily journal could be implemented to enhance students’ vocabulary. for other researchers who want to use writing daily journal in order to improve students’ writing skills, should consider these factors: there are so many kinds or types of daily journal that can be used in teaching writing skills and this strategy can be used or conducted to middle high school levels. references alliance. writing next: effective strategies to improve writing of adolescents in middle and high school. a report to carnegie corporation of new york. washington, dc: alliance for excellent education; 2007. alwasillah, (1997). “intelectuals lack writing skills”. universitas pendidikan indonesia (upi) artof, s.d. (1992). use of personal writing for personal growth. in tin, t.b. (2004). creative writing in efl/esl classrooms. university putra malaysia press publisher bacha, n.n. (2010). developing learners’ academic writing skills in higher education: a study for education reform. journal of language and education. bailey, k.m, (1990). the use of diary studies in teacher education programs. cambridge : cambridge university press publisher casanave, c.p. (1993). reading and responding: using journals. in new ways in teaching reading, (pp. 149-156). alexandria, virginia: teachers of english to speakers of other languages, inc. chanderasegaran, a. (2002). intervening to help in the writing process. relc portfolio series 7. chickering, a.w. & gamson, z.f. (1987). seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education. aahh bulletin.           dick (1983). classroom-centered research on language teaching and learning: a brief historical overview. tesol quarterly, 17(2), 191-202. douglas, brown. h (1994). principles of language learning and teaching. 3rd edition. englewood cliffs, nj: prentice hall regents. dowrick, s. (2009). creative journal writing: the art and heart reflection. penguin group inc. gupta, r. (2010). how to write and speak correct english. lotus press. hamp-lyons, l. & heasly, b. (2006). study writing (2nd ed.). cambridge: cambridge university press. hyland, (2004). disciplinary interactions: metadiscourse in l2 postgraduate writing. journal of second language writing, 13, 133-151. lagan, j. (2000). college writing skills. london: longman university ngoh, t.j. (2002). from journals to weekly papers. guidelines, vol. 24, june 2002. porter, p.a., goldstein, l.m., leatherman, j. & concad, s. (1996). an ongoing dialogue: learning languages for teacher preparation. slt. scott, j. (2008). daily writing journal. prestwick house inc. spaventa, s. (2000). essay writing. cambridge: cambridge university press. stillman, peter r (writer's digest books, 1989). sixty imaginative, playful and meaningful writing activities that can build links across generations,now and in the future. tin, t.b. (2000). creative writing in efl/esl classrooms. universiti putra malaysia press. watson, (2001). “giving feedback on journals” elt journal, 2001 oxford univ press white, r. & arndt, v. (1991). process writing. london: longman. microsoft word acuity, vol 1 no.1 2017 1    students’ perspective of factors affecting listening compehension ability kan xuan and debora chaterin s., maed english education program, faculty of teachers training and educational science universitas advent indonesia abstract the teaching of listening in indonesia is essential, a process that is considered to be indispensable. this paper explores several factors that affect students’ listening comprehension ability; which are: limitation of vocabulary, teaching strategy, limitation of materials and equipment, student’s listening anxiety, exposure towards american english and culture. the main purpose of this research is to determine which factor that significantly affects students’ listening comprehension ability. after going through factor analysis, it is found that the most dominant factor that affects listening comprehension ability is limitation of listening materials and equipment. this study was conducted in three schools: smp negeri 1 cisarua, bandung, smp negeri iii cisarua, bandung, smp negeri i parongpong, bandung. key words: listening comprehension ability, exposure towards american english and culture introduction people can hardly argue that listening skills play important role in enhancing one’s speaking proficiency. listening is not only about how people hear words; it is a process to respond to someone or people they talk to (amin, 2011). along with this, bestakanshin (2012) said that the ability to establish listening skills is an essential component towards successful communication. however vandergrift (2011) stated that listening is also considered as an intricate, active process in which the listener should be able to distinguish sounds, comprehend meaning of words and grammatical structures, point out stress and intonation in order to have proper utterance. in addition, richards (2008) emphasized two listening processes: bottom-up processing and top-down processing. in improving students’ listening comprehension ability, english teachers must implement those two processes. moreover, in teaching listening, teachers should be aware of several key issues in listening. graham and santos (2015) explicated that key issues most likely refer to skills, process and strategies; they are difficult to expound and distinguish from one another. basically, in order to overcome those issues and have an effective listening course, students must do a lot of listening. however, in 2    england there is not much time can be dedicated to systematic work on listening development. in addition to that, rost (2012) claimed that listening comprehension is important yet relatively few research project are carried out in this area. osada (2004) also mentioned in his research that researchers have slightly given little attention to listening theory and practice. in indonesia, english has been taught formally in schools; however, the result from years of studying english is less than satisfactory (lie, 2007). moreover, ivonne (2005) stated that learning english in indonesia is not more than a set of grammar rules and a pile of vocabulary items to be memorized which makes listening becomes the least of priority wherein very few teachers are aware of students’ cognitive process. wolvin (2010) stated that when a listener receives and interprets the message through his/her cognitive psychological process, he/she then have the ability to respond to the message. traditionally, as stated by flowerdew and miller (2005), listening is not specifically taught in language classes. gilakjani and ahmadi (2011) added that formal education tends to focus more on the grammar, reading and vocabulary. however in reality, cahyono and widiati (2009) said that listening is the primary skill in language acquisition in which a child usually listen before he or she is able to speak, read and write. upon cultivating several journals regarding listening comprehension ability, the researchers scoped up this study within several factors that assumingly affect students’ listening comprehension ability: a) limitation of vocabulary. abbas (2011) stated that there are times listeners encounter unknown word which may cause them to stop and think about the meaning of the word which cause them to miss the next part of the speech; b) teaching strategy. it is important for teachers to give appropriate ways of teaching listening to their students in order to achieve the goal in learning process (facella, rampino & shea, 2005); c) limitation of materials and equipment. joseph (2008) stated that students may encounter confusion if the materials are lengthy, too abstract, and poorly organized. other than that if listening equipment is not complete then students might not be able to have variety of activities; d) students’ listening anxiety. golchi (2012) stated in her research that anxiety gives huge impact while learning english as a foreign language. it is considered as a problematic nature of listening in which teachers feel incredibly difficult to teach students with anxiety; e) exposure towards american english and culture, every country has different customs and culture. culture and language cannot be separated (greenland, 2012). english is not only a language course that provides basic knowledge but it is also a course to enhance students’ capacity to broaden their horizons and learn about different culture in the world (liang & chen, 2012). thereupon those factors are deemed to give impact towards students’ listening comprehension ability and this study hopefully will give information or proof 3    methodology this study utilized descriptive-correlation research design. this method was used to find out the most factor that affect students’ listening comprehension ability. best and khan (2001) explained that this method is a method that describes, records, analyses, and interprets particular condition that exist in certain group. this study utilized random sampling as the basic sampling technique for the researcher to select a group of subjects. the main instrument utilized in this research is a self-designed questionnaire which underwent pilot study to find its validity and reliability. in processing the data, the researchers used factor analysis to cluster items into common factor and interpret each factor according to the items and summaries the items into a small number of factor. after a careful analysis, spearman rank correlation formula was being used to find the correlation of each factor. research questions the present study aims to answer the following research questions: a. which factor that significantly affects students’ listening comprehension ability? limitation of vocabulary teacher’s teaching strategy limitation of listening materials and equipment students’ listening anxiety exposure towards american english and culture b. is there any significant correlation between each of the factors above and students’ perspective towards the importance of listening comprehension ability? theoretical background of the study in order to answer the research questions mentioned above, this study drew on jenkins’ (2007) factors influence one’s perception and understanding of a certain english variety and smith’s (2009) three dimensions of understanding. research setting and participants the subjects of this research were eight graders from three different schools: smp negeri 1, parongpong, smp negeri 1, cisarua, smp negeri 3, cisarua. every possible sample of a given size had the same chance of selection; for example, each member of the population is equally to be chosen at any stage in the sampling process. each subject was fully informed about the research goals, 4    data collection procedures, as well as their privacy protection. the subjects were also guaranteed that their real names would not be disclosed in the research report. result and discussion the following is the result of the standard deviation of each factor. the researchers should find the standard deviation before conducting factor analysis. since the standard deviation is smaller compare to the mean, the data was standardized so that the value of standard deviation is small. table 1 descriptive statistics descriptive statistics items n minimum maximum mean std. deviation limited vocabulary 60 19 36 29.67 4.475 teaching strategy 60 16 27 21.27 3.080 limitation of material and equipment 60 16 25 19.60 3.421 student’s listening anxiety 60 18 36 28.83 3.872 exposure towards american english and culture 60 14 28 21.40 2.836 valid n (listwisee) 60 correlation matrix was conducted to find the correlation value. it is shown from the table below that the correlation value between the teaching strategy and student’s listening anxiety is 0.386; it means both factors have the highest correlation. the significant value between the limitation of vocabulary and student’s listening anxiety is 0.001—the value is less than 0.05 which means these factors are significantly correlated with each other. 5    table 2 correlation matrix zs (lv) zs (ts) zs (lme) zs (sla) zs (etaec) correlation zs (lv) 1.000 -.081 .124 -.232 -.215 zs (ts) -.081 1.000 -.254 .386 .160 zs (lme) .124 -.254 1.000 -.110 -.106 zs (sla) -.232 .386 -.110 1.000 .011 zs (etaec) -.215 .160 -.106 .011 1.000 sig. (1tailed) zs (lv) .270 .173 .037 .049 zs (ts) .270 .025 .001 .111 zs (lme) .173 .025 .201 .211 zs (sla) .037 .001 .201 .467 zs (etaec) .049 .111 .211 .467 zs = zscore after conducting the kaiser-meyer-olkin value, it is found that the correlation matrix is not identified matrix because the kmo is 0.524; the value is more than half (0.5) while bartlett’s test value is 0.019. therefore based on the result below, factor analysis is conducted. table 3 kmo and bartlett’s test kaiser-meyer-olkin measure of sampling adequacy barlett’s test of sphericity approx. chi-square 21.339 df 10 sig. .019 from the table anti-image matrices below, most of the measure of sampling adequacy (msa) value is more than half (0.5) yet exposure towards american english and cultural background (etaec) factor is less than half (0.5); it is 0.490. hence this factor should be removed to proceed to correlation matrix. 6    table 4 anti-image matrices zs (lv) zs (ts) zs (lme) zs (sla) zs (etaec) anti-image covariance zs (lv) .891 -.057 -.085 .199 .197 zs (ts) -.057 .784 .189 -.302 -.137 zs (lme) -085 .189 .923 -.004 .043 zs (sla) .199 -.302 -.004 .801 .091 zs (etaec) .197 -.137 .043 .091 .921 anti-image correlation zs (lv) .512a -.068 -.094 .235 .218 zs (ts) -.068 .522a .222 -.381 -.161 zs (lme) -.094 .222 .631a -.005 .046 zs (sla) .235 -.381 -.005 .504a .105 zs (etaec) .218 -.161 .046 .105 .490a a. measures of sampling adequacy (msa) from the table of correlation matrix below, it is shown that between teaching strategy and students’ listening anxiety, the correlation value is 0.386—the significant value is o.001; wherein, the result is the same as the result before; wherein both factors have the highest correlation and significantly correlated with each other. table 5 correlation matrix zs (lv) zs (ts) zs (lme) zs (sla) correlation zs (lv) 1.000 -.081 .124 -.232 zs (ts) -.081 1.000 -.254 .386 zs (lme) .124 -.254 1.000 -.110 zs (sla) -.232 .386 -.110 1.000 sig.(1tailed) zs (lv) .270 .173 .037 zs (ts) .270 .025 .001 zs (lme) .173 .025 .201 zs (sla) .037 .001 .201 kmo and bartlett’s test was conducted to show whether the correlation matrix is identified or not. from this test, it is shown that the kaiser-meyer-olkin value is 0.545—the value is more than half 0.5 and the bartlett’s test value is 0.010; therefore, the correlation matrix does not identify matrix. through this result, it is shown that the result of kmo is higher than the result of the previous 7    kmo, which is 0.524. based on the value of the kmo and bartlett’s test, factor analysis is then continued. hence anti-image matrices was done. the table below is anti-image matrices table. after deleting etaec from the analysis; it is shown that after etaec is deleted, the result shows that all the measure of sampling adequacy (msa) value is more than half 0.5 then it can be analyzed further. table 6 anti-image matrices after deleting etaec zs (lv) zs (ts) zs (lme) zs (sla) anti-image covariance zs (lv) .935 -.030 -.100 .190 zs (ts) -.030 .805 .201 -.300 zs (lme) -.100 .201 .925 -.009 zs (sla) .190 -.300 -.009 .810 anti-image correlation zs (lv) .557a -.034 -.107 .218 zs (ts) -.034 .533a .232 -.371 zs (lme) -.107 .232 .583a -.010 zs (sla) .218 -.371 -.010 .537a a. measures of sampling adequacy (msa) the table below shows the extraction value; it is shown that there are two factors that have extraction value more than half 0.5; which means that these two factors have strong correlation with extracted factor. those factors are teaching strategy (st) and students’ listening anxiety (sla) table 7 communalities initial extraction lv 1.000 .232 ts 1.000 .553 lme 1.000 .284 sla 1.000 .548 extraction method: principal component analysis 8    the contribution of the teaching strategy factor is .553 to the extracted factor, and the students’ listening anxiety factor is .548 to the extracted factor. therefore according to table below, if the initial eigen values is more than 1 point, it can be considered as the component. it is shown from the table below that there is one component to be considered. table 8 total variance explained component initial eigen values extraction sums of squared loadings total % of variance cumulative % total % of variance cumulative % 1 1.618 40.461 40.461 1.618 40.461 40.461 2 .946 23.640 64.101 3 .888 22.211 86.312 4 .548 13.688 100.000 extraction method: principal component analysis after one component is found, component matrix is used to find the most dominant factor that affect students’ listening comprehension ability. based on the result below, the highest values is 0.744 which means that the limitation of the material and equipment (lme) is the most dominant factor. this result shows that the lme factor affect students’ listening comprehension ability in english learning. in order to see further of each factor that have significant correlation with students’ listening comprehension, correlation test is used. if the counted value is less than < 0.05, it is considered significant. based on the result below, there is one factor that has significant correlation with students’ perspective towards factors that affect listening comprehension ability. that factor is limitation of the material and equipment. 9    table 9 correlation test students’ listening comprehension ability lv correlation coefficient .042 sig. (2-tailed) .750 n 60 ts correlation coefficient -.061 sig. (2-tailed) .642 n 60 lme correlation coefficient .379** sig. (2-tailed) .003 n 60 sla correlation coefficient .083 sig. (2-tailed) .529 n 60 etaec correlation coefficient .063 sig. (2-tailed) .632 n 60 slc correlation coefficient 1 sig. (2-tailed) n 60 *correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed) **correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed) discussion after conducting a careful analysis above, it is shown that limitation of material and equipment significantly affect students’ listening comprehension ability. it is proven to have positive effect on students’ listening comprehension ability. bin (2009) stated that listening material and its equipment is one major reason for students to have poor listening comprehension ability; a school needs to provide print materials, audio or video tapes, video players, vcrs, vcds, computers in order to enhance students’ ability in listening comprehension. in addition to this, joseph (2008) accentuated that the difficulty of content and concepts, especially if the material is abstract, abstruse, esoteric, lengthy, or poorly organized; students will have difficult time to comprehend listening material which most likely their listening comprehension will be affected. 10    references abbas, p. g. (2011). journal of language teaching and research, vol. 2. no. 5. p. 977-988 amin, m.m (2011). a correlation study between efl listening strategy and listening comprehension skills among secondary students. unpublished mini-thesis. cahyono, b.y. & widiati, u. (2009). the teaching of efl listening in the indonesian context: the state of art. teflin journal, 20 (2), pp. 194 211. golchi, m.m. (2012). international journal of linguistics: listening anxiety and its relationship wwith listening strategy use and listening comprehension among iranian ielts learners. v vol. 2. no.4. best w.j and khan, v (2001). research methods i agricultural extension. new york: columbia university. best, k.s (2012). the importance of listening: journal of language teaching and research. new y york. bin, z (2009). improving of students’ listening comprehension. chinese foreign language publication, p.118 facella, m.a. & rampino, k. m. & shea, e.k. (2005). bilingual research journal. effective tteaching strategies for english langauge learners. vol. 29. pg. 209-221 flowerdew, j. & miller, l. (2005). second language listening: theory and practice. new york, usa: cambridge university press. gilakjani, a.p. & ahmadi, m.r. (2011). a study of factors affecting efl learners’ englishllistening comprehension and the strategies for improvement. journal of language teaching and research. 2 (5), pp. 977-988. graham, s. & santos, d. (2015). strategies for second language listening. palgrave. macmillan. green, l. (2012). memory in psychology. psychology journal 18112012. ivonne f.m. (2005). teaching english as a foreign language in indonesia: the urge to improve classroom vocabulary instruction. teflin journal. 16 (2), pp. 195-208 joseph k. (2008). facilitations in teaching and learning. education of language: usa. longman. liang, a. & chen, y. (2012). development of college english teaching in china under needs analysis. higher education of social science, vol. 2, no. 3, 2012, pp. 22-26. 11    lie (2007). education policy and efl curriculum in indonesia: between the commitment to competence and the quest for higher test scores. teflin journal. 12 (1). richards (2008). teaching listening and speaking: from theory to practice. cambridge university press. rost (2002). teaching and research in listening. london, uk: longman. osada (2004). listening comprehension research: a brief review of the past thirty years. dialogue. 3, pp. 53-66. vandergriff (2011). facilitating second language listening comprehension: acquiring successful strategies. elt journal 53/3. wolvin, a. d. (2010) (eds). listening and human communiation in the 21st century. wiley-blacwell. acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1, 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 68 teaching writing with wiki-based collaborative writing tasks in an efl context at higher education zennure elgün gündüz1 ardahan university, turkey email: zennureeelgungunduz@ardahan.edu.tr doi: 10.35974/acuity.v8i1.2807 abstract this study explored university students’ attitudes towards wiki-based collaborative writing tasks and their perceptions of the effects of these tasks on their writing development in an efl (english as a foreign language) context in turkey. a total of 40 university students participated in wiki-based collaborative writing tasks. wiki-based collaborative writing tasks enabled students to collaborate with their peers wherever or whenever they wanted, negotiate with each other, give and receive feedback, and take responsibility during the process of writing. qualitative and quantitative data were collected during this 5-week intervention. this included two questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. descriptive analysis and qualitative content analysis were used to analyse the data. the results indicate that the students considered wiki-based writing activities motivating, innovative and effective in their writing development in english. the research findings are discussed in terms of their implications for foreign language writing. keywords: english as a foreign language (efl) teaching, efl writing, collaborative writing, wiki-based writing, web-based writing, mixed-method research introduction although writing is generally perceived as an activity conducted by a writer working individually to produce a text, its scope has been widened by the notion of collaborative writing (storch, 2019). collaborative writing refers to “an activity where there is a shared and negotiated decision-making process and a shared responsibility for the production of a single text.” (storch, 2013, p.3). research studies have suggested that collaborative writing has positive effects on student motivation (kowal & swain, 1994; swain & lapkin, 1998); knowledge of grammar and lexis (swain & lapkin, 1998); quality of writing (storch, 2005); awareness of audience (leki, 1993); content, organization and vocabulary use (shehadeh, 2011); ownership of the writing process and product (storch, 2005); and knowledge building (donato, 2004). in addition, collaborative writing process can enable learners improve their skills in guiding and supporting each other while writing (hirvela, 1999) and use appropriate language while making meaning (storch, 2013). 1corresponding author: zennure elgün gündüz, çamlıçatak campus, faculty of humanities and letters, 2nd floor, department of english language and literature, ardahan university, ardahan, 75000, turkey. email: zennureeelgungunduz@ardahan.edu.tr https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity mailto:zennureeelgungunduz@ardahan.edu.tr mailto:zennureeelgungunduz@ardahan.edu.tr acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1, 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 69 technological advancements, particularly the web 2.0 tools, have led to developments in collaborative writing practices (bikowski & vithanage, 2016; elola & oskoz, 2010). tools such as wikis (elola & oskoz, 2010; kessler & bikowski, 2010), chats (elola & oskoz, 2010), blogs (sun & chang, 2012), and web-based word processing (kessler et al., 2012) provide new opportunities for collaboration in l2 writing. these opportunities involve writing, reviewing, and editing a text anytime and anywhere (kost, 2011). these tools help learners work in collaboration and exert autonomy in the process of text production (kessler & bikowski, 2010), besides providing chances for negotiation (storch, 2013), content development (kessler, 2009), accuracy and organization (hsu & lo, 2018). in addition, collaborative web-based tools enable teachers track learners’ collaborative writing processes and contribute to the production of the written text when necessary (elola & oskoz, 2010). literature review collaborative writing refers to “an activity where there is a shared and negotiated decisionmaking process and a shared responsibility for the production of a single text” that leads to a collective cognition about language learning (storch, 2013, p. 3). collaborative learning is based on vygotsky’s (1978) sociocultural theory, which entails that learning begins in social interaction. through social and mutual activities with a more knowledgeable person/expert, a novice person’s cognitive development improves – the process called as scaffolding (hsu, 2019). the process of scaffolding can take place among peers in pair or group work during which learners act like experts and support each other (lee, 2008; storch, 2002; swain & lapkin, 1998). such cooperation can lead to a higher level of performance than individual work (donato, 2004). through collaborative writing, students are engaged in social interaction to construct knowledge together and produce a common product (wigglesworth & storch, 2012). in a collaborative l2 writing situation, learners need to make decisions about the content and the language of their texts (storch, 2005). collaboration entails a knowledge building process in which learners try to “construct common understandings” through “constructive and creative effort” (wells, 2000, p. 74). as collaborative writing involves interaction of individuals and sharing of knowledge and ideas (elola & oskoz, 2017), learners can identify gaps in their knowledge and can learn from each other. learners try to negotiate meaning to develop a “jointly constructed text” (wigglesworth & storch, 2012, p. 365). such a learning environment supporting joint action for knowledge construction makes it superior to individual work (wells, 2000; elola & oskoz, 2010). within such a collaborative process, instructors are no longer seen as the mere sources of knowledge, transferring whatever they know to the language learners who are often in passive position receiving whatever transferred to them. instead, learners are on the active side and they construct new knowledge through a process of negotiation, sharing, discussing and using the mediating role of language (swain, 2000). https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1, 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 70 technology and collaborative writing the “multifaceted skills and competencies” involved in contemporary communication technologies lead researchers and educators to reconceptualize “the nature of written media and the writing activity” (canagarajah, 2002, p. 211; warschauer, 1996). online tools such as chat applications and wikis enable learners to be involved in “more student-directed activities” and collaborate beyond the “four walls of classroom” for more input and output (blake, 2008, p. 22; hsu & lo 2018, p. 104; ortega, 2007). in terms of l2 writing, web 2.0 tools offer opportunities to foster collaborative writing through interactive and social practices (hirvela, 1999). wikis are one of these web 2.0 tools providing a platform suitable for collaborative writing activities (elola & oskoz, 2010). wikis are defined as “freely expandable collection of interlinked web pages, a hypertext system for storing and modifying information a database, where each page is easily edited by any user with a form-capable web browser client” (leuf & cunningham, 2001, p. 14). as stated in the definition, a wiki has three basic functions: edit, history and discuss. ‘edit’ function enables learners to add content, revise and modify the text; ‘history’ function gives users the opportunity to see what changes have been made by whom and when through color coding; and lastly ‘discuss’ or ‘comment’ function allows users to exchange opinions about the text through messaging (li, 2012). thanks to these functions, wikis can be used as a platform where learners can share information and comment on each other’s output (lee, 2010; lund, 2008) not only in the classroom but also outside the classroom (parker & chao, 2007). the asynchronous feature of wikis enables users to have more time to focus on form, organization, and accuracy and reflect upon what they and the other group members have written (elola & oskoz, 2010; hsu & lo, 2018; lund, 2008), and it contributes to “author accountability” (hsu, 2019, p 104). collaborative writing via wikis has been subject to certain research studies. most of the studies have focused on the effects of wiki-based collaborative writing on the improvement of certain aspects of l2 writing. for instance, some studies have presented that collaborative writing via wikis led to improvement in content (kessler, 2009; oskoz & elola, 2010); organization (kost, 2011; lee, 2010; oskoz & elola, 2010); and accuracy (lee, 2010). research studies exploring the students perceptions of wiki-based collaborative writing in efl setting are scarce (e.g. shedah, 2011; yu-chuan joni chao & hao-chang lo, 2011). research questions the review above indicates that much research into the use of wiki-based collaborative writing tasks indicates positive outcomes on particular aspects of foreign language learning such as vocabulary, accuracy, organization, and content. research on students’ attitudes to wiki-based collaborative writing and their perceptions of the effects of wiki-based collaborative writing on their l2 writing skills is scarce and the ones conducted on that issue have not been conducted recently. as a result, students’ perspectives about wiki-based collaborative l2 writing should be explored (elola & oskoz, 2010; wang, 2014). in addition, arriving at more recent findings in different contexts to explore students’ perspectives about wiki-based collaborative l2 writing can provide practitioners with evidence about the https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1, 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 71 potential of wiki-based collaborative l2 writing and to make more informed pedagogical adjustments. for that end, this study implemented wiki-based collaborative writing tasks in a higher education setting and investigated efl learners’ attitudes towards wiki-based collaborative l2 writing and their perceptions of its effects on their l2 writing development. the study posed the following questions: 1. what are the students’ attitudes towards wiki-based collaborative l2 writing at university level? 2. what are the students’ perceptions of the effects of wiki-based collaborative l2 writing tasks on their l2 writing skills at university level? methods research design this study was conducted as a participatory action research so that the instructor would be a part of the research trying to explore the problems and the solutions (cain, 2011). this study employed a methodological triangulation involving more than one method to gather data in order to explore the research questions in a more detailed way (cohen, manion & morrison, 2000). in order to investigate the research questions, the participants were given two questionnaires. in addition, semi-structured interviews were conducted to get a more in-depth understanding of the quantitative findings. context and participants the study was conducted with an english preparatory class consisting of 40 (14 males, 26 females) students who volunteered to take part in the research study. the study utilized a convenience sample as all the participants were enrolled in english preparatory class. the participants were at the age of 17-19 and they were studying english for three months at a state university in turkey. each participant had learned english in formal education for at least 9 years prior to enrolling in this class. they had been admitted to the university based on their scores in a national university entrance examination, and their level of english had been determined to be b1 in the english proficiency exam the efl exam implemented by the university at the beginning of the first semester. the instructor of the writing course – who was also the researcher had been teaching english at university level for more than 10 years. before the study, the researcher informed the students about the process of wiki-based writing. informed consent from all the participants was obtained in written form. all personal data were made anonymous. instead of video-recording, audio recordings of the interviews were taken and kept confidential as stated in the consent form. instruments the researcher preferred to use methodological triangulation in order to have a comprehensive understanding of the researched phenomena (cohen et al., 2000; patton, https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1, 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 72 1999). therefore, two different questionnaires were given to all the participants and semistructured interviews with 10 randomly selected participants were conducted. in order to explore the first research question learners’ attitudes towards wiki-based collaborative l2 writing – the first questionnaire adapted from wang (2014) was implemented after the writing tasks were completed. the questionnaire asked the participants to express their views on collaborative l2 writing through the wiki. the questionnaire consisted of 10 items in a 5-point likert scale (5: strongly agree, 4: agree, 3: not sure, 2: disagree, 1: strongly disagree). first, an item pool consisting of 17 items was formed based on the literature. then, the items were evaluated by three experts for validity and 7 items considered to be not measuring the issues addressed by the research question were removed from the questionnaire. to avoid the possibility of receiving biased answers, three items were negatively worded and they were recoded for data analysis (baumgartner & steenkamp, 2001). considering the english level of the participants, the researcher translated the questionnaire into turkish, and two experts from the department of foreign languages checked the translated version to ensure clarity and face validity. before applying it to the participants of the study, the piloting of the questionnaire was conducted with ten students who were similar to the sample group in terms of their demographic background, education, and level of english. some changes in terms of sentence structure and vocabulary were made based on the viewpoints of the students who participated in the piloting study in order to increase the validity and reliability of the questionnaire. in order to measure the reliability of the questionnaire, cronbach’s alpha was calculated and found to be .87, which was enough to accept it as a reliable scale. in order to handle the second research question students’ perceptions of the effects of the wiki-based collaborative l2 writing experience on their l2 writing skills another questionnaire was implemented at the end of the writing experience. it consisted of 17 statements with a 5-point likert scale. 5 of the statements were taken from wang (2014) as they addressed the participants’ general impressions of the effects of the wiki-based writing on their l2 writing development. the researcher added 12 more statements, which were related to more specific aspects of l2 writing such as grammar, content, organization, and mechanics of the written text. first, the researcher formed an item pool by taking 8 items from wang’s (2014) survey and by producing 15 items based on the literature. after expert evaluation, 6 items were removed. similar to the first questionnaire, this questionnaire was also translated into turkish, and its piloting was conducted and some changes were made on the items to make them more comprehensible. cronbach’s alpha was also calculated and found to be .85, which was considered enough for the reliability of the scale. it should be also noted that both of the questionnaires started with a consent paragraph indicating the research purpose, anonymity, and confidentiality for ethical issues. in order to triangulate the findings collected from the quantitative data and get a more detailed understanding of the results from questionnaire findings, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 randomly selected participants. the interview was preferred because it provides in-depth information about students’ attitudes and feelings, providing precise and meaningful data collection (adams, 2015; williams & katz, 2001). the interview questions https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1, 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 73 explored how students perceived wiki-based collaborative writing and what they thought in terms of its effects (if there were any) on their l2 writing development. each interview was conducted face-to-face and lasted about 10-15 minutes. students’ responses were taperecorded and translated from turkish to english after transcription. procedures the students met for 90-minute class period per week for 5 weeks over the intervention period. two wiki-based writing tasks were completed through group collaboration. as the participants did not have any experiences in using wikis for writing purposes, they were engaged in short practice sessions in the first week of the study. in the present study, pbworks (www.pbworks.com) was preferred as the online wiki platform for writing tasks. during these practice sessions, the students were introduced with the functions of the wiki platform such as editing, history and comment, and they were given a short writing task as a sample to familiarise themselves with the wiki system. the instructor mentored the students during the sample writing task and guided them in terms of not only writing their ideas but also editing their peers’ writings, giving feedback, checking the history function and commenting on the written product. following the familiarisation process, the instructor divided the class into ten groups each of which consisted of four students. a list of essay topics related to the content of their course textbook was prepared by the instructor and each group chose one topic from that pool to work on. during the writing process, the instructor also logged in the page of each group and provided feedback for writing improvement. in addition, as the wiki system provided a history facility which showed who contributed to the written product, when and how, the instructor could encourage the ones who did not do much work to collaborate more. the students worked on their first task for two weeks whenever they wanted. at the end of the writing task, the instructor provided an overall feedback and made suggestions related to their writing process and written texts through wiki system. after the first writing task, the same students were provided with another list of essay topics and again each group chose an essay topic and wrote about it through the wiki. this time, the instructor did not interfere in the process much, but could follow the writing process of each group through the wiki. the students worked on their texts not only in the classroom but also at home, at dormitory or in a cafe. they had two weeks to complete the second task. at the end of the second task, the instructor provided feedback about their writing performance, and the students finalized their written products on the wiki based on the feedback they received and submitted their work to the instructor. after completing the two writing tasks, the students answered two questionnaires about wikibased collaborative writing in the classroom. 10 randomly selected students attended the semi-structured interviews, answering questions about their feelings and attitudes about wikibased collaborative writing and their perceptions of its effects on their l2 writing development. two research assistants who had training and experience about how to conduct interviews without any bias or judgement conducted the interviews. the researcher was not involved in the interviews to avoid researcher influence, bias or role conflict, and to prevent https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1, 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 74 students from expressing opinions to please the instructor (stalmeijer, mcnaughton & van mook, 2014). the researcher prepared a semi-structured interview protocol to guide the interview process. this protocol involved open-ended interview questions and reminded the interviewers to greet and extend their thanks to the participants, it also stated that the participants might be asked to clarify their statements, their names would be kept anonymous and they could check the transcription of their interviews if they wanted. the open-ended questions investigated how the students felt during wiki-based collaborative writing process, what kind of opportunities and challenges they had, how they perceived the writing process, whether they thought wiki-based writing had any effects on their l2 writing, what kind of effects it had on their l2 writing (if it had any). all the interviews were conducted face-toface and they were tape-recorded after obtaining permission from the participants. the interviews were conducted in turkish to help the students better express their feelings and opinions in their native language. each interview lasted 10-15 minutes. the interviews were transcribed by the two research assistants. the role of the instructor (also the researcher) in this study was as a facilitator and mentor as there was basically a student-centered and collaborative learning environment. students were involved in a learning process and completed the assigned tasks collaborating with each other through the wiki-system. when they encountered any problems, the instructor provided them with necessary support and solutions to continue the task. data analysis the quantitative data from the questionnaires were analysed with statistical package for social sciences (spss) version 20. as likert scale data are analyzed at the interval measurement scale, the statistics recommended for analyzing the data from the current questionnaires include the mean for central tendency (boone & boone, 2012). therefore, descriptive statistics, mean scores, standard deviations, and the percentage of responses for each item in both of the questionnaires were calculated . in order to collect and analyze the interview data, thematic analysis was conducted. the thematic analysis procedures suggested by braun and clarke (2006) were followed. these procedures consist of six steps: (a) familiarizing yourself with your data, (b) generating initial codes, (c) searching for themes, (d) reviewing themes, (e) defining and naming themes and (f) producing the report (p. 87). the researcher collaborated with the two research assistants for the thematic analysis in order to ensure the correctness of the themes found in the data. the themes that emerged from the interview data were used to address the research questions and elaborate on the findings from the questionnaires. results this study explored the students’ attitudes to wiki-based collaborative l2 writing and their perceptions of the effects of wiki-based collaborative l2 writing on their l2 writing skills. for each research question, quantitative findings from the questionnaires will be presented and then qualitative findings from the interviews will be provided. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1, 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 75 before presenting the research findings, it should be noted that at the beginning of the research study, the researcher asked the participants whether they had been involved in collaborative writing activities beforehand, and it was found out that none of them had had such an experience. in addition, the participants were asked whether they had used wikis for writing purposes, and they stated that they had never written anything on the wiki platform. therefore, it could be inferred that students did not have any idea about wiki-based collaborative l2 writing and their perceptions of wiki-based collaborative writing tasks would be built from their experiences during the present study. rq1: what are the students’ attitudes towards wiki-based collaborative l2 writing at the university level? the first questionnaire was designed to explore participants’ attitudes towards wiki-based collaborative writing. the results indicate that students had a positive attitude towards using the wiki system for l2 writing (m = 4.25, sd = 0.74). the results from the first questionnaire are presented in table 1. table 1. students’ attitudes towards wiki-based collaborative l2 writing number statements mean sd 1 i feel comfortable with using the wiki system to interact with my peers to write in english 4.32 .75 2 i do not feel relaxed while writing via the wiki system. 4.25 .67 3 the wiki platform is interesting and innovative. 4.51 .78 4 i enjoy performing group-writing tasks via the wiki. 4.43 .74 5 wikis are not simple to set up. 4.10 .69 6 wikis are functional to organize the text. 3.84 .80 7 it is easy to learn and work with wikis. 4.01 .73 8 using wikis improves my motivation to write in english. 4.37 .82 9 i do not enjoy writing with peers via the wiki. 4.40 .79 10 i feel self-confident to write in english via the wiki. 4.27 .65 overall 4.25 .74 n=40 the results from the first questionnaire revealed that students felt comfortable (m = 4.32) and relaxed (m = 4.25) while using the wiki system for l2 writing. they found it innovative (m = 4.51) and enjoyable (items 4 and 9, average m = 4.41). the students found using the wikisystem to be motivating (m = 4.37) and improving their self-confidence (m = 4.27). in terms of some technical properties of the wiki-system, the students found it easy to set up (m = 4.10) and work on it (m = 4.01). the item with the lowest mean is the one stating that wikis are functional to organize the text (item 6, m = 3.84). https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1, 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 76 overall, the students enjoyed wiki-based collaborative l2 writing and they expressed positive attitudes to using the wiki system for collaborating with their friends to produce texts in english. further exploration during the interviews revealed that students had positive attitudes towards using the wiki-system for collaborative l2 writing. the interview data collected to explore the first research question in more detail were categorized under three themes: (a) students’ feelings about the wiki-based collaborative l2 writing, (b) students’ opinions about the accessibility of the wiki system, and (c) students’ opinions about their motivation and selfconfidence. the interview results show that all of the interviewed students had positive feelings about using the wiki system to collaborate with their peers for writing in l2. some responses from the students are given below. to protect the students’ anonymity, their names are indicated by numbers. i feel less stressed when i write through the wiki because i can cooperate with my friends and we can exchange our ideas in order to produce a better outcome. (s3) using wikis to cooperate with my peers and to see their comments is quite interesting and enjoyable. (s4) regarding the students’ opinions about the accessibility of the wiki system, 70% (7 out of 10) pointed out that they found it easy to use the wiki. however, some students stated that they sometimes encountered some technical problems in terms of formatting the text. as an example, the following comment can be given: i liked working with the wiki, but it was not always possible to format the text however we wanted. sometimes, we wanted to indent a paragraph or justify the text, but it was not possible. (s2) this finding from the interviews can provide an explanation for the fact that the item 6 (wikis are functional to organize the text) on the questionnaire had a relatively lower mean (3.84). as the wiki system did not permit the students to apply some formatting properties, they may have expressed partial agreement on that item. with regard to the students’ motivation and self-confidence in l2 writing through the wiki, 80% of the participants found it motivating to work with the wiki. they stated that they felt more motivated to write in english via the wiki system, as it was enjoyable to use the wiki system to produce a text with their friends. 70% stated that they felt more self-confident while trying to share their opinions with their friends and to contribute to the improvement of their texts. the following statements can be given as examples: in our previous writing courses, i used to feel reluctant to write in l2; it was like a burden for me. however, when i was writing with my friends through the wiki, it was enjoyable. i felt more motivated to log in the wiki, add some sentences and review the entries of my peers and edit them when necessary. (s1) https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1, 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 77 i enjoyed using the wiki when writing in english. it was not like an obligatory task that we had to fulfill, instead it was like a game. it is really a very innovative opinion to write through the wiki system in our english writing courses. i felt motivated to produce something in english with my friends. in addition, i should say that i felt much more self-confident to contribute to the writing product of our group. (s3) using the wiki to write in english was like making puzzles. you know, we tried to combine some pieces of ideas to make a whole, which was quite enjoyable and motivating. (s7) regarding the first research question, it may be inferred that the responses obtained from the interviews supported and validated the questionnaire findings. students considered wiki-based collaborative l2 writing to be an enjoyable, comfortable, innovative and motivating experience. rq2: students’ perceptions of the effects of wiki-based collaborative l2 writing on their l2 writing skills the second questionnaire was designed to survey students’ perceptions of the effects of wikibased collaborative writing on their writing skills in l2. the questionnaire consisted of 17 items on a 5-point likert scale. out of the 17 items, the first 5 items were about participants’ general impressions of the effects of the wiki-based collaborative writing on their l2 writing. 3 items (items 6, 7, and 8) investigated participants’ perceptions of the effects of the wikibased collaborative writing on their use of grammar while writing. 3 items (items 9, 10, and 11) investigated participants’ perceptions of the effects of the wiki-based collaborative writing on their ability to improve the content of their writing. 3 items (items 12, 13, and 14) investigated their perceptions of the effects of the wiki-based collaborative writing on the organization of the text. 3 items (items 15, 16, and 17) investigated participants’ perceptions of the effects of the wiki-based collaborative writing on their use of the mechanics while writing. to explore the second research question, the mean score, standard deviation, and the percentage of responses for each item were calculated. analysis of the second questionnaire yielded positive results (m = 4.13, sd = .78). the results from the second questionnaire are summarized in table 2. table 2. students’ perceptions of the effects of the wiki-based collaborative l2 writing on their l2 writing skills items students’ perceptions of the effects of wiki-based collaborative writing on m sd 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 their l2 writing in general sense 4.32 .82 6, 7 , 8 their use of grammar while writing 4.12 .78 9, 10, 11 the content of their writing 4.36 .75 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1, 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 78 12, 13, 14 organization of their texts 3.65 .84 15, 16, 17 their use of mechanics 4.21 .71 total 4.13 .78 regarding the participants’ general impressions of the effects of the wiki-based collaborative writing on their l2 writing, the average percentage of strongly agree and agree responses for the first 5 items in the survey was 84.3% (m = 4.32, sd = 0.82), illustrating an overall agreement with the potential of wiki-based collaborative writing for improving l2 writing skills. the analysis of the items investigating students’ perceptions of the effects of the collaborative wiki-based l2 writing on more specific aspects of l2 writing yielded that there was an overall agreement with the potential of collaborative wiki-based writing for improving different aspects of l2 writing. when the students were asked if collaborative wiki-based l2 writing could be useful for improving their use of grammar rules while writing in english, students’ responses were mostly positive (82.4%). the mean values of items 6, 7, and 8 indicated that the students paid attention to their use of grammar and they corrected grammatical errors while writing via the wiki system (m = 4.12, sd = 0.78). 85.2% of the participants agreed that collaborative writing through the wiki had positive effects on improving the content of their writing (m = 4.36, sd = 0.75). the mean values of items 12, 13, and 14 indicated a moderately positive agreement with the effectiveness of the wiki-based l2 writing for improving the organization of their texts (m = 3.65, sd = 0.84). 83.4% of students answered the items (15, 16, and 17) about the effects of using wikis on their use of mechanics positively (m = 4.21, sd = 0.71). the interview findings related to the second research question provide further explanation about students’ perceptions of the effects of wiki-based collaborative writing on their l2 writing. the students were asked whether they thought wiki-based collaborative writing had any effects on their l2 writing during the semi-structured interviews. the students’ responses were coded under the theme “students’ general impressions of the effects of the wiki-based collaborative writing tasks on their l2 writing.” the students stated that asynchronous nature and the basic functions of the wiki platform, such as editing, commenting and history, enabled them to collaborate with their peers easily. they felt that they were working in an authentic situation as they were trying to produce a joint text negotiating about what to write or how to write. in addition, they stated that using the wiki promoted accountability as they shared the responsibility for the outcome. 80% of the students (8 out of 10 interviewees) emphasized that wiki-based l2 writing gave them a chance to give and receive feedback so that they could become aware of their weaknesses in l2 writing, and they could notice the gaps in their knowledge in which they should improve themselves. they put forward that when they were revising their peers’ work, they could see different ways of expressing a piece of thought or feeling, which, as they indicated, had a positive effect on their writing skills in l2. some statements to illustrate the participants’ general impressions may be as following: as we all try to produce a common piece of writing, i felt more responsible towards my peers; therefore, i tried my best to contribute to the writing process, i https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1, 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 79 tried to correct the errors and make good sentences. that effort helped me improve my writing skills. (s.4) we often had to discuss about the best way to express an idea. i believe such a negotiation process helped us to notice the gaps in our knowledge and do our best to improve our writing. (s.9) all of the group members engaged in writing via the wiki. we felt that we were working in a real life situation. it was like preparing a text for a website. (s. 10) within the scope of the second research question, students’ perceptions of the effects of using the wiki system on their use of grammar, content, mechanics and text organization while writing in english were also investigated through the interviews. students’ responses were categorized as students’ perceptions of the effects of the collaborative wiki-based l2 writing on their (1) use of grammar, (2) content development, (3) use of mechanics, (4) text organization. 8 out of 10 interviewees thought that wiki based collaborative l2 writing gave them opportunity to pay attention to the correct use of grammar. they indicated that they tried to notice the errors and correct them while writing, which had positive effects on their use of grammar rules while writing. all of the interviewed students agreed that wiki-based writing tasks were beneficial for them in facilitating the content development of their texts. they stated that the negotiation process via the wiki system enabled them to elaborate on the content of their texts. in terms of the use of mechanics, 7 students stated that they became more aware of the use of mechanics in order to increase the comprehensibility of their sentences and to prevent any misunderstandings. all of the students agreed that wiki-based l2 writing provided them with the opportunity to organize their thoughts and write them in a systematic way although 5 of them emphasized that the wiki-system did not let them apply some formatting features on their texts, such as justifying the text or inserting links. below are responses to the interview questions investigating students’ perceptions of the effects of the wiki-based collaborative l2 writing on their use of grammar, content, mechanics and text organization: when i was writing individually, it was difficult for me to come up with new ideas to write about. however, when i was writing with my friends on the wiki system, i could find out new ideas to develop the content of our writing. (s.2) when we were writing through wikis, i always felt the responsibility that i should try to notice the errors and correct them to contribute to our group’s writing. that helped me pay more attention to the use of grammar rules, vocabulary and mechanics. in addition, my peers also corrected my errors, which contributed to my knowledge of english grammar and vocabulary definitely. (s.3) when we were writing through wikis, the fact that you could see all the corrections or edits from your peers enabled me to notice the deficits in my knowledge of grammar, content, punctuation or vocabulary. (s.5) https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1, 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 80 when we were writing through the wiki, we sometimes could not apply some formatting features to our texts. this was a limitation for us. however, in terms of organization of ideas and content, using wikis helped us a lot, as all of us could edit the text easily. (s.6) regarding the structure of the text, there were some limitations on the wiki system. overall, it was very useful for us to improve our sentences in terms of grammar, content, and even mechanics. (s.9) to sum up, the responses obtained from the semi-structured interviews supported the questionnaire findings. the results suggest that students experienced an enriched learning environment and they had positive impressions of the effects of wiki-based collaborative l2 writing tasks on their l2 writing skills. discussion the purpose of this study was to explore efl students’ attitudes towards wiki-based collaborative writing tasks and their perceptions of the effects of these tasks on their l2 writing in a tertiary-level efl class in turkey. several major findings were obtained. first, the results showed that the participants showed a positive attitude towards wiki-based collaborative l2 writing. they found the use of wikis for l2 writing purposes interesting, enjoyable and innovative. they stated that they felt comfortable collaborating with their peers via the wiki platform. in addition, the students regarded the use of wikis motivating to engage in l2 writing and to become active producers of knowledge instead of being passive learners. these results indicate that wiki-based collaborative l2 writing tasks can increase student motivation and engagement in l2 writing courses. the findings are attributed to the basic properties of the wiki platform such as its asynchronous nature, editing, history and commenting functions which enabled the learners to interact with each other on a digital platform and experience something new. as the students have the opportunity to give feedback and edit the text, they can feel that they contribute to the outcome; therefore, they become more and more motivated and engaged in learning process (kowal & swain, 1994). the positive attitudes of the students are also attributed to the nature of collaborative writing. collaborative learning entails that students share their knowledge and experiences with their peers; they guide and negotiate with each other in order to complete a task. such a joint action helps the students develop social skills, a sense of belonging and accountability in group work, which contributes to student motivation and engagement (morris, 2011; mulligan & garofalo, 2011; wigglesworth & storch, 2012). the reasons for students’ positive feedback may be related to the authentic writing environment provided by collaborative wiki-based tasks for the students. the results suggest that students recognized the connection between the writing tasks and authentic settings. they stated that they felt they were working on a task in a real-life setting and had confidence and enthusiasm to express their ideas in english. that is, using english as a medium to express their thoughts in a meaningful context could lead to positive attitude development (hung, 2011; swain, 2000). https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1, 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 81 wiki-based collaborative writing tasks encouraged learner autonomy, playing an active role in learning/writing and engaging in social interaction. students reported that they enjoyed producing collaborative texts on the wiki platform and felt more comfortable sharing their innovative thoughts with their peers. instead of being in a passive position, they were involved in writing process actively giving and receiving feedback, revising and editing the text, and sharing their opinions. these results are consistent with the opinions of morris (2011), who suggested that working in teams helped students to share their creative thoughts with their friends and become autonomous learners. with regard to the second research question on the students’ perceptions of the effects of the wiki-based writing on their l2 writing skills, the research results yielded that students held positive impressions of the effects of wiki-based l2 writing on their l2 writing skills. most of the students agreed that wiki-based collaborative writing had the potential to improve their l2 writing skills. one of the reasons for students’ positive impressions of the effects of the wikibased collaborative l2 writing can be explained with vygotsky’s (1986) social constructivism theory. as social constructivism theory suggests, students constructed their knowledge through engaging social interaction, sharing opinions and guiding each other. wiki-based group collaboration enabled the learners to advance their zpd with the support and scaffolding of their more capable peers, as suggested by vygotsky (1978). wiki-based collaborative writing tasks enabled the students work together to discuss how to express their ideas correctly and find solutions through group collaboration so that they could have the chance to develop their zpd and go beyond their current level. the findings are also consistent with those in previous studies (joni chao & lo, 2011; storch & wigglesworth, 2007; swain & lapkin, 1998) on the effects of social interaction and cooperation in learning, indicating that group collaboration can lead to higher levels of performance than individual work. students had positive impressions of the effects of the wiki-based collaborative writing tasks on their l2 writing performance because these tasks provided them with the opportunities to experience the dynamics of group interaction to produce a written text in english. they engaged in social interaction, gave and received peer feedback when they found any errors in the texts, and supported each other. students’ active engagement and positive impressions of wiki-based writing experiences yield that such peer collaboration activities can contribute to cognitive outcomes and motivate students to complete group tasks. hence, the students stated that wiki-based collaborative writing tasks had positive effects on improving the grammar, content, organization and mechanics of their texts. these results are consistent with those in other wiki-based studies on learning english (kessler & bikowski, 2010; oskoz & elola, 2010) which indicated the positive feedback of implementing wiki-based tasks in educational contexts. pedagogical implications the study reveals several pedagogical implications for efl teachers. one implication can be that with the integration of wiki-based collaborative tasks in writing courses, the students were given the opportunity to discuss, give/receive feedback, and negotiate on the text. they https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1, 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 82 were active during the process of writing a text in english and they took the responsibility for their own learning, which led to learner autonomy. as indicated by the social constructivism theory, students could scaffold each other in order to go beyond their current level and to construct knowledge together. as a result, they could have the feeling of achievement, which could contribute to the development of positive attitudes towards learning. another implication of this study can be the idea that integrating wiki-based collaborative tasks into writing course syllabus can provide students with an innovative and creative learning experience, which can lead to increased learning engagement and motivation. efl learners’ language proficiency and l2 writing skills can be stimulated through studentcentered course designs supported by technology. finally, through wiki-based writing tasks, students had the chance of using english outside classroom. they could engage in writing tasks in real-life settings for a meaningful purpose. when learning becomes meaningful, then it can be expected that students will become more enthusiastic about writing in english. as the findings of the study suggest, students were inspired by the wiki-based writing tasks as they expressed that these tasks were innovative and enjoyable, which is an important factor for engagement in learning. university students were motivated to use a wiki system for l2 writing and they were positive about using technology for their writing courses. therefore, it can be inferred that technology integration can lead to positive outcomes in l2 writing development. conclusion the results of the study indicate that integrating wiki-based collaborative writing tasks in english writing classes could foster student motivation and engagement. students could experience authentic practice to collaborate with their peers and express their thoughts in reallife settings through meaningful tasks. specifically, students considered wiki-based collaborative writing tasks to have positive effects on their l2 writing development as they thought that peer scaffolding and peer feedback enabled them to go beyond their current level. the findings align with social constructivism, suggesting that knowledge is constructed through social interaction by sharing ideas and experiences in an interactive way. although the findings of this study provide implications for l2 writing contexts, certain limitations should be considered. first, the sample size in the current study was limited to 40 preparatory class students in turkey; therefore, it may not be possible to generalize the research findings to other educational settings with different characteristics. a long-term research period with a larger sample size could increase the generalizability of the results. second, the study focused on learners’ perceptions of the wiki-based collaborative l2 writing tasks and their perceptions of its effects on their writing development; it did not investigate the effects of wiki-based collaborative writing tasks on improving english writing proficiency. learner perceptions and attitudes are of great significance in determining the effectiveness of any method or technique; however, future studies may examine whether wikibased tasks have significant effects on writing skills of efl students through long-term https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1, 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 83 experimental research designs. finally, the study investigated students’ perceptions of wikibased collaborative writing tasks in relation to only l2 writing. future studies could apply wiki-based collaborative tasks in order to address four language skills in efl classrooms. the results of this study show that students were more motivated about writing in english. they became more engaged in l2 writing activities through wiki-based collaborative writing, stating that they found wiki-based tasks innovative, interesting and authentic. wiki-based tasks provided learners with a meaningful and dynamic context in which they collaborated to produce a common text. hence, wiki-based collaboration among l2 writers has the potential to provide benefits for students. acknowledgments i would like to thank all the students who participated in this study, the faculty for assisting with data collection and analysis. references adams, w. c. 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masturi no. 228 parongpong, bandung 40559, indonesia email : beautyuty18@yahoo.co.id abstract the purpose of this study is to find the enhancement of students’ vocabulary achievement using online games and pictures instruction. this study used quantitative research method and comparative design. this study was designed to seek the answer to the following question: is there any significant difference on the students’ vocabulary enhancement between those who are taught using online games and pictures instruction? in order to answer that question, there were two classes in grade eight of smp perguruan advent xv ciracas, jakarta timur. they were divided into two groups, grade 8-a was pictures instruction group and grade 8-b was online games group. the vocabulary test (pre-test) was given at the first meeting. after 16 hours of treatment, the post-test was administered to both groups to see the significant of both methods. the data was analyzed using spss 17. the normalized gain of the students who are taught using online games 0.2802. it can be concluded that the gain level of online games is low. while the normilezed gain of the students who are taught using pictures instruction is 0.4631. it can be concluded that the gain level of it can be concluded that the gain level of picture instruction is average. the obtained result through the normalized gain indicated there was a significant difference between the group which was taught through online games and pictures instruction. 14 based on the result of the data the null hypothesis was rejected and some recommendations are given at the end. key word: vocabulary, teaching, online games, picture instruction introduction in this era of technology everything is associated with gadget. well, the children having their own gadget such as computer, smartphone, laptop, tab, etc. some of those stuff provided by parents since their early age. one of the most popular activities done by children under the age of 17 are playing online games. the curriculum used today is based on competence. education based on competence is education that emphasizes the ability to be possessed by graduates of a given education level. it means students are required to have certain competencies or skills as a result of the learning process in schools. to compete in a global world, the competence or the ability of the main assets that must be owned by the students. therefore it is expected that a competency-based curriculum can produce students who can compete globally. but some schools have difficulty in achieving basic competency in english language lesson. this is because the lack of mastery of the english language vocabulary. students often have difficulty understanding the meaning of a word for the understanding of their relatively inadequate vocabulary so that the process of achieving a basic competency will be longer. this study offer a new method to teach vocabulary through online games. because today many children are addicted to playing online games. turgut and irgin (2009) said that learning via computer games can be considered as surreal and outrageous. many people are troubled with the themes that constitute certain games, and concerned with the intensity of involvement and amount of time that youth 15 devote to playing computer games. in this case the researcher sees this online games can also be used as a tool for learning english. according to jan (2013) and thomas & brown (2011), learning through games is one of the most effective ways to learn, because games are used to improve content mastery, higher-order thinking skills, and social skills during the learning process. the uptake and use of games in educational and training contexts indicate a significant level of interest in game-based activities (de freitas & griifiths, 2008). processes of language learning have become more engaging by means of educational games which are believed to add fun to classrooms where students would feel more relaxed and comfortable. this study seeks to find out the effect of online games in enhance the ability of students vocabulary that compared with the picture instruction method. these things needed for enhancing student vocabulary ability. experimental 1. population and sample the participants of this study were the pupils of smp perguruan advent xv ciracas, east jakarta, jakarta. they were divided into two groups. grade 8a and 8b consist of 56 students of smp advent ciracas in east jakarta. none of the participants had any experience of participating in this kind of experiments. 2. research instrument the instrument used in gathering the data was vocabulary test. it is used to measure pupils’ comprehension of their vocabulary. the instrument used in the treatment method are computer’s laboratory, wi-fi, pictures that captured from the online game, online game, lcd-projector. the test was administered at the beginning and before the treatment is administered and a post test administered at the end of 16 16 hours treatment to find out the pupils’ achievement in vocabulary using online games and pictures instruction. 3. treatment procedures of online games:  teacher gave some new words with a broad application domain in game nets or online games were selected to be presented to the students’ application domain in game nets. online games are selected to be presented. teacher told the kinds of the game online that student can play and explain to them step by step on playing the online game.  students are allowed to use the internet in the classroom where they could play online games.  during the class time students in the online games group enjoyed an enjoyable environment where they used a variety of words in the context.  students wrote the vocabulary that they recently learn.  teacher give test about the vocabulary that student recently know. procedures of pictures instruction:  teacher introduced the lesson to the student  teacher gave pictures to the student using power-point presentation with the english word that describes the pictures.  after the presentation the students in each group practiced the words through repetitions and question-answer drills using the same mode of instruction used to present new items in the class.  teacher gave students worksheet about the picturesteacher introduced the lesson to the student. 17 4. data gathering  pilot test data collection instrument was preceded by pilot studies in children who are part of the student population not sample. that is to determine whether the instrument is sufficiently reliable or not, communicative, understandable, and so on.  pretest the pretest for the grade 8a and 8b pupils administered on february 1, 2016. it is consist of 30 and design in form of multiple-choice questions.  post test after the treatment student was given a post-test. the post-test found out whether the use of online game and pictures instruction make impact on the students’ vocabulary improvement.  validity of test question validity test was intended to find out wheatear the instrument test is appropriate to be used in this research or not. ∑ ∑ ∑ ∑ ∑ ∑ ∑ the result of the statistical computation on the pilot-test is presented in the following table. 18 table 1.1 classification of validity question number of question rxy interpretation 3,6,18,21,28,36,43,45 = 8 0.40 < ≤ 0.60 moderate 2,4,7,11,12,13,14,15,17,19,26,27,30,32, 35,39,41,42,44 0.20 < ≤ 0.40 low 5,8,9,10,20,22,23,25,29,33,34,37,38,40, 46,49 0.00 < ≤ 0.20 very low 1,16,24,31,48,47 ≤0.00 not valid questions are valid if the score is larger than 0.00. based on the result of the table calculation above there were 44 questions that were valid. there were 4 questions that were not valid, 16 questions were very low, 20 questions were low and 8 questions were moderate. the result of the table above showed that there were 20 items that had raw score 0.20 – 0.40. so, it can be concluded that the validity was low.  reliability test reliability is the constant of a test when the test is done in the same subject. 1 ∑ arikunto (2012) 19 table 1.2 classification of reliability test coefficient of reliability interpretation 0.90< ≤ 1.00 very high 0.70 < ≤ 0.90 high 0.40 < ≤ 0.70 moderate 0.20 < ≤ 0.40 low ≤ 0.20 very low the result of the computation of reliability test showed that the reliability is 0,60. it can concluded that reliability of the test was moderate.  discrimination index of question the discrimination index of item is the ability to distinguish between good student (high ability) and the students who are less in intelligent (low ability). (arikunto, 2012) the result of statistical computation on the pilot test is presented in the following table. 20 table 1.3 result of discrimination level of question number of question discrimination index interpretation 3 0.70-1.00 excellent 4,6,19,21,28,36,43,45 0.40-0.70 good 14,15,18,20,25,26,27,30,32,37,38, 40,41,42 0.20-0.40 satisfactory 1,2,5,8,9,10,17,22,23,29,33,34,35, 44,47,48,49 0.00-0.20 poor 16,24,31,39,46 < 0.00 very bad the result of the table above showed that there are 17 items with discrimination index between 0.00-0.20. it can be concluded that the discrimination index of the test is poor.  statistical treatment data the researcher used the t-test to find out whether the achievement of the pupils who are taught by using online games is different from those who were taught by pictures instruction. to examine the data, the researcher compared means of the test between two independent data group which is done by using statistical or t-test. 21 results and discussions 1. result of data analysis in gathering data of the research, the researcher taught two classes at smp perguruan advent xv ciracas, one class was online games group and the other class was pictures instruction group. the following table is the result of pre-test and post-test of each group. table 1.4 result of pre-test, post-test, standard deviation and normalized gain based on the result of the table above showed that the mean and standard deviation in students’ vocabulary achievement, it has gained 0.2802 and the mean of the students who were taught using online games 60.31 and the post-test is 71.35, while the gain of the students who are taught using pictures instruction is 0.4631. the mean in pre-test is 58.93 and the post-test is 77.33. the standard deviation for each group in spss 17, the standard deviation result of online games group is 0.25763, while the standard deviation of pictures instruction group is 0.18223. online games pictures instruction mean st. deviation mean st. deviation pre‐test 60.31 11.390 58.93 12.128 post‐test 71.35 12.903 77.33 11.025 normalized gain 0.2802 0.25763 0.4631 0.18223 22 2. test of normality the researcher is using the test of normality to observe probability distribution of the data. table 1.5 result of normalized gain based on the table above, this reseach used the output from the shapiro-wilk because shapiro-wilk is the most powerful normality test and because the test is originally restricted for sample size of less than 50 (razali & wah, 2011). if both data have ρvalue (sig) > α=0.05 it means data is normally distributed and if ρvalue (sig) < α=0.05, it means data is not normally distributed. based on the data above, both data was normally distributed because the significant score of gain for online games was (sig) 0.887 > α=0.05 and the significant of the normalized gain for pictures instruction was (sig) 0.214 > α=0.05. 3. test of homogeneity of variance based on statistic if both of the data were normally distributed, then the data homogeneity test was used. group shapiro-wilk statistic df sig. gain gain pi .954 30 .214 gain og .981 26 .887 23 table 1.6 result of homogeneity of variance gain levene statistic df1 df2 sig. 3.432 1 54 .069 the data is homogenous if ρvalue (sig) > α=0.05 it means data is homogenous and if ρvalue (sig) < α=0.05, it means data is not homogenous. based on the result of the table above, the result of the data between online games and pictures instruction were homogenous because sig (0.069) > α=0.05. 24 4. hypothesis testing table 4.4 independent samples test independent samples test levene's test for equality of variances t-test for equality of means f sig. t df sig. (2taile d) mean differ ence std. error diffe rence 95% confidence interval of the difference lowe r upp er gain equal varianc es assume d 3.43 2 .06 9 3.09 7 54 .00 3 .1828 9 .0590 5 .0645 1 .301 27 according to the data above, the researcher used the data of equal variances assumed concern that the sample data was distributed homogenous and sig (2-tailed). based on the result of the data sig (2 tailed), it shown that sig. (0.003) ≤ α (0.05), it means that ha is accepted and ho is rejected. for that researcher concluded there is significant difference between those who were taught through online games and those who were taught through picture instruction. based on the result of this study online games have significant result because through online games that students can learn vocabulary without feeling stress to 25 memorize. with a good atmosphere and fun, students unconsciously forcing themselves to understand the words that exist in the online game. and the result of this study was also supported by research of purushotma (2005) who has suggested that games can be so highly motivating that even addictive they become so engaged in game activities that they stay in the classroom even in the break time. rivalry and fun go together, creating both a friendly and competitive environment. for the treatment of pictures instruction, there is also significant result because the images have appealed and have a permanent effect when students learn vocabulary. pictures also help students memorized the new words and help teachers to make lesson more interesting. colored images make students more interested in learning the language. this study was also supported by mansourzadeh (2015) who mentioned that pictures are those kinds of visual instruction materials that can be used more effectively to develop and sustain motivation in producing positive attitudes towards english and to teach or reinforce language skills. based on the results of the two methods of learning, the mean of the picture has a higher score than the mean of the online games. this could be due to the method which has been frequently used by teachers in introducing new vocabulary to students that use the images as a tool. since the beginning students learn the english language, is frequently used media images. in terms of textbooks also may be seen that the textbooks of english in indonesia using a variety of images. conclusion from the result of the data analysis based on the normalized gain from the pre-test and post-test, the enhancement of efl students’ vocabulary achievement for online games and pictures instruction class were average. based on the research finding, the researcher can concludes that there is significant difference in the enhancement of students’ vocabulary achievement in english between those who were taught using online games and pictures instructions. 26 references de freitas, s. and griffiths, m. (2008). the convergence of gaming practices with other media forms: what potential for learning? a review of the literature. learning, media and technology, 33(1), 11-20. jan, m. (2013). a literature review of game-based learning. singteach, 45. retrieved from http://singteach.nie.edu.sg/ issue45-research02/ purushotma, r. (2005). commentary: you’re not studying, you’re just … language learning & technology, 9(1), 80-96. mansourzadeh, n. (2015). a comperative study of teaching vocabulary through pictures and audio-visualaids to young iranian efl learners. journal of elementary education vol.24, no. 1 pp. 47-5.9 thomas, d., & brown, j. s. (2011). a new culture of learning cultivating the imagination for a world of constant change. lexington, ky: createspace. turgut,y. & irgin, p. (2009). young learners’ language learning via computer games. 1 language learning motivation among senior high school students gartika pandu bhuana stkip siliwangi bandung abstract motivation is one of main determinant factor in learning second or foreign language. there are two types of motivation, which are integrative and instrumental motivation. both of them play an essential role of the success in learning second or foreign language. unfortunately, there is some debate about which kind of motivation is important for second language learner. therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate the senior high school students’ motivation toward learning english as a second language. the study is quantitative design. the participant of this study was twelve grade students at one of senior high school in bandung. the data were obtained through questionnaire. the used questionnaire was integrative and instrumental motivation scale of gardner’s attitude/motivation test battery (amtb) that is adapted by vaezi (2010). the questionnaire has 5-point scale ranged from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree”. the data gained then was analyzed using spss 16.0. the result of the study showed that senior high school students were instrumentally motivated in learning english as a second language. in their point of view, learning english was important for supporting their future job and career. keywords: integrative and instrumental motivation, senior high school students introduction mcmilan’s dictionary (1979) defines motivation as providing with a motive, moving to effort, or action. gardner (1985 in qashoa, 2006) states that motivation involves four aspects: a goal; an effort; a desire to attain the goal; and a favorable attitude toward the activity. in line with this, oxford and erman (in setiawati, 2011) defines motivation as significant goal or need; desire to attain the goal; and value of potential outcome or reward. to conclude, motivation deals with a desire and effort to gain a goal. motivation is one of the key factors in second language learning (dornyei in qahoa, 2006). it determines the second language achievement and attainment (lucas, 2010). motivation is classified into two types: integrative and instrumental motivation. the first one refers to the reasons that prompt the individual to learn about, interact with or become closer to the second language community (gardner, 1985 cited in waugh, 2004). this is in line with dornyei (2003 in waugh, 2004) who states that “integrative motivational orientation concerns a positive interpersonal/affective disposition toward the l2 group and the desire to interact with and even become similar to valued members of that community. it implies an openness to, and a respect for, other cultural groups and ways of life” (2003, p. 5). 2 from the above definition, it can be inferred that integrative motivation deals with the intention to become a part of the target language community. in other words, the learners who have integrative motivation want to learn the language because they want to know the people who speak the language as well as they are interested in culture associated with that language. the last one is instrumental motivation. gardner (2001 in waugh, 2004) states that person who acquire languages through instrumental motivation are seeking a goal that does not seem to involve any identification or feeling of closeness with the other language group, but instead focus on a more practical purpose [that] learning the language would serve for the individual. he also asserts that people who are instrumentally motivated tend to have a desire to gain social recognition or economic advantages through knowledge of a foreign language (cited in waugh, 2004). in sort, instrumental motivation refers to motivation based on a more practical need to communicate in the second language. in other word, it deals with potential utilitarian gains of second language (l2) proficiency, such as getting a better job, higher salary, or salary bonus. despite the fact that both motivation types are essential for the success in learning second language, much debate among educators have been taking place about which kind of motivation is more important for l2 learners. gass and selinker (2010 in vaezi, 2009) states that for a long time, integrative motivation was regarded as superior to instrumental motivation for predicting the success of second language learning. they added that if the students respected the target culture, they read a literature or practice the language, and thereby be able to improve their language skill. in contrast, oxford (1996 in vaezi, 2009) states that instrumental motivation is meaningful for learner who has limited access to the second language culture or foreign setting. this is supported by vaezi (2009) who utters that generally students select instrumental reason frequently rather than integrative reason for the study of second language. the above debate finally leads this study to investigate which of the types of motivation becomes the primary source of students in learning english as the second language. particularly, this study aims to discover senior high school students’ motivation toward learning english. research methodology this study applied quantitative method. it is used since its ability to investigate social or human problem with statistical procedure. as creswell (1994) states that quantitative study is an inquiry into social or human problems, based in testing theory composed a variable, measured with number and analyzed with statistical procedure in order to determine whether the predictive generalization of the theory hold true. the participant of this study was twelve grade students at one of senior high school in bandung. there were 25 students which consist of 11 males and 14 females. regarding the data collection techniques, this study used students’ questionnaire. the questionnaire used here was the integrative and instrumental motivation scale of gardner’s attitude/motivation test battery (amtb) that is adapted from vaezi (2009). the questionnaire used 5-point scale that was ranged from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree”. it was divided into two part. the first part cosisted of 12 items (item 1-12, see appendix) that showed the students’ integrative motivation toward the target language. meanwhile, second part includes 13 items (item 13-25, 3 see appendix) in which the participants were asked to measure their utilitarian reason for learning english. for the data analysis, the data gained through questionnaire was analyzed by using spss 16. descriptive statistic (frequency, mean, and standard deviation) was found out for all items involved in this study. the paired sample t-test then was used to find out the difference between students’ integrative and instrumental motivation. result 1. integrative and instrumentally as previously stated, integrative motivation focuses on the intention to know the target language community as well as interest to learn the culture. the following table shows the comparison between the mean score of the questions in integrative part. table 1. descriptive statistics of the 12 items on integrative motivation (n=25) items: i study english …. 1 2 3 4 5 m sd q1: to be more at ease with other people who speak english 3 2 5 15 4.28 1.061 q2: to meet and converse with more and varied people 4 8 13 4.36 .757 q3: to better understand and appreciate english art and literature 6 8 5 6 3.64 1.150 q4: to participate more freely in the activities of other cultural groups 3 4 8 6 4 3.16 1.248 q5: to know the life of the english-speaking nations 2 7 11 3 2 2.84 1.028 q6: to understand english pop music 5 14 6 4.04 .676 q7: the more i get to know native english speakers, the more i like them 3 1 18 1 2 2.92 .954 q8: to know various cultures and peoples 1 5 14 2 3 4.00 .707 q9: to keep in touch with foreign friends and acquaintances. 1 3 13 8 4.12 .781 q10: to know more about native english speakers 3 4 11 7 3.88 .971 items: i study english …. 1 2 3 4 5 m sd 4 q11: the british are kind and friendly 2 17 5 1 3.20 .645 q12: the americans are kind and cheerful 1 4 13 2 5 3.24 1.091 overall mean score 3.64 note: mean classification 2.5 – 3.25 = low ; 3.25 – 4.00 = moderate ; 4.00 – 5.00 = high from the above table, it can be seen that the mean of question number 1, 2, 6, 8, and 9 are above 4.00. this indicates students’ high motivation to meet, talk, and keep in touch with english native speaker. they are also highly motivated to know the english culture, especially the music. meanwhile, the mean of question number 3 and 10 are below 3.25, which implies students’ moderate motivation. at this point, the students have little interest to know about the english art/literature and to know more about english native speaker. in other words, they do not want to know english native speaker life or privacy. regarding the mean of question numbers 4, 5, 7, 11, and 12, they stay under 3.25. this is considered as low. the students, in this case, are low motivated to participate in cultural activity of the target language. they also do not have high interest to know about the life of english people. this supports the statement in number 10. meanwhile, instrumental motivation refers to motivation based on a more practical need to communicate in the second language. in other word, the learners want to learn the second language to gain something from it. the table below presents the mean score of the students’ instrumental motivation. table 1. descriptive statistics of the 13 items on the instrumental motivation (n=25) i study english because…. 1 2 3 4 5 m sd q13: i'll need it for my future career. 2 23 4.92 .277 q14: it will make me a more knowledgeable person. 2 12 6 5 3.64 .952 q15: it will someday be useful in getting a good job. 1 24 4.96 .200 q16: other people will respect me more if i know english. 4 3 14 3 1 2.76 1.012 q17: i will be able to search for information and materials in english on the internet. 8 17 4.64 .490 q18: i will learn more about what’s happening in the world. 1 4 7 13 4.24 1.012 q19: language learning often gives me a feeling of success. 6 3 9 4 3 2.84 1.375 q20: language learning often makes me happy. 2 1 12 7 3 3.32 1.030 i study english because…. 1 2 3 4 5 m sd 5 q21: an educated person is supposed to be able to speak english. 3 2 7 9 4 3.36 1.221 q22: i can understand englishspeaking films, videos, tv or radio. 2 4 8 11 4.08 1.038 q23: i can read english books. 2 3 9 7 4 3.32 1.145 q24: to know new people from different parts of the world. 1 3 14 5 2 3.16 .898 q25: without it one cannot be successful in any field. 3 8 14 4.44 .712 overall mean score 3.82 note: mean classification 1 2.75 = low ; 2.75 3.75 = moderate ; 3.75 – 5.00 = high in instrumental part, the students were highly motivated in the question number 13. in this case, they are realized that as second language, english plays an important part to get their future job. in addition, the question number 13, 17, 18, 22, and 25 also shows students’ high motivation. the other questions, exactly 14, 16, 19, 20, 21, 23, and 24 illustrated students’ moderate motivation. similar with the integrative, overall mean score in this part signified students moderate motivation toward learning english. at this point, they are not really enthusiasm to gain something trough learning english. by comparing the means score of integrative (3.64) and instrumental motivation (3.82), it can be seen that the students in certain extent are instrumentally motivated. however, to know the significance different between those two motivations t-test are used. the result can be seen in the following session. the aim of paired sample t-test is to make sure that there is a significance differences between the students’ integrative and instrumental motivation. the result is illustrated in the following table: from the t-test result, it is found that the mean between integrative and instrumental motivation is -6 with 24 of standards deviation. moreover, it is also discovered that paired samples test paired differences t df sig. (2tailed) mea n std. deviati on std. error mean 95% confidence interval of the difference lower upper pair 1 x1 x2 6.00 0 5.759 1.152 -8.377 -3.623 5.20 9 24 .000 6 significance (0.000) is less than 0.05. it means that there is a significance differences between the students’ integrative and instrumental motivation. this study is conducted to determine which of the two types of motivation – integrative and instrumental – can be the primary source for senior high school students’ motivation toward learning english as second language. the data of the finding shows that the students have greater emphasis on instrumental reason for learning english language than the integrative one. even though the disparity is not quite bigger, the result of paired t-test illustrates that there is a significance differences between them. this indicates that students are motivated to learn english as the second language in order to gain something from it, which is in this case is related to their future career or job. regarding to the integrative motivation taking place on the second position after the instrumental one, this indicates that the students’ interest in learning english as second language and its culture has the least impact on their motivation. it is probably because they have less opportunity to directly interact with the native speaker. this fact is such an irony. as it has been known, the access to have direct contact with the native speaker is widely opened. there is a social networking, chatting, and other media that can be used as mediator. nevertheless, the students is more interested in watching english film and video as well as listening to its music rather than having direct contact with them. it implies that students only think english as the need for their future job or career. they are not really like them and want to know more about it. the data findings indirectly against gass and selinker (2001 in vaezi, 2009) statements that integrative motivation was regarded as superior to instrumental motivation for predicting the success of second language learning. however, instrumental motivation is also meaningful for learner in learning a second language. in this case, the students attempt to develop their language ability for the sake of their future career. they will be motivated to study the second language hard at this point. therefore, this type of motivation can be considered as important motivation. conclusion basicaly, both integrative and instrumental motivation contributes to the second language learning. there is no motivation that is considered as the superior. as ellis (1997 in vaezi, 2009) states, both integrative and instrumental motivation are essential element of learning success. unfortunately, the finding of this study shows that senior high school students are instrumentally motivated in learning english as a second language. in their point of view, learning english is important for supporting their future, especially for getting a job. in this case, the students are less interested to know about english culture or to interact with the native speaker. finally, this study confirms the opinion of some researchers who believe that in a foreign language situation students are instrumentally oriented. 7 reference carreira, junko. 2006. motivation for learning english as a foreign language in japanese elementary schools. retrieved on january 6, 2012 from jaltpublications.org/archive/jj/.../art2.p... jepang creswell, j. w. 1994. research design: qualitative & quantitative approaches. new delhi : sage publications. lucas, rochele. 2010. a study in the intrinsic motivation factors in second language learning among selected freshman students. retrieved on january 6, 2012, from www.philippine-esl-journal.com/v4_a1.pdf qashoa, sulaiman. 2006. motivation among learners of english in the secondary school in the eastern coast of the uae. retrieved on january 6,2012 from www.asian-efljournal.com/thesis_sulaiman_... setiawati, liani.2011. chapter report on individual differences. unpublish paper at indonesia university of education. vaezi, zahra. 2009. language learning motivation among iranian undergraduate students. retrieved on january 6, 2012 from www.ijls.net/volumes/.../vaezi1.pdf waugh, linda. 2004. motivation and its role in language acquiaition. retrieved on 6 january, 2012, from www.u.arizona.edu/.../... 8 acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 87 enhancing students' reading comprehension through venn diagram strategy and kwl (know, want, learn) strategy. caroline v. katemba1 correspondence author: ctobing@unai.edu universitas advent indonesia, bandung-indonesia natalia m. sihombing2 perguruan advent angrek, jakartaindonesia doi: 10.35974/acuity.v8i1.3015 abstract the aim of this study is to compare how well students who learn the venn diagram technique and those who learn know, want, learn (kwl) chart method perform in terms of their reading comprehension. this study measured preand post-test performance using a quantitative research method and comparative design. 64 grade x students from lembang in bandung barat participated in the study. two groups were created out of them. while the students in the other group obtained the venn diagram, the students in the first group acquired the k.w.l chart. a descriptive test was utilized as the study instrument. the findings of this study demonstrate that there is no significant difference in reading comprehension improvement between students who learned the venn diagram and those who learned k.w.l, and there is also no difference in reading comprehension development for the gender group. keyword: venn diagram and know, want, learn (kwl) english is regarded as an international language since it is so useful. katemba and hulu (2013) stated that “in general, english is viewed not only as an indispensable vehicle of access to scholarly disciplines but also as a medium for international communication.” (p.1). in indonesia, english is classified as a foreign language and is one of the official courses that must be taken in the classroom as part of the basic or secondary school curricula (katemba, 2013). “students of efl (english as a foreign language) tend to be learning, so that they can use english when traveling or communicating with other people from whatever country who also speak english” (harmer, 2010. p. 12) fernandes (2014) noted that “in the developing world. english has emerged as an essential language to learn and been a common tool to communicate in the world. english is a prime language for the expression of one’s own feelings and technological usage.”(p.3) in learning a language, there are four integrated skills that needed to be learned, and one of them is reading. reading is crucial since the majority of educational materials are written, which implies that students must have access to written information and read it in order to understand it. speaking, reading, listening, and https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 88 writing are the four english language skills, according to kusriani (2013). one of the four skills, reading, is crucial to learning because it gives access to knowledge, information, a diversity of languages, and the ability to apply concepts practically. as a result, teachers frequently require their pupils to understand the materials they are reading. students are required to be proficient readers who can fully understand the content. (katemba samue. 2017) . further, students typically have a lot of difficulties reading a material. for instance, how to read a phrase or sentence correctly, understand difficult terms, etc. the majority of the reading exercises in reading class center on comprehension reading (katemba & samuel, ext2017). to help students comprehend on the text they are reading, it is very helpful to use the venn diagrams. venn diagrams, according to samosir sibarani (2012), help students comprehend literature because they keep them focused on the terms that need to be compared and contrasted.. according to agusriani (2013), venn diagrams are another one of the basic graphic organizer techniques. venn diagrams help pupils learn and expand their knowledge. comparison is one tactic for enhancing pupils' subject understanding. based on the just-explained rationale, the researcher is considering doing a study titled the comparison between venn diagram strategy and know, want, learn (k.w.l) chart strategy to improve students' reading comprehension capacity. review of related literature reading reading is crucial to human existence because it teaches kids not only how to pronounce written words but also how to interpret them. people will easily be able to learn information through reading literature.. according to sandjaja (2005), reading interest is a strong, intense concern that is coupled with a love of reading activities and can inspire a person to read the books they find most appealing.it means that reading activity is really interesting activity. according to burhan (2012), reading is a physical and cerebral activity that involves learning letters in order to expose the meaning of written texts. according to linse (2006), reading is a combination of abilities that entails deriving meaning from the written word and making sense of it. students must be able to decode or sound out the printed words and comprehend what they read in order to read. in another word, reading is a process of understanding the meaning of written forms. the readers have to be able to decode letters, words, and sentences that have been presented by the writer. moreover, the readers have to be able to comprehend the written text. tarigan (2008) stated that reading is a process done and used by readers to obtain messages to be conveyed by the author through the medium of words or written language. ruddell (2005) contends that because reading is a complicated activity, it is the act of creating meaning while interacting with material. the mix of prior knowledge and experience, information in the text, the reader's perspective on the text, and the reader's immediate, recalled, or expected social contact and communication help the reader make sense of what they are reading. in https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 89 conclusion, reading is a process used by readers to extract meaning from the text and to avoid guesswork. reading also involves communicating the writer's intent to the reader and deciphering written symbols, both of which involve responding to written texts in order to extract meaning or information from them. reading comprehension the ability of the reader to comprehend and make sense of what has been read in a written text is referred to as comprehension. reading helps people understand and comprehend certain aspects in the text so they can communicate what they have already read, in addition to learning how to read and obtaining knowledge. "general reading comprehension is the most basic aim of reading, underpinning and supporting most other purposes for reading," grabe & staller (2002). (p.13). brown (2004) stated that there are some principal strategies for reading comprehension. (1) identify your purpose in reading a text (2) apply spelling rules for bottom-up decoding (3) use lexical analysis to determine meaning (4) guess at meaning (5) skim the text for the gist and for main ideas (6) scan the text for specific information (7) use silent reading techniques for rapid processing (8) use marginal notes, outlines, or semantic maps for understanding information (9) capitalize on discourse markers to process relationships. therefore nagaraj (1996) mentions three techniques in improving reading comprehension skill. (1) scanning. in scanning, readers glance rapidly through a text either to search for a specific piece of information (2) skimming. by skimming, on the other hand, readers glance rapidly through a text to determine its gist (3) intensive/in-depth reading. intensive reading involves approaching the text under the close guidance of the teacher. purpose of reading according to mariam (1991), reading is for comprehension; if we don't understand what we're reading, we won't be able to learn from it or remember it. understanding is a serious matter.. furthermore, there are nine purposes of reading: (1) reading for pleasure (2) perfect reading aloud (3) using a specific strategy; (4) update its knowledge about a topic (5) linking new information with information which he already knew (6) obtain information for reporting written or oral (7) inform or reject the prediction (8) displaying an experiment or applying information obtained from a text in some other way and studying about text structure (9) answer specific questions (rahim, 2008). contemporary reading activities, in contrast to conventional materials, contain three-phase procedures: pre-, while-, and post-reading stages, according to alyousef (2005). the pre-reading phase enables senior high school students to activate the pertinent schema. (p.149).in line with rahvard’s study found out that cooperative learning techniques as one of teaching methods have big effect on student’s reading comprehension. (as cited in gurk 2016). cooperative learning can be used by the researcher as an instructional technique in teaching reading comprehension. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 90 challenge in improving reading comprehension ability according to national reading panel (2000), there are four indicators of reading comprehension, and some of these indicators present a challenge to the students in terms of increasing their reading comprehension skills. students will be able to learn the new terminology first. second, students will be able to interpret the text's meaning. the topic and primary idea of the text can be found by the students at the third place. the fourth point is that students can understand the text's meaning. when students are able to attain and enhance such signs, their reading comprehension skills will also improve. problems of reading the difficulty with reading stems from kids' deficiencies in skills like questioning, inferencing, sensory imagery, important judgment, and prior knowledge (oktadela, et.al., 2014). students who lack vocabulary have a lower score in reading comprehension (hansen, 2009). suryani (2015) in sma n 1 kretek, indonesia. she found out that the students feel bored and did not enjoy the lesson about reading; low motivation to read a text, and did not master vocabulary well. as a consequence, they got difficulty interpreting the meanings of the difficult words and they were not able to find the topic of the text. based on noormah (2000) the students are lacking vocabulary, hardly understand the words, and have less interest in english subject-subject. moreover, kompas, an indonesian daily newspaper, (2003) reported that around 37.6% of 15-year-old students are hard to comprehend the meaning of the reading text. only 24.8% of them are capable of connecting with the text with their knowledge. even, many students are still lacking in terms of comprehension a text (cited by sukayadi & hasanah, 2009) related studies morgan (2007) asserted in the book "more picture science lesson" that students can successfully organize their thoughts and sort material after reading by using venn diagrams.. venn diagram is effective for the students become more active in the reading process because they are being asked to analyze a text in a focused manner (dreher and gray, 2009). on the other hand, according to venn (1880), a venn diagram is effective for graphically organizing relevant information about specified concepts in a systematic way that improves comprehension by highlighting the similarities and differences between defined concepts. teaching reading comprehension by using venn diagram technique increasing students’ achievement on descriptive text (malasari, 2017). further, manurung , et.al., (2022) found in their study that using the venn diagram strategy has a big impact on how well the kids understand what they're reading. venn diagram particularly effective for students to use when reading informational text in which two or more topics are being compared and contrasted in order word venn diagram increase student’s reading comprehension (michael, et.al. 2001). based on this study, it can be concluded that the venn diagram as one of the graphic organizer organizers that bring beneficial impact to https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 91 improve students reading comprehension. another study that is effective in teaching the reading comprehension is the k.w.l chart. all of the students in the research sample had acceptable comprehension monitoring, and the (k-w-l) method was the most significant predictor of reading comprehension (aladwani,et.al. 2022). rakhmawati (2015) conducted a study of k.w.l chart, she noted that kwl strategy was used in teaching students’ reading comprehension is effective. in other word, kwl strategy is a good strategy in teaching students’ reading comprehension. it was because kwl strategy needs the students’ prior knowledge in k chart of kwl chart. and the students must generate some questions based on the topic in w chart, then the students must answer their questions or write some new information that they had learn based on the text in l chart. additionally, riswanto et al. (2014) and rahmawati (2018) noted that the majority of students in the experimental group had improved reading comprehension scores and were passionate, engaged, and enjoyed understanding texts by employing the kwl technique.. after completing multiple k.w.l exercises, students are encouraged to use it as a stand-alone learning technique to activate their past knowledge and expand their k.w.l framework to verify the accuracy of both what they have already learned and what they have learned. this aids children in establishing a clear goal for reading and documenting what they have learnt (conner, 2006). there are six advantages of k-w-l strategy: (1) appropriate for all education levels from beginners up to advanced (2) it can be used for all skills but it is most suitable for reading skill (3) it helps students to monitor their comprehension and knowledge (4) encourages students to do critical thinking (5) teacher and students become more interactive in the teaching and learning process (6) sets out a purpose for reading (ibrahim, 2012) another. study done by hamida (2021) in her study came to the conclusion that the kwl technique may be used to teach reading on islamic economic texts to students of any english proficiency level. according to a research by sampson (2002) and glazer (1998), k.w.l enhances students' prior knowledge and reading comprehension. the method also makes students more at ease with their ability to comprehend a subject because it goes over each stage independently, making comprehension easier. based on the findings of this study, it can be said that the know, want, learn chart is one of the graphic organizers that helps students' reading comprehension. the researcher is interested in finding out which method—venn diagram or k.w.l. chart—will boost students' reading comprehension performance the most. methodology https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 92 research design the researcher employs a comparative design and experimental quantitative research methodology in this study. comparing the students' reading comprehension skills between the comparative groups using a venn diagram and a k.w.l chart. the two groups were first given a pretest to gauge the respondent's aptitude. after that, each group received a different approach, and at the end of the meeting, both groups took a post-test to determine if they had mastered the language or not. creswell (2003) briefly defines it as a design that includes a pretest measurement then following with a treatment and later on giving a posttest for a single group. table 1 research design group pre-test treatment post-test 1 t1 x1 t1 2 t1 x2 t1 explanations: x1: learning english by using venn diagram x2: learning english by using k.w.l chart t1: reading comprehension test population and sample the population of the research was grade x students of sma n 1 lembang. the sample was 64 from grade x mipa 6 and x mipa 7 of sma n 1 lembang. the two classes were comparative groups. this research was conducted in sma n 1 lembang for three months from january to march. research instrument the instruments used in this study were the reading comprehension pre-test and post-test. a pre-test was administered at the beginning of the program, whereas the post-test was administered in the end of the program. for the pre-test the students were given reading through multiple choice questions, to reveal students prior ability and reading level. for the materials during treatment time, students were given the school textbooks and were treated using the venn diagram strategy and k.w.l chart strategy. in the end of the program, students were given a post-test to find the result of students reading improvement after using both strategies. procedures of data collection in gathering the data, researcher used the following step: administering the pilot test the pilot test was conducted before giving the pre-test. the test was reading test with a total number of 50 multiple choice questions. the instruments was pilot tested to the 11th grade in the same school. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 93 pre-test pre-test was given to both comparative groups. this was conducted before applying the treatment to diagnose student’s prior ability in reading. it was multiple choices that focused on reading descriptive text. postlethwaite (2005) defines test as an instrument or procedure that proposes a sequence of tasks to elicit students’ response. the test should be valid and reliable in order to get accurate data. procedures of implementation venn diagram and k.w.l chart after administering the pre-test, the treatments was given to both of the classes. the procedures of teaching through venn diagram are adopted from junaid (2012) he noted that venn diagram can be completed or done by individual and group and the procedures of teaching through k.w.l chart are adopted by ogle (1986) she explained that k.w.l chart can be completed or done by individual and group. procedures of using venn diagram procedures of using k.w.l chart first step: the teacher choose two texts that will be discussed second step: the teacher divide students into pairs or small group third step: the teacher create a venn diagram after that the teacher ask students to create their own from their book. fourth step: the teacher ask students to determine the two issues about the differences and similarities between the two topics and general ideas from the topic then asked them to find out as many words that are related to both of the issues then filled in the circle of differences and similarities fifth step: the process of venn diagram, teacher was suggested to give correction toward students’ mistakes if the students do not respond correctly. first step: the teacher choose two texts that will be discussed second step: the teacher divide students into pairs or small group third step: the teacher create a k.w.l chart after that the teacher ask students to create their own from their book. fourth step: ask students to brainstorm words, term, or phrase they associate with a topic in the k column about what they know and what they would like to learn. then generate a list of question about what they want to know about the topic. the teacher and students record these questions in the w column of their charts. fifth step: have students read the text and fill out the l column of their charts. students should look for the answer to the question in their w column while they are reading. students can fill out their l column either during or after reading. sixth step: discuss the information that students recorded in the l column. so that the student will https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 94 understand what they already discuss in the l column before. seventh step: encourage students to research any questions in the w column that were not answered by the text post-test a post-test was conducted to check the result after applying the treatment venn diagram and k.w.l chart, at the end of the program. the post-test which contained the same question with a pre-test in a different arrangement was administered to both comparative groups. data analysis the result of pre-test and post-test of each group was calculated through spss 21. it can be seen in the following table: table 2. pre-test, post-test, standard deviation and normalized gain venn diagram k.w.l chart mean st. deviation mean st. deviation pre-test 71.22 13.205 73.81 9.212 post-test 84.56 8.832 84.16 6.783 normalized gain 0.4576 0.2075 0.4034 0.1494 based on result on table 2, it can be seen the mean pre-test of venn diagram group is 71.22 with st.deviation 13.205 and post-test 84.56 with st.deviation 8.832. for k.w.l chart group, the mean of the pre-test is 73.81 with st.deviation 9.212 and post-test 84.16 with st.deviation 6.783 and the normalized gain from venn diagram is 0.4576 in moderate category and the normalized gain from k.w.l chart is 0.4034 in moderate category. based on the increase of the mean and decrease of st.deviation from pre-test to post-test of both groups and the normalize gain from venn diagram and k.w.l chart, it can be concluded that there is an improvement on students’ reading comprehension ability. test of normality for gender normality test was conducted to see whether the data population are normally distributed or not. the table 4.2 showed the result of the normality test: table 3 normality test of gender https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 95 according to the table above, this research utilizes the output from the shapiro-wilk. if both data have p. value (sig) > α = 0.05. it means data is normally distributed and if the p. value (sig) ≤ α = 0.05 it means data is not normally distributed. based on the data above, the data population for female is not normally distributed and for male is normally distributed. it is because the significant score of gain for female was 0.023 < 0.05 and the significant of gain for male was 0.191 > 0.05. test of homogeneity variance for gender homogeneity test is a test to find whether the data population is homogeneous or not. the result of the homogeneity test can be seen on the table 4. table 4 homogeneity of variance for gender levene statistic df1 df2 sig. .406 1 62 .526 the data is homogenous if p. value (sig) > α (0.05) it means data is homogenous and if p. value (sig) ≤ α (0.05) it means data is not homogenous. the result between female and male were homogeneous. it is because sig (0.526) > α = 0.05. because the result of the data was not normally distributed and homogeneous, therefore the researcher used mann-whitney. researcher set two assumptions to know the hypothesis is accepted or not: if p value is larger than (>) 0.05, ho is not rejected, it means that there is no significant difference in students’ reading comprehension improvement between female and male. if p value is lesser or equal than (≤) 0.05, ho is rejected, it means that there is significant difference in students’ reading comprehension improvement between female and male. table 5 ; mann whitney u gain mann-whitney u wilcoxon w z asymp. sig. (2-tailed) 485.500 836.500 -.116 .907 group shapiro-wilk statistic df sig. female .932 38 .023 male .946 26 .191 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 96 the result of the data above in table 5 showed that p. value sig = 0.907 > α (0.05). it means that h0 is not rejected. therefore, it is concluded that there is no significant difference on the student’s reading comprehension ability improvement between female and male. according to the data above, the researcher used the data asymp. sig. (2-tailed) discussion of the research finding from the result of the data, it is shown that there is no significant difference on the students’ reading comprehension between those who acquired venn diagram and those who acquired k.w.l chart. even though there is no significance difference, the data from venn diagram and k.w.l chart class showed that the students reading improvement increased. it can be seen from pre-test score for venn diagram strategy 71.22 to post-test score 84.56 and pre-test of k.w.l chart strategy 73.81 to post-test 84.16 it can be concluded that the both strategy are applicable and good proven by the data previously discussed. erika, sondang and rotua (2015) noted in their research that applying k.w.l can improve student’s reading comprehension and enrich their knowledge. in other word, kwl strategy is a good strategy in teaching students’ reading comprehension. furthermore, fauziah and kumalarini (2017) “venn diagram was really helpful in teaching reading and help the students to understand the text through comparing and contrasting the ideas such as the main idea, and also the subjects of the text ”(p. 6) regarding the gender, the result showed that there is no significant difference on the students’ reading comprehension between female and male. furthermore, researcher assumes in implementing different strategy in teaching english especially in reading, it provides to the development of students’ skills, knowledge, and achievement and also the researcher tried to give supportive circumstances personally for the students in order to encourage the students so they can enjoy in learning reading. conclusion from the result of data analysis on the pre-test and post-test, the researcher conclude that there is no significant difference between those who acquire venn diagram and those who acquire k.w.l chart. from venn diagram group on the pretest it was 71.22 with standard deviation of 13.205 and the post-test was 84.56 with standard deviation 8.832 based on venn diagram data showed that the gain for mean was 0.4576 with standard deviation 0.2075. k.w.l pre-test it was 73.81 with standard deviation of 9.212 and the post-test was 84.16 with standard deviation 6.783 based on k.w.l data showed that the gain for mean was 0.4034 with standard deviation 0.1494. for genders group the result of data analysis with normalized gain showed that there is no significant difference on student’s reading comprehension, even https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 97 there is no significant difference between female and male, but there is an improvement for both gender on reading comprehension. recommendation based on research findings, the researcher wants to give some recommendations as follows: for future teacher, teacher can use these two strategy as an alternative in teaching for reading because the students will become active and interest in reading. venn diagram is preferred by most males’ student as seen from the result while k.w.l chart is more suitable for females. for students, it is recommended to learn english reading comprehension by using these strategy, because it is an interesting strategy to read english text. for future researchers, it is hoped that the result of this study can be used as additional reference for the future researcher to try another study in different levels and contexts. references agusriani, emi. samosir. 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(2008). membaca sebagai suatu keterampilan berbahasa. bandung: angkasa venn, j july (1880). the diagrammatic and mechanical representation of proposition: philosophical magazine and journal of science.5 10 (59) https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity the sundanese puppets apperance as the representation of their characters in mahabharata play ida lisdawati ida_lisdawati9088@gmail.com stkip siliwangi banding abstract this study not only aims to introduce sundanese culture which is part of indonesian culture, but also analyses the phenomenon that exists in sundanese puppets performance as one of the entertainment for the sundanese people with semiotic. in this study, the researcher analyzed two factors that determined the result of this research. firstly, the researcher found the role of color as a kind of pictorial metaphor. in each puppet, it will be seen whether the dominant color of puppet represents the characteristics corresponding to the color or has a significant difference. the secondly, the researcher analysed the appearance of each puppets. this research used four puppets from category of panakawan, two puppets from category of knight, and two puppets from category of giant. qualitative method is used for describing the result and the result showed that almost puppets appearance represented their character except cepot that also known as astrajingga. his appearance did not represent his characteristic especially his color face. keyword semiotics, sundanese puppets, color of sundanese puppet. a. introduction sundanese, one of the tribe populating the province of west java, is one of the largest provinces in indonesia. it is associated with religion and belief because it is received many influences from hindu and islamic culture proved by the history of tarumanagara kingdom that stood around the 5th century ad. the area adhere hindu culture are rangkasbitung, bogor, puwakarta, subang, sumedang and indramayu, while the influence of islam on the sundanese comes from the area of cirebon where the data collected indicates a commercial relationship brought by islamic merchants who come from parsi, pasai, malaka, arabic and india. the other data indicate that cirebon is the center of islamic deployment is based on purwaka caruban nagari story that tells the history of islamic dissemination brought by susuhunan jati in 1470 became religion teacher and appointed become head of local area to lead it (ekajati, 1980:90). in west java, there is one area that is not affected by the two religions and cultures derived from these two religions namely banten region holds a belief called the sunda wiwitan. it emphasizes good deeds and not hurting others (ekadjati, 1980:25). in sunda wiwitan belief, a functionary has three assistants who have different tasks. firstly is tangkesa as an astrologer. secondly is jaro dangkat as the supervisor of the territory of dangka and the last is gurang seurat as a leader of religious ceremony. because of their belief, baduy residents limit the influence that goes into the baduy tribal ares so that makes the baduy tribe who live in south banten is the only region in the west java awakened its customs. a famous sundanese artist, ajip rosidi, states that sundanese art has a variety of vocal music called “tembang” where it is a culture that comes from the mixing of javanese and sundanese culture. tembang itself eventually developed into “papantunan” and “dedegungan” and the other art getting influence from hindu is puppet (ekadjati, 1980:147). the use of mahabarata and ramayana stories is evidence that indonesian culture is influenced by hindu culture brought by indian traders although the puppet itself originated from javanese culture that eventually developed into a part of sundanese culture. in essence, the difference between mahabharata and ramayana lies in the time difference of the story mahabharata tells the story of the royal period of barata, while ramayana tells the king of rama (salamu in suryana, 2002). the first type of puppet in java is “wayang kulit purwa” developed into “wayang golek purwa" in west java. wayang golek (suryana, 2002: 12) is a communication tool used by puppeteers to convey the values of kindness to the audience so that not only become a form of entertainment but also become a tool of learning about religious and social values (suryana, 2002:20). in manufacture of “wayang golek”, the creator must allow the rules called 'pakem'. it is the rule that must be followed in the making of the puppets where the manufacture must go through the stages that have been determined. the coloring of a puppet becomes a necessity in addition to making the puppets more interesting and staining. it is also required to distinguish between the characters of each puppet. in certain puppets, the selection of color on the face is able to explain its character. according to the philosophy of color, each color represents certain traits such as red can represent a character that has high emotion / temperamental and black can symbolize someone who has firm attitude. literature review 1. semiotics the term semiotics comes from the greek 'semeion' meaning 'sign' or 'seme' which means the interpretation of the sign (cobley and jansz in kaelan, 2009: 162). theories about semiotics can use the opinions of peirce and saussure. according to saussure, semiotics is part of the study of the role of the sign that is part of life based on structularisation and develops in general linguistic principles, while peirce states that the understanding of semiotics emphasizes the logical understanding that explains how reasoning people do by studying the signs of more emphasis on logic, pragmatics and linguistics so that it can be explained semiotics is a sub-study of language philosophy that emphasizes the study of signs (kaelan, 2009:160) sign in semiotics is not only in the literal sense but encompassing a wider range of things. it is a device used to find a way to understand life. sign not only explains an object, but also belongs to a literary work, a movie, and even a bird song can be categorized into a sign in human life. how it can explain depends on how the reader can connect between the sign and the signified (zoest, 1992: vii, kaelan, 2009: 162). in grouping the sign, peirce divides into 10 kinds of signs, such as dictated indexical leg sign. the understanding contained in this group indicates that the sign can explain the subject's information, such as the use of traffic signs to indicate that the road has a contour that is quite dangerous (pateda, 2001: 44, kaelan, 2009: 196) 2. sundanese wayang golek “wayang kulit" and “wayang golek” are the famous puppets in indonesia that have a quite prominent difference. “wayang kulit" is a culture that originated from east java and central java so that it is known as 'javanese group', which means that puppet is the result of javanese culture without any element of culture influencing it. this statement is supported by the number of studies (suryana, 2002: 48) which shows that puppet is a legacy of javanese culture where puppet has relation with social, cultural, and religious life javanesse (suryana, 2002: 59). the beginning 1900’s, puppet show held with taking the story of mahabharata. this opinion was conveyed by the 'indian group' who had the opinion that there are two cultures that influence each other in the development of puppet, namely javanese and hindu culture. it is evident that puppet is found at the region of java and bali where it is most influenced by hindu culture and the discovery of the separator between women and men when they are watching the puppet performances are estimated to be a relic of hindu culture in carrying out the initiation ceremony brought by the hindu aide who came to java. the type of puppet can be categorized based on the story, the way of staging and the material of manufacture. the type of puppet based on wayang golek story itself comes from cirebon, the border area between west java and east java which is named 'wayang golek papak' or 'wayang golek cepak’. the development of “wayang golek" in cirebon is related to the development of islam used as a medium for spreading of islam by sunan gunung jati who at that time took control of the government in the 15th century. it is developed in the 19th century with the opening of a highway by daendels that penetrates the isolated areas in west java so puppets can flourish. change of javanese language to sundanese language is done by wiranatakoesoemah iv' government because many sundanesse who are good at playing puppet show. in the early use of sundanese in puppet performance, he assigned a puppeteer from tegal area called ki anting. this puppet is a combination of ideas from dalem karang anyar, regent of bandung regency in 1840’s, and ki darman, the maker of wayang kulit, and perfected by wiranata koesemah iii. in manufacture of puppet, it is tied to the grips that must be followed by the puppet maker such as head position, facial color, eyebrow pattern, eye pattern, nose pattern, nutmeg, and mouth pattern which represent the character and characteristic of certain puppet (suryana, 2002: 12). the puppet lineament divided into three: the first is the character roles. in the golek puppet, the role is divided into four groups namely the knights, ponggawa, giant, and panakawan. the second is the appearance of figures such as arjuna, gatotkaca, semar, and the last is the wanda’s character that specifically describes the physical, or certain popular character environments. the gentle and honest night puppets displayed with bow head, white face, narrow eyes, and sharp nose. ponggawa characters portrayed as the handsome puppet, gallant, large eyebrows, and sharp nose. giant puppets are depicted with the red face, large eyebrows, goggle eyes, big nose, thick moustache, big mouth and canine, while the expression of panakawan is illustrated with funny face. 3. color of sundanese puppet the study of color of puppet is begun by with r.l.mellema who states that the color on the puppet's face is a sign of his character, such as the puppet that are characterized as having bad character, greed, arrogance, quick temper and others has red face. there are four basic colors used in the puppets namely red, white, gilts, and black. besides using basic color, the puppet can use combined color such as red and white for producing pink so that the puppet will have combined character between red and white characters (suryana, 2001:110) in addition for describing the puppet character, the color can also describe a particular state or meaning such as red. it associated with the tempered, pompous and something that is not good character, but if red is related to the state of something or of a certain meaning, then red may symbolize brave, white portrays humility although in reality the color meaning may not be the same from one place to another. the color grouping known in the sundanese tradition is known as 'nu opat kalima pancer' in which the insight refers to the four points of the compass that symbolize nature and work. the north wind is denoted by a black that has a rigid nature, in which the work corresponding to that is a helper. southern winds, symbolized in red, which has a greedy nature becoming the nature of the trader who seeks to profit as much as possible for its own sake. the western wind has a yellow symbol representing the nature of showing off. the puppet has a look up head posture symbolize the arrogant nature. the eastern wind currency is symbolized by a white that has sufficient properties like a farmer trying to provide the needs of the people by planting rice, while the center of these winds has multicolor representing the articulate nature that is usually the nature of a king who only reigns for his desires (suryana, 2001:116). research metodhology 1. the method this study uses descriptive-analysis. this method is part of qualitative research used to explain the puppet character based on their color face and appearance. descriptive research is used for describing the result based on data. it will represent, analyze, and interpret of data. 2. the method and technique of data collection the writer collects golek puppet based on their group. the researcher chooses four puppets from category of panakawan, two puppets from category of knight, and one puppet from category of giant. 3. the method and technique of data analysis after deciding the puppets that will be analyzed, the researcher tries to determine the puppet character based on their color face and appearance. the procedure of data analysis consists of three steps. the first step is the researcher analyses of color and physically identitity from the puppets. the second one is the researcher tries to determine of meaning from the puppets’ color and appearance, and the last step is the writer makes a conclusion based on the result. finding and discussion based on the sample that researcher took for this research, sample consisted of four puppets from category of panakawan, two puppets from category of knight, and one puppets from category of giant. the result would presented in descriptive paragraph: 1. semar is a member of panakawan picture 1 semar semar was a leader of panawakan group of sundanese puppet; he had characteristic features such as upturned and white face, “gendul" nose, and “cameh meseum" mouth. semar had white face because he represented sufficient attitude. it described a quiet, unselfish, and always giving change to others attitudes. his face position was upturned because he was described as a character who always giving advises that we as human should follow god’s rules. he had “cameh mesem" mouth. “cameh” was a under lip position which exceeded up lip, meanwhile “mesem” meant smile in sundanese. this mouth portrayed a corky and humorist character. the last characteristic feature of semar was his nouse that included to “gendul shape”. in sundanese, this nose described as a big nose. based on this explanation, semar could be described as a good character. he always tried to be good role model for his circumstance. 2. astrajingga/cepot is a member of panakawan picture 2 astrajingga/cepot cepot was a member of panawakan group of sundanese puppets; he had characteristic features such as upturned and red face, “gendul” nose, and “cameh meseum” mouth. red was identified as a bad character such as selfish, sly, and always using much ways to get everything that he wanted, but in this case, cepot was described as puppet which had characteristic features as selfish, sly, flirtatious, but he also had a good character as brave and loyal. his color only showing cepot’s identity. his face position was upturned because he was described as a character who always giving advises. he had “cameh mesem" mouth. “cameh” was a under lip position which exceeded up lip, meanwhile “mesem” meant smile in sundanese. this mouth portrayed a corky and humorist character. the last characteristic feature of cepot was his nose included to “gendul shape”. in sundanese, this nose described as a big nose. based on this explanation, cepot could be described as a good character; even sometime he could be someone who nettled others. 3. dawala is a member of panakawan picture 3 dawala dawala was a member of panawakan group of sundanese puppets; he had characteristic features such as upturned and pink face, long nose, and “cameh meseum" mouth. if we associated his face with color of psychology, it represented characters such as resignation, demanding, cute and humorist. he had “cameh mesem" mouth. “cameh” is a under lip position which exceed up lip, meanwhile “mesem” means smile in sundanese. this mouth portrayed a corky and humorist character. the last characteristic feature of dawala was long nose which was not given any meaning. based on this explanation, dawala could be described as a humorist character. 4. gareng is a member of panakawan picture 4 gareng gareng was a member of panawakan group of sundanese puppets; he had characteristic features such as ivory face, “bunder” nose, and “gusen”mouth. the color of garnet’s face represented calm, warm. the negative of this color was less responsibility and unstable. judging from the nature, the figure of gareng in wayang golek included of silent characters, statements made by him sometimes inconsistent, but still had a sense of such as cepot and dawala. had “jujung” eye type represented nimble and rough character. he also had “gusen” mouth shape. gusen was the shape of the mouth that showed gums, teeth or fangs. this mouth shape represented the character of evil and wicked, and ‘bunde”nose because he had a big nose. based on the above explanation, dawala was a puppet showed character who was described as a rough, inconsistent and reserved figure, but he also has good character that he had the same sense of humor as dawala and cepot. 5. bima is a member of knight picture 5 bima bima had the characteristics such as bow head, ivory face, “gabahan” eye, small nose and “salitan” mouth. the ivory or beige possessed by bima if associated with the color chromatic symbolized the gentle nature such as calm and warm. judging from the nature, the figure of bima as a silent character, statements made sometimes inconsistent. he was known as an honest person, but he was not easily instigated or influenced by anything, even though the agitator used various moves and ways. bima also had a very deep tolerance for anyone, so he would immediately provide help to anyone who was hit by misfortune and distress. he was also very strong in keeping with religious and state law. he was a patriotic figure who was always faithful to the environment. this eye represented a sharp and careful eye. based on the statement above, it could be concluded that bima was categorized as a good figure, and he has knight spirit. 6. arjuna is a member of knight picture 6 arjuna arjuna had haracteristic features such as “tungkul” head position, white face, “gabahan eyes”, small nose and “salitan” mouth. the white of arjuna possessed a sufficient stance. it described a calm character, unselfish and always giving opportunity to others. arjuna eyes included to “gabahan” shape. it meant that bima had narrow eyes. it represented sharp and careful eyes. he also had “salitan mouth”. it was the form of mouth that was widely used in the puppet group that has good character. based on the explained above, it could be concluded that the character arjuna had the admirable nature. arjuna was not only the symbol of subtlety and greatness of a man's mind, but also very sensitive soul, and gentle heart. 7. duryudhan is a member of knight picture 7 duryudhan duryudana had characteristics such as bow head, ivory face, “peten” eyes, and the “salitan” mouth. the ivory or beige possessed by duryudana if associated with the color chromatic symbolized the gentle nature such as calm and warm. judging from these traits, the figure of duryudana in wayang golek included to honest character, easily affected by his ignorant. he also had “peten” eyes and “salitan” mouth that is the form of mouth that was used in the puppet group that has good character. based on the characteristic, bima was categorized as a good figure, and has knight spirit. 7. dursasana is a member of giant. picture 7 dursasana dursasana had characteristic features such as upturned head, red face, “rembesan” eye, sharp nose and “gusen” mouth. red had positive and negative views. positive outlook: love, energy, power, power, suffering, negative heat: anger, danger, warning, impatience. the red possessed by the dursana represented a pompous nature. he always insulted everyone. he also had “plankengan” describing the ruthless. dursasana also had “gusen” mouth. based one explanation above, it can be concluded that the duersasana was an antagonist character that has a lot of vices , such as the evil character, arrogant, reckless, like talking loud, cocky, arrogant, likes to laugh, insult each other, and so on. conclusion based on the result above, the writer concludes that the color cannot represent their characters. as we know that red is represented as a bad thing such as bad character, but it does not mean that puppet which has black face has bad character. astrajingga is a puppet which has red face, but in fact he is still has good attitude. he is known as funny and loyal character. in the other hand, dursana also has red face and he has most negative attitude as representation of red character. he is antagonist, arrogant, and reckless puppet. bibliography ekadjati, e s. (1980). masyarakat sunda dan kebudayaanya. pt girimukti pusaka, jakarta. kaelan. (2009). filsafat bahasa semiotic dan hermeneutik. paradigm, jogjakarta. narbuko and abu achmadi. (2012). methodology penelitian. bumi aksara, jakarta riduwan. (2012). belajar mudah penelitian untuk guru-karyawan dan peneliti pemula. penerbit alfabeta, bandung. suryana, j. (2002). wayang golek sunda:kajian estetika rupa tokoh golek . pt. kiblat utama.bandung. acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 47 are tefl vs. non-tefl graduates teachers’ experience, creativity, mindfulness, and instructional competency different ? fatemeh tohidifar1 english department, islamic azad university, mashhad, iran fatemeh.tohidifar73@yahoo.com akram faravani2 english department, islamic azad university, mashhad, iran afaravani@yahoo.com doi: 10.35974/acuity.v8i1.2806 abstract recent advancement in educational systems have fostered the significance of language teachers’ responsibilities to improve their qualities and competences since students’ development is directly related to teachers’ qualities and profession. the current study aims at finding the interrelationships between tefl graduates vs. non tefl graduates efl teachers’ teaching experience, sense of creativity, sense of mindfulness, and their instructional competency. 318 efl teachers were selected through convenience sampling from different institutes. participants filled three questionnaires of teaching creativity quotient, five facet mindfulness questionnaire, and instructional competency questionnaire by using both paper-based and online methods. to analyze the data, two models for interrelationships among the variables of the study for the two groups of tefl and nontefl graduates were proposed and tested using path analysis. the findings showed that the proposed model in tefl group perfectly fit with the data. in non-tefl group the goodness of fit indices was not within the acceptable range. moreover, there was a significant difference between the two groups (tefl and non-tefl teachers) regarding instructional competency. this study can be beneficial for teachers, learners, and supervisors. keywords: creativity, instructional competency, mindfulness, teaching experience. introduction recent advancements in educational system have fostered the significance of language teachers’ responsibilities to improve their qualities and competences since students’ development is directly related to teachers’ qualities and profession (katyal & evers, 2004; halili, 2019). accordingly, the importance of teacher education is highlighted. in this condition, teachers’ duty is not only to transfer the information and knowledge to students but also to increase their sense of creativity, problem solving, critical thinking, and so on (faravani & ataei, 2015a). therefore, to achieve these goals, a teacher needs to have essential teaching competencies and qualities (nair, 2016; kansanen, 2004). working as a teacher is full of stresses; as teachers said, working in modern teaching environment is very stressful and this can result in teachers who are tired, depressed, worried, cynic and don’t consider themselves adequately efficient. in addition, stress and fatigue in teachers and their consequences (including low self-efficacy, lack of enthusiasm, and less https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity mailto:fatemeh.tohidifar73@yahoo.com mailto:afaravani@yahoo.com acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 48 effective teaching style) has negative effects on student engagement and their educational quality (emerson et al, 2017) teacher quality refers to some teacher-related characteristics that produce advantageous educational results which help teachers to have fruitful classes (coachran-smith, 2005; nguyen et al, 2020). faravani and ataei (2015b) mentioned some essential qualities for a good teacher. they believed that a teacher should be creative, talented, and skillful in teaching, and provides students with positive feedback, fosters their critical thinking, and builds up a suitable environment for learning. therefore, it seems that creativity, mindfulness, and teaching experience can be categorized as teacher qualities, since these features can help teachers to provide an appropriate learning environment. in our complicated world, with no borders remains using modern technologies, a teacher should be aware of different cultures and have a global perspective, he should know modern and relevant teaching styles to go beyond borders. however, it is represented in literature that most teachers and teacher candidates have a racist worldview (crawford et al, 2002). teachers as professionals who want to improve their work efficiency by making wise choices in determining educational speed, teaching schedule, students’ grades and his reaction to them, decision on placement and tracking, should evaluate and monitor their students’ activities. schultz jørgensen (1999) and pellerone et al, (2020) believe that competence strengthens teachers’ quality and professional knowledge as it enables them to use knowledge or skills according to the situation. among different competencies that a teacher needs to have, instructional competency has a crucial role in the process of teaching. an instructionally competent teacher uses different and proper teaching methods, techniques and strategies to assess students’ learning qualities. moreover, an instructionally competent teacher is aware of students’ needs and is active and reflective to assess and develop professional skills of teaching and learning (glickman, 2002; macaro & han, 2020). barnuevo, hasegawa, and hugo (2012.) introduced the components of instructional competency which are consisting of knowledge about subject matter, teaching skill, classroom administration, and assessment skill. so, it can be inferred that instructional competency is multifaceted and can help teachers to face the challenges of teaching. different factors can influence teacher instructional competency and may be related to it. one factor can be creativity (; kettler et al, 2018; zhang & watkins, 2007). as it was mentioned before, a successful teacher needs to have some competencies and qualities. on one hand, park (2011) claimed that creativity is a skill which emerges when somebody faces a challenge and solves problems. on the other hand, one component of instructional competency is classroom management (barnuevo, hassegawa, & hugo, 2012 ; gözen, 2017) which means that competent teachers use different techniques to find a way to solve the problems when they face difficult situations in class. therefore, it can be concluded that the teachers who are both creative and competent, are more ready for the challenges of teaching. accordingly, it can be concluded that creativity and instructional competency are interrelated. another factor that can be related to instructional competency is mindfulness. mindfulness has been defined differently by different scholars. according to kabat‐zinn (2003) and tarrasch et al (2020), mindfulness is defined as “the awareness that emerges through paying attention to purpose, in the present moment and non-judgmentally to the unfolding of experience moment to moment”. based on baer, smith, hopkins, and krietemeyer (2006), observing, describing, acting with awareness, non-judging of inner experience, and non-reactivity to inner experience are the components of mindfulness. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 49 as it was mentioned earlier, mindfulness is a factor that can affect instructional competency. mindfulness can help people to deal with stressful situations (keng, smoski, & robins, 2011; jennings, 2016; braun et al, 2019). for that reason, being mindful is so crucial for teachers since teaching is regarded as a stressful profession (garner et al, 2018; tirri, 2011). mindfulness is a complex phenomenon which is about present moment awareness, attention and self-control (bishop et al., 2004; braun et al, 2019). on one hand, mindfulness can help teachers to deal with stressful classroom environment and students’ behavior with more awareness, emotion regulation and acceptance (block-lerner, adair, plumb, rhatigan, & orsillo, 2017). a mindful teacher is able to make decisions at the moment and find out a way to deal with problematic situations. on the other hand, two components of instructional competency are classroom management and teaching skills meaning that competent teachers know how to manage the stressful classroom and how to teach and behave with students with more awareness by using different strategies and techniques (barnuevo, hassegawa, & hugo, 2012; gage & macsuga-gage, 2017). consequently, it can be inferred that mindfulness and instructional competency are interrelated. there are some overlaps between qualities of mindfulness and creativity. on one hand, langer (2014) stated that a mindful person is characterized with the following traits:” (1) ability to create new categories; (2) being open to new information and (3) being aware of more than one perspective”. on the other hand, shively (2011) stated that creativity is related to fluency (capability of developing a lot of ideas), flexibility (capability of considering different perspectives of the topics), originality (capability of generating unique or unusual ideas) and elaboration (being able to fructify an idea). so, it seems that there is a bidirectional relationship between creativity and mindfulness. it is worth mentioning that teacher experience is a challenging issue. there are different ideas and controversies over the importance of teaching experience. as suggested in louws et al (2017), tendency to increase knowledge about the methods of classroom administration in mid-career teachers is higher than earlyand late-career teachers. rice (2010) believed that experience increases knowledge, skills, and productivity. moreover, ladd (2008) claimed that 20 years-experienced teachers are not necessarily more effective than 5 years-experience teachers. based on this controversy, the researcher finds it necessary to find the role of teaching experience. as it was discussed earlier, the teacher has a key role in the classroom and can help students to be more successful. but some special criteria are needed for a person to be considered as an instructionally competent teacher. according to the literature, it seems that there is no study which investigated the interrelationships among instructional competency, sense of mindfulness, sense of creativity, and teaching experience between two groups of tefl and non-tefl iranian efl teachers. therefore, the researcher found it essential to fill this gap. to sum up, this study was conducted to answer the following main questions: 1. research question 1: is there any significant relationship between teaching experience and instructional competency of iranian efl teachers? 2. research question 2: is there any significant relationship creativity and instructional competency of iranian efl teachers? 3. research question 3: is there any significant relationship between sense of mindfulness and instructional competency iranian efl teachers? https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 50 4. research question 4: is there any significant relationship between educational background (tefl vs. non-tefl) and instructional competency of iranian efl teachers? 5. research question 5: is there any significant relationship between sense of mindfulness and creativity of iranian efl teachers? 6. research question 6: to what extent is the proposed model for the interrelationships of teaching experience, creativity, mindfulness, and instructional competency appropriate for the iranian efl context? methodology participants and setting based on a study conducted by kline (2015), we need at least 250 persons for conducting sem. accordingly, the sample of this study included 318 teachers, 190 of whom were tefl graduated and 128 were non-tefl graduated teachers from other fields, including literature, translation and linguistics.136 of the participants had bachelor, 139 had master, and 43 had phd and all work in language institutes. there were 114 men and 204 women with age range of 20-40. participants were randomly selected from different cities in iran, mostly mashhad and tehran. the procedure of data selection was done through convenience sampling. the data was collected using both paper-based and online methods. instrumentation we used the following methods and tools for data collection. teaching creativity quotient (eltcq). teachers’ sense of creativity was assessed using teaching creativity quotient (eltcq) (p’rayan, 2014; ufrah, 2020). teachers indicated their level of agreement with these 30 statements using a 3-point scale. in this questionnaire, 5 means strongly agree, 3 means agree but not strongly, 1 means do not agree. it can help teachers go through self-assessed process for measuring their level of creativity. higher scores on the scale show a high level of creativity. the given time for answering this questionnaire was 20 minutes. the reliability and validity of this questionnaire was .83 which was computed through sem. the five facet mindfulness questionnaire. current study, applied the five facet mindfulness questionnaire (baer et al., 2006 ; carpenter et al., 2019) to examine a teacher’s level of mindfulness. the questionnaire measures a teacher’s mindfulness in terms of five facets which are: observing, describing, acting with awareness, non-judging of inner experience, and non-reactivity to inner experience. besides, it includes 39 items which are rated using a 1 to 5-point likert-type scale ranging from never or very rarely true, rarely true, sometimes true, often true, to very often or always true. the given time for answering this questionnaire was 15 minutes. the reliability and validity of this questionnaire was .89 which was computed through running sem. instructional competency questionnaire. teacher’s instructional competency was assessed through barnuevo, hassegawa, and hugo (2012) and ismail, don, , husin, & khalid, (2018)’s questionnaire. this questionnaire is divided into four distinct elements which are: mastery of subject matter, teaching skill, classroom management, and evaluation skill. each factor includes 10 items. thus, it has 40 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 51 items in total. the teachers marked the item on a likert scale which includes: rarely, sometimes, often, and always. the given time for answering this questionnaire was 15 minutes. the reliability and validity of this questionnaire was .96 which was computed through running sem. study design and analysis this study is a quantitative procedure for investigating the interrelationships among given variables in a correlational design. for assessing the correlation between variables, pearson correlation was used. also, in order to show the difference between two groups (tefl and non-tefl) regarding instructional competency, a t-test was conducted. the relationships between all of variables were examined using structural equation modeling (sem). the proposed model for sem the proposed model for sem is provided in figure 1. fig 1. model proposed for the interrelationships present between mindfulness, creativity, teaching experience, and instructional competency of tefl and non-tefl graduates. concerning creativity and instructional competency, different factors can influence teacher instructional competency. one factor can be creativity (kettler et al, 2018). as it was mentioned before, a successful teacher needs to have some competencies and qualities. on one hand, park (2011) claimed that creativity is a skill which emerges when somebody faces a challenge and solves problems. on the other hand, one component of instructional competency is classroom management (barnuevo, hassegawa, & hugo, 2012) which means that competent teachers use different techniques to find a way to solve the problems when they face difficult situations in class. therefore, it seems that teachers with both creativity and competency characteristics do better in teaching challenges. accordingly, it can be concluded that creativity and instructional competency are interrelated. regarding mindfulness and instructional competency, mindfulness is a factor that can affect instructional competency. mindfulness can help people to deal with stressful situations. accordingly, being mindful is so crucial for teachers because some jobs are considered to be stressful and teaching is regarded as such professions (garner et al, 2018; tirri, 2011). mindfulness is a complicated phenomenon that is about awareness and attention to the https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 52 present moment and self-control (bishop et al., 2004; braun et al, 2019). on one hand, mindfulness can help teachers to deal with stressful classroom environment and students’ behavior with more awareness, emotion regulation and acceptance (block-lerner et al., 2017). a mindful teacher is able to make decisions at the moment and find out a way to deal with problematic situations. on the other hand, two components of instructional competency are classroom management and teaching skills (barnuevo, hassegawa, & hugo, 2012) meaning that competent teachers know how to manage the stressful classroom and how to teach and behave with students with more awareness by using different strategies and techniques. consequently, it can be inferred that mindfulness and instructional competency are interrelated. pertaining to creativity and mindfulness, there are some overlaps between qualities of mindfulness and creativity. on one hand, langer (2014) stated that a mindful person can be characterized by the following characteristics: “(1) creation of new categories; (2) openness to new information; and (3) awareness of more than one perspective”. on the other hand shively (2011) stated that “creativity deals with fluency (the ability to generate lots of ideas), flexibility (the ability to look at topics from different angles), originality (the ability to generate unique or unusual ideas) and elaboration (the ability to carry an idea to fruition)”. so, it seems that bidirectional creativity and mindfulness have a bidirectional relationship. it is worth mentioning that teacher experience is a challenging issue. there are different ideas and controversies over the importance of teaching experience. rice (2010) believed that experience increases knowledge, skills, and productivity. on the other hand, ladd (2008) claimed that 20 years-experienced teachers are not necessarily more effective than 5 yearsexperienced ones. therefore, it seems necessary to investigate how teaching experience affects other variables. results according to the research questions and hypotheses of this study, following analyses were conducted: test of normality in order to investigate if the data are distributed normally, we used kolmogorov-smirnov test. the results of the kolmogorov-smirnov test in terms of creativity, mindfulness, and instructional competency are indicated in the following table. table 1 results of k-s test df sig. creativity 318 0.13 mindfulness 318 0.12 instructional competency 318 0.09 according to table 1, sig value obtained for all of the variables is higher than .05. so, normal distribution of data among variables is confirmed. descriptive statistics https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 53 descriptive statistics (including mean, standard deviation, maximum and minimum scores) of the variables of current study i.e. experience, creativity, mindfulness, and instructional competency are indicated in table 2. table 2 descriptive statistics of creativity, mindfulness, and instructional competency n minimum maximum mean std. deviation creativity 318 75.00 150.00 116.37 12.94 mindfulness 318 69.00 179.00 131.29 15.85 instructional competency 318 40.00 160.00 128.20 21.25 experience 318 1.00 22.00 15.26 4.78 the possible range of scores for the creativity scale with 30 items is between 30 and 150, for the mindfulness scale with 39 items is between 39 and 195 and for the instructional competency scale with 40 items is from 40 to 160. it is indicated in above table that the mean score of teachers’ creativity is 116.37 and its standard deviation is 12.94. additionally, the mean score of teachers’ mindfulness is 131.29 with standard deviation of 15.85. besides, the mean score of teachers’ instructional competency is 128.48 with standard deviation of 21.25. finally, the mean score of teachers’ experience is 15.26 with standard deviation of 4.78. the first column also shows that the number of teacher participants was 318. reliability of the questionnaires. output data of cronbach alpha analyses are presented in table 3. we can see that the applied questionnaires had acceptable indices of cronbach alpha as a whole and also in their subscales. table 3 indices of cronbach alpha obtained from analysis of reliability scale number of items cronbach alpha creativity 30 0.83 mindfulness 39 0.89 instructional competency 40 0.96 it can be observed that cronbach alpha indices of our questionnaires were acceptable: creativity (.83), mindfulness (.89), and instructional competency (.96). https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 54 analyzing the model fitness the results of research hypotheses are discussed in this part. result of research hypothesis one h1: any significant relationships cannot be seen between the experience of a teacher and his instructional competency. to assess research hypothesis 1, pearson correlation was conducted. tables 4 and 5 show the results of pearson correlation between teaching experience and instructional competency in tefl and non-tefl groups, respectively. table 4. correlation of teaching experience and instructional competency in tefl group instructional competency teaching experience pearson correlation 0.32** sig. (2-tailed) 0.00 n 190 based on the contents of above table, the relationship recognized between teaching experience and instructional competency in tefl group (r=.32, p<.05) with 190 participants was moderately positive and significant. table 5 results of correlation between teaching experience and instructional competency in nontefl group instructional competency teaching experience pearson correlation 0.30** sig. (2-tailed) 0.00 n 128 in non-tefl group (r=.30, p<.05) with 128 participants, a positive and significant relationship was recognized between instructional competency and work experience of a teacher. therefore, again the null hypothesis is rejected for tefl and non-tefl groups. result of research hypothesis two h2: creativity and instructional competency of a teacher are not significantly related. to assess research hypothesis 2, pearson correlation was conducted. tables 6 and 7 show the results of pearson correlation between creativity and instructional competency in both tefl and non-tefl groups separately. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 55 table 6 results of correlation between creativity and instructional competency in tefl group instructional competency creativity pearson correlation 0.45** sig. (2-tailed) 0.00 n 190 table 6 shows that a moderately positive and significant relationship was found between creativity and instructional competency in tefl group (r=.45, p<.05) with 190 participants. table 7 results of correlation between creativity and instructional competency in non-tefl group instructional competency creativity pearson correlation 0.33** sig. (2-tailed) 0.00 n 128 from table 7, it can be recognized the relationship found between creativity and instructional competency in non-tefl group (r=.33, p<.05) with 128 participants was moderately positive and significant. hence, the second null hypothesis is rejected for both tefl and non-tefl group. result of research hypothesis three h3: there isn’t any significant dependency between sense of mindfulness and instructional competency of a teacher. to assess research hypothesis 3, again pearson correlation was used. tables 8 and 9 show the pearson correlations obtained between sense of mindfulness and instructional competency in both tefl and non-tefl groups, respectively. table 8 results of correlation between sense of mindfulness and instructional competency in tefl group instructional competency sense of mindfulness pearson correlation 0.48** sig. (2-tailed) 0.00 n 190 according to the above table, it can be seen a moderately positive and significant relationship between sense of mindfulness and instructional competency in tefl group https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 56 (r=.48, p<.05) with 190 participants. therefore, the third null hypothesis is rejected in tefl group. table 9 results of correlation between sense of mindfulness and instructional competency in nontefl group instructional competency sense of mindfulness pearson correlation 0.11 sig. (2-tailed) 0.12 n 128 table 9 exhibits that the relationship between sense of mindfulness and instructional competency in non-tefl group (r=.11, p>.05) with 128 participants was not significant. hence, the third hypothesis is confirmed for non-tefl group. result of research hypothesis four h4: the difference of instructional competency between two groups (tefland nontefl teachers) was not significant. to assess the fourth research hypothesis, we used an independent sample t-test. table 10 presents the descriptive statistics of instructional competency in tefl and non-tefl teachers. results of this t-test are indicated in the following table. table 10 the descriptive statistics of tefl and non-tefl teachers in instructional competency gender n mean std. deviation instructional competency tefl 190 137.56 14.53 nontefl 128 118.85 12.75 as table 10 shows, the mean score of tefl group in instructional competency (137.56), is higher than non-tefl group (118.85). in order to recognize the significance of difference, a t-test was applied. table 11 results of the independent-samples t-test t-test for equality of means t df sig. (2-tailed) mean difference std. error difference instructional competency 4.351 316 0.00 17.83 3.56 levene’s test is used to show variance homogeneity on the instructional competency. according to table 11, a significant difference can be seen between the two groups of teachers (tefl and non-tefl teachers) regarding instructional competency. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 57 result of research hypothesis five h5: sense of mindfulness and creativity of a teacher are not significantly related together. to assess research hypothesis 5, pearson correlation was used. tables 12 and 13 are dedicated to pearson correlation obtained for the relationship of sense of mindfulness and creativity in tefl and non-tefl groups, respectively. table 12 results of correlation between sense of mindfulness and creativity in tefl group creativity sense of mindfulness pearson correlation 0.39** sig. (2-tailed) 0.00 n 190 according to table 12, a moderately positive and significant dependency can be seen between sense of mindfulness and creativity in tefl group (r=.39, p<.05) with 190 participants. table 13 results of correlation between sense of mindfulness and creativity in non-tefl group creativity sense of mindfulness pearson correlation 0.19* sig. (2-tailed) 0.033 n 128 table 13 indicates that, the relationship between sense of mindfulness and creativity in non-tefl group (r=.19, p>.05) with 128 participants was positive but weak. hence, the fifth null hypothesis is rejected both for tefl and non-tefl groups. result of research hypothesis six h6: the proposed models of association among variables does not show enough adequacy for tefl and non-tefl groups. statistically, path analysis is a way to identify the relationships and dependencies between given variables. this method is considered as a special kind of structural equation modeling (sem) and for each variable present in casual model, individual indices are adopted. it means that path analysis is considered as a structural model and cannot be used for measuring purposes. path analysis model hypothesized in our study is presented in fig 2. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 58 figure 2. proposed model of the path analysis in order to test the structural relations, model of path (figure 2) was examined using amos 24 statistical package. figure 3 shows the path analysis of the interrelationships between experience, creativity, mindfulness, and instructional competency in the tefl group. figure 3. the path analysis of the interrelationships of creativity, mindfulness, and instructional competency in tefl group. as the model displays, creativity is positively and significantly correlated with mindfulness (b=.31, p<.05). in addition, it shows that in the tefl group, all the three independent variables predict instructional competency positively and significantly: creativity (b=.39, p<.05); mindfulness (b=.42, p<.05); and teaching experience (b=.28, p<.05). several indices of goodness of fit were evaluated in terms of the fitness of model. the indices obtained from the analysis of model of path in tefl group can be seen in table 14. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 59 table 14 goodness of fit indices for model of path analysis in tefl group x2/df gfi cfi rmsea acceptable fit <3 >.90 >.90 <.08 model 2.12 0.92 0.91 0.075 it can be seen from the table 14 that all of the indices of goodness of fit are statistically acceptable. therefore, the model of the interrelationships among experience, creativity, mindfulness, and instructional competency in tefl group enjoyed perfect fit with data. so, it is clarified that the suggested path model is appropriate for the iranian context for tefl group. therefore, the sixth null hypothesis is rejected for tefl group. figure 4 shows the path analysis of the interrelationships among experience, creativity, mindfulness, and instructional competency in non-tefl group. figure 4. the path analysis of the interrelationships in non-tefl group. as the model displays, creativity is positively and significantly correlated with mindfulness (b=.18, p<.05). in addition, it showed that in non tefl group among three independent variables only two variables predict instructional competency positively and weakly: creativity (b=.20, p<.05), and teaching experience (b=.25, p<.05). however, it was found that among non-tefl group, mindfulness cannot predict instructional competency with positive significance (b=.03, p>.05). in order to evaluate the fitness of proposed model, some indices of fit were examined. indices of goodness of fit obtained for path model in non-tefl group are presented in the following table. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 60 table 15 goodness of fit indices for model of path analysis in non-tefl group x2/df gfi cfi rmsea acceptable fit <3 >0.90 >0.90 <0.08 model 3.22 0.85 0.82 0.082 as indicated in table 15, none of the indices of goodness of fit lie in acceptable range. therefore, the model of the interrelationships among experience, creativity, mindfulness, and instructional competency in non-tefl group does not fit with data. so, we can come to conclusion that that the proposed path model is not appropriate for non-tefl group in iranian context. hence, the sixth null hypothesis is confirmed for nontefl group. discussions of the findings this study aimed to find the possible interrelationships between variables, namely instructional competency, sense of mindfulness, creativity, and teaching experience between tefl and non-tefl teachers. the basic purpose of the current research is to investigate whether the proposed model for these variables are suitable or not. according to findings, just in tefl group, all of the variables were significantly related together. also, the proposed model perfectly fitted with the data only in tefl group. in this part, the logical reasons for such interrelationships are mentioned. discussion for first question of the research as the first question, we tried to find any significant relationship between teaching experience and instructional competency in both tefl and non-tefl groups. according to sem which was run in this study, in both groups, a positive significant relationship was observed between teaching experience and instructional competency. so, the first hypothesis was rejected. it can be inferred that the teachers who are more experienced are more instructionally competent in comparison with novice teachers. according to zandmoghadam and meihami (2016), the knowledge obtained from researches is used in classrooms managed by tefl teachers and they consider it as a helpful source; on the other hand, non-tefl teachers believe that their own experience in class management is more reliable. on one hand, the result of this research question is in line with rice’s (2010) claim, since he believed that teaching experience increases knowledge, skills, and productivity. one the other hand, the results are in contrast with ladd’s (2008) idea. they stated that teachers with 20 years of experience vs. teachers with 5 years of experience don’t necessarily show more efficiency and competency. based on researchers’ idea, this contrast might be due to the different participants and settings. discussion for research question two second question of this research was designed to find possible significant relationships between teacher’s creativity and instructional competency. findings indicated that in both tefl and non-tefl groups, a positive significant relationship was observed between creativity and instructional competency. the null hypothesis was rejected in both groups. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 61 teaching procedure, creativity and exhaustion was investigated in a study conducted by ghanizadeh and jahedizadeh (2016). it was found that creativity is important in choosing teaching style by teachers. in addition, creativity can predict positively facilitator and delegator styles, but its prediction trend for authority and expert is negative. some studies have shown that the underlying components of creativity and instructional competency are related (barnuevo, et al. 2012; ghanizadeh & jahedizadeh, 2016; park, 2011). the results of the present study are in line with the mentioned studies. therefore, it seems that the level of teacher creativity can increase teacher’s instructional competency. discussion for research question three the purpose of third question was to find any relationship between teachers ‘sense of mindfulness and instructional competency in both groups of teachers. according to the obtained findings sense of mindfulness and instructional competency of tefl group are positively and significantly related (r=.48, p<.05). in contrast, the relationship between sense of mindfulness and instructional competency of non-tefl group was insignificant (r=.11, p>.05). null hypothesis was approved for the non tefl group and rejected for tefel group. as indicated by simsir (2019), taking mindfulness in online courses by efl teachers increases their tendency to increase their teaching enthusiasm, awareness, happiness and health level. based on some studies it seems that the underlying components of mindfulness and instructional competency are related (barnuevo, et al., 2012; braun et al, 2019;). so, it seems that the results of this research question are consistent with abovementioned studies. it is worth to mention that the reported results in non-tefl group is due to educational background of teachers. it can be concluded that tefl teachers with high level of mindfulness are more instructionally competent. discussion for research question four the fourth research question tried to investigate any relationship between teacher’s educational background (tefl vs. non tefl) and instructional competency. a significant difference can be observed between the two groups (tefland non-tefl groups) regarding instructional competency. findings showed that the mean score of tefl group in instructional competency (137.56), is higher than non-tefl group (118.85). in a study by hamidi and khatib (2016), iranian efl teachers and their capabilities such as emotional awareness, language skills and classroom management and also the interaction between these factors were investigated. using statistical analyses, they concluded that: 1) the interaction between emotional awareness and classroom management was positive, 2)emotional awareness and language skills were significantly related, and 3) language skills was significantly related to classroom management. different studies highlighted the importance of teacher education which current study is in the same line with (jacobs & farrell; 2001; tercanlioglu, 2008). according to the results, current study proved that related education can make a big difference between elt teachers. it can be concluded that teachers who have related education and background are more instructionally competent which makes them more prepare for the process of teaching. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 62 discussion about fifth research question the fifth question of the research is about the interactions between teachers’ sense of mindfulness and creativity. as observed in results section, teachers’ sense of mindfulness and creativity in tefl group are positively and significantly related together, but in non-tefl group, there is a positive but weak relationship between them. obtained findings for this research question was in line with what leavitt (2016) found in his study. he claimed that according to langer (2014) and shively (2011) there are some overlaps between qualities of mindfulness and creativity. therefore, it can be concluded that development in sense of mindfulness can help teachers to be more creative. discussion for research question six the last research question aimed to investigate whether the proposed model of association among these variables shows enough adequacy for context of iran. as seen in literature (barnuevo, et al., 2012.; bishop et al., 2004; jacobs & farrell, 2001; langer, 2014; park, 2011; rice, 2010; shively, 2011; tercanlioglu, 2008), four variables of creativity, teaching experience, mindfulness, and instructional competency are associated with each other. hence the last null hypothesis was rejected only for tefl group, because in tefl group, predictability of all three independent variables for instructional competency was positive and significant. moreover, all of the indices of goodness of fit lie within the acceptable range. accordingly; therefore, the model of the interrelationships among experience, creativity, mindfulness, and instructional competency in tefl group enjoyed perfect fit with data. we can come to deduction that the proposed path model is appropriate for tefl group in iranian context. for non tefl group the hypothesis was confirmed. since, in non tefl group among three independent variables, only two variables predict instructional competency positively and weakly. however, it was found that among non-tefl group, mindfulness is not a positive significant predictor of instructional competency. not all of the indices used for goodness of fit lie in acceptable range. therefore, the model of the interrelationships among experience, creativity, mindfulness, and instructional competency in non-tefl group does not fit with data. in conclusion, the model proposed as path model, is not appropriate for the iranian context for non-tefl group. discussion and results the aim of present study was to clarify the interaction between two groups of tefland non-tefl teachers by considering their teaching experience, mindfulness, creativity, and their instructional competency. a teacher needs to have different qualities and competences among which mindfulness, creativity, teaching experience and instructional competency can be mentioned. in this study two models were proposed for tefl and non-tefl groups. the mean score of tefl group in instructional competency (137.56) was higher than non-tefl group (118.85), which means that no significant difference is seen between tefl and non-tefl teachers regarding instructional competency. based on the conducted results, tefl teachers are more instructionally competent. in researcher’s point of view, it can be due to the fact that tefl teachers passed different practical teaching courses and had trained in university for https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 63 several years which helped them to be more prepared for the process of teaching. but in contrast, nontefl teachers may don’t have a rich educational background in teaching. in the tefl group, all three variables were proven to be positive significant predictors of teacher’s instructional competency. creativity (b=.39, p<.05), mindfulness (b=.42, p<.05), and teaching experience (b=.28, p<.05). these results show that creativity, mindfulness, and teaching experience add some knowledge to the concept of instructional competency. it implies that teachers who have related education and are creative, mindful, and experienced can teach and manage the classroom better. in contrast, in non tefl group among three independent variables only two variables predicted instructional competency positively but weakly: creativity (b=.20, p<.05), and teaching experience (b=.25, p<.05). however, it was found that in non-tefl group, mindfulness cannot predict instructional competency in a positively significant way (b=.03, p>.05). therefore, it can be concluded that educational background effects mindfulness directly. teachers who are not tefl graduates are not mindful and as a result they are less instructionally competent. in tefl group, creativity was positively and significantly correlated with mindfulness (b=.31, p<.05). in contrast, in non-tefl group the interrelationship between these two variables was weakly and positively significant (b=.18, p<.05). it can be inferred that teachers who are creative are mindful as well. as it was mentioned earlier according to langer (2014) and shively (2011) the underlying components of mindfulness and creativity have some overlaps. so, it can be concluded that in tefl group teachers are more mindful and as a result they are more creative. it’s due to the fact that they were trained for several years and they learned how to face problems in an appropriate way. in contrast, non-tefl teachers don’t have related back ground which makes them to be less mindful and creative. according to the obtained results, the proposed model perfectly fitted the data only in tefl group. therefore, the model of the interrelationships among experience, creativity, mindfulness, and instructional competency in tefl group enjoyed perfect fit with data. as a conclusion, it can be stated that in tefl group, instructional competency of tutors is enhanced by increasing in level of their creativity, mindfulness and teaching experience. this research can help tefl and non-tefl teachers in different ways. it can motivate teachers to advance their knowledge regarding their education among which instructional competency, creativity, mindfulness can be mentioned. therefore, this study might make the teachers more up dated and open to new knowledge and information. teachers might consider that being creative, mindful, and instructionally competent can help the betterment of the classroom. firstly, the current study helps teachers to highlight the importance of creativity which helps them not to have boring classes by providing new challenges and opportunities for students. secondly, this study might motivate teachers to read about mindfulness and find some ways to practice it which helps them to overcome their stress in the classroom and try not to convey this stress to students. thirdly, this study shed lights on the importance of instructional competency as it paves the way for teachers to learn and use different strategies and techniques which make materials more comprehensible for students and help teachers themselves to manage the class easily. beside all factors above, the result of this study can be beneficial for nontefl teachers since the importance of education was discussed in it. the current study can motivate non tefl teachers to attend more ttc courses and be trained for the classroom. the results and findings of this research provide some implications for language students. it is believed that teacher development can enhance students’ improvement (johnson & https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 64 golombek, 2011). therefore, if teachers are educated the class might be more fruitful and rich for the students. moreover, creative teachers might provide students with varieties of challenges and opportunities. if teachers are instructionally competent the process of language learning might be easier for the students since competent teachers apply different techniques to transfer their information to students. also, a mindful teacher behaves students with more emotion regulation and manages the classroom atmosphere more properly. the current study has practical implications for managers and supervisors in institutes. since in this study, the difference between tefl and non-tefl teachers was clearly discussed. it was proven that tefl teachers can perform better in classroom by using creativity, mindfulness and instructional competency. so, the educational back ground of teachers should be considered as an essential criterion for choosing and hiring efl teachers. conclusions in this study, we investigated iranian efl teachers in terms of teaching creativity, experience, instructional competency and mindfulness and our purpose was to explore and compare the relationship between these factors and tefl and non-tefl graduates. it was found that the purposed model in tefl graduates was consistent with data. fitness of the model with non-tefl graduates was unacceptable. additionally, when tefl and non-tefl teachers were compared in terms of instructional competency, they were significantly different. the present study suggests the importance of teacher creativity and its effects on class activities. so, it can persuade educational designers to design books and syllabus in order to improve teacher creativity and be challenging for students. furthermore, this research would be useful for teachers, learners and supervisors. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 65 references azer, s. a. 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(2007). conceptions of a good tertiary efl teacher in china. tesol quarterly, 41, 781-790. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity http://www.hltmag.co.uk/feb14/mart06.htm designing an english learning module for english for tour guide course in english language education program of stkip siliwangi bandung intan satriani, gartika pandu bhuana, ula nisa el fauzia intan.satriani@yahoo.co.id stkip siliwangi bandung abstract english for tour guide is one of the courses in english language education program of stkip siliwangi bandung. this course uses “english for professional tour guiding services” as a textbook. various problems are found when the teachers use this book in the classroom. it predominantly deals with the materials. in response to this problem, this study aims to evaluate the use of “english for professional tour guiding services” book for students in english language education program of stkip siliwangi bandung. this research will apply quantitative and qualitative research design. there are two instruments in obtaining the data, namely questionnaire and interview. through this study, it is expected that the strengths and weaknesses of this book can be found. thus, the suitable materials for the students can be designed. for a long term, it is expected that the result of this study can be used as a reference to make a book of english for tour guide course. keywords: textbook evaluation, english for tour guide introduction english for tour guide is one of courses in english language education program at stkip siliwangi bandung. this course is designed to help the students to communicate using english, whether it is verbally or non-verbally, in the context of tourism industry, especially tour guiding service. varioustopics are discussed in this course. the main topic focuses on tour guide conversation, such as welcoming the tourist, giving information, etc. another topic is related to the skill needed to be professional tour guide, how to make itinerary, tour package, and brochure; and how to make a report of tour activity. as a reference, this course uses “english for professional tour guiding services” textbook written by sutanto leo. in general, the use of this book is really helpful for the teachers as it provides guides for the students to practice communication within tour guiding service. unfortunately, in the application, various problems are found. the first problem deals with the overlap material, while the second one is related to material given in unsystematic way. most of the material given on this book also only focuses on improving three language skills: speaking, reading, and writing. none of the material attempted to develop students’ listening skill, as the use of audio or cd. as a matter of fact, this is receptive skill that should be learnt by english language students. regarding the above weaknesses, the evaluation of english for tour guide textbook is definitely needed. evaluation, according to lynch (cited in tabaeifard, 2014), is the systematic attempt to gather information in order to make judgment or decision. hutchinson and water (in fraidan, 2012) refers to evaluation as matching process, matching needs to available solution. dealing with textbook evaluation, harmer (2001) specifically points out that it is a judgment on how well a book has performed in fact. in short, textbook evaluation is systematic attempt to gather the information on how well a book has performed in teaching and learning process, whether or not it is suitable with need of students. the above reason finally spurs the writers to conduct the study of the evaluation of english for tour guide textbook used by sixth semester students in english language education program of stkip siliwangi. english for tour guide is one of courses in english language education program at stkip siliwangi bandung. this course is given to the sixth semester students. the aim is to help them to communicate using english, whether it is verbally or non-verbally, in the context of tourism industry, especially tour guiding service. various topics are discussed in this course. the main topic focuses on tour guide conversation. this includes welcoming the tourist; giving information; orientation meeting and briefing; explaining safety, rules, and etiquette; and closing or reporting tour activity. another topic is related to the skill needed to be professional tour guide, how to make itinerary, tour package, and brochure; and how to make a report of tour activity. as a reference, this course uses “english for professional tour guiding services” textbook. this book is written by an experienced academic instructor of the language, sutanto leo, and was published in 2016. the book is basically intended for pre-intermediate tourism students. however, it also can be used by general students as it contains the basis of the current theories and practice of tour guide services. needs analysis, also known as needs assessment, has a vital role in the process of designing and carrying out any language course. this centrality has been acknowledged by several scholars and authors (such as hutchinson and waters, 1987; dudley-evans and st. john, 1998; iwai et al. 1999; & finney, 2002). according to iwai, kondo, lim, ray, shimizu & brown (1999), needs analysis is defined as collecting information from a selective group of students with the intent of developing a curriculum that meets their learning needs. in the case of language program, those needs will be language related. once identified, needs can be stated in terms of goals and objectives which, in turn, can serve as the basis for developing tests, materials, teaching activities, and evaluation strategies. regarding this, shahriari and behjat (2014) present a similar thought. they say that the goal of the needs-analysis is to determine what a particular group of learners expects. students’ expectation will be actualized firstly in a course design, which provides relevancy for all course design activities and places the learners' purposes in the central position within its framework, and lastly in a curricula” (shahriari & behjat, 2014). tomlinson (1998) defines material as anything which is used by the teacher and learners to facilitate the learning of a language. this statement is in line with brown (1995) who states that material is any systematic description of a technique and exercise to be used in classroom teaching. material in language teaching can be in the form of a textbook, a workbook, a cassette, a video, and anything which present or informs about the language being learned. material can be instructional, experimental, elicitative or exploratory (harsono, 2007). the material can be instructional when it informs the learners about the language. it is experimental when it provides exposure to the language in use. it is elicitative when it stimulate language use, and exploratory when it seek. research methodology this research employed a mix method strategies consisted of quantitative and qualitative. mix method strategies in this research are interview (qualitative data) which was combined with traditional surveys (quantitative) (sieber, 1973 in cresswell, 2009). this approach was be used to decrease bias of any single method. in line with that definition, this research was conducted to explore students’ satisfaction of the “english for professional tour guiding services” textbook from sixth semester students’ point of view. besides that, this research also used to find out the strengths and weaknesses of students’ point of view. a survey research design has been considered appropriate for this study, since it is in line with this study to describe situation which generalized findings to real world settings (muijs, 2004). he also explained that survey studies are also efficient in terms of being able to gather large amounts of data at reasonably low cost and effort compare to another method like observation. besides that, this design also suit for canvassing opinions and feelings about particular issues, especially in this study about textbook evaluation. research subject a. population population of this research was all classes which attended english for tour guide course. the course was conducted to sixth semester students’ year 2014. b. sample the samples of population were taken purposively. they consisted of three classes with 30 students in each class. they were chosen for two reasons. first, the students had conducted english for tour guide course. second, using textbook in professional development has been associated with the potential for teachers to develop creative materials and curriculum autonomy (chu ying and young, 2011). on the point of that, the use of textbook was important for pre-service teacher. data collection technique there were two instruments used to obtain the data. these instruments were questionnaire and interview. a. questionnaire the way data collected was crucial to the quality of the research taken. on the point of that, designing the questionnaire was a key part of survey research (muijs, 2004). a questionnaire of this research was adapted from akef and moosavi (2014).the questionnaire consisted of close ended questions. the questions were divided into eight points, such as general appearance, design and illustration, accompanying materials, topic content, language contents, social and cultural contexts, language skills, and activities and exercises. b. interview this research used interview as the research instrument to obtain further information besides questionnaire (creswell, 2009). semi structured interview was used to collect in-depth responses from the respondents and to set clear limits of questions in avoiding wider students’ responses (patton, 1990 in o’donoghue and punch, 2003; heigham and croker, 2009). result this part provides a detailed analysis of the data obtained through the questionnaires in order to answer the first research question of the study. 1. general appearance a number of the scholars have highlighted the attractiveness of the physical appearance of the materials. table 1 shows the results obtained from the perceptions of students about the general appearance of english for professional tour guiding services. table 1: students’ view about general appearance no 1 2 3 4 mean st. deviation f % f % f % f % 1 0 0 11 19 43 74 4 7 4.17 1.95 2 0 0 5 9 45 78 8 14 4.42 2.06 3 0 0 2 3 47 81 9 16 4.52 2.20 general appearance 4.38 as indicated in table 1, the mean scores for the statements related to this category ranges from 4.17 to 4.52. most of the participants, in this case, agreed on the attractiveness of the general shape of the textbook. this result was similar to aqel’s (2009) or moosavi’s (2016) study which revealed that most of the students or teacher liked the attractiveness of the general appearance of a textbook. 2. design and illustration table 2 present the result of students’ perception about the design and illustration of english for professional tour guiding services. table 2: students’ view about design and illustration no 1 2 3 4 mean st. deviation f % f % f % f % 4 0 0 15 26 43 74 10 17 4.97 1.84 5 0 0 23 40 28 48 7 12 3.95 1.32 6 4 7 6 10 44 76 4 7 4.1 1.97 7 0 0 11 19 40 69 7 12 4.25 1.76 8 2 3 28 48 20 34 8 14 3.75 1.17 9 4 7 22 38 26 45 6 10 3.75 1.11 10 1 2 7 12 41 71 6 10 4.05 1.84 11 4 6 10 17 39 47 3 5 3.82 1.11 design and illustration 4.08 with regard to design and illustration, the participants’ perception was quite good with total mean of 4.08. among eight questions asked in this category, question 8 and 9 got the lower mean compared to the other. regarding q8, most of the student thought that the illustration given on the textbook was not varied and creative. some of the students also did not feel that the illustration given in a book pushed them to be creative (q9). this statement was appropriate as there was no illustration or picture given in the textbook “english for professional tour guiding services”. this book focused more on the practical skill of a tour guide. however, picture or illustration was needed to rise students’ affective feeling. as tomlinson (1998) states that material should take into account as it impacts learners’ affective attitudes. 3. accompanying material table 3 summarizes the result of students’ perception about the accompanying materials, such as cd or audio. table 3: students’ view about accompanying materials no 1 2 3 4 mean st. deviation f % f % f % f % 12 13 22,4 30 52 14 24 1 2 2.97 1.19 13 31 53,4 24 41 2 3 1 2 2.22 1.53 accompanying material 2.60 finding presented in table 3 indicated that most of the participants believed that a book was not equipped with suitable supplementary activities or cd. what the students’ belief, in this case, was right. the evaluated book definitly did not provide a supplementary activity or cd. as stated in the background of the study, this book only focused on three language skill, which were speaking, writing, and reading. students’ listening skill here was not developed. the teacher sometime had to prepare the video to the use of cd-rom and cassettes is one of the interesting and effective ways in the current generation of language teaching materials since they provide “the learners with opportunities to listen to the language being used” (tomlinson, et al., 2001, p.90). 4. topic content table 4 presents the result of students’ opinion toward the effectivenes of topic content in a book “english for professional tour guiding services”. table 4: students’ view about topic content no 1 2 3 4 mean st. deviation f % f % f % f % 14 0 0 12 21 38 66 8 14 4.25 1.64 15 0 0 27 47 28 48 3 5 3.75 1.51 16 4 7 17 29 30 52 7 12 3.9 1.17 17 1 2 31 53 25 43 1 2 3.55 1.58 18 0 0 5 9 46 79 7 12 4.4 2.12 topic contents 3.97 the mean scores of the items related to this category show that the participants were satisfied with the topic contents of a book. however, compared to the other, question 17 got the lower mean. most of the students (53%) thought that the topic in a book did not allow them to think critically. as material on evaluated book focused more on a practice, the writer here tended to give an instruction of how did a conversation in the realm of tour guiding services. in other words, what the writer provide in a book seems to be a standards. as a result, the students tended to follow the instruction or dialogue given on a textbook. on the other hand, question 18 gainned the highest mean score than the other. the students here felt that the topic given in a textbook was realistic. this was because a book was design according to the real situation of tour guiding services. 5. language contents the evaluation of language component has been stressed in many of textbook evaluation studies. table 5 summarizes the result of the section related to the attitude of students’ toward the language content of a book “english for professional tour guiding services”. table 5: students’ view about language content no 1 2 3 4 mean st. deviation f % f % f % f % 19 10 17 24 41 22 38 2 3 3.3 1.04 20 2 3 15 26 33 57 8 14 4.07 1.34 21 25 43 24 41 8 14 1 2 2.52 1.19 22 11 19 30 52 17 29 0 0 3.05 1.25 23 0 0 11 19 38 66 9 16 4.3 1.64 24 3 5 24 41 26 45 5 9 3.72 1.22 language contents 3.5 table 5 indicates the mean scores for the items related to this category ranges from 2.52 to 4.3. one of the most striking findings of this study was that a majority of the participants (43%) stated that a book did not include an adequate material for pronunciation work. this then supported by the students’ answer that disagreed to the statement uttered in question 19, in which pronunciation wasbuilt through different types of activities, such as listening, speaking, reading, and writing. the fact showed that there was no vocabulary or pronunciation practice in a book “english for professional tour guiding services”. the teachers, in this case, had to provide additional activity to develop students’ vocabulary or pronunciation. they also had to give more attention while students did an activity in order to correct their phonological errors. the highest mean score in this category was gained by question 23. the students, at this point, agreed that the language contents in a book “english for professional tour guiding services” suited their language’ needs. this was probably cause by the practical material offered by this book. 6. social and cultural context the appropriateness of social and cultural is one of the mostly mentioned criteria in evaluating a textbook or teaching material (mcdonough&shaw,2005). table 6 presents the result of students’ response related to the social and cultural context in an evaluated book. table 6: students’ view about social and cultural context no 1 2 3 4 mean st. deviation f % f % f % f % 25 0 0 6 10 48 83 4 7 4.3 2.25 26 1 2 17 29 37 64 3 5 3.95 1.66 27 1 2 14 24 42 72 1 2 3.97 1.93 social and culture context 4.07 table 6 shows that the participants a book very effective in terms of the social and cultural contexts. the highest mean in this category belongs to question 27, in which 83% of the participants believed that the social and cultural context in a book was comprehensible. 7. language skill table 7 presents students’ response to the language skill on a book “english for professional tour guiding services”. table 7: students’ view about language skill no 1 2 3 4 mean st. deviation f % f % f % f % 28 8 14 44 76 6 10 0 0 2.85 2.00 29 15 26 21 36 17 29 5 9 3.2 8.4 30 22 38 34 59 2 3 0 0 2.4 1.64 31 1 2 12 21 42 72 3 5 4.07 1.89 32 0 0 4 7 45 78 9 16 4.47 2.07 33 5 9 24 41 23 40 6 10 3.65 8.4 language skills 3.44 it is evident from the table above that students' perceptions about the language skills of a book seemed to be positive. it should be mentioned that evaluating language skills is essential for most scholars. however, it is obvious from the results that the material designers ignored the importance of listening skill. it could be seen from the means score of question 30, which only got 2.4. this question was about listening material that was well recorded and accompanied by background information, question, and activities. this data seemed to support the previous data (3.1), by which there was no activities that develop students’ listening skill. 8. exercises and activities table 8 indicates the results obtained from the attitudes of students towards exercises and activities of the series. table 8: students’ view about exercise and activities no 1 2 3 4 mean st. deviation f % f % f % f % 34 0 0 4 7 53 91 1 2 4.27 2.57 35 0 0 15 26 42 72 1 2 4.0 1.96 36 2 3 11 19 39 67 6 10 4.12 1.67 37 1 2 17 29 37 64 3 5 3.95 1.66 38 3 5 9 16 40 69 6 10 4.12 1.72 39 5 9 21 36 29 50 3 5 3.65 1.26 40 6 10 18 31 32 55 2 3 3.65 1.35 activities and exercise 3.97 the mean values for the statements related to this category ranged from 3.25 to 4.27. as indicated in table 8, the highest mean value is for item 34, in which 91% of the participants believed that a book provided a variety of a meaningful and mechanicalexercise and activities to practice language items and skills. the lowest value in the eighth category belongs to item 39 and 40, where most of the participants believed that the series failed to provide models for final achievement tests. conclusion textbook is one of the learning materials commonly used by the teachers in the class. it is a kind of printed material that has important role in teaching and learning process particularly in the language classroom. it provides a useful resource for both teachers and students. due to the importance of textbook, teacher definitely should be selective in choosing the textbook used in the classroom. they also should check the suitability of the textbook for the students through the evaluation. the finding from questionnaire data reveals that in general, students are satisfied view to the use of a book “english for professional tour guiding services”. regarding the strengths of a book, the students thought that the book has a good appearance, design and illustration, and topic content. a book also has good language content and provide fair social and cultural context. concerning exercise and activities, most of the students agree that a book provided a variety of a meaningful and mechanical exercise and activities to practice language items and skills. unfortunately, there are some weaknesses in this book based on students’ opinion. this mainly related to the absent of activity or exercise that develop students’ listening skill. the book also does not offer a supplementary activity, specifically that related to the use of audio or cd. this weakness finally drives the writers to design the material of a tour guiding services that develop students’ listening skill. it is expected that the result of this study will beneficial for the following parties: 1) for students, it is expected that material designed from this study can be used as a reference to learn english for tour guide. thus, it can improve their english competence in tour guiding services; 2) for english lecture, the material can be used as a reference to teach english for tour guide course.; 3) for english language education program, it is expected that the material designed can fulfill the need of course modules in english language education program of stkip siliwangi; and 4) for stkip siliwangi, with the availability of suitable course book, the students can manage their activity in the class. the teachers also have suitable handout so they will be more ready in teaching. the combination of these two things will finally create good quality of students in stkip siliwangi bandung. reference akef, k. and moosavi, z. (2014). iranian efl teachers’ and students’ textbook evaluation. the iranian efl journal, 10 (6). chu ying, c. and young, k. 2011. the centrality of using textbooks in teachers’ work: perceptions and use of textbooks in a hongkong primary school. the asia pacific education researcher journal.16 (2). creswell. j. w. (2009). research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed method approaches. california: sage publications, inc. fraidan, a.a. (2012). evaluation of two esp textbooks.english language teaching.vol. 5 (6). harmer, jeremy. (2001). the practice of english language teaching. pearson education. heigham, j. & croker, a. r. (2009).qualitative research in applied linguistics.new york: palgrave macmillan. muijs, d. (2004). doing quantitative research in education. london: sage publication. o’donoghue, a. t. & punch, f. k. (2003).qualitative educational research in action: doing and reflecting. london: routledgefalmer. tabaeifard, j,s. (2014). english language textbook evaluation”english for the students of humanities (1). international research journal of applied and basic science. vol. 8 (2): page 571-575. microsoft word 3. rosita sihotang .vol3. the effectiveness of vocabulary self.docx   24   the effectiveness of vocabulary self-collection strategy (vss) towards students’ vocabulary enhancement rosita sihotang, nelson panjaitan & debora simanjuntak rosita.sihotang15@gmail.com universitas advent indonesia abstract the purpose of this study is to find student’s vocabulary enhancement using vss strategy. this study used quantitative research method and experimental design. the sample of the study was the students of sman 1 parongpong, bandung in academic year 2016/2017. there were two classes in ten grades which were divided into the vss group and conventional group with a total of 74 students. the result of this research was: normalized gain of vss group is 0.423 while the group not taught by vss is 0.385. and the data from t-test found that the p-value sig (tailed).(0.850)≥α(0.05). it means that ho is accepted, ha is rejected. based on the result of the data there is no difference in student’s vocabulary enhancement between students who were taught using vss group and students who were taught using conventional group. keywords: vocabulary self-collection strategy introduction vocabulary holds important role in english language learning. based on the researcher’s experience as a student majoring english without vocabulary the learner could not listen, speak, read and write well, because vocabulary is an essential part to learn english language. katemba & tampubolon (2011) stated that “in communication, students need vocabulary which can support them to produce and use meaningful sentences. that is why vocabulary is very important to be mastered. students sometimes experience difficulties in using vocabulary which have been studied for some reasons. stahl and nagy (2006) explained that someone who understands the usage and meaning of many words can speak fluently, and even think, broad about variety of topics. vocabulary is one of the primary challenges to non-native speakers. in order to have confidence in speaking they should have the ability to enhance their vocabulary. according to song and fox (2008) “research in vocabulary learning for efl students has been prominent, and many research findings showed that poor vocabulary frequently led to incorrect inferences or misunderstanding of the content when reading english materials in academic studies.” (p. 290). erkaya and drower (2012) wrote that “one of the most vital components in learning a language is vocabulary, but many students find problems in vocabulary enhancement.” (p.81) according to ali, bazergan and imran (2011)’ based on the research conducted at islamic university of hasanuddin makassar, that most of english students in this university difficult to memorize new words, students quickly forget words that have been learnt or memorized. furthermore, takac (2008) cited by   25   sihombing (2010) said that english learners have problem in learning and developing vocabulary, because sometimes they forget vocabulary that their teacher gave. from the explanation above the researcher concluded that the problem in learning english is they do not understand the meaning, usage and context. according to nugroho, nurkamto and sulistyowati (2012),“in teaching and learning process of english, students do not understand the meaning of the vocabulary. the researchers find several problems, such as: difficulties to understand the meaning of the words, to pronounce word correctly, to spell the words and even to properly use and understand the word.” (p.89) through the importance and problems in learning vocabulary, one of the strategies that researcher chose to help teachers in teaching vocabulary and to help students in learning, is through the use of vocabulary self-collection strategy (vss). ruddlle and shearer (2002) said that vocabulary self-collection strategy is an effective means both for increasing the depth and breadth of student’s vocabulary knowledge and for developing student’s ability to be strategic and independent words learners. (p.361) in indonesia there has been a research entitled “the effectiveness of vocabulary self-collection and interactive cloze strategy to improve students’ vocabulary mastery” in smp negeri ungaran semarang done by meiningsih (2015). in this study, it was proven that vocabulary self-collection strategy (vss) succeeded to help the students to enhance their vocabulary through a deeper conceptual knowledge by finding the meaning of word through figure it out. through this strategy, the students were asked to brainstorm and figure out many words related to the main word. in addition a research entitled, “improving english vocabulary mastery through vocabulary self-collection strategy of the first grade students of muttawasith” conducted at addirasat islamiah school laddua panarea pattani south of thailand by aisyiyah (2015), found out that vss is one of effective methods for students to increase, strengthen, and enhance their vocabulary skill. statement of the problem this study aimed to find out the effectiveness of vocabulary self-collection strategy towards students’ vocabulary enhancement. the following is the research questions to be answered: is there any significant difference in the students’ vocabulary enhancement between students who were taught using vocabulary self collection strategy and students who were taught using conventional strategy. scope and limitation of the study there were many kinds of methods that used to teach vocabulary. in this research the researcher focused only on vocabulary self-collection strategy. the researcher has chosen two classes of grade ten students of senior high school in sman1 parongpong. the total sample of this study was 78 students: 39 students from class x mia1 and 39 students from x mia2. the researcher used learning material from the students’ text book and focused on vocabulary, particularly: noun,   26   verb, adjective and adverb. hypothesis of the study 1. null hypothesis ho: there is no significant difference in the students’ vocabulary enhancement between students who were taught using vocabulary self-collection strategy and students who were taught using conventional strategy. 2. alternative hypothesis ha: there is significant difference in the students’ vocabulary enhancement between students who were taught using vocabulary self-collection strategy and students who were taught using conventional strategy. vocabulary self-collection strategy english teacher should be creative in teaching vocabulary because words are very important in learning a language. vocabulary is also the foundation of language. through words people can express their feelings, ideas and emotions. teacher must involve the students in learning process, enjoy the lessons and give an understandingconceptual knowledge by selecting words from their text that they believe are important for the class to be studied. the learning method refers to vocabulary selfcollection strategy (vss). wagner and quinn (2016) stated that the vss is an effective approach to help students to understand the meanings of new words, use them in conversations and writing, and make personal connections with words while reading. moreover sukisman (2013) said vocabulary self-collection strategy (vss) is an alternative technique, it motivates students to be active in learning and it helps the students to be more interested in learning english. from the explanation above that vss method can help the students to understand the meaning of the new words from the context. according to haggard (1982), vocabulary self-collection strategy (vss) is an interactive strategy in which learners select from their texts words that they believe are important for the class to learn. the strategy was first introduced by haggard (1986) and since then it has been adapted for various grade levels and instructional contexts. taken from farstrup and samuel (2008), the vocabulary self-collection strategy by haggard is a cooperative structure that provides practice in identifying unfamiliar words in reading assignment. students select words from their readings that are new and interesting, use the context and other resources to determine the meaning of the words, and nominate the words to be learned by others in the group or class. from the definition above, it can be concluded that vocabulary selfcollection strategy (vss) is a method of teaching and learning that helps teachers to guide the students in learning english language and motivate students to be more   27   interested in learning process. research methodology this study used quantitative study using experimental design in testing comprehension of the students through pre-test, giving the treatments and post-test with purpose to see whether vss method gave a significant difference towards students’ vocabulary enhancement. groups pre-test treatment post-test experimental a x a control a o a note: x : vss o : conventional strategy a : students’ vocabulary scores in pre-test and post-test population and sample in this research, the population was taken from 10th grade students of eight sections (x mia 1 4 and x ips 1 4). the sample was taken from two groups of 10th grade student sman1 parongpong, bandung. grade x mia 1 as the vss group and grade x mia 2 as the conventional group. there were 37 students in the vss class and there were 37 students in the conventional class. the total of students of the two classes were 74 students. the sample that was used in this research was taken randomly. instrument of research the instrument of this research was the pre-test and the post-test. the pre-test was used to measure the student early vocabulary mastery before applying the vocabulary self-collection strategy. the post-test was used to see the result of the students’ vocabulary enhancement after the applying vocabulary self-collection strategy. the vocabulary test was taken in the form of multiple choices questions with total number of 49 questions. pre-test and post-test was made by researcher and adapted from the student’s textbook. treatment of vss and conventional strategy after administrating the pre-test, the researcher gave the treatment to the experimental class. but in the control class the researcher used conventional method.   28   both classes learned the materials from the same english textbook of the school and additional material from the researcher. treatments of using vss strategy (adopted from antonacci & o’callaghan 2012) treatments of using conventional strategy 1 the students were introduced the lesson by teacher and asked them that they were expected to find new and interesting words from their readings 1 the students were greeted by teacher before starting the class and explained the lesson for that day about vocabulary 2 the students were divided by teacher into several groups. each group consists of four students 2 the students were divided by teacher into group. every group consists of four students 3 the teacher modeled how to select and nominate important words from the readings 3 the students were asked by teacher to open the textbook and asked students to identify the vocabulary from the textbook 4 the teacher demonstrated how to use context and other resources to learn the meaning of the word. and students used the context or they referred to the glossary, dictionary, diagram, or illustrations to unlock the meaning of the word 4 and the students were asked by teacher to see the vocabulary around the class to add their vocabulary. students were freely to choose the word that they wanted 5 the students wrote the word, context in which it was used, its meaning, and the reason for choosing the word on chart paper 5 every student picked up 2 words from their text and 2 words from around their class 6 the students were engaged by teacher in the process of vocabulary self-collection strategy. students were guided by the teacher to identify a word they wished to select. the steps in the process for nominating one or two words to learn, students were given the following questions, which may appear as a reminder on a classroom wall chart: what is the word that i believe is important to 6 the students were asked by teacher to translate the word into indonesia language. then the students must find the synonyms and the antonyms of words that they choose to complete their activity in the class. students used the dictionary to translate the vocabulary into indonesian or english. then the students categorized the   29   learn?, how was the word used? , what is the meaning of the word?, why would i select it as an interesting or important word to learn? synonym and antonym word into the cart before they used the vocabulary into the sentences and short dialog 7 students in small groups discussed the words they wished to nominate. within their small groups, they talked about each word and why they think the class should learn the word 7 the students were asked by teacher to categorize the vocabulary such as: noun, verb, adjective and adverb on the cart and students can choose the vocabulary freely 8 students wrote the two words on a chart, each group chose spokesperson to present its two words in front of the class. on a class chart, one member of the group writes the word, the sentence in which the word was used, its meaning, and the reason for selecting the word. 8 the students were asked by teacher to make sentences out of words that they found. students can ask their teacher about the vocabulary that they did not understand how to use it into the sentence. 9 in presenting the word, student can combine english with their first language if they cannot speak english fluently 9 every group asked to use the words into a short dialogue. and they must choose the good topic so that the words that they used would be related with other. 10 the teacher gave the clear definition about the word and added some information related to the word 10 students presented their short dialogue in their seats 11 when each group already presented their words, teacher asked students to write the words into their own personal words list. 11 and teacher graded how students can put those words into dialogue, whether suitable or not. 12 after that teacher asked students to use the word into the short sentences individually and the teacher came to the students’ seat to grade their work. 12 finally teacher improved the wrong sentence that they wrote in their paper so that they can learn it in their house.   30   result and discussions in analyzing the data, the researcher used microsoft excel and statistical program, spss 16.0 result of pre-test, post-test, standard deviation and normalized gain conventional vss mean st. deviation mean st. deviation pre-test 68.03 9.70 65.05 12.38 post-test 81.39 6.36 82.02 3.99 gain score 0.385 0.202 0.423 0.205 based on the result of the data, it showed that student’s vocabulary enhancement between vss group and conventional group was not significant increased even though the normalized gain of vss group is 0.423 is better than conventional group 0.385. but from the data of st.deviation from the pre-test and post-test of both the groups have a good vocabulary enhancement. normality test of normalized gain class kolmogorov-smirnov statistic df sig. gain conventional group .134 13 .200* vss group .099 38 .200* based on the data table above, both data was normally distributed because the significant score of gain for vss group is 0. 200 > 0.05 and the significant of the normalized gain for conventional group is 0.200 > 0.05.   31   the result of independent sample t-test of normalized gain levene's test for equality of variances f sig. t df sig. (2-tailed) nilai equal variances assumed .029 .865 -.190 49 .850 nilai equal variances not assumed -.187 20.125 .854 according to the data above, the researcher used the data of equal variances assumed concern that the sample data was distributed homogenous and sig (2tailed). based on the result of the data, it is shown that the equal variances assumed 0.850 ≥ 0.05, it means that ho is accepted and ha is rejected. for that reason the researcher concluded that there is no significant difference between students who were taught using vss and students who were taught using conventional strateg discussion of the research finding based on the result of the data, it showed that student’s vocabulary enhancement between vss group and conventional group was not significant increased even though the normalized gain of vss group is 0.423 is better than conventional group 0.385. however, during the research process of researcher in the school, the researcher saw some problems especially in the conventional group. the conventional group had their class in the morning. the researcher found obstacle while teaching this class. the main problem in this class is that most of the students joined extracurricular and the program was going on before english class started, and they are called to join the class while the researcher is teaching. so when they face difficulties due to their late attendance. another challenge was found by the researcher while teaching was that, students got bored especially towards the end of the class. one of the class , the vss group started at 02.00 pm04.15 pm. many of the students were sleepy, bored and further they had no break time. as ruddell and shearer 2002) said it takes a long time to do the activity, students tend not to want to learn in groups. for teacher, it requires a lot of preparation (material and effort) and teacher tend to find difficulties in classroom. so, when the researcher has seen all the problems in both classes, then the researcher added other ways to handle these conditions during the teaching and learning process of the conventional group and the vss group. in the conventional group the researcher asked students to choose the vocabulary freely not only from   32   their classroom but also the vocabulary that the students have seen outside the classroom. in vss group, the students were asked by the researcher to categorize the vocabulary such as: noun, verb, adjective and adverb. and in presenting to the class, students can mix english and their native language if they cannot speak english fluently. after that students were asked to use the word that they have learned into to form a short sentence. sometimes when students were seen bored, the researcher invited all students to stand up and sing an english song that is related to the lesson. conclusion after calculating the data, researcher drew a conclusion that there is no significant difference between students who were taught using vocabulary self collection strategy and students who were taught using conventional strategy. it means both of the groups got moderate score.with the other methods   33   references aisyiyah, n.y.f. (2015). improving english vocabulary mastery through vocabulary self collection strategy of the first grade students of muttawasith at addirasat islamiah school laddua panarea pattani south of thailand ali, s. bazergan, e. & imran, n. (2011). the implementation of vocabulary self collection strategy (vss) to enrich students’ vocabulary. universitas hasanudin makasar. antonacci, a.p & o’callaghan, m.c. (2012). promoting literacy development, 50 researchbased strategies for k-8 learners, united stated of america: sage erkaya,  o.  r.  &  drower,  i.  s.  (2012).  perceptions  of    an    el    learner    on         vocabulary  development:  international  journal    of    special    education.  27(1):  81     fastrup,  a.  &  samuels,  j.  (2008).  what  research  has  to  say  about  vocabulary      instruction.  international  reading  association     haggard,  m.r.  (1982).  the  vocabulary  self-­‐collection  strategy:  an  active      approach  to  word  learning.  journal  of  reading.  vol.  27:  pp  203-­‐207     katemba,  c.  &  tampubolon,k  (2011).  improving  vocabualary  achievement  through       total  physical  response  among  grade  four  elementary  school  pupils.  journal  of       language  pedagogy,  vol  1  no.2,  2011     meiningsih, a.f. (2015). the effectiveness of vocabulary self-collection and interactive cloze strategy to improve students’ vocabulary mastery. nugroho,  s.y,  nurkamto,  j  &  sulistyowati,  h.  (2012).  improving  students’     vocabulary     mastery    using    flashcards.    english    department    teacher    training  and  education   faculty.  p.89     ruddell,  m.r.,  &  shearer,  b.a.  (2002).  “extraordinary,”  “tremendous,”  “exhilarating,”       “magnificent”:  middle  school  at-­‐risk  students  become  avid  word  learners  with       the  vocabulary  self-­‐collection  strategy  (vss).  journal  of adolescent & adult literacy, 45, 352-363.   song,  y.  &  fox,  r.  (2008).  integrating  incidental  vocabulary    learning    using    pdas  into       academic  studies:  recall,  20(3)  :  290-­‐314   stahl  &  nagy.  (2006).  teaching  word  meanings,  first  published,  new  york:  lawrence       erlbaum  association.  (p.  5-­‐6).     sukisman.  (2013).  increasing  students’  reading  comprehension  through  vocabulary       self-­‐  collection  strategy  at  the  eighth  grade  of  smp  negeri 3 gading rejo     takac.  (2008)  cited  by  sihombing  (2010),  the  effectiveness  of  using  crossword  puzzle       34     technique  to  enhance  students  vocabulary  achievement  in  smp  negeri  1       parongpong,  bandung.  2014     wagner,  k.  &  quinn,  b.k.  (2016).  choosing,  chatting,  and  collecting  vocabulary  self-­‐     collection  strategy.  international  literacy  as       microsoft word acuity, vol 1 no.1 2017 61    the effect of the direct method on the reading comprehension ability of second year students at sltp advent 4 paal dua, manado marlin marpaung marlin.marpaung@unai.edu universitas advent indonesia abstract this study is to find out the reading comprehension ability of the students at sltp advent 4 paal dua manado, when being taught using the direct method and the lecture method. the population of this study was seventy-six second year students at sltp advent 4 paal dua manado, who were divided into two groups, the experimental and control group. the main problem of this study is to find out the effect of the direct method in teaching reading comprehension. the result showed that there was no difference in the reading comprehension ability of the students who are taught using direct method and students who are taught using lecture method. but there was slightly difference between the mean score of post-experimental and post-control. therefore, the suggestion for english teachers is to teach the reading comprehension using the direct method because the direct method can improve students’ ability in reading comprehension. key words: reading comprehension, direct method. introduction nowadays, english plays an important role in the world. it is the key to the international currencies of technology and commerce. especially in facing the era of globalization, such as in free markets, businessmen and women for instance who want to sell their products, mechanics who have to read instruction manuals, doctors who need to keep up with developments in their fields and students whose courses of study included english, realized the key demand of learning this language (hutchison and waters, 1986). it is important to be learnt in order to be able to communicate with people from other countries and to help some people improve their careers. foreign language is offered as a course in all junior and senior high school and universities with the aim to provide students with the ability to comprehend particular discourse as well as to communicate with other english speakers. reading is one of the four fundamental skills in english that a person should master. it is one of many factors that determine a persons’ success in acquiring knowledge which in turn affects one’s life career. de boer and dallmann (1970) state that: “in this age of communication, our attention is constantly being drawn to the new technological means of telephone, telegraph, radio, television, teletype and satellite as instruments of communication. indeed, 62    some voices suggest that the new media will soon replace the book. yet technology has not replaced reading. the printed page reaches millions still untouched by electronics, and for those who can take advantage of the newer devices. reading still serves unique purposes. it is the key to unlock the bodies of knowledge.” in indonesia, english is offered as a compulsory subject in junior and senior high school. teachers need to choose particular methods or techniques to facilitate learning. as lardizabal at, al (1991) said that a good teaching method is one that makes use of principles of learning by doing and permits the operation of these principle such as readiness, exercise and effort. a method should meet different needs, interests, aptitudes and emotional maturity of the students. it should provide growth and development in knowledge, ideas, habits, skills and abilities; attitudes and sentiments. there are nine methods according to larsenfreeman (1986), the grammar translation method, the direct method, audiolingual method, community language learning, silent way, suggestopedia, total physical response and the communicative approach. one or more of these needs to be applied to teaching reading comprehension. background of the study finocchiaro (1973) mentions four skills of language: listening, speaking, reading and writing. reading means interpreting written language. students should be able to interpret written language, if they are stimulated with reading activities from the beginning of language instruction. as larsen-freeman (1986) states reading activities in the target language should be taught from the beginning of language instruction and the fundamental purpose of learning a foreign language is to be able to read its literature. in explaining the reading lesson, the teacher should demonstrate, not translate the lesson. it is desirable that students make a direct association between the target language and meaning and that students should learn how to ask questions as well as answer them. teachers who use the direct method intends that students learn to get involved in practice, reading and have mutual interaction or communicate in the target language, to think in the target language without any translation. for this purpose above, the researcher prefers to use this method in teaching reading comprehension. the purpose of this study is to find out the effect of the direct method on the reading comprehension ability of the second year students at sltp advent 4 paal dua, manado. related literature gouin and berlitz are the first two reformers in the history of modern language teaching. gouin set about devising a teaching method that would follow from these insight. and thus the series method was created, a method that taught learners directly (without translation) and conceptually (without grammatical rules and explanations). a generation later, largely through the efforts of berlitz, applied linguists finally established the credibility of such approaches in what became known as the direct method. 63    richards and rodgers cited brown (1994) and summarized the principle of the direct method into several points: 1) classroom instruction was conducted exclusively in the target language, 2) only everyday vocabulary and sentences were taught, 3) oral communication skills were built up in a carefully traded progression organized around question-and-answer exchanges between teachers and students in small, intensive classes, 4) grammar was taught inductively, 5) new teaching points were taught through modelling and practice, 6) concrete vocabulary was taught through demonstration, objects and pictures: abstract vocabulary was taught by association of ideas, 7) both speech and listening comprehension were taught, 8) and correct pronunciation and grammar were emphasized. greogorio (1973) said, “logically, lecture method is classified as an authoritative teaching procedure. the authoritative method is a procedure by which the instructor teachers by means of some kind of exposition, either oral or written. the aim of lecture method is to develop the act of listening and to develop creative thinking and reasoning.” larsen-freeman (1986) mentioned that reading in the target language should be taught from the beginning of the language instruction; however, the reading skill will be developed through practice with speaking. furthermore, it was stated that a fundamental purpose for learning a foreign language is to be able to read its literature. robinson (1969) gives a broad definition of reading as the reading act, which is subdivided into six large interdependent parts: word recognition, association of meaning with printed symbols, literal comprehension, interpretation, evaluation and assimilation. manroe and rogers (1964) mention four components of the total reading process: word perception, comprehension of the ideas by the words, reaction to these ideas and assimilation or integration of the ideas with previous knowledge or experiences. although there four aspects of the reading process occurs almost simultaneously, each one needs to receive careful attention during the early stages of learning to read. witty, freeland & moore (1963:3) gives special values to reading: 1) effective reading is necessary in order for any person to become well-informed generally and to acquire specific information in many fields. 2) through wide reading, one may become a more interesting person; for as thomas carlyle stated: ‘all than mankind had done, though, gained, or been, it is lying as in magic preservation the pages of books.’ 3) another reason for learning to read effectively is that success in school depends to a large degree on rapid, skilful reading. 4) effective reading will help most people prepare for and make progress in their work, for today most jobs require skill in reading. 5) through reading, a pupil may obtain other benefits, too; for as jhon masefield said ‘the days that make us happy make us wise.’ related studies ruhupatty (1997) found out the effect of the interactive method compared to the lecture method on reading comprehension of the freshmen of universitas klabat. she used experimental research in doing the study. the population of her 64    study were 333 students. she concluded that interactive method and its’ practices can be used to improve and develop students ability in the four sub skills of reading comprehension general verbal, literal meaning, implied meaning and appreciation. legoh (1997) assessed the reading comprehension ability of the second year students of smu advent tompaso ii. he used the descriptive method to gather the data. the data was gathered through a test given to the 60 second year students. the results of the study showed that second year students were fairly competent in literal comprehension, least competent in inferential comprehension, least competent in general verbal factor and least competent in appreciative comprehension. the conceptual framework of the study the direct method the lecture method the reading comprehension ability method of research in carrying out this study, the researcher used descriptive method in which data collected during the research was explained and analysed as winarno (1982) said that descriptive method is not only up to the collection of the data, but it is also including the analysis of the interpretation of the data meaning. experimental research was used to see the effect of the direct method in classroom to the teaching of reading comprehension. this research was in a form of group study. the subject studied were seventy-six students divided into two groups. thirty-eight students in experimental group and thirty-eight students in control group. the experimental group got the treatment (direct method) which control group was treated using conventional method. the length of time used in doing the experiment was about one and a half months, starting september 16 up to october 30. technique of research 1. library research. library research was the first technique she used to get information about the studies. 65    2. classroom observation. the researcher made a classroom observation before conducting the research and will teach the second year students using the direct method. description of population the population of this study was seventy-six second year students of sltp advent 4 paal dua, manado who were enrolled in two classes. thirty-eight students for experimental group and thirty-eight students for control group. for quasi-experimental design there was no randomization of the population to be applied to the experimental and control group, the equivalence of the groups is unlikely (best, 1981). both classes of the two groups, the experiment or the control groups were held in the morning. instrument the researcher consulted with several key persons regarding the construction of the instrument, the advisor, the english teacher of sltp advent 4 paal dua manado, unklab english lectures and the curriculum before constructed them. the test which was given to students was considered valid since the material was taken from the current lessons treated in classrooms, entitle “communicative and meaningful english for 2 sltp, 1994 curriculum. sixty items were given to both groups, experimental and control group at the beginning of the experiment. during this stage, the researcher paid attention to anything that looked odd or difficult for the students to understand; after which, she simplified it, for example the instruction into simple form so the students may understand it easily. the procedure of collecting data before conducting the experiment, a pre-test was given to the experimental group and control group. the experiment was conducted over one and a half months only. there were 24 meetings for both groups, 24 x 80 minutes, so the total experiment were 1920 minutes. during the experiment period, the researcher taught the experimental group used the direct method and the control group used the lecture method. at the end of the experiment the post-test was given to the both groups. the result of the tests or pre-test and post-test datas were analysed using the z test. statistical treatment the following statistical treatment was used to examine whether the hypothesis was accepted or not. to compute the significance of the difference between the two means, a z test was used (nazir). there was treatment given to the experimental group and the most important things included in the treatment were the materials, lesson plan and procedures applied to the experimental group. the first treatment is the material. particularly for the second year students of junior high school, the school has chosen the communicative and meaningful english for 2 sltp as their textbook. 66    the textbook consists of nine units. five units for the first semester and four units for the second semester. five units was consisted of fourteen reading passages and the researcher used the five reading passages from two topics for the experiment. the two topics had six subtopics of reading comprehension that were implemented in the classroom activities. the first is health, consists of the three subtopics of our body, medicine and diseases and in the hospital. the second topic is clothes, consists of the three subtopics of kind of clothes, making clothes and fabrics. the second treatment for the experimental group is the lesson plan. before conducting the experiment, the researcher first directed students’ attention to the specific objectives in order to make sure that they knew their purpose and the last treatment is the procedures applied in teaching reading comprehension. the first thing that have done was introduced reading comprehension strategies and encourage the students to use the reading comprehension strategies by using the reading skills of scanning, skimming and guessing. the classroom activities of the experimental group start with a greeting, devotion, warming up, explain the purpose of reading, introduced the topic, read the passage and students did silent reading, asked students to read after the teacher, requested students to read one after the other in order to check the mispronunciation and asked the students to pronounce the word correctly, assigned students to answer questions by using the reading techniques such as scanning and skimming, encouraged students to guess the meaning, helped the students with difficult words by using pictures, checked students tasks, gave opportunities to the students to take note and gave conclusion of the lesson. analysis and interpretation of findings the statistical tool used to decide whether to reject or accept the null hypothesis of no difference between the mean score of the two groups, the researcher put the data into the z test formula. there was slight difference between the mean score in teaching reading comprehension using direct method and lecture method (see table 1). the mean score of post-experimental was 67.42 and the mean score of post-control was 64.82. however, to prove whether the difference was significant or not, the z test was applied. the result of z test (see table 2) shows that the calculated z value was – 1.988 which was smaller than the critical value of 1.960 indicated that the null hypothesis stating that there was no significant difference in the reading comprehension ability of the students who were taught using direct method and the students who were taught using lecture method was accepted. it means there was no significant difference in the reading comprehension ability of the students who were taught using direct method and the students who were taught using lecture method. 67    table 1 mean difference of the pre-experimental and the pre-control of second year students at sltp advent 4 paal dua manado subject total score of pre-ex mean score of pre-ex total score of precontrol mean score of precontrol critical value 95% 38 2398 63.11 2440 64.21 1.960 the statistical table of the obtained value of z was -3.458 table 2 mean difference of the post-experimental and post-control of second year students at sltp advent 4 paal dua manado subject total score of post-ex mean score of post-ex total score of postcon mean score of postcon critical value 95% mean diff of post-ex and postcon 38 2562 67.42 2463 64.82 1.960 2.6 discussion: there is no significant difference between direct method and lecture method. after making a careful analysis, it is found that the calculated z value was – 1.988 which was smaller than the critical value of 1.960 indicated that the null hypothesis stating that there was no significant difference in the reading comprehension ability of the students who were taught using direct method and the students who were taught using lecture method was accepted. due to the time constrain, the result of the experiment makes no significant difference between these two methods. if the study was conducted longer, it will show significance result as proven by some studies of the effect of direct method on student’s reading comprehension (mariani, 2015), improving reading comprehension using direct method on the eight grade student of smp negeri i genteng (inayah, 2015), teaching reading by using direct method for first year senior high school of man 3 banda aceh (rosa, 2014) and teaching reading using direct method at the fifth of sdn paku haji 2 kab. subang (dwitya, 2012) conclusion in condition that a teacher would like to use the direct method to teach reading comprehension, the teacher needs to be creative in choosing the activities in the classroom that may enable students to understand an authors’ ideas, give comments or reject the ideas. 68    bibliography best, jhon. 1981. research in education. new jersey: prentice hall regents. brown, h. 1994. principles of language learning and teaching. new jersey: prentice hall, inc. brown, h. 1994. teaching by principles. an interactive approach to language pedagogy. london: prentice-hall, inc. dwitya, p. 2012. teaching reading using direct method at the fifth grade of sdn paku haji 2 kab. subang. stkip siliwangi. publikasi.stkipsiliwangi.ac.id/files/2012/10/08220160-febriana-d.pdf deboer, j., & dallman, m. 1970. the teaching reading. new york: holt. rinchart and winston, inc. dechant, e. 1994. improving the teaching of reading. new jersey: prentice hal, inc. durrel, d. 1956. improving reading instructions. new york: world book company. finocchiaro, m. 1974. english as a second language. new york; regents publishing company, inc. franqoise, g. 1981. developing reading skills. cambridge: cambridge university press. gregorio, h. 1973. principles and practices of college teaching. quezon city: r.p. garcia publishing company. hutchinson, t., & waters, a. 1986. english for special purposes. cambridge: cambridge university press. inayah, w. 2015. improving reading comprehension using direct method on the eight grade student at smp negeri i genteng. blogbuleindonesia.blogspot.co.id/2015/03/improving-reading comprehension-using.html jones, d. 1971. teaching children to read. new york: harper and row publishers. lardizabal a., et al. 1991. principles and methods of teaching. philippine: phoenix press, inc. 69    larsen-freeman, d. 1986. techniques and principles in language teaching. usa: oxford university press. longman. 1992. dictionary of language teaching and applied linguistics. manroe, m., & rogers, b. 1964. foundation for reading. usa: scott, foresman and company. mariani, h. 2015. the effect of direct method on student’s reading comprehension. thesis. https://stbapia.librarika.com/search/detail/712264 nazir, m. 1988. metode penelitian. jakarta: ghalia indonesia. nuttal, c. 1982. teaching reading skills in a foreign language. london: heinemann publishers’, ltd. robinson, h. 1969. fusing reading skills and content. delaware: international reading association. rosa, c. 2014. teaching reading by using direct method for senior high school of man 3 banda aceh. thesis. etd.unsyiah.ac.id/index.php?p=show_detail&id= 16770 witty, p., freeland, a., & grotberg, e. (eds). 1966. the teaching of reading. massachusetts: d. c. health and company. acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8, no.1, 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity examining the impact of subtle cultural differences on rhetorical variation in efl essays andrew schenck,1 state university of new york, korea doi: 10.35974/acuity.v8i1.2888 abstract past research of rhetoric has relied on simple binary comparisons between groups that either do, or do not, possess a cultural trait. while countries like korea and the uae may share cultural values such as an acceptance of unequal power relationships (power distance) and a preference for group action (collectivism), these traits vary in degrees of intensity. to understand how these similar cultural traits may manifest differently within rhetoric, three separate corpora of persuasive essays written in english were compiled from female learners with arabic, korean, and english l1s. next, frequencies of rhetorical devices from three categories (pronoun deixis, modals, and epistemic stances) were tallied and statistically compared using friedman’s two-way analysis of variance. results did not reveal statistically significant differences for average frequencies, yet analysis of specific rhetorical devices within each category exposed some notable disparities between corpora. emirati (arabic) learners, who have a strong cultural preference for power distance, tend to lessen authority of propositions and avoid a direct connection with the reader, making an argument less personal (increasing power distance). korean learners tend to use more direct and authoritative rhetorical strategies (decreasing power distance), while simultaneously hedging with epistemic stances to maintain some degree of power distance. hedging also appears to support korean collectivist values that promote conflict reduction and group cohesion. ultimately, more research of cultural influences on rhetoric is needed to develop culturally responsive pedagogy that promotes better intercultural communication. keywords: deixis, modals, epistemic stances, arabic, emirati, korean, rhetoric, power distance, collectivism introduction in kaplan’s early work (1966), rhetorical differences between students from different cultural backgrounds were described, along with a simplistic model of culturally related patterns for rhetoric. via this research, standard american discourse was labeled as a linear construct, whereas asian cultures were hypothesized to have more circular rhetorical patterns. although insightful, subsequent research has pointed out that such notions are overly simplistic (cahill, 2003; huh & lee, 2019; severino, 1993). critics also highlight the fact that standardization of “normal” english discourse indirectly labels non-native rhetoric as invalid, thereby injecting bias into analysis. to address this concern, kaplan (1966) argued that his theory was not designed “to offer any criticism” of other rhetoric types; instead, he suggested that “developments other than those normally regarded as desirable in english do exist” (p. 20). even kaplan recognized that english rhetorical patterns are far from standardized. they may diverge in a number of ways, which is revealed by the circular structure of ezra pound, as well as the “wildly digressive” paragraphs of william faulkner (kaplan, 1996, p. 20). despite recognition of rhetorical variability, kaplan also suggested that this divergence was primarily due to the artistic corresponding author: andrew schenck, 119-2 munhwa-ro, department of humanities, state university of new york, incheon, yeonsu-gu, 21985, south korea. email: andrew.schenck@stonybrook.edu https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8, no.1, 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity nature of literature. other forms of writing were considered to be more stable in each cultural context, primarily because “requirements of communication can often be best solved by relatively close adhesion to established patterns” (kaplan, 1996, p. 20). essentially, non-literary discourse was posited to be more standardized, which led to the widespread understanding that rhetoric in essays varied consistently on a cross-cultural basis. contrary to kaplan’s assertions, culturally driven diversity in rhetoric has been anything but stable in non-literary genres. in a study of 27 korean college students, analysis of expository essays suggested that learners mixed a more linear deductive approach with circular forms of inductive logic (ryu, 2006). rather than being mutually exclusive cultural patterns, essays in this study often used rhetorical characteristics designated to a different cultural group. this finding may be attributed to differences in learner experience, which compelled students to attempt a deductive pattern that mimicked standard american discourse, albeit not accurately (ryu, 2006). later studies of korean discourse confirm that varied experiences cause a rhetorical style to vary significantly (huh & lee, 2019). in this study, learners had various experiences in both korea and the united states, which led each learner to develop their own novel approach to persuasive discourse. like korean discourse, arabic rhetorical patterns often do not resemble either the target l2 or l1. concerning this variability in discourse, researchers suggest that “the source of rhetorical differences is the arab speakers' lack of awareness of the rhetorical patterns of either arabic or english” (hammad, 2002, p. 3). clearly, textual variation is more diverse and complex than overly simplistic theoretical models, which were proposed in early stages of contrastive rhetoric. rather than being static, development of rhetorical style is a dynamic individual process, which is based upon personal experience and exposure to rhetoric. at the same time, each learner must utilize major rhetorical traditions to construct their own unique style of discourse. because learners must use broader ethnic, national, or international conceptions of discourse to construct a new sense of “rhetorical identity,” study of larger cultural influences is still needed. in response to this need, recent research has been developed to reaffirm the importance of contrastive rhetoric, while simultaneously considering the dynamic nature of both culture and communication (mcintosh, connor, & gokpinar-shelton, 2017). ultimately, through heightened understanding of cultural beliefs and values, a more holistic understanding of rhetorical variability and diversity may result, thereby leading to more culturally responsive forms of pedagogy. cultural complexity and influence on rhetoric some research has disparaged the use of contrastive rhetoric, calling for new pedagogical approaches that criticize the cultural and political foundations upon which rhetoric is constructed (kubota & lehner, 2004). although kaplan’s oversimplification of concepts is indeed problematic, the influence of cultural differences remains both valid and important to the study of rhetoric. this importance is reaffirmed in later research, which also addresses problems with past oversimplification of theory. more modern conceptions of contrastive rhetoric suggest that cultural influences are not “frozen in space” but dynamic (connor, nagelhout, & rozycki, 2008, p. 3). to accommodate this new view of discourse, the term intercultural rhetoric (ir) has been adopted. ir utilizes a dynamic and more holistic approach, which also includes social context and genre in the interpretation of discourse (connor, 2004). instead of using a “large culture” approach, which regards national or ethnic groups as “contained, static, and homogeneous” (huh & lee, 2019, p. 56), ir uses a small culture approach, asserting that different cultural “subgroups” are not subordinate, but simply different and coexisting (holliday, 1999). via the small culture approach, rhetorical differences are not labeled as undesirable or incorrect. they are conceptualized as different adaptations to the unique cultural, linguistic, and social context of an individual. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8, no.1, 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity while a small culture approach to rhetoric correctly takes into account social context and genre when interpreting differences, it serves to deemphasize larger cultural processes that may affect individual writing styles. research suggests that that there are indeed broad cultural forces that impact rhetoric in confucian and arabic countries (hamadouche, 2013; hamam, 2020; hammad, 2002; jiang, 2006). these forces are illustrated by challenges posed to american learners who study chinese as a foreign language. in a recent study, university students from five american universities struggled to adopt a new rhetorical style in their writing. results revealed that learners relied on their l1 rhetorical preference, disregarding “what the instructor had taught in class about evidence use” for yìlùnwén writing (liu & du, 2018, p. 1). clearly, there are larger cultural influences on rhetoric that require further scrutiny. although more study of “macro” influences is needed, predilection for individualistic interpretations of rhetoric has caused such research to fall out of favor. as a result, understanding of broader cultural influences and their impact on rhetoric remains limited in confucian contexts such as south korea (kim, 2017) and arabic countries such as the uae (hamam, 2020). rather than overly simplistic studies of the past, more modern research is needed to examine the complexities of largescale cultural influences on rhetoric. past studies which attempted to analyze cultural values on a larger scale were constructed with the mistaken view that culture is simplistic, a set of binary traits that a group either does, or does not, possess. this perspective is illustrated by the theory of high vs. low context cultures. the concept separates cultures into two discreet groups. high context cultures (western european groups such as germans, swiss, austrians, new zealanders, the british, and americans) are thought to focus on the written word and content of a message, seeking out the research and evidence to validate conclusions. in contrast, low-context cultures (asian groups such as koreans, chinese, japanese, southeast asians, and arabic nations) are thought to interpret texts through contextual cues, assuming the reader will be well-informed and interpret the context of the writing carefully before validating conclusions (van everdingen & waarts, 2003). to avoid the pitfalls “binary” cultural conceptions, studies by hofstede (1980, 2001) examined both similarities and differences in beliefs in a more holistic way. a study of 50 countries revealed the existence of several different cultural characteristics such as power distance, collectivism, gender egalitarianism, uncertainty avoidance, and long-term (future) orientation (hofstede, 1980, 2001). later, a follow-up study of 62 countries added two additional categories: assertiveness and performance orientation (house et al., 1999; house et al., 2002; house et al., 2004). through analysis of more cultural traits, the research added to our understanding of group characteristics, particularly in confucian and arabic countries. it has revealed that both confucian and arabic countries share qualities of high power distance (the degree to which members of a group accept unequal power relationships) and collectivism (the degree to which members of a society or organization support joint action and express loyalty for an organization or family group) (buja, 2019; zhao & khan, 2013). in addition to the discovery of diverse cultural beliefs and behaviors, research by hofstede (1980, 2001) also revealed the degree to which a cultural trait is supported in each country. his research placed cultural preferences on a scale that ranged from 0 to 100, with 50 representing a mid-level for the trait being analyzed. through this information, cultural groups with similar traits could be differentiated. in confucian and arabic countries, which exhibit similar beliefs about power distance and collectivism, there is a distinct difference in the degree to which these cultural values are supported. refer to table 1: https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8, no.1, 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity table 1. power distance and individualism (“hofstede insights,” 2021a, 2021b) power power distance individualism united arab emirates 90 25 south korea 60 18 united states 40 91 while both the uae and south korea have high power distance, the value is significantly higher in the uae. as for collectivism, south korea’s value is higher, as revealed by the lower value for individualism. just as cultural values vary in intensity and expression in different countries, so may rhetoric that is manifest from these cultural foundations. unfortunately, past research of intercultural rhetoric has relied on simple binary comparisons between cultures that either do, or do not, possess a particular trait. furthermore, research has tended to use the united states as the sole benchmark for comparison. such research has limited our understanding of how intercultural rhetoric differs between non-western countries who have similar cultural characteristics. differences in the degree to which a cultural trait is supported may influence how rhetoric is used. thus, further study is needed to examine rhetoric from countries such as korea and the uae, which have similar cultural traits that vary by degree. such study has the potential to heighten our understanding intercultural differences in discourse. cultural and rhetorical attributes imbued in language to investigate cultural differences like power distance or collectivism, a number of rhetorical devices can be analyzed. the term power distance consists of two terms, “power” and “distance,” both of which may be imbued within formulaic aspects of language. distance may be exemplified in formulaic language that denotes the relationship between the writer and reader. this relationship is exemplified through deixis, where the pronouns i and you signify a direct connection between the writer and reader. an even closer relationship may be exemplified by inclusive we (e.g., we need to fight against pollution), which suggests a membership in the same group or speech community (yule, 1996, p. 11). by using inclusive we, the writer participates “in the discursive construction of national identities,” thereby establishing a clear cultural connection with the reader (petersoo, 2007, p. 419). in contrast to more direct relationships signified by the use of i, you, and we, more distant relationships denoting “other” may be established with pronouns such as he, she, it, and they (yule, 1996, p. 10). through explaining evidence by using these pronouns, a direct link to the reader is avoided. distance between the writer and reader may reduce conflict when opinions are expressed, thereby promoting cooperation, which is characteristic of collectivism. power may be reflected in modals used to give advice or express obligation, as in the following examples: 1. you (might/could) see a doctor. 2. you (should/ought to) see a doctor. 3. you must see a doctor. (celce-murcia & freeman, 1999, p. 146) as examples move from one to three, the authority or power of advice increases. each modal serves a deontic purpose, indicating that a proposition is “obligatory, advisable or permissible according to some normative background such as law, morality, convention” (suhadi, 2011, p. 156). modals may also be used for an epistemic purpose, which is defined as “the possibility, probability or impossibility of a certain proposition” (winiharti, 2012, p. 532). the following are some examples of epistemic modal use: https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8, no.1, 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity someone’s knocking. 1. that could/might be sydney. 2. that may be sydney. 3. that should be sydney. 4. that must be sydney. (celce-murcia & freeman, 1999, p. 142) as the examples move from one to four, certainty of the proposition increases. like deontic expressions, an increase in certainty can suggest authority. in persuasive essays, a higher degree of epistemic certainty may suggest the authority of the writer, who is confident to assert their opinion. at the same time, epistemic statements are less “confrontational” than their deontic counterparts. epistemic expressions do not directly advise or obligate the reader but provide evidence for an opinion through interpretation of a situation (e.g., smoking could have a negative effect on your health). being more indirect in how it addresses the reader, such strategies may reflect collectivist beliefs, which discourage conflict to promote cooperation and group action. a final means of assessing power distance is by examining epistemic stances. these rhetorical devices can be used to construct “a word or phrase that makes a statement less forceful or assertive” (fatihi, 2019, p. 29). by making a statement less assertive, a writer may lessen the degree to which the reader disagrees, promoting cooperation and collective behaviors characteristic of cultures in confucian and arabic countries. like modals, the degree of assertiveness varies by type of stance. adjectives, adverbs, and verbs, for example, may be separated into epistemic certainty (e.g., certain, obvious, actually, certainly, definitely, conclude) and epistemic likelihood (e.g., likely, probable, possible, apparently, perhaps, probably, assume, guess, seem) (min, paek, & kang, 2019). using stances of epistemic certainty (not epistemic likelihood) may be an indication of authority (additional power distance) in argumentation. at the same time, excessive use of epistemic expressions over deontic ones (e.g., deontic modals) may reflect a desire to avoid direct criticism of the reader, thereby promoting collectivist values that reduce conflict and promote cooperation. through careful examination of formulaic language, culturally driven aspects of rhetoric may be revealed, thereby providing insights needed to improve education and intercultural communication. the relationship between the writer and reader (deixis), use of modals (both deontic and epistemic), and epistemic stances (adjectives, adverbs, and verbs) may all reflect a learner’s conception of power distance and collectivism. although this rhetorical language can reveal cultural influence, little research has been conducted thus far. moreover, past study has not adequately examined rhetorical differences between learners in countries like south korea and the united arab emirates, who share cultural similarities like power distance and collectivism, yet favor these cultural traits with different degrees intensity. more research is needed to better understand cultural differences in rhetoric, as well as useful methods for cultivating the understanding and use of diverse rhetorical styles. research questions due to the need for further investigation of cultural influences on rhetoric, the following questions were posed: 1. to what degree is pronoun use from learners with arabic, korean, and english l1s different? are there any differences that may reflect characteristics of power distance or collectivism associated with each cultural and linguistic group? https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8, no.1, 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 2. to what degree is modal use from learners with arabic, korean, and english l1s different? are there any differences that may reflect characteristics of power distance or collectivism associated with each cultural and linguistic group? 3. to what degree is use of epistemic stances from learners with arabic, korean, and english l1s different? are there any differences in correlation that may reflect characteristics of power distance or collectivism associated with each cultural and linguistic group? methods to examine essays produced by efl learners, the international corpus network of asian learners of english (icnale) was used. this 2-million-word corpus contains persuasive essays written in english by college students from ten different efl countries. included in the corpus are essays from korean learners, arabic learners from the uae, and college students with english as their l1 (ishikawa, 2018). from this corpus, essays from each learner group were separated into distinct corpora for comparison. characteristics of each sub-corpus are featured in table 2. table 2. portions of icnale corpus used for study korean corpus united arab emirates corpus (arabic) english native speaking corpus word types 4265 2626 1967 word tokens 88301 47903 19245 essays in the icnale corpus were strictly controlled to ensure that all participants wrote about the same topics. learners were each given the same two prompts (ishikawa, 2013, p. 97) topic a: it is important for college students to have a part-time job. topic b: smoking should be completely banned at all the restaurants in the country. following the prompt, all participants were given from 20 to 40 minutes to write essays for each topic (length from 200 to 300 words). no dictionaries or other reference tools were allowed (ishikawa, 2013). control of topics in this way helped to increase the validity of contrastive analysis between groups in the present study. all essays came from university learners who ranged in age from 17 to 29 and majored in a variety of subjects from the sciences, social sciences, and humanities. the english corpus was primarily comprised of learners from the united states, yet there were also a few learners from australia (3), great britain (3), new zealand (3), and canada (9). while there were 100 students from the uae (200 essays), all participants were female. since gender differences may influence the findings, only female participants were selected from the other two corpora for comparison. after males were eliminated from consideration, the korean corpus included 195 learners (390 essays) and the english l1 corpus included 44 learners (88 essays). to investigate research questions, corpora were analyzed using the free software program called antconc. files were separated into three different corpora for analysis (arabic, korean, and english). following this, rhetorical devices for each research question (pronoun deixis, modals, and epistemic stances) were tallied from each corpus for comparison. because each corpus was of a different size, frequency values needed to be adjusted. to make frequency values equivalent for each corpus, frequency values from the arabic corpus were multiplied by a ratio value (# of tokens in korean corpus / # of tokens in arabic corpus) and frequency values from the english corpus were multiplied by another ratio value (# of tokens in korean corpus / # of tokens in english https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8, no.1, 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity corpus). this adjusted frequency values of arabic and english corpora according to the size of the korean corpus, resulting in values that could be used for comparison. to answer research question one, which sought to examine the degree of power distance between the writer and reader, deixis was analyzed. the pronouns i, you, we, he, she, and they were examined along with associated demonstrative pronouns my, your, our, his, her, and they. while pronouns like i, you, and we represent an inclusion of both the reader and writer in the process of argumentation, he, she, and they have greater distance from the writer, representing something “other” (yule, 1996). words like person or people also serve to represent something other than the writer or reader. therefore, these words were included in the examination. friedman’s two-way analysis of variance by ranks was used to compare instances of pronouns in each sub-corpus (korean, arabic, and english l1 learners). this non-parametric alternative to the anova was used since normal distribution of scores could not be assumed. the degree to which words did, or did not, correlate was analyzed and graphically charted. to investigate the second research question, which sought to understand the power or force embedded within modals, the following modals were analyzed: must, have to, has to, got to, need to, should, had better, ought to, could, and might. these modals were chosen because they can be ordered according to a “speaker’s degree of authority” (celce-murcia & freeman, 1999, p. 146). they were separated into the following categories based on the research of celce-murcia and freeman (1999, p. 146): highest authority (must, have to, has to, got to, need to), intermediate authority (should, had better, ought to) and lowest authority (could and might). friedman’s twoway analysis of variance by ranks was used to compare instances of pronouns in each subcorpus (korean, arabic, and english l1 learners). this non-parametric alternative to the anova was used since normal distribution of scores could not be assumed. the degree to which words did, or did not, correlate was analyzed and graphically charted. for both deontic and epistemic modals, authority of the writer may increase with the use of more forceful modals like must or have to. in the case of deontic modals (e.g., you must see a doctor), they serve as a kind of advice or obligation; for epistemic expressions (e.g., you must be a doctor), the writer expresses greater certainty or authority as they interpret a particular truth. despite similarities in their representation of authority or power, deontic expressions directly engage the reader, giving some form of advice. in contrast, epistemic modals more indirectly make a proposition about the truth of an event or situation. thus, epistemic expressions appear to be more distant and less direct. usage of each modal type was examined in the study. modals were deemed deontic if the context appeared “obligatory, advisable or permissible,” suggesting some kind of advice (suhadi, 2011, p. 156). if the context suggested “the possibility, probability or impossibility of a certain proposition,” the modal was coded as epistemic (winiharti, 2012, p. 532). modals were also examined with friedman’s two-way analysis of variance by ranks to ensure that no significant differences (p = .178) existed between deontic and epistemic usage between the corpora, which could have influenced the findings. as a further reflection of power distance and collectivism, stances were evaluated. to examine the use of stances, the following adjectives, adverbs and verbs in table 3 were chosen based upon a study by min, paek, & kang (2019): table 3. epistemic words chosen for examination epistemic certainty epistemic likelihood https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8, no.1, 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity certain, obvious, actually, certainly, definitely, conclude likely, probable, possible, apparently, perhaps, probably, assume, guess, seem if learners utilized more stances with epistemic certainty, it may represent an attempt to reduce power distance. epistemic certainty represents more authority, which may signify the writer’s heightened perception of equality with the reader. conversely, heightened use of epistemic uncertainty may reveal a collectivist culture, in which argumentation is less desirable and power distance is more substantial (individuals have well-defined roles in a status hierarchy). friedman’s two-way analysis of variance by ranks was used to compare instances of pronouns in each subcorpus (korean, arabic, and english l1 learners). this non-parametric alternative to the anova was used since normal distribution of scores could not be assumed. the degree to which words did, or did not, correlate was analyzed and graphically charted. results and discussion comparison of pronoun deixis concerning pronoun use, differences were not significant according to friedman’s two-way analysis of variance (p = .751). unlike statistical analysis, which appears to support the null hypothesis, scrutiny of individual pronoun use appears to reveal a difference due to power difference (see figure 1 and the appendix for more information). korean and native english speakers utilized the words i and you to a larger degree, which appear to reflect a closer connection between the writer and reader (less power distance). by using these pronouns, issues related to both the author and reader were directly addressed. whereas the personal pronoun i was used to express personal feelings and experiences of the author, the pronoun you was often used to present the reader with options or alternatives. concerning both english and korean students, phrases like i (absolutely) agree, i agree with, i (do not) think, and i feel that were used by the writers to express their own opinion, seemingly opening a personal dialogue with the reader. other use of the pronoun i reflected an attempt to express personal experience (e.g., i had a part-time job; i had experienced…). regarding the pronoun you, it was primarily used to show the reader a direct benefit of having a part-time job or quitting smoking (e.g., it can give you an idea; it can give you a lot of exercise; developing you and experiencing various things; you can learn). as in english and korean essays, arabic efl writings included pronouns to give an opinion, describe experiences, and suggest the potential benefits of having a part-time job or quitting smoking. however, arabic learners tended to utilize generic pronouns such as they, their, people, and person to perform these functions (see figure 1). by using pronouns assigned to the category “other,” students from the uae appeared to distance themselves from evidence and opinion by avoiding pronouns that directly addressed the reader. concerning the pronoun they, for example, the following collocates were frequently used in the arabic corpus: they are applying, they are aware, they are face with, they could work, and they do not need. while the functions of phrasing (to express an opinion, talk about an experience, or reveal potential benefits) appear similar in all corpora, use of pronouns seems to suggest that power distance is greater between the author and reader for arabic writers. through avoiding a direct connection to the reader, arabic writers appear to express greater preference for power distance. these writers also used pronouns such as he and she much more often, which may reflect highly segregated gender roles. this view parallels the linguistic structure of arabic, which is highly differentiated with regard to gender. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8, no.1, 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity figure 1: pronouns used in the korean, arabic, and english corpora overall, results seem to suggest that korean and native english students tend to maintain a closer relationship with the reader, opening a dialogue between i and you. arabic learners, in contrast, appear to maintain distance with the reader through generic pronouns and gender differentiated pronouns. comparison of modals like pronoun deixis, analysis of modal verbs revealed no significant differences (p = .388), yet evaluation of individual modal use did reveal some notable differences in style of argumentation (see figure 2 and the appendix for more information). qualitative analysis reveals that highest authority modals (must, have to, has to, (have) got to, and need to) are used more often by korean learners, which reveals an authority of the author to speak directly with the reader. therefore, korean learners appear to have a lower power distance than their uae counterparts. in contrast to modals with the highest degree of force, intermediate and lower authority modals like should, could, and might are all used more often by arabic learners. emirati authors appear to be less assertive in the use of modals, which may reflect a recognition of the reader’s authority or status. ideas of the author are not being “forced” on the reader, reflecting an increased acceptance of power distance. native english students favor the use of the modal have to, which may reflect a rhetorical style that is more direct than the collectivist cultures of korea and the uae. despite having many expressions that express a degree of force (e.g., have to) in english discourse, these expressions appear to be lessened through hedging or careful use of pronouns as in the following expression: we know in work life, workers need to be in touch. by using the pronoun, we, the writer appears to suggest that the problem is “ours” rather than “yours,” lessening negativity associated with an https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8, no.1, 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity additional responsibility. the use of have to by arabic and korean learners seemed to be more direct. expressions like have to deal with, have to be prepared, have to communicate, have to be independent, and have to be ready are commonly used without hedging. the larger degree of force in these writings may reflect a cultural characteristic of argumentation or limitations in english ability. figure 2: persuasive verbs used in the korean, arabic, and english corpora in arabic discourse, the word could is often used as a more honorific form of discourse than the word can, thereby increasing power distance between the writer and the reader. the word could appears to parallel the use of can in the other two corpora, as in the following expressions: could eventually result, could help, and could hire. the terms are used to express possibility, yet more politely and less directly. this parallels patterns of deixis, which suggest a larger distance between the emirati author and their reader (higher power distance). the reader is placed at a higher level of authority in the arabic corpus. concerning deontic vs. epistemic use of modals, each learner corpus used these devices in similar proportions for each modal. however, korean learners used more higher authority modals (e.g., have to and must), which tended to be used in a deontic context. students from the uae used lower authority modals more often (e.g., could or should), which tended to be used in epistemic contexts. deontic modals are more “confrontational” in that that they forcefully and directly advise readers on the correct course of action. epistemic expressions do not directly advise or obligate the reader but provide evidence for an opinion through interpretation of a situation (e.g., smoking could have a negative effect on your health). differences in using either deontic or epistemic modals provides further evidence that an underlying value such as power distance may have an influence on the use of rhetorical devices. when using more obligatory modals, the author appears to directly advise the reader as an equal. in contrast, when using epistemic expressions, the author indirectly https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8, no.1, 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity expresses an opinion, thereby showing more respect for the authority of the reader; the author appears to lack authority, reflecting an acceptance of the idea that the power or status of the reader may be higher. comparison of stances differences between use of stances were not significant according to friedman’s two-way analysis of variance (p = .057). individual use of stances did reveal one notable difference between korean and arabic learners (see figure 3 and the appendix for more information). arabic learners tended to use more authoritative expressions for epistemic certainty such as certain, actually, definitely, and conclude. rather than using deontic modals like have to or must, epistemic assertions with the highest authority were utilized. this finding may reveal a means for arabic learners with high power distance to express opinions with more strength. they may utilize a different means from their korean peers to make an argument stronger, choosing a more authoritative, yet indirect (epistemic) rhetorical device to provide criticism or support for a proposition. korean learners tended to use stances of epistemic likelihood more often. words expressing epistemic likelihood such as apparently, likely, possible, probable, possible, perhaps, assume, guess and seem were used more often by korean learners in relation to their emirati peers. figure 3: stances used in the korean, arabic, and english corpora overall, korean learners seemed to have a larger repertoire of adverbs, adjectives, and verbs that hedged their statements. use of words like apparently, possible, seem, probably, and likely may signify a greater emphasis on lessening the degree of force in argumentation. they tended to be used in greater variety and to a greater extent (with the exception of probably) than their arabic counterparts. utilization of stances that lessen the force of a proposition may help soften https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8, no.1, 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity argumentation, thereby preventing the chance that a reader may take offense. this rhetorical style may reduce conflict between the author and reader, supporting collectivist or confucian values that discourage argument and promote harmony. conclusion analysis of rhetorical devices used in persuasive essays from three different cultural groups has yielded some interesting insights. differences in discourse appear to be more complex than past research would suggest. as collectivist cultures, both korean and arabic learners may use rhetorical strategies that reduce argument and decrease disagreement. for learners with an arabic l1, pronouns such as they are used to distance the writer from a reader. in addition, lower authority modals are used to lessen the power of an argument. by increasing distance in this way, the writer may reduce potential conflict caused by direct confrontation, thereby respecting the position or authority of the reader to make decisions. this appears to reflect a respect for the potential power distance of the reader. emirati learners also appeared to use stronger epistemic stances (an indirect way to frame an argument for the reader) more often, which may provide a moderate means to strengthen assertions in a context where power distance must be respected. for korean learners, distance between the author and reader is reduced through pronouns like i and you. more authoritative modals are also used, in contrast to their arabic peers. while power distance is reduced by asserting a more direct and equitable connection to the reader, more stances of epistemic likelihood are used as a hedge, which decreases the power of an argument and promotes values of a collectivist culture. overall, the strategies of korean learners appear to reflect their intermediate standing in regard to power distance. they appear to show some adherence to rhetoric that supports power distance, yet not to the extent of the emirati learners. review of english writers appears to suggest that they involve the reader closely through the use of pronouns and modals of higher authority. while they use argumentation that has force (e.g., have to), careful utilization of rhetorical devices also ensures that the reader can be actively engaged without taking offense, which would cause the reader to disengage from the argument. overall, study suggests that cultural influences on rhetoric may be more substantial and diverse than originally thought. groups with similar cultural characteristics may express these similarities differently in rhetoric, as revealed by analysis of korean and emirati efl writing. because rhetoric forms a lens through which efl learners interpret what they read and write (baker, 2021), understanding culturally driven conceptions of discourse is essential for language education. the present study provided some insights to help educators assess the impact of cultural differences on persuasive text, yet further study is still needed. because corpus data was used for investigation, a writer’s individual experiences could not be examined in detail, limiting understanding of how personal and cultural variables interact to influence rhetoric. more research is needed to examine how potentially codependent factors such as prior 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(2013). an empirical study of e-government service adoption: culture and behavioral intention. international journal of public administration, 36(10), 710-722. https://doi.org/10.1080/01900692.2013.791314 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8, no.1, 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity appendix frequency values word korean corpus english corpus* arabic corpus* certain 9.00 9.18 14.75 obvious 3.00 9.18 .00 likely 9.00 .00 5.53 possible 22.00 13.76 5.53 probable 1.00 4.59 .00 actually 18.00 27.53 25.81 certainly 3.00 4.59 .00 definitely 10.00 18.35 14.75 apparently 1.00 4.59 .00 perhaps 5.00 13.76 .00 probably 3.00 73.41 7.37 conclude 4.00 .00 16.59 assume 3.00 .00 1.84 guess 1.00 13.76 .00 seem 15.00 55.06 3.69 could 81.00 36.71 108.76 got to 2.00 4.59 1.84 had better 4.00 .00 .00 has to 26.00 9.18 11.06 have to 150.00 201.88 92.17 might 46.00 73.41 200.92 must 117.00 18.35 62.67 need to 81.00 45.88 49.77 ought to 1.00 .00 .00 should 527.00 546.00 606.46 i 1529.00 2124.36 477.42 you 690.00 734.12 385.26 he 79.00 36.71 193.55 she 39.00 32.12 38.71 they 904.00 880.95 1316.14 we 498.00 307.41 106.91 my 268.00 513.88 169.59 your 125.00 284.47 175.12 his 69.00 22.94 134.56 her 29.00 18.35 66.36 their 598.00 651.53 1052.54 our 128.00 197.30 88.48 people 917.00 591.89 1059.91 person 122.00 27.53 224.89 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8, no.1, 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity *frequencies for english and arabic corpora were adjusted for comparison to the korean corpus. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no.2, 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity deciphering cassandra as a radical feminist in promising young woman (2020) alika rahma syarifa,1 jenderal soedirman university, indonesia ririn kurnia trisnawati2 jenderal soedirman university, english language and literature department, indonesia mia fitria agustina3) jenderal soedirman university, english language and literature department, indonesia abstract every woman has a different nature, either a strong one or a weak one. not all women have a lucky fate; in fact, many of them are victimized by men. of the many cases of violence and sexual harassment in the world, it is women who are most often the victims, especially in cases of sexual acts without consent. in promising young woman (2020), these issues are conveyed very well. its main character, cassandra, is on a mission to target men who try to take advantage of drunken women and make those men deterrent and frightened. the purpose of this qualitative study on the film is to discuss the behavior of radical feminism living in the character of cassandra. cassandra displays a radical feminist attitude in order to achieve revenge and conveys a message about women's rights to obtain justice. radical feminism occurs based on three key issues: sexual objectification of women, rape, and patriarchy. the result shows that cassandra can fully be claimed as a radical feminist because several characteristics of radical feminism match the nature and behavior of cassandra in the film. these are opposition to the sexual objectification of women, sexism, and toxic masculinity, and lastly patriarchy. keywords: radical feminism, women’s rights, sexual harassment. introduction women experience various types of harassment and violent. an instance is sexual assault or rape, especially when they are under the influence of alcohol or drugs. the alcohol influence that disrupts sobriety is one of the weakest points of a woman when she is left alone or walks alone in the middle of the night. such circumstance possibly makes her as subject of sexual assault or harassment by men. some researchers noted about sexual assault led by alcohol in which the estimation for alcohol use among perpetrators has ranged from 34-74%. approximately one-half of all sexual assault victims reported that they were drinking alcohol at the time of the assault, with estimates ranging from 30-79% (abbey, zawacki, buck, clinton, & mcauslan, 2001). as we can see from the percentage, men commit their actions at a time when women are mostly vulnerable. at least one-half of all violent crimes involve alcohol consumption by the perpetrator, the victim, or both (collins and messerschmidt 1993). despite such condition, the victims were also under the influence of alcohol, and this does corresponding author: ririn kurnia trisnawati, faculty of humanities, universitas jenderal soedirman, indonesia email: ririn.trisnawati@unsoed.ac.id acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no.2, 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity mean that it was their fault for getting this accident. such acts are committed without the consent of both parties, and they can be claimed to be criminal acts, which can harm one party physically and mentally. only a few women had enough courage to reveal indecent sexual acts committed against them, and even then, not everything went flawless as they tried to demand their rights. from modern times until now, the settlement of several cases is still being processed through the courts. several things can make it difficult for victims to win their cases. one of them is possibly some views of society that are persistent against feminists and then they side with the men who are the perpetrators of these actions. those become some of the difficulties that prevent most women from getting their justice. however, from these many obstacles, feminist movements have formed to fight for their rights and speak up against narrow thoughts on the existence of women. in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, the anti-rape movement was enforced, along with the emergence of secondwave feminism. this movement has lifted every woman’s spirit and awakened them to do more for justice. it was proven by the speech by polly poskin, executive director of the illinois coalition against sexual assault, as follows: i remember the new york radical feminists held a “speak out” on rape in new york city in 1971. i came to understand that if women were to gain equality and be free to move about safely in this culture, we were going to have to have sexual safety. if women were to feel liberated, they needed to be safe. and i realized that if we don’t end violence in women’s lives, women were never going to be safe, free, and even remotely equal to men in all the areas of life that we might like to pursue (tofte & poskin, 2006). feminists all over the world raise their voices in their way; one of which is through the object that is studied in this current study, a film titled promising young woman (2020). it is a film that features talks about sexual assault and its justifications by solving the problems in the film that can increase questionable morals. according to “the national intimate partner and sexual violence survey: 2015 data brief – updated release”, one in three female victims of completed or attempted rape experienced it for the first time between the ages of 11 and 17 (smith et al., 2018). people of those ages are considered underage. then, statistics on those aged 17 and above shows that women aged 18-24 who are college students are 3 times more likely than women in general to experience sexual violence (sinozich & langton, 2014). this reason is what promising young woman brings to the table: the aftermath of sexual assault due to alcohol effect. the film narrates about a pair of friends, casssie and nina; nina committed suicide due to severe depression after being raped when she was unconscious because of the influence of alcohol during their college time. cassie felt devastated by nina’s death. then she performed a kind of social experiment that culminated in the prosecution of threats to men who always teased and tried to perform sexual acts without the consent of heavily drunk women. cassie’s final purpose is only to seek justice for nina and to prosecute the perpetrators who raped her. cassie directly showed action and raised her voice about the difficulties of women who often became victims of sexual harassment to the audience of the film promising young woman (2020). this action raised a question about her behavior that is inclined to radical feminism. according to the associate professor of political science, gonzaga university, laura brunell, and the professor of journalism, university of alaska elinor burkett (2021), radical feminism aimed to reshape society and restructure its institutions, which they saw as inherently patriarchal. providing the core theory for modern feminism, radicals argued that women’s subservient role in society was too closely woven into the social fabric to be unraveled without a revolutionary https://www.britannica.com/topic/radical-feminism acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no.2, 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity revamping of society itself. they strove to supplant hierarchical and traditional power relationships they saw as reflecting a male bias, and they sought to develop non-hierarchical and anti-authoritarian approaches to politics and organization (brunell & brukett, 2021). moreover, the current study on promising young woman aims at deciphering how cassie’s acts in the film are arguably part of the movement of being a radical feminist. by analyzing it, we expect to channel instances of radical feminist actions of fighting for other women that can be identified from a certain film. methods this study employed qualitative nature in research. following mcmillan and schumacher (1993), qualitative research is “primarily an inductive process of organizing data into categories and identifying patterns (relationships) among categories” (p.479). qualitative research is used to understand how people experience the world. while there are many approaches to qualitative research, they tend to be flexible and focus on retaining rich meaning when interpreting data. various data were sourced from the film itself, book references, electronic articles, and journals available and related to this research. the data are thus the words taken from the sentences, dialogues, paragraphs, and plotlines within the film that describe the act of radical feminism. they were obtained through some steps in order to get all the correct data for the materials of the identifications. the first step was watching the film and then reading through articles, journals, and websites on the issues of radical feminism. next, by taking notes on the current news, issues, and ideas by skimming through opinions and researching several journals, the researchers also focused on the movie's storyline. the third step was to analyze radical feminism in cassie. while deciphering, we collected some related research, such as the percentage of sexual harassment cases, sexual assault on women, sexual assault under the influence of alcohol, the anti-rape movement, and radical feminism. the analysis of the study was assisted by supporting data in the form of various sources of scientific articles from the internet and journals, and the analysis included supporting evidence from research objects in the form of film clips and dialogues between characters. in the last step, we analyzed to identify whether or not cassie’s behavior aligns with what is called radical feminism. the analysis aimed to get valid appropriate data for the research problems. there were some steps in doing data analysis as follows. the first was reviewing the data after the data were collected. the second was classifying the data that addressed the research problems. the third was analyzing the data that explained radical feminism and women’s right. lastly, the authors concluded the analyzed data. results and discussion the focus of this current study is to examine the actions of cassandra that align with radical feminism. the characterization of the literary work is crucial since each character—protagonist and antagonist—has unique tendencies. furthermore, it contains unique moral, intellectual, and emotional content (jayaputri, 2022). this characterization elements determine the character's action, which helps in discussing the radical feminist behavior of the main character, cassandra “cassie”, in this article. it is necessary to know beforehand the reasons for the emergence of cassie's radical acts in promising young woman (2020). however, firstly, we need to discuss the aims of radical feminism to acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no.2, 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity further detail the issues that radical feminists are fighting for. ellen willis (1984) stated that radical feminism is about raising the voice of women's struggles, including raising public awareness on the issues such as rape and assault against women by opposing sexual objectification of women; the second one is opposing sexism and toxic masculinity, and the third one is rejecting the patriarchal foundations of inequality between men and women. these three key main issues can provide solid evidence to the issues raised in the film promising young woman (2020). each aspect will be discussed in the following parts. 3.1 opposing sexual objectification of women at the beginning of the film, cassie becomes the victim of sexual objectification herself when she gets cat-called by a bunch of construction workers. women dealt with catcallers most of the time. statistics show that out of 16,000 women, 84% of them first experienced street harassment before the age of 17 (holland, koval, stratemeyer, thomson, & haslam, 2016). what most women typically do when they are getting cat-called is to brush it over or rather keep on walking away. for cassie, it was different. she would glare at the men who cat-called her until it made them uncomfortable to mess around more with cassie. such a scene already depicts cassie's feelings towards men, namely not knowing fear and acting intimidating to give a warning image that she is not the kind of woman who is weak or timid. there were also other clips from the film showing off the part when cassie was being sexually objectified in the nightclub. to give itself the context, the men cassie had met at the club were gathering and chatting when they found cassie sitting half-conscious. the problem was they unashamedly made comments about cassie's physical state and started to say inappropriate things about her. beforehand, the men eased the topic of their conversation by talking about cassie as if they pitied and were concerned about her lying alone as shown in the dialogue said by the guy 1: “if she’s not careful, someone’s gonna take advantage, especially kind of guys in this club”. however, it shifted back to "dirty talk" about cassie as observed in the following conversation. guy 2: “she’s kind of hot.” guy 1: “a hot fucking mess,” guy 1: “i mean that it just asking for it,” they approached more towards seeing cassie as a bet of becoming a sexual object. it is all part of the psychological game; men despise it when they cannot overcome something. when men realize that they cannot get girls, they try everything to win her attention. when challenged, their dedication to regain the respect from others grows stronger as they have something to prove. they are motivated by a desire to prove to the people around them that they are real men which manifests itself as a demand for validation, acceptance, and respect from their kind (jesse, 1970). the men do it so for the sake of confidence as well. a recent study shows the difference in confidence between men and women, in which “a common explanation for observed confidence differences is that women's behavior is affected by their insecurity within male-dominated decision-making organizations” (nicholson and west, 198). also, whoever gets to take cassie out of the club and “sleep” with her will win the masculine throne as dubbed that “a woman in a patriarchal culture engages with sexuality, they argue, she becomes an object that is defined and controlled by men” (paasonen, attwood, mckee, mercer, & smith, 2020). seeing a woman on the verge of consciousness, instead of helping to protect the woman who could be in danger, they made her an object of stake for whoever could bring cassie home with one of them. guy 1 even said “sounds like a challenge paul,” acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no.2, 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity emphasizing that what they are doing is fun. usually, if they are told so, men will feel more challenged and do what the other person tells them when the others seem to underestimate them. therefore, it was paul who finally brought cassie home. at first, he looked like a gentleman. however, his lust is bigger than his conscience. he suddenly switches his mind midst the trip way back to delivering cassie. therefore, instead of cassie's house, they return to his place. when they get to the house, cassie immediately gets laid down on the bed, and paul starts kissing and touching her inappropriately when clearly cassie responds with an uncomfortable tone. cassie then asks him, "what are you doing?" with a snarky tone. most women normally can only resist the particular action by words or saying "no" to prevent an unwanted behavior that could end badly. however, there was a reason cassie went home with paul and laid down in his bed. eventually, cassie did a 180 degrees and disclosed her drunk act to show sobriety, from looking limp to suddenly showing a firm attitude. the sharp wailing of her eyes gives an eerie effect. the question was why cassie waited for the man to act and then showed that she had not been drunk all this time and why she did not do it from the start she got home. it is all because cassie wanted to show her bravery as a woman and teach the man a lesson about never taking advantage of an unconscious woman for a non-consensual sexual act. sometimes cassie would explain why she did what she did to them frontally. in order for some men to understand what they did was wrong, cassie warned them about making that a life lesson for not messing around with women. another clip is when cassie went on a blind date with a guy named neil. neil was persistent in getting cassie drunk and high on cocaine, little did he know he was being tested by cassie on whether he is a good guy or a bad guy trying to take advantage of women. neil : “what is this? are you some kind of psychopath or something? cassie : “why would you said that?” neil : “i thought that you were.” cassie : “drunk?” cassie is even mistaken for a psychopath because she changes drastically. cassie concludes that a man's logic in dating a woman is that she must be in a situation where he can completely control her. this reasoning reinforces her thoughts about men regarding their treatment of women. in the end, she scares the men away and warns them never to mess around with an unconscious woman again without consent. radical feminists believe that male heterosexuality objectifies the female body and makes the domination and degradation of women a source of erotic stimulation (meyers, 2014). what is shown here is part of radical feminism e.g., preventing men from sexually harassing women and preventing with its way of dealing with stonewalling. she was trying to seek rights and justice for her late-best friend, but in the most extreme way possible. cassie is simply trying to claim her proof of why and how men behave around women, specifically drunk women. thus, she keeps the proof to herself as a selfrealization of how men act around women. the anger against the male side continues to build up, shaping the thinking that fits with radical feminists. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/degradation acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no.2, 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity figure 1. cassie’s list of men furthermore, from figure.1, we can see that cassie has been doing this lots of times. the color coding of the pen might indicate something about the outcome of the men she went out with. it is evident that the list contains a large number of males. the remaining blank sheets indicate cassie is still considering doing more. this mark shows that cassie has not yet found a glimmer of hope in her goal of finding men who can treat women respectfully and do not see women as sexual object when they are feckless. due to the fact that cassie's previously described act was risky for a woman to get herself into, her strategy for coping with the termination of objectification is viewed as radical. even a typical type of feminist would not think of putting themselves in danger in an effort to obtain some rights by allowing their body to be toyed with by men. in those situations, naturally, women want to avoid being used as sexual objects. there is a hypothesis about risk to self versus others as quoted below: we expected that participants would view their own risk of being attacked as less than that of the “average american” of their gender, whether the aggressor was an intimate or a stranger. such a belief might reflect an accurate perception for a population of university students but is even more likely to reflect a selfprotective and self-enhancing social comparison bias that highly unpleasant or unwanted events are more likely to happen to others than to oneself (taylor et al., 1990, 1995, 1983). the idea behind this assumption is to encourage women to take as few risk as feasible. unlike other women, cassie, a radical feminist, ignores these orders and advice. what cassie did gives mix-up feelings. the idea of placing herself in a risky and uncomfortable situation in order to somewhat achieve the goal of preventing the sexual objectification of women is an irresponsible thing a single woman should do to herself. on the other hand, cassie has awakened a fierce feminist soul, battling valiantly for a woman's right to her body. the same thing that cassie went through in terms of being a victim of sexual assault also occurred to nina, her best friend. the difference is that nina did not respond to the perpetrator the way cassie did. consequently, nina had the worse experience because nina went through all the traumatic assaults. the core story of this film is that the main character, cassie, has retaliation against men who share the same mindset and traits as the perpetrator, who tried to make nina his sexual object and even taped the entire incident. acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no.2, 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity thus, the main theme in this film is about nina, cassie's closest friend, who was raped by al monroe, in the film promising young woman (2020). nina was heavily under the influence of alcohol; she blacked out when al monroe was doing nonconsensual sexual intercourse with her. sadly, no one accepts nina's claims that al monroe sexually assaulted her, despite cassie's knowledge and conviction of the incident. nina became extremely depressed as a result. remorse, disgust, and defiance to nina's unjustly tainted status formed the basis of her depression. such experiences, particularly the traumatic ones, influence our future and affect our behavior without our being aware of it (al areqih, 2022). facing her closest friend’s case triggers the building of the radical mindset and behavior of cassie. fast forward in the film, maddison, cassie and nina’s colleague, gave a recording of nina getting raped by al monroe. the tape is the living proof of nina becoming a sexual object and being viewed by others. figure 2 cassie saw the video what is shown here aligns to the state of “witnessing the objectification of other women that was also followed by reliable increases in self-objectification, with similar negative downstream consequences for emotional well-being” (koval, holland, & stratemeyer, 2021). the clip in figure 2 depicts the unsettling part. the camera position is in the center and focuses on cassie's facial expression. despite the fact that the public missed the video disclosure, the disturbing content of the video is indicated by cassie's response as the camera slowly pans into her and by the terror in her eyes as she witnesses her unconscious best friend sexually assaulted. the evidence she saw caused her to disrupt mentally and emotionally. overcoming this is cassie's emotionally and mentally unstable behavior, described by her parents as depression, self-seclusion, and lack of passion for life, causing cassie to spend more time planning radical ideas to take revenge on the perpetrators of nina's rape. because of this, she also rationalized what she had done to the men she allured beforehand, and will continue her mission to bring the perpetrators of violence against women to justice. 3.2 opposing sexism and toxic masculinity sexism plays a big part in determining the nature of each role. the analysis can be drawn from the clip of neil's part again. this dialogue of neil gave a toxic trait and became a trigger of sexism. acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no.2, 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity neil : “but why are you wearing all that make up? do you mind me asking? i never really understood why women wear so much makeup, is like you guys are so much more beautiful without it. it’s like guys don’t like that kind of stuff you know? it's just this soul-sucking system meant to oppress women. that's f*cked up,” cassie intended to do heavy makeup, and she just wanted to know another man’s opinion about it, whether he would stay silent or comment on it. cassie shows men the principle of “my body, my rule”, indicating that women can do whatever they want with their bodies, including wearing as much makeup as they wan to. sexism explained by human right channel is that “individual acts of sexism may seem benign, but they create a climate of intimidation, fear, and insecurity. this leads to the acceptance of violence, mostly against women and girls” (council of europe, 2020). hence, cassie, as a radical feminist, would not let this happen to her. therefore, to prevent neil from doing or saying any sexist stuff to other women and harming others, she behaves in a way that intimidated neil to warn him not to ‘mess around with a woman’. at one moment, neil has this trait of ‘playing victim’ by saying that he is a good person who does not deserve to be hurt. this trait of his makes cassie see the toxic side of neil. he claimed to be a good person, but in the previous scene, he treated a woman inappropriately. despite this, neil was frightened by her intimidation, which looked as if she wanted to hurt neil. the kind of strength and courage that cassie has consequently makes the men, who were caught red-handed, demean their masculinity. the premise of why assaults by men seem to be common is that straight cis-gendered men are trying to be virile by securing their sexuality. this is evidenced by “heterosexuality being defined by male dominance and action” (paasonen, attwood, mckee, mercer, & smith, 2020). this statement means that some heterosexual men use their sexuality as a power to control and to dominate women. this behavior is known as toxic masculinity. however, few women in this film had sexist traits towards their gender. apart from cassie and her boss at the coffee store, there are hardly women supporting women this film. the case in point is maddison, cassie and nina’s old friend. the encounter with her old friend is a test to see if maddison has changed her mind about nina's situation since she first heard it seven years ago. even after devising a strategy to get maddison to consume as much wine or alcohol as possible, she still did not feel comfortable discussing it with cassie. cassie : “do you roll your eyes behind her back, dismiss the whole thing as drama? maddison : “i don’t know why you’re mad at me! i’m not the only one who didn’t believe it. if you had a reputation for sleeping around then maybe people weren’t going to believe you when you said something’s happened. i mean...it’s crying wolf,” cassie : “you think it’s crying wolf?” maddison : “i don’t make the rules! when you get that drunk, things happened. don’t get black out drunk all the time, and then expect people to be on your side when you had sex with someone you don’t want to,” unfortunately, based on her statements and attitude, she still thinks about not trusting nina because she has a bad sexual reputation. as it is known, cassie got the distribution of the video footage from maddison. maddison questions al's behavior in this situation and expresses her opinion on whether nina was sexually assaulted. it proves that acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no.2, 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity madison does not speak up or practice feminism to support other women out of jealousy. nina has the reputation of being an intelligent student in her class. the others abused nina's sexual harassment case because if nina could tumble from the highest rank, that could be the potential key to success for other students. then, as a form of retaliation, cassie hires a man to take maddison, who is already married, to a hotel room while she is only partially conscious. the goal is for cassie to give her an idea of nina's condition at that time. eventually, the situation made maddison uncomfortable with the uncertainty of whether a bad or sexual incident had happened to her. cassie's side of feminism was shown when she tried to prove that women can be more dominant than men by proving that women can be assertive with men although cassie’s actions were more intimidating rather than assertive. her intimidating stare can make men back off and stop them from behaving indecently toward women. because her aura of psycho-genius is a lot more terrifying than most men can handle, the majority of those men (who appear early in the film) do not dare strike cassie back violently. instead, they are afraid that something might have happened to them, except for the scene near the end of the film, where cassie pretends to be a stripper for al monroe's bachelor party at the cabin. at first, no one realizes it is cassie, but when it is just cassie and al alone, he starts to realize who she is when cassie mentions that her 'real name' is nina fisher. al got freaked out and begged cassie to unleash him from the bed, knowing that he had done something awful to nina and the guilt starting to rise. none of his friends come to help al because they are all drugged by cassie. cassie: “i don’t think they can hear you, and even if they could, they’re all passed out by now. cause, if there’s one thing, i learned at forrest is how easy it is to slip something into a drink. you’d think they would remember that, especially joe” here, cassie teaches al and his friends how easy it is to tamper with a drink (alcohol) by putting "something" in it. to prevent al's pals from supporting him in the confrontation he was about to have with cassie, cassie drugged them all; in light of nina's previous experiences, she consumed a drink that al had drugged, and the alcohol consumption further rendered her unconscious. by disguising herself as a sexy nurse to trick the party, cassie exacts vengeance while appropriating ideas of hegemonic masculinity. cassie : “i want you to tell me what you did” al : “i didn’t do anything! we were kids!” al: : “maybe she regretted it after,” cassie : “oh yeah, she regretted it,” al : “look i didn’t do anything!” cassie : “wrong!” all cassie wanted from al was a confession and a sense of remorse. however, al just evades saying that he never did it, further showing his defence mechanism to maintain his 'good guy' image. his attitude frustrates cassie even more. she is relentless in her efforts to get al to give up and confess. the more she pushes the subject of nina's rape, the more reluctant al becomes to plead his actions, giving illogical reasons that cassie certainly does not accept. al : “we didn’t even..” cassie : “what..? she could barely hold her head up. she had no idea what was going on. al : “it was a f-ing party. yeah, we were all drunk, of course. but she was into it!” acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no.2, 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity cassie : “ didn’t look like she was into it in the video,” his denial of what he has done by distorting the fact that nina also enjoys it is a toxic thing for a man to do. cassie also used her ace card to halt his toxic behavior by informing him that there was proof in the video documentation form. when al learnt that joe, his best friend, had captured some incriminating video, he instantly begged cassie for her cooperation without making any promises. however, his stubbornness keeps appearing, saying the following shameless things in the context of the situation. al : “you know i was affected by it too. it’s every guy’s worst nightmare to getting accused like that,” cassie : “can you guess what every women’s worst nightmare is? the thing is you thought you’d gotten away with it because everyone has forgotten it,” “the trauma response model and the clinical diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder (ptsd) have helped to acknowledge the significance of the harm caused to people who have been sexually assaulted, and the extent of the violation they have experienced,” (boyd, 2011). the impact of the sexual assault on nina was depression, which led to suicide. the film promising young women (2020) provides an overview of the aftermath of rape for both perpetrators and victims. while nina sputtered, dropped out of school, became miserable, and ultimately made the decision to take her own life, al continued to live a peaceful and prosperous existence. of course, the second problem that feminists despise is sexist men who believe that the lives of men is more difficult than those of women. rape cases, which are currently primarily filed by women, have made life extremely difficult for women, particularly those who do not have access to justice. this has a greater negative impact on women because their mental, physical, and moral values are already at the threshold and are worse than those of male perpetrators, who mostly continue their lives calmly without any burdens. al's sexist thoughts are constantly used as defensive arguments that are not worthy to serve as vindication. cassie wanted to give al a lesson by carving 'nina' out his skin with a scalpel she had brought with her so that al would forever remember his victim. furthermore, what al did is relevant to the argument that “men and boys who have sexist attitudes are more likely to be a perpetrator of gendered violence” (azevado, 2019). this statement was proven when al, who managed to free himself from one of his handcuffs, then silenced cassie by smothering her with a pillow. the following scene shows the climax of his sexist trait manifested through his violence. figure 3. al suffocates cassie with a pillow acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no.2, 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity in figure 3, the dark lighting around the room that was shot by the camera and the dim lighting centered around the bed create a focused impression of the bad things that are happening in the room. al's violence appeared to be an attempt to cover up a mistake that he knew was wrong but was reluctant to admit out loud, and then he killed cassie instead by suffocating her with a pillow. the scene above shows how frightening a situation between a man and a woman can be. not to say that a woman is weak, but based on physical appearance, most men indeed appear preponderant than women. cassie is after all defeated, and this is not surprising as it is explained that “regardless of the relative contributions of physical strength, evolutionary biology, and gender role stereotypes, both research and theory lead to the same prediction: women should indicate greater fearfulness than men when faced with a potentially dangerous situation or scenario” (harris & miller, 2000). consequently, when a woman is in an unfavourable situation with a man, it is difficult for a woman to fight a man with her physical strength to free herself from the troubling situation. this problem happened to cassie in that scene. while al is handcuffed to the bed and unrestrained by anything, owing to his power, he can free himself, preventing cassie from exposing his heinous actions and preserving the goodwill of his fiancé and other people. at the end of the film, the irony is that al, who was a doctor, has violated his oath as a doctor. at this point, her efforts to oppose sexism and toxic masculinity do not last long as she has some limitations in accomplishing her mission. 3.3 patriarchy according to radical feminists, the patriarchal culture still dominates society and dehumanises women in various ways, including violence, sexual harassment, and gender discrimination. in promising young woman (2020), the patriarchal society is observed through the dean of their university, students, and even the legal system that did not take nina's sexual assault case seriously. the first person discussed is dean walker of forrest university. cassie met him to pretend to continue her medical studies. when they intentionally meet each other, cassie is only there to bring up nina's case, dean walker does not remember who nina was. however, the dean could only remember al monroe, the apparent perpetrator, as a kind and intelligent person. cassie discussed the nina case that dean walker had handled before. dean walker, just like maddison, did not trust nina's side of the story. no defense support was provided for nina, who instead got a denial of the charges for dean walker's best student at the time, al monroe. the following conversations show how cassie fights to get justice for nina. cassie : “you felt that there wasn’t sufficient evidence. you said there’s too much of a ‘he said’, ‘she said’ situation” dean : “we get accusation like this all the time. one or two a week,” ### dean : “what would you have me do? ruining a young man’s life every time we get an accusation like this? cassie : “so you’re happy to take the boy’s word for it?” dean : “i have to give him the benefit of the doubt. because innocent until proven guilty” acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no.2, 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity the dean’s responses reinforce what cassie has believed about the existence of intergender bias toward al monroe, a male medical student with a reputation for good attitude towards others when he is either inside or outside the university. additionally, he is a smart and accomplished student, which makes it more difficult for others to believe nina’s assertion. nina is an ordinary medical female student who, because of her gender identity, has been stereotyped at every corner, with people always thinking the woman is a male seducer and that "rape error" is the reward she gets for being a flirtatious woman. patriarchy does exist in this toxic system. in this setting of the film, where men dominate the social hierarchy, their opinions are given priority. thus, those in positions of authority tend to silence the opinions of women. nevertheless, the stereotype against nina is not veridical, with what cassie, as her closest friend, knew all along about nina’s nature for being a good student. because cassie still hears the same reasons about nina's case, first maddison and then dean walker, she also teaches dean walker the same lesson as she did maddison. the revenge is that cassie makes dean walker's child a victim by luring him to attend the invitation of his favourite boy band. by doing this, she shows how horrible it is for a woman or a loved one to be trapped in a similar situation that is almost the same as nina's situation when someone raped her. what is radical about what cassie did to dean walker is that she would re-enact treacherous things even to another woman, particularly one who has something to do with nina. this is in line with the fact that “radical feminist aims to dismantle patriarchy rather than make adjustments to the system through legal changes” (lewis, 2020). she solves the problem in her own way, even if it is the wrong way to judge people who were in the wrong. the second person is mr. green, the lawyer of al monroe in the rape case. in order to achieve success as a lawyer, mr. green once threatened and bullied nina in court until nina was forced to drop the charges against al. because of the higher socioeconomic status of men, mr. green was used to being blinded by power and money at that time, so he justified any means necessary to ensure that most of his clients, who were men accused of being perpetrators of violence, would win and be free from punishment. what is shown here is relatable to the statement that “power is related to privilege. in a system in which men have more power than women, men have some level of privilege to which women are not entitled” (napikoski, 2020). the difference between the people that cassie had planned to confront is that mr. green remembered who nina was. that was shocking for cassie becauseshe had this image of him as this misogynistic man who had ruined a woman’s life. acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no.2, 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity figure 4. mr. green apologized for his behaviour in figure 4, the camera work focuses on the centre of the room, showing cassie in the middle of the sofa, with mr. green kneeling in front of her. the reason behind his change of behavior is that mr. green is on sabbatical. he has had an epiphany that makes him regret his actions for his opponents whom he has wronged, including nina. when cassie asked if mr. green wanted to be hurt by her, mr. green resigned himself to accepting the offer to be hurt because he felt he deserved it. cassie had originally prepared a hitman to torture mr. green, who was outside his house. figure 5. the hitman in actuality, cassie despises mr. green the most because he hinders nina from receiving equitable treatment and winning her case in court. that is why she has taken various kinds of revenge on the people who have ruined nina's life, mr. green being the worst among them. he almost got the worst revenge by being tortured by a hitman. fortunately, there is a deep sense of remorse in mr. green, as he had already paid for it through a deep depression that could not put him to sleep thinking about his past sins. despite her feminine rage, she still has compassion for mr. green because there is still a principle of moral value. moral principles aid in the development of human characteristics and personalities. moral principles that should be inherited by a person include loyalty, integrity, truthfulness, honesty, willpower, and others. collins (2015) asserted that "moral value of the attitudes might accompany the action" (fitria, 2020). loyalty to her friend still stands out, but the sense of pity overrides the loyalty. therefore, cassie withdraws the idea of the hitman and instead forgives him because she feels that mr. green's attitude is changing. acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no.2, 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity at the end of the story, cassie was able to destroy the patriarchal system in this film, breaking down the domination of al monroe's power. figure 6. al got arrested by the police a man in power and control, if he ever felt threatened, would and could do anything to maintain a good reputation, as cassie's radical feminism in this instance demonstrates, even if it meant getting his own hands dirty. the abolition of patriarchy is radically demonstrated by cassie’s sacrifice of her own life to be murdered to seek justice for nina, knowing that with the evidence she had managed, it would be easier to charge al with murder rather than rape. hence, she was successful in getting al sent to prison. in figure 6, al did not revolt because he knew he had committed a crime. the film shows the dreadfulness in his eyes. joe, on the other hand, fled and did not turn back to assist al after learning that the authorities had discovered the crime al had committed. the toxic friendship between joe and al affected al when joe was not on his side as al no longer has an enabler and therefore easily surrenders. the concept of patriarchy has been dismantled by radical feminism, which has also brought with it the toxicity that men or people have. what cassie has done by giving her life in order to restore justice for women (and nina) is a very feminist and radical thing because cassie is willing to sacrifice herself to be one of the proofs of the crimes that men can commit against women. her method has included being reckless and borderline unnatural in order to show examples of assaults on women. conclusion even though cassie died at the end of the film, her death was not in vain. she managed to give nina the victory of justice. the surprising end of her plan and her death give a sense of feminism. because of her last fight, she was able to get justice for nina and the right punishment for al monroe, the perpetrator of the rape. even though al was arrested for murder rather than rape, either way al got what he deserved. this was the poetic justice depicted in promising young woman (2020). according to the poetic definition of justice, the punishment of evil and the reward of virtue usually occurs in a unique or ironically fitting manner. ironically, cassie is dead, but with preparations ahead of time to frame al, cassie is able to give al the punishment he deserves. feminism in the film can be seen in the affectionate female relationship that cassie has with nina. similarly, cassie exemplifies a woman's perseverance and courage in her efforts to clean nina's name as much as possible by fighting for justice for nina by any means available. cassie's actions in the film were not only for nina, but cassie also became a representation of reality and raised awareness about sexual assault, which can be harmful to acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no.2, 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity people, particularly women. similar to what happens to nina in the film, if this issue is underestimated, it can cost a life. it has been previously stated that cassie's actions do not appear to be radical because she dislikes men. this is still a common misconception in the portrayal of radical feminists. however, her rage at the injustices against women causes her to lose control. as a result, she does things that could be considered inappropriate. it is just that cassie knows the true nature of any man who can harm a woman. the audience, particularly women, can have two reactions to this film. the majority support cassie's radical actions as a femme fatale and her cleverness in handling illicit men. it demonstrates that radical feminism is accepted in dealing with these issues (as portrayed in the film). others, on the other hand, wish that cassie could handle justice issues differently so that she does not end up wasting her life and can enjoy the success of seeing the guilty men brought to justice. in conclusion, the film promising young woman (2020) conveys a message about the lives of women in the 21st century and portrays a unique character that is very much in line with the characteristics of radical feminism. acknowledment we would like to express our gratitude to institute of research and community services (lppm) of jenderal soedirman university for funding this research. this research is funded under the project of riset dasar unsoed 2023 with the contract number 27.169/un23.37/pt.01.03/ii/2023. references abbey, a., zawacki, t., buck, p. o., clinton, m., & mcauslan, p. 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(1984). radical feminism and feminist radicalism. social text, (9/10), 91. doi:10.2307/466537 https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/18/nyregion/manhattan-da-rape-cases-dropped.html acuity (4)2 94-127 1 the application of process approach in enhancing paragraph writing skills of sma negeri 1 lembang debby annella situngkir situngkirdebby@gmail.com english language school, pekan baru abstract enhancing paragraph writing skill of students addresses the issues of writing. to see the paragraph writing skill enhancement of students and finding out the significant difference in paragraph writing skill enhancement between students acquired individual process approach and students acquired collaborative process approach are the aims of this research. to get the aims of this research used quantitative research. also, researcher conducted paragraph writing pre-test and post-test, as an instrument, to 64 second year students of sma negeri 1 lembang. then researcher analyzed students’ pre-test and post-test achievement by using statistical package for the social science (spss). the results are paragraph writing skills of students enhanced and there is significant difference in paragraph writing skill enhancement between students acquired individual process approach and students acquired collaborative process approach. it implies that process approach enhance paragraph writing skill of students. keywords: individual process approach, collaborative process approach, paragraph writing enhancement background of the study indonesian senior high school students are expected to be able both to share information and instruction in writing and to master paragraph writing in english (mukti, 2016). however, indonesian students often experience problems when learning english (katemba, 2019), in the case of indonesians, there is a high level of acceptability and tolerance of the use of english. the teaching of english in the school curriculum is given a higher priority over all other foreign languages in the school systems (katemba, 2013) but, in mastering english writing skill, students encounter problems since english is their foreign language. thereby, issues in writing need serious attention (jurianto, salimah, & kwary, 2015) for high school students to materialize what they are expected to. there are various issues in english writing that students face. it includes development and organization (huang, 2005; writing center, 2014), lack of ideas (alwasilah, 2001; fatemi, 2008), grammar intuition, missing punctuation, and capitalization (cohen & cavalcanti, 1990; suyanto, 2015). with these issues, students need to take more time and effort in writing especially being learners of english as a foreign language (nunan, 1999). mailto:situngkirdebby@gmail.com (4)2 94-127 to address the issues of writing involves necessary steps to be taken into account. it requires paying particular attention to the paragraph and its components such as topic sentence, supporting details, and conclusion—to develop idea (gillet, 2017). the above necessities require teaching approach in paragraph writing to enhance students’ writing skills. in enhancing students’ writing skills, researchers (abd & ibian, 2014; bayat, 2014; pujianto, 2013) used process approach (pa) in teaching paragraph writing. it has different stages such as prewriting, drafting, editing, revising, and publishing (johnson, 2008; karatay, 2011; simpson, 2013) which cover the writing issues. further, above studies emphasized that pa had positively affected students’ writing skill. an example to this is the developing of writing skills like report texts (pujianto, 2013). therefore, it was recommended to place more emphasis on teaching writing as a process of organizing or developing the writing idea and not only a product (alodwan & ibnian, 2014) for it had contributions to writing success (bayat, 2014). pa seems to have significance to paragraph writing (pw). given the above discussion on the importance of pa to pw, the researcher applied pa to her research to english as a foreign language (efl) sophomore students in indonesia specifically at the sekolah menengah atas negeri (sman) 1 lembang. students were separated in two groups—one used individual pa while the other was by collaborative pa. in collaborative pa class researcher grouped students using friendship ranking (budden, 2008; descioli, kurzban, koch, & liben, 2011) and mixed-ability group technique (cohen, manion, & marrison, 2004; lyle, 2010) research questions this study was conducted to investigate the following: 1. does paragraph writing skill of students enhance after being taught through individual process approach and collaborative process approach? 2. is there a significant difference in paragraph writing skill enhancement between individual process approach class and collaborative process approach class? related literature & studies the complexity of writing writing, a skill that one must possess, is complicated. it necessitates cognitive process (flower & hayes, 1981, cited in deane, 2008) and the production of ideas and thoughts (fatimah, 2013) by organizing them in written forms (copper, 2013). furthermore, the forms and types of writing apply a variety of features which can be seen within the sentences (nunan, 2009, cited in grossmann, 2009) and paragraph (firestone, 2015). written forms may reflect the complexity of writing. the complexity of writing (brown, 2001) includes (1) producing graphemes and orthographic patterns of language, (2) producing writing at an efficient rate of speed to suit the purpose, (3) producing an acceptable core of words and using (4)2 94-127 appropriate word order patterns, (4) using acceptable grammatical systems, patterns, and rules, (5) expressing a particular meaning in different grammatical forms, (6) using cohesive devices in written discourse, (7) using the rhetorical forms and conventions of written discourse, (8) appropriately accomplishing the communicative functions of written texts according to form and purpose, (9) conveying links and connections between events and communicate such relations as main idea, supporting idea, new information, given information, generalization, and exemplification; distinguish between literal and implied meaning when writing. the complexity of writing is reflected by its process. writing as a productive skill though writing is complicated, its skill is productive. it emphasizes producing language rather than receiving language (aguirela & filologia, 2012) in the form of writing materials. in the process of writing, barnett (1991) discusses three components which interact with and influence each other constantly and intricately. it includes (a) the writer’s long-term memory where knowledge of topic audience and writing plans are stored, (b) the task environment, including the rhetorical problem and the text produced so far, and (c) writing processes such a goal setting, organizing, reviewing, evaluating, and revising. literally, the framework of writing goal is achieved while the writer composes his writing through the process. in addition, there are steps that are required during the writing process— when writers keep moving their thoughts back and forth between the components of writing as suggested by copper (2013). the steps are (1) prewriting gestation (from a few minutes to months or years); (2) planning the particular piece (with or without notes or outline); (3) getting the composition started; (4) making ongoing decisions about word choice, syntax rhetorical style, and organization; (5) reviewing what has been written and anticipating and rehearsing what comes next; (6) tinkering and reformulating; (7) stopping; (8) contemplating the finished piece, and (9) revising. thus, writing skill is a skill one must have to produce his thoughts, ideas in a written form, through organization, composing, and processing. writing a paragraph a paragraph is a group of sentences that support one main idea (ireland, short, & woollerton, 2008). the expansion of a main idea in a paragraph consists a topic sentence, supporting sentence and a concluding sentence (mccloud, 2017; writing pack, 2015) which serve as guidelines in the process of pw. rosen and behren (2000) argued that every paragraph should be (a) unified—all sentences should be related to a single controlling idea; (b) clearly related to the thesis—refer to the central idea, or thesis, of the paper; (c) coherent—sentences are arranged in a logical manner and should follow a definite plan for development, and (d) welldeveloped—every idea discussed in the paragraph should be adequately explained (4)2 94-127 and supported through evidence and details that work together to explain the paragraph’s controlling idea. the decision about what to put into parts of paragraphs begins with the “germination process” known as brainstorming, questioning, and note-taking to point the key word of the main idea (the writing center, 2017). an ideal structure paragraph must be measurable and describable and consist of postulate six principles to govern the creation of a paragraph (sarfo, 2015). the six principles of pw are (1) the beginning of each sentence upon what precedes shall be explicit and unmistakable; (2) the consecutive sentences which iterate or illustrate the same idea, they should, so far as possible be formed alike. this may be called the rule of parallel construction; (3) the opening sentence, unless so constructed as to be obliviously preparatory is expected to indicate with prominence the subject of the paragraph; (4) the paragraph should be consecutive or free from dislocation; (5) the paragraph should possess unity which implies a definite purpose and forbids digression and irrelevance, (6) as in the sentence, so in the paragraph a due proportion should obtain between principal and subordinate statements. teaching writing to efl high school students learning writing is important for all students. it is because writing is known as a critical communication tool for students (graham, 2016). the policy of indonesian ministry of education (kurikulum, 2013, cited in jurianto, salimah, & kwary, 2015) requires that undergraduate students must have writing skills and that it should begin in during high school years. this proves that teaching writing to students is seen as a valuable medium to facilitate students’ writing skills in preparation for further studies which may need adjustments in the present. to teach paragraph writing, teacher needs writing instructions. there are eleven types of writing instructions to be effective for helping teenage students to write as enumerated by (graham & perin, 2007). it includes writing strategies, summarization, collaborative writing, specific product goals, word processing, sentence combining, prewriting, inquiry activities, process writing approach, study of models, and writing for content learning. on the other hand, teachers should also master the writing instruction details for them to apply in teaching writing. teachers do not only need to master writing instruction in teaching but they also need to set the goal of what is expected from the student after learning writing. weigle (2005) stated that without a clear purpose in learning will lead to students’ disorientation and unorganized teaching and learning process—causing students’ less maximization of learning. furthermore, in teaching paragraph writing, teachers also have to consider the teaching materials. based on competency standard of english subject in indonesia (curriculum of english for senior high schools, 2013), the material for teaching writing is formulated as follows: interactional and monolog text/paragraph, specified in the form of descriptive, narrative, spoof/recount, procedure, report, news, anecdote, exposition, explanation, discussion, commentary and review. those material can be used as the reference of teaching writing. (4)2 94-127 teaching writing to efl students have many challenges. however, since writing is an important element for students’ writing skills success, it is suggested that teachers should have effective teaching approaches towards teaching writing. approaches in teaching writing initially, the concept of approaches teaching writing to efl learners is adapted from the approaches of first language writing instruction. over the past few decades, researchers have sought to perfect ideas specifically related to efl/ english as a second language (esl) writing instruction. however, agreement on approaches is not consistent (vanderpyl, 2012). so, efl writing teachers not only need to be strong, but also flexible to adjust the approaches that will be used in teaching writing. the following are some approaches that can be used to teach writing. first is the product approach (pra). it is concerned with sentence level structuralist linguistics, bottom-up processing, and the grammatical accuracy to create the final product (badger & white, 2000; nunan, 1999). in creating the final complete product, teacher’s role is as a provider of model language (an imitation of the input into text and guided exercises) and corrector of errors (oraif, 2016) in writing. meanwhile, cohen (1990) asserted that the pra relies on the assumption that learners are able to hand in a finished product the first time around. however, since the pra focuses on writing tasks in which the learner imitates, copies and transforms teacher supplied models, this approach discourages learners from tackling their writing tasks in a serious manner because the focus is on an instant product (grami, 2010) rather than the process. second, the process genre approach, is promoted by badger and white (2000) who combined the steps in pa and genre-based approaches. this approach focuses learners on an occurring situation for which a text is required by studying the relationship between purpose and form of the required text as learners use the process of writing such as prewriting, drafting, revision, and editing (tudor, 2016; yan, 2005). the process genre approach is formulated into six steps which include preparation, modeling and reinforcing, planning, joint constructing, independent constructing and revising (badger & white, 2000; yan, 2005). these steps will develop students’ awareness in the process of composing different type of texts and take benefits from the process of writing and become familiar with the required texts (sari & saun, 2013). third, the language experience approach, is a comprehensive beginning reading method which integrates children’s language and background knowledge (carter, 2007). it can also be used as a starting point with beginning and improving writers both for writing practice and for developing writing skills because it uses a student’s own language and grammar to create reading and writing materials (nunan, 2011). the following discuss about the impact of pa to teaching writing. (4)2 94-127 process approach pa is used as the guide in teaching writing. it is seen as a planning-writingreviewing framework (hyland, 2003). this framework sees writing as a non-linear, exploratory, and generative process whereby writers discover and reformulate their ideas as they attempt to proximate meaning (zamile, 2003, cited in vanderpyl, 2012). on the word pa is modeled as a stage of framework in formulating the idea of a writer before writing. it has different stages such as prewriting, drafting, editing, revising, and publishing (johnson, 2008; karatay, 2011; simpson, 2013). in addition, the pa is described as an approach that emphasizes teaching writing not as product but as process; helping students discover their own voice; allowing students to choose their own topic; providing teacher and peer feedback; encouraging revision and using student writing as the primary text of the course (silvia & matsuda, 2001). through pa, students are directed to mind-expanding activity which gains insight into the mental activity and decision-making process of the writer as he or she carries out a writing task” (weigle, 2002). to sum up, teaching writing by using process approach mean guiding student in the process of writing by involving mental and decision-making activity to compose the final product. the concept of process approach when working with process writing, the focus lies in the various steps that a writer goes through when producing text. white and arndt (1991) identify six interrelated non-linear procedures in writing as reflected in figure 1. it shows how the concept of pa works. figure 1 process writing pa focuses on the process of generating ideas, deciding which ideas are relevant to the message, and then using the language available to communicate that message in a process that evolves as it develops. in the classroom, this translates into group brainstorming exercises, general discussions, and planning activities to come up to the decision about the content of the piece of writing (sun, 2009). hence, the emphasis of pa is writing process. drafting structuring generating evaluating focusing reviewing (4)2 94-127 the strengths and weaknesses of process approach pa has been applied to efl and esl writing classes because of its various advantages. it helps students to manage their own writing by giving students a chance to think as they write (brown, 2001; nunan, 1991). also, it allows students to be more independent and creative in writing because they are expected to explore their own topic and are not limited to one-focused writing product (brown, 2001; raimes, 1983). pa enhances students’ motivation and positive attitudes towards writing (abd & ibian, 2014; onozawa, 2010), promotes the development of language use skills (mayers, 2005), and develops skills, such as drafting and editing texts and the ability to identify the ideas that lack sufficient support to the topic (cameron, 2009). also, pa is possible to combine several approaches or writing instruction and also incorporate with other skills (leki, 1992). on the other hand, pa has its weaknesses. it includes the less attention to grammar and structure and put little importance on the final products (reid, 2001). it does not serve the learners’ purpose because it neglects accuracy or grammatical element (onozawa, 2010). it is suggested for adult learners (grossmann, 2009). despite of its weaknesses, pa has been widely used (hayland, 2003; onozawa, 2010). it is a recommended approach to teach writing to efl class learners. individual and collaborative learning learning is a process of gaining new or manipulating existing knowledge, behaviors, skills, values, or preferences. there are three big ideas to be focused on when it comes to learning. these include learning as a process of active engagement, learning as individual and social (collaborative work), and learner differences as resources to be used, not obstacles to be confronted (wilson & peterson, 2006). on another word, learning illuminates the causal relationship between social interaction (collaboration) and an individual’s difference. there are six principles of learning seen as relationship between social interaction and individual’s difference (kolb, 2005). these are (a) learning is interpreted as a relationship between the individual and the environment, (b) learning is interpreted as the holistic process of adaptation to the environment, (c) learning is to be regarded rather as a regulate process than an outcome condition, (d) the student’s existing knowledge and experience play a decisive role in processing new information, learning is assimilation and accommodation adaptation (f) learning is a process of constructing knowledge— the result of which presents itself as a relationship between community knowledge and individual knowledge. it can be said that individual learning (il) and collaborative learning (cl) are types of learning that can be applied in learning process to gain or acquire new knowledge or skills. furthermore, il (brown, 2016; sieben, 2013) and cl (challob, bakar, & latif, 2016; mandal, 2009) can be also applied to teach writing. (4)2 94-127 individual learning il is an instruction method in which students work individually at their own level and rate toward an academic goal (petty, 2011), knowledge or skill (guechtouli & guechtouli, 2009). this method has more emphasis on studentcenter. teachers of il consider and cater for the needs of individual participants such as rates of learning style, attitude, maturity, motivation, interest, and learning environment (crockett & foster, 2005) in applying such method. there are some advantages of applying il method in teaching (green, 2013). it includes (a) close learning gaps, teacher can deliver material at an optimal pace that caters to each student’s interests and abilities; (b) building confidence in students by applying individualized instruction which can help students gain selfconfidence as learners and helps them progress more quickly; (c) greater engagement for teachers and students, teachers have more opportunities to interact with students one-on-one when using individualized instruction in their classrooms; self-directed, more independent learning frees up opportunities for teachers to talk with students, assess where they are academically, and how their il plan can be tweaked to achieve maximum results; (d) allowing students to work at their own pace. il gives students the opportunity to work at different paces and on different areas without affecting the learning of their peers. some students may work ahead while students who are struggling in a particular area can take the time they need to review and master a concept they may have previously not fully understood (crockett & foster, 2005). however, this method has disadvantages as enumerated by stiller (2012). it includes (a) extra preparations, if the school is not using an intelligent adaptive learning system that collects student data to achieve personalized learning outcomes, teachers will need to thoroughly research the academic history of each student and the ways he or she learns best, and (b) teacher’s initiative, teacher needs to modify the classroom, teacher needs to do observation or research in order to get the detailed information of the students, by getting the detail information of the students, teacher can reconstruct the class. collaborative learning cl is an educational approach to teaching and learning that involves groups of students working together to find the solution of the problems, do the task or gain the new skill or knowledge (bonwell & eison, 1991). this educational approach is based on the idea of natural social learning stated that learning occurs when all the participants talk among themselves (gerlach, 1994) in learning environment. there are some elements that define the cl (marzano, 2012) such as (a) positive interdependence (a sense of sink or swim together), (b) face-to-face promotive interaction (helping each other to learn, applauding success and efforts), (c) individual and group accountability (each of us has to contribute to the group achieving its goals), (d) group processing (reflecting on how well the team is functioning and how to function better). (4)2 94-127 cl has advantages when applied to the classrooms (storch, 2007). it includes (a) providing more language practice opportunity, (b) improving the quality of students talk, (c) creating a positive learning climate, (d) promoting social interaction, and (e) allowing students for critical thinking. further, it is effective technique for achieving certain kinds of intellectual; social learning goals; conceptual learning; creative problem solving; and for increasing in written language proficiently by grouping students. other advantages of collaborative technique in teaching writing are (a) involving active learning, (b) making students feel less isolated and alone and especially at the beginning, (c) depending on the task it may be possible to divide out components and share workloads, (d) encouraging learner’s responsibility and autonomy, (e) helping the low achieving student in still a different way (elizabeth, 1994 cited in pendi, 2015). however, there are also some disadvantages and challenges of cl such as (a) allowing certain individuals feel comfortless participating in a group setting, it keeps some individuals from benefiting from the instruction, (b) granting the students more control over the flow of information and focus of the instruction may veer from its intended course, (c) allowing some members contribute in learning while others do not, (d) challenging teachers to create and embrace a new environment and methodology for learning/instruction; arm the students with resources and skills to remain productive outside the classroom is the keystone of education (moraru, 2015; sansivero, 2016). writing assessment to know whether the teaching and learning process in writing is successful or not, it can be seen through the improvement of students’ writing skill. the improvement of student’s writing skill is seen through writing assessment— a guide of evaluation to see and evaluate writer’s performance through writing task (jarbel, 2017). the ideas to writing assessment in primary and secondary grades are focused on three aspects of the overall vision (bennett & gitomer, 2009); (1) understanding the cognitive basis for effective writing instruction; (2) designing formative and summative writing assessment designs that meet the goal for assessment designs that use more meaningful tasks, effective support for instruction, and constitute valuable learning experiences in their own right; (3) conceptualizing an approach to essay scoring that maintains a strong rhetorical focus while using automated methods to assess key component skills. the writing assessment can be intended to score writing task to see student’s english writing skill improvement without substituting automated scores for human judgment about content and critical thinking of writing product (deane, 2011). assessing students’ paragraph writing can be scored through rubric with several aspects involved such as content, organization and format; grammar, vocabulary and fluency; and supporting document-rubric is recommended for assessment (nc state university, 2011). (4)2 94-127 related studies abd and ibnian (2014), conduct a study at university students found that individual pa had positively affected students’ writing skill by placing more emphasis on teaching writing as a process of organizing and developing the writing idea. bayat (2014), first year preschool teaching students pa had significant effect on writing success and anxiety. belinda (2006) college students individual pa was effective to improve students’ writing skill and attitude toward writing. faraj (2015), second year collage individual pa improved students’ writing skill and helped students face the basic element of writing, e.g. grammar and punctuation. onozawa (2010) junior and senior high school students pa is one of the most notable writing approaches and it appears to be lasting addition to esl/ efl writing classroom. pujianto, emila and sudarsono (2016) senior high school students individual pa helped students overcome the difficulties they faced when they wrote and it helped students realize their potential, discover new information, and develop students’ writing skill. sari and saun (2013) junior high school students pa is good approach in teaching writing and it can be applied in varieties of text type. sun (2009) efl middle school students pa can be ideally applied in different teaching models, and when teacher use the same pa but different models of teaching writing to teach the different students, an optimal teaching effect can be realized. vanderpyl (2012) several levels of efl learners pa should be promoted to educator as a writing process. another related studies was cited as the following on the collaborative learning (cl). mandal (2009,widhiyanto (2011),albesher (2012), wichadee (2013 english college students cl had a positive effect on the students’ attitudes towards writing in english and has great benefit to the student community and help them enhance their writing skill. besides that, makes students to be active, to work with a good spirit and enjoy the process in the classroom bakar and latif (2016) efl senior high school students cl helped students reduced their writing apprehension and improve their writing performance as they experienced and learnt much knowledge concerning the micro and macro aspects of writing. while, rochwati (2007) senior high school students her study promoted the use of group work technique in teaching writing. from malaysia ismail and rizan (2009 cl had enhanced student’s writing performance. sae-ong (2010)stated that work technique can be used to teach speaking and reading while, sofiandi, salam and riyant (2013)found that work technique can be used to teach speaking and reading hypotheses the hypotheses of the research are: 1. null hypothesis (ho): there is no significant difference between students’ achievement who will be taught using individual pa and collaborative pa. (4)2 94-127 2. alternative hypothesis (ha): there is significant difference between students’ achievement who will be taught using individual pa and collaborative pa methodology research design this study employed comparative research. comparative research is a broad term that includes both qualitative and quantitative method (mills, van de bunt, & bruijn, 2006). this research was specified in quantitative research. it emphasizes objective measurement and statistical, mathematical, or numeric analysis of data collected through polls, questionnaire, and survey by manipulating statistical data using computational techniques (babbie, 2010; muijs, 2010). the data of this research was calculated through computational techniques, that was why researcher used comparative research specified in quantitative method. the table below showed the design of research and treatments (creswell, 2003). table 1 research design sample pre-test treatment post-test g1 o t1 o g2 o t2 o g1: second year senior high school majoring in eight natural science g2: second year senior high school majoring in eleventh natural science t1: individual pa t2: collaborative pa o: writing test the sample the participants of this study were two classes, they were senior high school students in sman 1 lembang which have the same level on class. the researcher chose second year senior high school majoring in first and second natural science as the sample of this research. the samples were given the same pre-test and posttest, but different treatment. one class used individual pa while the other was by collaborative pa. the instrument instruments were used to facilitate this research and to collect the data or information which was important to find the result of this research, they were paragraph writing pre-test and post-test both samples were acquired the same instruments. to validate the test, the researcher administered pilot test. below is the explanation of the instruments and pilot test. pilot test the pilot test was administered before giving the pre-test. the test was a writing test; adopted from some sources and text book of the students. this test was (4)2 94-127 validated by using anates. anates is used to facilitate researcher to do reliability test, difficulty level test, validity test and analyzing discrimination index. pre-test after administering pilot test; a pre-test was conducted to get the achievement before giving the treatment. the pretest was given in written form, participants asked to write paragraph. the objective of the pre-test was to get the achievement of the students before treatment. treatment the treatment was given to the two classes (g1 and g2). for g2, in the beginning researcher grouped it consisting four people and went to the treatment. in grouping the students, researcher used friendship ranking (budden, 2008; descioli, kurzban, koch, & liben, 2011) and mixed-ability group technique (cohen, manion, & marrison, 2004; lyle, 2010). next, for g1, the researcher directly went to the treatment (kamal & faraj, 2015; laksmini, 2006). below were the steps of the treatment for both classes. table 2 procedures of the treatment g1 (individual pa) g2 (collaborative pa) students are not divided in group students are divided in group consist of four people stage 1: prewriting 1. students wrote on topics based on the material given. 2. students gathered and organized ideas. 3. students defined a topic sentence. 4. students wrote an outline for their writing. stage 1: prewriting 1. students wrote on topics based on the material given. 2. students gathered and organized ideas. 3. students defined a topic sentence. 4. students wrote an outline for their writing. stage 2: drafting 1. students wrote a rough draft. 2. students emphasized content rather than mechanics. stage 2: drafting 1. students wrote a rough draft. 2. students emphasized content rather than mechanics. stage 3: revising 1. students reread their writings. 2. students shared their writings with teacher. 3. students participated constructively in discussion about their writing with teacher. 4. students made changes in their compositions to reflect the reactions and comments of stage 3: revising 1. students reread their writings. 2. students shared their writings with teacher and member of the group. 3. students participated constructively in discussion about their writing with teacher and member of group. 4. students made changes in their compositions to reflect the (4)2 94-127 teacher. also, students made substantive rather than only minor changes. reactions and comments of teacher and members of group. also, students made substantive rather than only minor changes stage 4: editing 1. students proofread their own writings. 2. students increasingly identified and corrected their own mechanical errors. stage 4: editing 1. students proofread their own writings and members of group. 2. students increasingly identified and corrected their own mechanical errors. stage 5: publishing 1. students made the final copy of their writings. 2. students published their writings in appropriate forms. 3. students shared their finished writings with the teacher. stage 5: publishing 1. students made the final copy of their writings. 2. students published their writings in appropriate forms. 3. students shared their finished writings with the teacher and group. to facilitate both classes in applying the treatment, every meeting the researcher provided guideline paper. the guideline paper is illustrated in more details in the following discussion. these are based on the steps as suggested by faraj (2015). stage 1: prewriting in prewriting stage, everything comes about before writing the first draft by writer. most of the time prewriting takes about 85% of writer’s time of writing. in addition, the writer focuses on the subject of his/her writing, spots and audience due to having the complete thought and plan about what they are going to write before starting their writings. the following are some activities in this stage. choosing a topic the teacher lets the students choose their own writing topics. the more interested the students are in their own topic, the higher their communicative language ability. this will be enable them to express their ideas. gathering ideas most of the students have difficulties in gathering ideas for their writing. therefore, at this point, researcher needs to deliberately introduce students to some different techniques (brainstorming, reading and interviewing) to guide and stimulate them to gather ideas for their writing. these techniques will be further discussed in the subsequent sections. (4)2 94-127 1. brainstorming techniques: students brainstorm to generate ideas for their writing. they use diagrams (clustering) or randomly listing ideas to help themselves develop both ideas and words list for their writing, decide the sort of writing, audience, and determine the purpose for their writing. 2. reading technique: leibensperger (2003) suggested that students collect information and interesting vocabularies about their topic. so as to gather ideas for their own topics, students are jotting down ideas from what they have read and are making lists of the most interesting ideas that they might want for their topic. to achieve this purpose, students can search the university or public library for any books or any other sources about their topic. the internet is also a useful resource to be used. 3. interviewing: students are talk to experts of the writing topic who will supply the learners with perspectives on their topic which are more interesting and more up-to-date than the information from reading alone of the learners themselves. for instance, if a student wants to write a paper on ‘great depression’, he can take advantages from interviewing someone who has lived during ‘great depression’ time period. the information will be very interesting because the interviewee can talk about his unique experiences. organizing ideas faraj (2015) designed following steps to help students organize their ideas. 1. go through the ideas and cross out the irrelevant information or the information, but not to erase it completely because maybe they can be useful in the future. 2. put the ideas that are most closely related together in the group. 3. look critically at the ideas that are put in groups. they may support the insufficiency of ideas for they are needed in the future. defining a topic sentence after organizing ideas students start writing topic sentence. clear topic sentence helps the readers guess what is next based on what they have already seen (mayers, 2005). in fact, creating a clear topic sentence is not only helpful for the reader but also for the writer. for instance, topic sentence helps the writer organize the main ideas of the essay, which also create unity in each of the paragraphs. at this point, so as to work on building up learner’s confidence as an initial stage of writing process the teacher has not taken grammatical mistakes into account. outlining first, students are starting in writing an outline for their topic after they organize the ideas that have been collected and get enough knowledge about how to write the topic sentence. second, students learn how to make an outline for their writing and introduce their topic with a general statement. third, students first learn (4)2 94-127 how to start with a topic sentence then, giving the supporting details with examples to support what is mentioned in the topic sentence. and the last is student making conclusion in a new idea about their topic and the summarization should be written in fresh language. stage 2: drafting once the learners have planned out their ideas, the next step is to start drafting. the first draft of their writing may contain lots of errors like incomplete ideas and mechanical mistakes. at this point, students do not worry about correcting the errors, because the aim of putting their ideas into sentence is greater than correcting the errors. students are informed that their drafts should be written in double-space in order to give space for self-revising or teacher’s comment. stage 3: revising students are not required to correct minor grammar mistakes but they should pay particular attention to the content and organization of their writing. in this way, they will see and revise their rough drafts from a fresh perspective and they will gain what mistakes they did. stage 4: editing in this stage students work to make their writing ‘optimally readable’. to have an optimally readable paragraph, student have editing checklists to enables students focus more on specific points in the editing stage. the editing checklist question is provided by the teacher for the students. at this stage teacher also starts to comment student’ writing and use correction symbols to help the students to think about their mistakes and then correct them by themselves. the teacher writes the above correction symbol above or next to the place that student’s writing mistake occurs. then, students know what the symbol means. they think about their mistakes and correct them. below is the correction symbol of teacher faraj (2015). meaning symbol example of error a spelling error s he has a fuuny hairstyle. a mistake in word order wo i like very much it. a grammar mistake g he give us only a half hour for dinner without any other rest. wrong verb tense t i went to the bookshop and i buy a book. concord mistake (e.g. subject and verb agreement) c he always telling the dumb jokes. (4)2 94-127 something has been left out. “ i” too tired. wrong word ww i like and interest on my job. something is not necessary. {} she wasn’t {very} funny enough. the meaning is unclear. ? m i don’t like the hours 4 to 9. a punctuation mistake p one of my coworkers is debby figure 2. correction symbols stage 5: publishing students end up with their final writing draft and they will publish their writing. publishing has its advantages for the students, it can promote students the real communication with their readers during writing process. hence, students’ having real audiences enable them meaningfully responds to their writing and increases or develops their confidence as authors (bae, 2011). in this stage, teacher plays the role of as both reader and evaluator. teacher’s comments on the students’ mistakes will be so clear to aid the learners in their understanding of the problems. post-test after treatment, a post-test was given to students. the post-test achievement of students is given to be compared to pre-test score of students. the post-test was the same with the pre-test. the scoring to know the achievement of the two groups, the researcher scored the pretest and posttest of research participants. the rubric was adapted from douglas e-book (2000) that will be used to score the test. there are four aspects in that rubric and the score they are content; organization, discourse, syntax, vocabulary and mechanic. the maximum score of the four aspect is 100. 3. rubric for scoring writing task no aspect of writing score criteria 1. content 24 -thesis statement -related ideas -development of ideas through personal experience, illustration, facts, opinion. -use of description, cause/effect. comparison/contrast -consistent focus (4)2 94-127 2. organization 24 -effectiveness of introduction -logical sequence of ideas -appropriate length 3. discourse 20 -topic sentence and paragraph unity -transition, discourse makers, cohesion, variation and fluency 4. syntax 12 -grammar and sentence structure 5. vocabulary 12 -choice of word and variation of word. 6. mechanic 12 -spelling -punctuation -citation of reference (if applicable) -neatness and appearance data collection procedures to collect the data of this research was by administering the pre-test, posttest, treatment and scoring then getting the result of each test. the first was the pre test; it was conducted by the researcher to both classes (individual and grouped class) in order to know their achievement before treatment given. after the pre-test given to the students, the treatment was given to two classes according the procedures of the treatment. the second was the post-test, it was conducted after giving the treatment to the two classes. the third was scoring all the test given, by using rubric as the guideline to score the test. the last was data collection by gathering the score of the pretest and posttest test of students. data analysis procedures the researcher used spss to calculate the data. spss is a kind of computer program for statistically computation. it includes normalized gain, normality test, variance homogeneity test and mean difference test (to find t-test). the level of significance is 0.05 (5%). validity validity test is used to know or find out whether the instrument is appropriate to be used in this research. suherman (2003) proved that validity of instrument depends on the constancy of the tool that is used. the following was the formula for calculating the validity of the instrument. (4)2 94-127 r xy= n ∑ xy (∑ x)(∑ y) √n (∑ x2− (∑ x)2)− (n (∑ y2− (∑ y)2) explanation: 𝑟𝑥𝑦: correlation coefficient n: number of subject x: item score y: total score suherman (2003) figured out the criteria of validity test that is reflected on next the table. table 4. coefficient correlation of validity test 𝒓𝒙𝒚 interpretation ≤ 0.00 not valid 0.00 – 0.20 very low 0.20 – 0.40 low 0.40 – 0.70 moderate 0.70 – 0.90 high 0.90 – 1.00 very high the result of validity test is reflected on the next table. table 5. result of validity test question number 𝒓𝒙𝒚 interpretation 1 0.485 moderate 2 0.592 moderate 3 0.246 low 4 0.743 high 5 0.596 moderate 6 0.628 high 7 0.742 high 8 0.653 high based on the result above, it can be concluded that all the questions were valid. the ryx value of all the questions were 0.83. question number 1,2 and 5 were on the level of moderate; question number 3 was on the level of low and question number 4,6,7,8 were on the level of high. (4)2 94-127 reliability reliability test is used to evaluate the test result in the same subject. suherman (2003) the reliability to measure the instrument is a tool that finds out the result that is consistent in the same subject. formula is following this: r 11= ( n n−1 )(1− ∑ s1 2 st 2 ) explanation: 𝑟11 : reliability of the instrument n: number of questions ∑ 𝑠1 2: sigma of variance total score per number of question 𝑠𝑡 2 : variance total score suherman (2003) figured out the criteria of reliability test that is reflected on the table below. table 6. interpretation of reliability test coefficient reliability interpretation 0.90 < r11 ≤ 1.00 very high 0.70 < r11 ≤ 0.90 high 0.40 < r11 ≤ 0.70 moderate 0.20 < r11 ≤ 0.40 low r11< 0.20 very low the calculation result of reliability test was 0.83. it meant that the test was highly reliable to be used as the instrument of the research. level of difficulty to determine whether the questions is appropriate to the students, analysis of difficulty level was conducted. the formula based on suherman (2003) as follows: 𝐼𝐾 = 𝐽𝐵𝑎 + 𝐽𝐵𝑏 𝐽𝑆𝑎 + 𝐽𝑆𝑏 explanation: ik: level of difficulty 𝐽𝐵𝑎 : number of upper-group’s correct answers 𝐽𝐵𝑏 : number of lower-group’s correct answer 𝐽𝑆𝑎 : number of upper-group student 𝐽𝑆𝑏 : number of lower-group students (4)2 94-127 suherman (2003) figured out the criteria of reliability test that is reflected on the table below. table 7. interpretation of difficulty level level of difficulty interpretation >1.00 very easy 0.71-1.00 easy 0.31-0.70 moderate 0.000-0.30 difficult ≤0.00 very difficult the result of the difficulty level of the test is shown below: table 8. result of difficulty level test question number index difficulty difficulty level 1 0.7083 very easy 2 0.2333 difficult 3 0.3704 moderate 4 0.3532 moderate 5 0.3796 moderate 6 0.2111 difficult 7 0.1389 very difficult 8 0.1833 difficult as reflected from table 3.8, question number 1 was on the very easy level, question number 2, 6, 8 were on the difficult level. furthermore, question numbers 3, 4, 5 were on the moderate level and question number 7 was on the very difficult level. discrimination index to determine the discrimination between high-ability students and lowability students using the formula as follows suherman (2003): 𝐷𝑃 = 𝐽𝐵𝑎−𝐽𝐵𝑏 𝐽𝑆𝑎 or 𝐷𝑃 = 𝐽𝐵𝑎−𝐽𝐵𝑏 𝐽𝑆𝑏 explanation: dp: discrimination index 𝐽𝐵𝑎: the number of upper group’s correct answer 𝐽𝐵𝑏 : the number of lower group’s correct answer 𝐽𝑆𝑎: number of upper-group students 𝐽𝑆𝑏: number of lower-group students suherman (2003) figured out the criteria of reliability test that is reflected on the table below. (4)2 94-127 table 9. criteria of discrimination index level interpretation 0.71 1.00 very good 0.41 0.70 good 0.21 0.40 sufficient 0.00 0.20 poor ≤0.00 very poor the result of the test is reflected below. table 10. the result of discrimination index question number discrimination index interpretation 1 0.250 sufficient 2 0.200 sufficient 3 0.148 poor 4 0.261 sufficient 5 0.185 poor 6 0.187 poor 7 0.244 sufficient 8 0.266 sufficient as reflected from table 3.10 question numbers 1, 2, 4, 7, and 8 were in the level of sufficient and question numbers 3, 5, and 6 were in the poor level. it can be concluded that most of the questions were in the level of sufficient discrimination index. the recapitulation of pilot test result the total items of the pilot test were 8. they were analyzed by using anates. below is the result of pilot test recapitulation. (4)2 94-127 table 11. the recapitulation of pilot test result question number validity test reliability test difficulty level discrimination index 1 low high very easy sufficient 2 moderate difficult sufficient 3 low moderate poor 4 high moderate sufficient 5 moderate moderate poor 6 high difficult poor 7 high very difficult sufficient 8 high difficult sufficient based on the result of pilot test recapitulation, six questions were employed for the research instrument. they were question numbers 2, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8. further, among these questions, two were in the moderate difficulty level, three questions were in the difficult difficulty level and one question was in the very difficult level. those questions were employed because they had good result of validity test and two questions were not employed because they were in the low level of validity test. normalized gain to determine the improvement of students’ pw achievement in both experimental groups, the researcher performed an analysis of the results of the pretest and posttest. the analysis is performed by using normalized gain. the formula for the normalized gain employed average normalized gain (hake, 1999). 𝑔 = (%post) − (%pre) 100% − (%𝑝𝑟𝑒) explanation: (g) : mean normalized gain (%pre) : percentage of mean score of pre-test (%post) : percentage of mean score of posttest the category of normalized gain is shown on the table below: table 12. criteria level normalized gain gain (g) category 0.71 ≤ g ≤ 1.00 high 0.31≤ g≤ 0.70 moderate 0.00 ≤ g≤ 0.30 low (4)2 94-127 normality test normality test is used to see whether the data obtained from the population was normally distributed or not. to test the normality of the population saphirowilk test (rajali & wah, 2011) was used. to calculate the data using the spss 21.0 as follows: formula of normality test (rusfendi, 1998): 𝑊 = (∑ 𝛼𝑖 𝑋(𝑖) 𝑛 𝑖=1 ) 2 ∑ (𝑋𝑖−�̅�) 𝑛 𝑖=1 2 : explanation: w: test statistic 𝑋𝑖 : statistics order 𝑎𝑖 : constants from the mean, variance and covariance of the order statistics of a sample from a normal distribution �̅�: mean sample data to decide the data is normally distributed or not; the normality test will be stated based on the criteria of normality test for α (0.05), by using spss: 1. ρ-value (sig) ≥ α (0.05), means the data population is normally distributed. 2. ρ-value (sig) < α = 0.05, means the data population is not normally distributed. if the data is normally distributed, then the data can be analyzed using parametric statistical techniques. however, if the data is not normally distributed, then the nonparametric statistical will be used, which is man-whitney (sugiono, 2007). variance homogeneity test to determine the units between both experimental groups in testing whether they are homogeneous or not, the criteria of homogeneity test will be decided by the hypothesis below. ho: both data population has similar variances; (if significant value is≥ 𝛼(0.05); ho will be accepted) ha: both data population has different variances (if significant value is≤ 𝛼(0.05); ha will be rejected). the formula that will be used is (suprapto, 2013) f= 𝑠1 2 𝑠1 2 explanation: f: f value (variance variable data) 𝑠1 2: the larger variance (x1) 𝑠2 2: the smaller variance (x2) mean difference test if two populations are normal and homogeneous, then the researcher used ttest with the formula (uyanto, 2009): (4)2 94-127 𝑡 = 𝑥1̅̅ ̅ − 𝑥2̅̅ ̅ 𝑆𝐷√ 1 𝑛1 + 1 𝑛2 𝑆𝐷 = √ (𝑛1 − 1) 𝑠1 2 + (𝑛2 − 2) 𝑠2 2 𝑛1 + 𝑛2 − 2 explanation: 𝑥1̅̅ ̅ : mean of individual process approach class 𝑥2̅̅ ̅ : mean of collaborative process approach class 𝑛1 : number of students in individual process approach class 𝑛2 : number of students in collaborative process approach class 𝑠1 : standard deviation of individual process approach class 𝑠2 : standard deviation of collaborative process approach class criteria of t-test: 1. ho is rejected if ρ-value (sig) is lesser than (α) 0.05 it means that there is significant difference in students’ pw enhancement between individual pa class and collaborative pa class. 2. ho is not rejected if ρ-value (sig) is more than (α) 0.05. it means that there is no significant difference in students’ pw achievement between individual pa class and collaborative pa class results and findings below is descriptive statistics result of both classes. table 13 result of descriptive statistic samples individual pa collaborative pa mean standard deviation mean standard deviation pre-test 34.50 13.561 30.53 10.647 post-test 51.25 12.231 54.64 11.3670 normalized gain 0.2566 0.126 0.3479 0.101 from the result above it can be concluded that mean of the two classes are increasing. the enhancement of individual pa class is in the level of low (0.2566) and the enhancement of collaborative pa class is in the level of moderate (0.3479). analysis of pretest result to know whether both classes have significant difference in writing skill enhancement or not, a pre-test was administered to find its normality, homogeneity test and mean difference. (4)2 94-127 a. normality test table 14. normality test of pre-test samples shaphiro-wilk statistic df sig individual pa 0.943 36 0.062 collaborative pa 0.936 28 0.087 since the p value (sig) of both classes are 0.062 and 0.087, more (>) than α (0.05), it means both data populations are normally distributed. b. homogeneity test below is the result of the test. table 15. homogeneity test of pre-test based on mean levene’s test df1 df2 sig. 3.500 1 62 0.066 since the p value (sig) of the test is 0.066, more (>) than α (0.05), it means both data population variances are homogeneous. hypothesis of pretest since pre – test is normally distributed and homogeneous, then researcher used independent sample t – test. below is the result. table 16. t-test of pre-test levene’s test for equality of variance f sig. t df sig (2 tailed) equal variance assumed 3.500 0.066 1.271 62 0.208 hypotheses: 1. ho: there is no significant difference between individual pa and collaborative pa in writing skill ability before treatment is given. ho criteria: p value (significance value (2 tailed)) is more than α (0.05) 2. ha: there is significant difference between individual pa and collaborative pa in writing skill ability before treatment is given. ha criteria: p value (significance value (2 tailed)) is lesser than α (0.05). (4)2 94-127 since the p value (sig) of the test is 0.208, more (>) than α (0.05), seen from equal variance assumed; ho is not rejected. it means there is no significant difference between the pre–test scores of the two samples. analysis of normalized gain result it consists of the normality test, homogeneity test, mean difference test of normalized gain. below is the result. a. normality test the result of normality test is reflected below: table 17. normality test of normalized gain samples shaphiro-wilk statistic df sig individual pa 0.960 36 0.217 collaborative pa 0.930 28 0.063 since the p value (sig) of both samples are 0.21 and 0.063, more (>) than α (0.05), it means both data populations are normally distributed. b. homogeneity test below is the result of homogeneity test: table. 18. homogeneity test of normalized gain based on mean levene’s test df1 df2 sig. 2.580 1 62 0.11 since the p value (sig) is 0.11, more (>) than α (0.05) it means the both data population variances are homogeneous. c. the result of research hypotheses since pretest is normally distributed and homogeneous, then researcher used independent sample t – test. below is the result. table 19. t-test of normalized gain levene’s test for equality of variances f sig. t df sig (2 tailed) equal variance assumed 2.580 0.113 3.209 62 0.002 (4)2 94-127 hypotheses: 1. ho: there is no significant difference in students’ writing enhancement between individual pa and collaborative pa. ho criteria: p value [significance value (2 tailed)] is more than α (0.05) 2. ha: there is significant difference in student’s writing enhancement between individual pa and collaborative pa. ha criteria: p value [significance value (2 tailed)] is lesser than α (0.05). since the p value [significance value (2 tailed)] of the test is 0.002, lesser than α (0.05) seen from equal variance assumed. it means there is significant difference in student’s paragraph writing enhancement between individual pa and collaborative pa. discussion of findings the result of the research hypothesis is there is significant difference in students’ paragraph writing skill enhancement between individual pa class and collaborative pa class. further, the mean score of both classes are increasing after treatment given; individual pa’s mean score is increasing from 34.50 to 51.56, so is collaborative pa (30.54 54.64). also, the normalized gain value of both classes is positive; individual pa’s normalized gain is 0.2655 and collaborative pa’s is 0.3479. it means paragraph writing skill of both classes is enhancing. yet, collaborative pa has higher enhancement than individual pa’s. furthermore, standard deviation of both classes has different change. individual pa class’ standard deviation is decreasing (13.56 – 12.23) and collaborative pa class’ standard deviation is increasing (10.65-11.36). the increase of standard deviation is caused by the increase of mean variance. however, since the enhancement of collaborative pa class was higher than individual pa class and there was significant difference in students’ paragraph writing enhancement between individual pa class and collaborative pa class, it implies that collaborative pa enhances student’s paragraph writing skill better than individual pa. to supports this research, grimm (2004) stated in his study “individual learning and group learning” that group learning has better grade than individual learning. conclusion to conclude, the paragraph writing skill of both classes enhanced. also, it is found that “there is significant difference in paragraph writing enhancement between both classes after taught by individual pa and collaborative pa”. it means pa can enhance paragraph writing skill of students. recommendations based on the research findings, the researcher wants to offer some recommendation as follows: 1. non-english students. this study can be a source to gain knowledge about paragraph writing in english which will help them master writing skill. 2. english teachers. this study can help them to enrich their knowledge about a teaching methodology on teaching paragraph writing. 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(2005). process genre model for teaching writing english teaching forum. eca journal, 43(3), 18. https://www.scribd.com/document/337433810/writing-pack-2015-paragraph-and-essay-writing https://www.scribd.com/document/337433810/writing-pack-2015-paragraph-and-essay-writing http://www.adelaide.edu.au/writingcentre http://www.adelaide.edu.au/writingcentre acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no.2. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 303 the relationship between teachers’ self-disclosure and efl students’ motivation for class participation sara kuhzad,1 iau of urmia, department of foreign languages, iran elham zarfsaz,2 iau of urmia, department of foreign languages, iran elham.zarfsaz@iau.ac.ir doi: 10.35974/acuity.v8i2.3016 abstract teacher self-disclosure is a communication technique to improve relationships between teachers and students. more often than not, a healthy learning environment is created by the relationship between the teacher and students (frymier & houser, 2000). this study aimed to determine whether there are any variations between male and female students' motivation regarding the teachers' self-disclosure and to investigate the relationship between teachers' self-disclosure and efl students' motivation for class participation. in order to accomplish these goals, 28 teachers and 108 intermediate english learners from three institutions—andishe sabz ehsan institution, arad institution, and maqreb zamin institution—who were both male and female students were chosen to take part in the study. data was then gathered using the teachers' self-disclosure questionnaire and the students' motivation questionnaire. the study's findings suggested a strong correlation between teachers' self-disclosure and efl students' motivation to participate in class; however, there was no difference in motivation between male and female students concerning teachers' self-disclosure. the findings of this study suggest that tsd can be used as a teaching and career development tool by efl instructors at schools, universities, and other english language institutions to enhance learning and motivate students to learn english most effectively. keywords: teachers’ self-disclosure, efl, students’ motivation, class participation introduction language acquisition is a social activity that involves communication with others (byrnes, 2013). communication between students, professors, and friends during class impacts students' cognitive and emotional development (warg & dishior, 2012). in order to inspire students while they are studying, teachers' communication with them is a crucial component of the educational process (punyanunt-carter, 2006; richmond, 1990). teachers anticipate their corresponding author: elham zarfsaz, iau of urmia, department of foreign languages, iran elham.zarfsaz@iau.ac.ir mailto:elham.zarfsaz@iau.ac.ir acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no.2. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 304 students speaking the second language throughout class activities. evidence suggests that teachers' communication affects students' involvement (martin et al., 2002; skinner & belmont, 1993), so examining teachers' methods and communication styles to raise student engagement is critical. self-disclosure is one of these methods. numerous empirical research shows that teachers' self-disclosure (tsd) has a favorable impact on learning in the classroom. teachers' self-disclosure, which is defined as the act of disclosing personal information to students in the classroom to explain the course material, supports a variety of student motivational strategies, including the effect on the teacher and course (sorensen, 1989), the growth of favorable attitudes toward learning english, and the creation of a calm environment (farani & fatemi, 2014). one of education's most crucial psychological ideas is undoubtedly motivation, which contains energies and can influence behavior toward a goal (eggen & kauchak, 1994). it is a motivation from within and is necessary for effective performance. combs, luthans, griggith, 2009; glynn, aultman, & owens, 2005; keller, 2008; lee, 2010 see motivation as an internal psychological process that encourages students to regard learning as a valuable and taking action while achieving learning goals (ames & archer, 1988; glynn et al., 2005; killer, 2008; ryan & deci, 2000). motivation is described as the "internal processes that give behavior its energy and direction" by reeve (2016, p. 31). according to beck (1978), "motivation is widely concerned with the contemporaneous determinants of choice (direction), perseverance, and vigor of goal-oriented activity"(p. 24). this is in line with what is said. language learners acquire second languages in different ways. most of the time, while the teacher speaks in english language sessions, the pupils often remain mute and hardly ever participate. according to palmer (1998), a teacher's ultimate goal should be to engage pupils in the material by revealing personal information about themselves to increase their enthusiasm for studying. in order to improve learning, he also says that teachers must build rapport with their students. "a good teacher must stand where personal and public intersect," he says (palmer, 2017, p. 18). teacher self-disclosure (tsd) is a classroom method linked to the rapport between the teacher and the students (cooper & simonds, 1999). studies on motivation in second language acquisition show that a variety of factors, including teachers, the environment in the classroom, and assessment, have an impact on student's motivation (ghenghesh, 2010; kikuchi, 2009; matsumoto, 2009; yeung et al., 2011). in other words, the importance of the teacher's role and influence in inspiring students cannot be overstated. unfortunately, because they do not have a good rapport with the teacher, many pupils frequently lack motivation and are not allowed to participate in class activities. demotivated children in the classroom are a significant issue for teachers everywhere. according to dornyei (2001), "demotivation is a noticeable phenomenon in second language study in educational environments, and teachers have a significant responsibility in this regard" (p. 155). students are physically present in class but not mentally (hapsari, 2013). motivation is a multidimensional part of the dynamic relationship between teachers and students, claims haspari (2013) (p. 114). in other words, teachers and students are involved in this process as partners. in order to create a more motivating classroom environment that aids in achieving the desired learning outcomes in this context, teachers will benefit from familiarizing themselves with the most effective motivational strategies that are used by teachers and valued by students in a particular context. a good teaching and learning process depends on effective communication between teachers and students (punyanunt-carter, 2006; richmond, 1990), which inspires pupils to study harder. teachers anticipate that their pupils will behave responsibly and participate in class activities. to do this, educators employ various methods that may inspire pupils to perform better (richmond, 1990). self-disclosure is one of these methods. student engagement in class activities increases when teachers admit their shortcomings (cayanus, 2004; goldstein & acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no.2. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 305 benassi, 1994). it is believed to foster a reciprocal relationship between teachers and students in which pupils feel accepted, self-assured, and free to speak their minds (allen & court, 2009). this study aims to determine whether there is a connection between teachers' self-disclosure and students' motivation to participate in class. according to bhuana (2017), motivation is a key determining factor in learning a second or foreign language. integrative and instrumental motivation are the two categories of motivation. the success of learning a second or foreign language depends on both. unfortunately, there is some disagreement over the best type of motivation for second language learners. the study aimed to examine the student's motivation for learning english as a second language in senior high school. the research was quantitative. students in the 12th grade at one of bandung's senior high schools participated in this study. the study's findings indicated that senior high school students' intrinsic motivation for studying english as a second language was quite strong. from their perspective, studying english was crucial to advancing their future employment and careers. inayah (2021) used a descriptive methodology with various instruments, including observation, questionnaires, and interviews. four high achievers and four low achievers from a class of stkip siliwangi bandung students who were enrolled in the previous semester served as the sample for this study. the findings indicated that students' actions contributed to their speaking challenges; individuals who are not interested in speaking activities generally had more difficulty speaking for academic purposes. the study demonstrated that students who have trouble speaking frequently struggle with their drive and self-confidence, making it harder for them to perceive their genuine abilities. many pupils see the idea of speaking english fluently favorably and with good attitudes. they believe that it is crucial to develop speaking fluency. yukselir (2022), using a mixed-methods study, investigated efl learners' perspectives on learner autonomy and anxiety in foreign language classrooms. the participants were 126 efl students from two turkish public colleges. the results demonstrated that participants thought they should be able to assume ownership of their learning. in response to the inquiry concerning nervousness in the classroom, participants acknowledged that speaking in front of others or with english-speaking natives can cause anxiety. in addition, the data revealed that 73 pupils in their english classes were moderately nervous, compared to 13 students who felt highly apprehensive. this research will offer suggestions on how teachers might encourage students to participate more actively in class, even if earlier studies focused on the teacher-student connection in the classroom. teachers may employ various techniques to do this. however, this study aims to determine whether teachers' self-disclosure (tsd) can inspire students to participate in class actively. when a teacher utilizes sd in class, he or she may share personal anecdotes about themselves or feelings and experiences related to language material. this may result in effective communication that builds trust and rapport between the instructor and the students. when that trust grows, a secure learning environment is created for the teacher and the student (frymier & houser, 2000). students are inspired to discuss how they feel about learning languages, and they begin to communicate in class, proving that sd is contagious (jourard, 1977, p. 77). according to weber, martin, and cayanus (2005), the more involved students are, the more inclined they are to speak with the teacher. tsd then fosters students' independence and encourages them to participate actively in class. when students began to interact, tsd guided them through consciousness-raising to identify their strengths and those needing more practice. once this information was obtained, teachers could implement the best strategies, techniques, or even classroom activities to address the student weaknesses they had acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no.2. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 306 discussed in response to tsd. based on the purpose of the study, the following research questions were proposed: o rq1: is there any significant relationship between teachers’ self-disclosure and students’ motivation for class participation? o rq2: are male and female students' motivation for class participation different regarding the teachers' self-disclosure? according to the research questions mentioned earlier, the following null hypotheses were formulated: o h01: there is no significant relationship between teachers’ self-disclosure and students’ motivation for class participation. o h02: there is no difference between male and female students’ motivation for class participation regarding teachers’ self-disclosure. methods the objective of the current study was to evaluate whether two factors are associated. this refers to determining if an increase or drop in one variable causes an equivalent rise or fall in the other. the correlational design was used to examine the link between two variables, namely self-disclosure, and motivation. participants the present study's statistical population comprised all efl teachers and students of urmia english institutes. in this research, the sample size was determined as 28 teachers trained to teach the english language and 108 students. in addition, the subjects were iranian efl intermediate students with both male and female genders (age range of 15) educated at arad, andishe sabz-e ehsan, and maghreb zamin english institutes. their mother language is turkish or kurdish. placement tests given by each institute confirmed the homogeneity of students. instrumentation the following instruments were used to conduct the present study: 1. the teacher self-disclosure scale was developed by zhang et al. twenty items comprise this questionnaire, measuring the teachers' attitudes toward three domains. when cronbach's alpha model was performed on the questionnaire, an appropriate alpha index of 0. 832 was achieved, showing that the questionnaire's reliability was satisfactory. to examine the results for the 20-item scale and compare the component loading of the appropriateness of the tsd scale with the loadings provided in the zhang et al. study, 's principal component analysis with varimax rotation of the items was used. 2. the second research variable used the martin, mottet, and myers (1999) motives to communicating scale, which has a 30-item form. cronbach's alpha was used to estimate dependability, which came out to be 0.846. additionally, the survey's overall reliability was determined to be 0.868, highlighting a sufficient level of reliability. acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no.2. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 307 procedure participants in three language institutes, arad, andishe sabz-e ehsan, and maghreb zamin, were given the questionnaire along with instructions explaining the purpose of the study and how to reply to the items. after that, each participant will finish a survey that includes questions on tsd and how motivated kids are to participate in class activities. in addition to asking students to complete a motivation questionnaire, teachers will also be required to respond to questions on self-disclosure. the researcher supplied the appropriate instructions whenever necessary to ensure that the participants knew what was necessary to complete the questionnaire. results participants in three language institutes, arad, andishe sabz-e ehsan, and maghreb zamin, were given questionnaires and instructions on the study's goal and how to answer the questions. after that, each participant will be given a survey to complete, which will include questions about tsd and students' drive to participate in class activities. teachers will be asked to answer questions in a self-disclosure questionnaire, and students will be asked to answer questions in a questionnaire about motivation. where instructions were required, the researcher gave them in order to ensure that the participants had enough comprehension to complete the questionnaire. inferential statistics primarily, k-s (kolmogorov-smirnov) test was used to determine the type of variable distribution, namely, normal (parametric) or non-normal (non-parametric). since the significance level is estimated as 0.58 (p value>0.05) confirms the normal data distribution. therefore, the pearson correlation coefficient is a suitable test for hypothesis analysis. the following section analyzes two hypotheses formulated in this study using the pearson correlation coefficient (to accept or reject the existence of a relationship between variables) and the independent samples t-test (to specify the difference between male and female students' motivation regarding the tsd). hypothesis 1 null hypothesis: there is no significant relationship between teachers’ self-disclosure and students’ motivation for class participation. alternative hypothesis: there is a significant relationship between teachers’ self-disclosure and students’ motivation for class participation. statistical hypothesis { 𝐻0:𝑟 = 0 𝐻1:𝑟 ≠ 0 acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no.2. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 308 table 1 correlations between teachers’ self-disclosure and students’ motivation for class participation tsd students’ motivation tsd correlation coefficient 1.000 .728** sig. (2-tailed) . .000 n 28 28 students’ motivation correlation coefficient .728** 1.000 sig. (2-tailed) .000 . n 28 28 table 1 indicates that the level of significance is 0.000. the null hypothesis is rejected, and the alternative hypothesis is accepted since the significance level (p-value) is less than 0.05. in other words, there is a strong correlation between tsd and student motivation. the pearson correlation coefficient of 0.728 indicates a significant and favorable association between tsd and students' motivation. to put the relationship's strength into simpler terms, a 1 unit rise in tsd causes a 0.728 unit increase in students' motivation. in this study, scrutinizing different dimensions of tsd (tsd topics, tsd purposes, and tsd considerations) and their relationships with students' motivation showed a significant positive relationship between tsd dimensions and students' motivation. hypothesis 2 null hypothesis: there is no significant difference between male and female students’ motivation for class participation regarding teacher self-disclosure. alternative hypothesis: there is a significant difference between male and female students’ motivation for class participation regarding teacher self-disclosure. statistical hypothesis { 𝐻0:𝑟 = 0 𝐻1:𝑟 ≠ 0 the followings are the results of the analysis concerning the second research hypothesis. tables 2 and 3 represent the descriptive and inferential outcomes, respectively. acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no.2. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 309 table 2 descriptive statistics concerning the male and female students groups group statistics gender n mean std. deviation std. error mean students male 54 3.0449 .55236 .08144 female 54 3.5177 .65891 .08368 table 2 shows descriptive outcomes by which the male (mean = 3.0449, sd = 0.55236, std. mean = 0.8144) and female (mean = 3.5177, sd = 0.65891, std. mean = 08368) students groups were compared by using independent samples t-test. the results of the analysis are shown in table 3. table 3 the results of independent samples t-test regarding the difference between male and female students’ motivation for class participation regarding teacher self-disclosure independent samples test levene's test for equality of variances t-test for equality of means f sig. t df sig. (2tailed) mean difference std. error difference 95% confidence interval of the difference lower upper students equal variances assumed 1.813 .181 3.945 106 .000 -.47281 .11986 .71045 .23518 equal variances not assumed. 4.049 106 .000 -.47281 .11677 .70436 .24127 the second research question is posed after determining whether there are any differences between male and female students' motivation for class involvement related to the professors' selfdisclosure. as shown in table 3, the null hypothesis is accepted, and the alternative hypothesis is rejected because there are no significant differences between male and female students' motivation for class participation regarding the teachers' self-disclosure. this is because the level of significance (the independent t-test) for the difference between perceptions of the male and female students is determined to be 0.181 (greater than 0.05). discussion & conclusion overall, teaching english in the iranian context has had several serious shortcomings. teachers must enhance how they instruct students. the findings of this study demonstrated that teachers' candor regarding their motivations for teaching english can benefit students. it follows that teachers can use it to dispel the misguided beliefs of cynical students who see language acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no.2. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 310 acquisition as an impassable challenge. the way a teacher reveals themselves can significantly impact how pupils approach language acquisition or the methods they use to do so, providing them with fresh insight. students are more likely to participate in class actively and ask questions pertinent to the course when teachers self-disclose and the students perceive such disclosures as relevant. students appear more motivated to participate actively in the learning process when professors' selfdisclosures are relevant instead of when they are not. students do not believe that their lecturers only deliver stories to them. instead, they interpret pertinent self-disclosures as their professors' efforts to foster a supportive, honest learning environment. additionally, pupils are less likely to interact when the teacher's self-disclosures seem irrelevant. it is best to present self-disclosure in courses covering psycholinguistics and educational philosophy because it is a topic in psychology connected to language learning and instruction. the books on second/foreign language teaching techniques can include an introduction to the teacher's self-disclosure. therefore, this issue should be considered by the experts in materials development for second/foreign language education. the relationship between tsd and students' motivation was the subject of the first study topic. there is a relationship, as shown by the pearson correlation coefficient results (p 0.05). according to zhang, shi, and hao (2009), teacher disclosure motivates students, grabs their attention, and builds teacher-student relationships. according to cayanus, matthew, and goodboy (2009), the educator's self-disclosure acts as a tool to encourage students' willingness to learn and take part in various activities during the courses. additionally, according to mcbride and wahl (2015), teachers can utilize their disclosure to grab students' attention, foster a climate of trust in the classroom, and motivate them to participate in the lesson actively. the research above supports the current study's findings, which indicate that self-disclosure is crucial to language teaching and learning when increasing students' motivation and engagement is the main focus. in order to ascertain whether male and female students had distinct attitudes about a teacher disclosing information, a second study question was developed. the results of the independent sample t-test showed that there is no difference in this area (p>0.05). matulaitiene and paluckaite (2016) came to the same result, finding that both male and female students view a teacher's self-disclosure as a method of imparting information and personal experience. the findings of the current study are supported by a study conducted by kuan, teng, hong, and fong (2017) that revealed no gender differences in teacher self-disclosure and teacher credibility. references allen, j. g. 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(2008). chinese pre-service teachers' perceptions of effects of teacher self-disclosure. new horizons in education, 56(1), 30–42. zhang, s., q. shi, tonelson. s., and robinson, j. (2009). pre-service and in-service teachers' perceptions of the appropriateness of teacher self-disclosure. teaching and teacher education, 25, 1117–1124. zhang, s., shi, q., & hao, s. (2009). the appropriateness of teacher self‐disclosure: a comparative study of china and the usa. journal of education for teaching, 35(3), 225– 239. table 1 correlations between teachers’ self-disclosure and students’ motivation for class participation table 3 the results of independent samples t-test regarding the difference between male and female students’ motivation for class participation regarding teacher self-disclosure microsoft word acuityfransisca.docx 36 a comparative study between presentation, practice, productive (ppp) and artworks techniques toward the enhancement of students’ descriptive writing skills fransiska masta rotua silalahi email address: frans_mazt@yahoo.co.id english teacher at tk, sd, smp advent ii, bandung abstract the aim of this study is to find out whether there is any significant difference in enhancing students’ descriptive writing skills between students who acquires presentation, practice, production (ppp) and students who acquires artworks technique. this is a quantitative study, utilizing comparative design in order to compare different treatments toward students’ enhancement in descriptive writing skills. the researcher compares the result through pre-test and post-test. after analyzing the data, the researcher found out after being treated using two techniques: ppp and artworks, students’ skills in descriptive writing is achieved. however, the normalized gain score falls in low criterion. aside from that, based on the data analysis there is significant difference between two techniques: ppp and artworks in enhancing students’ descriptive writing skills. in addition to that, the students give positive response after being treated. from the response questionnaire, the mean score falls in high criterion. the scope and delimitations of this study evolve around components of two techniques: ppp and artworks to provide insights toward enhancing students’ ability in writing descriptive text. keywords presentation practice production (ppp), artworks, descriptive writing skills introduction learning english language leads students to learn four macro skills; they are speaking, listening, reading and writing. practically, writing is taught to be the last skill after speaking, listening and reading. however, it does not mean that writing is not imperative of all skills. as a matter of fact, writing is life that presents human emotions as well as human experiences. sharples (cited in sumarsih & sanjaya, 2013) actually said that writing is an opportunity which allows english learners to explore and explain 37 ideas or thoughts. they can deliberate their ideas in their minds by organizing them into effective paragraphs. however, warschauer (cited in kitchakarn, 2014) stated that writing can be considered as an irksome learning experience for some students who do not have sufficient ideas, knowledge and skills to process. richards and renandya (2003) concurred that writing is difficult skill to develop for second language learners because in order to write an effective writing, a person must comprehend the writing components of the target language. in addition to that, grabe and kaplan (1996) assumed that half of the world’s population have low ability to write adequately and effectively. there are several obstacles in writing english that students encounter such as limited knowledge and skills in english structure, limited word choices, and culture influence which have been researched by many researchers in this field (ghabool, marriadas & kashed, 2012; kaewnuch, 2008: kamimura, 2010; wong, chin, chen & gao, 2009 as cited in sufatmi and aizan, 2016). therefore, learning to write has always been one of the most complex language skills. nunan (1989) agreed that it is easier to learn to speak than to write no matter if it is the first or second language. it is not an easy task to enhance since it requires hard work, lengthy steps, enough time, and more practice. in teaching writing to english learners, teachers often introduce the four most common types of writing (richards & schmidts, 2002 cited in suyatmi & yaacob, 2016). however, of all four types of writing, descriptive writing is the most basic form of writing. therefore, in order to improve learners’ writing skills, teachers can start by requiring their students to write descriptive text. descriptive text is one genre that is imperative to be learned by english learners. according to evawina (cited in sumasih & sanjaya, 2016), through descriptive text, learners can learn to visualize and vividly portray a person, place or thing in such a way that the readers can visualize the topic and enter into the writer’s experience. nevertheless farooq (2013) stated that many english learners were struggling to write descriptive text. they have difficulty to differentiate between descriptive and narrative writings. it is because the students have limited vocabulary to vividly describe the characters and express their ideas into writing. in addition to that, hasnun (2006) accentuated that english learners should be able to involve the imaginative senses to develop descriptive writing yet choosing appropriate words to describe the objects and then is a difficult task; they end up making incorrect sentence structure. generally, high school students feel more enjoyable to learn when the atmosphere is conducive in the class. therefore, the researcher conducted a comparative study between presentation, practice and production (ppp) by anthony (1963) and artwork techniques to enhance students’ descriptive writing ability. the researcher has considered these two techniques to be compared by looking at the components of each technique toward the enhancement of students’ descriptive writing skills. 38 ppp technique consists of three stages: presentation, practice and production. in the presentation stage, the teacher is the one who controls the teaching and learning process; in practice stage, the teacher is responsible to check the learners’ comprehension in deliberating ideas or thoughts. in the last stage which production, learners should be able to increase their linguistic use through autonomous and more activities (richard, 2006; harmer, 2007; sato, 2010, and shekan, 1998). meanwhile artwork technique is a technique to lead english learners to stimulate their imagination in building their ideas or thoughts. through this technique, students will improve their critical thinking skills. especially in learning descriptive text, learners will be able to integrate arts to deepen their understanding on human experiences. artwork technique provides rich experiences in describing, analysis, exploration, reflection, observation, imagination, experimentation, and communication (evan, 2010; merryl, 2010). these two techniques are effective in enhancing students’ descriptive writing skills. particularly, this study seeks to find out whether ppp and artworks techniques give positive impact in learning process to enhance students’ ability in descriptive writing. this study aims to answer the following questions: 1. what is the achievement between the students who are treated using ppp technique and students who are treated using artworks technique? 2. is there any significant difference between the use of ppp and artworks techniques to enhance students’ descriptive writing skills? 3. what is the response of the students after being treated using ppp and students after being treated using artworks. 39 methodology in conducting the research, the researcher applied quantitative research design. according to fraenkel and wallen (2006), comparative research is a study that aims to compare the effect of treatments, in which the participant is assigned to one of two or more different treatment groups. so, comparative research is an activity to compare the different treatment in order to get the result of both treatment. this research is dealt with score to find out whether there is enhancement on students’ ability in writing descriptive text, the researcher compared the result of the pretest and posttest. the participants of this study are 10th graders from sman 1, lembang. the respondents were divided into two groups: ips 3 was treated using ppp technique and ips 5 was treated using artworks technique. in terms of research instrument, the researcher utilized pre-test and post-test. the tests were given to find out the significant difference between students who received different treatments. the tests consist of several parts: describing pictures, building effective paragraphs, arranging sentence and finishing incomplete texts using appropriate words. in analyzing the data, the researcher utilized normalized gain, normality test, homogeneity test and difference of two means test. result and discussion after making a careful analysis, the researcher found out the answers to the research questions. the following table is to find out students’ achievement after being treated: table 1. pre-test, post test, standard deviation and normalized gain mean st. deviation mean st. deviation pre – test 55,86 7,402 60,25 9,391 post – test 66,82 7,543 66,29 7,164 normalized 0,24 0,126 0,13 0,136 gain based on the data above, it can be seen from the pre-test that both groups have the same level of skills in writing descriptive text. after each group was treated, there was an achievement, it is shown in the table that the post-test result of ppp group is 66, 82 and the post-test of artworks group is 66, 29. nevertheless each of the normalized gain of both groups falls to a low criterion: the normalize gain of ppp group is 0.24 and the normalized gain of artworks group is 0.13. in terms of standard deviation, as shown 40 in the table, the artworks group’s standard deviation is lower after the treatment was given, from 9.391 became 7.164 which means most of the students experienced enhancement in their descriptive writing skills. after finding out the achievement of both groups, the researcher seeks to discover whether there is significant difference between both techniques: ppp and artworks in enhancing students’ descriptive writing skills. therefore the researcher analyzed the data through normality test of gain score to find the answer. the following is the result: table 2 group shapiro wilk statistic df sig. gain ppp 0.980 28 0,853 score artwork 0.962 28 0,388 based on the data table above, both data is normally distributed because the significant value of the gain score for ppp group is 0.853 which is greater than α (0.05) and the significant of the gain score for artworks group is 0.388 which is greater than α (0.05). table. 3. homogeneity test of gain score levene statistic df1 df2 sig. 0,011 1 54 0,915 the data is homogeneous if p-value is greater than α (0.05) and if the value is equal or lesser than α (0.05), it means data is not homogeneous. based on the result of the table 3, the result of the data between ppp and artworks are homogeneous because 0.915 is greater than α (0.05). since the normalized gain population was normally distributed and the data is homogenous, then the independent sample t-test was done to answer the research question: ‘is there any significant difference between the use of ppp and artworks 41 techniques to enhance students’ descriptive writing skills?’ the following is the result calculation, as seen in the table below table 4. the result of independent sample t-test of normalized gain levene's test t-test f sig. t df sig. (2-tailed) equal variances 0,011 0,915 3,075 54 0,003 assumed equal variances not 3,075 53, 730 0,003 assumed since the population variances of the normalized gain score are homogeny, the row of equal variances assumed is utilized. the result shows that the value of the gain score is 0.003 which is lesser than α (0.05), so it can be concluded that h0 is rejected. thus, it means that there is significant difference between those who taught by using ppp and artworks in enhancing students’ descriptive writing skills. in order to find out students’ response after being treated toward the enhancement of their descriptive writing skills, the researcher distributed questionnaire to be filled out by the students. the result shows in the following table: 42 table. 5. students response toward the techniques ppp artworks mean of the questionnaire result 77% 79% based on the table above, the mean score of students’ response toward ppp technique is 77% and mean score of students’ response toward artworks technique is 79%. in accordance to the interpretation, both techniques fall on high criteria. it means that both techniques received good response from both group of students. from the result of the data, it shows that there is significant difference in enhancing students’ ability in writing descriptive text between those who taught by using ppp and artworks. it can be said, that there is significant difference from the gain of both techniques. the data shows that the gain score of ppp is 0.24 and the gain score of artworks is 0.13. the following is the summary of this study: 1. there is an enhancement of students’ descriptive writing skills in each group. both techniques help students enhance their skills. however, if the score is compared, ppp group obtains higher enhancement than the artworks group. 2. based on data analysis, the result of null hypothesis is rejected which means that there is significant difference in enhancing students’ skills in writing descriptive text. 3. the students’ response toward ppp is 77% and students’ response toward artworks technique is 79%. in accordance to the interpretation, both techniques are in high criteria. it means that both techniques receive good response from both group of students. however, both gain scores fall in low criterion. it is assumed that one of the factors that may cause the gain scores to be in low category is language barrier. the students often use ‘bahasa sunda’ as their means of communication. they translated english word to indonesia then to sundanese. in addition to that, due to the students’ limited vocabulary, they frequently misused english words in descriptive writing. 43 references farooq, u. 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(2009). statistik teori dan aplikasi. jakarta: erlangga. microsoft word acuity-articles-cetak.docx           stylistics: an analysis of roald dahl’s george’s marvelous medicine and the girrafe and the pelly and me to provide insights on establishing writing style debora chaterin s., maed english education department, universitas advent indonesia, bandung barat e-mail: deborachaterins@gmail.com abstract. this study aims to provide insights on establishing writing style through stylistic analysis on roald dahl’s george marvelous medicine and the giraffe and the pelly and me. this is a qualitative study which focuses on literary analysis. the data was collected from those two books. evidently this study will bring benefit to english majors to gain insights on how to establish effective writing style. the findings of this study show that dahl has four outstanding elements for writing style: lead sentences, rhyme-schemed poem, peculiar chosen words, and concept of personification. although dahl’s books have great insight on establishing one’s writing style, there are some positive and negative influence that should be considered in reading dahl’s masterpieces. the positive influence is keywords: stylistics, elements of writing style, literary analysis introduction english majors have possible careers in teaching, publishing, public relations, advertising, or media. a degree in english provides occupations to be considered, such as english teacher, copywriter, columnist, critic, editor, correspondent, technical writer or writer/author for non-profit organizations. therefore, students who hold english degree should comprehend the statement of hoover and lattig (2007) regarding style of writing; where in, he states that learners should be knowledgeable in understanding usage of words to delve the potential effect of writers’ message; they should know the style and language of poems, novels, and plays to draw upon the terminology and methodology of disciplines which focus on the fundamental units and principles of all linguistic usage, such as phonemes, rhythmic sequences, grammatical classes, forms of syntactic organization and so on. in addition, ramet (2004) accentuated writers who have established their writing style own ability to showcase their potential by creating a written masterpiece. however beginner writers should consider that writing style cannot be established in one day; rather it should be establish naturally over time; in the long run, they will gradually learn how to blend a fiction world or fictional characters and how each paragraph is centralized with the narrative.           to establish effective writing style, it can be seen through the telescope of stylistics. stockwell and whitely (2004) stated stylistics is the study of literary discourse which forms a linguistic orientation. it is part of linguistics which concentrates on variation in the use of language. furthermore, bradford, (2005) said stylistic is the study that has to do with making choices. many kinds of professional writing aims for effective transfer of information. furthermore, as stated by simpson (2004), stylistics is considered to be a tool to explore language and creativity in language use; therefore, it is important for english majors to understand stylistics in order to establish their style of writing and make known their writings to public. in order to provide insights on how to establish effective writing style, the writer utilized masterpieces of roald dahl. the reason behind choosing roald dahl’s masterpieces is because he is known to be one of the world’s most talented children’s authors. the writer of this study took joy in reading his masterpieces. he was a british writer who was famous for his ingenious short stories and macabre children’s book. he had written hundreds of books in his lifetime. he wrote books for children, teenagers, and adults. many of his notable words had been made into movies, namely willie wonka and the chocolate factory, matilda, fantastic mr. frost, to name a few. cullingford (2000) said that dahl created his writing style to entice his readers. his stylistic way of writing is deemed to provide greater insights to establish one’s writing style because it arises curiosity of his readers to read more of his writings. in addition, gavins and steen (2003) wrote that dahl has ability to showcase his potential by creating intricate plot which somehow will always leave questions to his readers. thus this study addressed the following questions: 1. what outstanding elements of style did roald dahl utilized in the stories entitled george’s marvelous medicine and the giraffe and the pelly and me that could be learned? 2. in establishing writing style, what are the pros and cons sides of roald dahl’s books: george’s marvelous medicine and the giraffe and the pelly and me? methodology this study is qualitative in nature. for this study, the writer analyzed and explored two books of roald dahl: george’s marvelous medicine and the giraffe and the pelly and me. to ensure the validity of the study, the writer read these two books thoroughly over and over and used stylistic analysis to produce effective results. the use of stylistics has been widely known to be effective in exploring creativity of a language (simpson, 2004). data analysis           data were gathered from dahl’s books: george’s marvelous medicine and the giraffe and me. the data were collected qualitatively. the followings were the procedure to collect the data: 1. planning stage the first stage to seek answers of the research questions by reading the two books of roald dahl thoroughly, over and over. 2. data-gathering stage data were gathered from dahl’s two books. all data were categorized in order to find out outstanding elements of dahls’ writing style and also to seek positive and negative influence of dahl’s masterpiece. after gathering all the outstanding elements; the writer used them as evidence of analysis. 3. analysis stage the evidence was analyzed using stylistic tools. result and discussion the results of the analysis are presented and discussed below. data were taken from dahl’s two books: george’s marvelous medicine and the giraffe and the pelly and me. dahl’s outstanding elements of style through a careful analysis, it is found that roald dahl utilized different elements of writing style to entice his reader’s attention: lead sentences. one of outstanding elements of dahl’s writing style is lead sentence. sanderson (2002) stated that writers might win or lose the reader with the lead sentence they created because as stated by it will describe what the whole paragraph is going to be about. moreover, lead sentence is actually a topic sentence. anderson (2006) added that it is imperative that the lead sentence of a story should catch reader’s attention. therefore in the story of george’s marvelous medicine, dahl started his stories with strong lead sentences as seen in the following excerpt: i’m going shopping in the village. ‘george’s mother said to george on saturday morning. ‘so be a good boy and don’t get up to mischief.’ this was a silly thing to say to a small boy at any time. it immediately made him wonder what sort of mischief he might get up to. ‘and don’t forget to give grandma her medicine at eleven o’clock,’ the mother said. then out she went, closing the back door behind her. dahl arose questions in the minds of his readers through the word ‘silly’ and ‘mischief’. it foreshadows the next scene which is going to happen. it is assumed           readers would set in their minds that george must have been a mischievous boy who likes doing silly things around. his lead sentences hook his readers to continue reading the story. while in the book of the giraffe and the pelly and me, dahl began the story not in a dialogue yet in a prosaic. dahl’s lead sentences in this book is a description of an old house. in describing the old house, dahl inserted simple concept of minimal pairs like ‘queer’ and ‘peer’. according to bauman-waengler (2008) minimal pairs are often used by writers to excite interest of readers. readers would sense peculiarity and uniqueness in dahl’s lead sentence; it serves as introduction of his story, as seen in the following excerpt: not far from where i live there is a queer old empty wooden house standing all by itself on the side of the road. i long to explore inside it but the door is always locked, and when i peer through a window all i can see is darkness and dust. i know the ground floor used once to be a shop because i can still read the faded lettering across the front which says the grubber. from the two books, it is found that dahl used different ways of presenting his lead sentences. he utilized direct discourse and prosaic as his lead sentences. simply to say that dahl did not focus only on one technique to create his lead sentences. rhyme-schemed poems. another element of dahl’s writing style is rhymeschemed poems. dahl’s ability to be playful with words is utterly shown in his way of writing poems which mostly utilized and appeared in his story books. his rhymeschemed poems are considered to be hilarious albeit they sound sadistic at times. this element adds a touch of wackiness to the stories. in the poem, george’s marvelous medicine dahl used a rhyme-schemed poems as seen in the following: ‘so give me a bug and a jumping flea, give me two snails and lizards three, and a slimy squiggler from the sea, and the poisonous sting of a bumblebee, and the juice from the fruit of the ju-jube tree, and the powdered bone of a wombat’s knee. and one hundred other things as well each with a rather nasty smell. i’ll stir them up; i’ll boil them long, a mixture tough, a mixture strong, and then, heigh-ho, and down it goes a nice big spoonful (hold your nose) just gulp it down and have no fear. “how do you like it, granny dear?”           will she go pop? will she explode? will she go flying down the road? will she go poof in a puff of smoke? start fizzing like a can of coke? who knows? not i. let’s you and see. (i’m glad it’s neither you nor me) oh grandma, if you only knew what i have got in store for you!’ the poem above sounds scintillating. dahl creatively wrote the poem, a wonderful idea that should be admired by his readers. the poem above depicts how blithe george is with his new idea about the magic medicine for his horrified grandmother. dahl utilized several words that have the same rhymes at the end of the sentence. from line one up to line six the rhymes are similar, such as flea, three, sea, bumble, tree, knee and from line seven and eight the same rhyme: well and smell. line nine and ten has these rhymes, long and strong. the next lines, eleven and twelve, have almost similar rhymes: go and nose. then line thirteen and fourteen has the same rhyme, fear and dear. the following is the poetic style, as it is shown below: a a a a a b b c c d d e e f f g g a a i i whilst the poem, in the other story of the giraffe and the pelly and me, sounds like ballad yet it is not a ballad poem because ballad means a short narrative poem with stanzas of two or four lines and usually a reference. it is written in straight-forward verse, seldom with detail, but always with graphic simplicity and force. most ballads are suitable for singing and while sometimes varied in practice. dahl used sound-likerhyme  ‘-­‐ e’   rhyme  ‘-­‐ l’   rhyme  ‘-­‐ ng’  rhyme  ‘-­‐s’   rhyme  ‘-­‐r’   rhyme  ‘-­‐d’   rhyme  ‘-­‐k’   rhyme  ‘-­‐e’   rhyme  ‘-­‐u’             ballad poem to depict a cheerful pelican bird that loves singing. the following is the song of the pelican bird composed in a rhyme-schemed poem: ‘oh, how i wish for a big fat fish! i’m as hungry as ever could be! a dish of fish is my only wish! how far are we from the sea?’ the above poem has a-a-b-a-b scheme. the first, second and fourth line have the same rhyme scheme: wish, fish, wish. and the fourth and the las stanza have the same rhyme scheme: be and sea. hence, the researcher described this song poem in a poetic style. another poem that the researcher found in the story of the giraffe and the pelly and me is shown below: ‘so i slide it away for the rest of the day! even so, i’m still able to speak! – b and wherever i’ve flown it has always been known as the pelican’s patented beak! –b if i want to eat fish (that’s my favorite dish) all i do is i give it a weak! – b in the blink of and eye out it pos! and they cry, it’s the pelican’s patented beak!’ – b the above poem is a dialogue of the cheerful pelican in the story. in the story of the giraffe and the pelly and me, dahl showed his love towards rhyme-schemed poems which definitely grasp the attention of his readers. peculiar chosen words. to enhance his writing style, dahl provided vivid description in his stories by using peculiar choice of words. the following are the categories of his interesting choice of words: compounding. to attract young readers to relish his story, dahl used compounding and principles as one of his writing style elements. compounding is a principle to combine two of more free morphemes to form new word thing (fisher, kemenade, koopman, & wurff, 2004). the following evidence is taken from the story of the giraffe and the pelly and me: a   a   a   b   a   b   a   a     c   c   a   a   c   c             then the sweets and chocs an toffees and fudges and nougats began pouring in to fill the shelves. they came by aeroplane from every country in the world, the most wild and wondrous things you could ever imagine. there were gumtwizzler and fizzwinkles form china, frothblowers and spitsizzlers for africa, tummyticklers and gobwangles from the fiji islands and liplickers and plushnuggets from the land of the midnight sun. words that are compounded by dahl are gumtwizzler (compounding ‘gum’ and twizzler), frothblower (compounding ‘froth’ and ‘blower’), spitsizzler (compounding ‘spit’ and ‘sizzler’), tummytickler (compounding ‘tummy’ and ‘tickler), and liplicker (compounding ‘lip’ and ‘licker’), ‘gobwangle’ (compounding ‘gob’ and ‘wangle’), and ‘fizzwinkle’ (compounding ‘fizz’ and ‘winkle’). all the words compounded have particular definitions and meanings to spice up the story. the following is the analysis of dahl’s compounding words: gumtwizzler. roal dahl chose the word ‘gum’ which means sticky substance to chew; it is part of sweet. and he added the word ‘twizzler’ to give strong definition to his compounding word. the word ‘twizzler’ means a popular brand of fruit-flavored candy in the united states and canada (often called a licorice candy). it is known to be the product of y & s candies, inc., of lancaster, pennsylvania, now a subsidiary of the hershey company. fizzwinkles. dahl chose the word ‘fizz’ which means an effervescent beverage, and the word ‘winkle’ means edible sea snails. he combined these two words to provide emphasis on children’s delicacy. young readers who read this story might have an idea that this liquid sweet is in a form of snail. frothblower. dahl used the word ‘froth’ that means collection of small bubbles or other definition defines ‘froth’ as things to cover something with foam and compound it with a word ‘blower’ which means to drive air upon or into. hence ‘frothblower’ means sweet bublle that children could blow. tummytickler. dahl used the word ‘tummy’ which means stomach and partner it with a word ‘tickler’ which comes from the word ‘tickle’ which means to produce laughter. therefore the readers might picture in their minds that ‘tummyticklers’ is a type of food that could make the tasters laugh or this is a food which might tickle the tummy of the eater. gobwangle. dahl chose the word ‘gob’—taken from the word ‘gobble’ which means eat noisily or greedily. and the word ‘wangle’ means to get something in a devious way. roald dahl might aim to describe type of food which could increase children’s appetite to eat more and more. liplicker. dahl chose the word ‘lip’ which means the edge of the mouth and the word ‘licker’ which comes from the word ‘lick’ that means pass tongue           over. the word ‘liplicker’ is a type of food that will taste better on the lips of the taster. plushnuggets. dahl used the word ‘plush’ which means luxurious and partner it with a word ‘nugget’ which means something small but valuable or nowadays it is known as delicacy in meat. hence the word ‘plushnugget’ might mean luxurious delicacy for children. the way dahl compounded his words creates impressive imaginary. this is a style that english majors should learn in enhancing their writing skills. onomatopoeia. in dahl’s chosen words, onomatopoeia is used. it is one of his ways to kindle his readers’ minds. onomatopoeia means word that sounds made by particular objects (. . . .); it is a words that imitates harmony. it provides full flavor of words (. . .). onomatopoeia is classified into two: nonlexical and lexical onomatopoeia. non-lexical is a word in a form of sound while lexical onomatopoeia is a sound which is formed into a word. after a careful analysis, evidence is seen below from the story of george’s marvelous medicine: ‘ . . . so you’ve got to bite the earwig first, chop-chop, before it bites you.’ (p. 8 line 16). the word ‘chop-chop’ is a lexical onomatopoeia. ‘grandma yelled, “oweeeee!” and her whole body shot up whoosh into the air. (p. 39 line 20). in this excerpt, there are two non-lexical onomatopoeias ‘oweeeee’ and ‘whoosh’ ‘crash! the old girl’s head went through the ceiling as though it were butter. (p.47 line 23). the word ‘crash’ in this excerpt is considered to be non-lexical onomatopoeia even though it can be also used as lexical onomatopoeia. ‘come on, chicken,’ george said. “good chicken. chick-chick-chick.” (p.53 line 8). the word ‘chick-chick-chick’ is non-lexical onomatopoeia to give effect of the chicken’s movement. ‘the broken hen stretched out its neck towards the spoon and went peck. it got a beakful of medicine (p. 53 line 10). the word ‘peck’ is a lexical onomatopoeia; it is a sound of bird biting its food. ‘while he was doing this, the big brown hen sat down in the middle of the yard and went ‘cluck . . . cluck. . . cluck. . . cluck-cluck-cluck-cluck.’ (p. 61 line 15). the word ‘cluck’ is non-lexical onomatopoeia. it gives imaginary of the sound of hurriedly walking hen.           ‘then sparks came flying out of its beak, bright yellow sparks of fire, as though someone was sharpening a knife on a grindstone inside its tummy.’ (p. 82 line 6). the word ‘spark’ is a lexical onomatopoeia; it gives imaginary of the sound of flame. ‘cock-a-doodle-do!’ squawked the cockerel, shooting up into the air and coming down again.’ (p. 86 line 11). the ‘squawk’ is a lexical onomatopoeia which means to make a loud noise. ‘“ouwch!” it said, then a funny whistling noise came out of its beak.’ (p. 90 line 1) the word ‘owch’ is a non-lexical onomatopoeia. it gives imaginary of the sound of injured bird. from the above evidence, it shows that dahl is fond of using onomatopoeia in narrating his stories to make it more powerful and colorful. in the other story of the giraffe and the pelly and me, dahl also incorporated onomatopoeia, both lexical and non-lexical. the followings are the evidence: ‘whoopee! the monkey became delightful’. (p. 26 line 16) the word ‘whoopee’ is a non-lexical onomatopoeia. it gives imaginary of the sound of a delightful monkey.’ ‘suddenly there was an ear-spliting bang and the pelican leaped twenty feet into the air. so did the duke. (p. 48 line 1). the word ‘bang’ is a nonlexical onomatopoeia; it gives imaginary of the sound of falling objects. there was not much onomatopoeia in the story of the giraffe and the pelly and me. dahl used more on word pictures in expressing sound. through word picture, onomatopoeia is built in the minds of the readers. sanderson (2002) sated that word pictures show readers the character, action, and setting. the following is the word picture which contain onomatopoeia.             descriptive adjective. dahl makes use of descriptive adjectives to provide vivid details about his character and the situation. his descriptive adjectives his lenses to allow his readers to imagine and infer characteristic of his characters, instead of directly telling the readers (cullinan, 2005). some of descriptive adjectives used are mainly to describe the sense of touch to bring about the emotional state of the characters; it is also to describe physical appearance to show the exact emotional of the characters. it is evidently shown in the following excerpt, taken from george’s marvelous medicine: ‘she was selfish grumpy old woman. she had pale brown teeth and a small puckered-up mouth like a dog’s bottom.’ (p.2 line 11, 13) the above excerpt is a description of george’s grandmother. dahls shows his readers vivid appearance of how george’s grandmother looks like. another evidence of dahl’s descriptive adjectives, forming some nouns as modifiers, is the following excerpt: ‘bathroom items: golden gloss hair shampoo, toothpaste, some shaving soap, vitamin-enriched face cream, nail varnish, hair remover (‘smear it on your dahl  used  word  picture  to  describe   the  illustration  of  a  screaming  lady.     this  illustration  provides  imagination  of  the   sound  of  the  pelican  bird  shaking  the  thief             legs’), brillident (for cleaning false teeth), dishworth’s famous dandruff cure, nevermore ponking deodorant spray and liquid paraffin. ‘bedroom items: helga’s hair set, “flowers of turnips” (it smells like old cheese), pink plaster face powder and a powderpuff and lipstick.’ laundry room items: superwhite (for automatic washing machines), waxwell floor polish, flea powder, canary seeds and dark tan shoe polish. ‘kitchen cupboard: curry powder, mustard powder, a bottle of extra hot chilli sauce, a tin of black peppercorns and a bottle of horse radish sauce.’ ‘shed items: chicken medicine, horse strength throat lozenges, cow ointment, sheep dip and pig pills. ‘garage items: engine oil, anti-freeze and a handful of grease. ‘also: bottle of gin, one quart dark brown gloss paint (for color) and petrol. dahl used animal image to be his descriptive adjectives to accentuate sense of humor. it is assumed to evoke readers’ curiosity on what is going to happen in the next scene. concept of personification. in both of his books: george’s marvelous medicine and the giraffe and the pelly and me, dahl incorporate image of animals. the animals in the story portray special characters that bring great impact to the stories; those animals are portrayed to have humanlike minds. his way of transforming animals to personify humans is termed as personification. quinn (2012) stated that personification an ontological metaphor in which a thing or abstraction is represented as a person. the use of animals is to bring closer the gap of the characters to his young readers. dahl’s george’s marvelous medicine and the giraffe and the pelly and me has indeed provided deep insights on establishing one’s writing style. it is believed to be beneficial to english majors or beginner writers to enhance their writing skills. therefore there are positive influences that readers should consider: picturesque narration. dahl’s writings provide positive influence that could be obtained. he provides insights on creating fictional yet alive characters. it opens one’s mind to be creative in narrating the stories. he or she might learn to create peculiar words to give strong impact to their readers. he is using concept of ‘showing’ instead of ‘telling’. room of imagination. dahl is expert in giving room for his young readers to imagine, think, and wonder. through such a style, once again, dahl           is able to enchant his readers. this definitely contributes insights on how to create rich plots of a story, making imaginary seem real. although some of dahl’s narrations are sarcastic, his readers could sense moral lessons. however readers should consider negative influence that might occur by reading dahl’s masterpieces: sarcastic tone. one obvious trait in dahl’s masterpieces is the use of devilish twists and turns. this twist brought into the story actually grasped readers’ attention. his humor is also known for his risqué outrageous comments about things not normally mentioned in children’s story books (sanderson, 2009). therefore english majors should be aware of emphasizing their tone. alteration of standard. to some, his stories might give stereotypical impression which lead his readers to grasp wrong ideas on a particular standard. for example in the book of george marvelous medicine, it gives ideas that the young could treat the old badly. it is somehow a dangerous act if readers follow what the main characters do. for readers who dislike their grandmothers they might want to give horrible medicine to their grandmothers; this might alter the real standard of life. indeed dahl’s might somehow introduce his readers to fantastic creatures and bizarre places which encourages readers’ imagination to run wild. therefore english majors who desire to establish their writing style should wisely narrate their stories by not altering the standard of life. summary and conclusion writing style can be established through reading variety of books. reading some masterpieces of roald dahl can provide deeper insights on how to establish writing style. dahl has the power to create, narrate and show his imagination in his masterpieces. he had inexplicable and astonishing talents in writing. he had brought huge impact towards his readers, by allowing his readers to express different levels of thinking. it is one of successful key to establish writing style. from this study, it is found that dahl utilized four outstanding elements of style: lead sentences, rhyme-schemed poem, peculiar chosen words, and personification. these elements are to be regarded by english majors as way of establishing writing style. however there are positive and negative influence that should be considered in reading dahl’s writing. dahl provides positive influence in his masterpieces; his           narration is picturesque; it hooks his readers to continue reading the story. aside from that, dahl also provide room of imagination for his readers. he is able to empower his readers to have greater imagination of the characters and story setting. yet dahl’s masterpieces somehow might give negative influence. one of the mostly known negative influence is his sarcastic tone and alteration of standard. readers should be smart and wise in segregating the negative influence. therefore the researcher concludes that to establish writing style, a person must first establish for reading variety of writings as stated by (barr et.al., 2007) after establishing passion for reading, a person should learn to analyze pieces of writing using concepts of stylistics.           references anderson, l. 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(2004). creative writing: how to unlock your imagination, develop your writing skills, and get published (5th ed.). how to books, ltd. simpson, p. (2004). stylistics: a resource book for students. routledge. stockwell, p. & whiteley, s. (20014) eds. stylistics. cambridge university press. quinn, a. (2012). figures of speech: 60 ways to turn a phrase. routledge. wright, l. & hope, j. (2005). stylistic: a practical course book. routledge. acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no. 2. 2023. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 198 lexical density, lexical diversity and academic vocabulary use: differences in dissertation abstracts zafer susoy zafersusoy@gmail.com tokat gaziosmanpaşa university, türkiye doi: 10.35974/acuity.v8i2.3079 abstract this study examines lexical density, lexical diversity and academic vocabulary use in the dissertation abstracts written by efl (english as a foreign language), esl (english as a second language) and english l1 (native speakers) postgraduate students to find out whether these lexical features differ across different english language backgrounds of writers. the data for this study came from a total of 75 dissertation abstracts (n=25 per group) which were about english language teaching and related areas. the abstracts were analyzed whereby automated text processing tools and the mean differences were compared between groups with anova and post hoc analysis. a correlation analysis was also computed between the investigated variables. according to the findings, the lexical diversity index produced statistically significant differences between efl and ns groups, however, the subtle mean differences in lexical density and academic vocabulary use were not found significant. on the other hand, the correlation co-efficient scores offered insights into the nature of relationships of the variables in question. the findings are discussed within the framework of the idiosyncratic context of the ‘abstract genre’. keywords: academic vocabulary use, dissertation abstracts, language processing tools,lexical density, lexical diversity introduction lexical density and lexical diversity, as two most accurate and popular measures of linguistic and lexical competence, have been thoroughly scrutinized both in l1 and l2 english writing studies. such studies regard lexical density and diversity as crucial independent components of well-developed and refined pieces of student and academic writing (crossley, salsbury, mcnamara, & jarvis, 2011; lu, 2012; nasseri & thompson, 2021) and a strong index of l2 writing quality (olinghouse & wilson, 2012; maamuujav, olson & chung, 2021). there are also studies that conclude that lexical density and diversity features of academic writing develop along with time, exposure to language and generic linguistic proficiency (bulte & housen, 2014; kim, 2014; mazgutova & kormoz, 2015). defining clear boundaries for these two lexical constructs is of great importance and holds certain challenges. although lexical density and diversity will be defined and presented in detail in the following sections, broadly speaking, lexical density is the magnitude of content words to all words (tokens) in a written text, while lexical diversity is concerned with the use of unique and non-repetitious words, evoking variation. however, though closely associated, lexical density in a text does not necessarily guarantee lexical diversity or vice versa. for example, a text which is densely packed in terms of lexis may display low lexical diversity (johansson, 2008). acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no. 2. 2023. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 199 as nasseri & thompson (2021, p.2) wrote “abstracts are self-contained microcosms of dissertations in which a student has to describe and summarize a whole research/dissertation in a limited number of words, usually between 200-300 words”. it is understood that dissertation abstracts are likely to be lexically dense and diverse as well as to contain academic vocabulary, which is described as “comparatively large, precise and formal” (ranney, 2012, p.563). it may be concluded that trying to employ such academic language and vocabulary usage may bring on a supposedly high levels of lexical density and diversity in the idiosyncratic context of abstract writing. thus, the aim of this study is to examine the lexical density and diversity features (and differences, if any) of dissertation abstracts written by efl (english as a foreign language), esl (english as a second language) and english l1 (native speakers) post graduate students to find out whether these lexical features change across different language proficiency and l1 backgrounds of the writers. in the light of the stated research aim, the current study addresses two research questions; to what extent do lexical density, diversity, and academic vocabulary use differ in the dissertation abstracts written by efl, esl, and ns postgraduate students? is there a relationship between the measures employed to assess lexical diversity and density? literature review lexical density and lexical diversity: definitions and measures though closely associated, the terms ‘lexical density and lexical diversity’ do not exactly point to the same entity. lexical density is defined as the percentage of content words to all words which are present in a text (laufer & nation, 1995). johansson (2009), thus, argues that lexical density is firmly related with information packaging. while function words such as prepositions, pronouns and determiners, etc., rather serve syntactic functions in a text, content words (i.e., nouns, adjectives, and adverbs) carry more semantic information. as a result, texts with a larger percentage of content words are regarded as being dense because they include more information than texts with a higher percentage of function words (johansson, 2009). lexical diversity, on the other hand, is more straightforwardly concerned with variation and/or range of vocabulary. malvern, richards, chiepere & duran (2004, p.3) define diversity as “the range of vocabulary and avoidance of repetition, which means non-repetitious words which is used in a wide array of usage results in lexical diversity. reciprocal terms have been proposed in the literature to define lexical diversity, several of which were ‘lexical variation’ (engber, 1995), ‘lexical density’ (o’loughlin,1995), “a combination of lexical variation and lexical sophistication” (laufer, 2003, p.24), and ‘lexical richness’ as coined by daller, von haut & treffers-daller, 2003). despite the lack of universally agreed definitions, overlaps and independent conceptualizations with clear boundaries, lexical diversity and density have been regarded as a fundamental part of learners’ writing quality and their universal linguistic competence (laufer & nation, 1995). a number of highly regarded language assessments and computerized language evaluation tools take lexical diversity and density into consideration in their assessment criteria. acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no. 2. 2023. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 200 ielts addresses lexical diversity whereby the term “the range of vocabulary the candidate has used” (ielts, handbook, 2007). “appropriate and precise use of grammar and vocabulary” is referred by toefl ibt, which is another internationally regarded language test (toefl ibt scores, 2005). likewise, the essays of the candidates in michigan english language assessment battery must contain “a wide range of appropriately used vocabulary” (melab, technical manuel, 2003). when it comes to the quantification methods of lexical density and lexical diversity, as its name suggests, lexical density is quantified and measured through a mere ratio of content words to all words (tokens) in a text. the higher the percentage score is, the more densely packaged the text is. however, the quantification methods of lexical diversity are more varied. the earliest and the simplest technique of measurement is called ‘the number of different words’ (ndw), which is solely the reliant on the counting of unique words (types) in a text as put forward by deboer (2014). ndw was, then, followed by the type-token ratio (ttr) method. as a modified version of ndw, ttr calculates a ratio of different words (types) to all words (tokens) in a given text. on the other hand, both of these methods have a serious flaw in that they are affected by text length. malvern et al., (2004) state that the usage of a new word increases ttr on the condition that it has not been used before in the text. that is to say, when new words are introduced to a text, a number of types and tokens does not rise on the same scale. with technological advancement, nlp-based text processing tools such as coh-metrix have been introduced and made readily available for textual and linguistic analysis of written texts (graesser, mcnamara & kulikowich, 2004; crossley & mcnamara, 2009; crossley, salsbury & mcnamara, 2009). coh-matrix offers two recent methods to quantify lexical diversity; vocab d and mtld (a measure of textual length diversity), which are also applied in analyzing the data of this study. malvern et al., (2004, p.51) define that vocab d, at random, calculates the ttr scores of 100 samples of 35 tokens, which is automatically repeated until reached the ultimate and most accurate ttr curve among suggested curves. as defined by mccarthy and jarvis (2010), mtld in a similar vein, functions on a segmental basis. in mtld, separate segments of 100 word-length is randomly taken with the condition that each segment must first reach a ttr of at least .720. an mtld score is then coined as the ultimate product of recurrent ttr calculations of different segments. vocab d and mtld measures are supposed to eliminate the so-called text length effect which seriously invalids the traditional ttr method. lexical profile of abstracts as a sub-section of academic writing and academic word list (awl) according to a number of studies, the abstract section of a thesis, dissertation, or research article is a special type of academic writing that is distinguished by a lexically dense outline and a brief summary of the entire thesis or article that includes key findings, methodology, the significance, implications, and contributions of the research and findings (gillaerts & van de velde, 2010; pho, 2008). bunton (1998, p. 72) describes abstracts as “some of the best writing of the author”. the abstract sections in academic written texts serve the function of persuading the readers to read the whole stud, satisfying them that they will read some attractive and decent content (gillaerts & van de velde, 2010). abstracts in general have captured the interest of researchers for a long time, and numerous works have examined the various linguistic, stylistic, acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no. 2. 2023. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 201 and structural aspects of this sub-genre. abstracts which are included in internationally indexed journals are likely to be characterized by longer word length, shorter sentence length and with a denser load of noun phrases instead of verb phrases (yoneoka & ota, 2017). hyland & tse (2005) studied evaluative that in a corpus of 465 abstracts from published research articles as well as master and doctoral studies in six different academic areas (including applied linguistics) to discover the stance of the authors’ evaluative expressions. they found that postgraduate writers less tend to arise their personal voice compared to publishing academics, however both expert and novice writer groups in this study “employed it [evaluative that] largely with abstract subjects to underline their conviction in the strength or reliability of their findings and made extensive use of research and discourse verbal predicates” (p.137). the concept of teaching academic vocabulary in english language teaching and specifically in the english for academic purposes (eap) areas has a rooted past. academic vocabulary is used to describe elements that are quite prevailing in a variety of academic genres but relatively infrequent in other types of texts (coxhead, 2000). it is often believed that some words appear more frequently in academic papers than in other contexts and therefore, a variety of vocabulary lists have been created using corpora, or collections, of academic writings in order to determine the most important words used in academic genres. the academic word list (awl) (coxhead, 2000), one of the most recent compilation, has 570-word families that, regardless of the students' chosen field of expertise and interest, are seen to be crucial for those following higher education. awl contains 10 sub-lists and 60-word families in each sub-list, except sub-list 10 which has 10. 1st sub-list is comprised of the most frequently used academic vocabulary, while the 10th sub-list has the most infrequent ones. it is widely acknowledged that the awl mostly consists of terminology used in a variety of academic disciplines (tsubaki, 2004; li and qian, 2010). tsubaki (2004) analyzed the proportions of coverage by the gsl and the awl in academic articles. the coverage of the gsl and awl was evaluated using the vocabprofile and range tools, which were used to analyze the articles from tesol quarterly. according to the findings, the awl has more coverage than the gsl. in another corpus-based study which investigated the coverage percentage of awl, li and qian (2010) studied on a large financial services corpus and they found that awl words covered 10.46% of the collected sample. this finding confirmed the assertation that awl would cover 10% of any academic text made by (coxhead & byrd, 2007). lexical density and diversity in efl/esl writing studies though scarce in number, l2 writing studies have found a positive relationship between lexical density and the overall writing scores of l2 essays assigned by human raters. for example, kim’s (2014) study showed that highly proficient efl learners could produce lexically denser argumentative essays. while some, for example, malvern et al. (2004) argue that as lexical density is a token-token ratio (content words / total words), text length does not affect it, there are still some others who have concerns regarding the power of lexical density in predicting writing quality scores. for example, laufer and nation (1995) posits that syntactic and structural aspects of an essay may conflict with lexical density, which means a writer could achieve with fewer function words syntactically more elaborate and complex sentences. another consideration is the high acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no. 2. 2023. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 202 correlations between lexical density and diversity pointing at the blurring point among the indices of lexical characterization of a text (johansson, 2009). in a similar vein, a bulk of previous research conclude that lexical diversity differs across different proficiency levels of both l1 and l2 english learners at short and long terms as measured by several indices (olinghouse & leaird, 2009; bulte & housen, 2014; mazgutova & kosmoz, 2015). in a study in which corrected type-token ratio (cttr) was used to assess lexical diversity, olinghouse & leaird (2009) found significant mean differences between 2nd and 4th graders in a written story telling task, meaning 4th graders displayed greater lexical diversity. in this study, mean syllable length (11%) and text length (6.1%) were found to be the strongest predictive of writing quality. in another study, bulte & housen (2014) made their 45 participants write essays at the beginning and at the end of a short term intensive english language course and used d coefficient as offered by coh-metrix. although the overall writing quality scores significant increased until the end of the semester, lexical diversity as measured by vocab d only showed a weak and non-significant correlation with the writing scores. when bulte and house (2014) added advanced guiraud index (ag) to test lexical sophistication, their model explained the 45% of the whole variance in the writing scores. this finding clearly implies that lexical properties of l2 essays are to be seriously considered. mazgutova & kormos (2015), likewise, in a one month-long academic english program using mtld measure tracked the development of lexical diversity of 45 efl learners across two writing essays. low-proficient groups achieved lower mtld scores and got lower overall writing scores compared to high-proficient groups at each writing task. therefore, it is likely to conclude that lexical density and lexical diversity as two important constructs of learners’ general lexical competence should be more probed and be included in lexical analysis and assessment of learners’ written work. method corpus in this corpus-based study, three different groups of dissertation abstracts written by efl (english as a foreign language), esl (english as a second language), and english l1 (native speakers) doctoral students were analyzed. in the analysis of abstracts, lexical diversity, lexical density, and academic language use measures were applied. the efl abstracts were retrieved from https://tez.yok.gov.tr/ulusaltezmerkezi/. doctoral students in türkiye, upon having submitted their dissertation study to their institutes and after the final approval, have to upload their dissertation studies to the database of council of higher education’s thesis center. the esl and ns abstracts were retrieved from https://about.proquest.com/en/dissertations/, which is a wellknown global repository of international dissertations. the esl and english l1 abstracts were taken from dissertations submitted to various universities in the usa and the uk. the esl writers were chosen from different l1 backgrounds, namely written by pakistani, chinese and iranian writers who carried out their doctoral studies in the usa and the uk. the collected corpus is comprised of a total of 75 texts and 22.195 words (25 texts in each category). the mean of total word count in each group range from 281 to 306 words. while searching for the dissertations, https://tez.yok.gov.tr/ulusaltezmerkezi/ https://about.proquest.com/en/dissertations/ acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no. 2. 2023. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 203 expressions of ‘linguistic and language education’ and ‘english language teaching’ were typed in the search button of the databases. therefore, the so-called topic and text length effects were controlled in the study. all the dissertations that were retrieved from the two mentioned databases were uploaded between years of 2015 and 2022. measure selection to measure the lexical diversity of the selected abstracts, two indicators -vocab d and mtld were computed. the details of these two indicators were presented in section 2.1. to do so, coh-matrix, which is an automated and free web tool available at http://cohmetrix.com/ was resorted. according to mccarthy and jarvis (2010), vocab d and mtld were derived from the traditional type toke ratio (ttr) method to quantify various lexical profiles of texts and form a refined and revised version of ttr, which is free from text length effect and thus is more reliable. the higher scores of vocab d and mtld point to more lexical diversity of texts. lexical density, as a strong index of dense academic writing performance, has long been measured whereby a ratio of content words to all words/tokens. this ratio was calculated for each abstract using vocabprofile, which is available at https://www.lextutor.ca/vp/eng/. higher ratio scores indicate more densely packed abstracts. academic word list, which is also introduced in detail in section 2.2. was readily offered by vocabprofile at https://www.lextutor.ca/vp/eng/. data analysis the statistical procedure for this study were carried out on the statistical software program spss 28.0.1. first, with a descriptive analysis using means and standard deviation, a plain outlook of the lexical measures is presented to see how the measures differ numerically across abstract types. second, a pearson correlation coefficient test was computed to find out to what extent the measures are related to each other. the correlation analysis also offers insights about the reliability of the measures. then, a one-way anova test was run between vocab d and mtld measures since only in these measures statistically significant mean differences were observed between groups. in order to detect between which groups of abstracts these statistically significant differences occur, a post hoc test followed the anova test. results in this section, the findings of the current study are presented. first, the differences in lexical diversity indicated by vocab d and mtld measures, lexical density, awl and total word count across three abstract groups were displayed in table 1. second, the correlation coefficients among the five dependent variables were illustrated in table 2. lastly, the multiple comparisons of mean differences between groups were given in table 3 and table 4 respectively. http://cohmetrix.com/ https://www.lextutor.ca/vp/eng/ https://www.lextutor.ca/vp/eng/ acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no. 2. 2023. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 204 table 1 a descriptive outlook of the lexical profiles of the ns, esl and efl abstracts measures abstract type mean sd n vocab d ns esl efl 81,43 72,85 64,56 21,340 14,478 11,051 25 25 25 mtld ns esl efl 77,88 71,21 62,15 20,776 16,070 10,741 25 25 25 lexical density ns esl efl ,641 ,622 ,621 ,044 ,042 ,033 25 25 25 awl ns esl efl 29,240 29,760 25,720 12,255 10,501 8,126 25 25 25 word count ns esl efl 306,00 300,56 281,24 94,095 94,155 76,841 25 25 25 as can be seen in table 1, in lexical complexity indices of vocab d and mtld and in lexical density index (comprised of a ratio of content words/total words), ns abstracts displayed the highest scores followed by esl and efl abstracts respectively. the longest abstracts were written by ns writers again followed by esl and efl abstracts respectively. when it comes to academic word list, the order changed. the biggest number of academic words was found in esl abstracts although the mean differences are quite faint in this index, especially between ns and esl groups. the awl coverage percentages are in tune with the frequency of awl words found in efl (%13.05), esl (14.74%), and ns (13.72%). it is found that awl covered the 13.72% of the whole corpus on total. acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no. 2. 2023. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 205 table 2 correlations among five lexical measures vocab d mtld lexical density awl word count vocab d 1 mtld ,845** 1 lexical density ,370** ,325** 1 awl ,237* ,261* -,099 1 word count ,015 ,021 -,070 ,115 1 correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).** correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).* table 2 demonstrates the pearson correlation coefficient among the five lexical measures applied to all groups of abstracts. the highest positive and strongest correlation which is also statistically significant, was found to be .845 between vocab d and mtld measures which were provided by coh-matrix. coh-matrix asserts that these two measures of lexical diversity (vocab d and mtld) are free from the ‘text length effect’. likewise the correlation coefficient scores seem to confirm this assertion although dissertation abstracts tend to be relatively similar in terms of text length. since lexical diversity is concerned with the breadth and depth of vocabulary as well as variation and richness in vocabulary use, it correlates with lexical density. though on a medium scale, lexical density positively correlates with vocab d and mtld on a statistically significant level, which suggests that using different tokens of content words may naturally increase variation in lexis. similarly, lexical diversity indices manifest weak, however statistically significant correlation coefficients with awl, which is a glossary of academic vocabulary, which points out lexical diversity that is an index of variation in use correlates with other lexical indicators. the correlation findings seem to certify that coh-matrix indices work in conformity producing consistent results. a one-way anova was computed to find out whether the ns, esl and efl abstracts differ in terms of lexical properties in question. as a result only lexical diversity measured through vocab d and mtld indices differ across three different groups of abstracts. vocad d index posed a significant difference among three groups of abstracts [f(2.72)=6.77, p<0.05]. in addition, mtld index of lexical diversity also was found to be different on a statistically significant scale [f(2.72)=5.80, p≤0.05]. acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no. 2. 2023. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 206 table 3 significant between group comparisons measures sum of squares df mean square f p vocab d between groups within groups total 3556,104 18891,914 22448,018 2 72 74 1778,052 262,388 6,776 ,002** mtld between groups within groups total 3115,587 19326,973 22442,559 2 72 74 1557,793 268,430 5,803 ,005* **the mean differences between groups is significant at the 0.05 level *the p value ≤ .0.05 post hoc comparisons using tukey hsd test indicated that the mean differences of vocab d index found across groups of abstracts are only statistically significant between ns (m=81.43, sd= 21.34) and efl abstracts (m=64.56, sd=11.05). table 4 tukey hsd group differences measures group comparisons mean difference se p 95% ci lower bound 95% ci upper bound vocab d ns efl 16,86600 4,58160 ,001* 5,9017 27,8303 mtld ns efl 15,72720 4,63405 ,003* 4,6373 26,8171 *the mean differences between ns and efl groups is significant at the 0.05 level. in a similar vein, post hoc comparisons using tukey hsd test indicated that the mean differences of mtld index found across groups of abstracts are only statistically significant between ns (m=77.88, sd= 20.77) and efl abstracts (m=62.15, sd=10.74). discussion and conclusion this study aimed to investigate lexical density, lexical diversity, and academic language use displayed in dissertation abstracts written by three cohorts of authors efl, esl, and ns. a smallscale corpus was compiled from the dissertation abstracts of three writer groups and selected indices were used to measure the lexical qualities of these abstracts. deciding and selecting the indices which are plenty in number is of great significance in this research area. with the advancement of technology, recent automated computational tools readily provide a number of both lexical, syntactic, and textual indices for text analysis. however, this abundance of indices may present a serious challenge for the researchers since it makes generalizing and, more importantly, comparing the results problematic. it is not only the indices that change across studies, but also different sampling methods or data sizes also puts challenges on the way to a more tangible view of research findings. thus, in this section, a comparison of the previous research which has used similarly calculated indices, has been given due attention. acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no. 2. 2023. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 207 according to the findings of the current study, english language backgrounds of the abstract writers do seem to have a little effect on the lexical density, lexical diversity and academic language use. although, except for the awl, in all other indices of lexical density and diversity, ns outperformed the esl and efl groups, these descriptive differences were not found to be statistically significant. ns writers also wrote the longest abstracts followed by esl and efl writers, however, abstracts as a the sub-genre of academic research writing is generally limited with 200-300 words at most. thus, the text length effect is controlled in this study. there is a previous bulk of research which conclude that lexical density and diversity positively correlates with proficiency levels of learners (bulte & housen, 2014; kim, 2014; mazgutova & kosmoz, 2015). though partially, our findings are in tune with these studies as the only significant differences were found in lexical diversity measures (vocab d and mtld) between ns and efl groups. this finding may suggest that efl writers fall behind in the lexical proficiency (particularly in lexical diversity) compared to their ns and esl peers. to fill this proficiency gap, syllabus and course developers explicitly highlight the significance of lexical proficiency in academic writing. moreover, dissertation supervisors may develop teaching strategies regarding the density and variation of lexis in research abstracts by means of addressing to use of nominalizations, more complex noun phrases and low-frequency words to achieve a denser information packing and diversification of lexis in the limited area of abstracts (biber & gray, 2010). promoting the integration of automated text processing tools into research evaluation processes might also be useful, since the delicate features and calculations of lexical proficiency are likely to be overlooked by human raters, evaluators and researchers (crossley et al., 2011; kalantari & gholami, 2017; lu, 2012; nasseri & thompson, 2021). esl group wrote abstracts which were parallel with those of ns group in the investigated lexical indices. since the esl writers reside and communicate in an english-speaking country, in this study’s case in the usa and the uk, lexical proficiency of the esl writers could be positively affected by the academic immersion programs (mazgutova & kormoz, 2015). a shared context with the l1 english speakers seems to be to the benefit of esl learners, however, much research is needed to explore and confirm to what extent these academic immersion programs are effective in raising the learners’ lexical proficiency. the coverage percentage and the number of awl words in the study corpus, in spite of descriptive differences, were not found to be statistically significant. the idiosyncratic context and limited space of abstracts might compel the authors from different language backgrounds to use as many academic words as possible, which also makes the lexical density index incomparable across groups in this study. this finding of the study contradicts with maamuujav’s (2021) study in which high positive correlations were found between awl coverage and overall writing quality scores of l2 learners. in their study marti, yilmaz and bayyurt (2019) examined the use of reporting words in a collected corpus of l1 english professionals, turkish professional writers and native and non-native novice writers and found statistical differences only between non-native novice writers and other groups. they call for further discussions on expertise vs. nativeness in writing for academic and research purposes in english. in a similar vein, lei & yang (2020) compared the lexical diversity and density of research articles of native experts, native undergraduates and chinese postgraduate students and found that native experts outperformed the other two groups in all indices, followed by chinese postgraduate students and native novice students respectively. this finding, in tune with our findings, may suggest that expertise might be more important than nativeness in academic research acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no. 2. 2023. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 208 writing. the findings of our study and that of lei & yang (2020) also point out that developing lexical diversity may be more challenging than using informative content words as native 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(2017). evaluating association between linguistic characteristics of abstracts and risk of bias: case of japanese randomized controlled trials. plos one, 12(3), e0173526. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0173526 https://doi.org/10.1177/026553229501200205 https://doi.org/10.1177/1461445607087010 https://doi.org/10.1002/lnc3.354 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0173526 microsoft word 2. yanuarti vol.3 eachers’ problems and solutions in implementing curriculum 2013.docx   11   teachers’ problems and solutions in implementing curriculum 2013 yanuarti apsari yanuar.apsari1@gmail.com stkip siliwangi bandung abstract curriculum 2013 as an effort to reform educational system. however, the curriculum demands teacher and school to be skilled and trained and because of this, in implementing school based curriculum teachers deal with some problems. thus, this study aims to find out the problems faced by the english teacher in implementing curriculum 2013 and their solution to overcome those problems. with regard to the purpose of the research, a qualitative approach was employed. the data were obtained through observation, questionnaires and documents. the data were transcribed, categorized, and interpreted to answer the research questions. the respondents of this study were three english teachers of three high school in batujajar. the result of the study showed that dealing with the the implementation of curriculum 2013 the teachers had the problem related to three aspects namely: problems related to teaching and learning process, problems related to creating lesson plan, and problems related with teaching material. it was also revealed that the respondents do some efforts to overcome those problems such as maximizing the provided facilities, cooperating with others teachers, getting involved in workshop or mgmp,searching the example of lesson plan from internet, reading the various sources, copying and using lesson plan from the other schools, download e book, asking for friend to send e book through email and using the previous book. key words: curriculum 2013, problem and solution introduction professional competency has been a major demand in the world of education. one of the important factors to increase the education quality is curriculum as argued by sukmadinata (2000, see susilo, 2008: 9) that curriculum is the core of the whole educational process since it becomes a guidance for achieving the educational goal. accordingly, curriculum is defined as a set of plans and rules about goals, contents, and learning materials as well as the way of using it as guidance for implementation of learning activities that is aimed at a specific goal national education standardized institution (bsnp, 2006). it indicates that curriculum contains a set of explicit and implicit intents that is concerned with facilitating teaching and learning activities and its development (miller and seller, 1985). thus, it can be argued that that curriculum determine the success of the education system. in the attempt to improve the quality of national education output, since 2013, when pp 32 2003 on the standard national education was implemented, school based curriculum which is well-known as kurikulum tingkat satuan pendidikan (ktsp) was gradually developed by curriculum 2013. in this case, curriculum 2013 is expected to enhance the quality of education by developing the structure of   12   curriculum in national level and developing local content in local level. however, the change of curriculum has leaded to confusion faced by teachers. as a guide in developing school level based curriculum, curriculum 2013 demands teacher and school to be skilled and trained. in addition, the curriculum should be prepared and adapted based on the learning situation and future demand and because of this, in implementing curriculum 2013 teachers deal with some problems. thus, this research aims to find out the problems faced by the english teacher in implementing curriculum 2013 and their solution to overcome those problems. curriculum curriculum is a set of plans and rules about goals, contents, and learning materials as well as the way of using it as guidance for implementation of learning activities that is aimed at a specific goal national education standardized institution (bsnp, 2006). it is in line with this, saylor et al (1981: 3, cited in suprijadi, 2008) points that curriculum refers to a plan for providing sets of learning opportunities for person to be educated. it indicates that curriculum is obviously crucial in the teaching and learning process since it can guide the teachers to be able to achieve the educational objectives. with this regard, it is undeniable that teachers’ role is essential since they play as curriculum implementer. in this case, teachers are expected to be able to bring about intended learning outcomes as suggested by cooper (1990: 3). in short, teacher plays an important role in the classroom especially in the instructional context of language learning such as the indonesian efl classroom (macaro, 1997, quoted by liando, 2010). regarding the importance of curriculum, thus, it can be argued that a sound curriculum is required to be implemented in order to achieve certain educational objective. components in curriculum according to susilo (2008: 88), there are some components in new curriculum. they are the objectives, teaching materials, teaching learning process, and assessment and evaluation. a. the objective the simple definition given from matheson (2011), the term “objectives” refers to what the teacher want the students able to do as the result of learning outcomes.in addition, according to the permendiknas no.23, 2006 on the graduate competence standard for primary and secondary schools (depdiknas, 2006), the teaching of english includes the four language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing.   13   b. teaching material one measure which is used to make the process of teaching and learning effective is related to selecting and adapting materials. as stated by silver (1997) that there is a high correlation between those who read a lot and those who improve in their comprehension and vocabulary acquisition when they read. thus, the teacher should provide the students’ preferable text in order to encourage them to keep reading. c. teaching and learning process it is undeniable that teachers are often seen as the agent largely responsible for students’ success in teaching and learning process as what argued by cooper (1990: 3) that effective teacher is one who is able to bring about intended learning outcomes. in short, that teacher plays an important role in the classroom especially in the instructional context of language learning such as the indonesian efl classroom (macaro, 1997, quoted by liando, 2010). schulman (1992, cited in maisa, 2009: 8) defines that professional english teacher is a teacher who can maintain a high level of students’ involvement and whose students can reach the goal of teaching learning process. thus, it is reasonably to say that professional teacher is someone who can cope with teaching tasks competently. furthermore, richards (2001: 211) adds that teaching skill can be developed by the following ways: observation of experienced teachers, observation of training videos, short theory courses, practice teaching under the supervision of experienced teachers, and working with a mentor teacher. in short, it can be inferred that exploration of teaching is crucial to enhance the quality of teaching. the exploration of teaching can be done by applying some steps, namely collecting samples of teaching, analyzing the samples of teaching, appraising teaching based on the analysis, and deciding on changes in teaching behavior (gebhard, 2000:21-26) referring to the arguments above, it can be inferred that in teaching of efl, the value of the teachers depend not just on their ability to use language but also on their knowledge about language and their understanding on how to implement the knowledge to facilitate their students’ learning (harmer, 2003: 19). d. assessment and evaluation the last component of curriculum is assessment and evaluation. the importance of evaluation is supported by nunan (1992:116) states that no curriculum model would be complete without an evaluation component. it means that the teachers and learners need to be involved in the evaluation process. curriculum 2013 the establishment of curriculum 2013 was based on law no.20, 2003 about national education system and government regulation no. 32, 2013 about national education standard. it is arranged by the units of education based on the content standard (standar isi) and graduate competence standard (standar kompetensi   14   lulusan). in other words, content standard and graduate competence standard is a basis framework and curriculum structure in developing the curriculum. content standard covers core competence and basic competence including learning content, learning experience, subject and learning load. the core competence and basic competence are developed based on graduate competence standard. core competence refers to a competence in a particular lesson that students must achieve. while, basic competence is a minimum competency that students must acquire and graduate competence standard refers to a qualification of graduate’s capacity including in developing curriculum and instructional planning, the school should be based on core competence which covers spiritual attitude (kl-1), social attitude (kl2), knowledge (kl-3), and skill (kl-4). basic competence is arranged to achieve core competence. it is developed by considering learners’characteristics, prior knowledge and the characteristics of particular lesson. it is divided into four division including basic competence of spiritual attitude, basic competence of social attitude, basic competence of knowledge, and basic competence of skill. a. lesson plan basically, lesson plan is a plan describing what will be done in the teaching and learning process in order to achieve the competences stated in the syllabus. thus, lesson plan is crucial since it contains guidance for the teachers in carrying out their teaching. according to brown (2001), the formats of lesson plans are vary, but there are some crucial elements that need to be existed in a lesson plan. they are: goal, objectives, materials and equipment, and procedures, evaluation and extra-class work . b. teaching material teaching material in curriculum 2013 is determined by the government. it is different from teaching material in ktsp which gives teachers a chance to develop teaching materials based on the school potentials, students’ needs and ability and the need of the society around the school. c. teaching and learning process based on curriculum 2013, teaching and learning activity should be characterized by learner-centered activity, joyful and challenging condition, and contextual learning. accordingly, contextual teaching and learning (ctl) is regarded as the appropriate approach to fulfill such requirement since it is an approach that involves the students in meaningful activities that can help them relate their knowledge in the classroom with the context (suyatno, 2002 cited in cahyono, 2008: 2). in using ctl approach, the teacher can apply certain principle such as modeling, inquiry and learning community. in learning community, students can enhances broader skills of cooperation (harmer, 2001) and work together and share ideas in completing academic task (jacob, 1999: 13). in addition, scientific approach is also used in curriculum 2013. in developing instructional activities is based on several steps includes observing, questioning, exploring, associating and communicating.   15   research methodology 1. research design this study employed qualitative research design. it is considered as the suitable research method since this study is aimed to describe the problems faced by english teachers in implementing curriculum 2013 and their solution to overcome those problems. this study can also be regarded as a case study since it was conducted in a small scale, a single case, focus on one particular instance of educational practice (nunan, 1992). 2. research site this study was carried out in three high schools in batujajar in which the researcher also works in one of those schools. there ara three english teachers who were selected as the respondents of this study. 3. data collection the data were obtained through observation and questionnaires. observation was conducted to gain the data on the implementation of curriculum 2013 in the classroom. in this study, the researcher acted as non participant observer. the researcher sat at back of the classroom, took notes on, and videotaped “what was said and done” (van lier, 1988). the observation was carried out twice due to the lack of times. in addition, this study used open-ended questionnaires which were written in bahasa indonesia to ensure complete understanding of the items of by the participants. open-ended questionnaire was adopted to allow the respondents to answer in their own words (brown, 2009: 202). they were used to investigate the problems faced by the respondents in implementing curriculum 2013 and their solutions to overcome those problems. the last, in this study, the teachers’ lesson plans and the teaching materials used by the teachers were regarded as documents. 4. data analysis data analysis is an important step in every research since it is the process of organizing and storing data in light of your increasingly sophisticated judgments (alwasilah, 2000). the data of this study were analyzed through qualitative data analysis on the basis of the reseach questions. in analyzing the data, the researcher integrated and related the findings to the background of the study, mainly to the research questions, theories, and the methodology for classifying the data into manageable units as suggested by emilia (2008: 201). in this case, data analysis in this study was conducted as simultaneously action during and after data collection. by doing this the researcher was able to consistently sharpen the focus of the study. finding and discussion relating to the objective of this study, the data is presented under several themes: the problems faced by english teachers in implementing curriculum 2013 and their solutions to overcome the problems.   16   1. the problems faced by english teachers in implementing curriculum 2013 a. the problems related to teaching and learning process dealing with teaching and learning process, the respondents faced many difficulties in implementing school based curriculum as it is revealed from the questionnaires: teacher #1 mentions that the obstacle in applying curriculum 2013 is the limited facilities in the school. it is in line with teacher#3 who states that the obstacle is dealing with school’s facility. while, teacher #2 says that the deciding the appropriate teaching method with the new curriculum. it is supported by teacher#3 who mentions the lack of understanding in applying scientific approach and lack of school’s facility as the problems. based on the statements above, there are some problems that are faced by the respondents such as limited school’s facilities, teaching methods and lack of understanding in applying scientific approach as the characteristic of curriculum 2013. from the finding above, it can be concluded that teaching facilities can affect the quality of teaching and learning process as explained by richards (2001: 207) that the last set of factors that affect the quality of teaching in a program related to the institution context in which teachers work. since the teachers are expected to teach well they need ongoing support from the others. thus, in order to make teaching process successful, school need to provide adequate teaching facilities such as a multimedia lab or computer lab, language lab, self-access center, and students reading room. moreover, the data from observation revealed that the respondents faced different difficulty in developing english language teaching based on curriculum 2013. teacher#1 had difficulties to manage the class. he divided the class into group discussion but it was not work well and the students were very noise. this indicates that he applied collaborative learning as recommended to use in curriculum 2013. while, teacher#2 was seen to use different soources as teaching material. she not only used textbook as recommended by the government but also used the other sources to support her in teaching and learning process. this indicates that she got difficulty in using the curriculum 2013 textbook. furthermore, it was found that teacher #3 taught in the classroom without using scientific approach as what she wrote in her lesson plan. it indicates that the teaching and learning process conducted in the classroom was not appropriate with the lesson plan. in curriculum 2013, the teaching of english is developed with the framework of scientific approach and it seems to pose some challenges for the teachers. they should not only pay attention to linguistic aspects but also to strategic competence, socio cultural and discourse aspects. given this challenge, the teachers who have been accustomed to conventional teaching which emphasizes on linguistics aspects need to switch to a new teaching paradigm. this finding showed that this new paradigm   17   sometimes lead to the confusion and problems, for example: in indonesia, there are 30-48 students in a classrooms. as a result the situation may not be effective. from the result finding above, it can be concluded that the teachers are not ready to implement curriculum 2013. it is due to their lack of competences. it is irrelevant with the statement of (sarimaya, 2008) that the teachers are demanded to have professional competence. the competence include knowledgeable in terms of subject matter, teaching and learning methodology and curriculum. this means that teachers are demanded to be professional teachers and have good teaching skills. b. the problems related with creating the lesson plan it is revealed from the questionnaire that the teachers’ problems dealing with creating lesson plan can be noticed below: q#12 : what are your ptoblems in creating lesson plan? teacher#1 : i have problem in creating the lesson plan. the obstacle is related with planning teaching procedures which is relevant to basic competence and core competence, especially in developing learning activities which give opportunity for students to use their english actively. teacher #2 : i get confused to create the lesson plan, especially in developing indicator based on basic competence and core competence. teacher #3 : the obstacle is that i actually do not know how to create the right lesson plan based on curriculum 2013. this findings above is supported from the document data. the lesson plan of teacher#1 showed that in developing instructional activities are not based on several steps stated in scientific approach such as observing, questioning, exploring, associating and communicating. while, the lesson plan of teacher#2 revealed that the respondent did not write the indicator for basic competence and core competence 1 and 2. she only derived the indicator from basic competence and core competence 3 and 4. in addition, the lesson plan of teacher#3 showed that there is inconsistence between indicator, learning activities and assessments from the data above, it can be concluded that there are several difficulties faced by the respondents in creating the lesson plan based on curriculum 2013. the difficulties are difficulties are how to develop learning activities, indicator, and lesson plan. these imply that each respondent had different difficulties as they had different abilities and knowledge. it might due to lack of pedagogical competence as stated by (sarimaya, 2008) that pedagogical competence covers the understanding of lesson planning. it might due to unsuccessful sozialization that conducted by the government. this means that curriculum 2013 is still confusing especially for those who lack of understanding about curriculum 2013. thus, a socialization of curriculum 2013 is crucial to conduct frequently.   18   c. the problems related with teaching and learning material relating with teaching material, it is revealed from the questionnaires that the respondents faced difficulty in obtaining the material. all respondents stated that until now curriculum 2013 books have not been distributed to the school yet.this means that the support is required to develop teachers’ teaching skills and knowledge. the support can be provided in a form of adequate materials (richards, 2001:213). 2.teachers’ solutions to overcome their problems the data from questionnaires revealed that respondents have several solutions to overcome their problems. a. teachers’ solutions of the problems in teaching and learning process in relation to the problem emerge in the teaching and learning process, the three respondents describe the solution as the follow: q#8 : how do you face the difficulty emerge in the classroom? teacher#1 : my solution for my problem is that i tried to maximized the provided facilities. teacher#2 : it is solved by cooperating with other teachers. teacher#3 : i think the solution for the problem that i have stated is that we have to join workshop and mgmp in order to share ideas among the english teacher. the data showed that in the attempt to solve the problems the respondents generally do cooperating with teachers and students, maximizing the provided facilities and finding out and enhancing the method which is suitable for learning material and joining workshop and mgmp. this findings indicate that to improve teachers’ knowledge, the school or the institutions should provide the opportunities for teachers to develop and update their professional knowledge and skills. it is also in line with the statement of cahyono (2008) that getting involve in training and workshop session, real teaching, paper presentation and conference is one of teacher’s effort in the attempt to develop english language teachers toward an understanding of the true sense of being professional. moreover, cooperating with other teacher can be often helpful in a school where there are teachers of different levels of experience and training. it is in line with the suggestion of richards (2001: 211)that teaching skill can be developed by working with a mentor teacher. from the above finding it can be concluded that teachers need to realize the importance of their own professional growth.   19   b. teachers’ solutions related with creating the lesson plan the following expressions are the respondents’ solutions to overcome their problem in creating lesson plans. q#13 : what do you do in solving the problem in creating lesson plan? teacher#1 : in solving the problem i try to search the example of lesson plan from internet and read the various sources. teacher#2 : sharing with other teachers in teacher association or mgmp can help teacher to improve thier knowledge about curriculum 2013. teacher#3 : copying and using the lesson plan of other school as the solution. regarding the above statements, there are three solutions that respondents propose in the effort of solving the problems related to creating lesson plan including reading the various sources, sharing with other teacher in mgmp, copying and using the lesson plan of other school as the solution. reading various sources is in line with suggestion of richards (2001: 212) that teachers need to develop curiosity and interest in many different aspects of teaching and expand their knowledge base about research, theory and issues in teaching. furthermore, sharing with other teacher in mgmp is supported by mangkoesaputra (2004) that the program is intended to discuss teachers’ problem regarding teaching and learning process. in short, the existence of mgmp can help teacher to design lesson plan and sole teachers’ problem. however, copying and using the lesson plan of other school is not suitable solution because each school may have different needs. if this condition still hapends it is assumed that the success of curriculum 2013 cannot be achieved. it implies that although the respondents had applied curriculum 2013 in their school, they realies that they had many weaknesses to apply curriculum 2013. thus, in this case the government should provide a training program that has a high quality program. c.teachers’ solutions related with teaching material the following expressions are the respondents’ solutions to overcome their problem in obtaining teaching materials. q#11 : what are the obstacles that you face relating to teaching material? how do you do in solving the problem? please explain. teacher#1 : in solving the problem i downloaded e book and then it was printed and i a asked the students to copy it. teacher#2 : i asked my friend to send the material through email. teacher#3 : i used the previous books which had been used last years.   20   the data shows that there are many solutions to solve the problem concerning teaching material such as download e book, ask friend to send the material and used the previous book. conclusions and recommendations 1. conclusions some conclusions can be drawn based on the data from the questionnaires which were delivered to three teachers. it was found that the teachers’ deep understanding on the theory of curriculum 2013 does not guarantee that they can easily implement the curriculum as it is revealed from the findings. the data shows that dealing with the implementation of curriculum 2013 the teachers had the problem related to three aspects namely: problems related to teaching and learning process, problems related to creating lesson plan, problems related to teaching and learning material. related to teaching and learning process, the respondents’ problems are generally related to limited school’s facilities, material especially for listening and teaching method. it indicates that teaching facilities can affect the quality of teaching and learning process. this is relevant with the statement of richards (2001: 207) that the last set of factors that affect the quality of teaching in a program related to the institution context in which teachers work. since the teachers are expected to teach well they need ongoing support from the others. thus, in order to make teaching process successful, school need to provide adequate teaching facilities such as a multimedia lab or computer lab, language lab, self-access center, and students reading room. from the result finding above, it can be concluded that the teachers are not ready to implement curriculum 2013. it is due to their lack of competences. it is irrelevant with the statement of (sarimaya, 2008) that the teachers are demanded to have professional competence. . concerning creating lesson plan, it was revealed that there are several difficulties faced by the respondents in creating the lesson plan based on curriculum 2013. the difficulties are difficulties are how to develop learning activities, indicator, and lesson plan. these imply that each respondent had different difficulties as they had different abilities and knowledge. it might due to lack of pedagogical competence as stated by (sarimaya, 2008) that pedagogical competence covers the understanding of lesson planning. it might due to unsuccessful sozialization that conducted by the government. this means that curriculum 2013 is still confusing especially for those who lack of understanding about curriculum 2013. thus, a socialization of curriculum 2013 is crucial to conduct frequently. relating to teaching and learning material, it is revealed from the questionnaires that the respondents faced difficulty in obtaining the material. all respondents stated that until now curriculum 2013 books have not been distributed to the school yet.this means that the support is required to develop teachers’ teaching skills and knowledge. the support can be provided in a form of adequate materials (richards, 2001:213).   21   regarding the problem related to teaching and learning process, respondents described their solution to those problems as revealed from the questionnaires. it was found that the respondents had different solutions in overcoming their problems during teaching and learning process. the solutions cover cooperating with others teachers, maximizing the provided facilities and joining workshop and teacher’s association or mgmp in order to share the ideas among the english teachers. it is also revealed that there are three solutions that respondents propose in the effort of solving the problems related to creating lesson plan including reading the various sources, sharing with other teacher in mgmp, copying and using the lesson plan of other school as the solution. moreover, the data shows that the respondents do some efforts to solve their problems related to teaching material, such as download e book, ask friend to send the material and used the previous book. 2. recommendations based on the findings of the research, it is recommended for english teacher to improve their understanding about curriculum 2013. it can be done through joining some trainings and workshops about curriculum 2013, reading a lot of sources, and sharing information with others teachers. in addition, the teachers also are expected to join some trainings and workshops about teaching of english covering methods, material, and media in order to improve their teaching. the next recommendation is addressed for the institution. dealing with the implementation of curriculum 2013, the teachers are demanded to be skilled and trained. therefore, the institution should provide opportunities for teachers to develop their professional knowledge and skills. such opportunities can be provided through conference participation, workshops and in-service seminars, reading groups, peer observation, writing about teaching, project work and action research as suggested by richards (2001). it is supported by harmer (2001) who suggests that training is considered as one way to increase teachers’ knowledge. in addition, the institutions are expected to facilitate the teachers to conduct mgmp. government needs to provide training and clear socialization about the implementation of curriculum 2013 since most teachers seem confused in implementing curriculum 2013. it can be seen from the inability of teachers to create lesson plan. at last, due to this study conducted in a short period, it is recommended for the future researchers to investigate other aspects of the implementation of curriculum 2013, such as about the assessment, the facilities, etc.   22   references alwasilah, a. chaedar. (2000). pokoknya kualitatif. pt. dunia pustaka jaya & pusat studi sunda, jakarta. brown, h.d. (2001). teaching by principles: an interactive approach to language teaching. . white plains, ny: addison wesley longman. brown, j. d. (2009). “open-response items in questionnaires”. in heigham, j. & crocker, r. . a. (eds.). qualitative research in applied linguistics. new york: palgrave macmillan. cahyono, b.y. (2008). the continous improvement learning programmevvfor english l language teachers: an indonesian experience. in m.e. vethamani & m.k. kabilan ( (eds) practices and issues in english language teacher development. petaling jaya, . malaysia: sasbadi sdn. bhd. cooper, james. r. (1990). classroom teaching skills.toronto: d.c. heath and company. depdiknas. (2006). peraturan mendiknas nomor 23/ 2006 tentang skl untuk satuan pendidikan dasar dan menengah. jakarta: departemen pendidikan nasional emilia, e. (2008). menulis tesis dan disertasi. bandung, indonesia: alfabeta. gebhard, j.g. (2000). teaching english as a foreign or second language. ann arbor: the university of michigan press harmer, j. (2001). the practice of english language teaching. edinburgh. uk: longman harmer, j. (2003). how to teach writing. england: longman. jacob, e. (1999). cooperative learning in context: an educational innovation in everyday classroom. albany, ny: state university of new york. liando, nihta.v.p. (2010). students’ vs teachers’ persfectives on best teacher characteristics in efl classrooms. teflin journal: volume 21, number 2, august . 2010. maisa. (2009). teachers’ understanding of characteristics of professional english english for young learners. unpublished undergraduate thesis, department of e english education: indonesia university of education. miller & seller. (1985). curriculum perspectives and practices. longman: new york nunan, d. (1992). the learner-centered curriculum. new york: cambridge university press.   23   nunan, d. (2003). practical english language teaching. new york: mcgraw-hill richards, j.c. (2001). curriculum development in language teaching. new york: cambridge university press. sarimaya, f. (2008). sertifikasi guru: apa, kenapa, dan bagaimana (teacher’s sertification: . what, why, and how?). bandung: yrama widya silverman, d. (2005). doing qualitative research. london: sage publication ltd. susilo,m. joko. (2008). kurikulum tingkat satuan pendidikan manajemen pelaksanaan dan kesiapan sekolah menyongsongnya. yogyakarta: pustaka pelajar suprijadi, d. (2008). the implementation of school-based curriculum. unpublished . undergraduate thesis, department of english education: indonesia . university of education. van lier, leo. 1988. the classroom and the language learner. london: longman   microsoft word acuity, vol 1 no.1 2017 46    the use of mind mapping in generating students’ idea ula nisa el fauziah ula_nisa@ymail.com stkip siliwangi bandung abstract writing is considered as the hardest skill to be learned. some students said that the difficult part to write is to generate ideas. they admitted that their ideas were out of focus. they could not generate and develop the ideas. to solve it, teachers surely require various teaching techniques that help students to generate ideas in writing. one of the technique is mind mapping. based on this mentioned reasons, this study is aimed to investigate the differences between teaching writing that does not use mind mapping and the one that uses it in term of ideas.this study employed qualitative method. the data sources of this study were first grade students in one of departement in university at bandung. the collected data were obtained by writing tests. the result of writing tests was scored by using a rubric. based on the analysis result, it was found that there were the differences in the writing that did not use mind mapping and the one that used it in term of ideas. the writing that used mind mapping tended to be more focus. besides, it also had deepen explanation of the topic as well as clear main idea and supporting ideas. from this finding, it can be inffered that mind mapping do really help students to generate ideas in writing. therefore, teachers can use this technique to teach writing in the classroom. keywords: writing, mind mapping, main idea introduction as a foreign language, english is one of the most important subjects in indonesia. it is taught and learned as the compulsory subject in junior, senior, and university level. moreover, there are many kindergarten school that put english as the material given for the students. at this point, its purpose is not only for encouraging students to be able to communicate with this international language, but also develop students’ language skill. as stated by zahrah in cahyono (33: 2009), the aims of learning and teaching english is to develop students’ capability in four language skills, which are speaking, listening, reading, and writing. regrettably, among those fours skill, writing is considered as the hardest skill to be learned. this is supported by alwasilah (2001: 24) who says that writing is perceived as the most difficult skill to acquire by students and teach by the teachers. this difficulty might be caused by the complicated process of writing itself, in which the writers have to focus not only on grammar, vocabulary and mechanism, but also how the ideas expressed and developed. based on 47    students’ discussion, many of them said that the difficult part to write was to generate the ideas. they admitted that their ideas sometimes were out of focus. they could not elaborate and generate the ideas form a particular to be written. thus, they failed to construct a good writing either in term of fluency or coherent. this fact is in accordance with nunan statement (cited by fitriah in cahyono, 2009: 66), “in term of skill, producing a coherent, fluent, and extended piece of writing is probably the most difficult things to do in language learning.” to solve this problem, teachers surely require various teaching techniques that help students to generate their ideas in writing. mind mapping might be one of the solutions for it. mind mapping is developed by tony buzan. it is simply a diagram used to represent words, ideas, or other items linked to and arranged in a free fashion around a central key words or ideas (in cahyono, 2009:86). it usage can help the students to associate ideas, think creatively, and make connection that might not otherwise make (buzan, 2010). alamsyah (2009) even explains that mind mapping works well as their visual design enables students to see the relationship between ideas, and encourgae them to group certain ideas together as theyr proceed. this is supported by huda (in cahyono, 2009:86) who states that mind mapping can help the writer to generate, visualize, structure, and classify ideas. the effectiveness of mind mapping to help student to generate their ideas generally have been proved by some researches. most of the research showed that the use of mind maping can create enjoyable activity as well as facilitate students to produce an idea to write (fitrah). some research also show the positive influence of mind mapping to the students’ writing achievement (riswanto & putra, 2014). however, there are definitely some differences between the writing that use mind mapping and the one that does not use it in term of ideas. this research is aimed to investigate those differences qualitatively. research methodology the method applied in this study is qualitative. a qualitative approach was employed due to its capability to investigate every social phenomenon that occurred in natural setting, including the use of mind mapping in writing in the classroom. as creswell (1994) states, qualitative study is an inquiry process of understanding a social or human problem based on building a complex, holistic picture, formed with words, reporting detailed view of informant, and conducted in natural setting. this study was conducted in english department in one of university in bandung. the respondents of this study were first grade student who taken english extension program in one of university in bandung. in their diploma 48    program, they acquired composition course on the first up to sixth semester. this course focused on how to make a good composition in the term of ideas, content, coherence, mechanism, and organization. here, the lecture also forced them to write various compositions based on its types, such as narrative, descriptive, recount, procedural, argumentative, and so on. thus, by their familiarity to write a good composition, the data needed for this study could be easily obtained. in getting the data needed, this study used the writing test. at this point, the students were asked to create two compositions about holiday. the first essay did not employ mind mapping. they were free to generate idea and develop it as they wanted. in the contrary, on the second essay, they had to write an essay based on the given mind mapping. after collecting the data needed, the students’ writing is scored. scoring system was based on writing rubric below: ideas 5. the writing is clear, focused, and interesting. main ideas stand out and are developed by strong sup-port. the writing is characterized by:  main idea (s) that stand out.  supportin g idea (s) is relevant to the main idea.  depth explanatio n or exploration of the topic; the writing shares 4. the writing is clear, focused and interesting. main ideas stand out and are developed by limit or general supporting. the writing is characterize d by:  main idea (s) that stand out.  supportin g idea (s) is relevant, but may be over general or limited.  a topic is explained; experienc 3. the writing is clear and focused. the reader can easily understand the main ideas. support is present, although some of may be limited/general or irrelevant. the writing is characterized by:  clear main idea(s).  some of supporting idea (s) may be relevant but limited/gene ral; and some of them may be irrelevant.  the explanation of the topic 2. the writing is unclear and quite focus. main ideas can be identified. the developmen t supporting idea is attempted but minimal or irrelevant. the writing is characterize d by:  main idea (s) is not stated clearly.  irrelevant details  limited explanatio n of the topic. 1.ythe writing lacks a central idea. the writing is characterized by:  ideas that is extremely limited or simply unclear.  attempts at developm ent that are minimal or nonexistent.  the paper is too short to demonstr ate the developm ent of an idea. 49    experienc e. e may be present. is quite clear. the above rubric refers to the content of writing that deals with the topic of as well as its main and supporting ideas. as brown (2001) said content refers to thesis statement, related ideas, development of ideas through personal experience, illustrations, fact, and opinion. result and discussion as it is stated previously, mind mapping is a diagram used to represent word, ideas, or item linked to and arranged in a free fashion around a central key word or ideas. this kind of technique is effective to help to generate, develop, and classify the ideas in writing. however, out of this effectiveness, there is definitely some differences between the one that does not use mind mapping and the one that use it in term of ideas. the following data attempts to investigate it: first respondent the data below is written by the first respondent. there is no title of this writing. however, as it can be seen on the first sentence of the first paragraph, the writer wants to share her experience in bali to the reader. 50    non mind mapping i and my family spent our earlier holiday in bali. we didn’t take the airplane to go there. we took the car since we planned to visit several temples and ancient mosques around the island of java though our first destination was bali. we left our city on sunday at 9 am and took a rest at a hotel in central java. the next day we continued our journey and finally arrived at bali at 11 pm. we visited kuta beach and national bird park. we spent two days in bali and then returned to our city. on the way home, we took some rest in surabaya. i have some friends in this city so i decided to meet them. the next day, we continued our journey and visited prambanan temple and then borobudur temple where we bought some gifts. we also prayed at sunan kudus and sunan ampel mosques along the journey. finally we arrived at bandung and took some rest. it was a nice holiday. i feel like i was touring around the islands of java and bali. on the introductory paragraph, the writer explains general information of her holiday, such as time, with whom she gone, and the accommodation she used. in term of accommodation, she attempts to put some detail by explaining of why she chooses a car rather than an airplane. unfortunately, she does not explain of why she chooses bali as place she wants to spend her holiday. as thomas (2001) stated, orientation or introductory paragraph of recount should contain the information of when, where, why, and how. on the second paragraph, the writer does not declare her focus. her idea jumps from one to another. as it can be seen above, the main idea stays on the first paragraph, which is “we visited kuta beach and national park”. however, the second and remain paragraphs do not support it. she prefers to explain how many days that she spent in bali than tell what she got or experienced in both places as well as her feeling. moreover, she also informs to the reader of places she visited back from bali in surabaya on the same paragraph. it shows irrelevant idea to support the main one. as a result, there is no area that becomes a center that she is interested in. then, since there is no further explanation about places she visited, her writing seem to be a report than retelling an experience. on the last paragraph, the writer attempts to express her feeling of her holiday by saying, “it was a nice holiday. i felt like i was touring around the island of java and bali. the last sentence for certain supports the previous one. however, as a conclusion of the whole experience stated in her written form, the reader cannot get a depiction of why her experience is nice. thus, by the above consideration, this writing stays on the first level in the rubric. 51    mind mapping it’s hot on summer. therefore, i and my friends decided to spend our holiday in the mountain range in puncak bogor where the air is cool and fresh. we took a bus to go to puncak in the morning at about 8 am and arrived at about 10 am. we rent a cottage near the tea fields where the view is really nice. since the cottage is near the at ta’awun mosque, we conducted the prayer there. we trekked around the tea fields and had a conversation with some farmers who worked at the fields. we learned how to pick the tea leaves and found that it was not an easy task to pick tea leaves as much as possible in a short time. the farmers then gave us big pockets of dried tea leaves. we thank them and brew the tea leaves at the cottage. it was really relaxing when we sipped a cup of hot tea while looking around the green view. the writer improvement shows on the above writing that uses mind mapping. on the introductory paragraph, for instance, she clearly tells the background of her experience. she explains why she chooses mountain range in puncak bogor to spend her holiday, when she goes, with whom she goes there, and the used accommodation. the improvement is also demonstrated on the second paragraph. her idea becomes more focus. as it is showed, the main idea stays in the first sentence, “we trekked around the tea field and had a conversation with tea farmer”. to support it, she explains what she is done latter. then, she attempts to share her feeling to the reader by saying “it was not an easy task” and “it was really relaxing when sipped a cup of hot tea while looking around the green view”. unfortunately, on the second sentence, she does not explain how to pick the tea leaves. whereas, she can explain it in order to make the ideas more develop. since the writing becomes more focus, a significant point of interest in this writing is also emerged. thus, based on the rubric, it stays on the forth level. second respondent the two data served below is written by different respondent. from the title, it can be seen that the writer wants to retell his experience in spending holiday in bogor botanical garden. 52    non mind mapping my holiday at botanical garden last holiday, my friends and i went to bogor botanical garden. it took about four hours to go there by bus from bandung. we were enjoying the view along the journey. while enjoying the view outside, we were having fun and laughing inside the bus most of the time. it was noisy but interesting. along the trip, my friends who are in relationship talked about the myth in bogor botanical garden. it says that the couple who comes to that place will soon break up. at first, some friends worried about it, but they just ignored it afterwards. when arrived at bogor botanical garden, nothing we did but enjoying the beautiful flowers and plants in the garden. we were moving around and taking pictures in many spots. it was wonderful the most interesting moment was when we found the huge flower, named rafflesia arnoldy. the diameter is about 1 meter long and the stalk is about 2 meters high. the smell is so bad that we must close our nose when approaching the flower. however, we took some pictures next to the flower. besides bogor botanical garden, we also visited some interesting places in bogor, such as the bogor palace, and some historical buildings. time flew and we had to go home. anyway, it was a beautiful holiday. on introductory paragraph, the writer tells about informational background of his vacation, such as with where he goes, with whom he goes, the used accomodation, and how long to get the destination. at this point, he also adds some details that explain what he does along the journey and his feeling. as an introductory paragraph, it is quite developed to explain the information of his experience. in telling the series of event that he experienced, the writer’s main idea can be identified although its supporting ideas is limited. on the second paragraph, for example, the main idea stands on the first sentence “...talked about the myth in bogor botanical garden". he then supports it by mentioning what kind of myth. it is then followed by explaining his friend feeling. whereas, in this case, he can explores his supporting idea by giving the description of his friends action that show their discomfort to the myth up to they have to ignore it. thus, by doing so, his ideas might be more developed. the limitation of supporting idea also occurs on the third paragraph. in this paragraph, the main ideas stays on the first sentence “nothing we did but enjoying the beautiful flowers and plant...”. however, on the second sentence, he prefers to tell his activity of moving around and taking some pictures than explain 53    what beautiful flower he saw. in this case, the supporting idea basically still relevant to the main topic, but it is just not quiet developed. it is supported by the length of paragraph which only consists of two sentences. fortunately, the problem mentioned above does not present on the fourth paragraph. the main idea that lies on the first sentence, “ ...found a huge flower, named rafflesia arnoldi”, is supported by good supporting ideas. here, he explains about the physical performance of raflesia arnoldi that has big diameter and stalk. he also tells about his feeling when he saw it. thus, here, the writer shows his interested area of his experience as well as draw reader feeling into his experience. regrettably on the last paragraph, it shows unclear ideas. in this case, there are two events on the same paragraph. on the first sentence, he attempts to inform some interesting places he visited in bogor. however, in the second sentence, he tells about her feeling of his holiday instead of explain it further. therefore, the irrelevant ideas are showed. basically, the writer can combine these two events in one sentence. but, it is better for him to utter the statement that supports his main idea. thus, the story will be more flow and fluent. based form all the above consideration, such as informational background of the experience, presentation of area he is interested in, conclusion of her whole feeling of his experience, limitation of supporting idea, and irrelevant supporting idea, this writing stays on the third level based on the rubric. mind mapping my holiday at botanical garden last month, my friends and i spent our holiday visiting some historical buildings in bogor. the places to visit were bogor botanical garden, bogor palace, and some museums. besides, we also came to some shopping centers to buy merchandise. we went to bogor from bandung in the afternoon when the weather was sunny. it took about four hours to go there by bus. however, we were enjoying the trip while seeing the beautiful view outside. the atmosphere became so cheerful when we made fun of each other along the trip. while enjoying the view along the trip, we talked about the myth in bogor botanical garden. it says that the couple will soon desperate if they visit the place. at first, my friends who are in relationship worried about this. however, they just ignored it and turned to another topic. when arrived in bogor, we came to a cottage to spend the night before we went to some places tomorrow morning. the cottage was located in a mountain area. it was so cold that we must wear the jacket all the time. the following morning, we went to bogor botanical garden. 54    we moved around the garden and take some pictures. some of us were making fun of each other when coming to the hanging bridge, the mythical place in the garden. the most interesting moment was when we found the huge flower, named rafflesia arnoldy. the diameter is about 1 meter long and the stalk is about 2 meters high. the smell is so bad that we must close our nose when approaching the flower. however, we also took some pictures next to the flower. after visiting bogor botanical garden, we went to other historical buildings. we also came to shopping centers along the countryside to buy merchandise. it was a beautiful holiday. hopefully, i could come to bogor again and visited another interseting place. compared to the discussed one, here, the writer attempts to develop his idea. on the introductory paragraph, the writer adds detail information of the place he visited. regrettably, he just mentioned it without giving detail information about it, such as of why he chooses the places to spend his holiday. here, the limitation of supporting idea still emerges. on the second paragraph, he attempts to add the information of what he is first done in bogor. in that case, the main idea is “spend the night in cottages". he supports it by explaining the location of the cottage as well as its situation. at this point, idea is developed. moreover, on the third one, he informs her experience in historical building as well as merchandise shop. similar with the first problem, the writer just mentioned it as report than try to add some explanations about it. meanwhile, on the last paragraph, it seems that he adds the information of why he should go home before come up to the conclusion of his experience. the good one here, the writer states his next plan if he comes to bogor again. as thomas (2001) stated, re-orientation in recount is an ending statement often used to reflect on or comment on the events, recounted, or to predict from the explanation above, it can be inferred that the writer’s idea on the second writing shows significant improvement. he attempts to develop his idea by set the event in a right order, from the information of place she visited up to conclusion of his feeling about his holiday. however, for the development of idea in each paragraph, it does not show any progress. the explanation is still limited. thus, on the rubric, it still reaches level 4. 55    third respondent from the title, the following data notifies the reader of the writer experience in doing rafting, a challenging recreational outdoor activity using an inflatable raft to navigate a river or other bodies of water. on the first paragraph, the writer does not only explains the basic informational background of his story (how, when, where, who, and why), but also justifies of why he wants to go vocation. as it can be seen on the first sentence, he says “holiday is a necessity for everyone, including me, to get away from daily routine”. it seems to become the main point of that paragraph. he then supports it by an idea to go vacation with his friends, which is followed by some actions to implement his idea to go rafting. at this point, his supporting idea is still limited since there is no explanation of what kind of research he did, why he did it, etc. on the second one, the restrictiveness of supporting ideas is also shown. the main idea is “starts our journey”. he supports it with the explanation of his first stop to buy some foods for the journey and the depiction of his feeling toward the view. unfortunately, he does not give to many descriptions of how the scenery looks like and what make it differents with the other city. on the other hand, on the third paragraph, both mind idea and supporting idea cannot be identified. there are two series of event. first, he does not familiar with the place he visited, so that he asks the organizer to pick him up. second one is his rafting activity. basically, the supporting idea on the second one is quit developed. he shows his feeling “i feel very excited” along with the briefing and practice he did. unfortunately, since there are two combination of event, it becomes unclear. it is better for him to vividly explain two events into two paragraphs. on the last paragraph, the writer states his activity before going home. similar with the first and second one, his suporting idea is also restricted. he does not explain clearly what special food in the area he visited. he prefers to jump the idea into to his feeling. non mind mapping rafting holiday is a necessity for everyone, including me, to get away from daily routines. last month, when i’m so tired with my daily routines my friends came up with an idea to have a day off and go to pangalengan to do rafting. i became extremely interesting with his idea because i never do rafting before. after doing some research, i finally found on outbound organizer to accommodate our desires to do rafting. after everything settle, we agree to use my friend’s car and meet at 9 am in margahayu. 56    after everyone gathered, we start our journey to pangalengan on our way to pangalengan we made our first stop at a minimarket to buy something to eat on our way to pangalengan. i very like the scenery on the mountain area like pangalengan, because it’s very different from what i see in the city. to see trees on the side off the road is very refreshing. when we entered the city, my friends called the organizer so they can pick us up because we did not know the place. after we meet with the organizer, they told us to follow them because they used a motorcycle. when we set our foot at the rafting place, i feel very excited. after changing clothes we had a small briefing and a little practice. we learn how to paddle and how to react when we doing rafting. finally the time has come to do the real rafting. during rafting i had so much fun and it really test my adrenalines. the rafting itself only took about an hour but me and my friends really exhausted. after getting wet from rafting, we took a shower before going home. on our way back, we buy some local specialties. it was so much fun to have a little time to get away from daily routines because it can make us refresh our mind and not feel bored with work again. overall, this writing is focus. in other word, the writer’s idea do not jump from one to another. he is consistent to explain his vocation in pangalengan. moreover as a recount, it has gained its purposes to retell past experience as well as to share feeling and thought. regrettably, since there is the limitation in supporting paragraph as well and supporting idea, it stays on the 4 level. mind mapping rafting on november 2010, my friend and i had a plan to have a vacation. he and i feel very tired with our daily routines so we could use a holiday. unfortunately, he and i only have one day off, so we can go too far from our city. after searching a good place to spend our holiday, my friend and i decided to go to pangalengan. my friend told me that we can do rafting in pangalengan and ask me to find a good outbound organizer in pangelangan. so i browse the internet to find a good and affordable outbound organizer. after found one, i discussed the price we have to pay with my friends and he agreed with it. we have to pay about rp 185.000 for about an hour of rafting, local transport, lunch, and snack. after everything settled, we contacted our other friends to come with us too and have some fun. unfortunately some of them were busy doing other things, so there only five of us and my friend parents. they decided to come along with us because they 57    feel bored stay at home all day long. on the agreed day, exactly november 21, my friend picked me up at my house. he picked me up 8 am. before we went to pangalengan, we gathered first at my friend house in margahayu. we arrived at margahayu at 9 am. we had a little conversation about which route we should take to avoid traffic because. after everything packed and ready, we began our journey to pangalengan. however, as we predicted before, the traffic was very busy that day and it made us spend a lot of time on our way to pangalengan. we spend nearly three hours on the road. in pangelangan, we called the organizer. we asked them to pic k us up at the local clinic. it is due to we did not know where the rafting spot is. it is a new place for us to be visited. fifthen minute latter they arrived. since they used a motorcycle, we followed them at back. it is not more than ten minute, we arrived at the place. we took a little break and enjoy the mountain view. we can see a lake and many trees in sides of the road. it was very refreshing. after take a little break, we had a briefing about the equipment we will use during rafting and safety procedures with the instructor. after all that briefing finished, we went to the rafting spot. i feel very excited because this is my first time. during rafting we can also see a nice view while paddling. we move from side to side because it was very bumpy. water splashes in front of our faces, adrenalines rises, but it was so much fun and we keep laughing. before we reach the final destination, the instructor told us that the raft is leaking. we all terrified to hear that. the instructor told us to move to the right side of the raft. but he suddenly fliffed the raft and made all of us jump into the river. he just laugh see we all panicked. he said that it was a joke and the raft is fine, not leaking at all, so we all laughing and glad to hear that. at the final destination there’s already a car prepared to pick us up and take us back to the starting spot. after doing a rafting, we were very tired. we took a rest for a while. we ate food to charge our body. it is about ten minute latter, we decided to take a bath and change our wet clothes with dry ones. the water is very cold. many of us was shiver at that time. since the rain started to pour down, we decided to go home. we hit the pedal and made our way back home. the above writing shows the improvement. there is the main and supporting idea in each paragraph. on the first paragraph, for instance, the main idea is “…had plan to go vacation”. the writer support it by depth explanation of the reason we want to go vacation, destination he want to visited, activity that he want to do, and facilitate he got if he use organizer. 58    it is continued to the next paragraph. on the second paragraph, the main idea stands on “..contacted our friend”. he relates it with the reason of why he called his friends and the information of the people that want to join vacation with him. on the sixth paragraph, the writer attempts to show his feeling by saying “i feel very excited because this is my first time”. this is in line with glasswell, parr, and akman (2001) statement, in which personal recount often includes reflections on the writer’s feelings. since there are clear main ideas as well as strong supporting idea, the explanation of the topic become in-depth. the reader really gets depiction of what the writer experienced at that time. then, based on this consideration, this writing stays on the fifth level in the rubric. based on the findings above, it can be inferred that mind maping definitely help the students to generate and develop the ideas. this supports busthomi’s statement (in cahyono, 2009:75). he states that mind mapping gives advantages for the writer to stimulate ideas, to build a list of issues, to identify relationship between them, and to prioritize what will be important to write about. this is also in line with hunan (quoted by huda in cahyono, 2009:86) who states that mind mapping can help the writer to generate, visualize, structure, and classify ideas. conclusion based on the finding and discussion in the last chapter, the result of the study can be concluded as follow: there are the differences between the writing that does not use mind mapping and the one that use it in term of idea. on the first one, the writing tends to be unfocused and unclear. besides, the mind idea sometimes cannot be indentified and supporting ideas are limited and irrelevant. meanwhile, on the second one, the writing tends to be more focus. the writers attempt to explain the topics deepen. moreover, there is the clarity of main and supporting idea, though some of the supporting ideas are still limited. from the above conclusion, it is expected that teachers can use mind mapping to teach writing in the classroom. in this case, they can give their students mind mapping that they 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(2006). metode penelitian bahasa. bandung: r remaja rosdakarya. thomas(2006). available at http://english-text.blogspot.com/ microsoft word acuity-articles-cetak.docx           small talk among the indonesians in three different countries: america, indonesia, philippines caroline victorine katemba english department, faculty of education, universitas advent indonesia, email : linakatemba@gmail.com abstract this study explores the “small talk” among the indonesians in three countries. it aims to determine the topics that make up a small talk among the indonesians in the motherland/homeland, usa (new jersey, la, washington d.c), and the philippines (manila).this study sought to answer the following questions: (a) what particular topics of conversation shared by the indonesians upon meeting for the first time? (b). are indonesians who stay in the motherland/homeland and those who are in the philippines and those who migrated to the usa shared the same topics? (c).what changes of conversational topic has taken place? key words: small talk, indonesian culture, the indonesians background of the study in the ‘first international conference and 40th annual convention on language education’ at manila midtown hotel, april 25-27, 2001 dr. francisco sionil jose (national artist for literature) was one of the guest speaker. in the introduction of his speech he said ” long-long time ago. you were not born yet. i attended a seminar in indonesia, by the belated first indonesian president. president ir. sukarno. he delivered his speech for six hours non-stop without a text”. indonesians are great talkers (thomas oey, 1993). as i would say that, we indonesians love to talk. we are also an instinctively inquisitive people, and will often approach you on trains, planes, busses, etc to strike up a conversation. as expressed in the common greetings mau ke mana? and sudah makan belum? indonesian always seem to want to know everything about you: where you are going, what you are doing, who you are, whether you have eaten or bathed yet, etc. just as in english greetings “ how are you?”, “hi” or “how do           you do?” when meeting someone. these greetings do not require a specific answer, but are simply another way of saying hello. once the greetings are over, however, visitors will frequently find themselves barrage with a series of more specific questions, including many that seem to concern very personal and intimate matters, such as personal or family background, marital status, occupational, and so forth. these will come up again and again until you can almost predict what question is coming next, and are probably quite tired of this whole “interview” process. try not to be sarcastic or angered by this. understand that your “interviewers” are simply trying to be friendly, and are using such topics to make small talk, much as westerners would discuss the weather or sports. in indonesia, such information is not considered personal at all, it is simply a part of one’s identity-like your name, nationality and address. if you do not wish to answer, it is perfectly acceptable to be equivocating or to joke around. most indonesians will never press you for an answer. on the other hand, you can use this as an opportunity to practice your indonesian, and by turning the questions around you can also learn something about the people you meet. statement of the problems this study aims to determine the topics that make up a small talk among the indonesians in the three different countries: 1. indonesia (motherland/homeland), 2. usa : a. los angeles, b. new jersey, and c. washington d.c. 3. philippines specifically, this study sought to answer the following questions: 4. what particular/common topics of conversation shared by the indonesians upon meeting for the first time? 5. are indonesians who stay in the motherland/ homeland and those who are in the philippines and those who migrated to the usa shared the same topics? 6. what changes of conversational topic has taken place?           scope and delimitation of the study the study focused on the topics that make up a small talk among the indonesian upon meeting for the first time. it involved three countries: indonesia, usa, and the philippines. definition of terms the following terms are operationally and conceptually defined for clarity. anomie. it refers to a feeling of homelessness, where one feels neither bound firmly to one’s native culture nor fully adapted to the second culture. self identity. in this study, self identity refers to his/her status in the community. prestige. it refers to status, position, or rank in the community. motherland/ homeland: refer to the indonesians who stay in indonesia. occupation. in this study, it refers to their present work or previous work in the the country (indonesia) self-perception. is an individual’s overall comprehension of self, including selfconcept, self-esteem, and self-ideal. it also refers to how you perceive yourselfyour own thoughts, beliefs, and feelings about yourself. self-ideal – a description of how an individual perceives he or she should or would like to be. self-esteem. refers to how you feel about yourself, to positive or negative self-evaluations. it is and overall feeling, in transactional analysis terms, of being “o.k” or “not o.k” (haris,1976) review of related literature and conceptual framework communication:           communication is a systemic process in which individuals interact with and through symbols to create and interpret meanings. the important idea in this definition is: process, systemic, symbols and meanings. 1. process. communication is a process, which means it is ongoing and always in motion. the fact that communication is a process means it is always in motion, moving ever forward, and changing continuously. we cannot freeze communication at any one moment. 2. systemic. communication is also systemic, which means that it involves a group of interrelated parts that affect one another. in family communication, for instance, each member of the family is part of the system. a lingering kiss might be an appropriate way to communicate affection in a private setting, but the “same” nonverbal behavior would raise eyebrows in an office. to interpret communication, we have to consider the entire system in which it takes place. 3. symbols, which are abstract, arbitrary, and ambiguous representations of other things. symbols include all of language and many nonverbal behaviors, as well as art and music. anything that abstractly signifies something else can be a symbol. meanings, which are the heart of communication. we talk with others to clarify our own thoughts, decide how to interpret nonverbal behaviors, and put labels on feelings and hopes to give them reality. in all of these ways, we actively construct meaning by working with symbols. ( wood 1997). values of communication we spend more time communicating than doing anything else. we talk, listen, have dialogues with ourselves, watch television and listen to radio, participate in group discussions, browse the world wide web, interview or are interviewed, send electronic mail messages, and so forth. from birth to death, we communicate to meet personal, professional, relationship, and social goals. personal impact george herbert mead (1934), said humans are talked into humanity. he meant that we gain personal identity through communicating with others. communication with others not only affects our sense of identity, but also directly influences our physical well-being. people who lack close friends have greater levels of anxiety and depression than people who are close to others( hojat, 1982; jones & moore, 1989). heart disease is also more common among people who lack strong interpersonal communication, reports that people in disturbed           relationships tend to have low self-esteem, headaches, alcoholism, cancer, sleep disorders, and other physical problems. clearly, healthy interaction with others is important to our physical and mental health. (wood,1997). relationship impact communication also critically affects our relationships. we build connections with others by revealing our private identities, remembering shared history, planning a future, and working out problems and tensions. marriage counselors have long emphasiced the importance of communication for healthy, enduring relationships (beck, 1988; gottman & carrere, 1994; scarf, 1987).they points out that troubles and problems are not the primary reason some marriages fail, since those are common to all relationships. communication is important as more than a way to solve problems or make personal disclosures. steve duck (1994b, p.52), who studies personal relationships, says that “talk is the essence of relational maintenance.” through small talk, gossip about mutual acquaintances, nonverbal exchanges, and discussions of clothes and other mundane topics, partners embody their relationship. for this reason, couples involved in long-distance romances say the biggest problems are missing the nonverbal communication that occurs in face-to-face interaction and not being able to share small talk (gerstel & gross, 1985). cultural impact communication skills are also important for the health of our society. to be effective, citizens in a democracy have to be able to express ideas and to evaluate the ideas of others. good communication skills are the essence of social life. particularly as our culture becomes increasingly pluralistic, we must all learn to interact with people who differ form us and to learn form them in the process. this means we need to understand the different verbal and nonverbal communication styles that are learned in distinct communication cultures. communication , then, is important for personal, relationship, professional, and cultural reasons. because communication is a cornerstone of human life (wood,1997)           communication and culture your culture directly shapes how you communicate, teaching you whether it’s polite to interrupt, how much eye contact is appropriate, whether individuality is desirable, and whether argument and conflict are healthy. patterns of communication reflect cultural values and perspective. consider, for example, that many asian languages include numerous words to describe particular relationships: my grandmother’s brother, my father’s uncle, my youngest son, my oldest daughter. this linguistic focus reflects the cultural emphasis on family relationships (ferrante, 1995). therefore are fewer and less specific english words to describe kinship bonds, which reflects the lesser salience of familial relationships in western culture. asian cultures also revere the elderly, and this too is reflected in language. “i will be 60 tomorrow” is an asian saying that means i have enough years to deserve respect. in contrast, western cultures tend to prize youth and to have many positive words for youthfulness(young in spirit, fresh) and negative words for seniority (has been, old fogy, over the hill, outdated, old-fashioned). in the process of leanring language, we learn our culture’s values, beliefs, and norms. then, as we use the language of our culture, we reflect its values, norms, and beliefs. language also effects cultural views of personal identity. western cutlrues tend to emphasize individuals, whereas many eastern cultures palce greater emphasis on family and community than on individuals. (wood,1997) culture culture is learned, acted out, transmitted, and preserved through communication. communication our ability to share our ideas and feelings-is the basis of all human contact. culture is a system of shared beliefs, values, customs, behaviors, and artifacts that the members of a society use to cope with their world and with one another, and that are transmitted from generation to generation through learning. this definition includes not only patterns of behavior but also patterns of thought (shared meanings that the members of a society attach to various phenomena, natural and intellectual, including religion and ideologies), artifacts (tools, pottery, houses, machines, works of art), and the culturally transmitted skills and techniques used to make the artifacts. (d.g. bates,1990).           culture is subject to change cultures are dynamic systems that do not exist in a vacuum, sot they are subject to change. change through contact is another example of how communication and culture are alike. communication is not static, but rather is dynamic and constantly changing . cultures are also subject to fluctuations, seldom remaining constant. although cultures change through several mechanisms, the three most common are innovation, diffusion and acculturation. (samovar et.al,1998. pp.45) innovation defined as the discovery of new practices, tools, or concepts that many members of the culture eventually accept and that may produce slight changes in social habits and behaviors(nada,1994 in samovar et.al) diffusion si the borrowing by one culture from another. historically, diffusion has been part of cultural contact for as long as cultures have existed. s culture is subject to change. cultures are dynamic systems that do not exist in a vacuum, so they are subject to change. change through contact is another example of how communication and culture are alike. communication is not static, but rather is dynamic and constantly changing. cultures are also subject to fluctuations, seldom remaining constant. although cultures change through several mechanisms, the three most common are innovation, diffusion, and acculturation. i n n o v a t i o n i s usually defined as the discovery of new practices, tools, or concepts that many members of the culture eventually accept and that produce slight changes in social habits and behaviors (nada,1994)for example television, the computer, and the women's rights movement are good examples of products and concepts that reshaped culture. the three examples cited, change occurs much faster, and there is more of it, in modern and technological cultures (nada,1994) -d i f f u s i o n , another mechanism of change, is the borrowing by one culture from another. historically, diffusion has been part of cultural contact for as long as cultures have existed.           .~ because cultures want to endure, they usually adopt only those elements that are compatible with t*r values and beliefs or that can be modified without causing major disruption (samovar, et al,1998) a c c u l t u r a t i o n , a s a type of cultural change, "occurs when a society undergoes drastic culture change under the influence of a more dominant culture and society with which it has come in contact (hoebel & frost). usually acculturation is in response to extended and intensive firsthand contact between two or more previously autonomous cultures or co-cultures. this type of change is common to international immigrants, who for a variety of reasons find themselves in another culture. these people, as part of the acculturation process, need to cope with a considerable amount of cultural change. in most instances, they "begin to detect new patterns of thinking behavior and to structure a personality relevant to adaptation to the host society (gudykunst, et al, 1992) as bates and plog point out, “a society that gradually adopts the practices of another culture does not adopt every behavior or belief of that culture (pp. 437) conceptual framework the conceptual framework of this study was guided by different theories previously mentioned. the conceptual framework of this study illustrated in fig.1 shows that the indonesian in the usa (los angeles, new jersey and washington d.c), philippines and indonesia (homeland/motherland) were the subjects of the study. the figure shows that small talk among the indonesians in three countries has a relationship to one another since they are all indonesian which inhabit different locations. since they are indonesian, they must have inherit the indonesian culture which belongs to the eastern/asian culture. the indonesians in the three countries of course inherit the eastern culture. indonesians who are domicile in the state will have a direct counteract with the western culture in which might affect the topic of their communication of their small talk.           indonesians in the usa will have a slight change on the topic of their small talk since they are adapting the culture, the western culture that penetrates into their way of life/living. so, not only their topic of communication would be change or affected but also their culture might deviate from those who are in the homeland. those who are in the philippines might as well maintain/have the same topic since the philippines is also belong to the eastern culture, which is similar to the indonesian culture. there won’t be much change. figure 1 methodology research method and design the ethnographic and cultural analysis was used to determine the common or general topic used to make up a small talk. cultural background play an important indonesian in their homeland small talk indonesian in the philippines indonesian in the usa (l.a, n.j, & d.c) asian culture western culture topic of communication conceptual frame work           role in communication. it may shape up the topic and the way it is being communicated. data gathering and procedure i. observation an observation was done by the researcher in the 1. airport, in the airplane, train station 2. celebration/ thanks giving, party 3. national independence day program – august 17 at the a. indonesian embassy in washington d.c. b. indonesian embassy in the philippines 4. church, buddha temple, mosque, universities 5. malls, traditional markets, book stores, etc. ii. informants and involvement beside an observation done by the researcher, the researcher also was directly involved in the conversation with other indonesian whom the researcher had met for the first time. data was also secure from other informants in the homeland, philippines and the usa. iii. electronic device a. internet – chatting b. email research locale this study was conducted in three different countries: 1. indonesia 2. the united states of america and 3. the philippines. indonesia has more than 13,700 island. it has a tropical climate and has two seasons, wet and dry. the researcher observed people from the east to the west of indonesia. the east part include: the celebes island and through the west the java island , bali island and sumatra island.           data analysis, interpretation and conclusion presented in this chapter are the data duly analyzed and interpreted to answer the problems of the present study. the presentation of data is divided into three main parts. part i discusses the particular/common topics of conversation are shared by the indonesians upon meeting ofr the first time. part ii discusses the topics of conversation that initiate a small talk among the indonesians in the usa and the philippines. part iii. sjows changes of topics that has taken place. part i. what particular/common topics of conversation shared by the indonesians upon meeting for the first time? the following topics are usually asked or talked about in a common conversation by the indonesians in indonesia name and nationality one of the first questions asked, following your name, will be about your nationality. nama bapak/ibu siapa? or siapa nama bapak/ibu? what is your name? nama saya jonathan. nama saya caroline. my name is jonathan my name is caroline. bapak/ibu asal dari mana? or asalnya dari mana? what country are you from? /what province or village are you from? saya dari filipina. i am from the philippines.           or saya orang filipina. i am filipino. austali australian belanda dutch denmark danish inggeris british italia italian jepang japanese jerman german kanada canadian thailand thai norwegia norwegian perancis french sepanyol spanish yunani greek suedia swedish swiss swiss tionghoa chinese selandia barua new zealander age the next thing most people want to know is your age. umur age berumur to be of the age, have the age……. tahun year(s) lahir to be born muda young tua old umur bapak/ibu berap(tahun)? how old are you umur saya tiga puluh enam. i am 36 (my age is 36). saya lahir tahun sembilan belas enam puluh lima. i was born in 1965. in answering evasively, you may want to joke and say: saya sudah tua, mau pensiun. i am already old, ready to retire. saya masih muda. i am still young. saya masih anak-anak. i am still a child.           family next you will be asked about your family and marital status. indonesians expect all adults over 25 to be married and all married couples to have children, and will be surprised if they find this is not the case. if you are over 25 and still single, and don’t wish to pursue the matter further, you might consider just saying that you are married and have three children anyway(which is what the person asking expects you to say). ayah,bapak father ibu mother isteri wife suami husband perempuan woman, female laki – laki male, man kawin, nikah to be married keluarga family anak child saudara brother or sister (sibling) adik younger sibling kakakolder sibling orang-person anak perempuan-daughter cucu-grandchild, grand niece or nephew orang tua-parent/old people bapak/ibu sudah kawin belum? are you married yet/ sudah /belum. already/not yet masih terlalu muda. (i am) still too young. bapak/ibu punya berapa anak? how many children do you have? saya punya tiga anak. i have three children. satu laki-laki dan dua perempuan. one son and two daughters, tuan punya berapa saudara? how many brothers and sisters do you have? saya punya tiga saudara. i have three siblings. kakak laki-laki satu dan adik perempuan dua. one older brother and two younger sisters. occupation           next will be questions concerning your job or profession. most educated indonesians carry a business card. they may offer you one and ask for yours. after even a brief conversation, many people will want to have your address. usually they keep it for a remembrance. indonesians are very happy to have foreign friends. don’t be surprise if you are invited to their house, and later to be introduced to their family and neighbors. belajarto study perusahaan-company bekerja-to work kartu-card kartu nama-name card pensiun-retired dosen-university lecturer guru-teacher manajer-manager pedagang-businessman pengarang-writer pendeta-minister sekertaris-secretary pelaut-sailor insinyur-engineer mahasiswa-university student dokterdoctor petani-farmer bapak/ibu bekerja di mana? where do you work? saya bekerja di perusahaan…. i work at company…. saya bekerja di kantori work in an office. saya penganggurani am unemployed/jobless ada kartu nama?do you have a name card? boleh saya minta satu? may i have one? ma’af, tidak ada. i’m sorry i don’t have one. religion it is common for indonesians to ask about your religion. for most people in indonesia, religion is not so much a question of personal beliefs as it is a reflection of one’s ethnic or cultural identity. indonesia recognizes only six official religions: buddhism, hinduism, islam, catholicism, protestantism, and advent, and indonesians will expect most westerners to be either protestants or catholics. atheism is not officially recognized, and many indonesians will not know what does           this mean. to us, it is like not having a sname or a nationality. when in doubt, just say that you are “kristen” or “katolik.” agama-religion gereja-church mesjid-mosque anggota-member klentengchina temple masukto enter, convert bapak/ibu agama apa? what religion are you? saya orang hindu. i am hindu. banyak orang bali begitu. so are many balinese. saya orang advent. i am seventh day adventist. islam muslim katolik catholic budha buddhist yahudi jewish kristen, protestan christian, protestant note: as a result of dutch influence, indonesians make a clear distinction between protestant and catholics, and have no general term to express ”christian.” to say that one is kristen in indonesian means specifically that one is protestant. note also that in certain areas of indonesia, where islam is particularly strong, it may not be a good idea to say that you are jewish, although in most places this will not create any problems. part ii. are indonesians who stay in the motherland/ homeland and those who migrated to the usa and other countries shared the same topics? no, indonesians who stayed in the motherland/ homeland will always have the old common topics to begin their “small talk”, however, the researcher found out that topics used to elicit a small talk for the indonesians in the philippines and the indonesians in the usa, had an additional topic such as: a. the usa homeland and the situation there. current news in the usa living in usa (share a thought, the pleasant and the hardship of living in the usa) funny experiences upon arriving in the usa for the first time. new/ alternative places to live (where one can find job easily) shopping (where to find cheap and branded stuff)           indonesian food (good indonesian or oriental restaurant nearby) b. the philippines homeland and the situation there tourist spot to visit educational information the unique things in the philippines ( jeepneys, cell phone for texting, etc) indonesian food (good indonesian or oriental spicy restaurant) human beings draw close to one another by their common nature, but habits and customs keep them apart. (confucian saying) part iii. what changes of conversational topic has taken place? a. indonesian in the usa indonesians who are in usa particularly in la and new jersey would eliminate/avoid on the topic on occupation, family and religion (unless they have a very close relationship), particularly whom they stay with, and what they do for a living. the researcher found out that there were three major things that affect their way of communication, and interaction among the indonesians whom they met for the first time. and they would eliminate the topic mentioned as for the reason of: first, their culture has changed, but not completely. they have a feeling of homelessness, where one feels neither bound firmly to one’s native culture nor fully adapted to the second culture. lambert’s (1967) termed it anomie. i can say that they have lost their “real” self identity. this is so, because their present lives, working status/ situation and some other aspect of life is no longer the same (mostly lower working status) as to, compare it with, in their motherland. these changes interfere           them from revealing their present or “real” identity. this situation, then, creates a common understanding, feeling, and act (new cultural practice) amongst indonesians that is so different with the common practice back in their own country. therefore, indonesians thought and talk differ with different cultural setting or environment. secondly it is because of the prestige. they were afraid of being gossiped, most of them came in a tourist visa and would like to settle in the state. so they don’t have working permit but they needed money for their living, so they are willing to work on anything, which is not of their skill of proficiency. it is difficult for them to find a good position/job at their level due to no working permit. a lot of businessman and businesswomen who had good position in the homeland were not having the same position in the state because of no working permit. so they don’t want to be asked about their occupation, since it hurt them or they feel bad and afraid of being gossiped. although there are others who had a good job/position would rather avoid talking it in specific because many of their friends had a lower working level than them. and they would feel at ease, and worried that they may think that they’re showing off because of their good job/position. the last would be for security sake. they wouldn’t reveal their present status, afraid that it might trigger social jealousy. several cases had happened, that those who are jealous or had conflict at work and those who are with ‘green card holder’ and had a lower job would report them to the immigration (especially if that person had no working permit). so the topic on occupation was always avoided especially during the gathering together(crowd) but they would talk in 2-3 persons only. this happened to those indonesians especially who live in laguna, loma linda and everett washington. april, 2001 in everett washington two companies were inspected from the immigration office and they found and deport all the illegal workers and took them by busses and deport them to their own homeland. so it’s a big issues now among the indonesians who had no working permit to keep their mouth shut. and this is not only happened to the indonesian but also to other nationalities. they also would avoid on the topic on family particularly whom and where they live for security reason. b. indonesian in the philippines the indonesian who are in the philippines which is composed mainly of students who are studying in various discipline, still maintain the same topic that we           have in the motherland/homeland. it is because we share a similar culture (with the filipino, /the asean culture). and furthermore, we are asian by race. we share the same tropical climate, season, main food (rice), fruits, etc. the topic remained the same except that there’s an expansion/elaboration on the occupation that was being replaced by the university or educational information. why, because most of the indonesian in the philippines are students. so the topic was more on which university are you in and what course, level, semester are you now, etc. and then follow by occupation. where do you work in indonesia? there is no hidden status. in fact they exchange address and giving information on the working atmosphere back in the homeland. moreover some invited friends to join them working in their company/ places in the future (when they returned to indonesia). most of the indonesian in the philippines are very transparent of their present status because we are all students and realized that as we returned to the homeland the status would be change. and mostly it will go to a higher status due to the additional education obtained. another interesting behavior the researcher found out that there are some who feel inferior to those who are studying in the recognized university in the philippines. they feel a little inferior, for example upon talking to up(university of the philippines) students if they’re from other university which is not well known in the philippines. but if they are talking to other they don’t have the feeling of inferior. these findings are supported by samovar et al. 1998/2007 that cultures are dynamic systems that do not exist in a vacuum, so they are subject to change. change through contact is another example of how communication and culture are alike. communication is not static, but rather is dynamic and constantly changing. conclusion culture varies, from country to country. as culture refers to the distinctive patterns of thought, action, and value that characterize the members of a society or social group. in social anthropology, the culture relates to arrangements of belief and custom through which social relations are expressed; in ethno-science, culture refers to the set of standards for behavior considered authoritative within a society; and in symbolic studies, culture is a system of meanings though which social life is interpreted (winthrop, 1991). these means by which a community communicates………a commonly agreed-upon set of meanings in interaction with one another.(steele,1990).           dr. p. covar, in anthro. 270 class said that” to know ones culture is to know /understands its language”. therefore, language and culture are interwoven. language is a part of culture, and culture is a part of language that could not be separated. dr. m.r. otero in the international conference on teacher education2001 and edl 321 mention about the “grammar of culture” where a community who has their own culture may shape the way they pronounce a word and that the culture affect they way they utter it. in teaching a “foreign” language we need to be sensitive to the fragility of students by using techniques that promote cultural understanding. in general these various cultures provide a context in which in particular strategies of teaching are developed, sustained and preferred over time. in the same way, the teaching strategies of english/ tefl (teaching english as a foreign language) teachers evolve differently from those of mathematics teachers, and so on. and don’t forget that teacher is a part of work culture. culture is the medium evolved by humans to survive. nothing in our live is free from cultural influences. it is the keystone in civilization’s arch and is the medium through which all life’s events must flow. edward t. hall. references 1. bates and plog ,1990, p.434 in samovar et al,1998 2. cooler robert l. 1998 language planning and social change. wadsworth publishing company. 3. dr. francisco sionil jose (2001) (national artist for literature) ‘first international conference and 40th annual convention on language education’ at manila midtown hotel, april 25-27, 2001 4. gudykunst and y.y. kim, 1992. communicating with strangers: an approach to intercultural communication, second edition (new york, mc graw hill) p.215.           5. hoebel and frost in samovar et al. 1998 6. hoebel e.a. and frost,e,l . cultural and social anthropology, new delhi tata mcgraw hill publishing company ltd 7. nada in samovar et al 1998. 8. samovar, larry a., richard e. porter and lisa a. stefani,1998. communication between cultures. third edition, wadsworth publishing company. 9. samovar, larry a., richard e. porter and lisa a. stefani,2007. communication between cultures. third edition, seventh printing. wadsworth publishing company.       microsoft word debora & nining jigsaw 1 -vol3.docx       1   comparative study between jigsaw 1 model and picture composition to enhance students’ ability in writing descriptive text debora chaterin simanjuntak & nining safitri deborachaterins@gmail.com universitas advent indonesia abstract this study addresses to see the significant difference between those who were taught using jigsaw 1 model and those who were taught using picture composition to enhance the students’ ability in writing descriptive writing. this cooperative study involved two groups. sample of this research were the students of x-a using jigsaw 1 model and x-b using picture composition at sma negeri 1 parongpong. this study utilized essay anatest, microsoft excel and 23rd spss to calculate the data. from the data analysis for jigsaw 1 model group, the mean score of gain in pre-test and post-test is 0.4680 and for picture composition group, the mean score of gain in pre-test and posttest is .5381. based on the analysis, it is concluded that there is significant difference between those who were taught using jigsaw 1 model and picture composition in enhancing high school students’ ability in descriptive writing. keywords: jigsaw 1 model, picture composition, descriptive writing introduction writing is a form of expression; putting words on the paper is not much different from speaking words. therefore english learners should equip themselves with essential writing skills in order for them to do better at school and work. nowacek (2005) stated that through writing, students will learn to easily flow out some facts, inferences, and opinions without confusing their readers. writing is the primary basis upon which the work, the learning, and the intellect will be evaluated in college, in the workplace, and in the community. descriptive writing is one of reading types that a learner should master in improving writing skills. theoretically, according to spenser (2005) descriptive writing is a paragraph portrays vividly about person, place or thing in such a way that the reader will be able to visualize the topic and come up with the writer’s experience. particularly, descriptive writing is a matter of consistency. siburian (2013) stated that 75% of students in grade viii in a high school, rantau parapat, north sumatera were unable to write a descriptive writing. based on her observation at the time of the teaching practice program (ppl), 75% of students were unable to make a descriptive writing because some english teachers adopted a conventional method that reduced the interest and liveliness of the students in the learning process. further, another one is writing problem in karawang. in indonesian schools, however, the teaching of english consists mainly of learning correct grammatical structures or forms, increasing vocabularies, working on exercises on the sentence level, and asking students to repeat over and over similar structures (katemba, 2013). it was stated that the elementary levels of learners were lacking of vocabulary and capability to compile the english grammar. and for the upperintermediate level, students struggle to compose unclear introductory paragraph, problematic complex sentence, and making grammatical mistakes (wigati, 2014). on the other hand, johnson et. al. (2010) stated that to get good scores students compete each other. students       2   will be graded based on their faster and more accurate work than their classmates. in doing that, they will try to be the best or first at class. writing problem also exists in malaysia, hiew (2012) said that learners required longer period to write an essay, because they are not familiar with the topics, and have difficulty in writing academic essays. all the respondents of that research needed much time to master their writing skills and it is difficult for them to master the writing skill within a short semester. learners have difficulties in writing descriptive text because their teachers provide few explanations about the generic structure and the method of writing descriptive text. as a result, they are unable to describe things in details (rostami & hoveidi, 2014). the common writing problem is generally people fear a blank sheet of paper. learners say that they do not know what to write and if they know what they want to say, they are afraid of being wrong and sounding lousy; sometimes they do not know how to organize their sentences (olson, 2009). commonly the students have difficulties in spelling, organizing the content, disclosing opinions or ideas to be submitted in writing. even some people are reluctant to write because they have no ideas what to write and make outline of writing. on the other hand, elfira (2013) affirmed that almost all levels of education require students to write. to minimize those writing problems, some researchers used several methods and techniques to help learners improve their writing skills. the methods and techniques that they use fall under cooperative learning. katemba & samuel (2017) stated that in cooperative learning the teachers not only divide students into groups and give them a task, but also encourage them to participate actively in teaching learning activities. the teachers act as facilitators and control the process of the students’ activities. so, the essential keys to be successful in using cooperative learning is the students must be able to understand the objectives of lesson, how a particular task fits into the overall plan for the course and how their work will be evaluated. it will be better if the teachers explain to the students what cooperative learning is and why the teachers are using this method (jacobs & d’rozario, 2003). in this study, the researchers utilized jigsaw 1 and picture composition; these two techniques are part of cooperative learning. in iran, astane and berimani (2014) used jigsaw 1 with a purpose to eliminate competition in the classroom and increase cooperation among the students as the second research problem. it means that the necessary of the students to see their friend as cooperator not as competitor. moreover the goal is not entirely to eliminate competitiveness of the students that make them cannot be successful in competitive world. in the meanwhile, the researcher wants to compare jigsaw 1 model in descriptive writing enhancement with picture composition. same as jigsaw 1, picture composition will be taught by groups, so it will eliminate or reduce the competition in classroom environment. naryskin (2013) stated that picture composition means composing an image by arranging elements or composing the images that is related to each other. so to make a good writing picture composition is not easy. in addition, emily (2015) stated that there are four tips to be fluent in writing picture composition. those tips are read widely and variedly, visualize the story, keep a journal, then write simply and clearly, but make it powerful. ghosh (2012) stated that there are some patterns of picture composition. those patterns are to describe the given picture, and make a story based on the given picture; then to link the content and the picture and maintain the connection and the focus on the picture as well as the content; and to express and elaborate the thoughts and feelings. the main thing here is the students should use their imaginative power and simple language in order to frame out their content in       3   relation to the picture. in order to respond to the problem, latifah (2014) stated that picture may attract the learners' attention and deepen understanding of vocabulary to organize the sentences. moreover, picture composition makes it easier for the students to get idea and motivate them to imagine. since it affects learners’ interest, pictures must be chosen carefully according to the needs of the learners. therefore, picture composition is considered can solve problem such as inability of describing thing in detail and less of motivation to write. this study is aimed at comparing the two techniques: jigsaw i and picture composition to enhance students’ ability in writing descriptive text. in cooperative learning, several things should be considered to divide students into groups. the group should be heterogeneous (gender and academic); there should be one highlevel of student, two moderate level of students, and the rest are low level of students. it can be seen through their achievement or grade. stiggins (1994) stated that in cooperative learning each member of group should be different in culture, ethnic, and gender, especially if the number of one group is more than 3 students. so they are able to contribute ideas, suggestion, or recommendation to decide and make different answers. furthermore, categories of cooperative classroom team are relatively permanent and heterogeneously mixed. small group of students who have been assembled to complete an activity, produce a series of projects. the spirit within the team has to be one of positive interdependence, means a successful feeling of one person is tied directly to the success of others. in this study, two techniques under cooperative learning would be utilized. they are jigsaw 1 model and picture composition. in the application of jigsaw model, sahin (2010) said that students should be separated from their own groups and form new groups with the other students who are responsible for preparing the same subjects. on the other hand, according to notable studies, jigsaw 1 model has some benefits to improve student’s achievement, motivation and knowledge and expertise building (zahra, 2013). as the advantage of jigsaw 1 model, hersulastuti (2010) stated that jigsaw 1 model could break the ‘gaps’ of the students-lecturer relationship and the atmosphere of learning was much better because the students found another interesting way in their class activity. since everyone had to exchange the information in expert groups and then present it in their home group, made them more productive, and created better interactions among the members. such as maden (2011) stated that jigsaw 1 model was able to blur between students who know and students who do not know yet, because it requires all students to be active in learning activity and helps students appreciate that one of the best way to learn is to teach others. on the other hand, jigsaw 1 model also has disadvantages, tamah (2007) in her study find that noise may disturb groups that are also discussing the task. majid (2013) also said that this model takes long time. in addition, azzulfa (2015) mentioned that crowded class makes the students less focus on explaining the material. again, the students who have less confidence in the discussion will be difficult to explain the materials toward their friends. so it needs extra power to handle the classroom environment. sometimes, if the number of member’s group is less; a problem will occur, such as if there is a student who is passive, he will hesitate to share and do the assignment in discussion. meanwhile picture composition speaks thousands of words. asrifan (2015) says that picture is not only used as the basic materials for learners’ composition but also it is effectively stimulates the imaginative power of learners. so, it can be very effective way of teaching and learning the writing of english language. as the advantages, bee (2009) said that picture composition can be a motivator, vocabulary building or review, and also improve integrated four skills. then, sari (2014) added that picture can enable students to       4   focus on the meaning, enliven students’ language use in the classroom, and attract learner’s attention. moreover mansourzadeh (2014) stated that teaching english through pictures has some weaknesses, such as being hard to illustrate abstract words, being time consuming to find the right pictures for specific type activity. as what has been discussed previously, learners have difficulties in writing descriptive text because it is not easy to organize sentences (olson, 2009). evidently some students find difficulties in organizing the content, disclosing opinions or ideas to be submitted in writing, or even use misspelled words. moreover some are reluctant to write because they have lack of insights of what to write. english learners should know that descriptive writing text has five types. according to priyana (2008), the first one is describing process means not only explaining how something was done, but also explaining why it was done. second, describing an event means a writer should be able to memorize and remember what happened in the event all in details, so the readers can imagine the real situation and condition. third, describing a personality; learners should recognize the individual characteristics, physical attribute, emotional, moral attributes and intellectual. fourth, describing a place that presents something concrete or the way to describe a place, such as a home, a library, a room, and etc. fifth, describing an object means providing the physical characteristics of the object such as the shape, size, color, nationality, and so on (langan, 2001). then, according to purnamasari (2014), two parts of generic structure are identification and description. identification means introduce particular thing or phenomenon to be described. it gives several general information of subject matter. then, description means to list and to elaborate the parts or qualities of the subject. and then description of activities is to describe behaviors, functions or uses of the subject matter. writing is not merely putting words on paper, it needs a process. a process of writing development likes harps on drawing out the learners’ potential and provision of input to which learners respond (sacha, 2015). there are four steps in writing process. they are prewriting (planning), drafting, revising, and editing. hiew (2012) said that learners’ problem is learners need extra time to write an essay and they are not familiar with the topics. then, the others are connecting a topic and supporting sentences, describing things in detail, composition nature of writing, and imaginative senses. reaserch methodology this comparative study uses jigsaw 1 model and picture composition to see the significant difference. so, the quantitative research method is used in this study. the design of the research is below as cited in fraenkel and wallen (2006): table 1 research design group treatment pre and post test k 1 x1 o k 2 x2 o where: k1: jigsaw 1 group k2: picture composition group       5   x1: implementation of jigsaw 1 model x2: implementation of picture composition o : pre test and post test of writing descriptive text participants the participants were two classes at sma negeri 1, parongpong chosen from all grade students at sma negeri 1 parongpong. then, researcher purposively chose 64 students: 37 females and 27 males to be the research sample. the sample was split into two groups. group 1 consisted of 34 students and group 2 consisted of 30 students. instruments the instruments used in this study were pre-test and post-test which were designed into three parts: describing pictures, paragraph building and arranging sentence. pre-test and post-test: pre-test is the test given prior to the treatment. post-test is the test given after conducting the treatment in jigsaw 1 model and picture composition group or after teaching of 16 hours for each. procedures in the beginning phase of the study, in an attempt to have homogenous class in term of english proficiency, the students were given the pre-test. as a result of pre-test, students were randomly divided in two groups, 1 and 2 which can be defined as 1: jigsaw 1 model and 2: picture composition. to begin both classes, the researcher treated which was started on february 1 to march 31. the classes had an english subject session twice a week lasting approximately 90 minutes for each meeting. there are four steps to use jigsaw 1 in the classroom. there are making home group consists 6 students, reading in expert group, reporting in home group, and testing. each student was given different subtopic in each group, and then the expert group was formed based on the same subtopics. on the other hand, there are also several steps to use picture composition in writing descriptive text. first, making group consist 6 students; second, the students read the text in their group while giving picture for each student. third, everybody lists the keywords and make the outline. last is testing. to measure the score of student’s writing descriptive text, below is the scoring rubric: table 2 scoring rubic aspect writing range score criterion content 5 excellent main idea stated clearly and accurately, change of opinion very clear. 4 good main idea stated fairly clearly, and accurately, change of opinion relatively clear. 3 average main ideas somewhat unclear or inaccurate, change of opinion statement somewhat weak.       6   2 poor main idea not clear or accurate change of opinion statement weak.   1 very poor main idea not at all clear or accurate change of opinion statement very weak. 4 good fairly well-organized and generally coherent. organization 5 excellent well organized and perfectly coherent. 3 average loosely organized but main ideas clear, logical but incomplete sequencing. 2 poor ideas disconnected, lacks logical sequencing. 1 very poor no organization, incoherent. vocabulary 5 excellent very effective choice of words and use of idioms and words forms. 4 good effective choice of words and word form. 3 average adequate choice of words but some misuse of vocabulary, idioms and word forms. 2 poor limited range, confused use of words, idioms, and word forms. 1 very poor very limited range, very poor knowledge of words, idioms and word forms. grammar 5 excellent no errors. full control of complex structure. 4 good almost no errors, good control of structure. 3 average some errors, fail control of structure. 2 poor many errors, fail control of structure. 1 very poor dominated by errors, no control of structure. mechanic 5 excellent mastery of spelling and punctuation. 4 good few errors of spelling and punctuation. 3 average fail number of spelling and punctuation errors. 2 poor frequent errors in spelling and punctuation. 1 very poor no control over spelling and punctuation. adapted from cohen (1994) as cited in fitriana (2013)       7   result the research finding and analysis have been collected and taken from the participants that obtained from the study conducted over one month at sma negeri 1 parongpong, west java table 3 result of pre-test, post-test, standard deviation and gain jigsaw 1 model picture composition mean st. deviation mean st. deviation pre-test 59.94 12.0969 63.17 11.8586 post-test 102.42 11.8586 110.77 15.3930 gain 0.4666 0.12308 0.5416 0.1554 through the descriptive statistics done by 23rd spss, it can be seen that writing descriptive text between students who were taught using jigsaw 1 model and those who were taught using picture composition both are enhanced with moderate category. the gain mean for jigsaw 1 model group is 0.4666 and picture composition group is 0.5416. so it can be concluded that picture composition group is slightly better than jigsaw 1 model group. standard deviation of jigsaw 1 model is lesser than picture composition. if it is seen from the standard deviation, the understanding in writing descriptive text for jigsaw 1 model group is equal. since the gain mean for both jigsaw 1 model and picture composition group was significantly different, it can be concluded that jigsaw 1 model and picture composition is really helpful for students, especially high school students. lastly, in both groups the students like to study in group because if they do not understand the material they are able to share and ask to their friends. conclusion to sum up, it was concluded that jigsaw 1 model and picture composition participants’ writing descriptive text were enhanced through jigsaw 1 model and picture composition and the score gained by the participants showed that there significant difference between those who were taught using jigsaw 1 model and those who were taught using picture composition to enhance the students’ ability in writing descriptive text.       8   references asrifan, a. (2015). the use of picture story in improving students’ ability to write narrative composition. international journal of language and linguistics. 244-251. south sulawesi: indonesia. azzulfa, y. (2015). kelebihan dan kekurangan pembelajaran kooperatif tipe jigsaw. january 20, 2015. http://kumpulantugassekolahdankuliah.blogspot.co.id/2015/01/kelebihan-dankekurangan-pembelajaran.html bee, s., (2009), warming up with pictures (using pictures in esl classroom), web. 7 nov 2015. usingpictures.blogspot.com/. fraenkel, j., & wallen, n. e. (2006). how to design and evaluate research in education. (6th ed). new york: mc-grawhil. hersulastuti, (2015). implementing jigsaw technique in speaking class of describing someone: a reflection. hiew (2012). learners’ perception via facebook dialogue. vol. 3. 11-19. january 2012. jacobs, g. and d’rozario, v. (2003). cooperative learning: building strong teams for international service-learning projects. singapore: national institute of education. johnson, david w. et. al. (2010). colaborative learning: strategi pembelajaran untuk sukses bersama. bandung: nusa media. katemba, c. (2013). anxiety level of indonesian students and its relationship to academic achievement in english. journal of education and practice vol.4 no.27 , 2013 http://www.iiste.org/journals/index.php/jep/article/view/9873/10097 katemba, c. & samuel (2017). improving student’s reading comprehension ability using jigsaw 1 technique. acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature and culture. vol. 2, no. 2 universitas advent indonesia. http://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity/article/view/613/468 langan, j. (2001). college writing skills with readings. fifth ed. new york: mc graw hill company. latifah, n. (2014). improving the students’ writing descriptive text through single picture. issn 2337-6384. vol. 3, no. 15. malang: unisma. maden, s. (2011). effect of jigsaw 1 technique on achievement in written expression skill. 911-917. october 2015. majid, abdul. (2013). strategi pembelajaran. bandung: pt remaja rosdakarya. mansourzadeh, n. (2014). a comparative study of teaching vocabulary through pictures and ausio-visual aids to young iranian efl learners. journal of elementary educattion. vol. 24, no. 1 pp. 47-59. iran: university of sistan and baluchestan nowacek, dr. r. what makes writing so important? the writing center. marquette university, 2005. web. 7 sept. 2015. olson, j. f. (2009). writing skills success in 20 minutes a day (4th ed.). new york: learning express.       9   priyana, joko, et al. (2008). scaffolding: english for junior high school students. jakarta: pusat perbukuan, departemen pendidikan nasional. purnamasari, w. (2014). the use of project based learning to improve students’ ability in writing descriptive texts. skripsi of indonesia university of education: bandung. unpublished. sacha, a. e. (2015). contextualising the process-genre approach to the teaching of academic writing to the indian classroom, english today a refereed peer reviewed international journal: global association of english studies. sahin, a. "effects of jigsaw ii technique on academic achievem ent and attitudes to written expression course." educational research and reviews 5.12 (2010): 777-87. web. 29 oct. 2015. sari, r. m. (2014). the use of pictures to improve students’ ability in writing descriptive texts. skripsi of universitas pendidikan indonesia: bandung. spenser, l. (2005). a step-by-step guide to descriptive writing. the rosen publishing group. stiggins, r. j. (1994). student-centered classroom assessment. new york: macmilan college publishing company. tamah, s. m. (2007). jigsaw technique in reading class of young learners: revealing students’ interaction. surabaya: widya mandala catholic university. wigati, f. a. “kesulitan pada aspek-aspek writing mahasiswa dengan english profeciency level yang berbeda” jurnal ilmiah solusi vol.1 no. 3 september nopember 2014: 46-61, (2014): 46-61. 2014. zahra, r. o. (2013). the use of jigsaw technique in improving students’ ability in writing a descriptive text. skripsi of indonesia university of education: bandung. unpublished.         10     students’ perception in applying lesson study in teaching introduction to linguistics ida lisdawati & trisnendri syahrizal idalisdawati9088@gmail.com stkip siliwangi bandung abstract lesson study is an approach used in learning process. it has attracted educators, experts, and professional in the area to make use of it in proving the lesson. this study focuses on the students’ perception in applying lesson study of teaching introduction to linguistics. as this case study, it will focus on introduction to linguistics subject. interview and questionnaire was used to collects information on how lesson study was normally conducted and observation was used to see the real implementation of lesson study and during the teaching and learning process become a great attention here. keywords: lesson study, linguistics, perception introduction learning is a process faced by students to enrich their knowledge and expertise. in the general educational system, learning requires two complementary aspects namely teacher and student. both have their respective roles that influence the success of learning process. teachers have roles to keep learning process into a process a process of sending information making students are able to rise their ability in particular subject. while students have a role as a a benchmark in learning process. their ability to absorb the learning material depend on how the teacher handles the class and organize them using various learning methods and strategies as stated in the lesson plan as their reference during teaching. there are many strategies and methods of learning are introduced by teachers start from a simple learning strategy that does not involve any instructional media learning until a learning strategy requires the ability to execute in an organized manner. one of the learning that provides solutions to the problems faced in the classroom is the lesson study. this strategy exploits teachers as observers who monitor the weakness of strategies or methods implemented by other teacher in the classroom. lesson study is used to see the weakness faced when they teach. based on these conditions, researchers want to know effectiveness of lesson study seen from student’s perception such as how the application of lesson study in the classroom that provides new knowledge for students and the benefits felt by students during lesson study lesson study. lesson study is construction professional educators through the study of collective and continuous learning based on the principles of mutual collaboration and develop a learning community (matanlutuk, khalid and ovelyn, 2012). japanese is the first country introducing lesson study as a learning method. planning, implementation and reflection are steps that teachers need to use lesson study in classroom. besides sharing how to make plans, they also discuss how to create the best effective teaching for student to learn about a particular lesson. mailto:idalisdawati9088@gmail.com hollingsworth and oliver (2005, cited in nashruddin and dian 2016) state that lesson study needs hypothesizing and anticipated student responses as essential element. hypothesizing means that how to indicate transformation referring improvement if the group of lesson study takes an action for solving a problem that found in classroom, while response according to ahmadi (1992:64, cite in ) is memorizing and observation where the object has not yet in the observation time. it means student response is their memorizing and observation producing impression, so it is being awareness developed in present time or anticipating in future time. mulyana (2007 cited in sudrajat, 2008 and wakhid, 2016) state a school-based lesson study and mgmp-based lesson study are types of lesson study. a school-based lesson study is implemented by teachers and principal so that learning result can be improved. whereas mgmp-based lesson study is a forum for teacher teaching the same subject to share a particular subject. according to fernandez &yoshida (2004, cited in matanlutuk, khalid and ovelyn, 2012) teachers cooperate to perform quantify in cycles of lesson study as follows: plan a collaborative lesson plan in this step, teachers plan and discuss about the topic. they share about impression and idea for creating lesson plan that is compatible to the students. textbooks, references book and teaching guide are the equipment used for making it. implement a lesson in class after creating lesson plan, teachers implement the lesson plan in the classroom that consisted of students and others teachers as observers. the activity in the classroom, it is conditioned based on lesson plan. the role teacher is asked to follow it. the observers will inspect students such during the learning. they make note about what happen in the classroom for discussing in reflection session. make discussion and to reflect on teaching. reflection is the next step when role teacher has done taught. all observers give their observation and suggestion. observers will discuss about the situation when the role teacher teach students based on the note while they sit in the classroom. in this session, the observer will rate lesson plan implementation. modify the plan to teach the weakness of lesson plan will be modified in this step. the role teacher and observer swill work together for modifying it. the alteration of lesson plan will be refinement based on discussion between the role model and observers aimed to enhancement of next teaching. teach the lesson plan that has been modified in the next step, the role teacher will use a new lesson plan that have modified before. the role teacher will be chose from members of observers. he will implement a new lesson plan with upgrading of strategy, method and material. shared reflections on a modified lesson plan it is a last step in lesson study. all observers will share about their suggestion, comments and idea based on the classroom situation. the finding will be noted used as a reference for next teacher in the future. linguistics based on object of study, linguistics divided into two major disciplines namely micro linguistics and macro linguistics. micro linguistics focuses on internal language structure. in micro linguistics there are several sub discipline namely phonology that discuss language sound. morphology learning unit of word, semantics that focuses on meaning language and the last is lexicology discussing vocabulary. while micro linguistics is sub discipline focused on factors outside the language. sub disciplines of micro linguistics are sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, anthropology and philology. in the introduction to linguistics class, the material that teacher teach are morphology, syntax, pragmatics, sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics. 1. morphology morphology is the study of how words are structured and how they are put together from smaller parts (mcmanis,et al.,(1987). it not only focuses on words/morpheme, but also combination of words or morpheme in language. morphology divided into two categories namely bound and free morpheme. mcmanis (1987:119) states that those morpheme which can stand alone as words are said to be free morpheme, and morpheme which always attached to some other morpheme are said be bound. some morphemes derive new words by either changing the word meaning, or the parts of speech, or both called derivational morphemes. these morphemes which serve a purely grammatical function and never creating a different word, but only a different form of the same word called inflectional morphemes. both of them are bound forms called affixes. in linguistics, there are three major of affixes based on its position in basis morpheme, namely prefix, infix, and suffixes. 2. syntax syntax is the study of the structure of sentence (mcmanis, 1987:153). we study syntax because it enables human beings to compose complex messages. syntax has to do with how words are put together to build phrases, with how phrases are put together to build clauses or bigger phrases, and with how clauses are put together to build sentences (miller, 2002: xii). phrase is word group that not consist of subject and verb. it can be noun phrase, adjective phrase, and prepositional phrase. in other hand, clause has different level. it has higher level rather than phrase. clause is word group that consists of subject and verb. it divided into two major. firstly is independent clause and the last is dependent clause. 4. pragmatics pragmatics is concerned with the use of these tools in meaningful communication. pragmatics is about the interaction of semantic knowledge with our knowledge of the world, taking into account contexts of use (griffiths, 2006:1). dexsis, presupposition, speech acts, and implicature are parts of pragmatics. 5. psycholinguistics psycholinguistics is the study of the relationship between language and the mind (mcmanis, 1987:225). child language acquisition is one of area that we learn in psycholinguistics. perception it means that perception is the result of a process experienced by someone who received the stimulus and try to understand the situation (feldam, 1999 cited in). there are three main components in the formation of perception. first is the selection of the sensory delivery of the stimuli from the outside which then selected. second is the interpretation of the process of grouping information so that it has a meaning for someone, and the last is the conclusion of the information received (sobur, 2009 cited in available: http: //www.libarary.binus.ac.id) research methodology case study approach was chosen for finding the result. introduction to linguistic class was selected because it was one of difficult subject and researcher tried to find the solution of problem faced by students. correspondent of this research was 38 students in this study, scale likert was instrument used for finding the result. correspondent would be given 15 (fifteen) question that related with the implementation of lesson study. this scale was used for measuring someone response, opinion, or perception. there were four statements that could be used as indicators for finding the result namely strongly agree, agree, not sure, disagree and strongly disagree. result this study analyzed the perception of student on the implementation of lesson study in learning of introduction of linguistics. in this study, students asked 15 (fifteen) questions. the study results are based on student answer from questionnaire shared to participants. the data would explain in paragraph based on the statement. table 1 statement student’s response strongly disagree disagree not sure agree strongly agree lesson study makes introduction to linguistics learning more interesting 4 19 15 based on the table above, four (10,6%) students was not sure that lesson study made introduction to linguistics learning more interesting, nineteen (50%) students agreed that lesson study made introduction to linguistics learning more interesting, and fifteen (39,4%) students strongly agreed that lesson study made introduction to linguistics learning more interesting. table 2 statement student’s response strongly disagree disagree not sure agree strongly agree the student is burdened by observers in introduction to linguistics classroom 1 4 14 14 4 based on the table above, one (2,7%) student strongly agreed that he was burdened by observers in introduction to linguistics classroom, four (10,6%) students agreed that they were burdened by observers in introduction to linguistics classroom, fourteen (36,9%) students were not sure that they were burdened by observers in introduction to linguistics classroom, and four (10,6%) students agreed that they were burdened by observers in introduction to linguistics classroom. table 3 statement student’s response strongly disagree disagree not sure agree strongly agree lesson study has many different methods 1 11 15 12 based on data above, one (2,8%) student disagreed that lesson study had many different methods, eleven (29%) students were not sure that that lesson study had many different methods, fifteen (39,5%) students agreed that lesson study had many different methods and twelve (31,6%) students strongly agreed that lesson study had many different methods. table 4 statement student’s response strongly disagree disagree not sure agree strongly agree lesson study makes teacher more professional 1 24 13 based on data above, one (2,8%) student was not sure that lesson study made teachers more professional, twenty four (63,1%) students agreed that that lesson study made teachers more professional, and thirteen (39,5%) students agreed that lesson study had many different methods and twelve (31,6%) students strongly agreed that lesson study made teachers more professional. table 5 statement student’s response strongly disagree disagree not sure agre e strongly agree abstaine d lesson study makes timely teachers when teaching introduction to linguistics 8 10 16 3 1 based on data above, eight (21%) students disagreed that lesson study made timely teacher when teaching introduction to linguistics subject, ten (26,3%) students were not sure lesson study made timely teacher when teaching introduction to linguistics subject, sixteen (42,2 %) students agreed that sure lesson study made timely teacher when teaching introduction to linguistics subject, three (7,9%) students strongly agreed that sure lesson study made timely teacher when teaching introduction to linguistics subject and one (2,7%) abstained. table 6 statement student’s response strongly disagree disagree not sure agree strongly agree lesson study is increased collaboration among teachers 11 19 8 based on data above, eleven (29%) student were not sure that lesson study has increased collaboration among teachers; nineteen (50%) students agreed that that lesson study has increased collaboration among teachers, and eight (21%) students strongly agreed that that lesson study has increased collaboration among teachers. table 7 statement student’s response strongly disagree disagree not sure agree strongly agree lesson study is increased student’s understanding in introduction to linguistics class 1 12 21 4 based on data above, one (2,6%) student disagreed that lesson study has increased student’s understanding in introduction to linguistics class, twelve (31,6%) students were not sure that lesson study has increased student’s understanding in introduction to linguistics class, twenty one (55,2%) students agreed that lesson study has increased student’s understanding in introduction to linguistics class, and four (10,5%) students strongly agreed that lesson study has increased student’s understanding in introduction to linguistics class. table 8 statement student’s response strongly disagree disagree not sure agree strongly agree lesson study is the best way in introduction to linguistics learning 7 19 12 based on data above, seven (18,4%) students were not sure that lesson study was the best way in introduction to linguistics learning, nineteen ( 50%) students agreed that lesson study was the best way in introduction to linguistics learning, and twelve (31,6%) students strongly agreed that lesson study was the best way in introduction to linguistics learning. table 9 statement student’s response strongl y disagre e disagree not sure agre e strongly agree abstaine d lesson study encourages student’s activeness in introduction to linguistics class 6 23 13 1 based on data above, six (16%) students were not sure that lesson study encouraged student’s activeness in introduction to linguistics class, twenty three (60,6%) students agreed that that lesson study encouraged student’s activeness in introduction to linguistics class, thirteen (34,2%) students strongly agreed that that lesson study encouraged student’s activeness in introduction to linguistics class, and one (2.7%) student abstained. table 10 statement student’s response strongly disagree disagree not sure agree strongly agree lesson study gives student new knowledge of interesting method 12 20 6 based on data above, twelve (31,6%) students were not sure that lesson study gave student new knowledge of interesting method, twenty (52,7%) students agreed that lesson study gave student new knowledge of interesting method, and six (15,8%) students strongly agreed that lesson study gave student new knowledge of interesting method. table 11 statement student’s response strongly disagree disagree not sure agree strongly agree lesson study increases student’s collaboration in problem solving 1 11 19 7 based on data above, one (2,7%) student disagreed that lesson study increased student’s collaboration in problem solving, eleven (29%) students were not sure that lesson study increased student’s collaboration in problem solving, nineteen (50%) students agreed that lesson study increased student’s collaboration in problem solving and seven (18,4%) students strongly agreed that lesson study increased student’s collaboration in problem solving. table 12 statement student’s response strongly disagree disagree not sure agree strongly agree lesson study improves student’s concentration in introduction to linguistics class 1 9 23 5 based on data above, one (2,7%) student disagreed that lesson study improved student’s concentration in introduction to linguistics class, nine (23,7%) students were not sure that lesson study improved student’s concentration in introduction to linguistics class, twenty three (6o,6%) students agreed that lesson study improved student’s concentration in introduction to linguistics class, and five (13,1%) students strongly agreed that lesson study improved student’s concentration in introduction to linguistics class. table 13 statement student’s response strongly disagree disagre e not sure agre e strongly agree abstained lesson study encourages teacher use different instructional media in introduction to linguistics class 1 1 16 14 5 1 based on data above, one (2,7%) student strongly disagree that lesson study encouraged teacher use different instructional media in introduction to linguistics class, one (2,7%) student disagreed that lesson study encouraged teacher use different instructional media in introduction to linguistics class, sixteen (42,1%) students were that lesson study encouraged teacher use different instructional media in introduction to linguistics class, fourteen (36,9%) students agreed that lesson study encouraged teacher use different instructional media in introduction to linguistics class, five (13,1%) students strongly agreed that lesson study encouraged teacher use different instructional media in introduction to linguistics class, and one (2,7%) student abstained. table 14 statement student’s response strongly disagree disagree not sure agree strongly agree teaching through lesson study is not different with the previous methods 3 12 10 11 2 based on data above, three (7,9%) students strongly disagreed that teaching through lesson study was not different with the previous methods, twelve (31,6%) students disagreed that teaching through lesson study was not different with the previous methods, ten (26,3%) students were not sure that teaching through lesson study was not different with the previous methods, eleven (29%) students agreed that teaching through lesson study was not different with the previous methods, and two (5,2%) students strongly agreed that teaching through lesson study was not different with the previous methods. table 15 statement student’s response strongly disagree disagree not sure agree strongly agree lesson study makes students bored in introduction to linguistics class 5 16 14 2 1 based on data above, five (13,1%) students strongly disagreed that lesson study made students bored in introduction to linguistics class, sixteen (42,15%) students disagreed that lesson study made students bored in introduction to linguistics class, fourteen (36,9 %) students were not sure that lesson study made students bored in introduction to linguistics class, two (5,2%) students agreed that lesson study made students bored in introduction to linguistics class, and one (2,7%) student strongly agreed that lesson study made students bored in introduction to linguistics class. conclusion applying lesson in introduction to linguistics teaching gives good effect not only for students as subject of the study, but also for teachers who involved as observers. based on the result this study, students get new alteration of learning style such as with lesson study, they know new method that can used i the classroom, so they can imitate it when they teach their student in the future, almost students agree that lesson study increase their concentration. it means that students can get points of teacher’s explanation. instructional media is a basic problem faced by teacher in teaching. with lesson study, teacher forced to create an interesting teaching. they will try to use different method in every meeting. jigsaw, throwing ball, and small discussion are several methods that can be used teacher in the classroom. this situation makes students more interested to learn it. based on student’s perception, lesson study produces good impact in learning activity especially in introduction to linguistics. references griffiths, patrick. (2006). an introduction to english semantics and pragmatics. edinburgh university press. ukmcmanis, carolyn.&deborah,s.&zhang z. (1987). language files. the ohio state university department of linguistics. us binus library. (2017). bab ii tinjauan pustaka 2.2.1 definisi persepsi dalam kamus lengkap psikologi. error! hyperlink reference not valid. davies, alan.,&catherine,e. (2004). the handbook of applied linguistics. blackwell publsihing. australia dawson,catherine. (2002). practical research methods: a user-friendly guide to mastering research techniques and projects. cromwell.uk doig,bria.,&susi,grove. (2011). japanese lesson study: teacher professional developmentthrough comunities of inquiry. mathematics teacher education and development. vol 13.1 77-93 dominguez, joaquin a. (1991). the role of morphology in the process of language acquisition and learning. revista alicantina de estudio ingleses. vol4 37-47 kracht,marcus. (2007). introductio to linguistics. departement of linguistics, unla. los angeles matanluk, katina.& khalid, j.& ovelyn,m. (2012) elsevier journal. the perception of teachers and students toward lesson study implementation at rural school of sabah: a pilot study. procedia social and behavioral sciences 90 (2013) 245 – 250. miller, jim. (2002). an introduction to english syntax. edinburgh university press. uk nashruddin,wakhid., dian n. (2016). the implementation of lesson study in english language learning: a case study. dinamika ilmu. vol 16 (2) 169-178 . riduwan. (2012). belajar mudah penelitian until guru-karyawan dan peneliti pemula. alfa. banding tracy,sarah j. (2013). qualitative research methods: colecting, evidence, crafting analysis, communicating impact. wiley-blackwell. uk yule, george. (1996). pragmatics. oxford university press. uk wagner,l.,&lauren,d.,&letitia,r. (2009). children’s early productivity with verbal morphology. cognitive development. vol 24 223-239. zaccarella, e. &lars,mr.,&michiru,m.&angela,d. (2017). building by syntax: the neuralbasis of minimal linguistic structure. ceberal cortex.vol 27 411-421. 288 vocabulary enrichment through picture word inductive model (pwim) marlin steffi marpaung universitas advent indonesia marlin.marpaung@unai.edu1 doi: 10.35974/acuity.v8i2.3123 abstract vocabulary is one of the important aspects in learning english. this study sought the answer of the following question: 1). is there a significant difference on the students who are taught using picture word inductive model (pwim) to improve vocabulary knowledge and students who were taught using conventional method? the sample in this research are 8th grade students of smpn 3 parongpong, bandung barat in academic year 2019/2020. the students were divided into two groups, one class was taught using picture word inductive model (pwim) and the other one was taught using conventional method. this is quantitative research with an experimental design. the instrument used for this study was vocabulary test, which contained 35 questions. the result of the study showed that the pre-test for the experimental group was 51.73 and the conventional group was 51.63 while the post-test results for the experimental group was 78.63 and the conventional group was 60.83. in summary, it can be concluded that there is a significant different between students who were taught using picture word inductive model (pwim) and the students who were taught using conventional method in improving students’ vocabulary knowledge. for further researcher, this study can be a reference for researchers to do another study with different level of students. keyword: vocabulary knowledge, picture word inductive model (pwim) method, experimental. introduction language is used to communicate ideas and emotions. language can be used to communicate an idea. people will find it difficult to communicate their ideas and messages if they do not have access to language. a vocabulary is a list of words for a specific language or a set of words that a single speaker of a language may use. it means that vocabulary is essential in communicating with others in both first language or mother tongue and foreign language. without vocabulary, no one can effectively communicate or express ideas orally or in writing, even in first and second languages (hatch & brown, 1995; zimmerman in coady & huckin, 1998). to put it another way, vocabulary is the heart of language. vocabulary is an important part of learning english. many foreign language learners, particularly indonesian students, find it difficult to learn english because the vocabulary in english is not the same as the vocabulary in indonesian, including elocution and spelling. as a result, many english learners struggle with vocabulary; students struggle with english because they have a limited vocabulary. in fact, the students' vocabulary knowledge is limited, making it difficult for them to understand english sentences and words (rohmatillah, 2014; khan, radzuan, shahbaz, ibrahim, & ghulam, 2018). the most difficult aspect of learning english is vocabulary. many secondary school teachers instruct their students in vocabulary memorization. it bores and demotivates students who want to learn english, especially to improve their vocabulary. students can benefit from vocabulary learning if they learn at a rapid pace and understand the concept of words before the concept of grammar. it's important to learn or present vocabulary carefully and precisely, but the english teacher can begin by introducing things that students can see, feel, play with, touch, and experience on a daily basis. this is why mailto:marlin.marpaung@unai.edu1 289 an effective vocabulary teaching strategy is critical, as it determines the outcome of vocabulary instruction. word mapping, dictionary, picture, guessing, and authentic material are just a few of the strategies for teaching vocabulary in junior high school. english vocabulary teaching is under pressure in many schools due to a variety of factors and challenges (marpaung, 2021, marpaung & situmeang, 2020). calhoun developed the picture word inductive model (pwim), which uses images of familiar objects, actions, and scenes to elicit words from children's listening and speaking vocabularies. this model assists students in adding words to the appropriate reading and writing vocabulary, as well as discovering phonetic and structural principles present in those words. this model is a useful tool for teachers to use as they strive to meet their goals for all students, and it may help students improve their vocabulary learning achievement (yuliana, 2011). the use of the picture word inductive model (pwim) encourages students to think inductively by seeing the pictures and identified words to build sentences, and it can attract students to learn english in a fun and easy way. the goal of the study is to see if there is a significant difference in vocabulary knowledge between students taught using the picture word inductive model (pwim) and students taught using the traditional method. three research questions were developed to answer the study's objective: research question 1. what are the students' prior knowledge? 2. is there a significant difference in vocabulary knowledge between students who were taught using the picture word inductive model (pwim) and students who were taught using the traditional method? the hypothesis of the study null hypothesis (ho) there is no difference between students taught using the picture word inductive model (pwim) and students taught using the traditional method. alternative hypothesis (ha) there is a difference between students taught using the picture word inductive model (pwim) and students taught using the traditional method. literature review the fourth ability in english, listening, speaking, reading, and writing, is the most important aspect of language learning. vocabulary is an essential part of learning a foreign language. if we don't have a large vocabulary, we tend to be unable to communicate effectively. vocabulary is the most important aspect of language because it influences all four language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. mariannce (in murcia, 2001) stated that vocabulary learning is critical to language acquisition, whether it is the first, second, or foreign language. calhoun developed the picture word inductive model (pwim), which employs images of familiar objects, actions, and scenes to elicit words from children's listening and speaking vocabularies. this model helps students add words to their correct reading and writing vocabulary while also discovering phonetic and structural principles present in those words. pwim serves several purposes. it is used to get students to ask questions about words, add words to their sight-reading and writing vocabularies, discover phonetic and structural standards, and use perception and examination in their thinking about reading and writing. the goal of using pwim is to teach young readers to think inductively and generalize mindfulness of phonetic and auxiliary rules by developing locate vocabularies, learning basic investigation of words and sentences, and writing sentences passage. the strategy also aims to 290 assist students in improving their vocabulary concepts, paragraphs, and sentence structures in general content subjects such as math, reading, science, and social science. this strategy's ultimate goal is to assist language beginners in becoming proficient language learners. the picture word inductive model's primary goal is to capitalize on students' ability to think inductively and generalize the foundation structural and phonetic analysis. they also state that the goal of this strategy is to assist students in the development of vocabulary, word concepts, paragraph and sentence structures. because of that, this strategy, students can compose their writing from the basic aspect such as vocabulary". pwim could also be a rewarding and enjoyable activity. students enjoy discovering objects and activities within the image, seeing their words and sentences communicated in print and becoming a part of educational programs, classifying words and sentences, and discovering useful dialect concepts and generalizations. students are persuaded by the pwim because they have become effective learners. learner’s benefit from the show because it is based on research into how children learn and how to improve their learning, including language advancement, learning method, and reading and writing association (calhoun, 1999; jiang and perkins, 2013). according to calhoun (1999), the advantages of the picture word inductive model are as follows: 1. standard english phonics, grammar, mechanics, and usage are emphasized in the strategy. 2. images serve as concrete referents for new words, phrases, and sentences when learning them. 3. students feel a part of the classroom community and can participate in class activities because they are using images related to the content being studied. 4. the picture word chart serves as an immediate reference for students as they work to add these words to their sight vocabulary. the teacher can highlight almost any soundto-symbol relationship (introduced or taken to mastery). 5. students are assisted in recognizing patterns and relationships in the english language, allowing them to apply what they have learned to new words. 6. students hear and see correctly spelled words, and they take part in proper spelling and writing. 7. with extensive practice, they can begin to learn how to create sentences and paragraphs related to the subject under study. related studies studies have been conducted the use of pwim in improving vocabulary. a study was conducted by bermillo & remollo (2022) entitled, “picture word inductive model (pwim) on students’ vocabulary achievement and attitude. the result of the study showed that pwim is effective in improving the students’ vocabulary achievement. study was done by kamarudin (2021) with a title, “the effect of picture word inductive model (pwim) on students’ vocabulary mastery.” the result of the study showed that there was a positive effect to the students’ vocabulary mastery. research was conducted by jannah (2020) entitled, “the effectiveness of using picture word inductive model (pwim) in improve the students’ vocabulary mastery.” the students improve their vocabulary mastery when learning using pwim. 291 conceptual framework figure 1. conceptual framework methodology research design in this study, quantitative research was used. quantitative research is based on the measurement of quantity or amount. furthermore, quantitative research explains phenomena by collecting numerical data that is then analyzed using mathematically based methods (in particular statistics). to analyze the data, the researcher employed statistical methods. (kothari, 2004; aliaga & gunderson, 2008). the researcher used experimental design in this study. they were the control class and the experimental class. this study is classified into two groups, class viii c as the experimental group and class viii d as the control group. the two groups took a pre-test and a post-test. only the experiment group receives the treatment of the picture word inductive model (pwim), while the control group was taught the method used the teacher’s method in that school or traditional method. control group post-test t pre-test 1. experience vocabulary knowledge improvement . output of vocabulary knowledge 1. understand meaning of a word, sentence and present continuous tense 2. able to make a simple sentence using present continuous tense experimental group picture word inductive model (pwim) 1. provide the material that related to the topic (lesson) 2. use picture and lcd as media in learning 3. lead students in developing critical thinking 292 table 1. research procedures group pre-test treatment post-test experimental a1 x a2 control a1 o a2 where, a1 : pre-test a2 : post-test x : picture word inductive model (pwim) o : control group (purnamasari, 2017) research participants the population in this study was grade students 8 in one of the public schools in parongpong – bandung barat area. the total population was 60 students and it was divided into two classes. grade viii c was the experimental group while class viii d was the control group. both classes scheduled were held in the morning. for junior high school, the english subject is held twice in a week research instruments before administering the treatment to the study's population, the researchers conducted a pilot test to determine the validity of each question that would be used in the pre-test. after receiving validation for the pre-test, the researchers administered the pre-test to both groups of this study, the experimental group and the control group. a pre-test was given to each group to determine the students' prior knowledge. the experimental group was then given a treatment in vocabulary learning using the picture word inductive model (pwim), whereas the control group used the control method. after the treatment, both groups were given a post-treatment test to see if their vocabulary had improved. pilot test pilot-test is conducted to know whether the test is valid or not, and also to know if the questions provided are suitable for the subjects. the test is adopted from the material that is taught for the junior high school level. the students had to choose the correct answers to the options given. the pilot test consisted of fifty questions with target vocabularies are nouns, verbs, and adjectives. there are several numbers for the noun there are questions number (1, 4, 6, 7, 10, 14, 19, 25, 26, 28, 32, 39, 41, 44, 46, 48) number for verbs there are questions number (2, 3, 9, 12, 16, 18, 20, 23, 27, 33, 36, 37, 43, 45, 47, 49, 50) and number for adjective there are questions number (5, 8, 11, 13, 15, 17, 21, 22, 24, 29, 30, 31, 34, 35, 38, 40, 42). pre-test there are thirty-five questions of the pre-test conducted to diagnose the students’ vocabulary prior ability and it is conducted before the researchers gave the treatment. the pre-test instrument was designed in a vocabulary test consisting of multiple-choice questions. 293 post-test post-test was given after giving the treatment to the students to see the students’ improvement after the treatment. post-test was used to examine the effectiveness of the picture word inductive model strategy. research procedures a pre-test was given before treatment in a junior high school class of grade viii students. this was done to determine the student's initial knowledge as well as to identify the problem they were facing. they took the test individually, and the pre-test consisted of 35 questions. the experimental class received picture word inductive model (pwim) treatment, while the control class received the traditional method. the study included six meetings for each class. following the completion of the treatment for both classes. the researchers administered a post-test to both classes. as a result, the data needed to answer the research question was gathered by administering pre-test and post-tests to the experiment and control classes. treatment procedures the treatment was given based on the materials provided in the lesson plan. the first class was taught using picture word inductive model (pwim) through the use of lcd as the tool used to deliver the lesson while the other class was treated as the control class and there was no treatment used in teaching the control class. the researcher then assigned exercises or tasks based on the material, which the students were to complete individually. at the end of the class of each meeting, the researcher and the students discussed the task to see if the students' answers were correct. during the discussion, the researchers also assessed the students' vocabulary comprehension abilities. table 2. treatment procedure class a (pwim) class b (control class) • the teacher starts the class with the learning program file, which is related to the rule competence and basic competences from the grade eight of junior high school guide book. • the teacher gives tasks to be done individually. • the tasks consist of several steps to be monitored, as follows: 1. select a picture: • the teacher will select the picture based on the topic today, is about “what are you doing?” • shows the picture to the students about someone’s activity at the time. 2. identifying the picture: • the teacher starts the class with the learning program file, which is related to the rule competence and basic competences from the grade eight of junior high school guide book. • the teacher gives tasks to be done individually. • the tasks consist of several steps to be monitored, as follow: 1. the teacher explained what is the topic of the lesson. gave present continuous tense formulas gave the simple sentence using present continuous tense 2. the teacher asks the students to do the task from book page 103-104. 294 • the students will identify the picture based on what they have seen. 3. label the picture: • the students will draw a line to label the picture that they have seen. write their own word based on the picture and read aloud one by one. 4. read and review: • each student read the vocabulary they found in front of the class to make sure does the students understand and remember well the word of the picture. 5. classify the words: • classify words to the common concepts (e.g., verb, adjective, noun). 6. add words, to the picture word chart and to the word banks. 7. read and review the word chart (say the word, spell it, and say it again). • teacher explains about present continuous tense. • make a simple sentence using present continuous tense. • teacher asks questions to students to help them reflect on their learning activity. • teacher summarizes today’s lesson. • closing and good bye. adapted from rohmah (2016) 3. asks the students to write down the new vocabulary that they get from the book. 4. learners work on make a sentence that related to the situation/ to their friends’ activities at the time. 5. the teacher checks and gives score to their task. teacher asks questions to students to help them reflect on their learning activity. • teacher summarizes today’s lesson. • closing and good bye. results & discussion validity test the validity test was designed to determine whether or not the instrument test should be used in this study. the following criteria were used to assess the instrument's validity. 295 table 3. validity question number of question interpretation rxy 5,10,24,27,31,42,46 not valid ≤0.00 2,3,4,7,29,30,41,47,48,49 very low 00 – 0.20 8,9,17,20,32,44 low 0.21 – 0.40 12,16,21,26,34,38,43,50 moderate 0.41 – 0.60 1,6,11,13,14,15,18,19,22, 23,25,28,33,36,37,39,40,45 high 0.61 – 0.80 very high 0.81 – 1.00 reliability test reliability is to see the consistency of a test when the test was given in the same subject to students. the reliability level of the pilot test is 0.90 which means it has a high level. table 4. classification reliability interpretation amount of 𝒓𝟏𝟏 very low 𝑟11 ≤ 0,20 low 0,21 ≤ 𝑟11< 0,40 moderate 0,41≤ 𝑟11 < 0,70 high 0,71 ≤ 𝑟11 < 0,90 very high 0,91 ≤ 𝑟11 ≤ 1,00 (arikunto, 2013) discrimination index the instrumenation index of item is the ability to distinguish between good students (high ability) and the students who are less in intelligent (low ability). there were 9 items were very bad category, 18 items in poor category, 14 items in satisfactory category, 4 items in good category, and 5 items in excellent category. table 5. discrimination index number of question interpretation rxy 5,10,17,24,27,30,31,42,46 very bad ≤0.00 1,3,4,7,8,13,15,16,22,28, 29,32, 36,41,43,45,47,48 poor 00 – 0.20 2,11,12,14,18,19,20, 21,23,25,26,33,39,49 satisfactory 0.21 – 0.40 9,34,38,44 good 0.41 – 0.60 296 6,35,37,40,50 excellent 0.61 – 0.80 level of difficulty good question is a question that is used to determine difficulty level of that question. test items of a wide range of difficulty levels are needed to test the entire range of candidates achievement levels. tests that contain too many easy or too many difficult test items would result in shewed mark distributions. according to the table below, most of the items are in the level p=1.00, which is 30 items. thus, the difficulty level of the test is very easy. based on the recapitulation test, this researcher used 35 questions for pre-test and post-test. there were questions numbers: 1, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 25, 26, 28, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 43, 44, 45, 50. those are based on the result of questions analysis; that the 35 questions were able to measure the students’ ability in enriching students’ vocabulary knowledge and fulfil the indicator of vocabulary knowledge. table 6. difficulty level number of question interpretation rxy 4,5,7,10,31,32,46 very difficulty ≤0.00 42 difficulty 00 – 0.30 2,6,8,17,20,27,30, 37,38,40,48,50 moderate 0.31 – 0.70 3,9,34,35,44,49 easy 0.71 – 1.00 1,11,12,13,14,15,16,18,19,21,22,23, 24,25,26,28,29,33,36,39,41,43,45,47 very easy >1.00 data analysis to answer research question number one, the result can be seen on table 6. in analysing the data, researcher calculated the data of pre-test, post-test and the data of normalized gain. researcher calculated those data of picture word inductive model (pwim) and the control group by using spss. the data was summarised on table 6. table 7. result of pre-test, post-test, standard deviation and normalized gain experimental group control group mean standard deviation mean standard deviation pre-test 51.73 8.554 51.63 8.066 post-test 78.63 7.609 60.83 5.772 normalized gain 0.43855 0.27714 0.15256 0.13877 table 6 shows that the initial knowledge of both groups is equal. the pre-test score of the experimental group was 51.73 as the mean score and the standard deviation was 8.554. meanwhile, the pre-test score of the control group was 51.63 as the mean score and the standard deviation was 8.066. it can be concluded that both groups initial score was at the same level. however, after the treatment was given to the experimental group, it showed 297 differences. the experimental group’s mean score of post-test was 78.63 with standard deviation was 7.609 while the control group’s mean score of post-test was 60.83 with standard deviation was 5.772. it indicated that there was an improvement on the post-test of both groups after the treatment was given. therefore, it can be concluded that picture word inductive model (pwim) are effective to improve students’ vocabulary knowledge. it is proved from the gain of the experimental group was 0.43855 higher than the control group was 0.15256. normality test of the pre-test normality test was conducted to see whether the data obtained was normally distributed or not. h0 is accepted if the p-value is greater than α (0.05). however, h0 is rejected if the pvalue is lesser than or equals α (0.05). table 2. showed the result of the pre-test score for both groups. table 8. normality test of the pre-test group shapiro-wilk statistic df sig. pre-test experimental 0.940 30 0.089 pre-test control 0.941 30 0.095 table 7 shows that the score of the pre-test for both the experimental and the control group were normally distributed where the experimental group was 0.089 which was > 0.05 and the control was 0.095 which was > 0.05. it meant both experimental group and the control group were normally distributed because the result of the data is >0.05. homogeneity test of the pre-test homogeneity test is a test to find whether the data obtained is homogeneous or not. the result of the homogeneity test can be seen on the table 3. table 9. homogeneity test of pre-test’s score levene statistic df1 df2 sig. pre-test .206 1 58 .651 based on the table 8, it can be seen that the data was homogenous because the variance of the pre-test was 0.651 > 0.05. since normality test was normally distributed and the result of homogeneity test was homogeneous, the independent sample t-test was conducted . hypothesis testing since the pre-test population is normally distributed, then independent sample t-test was done. the result calculation can be seen on the table 9. table 10. independent sample t-test for pre-test levene’s test t-test for equality of means f sig. t df sig. (2tailed) equal variances assumed .206 .651 .047 58 .963 the result on table 9 shows that the independent sample t-test above, the researcher considers only the row for equal variances assumed because the population variance is homogeny. since the value of the pre-test score is 0.651 which is > 0.05, it means that h0 is not 298 rejected which means there is no significant difference on the vocabulary knowledge pre-test among two groups. normality test normality test was conducted to see whether the data obtained was normally distributed or not. h0 is not rejected if the p-value is > 0.05 but h0 is rejected if the p-value is < 0.05. the table 10 shows the result of the normality test. table 11. normality test of gain score group shapiro-wilk statistic df sig. gain experimental .851 30 .001 gain control .788 30 .000 based on the result on table 5, it is shown that normalized gain for experimental group and control group are not normally distributed, it proved from the significant of experimental group was 0.001 < than 0.05 and the significant of control group was 0.000 < than 0.05. since the gain population was not normally distributed, then, mann-whitney (nonparametric test) was conducted. homogeneity test to determine the variance of the two groups, whether both experimental were homogeneous or not, researcher used homogeneity test. table 12. homogeneity test of gain score levene statistic df1 df2 sig. 13.622 1 58 .000 since both experimental group and conventional group data were not normally distributed, then homogeneity test was conducted, the significant of homogeneity test was 0.000 < than 0.05 which means the population variances were not homogeneity. nonparametric test of the normalized gain based on the table 12. the result of nonparametric test showed that the sig (2-tailed) was 0.001 < than 0.05. it meant ho was rejected and ha was accepted. there was a significance difference between students who were taught using picture word inductive model (pwim) and who were taught using conventional method. table 13. the result of nonparametric test of normalized gain test statistics gain mann-whitney u 231.000 wilcoxon w 696.000 z -3.241 asymp. sig. (2-tailed) .001 discussion the result of the result there was significant difference on the students’ vocabulary knowledge using picture word inductive model (pwim). from the result of the normalized gain, we can see that the experimental group got 0.001 and the control group got 0.000. therefore, it can be said that students who were taught using picture word inductive model 299 (pwim) achieved higher score compare to the students that were not taught using picture word inductive model (pwim). according to researchers’ experience in the field, the students’ that were taught using picture word inductive model (pwim) found more attractive learning english using pwim and students was given more attention to learn english. the researchers used lcd to shown the picture to make them enthusiastic in learning vocabulary and this is a new learning strategy for them, they have shown interest to learn english because picture word inductive model (pwim) help them to understand the english lesson easier. the students of viii c as the experimental group got a higher score than students of viii d as the control group. it can be seen from the significant value was 0.001 < 0.05, so that meant h0 is rejected, then the answer of the research statement, is there a significant difference between students who were taught using the picture word inductive model (pwim) to improve vocabulary knowledge and students who were taught using the traditional method? from the results and the explanation above, it proved that picture word inductive model (pwim) could help the students to improve their vocabulary knowledge. the researchers concluded that ha, or the alternative hypothesis, is accepted after interpreting the data. the answer the second question, "is there a significant difference on the students who were taught using picture word inductive model (pwim) in enhancing vocabulary knowledge and students who were taught using control method," was that there was a significant difference between students who were taught using picture word inductive model (pwim) in enhancing vocabulary knowledge and students who were taught using conventional method. this study also supported by other researchers that studied the use of picture-word inductive model in teaching english. a study was conducted by gu & lornklang in 2021 entitled, “the use of picture-word inductive model and readers’ theater to improve chinese efl learners’ vocabulary learning achievement. another study was conducted in 2020 by triwahyuni, degeng, kuswandi & setyosari entitled, “the effects of picture word inductive model (pwim) toward student’s early reading skills of first-grade in the primary school.” in 2019 a study conducted by lee, pandian, rethinasamy & tan entitled, “effects of pwim in the esl classroom: vocabulary knowledge development among primary malaysian learners.” conclusion based on the result of this study between students who were taught using the picture word inductive model (pwim) and students who were taught using the control method, it was discovered that the picture word inductive model (pwim) was more effective in helping students improve their vocabulary knowledge score. it was proven by the normalized gain. acknowledgement my sincere gratitude to evangelina marta uli andriani for the data gathering of this study. references aliaga, m., & gunderson, b. (2002). interactive statistics. [thousand oaks]: sage publications. 300 bermillo, j. e., & remollo, e. r. (2022). picture word inductive model (pwim) on students’ vocabulary achievement and attitude. indonesian journal of contemporary education, 4(1), 19–28. https://doi.org/10.33122/ijoce.v4i1.24 calhoun, e. f. (1999). teaching beginning reading and writing with the picture word inductive model. erni yuliana. (2011). the use of picture word inductive model in teaching vocabulary . walisongo state institute for islamic studies. evelyn hatch, & cheryl brown. (1997). vocabulary, semantics, and language education. studies in second language acquisition, 19(1), 125–126. https://doi.org/10.1017/s027226319727107x gladys octavia rumondor, caroline v katemba tobing, & nelson balisar panjaitan. (2017). the effectiveness of using total physical response storytelling (tprs) to enhance students’ vocabulary. proceedings international scholars conference, 110. gu, c., & lornklang, t. (2021). the use of picture-word inductive model and readers’ theater to improve chinese efl learners’ vocabulary learning achievement. advances in language and literary studies, 12(3), 120. https://doi.org/10.7575/aiac.alls.v.12n.3.p.120 james coady, & thomas huckin. (1996). second language vocabulary acquisition (j. coady & t. huckin, eds.). cambridge university press. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9781139524643 kamarudin, k. (2021). the effect of picture word inductive model (pwim) on students’ vocabulary mastery. jurnal paedagogy, 8(3), 288. https://doi.org/10.33394/jp.v8i3.3851 khan, r., radzuan, n., shahbaz, m., ibrahim, a., & mustafa, g. (2018). the role of vocabulary knowledge in speaking development of saudi efl learners. arab world english journal, 9(1), 406–418. https://doi.org/10.24093/awej/vol9no1.28 kothari, c. r. (2004). research methodology: methods and techniques. new age international publishers, new delhi. lee, b. c., pandian, a., rethinasamy, s., & tan, d. a. l. (2019). effects of pwim in the esl classroom: vocabulary knowledge development among primary malaysian learners. 3l the southeast asian journal of english language studies, 25(4), 179– 197. https://doi.org/10.17576/3l-2019-2504-11 marianne celce murcia. (2001). teaching english as a second or foreign language. heinle & heinle. marlin steffi marpaung. (2021). animation and video in improving open words vocabulary. . ekspresi seni: jurnal ilmu pengetahuan dan karya seni, 23(2), 503–514. 301 marpaung, m. s., & situmeang, h. j. p. (2020). enhancing students’ vocabulary through authentic materials and multimedia. acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature and culture, 5(2), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.35974/acuity.v5i2.2247 raodatul jannah. (2020). the effectiveness of using picture word inductive model (pwim) in improve the students’ vocabulary mastery. universitas muhammadiyah makassar. rohmatillah rohmatillah. (2014). a study on students’ difficulties in learning vocabulary. english education: jurnal tadris bahsa inggris, 6(1), 69–86. susanna, afrianto, & fadly azharr. (2018). the effect of using picture word inductive model (pwim) on vocabulary learning achievement of the first year students of mts al fajar pekanbaru. 5(2), 1–11. tri̇wahyuni̇, e. (2020). the effects of picture word inductive model (pwim) toward student’s early reading skills of first-grade in the primary school. i̇lköğretim online, 1523–1536. https://doi.org/10.17051/ilkonline.2020.733100 xuan jiang, & kyle perkins. (2013). a conceptual paper on the application of the picture word inductive model using bruner’s constructivist view of learning and the cognitive load theory. interdisciplinary journal of teaching and learning, 3(1), 8– 17. 302 studies have been conducted the use of pwim in improving vocabulary. a study was conducted by bermillo & remollo (2022) entitled, “picture word inductive model (pwim) on students’ vocabulary achievement and attitude. the result of the study showed tha... microsoft word 4 radema vol.3 and nelson balisar panjaitan.docx   35   the effectiveness of k-w-l technique to increase students’ reading comprehension achievement through reading descriptive text for grade 8 of smp negeri 1 cisarua nelson balisar panjaitan & radema situmorang sonnelunai@yahoo.co.id school of education, universitas advent indonesia abstract the purpose of this study is to find out whether there is a significant difference in reading comprehension achievement between those who are taught using the k-w-l (know-want to know-learn) technique and those who are taught using the conventional technique. in this study, the researcher used quantitative research. the participants of this study were students at smp negeri 1 cisarua, bandung. this study was conducted in ten meetings. this research was conducted in four steps: pilot test, pre-test, treatment (k-w-l technique) and post-test. after analyzing the data from the result of pre-test and post-test score it showed that there is significant difference in reading comprehension between those who are taught using k-w-l technique and those who are taught using conventional technique. therefore, it can be concluded that the k-w-l technique as a teaching material has a positive impact in reading comprehension achievement. key word: k-w-l technique, effectiveness, and reading comprehension. introduction english is the most widely used language in international communication. today, english is one of the languages of the people to communicate. it is supported by nehemiah (2011) who said that acquiring english language as a communication tool in the era of globalization is required for those who participate in globalization in terms of business, culture, job, travel, technical knowledge, information, education and practice. for this reason, learning english is very important for us. if we can master the english language then it could become our devise to face the globalization era. because of the importance of the english language for all, schools have taught english lessons since elementary school. not only for elementary schools, but today the english language is taught to children in playgroups. in other word, more importantly learning english is done through reading. students often have problems when they read. the students do not understand what they read. according to yeselson (2000) students have problems in reading comprehension, such as they cannot understand the text at all. they misread the text by totally changing its meaning, and they misread the text by taking words and phrase out of   36   context. katemba, c. & samuel (2017) stated that usually students face many problems in reading text. for example: difficult words, comprehension of sentences, how to read the word or sentence correctly, and etc. in reading class, most of the reading activities are focused on reading for comprehension. further, katemba, c. (2013) in indonesian schools, however, the teaching of english consists mainly of learning correct grammatical structures or forms, increasing vocabularies, working on exercises on the sentence level, and asking students to repeat over and over similar structures. in addition, students also often experience boredom when they read. they even feel depressed when they do not understand what they read from the reading text. sasson (2007) said that students can become easily frustrated when they do not understand what they are reading and as a result, they lose their motivation. in other word, as a teacher we must be creative to devise reading materials to teach the students the different techniques to help students understand reading. base on the problems above, the researcher is interested in researching about teaching reading by using k-w-l technique. k-w-l (know-want to knowlearn) technique is a chart which consists of three columns: know, want to know and learned. the first column is “know”. in this column, the students write down about what they have known about the topic that will be discussed by the writer in the text. the second column is “want to know”. in this column the student is concerned with what they want to know more about the topic. in the last column “learned” which is part of the k-w-l technique, the students need to provide answers based on the questions in column “what to know” after reading the text. sasson (2008) said that k-w-l technique can help the teachers to make students more interested in learning to read, because the students will think about what they want to know and what they have learned. besides that, k-w-l technique will help students become better readers. according to carr and ogle (1987) reading by using k-w-l chart means that this chart in reading the text will help to activate their prior knowledge to be an active reader and critical reader. philip (2010) also said that k-w-l technique is more appropriate for students with high interest while direct instructional method is more appropriate for low interest students. his research can be concluded that there is interaction effect between the two variables, teaching method and interest. in this case, k-wl technique would be more appropriate to be used for students to improve their knowledge in reading comprehension. from the statement of the k-w-l technique, the researcher would try to do some research by using k-w-l technique in teaching reading comprehension for junior high school. related to the study entitle “the effectiveness of k-w-l technique to increase students reading comprehension achievement through reading descriptive text for grade 8 class of smp negeri 1 cisarua”, this study attempts to answer the following question: is there any significant difference in reading comprehension between those who are taught using k-w-l technique and those who are taught using conventional technique?   37   many kinds of the techniques that can be used to teach reading comprehension. however, in this study the researcher focused on the technique for teaching reading comprehension by using of k-w-l technique. the researcher chose two classes of grade 8 junior high school year 2013/2014 in smp negeri 1 cisarua bandung as the population. the aim of this study is to find out whether the k-w-l technique can increase students' reading comprehension. this study makes use of the following hypothesis: ho = there is no significant difference in reading comprehension between those who are taught using k-w-l technique and those who are taught using conventional technique. ha = there is a significant difference in reading comprehension between those who are taught using k-w-l technique and those who are taught using conventional technique. this study is expected to be a reference and one of the alternatives in teaching reading descriptive text for english teachers. the findings of this study will be beneficial to students, educators, course developers, and researchers in many aspects. students, the result of this study will help students to be more interested in reading after using the k-w-l technique. educators, the educators can help students to improve the reading ability through k-w-l technique that works well for students in elementary levels. course developers, this study can help curriculum developers to use k-w-l technique, as one of the method in teaching english. researchers. this study is also expected to contribute to the other researcher. research methodology in this study the researcher used quantitative method with experimental design. this experimental design compares the students reading comprehension achievement between the experimental group and the control group. according to russeffendi (2010) the design of the researcher is as follow. table 1 research design group pre-test treatment post-test experimental x1 t x2 control x1 o x2 the explanation: x1 = score of students in pre-test. t = treatment application the sing k-w-l technique x2 = score of students in post-test. o = control group without treatment.   38   the table shows that this study involved two groups, an experimental group and a control group. the experimental group received a k-w-l treatment, while the control group received non k-w-l treatment. fraenkel & wallen (2006) stated that there are two types of variables in this research. they are independent variable and dependent variable. in this research, the independent variable of the study is k-w-l technique and dependent variable is students’ reading comprehension achievement. the population of this study was grade 8 students in smp negeri 1 cisarua, bandung year 2013/2014. the researcher chose two classes randomly grade 8c and grade 8a class. in grade 8c class there were 38 students as an experimental group and grade 8a class there were 36 students as a control group. the total number of students there were 74 students. the instruments used were the pre-test and post-test taken from the national government test for junior high school. the grade 8c class as an experimental group was taught by using k-w-l technique. the grade 8a class as the control group was taught using the conventional technique. the researcher focused on descriptive text as the k-w-l technique to teach reading. descriptive text is a text that describes a particular person or thing. in other words that descriptive text is easier for the student to understand. (sudarwati and grace 2007). pilot test was conducted on january 28, 2014 to grade 9a in smp negeri 1 cisarua, bandung. pilot test was conducted to select appropriate questions from the instrument. the test consisted of 55 multiple choice questions with four options a, b, c and d. the questions was analyzed to check their, validity, difficulty level, discrimination index reliability and practically to ensure that they can be used for pre-test and post-test. to analyze the data of pilot test the researcher used anates statistic. the pre-test was administered on january 31, 2014. there were thirty one questions for the pre-test as multiple choices questions. both of experimental and control group did the same test. grade 8a were 34 students and grade 8c were 38 students. the test was adapted from the national government test for junior high school. the time frame to do the pre-test was only 90 minutes. respondents were divided into two groups; experimental and control group students of the grade 8c and the grade 8a. the treatment started on february 3, 2014 up to february 28, 2014. the researcher taught twice a week, each class meeting were 2x45 minutes. the total hours for doing this study were 32 hours. the implementation of k-w-l technique to teach reading comprehension is following the teaching model of ogle (1986). the researcher asked students to take out a sheet of notebook paper and made three columns. they wrote a "k" over the left column, "w" over the center column and "l" over the right column.   39   column 1 column 2 column 3 what we know (k) what we want to know (w) what we learned (l) the researcher explained to students that k stands for what the students already knows about the topic they are studying. tell the students what the topic is about, and ask them to share facts they already know. the researcher explained that the w stands for what the students want to learn about the topic. the researcher will write all the questions the students ask on the board and tell them to write the same on their papers under the w. the researcher instructed the students to read the text. this may be done orally as a class or silently and individually. tell the class to mark items in their k lists as true or false based on what they learn in the text. also tell them to put stars next to questions in the w list if the text answers those questions. discussed what they discovered as a class after they have read from the text and made notes on their first two columns. tell the students that l stands for what they have learned. give them time to write down new things they have learned that did not appear in the k or w columns. at the end of the session the researcher gave work sheet 2 as a home work. the post-test was administered in the last meeting on march 3, 2014. both of experimental and control group did the same test. the purpose of this test was to find out if there was any significant difference after the treatment of k-w-l technique. there were thirty one questions for the post-test as multiple choices questions. the test was adapted from the national government test for junior high school. the time frame to do the post-test was only 90 minutes. this chapter presents the result of data analysis and findings based on normality, homogeneity and t-test to see if there is any significance difference in reading comprehension between those who are taught using k-w-l technique and those who are taught using conventional technique. data analysis and findings in gathering data, the researcher used the following procedures: conducting the pre-test. the researcher gave a multiple choice questions test which consisted of 31 questions and was administered to 68 students. applying the treatment. the researcher used k-w-l technique to teach reading for 10 meetings in grade 8c students. conducting post-test. after the treatment, the researcher conducted a post-test and used the same procedures as the pre-test procedures. the post-test was administered to 68   40   students and each group has 34 students. the post-test used to check the two groups’ scores to investigate significant difference between two methods. scoring. the score was given based on the participants’ correct answer, and the perfect score was 100. interpreting the score. to interpret the result of this study, the researcher used t-test to find the significance difference between pre-test and post-test. this table shows the descriptive statistic for the pre-test, post-test and normalized gain. table 2. normalized gain class with k-w-l techniques conventional method mean st. deviation mean st. deviation pre-test 49.73 7.85 51.67 13.79 post-test 69.41 8.70 62.26 15.19 gain 0.39 0.15 0.21 0.21 here are some examples of the students’ normalized gain calculations: normalized gain for agung (student no 1 appendix a page 44) 41100 4167 − − >=< g = 0.44 normalized gain for agus kresna reformansyah 41100 4158 − − >=< g = 0.28 here are some examples of the students’ normalized gain calculations: normalized gain for ahmad fauzy darussalam (student no 1 appendix b page 46 ) 54100 5483 − − >=< g = 0.63 normalized gain for citra mega mayasari (student no 2 appendix b page 46) 48100 4864 − − >=< g = 0.30 it can be seen from the table 4.1 above that the average normalized gain of the students who are taught using the k-w-l technique is higher than the students who are taught using the conventional method. conclusion   41   from the calculation of the data, the researcher can draw the following conclusion. k-w-l technique is more effective in teaching reading comprehension achievement than conventional technique. this could be seen on the gain based on mean of the experimental and control group. the gain of the experimental group was .3932 and the mean value of post-test was 69.41 while the gain of the control group was .2179 and the mean value of post-test was 62.26. from the explanation above, that k-w-l technique could increase students’ 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(2009). statistik untuk kedokteran dan kesehatan. jakarta : salemba medika. surapranata, sumarna. 2009. analisis, validitas, reliabilitas, dan interpretasi hasil tes. cetakan keempat. bandung: pt. remaja rosdakarya offset. uyanto, s. s. (2009). pedoman analysis data dengan spss. yogyakarta: graha ilmu. vacca, r.t & vacca, j.a.l. (2008). content area reading (ninth edition): literacy and learning across the curriculum. new york: pearson education, inc. yeselson, (2000). common reading comprehension problems and basic exercise. retrieved on october 8, 2013. from:http://docs.goole.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:obiyqpat1hoj:planger e .rutgers.edu/documents/tutors/commonreadingcomprehentionproblems.pdf microsoft word acuity-articles-cetak.docx       6   enhancing students’ reading comprehension ability through comparison study between cooperative learning numbered heads together (nht) and thin-pair-share (tps) strategies prisilia l. mokodompit and debora chaterin simanjuntak english education department, universitas advent indonesia, bandung e-mail: prisiliapretty@gmail.com abstract: this study attempts to find significance difference in enhancing students’ reading comprehension ability by comparing two teaching methods: numbered heads together (nht) and think-pairshare (tps). in this study, the respondents were students of grade viii from smp advent ii, setia budi and students of grade viii from smpn 1, parongpong. after careful detail of analysis, the result found is the average gain for numbered heads together group is 0.2553 and think-pair-share group is 0.5127. the p-value = 0.001 < α (0.05), which means there is a significant difference on the students’ ability in reading comprehension between those who are taught using numbered heads together (nht) method and those who are taught using think-pair-share (tps) method. keywords: numbered heads together, think-pair-share, reading comprehension. introduction it is widely known through comprehending english reading materials, students may be able to explore more ideas and insights. reading is deemed to be linguistic process. hartmann and blass (2007) stated in order to read well, readers should comprehend the syntax and semantics of the language and should have knowledge of the alphabet and have an awareness of certain aspects of the linguistic structure of language. mcnamara (2007) said that students are required to identify words in the text (recognition) and comprehend them and later created meanings to establish reading accuracy (fluency). furthermore, reading is thinking. thinking to comprehend the written test (gibson, 2009). according to adeniji and omale (2010), the ability to read, most likely, determines students to have better chance to get higher achievement. reading skill can represent the students’ skill in writing, listening and speaking. moreover ferrell (2012) emphasized that the main purpose for reading is to comprehend the ideas in the text. without comprehension, reading would be empty and meaningless. reading is not an easy subject to teach and many researchers still struggle to find the best method to be used. in relation to this, mikulecky and jeffries (1996)) assumed that the definition of true comprehension is “understanding about what is read and connects the ideas in the       7   text to what readers know about previously” (p.74). reading drifts one’s mind to comprehend a written text (sovah & rukmi, 2013)). reader should comprehend the meaning of the reading text in order for them to understand the context of the text. andanawari (2012) accentuated that reading comprehension is defined as the ability to understand information on a text and interpret it appropriately. blachowicz and ogle (2008) added that reading comprehension is “a silent reading activity undertaken for the purpose of learning so as to obtain greater insight about something that has been read.” wulandari (2014) said that students who are good at comprehending a particular text most likely will be able to grasp the meaning and the organization of the writer’s ideas. according to anderson (2008), reading comprehension is a process that involves meaningful construction of an author’s message by the use of prior knowledge, especially the knowledge of language. it means that reading comprehension is a process of getting the meaning and be knowledgeable in order to get the meaning of texts. yet sad to say, based on diestha’s (2011) finding students are less eager to learn how to comprehend reading materials, and during last school hour, students are only interested reading brief, easily understood materials. in addition to this siahaan (2013) stated that reading is a wide-spread problem to indonesian students. matters that may cause this issues are categorized in several factors: physical factor, cognitive factor, psycholinguistic factor and emotional factor. reading in english. these factors are known to give strong impact in enhancing students’ comprehension ability (aeny, 2009). haris and edward (1957) had drawn a conclusion on four factors that cause reading problems. the followings are the factors: physical factor. physical could be a problem in reading when the readers are processing the information based on the text. physical factor can happen if physical abilities of the readers such as visual sensory abilities and auditory sensory abilities are limited aeny (2009). self-esteem become an increasingly important concept in the field of child and adolescent mental health butler & gasson (2005). cognitive factor. beside it there is also cognitive factor that cause problem in reading. woolley (2011) defined cognitive factor as a process of think and reason that related to the use of analytic-sequential thinking of learning preference, memory abilities, recalling about the specific meaning of the words, and also recognizing the relationship with the paragraph for gaining the knowledge. in applying cognitive factors, the failures will lead the readers having difficulties in comprehending the text.       8   language/psycholinguistic factor. this factor also as a problem in reading. according to wiley and sons (2013) early psycholinguists described our comprehension and production of language in terms of the rules that were postulated by linguists. the connections between psychology and linguistics were particularly close in the area of syntax, with psycholinguists testing the psychological reality of various proposed linguistic rules. worldwide concerned for literacy combined with the growing recognition by psychologist and linguist of how language may reflect the workings of the mind have helped bring about a surge of interest in the topic (downing and leong, 1982). emotional factor. emotional factor is considered as one of factors that cause disability in comprehending written text or reading materials. it is related to the individual condition of the readers. it has been observed that at times of physical or emotional stress, patients may experience flare-ups of symptoms, such as increasing abdominal pain or diarrhea (rosenthal and irwin, 2015). one of the main ways to solve those issues is through cooperative learning; johnson and johnson (2009) cited that there are five basic elements of cooperative learning: positive interdependence, promotive interaction, individual accountability, teaching of interpersonal and social skills, and quality of group processing. one thing that is important that learning situations cannot be cooperative if students are arranged into groups without having positive interdependence. in addition, cooperative learning is a good style of learning for students. this style also builds students’ creativity in thinking, sharing, talking, and working together with others. in cooperative learning there are five basic elements: positive interpendence. the groups are trained to work together and achieve the higher achievement than does individualistic effort. one skills and performance will affects another member or group to success and create responsibility to achieve the goal. tran (2014) that “positive interdependence means that in cooperative learning situations, students are required to work together as a cohesive group to achieve shared learning objectives” (p.131). promotive interaction. it explains that one student in a group leads, encourages, and facilitates each member to reach the objectives. promotive interaction also leads the students to discuss the assignment, share their ideas, help each other, and develop ideas. according to gillies and boyle (2007) promotive interaction implicate individuals to encourage and facilitate each other’s effort to equip the task and achieve the goals of the group. individual accountability. based on smith (2000) individual accountability or personal responsibility assessment make each member to become a stronger       9   individual in his or her own right. students learn together so that they can perform better as individual. each individual students’ performance is assessed and the results given back to the individual and may to the group. social skills. li and lam (2013) explained that through social skill students are encouraged and helped to develop and practice the trust-building, leadership, decision making, communication, and conflict management skills. social skills is an important part of learning especially in learning using cooperative learning strategy. group processing. group processing has purpose to clarify and improve the effectiveness with members to carry out the necessary process to achieve the goals of group. during group processing, each member are expected to express respect for each other’s contributions to the group efforts and for each other as persons (jolliffe), 2007). cooperative learning gives a sense of security is a relationship with other people and being part of a group. the feelings of belonging will enable students to face the issues in learning english. when they learn with their peers rather than alone, they get emotional and intellectual reinforcement which may allow them to surpass the threshold of their knowledge and skills (siberman, 2014). therefore, in regards those issues in reading comprehension, this study was conducted to enhance students’ reading comprehension ability by comparing two teaching methods: number heads together (nht) and think-pair-share (tps). this study was brought up because of in-depth learning on the several studies conducted by local or even global researcher on enhancing students’ reading comprehension ability; one of the studies was undertaken in surakarta by yuzianah (2011). it was a study on ‘efektifitas pembelajaran kooperative tipe number heads together (nht) dan student team achievement division (stad) pada presetasi belajar matematika ditinjau dari motivasi bresprestasi”; through this study, it was found that through nht students’ performance increased. in addition, basuki (2013) did a study in purwokerto on nht and he stated that nht helps students interact with peers during study group. faristiana (2013) accentuated that the implementation of numbered heads together (nht) make students better understand the concept of what is taught in the learning process, because students are involved with varied discussions. nht is part of a structural model of cooperative learning, which emphasizes the special structures devised to affect the pattern of student interaction.       10   number heads together developed first by kagan (1993) cooperative learning type nht is one type that makes students to be more active and take full responsible to comprehend the learning material as group and individual. (yuzianah, 2011). researcher found literature of numbered heads together (nht) to support this strategies. faristiana (2013) stated that the implementation of numbered heads together (nht) make students better understand the concept of what is taught in the learning process, because students are involved with varied discussions. it means that students have better understanding about the concept of what is being taught when they are learning in the form of discussion. according to pujianto (2015) the learning model of numbered heads together is part of a cooperative learning model structural emphasis on special structures deliberately designed with the aim of influencing the pattern of student interaction. kagan structure is basically made so that students can work with each other to rely on small groups cooperatively. basuki (2013) stated that the advantages of numbered head together (nht) are: the students are able to learn from each other, work together, and must check that everyone can understand and answer the question. students are accountable to each other for sharing ideas, they may also be required to share their partner’s ideas to another pair or whole group. every student must be able to give the group response to the question. each student within the group has an equal opportunity to share. high degrees of interaction at any one moment all of the students will be actively engaged in purposeful speaking and listening. this kind of learning can be used in any kinds of level, but of course it has to be adjusted with the material given. he stated that the disadvantages of numbered head together (nht) are: (a) the smart students will tend to dominate so that it can make the weak students have passive attitude. (b)the discussion process can go smoothly if the students just simply copy the work of smart students without understanding. (c) if there are homogenous group so it will be unfair for the group contained of weak students. (d) likelihood that number is called, called again by the teacher, means that not all members of the group called by the teacher. another study, on different method called think-pair-share, was conducted by some researchers. think pair – share (tps) method is one type of learning model first developed by lyman at the university of maryland in 1981. one of the studies on tps was done by ramdlany (2013) on “the use of think-pair-share’ to develop students’ reading skills’. this study found out that think-pair-share enhances students’ reading skills through, collaborative work and idea-sharing. furthermore, a study conducted abroad, sampsel (2013) did a study entitled ‘finding the effect of think-pair-share on student confidence and participation.’ it showed that tps successfully increased students’ confidence and participation. additionally, think-pair-share (tps) also allows the opportunity for educators to hear various answer of students by circulating during the pairing stage and in class discussion. it is a method that trains students to think and sharing ideas with partner and the whole class. think pair – share method is       11   one type of learning model first developed by professor frank lyman at the university of maryland in 1978 and adopted by many writers in the field of cooperative learning. sampsel (2013) explained that think-pair-share allows the wait time and students are all given time to think to themselves in silence way before they discuss with partner. this strategy also allows the opportunity for teachers to hear various answer of students by circulating during the pairing stage and in class discussion. think pair share has procedures established explicitly for students to give more time to think, respond, and help each other (widodo, 2007). in addition, through this strategy, students are more successful when they are working in a team, they learn better when they are working in pair. priya (2013) mentioned the advantages of think-pair-share strategy are this strategy build the students’ critical thinking. when teacher gives questions, it makes students to think, give their opinions and they try to find the best answer. tps can motivate the quite student to speak out. by working in pair, they have a chance to speak without standing in class and make them feel nervous. while fauziyatih and istianah (2013) mentioned the disadvantages on think-pair-share also has some disadvantages. not all of the students are focus on the topic given because they can share and talk everything with their peers out of the topic and also it is possible for the students who have low understanding to cheat to their peers. furthermore siahaan and ginting (2012) explained the disadvantages of think-pair-share are there is too short and quite low-risk collaborative learning structure and this strategy needs a few minutes to think with peers. both teaching methods: nht and tps fall under the umbrella of cooperative learning; according to johnson and johnson (2009), cooperative learning provides five basic elements to enhance positive atmosphere in any learning situations. through collaboration student will be able to establish good social communication to solve problems in english learning. methodology this study used quantitative method because statistical computation is utilized in analyzing the data. this is a comparative study, using the pre-test and post-test method to compare whether there is significant effect between numbered heads together (nht) and think-pair-share (tps) to enhance students’ reading comprehension ability. the population in this research was grade viii students in smp advent ii, setia budhi and smp negeri 1, parongpong. the samples were students of grade viii of smp advent ii setia budhi and they were set group 1. this group was treated using numbered heads together strategy. students of grade viii a of smp negeri 1, parongpong were set as group 2; they were taught by using think-pair-share strategy. in this study, the instruments that the researcher used in gathering the data are pre-test and post-test. the teaching materials used in this study are descriptive reading       12   and scientific, informative reading texts. these instruments were used to know the students’ ability in comprehending the texts. the treatments were conducted to compare two teaching strategies. table 1 research treatment steps treatment of nht steps treatment of tps step 1 numbering and asking question teacher divided the student into some groups consist of 3 to 4 person. each member in groups given number from 1 to 4. teacher asks the questions or problem to each groups. step 1 thinking teacher divided the student into some groups. each group consist of 3 to 4 person. teacher gives students questions that are related to the text that has been given (the generic structure and contained detailed information on the text). teacher asks the students to answer the questions individually and write their answers on their respective books. step 2 heads together students put their heads together to decide one appropriate answer. make sure that every group member know the agreed upon answer. steps 2 pairing teacher asks the students to discuss in pairs about their answers to the questions that were previously awarded. teacher asks the students to discuss the results of their discussions on their respective books.       13   step 3 answering questions teacher calls a number randomly and only student with the number respond to the question. the students with that number raise their hands. when called on, the students answers for his or her team. step 3 sharing after discussing in pair, teacher asks the students to discuss/share in their groups about the results of discussions in pair. teacher asks the students to write the results of their group discussion on their books and after that teacher will ask them question and one of them should answer for their groups. after the treatments, researcher conducted post-test to find out whether the use of numbered heads together (nht) strategy and think-pair-share (tps) strategy made significant difference in enhancing students’ reading comprehension ability. result and discussion the writers gathered the data from pre-test and post-test scores and analyzed them. in gathering the data, researcher taught two groups. class 8a in smp negeri 1 parongpong which was taught using think-pair-share method and class 8 in smp advent ii setia budhi bandung which was taught using numbered heads together method. in collecting and analyzing the data, researcher used statistical program, spss 17. table 2 result of pre-test, post-test, standard deviation, and normalized gain think-pair-share numbered-heads-together mean std.deviation mean std.deviation pre-test 71.5278 8.36826 73.2258 12.47320 post-test 86.3333 6.25643 81.0645 12.34757 normalized gain 0.5127 0.19917 0.2553 0.41161       14   it shows that the mean of pre-test of tps group is 71.5278 and in high category. for nht group the mean of pre-test is in high category also. while in post-test score of nht is 86.3333 and tps is 81.0645. the normalized gain for think-pair-share group is 0.5127 and it is in the moderate category; while for the normalized gain in numbered heads together group is 0.2553 and it is in low category. it means there is an increase in two different test average. students who are taught using numbered heads together (nht) and think-pair-share (tps) strategies have enhancement in reading comprehension ability; however, think-pair-share (tps) shows more enhancement. based on the observation of the researcher, students should have passion for reading and confidence with their knowledge and their ability. according to diestha (2011) the results showed that the problems of the bandung district junior high school students in learning to read are students are less eager to follow the learning especially learning to read, and during last school hour, students are only interested in taking part of learning to read, if reading a brief, easily understood, and manifold literature. students of both numbered heads together group and think-pair-share group make enhancement in comprehension ability. these two strategies are good for learning especially learning with peers or groups. through this study, think-pair-share (tps) showed to be more effective in enhancing students’ comprehension ability. conclusion after a careful analysis, on the normalized gain from pre-test and post-test, the enhancement of students’ ability in reading comprehension for tps group and nht group were moderate. according to the research finding, the researcher concludes that there is a significant difference in enhancing students’ reading comprehension ability between those who are taught using numbered heads together (nht) strategy and those who are taught using think-pair-share (tps) strategy. pedagogical implications from the research findings, researcher has desires to render some recommendations to improve students’ ability in reading comprehension. teachers and especially english teachers should choose and utilize methods that encourage the students to be more active in learning. the method also should make the students become interested in learning toward the lesson that they learn. the students will be active in learning when they feel comfortable and enjoyable with the methods that the teachers use in teaching and learning process. it will develop good circumstances in classroom and students can learn comfortably. for the future research, this method should be conducted more often in order to enhance the cooperative learning of students in reading comprehension.           references adeniji, m.a., & omale, a. (2010). teaching reading comprehension in selected primary schools in oyo state, nigeria. (library philosophy and practice 2010) aeny, m. (2009). students’ reading strategies and their achievement in reading comprehension. bandung: indonesia university of education. andanawari, d. (2012). the use of collaborative strategic reading (csr) in teaching reading comprehension. bandung: indonesia university of education. anderson, n. (2008). practical english language teaching reading. new york: mcgrawhill companies. basuki, g. (2013). numbered heads together. purwokerto: muhammadiyah university of purwokerto. [online]. available: http://gangsarbasuki.blogspot.co.id/2013/04/numbered-head-together.html. 7.24 am. [07 desember 2015]. blachowicz, c. & ogle, d. (2008). reading comprehension for independent learners (2nd ed.). the guilfold press. diestha. (2011). problematika pembelajaran membaca dan menulis di smp beserta solusinya. [online]. available at http://radiesthamanuist.blogspot.co.id/2011/11/problematika-pembelajaranmembaca-dan.html. [29th april 2016] downing, j., & leong, c, k. (1982). the reading process: cognitive and psycholinguistic perspectives. new york. faristiana, a, r. (2013). penerapan model pembelajaran kooperatif tipe numbered heads together sebagai upaya peningkatan keaktifan dan hasil belajar sosiologi siswa kelas xi ips 2 sma negeri 7 surakarta tahun pelajaran 2012/2013. surakarta: universitas sebelas maret fauziyatih, d, r; istianah, w. (2013). the effect of using think-pair-share technique on the eighth grade students’ reading comprehension achievement at smpn 3 bangsalsari jember. jurnal vol. 2, no. 2, hal 41-48, mei 2013 ferrel, t. s. c (2012). reflecting on teaching reading: 60 strategies for professional development. fitrawati. (2009). improving senior high school students’ reading comprehension through reading strategies derived from genre based approach. jurnal bahan dan seni vol 10 no.2 tahun 2009 (89-99).           gibson, k. d. (2009). teacher’s perception of strategy based reading instruction for reading comprehension. university of california. gillies, r & boyle, m. (2007). cooperative learning: a smart pedagogi for successful learning. school of education. the university of queensland. grabe, w, & l. f. stoller (2002). teaching and researching reading. harlow: pearson education. hardiani, r. f. f. (2011). students’ reading strategies and their reading comprhension. bandung: indonesia university of education. hartmaan, p & blass laurie (2007). quest intro: reading and writing. mcgraw hill. jolliffe, w. (2007). cooperative learning in the classroom: putting it into practice. paul chapman publishing. li, m. p & lam, b.h. (2013). cooperative learning. the hongkong institute of education. mcnamara, d.s. (2007). (eds). reading comprehension strategies. taylor and francis group. mikulecky, b. s., & jeffries, l. (1996). more reading power. united stated of america: addison-wesley publishing company, inc. priya, h. (2013). think pair share. [online] available: http://haripriya88.blogspot.co.id/2013/06/think-pair-share.html. 06.12 am. [07 december 2015] pujianto, a. (2015). pengertian dan langkah-langkah model pembelajaran nht . 04 desember 2015. ramdlany, d. m. a. (2013). the use of think-pair-share technique to develop students’ reading skills. bandung: indonesia university of education. rosenthal, s, r. & irwin, m. (2015). ccfa fact sheet. news from the ibd help center. sampsel, a. (2013). finding the effects of think-pair-share on student confidence and participation. bowling green state university siahaan, n, e. ; ginting, s, a. (2012). improving students’ achievement in writing procedure text through think-pair-share (tps) technique. siahaan, e. v. (2013). factors that affect students’ interest in learning english. bandung: adventist university of indonesia siberman, m. l. (2014). active learning 101 cara belajar siswa aktiv. bandung           smith, k, a. (2000). inquiry based cooperative learning. university of minnesota/purdue university. sovah, l and rukmi, a. s. (2013). penerapan tekhnik scanning untuk meningkatkan keterampilan membaca pemahaman siswa kelas v sdn sidoarjo. jpgsd volume 01 nomor 02 tahun 2013, 0-216 tran, v. d. (2014). the effects of cooperative learning on the academic achievement and knowledge retention. (international journal of higher education). volume 3, no. 2; 2014. wiley, j.; sons. (2003). psycholinguistics: language comprehension and production. new york. widodo, j. (2007). efektivitas penggunaan metode think pair share dalam pembelajaran ekonomi pokok bahasan pembentukan harga pasar di smp. jurnal pendidikan ekonomi vol 2 no.1 februari, tahun 2007. woolley, g. (2011). reading comprehension: assisting children with learning difficulties. springer. wulandari, c. a. (2014). improving students’ reading comprehension through the scanning technique. bandung: indonesia university of education. yuzianah, d. (2011). efektifitas pembelajaran kooperatif tipe numbered heads together (nht) dan student team achievement division (stad) pada prestasi belajar matematika ditinjau dari motivasi berprestasi. surakarta: universitas sebelas maret the use of context-clue and read aloud instruction to enhance junior high school students’ vocabulary ability through literature (comparative study at smpn 1 cisarua, bandung barat) rindu bintang damayanti p, nelson balisar panjaitan, & caroline v. katemba, rindubintang@rocketmail.com universitas advent indonesia abstract the aim of this research is to find out the better method between context-clue and read aloud instruction to enhance students’ vocabulary. this research is quantitative research with comparative design. the research was conducted in smpn 1 cisarua, bandung barat. population on this research was 8 grader of junior high school and the sample was 8a grader that contain 30 students and 8b grader contain 32 students. 8a was given context-clue instruction treatment and 8b was given read aloud instruction treatment. statistic test that researcher used was mann-whitney test. the result of this research showed there is no significant difference in enhancing vocabulary ability between students who are taught through context-clue instruction and students who are taught through read aloud instruction. keywords: vocabulary ability, context-clue instruction, read aloud instruction introduction “english, as a world language, is taught among others in schools. schools in abroad use english to become their language to communicate in school. and in indonesia, english is a foreign language. that is, it is taught in schools, often widely, but it does not play an essential role in national or social life” (broughton, 1980, p. 6). “nowadays, english is an official language around the world. many people have problem for communicating because they do not know english. to exceed the problem, it is important to study english more” (katemba et al 2011). english has become a compulsory subject in school. every level from elementary through university has english subject and becomes a requirement. so according to ramelan (1992:3) the indonesian government has made english as the first foreign language to be taught in schools. permendiknas no. 22 of 2006 about content standards and permendiknas no. 23 of 2006 about graduates competency standards stated that english become a local content subject that can start to be taught from first grade until six grade. government regulation no. 19 of 2005 about national education standards in chapter iii of article 7, paragraph 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 discussed about language activities in elementary school, junior high school and senior high school. and also in chapter iii of article 9, paragraph 2 stated that higher education must include english language courses. darwanto (2007:1) stated that communication is a social event that can occur anywhere without knowing the place and time. most people feel stress and difficult to speak english because they do not know or lack of the vocabulary. and because of that, the confidence of the person will be decrease and they do not want to speak out. mailto:rindubintang@rocketmail.com according to joklova (2009), vocabulary is generally a matter of remembering, unlike learning grammar, which is a system based mainly on rules. vocabulary in english is many and it always develops to a new vocabulary. that is a big reason for people to memorize the vocabulary. but memorizing also becomes a big problem to some people because most of the words they memorize will be forgotten soon and it will happen if people do not use the words in their daily life. indonesian people have same problem with that, especially english is a foreign language. it means that we have a lot of problem in learning english and the problem of vocabulary is one of them. students have a difficult time to learn vocabulary because they lack of motivation and less variety of teaching english. those happened because they had limited span of attention to study and it was found in all students especially young learners (broughton, p. 168-169). “in communication, students need vocabulary which can support them to produce and use meaningful sentences. that is why vocabulary is very important to be mastered. students sometimes experience difficulties in using vocabulary which have been studied for some reasons” (katemba & tampubolon2011). mokashi as cited by pratiwi (2013) stated that students with poor vocabulary including those from diverse cultures and economic levels and those with learning disabilities need strong and systematic educational support to become successful, independent word learners. that is why, nowadays schools ask their teacher to be more creative to present the lesson. the teachers are recommended to make interactive activity to keep students’ attention during learning english, so they will not feel burdened while learning english in school. this problem appeared at eight graders of smpn 3 parongpong. based on practice teaching study on 11 september 2015, the researcher found the fact that most of the students in the class only had a few vocabulary. the students did not know many vocabularies except the vocabulary that the teacher taught them from elementary school. it is because teacher teach new vocabulary to them by writing the word in white board or black board. as previous researcher, pratiwi (2013) had preliminary study in mts nahdlatul ulama, malang, she found that the students get difficulties in learning vocabulary. huda (2011) stated that vocabulary mastery is the fundamental thing that need to be mastered by somebody in learning english because it will support the achievement of the four skills. it will be difficult for students to achieve those skills if they do not have many vocabulary. and because of the limitation of the vocabulary, students cannot interact with teacher and do not understand what teacher says. it can be concluded that vocabulary is the total number of words in a language that is known and understood by the users so that they can use it for an effective communication as cited from thornbury (2004). when people communicate with other people in proper and correct way, they can say or tell the aim and meaning or express their ideas. a study was conducted in the southern united states entitled “teaching vocabulary through literature: effects of context-clue instruction on tenth-grade students” and was done by rogers (2005). he stated that students showed a higher usage rate for words learned through context-clue instruction than word-list instruction. it was proven by the results of vocabulary tests, student observation checklists, and student surveys. the students prefer learning english with context clue instruction. in indonesia, a study conducted by nuraisha, dkk (2013) at pontianak with the title “teaching vocabulary by using inference contextual clues” showed that context clue instruction was an effective strategy that can be used by the english teachers as an alternative to teach vocabulary comprehension in the classroom. it was proven by the results of pre-test and post-test that the researcher has given to them. kuhn & stahl (1998, p. 120) mentioned that one approach for helping children increase their store of word meanings is to teach them to use context clues (or cues) in text more efficiently. children can try to guess the closest meaning from the text by using their previous knowledge. they can try to find the closest meaning without opening a dictionary. pratiwi (2013) conducted a research about read-aloud at malang entitled “improving vocabulary mastery through reading aloud”. she said that the implementation of readingaloud can improve the vocabulary mastery and the students enjoyed learning english and mastering vocabulary easily. it was shown in increasing of student’s score and student’s responds in answering the question. they showed that read-aloud was effective for students to improve vocabulary mastery. with that technique, the students were interested in studying english. student especially young learners do not have long span of attention, so teacher should teach them with any kinds of activity, such as reading them a story. reading them a story make the atmosphere in the class become more relax. the students can give the attention because they will listen to a story. by reading-aloud to students, they learn more vocabulary, grammar, and information and how stories and written language works (wadsworth, 2008, p. 2). they will feel more comfortable with the method because the students can discuss the story together with the teacher. and the teacher can use an interesting story for her or his material so the students will feel attractive and interesting with the story, and finally they will feel wondering about learning english. kindle (2009) mentioned that the read aloud context has proven to be an effective instruction. considering this case, the researcher decides to carry out a study on “the use of context clue and read aloud instruction to enhance junior high school students’ vocabulary achievement through literature”, and by using these methods students are expected to enhance their vocabulary achievement. vocabulary is an important part in learning english. learners can understand or comprehend what they read or hear if they know about the vocabulary. and because of that, a learner who knows about the vocabulary can master or comprehend four skills in english; listening, speaking, reading, and writing. anisha (2011) states that words are like bricks in building a small house or a big building. if the brick is not strong, how could the house of the building stand up properly? it also happens with the vocabulary. if a person does not have strong vocabulary, how could a person speak well? without a sufficient vocabulary or having a limited vocabulary will make a person cannot communicate effectively and also it becomes a barrier that prevents students from learning a foreign language (shankar, 2003) acquiring the vocabulary of our first language is complicated. acquiring the vocabulary of a second language is even more complicated (nunan, 2011). because vocabulary is more complex than knowledge of words and words meanings in both oral and print language and it is related to their reading comprehension and academic success (baumann, kame’enui, & ash, 2003). according to brown (1995) as cited by cameron (2001), there are essential steps of learning vocabulary: 1) having source for encountering new words, 2) getting a clear image for the form of new words, 3) learning the meaning of new words, 4) making a strong memory connection between the form and the meaning of the words, 5) using the words. in the assessment of vocabulary mastery according to allen (1999), she mentioned that the indicators of students’ vocabulary mastery that can be used are: 1) an increased sense of word play, 2) a heightened awareness of how words sound (rhyme, repetitive language patterns), 3) an inquisitiveness about word meaning and etymologies, 4) a more diverse and richer use of language in speech and writing, and 5) an ability to construct semantic maps to extend an understanding of words and concepts to increase more vocabulary in students, a teacher should be creative to find other ways to teach vocabulary. using context clue instruction and read-aloud instruction are two of the techniques that teachers usually use in previous times but no longer it is used again. teachers usually ask the students to bring their dictionary and find the meaning from it. teachers rarely use those techniques, whereas if the teacher teaches the students to find the meaning from the context, it will help the students to train their brain. kuhn and stahl (1998, p.120) mentioned that one approach for helping children increase their store of word meanings is to teach them to use context clue (or cues) in text more efficiently. context clue instruction is the process of using the surrounding context to guess the meaning of unknown words, phrases, and concepts (nunan, 2011, p. 160). one way to support word recognition and meaning is through the use of context clues (hibbard, 2009). shankar (2003) stated that too much dictionary work can kill all interest in reading and even interfere with comprehension, because readers become more concerned with individual words and less aware of the context which gives them meaning. it also results in very slow and inefficient reading. linse (2005, p. 123-127) stated that there are six principles for teaching vocabulary and one of them is teach to use context clue appropriately which means using context to figure out meaning is an important strategy, and one that is used by independent learners. looking at the context in which the word appears seems to be the best way of learning vocabulary and guessing vocabulary from context is the most frequent way to discover the meaning of new words (shankar, 2003). according to stanovich (1986), this difficulty can be explained by an interaction between vocabulary knowledge and reading ability. because in reading, students will learn about repetition and they will be familiar with the words so they will have vocabulary knowledge from that reading. and also students can learn to define the correct meaning based on the text. stahl and shiel (1992) stated that one productive approach is to teach children how to be more proficient at figuring out a word’s meaning from context. a student who usually read passage will have good and many vocabularies knowledge. without realizing it, the student already familiar with the word, the meaning, and the structure of those words. a good knowledge of the language, with a lively sense of the various shades of meaning words, is needed for the appreciation of literature (thompson and wyatt, 2003 p. 9) when you are reading something in english do not look up every new word or expression or you will soon get fed up. only look up something that is really important for understanding the text. when you have finished reading, look back at you have read and then perhaps look up some extra words and write down new expression that interest you (mccarthy and o’dell, 2001 p.3) if most words are learned from context and there are vast individual differences in vocabulary, it would seem that to increase the amount of new words that children learn each year, one would have to (a) increase the volume of reading that children do, (b) increase their efficiency in learning new words, or preferably both (kuhn & stahl, 1998). mccarthy and o’dell (2001) mentioned that when you read or listen to english it is sometimes possible to guess the meaning of a word you do not know before you look up or ask its meaning. decide first what part of speech the word is and then look for clues in its context of form. the initial approaches to teaching children to use context more efficiently involved the development and direct teaching of taxonomies of context clues (kuhn & stahl, 1998). goerss et al.’s (1994) stated that they taught their students that it was not necessary to derive full definitions, but to get whatever information was available about a word from that context. because sometimes we do not need to know all of the meaning in that sentence and usually some words in the sentence already become a phrase which means that those words cannot be translated word by word. there are some advantages of context clue instruction that become consideration of the researcher to use this method in the research. (1) it helps readers not only learn words but also know how to use them in context, (2) training students to infer meaning from context gives them a powerful aid to comprehension and will speed up their reading, (3) this approach allows the learners to make intelligent, meaningful guesses. this will make the learning task much more active and challenging than direct explanation of words, (4) it helps readers develop a holistic approach toward reading. because the context of a new word may be drawn from a group of sentences, a paragraph, or even the entire text, they learn to direct their attention to language units larger than the sentence while they are looking for context clues (shankar, 2003, p. 107-108) nowadays many teachers use this read-aloud method in their classroom strategy to increase the interest in reading. especially in indonesia, students come to us with a wide range of background knowledge (wadsworth, 2008). the students are coming from many places with different background and those factors make them become not interested to read anything. harvey and goudvis (2005) as cited in wadsworth (2008) wrote that everything we read and learn is colored by our background knowledge. read-aloud gives teachers a wonderful opportunity to directly scaffold learning for all students who lack the background for deep understanding of topic before we move them into more complex subject matter. and students do learn words from books that teacher reading aloud to them (elley, 1989). while read-aloud provide the perfect opportunity to support and stimulate learning, they also offer another element that is far too important for children to miss. read-aloud also stimulate curiosity in children as they are invited into a safe environment to marvel at the concepts being represent (harvey, 1998 as cited in wadsworth, 2008) there has been many nationally-known literacy consultants suggested to the teachers about the importance of read-aloud. recent research has established that effective read-aloud which contribute to students’ comprehension development (fisher, flood, lapp, & frey, 2004; hickman, pollard-durodola, & vaughn, 2004). anderson et all (1985) in their report “becoming a nation of readers” stated that the read-aloud was the single most important thing we could do for building the knowledge required for future success in reading. and also according to routman (2003) found that reading aloud to children enables them to hear the rich language of stories and texts they cannot yet read on their own, and by reading aloud to students, they learn new vocabulary, grammar, and information and how stories and written language works. read-aloud also provide an ideal opportunity to teach expository, or information, text structure (melissa, 2008) melissa (2008) considered using more read-aloud opportunities to teach vocabulary and comprehension. sometimes read-aloud is used without instructional interruption for the purpose of enjoying and listening to a story. and with this method also we as a teacher can build the background knowledge, language, and listening comprehension skill of students together (beck and mckeown, 2001). the advantages of read aloud instruction are (1) student learns to read properly, (2) student develops the skill of speech and learn elocution, (3) however mistakes in pronunciation, articulation, stress are corrected at an early stage, (4) the various ensure organs such as ears, eyes, mouth were trained simultaneously, (5) and the student learns by imitation which is a natural method of learning (shankar, 2003). in this research, there are some terms that the researcher used to help the readers understand this research. the researcher will give the definition of those terms, so the reader can easily understand and can get the meaning and the idea of this research. a) vocabulary achievement the state or condition of having achieved or accomplished vocabulary that a person have learned. b) vocabulary total number of words in a language (oxford dictionary, 1980). the word that make up a language (merriam-webster dictionary) indicator: spelling, meaning, grammar  spelling the forming of words from letters according to accepted usage; a sequence of letters composing a word (merriam-webster dictionary, 1828)  meaning the idea that is represented by a word (merriam-webster dictionary, 1828).  grammar the set of rules that explain how words are used in a language (merriam-webster dictionary, 1828). c) context clue hints to help define a difficult or unusual word. information that appears near a word or phrase and offers direct or indirect suggestions about its meaning. a source of information about a word that helps readers understand the word. d) read-aloud in a way that reading can be clearly heard; in a voice that can be heard. research methodology this research was conducted by using quantitative method with comparative design. this comparative design compared the enhancement of student’s vocabulary ability between context clue instruction group and read-aloud instruction group. table 3.1 research design group pre-test treatment post-test context clue instruction a x1 a read-aloud instruction b x2 b where: a: student’s vocabulary score in pre-test and post-test of context clue group b: student’s vocabulary score in pre-test and post-test of read aloud group x1: context clue instruction method x2: read-aloud instruction method participants this research was conducted at smpn 1 cisarua. the population of this research is grade 8. the researcher taught grade 8a by using context clue instruction and taught grade 8b by using read-aloud instruction as the sample. group 8a consisted of 30 students and group 8b consisted of 32 students instrument of the research the researcher used some stories for reading material in using context clue instruction and read-aloud instruction based on the school’s english textbook. and to measure the ability of the student’s vocabulary mastery, the researcher conducted a pilot test to find the right instrument that can be used to measure the ability of the student’s vocabulary mastery. after that, the researcher gave pre-test to the students to find out the maximum ability in student’s vocabulary achievement, and post-test to find out the result of the treatment that the researcher has given in student’s vocabulary mastery. procedures the two experimental groups had been given different treatment. the first experimental group was treated using context clue instruction while the other experimental group was treated using read-aloud instruction. the researcher used 8 meetings to do these treatments and the duration of every meeting was 80 minutes which consisted of pre-activity, main activity, and post-activity. for both groups, the researcher used the same material taken from the school’s english textbook. in the first experimental group the researcher applied the context clue instruction and the procedures as described below: 1. the students were grouped in pairs with his or her seatmate. during the treatment, they had to be in pairs. 2. before starting the treatment, the researcher gave some explanation about the treatment. 3. the researcher gave a story to be read by the students. 4. from that story the researcher asked one of the students to mention a difficult word. 5. after finding a difficult word, the researcher led and directed the students to analyze the meaning of that word by using the previous word in that sentence. 6. students were trained to guess the closest meaning only using the clue from those words. read aloud procedures for the second experimental group, the researcher applied the read-aloud instruction and the procedures as described below: 1. before starting the treatment, the researcher gave explanation about read-aloud first. 2. in this treatment, the student worked individually. 3. the researcher read a story and told the students to pay attention because the researcher did not give them the story in written text. so, they had to listen it carefully. 4. in the process of reading the story, the researcher asked the students several questions to make them think. 5. the researcher also explained some words that students did not understand by using english words and gestures. 6. the students had to take notes, so they would not forget the word. 7. after reading the story, the researcher made a small discussion to discuss about the story. 8. in the discussion, the researcher dug the vocabulary’s knowledge of the students by asking them several questions according the story. 9. to see the result of the discussion, the students had to retell the story by writing the story using their own words. result in processing the data, the researcher used statistical program spss 16. table 4.1 students’ result of vocabulary ability context-clue instruction read aloud instruction mean std. deviation mean std. deviation pre-test 69.5333 14.84572 67.0000 16.07442 post-test 70.4333 15.38849 69.7187 10.16710 n-gain -0.0540 0.51049 -0.0847 0.61901 according to the result of the mean and standard deviation in context-clue instruction group and read aloud instruction group was resulted in a little enhancement in vocabulary ability. the result of n-gain showed that normalized gain from both strategies were in low category. discussion of the research finding the achievement of vocabulary that both context-clues instruction group and read aloud instruction group were had a little enhancement. the researcher stated that the cause of little enhancement of the data result were because these clues do not always work and sometimes are actually distracting (douglas & nancy, 2014). esl or efl learners, not being in an english speaking environment, have fewer opportunities of such exposures (mokhtar & rawian, 2012). so students only know limited vocabulary and the students only studied those vocabularies in the school. most of them did not really pay attention during the teaching and learning process. schatz and baldwin (1986) stated that even high school students were not successful in guessing meaning. because of that, the students did not have an interest to learn english. the students could not motivate themselves to build passion to learn english. most of the students do not care about english lesson. the students tend to be passive when the researcher asked them about the meaning of the vocabulary that had been discussed before. most language learners recognize only a percentage of a spoken conversation, so during the reading process of a story, they might miss the ideas and concepts (marrapodi, 2013). when the researcher communicated and asked the students with english, students prefer to reply with sundanese. although for simple instruction or simple command, they had difficulty to identify the meaning. only a few students that could really follow the lesson and understand what the researcher said in english. the researcher dug the knowledge that students had by asking the question about the reading passage that students had learned, helped them to use their critical thinking to know the meaning of the hard word by using context clue and closest meanings, recalled their memory about the prior knowledge and gave students more motivation to learn english. the students’ intention to learn english was still low. because of that, they lacked of motivation to learn english by themselves and they also tend to assume english subject as the same as other subjects. especially english a local content subject in indonesia. in order to understand a story that is read aloud, the learner must have enough receptive aural language to construct meaning (marrapodi, 2013) and it sisted of knowledge about phonic, spelling, sound, and phoneme. without those aspect, it will be hard to identify new words that appear in the story. the teacher does not really care about with the ability of the students in the class. so, it makes some students who are not very good in english become not confident with their ability, jealous with friends who are good in english and even be indifferent in the subject. because the mean gain of context-clues instruction group and read aloud instruction group were not significantly different, it can be concluded that both treatment did not enhance the vocabulary ability of the students. folse (2004) stated that the use of context-clue is undoubtedly a good method to reading improvement not a vocabulary improvement. conclusion the enhancement of students’ vocabulary ability of context-clue instruction and read aloud instruction are in the low category. there is no significant difference in enhancing vocabulary ability between students who are taught through context-clue instruction and students who are taught through read aloud instruction. reference anisha, m. 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(2004). how to teach vocabulary. essex: pearson education limited wadsworth, reba, m. (2008). using read alouds in today’s classrooms: read alouds benefit children of all ages and in all subjects. leadership compass, vol. 5, no. 3, pp 1-3. spring microsoft word acuity -ribka.docx a comparison between word tree branch method and interactive word wall to improve student’s vocabulary ribka purnamasari, caroline v katemba, nelson panjaitan correspondence author: caroline (linakatemba@gmail.com) universitas advent indonesia the purpose of this study is to find out the improvement of students’ vocabulary between those who were taught through wtb (word tree branch) or iww (interactive word wall). this study used quantitative research method and comparative design by using pre-test and post-test. this study was designed to find out the answer to the following question: is there any significant difference on the students’ vocabulary improvement between those who were taught through word tree branch method and those who were taught through interactive word wall method? the sample of this study are, two classes in grade viii of smpn 1 parongpong, bandung. they were divided into two classes, grade viii h experienced interactive word wall and grade viii j experienced word tree branch. the instrument used for this study is vocabulary test, which contain 40 questions. the result of this study shows that the students who acquire wtb or iww method were improved for their vocabulary, vocabulary categorized as “moderate” but there is no significant difference between those two groups of students ‘vocabulary improvement. keywords: wtb (word tree branch) and iww (interactive word wall) introduction english is an essential language to be learnt in order to meet the communication needs in this globalization era. taking into account the benefits of english, indonesia has established english as a subject to be taught in formal schools as a compulsory subject. as stated by kemendikbud (2013), the teaching of foreign language especially english is a goal to develop students’ ability to communicate to the world. in teaching english includes the teaching of four skills, listening, speaking, reading, and writing. vocabulary is one of crucial aspects to support those skills. according to richards and renandya (2002), vocabulary is a core component of language ability and provides of the basis of how well students listen, speak and write. vocabulary knowledge is not only the key to improving reading comprehension but it also helps learners improve writing and speaking skills (fitzgibbon, 2003). it means that, vocabulary greatly affects the development in learning language. when someone has extensive knowledge of vocabulary, it increases their academic talent listening, speaking, reading, and writing. through studying vocabulary, the students will gain more knowledge and information faster. muttahidah (2011) said that students in indonesia have problem in learning english vocabulary. the problems are the students cannot understand the meaning, difficult to pronounce the vocabulary, cannot understand how to connect one word to other words and hard to memorize. another reason about the case above, plinscar and brown (1985) said that there has a relationship between vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension. in addition to that, nurmayanti (2013) stated that in enhancing vocabulary, students should read a lot and understand the meaning; however, processing elements of vocabulary leads them to lose interest in having in-depth learning (nurmayanti, 2013). to solve that challenge, teacher should vary their methods in helping their students enhance their vocabulary knowledge. there are two methods that are considered effective to enhance students’ vocabulary knowledge; they are: word tree brach and interactive word wall. both of these methods have proven that those methods have been able increased the students’ vocabulary knowledge. gede (2013) conducted his study entitled “improving vocabulary mastery through word tree branch techniques at seventh grade students of smpn 1 bebandem.” the result of his study stated that word tree branch is an effective method to improve students vocabulary mastery. moreover, through this method his students become more enthusiastic, creative, active in learning. while another method, interactive word wall, was conducted by elisa (2014) entitled “improving english vocabulary through interactive word wall method. her study was successfully conducted because it was shown in the mean result in which students’ vocabulary knowledge was increased. another researcher named henrichs (2011) conducted a similar study on word wall. he declared that word wall method is an imperative method to enhance students’ vocabulary mastery. therefore, this study was conducted to compare the two methods: word tree branch method and interactive word wall and find their significant difference in improving students’ vocabulary mastery. statement of the problems this study focused on finding out the answer this question, ‘is there any significant difference of students’ vocabulary improvement between those who were taught using word tree branch method and those who were taught using interactive word wall method?’ purpose of the study the purpose of the study is to improve students’ vocabulary mastery by finding the significant difference between word tree branch method and interactive word wall. hypothesis based on the problems above, the researcher provided the hypothesis as follow: ho: null hypothesis there is no significant difference of students’ vocabulary improvement between those who were taught using word tree branch method and those who were taught using interactive word wall. ha: alternative hypothesis there is a significant difference of students’ vocabulary improvement between those who were taught using word tree branch method and those who were taught using interactive word wall. scope and limitation of the study this study was conducted at smpn 1 parongpong, bandung with total respondents 76. the methods compared in this study were word tree branch and interactive word wall to improve students’ vocabulary mastery. the vocabulary knowledge given to the respondents was related to parts of speech, such as noun, verb, adjective, and pronoun. the research used language focus for grade 8 as the learning material. review of related literature vocabulary knowledge reading and listening comprehension, speaking and writing fluency are the important factor of word meaning and the ability to access the knowledge efficiently. mckeown (2002) argued that the heart of a language comprehension and use is vocabulary knowledge. additionally, barra (2005) suggests that students need to have sufficient word knowledge to comprehend a text successfully. it means that the comprehension of a language depends on the amount of words that are known in language. also, to know what the students read, they need to have sufficient word knowledge. students can understand a message from writer if they know the meaning of most of the words used in a text. in addition, vocabulary will help students through language production. according to hubbard (1983), students can express the exact meaning according to what they want if they have more words. based on this view, students need to know a large number of word meanings to communicate effectively. so, students need to overcome their lack of vocabulary knowledge in order to communicate effectively. jackson (2005) states that to make a good writing vocabulary is needed and it is important to reflect students writing. for students who lack in vocabulary, they will find the struggle and difficulties in reflecting their own writing. it is because writing is related to the grammar and the grammar is related with the writing. moreover, neuman and dwyer (2009) noted that vocabulary refers to the words a learner must comprehend to have an effective communication, word in speaking (expressive vocabulary) and word in listening (receptive vocabulary). vocabulary mastery vocabulary mastery is the foundation for the four macro skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing). when students have many vocabulary, it is easy for them to interact with other people. in another word, vocabulary is the basic of your capability to think and capability to share your opinion with other people (robinson 2001). efl teachers should be aware of students’ ability in comprehending word usage as they learn foreign language; hence, when the teachers give the new words to the students, they need to give the meaning and explain the words first. so, when teachers use the words to teach foreign language, students able to comprehend (flohr 2010). according to erkaya and drower (2012) one of the great importance components to learn language is vocabulary mastery. it means that vocabulary is very vital to know in learning the english. michelle (2010) accentuated that vocabulary is an integral part of reading comprehension. it means that teachers must be able to find the effective strategy to teach reading, in order to help their students to learn and get vocabulary through reading. when students are able to master english vocabulary, it will be easier for them to understand what they have read. classification of vocabulary folse (2008) said that vocabulary can be categorized based on the function which are called part of speech including noun, pronoun, verb, adjective. the following parts will review the aspects of vocabulary used in this research noun noun is considered as one of the open words. it contains big word that offer great meaning when used in a sentence. noun can be classified into three part those are: common noun, proper noun, concrete noun, abstract noun, collective nouns (freeman and freeman, 2004). pronoun. pronoun are the words that are used to replace the noun to refer to people or things without continually repeating their names. it is divided into four types as follow: subject pronouns, object pronoun, possessive pronoun, reflexive pronouns. verb william (2005) stated verbs are the words that we use to signify an action or a stage of being. verb generally express an action, events, process activities, ect. compete sentence must contain at least one verb. adjective. seaton (2007) stated adjective is often defined as a word which describes or gives more information about noun or pronoun. adjective can be divided into three types based on their meaning they are: proper adjectives, quantitative adjectives, descriptive adjectives. challenges in improving vocabulary mastery vocabulary mastery is not a simple thing to do. efl students should be able to process all elements in mastering english vocabulary. for instance, efl students have difficulty in relating new word they learn with its function; therefore, they are not able to use that new word in spoken and written activity (muttahidah, 2011). nisa (2009) said the factors that affect students’ learning is limited knowledge of vocabulary because they do not understand its usage and meaning. another challenge in improving their vocabulary mastery is to have print skill and comprehension strategies. these two parts are essential to integrate process of mastering vocabulary. if they have print skills, they are able to have good comprehension. having all challenges or difficulties in mastering vocabulary, most likely, will lead efl learners to lose interest and motivation in learning. at the end, students will experience low intelligence quotient (iq) as they learn english (tanjung, 2011). related studies in indonesia, there has been a study in bebandem done by gede (2013) entitled improving vocabulary mastery through word tree branch techniques at seventh grade students of smpn 1 bebandem. this study explained that teacher knows more about the situation in classroom, so teacher choose the best techniques to teach vocabulary. as gede (2013) said, word tree branch is the effective method for students in learning english vocabulary because this method made students enthusiastic, creative, active and also made them think deeper. in bandung, a studywas done by elisa (2014) entitled improving english vocabulary through interactive word wall method. using method through interactive word wall it is found that it had successfully improved students’ vocabulary. it can see from the mean result that the students achieved. word wall is useful to students, because it is not only unifying related terms, but also helping students in connections. jacson, tripp, cox (2011). research in san marcos, done by henrichs (2011) declared that word walls are important tools that supports in learning and applying vocabulary and content with confidence and success. word tree branch word tree branch method is a method of development of the word, which in one word related to other words according to the keyword. according to williams and hannam (2009) there are many ways and methods to help children improve their vocabulary. it is important to use a variety of strategies in teaching to make it fun. it is a helpful tool in remembering a word with something familiar, for example “bed” it can be associated with “bed room”, “pillow”, “blanket”, “doll” etc. in this method, the researcher only need to give one keyword and the keyword will be developed by looking at other words which is related to that word. unknowingly this method will make the students become more active and creative to look for vocabulary related to this keyword and to find the meaning of each word. in this study, the researcher showed the result of using word tree branch method to improve student’s vocabulary. gede (2013), the result showed that the means score between word tree branch and traditional method are significantly different, it means that using word tree branch method is effective to enhance students’ vocabulary and it is an interesting method. challenges of utilizing word tree branch students are free to make decisions to express their understanding, can be memorable with a strong and permanent in students’ memories. students are more active and creative. to foster their sense of community and social solidarity the students need the excitement and optimistic spirit (santoso, 2011). interactive word wall interactive word wall are words collected in an organized manner starting from the big and small letters on the wall and it is the activity in classroom as a tool to develop vocabulary. this involves the students as participants and teachers as instructors. cooter (2007) mentioned that a word wall is a systematically organized collection of words displayed in large letters on a wall or other large display place in the classroom. it is a tool to use, not just display. word wall is designed to promote group learning and be shared by a classroom of children. interactive word wall are new words that students add about five each week in the large bulletin board and listed in alphabetical order (brassell, 2010; cronsberry, 2004). in another hand students will participate and make their own words creatively and students will be able to see the words on the wall from their sitting place. research methodology research method and design the method that is used in this research is quantitative method and it is a comparative study, where the researcher was to test the understanding of the students by giving the pre-test and post-test before and after the treatment. it means to find the improvement of students’ vocabulary using word tree branch method and interactive word wall method. the research design is described in the following table: research instrument the instrument of this research are vocabulary test for pre-test and post-test with 40 question. the pre-test was designed to measure the ability of the students in the improving vocabulary before applying the word tree branch method and interactive word wall method. the post-test is designed to see the result of the study after applying each of the methods. the vocabulary test consisted of multiple choice questions. the book that will be used in teaching both groups is english focus for grade viii. data gathering and procedures in gathering the data and procedures, the researcher used the following steps: pre-test pre-test for the grade 8h & 8j pupils was administered on february 10, 2017. it is consisted of 40 questions in multiple-choice form. treatments after administering the pre-test, the treatment was conducted to the students in group 8h and group 8j. the material was taken from the text book prepared by the school and other material from internet. there are several steps in exploiting the word tree branch method and interactive word wall method. table 1 word tree branch interactive word wall step 1 determining what is important 1. researcher will explain the material (story/ picture) before the students read the story. 2. students listen to the explanation and take a note to write the important things from the materials. step 2 reading exercise 1. researcher will distribute the focus sheet 1 about the story. 2. students will take turn to read the story step 3 vocabulary 1. researcher divided students into 4 groups step 1 determining what is important 1. researcher will explain the material (story/ picture) before the students read the story. 2. students listen to the explanation and take a note to write the important things from the materials. step 2 reading exercise 1. researcher will distribute the focus sheet 1 about the story. 2. students will take turn to read the story. step 3 vocabulary 1. researcher divided the students into groups that have been determined 2. students are invited to write the new words on the wall and the other students will look up for the meaning by using dictionary. 3. students will complete the exercise in work sheet 2 to make sentences by using words have been found from the story. it will be doing by individually. then students will try to remember the 2. before the teacher give the activity to the students, teacher will explain first how to do the activity. 3. students will find out the key word from the story (besides the keyword that the teacher gave) as much as possible, after that they will find out the related word to the keyword and make it into a form of tree branch. 4. researcher will come to each group to see their result (explain again how to do the activity if they are still not understand). step 4. comprehension 1. after the student’s finish, they will find out the meaning. 2. after the meaning is founded, they will make a sentence by using the new word that they had been found. 3. for the next activity, each students will come forward and read the sentence. teacher will listen. 4. next, the sentence will be submitted to the teacher to correction. 5. researcher gives students 10 minutes to understand the meaning, because after that teacher will give a short quiz according to the word that had been found. words with the meaning by comprehend. 4. researcher and students will discuss the answer together. step 4. comprehension 1. researcher ask the students to write a short story by their own. 2. students will underline every vocabulary that they think it is difficult or they don’t understand. 3. after they finish writing the story, students will paste the new word on the wall and other students will find out the meaning using dictionary. 4. students will make sentences by using the words that have been found. 5. next, the sentence will be submitted to the teacher to correction. 6. researcher gives students 10 minutes to understand the meaning, because after that teacher will give a short quiz according to the word that had been found. statistic procedure the researcher used the statistical in analyzing the data. this research will be done by computing the data using several statistical calculations through the spss 16 program. result and finding data analysis the result of pre-test and post-test of each group was calculated through excel and spss 16. it can be seen in the following table: table 2 pre-test, post-test, standard deviation and normalized gain word tree branch interactive word wall mean st. deviation mean st. deviation pre-test 42.42424242 9.657875741 59.57575758 9.358290128 post-test 82.90909091 8.757208758 88.42424242 7.973555927 normalized gain 0.698393627 0.154946846 0.703013644 0.223352521 it can be seen from the table above that the vocabulary improvement of students who acquire interactive word wall is a little be higher than the students who acquire word tree branch. table 3 normality test group shapiro-wilk statistic df sig. wtb iww .943 .951 33 33 .085 .138 according to the table above, this research used the output from the shapiro wilk because is the powerful normality test, as written by razali and wah (2011). if both data have p.value (sig) > α=0.05 it means data is normally distributed and if the p.value (sig) < α=0.05 it means data is not normally distributed. based on the data above, the data was normally distributed. it is because the significant score of gain for wtb was 0,85 > 0.05 and the significant of the normalized gain for iww was 0.138 > 0.05. test of homogeneity of variance to see the homogeneity of population variances, the homogeneity test was done. the result of the homogeneity test can be seen on the table below: table 4 homogeneity of variance levene statistic df1 df2 sig. .615 1 64 .436 the data is homogenous if p-value (sig) > α=0.05 it means data is homogenous and if p-value (sig) < α =0.05 it means data is not homogenous. the result between wtb and iww were homogenous. it is because sig (0.436) > α=0.05. conclusion from the result of data analysis on the pre-test and post-test, the researcher concluded that there is no significant difference between those who were taught through wtb and those who were taught iww. from wtb group on the pre-test it was 42.42 with standard deviation of 9.65 and the post-test was 82.90 with standard deviation of 8.75, based on the wtb data showed that the gain for mean was 0.6983 with standard deviation 0.154. iww pre-test 59.57 with standard deviation 9.35 and the post-test 88.42 with standard deviation 7.973, based on the iww data showed that the gain for mean 0.7030 with standard deviation 0.223 references barra,carmen (2005) working with vocabulary. chile. retrieved from internet brasell, d. (2010). dare to differentiate: vocabulary strategies for all students. new york, ny: guilford press. cooter,k .s. (2007). interactive word walls. tennessee: university of memphis. cronsberry, j. (2004). word wall: a support for literacy in secondary school classes. erkaya, o. r., & drower, i. s. (2012). perceptions of an ei learner on vocabulary development. international journal of special education, 81-92. fitzgibbon, k. (2003). vocabulary 5-minute daily practice series. new york: scholastic inc. folse, k. s. (2008). english teaching forum. united states. gede, g.e. sutrasana. m (2013). improving vocabulary mastery through word tree branch technique at seventh grade students of smpn 1 bebandem in academic 2012/2013: bali. henrichs, l. e. (2011). interactive word walls and student perceptions of vocabulary. texas, san marcos: texas state university-san marcos. journal of adolescent & adult literacy 52(5), 398408. hubbard,p. and al. (1983) a training course for tefl. oxford: oup jacson, j. tripp, s. & cox k. (2011). interactive word wall transforming content vocabulary instruction. katemba, c.v. (2013), anxiety level of indonesian students and its relationship to academic achievement in english. journal of education and practice vol.4 no.27 pp. 1-9. retrieved from http://www.iiste.org/journals/index.php/jep/article/view/9873/10097 katemba, c., v. ; sitompul, n., a., 2018 a comparison of using diglot weave technique and student team achievement division on student vocabulary achievement. catalyst . apr2018, vol. 17, p29-36. 8p. retrieved from: https://web.a.ebscohost.com/abstract?direct=true&profile=ehost&scope=site&authtype=crawler &jrnl=19056931&an=129783039&h=wihpsyuhnbtw94h1d6u7jk%2b21wiarb6%2byci lxnbum8t4noh17o8ju1i%2bgz%2bzjhlhluztswhonnv2stbxvowlqq%3d%3d&crl=c&res ultns=adminwebauth&resultlocal=errcrlnotauth&crlhashurl=login.aspx%3fdirect%3dtrue% 26profile%3dehost%26scope%3dsite%26authtype%3dcrawler%26jrnl%3d19056931%26an%3 d129783039 kemendikbud. (2013). standart isi untuk satuan pendidikan pada jenjang pendidikan dasar dan menengah draft ke 4. teaching-learning handout by pak jaka 6th semester. muttahiah, n (2011). improving students’ vocabulary through vocabulary card. jakarta: universitas negeri islam syarif hidayahtullah. mckeown,m.g.l.(2002). bringing words to life: robust vocabulary instruction. new york, ny: guilford. lia, michelle, p. (2010). the effects of vocabulary instruction on the fluency and comprehension of fifthgrade nonnative english speakers dissertation publishing pro quest mi u.s.a muttahiah, n (2011). improving students’ vocabulary through vocabulary card. jakarta: universitas negeri islam syarif hidayahtullah nurmayanti, i. (2013). meningkatkan kemampuan vocabulary dengan menggunakan media word wall. karawang: universitas singaperbangsa newman,s,b.,& dwyer, j. (2009). missing in action: vocabulary interaction in pre-k. the reading teacher 384-392. palincsar, a.s., & brown, a.l (1985). reciprocal teaching: activities to promote “reading with your mind.” renandya. (2002). methodology in language teaching: an anthology of current practice. new york. cambridge university press robinson, a. (2001). word smart: building an educated vocabulary. united states of america: the princeton review. seaton, a. (2007). basic english grammar for english language learners. united states: saddleback educational publishing. william, j.d. (2005). the teacher’s grammar book. london: lawrence erlbaum associates, inc. microsoft word the correlation between self.docx the correlation between self-confidence and students’ english achievement of tertiary students at universitas advent indonesia marlin steffi marpaung marlin.marpaung@unai.edu universitas advent indonesia abstract self-confidence is one of the important factors in determine students’ english achievement. this study aims to find out the correlation between self-confidence and students’ english achievement and to answer the question of the hypothesis there is a correlation between self-confidence and students’ english achievement. the sample of this study were 30 tertiary students of english language education study program at universitas advent indonesia. a questionnaire was used to gather the data, the questionnaire consisted of 20 questions and used the five-point likert scale. the questionnaire was given to the students to measure their selfconfidence and then correlated the questionnaire result with the students’ english achievement grade. the spearman’s coefficient of (rank) correlation was used in order to answer the question of the correlation between the self-confidence and the students’ english achievement and the data was calculated using spss. the result showed that there is no significant correlation between self-confidence and students’ english achievement. however, since there is no enough evidence, the 𝐻" cannot be rejected. for future researchers, it is recommended to do another study with enough data and evidence with different level of students and different aspect of english skills such as speaking. keyword: self-confidence, english achievement, tertiary students introduction persons in all corners of the world are willing to learn english, since it has important roles. its part in life is inseparable, for where ever a person goes, english will be found from advertisements to banners on the road. many countries in the world use english as their communication tools. robson (2013) said that, “english is spoken at a useful level by some 1.75 billion people worldwide – that’s one in every four. by 2020, we forecast that two billion people will be using it – or learning to use it. and it is the economically active, the thought leaders, the business decision-makers, the young, the movers and shakers present and future who are learning and speaking english. they are talking to each other more and more and english is the ‘operating system’ of that global conversation.” furthermore, english has been implemented as an official subject in the classroom (katemba & sitompul, 2018). in indonesia, english is viewed not only as an indispensable vehicle of access to scholarly disciplines but also as a medium for international communication. in the case of indonesians, there is a high level of acceptability and tolerance of the use of english because english in indonesia considered as a foreign language (marpaung, 2017). the teaching of english in the school curriculum is given a higher priority over all other foreign languages in the school systems. thus, the teaching of english as a foreign language (efl) is in fact compulsory (katemba 2013) so students need to learn english. leaning is a process. according to smith (2017) learning is “the acquisition of new knowledge or skills through teaching, experience or study. it is a transformative process in which the understanding of new information can lead to changes in a person’s behaviour or perception of the world around them.” in the process of behaviour change, a behaviour tendency will be influenced by 2 factors, personal factor and social factors (gifford & nilsson, 2014). these factors will influence in some way the result to reinforced practice. utama et al, (in rosymanto, 2018), stated that there are two aspects that have influenced the english skills, linguistics and non-linguistics aspects. the linguistics aspect include grammar, word order, pronunciation, comprehension of utterance, vocabulary, and fluency and the non-linguistics aspect involve personality dimension, such as self-esteem, extroversion, motivation, intergroup climate, and self-confidence.” statement of the problem this study focused on finding out the answer of this question: 1. what extend the level of english achievement of the students? 2. what extend the level of students’ self-confidence? 3. is there a correlation between self-confidence and students’ english achievement? hypothesis 𝐻" there is no correlation between self-confidence and students’ english achievement. 𝐻# there is a correlation between self-confidence and students’ english achievement. delimitation of the study this study is focused on the correlation between self-confidence and students’ english achievement. the population were 30 tertiary students of english language education study program at universitas advent indonesia with no experience living in an english speaking country and had taken english course for no longer than 3 months. review of related literature pearson (2007) said that. “confidence is crucial to a happy and fulfilling life. it influences your success at work, your family life, relationships and leisure activities. it affects your performance in everything you do. a belief in oneself is without doubt the greatest asset of all. even great wealth and fame can’t compensate for a poor self-image. people who lack confidence and self-belief always underachieve. they’re less adventurous and less likely to get the most out of life.” he continued that, “confidence (or lack of it) is learned, mostly in the first few years of childhood. it began to take shape when you were weak and vulnerable, after which it became self-reinforcing. and anything which has been learned can be reappraised and replaced with new, superior learning.” according to gençtan, özbey (in ibrahim, 2016), “self-confidence is defined as an individual’s recognition of his own abilities, loving himself and being aware of his own emotions.” akagündüz (in ibrahim, 2016) categorizes self-confidence into two categories, they are intrinsic self-confidence and extrinsic self-confidence. he said, “intrinsic self-confidence is the thoughts and emotions about individuals’ being reconciled or pleased with themselves. selfesteem, self-love, self-knowledge, stating concrete aims and positive thinking are the elements of intrinsic self-confidence. extrinsic self-confidence is also the behaviour and attitude towards others. the constructing elements of extrinsic self-confidence are communication and controlling the emotions.” william & burden (2004) mentioned that one of the internal factors that influence someone in learning language is confidence. ur (2006) said that, “learner population differ according to various parameters; whether the learners are beginner, intermediate or advanced; whether they are young children, adolescent or adult; their objectives in learning the language, and how they are motivated; whether their environment outside the classroom is target language or mother tongue; how heterogeneous or homogeneous the class is, the size of the group; and many more. according to cambridge advanced learner dictionary (2008), achievement is “something very good and difficult that you have succeeded in doing. roysmando (2018) states that, “self-confidence is the crucial part … , because that can give enthusiasm, brave and stimulation to the learners. because that if the learners have high self-confidence, they will be achieve the best performance … .” azmah (2011) said that a person has confidence, has the desire to achieve goals. this is a big supporting factor that has big impact. likewise the students’ achievement, students who have self-confidence will make every effort to achieve their achievement according to their abilities. related study roysmando (2018) conducted a study entitled, “a correlation between selfconfidence and the students’ speaking skill.” based on the study, he found out that the students with high self-confidence can speak fluently and clearly. though, they have problem in the pronunciation aspect, but in general the student who has high confidence, they have speaking skill well. it showed that there is significance correlation between self-confidence and the students’ speaking skill. tridinanti (2018) was done a study entitled, “the correlation between speaking anxiety, self-confidence, and speaking achievement of undergraduate efl students of private university in palembang. she found out that there is a significant positive relationship between the variables of self-confidence and learning achievement. the higher the selfconfidence, the higher the speaking achievement. a study was done by ibrahim (2016) entitled, “correlation between self-confidence and speaking skill of english language teaching and english language and literature preparatory students.” it was found that there is a significant correlation between selfconfidence and speaking skill. arango (2015) was done a study entitled, “students’ self-confidence as a way to improve english oral production in tenth grade students at ricaurte school.” the result showed a significant increase in the students’ oral production in terms of vocabulary and expressions, less grammatical errors, less hesitations, better communication, and more interaction among students. methodology research design the method used in this study was the quantitative method for measuring the data. this method was used to find out whether there is a correlation between self-confidence and the students’ achievement. according to creswell (2008), “quantitative method involve the processes of collecting, analysing, interpreting, and writing the results of a study. specific methods exist in both survey and experimental research that relate to identifying a sample and population, specifying the strategy of inquiry, collecting and analysing data, presenting the results, making an interpretation, and writing the research in a manner consistent with a survey or experimental study.” there are two variables in this study, independent and dependent variables. the independent variable is the self-confidence and the dependent variable is the students’ english achievement of tertiary students at universitas advent indonesia. sample the sample of this research were 30 tertiary students of english language education study program at universitas advent indonesia. they were all females with range of age 20 to 27 years old. the samples were taken from the same subject of english major. research instrument a questionnaire was used to collect the data. the questionnaire consisted of 20 questions and adopted from 3 different sources. the questionnaire was given to the students to measure their self-confidence and then correlated the questionnaire result with the students’ english achievement grade. data gathering and treatment after got permission from the class lecturer to administer the questionnaire, 30 minutes class time was used to administer the questionnaire. the students were being guided in answering the questionnaire in order to avoid misunderstanding. the questionnaire consisted 20 questions and the five-point likert scale (brown, 2010) was used. the explanation as follow: 5 strongly agree (sa) 4 agree (a) 3 unsure (u) 2 disagree (d) 1 strongly disagree (sd) after administered the questionnaire, the result of the questionnaire was analysed and calculated to find the mean. the mean formula was as follow: 𝑋% = (∑𝑋() / n where: 𝑋% = mean ∑ = add up 𝑋( = x-values n = number of items to answer the question, the spearman’s coefficient of (rank) correlation was used, and the data was calculated by using spss. the purpose of spearman’s coefficient of correlation is to find out whether there is or there is no correlation, significant-not significant correlation between the variables, and to test the function between the variables (lestari & yudhanegara, 2015). the spearman’s coefficient of (rank) correlation formula was as follows: 𝜌 = 1 − / ∑ 01 2 3 (324() where: 𝜌 = spearman coefficient (rank) correlation ∑𝐷(6 = the difference between the ranks (variable 𝑋(rank and variable 𝑋6 rank) 𝑛 = the number of samples result and finding this chapter presents the findings, analysis, and the interpretation of data regarding the correlation between self-confidence and students’ english achievement of tertiary students at universitas advent indonesia. question one what extend the level of english achievement of the students? table 1 showed the english score of the students where the highest valid percent was 13.3 and the lowest was 3.3. table 1. engscore frequency percent valid percent cumulative percent valid 64.00 1 3.3 3.3 3.3 68.00 1 3.3 3.3 6.7 72.00 1 3.3 3.3 10.0 73.00 1 3.3 3.3 13.3 80.00 1 3.3 3.3 16.7 81.00 2 6.7 6.7 23.3 84.00 1 3.3 3.3 26.7 86.00 2 6.7 6.7 33.3 87.00 2 6.7 6.7 40.0 88.00 2 6.7 6.7 46.7 89.00 1 3.3 3.3 50.0 91.00 2 6.7 6.7 56.7 92.00 4 13.3 13.3 70.0 93.00 4 13.3 13.3 83.3 94.00 1 3.3 3.3 86.7 95.00 2 6.7 6.7 93.3 96.00 2 6.7 6.7 100.0 total 30 100.0 100.0 question two what extend the level of students’ self-confidence? table 2 showed the highest mean was 4.7 and the standard deviation was 1.24152 while the lowest mean was 1.36 and the standard deviation was .43018. question three is there a correlation between self-confidence and students’ english achievement? table 3 showed the correlation between self-confidence and students’ english achievement where the english achievement was got from the final exam grade and was calculated with the questionnaire. from the calculation, it was found out that the questionnaire questions number 8, 11, 17, 19, and 20 showed significant correlation. table 4. correlations engscore lc1 engscore pearson correlation 1 -.042 sig. (2-tailed) .826 n 30 30 lc1 pearson correlation -.042 1 sig. (2-tailed) .826 n 30 30 table 2. descriptive statistics n minimum maximum mean std. deviation lc1 30 2.00 5.00 3.9000 .75886 lc2 30 1.00 5.00 3.1000 .95953 lc3 30 4.00 5.00 4.7667 .43018 lc4 30 3.00 5.00 4.1667 .53067 lc5 30 2.00 5.00 3.6667 .84418 lc6 30 1.00 5.00 2.5000 1.04221 lc7 30 3.00 5.00 4.1000 .80301 lc8 30 1.00 5.00 3.1667 .87428 lc9 30 1.00 4.00 1.3667 .71840 lc10 30 2.00 5.00 3.8333 .87428 lc11 30 1.00 4.00 2.9000 .95953 lc12 30 3.00 5.00 4.5667 .56832 lc13 30 4.00 5.00 4.7000 .46609 lc14 30 1.00 4.00 3.0333 .66868 lc15 30 1.00 4.00 2.5333 .86037 lc16 30 1.00 5.00 2.8667 .93710 lc17 30 1.00 5.00 3.1000 1.24152 lc18 30 2.00 4.00 3.4000 .56324 lc19 30 2.00 5.00 3.3667 .85029 lc20 30 1.00 4.00 3.0333 .80872 valid n (listwise) 30 correlations engscore lc2 engscore pearson correlation 1 -.235 sig. (2-tailed) .211 n 30 30 lc2 pearson correlation -.235 1 sig. (2-tailed) .211 n 30 30 correlations engscore lc8 lc9 lc10 lc11 lc12 engscore pearson correlation 1 .391* -.084 -.022 -.451* -.174 sig. (2-tailed) .033 .660 .909 .012 .359 n 30 30 30 30 30 30 lc8 pearson correlation .391* 1 -.101 .038 -.185 -.197 sig. (2-tailed) .033 .597 .844 .328 .298 n 30 30 30 30 30 30 lc9 pearson correlation -.084 -.101 1 .265 .405* -.104 sig. (2-tailed) .660 .597 .156 .026 .584 n 30 30 30 30 30 30 lc10 pearson correlation -.022 .038 .265 1 .144 .266 sig. (2-tailed) .909 .844 .156 .448 .155 n 30 30 30 30 30 30 lc11 pearson correlation -.451* -.185 .405* .144 1 .234 sig. (2-tailed) .012 .328 .026 .448 .213 n 30 30 30 30 30 30 lc12 pearson correlation -.174 -.197 -.104 .266 .234 1 sig. (2-tailed) .359 .298 .584 .155 .213 n 30 30 30 30 30 30 *. correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). correlations engscore lc13 lc14 lc15 lc16 lc17 engscore pearson correlation 1 .146 .287 -.029 -.269 -.452* sig. (2-tailed) .443 .124 .880 .150 .012 n 30 30 30 30 30 30 lc13 pearson correlation .146 1 -.188 .241 .063 .173 sig. (2-tailed) .443 .320 .200 .740 .361 n 30 30 30 30 30 30 lc14 pearson correlation .287 -.188 1 .028 -.158 -.129 sig. (2-tailed) .124 .320 .883 .405 .498 n 30 30 30 30 30 30 lc15 pearson correlation -.029 .241 .028 1 .220 .562** sig. (2-tailed) .880 .200 .883 .244 .001 n 30 30 30 30 30 30 lc16 pearson correlation -.269 .063 -.158 .220 1 .279 sig. (2-tailed) .150 .740 .405 .244 .136 n 30 30 30 30 30 30 lc17 pearson correlation -.452* .173 -.129 .562** .279 1 sig. (2-tailed) .012 .361 .498 .001 .136 n 30 30 30 30 30 30 *. correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). **. correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). correlations engscore lc18 lc19 lc20 engscore pearson correlation 1 .299 -.350 .187 sig. (2-tailed) .108 .058 .323 n 30 30 30 30 lc18 pearson correlation .299 1 -.389* .424* sig. (2-tailed) .108 .034 .020 n 30 30 30 30 lc19 pearson correlation -.350 -.389* 1 -.369* sig. (2-tailed) .058 .034 .045 n 30 30 30 30 lc20 pearson correlation .187 .424* -.369* 1 sig. (2-tailed) .323 .020 .045 n 30 30 30 30 *. correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). discussion from the result showed that there is no significant correlation between self-confidence and students’ english achievement. because of there is no enough evidence to reject the 𝐻" hypothesis, the 𝐻" will be accepted if there is enough evidence provided for this research. there are some questions showed a significant correlation between self-confidence and students’ english achievements as presented at chapter 4. however, some studies conducted by roysmando (2018) entitled “a correlation between self-confidence and the students’ speaking skill”, tridinanti (2018) entitled “the correlation between speaking anxiety, selfconfidence, and speaking achievement of undergraduate efl students of private university in palembang”, ibrahim (2016) entitled “correlation between self-confidence and speaking skill of english language teaching and english language and literature preparatory students”, and arango (2015) entitled “students’ self-confidence as a way to improve english oral production in tenth grade students at ricaurte school” were proved that there is a correlation between self-confidence and students’ achievement especially in speaking skills. conclusion and recommendations conclusion as a conclusion based on findings and analyzing the data even the result showed that there is no significant correlation between the self-confidence with the students’ english achievement, the researcher concludes that self-confidence is have a positive effect to students’ english achievement as proved by other researchers through their studies. recommendations 1. for teacher. as a teacher it is important to build and maintain the students’ self-confidence in order for them to achieve good achievement with their english. 2. for the students. maintaining and developing a self-confidence in related to the english achievement will give positive effect on the english ability. 3. for future researchers. it is recommended for the future researchers to do this research with enough evidence and data and with different levels and context. references arango, h. p. (2015). students’ self-confidence as a way to improve english oral production in tenth grade students at ricaurte school. a thesis. faculty of education. bogota: universidad libre. azmah, r. (2011). hubungan antara kepercayaan diri dengan prestasi belajar bahasa inggris. a skripsi. pekan baru: fakultas psikologi universitas islam negeri sultan syarif kasim. retrieved from http://repository.uin-suska.ac.id/1180/1/2011_201126.pdf brown, s. (2010). likert scale example for surveys. retrieved from https://www.extension.iastate.edu/documents/anr/likertscaleexamplesforsurveys.pdf cambridge advanced learner’s dictionary (2008). united kingdom: cambridge university press. creswell, j. w. (2009). research design: qualitative, quantitative and mixed method approaches (3rd ed.). united states of america: sage publications, inc. ibrahim, a. (2015). correlation between self-confidence and speaking skill of english language teaching and english language and literature preparatory students. turkey: cecen university. gifford, r., & nilsson, a. (2014). personal and social factors that influence pro environmental concern and behaviour: a review. international journal of psychology, vol. 49, no. 3, 141 – 157, doi: 10.1002/ijop.12034. katemba, c. v. (2013). anxiety level of indonesian students and its relationship to academic achievement in english. journal of education and practice vol. 4 no. 27, pp. 1 – 9. retrieved from http://iiste.org/journals/index.php.jep/article/view/9873/10097 katemba, c., v., & sitompul, n., a. (2018). a comparison of using diglot weave technique and student team achievement division on student vocabulary achievement. catalyst. apr2018, vol. 17, p29-36. 8p. retrieved from: https://apiumy.sharepoint.com/personal/sarra_apiu_edu/_layouts/15/onedrive.aspx?id =%2fpersonal%2fsarra_apiu_edu%2fdocuments%2fpublications%2fcatalyst%2f 2018%2faprilarticles%2f3%2e%20a%20comparison%20of%20using%20diglot% 20weave%20technique%20and%20student%20team%20achievement%20division %20on%20student%20vocabulary%20achievement%2epdf&parent=%2fpersonal %2fsarra_apiu_edu%2fdocuments%2fpublications%2fcatalyst%2f2018%2fapril articles. marpaung, m. s. (2017). the effect of the direct method on the reading comprehension ability of second year students at sltp advent 4 paal dua, manado. published journal. acuity 2(1), 61-69 vol, 2017. lestari, k. e., & yudhanegara, m. r. (2015). penelitian pendidikan matematika. bandung: pt. refika aditama. preston, d. l. (2007). 365 steps to self-confidence. united kingdom: how to content. robson, m. (2013). the english effect. united kingdom: the british council. roysmanto (2018). a correlation between self-confidence and the students’ speaking skill. research and innovation in language learning vol. 1 (1) january 2018, pp. 1 – 8. salim, a. (2015). general self-confidence and its implication on students’ achievement in oral presentation. jelels, volume 2, number 2, november 2015. smith, s. (2017). what is learning?. [online]. retrieved from: http://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/cte/studentspartners/academictechnology/learning theories/whatislearning?post=8a17841a5e5cecfb015e7c5877fd63a6 [sept, 13 at 18;45]. tridinanti, g. (2018). the correlation between speaking anxiety, self-confidence, and speaking achievement of undergraduate efl students of private university in palembang. ijels. vol. 6(4): 35-39. ur, p. (1996). a course in language teaching: practice and theory. united kingdom: cambridge university press. william, m., & burden, r. l. (1997). psychology for language teachers: a social constructivist approach. united kingdom: cambridge university press. students’ vocabulary knowledge: comparative study enhancing between semantic mapping and diglot weave techniques olivia virocky simanjuntak and debora chaterin simanjuntak universitas advent indonesia, bandung barat abstract the purpose of this study is to find out whether there is any significant difference between semantic mapping and diglot weave techniques in enhancing the students’ vocabulary knowledge. this study is quantitative, utilizing comparative research design—a simple research design which is used to examine two techniques of teaching. in this study, the researcher treated two groups with two different techniques: semantic mapping and diglot weave. each technique is deemed to be comparable in enhancing students’ vocabulary knowledge. on the basis of the target this study, the researcher has to decide which technique that is more effective in enhancing students’ vocabulary knowledge. the researcher found out that there is significant difference between group that was taught using semantic mapping technique and group that was taught using diglot weave technique in enhancing students’ vocabulary knowledge. in fact, the group that acquired diglot weave technique had higher gain of score than the group that acquired semantic mapping. keyword semantic mapping technique, diglot weave technique, vocabulary knowledge introduction in order to learn english as a second language, learners should have well-established vocabulary knowledge. having vocabulary knowledge is defined to have good comprehension of meanings. alqahtani (2015) emphasized that knowledge of vocabulary is often viewed as a critical tool for language learners because a limited vocabulary knowledge may impede successful comprehension. stæhr (cited in hasan & shabdin, 2016) pointed out that vocabulary knowledge has become great contributor to language skills; it is comprehensively needed to discover learner’s ability in learning his second language. nevertheless there are several difficulties that learners encounter in enhancing vocabulary knowledge. according to shelby (2015), vocabulary is considered to be the most difficult aspect of english for foreign learners to master word meanings thoroughly. other difficulties in learning vocabulary include fixed word collocation, phrasal verbs, idioms, proverbs and regional. as puspita (2015) said in her study that most eleventh graders had difficulty to understand the text when they read analytical exposition texts due to insufficient vocabulary knowledge the learners had. overview of the study keeping the above discussion, this study does rationale about comparing two techniques: semantic mapping and diglot weave to enhancing students’ vocabulary knowledge. semantic mapping strategy capitalizes on students’ prior knowledge through the categorical arrangement of word concepts, affect substantially and positively general vocabulary knowledge. “semantic mapping is a visual strategy for vocabulary expansion and extension of knowledge by displaying in categories words related to one another" (kholi & sharififar, 2013). nilforoushan (2102) stated in his study, “semantic elaboration positively affects memory for (a) previously acquired words, (b) new words recorded as known words and (c) other types of stimuli (e.g. first language sentence recall)” (p, 165). meanwhile diglot weave is related to codemixing and code switching which are common and well-documented processes in the speech of multilingual individuals. according to jingxia (cited in nemati & maleki, 2013) “a common phenomenon in foreign language classrooms, code-switching between the target language and the first language is widely adopted by teachers in the process of teaching to build a bridge from known (the first language) to unknown (the target language)”. (p. 1341). moreover, mehrabi (cited in katemba & sitompul, 2018) entitled teaching vocabulary through diglot weave technique that by using diglot weave technique, english teachers are able to utilize l2 as a meaningmaking tool for communicating ideas rather than an end in itself. it also reduces anxiety and enhances the affective environment for learning. this study has aims after teaching vocabulary through semantic mapping (sm) and diglot-weave technique (dwt) on vocabulary learning at sma perguruan advent i jakarta. the researcher conducted this study on students’ vocabulary achievement of those who were taught by semantic mapping (sm) and those who were taught by diglot weave technique (dwt); whether there is significant difference towards vocabulary enhancement between those who were taught using semantic mapping (sm) and those who were taught using diglot weave technique (dwt), and students’ response after being treated using semantic mapping (sm) and diglot weave technique (dwt). literature review english learners cannot separate learning a new language from vocabulary because in learning a new language people have to know meaning of words used in the language. english learners cannot separate learning a new language from vocabulary because in learning a new language people have to know meaning of words used in the language. richards and renandya (cited in rohmatillah 2014) emphasized that vocabulary is a core component of language proficiency because it provides basic knowledge of how speakers learn to speak, listen, read and write. vocabulary is mostly known as a body of words used in a particular language, or in particular sphere, or at particular point of time (lin, 2008). nation (cited in alfaki, 2015) stated that meaning encompasses the way that form and meaning work together, in other words, the concept and what items it refers to, and the associations that come to mind when people think about a specific word or expression. however weiser (2013) stated that limited vocabulary knowledge can negatively impact the development of student’s reading comprehension skills because there is a strong relationship between vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension since students need to comprehend meanings of critical words they will be reading. therefore, english teachers should possess special skills in enhancing their learners’ vocabulary knowledge. teaching vocabulary teaching vocabulary is quite challenging for english teachers because vocabulary is one of the most important part in learning language. teachers are expected to know how ample meanings of words. according to karakoça and köseb (2017) teaching vocabulary in second or foreign language is different from vocabulary learning in one’s first language because the fact that the acquisition of second language needs more demanding process. aside from that timpson and burgoyne (cited in lynch & pappas 2017) suggested that teachers should be able to prepare their teaching by using warm-up exercises, assuming roles, as well as using props, in order to result good teaching. altay (2017) said that there are several theories explain how human brain can access, store and manipulate lexical data. these three process seem to be not independent yet interactive because the process can trigger the others. when the problem is to understand lexicon of foreign language, the awareness to enable them to learn the words becomes stronger. therefore to help english learners obtain the process, numerous techniques to teach vocabulary should be considered—techniques that contain great elements to achieve particular indicators in enhancing learners’ vocabulary knowledge. hence, in this study, the researcher decided to compare two techniques: diglot weave and semantic mapping to enhance students’ vocabulary knowledge. both techniques have been utilized by many researchers to enhance learners’ vocabulary knowledge. semantic mapping technique semantic mapping consists of two essential words: semantic and mapping. since semantic is a study of meaning in language, semantic mapping is considered as a technique adapted from theory of semantic to be one of teacher’s strategies to teach vocabulary to the students. semantic mapping is valuable instructional tools. unlike many tools that just have one purpose, semantic mapping is flexible and endless in application (harvey et al, 2000). additionally heimlich and pittelman, (1986) explained that a semantic mapping is one type of graphic organizer; it helps students visually organize and graphically show the relationship between one piece of information and another. thus semantic mapping is considered to be effective for readers who have low comprehension (zarei and adami (2013). through the use of semantic mapping, teachers may benefit this technique in teaching vocabulary because english learners can create new context for students and learning would be more interesting. when students receive vocabulary instruction in semantic mapping, they can increase deeper knowledge of vocabulary which would help them use the vocabulary in appropriate situations (nilforoushan, 2012). additionally, harvey (2000) stated that is a valuable instructional tools; unlike many tools that have only one purpose, semantic mapping is flexible and possess endless application. duffy (cited in kasim and wahyuni, 2016) said that semantic mapping is an effective technique to explain how to categorize word meanings to help learners distinguish one word from another. diglot weave technique the diglot weave, from the greek ‘di’, meaning ‘two’, and ‘glot’, meaning ‘language’, is a breakthrough in language learning. diglot weave is related to codemixing and code switching which are common and well-documented processes in the speech of multilingual individuals. syres and scotton (cited in fitria, 2014) said that code-switching is the use of two language varieties in the same conversation. among these, the diglot weave technique can be extremely useful way of employing students’ first language (l1) to emphasize important concepts, reacquire the students’ attention when they become distracted, and to praise and reprimand as required (cook, 2001). additionally, bradley (2003) added that the use of first language in the classroom will gradually phase out as learners try to be more proficient in their second language because code-switching is involved to supply vocabulary items which they are familiar with. according to leon (cited in sitompul, 2017) the term diglot weave was coined. it is actually a technique for teaching a second language or a foreign language. this technique smoothly weaves the new language into the learners’ minds, taking them from the familiar to the unfamiliar. gradually moving from their own language to the target language quickly builds comprehension skills and increases confidence. methodology this is a comparative study which involves two groups. each group was treated in different techniques. one group was treated using semantic mapping technique the other group was treated using diglot weave technique. the two groups were given pre-test and post-test. the pre-test was given in the beginning of the study to know the ability of the respondent before having treatment from the researchers and the post-test in the last meeting of the study to know the improvement with the pre-test result. the researchers also distributed questionnaire to find out students’ response toward the given treatment. the population of this study is high school students in central jakarta and the sample were students from grade x from sma perguruan advent i jakarta. in conducting the research, the researchers utilized the procedure of semantic mapping from denton, et al (2007) while the procedure of diglot weave technique is adopted from dickinson and tabors; storch and whitehurst cited in sitompul (2017). the instrument used in this study is a test to indicate students' vocabulary knowledge. another instrument used in this study is a questionnaire; the purpose of distributing questionnaire to the students is to find out students' responses towards learning techniques that are given in enhancing their vocabulary knowledge. data obtained from the study were analyzed using statistical formulas. this is done to determine whether there is significant difference between the two techniques used. results and discussion in order to find out vocabulary achievement between two groups, as they were treated using different techniques: semantic mapping and diglot weave. the researcher did calculation based on the result of pre-test, post-test to get the normalized gain and standard deviation of the two groups after being treated. as seen on the table below, both groups have equal knowledge of vocabulary before being treated with the techniques—the mean score of the group that was treated using diglot weave was 68.19 while the mean score of the group that was treated using semantic mapping was 69.5. after each group was treated, the group that was treated using diglot weave technique has significant increase in the mean score of the post-test; it is 82.19; while the mean score of the group that was treated using semantic mapping is 77. it is a good consideration if the standard deviation is lesser. as seen in the table, the standard deviation of diglot weave is lower than semantic mapping. table 1: pre-test, post test, standard deviation and normalized gain based on the data above, it depicted that the populations’ score of both groups were normally distributed; because the significant value of diglot weave technique is 0.434 which is greater than α (0.05) and semantic mapping is 0.303 which is greater than α (0.05). after conducting normality test of the pre-test, homogeneity test was conducted to find out whether the two groups were homogeneous. dwt sm mean st. deviation mean st. deviation pre-test 68.19 10.428 69.5 10.52 post-test 82.19 9 77 8.596 normalized gain 0.44 0.119 0.245 0.099 normality test of pre-test in comparative study, the researcher should be aware that both groups should have the same ability in vocabulary knowledge. therefore normality test of pre-test was conducted. table 2 : normality test group shapiro-wilk statistic df sig. pretest dwt ,956 21 ,434 sm ,945 20 ,303 table 3: homogeneity test of pre-test levene statistic df1 df2 sig. ,049 1 39 ,826 the result above presented that the significant value is 0.826 which is greater than α (0.05). the results show that the population variances between those who acquired diglot weave and semantic mapping were homogeneous. the result of independent sample t-test of pre-test independent sample t-test was done to find out the row for equal variances assumed because the population variances should be homogeneous. table 4: result of independent sample t-test of pre-test levene's test t-test for equality of means f sig. t df sig. (2tailed) equal variances assumed ,049 ,826 -,400 39 ,691 equal variances not assumed -,400 38,866 ,691 based on the result above, the ρ-value of the pre-test score is 0.691 which is greater than α (0.05), it means that h0 is accepted which means there is no significant difference between pre-test scores in both groups. conclusively, the two groups were comparable. in seeking the answer whether diglot weave and semantic mapping have significant difference. the researcher conducted normality test of gain score. table 5: normality test of gain score group shapiro-wilk statistic df sig. gain score sm ,969 21 ,702 dwt ,954 20 ,427 based on the data table above, both data was normally distributed because the significant value of the gain score for sematic mapping group is 0.702 which is greater than α (0.05) and the significant of the gain score for diglot weave group is 0.427 which is greater than α (0.05). table 6: homogeneity test of gain score levene statistic df1 df2 sig. ,438 1 39 ,512 the data is homogeneous if p-value is greater than α (0.05) and if p-value is equal or lesser than α (0.05), it means data is not homogeneous. based on the result of the table 4.6, the result of the data between diglot weave and semantic mapping were homogeneous because 0.512 is greater than α (0.05). table 7: the result of independent sample t-test of normalized gain levene's test t-test f sig. t df sig. (2tailed) equal variances assumed ,438 ,512 6,136 39 ,000 equal variances not assumed 6,165 38,294 ,000 since the population variances of the normalized gain score were homogeneous, the row of equal variances assumed is used. the result showed that the p-value of the gain score is 0.000 which is lesser than α (0.05), so it can be concluded that h0 is rejected. thus, there is significant difference in enhancing students’ vocabulary knowledge between those who were taught by semantic mapping and those who were taught by diglot weave techniques. it can be seen from the gain score of both techniques which shows significant difference. students response toward the techniques it is essential to find out the mean of students’ response as they were treated to enhance their vocabulary knowledge. the researcher distributed a questionnaire that they should filled out in order to find out their response. the following is result of students’ response towards the treatment they received: table 8: students’ responses sm dwt mean of the questionnaire 83% 88% based on the data analysis, the mean response of diglot weave is 88% and mean response of semantic mapping technique is 83%; which means that both techniques fall into ‘good’ category. the students considered that the treatment they received is good to enhance their vocabulary knowledge. conclusion and suggestion in this study, the researcher compared semantic mapping and diglot weave techniques to enhance students’ vocabulary knowledge. this study was done at sma perguruan advent i jakarta where the total respondents were 41 students. they were divided into two groups; both groups were given the same vocabulary test and same topics. this study used quantitative research method with comparative design. in this design, the two classes were given pre-test before being given treatment. after they were treated with the techniques, the post-test was given to find out students’ the enhancement on students’ vocabulary knowledge. in the pre-test and post-test, both groups got the same pre-test and post-test. the vocabulary test consisted of 50 multiple choices questions which were done in 60 minutes. the collected data from the two groups were calculated then the results showed that semantic mapping group’s mean of pre-test was 69.5 and the mean of the post-test was 77. the total gain score was 0.245. meanwhile the diglot weave group’s mean of the pre-test was 68.19 and the mean of the post-test was 82.19 the total gain was 0.44. from this result, it can be seen that both of the groups enhanced in gain score after being given the treatment. however, both techniques can be considered to be effective in enhancing students’ vocabulary knowledge. furthermore, both groups claimed that the treatment they received was good in enhancing their vocabulary knowledge. based on research findings, the researcher wants to give some suggestions as follows: a) for future researchers, it is hoped that the result of this study can be used as additional reference for future researcher if the future researchers who want to do a similar research in the future in a different context or developing teaching vocabulary; b) for english teacher, these methods are recommended to be used in enhancing students vocabulary knowledge. references alfaki, i. m., vocabulary input in english language teaching: assessing the vocabulary load in spine five. 2015. alqahtani, m. (2015). the importance of vocabulary in language learning and how to be taught. international institute of social and economic sciences. 3(3). 21-34. altay, m. (2017). raising awareness of lexical semantic relations in undergraduate efl context. research on youth and language. 11 (1). 42-52. cook, v. (2001). using the first language in the classroom. retrieved in 2003. hasan, k. md. & shabdin, a. (2016) psaa. conceptualization of depth of vocabulary knowledge with academic reading comprehension. vol. 51. heimlich, j. e., & pittelman, s. v. (1986). semantic mapping: classroom applications. newark, de kasim, u. & wahyuni s. 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https://web.a.ebscohost.com/abstract?direct=true&profile=ehost&scope=site&authtype=crawler&jrnl=19056931&an=129783039&h=wihpsyuhnbtw94h1d6u7jk%2b21wiarb6%2bycilxnbum8t4noh17o8ju1i%2bgz%2bzjhlhluztswhonnv2stbxvowlqq%3d%3d&crl=c&resultns=adminwebauth&resultlocal=errcrlnotauth&crlhashurl=login.aspx%3fdirect%3dtrue%26profile%3dehost%26scope%3dsite%26authtype%3dcrawler%26jrnl%3d19056931%26an%3d129783039 lynch, r. p. & papas, e. (2017). a model for teaching large classes: facilitating a small class fell. international journal of higher education. vol.6. no. 2. 199-210 nemati, a. & maleki, e. (2013). the effect of teaching vocabulary through the diglotweave technique and attitude towards this technique. nilforoushan, s., (2012) the effect of teaching vocabulary through semantic mapping on efl learners’ awareness of the affective dimensions of deep vocabulary knowledge. english language teaching; vol. 5, no. 10. 164-172. puspita, i. t. (2015). the effectiveness of using semantic mapping strategy to teach reading analytical exposition texts to the eleventh graders of cendekia senior high school sidoarjo. rohmatillah, (2014). a study on students’ difficulties in learning vocabulary. english education. vol. 6 (1). 69-86. zarei, a. a., & adami, s. (2013). the effects of semantic mapping, thematic clustering, and notebook keeping on l2 vocabulary recognition and production. journal of english language teaching. 3 (2). 17-27 semantic mapping technique based on the data analysis, the mean response of diglot weave is 88% and mean response of semantic mapping technique is 83%; which means that both techniques fall into ‘good’ category. the students considered that the treatment they received is good t... microsoft word acuity-articles-cetak.docx           comparative study between think aloud and visual imagery in enhancing students’ reading comprehension sylvania walanda siagian, caroline victorine katemba english education dept. universitas advent indonesia email: sylvaniasiagian@gmail.com abstract the purpose of this study is to find out whether think aloud and visual imagery have significant difference in enhancing students’ reading comprehension. this study used comparative design, test the comprehension of the students through pre-test, treatment, and post-test. this research was done to 32 students of class 8f in visual imagery group; they were given passage to read and draw the image created in her mind on the paper; and 29 students of class 8e in think aloud group; the teacher and students think aloud the answers to the questions that were found in the text. the study was done in smpn 1 parongpong, west bandung for 5 weeks or 640 minutes. result of the study showed the average gain for visual imagery group is 0.038 and think aloud group is 0.125. the p-value = 0.686 > α (0.05), which means h0 is not rejected. thus, there is no significant difference on students’ reading comprehension between those who are taught using think-aloud and those who are taught using visual imagery. keyword: reading comprehension, think aloud, visual imagery introduction students in indonesia have different reading comprehension ability especially in english. some students go to schools with an international standards and are exposed to english daily. some students go to public schools, have dozens of classmate, and learn english twice in a week. then, some students in rural area go to small schools that lack facilities and teachers, have their teachers and limited text books as the only source of learning english. these things creates comprehension gap between the students, because as pearson (1993, cited by braunger & lewis, 2006) observes, "one is tempted to conclude that some of the best 'practice' for enhancing reading skill occurs when children are given greater opportunity to read everyday materials" (pp. 507-508).           in addition, a research in indonesia discovered that the students’ skills in reading comprehension are quite far from satisfactory. it is said that from 15-year-old indonesian students, sixty nine percent (69%) of them have the worst reading performance internationally (media indonesia, 2003). furthermore, kompas, an indonesian daily newspaper, (2003) reported that around 37.6% of 15-year-old students are barely able to read the text without comprehending the meaning of the text. only 24.8% out of them are capable to connect with the texts with their knowledge about. thus, many students are still lacking in terms of comprehending a text (cited by sukyadi & hasanah 2009). therefore, as indonesian students have already encountered problems with reading comprehension in indonesian, the language that they’ve acquired and learned, they also find it way more difficult to read and comprehend reading in english, the foreign language that they do not acquire and learn it barely for a short time. riswanto, et al., (2014) stated that the international association for the evaluation of educational achievement showed the low reading score of indonesian students among east asia students. indonesian students are only capable to comprehend 30 % reading material, and to read commentary text that needs cognitive process is hard for them (iae for the evaluation of educational achievement, 2003). pisa (2009 cited by riswanto, et al., 2014) database found out that indonesian students’ score is below the oecd average and is placed on the 57th of 65 countries. according to sunggingwati and nguyen (2013) reading comprehension in a foreign language is far more complicated than reading in our first language. what makes it more complicated is that the school’s environment hardly speak english, and only exposed to the language in the classroom at times when learning english. that may create lacks of proficiency in english when the students read english texts, then there will be greater difficulties in reading comprehension. teachers’ instruction is important to let the students take part in reading. however, bright (1973) stated that to provide direct experience of language used as part of real life in the way native learner gets his first language is quite impossible in any secondary school; one is defeated by the multiplicity of the context required: house, garden, sea-shore, food, farm, factory, death, marriage, divorce, etc. moreover, according to nuttall (2005) the problem is not that nobody reads fl – foreign language – for authentic reasons, but that the students do not. this is a problem of motivation. thus english teachers have to make various suggestions that may help increase motivation by making fl reading interesting itself and try to give students reading materials that reflect the authentic purposes for why people read. this will help them realize that reading is not just a linguistic exercise but also getting the meaning out of a text for some purpose. hasanah, conducted a research on the second year students of sltp negri 2 takalar on the difficulties in reading comprehension in 2002 (cited in syatriana, 2012), concluded that the factors that cause students’ difficulties in reading comprehension are: the difficult reading material, the low frequency in receiving reading           comprehension homework and english structure by the teacher, and the students rarely memorize english words. students need to have a background knowledge of the text, and vocabulary in order to get the content of a text. for that to happen, english teachers should innovate, practice, and discover new functional methods to teach reading comprehension. these new methods definitely have their own advantages and disadvantages. at this time, the writer chooses two methods to compare, thinkaloud and the visual imagery method. rankin (1988) confirmed that the interaction between the reader and the writer happens not face-to-face but inside the reader’s mind; and to observe the trail of thoughts directly is impossible. in order to do so think-aloud requires teachers to read aloud the texts and to speak out their thoughts about what is happening in the text orally. the think-aloud strategy makes students understand the content by connecting feelings to action done by the characters in the text since they share their thoughts about it loudly and not just inside their mind. visual imagery is a way for the readers to comprehend the text by visualizing the text. according to hibbing (2003, p.761), “some students experience confusion due to lack of understanding of critical features in the setting or spatial relationships between characters or items discussed in the text. we have found out that drawing or quick sketch made by the teacher is a useful tool to create understanding”. the teacher, therefore, needs to guide the students thoroughly in creating the image as they read and draw. in addition to that, think aloud has also been researched in the field of english as a foreign language – efl. jafarigohar (2013) evaluated the effects of reciprocal teaching vs. think-aloud on pre-intermediate students in iran. the results confirmed that think-aloud is better in enhancing reading comprehension ability than reciprocal teaching. in indonesia, sukyadi (2009) tried to investigate the effectiveness of using think-aloud instructional scaffolding in teaching reading to the first year senior high school students. the findings reveal the experimental group showed better performance on reading comprehension than the control group. in the same way, there is also a research on visual imagery done by jenkins (2009). she investigated the effects of mental imagery instruction on using science expository texts on middle school students. the results suggest that mental imagery strategies are beneficial to middle school students when reading science expository texts. she recommended that these strategies could be used as a continuous effort in the classroom rather than only for a short term. in indonesia, s. ratna investigated cognitive reading strategies frequently used among efl students at stkip garut in 2014. the result shows that visual imagery were used by more than half of the respondents (60.5% and 63.2%). ismail (2011) did a research at public senior high school 1 in ternate, she gave them questionnaire to investigate the students’ reading strategies in reading comprehension. the result shows that all high, middle, and low achiever students           sometimes employed the same strategies in constructing the context, the use of placing new words into context, using imagery, and developing cultural understanding. majors (2001) in his literature review, stated that there is a lack of studies in comprehension instruction about teachers’ beliefs and use of imagery. the information about the teachers’ knowledge and understanding of imagery as a teaching tool is not available at this time. based on the background above, in this study, the writer is interested in comparing and investigating the different enhancement of the reading comprehension achievement between the class who were taught with think-aloud and visual imagery especially in middle school students. statement of the problem this study aims to compare the significant difference between those who were taught using jigsaw 1 model and those who were taught using picture composition to enhance the students’ ability in writing descriptive text. this study was conducted in order to answer the following question: is there any significant difference between those who were taught using jigsaw 1 model and those who were taught using picture composition to enhance the students’ ability in writing descriptive text? hypotheses of the study the hypothesis in this research are: null hypothesis (h0): there is no significant difference on students’ reading comprehension between those who are taught using think aloud and those who are taught using visual imagery. alternative hypothesis (ha): there is a significant difference on students’ reading comprehension between those who are taught using think aloud and those who are taught using visual imagery scope and limitation of the study this study is limited to grade 8e and 8f students of smpn 1 parongpong, west java, indonesia. the strategies used in this study are think-aloud and visual imagery. the material used in this study are the students’ text book, english in focus grade 8. review of related literature           reading comprehension burns et al., (2012) stated that reading is a combination of skills, which work together and build on each other, that leads to derive meaning from print to the joy of sharing another person’s insights. reading comprehension has been described by recent theories as the act of relating textual information to existing schemata – the prior knowledge that people develop about things, places, or ideas (pearson et al., 1979 cited in burns et al., 2012). moreover, reading comprehension is crucial because general knowledge mostly depends on reading. only wide reading – a significant strategy for students to develop academic background knowledge (marzano, 2004) – can handle the ‘background’ or cross-cultural problem (bright and mcgregor, 1973). in addition to that, quantity and quality of reading greatly influence the further education. quick, efficient and imaginative reading are needed by every important study skill. a person reads because there is a desire to get something from the writing: facts, ideas, enjoyment, even feelings of family community (from a letter): whatever it was, it is to get the message that the writer had expressed and being interested in what the writing meant (nuttall, 2005). problems in reading reading is not just simply an active process but an interactive one. it is quite different from conversation since in reading, an author of book is not normally available, which makes the task of the reader difficult in order to decipher and comprehend author’s perspectives (nuttall, 2005). reading comprehension is truly crucial in an instructional circumstance where students are required to be competent in english even if they rarely speak the language. as an example, most indonesian students, who have been studying english for six years, are hardly able to comprehend and use english effectively (nur, 2004 cited in sunggingwati, 2013). the efl – english as a foreign language – reading is hard to achieve for indonesian students who are greatly influenced by their cultural background and lack of motivation (lamb & coleman, 2008; setiono, 2004; masduqi, 2014). one example about cultural background is the concepts that create different reference in some cultural contexts that leads to varied readers’ expectations. alptekin (2008, cited in erten, 2009) provided a sample about having breakfast to turkish and british readers. turkish readers, for their breakfast, look forward to have cheese, olives, jam, honey, tomatoes, cucumber, and brewed tea (with no milk at all). meanwhile, british readers look forward to have cereal, toast, butter and jam, honey, and tea (with or without milk) or coffee; or for a cooked breakfast, to have sausages, bacon, baked beans, hash browns, fried eggs, and grilled tomatoes.anford (2015) gave a statement about students’ lack of motivation that when having no desire in reading, the only time students read a book is when it is definitely essential, and most of them do not           read with pleasure. another reason for secondary students is that for them reading is a cognitive task. furthermore, when the learner has no interest in the topic, he is hardly focused to learn. hasnawati conducted a research on the second year students of sltp negri 2, takalar on the difficulties in reading comprehension in 2002 (cited in syatriana, 2012), concluded that the factors that cause students’ difficulties in reading comprehension are: the reading materials that are hard for them to understand, the low frequency in receiving reading comprehension homework, the teacher’s grammar, and the students’ low vocabulary. as bromley (2007) stated in accordance with students’ low vocabulary, “vocabulary development is both an outcome of comprehension and a precursor to it, with word meanings making up as much as 70-80% of comprehension” (p. 528). lastly, poor working memory affects a student’s reading comprehension (alloway, gathercole, kirkwood, & elliott, 2009; swanson, kehler, & jerman, 2009, cited in sanford 2015). working memory let a student to store information in shortterm memory while being immersed in doing cognitive tasks. in other words, it help the student to activate prior knowledge about a topic, to use context clues to establish word meaning while remembering what has just been read. think aloud method think aloud are said to be the inexact reproductions of a person’s actual thought; with his own mind’s eye, no reader is capable to wholly capture everything. therefore, think-aloud helps reader in catching glimpses into hidden activity, allowing reader to understand what is happening below the surface of consciousness (wilhelm, 2006). according to mockel (2013), think aloud method let participants read aloud a passage from a text sentence by sentence. after each sentence, the student says what he or she is thinking or doing to understand the text. the teacher will use probing questions to encourage responses from the student. student responses involves evidence in understanding, elaborating, reasoning, analyzing or judging the text. according to someren et al., (1994); “think aloud protocols informs about how learners solve problems, what difficulties they may encounter and to what extent and in what contexts they use certain strategies in a learning task” (p.8). there have been several studies that shows significant enhancement in reading score on comprehension tests on students who verbalize their reading and thoughts (oster, 2001). for example, a classic study by bereiter and beck (1985, quoted by duke and pearson, 2002) found out that students had better comprehension and were better at summarizing information from a text after they were asked to think aloud while reading. think aloud helps to comprehend “how human brain works and by analyzing students' behavior, one can discover things about them, so he can reconsider his           reading habit, his expectations of students and the role of reading comprehension in language teaching” (jahandar 2012, p.1). moreover, as someren (1994, p.36 cited by ozek and civelek, 2006; richard and vacca, 2003) notes, when a task is difficult, think-aloud works better. since all english text is considered difficult by most students, then think aloud might be a way to comprehend a text better. jafarigohar (2013) confirmed that think-aloud is better in enhancing reading comprehension ability than reciprocal teaching. think aloud encourages students in making prediction, guessing unknown words and recognizing main idea. furthermore, think aloud help students to be good readers. farr and conner (2004) explain what good readers do; based on their background knowledge, they draw, make predictions, visualize events in a text, and acknowledge confusion and a text's structure. moreover, good readers identify a purpose for reading. weakness of think aloud according to the national institute for aviation research at wichita state university (2004), these are the disadvantages of think aloud protocols: 1). think aloud slows down the reasoning process that may lead in avoiding mistakes that usually occurred; 2). think aloud, to some participants, may appear unusual and disturbing for it might be distinct with their learning strategies; 3). to keep sharing and talking the thought for two to three hours is tiring; 4). in order to get the best results, it require a skilled evaluator in this strategy. visual imagery method good readers construct mental images or visualize the events of a text as they read a text (farr & conner, 2004). hibbing (2003) asked her students to reflect upon the quote, “a picture is worth a thousand words”, the middle school reluctant readers responded with these comments: “a picture helps me by showing what’s going on”, “in my textbooks when they show pictures it helps me see what they are talking about”, “if you look at a picture, it puts more ideas in your head”, “if you have a picture it may take a thousand words to get the true meaning of the picture”. (p. 758) when children are able to create visual images about information and stories while listening, the pictures provides the framework for organizing and remembering the information (gambrell & bales, 1987, cited by mcdonald, 2001). visual perception involves identification and interpretation of size, shape, and relative position of letters and words (burns et al, 1984). visualization has been famous as the easiest way to elaborate things and as the most difficult to be practiced (erfani, 2011). for example, read a text aloud, stop at some point, tell students to draw what they are imagining. moreillon (2007) stated,           the best way to practice visualization is to have students close their eyes and creating images about the text as they listen to text, and then share their pictures. woolley (2010) asserted that, when visual and verbal processes are incorporated, children are much more attracted during reading because they can actively make use of their prior knowledge even more efficiently. thus, successful readers tend to be imaginative and able to pick and arrange the information from complex texts. van meter, et al. (2006) supported that drawing was a goal-directed activity that enables enhancement in reading comprehension. it is found that learners who made drawings are engaged in self-monitoring behaviors than learners who did not draw. they suggested that when readers draw, an organized selected elements construct a mental model as the learner activates prior knowledge to connect it with the text. specifically, pictures helps reading a text become more enjoyable, generates positive attitudes toward reading and toward illustrated text in particular, and influences the time readers are willing to read a text. all these effect are particularly beneficial on reluctant readers (hibbing 2003). weakness of visual imagery visual-spatial mental imagery is more beneficial for advanced level readers, to assist reading comprehension at discourse level for visual-spatial mental imagery is more to a physical reality than 2d visual or spoken information. (knauff & johnson laird, 2002; ragni et al., 2006; rapp, 2005; zwaan & madden, 2005; cited in ashton, 2012). allen (2008) stated that some students might have difficulty in creating mental image with a different range of phenomenon. “many students have weakness in creating mental images resulting in poor reading comprehension, low oral language comprehension, weak verbal skills, and poor critical thinking.” (p.29) methodology this study is a quantitative study that uses comparative design, test the comprehension of the students through pre-test, treatment, and post-test. the purpose is to see whether think-aloud and visual imagery have significant difference in enhancing students’ reading comprehension ability.           table 3.1 research design not e: a : students’ reading comprehension scores in pre-test and post-test x1 : think-aloud method x2 : visual imagery method participants in this study, the population were about 350 students of grade 8 smpn 1 parongpong, bandung. the samples were the students of grade 8e as the group taught with think-aloud method and grade 8f as the group taught using visual imagery. instruments of the research the instruments of this research were reading comprehension test given as pre-test and post-test. the pre-test was designed to measure the ability of the students in reading comprehension before think-aloud and visual imagery were applied. the post-test was designed to see the result of the study after think-aloud and visual imagery were applied. the comprehension test was in the form of multiple choice question with a total number of 35 questions. pre-test and post-test were originally made by the researcher and adapted from the materials in the text book used by the school in the second semester, english in focus for grade 8. procedures the teacher applied think-aloud to class 8e and visual imagery to class 8f. both classes learned from the same materials from the text book. the teacher promoted the assigned text (e.g. narrative, fable, legend and folklore) and elaborate the purpose of the think-aloud and visual imagery strategy at first. furthermore, in visual imagery method, teacher would first define the concept of using images to represent information. groups pre-test treatment post-test think aloud a x1 a visual imagery a x2 a           the following are the steps in utilizing think-aloud method: the following are the steps in utilizing visual imagery method: 1. the teacher read the selected passage aloud as the students read the same text silently. 1. the teacher began reading. 2. at certain points, the teacher stopped and think aloud the answers to some of pre-selected questions that can be found in the text. e.g.: what is this topic about? what will i learn from this topic? do i understand from what i just read? do i have a clear picture in my head about this information? what are the important points in this reading? what new information did i learn/get? does it fit in with what i already know? 2. the teacher paused after a few sentences or paragraphs that had a good descriptive information. 3. after the first session, students did think-aloud with another topic from the textbook in small groups; teacher and other students monitor and help. 3. the teacher shared the image created in her mind, and talked about which words from the book that helped "draw" the picture. (the picture can be related to the setting, the characters, or the actions) 4. the teacher kept track of their understanding by rereading a sentence, reading ahead to clarify, and/or looking for context clues. 4. teacher then continue reading. pause again and share the new image that’s been created. 5. the teacher gave students questions regarding the topics to monitor the 5. teacher asked the children to share what they sees, hears, tastes, smells and           students’ reading comprehension. feels, to show what words helped them to picture the mental image and emotions. 6. the teacher and students discussed about their pictures and the background knowledge they had about the story. 7. after the first session, teacher separated the students into small groups randomly. 8. the students read another topic from the textbook, and begin to create their own visual imagery in a group with teacher’s guidance and other students’ monitor. 9. the teacher gave students questions regarding the topics to monitor the students’ reading comprehension. results and discussion in processing the data, the researcher used statistical program, spss 17. table 4.1 result of pre-test, post-test, standard deviation, and gain visual imagery think aloud mean st. deviation mean st. deviation pre test 59.1562 17.9158 49.2759 10.271 post test 62.375 21.1367 55.8621 15.1604 gain 0.03888 0.453 0.1253 0.24115 through the descriptive statistics done by spss, it can be seen that the reading comprehension between students who are taught with think aloud method and who are taught with visual imagery method both are enhanced even though not           significantly. the average gain for visual imagery group is 0.0388 and think aloud group is 0.1253. discussion of the research finding there are uncontrollable factors on why both visual imagery group and think aloud group had only little enhancement, such as lack of vocabulary and background knowledge that leads to lack of interest. in other words, the sample of both groups, are in beginner levels. as burt, peyton and schaetzel (2008: 2) stated; low-literate learners “find letters and any graphical representations – maps, graphs, charts, even pictures – difficult to interpret”. kweldju (1996, cited in cahyono 2006) discovered that even english department students were not interested in reading textbooks, despite of having admitted that it were useful. she stated that the reasons are the students’ limited background knowledge, students’ incapacity in comprehending the content, and the text’s complicated grammar. even college students found it hard to understand english textbooks. on the other hand, when students – middle schools in indonesia – did not understand what the words mean, then they could not picture it out in his mind. moreover, they’re unconfident with their knowledge and ability. when students were asked to draw the picture that came out in their minds, they got embarrassed and weren’t being confident about the image being suitable with what it actually means. but when they finally had the meaning of the words, they were reluctant to draw it properly and exactly on the paper. according to bell (1986, cited in allen, 2008), “these symptoms of weak imagery result in poor reading comprehension which include rereading material numerous times to understand it, difficulty bringing words together to form mental imagery, difficulty understanding cause-effect, may not grasp main idea or inferences from spoken or written language, asking and re-asking questions that have been answered, poor logical thinking and problem solving and showing difficulty expressing themselves easily and fluently.” (p.29) cain et al., (2001) observed that poor readers’ comprehension abilities tended to be less successful in keeping track of irrelative information disruption, which leads to creating inexact mental models. since the average gain for both think aloud and visual imagery group was not significantly different, it can be concluded that think aloud and visual imagery method is not really helpful for beginner students. mckeown and gentilucci (2007) conducted a small study of 27 middle school english language learners (ell) with different reading proficiency levels, early intermediate, intermediate and early advanced, the study shows that the think-aloud strategy interfered comprehension for more advanced students and doesn’t benefit the beginning ell reader. regardless of these two methods did not enhance student’s reading comprehension ability significantly, it can be concluded that think aloud method gives more benefits than visual imagery method for the 46 samples in both groups.           since the average gain for think aloud group is larger than the average gain for visual imagery group. conclusion think aloud method and visual imagery method enhance students’ reading comprehension ability insignificantly and there is no significant difference between the gain scores. even so, it is still crucial to try it to another level of students and to conduct a study about think aloud and visual imagery in order to find out the best level, situation, and procedures that best fit in with the method. references allen, l. jennifer. 2008. the impact of speech-language pathologist service delivery models for concept imagery formation instruction on second grade students' language achievement outcomes. university of nebraska at omaha. department of educational administration and supervision. published by: proquest. isbn: 0549884653, 9780549884651. anne nielsen hibbing & joan l rankin-ericson 2003. a picture is worth a thousand words: using visual images to improve comprehension for middle school struggling readers. the reading teacher, vol. 56, no. 8 (may, 2003), pp. 758-770published by: international reading association stable url: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20205292 ashton, a. aleksandra. 2012. mental imagery and reading comprehension proficiency in english second language learners: an exploratory study. university of the witwatersrand, johannesburg. braunger, j., & lewis, j.p. (2006). building a knowledge base in reading (second edition). usa: ira & ncte 124-129, 140-146. bromley, k. (2007). nine things every teacher should know about words and vocabulary instruction. journal of adolescent & adult literacy, 50, 528 536. burns, paul c., sandy h. smith, and betty d. roe. teaching reading in today's elementary schools. 11th ed. belmont, ca: wadsworth cengage learning, 2012. 8. print. burt, m., j. k. peyton & c. van duzer 2005. how should adult esl reading instruction differ from abe reading instruction? [retrieved april 4, 2016] caela network brief, march. available at http://www.cal.org/caela/esl_resources/briefs/readingdif.pdf cain, k., oakhill, j. v., barnes, m. a., & bryant, p. e. (2001). comprehension skill, inference making ability, and the relation to knowledge. memory and cognition, 29, 850– 859. doi: 10.3758/bf03196414           cain, k., oakhill, j., & bryant, p. e. 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"an analysis of variance test for normality (complete samples)", biometrika, 52, 3 and 4, pages 591-611. stable url: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2333709 someren, maarten w. van, yvonne f. barnard & jacobijn a.c. sandberg. (1994). the think aloud method: a practical guide to modelling cognitive processes. london: academic press. uyanto, stanislaus s. 2009. pedoman analisis data dengan spss. graha ilmu. yogyakarta. sugiono. 2008. metode penelitian bisnis. alfabeta. bandung.           van meter, p., aleksic, m., schwartz, a., & garner, j. (2006). learner-generated drawing as a strategy for learning from content area text. contemporary educational psychology. wiener, harvey s., and charles bazerman. reading skills handbook. 9th ed. new york: pearson education, 2006. wilhelm, jeffrey d. (2006). improving comprehension with think-aloud strategies: a study guide for. scholastic publications. think aloud strategy. acuity 4(1),23-32 implementation of story mapping and mind mapping toward students’ reading comprehension enhancement: a comparative study novia wulandari wulannovia213@gmail.com perguruan advent cilacap, indonesia abstract the purpose of this study is to find out significant difference in implementing story mapping and mind mapping techniques toward students’ reading comprehension enhancement. this study used a quantitative research method and comparative design by measuring the achievement of pre-test and post-test. this study addressed three research questions: (a) what is the achievement of the students after being treated with story mapping and mind-mapping techniques? (b) is there any significant difference between story mapping and mind-mapping techniques in enhancing students’ reading comprehension?, (c) what is students’ response towards story mapping and mind-mapping techniques? there are different types of text in reading; however, the researcher limited the texts given to the participants—utilizing narrative and descriptive texts only. this study utilized small average amount of sample size—72 eight graders to be given the treatment. the purpose of limiting the number of participants is to provide effective treatment for them. the result of this study shows that p. value (sig) = 0.279 > α (0.05). after analyzing the data, the researcher found out that the students reading comprehension are enhanced but there is no significant difference in reading comprehension enhancement between those who acquired story mapping technique and those who acquired mind mapping technique. both techniques are deemed to be effective in enhancing students’ reading comprehension. keywords reading comprehension, story mapping, mind mapping introduction reading comprehension is the process of understanding meaning from a text. the purpose of reading is to obtain an overall understanding of what is described in the text rather than to obtain meaning from particular words or sentences. duke (2003) stated that in order to succeed in reading, a person should have good comprehension; comprehension is a process in which readers make meaning by interacting with text through the combination of prior knowledge and previous experience. nguyen (2013) asserted that reading comprehension in a foreign language is more complicated than reading in the first language. “in the case of indonesians, there is a high level of acceptability and tolerance of the use of english. the teaching of english in the school curriculum is given a higher priority over all other foreign languages in the school systems”. “thus, the teaching of english as a foreign language (efl) is in fact compulsory” (katemba, 2013). however, “as indonesian students, they have already encountered problems with reading acuity 4(1),23-32 comprehension in indonesian, the language that they’ve acquired and learned, they also find it way more difficult to read and comprehend reading in english, the foreign language that they do not acquire and learn it barely for a short time” (siagian & katemba, 2016). the outcome of reading comprehension is the mental representation of a text meaning that is combined with the readers’ previous knowledge. however, there are still many students who learn english deal with comprehension issues. siriphanich (2010) stated that students cannot understand the text because they do not know the meaning of words in the text. they have hard time making conclusion on what they read. therefore, to help students enhance their reading comprehension, the researcher implemented two techniques: story mapping and mind-mapping and compared both techniques to seek students’ achievement in reading and find out significant difference between both techniques in terms of teaching reading. in this field, the teacher has important role to encourage students to establish passion for reading by providing them with related resources in enhancing reading comprehension. reed and vaughn (2012) stated that story mapping helps students improve their vocabulary knowledge, helping students identify main idea of the text and different parts of a text in order to construct the meaning. additionally, kusmaningrum (2016) stated that story mapping has a great potential to help the student have a better understanding in reading a text. english teachers may use it to assist students to overcome the inability to understand reading (slavin, 2005). according to dawi (2010), a story mapping can be used as an outline for creating a story or summarize the story events. it helps the students visualize the people, place, and events of the story. story mapping also can be used to generate ideas during brainstorming sessions. meanwhile mind mapping is one of the appropriate techniques to teaching reading. it helps students to represent their understanding in reading. furthermore, smith et al. (2003) added that mind mapping is a good way for organizing information so that the ideas become more visual and the chain of thought and hierarchical relations can be easily followed and turned into a paper. mind mapping is effective in terms of helping communicate information because they can clarify complex concepts into simple, meaningful displays so that learners can develop a holistic understanding of the content to be learned. kaufman (2010) said that mind mapping is a useful technique to be used while reading, learners can easily place new information in the appropriate branch or make connections between ideas. this is in line with the theory of top-down process proposed by nuttall cited in brown, (2001). purpose of enhancing reading comprehension parr (2010) stated that the purpose of reading is to develop the children to love literature, the multitude of genres and to be confident in their own reading to share with others. reading also develops the children to have a wide range of opportunities for reading then become independent readers. moreover, it develops powers of imagination, inventiveness and critical awareness, equally important, read it with expression and emotion. grabe and stoller (2002) stated that there acuity 4(1),23-32 are five purposes of reading, as follow: (1) reading to search for simple information; (2) reading to skim quickly; (3) reading to learn from texts; (4) reading to integrate information, write and critiques texts; (5) reading for general comprehension. reading types according to kozak (2011), readers typically make use of background knowledge, vocabulary, grammatical knowledge, experience with text and other strategies to help them understand written text. there are the following types of reading and the corresponding types of activities to develop the corresponding reading skills such as extensive reading and intensive reading. there are different definitions for extensive reading. mikeladze (2014) stated that extensive reading is a long-run approach, through which learners cannot expect a prompt effect. it is a time-consuming approach. extensive reading activities can be beneficial in aiding learners to become self-directed individuals who are searching for meaning provided that they are based on student-selected texts that learners will be interested in what they are reading. the process of choosing reading texts will be done according to content, level of difficulty, and length. aside from that yang, et al (2012) expressed that intensive reading is useful to develop reading comprehension. according to waring (1997), intensive reading is very important for learning vocabulary and understanding how text is formed. stahl (2003) found that there is a relationship between intensive reading activities and language proficiency. moreover, paran (2003) said that teachers need intensive reading to increase the three phases of learning called pre, during, and post-reading for better language readiness, retention, and activation strategies. pollar, et al (2011) said that intensive reading is considered as a significant instrument for improving reading comprehension. teaching reading to junior high school when teaching english in junior high school, the teacher should know the purpose of the process and what should they do in the process. teaching english in junior high school is based on the curriculum. there has been school-based curriculum 2013 which is the last curriculum used in indonesia. this curriculum provides guidance for teachers in english reading, especially in junior high school. based on the school-based curriculum 2013, there are three goals of teaching english in junior high school: (1) develop the competence of communicating in oral and written form to achieve the level of functional literacy; (2) have an awareness of the nature and importance of english to improve the nation's competitiveness in a global society; (3) developing learners' understanding of the interrelationship between language and culture. accordingly, behroozi, et al (2013) showed students’ challenges in enhancing reading comprehension ability. reading challenges harmer (2007) stated that there are some problems with reading. the final goal of reading is to establish good comprehension. according to jennings, et al (2010) there are several factors that cause reading problems, as followed: (1) emotional factors. emotional problems can influence reading achievement. among the emotional problems exhibited by poor readers is emotional blocks, hostility, aggressiveness, learned helplessness, low self-esteem, depression, and anxiety. acuity 4(1),23-32 emotional factors may be informally assessed using the sentence completion activity (silver, 2006). (2) environmental factors. environmental factors include the home, school, cultural, and social environments. the home is the child’s first environment, where the critical learning of the early years occurs. the school environment is another important system for the student, one that is often difficult for students with reading problems. students with reading disabilities tend to have difficulty in their social environments. the cultural environment is another system that affects attitudes and interest in reading (lerner and johns, 2012). (3) physical factors. physical factors are also related to reading improvement. reading skills may be severely affected by even moderate or temporary hearing loss, students should be screened for auditory acuity, or the improvement to hear sounds. other physical factors, such as general health and nutrition or neurological conditions, are related to reading disabilities (jennings, et al, 2010). (4) lack of repeated reading. according to therrien (2004), repeating in reading will have a big effect on a student in comprehending text. "reading before the performance will develop reading comprehension". (rasinski, et al 2000). in another word, without repetition in the classroom it will have a bad effect on the student because students have lower achievement. (5) limited vocabulary knowledge. zugel (2009) said that students who have a lack of vocabulary have a lower score in reading comprehension. "reading before the performance will develop reading comprehension". (rasinski, et al 2000). methodology research design this is a quantitative study, utilizing comparative-research design. the techniques used to compare are story mapping and mind mapping. there are two groups in this study. one group was taught using story mapping technique and the other group was taught using mind-mapping technique. participants the population of the research was eight graders in lembang, bandung barat. the samples of this study were 72 students from smpn i, lembang. in the beginning of the research, the two groups were given pre-test to know the reading comprehension ability of the participants. afterward, both groups were treated with given treatment and finally at the end of the meeting, both groups had a post test to see whether there is an enhancement on reading comprehension or not. this research was conducted from february until march 2018. research instrument there are two instruments used for this study: (1) reading comprehension test. the researcher made a reading comprehension test for pre-test and post-test. however, the test was piloted before giving the test to the actual participants. the test was designed to find out participants' achievement reading. it is a multiple-choice test, designed based on reading indicators and (2) participants' response questionnaire. it is to know the response of the participants after being treated with the given technique. acuity 4(1),23-32 procedure in gathering the data, the researcher started with the following steps: (1) conducting a pilot test. the purpose is to check validity, reliability, discrimination and difficulty level of the test. (2) conducting pre-test. it was given to both comparative groups before applying the treatment in order to diagnose students' reading comprehension ability. the test was confirmed to be valid and reliable to get an accurate result. (3). giving the treatment. after administering the pre-test, the treatment was given to both groups. the teaching procedures through story mapping are adopted from reutzel (1985); meanwhile the procedures from mind-mapping are adopted from buzan (2007). findings of the study in order to obtain results from this study, the researcher calculated the data of pre-test, post-test, and normalized gain after conducting the treatment. the following is the table: table i. pre-test, post-test, standard deviation, and normalized gain as it is seen from the table, there is an increasing score between both groups. however, students who were treated using mind-mapping technique obtain a slightly higher score of achievement than the students who were treated using story mapping. the mean of the pre-test is 64.27 with standard deviation 9.107 and the mean of the post-test is 77.80. meanwhile, the mean of the pretest of story mapping is 61.72 with standard deviation 10.581 and the mean of the post-test is 76.77. other than that, the normalized gain of story mapping is 0.39 and the normalized gain of mind mapping is 0.37. conclusively the normalized gain of both groups falls on moderate category. in order to find out whether there is a significant difference between the two techniques, the researcher conducted a normality test. the purpose of the normality test is to know whether the data population of pre-test is normally distributed or not. after that, the researcher did the homogeneity test in order to know whether the populations are homogenous or not story mapping mind mapping mean st. deviation mean st. deviation pre-test 61.72 10.581 64.27 9.107 post-test 76.77 6.928 77.80 5.951 normalized gain 0.3947 0.0556 0.3790 0.0658 acuity 4(1),23-32 table 2. normality test of gain score group shapiro-wilk statistic df sig. gain score sm .972 36 .483 mm .947 36 .086 based on the data table above, both data were normally distributed because the significant value of the gain score for sm group is 0.483 which is greater than α (0.05) and the significance of the gain score for mind mapping group is 0.086 which is greater than α (0.05). table 3. homogeneity test of gain score levene statistic df1 df2 sig. .419 1 70 .520 the variance of data population is homogeneous if the p-value is greater than α (0.05) and if the p-value is equal or lesser than α (0.05), it means the variance of data population is not homogeneous. based on the result of table 4.6, the result of the variance data population was homogeneous because 0.520 is greater than α (0.05). table 4. the result of independent sample t-test of normalized gain levene's test t-test f sig. t df sig. (2-tailed) equal variances assumed .419 .520 1.092 70 .279 since the population variances of the normalized gain score were homogeny, the row of equal variances assumed is used. the result showed that the p-value of the gain score is 0.279 which is larger than α (0.05), so it can be concluded that h0 is not rejected. thus, there is no significant difference between those who taught by story mapping and those who taught by mind mapping towards reading comprehension enhancement. acuity 4(1),23-32 aside from calculating the data, the researcher distributed the questionnaire to both groups in order to gain information toward the two techniques. the result of questionnaire of each group was calculated through excel. the questionnaire was given to the groups after giving the post-test. the goal of giving questionnaire is to know the response of the students toward the technique. the result can be seen on table: table 5. students’ response toward the techniques story mapping mind mapping mean of the questionnaire result 91% 99% from the table above, it can be seen that the story mapping technique got 91% of the mean result. it can be considered that the participants have a positive response toward story mapping technique in enhancing reading comprehension. meanwhile, mind-mapping technique got higher mean result which is 99%. the participants also have a positive response toward mind mapping technique in enhancing reading comprehension. conclusively, both groups’ response fall under ‘really like’ category. conclusion from the result of data analysis on the pre-test and post-test, the researcher concludes that there is no significant difference between those who acquire story mapping and those who acquire mind mapping. however, both techniques are effective in enhancing students’ reading comprehension because each group achieved higher score after being treated with the techniques. moreover, participants made positive response regarding the two techniques. in conclusion, english teachers may use story mapping and mind mapping techniques as an alternative in teaching english reading because the students will become active and interested in reading. in addition to that mapping would be helpful to improve students’ reading enhancement, therefore the teacher needs to maintain using mapping in the next new academic year in teaching narrative text. it is hoped that the result of this study can be used as additional reference for future researcher in different levels and contexts. references brown, h. douglas. 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(1997). graded and extensive reading–questions and answers. the language teaching online. woolley, g. (2011). reading comprehension: assisting children with learning difficulties. springer science business media. http://www.iiste.org/journals/index.php/jep/article/view/9873/10097 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/001440291107700202 http://depts.gallaudet.edu/t acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 101 examining attitudes and online distractors in turkish emi context during emergency remote teaching1 fırat keskin2 firatkesskin@gmail.com alanya alaaddin keykubat university, antalya, turkey turgay han3 ordu university, ordu, turkey doi: 10.35974/acuity.v8i1.2860 abstract this study aimed to examine the attitudes of students enrolled in an english preparatory program of a turkish state university towards the use of emergency remote teaching as a mode of distance education in the 2019-2020 covid-19 outbreak and to reveal online distractors students experienced throughout this process. a total of 270 efl students participated in the study; 93 of these participants were female, and 177 were male. the study employed an explanatory sequential design, in which firstly quantitative data were collected using a scale (α= .871), and then qualitative data were gathered through open-ended questions followed by semi-structured ones. the quantitative data were analyzed through descriptive and inferential statistics using spss software while the qualitative data were analyzed through a thematic analysis conducted by the researcher and two other experts (κ = 0.70). the results showed that the students held partially positive attitudes towards the use of emergency remote teaching as a mode of distance education. there were significant differences between the students' overall attitudes and their gender, digital literacy, technological accessibility, and perceived language success. the relationship between the online distractors students experienced during emergency remote teaching and their attitudes was also discussed. the conclusions were made in the light of the findings, and implications and suggestions for further research were stated. keywords: attitude, distance education, efl, emergency remote teaching, emi, online distractors introduction along with many other aspects of life, the unpredictability of covid19 pandemic affected higher education in turkey just as other countries. efforts to persevere education compelled the use of distance education infrastructures; however, considering the challenging nature of the efforts to maintain education compared to planned and designed disposition of distance education (de), the mode was emergency remote teaching (ert) (hodges, et al., 2020). the sudden implementation 1 this article is extracted from an unpublished master’s thesis by the first author, fırat keskin. 2 corresponding author: alanya alaaddin keykubat university, alanya-antalya, turkey, firatkesskin@gmail.com 3 department of english language and literature, faculty of science and letters, ordu university, ordu, turkey turgayhan@yahoo.com.tr https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity mailto:firatkesskin@gmail.com mailto:firatkesskin@gmail.com mailto:turgayhan@yahoo.com.tr acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 102 of ert created a pressure on each member of education parties from students to lecturers and institutions (hussein, et al., 2020). as a significant edge of education parties, even instructors faced several difficulties during ert such as digital literacy (bond, 2020; nugroho, et al., 2021) and the absence of technological substructure and accessibility (bond, 2020; hazaea & toujani, 2021). in this sense, students’ psychology as an effective factor (gardner, 1985) is correspondingly significant. no matter how advantageous the planned and designed de may be for students in terms of flexibility, student autonomy, motivation, and reducing classroom anxiety (arkhipova, et al., 2017; banditvilai, 2016; hariadi & simanjuntak, 2020; pop, et al., 2011), it has some potential challenges like accessibility, connection, digital literacy, legislative issues, class and peer interaction, and study skills (akçayır, g. & akçayır, 2018; ariyanti, 2020; chahkandi, 2021; chen, et al., 2015; mazlan et al., 2021; rasheed, et al., 2020). in this respect, ert as a less planned and designed mode of de may be more challenging for education parties, especially students. several studies also exist in the literature on efl students’ psychological backgrounds, especially their attitudes towards blended and online de modes (cinkara & bagceci, 2013; erarslan, & topkaya, 2017; lestari, 2021; mohammadi et al., 2018; riwayatiningsih & sulistyani, 2020; shaikh et al., 2021; wali & rassul, 2020). however, investigating these factors in the ert context may reveal different results from standard de. therefore, this study aimed to bridge this gap by examining a) university efl students’ attitudes towards ert online education in an english language preparatory program (elpp) in the ert process; b) the relationship between the attitudes and variables such as gender, digital literacy, and accessibility to technology. considering this gap, the present study aimed to investigate the turkish university efl students’ attitudes towards the application of asynchronous offline classes in an english foundation program during ert in the context of demographics and student preferences, and to discover the online distractors the students experienced. ‘what are the turkish efl students’ general attitudes towards the use of asynchronous distance education mode during ert and what online distractors did the students face?’ was the main guiding research question of this mixed-research study, which was followed by five more specific research questions as follows; quantitatively the following research questions were asked: 2) is there a significant difference between the female and male participants’ levels of general attitudes towards using asynchronous distance education mode in ellp during ert? 3) is there a significant relationship between the participants’ attitudes and their technological literacy in ert? 4) is there a significant relationship between the students’ attitudes and their perceived foreign language competency in ert? 5) is there a significant relationship between the students’ attitudes and their accessibility to technology in ert? qualitatively, the following research question was asked: 6) what online distractions have the participants frequently faced after the ert experience? review of literature https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 103 attitude correlates with behavior which directly affects how action proceeds (lipnevich, gjicali, & krumm, 2016); therefore, having a positive or negative attitude towards the mode of instruction may have an impact on outputs (genc & aydin, 2017). monitoring socio-psychological backgrounds of students can culminate arbiter outcomes in the students’ academic successes throughout elpp. in brief, as well as other socio-psyhcological components such as motivation and anxiety, attitude is also a critical factor in efl (dörnyei, 2001; gardner, 1985). regarding how critically effective students’ attitudes in efl, existing literature has several studies combining it with technology among many other things. the advancements in technology evolved into several areas; nevertheless, distance education with its different forms/modes such as online education/elearning and hybrid/blended education (singh & thurman , 2019) has played an important role in ert period as a significant factor of the technological advancements in education. in efl context, blended learning (bl) is a contributing factor in students’ motivation (arkhipova, et al., 2017; banditvilai, 2016), autonomy (banditvilai, 2016), improvement of language skills (banditvilai, 2016; birova, 2021; hu, 2020; ryabkova, 2020), and positive attitude (lestari, 2021; shaikh, et al., 2021; wali, 2021). on the other hand, three major factors posing problem for students are self-regulation issues, technological infrastructure and accessibility (akçayır & akçayır, 2018; chen et al., 2015; rasheed et al.,2020). ultimately, integrating bl into traditional classrooms can have positive effects on students’ language learning as long as necessary planning and tools are provided (aragon, et al., 2002; wright, 2017). online learning is delivering (language) courses synchronously and/or asynchronously on various learning management systems (lms), and it has advantages and disadvantagees. studies in the existing literature often compared synchronous or asynchronous classes as factors on various language skills (abrams, 2003; alibakhshi & mohammadi, 2016; ene & upton, 2018; lotfi & pozveh, 2019; mehr et al., 2013; shang, 2017), and examining students’ socio-psychological responses like motivation (ayoub, 2019; hrastinski, 2019; tahriri, hassaskhah, & pour, 2015), perceptions (gunes, 2019; wali), and attitudes (cinkara & bagceci, 2013; erarslan & topkaya, 2017; mohammadi et al., 2018; riwayatiningsih & sulistyani, 2020). emergency remote teaching (ert) defines the online education process during the covid19 lockdown as different from other distance education modes (hodges, et al., 2020). although various ert studies on language learning reveal that students have positive attitudes towards the implementation of online learning in terms of flexibility, motivation, improving language skills, and autonomy (allo, 2020; karim & hasan, 2020); they also have negative attitudes due to the challenges such as accessibility, regulative issues, interaction, digital literacy, and infrastructure issues (afip, et al., 2020; ariyanti, 2020; chahkandi, 2021; huang, et al., 2021; lengkanawati, mazlan et al., 2021; wirza & alicia, 2021; price, 2021; resnik & dewaele, 2021; yazawa, 2021). in brief, students may approach ert eagerly and their neutral attitudes may turn into positive as long as authorities consider these drawbacks in the time of designing and planning distance learning during ert. methodology https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 104 english language preparatory programs are foundation programs at universities in turkey which have intensive general english classes to prepare students to their english-medium departments. the students have twenty-four hours of english lessons every week throughout one academic year to improve their language proficiency to b2 level. these intensive language programs have a design requiring continuation; therefore, the sudden switch into online classes in the middle of academic year affected students as well as teachers and institutions. the aim of this study was to reveal the efl students’ attitudes towards this implementation of ert. the population of the study was university efl students studying in elpps all around turkey, and the sample group was selected from a state university in alanya, turkey. the explanatory sequential design was employed. there were two quantitative and two qualitative data collection tools. firstly, a profile form was given to 360 elpp students. this first quantitative tool included 13 statements about participants’ demographics and preferences. 280 of the students consented to participate in the study. 10 insincere and patterned answers were discarded. remaining participants were grouped based on their preferences and demographics such as gender. next, online language learning attitude test (ollat) was adapted from cinkara and bagceci (2013) and sent as a link on google forms. the test had 15 five-point-likert statements. the participants reflected their ideas about statements by marking each strongly agree (5), agree (4), neither agree nor disagree (3), disagree (2), and strongly disagree (1). the primary step for the analysis procedure of the quantitative data was to check reliability, and cronbach’s alpha coefficient was (α= .871). next, the distribution of the quantitative data was tested, and skewness and kurtosis values demonstrated normal distribution (±1.5). considering the reliability and distribution results, the analysis procedure was conducted using ibm spss 22. three statements were coded reversely. after the quantitative data collection procedure, another link was sent to the participants including 5 open-ended questions. this first qualitative tool was used to support the quantitative data. thematic analysis was conducted to analyze the qualitative data. lastly, 24 (12 female, 12 male) students representing each classroom in the program were invited for semistructured online interviews. 12 of the volunteers were randomly selected, and interviews were recorded. participants consented all the interview procedures. after the recordings were transcribed and categorized into codes, categories, and themes (nowell, norris, white, & moules, 2017), two other experts conducted the same procedure independently, and the interrater reliability was κ = 0.70, p < .005. results quantitative results the first part of the quantitative results presents the participants’ (93 female and 177 male; age 18-20 (180), 21-23 (81), and 24+ (9) demographics, preferential choices, and accessibility to technology. the results of the data collected through the profile form are shown in table 1. table 1. participants’ demographic information demographic & preference response n % perceived computer skill basic 54 20 average 174 64.4 advanced 42 15.6 distance education history yes 6 2.2 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 105 no 264 97.8 preferences about taking online elpp classes yes 81 30.0 no 189 70 perceived success in elpp poor 12 4.4 not good enough 120 44.4 good 126 46.7 very good 12 4.4 necessities and accessibility to technology yes 114 42.2 no 30 11.1 partly 126 46.7 the second part of the quantitative data consists of two parts. the first of these two parts aimed at revealing the participants’ overall attitudes by taking the mean and standard deviations of the responses given to the ollat developed by cinkara and bagceci (2013). based on the descriptive results (table 2), disagreement with the items 1, 7, and 12 means that most of the participants think that distance language learning is neither as effective as face-to-face classes nor has any positive effects on their studying habits and language learning. on the other hand, participants showed maximum agreement with the items of 14 and 15, which means distance language learning provides flexibility with recorded materials. the descriptive scores to the items 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11 and reversely-coded items 2 and 6 remained neutral, which means that participants neither agreed nor disagreed with the statements. however, responses to the last reversely-coded item 13, showed that participants believe that traditional classrooms result in more success. these results were clustered with the same principle of the study by cinkara and bagceci (2013) where ollat was adapted. the participants’ answers were coded as points, and each participants’ answers got a score (from 1 to 5) based on their answers for each item. total scores were used to label each participants’ responses as very positive if it was between 60-75; and the other labels were as follows; 45-59 positive; 15-29 negative, and 0 14 very negative. the results showed that although there were no participants with very negative attitudes and only a few (8.9%) students’ with negative attitudes towards distance language learning in their elpp education, relatively more students (29.9%) had positive and even some students (4.4%) had very positive attitudes. most of the participants’ (57.8%) attitudes remained neutral showing neither positive nor negative attitudes. table 2. descriptive results of ollat f mean sd 1. learning english through distance education can be as efficient as face-to-face classes. 270 2.38 1.11 2. english cannot be learned through distance education 270 2.68 1.28 3. distance education provides more various lesson content 270 2.74 1.15 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 106 4. my family supports me in learning english through distance education. 270 2.85 1.12 5. attending classes is easier thanks to distance education. 270 3.00 1.30 6. distance language learning is a waste of time. 270 2.86 1.18 7. thanks to distance language learning, i control my studying habit better. 270 2.58 1.12 8. distance language learning provides more various audial and visual materials. 270 3.03 1.25 9. distance language learning help me feel more relaxed for attending the classes. 270 3.27 1.22 10. it is easier for me to concentrate on distance language classes. 270 2.61 1.19 11. the fact that the class is taught through distance education makes it easier for me to study. 270 2.61 1.21 12. distance education is effective at language learning. 270 2.60 1.17 13. learning english in traditional classrooms results in more success. 270 4.04 .97 14. distance education provides flexibility while studying and learning english. 270 3.51 1.13 15. the fact that this class can record audial and visual materials enhances the efficiency 270 3.64 1.04 inferential results are the second part of the quantitative results, in which independent sample t-test was used to compare the demographics with two answers to overall attitudes and oneway anova was used to compare demographics with more than two answers to overall attitudes. the results for differences based on gender are shown in table 3. according to the independent sample t-test results, male participants (mean=42.93, sd=9.81) significantly differed from female participants (mean=37.5, sd=9.12) in terms of holding more positive attitudes towards distance education in their english preparatory classes (t (268) = -4.43, p<.001). table 3. independent sample t-test results based on gender n mean sd sem t df p female 93 37.49 9.12 .94 -4.43 268 .00 male 177 42.93 9.81 .73 following results were related to participants' preferences about taking online preparatory classes, and these results are presented in table 4. participants responded to the question whether they would take or accept to take online classes if they were given the choice by marking yes or no. according to the independent sample t-test results, participants who claimed that they would not accept to take online courses given the choice (mean=36.63, sd=7.02) significantly differed from the ones who answered in the opposite direction by marking ‘yes’ (mean=51.38, sd=7.75) in terms of less positive attitudes towards distance education in their elpp (t (268) = 15.32, p<.001). https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 107 these results indicates that there is a relationship between students’ attitudes and their online class preferences. one-way anova test was applied to detect a possible relationship between the participants' perceived computer skills and their overall attitudes. tukey post-hoc test was performed as a result of equality variance (p=0.929>0.05) and a significant difference (p=0.04<0.05) detected as a result of this test. table 4. preferences about taking online preparatory classes t-test results n mean sd sem t df p yes 81 51.38 7.75 .86 15.32 268 .00 no 189 36.63 7.02 .51 shown in table 5, there is a significant difference between the participants claiming to have basic computer skills and those who think they have average (p=.004<.05) and advanced level computer skills (p=.01<.05). on the other hand, no significant difference was found between the participants with average-level skills and those with high-level computer skills (p=.94>.05). these results indicate that students with lower computer skills are less positive to distance language learning during their elpp education. table 5. anova results among participants’ computer skill and attitudes (i) perceived computer skill (j) perceived computer skill mean difference (i-j) std. error p m sd basic average -4.89* 1.51 .004 37.05 9.33 advanced -5.45* 2.00 .019 average basic 4.89* 1.51 .004 41.95 9.91 advanced -.55 1.67 .941 advanced basic 5.45* 2.00 .019 42.50 9.51 average .55 1.67 .941 afterwards, one-way anova was applied again to determine whether there is a possible relationship between the students' perceived language learning success and their overall attitudes. after levene's equal distribution results showed p=.01<.05 and one-way anova showed a significant difference, post-hoc results were examined. according to the results shown in table 6, there is a significant difference between the participants who think that their language learning success is ‘not good enough’ and those who think it is ‘good’ (p=.00<.05) although there was no significant difference among the other groups (p>.05). these results show that the students with less language learning success are more negative than the students perceiving themselves good in language learning in terms of their overall attitudes towards dll in elpp. the standard deviation between the two groups of ‘poor’ and ‘very well’ was very high, which demonstrates a fluctuation in the attitudes rather than a consensus. table 6. participants’ perceived language success and attitudes (i) perceived success in elpp (j) p perceived success in elpp mean difference (i-j) std. error p m sd https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 108 poor not good enough 2.19 2.91 .87 40.75 13.95 good -2.95 2.91 .74 very well 2.06 3.93 .95 not good enough poor -2.19 2.91 .87 38.56 9.93 good -5.14* 1.22 .00 very well -.12 2.91 1.00 good poor 2.95 2.91 .74 43.70 9.21 not good enough 5.14* 1.22 .00 very well 5.01 2.91 .31 very well poor -2.06 3.93 .95 38.68 4.59 not good enough .12 2.91 1.00 good -5.01 2.91 .31 finally, one-way anova was applied to determine the possible relationship between the needs and accessibility to dll tools and overall attitudes of the participants during the transition to distance language learning within the scope of covid19 measures. after the one-way anova test indicated a significant difference (p=.00<.05), the equal distribution was checked, and the result showed a heterogeneous distribution (p=.004<.05). as a result, the games-howell post-hoc test was applied and the results are shown in table 7. according to the results, a significant difference was found between the students who have accessibility to dll tools and infrastructure and those who do not have the necessary equipment such as technological tools and accessibility (p=.00<.05). the students with access significantly differed from the ones with accessibility problems in terms of having more positive attitudes towards the use of dll in elpp. the students with partial access also differed significantly from the students with access problems (p=.00<.05). this suggests that students with access problems have more negative attitudes than students with partial access. there was no significant difference between the groups with access and partially access (p=.43>.05) table 7. anova results of participants’ accessibility to technology and attitudes (i) distance education necessities and accessibility (j) distance education necessities and accessibility mean difference (i-j) std. error p m sd yes no 11.78* 1.37 .00 43.08 9.21 partly 1.52 1.23 .43 no yes -11.78* 1.37 .00 31.30 5.85 partly -10.25* 1.39 .00 partly yes -1.52 1.23 .43 41.55 9.99 no 10.25* 1.39 .00 qualitative results https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 109 there were two qualitative data collection tools that were applied sequentially in the study. the first of these was 5 open-ended questions and the other was semi-structured interviews. the results from both qualitative data collection tools were analyzed following the same principles. the data was first transcribed into a file and then read again to check their accuracy. these transcribed data were then categorized into codes and themes as positive, negative and neutral. these stages were also carried out by two other experts, and the results were used in this part of the study after comparing them in terms of validity and reliability (κ = 0.70, p < .005). the results show that students have both positive and negative opinions about the use of dll as a part of ert. although the participants expressed their opinions that the use of dll could result in positive outputs, they also stated that using dll in an intensive system such as elpp would create some deficiencies. overall frame of the pattern coding indicate a neutral opinion by the participants towards the use of dll in elpp. table 8. pattern coding results of open-ended questions question category n % male % female % participants’ opinions towards the use of ert in elpp desperate 20 11.56 8 4.62 12 6.93 useless 24 13.87 14 8.09 10 5.78 anxious 35 20.23 19 10.98 16 9.24 needs improvement 36 20.80 20 11.56 16 9.24 convenient 44 25.43 23 13.29 21 12.13 ideal 14 8.09 8 4.62 6 3.46 total 173 100 92 53.17 81 46.82 participants’ opinions towards the use of ert for elpp challenging 39 22.94 21 12.35 18 10.58 inaccessible 27 15.88 16 9.41 11 6.47 impractical 57 33.52 35 20.58 22 12.94 okay 13 7.64 8 4.70 5 2.94 time saver 25 14.70 11 6.47 14 8.23 perfect 9 5.29 4 2.35 5 2.94 total 170 100 95 55.88 75 44.11 participants’ perceived language learning poor 7 4.21 4 2.40 3 1.80 not good enough 65 39.15 36 21.68 29 17.46 average 50 30.12 29 17.46 21 12.65 good 37 22.28 21 12.65 16 9.63 very good 7 4.21 3 1.80 4 2.40 total 166 100 93 56.02 73 43.97 participants’ ert experiences waste of time 24 17.51 10 7.29 14 10.21 tiring 25 18.24 9 6.56 16 11.67 unrealistic 11 8.02 3 2.18 8 5.83 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 110 okay 19 13.86 11 8.02 8 5.83 enough 52 37.95 33 24.08 19 13.86 perfect 6 4.37 5 3.64 1 .72 total 137 100 71 51.82 66 48.17 semi-structured focus group interviews were the last instrument of the study. a total of 24 participants were reached and 12 of them were randomly selected based on the convenience. the interviews were conducted online and the participants granted oral consents for these interview appointments and recordings. the pattern analysis process was conducted following the same principles with open-ended questions. as a result of the analysis process, the responses were gathered under several themes which were challenging, distractors, interaction, accessibility, anxiety, material, and flexibility. the first four of these themes were used as negative attitude signs and the latter three were positive. the results showed that students were easily distracted due to several different distractors during ert. limited or no interaction with peers and the teacher, and accessibility problems were primary barriers emphasized in the responses. on the other hand, flexibility in time, space, and the use of materials helped students reduce their anxiety and understand the lesson. these answers were grouped under three categories as positive, negative, and neutral. according to the results of the interviews, although the participants’ attitudes towards using distance language learning platforms are positive, their use of such tools during the preparatory years at the university is not as positive as it used to be. the main reason for this is that students think that learning a language in a strict discipline like the elpp year-based system with the number of intensive lessons, assignments, and assessment criteria cannot be fully achieved with asynchronous distance lessons. table 9. semi-structured interview results attitude category frequency example negative challenging s3, s8, s4 …i tried the app to learn spanish, and i liked it, but it is not the same as this year’s education. elpp requires a full-time effort. distractors s9, s5, s6, s9, s1, s12 … it became tough for me to concentrate again when i got the notification from my social media accounts or text message applications interaction s1, s2, s11 … i felt the absence of a teacher when i had a question … i did not have a chance to ask for help from my friends accessibility s12, s3, s3 … there is only one computer at home, and we have to use it with my two other siblings. positive anxiety s6, s10, s7 …luckily, we did not have pair dialogues in dll. i do not like speaking in english in the classroom. material s1, s12,s6, s8 …it is much better than a traditional classroom in terms of materials https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 111 flexibility s9, s10, s2, s5 ... thanks to this system, i can have my classes anytime and anywhere i wanted discussion the purpose of the first research question was to reveal elpp students’ overall attitudes towards ert classes. the mixed data results showed that the turkish efl students enrolled in a year-based elpp held partially positive attitudes towards the implementation of asynchronous offline classes in ert. the reason for this may be that students are baffled as they are well aware of what limitations the pandemic has brought (hussein et al., 2020), and safety comes first no matter the circumstances (bozkurt & sharma, 2020). they also need to continue their education despite the challenges they experience. as prior studies (hodges et al., 2020; perveen, 2016; riwayatiningsih & sulistyani, 2020) suggest, the solution for better experiences and attitudes may be blending synchronous and asynchronous learning modes to support efl students in cases of such needs as ert. these results are in line with two other studies (lengkanawati et al., 2021; price, 2021) in terms of efl students’ partially positive attitudes towards the use of e-learning in ert. due to biological or social differences, males and females can differ from each other in language learning in many ways, such as learning styles (tatarinceva, 2009; viriya & sapsirin, 2014), motivation (mori & gobel, 2006), and preferences (xodabande, 2018). the second quantitative research question is related to this gender aspect as the distinction favors females in terms of having a more positive attitude towards learning english as a foreign language (aldosari, 2014; kobayashi, 2002), and males in terms of having a more positive attitude towards using the internet (aydın, 2007). it aimed to reveal a possible relationship between efl students' attitudes towards implementing asynchronous classes as a part of ert in the preparatory program and their gender. the results of the quantitative data analysis showed a significant difference between male and female participants’ attitudes towards the use of asynchronous offline classes in ert. male participants have a more positive attitude compared to female participants. these results contradict other studies investigating the relationship between efl students’ attitudes and gender (aldosari, 2014; kobayashi, 2002). participants may have regarded this as a part of the internet rather than a mode of education. in other words, female participants’ responses may have been more related to the pros and cons of learning in ert. in contrast, male participants may have regarded ert more positively as they are more familiar with using the internet. the difference in the sample size of the participants between male and female participants could be the other reason for the results. the last reason could be the difference between preand post-pandemic reactions of the students; that is, male and female students may have different perspectives about being satisfied with what educational institutions offer during ert and what it should be. finally, to the researchers’ best knowledge, there are very few studies in the existing efl/ert literature, limiting the possible comparison of the gender results to other studies. at the same time, this situation makes the study unique in the literature. the third research question was related to the relationship between students’ familiarity, competence, and literacy with digital tools and their attitudes towards the use of asynchronous offline classes during ert for their english classes in elpp. according to the quantitative results, students with a lower level of perceived digital competency differ significantly from those with average and advanced competency in computer skills. three major reasons could be behind the https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 112 relationship between the lower attitude towards asynchronous offline ert english classes and the lower competency in computer skills. firstly, as fidalgo et al. (2020) state, students may have felt intimidated by the idea of using ert tools as they considered these tools too complex even if these tools might be in their digital competency range. secondly, without any distance education background, students accustomed to face-to-face education may not have needed to acquire digital literacy or competency until they had to with ert. finally and most importantly, there is the fact of affordability and accessibility of digital tools such as computers, laptops, tablets, smartphones, etc., because one of the significant challenges behind the effective implementation of ert is the issue of affordability and accessibility (pokhrel & chhetri, 2021). students who have problems with accessing digital tools, either due to location or financial problems, may develop lower levels of digital competency. the fifth research question aimed to understand the possible relationship between the efl students’ accessibility to technology and their attitudes towards the utilization of asynchronous offline elpp classes during ert. analysis of the quantitative data showed a significant relationship between these two. the students with no accessibility differ from those with full or partial accessibility in terms of having less positive attitudes towards the asynchronous offline elpp classes. data gathered from qualitative tools also supported quantitative results. participants with no or partial accessibility to the necessities for dll in ert claimed the issues such as connection issues, a single device in a multi-need family environment, and affordability affected their success by reducing their motivation. the reason for the lower level of positive attitudes towards distance language learning in ert for elpp mainly derives from affordability issues. in short, there is a significant relationship between accessibility to infrastructural necessities and devices for distance education and efl students’ attitudes towards the use of asynchronous offline classes during ert for elpp. the challenge revealed by the results is in line with the conclusions of other studies conducted in the context of ert (ariyanti, 2020; chahkandi, 2021; ghosh, et al., 2021; mazlan et al., 2021; pokhrel & chhetri, 2021). conclusion this study aimed to investigate the overall attitudes of efl students towards the implementation of asynchronous offline classes by a turkish state university’s elpp as a response to emergency remote teaching just after the covid19 outbreak and to reveal online distractors experienced by the students. according to the results obtained from the qualitative and the quantitative tools, the students' attitudes were partially positive. variables such as students’ gender, perceived success in language learning, digital competency, and technological accessibility were significantly related to their attitudes. online distractors revealed through the qualitative data impact students’ motivation, autonomy, and attitudes substantially. the most commonly experienced online distractors are connection problems, mobile notifications, the urge to visit other web pages, the complexity of online materials, and online music. limitations there are a few limitations of the present study, which may be considered as subjects for other studies as well as recommendations for other researchers. primarily, the critical limitation of the https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 113 study is participant-related. the fact that the participants of this study are from one specific university in turkey is a significant limitation. the findings may result in different outcomes with a different population and sampling. sequentially, results may not be the same when the study is conducted in different settings and with different people of other nationalities. another limitation may be the number of participants, as a higher or lower number of contributors may affect the results. thirdly, the study was conducted in the spring semester of the previous academic year which meant that the data were collected in a week or two following events with the covid19 pandemic that obligated a three-week break for universities in turkey. regarding this, findings may differ in research where the data collection procedure is longer. furthermore, researchers might consider keeping the data collection procedure longer for two reasons, one of which is diversifying data collection tools with more interviews or open-ended questions, and the other is observing the target population for more than a semester or a year. implications studies conducted before the outbreak of covid-19 in late 2019 investigated the attitudes of students towards the implementation of e-learning models, and their results indicated that students’ attitudes are more positive for the use of synchronous and asynchronous classes used complementarily for english language classes (perveen, 2016; riwayatiningsih & sulistyani, 2020). therefore, one of the implications based on the findings of the current study is that a blend of synchronous and asynchronous online classes may produce better results in ert context. references abrams, z. i. 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(2021). comparison of japanese university students’ levels of self-determined motivation in face-to-face and ert classrooms: nests and jtes effect on satisfaction of students’ basic psychological needs. computer assisted language learning electronic journal, 22(2), 91-103. http://callej.org/archives.html https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity review of literature methodology results quantitative results table 1. participants’ demographic information table 2. descriptive results of ollat table 3. independent sample t-test results based on gender table 4. preferences about taking online preparatory classes t-test results table 5. anova results among participants’ computer skill and attitudes table 6. participants’ perceived language success and attitudes table 7. anova results of participants’ accessibility to technology and attitudes qualitative results table 8. pattern coding results of open-ended questions table 9. semi-structured interview results discussion conclusion limitations implications references template jurnal didaktika fkip um palembang acuity 4(1), 59-65 1 agnes grey’s search for self-identity in agnes grey by anne bronte yanti rahayuningsih uts@ypps.uts.ac.id universitas teknologi surabaya abstract this study aims to reveal, identify and describe agnes grey's search for self-identity. also, the writer of the thesis wants to show that the situations in agnes grey's adolescence period are the same as the real life of the author, anne bronte. the research method used is the psychology of literature. the results of the analysis indicated that by using theory from erik h. erikson, agnes grey found her true self in three stages. key words: self-identity, individuation, psychology approach. introduction as a human being, it is considered a necessity for us in having a self-identity. through it, we will finally "understand" who we really are and in the end, we will be able to decide and drive our purpose in life. besides, if we already have an identity within our self, we would not be confused about living our life in society. the term of searching for self-identity is an important subject considering the situations that could happen. self-identity itself is one's concept and images of his/her self. it is “an individual's view of himself consisting of attitudes, feelings, beliefs, perceptions, and behaviors which are uniquely his. .” (monthe, 422). self-identity also described as an honest and complete judgment one has for himself (alwisol, 81). from the description above, we know that a self-identity is not something that we get since we were born. self-identity is something we need to find out as the time goes by from many ways in our entire life, for example, we can find it through society which has interacted with us. through it, we will finally find our own identity, and with the identity in our self, we will be ready in facing the rest of our life. jary and jary pointed out a different view of identity. according to them, the concept of identity has been defined as ‘a sense of self that develops as the child differentiates from parents and family and takes a place in society' (1991). here, we can see that a child's identity is not always the same with the identity of their parents or family's. this situation is shown in the novel agnes grey, where the main character, agnes grey, finally decides to search for her own living, different from what her parents already had. yet, an identity is different with self-awareness since self-identity is not a notion of self. means that identity is not the same with the understanding of self, but it is a symbol of our self. in psychology, self-identity relates to self-image (a person's mental model of him or herself), self-esteem, and individuation. it dictates to a significant degree how an individual view him or herself both as a person and in relation to other people (known as gender identity). acuity 4(1), 59-65 2 meanwhile, self-esteem is the pride of somebody to him or her own self, whether this pride is a good one or a bad one. on the other hand, individuation means a process within someone's life during their life to found "the real them" so that they will feel complete. self-esteem or self-worth, the positive feelings of merit and the extent to which the child believes his attributes and actions are good, desired and valued (hall, 1978). further understanding of self-identity could be analyzed through literary works, since it mostly is a reflection of the real situations and conditions of that time and also the picture of readers and even the author him or herself. the easiest way is through analyzing a novel because it can give us a brief description of the situations and conditions itself. a novel itself is a prose story based on the imagination of the author (roberts, 1969, p. 51). as i have mentioned above, in this research the writer will analyze a novel by anne bronte, agnes grey. it is a novel about a young girl named agnes grey who fights in searching her self-identity. she must face a lot of obstacles in order to reach her goals. the situations of hers, especially during the adolescent period, are basically the same with the life of the author, anne bronte. in fulfilling her needs, anne bronte must work as a governess and leave her family behind and look for her goals. by anne bronte’s novel, we will be able more understand in the idea of searching for self-identity and find out the obstacles that happen during someone's searching for self-identity. research methodology this study is using the psychological approach. the data will be presented in description analysis. in addition, according hall, calvin s. and gardner lindsey (1987: 9) idea, which stated that the nature of qualitative data is in the form of words which based on observation, discussion or documents and since the data collected in the form of words rather than numbers, this research uses descriptive qualitative method. because this method emphasizes natural and descriptive understanding itself, thus a qualitative research approach is used in this study because the approach is “concerned with the subjective assessment of attitudes, opinions, and behavior.” (alwisol, 2004: 5). it related to the object of this study is novels and the researcher tried to analyze the characters' attitudes, opinions, and behavior in their fiction world. there are some theories in psychology which are related to the idea of searching for self-identity. yet, the writer will use one of it, which is erik h. erikson's theory, as the main theory in revealing the idea of searching for self-identity. the reason why the writer took that theory is none other because it has the most relationships with the center subject of the research which concentrates on the adolescent period of someone, in this case, agnes grey as the main character in the novel. however, other theories that mention identity and their details will also be used to strengthen the analysis. erik h. erikson stated in his book “identity, youth and crisis” that someone, especially the youth, often has some confusion in defining themselves, whether they were born with their parents’ identity or they have to decide their own identity which will be used for their entire life. the term “identity confusion” has a certain diagnostic significance which should influence the evaluation and treatment of such disturbances (p. 17). erikson also stated that there are some links between pathological and development aspects in dealing with the self-identity itself. the process of differentiation of their life usually begins during the adolescent period of life. during the adolescent period, someone could define their self-identity. the importance of being aware with their self-identity considered as a must for erikson who believed that establishing a satisfying sense of personal identity and meaningful goals are the single most important challenge of acuity 4(1), 59-65 3 adolescence (psychology: from research to applications, 1987, p.68). furthermore, erikson has mentioned the three signs that implied the search for self-identity of someone, that are: 1. the first signs mention that if an identity crisis is an important part of the life of someone; therefore, he/she intends to look for someone else to trust to. here, the adolescence intends to look for someone who could be lived with, yet most of them have some fears of being foolish, with all kinds of commitments which might be happening in the future living and of course, to face those situations without any misunderstanding. 2. the second signs mentioned the necessity of being known by what one can will freely, then the adolescence now looks for an opportunity to decide with free ascent on one of the available or unavoidable avenues of duty and service, and at the same time is mortally afraid of being forced into activities in which he would feel exposed to ridicule or self-doubt. in other words, adolescence intends to search his/her goals in life without any interruptions from others. 3. last but not least, when the desire to make something work and to make it work well has come up, then the choice of occupation becomes the purpose and the answer to those questions. in this period of life, adolescence intends to look for the most suitable ways in order to fulfill their goals and purposes in life. analysis agnes grey’s search for self-identity. erikson has stated in his book that youth often has some confusion in defining themselves, whether they were born with their parents’ identity or they have to decide their own identity which will be used for their entire life. they intend to have some eagerness in defining their own self, without any interruption from others, no matter who they are. this situation is well shown in the life of agnes grey, where she finally questioning, what her life would become, what will she do in facing her surroundings, and of course, what kind of behaviors she should had, considering she was born as a clergyman’s daughter who at that time, has no power to “change” their own faith. "i am hardly competent to judge. i sometimes think it might prove useful to some, and entertaining to others, but the world may judge for itself. shielded by my own obscurity, and by the lapse of years and a few fictitious names, i do not fear to venture, and will candidly lay before the public what i would not disclose to the most intimate friend.” (bronte, 1994: 15) above, we can see how agnes grey's question of life has begun to destruct her thought and mind. she is questioning whether she had the "right" in defining her own goals in life, or should she obey the "rules" which has already been there even when she was not born yet. in the other words, agnes grey has already felt confuse in defining her own identity in the eye of her surroundings, and in the end, she thinks that it is a necessity to define her own identity. she feels that her conditions and behaviors should be settled and fixed with the situations of her surroundings in order to have a better life. yet, this situation becomes much worse when she found out that she has never been taught in reacting to any kind of situations in life. she felt that what her family has done before is not good enough for her in preparing her own self in entering “the real world”. yet, she never blames them for all trouble she might get, she only regrets it as a carelessness of them who had not taught her about life as brief as they could because she never been taught about the real meaning of life itself, since her family always considered her as “a small child”, as mentioned: acuity 4(1), 59-65 4 “. though a woman in my own estimation, i was still a child in theirs.” (bronte, 1994: 23) her conditions in the family have made her eagerness of the “outside” world arise and finally, it affected her way of thinking to her surroundings. these situations are describing erikson’s statement in his book that a young patient can be violent or depressed, delinquent or withdrawn, but theirs are acute and possibly pass crisis rather than a breakdown of the kind which tends to commit a patient to all the malignant implications of a fatalistic diagnosis. from her statement above, we can see that agnes grey feels some kind of “regret” since she never feels enough about her present day’s activities, as shown: “were the only persons we ever saw”. therefore, she decided to go further, to explore her own capacities in facing life, and of course, in defining her own identity. she thinks that it is necessary to look for the other part of life which she has never been entered before, and so, she decides to try those possibilities; "at least a vague and secret wish to see a little more of the world." agnes grey's questions of life, especially on her own self-identity within society basically made up of two important backgrounds; pathological and development aspect. means that agnes grey's basic interest in the family is none other than she was born as a clergyman's daughter who at that time, has no possible right to "change" those situations, and as time goes by, her sociological development, her relationship with society, is considered not enough since she and her family only have several relatives and never been out of their present town. these conditions finally affected her behavior in facing the reality itself, as stated: "under such circumstances, although i was not many degrees more useful than the kitten, my idleness was not entirely without excuse." (bronte, 1994: 24) within her thought, her present conditions are basically affected by the reality of hers that she has no power in changing it, therefore she feels that everything that would happen later are all because of the situations itself. here, we could finally see that agnes grey has already entered the three stages erikson ever mention about the signs of someone's searching for self-identity, which are: 1. search for trust. "the first stage mentions that if an identity crisis is an important part of the life of someone; therefore, he/she intends to look for someone else to trust to" (identity: youth and crisis, 1968, p.129). in this stage, agnes grey as the main character begins in questioning her own identity and tries to look for someone else to be trusted to, in this case, is none other than her own family. she always tries to convince her parents and sister that she also has the capabilities and requirements to work as a governess, as well as other people, might become. this situation is shown in some conversations between her herself and her family members. despite her family rejection, agnes grey insisted to runs her planning to work as a governess for other families. she dealt with this situation by saying the truth and gives a huge trust to the rest of family members, hoping that they would support her decision, yet she does not get that support. however, she keeps trying to ensure them that she is also able to work as a governess no matter what the situations and conditions are; "yes, papa, don't you say anything against it: i should like it so much, and i am sure i could manage delightfully." (bronte, 1994: 27) overall, from statements given, we can finally see how agnes grey decided to “speak up” and trust the rest of her family members about her plans and eagerness in acuity 4(1), 59-65 5 order to answer and figuring out what she has always been searching for, her own selfidentity. 2. search for recognition. “the second stage mentioned the necessity of being known by what one can will freely, then the adolescent now looks for an opportunity to decide with free ascent on one of the available or unavoidable avenues of duty and service, and at the same time is mortally afraid of being forced into activities in which he would feel exposed to ridicule or self-doubt" (identity: youth and crisis, 1968, p.129). in this stage, adolescent intends to look for his/her own identity and finally, decide the best way for them without any interruptions from others. this adolescent sign can be seen on agnes grey's behavior in keeping her plan and willingness to become a governess. she insisted on doing it although the rest of her family members seems to disagree with her. she always sticks on her own thought and picture in becoming a good and reliable governess. overall, agnes grey’s behaviors are a perfect example of how someone could be very persisted in their own thought and mind, and of course, try as hard as they could to make it come true and refuse other possibilities which are shown up in order to prevent his/her own self-doubt. so that, when others give him/her some suggestions-not to reach his/her goals and dreams-adolescent intends to refuse it and decided to search the best way of their own because they think that this is the best for them, as the picture given in agnes grey’s conditions. 3. searching for an occupation. "last but not least, when the desire to make something work and to make it work well has come up, then the choice of occupation becomes the purpose and the answer of those questions" (identity: youth and crisis, 1968, p.129). in this stage, adolescent intends to look for the best way for them in order to make their dream and willingness come true. they have been trying to find the answers of their searching through their occupation. means that they have been trying to define their selves, who they are and what they are in the eye of society, through their occupation. so that, when someone works as a doctor, means that this someone is considered and known as a doctor, not as an engineer or other types of occupation. therefore, the presence of an occupation considered as a must for those who are still searching and questioning his/her own identity. this sign is also happening in agnes grey's adolescence period, when she decided to look for an occupation, in this case, she prefers to work as a governess. she finally reaches the stage where the answers of questions that have always been haunting her about her own identity are needed and she chooses to work as a governess as her solution and answer in defining her own identity. agnes grey is persisted in making her dream come true, no matter how hard it is. her struggle finally finds its way when she finally gets the "opening gate" to the dream itself, as shown: “at last, to my great joy, it was decreed that i should take a charge of the young family of a certain mrs. bloomfield, whom my kind, prim aunt grey had known in her youth, and asserted to be a very nice woman.” (bronte, 1994: 29) overall, we can finally see how the searching for self-identity of agnes grey is depicted in the novel. we can see how she finally questioning who and what she really is since she was born as a clergyman’s daughter and never been out of her hometown. although she has to deal with her family’s rejection of her being a governess, agnes grey acuity 4(1), 59-65 6 is still persisted to doing it because she feels that that is the answer of her question, her eagerness in defining who she really was, and surely, what was happen within agnes grey’s life is a good example of erik h. erikson’s statement about the idea of searching for self-identity. conclusion anne bronte’s agnes grey is a story about a young girl name anne bronte who was born as a clergyman's daughter and the youngest child in the family. she was born with a huge amount of love and tenderness and was surrounded by people who really care about her. yet, as the time goes by, she finally decided to search for her own self-identity, to "separate" from her family and looking forward to work as a governess in order to get her own earning, and surely, to define who she really is in the eye of society. therefore, in analyzing the idea of searching for self-identity, the writer uses erik h. erikson’s theory about the idea itself. erikson has mentioned in his book, identity: youth and crisis, that there are three signs which show the searching for self-identity of someone. these three stages had finally used as a tool for analyzing agnes grey's search for self-identity. the first stages mentioned the importance of looking for someone else's trust. in agnes grey's case, she intends to look for her family's trust in order to make her dream come true. she decided to tell them, especially her mother and sister, that she is really eager in working as a governess. she has been wanted for it and persisted to go for her dream although her family disagrees with her decision. she always convinces them that she also has those capabilities that needed in becoming a good governess. at this stage, we can finally see how strong agnes grey's desire is, in working as a governess. no matter how hard the rejection from her mother and sister, she still persisted to go for it. the second stage mentioned that someone who is searching for his/her self-identity is intended to look for other's recognition. in the case of this thesis, we have seen on the previous chapter that agnes grey is always trying to look for her family's recognition of her being a governess. although her families cannot agree with her decision, agnes grey is still persisted to work as a governess and keep trying to get her family's recognition and considered as a foolish if she does not work as a governess, therefore, she rejects other's suggestion for her not to work as a governess. last but not least, the third stages mentioned that those who are searching for self-identity finally decided to look for an occupation which will be used as their identity. it has mentioned before that agnes grey intends to work as a governess in defining her identity in the eye of society. therefore, she tries as hard as she could in searching for a family who would like to hire her and give her an occupation. after a long time waiting and hoping, agnes grey finally founds a family who wants her to teach their little children. although she had worked in the family for quite a long time, she keeps trying to search other family and she successfully got one, with an unusual way, through the newspaper. overall, here we have finally seen how agnes grey's behavior and reaction toward society and surroundings has given us a perfect example of how someone could be very persisted to define their own self-identity. overall, through this research, we have seen how the idea of searching for selfidentity of the main character, agnes grey, is depicted in the novel, and also, we are shown perfectly of how the adolescence period of agnes grey is basically the same with the author’s adolescence period, when both of them decided to work as a governess and use it as their identity in the eye of her surroundings. bibliography acuity 4(1), 59-65 7 alwisol. 2004. psikologi kepribadian. malang: umm press barnet, s. & william e. cain. 2003. a short guide to writing about literature. london: longman press bronte, a. 1994. agnes gray. london: bloomsbury erikson, e., h. 1987. psychology: from research to applications. new york: john wiley & sons, inc fudyartanta, r. b. s. 2005. psikologi kepribadian neo freudianisme. yogyakarta: zenith frye n. 1952. anatomy of criticism: four essays. new jersey: princeton university press hall, c., s., & gardner lindsey. 1978. theories of personality. new york: john wiley & sons, inc kennedy, x. j. 1985. an introduction to fiction, poetry, and drama. third edition. boston: little, brown company monthe, c., r. 1995. beneath the mask: an introduction to theories of personality. fort worth: harcourt brace college publisher perrine, l. 1983. literature. structure, sound, and sense. new york: harcourt, brace, and world withlark, j. an essay: stages of the individuation process. retrieved on 24 october 2012 from http://www.goertzel.org/dynapsyc/2008/whitlark.htm http://www.goertzel.org/dynapsyc/2008/whitlark.htm yanti rahayuningsih universitas teknologi surabaya abstract key words: self-identity, individuation, psychology approach. introduction research methodology analysis agnes grey’s search for self-identity. 1. search for trust. 2. search for recognition. 3. searching for an occupation. conclusion bibliography alwisol. 2004. psikologi kepribadian. malang: umm press bronte, a. 1994. agnes gray. london: bloomsbury acuity 4(1), 1-9 comparative study: enhancing students’ reading comprehension ability through ing ngarsa sung tuladha and student teams achievement division (stad) learning models ezra noviyanti pandiangan tiga penuai montessori preschool ezranoviyantipandiangan@gmail.com abstract cooperative learning is considered to be effective to enhance students’ english skills. this study utilizes two learning models under cooperative learning: ing ngarsa sung tuladha and student teams achievement division (stad). this study aims to find out whether there is a significant difference between those two learning models in enhancing students’ reading comprehension ability. the instrument of this study is the reading test which was piloted before distributing it to the actual respondents. the results of this study show that after comparing the two learning models, there is a significant difference in students' reading comprehension ability. additionally, in this study, the author seeks respondents' response towards both learning models and it is found that the respondents' response falls under really like category; which means, they really like the two learnings models to be utilized in the classroom to enhance their reading comprehension ability. keywords: reading comprehension ability, ing ngarsa sung tuladha, stad, cooperative learning models. introduction this study focuses on increasing english learners' reading comprehension ability. therefore the researcher conducted a comparative study with a purpose to compare two learning models: ing ngarsa sung tuladha and student teams achievement division (stad) to enhance students reading comprehension ability. burns and richards (2012) stated that reading provides the foundation of successful language and academic learning. additionally, assaly and smadi (2015) said that reading is a basic knowledge thus learners should enhance their reading comprehension ability because comprehension is a core of the teaching-learning process. moreover, duke and pearson (2001) stated that in order to become good readers, learners should be able to gain information about what they read and be able to make a prediction about what the reading is all about. this study is conducted due to the issues that some english learners have a low level of ability in comprehending texts their read, integrating text information, and constructing ideas on the written text. reading comprehension actually depends on how the readers are able to cover the text rapidly without losing the senses of what they read (djamal et.al. (2006). therefore the problem that occurs in reading is that english learners tend to focus on the word accuracy instead of understanding what they read (assaly and smadi, 2015). they lack identifying the concepts and selecting the main ideas of the passages; wherein, to comprehend a text, learners must have acuity 4(1), 1-9 broad learning concept (khusniyah and lustyantie, 2017). moreover, when a learner consider a text is hard to comprehend and it does not suit them, gradually they will lose interest in reading (lestari, 2014). therefore, as indonesian students have already encountered problems with reading comprehension in indonesian, the language that they’ve acquired and learned, they also find it way more difficult to read and comprehend reading in english, the foreign language that they do not acquire and learn it barely for a short time ( siagian & katemba, 2016). “usually students face many problems in reading text. for example: difficult words, comprehension of sentences, how to read the word or sentence correctly, and etc. in reading class, most of the reading activities are focused on reading for comprehension”. (katemba, c., samuel. 2017). in order to assist english learners not losing interest in reading and enhance their reading comprehension ability, the researcher decided to compare two learning models: ing ngarsa sung tuladha and stad. these two models are under cooperative learning. the concept of ing ngarsa sung tuladha learning model is to choose a leader to help, guide and direct their group members to achieve certain indicators. the proponent of this theory is ki hadjar dewantara, a well-known father of education. he emphasized ing ngarsa sung tuladha carries humanism concept, wherein through education, a leader is born. mujito (2014) stated ing ngarsa sung tuladha has cooperative leadership concept which requires a group to have the leader. meanwhile, stad learning model was founded by slavin (1995) and his partners, this learning model has similarity to ing ngarsa sung tuladha learning model, wherein students learn cooperatively with their group. katemba and sitompul (2018) stated that stad is the role model of cooperative learning and the simplest learning model. according to karaçöp (2016), stad has been used and proven in enhancing students' achievement in various subjects such as language, art, math and many more. the score is not taken by personal intelligent itself, but also on how they can work on a team and motivate each other to achieve the target. based on the purpose of the study and the problem stated, the following research questions were raised: (1) what is the achievement of students who were taught using ing ngarsa sung tuladha and those who were taught using stad? (2) is there any significant difference between students who were taught using ing ngarsa sung tuladha and those who were taught using stad? (3) what is the response of the students after being treated? relevant literature reading is central of teaching-learning and it can be enjoyable and inspiring when a written message is able to understand because text can give a different perspective and create students' imagination (khusniyah and lustyantie, 2010). yusuf, natsir, and hanum (2015) said that reading is a skill to understand the content of the text and expand the reader's knowledge. the teacher should create a creative way to be able to teach the students and make sure they reach the learning objectives. to become good readers, students not only must good in vocabulary but also, they should be able to understand unfamiliar words, get a piece of information, through combining the information that they get from the text and their knowledge of what they have read (juliana, 2018). forgan (1989) mentioned that there are nine teacher's responsibilities in order to teach reading: 1) selecting materials (include the content, aids available for students, and the readability), 2) matching materials to students, 3) differentiating reading assignments, 4) teaching specialized vocabulary, 5) helping students comprehend printed text, 6) teaching study strategies, 7) helping students pronounce difficult words, 8) motivating reluctant readers, and 9) helping problem readers. on the other hand, the teacher should remember, that students enhance their knowledge of vocabularies in order to help them to read and understand the meaning of the words that they found (zhong, 2012). acuity 4(1), 1-9 many studies have been conducted to increase learners’ reading comprehension ability due to reading challenges that english learners often encounter. sase (2014) stated that reading comprehension is a difficult process because it involves various factors such as word choice, reading fluency, a particular culture, and familiarity with the topic. mikulecky (1990) added that most cases found that academic students tried to make sense of what they read, but actually the purpose of reading should avoid non-meaningful reading. nurie (2017) said that the other difficulty that academic students face is they have underprepared for reading demands and lack of literacy skills. furthermore, rubin (1985) said that even though students have good habits on learning, but if they lack concentration, it becomes an obstacle for them such as, not feeling well, hungry, tired, the situation is not supported you to read and etc. he also suggested the readers make sure that the text that they read are organized and not jumping from one idea to another idea. in this research study, the researcher used two (2) cooperative learning models that hopes can help the students to enhance their reading comprehension ability, they are: ing ngarsa sung tuladha and stad ing ngarsa sung tuladha learning model ing ngarsa sung tuladha was founded by ki hajar dewantara, well-known as a father of education. ki hajar dewantara emphasized that education is not just about the cognitive skills, but also on how the students may reach their perfections in their life with an order and peace method. humanism education is important because through humanism education, help to develop human with strong character to expand their existence and build up themselves. according to mustaqim (2006), human's potential should be conducted to develop their intellectual, have a certain character and enhance their ability to be used on their environment. he said that the problem in this country is the measurement for the successful education only through the intellectual skill and almost never take attention from the other aspect. syaikhudin (2012) states that ing ngarsa sung tuladha itself has a meaning: ing ngarsa: in front of; sung: “ingsung”: me; tuladha: model, example. therefore, those meanings are "i should become a model". ing ngarsa sung tuladha learning model is a model that ask the students to work in a group with a leader (called as tuladha) to guide and direct them to the purpose of the study. the concept of this learning model is to train the students to be a good leader, be responsible for their job and as a role model for their environment. the leader that will be chosen should be able to be a leader for themselves because a man who cannot lead themselves, cannot lead others and the worst is they just be used of other for their importance only. lead ourselves means having a purpose of what is to be reached (qomaruzzaman, 2011). leadership itself has a meaning as a process to guide, create something, influence the members and find out the way to create something. the emotional of the leader can affect their members, that is why a leader should be able to aware of their emotion, manage the emotion and feeling, motivate themselves, knowing others’ emotions and manage a relationship with the members (wartono, 2013). leadership ability may improve their social shrewdness. a good leader is a person who can think of others first, rather than think of themselves and be ready to listen of critics from others to make them be a better one (suyono, 2007). this leadership model providing the model and the function of taking care of others that expected to enhance students' achievement. this model needs a leader as a model so that the teaching-learning process can be successful. the leader should be able to acuity 4(1), 1-9 empower their members by letting each of them represent their opinion. the leader will be chosen by the questionnaire that includes iq and eq that will be given by the teacher, so cognitive skills not the one and only requirement. student teams achievement division (stad) learning model cooperative learning model, according to khan and inamullah (2011) is a method used by the educators that help students to develop their social skill. cooperative learning has many types, one of them is stad (student teams achievement division). stad is good interaction among students and helps them to improve their positive attitude through subjects. stad is the oldest cooperative learning model according to slavin (cited in lalihatu, 2012). stad helps students achieve their goals of learning, build positive attitudes and social interaction (wyk, 2012). according to tiantong and teeemuangsai (2013), stad is a collaborative study which small groups that consist of different ability level and learn together to reach the learning goals, where the teacher presents the lessons and the group work together and make sure that all members understand the topic. the supporting statement was given by yusuf, natsir, and hanum (2015) by saying that stad is a learning model that ask the students to share the information they have and take responsibility on their tasks and is able to improve their motivation on learning so that their achievement on learning will be improved. furthermore, al-munawwarah (2013) said that stad helps students practice actively what will they learned and able to solve a problem in text comprehension, since they want to follow teacher's instruction and participate confidently. lestari and yudhanegara (2017) stated that stad is a cooperative learning model through group work study, that stands for around 4-5 persons in each group. then, each group will consist from the slower and faster learner. there are four procedures to do stad learning model, first, make a group stands for 4-5 person each group. second, give 10 seconds for each group to choose their group's name (the name of the group should have a relation with english). third, give tasks and answer sheet to each group. last, guide the students to work together as a group. methodology this is a quantitative study, utilizing comparative research design. it involves two learning models to be compared. the population of this study is seventh graders from all schools in west bandung regency and the samples of this study were taken from smpn 5, lembang. the respondents were divided into two classes: class vii c and vii e. class c were treated using stad learning model meanwhile class vii e was treated using ing ngarsa sung tuladha. the researcher conducted this study from october to november 2018. each treatment was about 2 hours per meeting. the total meetings of the treatment were 10 meeting, excluding pre-test and post-test sessions. the research instruments are reading comprehension ability test and respondents’ response questionnaire. the research procedure of this study is divided into four (4) stages: preparation stage, treatment stage, data analysis stage and conclusion stage. preparation stage the researcher process letter of statement to conduct the research. then after receiving approval, she prepared lesson plans, pilot test, respondents', and response questionnaire. afterward, find a research location to conduct the research, then arrange a letter of permission with the school. acuity 4(1), 1-9 before giving the treatment to the actual respondents, the researcher conducted a pilot test with a purpose to validate the test. treatment stage two classes were formed: class vii c was treated using ing ngarsa sung tuladha and class vii e was treated using stad. each of the class was given pre-test before the treatment. then the researcher implemented the learning models. after treating the respondents, she distributed response questionnaire to the respondents. data analysis stage in this stage, the researcher calculated the description data from both classes. then she analyzed the normalized gain from both classes to test the hypothesis. afterward, she analyzed the normalized gain, normality test, homogeneity test, and independent sample test. the last part was to analyze the response questionnaire. conclusion stage in this stage, the researcher drew a conclusion from the results of the study. hopefully, that from the conclusion, a future researcher could do an in-depth study on both learning models: ing ngarsa sung tuladha and stad. results in order to obtain results from this study, the researcher calculated the data of pre-test, post-test and normalized gain from both learning models: ing ngarsa sung tuladha and stad. the following is the table: table 4.1 pre-test, post-test, normalized gain data stad ing ngarsa sung tuladha mean st. deviation mean st. deviation pre-test 50.00 8.567 53.96 7.855 post-test 61.76 4.073 68.92 6.344 normalized gain 0.2208 0.10587 0.3157 0.13854 as it is seen from the above table, the mean shows that there is increasing scores from both models. respondents who were taught using ing ngarsa sung tuladha achieved higher scores, the mean of the pre-test is 53.96 then the mean of the post-test is 68.92, and the result of the normalized gain is 0.3157. it shows that the students' reading comprehension for those who were taught using ing ngarsa sung tuladha learning model is increased on a moderate level. meanwhile, the respondents who were taught using stad achieved lower scores than those who were taught using ing ngarsa sung tuladha. the pre-test means 50.00 and the post-test mean is 61.76, while the normalized acuity 4(1), 1-9 gain is 0.10587. it shows that respondents' reading comprehension ability is increased; however, it falls on the low category. in order to find out whether there is a significant difference between the two learning models, the researcher conducted a normality test. the purpose of the normality test is knowing whether the data population of pre-test is normally distributed or not. after that, the researcher did the homogeneity test in order to know whether the populations are homogenous or not table 4.2 the normality test result for normalized gain score label gain shapiro-wilk statistic df sig. stad .934 21 .166 ing ngarsa sung tuladha .921 25 .055 based on the table above, it can be concluded that the population of the data is normally distributed for both classes with the significant value for stad class was 0.166 > α (0.05) and significant value for ing ngarsa sung tuladha class was 0.055 > α (0.05). since the data are normally distributed, then the researcher used independent sample t-test. table 4.3 independent sample t-test f sig. t df sig. (2-tailed) gain equal variances assumed .834 .366 -2.569 44 .014 from the above table, the significant value of the gain is 0.014 ≤ α (0.05), h0 is rejected; which means there is a significant difference between students who were treated using ing ngarsa sung tuladha and stad. aside from calculating the data, the researcher distributed the questionnaire to both classes in order to gain information toward the two learning models. the results show that most of the students agreed for both models, stad (85%, 84,6% and 96% based on table 4.7, 4.9 and 4,10) and ing ngarsa sung tuladha (85%, 92,96%, 88,5% based on table 4.8, 4.9 and 4.10) in enhancing their reading comprehension ability. below are the results of the response questionnaire: table 4.4. students response for stad learning model no. statement answer average of respondents’ positive response category strongly agree agree disagree strongly disagree 1 0% 43% 57% 0% 85% really like 43% 57% 2 + 46% 50% 1% 0% 96% 1% 3 + 39% 60% 0% 0% 99% 0% acuity 4(1), 1-9 table 4.4. students response for ing ngarsa sung tuladha learning model no. statement answer average of respondents’ positive response category strongly agree agree disagree strongly disagree 1 0% 37% 62% 0% 85% really like 75% 62% 2 + 18% 67% 11% 3.7% 85% 14.7% 3 + 22% 78% 0% 0% 100% 0% conclusions according to zare and othman (2013), reading is a complex and crucial matter for gaining information, where most students have struggled with text. in order to have good reading comprehension, students should be able to understand the concept of what they read and they also should be able to get information on what they read. in this study, the students' enhancement in reading comprehension ability between the two learning models: ing ngarsa sung tuladha and stad have shown a significant difference. additionally, learners liked being taught the two learning models. consequently, the researcher recommends that future researcher to conduct an in-depth study on ing ngarsa sung tuladha since this learning model is providing ways for learners to become a good leader. in addition to that english teachers are suggested to implement cooperative learning models in teaching english especially in enhancing reading comprehension ability because learners are more comfortable when they have their friends helping them. references al-munawwarah, s. (2013). the implementation of cooperative learning, student teams achievement divisions technique in teaching reading comprehension. journal of english and education, 82-83, 1(2). assaly, i. r. & smadi, o. m. (2015). using bloom’s taxonomy to evaluate the cognitive levels of master class textbooks' questions. canadian center of science and education, 100 101. djamal et.al. (2006). improving reading skill in english. jakarta: kencana prenada media group. duke, n.k. & pearson, p. (2001). reading comprehension: strategies that work. juliana (2018). the comparative impacts of using lexical glossing and interference strategies on students’ reading comprehension. advances in language and literacy studies, 1, 9 (1) katemba, c., v. ; sitompul, n., a., 2018 a comparison of using diglot weave technique and student team achievement division on student vocabulary achievement. catalyst . acuity 4(1), 1-9 apr2018, vol. 17, p29-36. 8p. retrieved from: https://apiumy.sharepoint.com/personal/sarra_apiu_edu/_layouts/15/onedrive.aspx?id=%2fpersonal%2fsarr a_apiu_edu%2fdocuments%2fpublications%2fcatalyst%2f2018%2fcatalyst-april2018%2epdf&parent=%2fpersonal%2fsarra_apiu_edu%2fdocuments%2fpublications%2fcat alyst%2f2018 https://web.a.ebscohost.com/abstract?direct=true&profile=ehost&scope=site&authtype=crawler& jrnl=19056931&an=129783039&h=wihpsyuhnbtw94h1d6u7jk%2b21wiarb6%2bycilx nbum8t4noh17o8ju1i%2bgz%2bzjhlhluztswhonnv2stbxvowlqq%3d%3d&crl=c&resultn s=adminwebauth&resultlocal=errcrlnotauth&crlhashurl=login.aspx%3fdirect%3dtrue%26pr ofile%3dehost%26scope%3dsite%26authtype%3dcrawler%26jrnl%3d19056931%26an%3d129 783039 katemba, c.,v., & samuel (2017). improving student’s reading comprehension ability using jigsaw 1 technique . acuity : journal of english language pedagogy, literature and culture vol 2 no.2 2017. retrieved from : http://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity/article/view/613/468 karaçöp, a. (2016). effects of student teams-achievement divisions cooperative learning with models on students’ understanding of electrochemical cells. international education khan g. n. & inamullah, h. m. (2011). effect of student’s team achievement division (stad) on academic achievement of students. canadian centre of science and education, 211-212, 7(12). khusniyah, n. & lustyantie, n (2017). improving english reading comprehension ability through survey, questions, read, record, recite, review strategy (sq4r). english language teaching, 202-203, 10 (12). lalihatu, d. (2012). skripsi. unai. lestari, d. (2014). wh-question in teaching narrative reading comprehension to junior high school students. e-journal. lestari, k.e. & yudhanegara, m.r. (2017). penelitian pendidikan matematika. bandung: pt refika aditama mikulecky, b. s. (1990). a short course in teaching reading skills. united states of americal addison-wesley publishing company, inc. mujito, w (2014). reading and thinking in english. oxford: oxford university press. mustaqim, a. (2006). pendidikan humanisme ki hajar dewantara. nurie, y. (2017). pedagogical practices in teaching reading comprehension: a case study of three efl teachers in a secondary school in ethiopia. pasaa, 109, 54 qomaruzzaman, b. (2011). memimpin diri dan meraih prestasi. bandung: simbiosa rekatama media. https://apiu-my.sharepoint.com/personal/sarra_apiu_edu/_layouts/15/onedrive.aspx?id=%2fpersonal%2fsarra_apiu_edu%2fdocuments%2fpublications%2fcatalyst%2f2018%2fcatalyst-april-2018%2epdf&parent=%2fpersonal%2fsarra_apiu_edu%2fdocuments%2fpublications%2fcatalyst%2f2018 https://apiu-my.sharepoint.com/personal/sarra_apiu_edu/_layouts/15/onedrive.aspx?id=%2fpersonal%2fsarra_apiu_edu%2fdocuments%2fpublications%2fcatalyst%2f2018%2fcatalyst-april-2018%2epdf&parent=%2fpersonal%2fsarra_apiu_edu%2fdocuments%2fpublications%2fcatalyst%2f2018 https://apiu-my.sharepoint.com/personal/sarra_apiu_edu/_layouts/15/onedrive.aspx?id=%2fpersonal%2fsarra_apiu_edu%2fdocuments%2fpublications%2fcatalyst%2f2018%2fcatalyst-april-2018%2epdf&parent=%2fpersonal%2fsarra_apiu_edu%2fdocuments%2fpublications%2fcatalyst%2f2018 https://apiu-my.sharepoint.com/personal/sarra_apiu_edu/_layouts/15/onedrive.aspx?id=%2fpersonal%2fsarra_apiu_edu%2fdocuments%2fpublications%2fcatalyst%2f2018%2fcatalyst-april-2018%2epdf&parent=%2fpersonal%2fsarra_apiu_edu%2fdocuments%2fpublications%2fcatalyst%2f2018 https://apiu-my.sharepoint.com/personal/sarra_apiu_edu/_layouts/15/onedrive.aspx?id=%2fpersonal%2fsarra_apiu_edu%2fdocuments%2fpublications%2fcatalyst%2f2018%2fcatalyst-april-2018%2epdf&parent=%2fpersonal%2fsarra_apiu_edu%2fdocuments%2fpublications%2fcatalyst%2f2018 https://web.a.ebscohost.com/abstract?direct=true&profile=ehost&scope=site&authtype=crawler&jrnl=19056931&an=129783039&h=wihpsyuhnbtw94h1d6u7jk%2b21wiarb6%2bycilxnbum8t4noh17o8ju1i%2bgz%2bzjhlhluztswhonnv2stbxvowlqq%3d%3d&crl=c&resultns=adminwebauth&resultlocal=errcrlnotauth&crlhashurl=login.aspx%3fdirect%3dtrue%26profile%3dehost%26scope%3dsite%26authtype%3dcrawler%26jrnl%3d19056931%26an%3d129783039 https://web.a.ebscohost.com/abstract?direct=true&profile=ehost&scope=site&authtype=crawler&jrnl=19056931&an=129783039&h=wihpsyuhnbtw94h1d6u7jk%2b21wiarb6%2bycilxnbum8t4noh17o8ju1i%2bgz%2bzjhlhluztswhonnv2stbxvowlqq%3d%3d&crl=c&resultns=adminwebauth&resultlocal=errcrlnotauth&crlhashurl=login.aspx%3fdirect%3dtrue%26profile%3dehost%26scope%3dsite%26authtype%3dcrawler%26jrnl%3d19056931%26an%3d129783039 https://web.a.ebscohost.com/abstract?direct=true&profile=ehost&scope=site&authtype=crawler&jrnl=19056931&an=129783039&h=wihpsyuhnbtw94h1d6u7jk%2b21wiarb6%2bycilxnbum8t4noh17o8ju1i%2bgz%2bzjhlhluztswhonnv2stbxvowlqq%3d%3d&crl=c&resultns=adminwebauth&resultlocal=errcrlnotauth&crlhashurl=login.aspx%3fdirect%3dtrue%26profile%3dehost%26scope%3dsite%26authtype%3dcrawler%26jrnl%3d19056931%26an%3d129783039 https://web.a.ebscohost.com/abstract?direct=true&profile=ehost&scope=site&authtype=crawler&jrnl=19056931&an=129783039&h=wihpsyuhnbtw94h1d6u7jk%2b21wiarb6%2bycilxnbum8t4noh17o8ju1i%2bgz%2bzjhlhluztswhonnv2stbxvowlqq%3d%3d&crl=c&resultns=adminwebauth&resultlocal=errcrlnotauth&crlhashurl=login.aspx%3fdirect%3dtrue%26profile%3dehost%26scope%3dsite%26authtype%3dcrawler%26jrnl%3d19056931%26an%3d129783039 https://web.a.ebscohost.com/abstract?direct=true&profile=ehost&scope=site&authtype=crawler&jrnl=19056931&an=129783039&h=wihpsyuhnbtw94h1d6u7jk%2b21wiarb6%2bycilxnbum8t4noh17o8ju1i%2bgz%2bzjhlhluztswhonnv2stbxvowlqq%3d%3d&crl=c&resultns=adminwebauth&resultlocal=errcrlnotauth&crlhashurl=login.aspx%3fdirect%3dtrue%26profile%3dehost%26scope%3dsite%26authtype%3dcrawler%26jrnl%3d19056931%26an%3d129783039 https://web.a.ebscohost.com/abstract?direct=true&profile=ehost&scope=site&authtype=crawler&jrnl=19056931&an=129783039&h=wihpsyuhnbtw94h1d6u7jk%2b21wiarb6%2bycilxnbum8t4noh17o8ju1i%2bgz%2bzjhlhluztswhonnv2stbxvowlqq%3d%3d&crl=c&resultns=adminwebauth&resultlocal=errcrlnotauth&crlhashurl=login.aspx%3fdirect%3dtrue%26profile%3dehost%26scope%3dsite%26authtype%3dcrawler%26jrnl%3d19056931%26an%3d129783039 http://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity/article/view/613/468 acuity 4(1), 1-9 rubin, d. (1985). reading and learning power. new york: macmillan publishing company. sase, a. s. (2014). the relationship between prior knowledge and reading comprehension. advances in language and literary studies. 5 (6). siagian, s., w., & katemba, c., v., (2016). comparative study between think aloud and visual imagery in enhancing students’ reading comprehension. acuity journal of english language pedagogy, literature and culture vol1 no.1 2016. retrieved from: http://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity/article/view/602 steinmeyer, o. (1995). classic problems: classic solution. in challenges of reading the new and the old (pp.154-155). kuala lumpur: maclals suyono, h. (2007). social intelligence. jogjakarta: ar-ruzz media. tiantong, m. & temuangsai, s. (2013). student team achievement divisions (stad) technique through the moodle to enhance learning achievement. international education studies, 6(4), 86 usniyah and lustyantie (2017). improving english reading comprehension ability through survey, questions, read, record, recite, review strategy (sq4r). english language teaching wartono. (2013). kepemimpinan: teori, psikologi, perilaku organisasi, aplikasi dan penelitian. ed. 11 jakarta: rajawali pers. wyk, m. m. (2012). the effects of the stad-cooperative learning method on student achievement, attitude, and motivation in economics education. j soc sci, 262,33(2). yusuf, natsir, and hanum (2015). a teacher's experience in teaching with student teams achievement division (stad) technique. international journal of instruction, 8 (2), 100-102 ezra noviyanti pandiangan tiga penuai montessori preschool ezranoviyantipandiangan@gmail.com abstract introduction relevant literature ing ngarsa sung tuladha learning model student teams achievement division (stad) learning model methodology preparation stage treatment stage data analysis stage conclusion stage results table 4.1 pre-test, post-test, normalized gain data table 4.1 pre-test, post-test, normalized gain data table 4.2 the normality test result for normalized gain score table 4.3 independent sample t-test table 4.4. students response for stad learning model table 4.4. students response for ing ngarsa sung tuladha learning model table 4.4. students response for ing ngarsa sung tuladha learning model conclusions references acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no. 1. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 1 thematic and stylistic analysis of sparks’ the last song: in-depth exploration of literary writing debora chaterin simanjuntak debora.simanjuntak@unai.edu english education study program universitas advent indonesia doi: 10.35974/acuity.v8i1.2861 abstract this study aimed to reveal the elements of sparks’ writing style and his chosen themes for an in-depth exploration of literary writing. the data for this study was textual, coming from sparks’ the last song. it was conducted within the framework of two theories: aestheticism and stylistics. it was found that sparks utilizes binary opposite themes, which are: hatred vs love, death vs life, adultery vs fidelity, distrust vs faith, alienation vs closeness, poverty vs wealth, and illusion vs reality. these themes become completely effective as they are supported by his style of narrating the story. sparks’ style is analyzed in terms of the following elements: figurative languages of speech, syntax/sentence fluency, diction/choice of words, point of view, types of discourses, and plot devices. through the analysis of sparks’ novel, implications for literary appreciation and creative writing were drawn. the implications for literary appreciation are: read to enjoy the literature, enhance the enjoyment of literature, and develop a passion for literature. the implications for creative writing are: practice creative reading, think critically and analytically, write pictorially and aurally, and fictionalize a true-to-life story. keywords: text analysis, literature, literary appreciation, themes introduction students and teachers have the ability to write by reading the stories of excellent authors who provide profound examples of settings and plots that provoke images that readers can probably experience in real life to explore their writing fluency (rasinski, 2010). bautista (july, 2006), a literature enthusiast, said, “i read whatever i could lay my hands on. newspaper, magazines, handbills, candy wrappers, pocketbooks, library books; anything with writing on it fascinated me for i was learning about the nature of words. my taste inclined toward language as description, rather than language as an idea” (p. 25). taylor, kaufman, and barbot (2021) accentuate that there is an awesome work to be done if people are to be brought together around the love of writing and literature, around its possibilities, its limitations, and also its actualities. one of the reasons to do research about the literary works that people read is to understand them better. scholars who have devoted their lives to the study of particular authors, periods, and genres have the ability to provide insights that can enrich people’s understanding and deepen their appreciation of literature. richards and schmidt (2002) state that writing is considered to be one of the most valuable parts of a language to enable students to express their ideas and feelings freely. it is considered to be a complex and lengthy process that involves writing; planning, designing, reviewing and reassessing, skills that contribute to individuals in all kinds of academic activities to explain ideas and put them together to form a meaningful concept. ‘becoming an adept writer involves more than knowledge of vocabulary and grammar, it depends on high levels of personal regulation because writing activities are usually self-planned, self-initiated, and self-sustained. we present a social cognitive model of writing composed of three fundamental forms of self-regulation: https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity mailto:debora.simanjuntak@unai.edu acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no. 1. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 2 environmental, behavioral, and covert or personal. each of these triadic forms of selfregulation interact reciprocally via a cyclic feedback loop through which writers selfmonitor and selfreact to feedback about the effectiveness of specific self-regulatory techniques or processes’ (zimmerman & risemberg, 1997). english learners should be guided to read and peruse literary works and figure out the writing style of the author to acquire creative writing skills. one of the famous legendary writers is shakespeare. he is generally acknowledged as the greatest literary genius of the english language; his writings have touched the world (mccuen & winkler, 2004). hemmingway, who is known for his unique elements of style, won both a nobel prize and a pulitzer prize for his profound fiction. his direct and unadorned writing style has been much imitated by subsequent writers (diyanni, 2001). dickens is one of the best classic writers of the 19th century. he is known as one of its foremost figures and wondrous personalities (gissing, 2005). sparks, a prolific, contemporary novelist, who started his career in 1994, has written several best-seller novels. most of his masterpieces have been shown as major motion pictures and watched by millions of people. people are falling in love not only with the movies but also with his writings (miller, 2010). spanich (2006) stated that sparks’ writing ability shines through his popular narratives at the levels of form and technique. therefore, this researcher chose to analyze one of sparks’ masterpieces. his great achievement has piqued this researcher’s curiosity to fully delve into his works in order to find out what makes his writings known worldwide. the study was conducted within the framework of two theories: aestheticism and stylistics. aesthetics is the theoretical discourse which attempts to comprehend literary works (joughin & malpas, 2003, p.2). it is one of the most important philosophical works of the 20th century; it deals with the social dimension of art that combines a comprehensive grasp of aesthetics as a discipline with an astonishingly intimate knowledge of a wide range of works of art (hullot-kentor, 1996). aesthetic theory accentuates the beauty of art (tatarkiewicz, harnell, barret, & petsch, 2005). meanwhile, in the twentieth century, it seemed that nobody paid attention to what stylistics was all about. stylistics was on the wane, and only a few researchers were eager to do research in stylistics. however, in the twentieth-first century, stylistics becomes very much alive. stylistics is taught and researched in the department of language, literature, and linguistics all over the world (simpson, 2004); it is a well-established field in literary and linguistic studies (raton, 2002). stylistics has important contributions to make to literary criticism, and, by adopting a more cultural approach to linguistic analysis, the writers might also achieve a richer conceptualization of the materiality of the literary text (paton, 2000). in this study, the researcher analyzed literary elements and devices to provide learners with an indepth exploration of reaching writing fluency. methodology this study was qualitative in nature. the research design that the researcher utilized was descriptive analysis. according to paler-calmorin and calmorin (2007), descriptive analysis describes the nature of an object by separating it into its parts. its purpose is to discover the nature of things. the researcher should determine the composition, structure, and substructure that occurs as units within a larger structure. the descriptive-analytic method was meant to reveal the elements of sparks’ writing style and his chosen themes. this study is also called a literary analysis. literary analysis explains the meaning of a text by analyzing its structure and features. literary analysis helps readers understand what makes a literary work thought-provoking, revealing, or enjoyable. the literary analysis also contributes to the larger scholarly conversation about the meaning and purpose of literature. (manyak & manyak, 2021). https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no. 1. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 3 source and type of data the source of this study was the literary writing of sparks. sparks’ masterpieces have a predominant feature, whether thematic or structural that will ease his readers to position literary features with a particular location in the literary spectrum. the data for this study came from sparks’ novel entitled the last song. the reason for choosing the last song was because this novel was believed could bring an impact on the beauty of life to its readers, and it is reachable to all ages. moreover, sparks’ the last song is contemporary. the data collected by this researcher was textual and consisted of themes and the elements of sparks’ writing style, such as figurative language, syntax/sentence fluency, diction/choice of words, point of view, types of discourse, and plot devices. data gathering procedures to come up with the data for this study, this researcher had to read the text closely several times. at the first reading, data was gathered around obvious themes or topics on a trial-and-error basis. in the process of re-reading, certain data that did not fit into the categories had to be discarded, or else new categories had to be created to accommodate the newly found data. the whole book was used as a source of data, except in terms of syntax/sentence fluency where only the three longest chapters (35, 26, and 13) and three shortest chapters (36, 7, and 22), out of 37 chapters, were chosen as the basis for analysis in order to ascertain sparks’ predominating sentence type and his average sentence length. in order to find the sentence types, the researcher segregated the sentences into four types; simple, compound, complex, compound-complex, and sentence fragment. in order to be able to get the sentence length, the researcher carefully counted the number of words and then divided it by the number of sentences. needless to say, only the narrative sentences were considered in this particular analysis, disregarding the dialogue portions. in referring to quotations taken from the novel the last song, the researcher used only page numbers to avoid wordiness. results and findings the themes of literary works convey fundamental messages to give thought to human conditions that are derived from the outcome of the conflict (diyanni, 2001; hudson & leclair, 2004; bucher & manning, 2006). emerging themes of ‘the last song’ after a careful analysis of the treatment of the last song’s themes, it was found that sparks uses binary opposition. binary opposition is considered a device to form two distinctive classes which contradict each other (culler, 2002). the use of binary opposite themes is seen as the epitome of the controversy between good and evil, the underpinning theme or plot of fiction in general. the following are the themes that nicholas sparks accentuated in the novel: hatred versus love, death versus life, adultery versus fidelity, distrust versus faith, alienation versus closeness, poverty versus wealth, and illusion versus reality. hatred versus love hatred and love are the most common feelings that all mankind experience. sparks employs the theme of hatred versus love to illustrate how love can conquer hatred. the following are the scenes that sparks uses to exemplify the theme: ronnie and steve. it is a father-son relationship. the story revolves around seventeen-year-old ronnie miller, who is shipped by her mom, together with her ten-year-old brother jonah, to spend the summer with their father. ronnie abhors the idea of spending the whole summer with her father https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no. 1. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 4 because she hates him but she cannot refute her mom’s idea. “she supposed she could live with a visit. but to stay until late august? pretty much the entire summer? that was banishment, and for most of the nine hours it had taken them to drive down, she’d felt like a prisoner being transferred to a rural penitentiary” (p. 17). sparks utilizes the word ‘prisoner’ to describe ronnie’s feelings about the visit. for ronnie, being with steve was the ultimate misery. through this hate-love theme, sparks also accentuates that a father will always love his daughter no matter what his daughter does to him. steve’s love eventually melts the hardened heart of ronnie. ronnie and the piano. the piano had been a major part of ronnie’s life, and when she was younger, she had been consumed by the desire not only to play but also to compose songs with steve. ronnie’s great talent in piano has been acknowledged by the administration and the teachers of juilliard. steve had taught her to play the piano when she was a child. “he taught me to play from the time i was able to walk. i played for hours, seven days a week, for years. we even did some composing together . . .” (p. 256). however, since steve left julliard, she had refused to play the piano—their shared passion. “ronnie hated the piano and swore she’d never play again, a decision even some of her oldest friends thought was strange. . .” (p. 12). initially, ronnie does not hesitate to irritate steve about her quitting the piano as she spends her summer with him. she yells at steve when he plays the piano at home, “i don’t like this little game you’re playing” (p. 74). she even hates seeing the piano, “i hate the piano. i hate that i had to play every single day! and i hate that i even have to see the damn thing anymore!” (p. 108). ronnie and her life. ronnie hates everything that is going on with her, including her own life. she especially hates it when her mom sends her to spend the summer with her dad. she prefers to stay in new york; a city where people can find amusement contrasted to life in wrightsville beach, north carolina. she wants to go back to where she belongs. “her first thought was simply to hitchhike to the bus station and buy herself a ticket back to new york” (p. 66). ronnie loathes being at her dad’s place. “she wanted nothing more than to get the hell out of this place” (p. 173). ronnie hates her life even more when blaze comes along and frames her for shoplifting. blaze is jealous of ronnie talking with her boyfriend marcus; thus, blaze comes up with a plan to get rid of her. ronnie believes that her life is getting worse. “she could not imagine having to spend an entire month in her room, a room she had to share, no less, in a place she didn’t want to be. she wondered if things could get any worse” (p. 124). but as the novel progresses, ronnie falls totally in love with her new life. death versus life sparks indicates the importance of life so that all mankind realizes that life is not meaningless simply because death will somehow snatch one’s life away. sparks says, “life is much like a song. in the beginning there is a mystery, in the end, there is confirmation, but it is in the middle where all the emotion resides to make the whole thing worthwhile” (p. 445). sparks gives his perception and valuation of life by setting it against a backdrop of death. in most of his novels, sparks dwells on the theme of death. it is most likely related to his real life in which several times he experienced the loss of a loved one. kridler (2010) stated that sparks’ mother was killed at the age of 47 in a horseback-riding accident, his father died at the age of 54 in a wreck, and his sister at the age of 33 died of cancer. the tragedies he had gone through could have prompted him to pour his feelings about death into his writings. to support and accentuate the theme of death, sparks portrays several death scenes: steve’s death, steve’s parents’ death, and mikey’s death. to emphasize the theme of life, sparks even depicts the birth of sea turtles and highlights the struggles of mable, a female loggerhead turtle who survived to live in spite of all odds. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no. 1. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 5 steve’s death. spark shares his thoughts through steve about how people are scared to face death, and how they think of a thousand dark scenarios as death approaches. steve receives his death sentence in february when he visits a doctor’s office after giving his last piano lesson. the doctor says that he has stomach cancer and it has metastasized to his pancreas and lungs. naturally, steve wishes to live longer; however, he has little hope to survive. “the oncologist was compassionate and yet was telling steve that there was nothing he could do” (p. 359). knowing that his life is coming to an end, steve dreaded to know the fact, “but the memory of the doctor speaking the actual words began to recur in his mind, like an old-fashioned record skipping on a turntable. on the beach, he began to shake. he was scared and he was alone. head lowered, he put his face into his hands and wondered why it had happened to him” (p. 362). steve’s parents’ death. sparks does not only picture the death of steve but also that of steve’s parents in a flashback—about how they struggled with the disease. he illustrates how death affects the life of the family members who are left behind. sparks narrates, “steve’s mom passed away suddenly a few years after that encounter when an artery burst in her brain” (p. 97). and steve watches helplessly as his dad is dying a slow painful death because of stomach cancer. “his cheeks were sunken, and his skin was translucent. up close, steve thought his father’s breath smelled of decay, another sign the cancer was announcing its victory” (p. 92). first, sparks portrays steve in a position to witness losing his loved ones to death, and afterward, sparks portrays steve in a position to face death himself. birth of sea turtles. sea turtles are regarded as endangered animals; only one out of a thousand lives to maturity. sea turtles lay their eggs at night (p. 126). sparks depicts the miraculous birthing of sea turtles. through their birth, sparks emphasizes that life is amazing. steve finds a nest of sea turtle eggs near the house and shows it to jonah and ronnie. the experience brings ronnie closer to her father. steve explains to ronnie that sea turtles are beautiful creatures. they have a reddish-brown shells and they can weigh up to eight hundred pounds. they seldom hatch because usually the eggs are eaten by some raccoon. raccoons can smell the urine of the female loggerhead turtle when she lays her eggs. sparks highlights the sea turtle episode by situating a sea turtle project at wrightsville beach. it is a place to rescue and rehabilitate endangered sea turtles. the life of mable. mable is a female loggerhead turtle at the sea turtle project. “she was hit by a boat propeller. she was rescued about a month ago, barely alive. a specialist had to amputate part of her front flipper” (p. 159). it is a miracle that mable lives long after what happened to her. she is stronger than she was before. sparks includes the mable incident to highlight the theme of death versus life. sparks gives the idea that escaping death is a miracle to human beings. sparks portrays steve as he witnesses new life and stares death in the face at the same time: “now, on a dark night in august, baby turtles were skimming the surface of the ocean, and he was coughing up blood” (p. 364). all humankind has to experience death. somehow, someday death can suddenly snatch one’s life. sparks also wants to share the idea that human life is in danger as much the life of sea turtles; therefore, people need to take care of their life properly, and only through god can we ask blessings to live longer. adultery versus fidelity sparks spices up the story by presenting fidelity vis-a-vis adultery. the theme of fidelity versus adultery is common in romance stories. tolstoy’s anna karenina is known for its adultery theme (stovian. 2014). sparks supports this theme by portraying two couples whose marriage ended because of adultery: steve and kim, and blaze’s parents. in contrast, he pictures two couples who remain faithful to each other against all odds: steve’s father and mother, and tom and susan. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no. 1. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 6 steve and kim. steve and kim are ronnie’s and jonah’s father and mother. their marriage ended when steve found out that kim was having an affair with another man. it is a pure coincidence that he sees kim, dining with someone a few years older than she. sad to say, he sees the man touch and kiss his wife. steve does not know what to do. “he could not remember feeling much of anything. . . so he shifted the small carry bag he’d packed the night before to his other hand, turned around, and headed back in the direction of penn station” (p. 404). sparks portrays steve as, unlike most men who will confront the guy and make a scene in the restaurant. he does not explode with anger; he knows that his marriage is in trouble. he and kim have gone through some counselling. sparks narrates, “steve was uncomfortable; the counselling had been kim’s idea, and she’d already gone alone. this was their first joint session, and by way of introduction, she told the counsellor that steve kept his feelings bottled up inside but that it wasn’t his fault” (p. 99). deep inside steve’s heart, he did not want to divorce his wife; he just did not know how to express his feelings to kim. but faced with his wife’s affair, he slowly backs up from the marriage and returns to his hometown, leaving both his career and family behind. blaze’s parents. blaze’s mother and father, also divorced, have started moving on with their own lives with their respective new partners. sparks illustrates through blaze’s viewpoint that living in a broken home is miserable. blaze says, “my dad lives with his girlfriend. this is his third one since the divorce, by the way, and she’s the worst by far. she’s only a few years older than i am and she dresses like a stripper. for all i know, she was a stripper. it makes me sick every time i have to go there” (p. 41). blaze does not like the partner of her mom either. “she has a boyfriend, and he’s at the house all the time. and he’s a loser, too. he wears this ridiculous toupee because he went bald when he was like twenty or something, and he’s always telling me that i want to think about giving college a try” (p. 42). so it is not just ronnie who becomes bitter and cynical about everything, it also happens to blaze. ever since the divorce, blaze reasons a lot about everything and has become a different person. sparks again shares the idea that children suffer the most when their parents get divorced. since children cannot do anything about it, they become rebellious children. tom and susan blakee. tom and susan are will’s parents. sparks describes how the blakees had weathered hardships in their marriage and emerged strong and faithful to each other at all costs. they have been married for thirty years and had struggled to overcome all trials together. “through it all, they had loved each other well, celebrating their successes and supporting each other during the tragedy. neither of them was perfect, but he’d grown up certain that they were a team, and eventually, he had absorbed that lesson” (p. 238). tom and susan have built a strong foundation in their marriage to remain faithful. this strong bond brings meaning to will, and he wishes to have such a marriage someday. steve’s parents. another couple who remain loyal to each other is steve’s parents. steve had good parents who never abused him and always took good care of him. they provided all of steve’s needs. “he visited the dentist and doctor once or twice a year, there was always plenty to eat, and he always had a jacket on cold winter mornings and a nickel in his pocket so he could buy milk at school. but if his father was stoic, his mother was not all that different, and he supposed that was the reason they’d stayed married as long as they had” (p. 114). there were times when steve’s father and mother would quarrel; however, they always tried to show respect to one another. steve believes that his parents loved each other. “they didn’t argue and avoided conflict as a rule. they seemed to enjoy each other’s company when they were together, and once, he had caught them holding hands while watching tv” (p. 95). sparks presented two divorced couples and two everlasting couples to support the theme. he wants to show how the parents’ relationships affect the life of their children. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no. 1. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 7 distrust versus faith sparks is not just known for his tragic twists but also for his christian themes. with the theme of distrust versus faith, sparks wants to convey some contrasts between the faith of ronnie and steve. ronnie is first portrayed as an individual who does not believe in god. she accuses her father of putting up a false façade as he turns to read his bible. she is cynical when she finds out about her father’s disease. she has set in her mind that nobody can escape from death. “she didn’t believe in miracles. she knew that some people did, but she couldn’t force herself to think that her dad was somehow going to make it. not after what she’d seen, not after the way the doctor had explained it. the cancer, she’d learned, had metastasized from his stomach to his pancreas and lungs, and holding out hope seemed . . . dangerous” (p. 410). in contrast to ronnie, steve is depicted as a person who believes in god and always makes room for god’s presence in his life. sparks pictures steve reading the bible five times. “afterward, they settled in the living room, and sensing she wasn’t in the mood to talk, her dad read his bible while she read anna karenina” (p. 139). as steve’s cancer worsens, he turns to his bible even more. “when her dad was awake, he was quieter now, content to read the bible or walk slowly with her in silence” (p. 418). when his condition does not permit him to read the bible, he forces himself to communicate with god, praying for strength. “her dad continued to study his bible, and sometimes he’d read a passage or verse aloud at her request” (p. 421). what matters is not the number of times steve reads the bible, but the faith that steve had toward his loving god. the idea of the theme, distrust versus faith, is to share with the readers that one cannot live without god’s profound power. someone may consider himself strong and powerful with no need for god, but when death is about to fetch him, he will call on god’s name to pray for a miracle. in addition to this, sparks pictures it in ronnie as she sees her father about to enter the gate of death. “she prayed fiercely for a miracle, a tiny one. and as though god himself were listening, it happened twenty minutes later” (p. 440). alienation versus closeness an alienated person is someone who separates himself from society and sees himself as superior to all others and so cannot relate to anyone. moreover, alienated persons see other people as tools and use them for their own ends (chibuikem, 2017). on the contrary, closeness is illustrated by someone who has a family-oriented mind, someone who loves being around family and friends, and someone who tends to be loyal to those he loves. alienation versus closeness is another contradicting idea that sparks wants to emphasize in the novel. he portrays alienation in the life of marcus, ronnie, and steve. on the other hand, he uses will to illustrate the idea of closeness. marcus. the readers probably think that marcus holds a small role in the story; however, sparks gives him special room to showcase a person who thinks that he is superior among all— superman. marcus is a fireball showman. that is what he does to earn a living. “nine fireballs. not all at the same time, of course; they normally used six in the course of a show. but adding one more here and there, something unexpected might be enough to raise the cash he needed” (p. 328). marcus always thinks of himself in terms of fire: strong and invincible, and no one can get close to him because of the heat of his power. “there was nothing better; nothing made him higher than the power he felt with a lighter in his hands” (p. 259). believing so much in himself, marcus never trusts anyone, he does not need anyone. “he was better off without her. he didn’t need her. he didn’t need anyone . . . (p. 260). ronnie. in the novel, ronnie is initially pictured as an alienated individual. she alienates herself from her family, creating a different life for herself by becoming gothic and rebellious, just to express the anger in her heart. she has no good communication with her parents, especially her https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no. 1. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 8 father who left them three years ago. most of the time, she spends her nights at clubs, breaking the curfew her mother has set. she always clashes with jonah, like a cat with a dog. she tends to skip classes and misses every single question on sats. all of which are outward manifestations of her deep-seated anger. steve. aside from marcus and ronnie, steve has also alienated himself from his family. finding out about his wife’s affair, he makes a decision to return to his childhood town and solitude, leaving his family behind and living all by himself in the oldest bungalow at wrightsville beach. he spends his time working on stained-glass windows for one of the churches in wrightsville beach. will. in contrast to marcus, ronnie, and steve, will is depicted as a person who is loyal, and who loves being around family and friends. will is a smart guy “and more than that, he seemed to be doing something with his life. he worked, he volunteered, he was a pretty good athlete; he even got along with his family” (p. 170). through the character of will, sparks shares his idea that humans cannot live alone. a basic human need is to love and to be loved. as the song goes, “people who need people are the happiest people in the world.” conversely, those who alienate themselves from others for whatever reason are the most miserable. poverty versus wealth will is born into a wealthy family and lives in an exclusive world. by dint of hard work, the blakees have become millionaires, owners of a lot of business companies. aside from being wealthy, the blakees are a closely-knit family. ronnie, unlike will, comes from a broken family, with a father who works part-time as a piano teacher and spends most of his time making stained glass, and a mother who works as a paralegal at a wall street law firm. when ronnie first finds out the truth about will’s family, she feels uncomfortable being with him, unsure whether will really likes her. she feels out of place when she visits the blakee’s residence. “did she belong in a place like this?” (p. 301). the relationship between will and ronnie is disapproved by will’s mother, susan blakee. susan categorized ronnie as low class. “will, honey . . . don’t you get that she’s not good enough for you? you’ve got your whole future ahead of you, and the last thing you need in your life is someone like her. i’ve been waiting for you to figure it out on your own, but obviously, you’re too emotionally involved to see the obvious. she’s not good for you. she’s lowclass. low! class!” (p. 317). susan wants her son to be with someone like ashley, who is “beautiful and rich” (p. 238). social status appears to block ronnie’s relationship with will. sparks makes it clear that the poor and the rich belong to different worlds; however, there is a way to bridge the two worlds. illusion versus reality at the beginning of the story, ronnie is under the illusion that steve had betrayed his family, that steve left the family because he had an affair with another woman. she thinks it was her mom who had suffered betrayal from her dad. eventually, however, ronnie finds out the truth, which was the other way around: it was her mother who had betrayed her father. it was her mother who had an affair with another man. “the realization hit ronnie with an almost physical force. her mom had the affair, not her dad. and . . .” (p. 401). all the bad things she had in mind about her dad vanished suddenly. she realizes that steve had allowed her to think that way so that she will not hate her own mother. it is her father who had sacrificed his feelings for the sake of her mother’s happiness. at this point, ronnie’s hatred toward her father turns into love. another illusion that does not match reality is ronnie’s experience with blaze. through this theme, sparks craves to communicate to his readers that it is so easy to be mistaken concerning people’s illusions, impressions, or ideas about someone or something we encounter for the first time. through this https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no. 1. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 9 theme, he invites his readers to be careful in making judgments or conclusions about people and things. the thematic value of sparks’ the last song has underscored generalizations of the human condition that are drawn from the resolution of the conflicts. the scope of his fiction is relevant to real life. he intends to accentuate that life is a package of surprises. life revolves around evil and good. finally, sparks is trying to convey to his readers that in life people need to sift the good from the bad; and that sometimes, they need to accept both as a part of life. this is a tubular summary of the emerging themes in the novel ‘the last song’: table 1. themes of the last song theme generalizations generalizations hatred vs love a) ronnie b) steve love conquers hatred. death vs life a) steve b) steve’s parents c) mikey d) sea turtles e) mable death is the common experience of all humankind. adultery vs fidelity a) steve and kim b) blaze’s parents c) steve’s parents d) tom and susan a broken family can ruin the lives or personalities of the children. distrust vs faith a) ronnie b) steve god’s presence restores faith. alienation vs closeness a) marcus b) ronnie c) steve c) will human beings are social creatures. being with family, friends, and god help one to cope with life. poverty vs wealth a) will b) ronnie poverty is not a hindrance to success. illusion vs reality a) ronnie what people have in mind is not always the same as the reality. elements of sparks’ writing style style is one of the things that need to be considered in literary works as a means of understanding the writing (brainard, 2009; torralba-perez, 2001). every writer or author has his or her own creative techniques. and to understand more about style, stylistics should also be understood because stylistics is the study of style. according to simpson (2004), “stylistics is a method of textual interpretation in which primacy of place is assigned to language” (p. 2). in this section, the https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no. 1. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 10 researcher will detail the elements of sparks’ writing style as evinced in his novel. in the exploration of sparks’ written language, the following elements of language were considered: figurative language, syntax/sentence fluency, diction/choice of words, point of view, types of discourse, and plot devices. figurative language writers employ figurative language to add to the imaginative power of words (serrano & ames, 2009). sparks utilizes several figures of speech to make his writing more powerful. these are rhetorical questions, onomatopoeia, simile, idiom, personification, metaphor, hyperbole, and symbol. sound of music versus sound of silence. the title of the novel is the last song; thus, it has a connection with music. the instrument that sparks employs is the piano. steve is portrayed as a music professor in julliard. he also holds concerts in different cities. music has always been his passion; whenever he feels lonely, playing the piano is his way to escape the lonesome feeling. sparks says, “by that point in his life, the piano had become an obsession, and steve would often practice for four to six hours a day, lost in his own world of melody and composition” (p. 190). for steve “music had always been a movement away from reality rather than a means of living in it more deeply” (p. 17), “without music he felt aimless and adrift” (p. 194), and “he had written music throughout much of his life” (p. 195). music stands for joy and happiness, and silence stands for sorrow, pain, and indifference. again, these are the common experiences of mankind. this is a tubular summary of the figures of speech used by sparks in the novel. table 2. figures of speech no. elements number of times used 1. rhetorical questions 36 2. onomatopoeia 32 3. simile 17 4. idiom 24 5. personification 18 6. metaphor 13 7. hyperbole 5 8. symbol 8 syntax/sentence fluency experienced writers know how to vary their sentences in order to make their writing more interesting and lively (lynne & lli, 2009). good writing reads fluently and pleasurably. the principal focus of attention thus far in this study has been figurative language. in this section, the focus shifts to the syntax or the structure of sparks’ sentences. the syntax is a significant feature to consider when analyzing the style of a writer (tallerman, 2005). the two aspects of sentence fluency that were treated in the study are sentence type and sentence length. the novel consists of 37 chapters, excluding the prologue and the epilogue. to analyze the syntactic structure of sparks’ narrative technique, the researcher chose the three longest chapters (35, 26, and 13) and the three shortest chapters (36, 7, and 22) as the basis for the analysis. furthermore, the sentences considered for the analysis are just narrative sentences, excluding the dialogue. the following is a tabular summary of sparks’ syntax/sentence fluency. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no. 1. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 11 table 3. syntax/sentence fluency the three longest chapters chapters average sentence length sentence types no. of times used 35 16.4 a) simple b) complex c) compound d) compoundcomplex e) fragments 149 73 117 118 2 26 16 a) simple b) complex c) compound d) compoundcomplex e) fragments 152 51 103 72 14 13 14 a) simple b) complex c) compound d) compoundcomplex e) fragments 122 18 47 34 2 syntax/sentence fluency the three shortest chapters chapter average sentence length sentence types no. of times used 36 23 words a) simple b) complex c) compound d) compound-complex e) fragments 1 1 3 4 7 15.1 a) simple b) complex c) compound d) compound-complex e) fragments 10 5 10 3 3 22 13 a) simple b) complex c) compound d) compound-complex e) fragments 22 12 5 7 10 diction/choice of words writers write to express, not to impress (spandel, 2009); therefore, they have to be able to choose their words in order to establish their tone or voice (stanford, 2006; diyanni, 2001), and to make https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no. 1. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 12 their words clear and accurate to their readers (serrano & ames, 2009). good diction shows a mastery of the fundamentals of the language--grammar, pronunciation, or orthography (bautista, 2007). in the exploration of sparks’ choice of words, the following elements of diction were considered: diegesis and mimesis, powerful verbs, verbalization, and compounded adjectives powerful verbs. the use of power-packed verbs is one technique which sparks harnesses to energize his mimetic mode, to make the “showing” more convincing. by means of powerful verbs, the reader is not just told, he is empowered to see for himself, hear for himself, smell for himself, and taste for himself. powerful verbs are verbs that do not need any adverbial modifiers because they have built-in modifiers; they add life and interest to writers’ sentences (montgomery & rainey, 2009). there are at least 50 such verbs in the novel which may be grouped under generic verbs such as walking, looking, saying or talking, taking, and sitting. generic verbs are lazy verbs; they are waiting for adverbial modifiers to energize them. power-packed verbs are bursting with energy because they have built-in modifiers. verbalization. verbalization is yet another technique used by sparks to further energize his mimetic mode. verbalization is the practice of changing nouns into verbs. an example is: he caught fish from the brook—he fished in the brook. in the original sentence fish is a noun used as the direct object of the verb caught. in the second sentence, fish has become the verb of the sentence. there are at least 32 instances of verbalization that this researcher found in sparks’ novel. compounded adjectives. the use of compounded adjectives is perhaps sparks’ defining style. it is his unique way of foregrounding. foregrounding, according to simpson (2004), refers to a “form of textual patterning which is motivated specifically for literary-aesthetic purposes” (p. 50). sparks’ compounded adjectives, among others, constitute his textual strategy to develop his characters and images for stimulating the minds of his readers. adjectives are used to describe something—to modify a noun or pronoun (montgomery & rainey, 2009); it provides colour to any descriptions (parrott, 2000). while compound adjectives are not a novel idea, sparks is fond of using original, compounded adjectives of sometimes three or more words to make his sentences intriguing, sometimes hilarious, and fresh. there are about 55 such compounded adjectives found in the novel. the following is a tabular summary of sparks’ diction or choice of words: table 4. diction/choice of words no. elements number used 1. powerful verbs: a) verbs of walking b) verbs of looking c) verbs of saying or talking d) verbs of taking e) verbs of sitting total 22 10 8 5 5 50 2. verbalization 33 3. compounded adjectives 55 point of view https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no. 1. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 13 point of view is sometimes called angle or focus of narration. morrison (2006) states, “choosing a point of view for a particular story can be a matter of intuition” (p. 99). writers of a novel should be aware of choosing their point of view, because it is through point of view the readers see the action, thought, and speech of the characters. they need sharp eyes to understand the details of their characters’ world (hewings & hewings 2005). sparks utilizes the subjective-third-person point of view—in this point of view, the narrator knows what his character observes and feels internally and externally (morrison, 2006). and the narrator makes the reader privy to everything that he knows and feels. but in this novel, sparks does not limit the subjective-third-person point of view to only one character. sparks writes his story in thirty-seven chapters. there are four main characters in the novel: ronnie, steve, will, and marcus. sparks skillfully enters the mind of these four characters, shifting from one character to another. chapters are titled for the viewpoint character. sparks enters ronnie’s mind 17 times, in chapters 1, 3, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 17, 19, 21, 24, 26, 29, 31, 33, 35 and 37. sparks enters steve’s mind for eight times, in chapters 2, 9, 11, 16, 25, 30, 34, and 36. sparks also enters will’s mind for eight times, in chapters 5, 7, 13, 18, 20, 23, 28, and 32. sparks, inside will’s mind, narrates will’s impressions and feelings toward ronnie. will is portrayed thinking about ronnie, wondering what ronnie thought of him. the antecedent of the subject pronoun 'he' and the object pronoun 'he' is will. sparks enters marcus’ mind in four chapters, chapters 4, 15, 22, and 27. marcus is the antagonist in the novel. sparks applies the name of the viewpoint character as the title of the chapter. hence, his readers will easily know that the narrator is in the mind of the title character. this technique provides an express lane for his readers to better observe the internal world of his characters. sparks has greater freedom as he employs subjective third-person point of view, willing his readers to connect with the characters. through this point of view, he gives full power to his readers to imagine the feelings and even the appearances of his characters, because there are times that writers do not convey the physical appearance of their characters; they focus more on their characters’ internal world. types of discourse this is the area wherein writers present the speeches and thought processes of their characters in a narrative voice (silvia & beaty, 2012). there are four main types of discourse: direct discourse (dd), indirect discourse (id), free direct discourse (fdd), and free indirect discourse (fid). direct discourse (dd). direct discourse is the prime means of characterization; lending an air of verisimilitude in order to increase variety in a text (black, 2006). it remains in the present tense which is the normal choice for our expression of current actions and reactions (toolan, 2001). direct discourse refers to the use of dialogue; it is usually marked by quotation marks in order to set it apart from the narrative text. dialogue moves the story forward (hudson & leclair, 2004). a prolific writer, sparks makes his characters come to life with dialogue. his dialogues are suitable for the personality and background of the people who are speaking. sparks’ direct discourse or dialogue may be grouped into categories, some of which are: scintillating, intensescintillating, intense, romantic, and emotional. the following is an excerpt of scintillating discourse: steve: “i hear you are not playing soccer this fall.” jonah: “i’m not very good at it.” steve: “so what? it is fun, right? jonah: “not when other kids make fun of you.” steve: “they make fun of you?” jonah: “it’s okay. it does not bother me” steve: “ah” jonah: “ronnie did not read of the letters you sent her, dad. and she will not play the piano anymore, either.” https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no. 1. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 14 steve: “i know” jonah: “mom says it is because she has pms steve: “do you even know what it means?” jonah : “i’m not a little kid anymore. it means pissed-at-men-syndrome indirect discourse (id). indirect discourse is also known as reported speech. all the forms of indirect discourse are characterized by the back-shifting of tense in the reported clause; therefore, the present tense becomes the past tense and the past perfect, while the present continuous becomes the past continuous (black, 2006). indirect discourse is indicated with the word ‘say’ or ‘tell’. writers must be aware of using indirect discourse in their writing; too much use of indirect discourse will make the writing tedious. while direct discourse emphasizes the showing mode, indirect discourse is more on the telling mode. sparks employs very little indirect discourse in his novel. there are about ten instances of indirect discourses found in the novel. a) “the oncologist was compassionate and yet was telling steve that there was nothing he could do” (p. 360). the idea of this indirect discourse is that steve is recalling what the oncologist has said to him about his disease. the word ‘tell’ is noted as the indication that the writer utilizes indirect discourse, used in a continuous form. b) “later, he answered her questions. he told her about his father and the history of cancer in his family, he told her about the pains he had begun to feel as the new year rolled in. he told her that radiation was not an option, because the disease was present in so many of his organs” (p. 368). sparks employs the word ‘tell’, using the past form ‘told’. sparks is just reporting what one character said to another character, instead of using dialogue to narrate what his character exactly says. free direct discourse (fdd). free direct discourse is similar to direct discourse; however, free direct discourse is not marked by quotation marks. fdd is more like a monologue, or a mental dialogue. the character speaks to himself, in his or her mind (silvia & beaty, 2012). writers employ free direct discourse to accentuate what the characters think in their minds. sparks seems fond of using free direct discourse in his writing; there are about 33 instances of free direct discourse in the novel. a) “in her mind, she could already hear the conversation. hey sweetie, how did it go? not too well. blaze is completely under the spell of a manipulative sociopath, and lied at the cops this morning, so i’m going to jail. and by the way? the sociopath not only decided he wants to sleep with me, but he followed me and practically scared me to death. how did your day go?” (p. 138). the italicized statements constitute the fdd. the character creates the dialogue in her mind; it is her thought; it is not stated aloud. b) “she froze, staring down at her shirt in disbelief. you’ve got to be kidding” (p. 36). the fdd (in italics) flows freely with the character’s thoughts, actions and utterances, revealing the personality of the character. free indirect discourse (fid). free indirect discourse allows the author to embed the voice of the character into the voice of the narrator. free indirect discourse involves the elements of indirect discourse. the readers need to have knowledge of who the narrator is and of how or why the characters create specific thoughts. sparks also utilizes free indirect discourse in the novel; there are about 15 instances of free indirect discourse found in his writing. (1) “besides, he wasn’t really angry at blaze. hell, when he had first heard what she had done, he had been kind of pleased about it, thinking it might smooth the road between him and https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no. 1. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 15 ronnie. you scratch my back; i scratch yours, that kind of thing” (p. 185). the italicized portion contains the free indirect discourse. it could be the narrator or the character who says: you scratch my back; i scratch yours, that kind of thing. and it could be the reader or another character who is being addressed. (2) “he watched her rise from her spot and grabbed the bottle of lighter fluid. good. at least she was working a little to earn her keep” (p. 328). sparks accommodates all his actions, thoughts, and speech in a profound package to intrigue the minds of his readers. the following table presents a numerical summary of the types of discourse sparks used in the novel. table 5. types of discourse no. type of discourse number of times used 1. direct discourse a) scintillating dialogue b) intense-scintillating dialogue c) intense dialogue d) romantic dialogue e) emotional dialogue 18 15 30 8 28 2. indirect discourse 10 3. free direct discourse 33 4. free indirect discourse 15 plot devices writers use a variety of devices to develop and advance the plot of their stories. three of these are flashbacks, foreshadowing, and chronological order. these are the devices sparks utilizes to tell his story. flashback. flashback is a device to present events or episodes that happened earlier before the current narration in the fiction. he cautions writers using the flashback device because it could result in awkwardness. sparks have proven himself adept in the use of flashback. five of his books--the notebook, a walk to remember, nights in rodanthe, a message in the bottle, and dear john-also utilize flashbacks extensively. in the prologue, sparks opens with a scene that takes place after the events in the story proper; however, the same prologue contains a flashback to the fire, an event that took place before the events in the story proper. and then the whole story (chapters 1-37) is told in flashback (cruz et al., 2004). foreshadowing. while flashback tells the reader what happened in the past, foreshadowing gives a hint of what will happen in the future. it is believed that truly good writers utilize foreshadowing in order to give hints or clues to the readers about what will be happening later. chronological order. sparks employs all the plot devices in his writing; although he uses flashback as the main device for telling the story, most of the flashback is done in chronological order. the story ends in an epilogue, which is written in chronological order—portraying the events that took place after the events. implications for literary appreciation https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no. 1. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 16 literature is made up of language (watson & zyngier, 2007). it is a work that involves thought and feelings (diyanni, 2001). the beauty of literature impacts its readers. literature writers accentuate a deep meaning of life through their literary works. it goes without saying that it is impossible for someone to appreciate something he or she is not familiar with. to develop an appreciation for literature, a person must first read works of literature. appreciation comes as the natural consequence of acquaintance with and understanding a literary work. sparks’ the last song is a novel, a fictional prose narrative that is considered one form of literature. enhancing the enjoyment of literature there are two main theories regarding the function and purpose of literature (or art), each sitting at the opposite ends of a continuum. one of these is the theory of didacticism. this theory holds that the main purpose of literature is to solve the problems of society; hence literature must instruct and provide guidance on how people should behave (widdowson, 1975). the other theory is aestheticism, which holds that the main purpose of literature (or art) is to provide pleasure; hence literature must be enjoyable to read. this study is conducted on the basis of the theory of aestheticism—the purpose of literature is to provide pleasure. for many people, reading in itself is a pleasure. the pleasure is enhanced if the material read is inherently interesting because of its story. not all literature gives enjoyment to the reader, but one will always find plenty of literature to enjoy. therefore, it is essential to read widely with the purpose to find what is enjoyable. once the enjoyment settles, appreciation comes in. some stories are written in veiled terms and their meanings are not readily seen or understood; however, they can give powerful resources for learning such stories may turn off the average reader, but these are the kinds of stories that give greater pleasure to the serious reader. reading a critique, interpretation, or analysis of the work in question could serve as the initiation. if no written critique or interpretation is available, hearing someone give an evaluation of the piece will serve the same purpose (perfetti, landi, & oakhill, 2005). there will be different ways of looking at or interpreting a literary piece. one may or may not always agree with someone’s interpretation, which implies that one has his or her own way of interpreting or analyzing the work (matsumura, correnti, & wang, 2015). the very act of analyzing, interpreting or critiquing a work of literature leads to a better understanding of the work. as soon as a deeper and wider understanding dawns on the reader, the pleasure deriving from the work is enhanced (manyak, & manyak, 2021). literary study is one way to enhance literary appreciation—a step further from just reading to enjoying. it involves analyzing, critiquing, interpreting, and evaluating a literary work. but it requires certain skills and background information to be able to do it: close and systematic reading, reading between the lines, knowledge of literary devices and story elements, and intuition, to name a few. one must have the knowledge and understanding of what the literature is all about, what it means, and how it has been put together in order to fully enjoy it. developing a passion for literature the more a person reads, the better the understanding; the better the understanding, the greater the appreciation; the greater the appreciation, the deeper the passion. possessed with a deep passion for literature, one cannot help but share the joy and beauty of literature study with others, causing them to fall in love with literature. passion cannot be taught, but it is caught. it is contagious. those who are still searching for something to enjoy will be most vulnerable. with the proper motivation, they will find value in literature, appreciate it, and cherish it forever. sparks has helped to inculcate a passion for literature in this researcher’s heart. reading his books has been a source of abiding joy. it is this researcher’s desire to help others https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no. 1. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 17 see the beauty of literature and develop a passion for it. the first step could very well be reading nicholas sparks’ the last song. implications for creative writing reading sparks’ novel the last song opens a ‘creativity process’ for readers. by exploring sparks’ themes and writing style, this researcher was able to get a good grasp of the process of creativity. creative writing is basically defined as the power to create an imaginative and original literary production (ramet, 2001). the literary excitement resides in creative writing because the readers participate in the world that is created by the writers (bautista, august 2005). this view of creative writing involves commitment and conscious work. hence, the following are the implications for creative writing that can be drawn from this study: practice creative reading creative reading means to read by utilizing the imagination. it is also to train the eye to become aware of writers’ use of language (harper, 2014)). it is the gateway to the world of creative writing. writing and reading share the same world of language (morley, 2007). it also creates a discipline in the readers’ minds that helps them to immerse deeply in the writers’ world of words. they will have a phenomenological experience of words (morrison, 2006). by reading lots of healthy literature the readers will explore more the functions, meaning and values of writing (beck & mckeown, 2001). the readers are involved directly in the language world of the writer. creatively reading sparks’ literary writings means exploring the language of sparks. think critically and analytically creative reading also helps readers to be experienced readers, because being experienced readers is to be able to make sense of the reading. practicing creative reading will trigger readers to think analytically and critically (hicks, 2007; swander, & cantrell, 2007). thinking critically and analytically helps in the organization of written work. hence, as a person becomes a creative reader, he or she will naturally develop into a better writer (harper, 2010). sparks’ writing gives ideas to creative readers to become creative writers. they read sparks’ writing without having sparks sitting next to them, explaining everything; such as his themes, his style of writing, his thoughts, and so forth. vividly known, writers write and leave everything to their readers. write pictorially and aurally to write pictorially and aurally is to write words, phrases and sentences that appeal to the readers’ senses of seeing and hearing, to create images that could be seen as well as heard. pictorial writing involves the use of the mimetic mode (showing) and does not rely solely on the diegetic mode (telling). pictorial writing involves description, the use of powerful verbs, and the use of concrete, specific nouns. aural writing involves onomatopoeia, which means choosing words that approximate the sound that is being described. writing is an art, and art is a form of self-expression (wells, et.al., 2018). pictorial and aural writing will help students develop their watching and listening skills (ramet, 2001). in his writing, sparks tries to involve his readers to be able to see with their minds’ eyes the movement of the story and hear the voices of his characters. sparks’ literary writing is a useful tool to give readers pictorial details of the characters and settings and aural skill to hear their discourses in the imaginative world. by reading sparks’ novel, the readers will learn to bring their writing to life and obtain crucial ingredients to portray their characters. sparks’ the last song also contains themes that contradict one another and yet stimulate the minds of his readers to imagine using their minds’ https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no. 1. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 18 eyes and ears. sparks has successfully woven the story in such an intriguing way. every chapter of sparks’ novel contains movements to bring the story to life. fictionalize a true-to-life story creative writing involves imagination and creativity, however, many works of the imagination are based on actual life experiences (harper, 2010; swander, & cantrell, 2007). sparks harnesses his sensory perception, direct life experiences and memories to bring the story to life. sparks grew up in wilmington—a town where wrightsville is located. his novel is set in wrightsville beach; it is not an imaginary place—this place exists. it is clearly seen how fluently sparks describes wrightsville beach. most novels by sparks are relevant to his true life experiences. readers can also follow what sparks has done to create his novel by bringing direct experiences and memories of life into the story. sparks experienced a series of death events in his life, and in almost all of his novels, the theme of death is found. his mother was killed at the age of 47 in a horseback-riding accident, his father died at the age of 54 in a wreck, and his sister at the age of 33 died of cancer. the tragic events evoke the expression of his emotions by putting them as a theme in his writings (kidler, 2010). sparks’ novel dear john tells a story about an autistic child and an autistic father. in his real life, sparks has an autistic child; hence, it is easy for him to portray a character suffering from autism. sparks communicates his feelings to his readers by fictionalizing his true-life stories. aspiring writers might be able to create their own literary works by fictionalizing their true-to-life stories; it will be relatively easier for the writer to weave the story since it is based on a real-life experience. conclusions this study was conducted to give in-depth insights for english learners to enhance their creative writing skills, and gain familiarity with story elements and literary devices with the purpose to increase the number of words they may include in writing and developing their writing fluency. wang (2021) states that creative writing is prevalently applied in both efl and esl classroom settings. there is ample research on creative writing in efl/efl education that demonstrates positive impacts on developing learners’ writing skills. therefore, promoting creative writing skills is a good way to encourage learners to be alert to writing stages, understand the concept of identifying theme, style, word/sentence lengths, development of character discourses as well as figurative language. therefore, the stylistic and thematic analysis of spark’s the last song help activates learners’ cognitive, linguistic and cultural aspect in their minds. when the results of the study were analyzed, it was observed that learning literary elements and literary devices provide certain techniques in developing creative writing skills. additionally, this study drew some literary implications of creative writing which may enable learners to challenge themselves to read a variety of creative writings and develop their stories in written form. as a person develops his or her reading and writing skills, vocabulary growth will follow. with a larger vocabulary, the person may understand different kinds of reading easily and will be able to express his or her thoughts more accurately and clearly in his or her writings. reading sparks’ writing helps readers to build their vocabulary (miralpeix & munoz, 2018). through creative writing, english learners are able to deepen their understanding by training themselves on how certain words (lou & xu, 2016). individuals with advanced creative writing skills have advanced language acquisition namely grammar and vocabulary compare to other individuals (çetin & çetin, 2021). hence this study is deemed to help learners make aware of the choices they make in their own writing. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no. 1. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 19 the findings of the study show that the controversy between good and evil is the superordinate theme of sparks’ novel which is specifically delineated as binary oppositions: hatred vs love, death vs life, adultery vs fidelity, distrust vs faith, alienation vs closeness, poverty vs wealth, and illusion vs reality. in the manner of style, sparks has chosen different specific strategies and techniques to develop and accentuate his theme. he exhibits dexterity in the use of figurative language. his choice of words and point of view is admirable. his dialogue is impeccable. he utilizes all three plot devices: flashback, foreshadowing and chronological order. he uses a variety of sentence types and keeps his sentences short. in short, his writing contains all the elements of what may be considered an effective style. reading, analyzing and interpreting sparks’ the last song has not only been a source of abiding joy to this researcher but has also given rise to implications for both literary appreciation and creative writing. the findings have laid writing prompts for learners to enhance their creative writing. acknowledgement i would like to express my sincere gratitude to god almighty for granting me the wisdom and understanding to complete this study. i wholeheartedly dedicate this study to the english education study department which has given us solid support to use all facilities we needed to perform data analysis. i also appreciate the value of time that our participants gave to be willingly involved in the discussion. their brilliant insights, accurate facts and detailed information have helped us come up with great findings. hopefully, this article can be of great use to enthusiastic readers and future researchers. references cited bautista, c.f. 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(1975). stylistics and the teaching of literature. london: longman https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity https://doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igy023.900 thematic and stylistic analysis of sparks’ the last song: in-depth exploration of literary writing watson, g., & zyngier, s. (eds.). (2007). literature and stylistics for language learners: theory and practice. palgrave macmilan. wells, t., albright, l., keown, k., tkatch, r., duffy, m., wu, l., & wicker, e. (2018). expressive writing: improving optimism, purpose, and resilience writing and gratitude. innovation in aging, 2(1), 241–241. https://doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igy023.900 kindergarten students acquire basic english literacy through letterland: a case study joice ellen limbong coordinator of kindergarten teachers mentari intercultural school – grand surya, west jakarta abstract this study aims to help kindergarten students to acquire basic literacy in english through the use of letterland which is believed to be a fun and exciting program which can produce a natural outcome. this study utilizes qualitative and quantitative approach. the research design of this study is case study in order to make intensive analysis on how kindergarten students acquire basic english literacy through letterland. the study presents a description on how effective and helpful letterland is in helping kindergarten students acquire basic literacy. this study can be used to provide local teachers or educators with the ideas in implementing the phonics approach in teaching basic english literacy. there are number of factors that enable students to acquire the basic english literacy; however, this study focuses on the application of letterland. findings showed that letterland is useful to help kindergarten students in school k in acquiring basic english literacy. students recognized the initial, medial and final sounds. the teachers implemented letterland with a proper class settings, sufficient teaching aids, and proper teachinglearning process. keyword – letterland, basic english literacy, kindergarten introduction literacy has a broad concept; to many people, it is simply the ability to read and write a text. therefore, students are usually expected by their teachers to comprehend reading texts. students are expected to be smart readers who are able to effectively comprehend the text. (katemba c. & samuel 2017). this is a key issue (poulson et.al. 2010) for education policy in many countries. garton and pratt (1998, p.1) defined literacy as ‘the mastery of spoken language and reading and writing.’ it is one of the reason to advocate children to read and write once they have reached the ability to speak. the basic literacy, according to randhawa (2012), is possession of practical competence to acquire the reading and writing skills. cameron (2001) stated that learning literacy may start from kindergarten level or at the age of four years old. however, teaching four-year-old children basic literacy is not that simple. it requires specialty in order to stimulate children’s curiosity in learning. piaget (cited in cameron 2001) added that children are active learner and thinker who construct their knowledge from working with objects or ideas. in that case, teachers should be responsibility to help their learners to be able to read and write in a stress-free environment. nowadays there are many kinds of reading and writing programs offered to schools. one of the program employs phonics which is widely used in schools to teach students basic english literacy. in this regard, smith (1982) explained that phonics instruction aims to help leaners read with rules that will assist them to predict the sound of the written word from the way it is spelled. there have been several studies about the use of phonics in teaching kindergarten basic english literacy. maharani (2007) focused in her study on applying synthetic phonics on teaching reading to children. synthetic phonics emphasize the learning of english sounds. meanwhile anita (2008), in her investigation on teaching reading to kindergarten students, utilized synthetic and analytical phonics teach reading through phonics. she claimed it to be successful and useful in teaching reading. campbell, torr, and cologon (2014) stated that in early childhood settings, language-rich environment is key to having overall quality, including children’s interaction around picture books and dramatic play. in a language-rich environment, phonics program is useful and meaningful to help children learn alphabet letters and sounds. therefore phonics is considered to be effective in teaching reading to kindergarten students as it provokes phonological awareness which lead children to possess natural outcome in reading. the studies above have encouraged the researcher to investigate further the use of phonics programs in teaching children basic english literacy. she found out that there are several phonics programs: hooked on phonics, jolly phonics, wilson reading system, jump start phonics, and letterland; of all the phonics programs, letterland becomes the focus of the study. it is one of few published teaching programs which uphold the central importance of phonics. aside from that, letterland is one of the phonics programs in helping kindergarten students to acquire not only reading skills but also writing skills. thus, this study attempts to seek the answers on how kindergarten students acquire basic english literacy through letterland and to what extent does letterland help students acquire their basic english literacy. brief overview on letterland letterland is considered as child-friendly phonics. it was developed in england in 1968 by wendon. she claimed that this phonics program has existed for more than forty years and it has been widely used by many schools or institution to teach language to their students as in sense general and to teach the basic english literacy. letterland is described as a ‘system for teaching children the basic literacy; namely how to read, write and spell using a synthetic phonics approach. the key words in the definition above are ‘system’ the ‘basic literacy’ and phonics’ those three key words describe what letterland is all about. letterland is set in an imaginary place called letterland, a land populated with twenty-six pictograms-based characters. these characters are a fusion of letters and animated characters. each character has its story which aims to make students feel happy because of the funny and interesting story. by using the story, the teacher may lead students to sound each letter, write letters in correct strokes, mentioning some vocabularies that start with certain letters, and finally to be able to write and read simple words and sentences. story-telling is the essence of learning with letterland because stories as stated by wray and medwell (1991) that stories allow young learners to learn about things and people that will stimulate their imagination which enable them to develop their language usage in several ways. in process of giving story-telling, the students are expected to be curious of what character or letter is to be discussed in the next segment. smith (1982) described letterland as ‘straddling the ebb and flow of controversy concerning the best method for teaching literacy skills, and reading letters and a happy collaboration between teachers and children in the language build around this learning.’ this happy collaboration is achieved through the story of each character in letterland. in utilizing letterland, teachers should understand the correct steps. according to wendon’s (1999) guide book on letterland, there are three books of program on letterland. the first guide book is for the younger students at the age of 2-3 years old. in this program the students are introduced to all the letterland charcters and are instructed to focus on initial sounds. such as ‘m’ for munching mike, ‘b’ for bouncy ben. the introduction of each character is accompanied with a simple story of the character being discussed. after the early years program, the students will go to the next level, namely program one in which the students learn more about each characters in letterland. they also discover in this program that the sounds of the letters can be found easily when they start to pronounce the characters’ names. moreover the students at this level will learn how to recognize and trace each shape of the letter, followed by producing correct letter formation. the effect is a simultaneous reinforcement of both shape and sound in any given word. this means that student will be able to acquire some vocabulary starting with the sounds of certain letters, such as candy, can, cake, candle, and cap as they learn ‘c’ or clever cat as one of the letters or characters in letterland. program one also teaches students to put letters together to form blends and finally read consonant-vowel-consonan (cvc) words, such as cap, fin, jog, bug, and wet. letterland offers a variety materials or teaching aids to support the activities. the essential materials for this program are: teachers’ guide books, early years handbook, program one handbook, program two handbook, tape and cd, abc books, class wall frieze, workbooks, picture code cards, copy masters books, and other teaching aids. therefore, in conducing this study, the researcher has equipped herself with all these materials. literature review an illiterate child will automatically not be able to access the latest news or to read information about what is happening around him or her. daswani (1999) accentuated that basic literacy skills are very imperative to be acquired by every child. since the basic literacy skills are very important, teachers should think of various literacy strategies to teach basic literacy in an easier way and, of course, in a painless way. teaching basic literacy to kindergarten students is such a complex thing to do; cameron (2001) said that to teach second language to a young child is complicated. in that case, there are several researchers that have conducted some research on how to teach basic literacy. most of their research led to phonic method; it is considered to be important in teaching basic literacy. phonic approach widdowson (1971) discovered the advantages and disadvantages of using phonics in teaching reading and writing. he noted that the main advantage of using phonics is that the method interferes with idea of grasping words, phrase and sentences as a meaningful language units. furthermore, weaver (1994) stated that phonic method leads to phonemic awareness; where the learners begin to distinguish letter sounds. phonemic awareness is essential for literacy development as phonics is frequently taught. pressley (2006) added that phonemic awareness is defined as the awareness that words are composed of separable sounds that are blended to produce words. before children learn to read words, they need to have some degree of awareness to study how the sounds work. teaching reading as basic literacy skill reading is a very essential element in teaching a child. there are many aspects that teachers need to know about how the reading skill is acquired by children. blevins (2001) suggested that the process of learning to read among young learners should cover the following skills: the concept of print, alphabet recognition, blending letters, sense of story, and builidng knowledge. llyod (1992) mentioned five key elements in reading process; they are: learning letter sounds, learning letter program, blending for reading, identifying the sounds in words, and learning tricky words. the reading process given by blevins and llyod have the same process with what letterland has. in letterland, the children are taught first about the alphabets recognition and continue with the sounds of each letter, then recognize the five vowels and the blending sounds that is three letter words or what so called cvc blends. teaching writing as basic literacy skill piazza (1987) said that learning to write is much more on a process that children may progress from one phase to the net. learning to write requires the learner to move a pen or a pencil and render letter precisely. once the student is able to grip his or her pencil and write the alphabets, the simple words, simple phrases and simple sentences, he or she will be able to proceed to the higher level where they have to remember the rules of english grammar and syntax, then to place their thoughts in order. cook (2004) explained that when children learn the writing system of english, they will encounter all the complexities of english. additionally, gentry (1982); clay (1975) and green (1990) stated that in teaching writing to children, teachers should recognize the eight stages in writing: a) stage 1 – scribbling; b) stage 2 – letter-like symbol; c) stage 3 – strings of letters; d) stage 4 beginning sound emerge; e) stage 5 consonants represent words; f) stage 6 – initial, middle, and final sounds; g) stage 7 – transitional phases; h) stage 8 – standard spelling. the stages of writing using letterland program are more or less the same as the principles that have stated by gentry, clay, and green. by recognizing steps of writing, the children will be able to write first letter they hear or known as beginning or initial sound. methodology this study utilizes qualitative approach because it can be applied through class observation. the research design of this study is case study. the subjects of this study were kindergarten students and teachers who used letterland to teach and learn basic literacy. there were forty six students from three parallel classes of kindergarten, with range of age four to five. the parallel classes were k1 – a, k1 – b, and k1 –c, k1 – a, and k1 – b and k1 –c. the data were collected in two ways, namely by using class observation and test analysis. the researcher visited all the three parallel classrooms. the observation was conducted through some sessions of teaching. the researcher observed the students and teachers during their teachinglearning activities. there were around 10 to 15 visits to the classrooms. during the class observation, the researchers observed how the students responded to the lessons, what activities the teacher and student did, and the teaching aids that were utilized by the teachers. the class observation for the classroom was carried out in two semesters, from august 2006 until june 2007. in one week, there were three sessions of meeting with forty-five minutes in each session. the purpose of doing the class observation is to know the process of kindergarten students in school k acquire basic english literacy. the items that were parts of the observation are teacher’s teaching style, teacher’s syllabus, classroom setting, and teaching aids. after conducting the class observation, the researcher went through administering a test. the test was given after the students learned all the topics: alphabets and letter sounds. the test is not to test students’ basic literacy yet it is only to analyze students’ scores and the items of the test. there were eight kinds of tests given to the students: correct letter information, initial sound, medial sounds final sounds, initial and final sounds, medial and final sounds, rhyming sounds, and short phrases. each test represented skill of basic literacy which allowed students to read cvc words, short phrases and simple sentences which was conducted during the other session of observation. results and findings letterland helps learners in school k acquire basic literacry. the characters in letterland attracted students’ attention in the classroom because it had several activities which encountered students’ boredom. the followings are analysis of class observation and test result: class observation the class observation is about classroom settings, task implementation, teaching aids, and teaching-learning process in school. the following is the summary of class observation: items observation classroom setting each class has 4 bulletin boards each teacher display twenty-six letterland characters in one bulletin board with various themes, such as garden, sky and sea theme. the other bulletin boards displayed four weathers with eyecatching pictures, birthday charts of students, and students’ works. during the observation the students’ attention was on the boards. another setting that caught the researcher’s attention was posters that appeared in every classroom. there were various kinds of posters. at two corners of the classroom, there were playing zone and mini library. in the playing zone, the teacher provided one small rug with two shelves contained various kinds of toys such as puzzle, blocks, car, dolls, and so forth. meanwhile the mini library displayed many english story books, indonesian story books, as well as bible story books. each classroom consisted of four rectangular tables with small portable chairs and one big rug facing the big portable whiteboard. teaching aids there were various teaching aids that were utilized by the teachers in implementing letterland. each teacher provided flash cards, pictures of words, boxes of attractive objects, picture code books, and story books. during the observation, mostly the students were interested in seeing real objects rather than flash cards or word pictures. therefore teachers provided cd to help learners recognize the characters in letterland which somehow encouraged them to learn the sound of letters through songs. however during the observation, the researcher found out that the teachers did not fully utilized the teaching aids to introduce the characters in letterland. the teachers should have maximized all the teaching aids in the classrooms to support the teaching-learning process. teaching-learning process the teachers started to teach their students the recognition of letter-sound relationships. they considered it to be essential to decode an unknown words or to encode a word when writing. the teacher introduced each letter through a storytelling. in letterland, all the twenty-six alphabets have their names such as ‘a’ for ‘annie apple’ and ‘b’ for ‘bouncy ben’. all the names or characters have their sounds. during the observation, the students were able to familiarize names of each character or letters. in fact, the students became more and more fluent in sounding the letters. in the observation, the teachers introduced writing of upper and lower case letters to the students. the students were able to practice the letter-sound relationship through games, and finally they learned how to blend the sounds, read the cvc words, read the short phrases and short sentences. in teaching-learning process, the researchers summarized activities that were provided by the teachers: 1) the journey to letterland; 2) letters’ recognition through storytelling; 3) the use of teaching aids; 4) learning through games; 5) learning to write correct letter formation; 6) learning the five vowels; 7) the implementation of the tasks, and 8) the blending task. test result analysis there were eight tests given to the students. each test represented each skill in acquiring basic english literacy. the tests were analyzed to find out the role of letterland in helping students acquire basic literacy. in conducting a careful analysis, the researcher categorized the abilities of students into five areas: 1) learning letters’ shapes and correct information; 2) learning letters’ sounds: initial, medial, and final sounds; 3) reading and writing words with cvc; 4) distinguish words that rhyme; 5) reading short phrases with cvc. the following is the summary of the test analysis. category analysis learning letter shapes and correct formation students encountered problems when they tried to write letters. they wrote the letters in reverse, such as b/d. p/q/ s/z or jumbled letter order, for instance, ‘pot’ read as ‘top’. form forty-eight students being tested, there were three students who wrote ‘≤’ instead of ‘z’. the other mistakes that commonly found in the test were writing ‘d’ instead of ‘b’, writing ‘b’ instead of ‘d’. letter ‘q’ was written as ‘p’ and the other way around, letter ‘p’ was written as ‘q’. writing letter ‘c’ as ‘ᴐ’, writing letter ‘w’ as ‘m’. learning letter sounds in this test, the students were expected to recognize the initial, medial and final sounds. the result shown, that most of the students were able to recognize and write the correct initial, medial and final sounds in cvc blends. initial sounds in the test, the students recognized the pictures and named them through the initial sounds, and wrote the initial sound on the line provided. the mistakes that the students made was in letter formation, and inability to name the pictures. medial sounds the test results showed that the students were not able to distinguish the sound of ‘a’ which sounds as /æ/ in ‘hat’ and the sound of ‘e’ which sound as /℮/ in ‘ten’. most of them have not fully mastered the five vowel sounds, it was seen from cvc blends through the given pictures. final sounds before giving the test to the students, the teachers introduced pictures or vocabulary that matched the pictures. for instance, there was a picture of a man and the students were required to fill in the blank of the question: ma___, matching the picture and the word by filling in the blank with final sound. the picture helped the students to recognize the final sound as seen in the result of the study; wherein, most students were able to answer the questions properly. initial and final sounds the students were given nine pictures and they should name the pictures by filling the initial and final sounds that were missing. when the students are given the picture of a pig, they should fill the initial and final sound, ___ i ___. most students were able to fill in the blanks through the given pictures. initial, medial and final sounds after giving various tests about letter sounds, the students were able to write three-letter word even without being given a picture to match the word. reading and writing cvc the test result on the initial, medial and final sounds had given a picture of the capability of the students on reading and writing the cvc blends properly and fluently. conclusively most students were able to recognize the initial, medial and final sounds. words that rhyme the students were able to recognize words that rhyme, for instance ‘cat’, ‘can’, ‘hat’. most students circled the word ‘cat’ and ‘hat’ which known to have the same rhyme. read short phrases with cvc blends in this test, the students were introduced to some easy prepositions which were often used in phrases such as in, on, and at. in the test, the students were required to match 10 phrases with the correct pictures by reading the phrases thoroughly. most students were able to read the given short phrases. the researcher concluded that by implementing letterland in helping students to read and write, basic literacy can be acquired. as stated by cameron (2001), it is essential to remember that every child needs qualified teachers to help them become literate because incapable teachers contribute in students’ failure. by all means, letterland should be performed by knowledgeable teachers of literacy. references anita, t. (2008). teaching reading through the phonics approach to kindergarten students: a case study. jakarta: universitas katolik indonesia atmajaya. blevins, w. (2001). teaching phonics and word study in the intermediate grades: a complete sourcebook. new york: scholastic professional books. cameron, l. (2001). teaching langauges to young learners. new york: cambridge university press. campbell, s., torr, j., cologon, k. (2014). pre-packaging preschool literacy: what drives early childhood teachers to use commercially produced phonics program in prior to school settings. contemporary issues in early childhood. 15 (1). 40-53 cook, v. (2004). the english writing system. london, uk: arnold publishers. daswani, c.k. (1999). literacy an oracy: literacy. in spolsky, b. concise encyclopedia of educational linguistics. selected reading. 159-166. cambridge unviersity press, uk> garton, a.f. & pratt, c. (1998). learning to be literate: the developmental of spoken and written language. blackwell publishers: oxford uk. green, c. (1990). assessing kindergarten children’s writing’s dimensions. katemba, c.,v., & samuel (2017). improving student’s reading comprehension ability using jigsaw 1 technique . acuity : journal of english language pedagogy, literature and culture vol 2 no.2 2017 http://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity/article/view/613/468 leong, c.k & randhawa, b.s. (2012) (eds). understanding literacy and cognition: theory, research, and application. springer. maharani, p. (2007). applying synthetic phonics on teaching reading to children. jakarta: unversitas katolik indonesia atmajaya. piazza, c.l. (1987). identifying context variables in research on writing: a review and suggested directions. written communication. vol. 4. poulson, l. et.al. (2001). the theoretical beliefs of effective teachers of literacy in primary schools: and exploratory study of orientations to reading and wrting. research papers in education. 16 (3). 271-292. smith, f. (1982). understanding reading: a psycholinguistic analysis of reading and learning to read. new york: cbs college publishing. wendon, l. (1999). letterland: teachers’ guide. cambridge: letterland international. widdowson, h.g. (1971). language teaching texts: a manual for teachers. oxford: university press. wray, d. & medwell, j. (2014). literacy and language in the primary years. routledge. http://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity/article/view/613/468 acuity 4(2), 10-22 a comparative study between tps (think-pair-share) and jigsaw techniques to enhance students’ reading comprehension ability glory destiny biantice marpaung ( p.t. purwadhika kirana nusantara, bsd city, tangerang selatan) & nelson balisar panjaitan (universitas advent indonesia, bandung). correspondence author (nelsonpandjaitan@gmail.com) abstract the purpose of this study is to find out the enhancement of students' reading comprehension between those who were taught using tps (think-pairshare) technique and those who are taught using the jigsaw technique. the study discussed the recent developments in reading pedagogy. this study used a quantitative research method and comparative design by measuring the achievement of pre-test and post-test. the result of this study shows that p.value (sig) = 0.187 > α (0.05). therefore, it is concluded that there is no significant difference in the student's reading comprehension ability. even the difference is not significant, based on the mean score of the classes before and after being taught using those techniques, this study indicates that the use of think-pairshare and jigsaw can enhance students’ reading comprehension ability. the study also provides a new interpretation of existing sources on teaching method and offers new insights of teaching reading method by emphasizing collaborative learning. keywords: tps (think-pair-share) and jigsaw introduction reading comprehension ability is essential for success in acquiring a second language. it is the basis of instruction in all aspects of language learning such as in using textbooks for language courses, writing, revising, editing, and using computer-assisted language learning programs (mikulecky, 2008). according to rosen (2017), if a learner wants to learn a new language quickly, lots of reading is important. the more the learners read, the brain will input more about how the language works. learners can also enhance vocabulary, grammar, and writing skills at the same time by reading. concerning the importance of reading, graesser et. al (2011) also added, students who want to learn the english language quickly must learn by reading plentifully in english. there is a survey about reading behaviors among nations over the world conducted by the world’s most literate nations (wmln) in 2016. wmln made ranks nations on acuity 4(2), 10-22 literate behaviors. the survey showed that indonesia ranked 60th out of 61 countries in terms of reading interest. the fact is very contradicting with indonesian curriculum. the skill of reading bahasa and also english text as part of the subject are taught since the students studied in elementary school. “in the case of indonesians, there is a high level of acceptability and tolerance of the use of english. the teaching of english in the school curriculum is given a higher priority over all other foreign languages in the school systems”. thus, the teaching of english as a foreign language (efl) is in fact compulsory (katemba,2013). however, as indonesian students, they have already encountered problems with reading comprehension in indonesian, the language that they’ve acquired and learned, they also find it way more difficult to read and comprehend reading in english, the foreign language that they do not acquire and learn it barely for a short time (siagian & katemba, 2016) in searching the effective methods, teachers take a complex role. teachers have to make their teaching both interesting and relevant to their students. in order to reach the students and teach them something, it is vital to teach in a relevant manner, opening up for student participation, and consider all the different individuals in the classroom (hansen, 2016). teachers can promote this confidence building by providing small steps for success. many instructors have found that through peer instruction, students teach each other by addressing misunderstandings and clarifying misconceptions (chandra, 2015). some experts assured cooperative learning was one of the effective ways and has been shown to have positive effects on various outcomes (cambria and guthrie, 2010). cooperative learning makes a non-threatening environment where students freely mix with each other without any racial discrimination (millis, 2002). based on that opinion learning with cooperative models can be applied to motivate students to dare to express opinions, appreciate the opinions of friends, and mutual provide opinions or sharing ideas. therefore, cooperative learning could be very good to be implemented because students can work together and help each other to overcome the task faced and have improved their reading comprehension (katemba & samuel (2017), pertiwi (2015). in fact, there are a lot of techniques in cooperative learning. among all of the techniques in cooperative learning, the researcher gives attention to think-pair-share and jigsaw technique. based on the explanation, the researcher decided to conduct an experimental study entitled “a comparative study between tps (think-pair-share) and jigsaw techniques to enhance students’ reading comprehension ability”. referring to the statement of the research problem above, the objective of the research is to find out whether there is a significant difference to enhance students' reading comprehension ability after being taught by using think-pair-share technique and jigsaw technique. null hypothesis (ho): there is no significant difference between those who are taught using tps and those who are taught using jigsaw in terms of enhancing students’ reading comprehension. acuity 4(2), 10-22 alternative hypothesis (ha): there is a significant difference between those who are taught using tps and those who are taught using jigsaw in terms of enhancing students’ reading comprehension. literature review reading comprehension the main concept in reading skill is comprehension (keshavarzi, 2015). duke’s study (as cited in gilakjani 2016) found a process in which readers make meaning by interacting with text through the combination of previous experience, information in the text, and readers’ view is called comprehension. readers who can read accurately and effectively to get the knowledge and information from the text with minimum misunderstand is a reader who has reading comprehension skill (khruawan and dennis, 2017). purpose of reading people read written materials for different purposes. the ability to read the text in any form will bring them many great advantages (romli, 2014). conforming to adetoro (2010), the reader can address individuals’ needs by reading. it is also can reduce the ambiguity in their surroundings, give them solutions to problems they encounter, make them survive in difficult circumstances, as well as to enhance their personal growth. teaching reading as reported by andriani (2016), comprehension is the ultimate goal of reading. students must have a passion for reading. they should read a lot and must be able to orchestrate multiple strategies before, during, and after reading. in line with harvard's study (as cited in gurk 2016) found out that cooperative learning techniques as one of the teaching methods which have a big effect on students' reading comprehension. cooperative learning can be used by the teacher as an instructional technique in teaching reading comprehension. cooperative learning conforming to mandal (2006), cooperative learning environment refers to a situation which learners with one common cause in their mind who strive to achieve one common learning goal. mandal and willing (2009) stated cooperative learning for students such as cooperative learning develops higher level thinking skills, creates a good learning environment. the notion of think-pair-share (tps) the think-pair-share technique is a cooperative learning discussion technique introduced in 1981 by frank lyman and his team of educators in maryland, usa. it is a learning strategy that is developed to encourage student classroom participation. acuity 4(2), 10-22 notion of jigsaw jigsaw is cooperative learning which emphasizes students to work in the form of a small group. inayati (2011) affirmed that the development of jigsaw is a way to build a classroom as a community of learners, so all students are valued. the participant is acknowledged that they are valuable participants in the ongoing organizational tasks of finding and solving problems. methodology research design and method this research used a quantitative research method with comparative design. this kind of design compares the students' grade before and after the treatment which has been given in both experimental groups. table 1. research design group pre-test treatment post-test 1 o x1 o 2 o x2 o explanation: x1: learning english by think-pair-share technique x2: learning english by jigsaw technique o: reading comprehension participants there are two classes of the seven grader students in smp advent cimindi, bandung. this research employed those two classes as the experimental class. the sample is grade vii a & grade vii b. the population consisted of 45 students. the instrument the research instrument truly determined the result of the research activity. in this study, the researcher gave 50 questions as a pilot test to grade viii students of smp advent cimindi. after that, the researcher constructed a pre-test based on the result of the pilot test. the pre-test was administered to both sample groups from grade viii. the two groups of samples had different treatment. one group studied were taught using thinkpair-share technique, and the other group was taught using the jigsaw technique. after the treatment, the researcher gave a post-test for the two groups. the post-test was the same as the pre-test. data gathering and procedures in gathering the data, the researcher used the following steps: acuity 4(2), 10-22 preparation stage in this study, the researcher did a preliminary study in which to get the picture of the research sample. then the researcher prepared the research instrument, lesson plan for 8 meetings and asked the permission letter from the dean of the unai education faculty to conduct the research. data collection the data was collected with several steps below: a. conducting a pilot test there were 50 questions in this test. the test was administered to viii students in the school. after collecting the data, the researcher analyzed the data with anates program. b. conducting pre-test the pre-test was conducted in order to find out the students' reading comprehension before the treatment. there were 37 questions that were given to both groups. in this study, the pre-test measured the students’ early reading material mastery in both experimental groups before giving the treatment. c. giving treatment treatment was conducted after the pre-test has been administered. in this study, both groups were given treatment; however, the treatment was different between those two groups. the researcher used tps and jigsaw techniques to enhance the students’ reading comprehension. the treatment was being held for one month to two sample groups in the grade vii smp advent cimindi d. treatment procedure after administering the pre-test, the treatment was conducted to the students. the material was taken from the textbook prepared by the school and other materials from the internet. the procedure of tps was adapted from wahyuni and badriyah (2015) and jigsaw procedure was adapted from meng (2010). the procedure of using think-pairshare technique the procedure of using jigsaw technique step 1 determining what is important 1. the researcher will explain the material before the students read the story. step 1 determining what is important 1. the researcher will explain the material before the students read the story. acuity 4(2), 10-22 2. students listen to the explanation and take notes to write the important things from the materials. step 2 reading exercise 1. the researcher will distribute each student the same story based on the material. 2. the students read silently the reading the passage for 10 minutes. during this period, students reading individually before they share their idea with their pair. 3. teachers may choose whether to assign pairs or let students pick their own partner. individuals' pair up and exchange thoughts for 20 minutes. 2. students listen to the explanation and take notes to write the important things from the materials. step 2 reading exercise 1. the researcher will distribute the story that has already been chunked (each students in the group get different passage with their team. 2. students will take a turn to read the story. students must read based on his/her ‘chuck' passage. (around 15minutes) 3. students consult with another an expert from other teams. experts return to their teams and teach another member based on what they have discussed. step 3 conclusion teacher asks one student from each group to present their thoughts, ideas, and questions they had to the rest of the class. step 3 conclusion teacher asks the student to present their thoughts, ideas, and questions they have to the rest of the class. the pairs are given 30 minutes to share their responses with others group. e. conducting post-test after conducting the treatment, the post-test was administered. it is done in order to know the students’ reading comprehension after being given the treatment. the purpose of conducting the post-test is to find out whether there is any significant difference in students’ reading comprehension achievement between the two groups. the researcher used questions from pre-test as the post-test. statistic procedure the researcher used the statistical treatment in analyzing the data. the statistical analysis in this research has been done by computing the data using several statistical calculations through the spss 23 program and anates program. data analysis on pilot test before the treatment, the pilot test was conducted which consisted of 50 acuity 4(2), 10-22 multiple-choice questions to measure the validity and reliability of the instruments. a. validity according to setiyadi (2006), validity is used to measure perception, language behavior, motivation, even language comprehension. a valid instrument has high validity. the instrument could be called valid if it can show the data of variable which are researched correctly. the validity test was to find out whether the instrument test is suitable to be used in this research or not. b. reliability test according to erman (2003) the reliability of a tool that finds out the result that is consistent in using the same subject. formula: r_11=(n/(n-1))(1-(∑▒s_i^2 )/(s_t^2 )) c. discriminating power index discriminating power index is to clarify the difference between good students (high ability) and the students who were less (low ability) based on their answer in the test. d. difficulty index after constructing, administering on the sample test, and scoring test, then difficulty index was analyzed. a good question is a question that is used to determine the level of difficulty of that question. test items of a wide range of difficulty levels were needed to test the entire range of candidates' achievement levels. e. the result of recapitulation of pilot test this research used 37 questions in pre-test and post-test. to analyze the result of the data the anates was used. null hypothesis (ho): there is no significant difference between those who are taught using tps and those who are taught using jigsaw in terms of enhancing students' reading comprehension. alternative hypothesis (ha): there is a significant difference between those who are taught using tps and those who are taught using jigsaw in terms of enhancing students' reading comprehension. data of test result to examine the null and alternative hypothesis, the researcher used a t-test to prove whether the null hypothesis is accepted or rejected. the researcher used statistical package service solution (spss) to analyze the statistical result. before the items were used as pretest and posttest, the researcher made the pilot test first to find out the quality of the items, whether they are reliable and valid. the pilot acuity 4(2), 10-22 test was conducted at sdn karyawangi parongpong bandung. 29 students participated in answering the test. findings and discussion the result of pre-test and post-test of each group was calculated through excel and spss 23. it can be seen in the following table: table 2 think-pair-share jigsaw mean st. deviation mean st. deviation pre-test 62.0455 8.73677 67.0952 9.74117 post-test 72.0909 6.63977 75.1905 7.66563 normalized gain 0.94250 0.602122 0.69914 0.585091 from the table 2 it can be seen the mean pre-test of tps group is 62.0455 with st. deviation 8.73677 and post-test 72.0909 with st. deviation 6.63977. for jigsaw group, the mean of the pre-test is 67.0952 with st. deviation 9.74117 and post-test 75.1905 with st. deviation 7.66563. based on the increase of the mean and decrease of st. deviation from pre-test to post-test of both groups, it can be concluded that there is an enhancement on students' reading comprehension ability. test of normality the researcher used the test of normality to observe the probability distribution of the data. the result of the normality can be seen on the table: table 3 normality test group shapiro-wilk statistic df sig. tps ,926 22 ,099 jigsaw ,911 21 ,057 according to the table above, this research used the output from the shapiro wilk because is the powerful normality test, as written by razali and wah (2011). if both data have p. value (sig) > α=0.05 it means the data is normally distributed and if the p. value (sig) < α=0.05 it means the data is not normally distributed. based on the data above, the data was normally distributed. it is because the significant score of gain for tps was 0.099 > 0.05 and the significance of the normalized gain for jigsaw was 0.057 > 0.05. acuity 4(2), 10-22 test of homogeneity of variance to see the homogeneity of population variances, the homogeneity test was done. the result of the homogeneity test can be seen in the table below: table 4 homogeneity of variance levene statistic df1 df2 sig. ,859 1 41 ,360 the data is homogenous if p.value (sig) > α=0.05 it means data is homogenous and if p.value (sig) < α =0.05 it means data is not homogenous. the result between tps and jigsaw were homogenous. it is because sig (0.360)>α=0.05. hypothesis testing according to table 4.3 above the result of the data was normally distributed, therefore the researcher used independent sample t-test. the researcher set two assumptions to know the hypothesis is accepted or not: 1. if, ρ.value (sig) ≤ α (0.05): ho is rejected. it means there is a significant difference in the students' reading comprehension ability between those who were taught using tps and those who are taught using jigsaw? 2. if ρ.value (sig) ≥ α (0.05): ho is not rejected. it means there is no significant difference in the students' reading comprehension ability between those who were taught using tps and those who are taught using jigsaw? the result calculation can be seen on the following table below: table 5 independent sample test levene's test for equality of variances f sig. t df sig. (2tailed) equal variances assumed ,655 ,423 1,343 41 ,187 equal variances not assumed 1,344 40,985 ,186 the result of the data above in table 4.4 showed that ρ.value sig, = 0.187 > α (0.05). it means that ho is not rejected. therefore, it is concluded that there is no significant difference in the student's reading comprehension enhancement between those who were taught through tps and jigsaw. according to the data above, the researcher acuity 4(2), 10-22 used the data of equal variances assumed which concern that the sample data was distributed homogenous and sig (2-tailed). discussion of the research findings from the result of the data, it showed that there is no significant difference in students' reading comprehension between those who were taught using think pair share and those who were taught using jigsaw. even though there is no significant difference, the data from the think-pair-share class and jigsaw class showed that the student reading enhancement increased. it can be seen from pre-test score for tps technique 62.0455 to post-test score 72.0909 and pre-test jigsaw technique 67.0952 to post-test score 75.1905. it can be concluded that both techniques are applicable and good, proven by the data previously discussed the researcher assumes in implementing different techniques in teaching, it contributes to the development of students' skills, knowledge, and achievement. cooperative learning is one of the innovative pedagogies that has been found to be positively effective on students' reading comprehension ability. it can help students to break the ice when generally it is the traditional lecture-dominant pattern. students need to have peer support not only to learn the material at a deeper level but also to know their classmates and to build a sense of community with them. the research findings show that the use of the think-pair-share technique and jigsaw technique was able to enhance the students’ reading comprehension ability even there was no significant difference. the students were happy and enjoyed reading using those techniques. they liked to have a discussion with their friends. by having discussions, the students were able to have a better understanding of reading texts than before. their cooperation was also getting better. it implied that the english teacher can use the technique more often in order to get a better understanding to comprehend the text and better cooperation with their pair or group. furthermore, english teacher can use that technique to overcome some problems that might arise during the group works. the english teacher should also be creative in using interesting activities in order to attract the students’ involvement in the teaching and learning process. summary the purpose of this study is to find out whether there is any significant difference between students who were taught through think-pair-share and those who were taught jigsaw in enhancing english reading comprehension. this study is comparative research. in this research design, the pre-test was conducted before giving the treatment. after the acuity 4(2), 10-22 treatment, the researcher gave the post-test to find out the enhancement of students' reading comprehension. the participants of this study were the pupils of smp advent cimindi, bandung. they were divided into 2 groups. group 1 (grade 7a) group 2 (grade 7b) which consisted of a total of 43 students. the researcher used spss 23 to calculate the data. after calculating the data by using spss 23, there is no significant difference in gain mean score between tps and jigsaw. it means the researcher used independent sample t-test to answer the hypothesis testing. from the data analysis and hypothesis testing, it was concluded: that there was no significant difference between those who were taught through tps and those who were taught jigsaw. conclusion from the result of data analysis on the pre-test and post-test, the researcher concluded that there is no significant difference between those who were taught using tps and those who were taught using jigsaw. from tps group on the pre-test, it was 62.04 with a standard deviation of 8.73 and the post-test was 72.09 with a standard deviation of 6,63. based on the tps data which showed that the gain for mean was 0.94250 with standard deviation 0.602122. jigsaw pre-test was 67.09 with a standard deviation of 9.741 and the post-test 75.190, with a standard deviation of 7.665 based on the jigsaw data showed that the gain for mean 0.69914 with a standard deviation of 0.585091. recommendation based on the findings, the researcher gave several recommendations as follow: 1. for teachers: teachers can use these two methods as an alternative to teaching english reading because the students will become active and interested in reading. 2. for students: for students, it is recommended to learning english reading comprehension using these methods, because they are interesting methods and less stressful. 3. for future researchers the researcher hoped that the result of this study can be used as an additional reference for a future researcher in different levels and contexts. references adetoro, n. (2010). reading interest and information needs of persons with visual impairment in nigeria. south african journal of libraries and information. acuity 4(2), 10-22 andriani, d. (2016). the influence of reading comprehension achievement at the eighth grade students of smp muhsammadiyah 1 rawa bening by using drta and kwl strategies. tell-us journal. cambria, j., & guthrie, j. t. (2010). motivating and engaging students in reading. the nera journal, 46(1), 16-29. chandra, r. (2015). collaborative learning for educational achievement. iosr journal of research & method in education (iosr-jrme). duke, n. (2003). comprehension instruction for informational text. presentation at the annual meeting of the michigan reading association, grand rapids, mi. gilakjani, a. (2016). how can students improve their reading comprehension skill? journal of studies in education. graesser et al. (2011). using virtual agents to deliver lessons in reading comprehension to struggling adult learners. gurk, n. k. (2016). the effect of cooperative learning techniques on intermediate iranian efl learners' reading comprehension and reading strategies. journal of studies in education. hansen, e.j. (2016). reading comprehension. inayati, m. (2011). “the effectiveness of jigsaw technique in improving students' reading comprehension”. katemba, c.v. (2013), anxiety level of indonesian students and its relationship to academic achievement in english. journal of education and practice vol.4 no.27 pp. 1-9. retrieved from http://www.iiste.org/journals/index.php/jep/article/view/9873/10097 katemba, c.,v., & samuel (2017). improving student’s reading comprehension ability using jigsaw 1 technique . acuity : journal of english language pedagogy, literature and culture vol 2 no.2 2017. retrieved from : http://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity/article/view/613/468 keshavarzi, a. (2015). the effect of cooperative learning on reading comprehension and reading anxiety of pre-university student. khruawan & dennis. (2017). a study of english reading comprehension using content-based instruction approach. international journal of researchgranthaalayah. mandal, r. (2006). cooperative learning strategies to enhance writing skill. mandal, r., & willing, l. (2009). cooperative learning strategies to enhance writing skill. the modern journal of applied linguistics, 1(2), 95-101. http://www.iiste.org/journals/index.php/jep/article/view/9873/10097 http://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity/article/view/613/468 acuity 4(2), 10-22 mikulecky, b.s. (2008). teaching reading in a second language. millis, j., & cottell, g. (2002). cooperative learning for higher education faculty. phoenix, az. oryx press. romli, m. (2014). improving the students’ reading comprehension of narrative text through story mapping. siagian, s., w., & katemba, c., v., (2016). comparative study between think aloud and visual imagery in enhancing students’ reading comprehension. acuity journal of english language pedagogy, literature and culture vol1 no.1 2016. retrieved from: http://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity/article/view/602 glory destiny biantice marpaung ( p.t. purwadhika kirana nusantara, bsd city, tangerang selatan) & nelson balisar panjaitan (universitas advent indonesia, bandung). correspondence author (nelsonpandjaitan@gmail.com) microsoft word jigsaw 1 -eric.docx improving student’s reading comprehension ability using jigsaw 1 technique caroline v. katemba & samuel correspondence author caroline (linakatemba@gmail.com) universitas advent indonesia doi: https://doi.org/10.35974/acuity.v2i2.613 name of journal acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature and culture, vol 2 no 2 (2017). published: 2017-08-01 url https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity/article/view/613 abstract this research is entitled “effectiveness of utilizing jigsaw 1 towards improving students’ reading comprehension ability. experimental design was used in this study. the participants of this study were two classes of grade 8 of junior high school in parongpong, bandung, indonesia ; each class consisted of 32 participants in grade 8a as the experimental group and 33 participants in grade 8b as the control group. the experimental group was taught using jigsaw 1 technique and the control group was taught using conventional technique. this study intended to seek answer on the question; is there any significant difference on the effect of reading comprehension between those students who are using jigsaw-1 and those who are taught through conventional method. this research was divided into three steps: giving a pretest, treatment (jigsaw 1 technique) and the last giving post-test. data analysis shows that, there is a significant difference in the reading comprehension ability between those who were taught using jigsaw 1 technique and those who were taught using conventional technique. keywords: jigsaw 1, reading comprehension introduction reading is necessary when students further their study, especially at the secondary level. they need good reading skills for acquiring knowledge and learning new information. however, the researcher can see that many students’ reading abilities in indonesia are having difficulties in understanding the text. reading difficulties become a problem when reader cannot absorb the meaning from a text. “indonesian students have already encountered problems with reading comprehension in indonesian, the language that they’ve acquired and learned, they also find it way more difficult to read and comprehend reading in english, the foreign language that they do not acquire and learn it barely for a short time” (siagian & katemba, 2016) understanding syntax (aarts, 2008). children with reading problems often experience confusion in understanding grammars, especially if at the same time they use two or more languages have different grammar. they have problems with language both when setting the language grammar is different than the first. for example, the indonesian-known arrangement explain-explained (example: bag red), but in english known as explained-explaining arrangement (example: red bag). to solve the difficulty in reading comprehension, learning using jigsaw 1 technique has examined in the united state that it will give chance to students to share and talking to peers instead of teachers, moreover students will receive bilingual support from other friends in that group while they are talking (edmonds et al, 2006). fuch et al (2001) stated that in elementary and high school, most of the students have low willingness to read in reading any text, reading for pleasure, more over reading ability is one of the goals of learning to read. but for some students, they were not care and not really giving attention. additionally, students with low reading ability were the students who have low motivation themselves. that is why all activities in the classroom involving reading have a contrary attitude toward students’ reading comprehension. guthrie (2008), stated that in teaching students that have low motivation, teacher may be spend their time to teach those students. to handle this problem, teacher who work in that problem, teachers should use strategies to encourage motivation to read. teacher may use jigsaw 1 method. this may help them and make student success, as well as they will have good relationships with their peer. by having good relationships, in jigsaw 1 technique they can express their idea or opinion. bolukbas et al. (2011) stated that the teachers of english language try to solve the problem by using jigsaw 1technique. this is a way for the researcher to improve the students reading comprehension. jigsaw 1 technique is one of several cooperatives learning techniques. it is a way to teach students to be smart in learning material. in this research, the jigsaw 1 technique was used to teach english reading comprehension. even though there are many techniques used in teaching english reading, the writer chose jigsaw 1 technique to improve the students’ reading comprehension because the jigsaw 1 technique helps students communicate with one another if they have problems in reading the text. usually students face many problems in reading text. for example: difficult words, comprehension of sentences, how to read the word or sentence correctly, and etc. in reading class, most of the reading activities are focused on reading for comprehension. as argued by richard and renandya (2002), reading for comprehension is the primary purpose for reading. therefore, students are usually expected by their teachers to comprehend reading texts. students are expected to be smart readers who are able to effectively comprehend the text. cooperative learning is one of the most popular methods of improving reading comprehension. it has been shown to positively effect various outcomes (johnson & johnson, 2002). cooperative learning is a teaching method by which learner study by helping one another in small groups during the learning process in order to achieve a common objective (stevens, 2003). cooperative learning as a concept consists of several instructional methods in which learners study a language in small groups of four to six persons and group performance in several different ways (slavin, 2004). according to suprijono (2009) adopted by dewi nurcahyanti research is “the implementation of jigsaw method to improve students’ reading comprehension at smpn 2 jetis deponorogo” stated that there is another method of teaching, which is interesting, and can improve student’s reading comprehension, namely jigsaw 1 technique. jigsaw 1 technique is one method that is very simple to apply and can increase enjoyment of the learning process. jigsaw is the appropriate method which demands the students on 4-6 groups, the name of home teams. jigsaw 1 technique is one of the appropriate methods that can be used in teaching reading because jigsaw 1 technique is cooperative learning method to promote better learning, improve students’ motivation, and increase enjoyment of the learning process. ceyhun ozan (2009) in research’s title “the effect of the jigsaw 1 technique implementation on prospective teachers' academic achievements” at public university in turkey, the jigsaw 1 method is more successful in group learning. every student in the group share knowledge in every part of the course. also, students in each group should feel responsible for the success of the other members. statement of the problem the purpose of this research was to discover whether jigsaw 1 technique is effective in improving students reading comprehension ability at smpn 3 parongpong bandung. therefore, the research sought to answer the following question: is there any significance difference in reading comprehension ability between those who were taught using the jigsaw 1 technique and those who were taught using conventional technique? hypothesis the researcher hypothesized that teaching english through jigsaw 1 technique would positively correlate with and improve the students’ reading comprehension ability. it was expected that progress of students who were taught reading comprehension through jigsaw 1 technique would be reflected in their scores on the achievement test. furthermore, the results of the studies would be summarized in one of the following conclusions: ho: there is no significant difference in reading comprehension ability between those who were taught jigsaw 1 technique and those who were taught conventional technique. ha: there is a significant difference in reading comprehension ability between those who were taught jigsaw 1 technique and those who were taught conventional technique. jigsaw technique the jigsaw technique was the method used by the researcher in this study. this section discusses jigsaw 1 technique as follows: definition, advantage and disadvantage. cooperative learning or the group work approach has several activities in the teaching learning process. jigsaw is one method of cooperative learning in reading. jerome baker (2012) stated that, jigsaw reading can be used with almost any topic. the reading can be short articles, long articles, chapters (or even entire books) with different sections that can be divided among the students. slavin in novianto (2012) said that jigsaw includes a procedure whereby students share information they have gathered with their group mates with the other group mate in the class. students are quizzed on all topics and the quiz scores are averaged to form team scores. so, if the team wants to be successful, the team members must not only accomplish their subtasks but also do a good job of sharing information with their teammates. according to webb & culian (1994), the jigsaw approach may help build a classroom as a community of learners where they are all valued. teaching reading will be easier because this way encourages the students to be active in the class. they will be on a team consisting of both good students and poor students. every team consists of five or six students who will study together for better achievement in the form of individual improvement scores after taking the individual quiz. every member in the team should be responsible for her/his own material to the member of his/her own team. maria brisk and margaret m. harrington in anonymous’ research (2011) defined the jigsaw approach is a way for students to work cooperatively and help each other to learn new material. students take an active role their learning as they teach other students what they have learned”. as a cooperative learning method, jigsaw has to consist of group member about five to six students in one group. mauludi (2011), in jigsaw technique, the students have the opportunity to improve their responsibility to their learning and they can cooperate with the other students to learn the material. jigsaw technique is used to improve students' responsibility to their learning. the students not only study the given material, but also they must give and teach the material to the other members. so the students will depend on the other students. they must cooperate to learn the given material. mengduo and xioaling (2010) stated that the jigsaw technique that was originally developed by elliot aronson in 1971, was considered effective in increasing positive educational outcomes. as a cooperative learning technique, it has been widely studied abroad and has been explored in various ways by a number of researchers and teachers in classes of different levels and of different subjects. the design of the conceptual framework is outlined as follows: figure 1 treatment (1) divided students into 5-6 persons jigsaw groups. the groups should be not diverse in terms of gender and race, (2) appointed one student from each group as the leader. initially, this person should be the most mature student in the group, (3) divided the days’ lesson into 5-6 segments. for example, if the teacher want to ask to the students to write a topic, the teacher might divide the topic into stand alone topic on: (a). a the blow dryer, (b) the heart, (c) trees, (d) green grass, (e) taste, (4) the teacher assigned each student to learn one segment, making sure students have direct access only their segment, (5) the teacher gave students time to read the topic at least twice and become familiar with the topic, (6) the teacher fromed temporary “expert group” by having one student from each jigsaw group join other students assigned to the same segment. give students to the expert groups’ time to discuss the main point of their segment and to rehearse the presentation they will make to their jigsaw group, (7) brought the students back into their jigsaw group, (8) asked each student to present her or his segment to the group and encouraged others in the groups to ask questions for clarification, (9) the teacher floated the group, observed the process, if any group is having trouble, (e.g., a member is dominating or disruptive), make an appropriate intervention. eventually, its best for the group leader to handle task. leaders can be trained by whispering an instruction on how to intervene, until the leader gets the hang of it, (10) at the end of the session, the teacher gave a quiz on the material so that students quickly come to realize that these sessions are not just fun and game but really count. grade 8a experiment al class target population random sampling selection output achievement grade 8b control class research methodology research design this study used experimental design in order to see whether jigsaw 1 technique give significant positive effect in reading comprehension ability. table 3.1. the design of research group pretest treatment post-test experimental o x o control o o where: o : pre-test and post-test x : implementation by using jigsaw 1 technique. (arikunto , 2013) participants the participants of the study were grade 8 or 2nd year junior high school. 32 students of grade 8a were the experimental group and 33 students of grade 8b as the control group. their ages range from 13 to 15 years old with 35 males and 30 females. research instrument data collection the study lasted for approximately 32 hours start from 23 september 2014 to 31 november 2014. the first step in gathering the data, all the participants took a pre-test, and the data for pre-test were recorded. afterward, the participants were taught through jigsaw 1 teaching method in english class for two an a half months with the expectation that the participants would improve in their reading comprehension skill. after the treatment was given, the post-test was administered to the participants to see the effect of the jigsaw 1 method. in gathering the data, the researcher did the following procedure: testing procedure pilot test before giving the treatments, the researcher conducted a pilot test consist of 60 questions to measure the validity and reliability of the instrument. the pilot test was conducted in another class which did not involve the experimental group and control group. the pilot test was conducted on friday, september 15th 2014 in class ixa. from the pilot test data, the researcher did validity test, reliability test, difficulties test, and discrimination index. analysis of the validity test validity test was used to measure whether the instrument is valid or invalid. the pilot test should be tested to measure its validity and reliability before conducting pre-test and post-test. according anderson as quoted by arikunto (2013) stated that a test is valid if it measures what it means to measure. to find the validity of a test item, the researcher used the formula as follows: 𝑟"# = n∑xy − (∑x)(∑x) √{n∑x/ − (∑x)²}{n∑y/ − (∑y)²} where: rxy : correlation coefficient n : number of subject ∑x : number of test item ∑y : total score of test items ∑xy : multiplication of items score and total score ∑x2 : quadrate of number of test items ∑y2 : quadrate of total score of test items table 3.2. r coefficient correlation (validity) rxy score interpretation 0.80 rxy ≤ 1.00 very high 0.60 rxy ≤ 0.80 high 0.40 rxy ≤ 0.60 moderate 0.20 rxy ≤ 0.40 low 0.00 rxy ≤ 0.20 very low ≤0.00 not valid the result of the analyzed of the validity test was as follow which can be seen in the following summarized table: table 3.3. the result of validity test item number raw score interpretation 58, 0.80 rxy ≤ 1.00 very high 13,21,34,54,57, 0.60 rxy ≤ 0.80 high 2,6,11,19,25,27,49,51,52,53,55, 0.40 rxy ≤ 0.60 moderate 1, 5,12,16,17,20,22,24,26,29,31,45,47,59 0.20 rxy ≤ 0.40 low 3,4,7,8,10,14,15,18,23,28,30,32,33,35,36, 37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44,46,48,50,56,60, 0.00 rxy ≤ 0.20 very low 9 rxy ≤ 0.00 not valid the numbers showed in table 3.3. under the item indicate that the item is not valid. if there is one question appear where the raw score is ≤0.00. it means that the test is not valid, so the test is discarded. for the interpretation which is very low there are 28 questions where the raw score is 0.00 – 0.20, but the test is used for the pre-test and the post test. and for moderate interpretation there are 11 questions. this means that the questions range from not difficult to very difficult so, it is categorized as a moderate test. for the high interpretation the raw score is 0.60 – 0.80. there are 5 questions for the valid test. for a very high interpretation there is 1 question that serves as the very high question. all the questions are still used for the pre-test and post-test. reliability reliability is an important characteristic of a good test. reliability means the reliable instrument to be used for collecting the data”. to measure the reliability of the instrument in this study, the researcher uses a formula below: 𝑟22 = 3 n n − 1 561 ɛσ2/ σ/t : arikunto (2013) table 3.4. r coefficient correlation (reliability) amount of r11 interpretation r11 ≤ 0.20 very low 0.20 ˂ r11 ≤0.40 low 0.40 < r11 ≤ 0.70 moderate 0.70 < r11 ≤ 0.90 high amount of r11 interpretation 0.90 < r11 ≤ 1.00 very high after analyzing the data using anates, the researcher found that the reliability of the test is 0,67. based on the category above, the reliability of the test is moderate. analysis of difficulties the level of difficulty of each item was calculated based on the answers of all students who took the test. calculating the results was interpreted according to the classification of arikunto (2013). the formula used is: 𝑇𝐾 = 𝐵 𝑁 where: tk : level difficulty of each test. b : total score obtained by the students on the question. n : number of students. table 3.5. criteria of difficulty level index of difficulty difficulty degree tk = 1.00 very easy item 0.70 ˂ tk ≤ 1.00 easy item 0.30 ˂ tk ≤ 0.70 moderate item 0.00 ˂ tk ≤ 0.30 difficulty item tk = 0.00 very difficulty item after analyzing the data from the instrument test using anates program, each number of the question is described below: table 3.6. the result of difficulty test item number interpretation index of difficulty difficulty degree tk = 1.00 very easy item 4,15,18,30,39,43,44,57,58,59,60 0.70 ˂ tk ≤ 1.00 easy item 1,3,5,7,8,10,12,13,19,21,22,23,25,28,32,3 4,35,37,38,42,45,52,53,54,55,56, 0.30 ˂ tk ≤ 0.70 moderate item item number interpretation index of difficulty difficulty degree 2,6,11,14,16,17,20,24,26,27,29,31,33,36,4 0,41,46,47,48,49,50,51, 0.00 ˂ tk ≤ 0.30 difficult item 9, tk = 0.00 very difficult item table 3.6 shows that the results of difficulty test are 5 categories; very easy item, easy item, moderate item, difficulty item and very difficult item. for the very easy item interpretation there is no question where the index of difficulty is tk = 1.00. it means that the questions are very easy, but the test is used in the pre-test and post-test. for easy item test there are 11 questions where the index of difficulty is 0.70 ˂ tk ≤ 1.00. it means that the questions are categorized as an easy test. in moderate test where the index of difficulty is 0.30 ˂ tk ≤ 0.70, there are 26 questions. it means that the questions are not very difficult. for the difficulty item where the index of difficulty is 0.00 ˂ tk ≤ 0.30, there are 22 questions. for the very difficult item there are 1 question where the index of difficulty is tk = 0.00. but the questions are used in pre-test and post-test. discrimination index the discrimination index of item is the question ability to distinguish between high ability and low ability. the following formula was used to calculate the item is (suprapto, 2013): 𝐷𝑃 = --𝑋cd−𝑋ce 𝑆gh where: dp: item discrimination 𝑋ca : the average of top test takers 𝑋cb : the average score of bottom test takers 𝑆gh : maximum score the criteria of discrimination index were shown in table below: table 3.7. criteria of discrimination index discrimination interpretation 0.70 – 1.00 excellence 0.40 – 0.70 good 0.20 – 0.40 satisfaction 0.00 – 0.20 poor ˂0.00 very bad after analyzing the data, the researcher found the result of discrimination of each question. it is shown in the table below: table 3.8. the result of discrimination index item number interpretation discrimination index 13,21,34,42,49,53,54,55,58, excellence 0.70 – 1.00 1,2,6,11,25,27,45,52,57, good 0.40 – 0.70 5,16,20,22,24,26,29,38,47,51, satisfaction 0.20 – 0.40 8,9,10,12,14,17,18,19,31,32,33,36,40,41,43, 46,48,50,59, poor 0.00 – 0.20 3,4,7,15,23,28,30,35,37,39,44,56,60 very bad ˂0.00 table 3.8 shows that the result of discrimination index there are 5 categories; excellent, good, satisfaction, poor, and very bad. for the excellent test there are 9 questions where the discrimination index is 0.70 1.00. but still in this excellent test the test is used in pre-test and post-test. for good interpretation index, there are 9 questions where the discrimination index is 0.40 – 0.70. for satisfactory interpretation index, there are 10 questions where the discrimination index is 0.20 – 0.40. poor interpretation, there are 19 questions, but the tests are used in pre-test and post-test. for the very bad test there are 13 questions where the discrimination index is <0.00. recapitulation after analyzing the data from the instrument test using anates program, each number of the question are described below: table 3.9. recapitulation no item number validity difficulty level discrimination 1 1, low moderate good 2 2,6,11 moderate difficult good 3 3,23,28,35,37,56 not valid moderate very bad 4 4,7,15,30,39,44 not valid easy very bad 5 5,22 low moderate satisfaction 6 8,10,32 very low moderate poor 7 9 not valid very difficult very bad 8 12 low moderate poor 9 13,21,34,54 high moderate excellent 10 14,36 not valid difficult poor 11 16,24,26,29,47 low difficult satisfaction 12 17,31,46 low difficult poor 13 18 not valid easy poor 14 19,25,45,52 moderate moderate good 15 20 very low difficult satisfaction 16 27,49 moderate difficult excellent 17 33,40,41,48,50 very low difficult poor 18 38 very low moderate satisfaction 19 42,53,55 moderate moderate excellent 20 43 very low easy poor 21 51 moderate difficult satisfaction 22 57 high easy good 23 58 very high easy excellent 24 59 low easy poor 25 60 very low easy poor based on the table of recapitulation data of instrument above and after discussing it with the advisor, the researcher eliminates 30 items from the instrument because it did not meet the eligibility criteria of validity and the content. the total number of instruments for the pre-test and post-test was 30 items of the number. gain analysis gain calculation is an analysis to determine the increase in reading comprehension ability of students in the control group and the experimental group on the pre-test and post-test (hake, 1999). gain calculation used when the researcher found that the result of pre-test between controlled and experimental group was different. the analysis is done by using the formula normalized gain. < 𝑔 > = < %𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑡 > −< 𝑝𝑟𝑒 > 100%−< %𝑝𝑟𝑒 > (g) : average normalized gain <%pre> : percentage of mean score pre-test <%post> : percentage of mean score post test table 3.10. clarification of gain score gain score value interpretation 0.00 – 0.30 low 0.31 – 0.70 moderate 0.71 – 0.100 high pre-test the pre-test was conducted on september 23, 2014 in two classes; there were 32 students in grade viiia as an experimental group and 33 students in grade viiib as a control group. the students in grade viiia who took the pre-test only 31 students and one student, was absent because he was sick. the students in grade viiib who was participate in pre-test only 31 students and two students were absent because they were sick. the goal of the test was to measure the students’ reading comprehension ability before and after receiving the treatment. the pre-test was consisted of 30 items in the reading test form. table 3.11 the result of pre-test participant of experimental group pre-test score of experimental group participant of control group pre-test score of control group 1 73 1 70 2 67 2 60 3 70 3 60 4 70 4 73 5 73 5 60 participant of experimental group pre-test score of experimental group participant of control group pre-test score of control group 6 67 6 67 7 67 7 70 8 63 8 67 9 57 9 83 10 60 10 67 11 70 11 67 12 73 12 73 13 83 13 67 14 83 14 70 15 60 15 67 16 53 16 67 17 83 17 63 18 63 18 67 19 80 19 67 20 67 20 67 21 83 21 60 22 63 22 73 23 57 23 67 24 67 24 70 25 70 25 67 26 63 26 73 27 77 27 67 28 67 28 63 29 70 29 67 30 70 30 77 31 70 31 73 sum 2140,00 sum 2106,67 mean 69,03 mean 67,96 standar deviasi 8,04 standar deviasi 5,14 treatment of the experimental group the following are the steps followed while carrying out jigsaw 1 technique: 1. the teacher/researcher divided students into 5-6 persons jigsaw 1 group. the groups should not be diverse in terms of gender and race. 2. the teacher/researcher appointed one student from each group as the leader. initially, this person should be the most mature (the person should have good character, responsibility and be able to handle controlled) students in the group, 3. the teacher/researcher divided the lesson into 5-6 segments. for example, if you want to ask the students to write a topic, you might divide the topic into stands alone topic on: (a). (a) the blow dryer, (b) the heart, (c) trees, (d) green grass, (e) taste. every topic tells something that has relationship with the students’ daily life so that the students can easily comprehend the material to be read. 4. the teacher assigned each student one segment to learn, making sure students have direct access only to their segment, 5. the teacher gave the students time to read the topic at least twice and become familiar with the topic. 6. the teacher formed temporary “expert group” by having one student from each jigsaw group join other students assigned to the same segment. give students in the expert groups’ time to discuss the main point of their segment and to rehearse the presentation they will make to their jigsaw group. 7. brought the student back into their jigsaw groups, 8. asked each student to present her/his segment to the group and encouraged others in the groups to ask questions for clarification. 9. the teacher floated the group, observed the process, if any group was having trouble, (e.g., a member is dominating or disruptive), make an appropriate intervention. eventually, it’s best for the group leader to handle this task. leaders can be trained by whispering instruction on how to intervene, until the leader gets the hang of it. 10. at the end of the session, the teacher/researcher gave a quiz on the material so that students quickly come to realize that these sessions are not just fun and game but really count. treatment for the control group the treatment procedures used by the researcher that has been given to the control group is the conventional teaching method, in other words a more traditional teaching methods lead to a lecture where the teaching-learning activities centered on the teacher which is described below. 1. every meeting the teacher checked on the attendance of the students. 2. the teacher/researcher told the students that they must focus on learning reading comprehension ability. but in the control group no strategy included in jigsaw 1 was used. 3. in every meeting in learning reading comprehension ability, the teacher/researcher always gave a different lesson plan. even though the control group did not use any strategy, the teacher saw the student’s improvement in learning reading ability. 4. in the classroom activity, before the lesson ended the teacher and students discussed together what they had learned about the material. 5. the teacher would grade the students individually according to their homework, quizzes. post-test the post test was conducted on november 31, 2014 to grade viiia, experimental group and grade viiib, control group; the students who participated in post-test were 31 students in grade viiia and one student was absent because he was sick, and 31 students participated in grade viiib and two students was absent because they were sick. there are 62 students that had been tested using the same question as in post-test. table 3.12 the result of post-test participant of experimental group score of experimental group participant of control group score of control group 1 80 1 73 2 77 2 73 3 73 3 67 4 80 4 80 5 83 5 73 6 77 6 70 7 90 7 70 8 73 8 63 9 73 9 83 10 77 10 73 11 77 11 70 12 80 12 77 13 90 13 73 14 93 14 77 15 70 15 73 16 67 16 73 17 87 17 77 18 73 18 73 19 87 19 70 20 73 20 70 participant of experimental group score of experimental group participant of control group score of control group 21 90 21 70 22 77 22 80 23 80 23 80 24 77 24 73 25 87 25 77 26 83 26 80 27 83 27 70 28 80 28 70 29 80 29 83 30 83 30 83 31 80 31 70 sum 2480 sum 2297 mean 80 mean 74 standar deviasi 6,3828474 standar deviasi 4,9970122 statistical procedure in analyzing data, the researcher asked advice from the statistician. this advice was implemented in analyze the data gathering. normality test uyanto (2009) stated, the normality test is very important to determine whether the data is normal or not. if it is normal, it represents the population. the formula can be constructed based on shapiro wilk as follow: x/ = ∑ (s$t s%) $ s& (ruseffendi, 1998) where: n ∶ number of score or number of subject f/ ∶ observation frequency f2 ∶ expected frequency homogeneity test a homogeneity test is a test to discover the variances of two groups is distributed homogeny to one another or not. in this research, both groups have same number of students (𝑛2 = 𝑛/),𝜎2 = 𝜎/ (homogenous) (suprapto, 2013), the formula of homogeneity test is: 𝐹 = vwx yz[\x]v ^z[_z`ax] vwx ]bzyyx]v ^z[_z`ax 𝑆2 = the variance value of experimental group 𝑆/ = the variance value of control group ho = variance data homogeny ha = variance data is not homogeny t-test in this study the researcher used ttest to compare the reading comprehension ability of the two groups evaluated in this study. according arikunto (2006), the first group was taught within jigsaw 1 while the second groups was taught using the conventional method where the teacher/researcher dominates in the teaching reading process. following is the formula used to analyze data from these two different samples to find out the effectiveness of the teaching method. to the result of this research, the writer uses ttest formula for the number of respondents in the experimental and control groups. the formula is as follows: 𝑡 = xc₁ − xc ₂ f 1n₁ + 1 n₂ ! (supranto, 2009) criteria of rejecting ho if, sig ≤ α then ho is rejected, this means that there is a significant difference in scores between the control group and the experimental group. if, sig ≥ α then ha is not rejected, there is no significant difference in scores between the control and experimental groups. in this research, the researcher use α = 5 % criteria of normality data sample is normally distributed if p value (sig.) is larger than or equal α = .050. table 4.1 tests of normality class shapiro-wilk statistic df sig. gain-score experimental group control group .941 31 .090 .946 31 .123 from the table 4.1 shows that the p value was sig .090. it means that the data two groups, base jigsaw 1 technique class and conventional method class were normally distributed. homogeneity test the criteria and hypothesis for homogeneity was described as follows: homogeneity criteria data sample is homogenous if p value (sig.) ≥ α = .050 table 4.2 test of homogeneity of variances levene statistic df1 df2 sig. gain based on mean .171 1 60 .681 based on the statistics, if the data was normally distributed, then for the homogeneity test, the data was based on mean. (see table 4.2) independent t-test this part was the last factor or formula for calculating the data. the reason the researcher used the independent t-test was because the data and the respondents between the two groups were not dependent on each other. as uyanto (2012) stated the implementation of the cooperative learning jigsaw technique in the teaching learning process can make the students more responsible. therefore, they directly and actively take part in addressing a problem and solving it together in a group. and the reason the researcher calculated the t-test was to discover the improvement between the conventional method group and the jigsaw 1 method group for the posttest after giving the treatment. the criteria and hypothesis for the ttest is described as follow: criteria of t-test if, p value (sig.) ≤ α (.050), ha is accepted and ho is rejected, it means there is a significant difference utilizing jigsaw 1 toward improving students’ reading comprehension ability. if, p value (sig.) ≥ α (.050), ha is rejected and ho is accepted, it means there is no significant difference when utilizing jigsaw 1 toward improving students’ reading comprehension ability. hypothesis of the t-test: ho: there is no significant difference in reading comprehension ability between those who were taught jigsaw 1 technique and those who were taught conventional technique. ha: there is a significant difference in reading comprehension ability between those who were taught jigsaw 1 technique and those who were taught conventional technique. table 4.3 independent samples test levene's test for equality of variances t-test for equality of means f sig. t df sig. (2-tailed) mean difference std. error difference 95% confidence interval of the difference lower upper gain equal variances assumed .171 .681 4.763 60 .000 .15581 .03271 .09037 .22124 equal variances not assumed 4.763 59.984 .000 .15581 .03271 .09037 .22124 therefore, as explained in table 4.3 sig. (.000) ≤ α (.050). it means that there is significant different in reading comprehension ability for the students who were taught using jigsaw 1 technique. from the table 4.3 the researcher found the result from independent samples test, it means that jigsaw 1 technique on students’ reading comprehension ability gave significant effect. and this also can be used as an alternative strategy of teaching reading comprehension ability. clarke (1994) stated that jigsaw approach may help build a classroom as a community of learners where they are all valued. the mean score is slightly different between jigsaw 1 technique and the conventional method and the potential in both groups is not too different because most of them are still in the beginning of english level. summary the title of this research is “the effect of using jigsaw 1 to improve student’s reading comprehension ability” the researcher goal was to answer the following question: “is there any significance difference in reading comprehension ability between those who are taught the jigsaw 1 technique and those who are taught a conventional technique”? the researcher conducted the research in smp negeri 3 parongpong, two classes of grade viii were taken as the control group and the experimental group. the conventional (control group) method was consisted of 33 students and the jigsaw 1 technique class (experimental group) consisted of 32 students. both groups were given the same reading material. however, experimental group class was given additional treatment used the jigsaw 1 technique. a pre-test was conducted for both groups at the beginning. the research began using only reading comprehension text for both group with difference technique of teaching it, and then the post-test was given after 32 hours meetings. the results show that: for the conventional method class that consists 33 students, the mean pre-test was 67.96, the mean of the post-test was 74 and the mean gain score was 0.20, it means that the control group gain is categorized as low. this means that in the conventional method class, there was an increase in learning reading comprehension ability but without using the jigsaw 1 technique. for the experimental group, it consists 32 students, the mean of the pre-test was 69.03 and the mean of the post-test was 80.00 and the mean gain score was 0.35, it means that the experimental group gain is moderate. this shows that there was an increase of score supported by using the jigsaw 1 technique in learning reading comprehension ability. to answer the research question, the researcher focused on the performance of the experimental group. according to statistics, it is shown that there is a difference in the scores of the pre and post test. in the pre-test the researcher did not give any treatment towards students’ reading comprehension ability while prior to the post-test for the experimental group the researcher used the jigsaw 1 technique to achieve the students’ reading comprehension ability. and the result was significant as shown in table 4.3 that sig. (.000) ≤ α (.050). it means that using this method results in a significant different and it is effective to use jigsaw 1 technique in improving reading comprehension conclusion in answer to the research question, the researcher has concluded that using the jigsaw 1 method can significantly improve students’ reading comprehension ability. as uyanto (2012) stated the implementation of the cooperative learning jigsaw technique in the teaching learning process can make the students more responsible. therefore, they directly and actively take part in addressing a problem and solving it together in a group. this means that the jigsaw 1 technique is one of the good ways for teaching reading in order that the student could comprehend what they read. reference aarts, bas (2008). english syntax and argumentation, 3rd edn. basingstoke: palgrave macmilan. anonymous (2011). the effectiveness of jigsaw technique in teaching reading towards students’ reading skills. mathla’ul anwar university banten baker j. thomas (2012), teaching english language learners worldwide. theory & praticical guide. new york. bukukita.com gramedia bolukbas, f., keskin, f., &polat, m. (2011). the effectiveness of cooperative learning in the reading comprehension skills in turkish as a foreign language. the turkish online journal of educationaltechnology, 10(4), 330-335. ceyhun. o, (2009). the effect of the jigsaw 1 technique implementation on prospective teachers' academic achievements, public university in turkey edmonds, m. & vaughn, s. (2006). reading comprehension for older reader. intervention in school and clinic, 41(3), 131-137. fuchs, l.s. et al (2001). oral reading fluency as an indicator of reading competence: a theoretical, empirical, and historical analysis. scientific studies of reading, 5, 239-256. guthrie, j.t. (2008). reading motivation and engagement in middle and high school. in j. t. guthrie (ed), engaging adolescent in reading (pp. 1-16). thousand oaks, ca: corwin press. johnson, d. w., johnson, r. t. (2002). cooperative learning methods: a meta-analysis. journal of research in education, 12(1), 5-24. mauludi y.m (2011). the effectiveness of jigsaw technique to improve students’ reading ability in narrative text. walisongo state institute for islamic studies, semarang. mengduo and xioaling, (2010). chinese journal of applied linguistics: a cooperative learning technique, focusing on the language learners. novianto b. (2012). improving reading comprehension skills by using jigsaw technique. kalasan yogyakarta. richard, jack c., and renandya, willy a. (2002). methodology in language teaching. new york: cambridge university press. slavin, r.e. (2004). cooperative learning and students’ achievement. educational leadership, 46:3. s.31-33. stevens, j. r. (2003). student team reading and writing: a cooperative learning approach to middle school literacy instruction, educational research and evaluation. 9, 2, 137-160. suprijono, a. 2009. cooperative learrning. yogyakarta: pustaka pelajar. nurcahyanti.d, (2013). the implementation of jigsaw method to improve students’ reading comprehension at the eighth grade of smp negeri 2 jetis ponorogo 2013 academic year. webb. n., & culian. l.k, (1994). group interaction and achievement in small group: suitability over time, american education research journal, 20(3), 389-397. microsoft word caroline & weining vol.3-eric.edited.docx 45 students` responses in enhancing new vocabulary through subtitled english movies caroline v. katemba & wei ning correspondence author caroline (linakatemba@gmail.com) school of education, universitas advent indonesia doi: https://doi.org/10.35974/acuity.v3i1.623 name of journal acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture, vol 3 no 1 published 2018-02-01 url: https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity/article/view/623 abstract this study aims to find out the student responses in enhancing new vocabulary through subtitled english movies. and the research question is what are students` responses in enhancing new vocabulary through subtitled english movies?� to achieve this objective, the study employed a quantitative method. the data were obtained from the questionnaire. the questionnaire was distributed to the universitas advent indonesia. the data were then descriptively analyzed. the result of this study indicated that most of the students responded positively through subtitled english movies in enhancing new vocabulary. these research findings are expected to contribute to the efforts in the teaching and learning area, particularly in increasing students` vocabulary. keywords: subtitled english movies, student` responses, vocabulary introduction one of the requirements of having the ability to communicate in english is by having adequate vocabulary. knowing vocabulary will help students speak, write, read and listen to the language. in teaching english vocabulary as an element of language is considered a very important factor in increasing the english language if the students are still lacking of vocabulary. lein (2006) stated that “as a matter of fact, english is a foreign language for indonesian students and they have learned it from kindergarten until university 46 level. english language is still considered a difficult subject for indonesian students because english language model is different from indonesia” (p.23). knowing the importance of the vocabulary, many strategies have been applied in enhancing vocabulary, and researchers have found a way in enhancing new vocabulary from other research that by watching english movies can improve new english vocabulary. according to putra (2014) movies or media can be an effective tool for learning new vocabulary "there is no doubt that video technology especially subtitled movies can be a powerful teaching tool to help students learn and acquire new vocabulary" (p.7). in foreign language teaching-learning process, vocabulary plays an important role. it is one element that links the four skills of speaking, reading, listening and writing altogether. (nguyen & khuat, 2003). according to schmitt. (2000, p.149) “teaching vocabulary is such an important task in teaching english because vocabulary achievement relates to all language learning and it is of concern to all four language skills” shoebottom (2010) mentioned that vocabulary mastering is more important than grammar. it is the key for students to understand what they hear, read and write in learning english and how to communicate with other people. for this reason, it is very important if students can quickly build up a language store of words. wilkins (1972) wrote that "while without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed" (pp 111-112) this point reflects that even without grammar, but with some useful words it can help people especially english students to acquire more productive vocabulary knowledge and to develop their vocabulary. according to sukrina, (2010) vocabulary is very essential to comprehend the language well to be able to speak comprehend the language well, speak better, or compose a good writing. it is expected that the students have to increase their vocabulary of about 100 words a year. similarly, on the competence-based curriculum, the students are required to increase their vocabulary 1000-1500 words every year so that in three years students have increased their vocabulary around 4000 words. bayrne (1983) pointed out a fact of unsuccessful achievement of learning english; one of them is a vocabulary mastery. from the researcher's experience as an english major who studies at unai, in the process of studying english, the researcher had many problems in mastering english words and difficulties to express ideas or feelings especially because the researcher lacked new vocabulary. it means that the english words in the researcher's mind are limited so it is hard to understand the speaker. therefore 47 without having good vocabulary, there will be a breakdown in communication. students should know that vocabulary is vital for them (ghozali 2005). in addition to sukrina (2010) in fact, most of the students had many problems in vocabulary mastery. in the process of learning english, the students are weak in using the vocabulary. they had limited vocabulary to comprehend the meaning of a text; they could not recognize the meaning of each word, and they get difficulties to state some sentences in english. those problems cause them to have difficult communication in english. edge (1993, p.27) points out: "knowing a lot of words in a foreign language is very important. the more vocabulary the students know, the easier the students can understand the foreign language.” in indonesia, there has been a study on “enhancing vocabulary using english movie with subtitled by weyers. (1999). this study explained there is no doubt that video technology especially subtitled movies can be a powerful teaching tool to help students learn and acquire new vocabulary. watching subtitled movie more than once might develop other skills of the students, such as reading or listening comprehension, and even pronunciation. watching english movies with subtitled is actually can be an effective method to improve the english vocabulary. in china, according to wang and zhang (2012), nowadays, most of the college students in china have the experience of watching an english movie in class. some students like the strategy to learn english through movies because they can learn a lot from the characters' personality, their attitudes towards life, and cultural background in different countries besides language. sukrina (2013) stated that students learn vocabulary quickly by using media such as wall charts, real objects, videos, movies, internet, etc; because media can give context to them. moreover creating activities using media can keep the meaning of the words in their mind and can stand longer. as king (2002) stated movies provide more pedagogical options and are a rich resource of intrinsically motivating materials for students. when students are exposed to movies, they can learn some words and phrases used in the movies and by using subtitled movies, students can learn how to pronounce many words, and also help them to acquire new vocabulary and idioms. the use of subtitled movies may be effective to improve the reading and listening comprehension, word recognition and vocabulary acquisition of students (putra, 2014). 48 form the information above, the researcher is interested to study on the “students’ responses in enhancing new vocabulary through watching subtitled movies.” based on the background above, this study is conducted to answer the following research question: “what are students’ responses in enhancing new vocabulary through subtitled english movies?” through this study, the researcher expects the result will be able to support and provide the benefit for students, english major students, english teachers, the university and the researcher for the future. to give insights for the future researchers to venture into a similar study that will use a different population. the result of this study is expected to help teachers see another way of teaching new vocabulary through subtitled english movies. in this study, the researcher took the data from the students of universitas advent indonesia (unai) bandung west java as a place to be observed. as the researcher is also a student in unai, the researcher observed that most of the students have a problem in learning new vocabulary, not only in general classes also in english major classes. based on the fact above, the researcher focused on the research entitled students' responses in enhancing new vocabulary through watching subtitled english movies. the researcher used random sampling to choose 100 students in this university and distribute the survey. those students were questioned about their enhancing new vocabulary through watching subtitled english movies the purpose of this study is to know whether through subtitled english movies will enhance new vocabulary. research methodology this study is a surveying research design. according to mcchester and ihedigbo (2014), surveying research design represents one of the most common types of quantitative social science research. in survey research, researchers select a sample of respondents from the population and administers a standardized questionnaires to them. the researcher used this method to find out the students’ 49 responses in using subtitled english movies in enhancing vocabulary. this research is quantitative. the population of this study was the universitas advent indonesia’s students in bandung, west java. the total number of the students was 100 students from education, nursing and business students at universitas advent indonesia in bandung, west java. the use of questionnaires as the instrument in this study was the students' responses to the use of english movies with subtitles in enhancing vocabulary. in the questionnaire, the main instrument that was used for this study was a self-designed survey. in this study, the respondents read the questions, interpreted what is expected and then write down the answers. the form of this study consisted of fifteen questions with five answers: strongly agree (sa), agree (a), uncertain (uc), disagree (da), and strongly disagree (sda). based on the likert scales, each statement in the questionnaire consisted of a value from 1-5 which 5 is the most positive answer (strongly agree). in the survey, the researcher used a positive statement. leung (2001) suggested if possible to avoid negative statements when designing a survey. the scoring system of the questionnaire was classified according to the following table 1. table 1 the table of scoring system of the questionnaire statements (answers) strongly agree agree uncertain disagree strongly disagree value 5 4 3 2 1 procedure of data gathering in gathering the data the researcher distributed the questionnaires to the sample. the researcher asked the students to be honest to answer the questionnaire. before they answer the questionnaire, the researcher gave a detailed explanation to 50 them about how to complete the questionnaire. the researcher distributed the questionnaires to the students at universitas advent indonesia education, nursing and business students in bandung, west java. the total number of the sample in this research was one hundred. the data was gathered in the month of january and february 2017. the pilot-test measured the validity and reliability level of the instrument. the valid and reliable items were used as research instrument. it was administered to a group of students at unai. validity test intends to figure out if an instrument test is appropriate to be used in the research or not. the following formula measures the validity of the instrument according to arikunto (2012): 𝑟!" = # % &'((%&)(%') +{# %&!( (%&)!} {# %'!( (%')!} where: 𝑟!": correlation coefficient 𝑛: number of subject 𝑥: item score 𝑦: total score the classification of validity is shown in the following table 2: table 2 classification of validity question 𝑟!" interpretation ≤ 0.00 not valid 0.00 – 0.20 very low 0.21 – 0.40 low 0.41 – 0.60 moderate 51 0.61 – 0.80 high 0.81 – 1.00 very high source: muhammad (2008) content validity evaluator content validity evaluators were from the english department lecturers. the questionnaire was checked and approved by: 1. mr. nelson balisar panjaitan, ma 2. mrs. debora chaterin simanjuntak, ma.ed 3. mrs. caroline v tobing ph.d 4. mrs. anas barus situmeang, mph 5. mrs. leong jin, ma, tesol arikunto (2012) stated that an instrument is reliable if the test has the same result even after being done many times. thus it is reliable to collect the data required. the following is the formula which is used to find the reliability of the instrument: 𝑟.. = * 𝑛 𝑛 − 1 . 𝑆/ − σ 𝑝𝑞 𝑆/ 3 where: 𝑟.. : reliability of all test n : total number of question p : subject proportion for the right answer q : subject proportion for the wrong answer (𝑞 = 1 − 𝑝) 𝑆/ : standard deviation of the test σ 𝑝𝑞 : the result of p times q classification of the reliability coefficient is shown in the table below: 52 table 3 classification of reliability test amount of 𝑟.. interpretation 𝑟.. ≤ 0.20 very low 0.21 ≤ 𝑟.. ≤ 0.40 low 0.41 ≤ 𝑟.. ≤ 0.70 moderate 0.71 ≤ 𝑟.. ≤ 0.90 high 0.91 ≤ 𝑟.. ≤ 1.00 very high source: muhammad (2008) in this part, the researcher used microsoft excel to count the total score from the survey answered by the respondents. the results showed the total score of each factor and which factor has the highest score that affects students' responses in enhancing new vocabulary. result to test the validity of the instrument used, in this study, the researcher analyzed the data gathered statistically and then compared the value with the criteria set at table 4.1 to decide the valid statements. table 4 validity coefficient validity coefficient value interpretation above 0.35 very beneficial 0,210.35 likely to be useful 0.110.20 depends on circumstances bellow 0.11 unlikely to be useful garcia (2011) 53 the following is the result of the validity test. there are 45 statements. the following table 4.2 shows the 5 most significant items (q33, q38, q41, q43, q45), 2 most insignificant items (q3, q28) and 3 most low significant items (q6, q36, q40). table 5 validity test no correlation & sig responses test information q33 pearson correlation .717 valid sig. (2-tailed) .000 n 30 q38 pearson correlation .671 valid sig. (2-tailed) .000 n 30 q41 pearson correlation .679 valid sig. (2-tailed) .000 n 30 q43 pearson correlation .676 valid sig. (2-tailed) .000 n 30 q45 pearson correlation .683 valid sig. (2-tailed) .000 n 30 q3 pearson correlation -.040 not valid sig. (2-tailed) .834 n 30 q6 pearson correlation .099 low valid sig. (2-tailed) .601 54 n 30 q28 pearson correlation -.057 not valid sig. (2-tailed) .766 n 30 q36 pearson correlation .107 low valid sig. (2-tailed) .572 n 30 q40 pearson correlation .124 low valid sig. (2-tailed) .513 n 30 in the table, the pearson correlation is bigger than the coefficient value 0.210.35 (likely to be useful) and 0.35 (very beneficial), and if the significant level is less than 0.05, then the statement can be considered statistically significant and valid. 35 statements were used in this study. this study used the test of reliability to see if the instrument is reliable or not. these reliability result for the pilot test of the instrument was calculated by using spss 20, the result of cronbach’s alpha was .900, which was classified into the high category as a result, and it was very reliable to be used as the research instrument. the following table shows the reliability analysis scale. table 6 reliability statistics cronbach's alpha n of items .916 35 from the table 6 above shows that the cronbach’s alpha value is 0.916 or 91.6%, then it is bigger than 0.50 or 50%. it mean that the list of question are reliable. 55 the researcher used excel for tallying the data to find out the number of students’ answers with each statement. the following table is the summary of tallying the data. table 7 the summary of tallying the data. ⅰ. enhancing new vocabulary 1. 82% of the students agreed that they can learn many new words from watching subtitled english movies. 2. 74% of the students agreed that they can understand when they watch subtitled english movies. 3. there were 28% of the students agreed that they understand all vocabulary in their english test. 4. 56% of the students agreed that they can tell slight differences between words, for example, “big” and “huge”. 5. 86% of the students agreed that they want to know the meaning when they watch english movie. 6. 67% of the students agreed when the teacher tells the instructions they understand better. 7. 67% of the students agreed they can usually have several vivid mental pictures and/or sounds of situations when they are imagining themselves using english skillfully in the future. 8. 44% of the students agreed they understand every word when their teacher speaks in english. 9. 88% of the students agreed they like to enhance new vocabulary. 10. 67% of the students agreed they learn many vocabulary from the listening material. 56 11. 51% of the students agreed their teacher helps them learning new vocabulary every day. ⅱ. the knowledge of learning background 1. 72% of the students agreed they learn vocabulary from subtitles when they watch english movies. 2. 75% of the students agreed they like english movies. 3. 64% of the students agreed they record vocabulary from english soundtrack movies in their notebook. 4. 58% of the students agreed they learned vocabulary by watching the movies then they try to remember words and repeatedly. 5. 34% of the students agreed they do not worry very much about the difficult words found when reading or listening, they pass them. 6. 53% of the students agreed they use online exercise to test their vocabulary knowledge. 7. 57% of the students agreed they write a new word in a sentence so they can remember it. 8. 58% of the students agreed they speak words out loud when they study. ⅲ. students’ personal feeling and attitude toward the implementation of subtitled english movies 1. 39% of the students agreed they prefer watching movies with dual subtitles. 2. 69% of the students agreed they prefer watching movies with subtitled english movies. 3. 54% of the students agreed they always look forward to english classes. 4. 52% of the students agreed when they have free time to relax, they prefer to watch an english movie. 5. 67% of the students agreed they try having conversations using the new words with english speakers e.g. teachers, etc. 57 6. 45% of the students agreed they read the new words 2 or 3 times first, again a few days later, a week later, a month later. 7. 82% of the students agreed that learning vocabulary from subtitled movies is an interesting way. 8. 68% of the students agreed they prefer to learn vocabulary from subtitled movies rather than from books. 9. 74% of the students agreed the subtitled movie makes vocabulary learning easy. 10. 82% of the students agreed english movies improve their english vocabulary. 11. 59% of the students agreed movies should be used in the efl classroom. 12. 76% of the students agreed they think movies are a useful resource for oral english language teaching. 13. 75% of the students agreed the feedback they received from students when using movies in teaching has been positive. 14. 76% of the students agreed they think movies are a useful resource for teaching english vocabulary. 15. 75% of the students agreed a movie review is more motivating for the students than a book review. 16. 87% of the students agreed that watching english movies has a beneficial effect on learning english. the students' responses in enhancing new vocabulary through subtitled english movies is the affective response. this response deals with students' personal feelings and attitudes toward the implementation of watching subtitled english movies. 58 according to the pie chart of figure 1, it was found that 82% of students agreed and strongly agreed that they can learn many new words from watching subtitled english movies. while there was only 18% of the students disagreed. this response answered the statement number 2. according to the pie chart of figure 2 on the next page, 74% of students agreed and strongly agreed that they can understand when they watch subtitled english movies. on the other hand, there was 27% of the students disagreed. this response was from statement number 2. the pie chart in the next is the result from statement number 1 and 2. figure 1 figure 2 based on the pie chart of figure 3 on the next page, it was found that 28% of students agreed and strongly agreed that they understand all vocabulary in their english test. while 72% of the students disagreed. it means the students are weak in their vocabulary. this response answered the statement number 3. based on the pie chart of figure 4 in the next page, 56% of the students agreed and strongly agreed that they can tell the slight differences between words, for example, "big" and "huge". it meant the students know a similar vocabulary. on 0% 1% 17% 37% 45% strongly disagree disagree uncertain agree 1% 1% 25% 47% 27% strongly disagree disagree uncertain agree strongly agree 59 the other hand, 43% of the students could not know. this was the students' response from statement number 4. the pie chart in the next is the result from statement number 3 and 4. figure 3 figure 4 in the pie chart of figure 5, it was found that 86% of the students agreed and strongly agreed that they want to know the meaning when they watch english movie. only 14% of the students disagreed. this response answered the statement number 5. in the pie chart of figure 6, 67% of the students agreed and strongly agreed when the teacher tells them the instructions they understand better. while 33% of the students disagreed. this was the students' response with the statement number 6. the pie chart below is the result from statement number 5 and 6. (the whole result can be seen in appendix e page80) figure 5 figure 6 according to the pie chart of figure 7, it was found that 67% of the students agreed and strongly agreed that they can usually have several vivid mental pictures 1% 22% 49% 20% 8% strongly disagree disagree uncertain agree strongly agree 0% 8% 35% 35% 21% strongly disagree disagree uncertain agree strongly agree 2% 2% 10% 35% 51% strongly disagree disagree uncertai n agree strongly agree 0% 3% 30% 47% 20% strongly disagree disagree uncertain agree strongly agree 60 and/or sounds of situations when they are imagining myself using english skillfully in the future. in the other hand, 33% of the students disagreed. this response was statement number 7. figure.8 showed that 44% of the students agreed and strongly agreed they understand every word when their teacher speaks in english. 15% of the students could not understand every word when their teacher speaks in english. this response was a statement with the number 8. the pie chart below is the result of statement number 7 and 8. figure 7 figure 8 as stated in the pie chart of figure 9 on the next page, it was found that 88% of the students agreed and strongly agreed they like to enhance new vocabulary. there was nobody disagreed. it meant that most students like to enhance new vocabulary. this was the students' response from statement number 9. figure 10 showed that 67% of the students agreed and strongly agreed that they learn many vocabulary from the listening material. on the other hand, there nobody disagreed. it meant all of the students ever learned vocabulary from the english movies. this response was from statement number 10. the pie chart below is the result of statement number 9 and 10. 0% 4% 29% 50% 17% strongly disagree disagree uncertain agree strongly agree 1% 14% 41% 35% 9% strongly disagree disagree uncertain agree strongly agree 61 figure 9 figure 10 figure 11 on the next page shows that 51% of the students agreed and strongly agreed their teacher help them learning new vocabulary every day. 12% of the students disagreed that. this response was statement number 11. the pie chart below is the result of statement number 11. figure 11 figure 12 in the next page showed that 72% of the students agreed and strongly agreed they learn vocabulary from subtitles when they watch english movies. only 1% of the student disagreed. it meant the most of students learned vocabulary from subtitles when they watched english movie. this response was from statement number 12. the pie chart below is the result of statement number 12. according to the pie chart of figure 13 on the next page, it was found that 75% of the students agreed and strongly agreed they like english movies. there only 2% of the students disagreed. this response was from statement number 13. 0% 0% 12% 25% 63% strongly disagree disagree uncertain agree strongly agree 0% 0% 33% 43% 24% strongly disagree disagree uncertain agree strongly agree 0% 12% 37%37% 14% strongly disagree disagree uncertain agree 62 the pie chart below is the result from statement number 12 and 13. (the whole result can be seen in appendix e page80) figure 12 figure 13 according to the pie chart of figure 14 on the next page, 64% of the students agreed and strongly agreed they record vocabulary from english soundtrack movies in their notebook. on the other hand, 22% of the students disagreed. this response was from statement number 14. according to the pie chart of figure 15 in the next page, it was found that 58% of the students agreed and strongly agreed that they learned vocabulary by watching the movies then they try to remember words and repeatedly. there only 12% of students disagreed. this response was from statement number 15. the pie chart below is the result of statement numbers 14 and 15. 0% 1% 27% 53% 19% strongly disagree disagree uncertai n agree strongly agree 0% 2% 23% 27% 48% strongly disagree disagree uncertain agree strongly agree 63 figure 14 figure 15 according to the pie chart of figure 16, it was found that 34% of the students agreed and strongly agreed they did not worry very much about the disagreed. it meant when students read or listened to difficult words they could not go ahead. this response was from statement number 16. the pie chart below is the difficult words found when reading or listening, they pass them. on the other hand, 14% of the students disagreed. the result from statement number 16. figure 16 according to the pie chart of figure 17, it was found that 53% of the students agreed and strongly agreed they use online exercise to test their vocabulary knowledge. while there only 18% of the students disagreed. this response was statement number 17. according to the pie chart of figure 18, 57% of the students agreed and strongly agreed they write a new word in a sentence so they can remember it. on the other hand, there only 9% of the student disagreed. this response was from 2% 12% 52% 24% 10% strongly disagree disagree uncertain agree strongly agree 11% 11% 14% 33% 31% strongly disagree disagree uncertain agree strongly agree 1% 11% 30% 35% 23% strongly disagree disagree uncertain agree strongly agree 64 statement number 18. the pie chart below is the result of statement numbers 17 and 18. figure 17 figure 18 according to the pie chart of figure 19 on the next page, it was found that 58% of the students agreed and strongly agreed they speak words out loud when they study vocabulary. on the other hand, 21% of the students who participated in the questionnaire showed that they did not speak out loud when they studied vocabulary. this response was from statement number 19. the pie chart below is the result of statement number 19. figure 19 according to the pie chart of figure 20 on the next page, it was found that 39% of the students agreed and strongly agreed they prefer watching movies with 3% 15% 29% 33% 20% strongly disagree disagree uncertain agree strongly agree 0% 9% 34% 42% 15% strongly disagree disagree uncertain agree strongly agree 8% 13% 21% 28% 30% strongly disagree disagree uncertain agree strongly agree 65 dual subtitles. on the other hand, 29% of the students disagreed. this response was from statement number 20 statement. according to the pie chart of figure 21 on the next page, it was found that 69% of the students agreed and strongly agreed they prefer watching movies with english subtitles. there only 6% of the students disagreed. this response was from statement number 21. the diagram below is the result of q statement numbers 20 and 21. figure 20 figure 21 according to the pie chart of figure 22 on the next page, it was found that 54% of the students agreed and strongly agreed that they always look forward to english classes. on the other hand, there only 7% of the students disagreed. this response was from statement number 22. according to the pie chart of figure 23 on the next page, 52% of the students agreed and strongly agreed when they have free time to relax, they prefer to watch an english movie. there only 6% of the students disagreed. this response was from statement number 23. the pie chart below is the result of statement numbers 22 and 23. 10% 19% 32% 26% 13% strongly disagree disagree uncertain agree 2% 4% 25% 42% 27% strongly disagree disagree uncertain agree strongly agree 66 figure 22 figure 23 according to the pie chart of figure 24 on the next page, it was found that 67% of the students agreed and strongly agreed they try having conversations using the new words with english speakers e.g. teachers, etc. on the other hand, there only 4% of the students disagreed. from zohdi's (2010) questionnaire's result also stated that based on the findings, one of the effective features was students' productivity in the conversations and discussions. they tend to be more active in the discussions followed by a ten-minute movie view. this response was statement number 24. according to the pie chart of figure .25 in the next page, 45% of the students agreed and strongly agreed that they read the new words 2 or 3 times first, again a few days later, a week later, a month later. there only 11% of the students disagreed that. this response was from statement number 25. the pie chart below is the result of statement numbers 24 and 25. figure 24 figure 25 3% 4% 39% 33% 21% strongly disagree disagree uncertain agree strongly agree 0% 6% 42% 34% 18% strongly disagree disagree uncertain agree 0% 4% 29% 49% 18% strongly disagree disagree uncertain agree 1% 10% 44% 34% 11% strongly disagree disagree uncertain agree strongly agree 63 according to the pie chart of figure 4.26 on the next page, it was found that 82% of the students agreed and strongly agreed that learning vocabulary from subtitled movies is an interesting way. on the other hand, there only 2% of the students disagreed. according to hanoi (2010, p. 20-22) notes that english movies can motivate some students to learn vocabulary and understand english better. this response was from statement number 26. according to the pie chart of figure 4.27 on the next page, 68% of the students agreed and strongly agreed that they prefer to learn vocabulary from subtitled movies rather than from books. in the same situation, there only 8% of the students disagreed. this response was consistent with the number 26 statement. the pie chart below is the result of statement numbers 26 and 27. figure 26 figure 27 according to the pie chart of figure 28 on the next page, it was found that 74% of the students agreed and strongly agreed the subtitled movie makes vocabulary learning easy. in the same situation, there only 1% of the students disagreed. this response showed the statement number 28. according to the pie chart of figure 29 on the next page, 82% of the students agreed and strongly agreed that english movies improve my english vocabulary. there only 1% of the student disagreed. this response was from statement number 29 statement. the pie chart below is the result of statement numbers 28 and 29. 0% 2% 16% 40% 42% strongly disagree disagree uncertain agree strongly agree 0% 8% 24% 35% 33% strongly disagree disagree uncertain agree strongly agree 64 figure 28 figure 29 according to the pie chart of figure 30 on the next page, 59% of the students agreed and strongly agreed that movies should be used in the efl classroom. only 8% of the students disagreed. this response was from statement number 30. according to the pie chart of figure 31 in the next page, it was found that 76% of the students agreed and strongly disagreed that they think movies are a useful resource for oral english language teaching. there nobody who disagreed. it meant that most of the students' responses agreed that movies are useful resources for oral english language teaching. this response was consistent with the number 31. ismaili (2013) also stated that movies are a useful resource for oral english language teaching, and they emphasized that movies are a useful resource for teaching english vocabulary. this response was from statement number 31. the pie chart below is the result of statement numbers 30 and 31. (the whole result can be seen in 0% 1% 25% 41% 33% strongly disagree disagree uncertain agree 0% 1% 17% 36% 46% strongly disagree disagree uncertain agree strongly agree 65 figure 30 figure 31 according to the pie chart of figure 32 in the next page, it was found that 75% of the students agreed and strongly agreed that the feedback i received from students when using movies in teaching has been positive. from the students' questionnaire, there was only 1% of students who disagreed. zohdi's (2010) questionnaire result pointed out, no one was absent during the three-month course from the movie sessions and learning the unknown words had increased their selfconfidence and satisfaction in english. this response was from statement number 32. according to the pie chart of figure 33 on the next page, it was found that 76% of the students agreed and strongly agreed that they think movies are a useful resource for teaching english vocabulary. there only 3% of the students disagreed. this response was from statement number 33. the pie chart below is the result from statement number 32 and figure 32 figure 33 according to the pie chart of figure .34 in the next page, it was found that 75% of the students agreed and strongly agreed that a movie review is more 1% 7% 33% 39% 20% strongly disagree disagree uncertain agree strongly agree 0% 0% 24% 37% 39% strongly disagree disagree uncertain agree strongly agree 0% 1% 24% 45% 30% strongly disagree disagree uncertain agree strongly agree 1% 2% 21% 39% 37% strongly disagree disagree uncertain agree strongly agree 66 motivating for the students than a book review. on the other hand, there only 3% of the students disagreed that. this response was from statement number 34. according to the pie chart of figure 35 on the next page, it was found that 87% of the students agreed and strongly agreed that watching english movies has a beneficial effect on learning english. from the students' response questionnaire, there was nobody who disagreed. this response was from statement number 35. the pie chart below is the result of statement numbers 34 and 35. (the w hole result can b figure 4.3 figure 4. 34 0% 3% 22% 36% 39% strongly disagree disagree uncertain agree strongly agree 0% 0% 13% 30%57% strongly disagree disagree uncertain agree strongly agree figure 34 67 the following pie chart is the students' questionnaire ratio about the three parts categories. figure 36 the pie chart of students’ questionnaire ratio according to the pie chart figure 4.36, the part one enhancing new vocabulary is 34%, the second part of the knowledge of learning background is 31%, part three of the students’ personal feeling and attitude toward the implementation of watching movies is 35%. based on the statement of question about “what are students’ responses in learning new vocabulary through watching subtitled english movies?” to be able to know the answer was from part 3. the students’ responses in enhancing new vocabulary through subtitled english movies was 35%. part 3 was the maximum value in all the parts of the indicator. based on the questionnaires being distributed to unai's students, the result showed that most of the students like watching subtitled english movies. because most of the students gave positive responses related to the use of subtitled english movies in enhancing new vocabulary. in table 4.5 putra (2014) claimed that watching english movies with subtitles can be an effective method to improve the english vocabulary. zarei, (2009) also found that the use of movies, particularly the subtitled movies, can be one of the most enjoyable, stress-free methods for l2 vocabulary learning. the following table shows the result analysis of the students' personal feelings and attitudes toward the implementation of watching english movies with subtitles. table 4.5 the result analysis of the students’ personal feeling and attitude toward the implementation of watching english movie with subtitles. no result analysis part 1 , 34% part 2 , … part 3 , 35%, part 1: enhancing new vocabulary part 2: the knowledge of learning background part 3: students’ personal feeling and attitude toward the implementation of subtitled english movies 68 1 87% of the students thought watching english movies has a beneficial effect on enhancing english. (the questionnaire from number 35. the whole result can be seen in appendix e page82). 2 82% of the students said that learning vocabulary from subtitled movies is an interesting way. (the questionnaire from number 26. the whole result can be seen in appendix e page81). 3 82% of the students thought that english movies improved their english vocabulary. (the questionnaire from number 29. the whole result can be seen in appendix e page81). 4 75% of the students thought a movie review is more motivating for the students than a book review. (the questionnaire from number 34. the whole result can be seen in appendix e page82). 5 75% of the students said that they like english movies. (the questionnaire from number 13. the whole result can be seen in appendix e page80). 6 59% of the students thought movies should be used in the efl classroom. (the questionnaire from number 30. the whole result can be seen in appendix e page81). 7 69% of the students prefer watching movies with english subtitles. (the questionnaire from number 21. the whole result can be seen in appendix e page81). 8 52% of the students said when they had free time to relax, they preferred to watch english movies. (the questionnaire from number 23. (the whole result can be seen in appendix e page 81). andric (2012). teaching vocabulary: 50 creative strategies, grades k-12. new jersey: pearson. arikunto. (2012). prosedur penelitian suatu pendekatan praktik. edisi revisi 6.jakarta: rineka cipta. conclusion therefore, based on the study done that six highest scores affected students' responses in enhancing new vocabulary. first, the result of the calculation shown that 82% of the students agreed that learning vocabulary from subtitled movies is an interesting way. second, 82% of students agreed that english movies have improved their english vocabulary. third, 87% of the students agreed that watching english movies has a beneficial effect on learning english. fourth, 82% of the students agreed that they can learn many new words from watching subtitled english movies. fifth, 86% of the students agreed that they want to know the meaning when they watch 69 english movie. sixth, 88% of the students agreed that they like to enhance new vocabulary. in like manner, there were four of the lowest score that affected students’ responses in learning new vocabulary. first, 28% of the students agreed that they understand all vocabulary in their english test. second, 44% of the students agreed that they understand every word when their teacher speaks in english at unai. third, 34% of the students agreed that they do not worry very much about the difficult words found when reading or listening, they pass them. fourth, 39% of the students agreed they prefer watching movies with dual subtitles. based on the students’ responses, it can be concluded that some of unai’s students were weak in their vocabulary. based on the question number three, only 28% of the students agreed they can understand when they watch subtitled english movies. and only 44% of the students agreed they understand every word when their teacher spoke in english. they had limited vocabulary to comprehend the meaning of a text; they could not recognize the meaning of each word. accordingly, they needed an effective way to help them learn new vocabulary. based on the question number twenty-six we can see that 82% of the students agreed learning vocabulary from subtitled movies is an interesting way. 82% of the students agreed they can learn many new words from watching subtitled english movies. based on the question number thirty-five we can see that 87% of the students agreed watching subtitled english movies has a beneficial effect on learning english. similarly, we can see that 74% of the students’ responded that the subtitled movie made vocabulary learning easy. further, the result shows that 75% of the students agreed a movie review is more motivating for the students than a book review. for that, if the students learn new vocabulary through subtitled english movies, they have an interesting way to learn new vocabulary. they can learn many new words from watching subtitled english movies. on the other hand, a movie review is more motivating for the students than a book review. likewise, the subtitled movie makes vocabulary learning easy. students can study well and can enjoy the learning direct. the subtitled english movie will help them to enhance their vocabulary. similarly, it will help them to enhance another english skill. references arikunto. (2012). prosedur penelitian suatu pendekatan praktik. edisi revisi 6.jakarta: rineka cipta. ghozali, i. (2005) aplikasi analisis multivariate dengan program spss. semarang: badan penerbit universitais diponegoro. hanoi (2010). using movies and videos to teach english vocabulary to the 10th ismaili, m. (2013). the effectiveness of using movies in the efl classroom issues. mahwah, nj: lawrence erlbaum. 70 katemba, c., v. (2013), anxiety level of indonesian students and its relationship to academic achievement in english. journal of education and practice vol.4 no.27 pp. 1-9. retrieved from http://www.iiste.org/journals/index.php/jep/article/view/9873/10097 king, j. (2002, february). using dvd feature films in the efl classroom. elt newsletter, the weekly column. lein (2006). teaching vocabulary through pictures to the kindergarten students. jakarta: universitas negri islam syarif hidayahtullah. leung, w. (2001). how to design a survey. studentbmj volume 9. manchester. o and ihedigbo chinedum e. (2014) research designs, survey and case study. iosr journal of vlsi and signal processing (iosr-jvsp) volume 4, issue 6, ver. i (nov dec. 2014), pp 16-22 e-issn: 2319 4200, pissn no. : 2319 4197 www.iosrjournals.org nguyen t h & khuat t n, (2003). the effectiveness of learning vocabulary through games: the effectiveness of learning vocabulary through games december 2003 available from http://asian-efl-journal.com/dec_03_vn.pdf putra. p. (2014) learning vocabulary using english movie with subtitles in smk santo yoseph non-regular english program faculty of letters and culture udayana university. schmitt, n. (2000). vocabulary in language teaching. cambridge: cambridge university press. shoebottom, (2010). the importance of vocabulary. frankfurt international school, available at https:// esl.fis.edu/ parents/ advice/ vocab.htm, accessed on 16th january (2012) sukrina, v. (2010). improving students’ vocabulary mastery by using realia. english department, faculty of languages and art. state university of medan.medanindonesia. http://jurnal.unimed.ac.id/2012/index.php/jelt/article/view/913 wilkins, d. a. 1972. linguistics in language teaching. london: arnold. zohdi, n, (2010) the impact of using movie clips on students' vocabulary learning in language classrooms microsoft word triump.edited.docx acuity 4(1), 32 44 the comparison between start and tai models in improving smp students’ reading comprehension ability triumph sihombing, caroline v. katemba (correspondence author) linakatemba@gmail.com, universitas advent indonesia doi: https://doi.org/10.35974/acuity.v4i1.674 name of journal: acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature and culture , vol 4 no 1 (2019) published: 2019-02-03, abstract this study was aimed to see whether there was a significant difference in students' improvements in reading comprehension ability after applying start (students and teacher actively reading text) and t-a-i (team assisted individualization) models. (methodology) this study used a quantitative research method and comparative design. the participants of the study were 63 students that were divided into two groups. class viib students were taught through the start model and viic students were taught through the t-a-i model. the conclusion is: there was an improvement in the reading comprehension ability of students who were taught using start, categorized as moderate and t-a-i cooperative learning models, categorized as low. moreover, there is a difference in the students reading comprehension improvement between those who acquired start and t-a-i teaching models. keywords: reading comprehension ability, narrative text, descriptive text, start, t-a-i, teaching model. introduction reading comprehension is one of the key abilities for academic achievement, (krieber, 2016). the main purpose of having good reading comprehension in the reading book is to gain all of the understanding that was exist in the written text. unwittingly, everyone will need to improve their comprehension skill in order to find out information, knowledge, and the latest news from written text. people who love reading activity can improve his or her knowledge by reading any written text such as descriptive and narrative text that contains the main idea. according to anderson, hiebert, and wilkinson, (1985), cited in alharbi (2015) that "the ability to read and comprehend efficiently is essential for meeting the needs of everyday life as well as for success in the academic arena". if the ability in comprehending reading is low, it means there are also difficulties in acquiring the knowledge while reading the books. acuity 4(1), 32 44 rahmasari (2014) “bandung as one of tourism object, particularly as culinary and shopping destination, is also strongly affected in the usage of english”. in this issue, strategies are needed to help students to easily comprehend english especially reading through activities in the classroom. “in the case of indonesians, there is a high level of acceptability and tolerance of the use of english. the teaching of english in the school curriculum is given a higher priority over all other foreign languages in the school systems”. “thus, the teaching of english as a foreign language (efl) is, in fact, compulsory” (katemba, 2013). however, “as indonesian students, they have already encountered problems with reading comprehension in indonesian, the language that they’ve acquired and learned, they also find it way more difficult to read and comprehend reading in english, the foreign language that they do not acquire and learn it barely for a short time” (siagian & katemba, 2016). to solve the problem such as "there is a great level difference in terms of language skills of the students"(burcu, 2015), that affect lack of the interest and low motivation in reading activities for the other students, the researcher is going to implement two models for reading activity groups in which these models need assistants as students' guide and helper in the group. start (students and teacher actively reading text) model will be assisted by the researcher (scarlach, 2008). while on the other class, students became the assistants in each group of study in the class that uses the t-a-i (team assisted individualization) model (slavin 2008). even though according to (vadasy, sanders, & peyton, 2005) that "opportunities for supplementary tutoring are difficult to create in school, and therefore tutoring activities must be carefully selected for ease and reliable use by tutors and evidence of treatment effectiveness". start model includes making predictions and connections to ideas in text based on prior knowledge, constructing mental images that represent ideas in text, asking questions and seeking answers, and constructing summaries of what has been read (pressley & afflerbach, 1995). in this research, researchers taught and helped students to make predictions and connections to ideas, construct mental images, ask a question and seek the answer, and construct summaries of what will be read. start model can be implemented to help students to be interesting and motivated in reading comprehension activity. scarlach, (2009) said that the reason is that "the importance of self-selected text cannot be underestimated. by providing students choice of texts to read, students are more likely to be motivated to read, read more deeply, and may use metacognitive strategies more strategically than those who are assigned a text."(p,22). this way will make students be better in a learning activity. t-a-i cooperative learning model was developed by slavin (2008), in his cooperative learning, there are theory, research, and practice. slavin explains that the basic thought of learning is the students will enter the class with knowledge, ability, and motivation diverse. when the teacher delivers the lesson to every group, it is likely there are some students who do not have the ability to learn the terms of the subjects. other students know the material and can learn so quickly when the time is spent on learning. according to sihotang (2015), t-a-i model is combining the advantages of cooperative learning and individual learning. this type is designed to address individual student in learning difficulties students. therefore, learning activities more effective used to solve the problem in students' learning. characteristic of the t-a-i model is individual student learning material that will be prepared by the teacher. according to sanden (2014), the students will have motivation by seeing their friends' ability in learning the language in the group. the individual lesson will be brought to the group then the acuity 4(1), 32 44 students learn and discuss it in the group, and all group members have parts to be done in the group discussion. the cleverer students will have more responsibility to help the other students to understand the reading material in the group so the discussion about the topic will be better. the researcher will use the start and t-a-i model for improving students' abilities in comprehending reading materials. in the two english classes that will be going to practice, the researcher will find out the effectiveness of start and t-a-i models to be used in english reading class for helping students' to have good comprehension in reading activity. statement of the problem because reading comprehension is seen as a problem in reading activity, so the researcher wants to find out the result of the comparison between start and t-a-i models to increase students' reading comprehension. so the research question is as follow: is there any difference in the reading comprehension improvement between students who are taught through the start model and students who are taught through t-a-i model? hypothesis the hypothesis that was used in this research are: null hypothesis (h0): there is no difference in the reading comprehension improvement between students who are taught through the start model and students who are taught through t-a-i model. alternative hypothesis (ha): there is a difference in the reading comprehension improvement between students who are taught through the start model and students who are taught through t-a-i model. the alternative hypothesis is this study hypothesis. scope and limitation of the study the researcher implemented the start model in one of the schools in parongpong at two junior high school classrooms which one of that class used the start model and the other class used t-a-i model. the book that was used by the researcher was english book for grade vii as their textbook in the classroom. the purpose of this study was only to see the effectiveness of start and t-a-i model in developing students’ comprehension in reading. review and related literature reading comprehension reading is one of the activities and as a component of the language skills to get the meaning from the kinds of text. students actually will have difficulty to have communication if the students do not like reading. from reading texts, students surely will get many of vocabulary as a tool in the communication (haris et al., 2006). reuzzel, smith, and fawson, (2005) said that comprehension of reading is like the process to construct meaning as a result of blending content and message of the text with the readers existing knowledge and skills during reader-text interaction (pardo 2004). reading comprehension will be having inferred and configure spontaneously. acuity 4(1), 32 44 reading is the ability of someone to draw the meaning from the reading material and interpret this information appropriately. grabe and stoller (2002) said that comprehension of reading is a dynamic process that requires the reader to use multiple strategies and as constructed meaning, said henderson and buskist (2011). horowitz (2014) stated that reading comprehension is a complex cognitive process that depends upon a number of ingredients all working together in a synchronous, even automatic way. according to sadikin (2008), reading comprehension is a process of giving the ideas and information that the author wants to convey the information available with the reader. in addition, reading comprehension is a tool to solve problems that the readers find in a text in which they need prior knowledge, and personal experiences to develop their comprehension as an effort in communication with information, ideas, and point of view (moreillon, 2007). cooperative learning cooperative learning is a teaching model by which students learn in small groups to achieve their goals. in their group, students will be divided by various abilities, gender and different levels of their knowledge and in their group, they can help each other (polat, 2011). according to cafferty (2006) cooperative learning is a model which represents the product of ongoing investigation based on research and practice as to how to minimize the benefit the students’ interaction. further, jolliffe, wendy (2007) stated that cooperative learning requires students to work to improve their own learning. by using cooperative learning activities students can communicate with their peers and also help them become responsible people, and besides that, the students are able to improve their selfconfidence (abidin, 2013). using cooperative learning also improves students' reading comprehension and not only their reading but by using cooperative learning students are able to be better readers and acquire higher reading comprehension (odwan, 2012). cooperative learning is a teaching model that encourages every student to find out their own knowledge through the process. students learn in small groups heterogeneous capabilities. according to barkley, cross, and major (2012), cooperative learning model can be categorized; by improving the skills of each student, although it is important to know that a lot of cooperative learning exercises that can be categorized including discussion. students and teachers actively reading text (start) model "in the start classrooms, the teacher will model and scaffold the use of metacognitive comprehension strategies during read-aloud prior to student independent reading of self-selected texts,” scharlach (2009). scharlach (2009) continued that, "start focuses on improving the reading comprehension." it means start is one of the learning models that is useful to increase students' ability to understand reading material. in this method, the students will select their own texts to read from some choice texts. guthrie et al., 2004 cited in scarlach, (2009) said that the reason is that “the importance of self-selected text cannot be underestimated. by providing students choice of texts to read, students are more likely to be motivated to read, read more deeply, and may use metacognitive strategies more strategically than those who are assigned a text.”(p,22). this way will make students better in a learning activity. alharbi (2015) wrote in a journal that "reading comprehension skills can be acquired easily through positive communication between the educator and the learner." in this way, the acuity 4(1), 32 44 researcher will make a good and positive communication by giving them responsibility by choosing their own reading material depends on what kind of text that researcher will ask them to choose. the researcher will use the same material in the start group and in the t-a-i group, by giving new kinds of reading text for students every meeting. the researcher will apply the start (student and teacher actively reading text) model. the procedures of the start model are adopted from scharlach, (2008): (1). the teacher will prepare some reading material and the kinds of reading material are narrative, descriptive, recount and procedure text. (2). students will be divided into groups and each group consists of 4-5 students. (3). students freely will choose what kind of reading material they want to read from what the teacher will prepare. (4). during the readaloud, the teacher will use sticky notes to jot down each prediction, connection, question, main idea, summary, prediction check, and judgment and place the sticky note in the book as they are reading. (5). before the next read-aloud session the teacher removes the sticky notes from the previous reading and put it into the appropriate boxes on the recording sheets. the process will be repeated with each new reading. (6). before reading, the teacher will ask the students to write their predictions in a little paper about what they are going to teach. (7). during reading, students will make connections and questioning. (8). after reading, students will do summarizing, checking prediction, and making a judgment. (9). each student will answer who, what, where, when, why, and how (5 w + 1 h) questions that will be given by the teacher. (10). as this is the start model, the student can ask the teacher about the topic and will read together. there are characteristic of start according to paris and paris (2007) in the classroom. teachers will model and scaffold the use of some following six strategies. (1). making connection, learners make a personal connection from the text (text to text), something occurring in the world (next to the world); (2). predicting, learners use information from graphics, text, and experiences to anticipate what will read/viewed/ heard and to actively adjust comprehension while reading/viewing/listening; (3). questioning, learners pose and answer questions that clarify meaning and promote a deeper understanding of the text. questions can be generated by the learner, a peer or the teacher; (4). monitoring, learners stop and think about the text and know what to do when the meaning is disrupted; (5). visualizing, learners create a mental image from a text read/viewed/heard. visualizing brings the text to life, engages the imagination, and uses all of the senses; (6). summarizing, learners identify and accumulate the most important ideas and restate them in their own words. according to sanden (2014), there are “three major conclusions about the essential components of independent reading in the classroom of the teacher participants: • teacher participants supported students’ reading independence; they focused on students' reading growth, and they were committed to student-centered practices." t-a-i model t-a-i (team assisted individualization) model is one type of cooperative learning. t-a-i model can be translated as “individual assistance in group”. t-a-i model is often interpreted as team accelerated instruction (dimyati dan mudjiono, 2004). t-a-i is that the implementation of cooperative learning, students will be divided into small group heterogeneous. one of the important points that must be considered to form a heterogeneous group here is the students’ academic ability. each group will comprise of 4-5 students. each member of the group has the responsibility of each (anita, 2010). acuity 4(1), 32 44 the individual instruction in class will be difficult to finish the task that makes students not effective to understand the task. so, t-a-i model will make an alternative study at every learning unit (duplas, 2012). type t-a-i model combines cooperative learning with individual study. t-a-i is a cooperative learning model that was developed by slavin (2008). in his cooperative learning, there are theories, research, and practice. he explained that the basic thought of learning is the students will enter the class with knowledge, ability, and motivation diverse. when the teacher delivers the lesson to every group, it is likely there are some students who do not have the ability to learn the terms of the subjects. other students will know the material or can learn so quickly that the time will be spent on learning. generally, the groups will work on different units. group work will check each work again of the answer sheets, and help one another with any problems. on the final, unit tests will take without groups helping and will score by student monitor. each week, the teacher will total the number of units by all team members. suyitno (2007) stated learning t-a-i model has several steps for instance: (1). the teacher gives the task to the students individually. (2). the teacher provides individually quiz. (3). the teacher forms several groups and each group consists of four or five students which each group has the cleverer student of whole students in the classroom. (4). the individual student learning result will be discussed in the group. (4). the teacher will be the guide of the students to make a summary of the study, (6). teacher gives the quiz to the students individually. there are several steps in the procedures of t-a-i model: (1). the teacher introduces the lesson plan and the use of t-a-i model to the students, and ask their responses by giving the time for answering and questioning. (2). in the first treatment, the teacher will give the placement test about reading comprehension, where the material is taken from students' textbooks. (3). by the result of the placement test, the teacher will form the groups that consist of 4-5 students in each group. (4). every meeting the teacher will administer and explain the material to each group, then the students learn individually, and when some of them are done, they can help each other. (5). after studying the group, then each group has to do the comprehension exercises based on the reading material, and the teacher takes the score based on the group of the students. (6). when one material is finished, the teacher will guide the students to make a summary of the material as a whole associated with problem-solving strategies. (7). and at the end of the study, the teacher will give the quiz to the students individually. according to slavin (2008), there are some advantages of using t-a-i model for instance: (1). to improve motivation in learning. (2). reducing disruptive behavior and interpersonal conflicts. (3). can help the slower students. (4). students get an award in their efforts. (5). the teacher guides the students to work in a group effectively. (6). the faster students having increased by their ability in creativity. research methodology this research used a quantitative method with experimental research. this experimental design compared two models for the students reading comprehension improvement between the start model and t-a-i model. groups pre-test treatment post-test start model y x1 y t-a-i model y x2 y acuity 4(1), 32 44 explanations: y: student's reading comprehension scores in pre-test and post-test x1: start cooperative learning model x2: t-a-i cooperative learning model participants in this research, the participants were the seventh-grade students of smpn 3 parongpong, bandung barat. the students of grade viib were the experimental group who have been taught with the start model and the students of grade viic were the experimental group who have been taught with the t-a-i model. there were 32 students in the start group and it was assisted by the teacher in each group activity. in t-a-i group, there were 33 students and they were assisted by students in each group activity. the total of the two groups were 65 students. they were around 12 to 14 years old. research instrument the instrument of this research was the reading comprehension test for pre-test and posttest. pre-test and post-test were multiple-choice questions that were taken from valid questions after calculating the pilot test result that was conducted to grade viiid smp students. the total of valid multiple-choice questions were fifty of sixty questions. the pre-test has been designed to measure the ability of the students in reading before start and t-a-i models have been applied. the post-test was designed to see the result of the study after applying start and t-a-i model. the researcher used english book for grade vii smp that they used in their classroom. procedures the start group and the t-a-i group were given different treatments. the start group has been treated by using the start model, and the t-a-i group has been treated by using t-ai model. there were ten meetings that have been conducted for both groups included pre-test and post-test. the duration for each meeting was 70 minutes; each meeting consists of pre-activity, main activity, and post-activity. start and t-a-i start t-a-i 1. before reading a. the teacher introduces the lesson plan and the use of the start model. b. students freely choose the reading material that they are going to read from a choice of given texts. c. teacher divides students into groups. 2. during reading 1. before reading a. the teacher introduces the lesson plan and the use of t-ai model. b. the teacher is who decides what reading material that students are going to read. c. teacher divides students in the group. 2. during reading acuity 4(1), 32 44 a. one by one, the students in the group read aloud their chosen texts. b. the teacher will use sticky notes to jot down prediction, visualization, connection, question, main idea, summary, prediction check, and judgment. c. students place the sticky note in the book as they are reading. d. students can ask the teacher about the topic. 3. after reading a. each student will answer 5w + 1h questions that will be given by the teacher. a. the students read and learn individually. b. when some of them have done the reading, they can help the other to comprehend the reading material. 3. after reading a. after studying, each group has to do comprehension exercises based on the reading material. b. the teacher takes the score based on the group. c. the teacher will guide the students to make a summary. d. the end of the study, the teacher will give the quiz to the students individually. result and discussion pre-test, post-test, and normalized gain the group with start model the group with t-a-i model mean st. deviation mean st. derivation pre-test 52.1875 13.28871 53.87879 11.8469 post-test 67.3125 13.92488 64.72727 11.55559 normalized gain 0.327035 0.17664 0.234225 0.163235 it can be seen that both of the groups of students improved their reading comprehension ability. it can be seen that both of the groups of students improved their reading comprehension ability. the group of students who acquired the start learning model showed moderated improvement it is because the normalized gain value = 0.327035. the value was between 0.310.70 of a moderate level of normalized gain. the group of students who acquired the t-a-i learning model showed low improvement and it was because the normalized gain value = 0.234225. the value was between 0.00 0.30 of the low level of normalized gain. normality test 1. the reading comprehension improvement data of students of the start group was normally distributed because ρ value (sig) = 0.318 was bigger than α = .050. 2. the reading comprehension improvement data of students of t-a-i group was normally distributed because ρ value (sig) = 0.842 was bigger than α = .050. acuity 4(1), 32 44 tests of normality group shapiro-wilk statistic df sig. value start .962 32 .318 t-a-i .982 33 .842 * this is a lower bound of the true significance. a lilliefors significance correction from the table above, it can be seen that since the sig. value normality tests were larger than 0.05, it can be concluded that the reading comprehension improvement data of students of start and t-a-i groups were normally distributed. test homogeneity of variance test of homogeneity of variances levene statistic df1 df2 sig. .410 1 63 .525 since the sig. value is 0.525, is larger than 0.05, it can be concluded that the population's normality gain has homogenous variances. comparing means analysis since both of the normalized gains of the reading comprehension were normally distributed, a t-test was used to compare the means. independent t-test levene's test for equality of variances f sig. t df sig. (2tailed) value equal variances assumed .410 .525 2.167 63 .034 the row of equal variances assumed used because the population variances were homogenous. it can be seen from table 4.4 above that the sig. value = 0.034 is lesser than α = acuity 4(1), 32 44 0.05. so, there was a significant difference in the students reading comprehension improvement between those who were taught through using the start cooperative learning model and those who were taught through using t-a-i cooperative learning model. discussion of findings result from both start and t-a-i model, the start model could improve students' reading comprehension ability more than t-a-i model. it can be seen from the difference of normalized gain in table 4.1 it is supported by the study of guthrie et al., 2004 cited in scarlach, (2009) said that the reason is that “the importance of self-selected text cannot be underestimated. by providing students choice of texts to read, students are more likely to be motivated to read, read more deeply, and may use metacognitive strategies more strategically than those who are assigned a text.”(p,22). this way will make students be better in a learning activity. sanden (2014) said the students will have motivation by seeing their friends' ability in learning the language in the group. in this research, there was an improvement in the reading comprehension ability of t-a-i model that is shown in t-a-i model column in table 4.1. there were the differences between pre-test and post-test gain in t-a-i model. after calculating the data, there was an improvement in students' reading comprehension ability both of the group by seeing table 4.1. a researcher could see the difference between start and t-a-i models in improving reading comprehension ability. in finding the result, it seems clear that there is an improvement in start and t-a-i models in smpn 3 parongpong. it is proven table 4.1, the value of pre-test, post-test, and gain of both start and t-a-i models. conclusion summary this research is entitled "the comparison between start (students and teacher actively reading text) and tai (team assisted individualization) models in improving reading comprehension ability". the research question "is there any significant difference between students who are taught through start and t-a-i model in improving reading comprehension ability?" a researcher could give the answer through the data collection. the researcher did this study to the first year of junior high school at smpn 3 parongpong, bandung barat. where the participants of the two classes consisted of 31 students in the start group and 32 students in the t-a-i group. the pre-test was conducted on 20th february 2017 to the start group and the t-a-i group, the treatments started on 21st february 2017 for both groups. the post-test was done on 21st march 2017. the implementations of the treatment were 16 hours of learning in each group. after getting and analyzing the data, the researcher had the following findings: for the start group, the mean of pre-test was 52.1875 and the mean of the post-test was 67.3125 while the gain means was 0.327035. it means there is an improvement in using the start model to improve students' reading comprehension ability and it was categorized as moderate because the value was between 0.31 0.70 of a moderate level of normalized gain. for the t-a-i group, the mean of the pre-test was 53.8788 and the mean of the post-test was 64.7273 while the gain means was 0.234225. it means there is an improvement in using t-a acuity 4(1), 32 44 i model to improve students' reading comprehension ability and it was categorized as low because the value was between 0.00 0.30 of the low level of normalized gain. both of the groups of students showed improvement in their reading comprehension ability. furthermore, there were differences in the reading comprehension improvements between those who were taught using start and t-a-i cooperative learning models. recommendation based on this study, the researcher would like to give a recommendation for reading learnings model as the followings: educator the educators can add the start model as one of the learning models in english subject curriculum to help students in improving their reading comprehension ability. even though this model needs the liveliness of the teacher, but this model can make students easy to understand and comprehend the lesson topic of what they want to learn from given reading materials that they can choose. english teacher the teachers can apply the start model in english lesson class because freedom of the students to learn something can help them easier to understand the lesson in reading activity. so, by choosing reading text from given materials freely, students can enjoy their reading activity. references books anderson, r. c., hiebert, e. h., scott, j. a., & wilkinson, i. a., (1985). becoming a nation of readers: the report of the commission on reading. national 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(2009). dasar-dasar evaluasi pendidikan jakarta: bumi, aksara jnm. barkley, elizabert e., cross, k. patricia & major, clair howell. (2012). collaborative learning techniques: teknik-teknik pembelajaran kolaboratif. penerjemah: narulita yusron. bandung: penerbit nusa media. horowitz, m. (2014). reading comprehension assisting children with learning difficulties. london: springer science. jolliffe, wendy. (2007). cooperative learning in the classroom. london: a sage-publications company. moreillon, j. (2007). collaborative strategies for teaching reading comprehension: maximizing your impact. american library association. pardo, laura s (2004). “what every teacher needs to know about comprehension” in the reading teacher. sadikin. (2008). reading comprehension generic text structure. yogyakarta: graha ilmu. sihotang (2015). the effectiveness of team assisted individualization model to enhance students’ reading comprehension in eleventh grade students. journals anita williams woolley, et al. 2010.evidence for a collective intelligence factor in the performance of human groups. doi: new york avenue nw, washington, dc. dimyati & mudjiono. 2004. belajar dan pembelajaran. jakarta : proyek pembinaan dan acuity 4(1), 32 44 peningkatan mutu kependidikan, dirjen dikti depdikbud. henderson, shannon c.; buskist, connie (2011). promoting the comprehension of teachers and students using young adult literature theory into practice, vol. 50(3). katemba, c.v. (2013), anxiety level of indonesian students and its relationship to academic achievement in english. journal of education and practice vol.4 no.27 pp. 1-9. retrieved from http://www.iiste.org/journals/index.php/jep/article/view/9873/10097 odwan, a. (2012). the effect directed reading thinking activity through cooperative learning on english secondary stage students’ reading comprehension in jordan. international journal of humanities and social science, 2(2). paris, a. h., & paris, s. g. (2007). teaching narrative comprehension strategies for the first grader. cognition and instruction, 25(1), 1-44. polat. m, et al. (2011). the effectiveness of cooperative learning on the reading skills in turkish as a foreign language. the turkish online journal of education technology. pressley, m., & afflerbach, p. (1995). verbal protocols of reading: the nature of constructively responsive reading. hillsdale, nj: erlbaum. rahmasari, g. (2014). korelasi penggunaan bahasa inggris dalam penamaan factory outlet (fo) di bandung terhadap keputusan pembelian. journal: universitas bsi. reuzzel, d.r., smith, j. & fawson, p (2005). an evaluation of two approaches for teaching reading comprehension strategies in primary years using science information texts. early childhood research quarterly, 20(3):276-305. scarlach, tabatha dobson (2008). start comprehending: students and teachers actively reading text. journal: international reading association. siagian, s., w., & katemba, c., v., (2016). comparative study between think aloud and visual imagery in enhancing students’ reading comprehension. acuity journal of english language pedagogy, literature and culture vol1 no.1 2016. retrieved from: http://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity/article/view/602 slavin, robert e.2008, cooperative learning theory, research, and practice, bandung: nusa medis. suyitno, amin.2007, pemilihan model-model pembelajaran dan penerapannya. web peatc (2002). www.peatc.org. reading: what the experts say the lowdown on the national reading panel. http://www.slideshare.net/alphaeyght/soalsoal-reading-text-bahasainggris?from_action=save http://www.studiestoday.com/sites/default/files/assignments/section%20%20a%20reading%20comprehension.pdf articles abidin, z. (2013). effect of cooperative learning on secondary school students mathematics achievement. creative education, 4(2), 98-100. microsoft word acuity, vol 1 no.1 2017 24    study on the use of oral drills and role-play method in improving students’ interactive speaking achievement (a pre-experimental method with one group pretest-posttest design in the first year students at smp advent ii setia budi, bandung) kelvri l. sinambela and debora chaterin s., maed english education department, universitas advent indonesia, bandung e-mail: kelvrisinambela@gmail.com & deborachaterins@gmail.com abstract this study examines whether the use of oral drills and role-play method could improve students’ interactive speaking achievement. this study used quantitative research using pre-experimental method with one group pre and posttest design. the study was conducted in smp advent ii, setia budi, bandung. the participants of this study were 30 students from the first year students at smp advent ii setia budi, bandung as the sample and they were grade vii at smp advent ii setia budi, bandung. this study used one experimental group as the sample. a pre-test and post-test were done. the experimental group was given treatment (oral drill and role-play method). the data gathered was then statistically calculated and analysed. according to the interpretation, if p value (sig.) ≤ (0.05) then ha is accepted and h0 is rejected and if p value (sig.) ≥ (0.05) then h0 is accepted and ha is rejected. after calculating the data it was known that the p-value = 0.000 lesser than alpha 0.05. result of the study showed that there is a significant difference in improving students’ interactive speaking achievement after using oral drills and role-play method. keywords: interactive speaking, oral drills, role-play method introduction interactive speaking is a process of conveying and sharing ideas (hoge, 2014). one of the most well-known spoken languages is english. if english learners do not learn how to speak or do not get any opportunity to speak in the language, they may not be motivated and lose interest in learning the language. moreover, students who do not develop strong oral skills during this time will find it difficult to communicate in english in the future. to be able to communicate in english fluently is a means to tell others that the speaker should implicitly have good interactive speaking. people will value learners’ english level when they speak the language. to communicate orally in english, students should use correct words, structure and clear articulation (nur, 2004). however, english learners in indonesia considered speaking as a difficult skill (nurani, 25    2012). they have learned english for years but they find difficulty in speaking english (carter & mccarthy, 2007). actually they are able to understand when someone is talking or asking a question, they know the meaning of the sentence in their minds yet the problem is they can hardly give response in english language because they find it difficult to talk in english so, they end up using indonesian language and quit trying to speak in english (wulandari, 2010). interactive speaking is a face to face conversation through telephone calls or other two way communication (dow & ryan, 2000). in which people alternately listen and speak. rivers (2002) p.159 states that “interactive speaking skills are in the form of agreeing, disagreeing, asking for opinions, giving opinions, asking for clarification, giving clarification, attacking, answering an attack, suggesting courses of action, suggesting alternative course of action, reinforcing suggestions, asking for more exact information and giving more exact information.” on the other side, there are also partially interactive and noninteractive speaking often called one way communication which do not need a conversation between the people who talk. ascher (2008) states interaction involves not just expression of one’s own ideas but comprehension of each other, one listens to others; one responds (directly or indirectly); others listen and respond. according to vilagran (2008) some examples of interactive speaking are face to face conversation, telephone calls, chance to ask for clarification, oral drills, or slower speech from a conversation partner. as ariani (2009) said some speaking situations are partially interactive, such as when giving a speech to a live audience, where the listeners cannot interrupt the speech. the speaker nevertheless can see the audience and judge from the expressions of the listeners faces or body language whether or not he or she is being understood. lynne & rico (2008) states to speak fluently and accurately is not something easy to do and it can be achieved by practicing. students speak with each other and take account of them in our speaking by suiting our output to them, and by acknowledging their input and seeking clarification of what they say. this has two major effects; it strengthens relationship between the people who involved in speaking so that they can more readily communicate with each other, and it provides opportunities for language development to occur, both for the listener and the speaker” (nation & hamilton jenkins, 2000, p.17). nowadays, speaking is generally perceived as the most fundamental skill to acquire. in indonesia english is still used as foreign language. since english is a foreign language it means that the skill of speaking is not automatically transferable from the speaker’s first language to the second language (thornbury, 2007). even private knowledge of the target language’s grammar and vocabulary, which often presented by advance students of foreign language department, does not guarantee success in oral communication when this knowledge is not properly accessed (aleksandrzak, 2011). speaking is an 26    interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing and receiving and processing verbal and nonverbal information and the speaker also takes the role of listener. speaking skill is assumed as a difficult skill to master by almost all students at any age (natalia, 2008). as krashen (2003) the well known linguist stated that interaction is the key to teaching language for communication then the researcher chose interactive (interaction) speaking as the dependent variable of this study. moreover, there are several factors affecting students’ slow progress in interactive speaking. it is assumed that developing speaking skill to young learners in indonesia is not easy because of the status of english as a foreign language. it means “it is taught in schools, often widely, but it does not play an essential role in national or social life” (broghton et al, 2003 p.73). speaking skill has been neglected in some classrooms. children learning english as a foreign language tend to consider english as a subject, not as a language for communication. students do not get any chance to speak english either in the classroom or outside the classroom. moreover speaking is often concluded in the examination (bashir, azeem & dogar, 2011). most english teachers prefer to give grammar, reading and writing test in the examination day rather than speaking and listening skills. hence students’ interactive speaking achievement develops slow progress. as tsou (2005) stated that getting students to response in a language classroom especially a foreign language class is a problem that most language teachers face. wulandari (2010) said that some english teacher often using an interesting media to conduct the learning process and the class activities seemed less interesting. renandya (2004) suggests that the teaching of speaking depends on how the classroom culture need to become ‘talking classroom’. further, katemba (2016) stated that indonesians love to talk, and are instinctively inquisitive people. it means students will be much more confident if they practice to speak interactively regularly. the one who can make the classroom come to life in speaking is the english teacher. encouraging students to respond in language classroom is a problem that most language teachers face (katz, 1996). researcher found during practice teaching and while doing research some english teacher often asked their students to have a written examination as an output and not speaking examination because it consume more time and energy to be done. compared with written examination, it is easier and it minimize the teacher’s time in teaching. and finally, as harmer, (2011) said the more students have opportunities to activate the various elements of language they have stored in their brains, the more automatic their use of these elements become. as a result, students gradually become autonomous language users. this means that they will be able to use words and phrases fluently without very much conscious thought. besides, some problems also caused by the students. there are some reasons why students find a hard time to speak interactively: 27    inhibition. ur (2009) stated unlike reading, writing and listening activities, speaking requires some degree of real-time exposure to the audience. learners are often inhibited to speak foreign language in the classroom. learners worried about making mistakes, fearful of criticism or losing face, or simply shy of the attention that their speech attracts. in addition, nurani (2012) states that speaking is interactive and requires the ability to cooperate in the management of speaking turn. moreover, some students are shy to express themselves in front of the people include their classmates and they worry about speaking badly (harmer, 2003). therefore, the students tend to be less participation because they worry about being brainless in front of their friend. lack of word storage. even if they are not inhibited, it was often to hear learners complain that they cannot think of anything to say; they have no time to express themselves beyond the guilty feeling that they should be speaking (carter & mccarthy, 2007). in addition, saputro (2008) found that some difficulties faced by the students in expressing idea are nervousness, lack of confidence, and lack of linguistic supports including vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation. kartikasari (2014) states speaking skill is assumed as a difficult skill to master by almost all students at any age and to be able to speak english, ones have to know the knowledge of the language. in adition, when they are speaking, they do not have much time to think what they want to speak. they need to think and speak in the same time. the same idea with schneidereit (2004) he states that the ability to speak fluently presupposes not only knowledge of language features, but also the ability to process information language on the spot. low or uneven participation. in this case, the learners or participant can talk at a time if he or she is to be heard; and in large group this means that each one will have only very little talking time. this problem is compounded by the tendency of some learners to dominate, while others speak very little or not at all (nur, 2004). mother-tongue usage. most learners which english is their foreign or second language, still finds a hard time to stop using the mother-tongue when they learn to speak in english . in classes where all, or a number of, the learners share the same mother tongue, “they may tend to use it; because it is easier, because it feels unnatural to speak to one another in a foreign language, and because they feel less ‘exposed’ if they are speaking their mother tongue. if they are talking in small groups it can be quite difficult to get some classes-particularly the less disciplined or motivated ones – to keep to the target language” (bryson, 2015 p. 121). a research conducted by yastutik (2007) shows that there are some speaking 28    difficulties appear in a conversational class. those difficulties are worrying about others’ responses, using indonesian rather than english, having inadequate english vocabulary, being unable to pronounce well, being timid or less confident of speaking english. these difficulties may affect students’ ability in speaking. hence students with speaking difficulties tend to be passive or participating less in the classroom (ascher, 2008). based on those problems, it is assumed that it is necessary to find some good methods in learning speaking to make the students feel enjoyable to learn english and to help the students have the ability to use english to communicate. tice (2004) said that drilling (oral drills) remains a useful technique if it is used appropriately. oral drills and exercise could build and strengthen memory (cabaroglu et al., 2010). the use of this technique not only to give the students chance to speak in the class and practice their speaking, but also their comprehension of the text can be reached through this technique. therefore, it is suggested that the use of this technique could motivate the students to speak in the class and students’ speaking achievement could be improved through oral drills. it is a common belief that children learn english in order to speak it. it is true that they learn english because of their parents demand or enforcement but soon, as they start learning it, they wish to speak it (sutiyono, 2012 cited from sadtono, 1997) to speak is part of communication therefore speaking is an essential part in human’s life. according to vilagran (2008), there are three types of speaking. first is interactive, second is partially interactive, and the last is non-interactive. dow and ryan (2002, p. 106) states that “interactive speaking is a face to face conversation, can be talked through telephone calls or other two way communication. in interactive speaking people listen and speak alternately. some interactive speaking skills are in the form of agreeing, disagreeing, asking for opinions, giving opinions, asking for clarification, giving clarification, attacking, giving more exact information, and so forth.” according to a study that has already done by kartikasari (2014), she said that students in smp negeri 6 ketapang, pontianak-indonesia, most of 7th grade students felt hesitant to communicate with their teacher because they were afraid of making mistakes in speaking. they had in mind that english was a hard language, moreover, they did not have self-confidence because of limited vocabulary. as the result the students became passive in the class. based on an investigation among all students in the business english department of changsha vocational and technical college, nearly 70% 80% students will choose international business as their future career because business trades in several countries involve the use of english as means of communication. therefore speaking capacity holds vital role in business communication (hui, 2011). tsou (2005) added, in other countries which are english is their foreign language they have the same problems in speaking the 29    english language especially inside the classroom. ur (2009) wrote that there are four reasons why students can hardly speak interactively. they are anxious and they do not know what to convey; they have a low participation because someone dominates the class and moreover the frequency of mother tongue usage is high. in addition, several activities which can be used to promote interactive speaking are “discussion, role-play, simulations, information gap, brainstorming, storytelling, interviews, story completion, reporting, playing cards, picture narrating, picture describing and find the difference” (lynne & diaz, 2008 p. 140). according to jarvis (2002), role-play as a teaching method offers several advantages for both teacher and students. in addition, harmer (2011) stated that role-play can be used to encourage general oral fluency, or to train students to learn the language and role-play method may facilitate the acquisition of a second language. cornilie et al (2011) states that this method undeniably contain the most language of all methods, although the kind of language and the way language is presented is not always favorable for second language learners. teaching english to learners also needs a special method that is appropriate to their characteristics. the method needs to provide meaningful and contextual environment to practice speaking english. this is in line with pinter (2006) who states that learners need much practice (by oral drills) to be able to speak english fluently. in the view of this, oral drills is one of the methods recommended to be used. oral drills is defined as repeated. oral drills is one of the most basic learning techniques. oral drills and excercise could build and strengthen memory (cabaroglu et al., 2010). besides, baleghizadeh and derakhshesh (2012) reported that the task of oral drills could give opportunities to get accuracy. by doing oral drills the comprehension of a language lesson will be better. oral drills could help students to use new language many times in real communicative situation especially in doing interactive speaking activity. for many years, mckay (2006) said that teaching speaking only focuses on oral drills and memorization of dialogues, these techniques did not develop students’ communicative ability, these techniques limitted the students’ ability to express themselves and this caused the decrease of students’ interest in speaking. this often makes learning less meaningful for students, they tend to have little motivation to practice, feel shy, unconfident and afraid to use the language (brown, 2004). oral drills usually seen as a boring and old method which can only help the students memorize sentence or words but they do not understand what they are saying. the students with low memorization will find a hard time to recall all the sentences that are given (kaplan, 2010). one possible for students to be fluent in mastering the language through oral drills is by giving them more time to study and practice because practice makes perfect. since students usually think that learning is boring and difficult so they need more time to be acquainted with the lesson (aisah, 2008). 30    teaching english to young learners is different from teaching english to adult learners since they have different characteristics. it will be different in many ways, such as delivering the lesson, conducting the activities, assessing the learners, using the media, etc. linse (2005) stated that in teaching speaking skills to young learners, it is important to choose activities and media that are appropriate to their characteristics. by knowing their characteristics, the appropriate ways of teaching them will also be known. kayi (2008) said several activities which can be used to promote interactive speaking are discussion, role-play, simulations, information gap, brainstorming, storytelling, interviews, story completion, reporting, playing cards, picture narrating, picture describing and find the difference. role-play method is classroom activities in which students take the roles of different participants in a situation and act it out. in doing role-play method the students are expected to be able to express their argument, idea, and even self-existence through certain roles in which speaking skill is explored. the teachers, however, should consider some points in designing the activities, because not all students feel easy to speak or even to pretend to be someone else (tice, 2004). in addition role-play is a speaking activity where the teacher gives the situation and students have to make conversation according to the situation given. role-play method help the studens to improve their interactive speaking skill, they are forced to commiunicate to the other students like in the real world. cornilie et al (2011) also stated that in roleplay teachers add the element of giving the participants information about who they are, and what they think and feel. role-play method is having the following characteristics: role play is assumed as a particular value, it usually to the participants speaking ability rather than development of an art that is focusing on the mimicry, feeling or emotion. it usually does in a dramatic play by children but it also used as a tool by psychologist and therapist (huang, 2008). from the information above it can be conclude that role-play method is an interactive speaking activity where the students is asked to pretend or act as somebody else or put themselves into an imaginary situation. huda (1997) suggested that roleplay method could help students in language acquisition. utilizing role-play method encourages learners’ speaking ability, improve vocabulary, and build problem solving ability. there are many methods in teaching interactive speaking ability. each method has advantages and disadvantages, but whatever method will be used in reaching the best result it is all according to the teacher and students’ readability and cooperation. each method has their advantages and disadvantages and it also happen in role-play method. here are some advantages of using role-play method. first, “role-play method can make the learners pay attention to what their partner is saying, ask for and give clarification, repair a communication breakdown, or express themselves explicitly” (barbara et al, 2011p. 43). second, role-play method can be used to encourage general oral fluency, or to train students for 31    specific situations especially where they are studying english for specific purpose (rani, 2009). third, role-play method will make the students interested in the topic, moreover, students’ involvement will lead them to have empathy and understanding of different perspectives (jarvis, 2002). fourth, role-play method also suitable in its implementation in education where it will work for all personalities and under all teaching circumstances. the main benefit of role-play method is that enables a flow of language to be produced that might be difficult or impossible to do (bradbury, 2013). in any technique in language teaching problems are bound to arise. however, these problems are not insurmountable. below is a brief description of some of the possible problems that may arise in the carrying out of role-play method activities. dougill (2009) said that some students have fixed ideas as to what a good class teacher is they expect a rigid, fixed procedure in teaching. they are used to being passive and expect teaching to be teacher-centered. attitudes like these have to be changed. before this can be done the teacher's attitudes have to be changed too. mancera et al (2009) said that role-play and simulation take a lot of time especially if they include preparation and follow-up work. it also depends on the ability of the class to perform the tasks. the teacher thus has to know the class well so as to assign the students activities to suit their abilities. time constraints are especially felt in examination classes which have a set syllabus to follow and to complete. the lack of space and the large number of students can make the organization of the activities difficult. noise level will also be high especially, if the size of the classroom is small thus making concentration difficult. monitoring of the different groups may also be a problem. the teacher thus has to adapt and improvise accordingly, for instance looking for an alternative place or even carrying out the activity outdoors (paul, 2003). koneru (2011) write that when students are encouraged to produce spontaneous speech, mistakes are bound to appear especially in l2 classes. the question on how to correct and when to correct could be a problem to the teacher. the teacher must bear in mind that fluency rather than accuracy is more important. however, hui (2011) said that it does not mean that the teachers do not correct mistakes at all. this should be done during the discussion and feedback sessions at the end of the activity and not while the students are preparing or carrying out the tasks. the advantages and disadvantages of role-play and simulation discussed here are not exhaustive. however, by bearing them in mind, it is hoped that they would help the teacher be better prepared as the teacher launches out to use role-play and simulation in the language classroom (sitinjak, 2007) 32    in doing role-play, some experts suggest several steps, ladefoged and johnson (2014) assert six major steps in the role play procedures that will be joined with oral drills strategy. first is deciding the material, the second is creating the dialogue, third is teaching the dialogs through oral drills then asking the students to practice the dialog by using role-play method after that have the students modify the situation and dialogues until they become familiar with the situation and finally evaluating the students’ achievement and comprehension. therefore the researcher concludes that speaking is not an easy skill for english learners because there are still many barriers that obstruct the learners to learn speaking. to have a really good communication skill in speaking someone should be able to speak fluently as johnson (2013) states that fluency refers to the absence of pauses and other indices of word-finding (or grammatical) difficulty. methodology the method that the researcher used in this study is pre-experimental research design. the research design that is used in this study is one group pretest posttest design. in this kind of design, before treatment is implemented the sample is giving a pre-test (in the beginning) and at the last meeting of the research the sample is giving a post-test. this design is used based on the goal purpose that is to know the improvement of interactive speaking achievement of students after using oral drills and role-play method. below are the design table of one group pretest-posttest design. pre-test treatment post-test 01 x 02 (sugiyono, 2008) where: 01 : pre-test before giving a treatment x : treatment 02 : post-test after giving a treatment the population of the research was taken from all students in the first year of smp advent schools in west bandung. the sample were 30 students from smp advent ii setia budi, bandung. the 30 students were the first-year students of junior high school. to get the sample, this study used purposive sampling technique; it is based on particular consideration and teacher recommendation. sutedi (2009) states that research instrument is a tool that is used to collect or to provide various data that are needed in a research activity. besides, according to sugiyono (2008) research instrument is used to collect data in order to answer research questions and research hypothesis. instruments that are being used truly determine the result of a research activity. therefore the instruments that were being used in this study are as follows: test instrument, speaking assesment, and interview. 33    test instrument. triani (2013) cited from danasasmita (2009) which says that test is a series of questions that must be answered by the students. test that is used in this study is a subjective test in the form of oral interview questions that will be answered orally by the students (do not required a written result). in this study the researcher provide 25 essay questions that is conducted before and after giving a treatment (pre-test and post-test). oral interview questions test is a type of test of research improvement that needs an answer in the form of explanation and description of words. the test that was being used is just the same in the beginning and in the last test. data analysis of test instrument. before the instrument is being used in the research, the instrument firstly being pilot tested to the higher level that is the second year students of junior high school (eight grade students) that already learn about interactive speaking in the previous semester. after the instrument is being tested it is then processed and analysed. below are the series of the analysis that are being used to know whether the test is feasible or not to be used. after counted using anates-uraian, below are the recapitulation of the result of testing instruments on thursday january 28th, 2016 of the second year of jhs students at smp advent ii, setia budi, bandung. the followings are analysis of instrument validity, analysis of instrument reliability, difficulty index, and discriminating power index. test analysis of questions validity reliability difficulty index discriminating power index 1 valid very high moderate good 2 valid moderate poor 3 valid moderate poor 4 valid moderate good 5 valid moderate poor 6 valid moderate good 7 valid moderate poor 8 valid moderate good 9 valid moderate good 10 valid moderate good 11 valid moderate good 12 valid moderate poor 13 valid moderate poor 14 valid moderate poor 15 valid moderate good 16 valid moderate poor 17 valid moderate good 18 valid moderate good 19 valid moderate good 20 valid moderate poor 21 valid moderate poor 34    22 valid moderate poor 23 valid moderate poor 24 valid moderate good 25 valid moderate poor according to table 3.9 there are 12 questions which is valid, with high reliability, the difficulty index is moderate and the discriminating power index is good, they are questions number 1, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 15, 17, 18, 19, and 25. there are 13 questions which is valid, with high reliability, the difficulty index is moderate and the discriminating power index is poor, they are questions number 2, 3, 5, 7, 12, 13, 14, 16, 20, 21, 22, 23, and 24. therefore, the researcher used all the 25 oral interview question to be the researcher instrument for pre and post-test. speaking assesment. in this study, assessment technique that was used was limited response technique in which the students were required to respond the questions limitedly using aural cues ( what do you like about school life?) and by requiring spoken answer (things that i like about school is playing with friend). during the study, the assessment will be conducted two times during the pre-test and post-test. the speaking assessment sheet contains five aspect of speaking skill, namely comprehension, vocabulary, grammar, fluency and pronunciation. each aspect has its own criteria scaled from 1 – 5 (brown, 2004). the criteria of speaking assessment are as follow. 1. comprehension refers to understanding what people convey and what to respond. the indicators of students’ comprehension in this study is seen from their responds to the teachers’ questions whether they can understand the questions at once, or they need many repetitions to answer the questions (katz, 1996) 2. vocabulary refers to a set of words within a language which are chosen based on communication context. without vocabulary, nothing can be conveyed (harmer, 2011). as the consequence of it, vocabulary is assumed to influence other aspects of speaking skill. this is in line with pinter (2006) saying that vocabulary contributed the most to speaking proficiency at a novice level. in this study, the indicator of students’ vocabulary aspect is seen from the number of english words the students produce on how they use the phrasal verbs continuosly rather than using single word. 3. according to azar and hagen (2009), grammar is a set of rules and examples dealing with the syntax and word structures of a language. in this study grammar refers to the ability to arrange correct phrases, using compound noun, compound adjective, compound verbs, and tenses in conversation. the students are expected to produce at least a simple sentence consisting of a subject and and a verb phrases referring to small group of related words within sentence or clause. for example, when the students asked their friend “how are you today?” the other students will answer “i feeling great” rather than saying the common answer “i am fine, thank you and you?” 35    4. fluency refers to continuity when speaking without pauses or hesitancy indicated by such as “ums” or “ers”. it is in line with linse (2005) who define fluency as how fast and how much a learners speaks without pausing, repeating the same words, and doing false-start in coping with the real time processing. in this study, the indicators of students fluency is their ability to use the english word or phrase fillers (gap filler). 5. pronunciation refers to the ability to produce correct, rhythm, and intonation of words in a spoken language. mckay (2006) stated that the central criterion of pronunciation assessment, especially for efl learners, is intelligibility or comprehension of what the students’ convey. in this study, the indicator of students’ pronunciation is also intelligibility and some traces of foreign accent. the more native-like is better. below are the criteria of grading system to collect the result of students’ achievement on interactive speaking. interview. the researcher used interview as a tool of data collection in this study. interview is held as a media to collect the data when students speak orally to answer the questions. the 25 questions were asked in the form of interview and after that the data recording was transcribed and printed to be graded. the grading system was based on the speaking assessment of brown (2004). normalized gain the normalized gain is known to assess students’ performance in pre-test and post-test. the normalized gain is done to know how far the improvement of the students’ interactive speaking ability after using oral drills and role-play method. criteria comprehension vocabulary grammar fluency pronunciation appears to understand speaks l2 with produces complete and speaks in l2 very fluently speaks in l2 intelligibly everything without difficulty accurate english word accurate sentences and effortlessly. and has few traces of (e.g, 1. this is kfc, 2. i can see foreign accent. many people there, 3. i can buy some clothes) understands nearly everything speaks mostly in l2 produces some phrases instead speaks in l2 less fluently speaks mostly in l2 at normal speed, although with few l1 words of complete sentences with due to few problems of intelligibly with mother occasional repetition may be consistent and accurate word vocabulary/selection of tongue accent necessary order (e.g, 1. kfc, 2. seeing words. many people. 3. buying some clothes) or produces consistent omitted sentence. (e.g buy some clothes, see many people) understand most of what is produces 4-6 english produces inconsistent and speaks mostly in l2 with speaks mostly in l1 said at slower-than-normal words. incorrect sentences/phrases some long pauses and but produces 1-3 english speed with many repetitions (e.g i can walking around, hesitancy. words and pronounce buy food, some game, etc) them in intelligibly mother tounge accent has great difficulty produces 1-3 english answers mostly in l1, with 1-3 speaks mostly in l1, speaks mostly in l1 understanding what is said, words (brands or english words/phrases tries to speak in l2 but produces 1-3 english often misunderstands the place names such as but so halting words, needs some questions kfc, roppan, etc do with so many pauses repetition in not count as english and "er..." pronouncing the words word/vocabulary to understand them. (due to limited vocabulary) unable to comprehend the vocabulary limitations unidentified because of speaking unidentified because unidentified because material so that unable to so extreme as to make in l1 all the time. of speaking l1 of speaking in l1 express/ respond the conversation in l2 all the time all the time. questions correctly. virtually impossible so that the student speaks in l1 all the time. as adapte d from brown (2004) 1 2 3 4 5 36    normalized gain analysis that will be counted using hake formula in tauran (2013) as follows gain classification according to hake as cited in tauran (2013) can be seen below normality test the normality test as the result of pre-test and post-test will be used to know whether the data that have been used distributed normally or not. normality test that will be used in this study is shapiro-wilk razali formula in sianipar (2014). according to the rule, the data are normally distributed if value (sig) ≥ (0.05). ∑ ∑ ̅ explanation: w = normality test = sample data i = the constants obtain from the average value ̅ = the average of sample data result and discussion in processing the data of the study, the researcher taught one class at smp advent ii setia budi, bandung as the experimental group. the researcher chose first year students as the sample that consisted of 30 students in a class. this study used statistical program, spss 16 to calculate the data that were being collected after giving pre-test and post-test to the students. the table below was a brief explanation to show that there was improvement on students’ interactive speaking achievement on post-test after giving the treatment. for example student 1 had an improvement from 195 to 309. after calculating the data, it was found that the mean from pre-test was 143.43 and the mean for post-test was 294.03 and from both score of pre and post-test the gain was calculated that is 0.3250. gain value interpretation 0,70 high 0,30 0,70 moderate 0,30 low 37    result of pretest, post-test, standard deviation, and gain sample group mean st. deviation pre-test 143.43 111.311 post-test 294.03 119.312 gain 0.3250 0.17871 through the descriptive statistic done by spss 16, it can be seen that the students’ interactive speaking achievement after using oral drills and role-play method has improved moderately. the average gain for interactive speaking achievement is 0.3250. according to hake (1998) in tauran (2013) if 0,30 0,70 it means that the improvement of the students’ performance after pre-test and post-test is moderate where 0.30 < 0.3250. normality test according to the data on table above it is shown that the sig. of the normality test is 0.487, if value (sig) ≥ (0.05) it means that the data is distributed normally (sianipar, 2014). from the data above the p-value sig is 0.487 is greater than (0.05) so it is conclude that the data used in this study is distributed normally. one sample test one sample test is used to calculate the significance of the research. if p value (sig.) ≤ (0.05) then ha is accepted and h0 is rejected and if p value (sig.) ≥ (0.05) then h0 is accepted and ha is rejected. after using spss 16, the result of the data after using one sample test formula is shown below one-sample test one-sample test test value = 0 shapiro-wilk statistic df sig. n_gain .968 30 .487 38    t df sig. (2tailed) mean difference 95% confidence interval of the difference lower upper n_gain 9.959 29 .000 .32496 .2582 .3917 based on table above, the p-value = 0.000, which means that the p-value 0.000 is lesser than (0.05). from the interpretation it can be conclude that pvalue (0.000) < (0.05) it means ha is accepted and h0 is rejected. from the interpretation above it can be conclude that there is a significant difference in students’ interactive speaking achievement after using oral drills and role-play method. the result of the study shows that there is a significant difference in students’ interactive speaking achievement after using oral drills and role-play method. according to pinter (2006) role-play method can make the learners pay attention to what their partner is saying, ask for and give clarification, repair a communication breakdown, or express themselves explicitly. from what pinter said it can be concluded that oral drills and role-play method could improve students’ interactive speaking ability because the indicator of interactive speaking is to ask for clarification, giving idea, and so on. since there is a significant difference in students’ interactive speaking achievement it can be concluded that oral drills and role-play method is an effective method to teach student how to speak interactively. by analyzing the transcription of students’ answers, it can be concluded that there is a good improvement in students’ interactive speaking before and after giving treatment. this sample shows how the pre and post-test was conducted. when the researcher asked in pre-test “why is it important to study in the school?” a student gave simple answer by saying “pass.” if the answer is calculated in the students’ speaking assessment grading form, the word ‘pass’ in comprehension column interpreted ‘unable to comprehend the material so that unable to express/respond the questions correctly. in vocabulary, grammar, fluency and pronunciation column there is no point on this simple answer because the answer did not fit the grading criteria from point 1 until 5. after giving treatment the student answer by this sentence in post-test “because i want to study together with my friends” from this short excerpt it can be concluded that the students has a really high improvement in speaking. in comprehension column it can be interpreted ‘appears to understand everything without difficulty’ and it is counted 5 points. in vocabulary column it can be interpreted ‘speak l2 with accurate english word’ with 5 points also. in grammar column it can be interpreted as ‘produces complete and accurate sentences’ with 5 points. in fluency column it can be interpreted ‘speak l2 less fluently due to few problems of vocabulary selection of words’ with 4 points. the last is pronunciation column it can be interpreted ‘speak mostly in l2 intelligibly with mother tongue accent’ with 4 points. in the data of pre-test the total grading is 625 as 100% right. according to the result none could achieve perfect score 625. there is one student who could achieve only up to 590 point in post-test and the 39    lowest grade is 87. the mean average for the post-test data was 294.03 and 143.43 for pre-test data. from the data that has already been gathered it can be concluded that what mancera et al (2009) suggested that role-play method could help students in language acquisition was true and can be implemented in teaching language especially interactive speaking for junior high school students. since there is a significant difference in improving students’ interactive speaking achievement it can be concluded that oral drills and role-play method is a suitable method to use in teaching interactive speaking to the students, especially students in the first year of junior high school. summary the title of this study is “study on the use of oral drills and role-play method in improving students’ interactive speaking achievement” in which the researcher aimed to find answer for the question: is there any significant difference in students’ interactive speaking achievement after using oral drills and role-play method?” this study was conducted based on some theories and ideas of linguistics and another writer who have done their previous study. this research was done in smp advent ii setia budi, bandung where the sample is taken from the first year junior high school students as the experimental group. the sample consisted of 30 students and the sample was given a treatment using oral drills and role-play method. a pre-test was conducted to the sample group at the beginning of the meeting using some questions in the form of essay that need explanation and the students were asked to answer all the questions orally one by one and the data will be collected in the form of recording that were going to be transcribed in order to grade the result. after that the post-test was done after 1 month giving treatments. the result shows that: for the sample group consisting of 30 students, the mean of pre-test is 143.43 and the mean of post-test is 294.03. the total of gain score is 0.3250. from the result above, it is shown that there is an increase of score after the experiment was given to sample group. to answer the research question, the researcher focused on the result of the hypothesis testing which is shown that there is a significant difference on students’ interactive speaking ability. conclusion   from this research the conclusion that can be drawn are the following: the oral drills and role-play method is good in improving students’ interactive speaking achievement it was known from the result of the hypothesis testing that show there was a significant difference on students’ interactive speaking achievement. from the writers’ point of views, it is found that learners especially who are still in the first year of junior high school likes to do oral drills and roleplay because most of them want to be active and enjoy doing an activity rather than being silent in the class. cabaroglu, et. al. (2010) stated oral drills could help students use new language many times in real communicative situation 40    especially in doing interactive speaking activity. role-play method also can help the learners pay attention to what their partner say, ask for and clarify; furthermore, it may help repair a communication breakdown, or express themselves explicitly (pinter, 2006). 41    references aisah (2008). perkembangan dan konsep dasar perkembangan anak. upi: unpublished mini-thesis aleksandrzak, m. (2011). problems and challenges in teaching and learning speaking at advance level. uniwersytet:im.adama ariani, d. (2009). senior high school students’ anxiety in english speaking class (a descriptive study of language anxiety at sma laboratorium percontohan upi bandung). upi:unpublished baleghizadeh, s and derakhshesh, a. 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(2008). 4 skills:speaking. cambridge: unpublished mini-thesis wood, william l. (2006). foreign and second language learning. cambridge: cambridge university press. 45    yastutik, yuli. (2007). students’ strategies to overcome speaking problems in the conversation class as an intracurricular program at sma negeri 8 malang. retrieved on november 18, 2015 acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 119 factors promoting speech: analysis of output during discussion activities fumiya shinozaki,1 osaka kyoiku university, japan satoshi yokoyama,2 tennoji junior high school attached to osaka kyoiku university, japan doi: 10.35974/acuity.v8i1.2983 abstract sixty-one junior high school students in japan participated twice in an online english group conversation lesson. at the first half of a session, each student gave an individual presentation to a filipino instructor and the other group members. at the second half of the session, they conducted discussions, where the instructor, as the facilitator, asked each student relevant questions. the present study first determined if there would be a change in the maximum number of words spoken in discussions between the first and second online english conversation lessons. as the result of a statistical analysis for the discussions, there was a significant difference between the maximum number of words spoken during the two discussions. since a significant change was admitted, a further discussion was conducted to clarify the reasons for the change. the factors of the increase in words spoken were discussed in terms of willingness to communicate, having things to communicate, anxiety, confidence, and instructors’ intervention. all of them were thought to affect the increase. the findings suggest that (1) it is important to set some activities for students to strengthen their own opinions about topics in advance and (2) it is effective not to end with a single practice but to provide at least two opportunities for the output and interaction with others. keywords: impromptu conversation, willingness to communicate, having things to communicate, anxiety, self-confidence, instructors’ intervention introduction the world englishes model categorizes countries that use english into three: the inner circle, the outer circle, and the expanding circle (kachru, 1985). people in the countries of the expanding circle learn english as a foreign language. in these countries, english is basically not used outside the classrooms. therefore, it is controversial as to how possible it is to secure opportunities to use english authentically. according to a study on efl learners’ environment conducted at an international university in japan, students can find opportunities to use english outside of the classroom on campus at which there are international students. unfortunately, those living offcampus have fewer opportunities (lee, browne, & kusumoto, 2011). in reality ,unless students personally strive to find such opportunities, it is quite rare to use english as a means of communication with people from other countries. although assistant language teachers promote students’ english use in class, providing individual students with experiences of output is limited especially when the class size is large. corresponding author: fumiya shinozaki, english education department, osaka kyoiku university, 4-698-1 asahigaoka, kashiwara, osaka, japan, 582-8582. email: fshino@cc.osaka-kyoiku.ac.jp https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity mailto:fshino@cc.osaka-kyoiku.ac.jp acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 120 one possible solution to increase opportunities to speak english is to take advantage of online conversation lesson services. rodrigues and vethamani (2015) compare an online learning program and a general intensive english program at a university in malaysia, indicating that the former enables greater language proficiency and stronger self-confidence than the latter. this result suggests possible development not just in english proficiency but in self-confidence when speaking with native speakers. moreover, repetitive online video lessons with filipino instructors, carried out at a junior college in japan, promoted learners’ confidence in english communication while suggesting the possibility of lowering their anxiety (mita, 2014). in this way, there is a possibility that online conversation lessons facilitate improvement in speaking proficiency and such factors related to anxiety or confidence. these kinds of affective factors are thought to be related to what is called “willingness to communicate” or wtc. macintyre, clemént, dörnyei, kimberly, and noels (1998) define wtc as “a readiness to enter into discourse at a particular time with a specific person or persons, using a l2” (p.547). a person proficient in english does not necessarily make plenty of utterances due to the fact that skills or communicative competence is not the sole factor that promotes the readiness for discourse and enables speech. additionally, yashima (2001) proposes a notion called international posture, which encompasses attitudes toward “things outside of japan” and international behavioral tendencies such as going abroad, doing international work, and coming into contact with people of other cultures. a study on senior high school students in japan demonstrates that international posture leads not only to frequency of spontaneous communication inside and outside classrooms but also to motivation and wtc in a second language (l2) (yashima, zenuk-nishide, & shimizu, 2004). one of the subcategories of international posture is having things to communicate about (htc), and there is a strong correlation between htc and wtc (yashima, 2009). a result of an experiment comparing a conversational activity and an information gap activity reveals that learners had more opportunities to produce more complex utterances in the conversational activity than the other (nakahama, tyler, & van lier, 2001). since conversation is encouraged more when having a message to pass on, forming activities that require a great deal of meaning can lead to more active speech. for example, a discussion can be such an activity because it basically entails a specific theme where learners are supposed to have their own opinions. previous studies show that various factors including wtc, htc, self-confidence, and anxiety make l2 speech production possible. however, there are few empirical studies that discuss a change in l2 speech production based on learners’ utterances actually observed in an authentic communicative situation along with its related factors. all things considered, it seems to be beneficial to utilize online english conversation lesson services for the sake of securing opportunities to communicate learners’ own messages to people from other countries. accordingly, the purpose of this study is to find out from practice what factors are involved when speech is promoted. literature online english conversation lessons online english conversation service offers individual or group lessons in which they interact with an instructor or other students in english. this kind of communication is called computer-mediated communication (cmc). it is defined as human communication via computers whose emphasis is https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 121 on interaction. video conferencing is a kind of synchronous computer-mediated communication (scmc), while text-based cmc is called asynchronous computer-mediated communication (acmc) (higgins, 1991). even text-based chatting can be a task to facilitate the negotiation of meaning, which allows more profound communication. for instance, a study conducted by pellettieri (2000) reveals that task-based synchronous network-based communication like textbased chatting can promote the negotiation of meaning, stating that it is possible because textbased chatting is similar to oral interaction. it is natural to expect that video conferencing can have more positive effects. as a matter of fact, sarré (2011) compares three cmc modes, discussion board (acmc), text chat, and video conferencing, finding that video conferencing makes the most negotiation of meaning happen of all the three cmc modes. empirical research has been accumulated recently. depending upon how it is used, english lessons through video conferencing are close enough to the ones in actual classrooms. yanguas (2010) used the video conferencing application skype to investigate how learners in the video and audio cmc groups negotiate for meaning during task-based interaction. students in the computer lab utilized skype to carry on their conversations. the results showed that for the oral cmc group, using skype resulted in turn-taking patterns that resembled face-to-face turn-taking. as it is similar to face-to-face communication, improvements in english skills are expected. nilayon and brahmakasikara (2018) then looked at how video conferencing and social media technology can help thai students improve their speaking skills. six participants took advantage of a video conferencing application and a few other social media websites. they were evaluated on their speaking skills before, during, and after the practice with an interview also conducted. the results showed a significant improvement in lower-level participants, and most of them felt that this kind of method was effective in improving speaking skills. in addition, iino and yabuta (2016) conducted an empirical research on the effects of long-term practice of communicative and interactive english language instruction using web conferencing. university students participated in a group discussion composed of two students and one filipino instructor. the results show that the experience of communicating with an english teacher in a foreign country with cognitively demanding content promotes the development of proficiency and speaking skills through the learning of english input, output, interactions, and perceptions. while skills development has been acknowledged, there seems to be some influence of online oral communication on affective factors. toyama, mori, and shintani (2017) conducted a short online english conversation group learning for university students with low english proficiency, and administered a preand post-test of english speaking skills and ratings as well as anxiety, selfefficacy, and motivation related to learning and using english. the results showed that speaking skills and english anxiety improved significantly, and a slight, but not significant, improvement was partially observed in self-efficacy and motivation for learning english. it is also necessary to contemplate the influence of instructors’ intervention. tokeshi, fewell, tsukayama, and kuckelman (2017) employed skype for online english conversation as an individual learning method outside of classes at a university. one of the findings is that the students evaluated the instructors’ scaffolding for them highly, presumably because the instructors provided positive support, and the instructor and students worked together to understand the communication. taking these things into account, discussions during online english conversation lessons are categorized into scmc, and it seems adequate to expect developments not only in english proficiency but also in affective factors, discussing the relationships among them. however, many https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 122 of these researches are conducted on university students, so it is still controversial whether or not scmc is effective for younger learners in the same way. affective factors as several previous practical studies above have reported, utterances are produced with certain levels of english proficiency and affective factors, influenced by a variety of outside environments including instructors’ intervention. figure 1 demonstrates the entire picture of the relationships between a l2 use and other factors (macintyre et al., 1998). although few studies, as previously stated, have discussed how they were interrelated with each other based on actually observed utterances especially of young learners, aoyama, shimada, kikuhara, and sakai (2020) try to develop a l2 wtc model for junior high school students by analyzing a questionnaire surveys asking about l2 wtc, international posture, motivational intensity, and learners’ perceived proficiency. the result demonstrates that the structure of the l2 wtc model was constant across learners of diverse educational levels, while relationship degrees were shown to differ between school levels. international posture, mentioned above, is composed of five subcategories: intercultural approach (-avoidance) tendency, interest in international vocation, ethnocentrism, interest in foreign affairs, and having things to communicate (htc) (yashima, 2002; 2009). watanabe (2017) conducted research on university students who took english speaking classes where message-level communication activities, not information-level, were the main focus. the results indicate that out of the five categories, there was a significant difference only in the degree of htc between the beginning and the end of the semester. importantly, the correlation between wtc and htc was stronger than that of wtc and any other category of international posture. another important factor is self-confidence, which is located in layer iv in figure 1. selfconfidence is closely related to anxiety. anxiety associated with learning a foreign language is referred as foreign language anxiety (fla) (horwitz, horwitz, & cope, 1986). kalra and siribud (2020) analyzed the results of a survey, reporting that anxiety causes problems related to selfconfidence, which leads to hindrance of foreign language development. kráľová and sorádová (2015) also admits that anxiety negatively affects foreign language acquisition. therefore, it is vital for teachers to consider how to minimize fla in speaking (masutani, 2021; pappamihiel, 2002). since there is a moderate correlation between self-confidence and speaking achievement (tridinanti, 2018), teachers should deliberate their classes from these perspectives. one possible contribution to this is the utilization of video conferencing. punar and uzun (2019) compared english lessons on skype to face-to-face english lessons for english learning adults, and analyzed the data statistically, finding that anxiety reduction was only observed in lessons on skype. this implies that online english discussions are effective initial activities to lower speaking anxiety or influence self-confidence positively. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 123 figure 1: heuristic model of variables influencing wtc (macintyre et al., 1998, p.547) instructor’s intervention as discussed above, it is necessary for teachers to envision effective ways to promote students’ utterances by taking their fla for speaking into consideration. during discussions, instructors frequently work as facilitators, and try to analyze students’ proficiency or difficulties and help students think or speak on a certain topic. this is endorsed by the notion called the zone of proximal development. vygotsky (1978) defines it as follows. the distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers. (p.78) scaffolding by the instructors is helpful in the zone of proximal development. wood, bruner, and ross (1976) depict scaffolding as follows. this scaffolding consists essentially of the adult “controlling” those elements of the task that are initially beyond the learner's capacity, thus permitting him to concentrate upon and complete only those elements that are within his range of competence. (p.90) https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 124 applying these to discussions, provided that the instructors ask some questions and students have difficulties answering, the instructors cast supplemental questions to them so that the students can answer them more easily. such questions should encourage students to answer. concretely, questions with interpersonal projection, “a meaning-making resource used to invite the addressee to express a person's point of view” (p.2), induces higher wtc than ones without it (yang & yin, 2022). for example, in their experiment, they compared “do you agree that sleep is a waste of time?” and “is sleep a waste of time?”, or “will healthy people be affected if they don’t get enough sleep, what’s your opinion?” and “will healthy people be affected if they don’t get enough sleep?”. the former are questions with international projection, and the latter are ones without. it is important to use such phrases as “do you agree?” and “what’s your opinion?” to get the students more involved in the discussions. zarrinabadi (2013) also acknowledges that teachers’ support affects students’ wtc positively. in fact, there are studies focusing on students’ wtc in classroom settings, particularly referred to as situated wtc. peng and woodrow (2010) reveal that teachers’ support, a kind of classroom environment factor, contributes to augmentation of such situated wtc, showing its large effect size by statistical analysis. methods from november 2021 through february 2022, junior high school students in japan worked on their presentations under the theme of sdgs (sustainable development goals) in english classes. two online english conversation lessons were provided as places for output of the presentations and interaction with instructors from other countries in the following discussions. questionnaire surveys were administered before the first online lesson and after each lesson for a total of three times. table 1 summarizes the procedure of the present study. table 1. procedure of the present study date instrument november 2021 – january 2022 ten english lessons in the classroom january 26, 2022 survey i february 3, 2022 online lesson 1 (joined at home) february 4, 2022 survey ii february 7, 2022 an english lesson february 10, 2022 online lesson 2 (join in the classroom) february 11, 2022 survey iii participants the study was conducted with students at a junior high school affiliated with a national university in japan. there were four classes per grade, with 36 students per class. no student was a native speaker of english or had a near-native level of english proficiency. many of them had studied english privately at cram schools after entering junior high school, but those who were learning english conversation were limited. the lessons were centered on the textbooks, and output https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 125 activities such as those in this study were carried out as needed to deepen the learning of contents and develop skills. in the english department at the school, one japanese teacher of english (jte) was in charge of each grade, and one assistant language teacher (alt) was in charge of each grade once a week. the jtes in charge of each grade planned the year’s instruction, and the jte (the author) actually prepared the unit plan for the unit involved in this practice. in addition, since the same subjects were assigned to each class on the daily schedule, though the order of classes was different, the same teacher gave the same lesson to all the four classes on the same day. the same was true in this practice, and there were no differences in terms of instructional content and procedures among the classes. practice before the first online lesson, they answered the first questionnaire. this practice consisted of faceto-face english lessons in the classroom and the online lessons. they spent ten english lessons in which they studied english based on the contents of the textbook that they usually used. the theme was related to sdgs. the jte presented what is called the big question “what’s your idea for sdgs?” at the very beginning of the first lesson. the students started to think of their own answers for the question as they learned english and its contents. as a main activity in the lessons, students worked on retelling practice based on the contents from the textbook, which encouraged their thoughts for the big question. after that, they created an oral presentation of their ideas for sdgs, and practiced making a speech for the presentation individually. the procedure and the roles of the instructors during the online lessons were arranged by the authors and representatives of the company that provided the online english conversation service. therefore, there were no major differences among the instructors in how they acted during the lessons. next, they formed groups of four students for the first online lesson. the students joined the first online lesson at home because the school was closed for covid-19 . in the lesson, there was one filipino instructor per group. each instructor played the role of a facilitator who occasionally supported the students depending on the situations. the lesson started with selfintroduction (5 minutes), oral presentations on their ideas for sdgs (10 minutes), and discussions about issues related to each student’s presentations (15 minutes). in total, one lesson lasted for 30 minutes. in the discussion part, the instructor would ask questions to each student while the students tried to answer. one typical example was when the instructor described a point of someone’s presentation and asked the questions “do you agree with this idea?” or “why do you think so?” the instructors or other students did not interfere with a student speaking. they casted supplemental questions only when the speaker had some difficulties in speaking. after the first lesson, the students answered the second questionnaire. there was a face-to-face lesson between the first and the second online lessons, where they reflected on themselves, adjusted their presentations if necessary, and formed groups of four students again. the procedure and other conditions were the same as the ones in the first lesson, but this time, they joined the lesson in their classrooms at school. in the end, they answered the third questionnaire. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 126 instruments the first and second online lessons consisted of the same procedure; self-introduction, oralpresentations, and discussions. this paper focused on the discussion parts where each student had opportunities to speak english on the spot. however, as opposed to yashima, macintyre, and ikeda (2018), in which university students were encouraged to initiate communication, the present study did not adopt the same procedures on account that most of the junior high school students were not skilled enough, not used to speaking with foreigners, and it was assumed that encouraging them to do so would lead to stagnation of the lessons, particularly conducted online. the maximum number of words spoken (mw) during each discussion part was the target of analysis since the total or average number of words spoken were strongly affected by the number of the instructors’ questions or short answers such as “yes” or “no”. even in the format that an instructor asks a question and a student answers, it is possible to anticipate that the student with high wtc or other related factors utters more words than those who do not. shortened words like “don’t” or “isn’t” were regarded as one word. dysfluency such as repetition of the same words was not counted double. for example, “i think… i think his idea is interesting.” was counted as six words. grammatical mistakes were not considered and counted as it was. for example, “*i have not idea.” (i don’t have any ideas.) was counted as four words. each questionnaire survey included questions about wtc and htc. the question items from yashima (2009) were adopted (appendix). the first survey asked what kinds of anxiety the students had related to discussions in english, and the third survey asked which of the anxieties were relieved. the second and the third surveys asked the participants to evaluate their change in their self-confidence as to speaking and listening to english. in addition, it also inquired how instructors’ intervention such as comments and questions were helpful for learning or preparation of english, presentations, or discussions. moreover, the participants assessed the impact of related classes, presentations, discussions, and classmates respectively on their change in wtc. table 2 summarizes the contents of questions in survey i, ii, and iii. table 2. which questionnaire survey contains questions of which variables variables survey i survey ii survey iii wtc 〇 〇 〇 htc 〇 〇 〇 anxiety 〇 〇 self-confidence 〇 〇 instructors’ intervention 〇 analyses microsoft excel sheet created by mizumoto and takeuchi (2008) was employed to calculate effect size, and ibm spss statistics (ver.24) for other parts of statistical analyses. kolmogorov-smirnov tests were administered to verify normality for each data set. depending upon the results of the tests, either parametric or non-parametric tests were selected. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 127 as to descriptive texts gained from the questionnaire surveys, a qualitative data software kh coder (higuchi, 2020) was utilized to conduct correspondence analysis and co-occurrence network analysis. finally, all results were synthesized to examine changes in speech by referring to the related factors. the whole picture of the analyses is shown in table 3. table 3. data processing methods variables adopted processing mw wilcoxon signed-rank test wtc one-way repeated measures anova / descriptive statistics htc friedman test / wilcoxon signed-rank test anxiety descriptive statistics self-confidence descriptive statistics / correspondence analysis instructors’ intervention descriptive statistics / co-occurrence network analysis results the maximum number of words spoken table 4 shows descriptive statistics for the maximum number of words spoken in each discussion, and figure 2 illustrates the comparison between the two data sets in box plot. it is noted that even though there seems to be outliers (71 and 68 points), they were not omitted for further analyses because they did not affect the entire results of the analyses. table 4. descriptive statistics for the maximum number of words spoken in each discussion minimum maximum mean sd variance skewness kurtosis mw 1 1 71 15.16 10.785 116.306 2.361 10.801 mw 2 1 68 20.02 11.941 142.583 1.465 3.470 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 128 figure 2: box plot for the maximum number of words spoken in each discussion a kolmogorov-smirnov test, which examines normality, did not indicate that mw in the second discussion was consistent with a normal distribution (p = .005), so wilcoxon signed-rank test, a kind of non-parametric test, was conducted in order to confirm whether there would be a significant difference between mw in the first discussion and that in the second discussion. as a result, there was a significant difference between them (z = 4.294, p = .000, r = .55). therefore, mw increased significantly from the first discussion to the second. willingness to communicate table 5 shows the descriptive statistics for the total points of wtc. the change of the total points of wtc related questions was tested by a one-way repeated measures anova since a kolmogorov-smirnov test indicated that all the data were consistent with a normal distribution (p > .005). mauchly’s test of sphericity indicates that the sphericity assumption holds (p = .028), so greenhouse-geisser’s epsilon with modified degrees of freedom was adopted. the result as in table 6 shows that there was no significant difference among the total points of wtc (f(2, 120) = 1.300, p = .275, partial η2 = .021). table 5. descriptive statistics for the total points of wtc minimum maximum mean sd variance skewness kurtosis survey i 19 48 32.66 5.933 35.196 0.130 -0.108 survey ii 12 48 31.85 6.287 39.528 -0.530 1.109 survey iii 14 48 32.67 7.002 49.024 -0.484 -0.037 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 129 table 6. the result of a one-way repeated measures anova for the total points of wtc source type iii ss df ms f p partial η2 wtc sphericity assumed 26.787 2 13.393 1.300 0.276 0.021 greenhousegeisser 26.787 1.795 14.924 1.300 0.275 0.021 huynh-feldt 26.787 1.847 14.505 1.300 0.276 0.021 lower-bound 26.787 1.000 26.787 1.300 0.259 0.021 error (wtc) sphericity assumed 1236.546 120 10.305 greenhousegeisser 1236.546 107.695 11.482 huynh-feldt 1236.546 110.804 11.160 lower-bound 1236.546 60.000 20.609 on the other hand, 84% of the students evaluated themselves positively by reporting the changes in wtc, according to the result of the question with six-point scale “compared to before, are you more willing to communicate with others in english?”(m = 4.21, sd = 0.878). for the purpose of identifying the factors that had influenced the change in wtc, the students scored each variable on a five-point scale (table 7). the highest mean was “experience in discussions with people from other countries”, and the second highest was “questions, comments, etc. from the instructor”. table 7. descriptive statistics for factors influencing changes in the wtc variables mean sd related classes for this activity 3.15 1.078 experience in giving presentations to people from other countries 3.34 1.031 experience in discussions with people from other countries 3.57 1.117 questions, comments, etc. from the instructor 3.43 1.176 watching classmates’ presentation 3.16 0.934 watching classmates’ discussions 3.30 0.937 presentation theme 3.08 0.900 content of discussion 3.28 0.897 having things to communicate the change of the total points of htc related questions was tested by the friedman test as a kolmogorov-smirnov test did not indicate that the second survey was consistent with a normal distribution (p = .002). the result shows that there was a significant difference among the total points of htc related questions (χ2 (2) = 9.484, p = .009). wilcoxon signed-rank test as a post-hoc test was conducted to examine between which groups there would be a significant difference, and p-value was adjusted by bonferroni correction. the https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 130 result shows that while there was no significant difference between the first and the second survey (z = -.050, p = .960, r = .01), there were significant differences between the first and the third survey (z = 2.510, p = .012, r = .32), and the second and the third survey (z = 2.836, p = .005, r = .36). furthermore, the change of each variable of htc was tested by friedman test as a kolmogorovsmirnov test indicated that all the data were not consistent with a normal distribution (p < .005). since pairwise comparisons indicated that there was a significant difference in the results of the variable “(3) i have ideas about international issues, such as environmental issues and north-south issues.” thus, the wilcoxon signed-rank test as a post-hoc test was conducted, resulting in the suggestions that there were significant differences between the first and the third survey in the variable (3) (z = 3.568, p = .000, r = .46). table 8 summarizes the descriptive statistics about htc, where each number in the first column represents variables (1) ~ (6) in the appendix. figure 3 illustrates the change among the three surveys. table 8. descriptive statistics for each variable and the total points of htc min. max. mean sd variance skewness kurtosis survey i_1 1 6 3.56 1.162 1.351 -0.111 -0.233 survey i_2 1 6 3.39 1.159 1.343 0.301 0.348 survey i_3 1 6 3.74 1.031 1.063 -0.388 0.614 survey i_4 1 6 3.05 1.322 1.748 0.533 -0.301 survey i_5 2 6 3.87 1.087 1.183 -0.053 -0.435 survey i_6 1 6 3.23 1.627 2.646 0.072 -1.107 survey ii_1 1 6 3.57 1.161 1.349 -0.284 0.305 survey ii_2 1 5 3.23 1.071 1.146 -0.310 -0.152 survey ii_3 2 6 3.95 0.865 0.748 -0.383 0.190 survey ii_4 1 6 2.77 1.322 1.746 0.619 -0.216 survey ii_5 1 6 3.90 1.136 1.290 -0.295 0.071 survey ii_6 1 6 3.34 1.277 1.630 -0.484 -0.193 survey iii_1 1 6 3.69 1.162 1.351 -0.410 0.401 survey iii_2 1 6 3.59 1.086 1.179 -0.320 0.089 survey iii_3 2 6 4.15 0.872 0.761 0.171 -0.069 survey iii_4 1 6 3.00 1.225 1.500 0.394 -0.356 survey iii_5 1 6 3.87 1.103 1.216 -0.426 -0.003 survey iii_6 1 6 3.54 1.490 2.219 -0.223 -0.850 survey i 13 32 20.84 4.634 21.473 0.361 -0.314 survey ii 8 32 20.77 4.444 19.746 -0.419 0.947 survey iii 12 30 21.84 4.042 16.339 -0.137 -0.286 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 131 figure 3: change in each variable of htc among the three surveys anxiety in the first survey, the students answered the question “do you feel nervous when speaking impromptu in english without preparation, such as in a discussion?”. those who answered either “very nervous” or “a little nervous” in the question chose all the applicable causes that induced mental tension from the choices provided. in the third survey, students selected all of the causes of tension that they felt were relieved even only by a little through both the first and second discussions. the results are summarized in table 9. many of them had chosen lack of english skills as causes of tension, and they reported that anxiety by pronunciation accuracy was particularly relieved through discussions. moreover, the causes “inclusion of people from other countries as members of the group conducting the discussion” and “anxiety about whether what i want to communicate will be understood” were the ones chosen the most and the second most. as for the former, there were 16 people in survey i and 21 people in survey iii. this means that there were some students who had not felt that it could be a cause, but they actually felt their tension ease through the discussions. 2.00 2.50 3.00 3.50 4.00 4.50 s u r v e y i s u r v e y i i s u r v e y i i i variable (1) variable (2) variable (3) variable (4) variable (5) variable (6) https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 132 table 9. mental tension reduced through discussions causes of tension survey i (n) survey iii (n) insufficient vocabulary 36 6 lack of grammar skills 31 7 pronunciation accuracy 20 15 lack of fluency 20 9 appropriate language use 23 7 smallness of own voice 8 14 lack of practice in presentation (speaking) 24 14 difficulty in speaking content 30 12 looking people in the eye when speaking (eye contact) 13 11 size of the group conducting the discussion 19 3 inclusion of people from other countries as members of the group conducting the discussion 16 21 the inclusion of classmates who are proficient in english as members of the discussion group 13 8 evaluation (e.g. related to grades and selection) 14 5 anxiety about whether what i want to communicate will be understood 22 19 note: survey i = the number of people who chose the cause, survey iii = the number of people who felt that the cause of tension was resolved to some extent self-confidence in order to analyze the change in their self-confidence, the students answered the questions “how has your self-confidence in speaking / listening to english changed after giving your own presentation and participating in the first / second discussion?” in the second and the third surveys respectively. as for speaking, in the first session, some students became more confident and some less confident; in the second session, more students became more confident. similarly, as to listening, some students became more confident and some less confident in the first session; in the second session, many students became more confident, including those who felt very confident (table 10). https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 133 table 10. the change in self-confidence after each discussion speaking listening choices survey ii (n) survey iii (n) survey ii (n) survey iii (n) lost confidence 3 0 2 0 slightly lost confidence 11 3 11 4 no particular change 22 17 23 25 felt a little more confident 25 41 24 28 felt very confident 0 0 1 4 checking each student’s answers to the questions about speaking confidence, 45 out of them ended this present practice with positive impressions, five with negative impressions, and 11 with no particular change. as to listening confidence, 39 out of them ended this present practice with positive impressions, six with negative impressions, and 16 with no particular change. for instance, if a student chose “lost confidence” in survey ii and “no particular change” in survey iii, it was regarded as being no particular change, while a student chose “felt very confident” in survey ii and “lost confident” in survey iii, it was regarded as being a negative impression. additionally, correspondence analysis was administered by the qualitative data analysis application kh coder to confirm the characteristic contents included in each text showing the reasons for the change in speaking and listening confidence among the choices. figure 4 is the result of the analysis for speaking confidence, and figure 5 for listening confidence. the answers in the second and the third surveys were combined for the analysis, and frequent words that were thought to be insignificant for the analysis such as “i”, “be” and “because” were excluded in preprocessing. dimension 1 and dimension 2 do not have special meanings in these figures. the top 30 words with marked differences were the subjects for the analysis. also, the top 30 words were displayed to focus on words away from the center (0, 0) since they are considered as uncharacteristic. the number “1” in red stands for “lost confidence”, “2” for “slightly lost confidence”, “3” for no particular change”, “4” for “felt a little more confident”, and “5” for “felt very confident”. the more frequently the words appeared in the texts, the larger the circles are. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 134 figure 4: correspondence analysis for speaking confidence in the analysis of speaking confidence, 1,599 tokens and 314 types of words, 131 sentences, and 123 paragraphs were extracted from the original texts. from the words “answer”, “come”, “speak” and “practice”, it can be summarized that the students who chose “lost confidence” had a hard time coming up with their own ideas and answering questions even after practicing presenting beforehand. from the words “ask”, “express”, “well”, “very”, “often”, “say”, and “want”, it can be summarized that the students who chose “slightly lost confidence” often felt it difficult to express what they wanted to say very well when asked questions. from the words such as “confident”, “not”, “difficult”, “good”, and “nervous”, it can be summarized that the students who chose “no particular change” kept their confidence level, which means that they were not affected by the participation in the discussions in terms of speaking confidence. from the words “answer”, “question”, “able”, “more”, and “first”, it can be summarized that the students who chose “felt a little more confident” experienced success in communication with their instructors even though they struggled to answer their questions at first. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 135 figure 5: correspondence analysis for listening confidence in the analysis of listening confidence, 1,516 tokens and 270 types of words, 127 sentences, and 125 paragraphs were extracted from the original texts. from the words “do”, “not”, “word” and “part”, it can be summarized that the students who chose “lost confidence” had a hard time understanding some parts of what the instructors or other students were saying. similarly, from the words “when”, “many”, “so”, “too”, “often”, and “fast”, it can be summarized that the students who chose “slightly lost confidence” had many times when they could not catch up with the discussion because the instructors’ speech was too fast for them. from the words such as “know”, “other”, “think”, “difficult”, and “confidence”, it can be summarized that the students who chose “no particular change” somewhat understood but thought that there were several parts hard to comprehend, resulting in keeping the confidence level. from the words “teacher”, “able”, “hear”, “conversation”, “better”, and “expect”, it can be summarized that the students who chose “felt a little more confident” were able to understand the instructors’ english more than they had expected. finally, from the words “group”, “content” and “others”, it can be summarized that the students who chose “felt very confident” succeeded in comprehending most parts of what others in their groups were saying. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 136 instructors’ intervention co-occurrence network analysis was performed using kh coder on the reasons for the students’ answers to the question with five-point scale “to what extent did the questions, comments, and advice from the instructor help you improve your presentations, discussions, and english language skills? please include indirect factors.” (m = 3.93, sd = 0.727), which was administered in the third survey. similarly to the analysis for self-confidence, frequent words that were thought to be insignificant for the analysis such as “i”, “be” and “because” were excluded in preprocessing. the size of the circles output results indicates the number of occurrences of a word, while the thickness of the line indicates the strength of the co-occurrence relationship. co-occurrence relationships are based on the jaccard coefficient, which is an index of the strength of the relationship between words, and was set to display the top 30 strongest coefficients. the number on each line of the graph represents its coefficient. the closer the number is to 1, the stronger the relation is. regarding the interpretation of the results, we focused especially on the subgraphs that contained important contents for this study. note that based on the text mining results, care was taken to ensure that the original meaning and context of the words were not lost by going back to the original text as appropriate. figure 6: co-occurrence network analysis for instructors’ intervention figure 6 shows the results of the co-occurrence network analysis for instructors’ intervention in the discussions. in this analysis, the texts used were limited to the ones from the students who felt the instructors’ questions, comments, or advice were “useful” or “very useful”. 724 tokens and (1) (3) (2) (4) (5) (6) https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 137 186 types of words, 54 sentences, and 52 paragraphs were extracted from the original texts. from the words such as “correct”, “communicate”, “vocabulary”, “content” and “prepare” included in enclosure (1), it seems that the students evaluate the instructors’ support positively because the instructors helped them maintain communication by politely correcting misused words or providing them with hints to remember appropriate vocabulary. enclosure (2) indicates similar things. they state that the instructors guided them to use proper words in order to express their thoughts. enclosure (3) shows that the instructors’ comments were useful in speaking improvements. enclosure (4) also shows that the students actually felt that the instructors’ support contributed to improving their english. in addition, enclosures (5) and (6) represent indirect influence of the instructors’ intervention; for instance, the students feel that it was a good experience to talk with people from other countries, or they were more able to grasp the instructors’ english. discussion why did mw significantly increase from the first discussion to the second? it's possible that the participants were rather able to demonstrate more of their actual abilities than to rapidly increase their english skills. if so, why did this happen? we will consider it in terms of wtc, htc, anxiety, self-confidence, and the instructors’ intervention. many students became more willing to communicate with others in english through this activity, which is thought to have led to a positive change in their attitude toward communicating. as a matter of fact, many of them ranked the actual interaction with the instructors as the most influencing factor for wtc, suggesting that this type of online discussions might be effective in improving wtc. nevertheless, wtc did not show a significant numerical change, which can be construed that the transformation was limited. one of the reasons for this is that this short period of activities was not accompanied by a sense of improvement in english language skills to the extent that they felt more confident in speaking. a similar result is reported by darasawang and reinders (2021), stating that the only chance for the participants in their study to communicate was when they answered their teachers’ questions and took part in a role playing activity. more importantly, the students were provided opportunities to ponder original ideas relevant to sdgs in english classes, resulting in having their own messages to communicate. moreover, they were able to think more deeply about their own ideas through the interaction with the instructors or other students in the online lessons. thus, they may have raised their awareness of the issue as the htc scores significantly increased. similarly, since the theme was sdgs, there was a significant increase in the scores for “(3) i have ideas about international issues, such as environmental issues and north-south issues”. when discussions were held in groups that included people from other countries, the students were able to realize that they could communicate their thoughts even with their current english skills which led to lowering some of their anxiety. therefore, many students chose the variables “pronunciation accuracy”, “inclusion of people from other countries as members of the group conducting the discussion”, and “anxiety about whether what i want to communicate will be understood”. on the contrary, reduction of anxiety related to other parts of english learning were not reported by most of the students. this corroborates the possibility that the students’ english proficiency itself was not developed by the activities administered in a short period of time, and it did not contribute to the significant increase in mw. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 138 regarding whether the first discussion helped students gain self-confidence in speaking and listening, some students gained confidence while others lost confidence. however, with the second discussion, the change for many students ended up being positive. this means that, in addition to students who gained confidence both in the first and second discussions, students who had gained confidence in the first discussion maintained it at the same level over the second discussion, and students who had lost confidence in the first discussion gained strong confidence in the second discussion. as an extraneous factor, the instructors’ intervention seemed to affect the quality of the students’ communication. their scaffolding for english speaking might have worked positively since the students had been anxious about their english proficiency. furthermore, it is surmised that the experience of interacting with the instructors motivated them to get more involved in communication. just as the heuristic model of variables influencing wtc (macintyre et al., 1998) illustrates, various constructs are interrelated with each other. taking these into account, the change in mw could be attributed to wtc, htc, anxiety, self-confidence, and the instructors’ intervention respectively and partially. conclusion previous studies related to l2 output and its related factors that make it possible have been accumulated so far. however, there are few studies that attempt to explain the change in speech based on measured value along with internal and external factors. besides, most of the previous studies were conducted with adults such as university students. therefore, the present study aimed to analyze the change in speech that junior high school students uttered in an authentic communicative situation by comparing it with various factors. the junior high school students in japan, in an efl context, participated in this study. first, they took face-to-face english lessons, and studied english and the contents about sdgs, when the big question “what’s your ideas for sdgs?” was presented. two online lessons were administered. a group was composed of one filipino instructor and four students. they started with selfintroduction, and moved on to individual oral presentations about their original ideas for sdgs, followed by discussions. the present study focused on the discussion part. there was a significant difference between mw in the first discussion and in the second discussion. since the students took the second online lesson only a week after the first one, it was difficult to evaluate whether their english proficiency improved rapidly with statistically significant increase or not. thus, the reasons for the increase were considered by the results of the three questionnaire surveys with the questions about wtc, htc, anxiety, self-confidence, and the instructors’ intervention. in conclusion, the experience of online discussions in english where people from other countries participate can partially lower fla and increase self-confidence, leading to a positive impact on wtc. this contributes to an increase in mw. one of the most important things to be discussed is the significance of setting an interactive activity in which students deepen their own thoughts toward the topics provided. the present study suggests and emphasizes that teachers should not end the acitivity with a single practice but should secure at least two opportunities for the output and interaction with others, as a sole administration of the activity shows limited effects. https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 139 limitations as limitations of the present study, it was difficult to conduct similar activities three or more times, so care needs to be taken for generalization of the results of the present study. also, the students made oral presentations before the discussion parts, and it could affect the change in students in some way, but it was difficult to determine its influence in this study. more practice and specific analyses should be done in the future studies. acknowledgements we would like to thank kec miriz for providing the online lesson service and ms. jennifer chow for providing language help. references aoyama, t., shimada, h., kikuhara, k., & sakai, 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(2004) the influence of attitudes and affect on willingness to communicate and second language communication. language learning, 54, 119–152. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9922.2004.00250.x https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 141 yang, x. & yin, s. (2022). interpersonal projection as efl teachers’ discourse strategy to enhance students’ willingness to communicate: a systemic-functional perspective. system, 104, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2021.102687 yanguas, i. (2010). oral computer-mediated interaction between l2 learners: it’s about time! language learning & technology, 14(3), 72–93. zarrinabadi, n. (2013). communicating in a second language: investigating the effect of teacher on learners’ willingness to communicate. system, 42, 288–295. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2013.12.014 appendix questionnaire items willingness to communicate q. how much would you choose to communicate in each of the following situations in english? 1) when you have a chance to make a presentation in front of a large group? 2) when you find your acquaintance standing before you in a line? 3) when you have a group discussion in an english class? 4) when you have a chance to talk in a small group of strangers? 5) when you are given a chance to talk freely in an english class? 6) when you find your friend standing before you in a line? 7) when you have a chance to talk in front of the class in an english class? 8) when you have a discussion in a small group of friends? six-point scale for answers 1: strongly disagree, 2: disagree, 3: slightly disagree, 4: slightly agree, 5: agree, 6: strongly agree q. compared to before, are you more willing to communicate with others in english? six-point scale for answers 1: strongly disagree, 2: disagree, 3: slightly disagree, 4: slightly agree, 5: agree, 6: strongly agree q. which part of the series of activities has had the greatest impact? five-point scale for scoring each variable (1 point for small impact 5 points for large impact) having things to communicate q. for each item, choose one that best describes your current condition. 1) i have thoughts that i want to share with people from other parts of the world. 2) i have issues to address with people in the world. 3) i have ideas about international issues, such as environmental issues and north-south issues. 4) i don’t know what to say when it comes to talking to people from other parts of the world. * 5) i have no clear opinions about international issues. * 6) i have a lot to talk about with my friends from other parts of the world. *negatively-worded items six-point scale for answers https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8 no.1 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 142 1: strongly disagree, 2: disagree, 3: slightly disagree, 4: slightly agree, 5: agree, 6: strongly agree anxiety q. do you feel nervous when speaking impromptu in english without preparation, such as in a discussion? four-point scale for answers 1: never nervous, 2: not very nervous, 3: a little nervous, 4: very nervous q. please answer this question if you answered “very nervous” or “a little nervous.” what causes you to be nervous? please select all that apply. q. please select all of the following causes of tension that you feel have been eliminated at least a little through both the first and second discussions. confidence q. how has your confidence in speaking to english changed after giving your own presentation and participating in the first discussion? q. how has your confidence in listening to english changed after giving your own presentation and participating in the first discussion? q. how has your confidence in speaking to english changed after giving your own presentation and participating in the second discussion? q. how has your confidence in listening to english changed after giving your own presentation and participating in the second discussion? six-point scale for answers 1: lost confidence, 2: slightly lost confidence, 3: no particular change, 4: felt a little more confident, 5: felt very confident q. why do you feel so? descriptive answer instructors’ intervention q. to what extent did the questions, comments, and advice from the instructor help you improve your presentations, discussions, and english language skills? please include indirect factors. five-point scale for answers 1: never useful, 2: not very useful, 3: neutral, 4: useful, 5: very useful q. why do you feel so? descriptive answer https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity acuity 4(1),44-58 a phenomenological study: speaking anxiety overwhelms english learners asna hutabarat1& debora chaterin simanjuntak,2 hutabarattina27@gmail.com1 and debora.simanjuntak@unai.edu2 universitas advent indonesia abstract this study aims to determine the sources that cause speaking anxiety overwhelms english learners. it is a qualitative in nature and focuses on learners’ speaking anxiety. the samples of the research are composed of senior high school students who deal with speaking anxiety. the primary data-gathering method is interview through semi-structured questions. the data were collected by in-depth face-to-face interview with 10 participants; the data were analyzed by determining the themes and description. the gathered data were analyzed using coding and verbatim quotes from research respondents. the results show 3 themes regarding sources that cause speaking anxiety: limitations of english exposure, fear of negative evaluation, and learning condition. it is undeniable that attitude holds an imperative role in learning to speak english. the results show two themes regarding learners’ attitude in causing them to become anxious whenever they speak english; the themes are selfinferiority and fear of making mistakes. despite sources that cause learners to be anxious in speaking english, they find ways to reduce their anxiety in speaking english and from this study, there are two themes found regarding ways to reduce anxiety; they are: media intervention and establish learning support. keywords: speaking anxiety, negative evaluation, speaking skills introduction english learners need four skills in learning english, namely: listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills. among the four macro skills, speaking is the most important skill in communicating. speaking skill is an important part of the language learning curriculum. speaking skill plays a vital role in the communication process; shabani (cited in el-sakka, 2016) stated that english learners consider speaking as the most demanding skill compared to other english skills. in foreign language settings, english learners must have a proper choice of words and articulation in order for their listeners to establish good communication. therefore, many schools in indonesia have a curriculum that leads to the development of learner’s speaking skills, with a consideration that through speaking a person will most likely be able to participate in the global movement. in the case of indonesians, there is a high level of acceptability and tolerance of the use of english. the teaching of english in the school curriculum is given a higher priority over all other foreign languages in the school systems. thus, the teaching of english as a foreign language (efl) is in fact compulsory (katemba, 2013). mailto:hutabarattina27@gmail.com1 mailto:debora.simanjuntak@unai.edu2 acuity 4(1),44-58 however, due to its importance in foreign language settings, most efl learners encounter challenges in speaking english which lead them to have anxiety as they strive to speak the language. in indonesia, students have difficulties in expressing themselves in the english language (katemba & buli 2018). this is due to the fact that the teaching of english consists mainly of learning correct grammatical structures or forms, increasing vocabulary, working on exercises at the sentence level, and asking students to repeat similar structures over and over (katemba,2013). the researchers revealed that english learners still face problems in speaking english. therefore, to ensure their observation, they conducted this study to find out sources that cause anxiety in speaking english for the indonesian learners. the rationale of the study the topic of speaking anxiety has been widely investigated in the education world especially in indonesia. speaking anxiety has become one of the problems that occur for most of the students when they are asked to speak in english in front of many people. speaking anxiety has considerably existed among students even those who have good level proficiency in english. this can negatively affect on student's performance; therefore, it is necessary to investigate research on this phenomenon in order to identify the actual sources why most of the students feel anxious when they are asked to speak english. in order to carry out this analysis this study has the aim to investigate the following questions: 1. what sources that cause speaking anxiety overwhelms english-learners? 2. what is the attitude of english learners who experience speaking anxiety? 3. what are english learners’ coping strategies toward speaking anxiety? literature review speaking involves two or more people who make two-way communication; it is one of the language skills in everyday life used for communication. english learners consider speaking as the most important language skill to be mastered since english is in a powerful position as a medium for international communication (crystal, cited in akkakoson, 2016). however, speaking in a foreign language could be influenced by psychological aspects: anxiety and self-confidence. speaking skills has its components to be mastered by english learners. thus, it is inevitable that components may evoke anxiety in speaking. component of speaking skills there are several components of speaking skill that every english learner should be aware of. they are (1) proper pronunciation. having proper pronunciation is one of the most important ways of students to produce the language. by having a good pronunciation, the students can speak in english effectively even though they have a little vocabulary. from that statement, it can be concluded that pronunciation in one of the components of speaking skill that very important for learners. proper pronunciation is not only how people master all of the vocabularies and sounds that have isolated, on the contrary how the students to practice their english appropriately making a speaker’s thought easy to follow or understand (gilbert, 2008). (2). grammatical utterances. acuity 4(1),44-58 when someone talks with others whether they can understand or not it will seem through the way of the interlocutors to construct the sentence with suitable grammar. grammar is done by rules that can generate the sentence well-formed or grammatical utterances in the language (purpura, 2004). moreover, grammar refers to a set of rules to allow learners to combine the words into a sentence. (harmer, 2001). (3) vocabulary knowledge. having a good knowledge of vocabulary is essential for successful speaking because without extensive vocabulary a speaker will not be able to use the structures and functions for understandable communicative. it can be said one of the keys to success in communicative, namely the power of words (hiebert & kamil, 2005). (3) speaking fluency. speaking fluency is defined as the ability to speak communicatively, fluently and accurately (segalowitz, 2010). fluency usually refers to spoken language freely without interruption. in the process of teaching and learning, if teachers want to check students' proficiency, teachers allow students to express themselves freely without interruption (pollard, 2008). the goal is to help students speak fluently and easily. how fast and how fluent someone when speaking in english without repetition, hesitation, making a long pause, self-correction it is called fluency in speaking (koizumi, 2005 & skehan, 2009). speaking anxiety anxiety is kind of disadvantage that makes students unable to communicate well in english; in which they actually know something that has to tell but they could not show it due to anxiety (brown, 2001). therefore, the researcher has decided to do the research to investigate the factors that make most students feel anxious when they are asked to speak english. eventually, the problem should be identified and studied in order to make the best lesson for everyone who wants to be a good speaker, especially in english. many researchers noticed the phenomenon really happen in the speaking classroom. therefore, english teachers in some of the schools in indonesia have encouraged or made english become their target language with the aim of increasing the ability and competency in speaking english (sundari, 2017). speaking anxiety is the most frequently cited concerns by the foreign language learners which may negatively affect their performance and ability to speak in the target language especially in speaking english (mak, 2011 & liu, 2006). speaking anxiety is the fear felt by the individual in the class when speaking (zhanibek, 2001). it is consistently a significant area of interest in the language learning process because it is an important block for foreign language learning that students must overcome (wu, 2010 & zheng, 2008). it prevents the productive performance of language learners while learning the target language (hashemi & abbasi, 2013) and anxiety can make language learners become discouraged, lose confidence in their abilities, escape from participating in class activities, even abandon attempts to learn the language well (na, 2007) consequently, it is important to know that speaking anxiety is a kind of fear that gives negative feelings to the learner who tries to learn language in the classroom. additionally, there are also a number of factors that make students feel anxious when speaking english. the causes of learning anxiety are those induced by the learner, associated with the class, related to specific abilities, and which are enforced according to different contexts. the main acuity 4(1),44-58 reason why anxiety occurs in learning english is the lack of belief by students about learning and has a misconception about the learning (zhang & zhong, 2012). most of the students have their own problem in speaking english, have their own reaction towards the anxiety when speaking english that influences their performance in front of the public. methodology in this study, the researcher would investigate the sources on why english learners feel anxious when they speak english, the attitude of english learners in terms of speaking anxiety, and coping strategies of english learners toward speaking anxiety. research design this is a qualitative study in nature. qualitative research is a study that intends to examine a problem or phenomenology of a subject experienced by subjects such as “behavior, perceptions, motivations and other holistic actions in a description” data descriptions derived from the experience of key informants (sugiyono, 2006). this study utilizes the phenomenological approach; phenomenological approach deals with the understanding of how a daily, intersubjective world (the world of life). phenomenology aims to interpret social actions in the world of social life (heilman, 2018). this study is a direct excavation of participant experience without being affected by previous or research theory and need not test the previous assumption. research and setting in this study, the researchers involved 10 participants to provide answers to the research questions. this research used purposive sampling. purposive sampling is often used in qualitative research where this method aims to identify and select key informant who is considered to provide more accurate information and are considered capable of researchers (patton, 2002). participants in the investigation of this study, the researchers involved participants from a similar family background—a family in which english is still a foreign language. to obtain a more comprehensive insider view of speaking anxiety, participants involved were expected to have, on average, english score of 60 to 70. moreover, the researchers deliberately involved participants from a school which is located in a rural area. data collection procedures to answer the research questions, semi-structured interviews were utilized. the researcher made the question equal to all participants depending on the interview process and their answers but the researchers must make sure that all their answers are related in order for the researchers to collect the comprehensive data. through the semi-structured interview, the researchers inquired about participants’ feelings, anxiety, and difficulties in speaking english. this study was conducted during the school time of the academic year 2018. the questions of the interview underwent a pilot test to ensure that they comprehend the questions and also to enhance the validity of the research method. acuity 4(1),44-58 data analysis technique the researcher analyzed the data by utilizing the theory of cresswell (2011). here are the procedures to analyze the data: a. the researcher prepared raw data for analysis. b. the raw data were categorized based on research data, data source, and interview results. c. the researcher read and coded all of the data, found out by paying attention to words that are often spoken by key-informants. d. the researcher utilized the coding process and found themes or data to generate the description. e. the researcher inter-related the theme, whether there is a relation between themes or data and interpreted the meaning of themes. results and findings a. sources that cause english learners to struggle from speaking anxiety after a careful analysis, sources that cause english-learners are found. they have limited outlet and time to practice their speaking skill, having a problem in using correct grammar, having a limited vocabulary and they feel difficult to pronounce the words clearly. limitation of english exposure based on the collected data from semi-structured interviews nearly all of the participants have struggled from anxiety while speaking english. when participants were asked about their perception of sources speaking anxiety, they stated many interrelated reasons that lead keyinformants to feel anxious about speaking english. having said this, the participants stated that they feel anxious because they have limited english exposure to practice their speaking skill. they stated that they only talk to their english-teacher and friends, and even they have limited time; wherein, they only have two (2) hours a week of english lesson. it is shown in the following excerpts of the interview: “i talk to my teacher and my close friends” “i just talk to my friends and my teacher” “...with my teacher and my friends” “sometimes i just talk to my teacher and my friends” the above excerpts depicted that they mostly have few outlets to practice their speaking skills. however, to be sufficient in speaking english, learners must have a lot of exposures to practice using the language; they have to speak outside and inside the classroom effectively. most of the participants stated the followings: “we talk to friends and teacher only at the school” " if we have an english class, that is the time for me to speak english" “only when we have english class” acuity 4(1),44-58 whereas these key-informants mentioned that they meet their teacher and their friends only at the school, it means that they only practice their speaking skill at school. in fact, the frequency to practice persistently is very important in order to reduce anxiety (hartanto, 2013). having limited outlet to exposure english, apparently, it leads most of the participants to feel anxiety when they speak english. here are the excerpts below: "eee,, only two hours in a week when we have english class on monday and on thursday" “two hours in a week only…on monday and on thursday” "ya, two hours in a week, if we have english class on monday and on thursday" “two hours in a week on monday and on thursday” the data show that limited time is one of the sources that lead participants to feel anxious when speaking english. meanwhile, to be a good english speaker, students must practice their speaking skill every day and practice a lot. fear of negative evaluation fear of negative evaluation is identified as one of the themes that lead students to feel anxious when they speak english (horwitz, 1986; liu & jackson, 2008). it is supported by the answers of participants; wherein, they had fear of negative evaluation toward speaking english. the categories emerged from this theme are difficulty in using grammar, lack of vocabulary knowledge and mispronunciation. the followings are the elaboration on each category derived from the theme: difficulty in using grammar after making a careful analysis, the researcher found out that 80 % stated that they did not know how to properly form the word to yield a correct grammar. this caused them to become anxious when speaking english in front of the class or with others. here are the statements from the excerpts: "i have difficulty in using grammar correctly because if i want to talk to another people, of course, i have to make it into the right sentence" "the difficulty is in using grammar because when we want to make a sentence the grammar must be correct in order for the interlocutors understand what we are saying" "grammar is the difficult one, it is hard to understand the whole grammar like 16 tenses. it is needed when we want to make a sentence so that our sentence is right" "eeeee, grammar, grammar is quite hard for me myself because it has a wide explanation but i cannot master it all" using correct grammar is challenging for the participants. meanwhile, the use of grammar is one of the most important elements in english especially when speaking english; the speakers must have sufficient knowledge on english grammar so that their interlocutors can comprehend what the speakers are saying (purpura, 2004). acuity 4(1),44-58 lack of vocabulary knowledge the fact that those participants viewed that vocabulary is one of the most important factors that make them feel anxious when they are asked to speak english in front of the class. however, this problem is a general problem for most of the students because liu (2007) in his research, it was found that the students that he studied have the same problem in speaking that is they have limited vocabulary. about 80 % of the participants defined they do not have adequate vocabulary knowledge to speak english. therefore, in order to have good english, students should have good vocabulary knowledge in order to convey their opinions or thoughts to another person and they have to be able to choose the appropriate words (herwanto, 2013). the followings are the statements of participants: “lack of vocabulary is my problem as well, because sometimes when i want to talk but i do not know how to say it in english” “…i do not have a lot of vocabulary that is why i cannot talk a lot” " i confused when someone talks to me, but i do not know the meaning because i do not have enough a lot of vocabulary" "lack of vocabulary is one of my problems in which when i want to say something, but i do not know in english, so i need to stop talking" from the above excerpts, it is shown that besides using correct grammar, lack of vocabulary knowledge could lead english learners to feel anxious to speak english. wherein the participants need to master a lot of vocabulary in order to communicate well by using the suitable and correct grammar that can be understood by many people. as ustaci and ok (2014) accentuated that vocabulary is an important component of language teaching and learning process, and correct pronunciation of lexical items is an ultimate goal for english teachers or instructors who deal with english programs. pronunciation errors pronunciation is one of the ways of the speaker to produce the language when they are talking with each other nicely. if the learners have a good utterance it will be easy for them to produce the language and to construct the words, memorize many vocabularies in the way they are practicing speaking english (kline, 2015). however, having proper pronunciation requires hard work. therefore participants claim that they tend to make errors in pronouncing english words. these are the excerpts from the interview: "it is shameful for me to talk in english but i pronounce it unclear" "many words that i cannot pronounce it well like if there is a word using it, nd like landed, aren't ect" “how to pronounce word by word clearly so that other people can understand what i’m saying” “pronunciation sometimes i do not know how to pronounce the words clearly” the participants often times feel embarrassed when they utter unclear words. some of them did not know how to pronounce if there is a word using “nt” or “nd” at the back of the words like landed, aren’t (are not), therefore english learners ought to know the way to utter the words clearly acuity 4(1),44-58 so that other people easy to understand what someone is saying because some people are judging someone from the way someone pronounce the words (ambrosino, 2014). learning condition atmospheres of the classroom become one of the most important supports for students to learn every subject, including learning english. comfortable, safe and conducive classroom situation will help students to enjoy learning. however, as the answer of the participants viewed that the sources that make them feel uncomfortable to learn english are that the classroom is not conducive, a disturbance was everywhere. in addition to that, a very noisy room will disturb the students’ concentration in learning. the followings are the excerpts from the interview: “the environment of the classroom is so noisy, oftentimes, i cannot concentrate on my study” "my classroom surrounded by many students who are making noise every day. that is why i cannot study well because of them" "we have a noisy environment, so everytime i want to study i cannot study well, my friends are laughing loudly. actually, it's really bothering me, but i cannot say and do anything" " my classroom surrounded by students who always making noise, oftentimes they laugh loudly, shout out loudly, sing together loudly. that makes me feel bothered when i want to study" the classroom that is surrounded by many of disturbance, noisy lead most of the participants have no desire to study. they have a hard time focusing on what they are learning. whereas, the classroom environment plays an important role because it contributes to students’ learning output (siddig & alkhoudary, 2018). in summary, the table shows sources that cause participants to feel anxious about speaking english. table 1. sources that cause speaking anxiety no sources n-10 percentage 1 limited outlet/time friends 7 70 % teachers 9 90 % 2 hours 8 80 % 2 fear of negative evaluation correct grammar 8 80 % lack of vocabulary knowledge 8 80 % pronounciation 7 70 % 3 learning condition unconducive class 7 70 % acuity 4(1),44-58 b. the attitude of students to suffer from speaking anxiety the attitude of the students toward speaking skill may play a big role in their achievement in speaking english. farhat and kazim (cited in villafuerte & romero (2017) stated that if students possess a negative attitude, it may reduce their interest and chances to complete successful learning activities. therefore, attitude utterly influences learners' perception of the world around them and it determines how they responded to different entities of the world. the researchers found out two themes that depict participants attitude toward speaking english. the themes are self-inferiority and fear of making mistake. self-inferiority almost everyone has feeling inferior in every situation, the fact that the participants of this study feel inferior when they have to speak in front of their classmates. this is in line with what susilawati (2017) stated, wherein, english learners tend to feel unconfident when they are asked to speak they consider themselves incapable of speaking english. they claim that they suddenly feel stressed out if they are asked to speak english. the followings are the excerpts from the interview: “i will feel worried, stressful and nervous because i do not usually stand in front of people to speak english” “of course nervous, stressed out and when the teacher asks me to speak suddenly" “stress, nervous, especially when i do not know what to say i will feel shy because i do not know at all” "yaaa, stress, nervous and i immediately sweat" these kinds of attitude have become a common problem among students such as shyness, unconfident, easily get stressed out. often times participants feel shy, stressed out, or nervous when they are asked to speaking english in front of many people. here are the excerpts from the interview: “ i feel not confident because it is from myself, i do not know about english, i do not know how to speak english well, my friends will laugh at me if i talk but wrong” "i do not have knowledge about english that is why i feel shy, nervous and not confident to speak. i say something but it is wrong, i will feel shy" "besides from my classmate and my teacher, i feel shy, not confident because i do not know what to say in front of my friends maybe they will laugh at me" "i do not know about english, i do not know how to speak english well, it makes me feel shy and feels not confident to speak in front of my friends. t is a shameful for me myself if i say something but not in the right way" acuity 4(1),44-58 lack of knowledge in english is one of the reasons that make the participants feel unconfident to speak. it can be said that their anxiety comes from themselves (internal factors). most participants feel shy and not confident because they feel that they will laugh if they make some mistakes when they speak in english. fear of making mistakes after self-inferiority, fear of making mistakes becomes a main problem for the participants. they were very afraid of their friends' reaction regarding their performance in the class. they were mostly afraid if they were being laughed, being ridiculed by others regarding their performance, similarly that many people feel afraid to make a mistake because they worry that they will be ridiculed and considered as a strange by others (jones, 2000). the followings are the excerpts of the interview: “they will laugh at me and tell that i am an arrogant person because i speak in english especially when i make some mistakes in pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary” "of course they will laugh at me because i do not usually speak in english, i do not know how to use correct grammar and sometimes i do not know how to pronounce the words clearly, but suddenly i speak in english” "they will laugh listen to me to speak english, usually i use sundanese as my daily language, but suddenly i speak english, ya.. of course they will say ooo...i am an arrogant person…especially when i use wrong grammar, they will laugh at me” “ya…they will laugh at me, they might mock me and say something bad because people used to do it, right? even when i use the grammar but in the right way” from above excerpts, most things that they fear of are using proper grammar and pronouncing english words, they feel afraid of being laughed by their friends. this fact is also found in the data shows that they tend to underestimate their ability towards the language. in this sense, they are afraid of being laughed by peers due to their low ability in speaking english. c. ways to reduce speaking anxiety in spite of many sources that impede them to speak english, they still desire to cope with their anxiety in speaking english; they make efforts to learn proper speaking. they had their own way to learn english such as media intervention, in which they use the internet as their teacher to learn english. media intervention technology has an important role in language learning and teaching, technological advancement has open widely multiple ways to study everything for teacher especially for students. participants of this study have considered youtube to be very useful to improve speaking skill. youtube is used to know varieties of english spoken around the world to provide students with authentic materials for speaking skill. the participants stated that they watch youtube to inspire them on how to speak english. here are some excerpts from the interview: “i’m learning by using youtube because we can find many websites that can help me improve my speaking skill. . . like add vocabulary, learn to use grammar” acuity 4(1),44-58 “i’m learning english song through youtube and i can practice by following them how to construct sentences and how to pronounce the words” “i learn by using youtube and practice more in front of the mirror, especially i learn how to pronounce the words correctly so that my friend will not get confused at me when i talk to them" “i learn from youtube and see people in youtube how to be confident when we talk to another people, and i try to imitate them the way they pronounce the words so that we can talk like them" the data above shows that by using youtube they can learn to speak and cope with their speaking anxiety. in addition, youtube also helps motivate participants to study more especially in improving their speaking skill, it promotes students to be an autonomous student (jalaluddin, 2016; eiadeh, sobh, zoubi, khasawneh, 2016). it provides an opportunity to interact with a native speaker as well as a non-native speaker of english and know a lot of different dialects and varieties of english spoken around the world. by knowing that, they could improve their speaking skill by adding vocabulary, seeing how they structure the words and grammar, the way they pronounce the words correctly. hence, youtube is one of the media that really help most of the students to cope with anxiety. establish learning support besides youtube, learners desire to have learning support their teacher and their close friends by becoming their partners in speaking english. so that when they communicate in english, but still making mistakes, they will not laugh. the followings are the excerpts from the interview: "besides youtube i learn and practice my speaking skill with my teacher and friends because if i make mistakes they will not laugh at me but they tell me the right way” “yaa. i should learn with my teacher and my close-friends but i talk to them face to face, and i do not feel anxious, they will teach me if i do not know.” "i'm talking with my friends for some time, and my teacher as well, because if i talk to them i will not feel anxious, and they will teach me.” the answers of key-informants show that they prefer to practice their speaking skill. the role of teacher and their friends when learning is very imperative because when making mistakes they will still support and continue to correct those mistakes, encourage them to keep studying, motivate them to not give up (aicha, 2016). it can be concluded that the teacher and peers play a significant role in learning speaking by students and overcoming their anxiety or obstacles by playing various roles including a facilitator or motivator. the following is table regarding the summary of participants’ ways to cope up with speaking anxiety. acuity 4(1),44-58 table 3. ways to reduce speaking anxiety no ways to cope up with anxiety n = 10 percentage 1 media intervention (youtube) 9 90 % 2 learning support (teacher, close-friends) 7 70 % conclusion throughout this study, it has become clear that the issue of speaking anxiety considerably exists among sman 1 parongpong, which may negatively affect them to enhance their speaking skill. based on the research that has done to 10 participants, the researchers draw conclusions that there are sources that cause speaking anxiety. anxiety comes from both internal and external sources, it depends on the situation the learners encounter when they are asked to speak english in front of their friends they got easily stressful, nervous and unconfident. on the other hand, they feel relaxed when they talk to their friends and teacher personally. despite many obstacles or sources that impede the key-informants feel anxious to speak english, they have their own ways or efforts to improve their speaking skill such as they are using technology specifically youtube to learn english. they can open many websites from youtube to learn english, for instance, watching an english movie, listening to an english song. suggestions this study has several suggestions for english-learners and english-teacher. students who are learning english as their second language should be aware of their obstacles or source of anxiety in learning english (herwanto, 2013). they also have to be aware of their feeling towards english, such as unconfident, feeling shy, get stress when speaking english. teachers who are teaching english as a second language hold a huge role to provoke students’ interest and engage them in english subject even if they are not interested in it (harmer, 2001). the teacher must be aware and always encourage students to learn and improve their ability. the teacher must be as a motivator and facilitator for students who are striving to speak english by knowing what they need, the background of the students, and their ability to grasp the lesson (aicha, 2016). in addition, english-teacher should create a supportive classroom learning atmosphere in order to support them to be more excited to learn (derakhsan, tahery, mirarab, 2015). for future research, the description in the study is expected to be used as a consideration for the future researcher to conduct further research about anxiety on students' speaking english. in the next research, there should be some methods to cope with it. various strategies need to be discovered to improve students' speaking performance (westwick, 2014). it is important to figure out how to conduct appropriate interaction between classroom participants (key-informants). to support the effort of reducing anxiety, creating a comfortable learning classroom environment is acuity 4(1),44-58 also essential (richards & rodgers, 2014). the next researchers should be able to identify the ideal classroom atmosphere to optimize the teaching-learning activities. references aicha, b. 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(2001). the relationship between language anxiety and student’s participation in foreign language classes. zheng, y. (2008). anxiety and second/foreign language learning. canadian j. new scholars educ. 1(1):1-12. acuity 4(1),44-58 acuity (4)2, 69-93 i implementing nht and tgt to enhance students’ knowledge of passive and active voice construction: comparative study katty elizabeth malta teedja malang adventist academy, malangindonesia email: 1521005@unai.edu abstract this study intends to find out what is the initial knowledge of the students before they were treated using numbered heads together (nht) and team games tournament (tgt), ascertain of the significant difference between these two teaching strategies, and to know the responses of the students after they taught using numbered heads together and team games tournament are the aims of this research. this is a quantitative study with comparative design to know the students' knowledge of active and passive construction test. the research instrument of this study is pre-and-posttest. this study was conducted among seventh-grade students at smpn 10 cimahi. the results of this study showed that the initial score for both respondents is quite similar to the score for nht group is 59.07 and for tgt group is 58.33. it is also known that there is a significant difference in students' knowledge on active and passive voice construction between students who are taught with numbered heads together and those who are taught with team games tournament showed by the result of the mean differences from both groups are 0.005 < 0.05. the questionnaire's result also supports that both teaching strategies are eligible to be applied in teaching active and passive voice construction with the score for nht class is 64.83% and for the tgt class is 63.34%, it can be categorized as "good". it implies that the implementation of numbered heads together and team games tournament enhances student's knowledge of active and passive voice construction. keywords: active and passive voice construction, cooperative learning, numbered heads together, team games tourname mailto:1521005@unai.edu acuity (4)2, 69-93 2 introduction grammar is known as a union of words in the sentence which has its functions to deliver the meaning in a communication. river (1987) defined grammar as a set of formal patterns in which the words are arranged to convey a large meaning. isnaini (2014) stated that grammar is also a set of rules which plays an important role in the existence of the four language skills because grammar is the basis of english. in addition, loewen (2009, cited in polat, 2017) stated that teaching grammar with its accuracy has been considered as the rudimentary elements to assist english learners to utilize english as means of communication in their target language. indonesian students often experience problems when learning english, because english differs from bahasa indonesia (the indonesian language) in its structure, pronunciation, and vocabulary (katemba, 2019). to achieve the objective in learning english, there are current issues in learning english grammar that indonesian learner faces. “in indonesian schools, however, the teaching of english consists mainly of learning correct grammatical structures or forms, increasing vocabularies, working on exercises on the sentence level, and asking students to repeat over and over similar structures” (katemba,2013). the other problem in learning english by indonesian learner is transforming english active voice into a passive voice which caused by difference of sentence patterns and tenses of english (setyowati, 2006). the use of subject-verb agreement which somehow does not exist in the indonesian language causes mistakes in constructing an active and passive voice (vahdatinejad,2008). indonesian learners, according to andayanti (2010), have difficulties in using ‘to be' as the main verb or auxiliary verb corresponded with the subject as its antecedence in a sentence. moreover, identifying the parts of speech in sentences also being a problem in learning grammar; some students cannot determine where the subjects, objects, and predicates are in sentences (al-makhzoomi & awad, 2010). concerned with these issues, to enhance students' knowledge in constructing a correct active and passive voice, researcher proposes to use cooperative learning techniques, numbered heads together (nht) and team games tournaments (tgt) to deal with the issues. cooperative learning refers to methods of instruction that organize classroom instruction so that groups of 4-5 students work together to reach a common goal. cooperative learning is more effective to increase learning and improve students' achievement (campbell & rutherford, 2000) and the students will be more active in developing their structure. the crucial elements of cooperative learning (johnson, johnson, & holubec, 1994) are positive interdependence, individual accountability, group processing, social skills, and face-to-face interaction. this study examines the following concerns: (1). what is the initial knowledge of the students on voice construction before the treatment is given? (2). is there any significant difference between the use of nht and tgt to enhance students’ knowledge in constructing active and passive voice? (3). what are the student's responses after they are taught using nht and tgt strategies? in regard to the research questions above, the hypotheses of this study are: acuity (4)2, 69-93 3 null hypothesis (ho): there is no significant difference between students who are taught using nht technique and students who are taught using tgt technique to enhance students’ knowledge in constructing active and passive voice. alternative hypothesis (ha): there is a significant difference between students who are taught using nht technique and students who are taught using tgt technique to enhance students' knowledge in constructing active and passive voice. literature review a. sentence structure a sentence is a set of words that convey meaning and also expresses a complete thought (greenbaum & nelson, 2002). sentence structure is the way a sentence is arranged, it is the way a sentence being organized grammatically. the sentence structure includes the noun and verb within an individual sentence. the two most basic of a sentence structure are the subject and predicate. the subject will be the one appears in a sentence, it can be a noun or pronouns, while the predicate is the verb or the word that tells the action performed by the subject in a sentence. therefore, in order to have good writing, people should have a decent understanding of sentence structure. so, the one basic concept to learn at the beginning of writing is parts of speech. sentences may be constructed either actively or passively which called active and passive voice. both voices give the meaning in scientific and academic writings. b. active and passive construction active voice helps the subject perform the action, it can be said that an active sentence, the primary focus is on the subject or the agent or doer of the action (christensen, sasaki & sasaki, 2009). it brings clearer and concise expression rather than passive voice. passive voice is common in scientific writing because authors in this discipline like to pay more emphasis on facts than in subjects (who does the research). passive constructions in english allow the speaker to avoid mentioning the actor. this is sometimes necessary or desired because the actor is not known, is obvious, or is not important, or because the action is something that can be done by anyone (sneddon, 2012). passive voice sentences necessarily add words and change the normal doer-action-receiver of action direction, they may make the reader work harder to understand the intended meaning. c. students’ challenges in constructing active and passive voice as discussed in chapter one, in constructing voices sentence, indonesian learners face several challenges. the first is understanding of parts of speech such as nouns and pronouns (as the subject in a sentence), and also the verb as the word action in a sentence. christensen, sasaki, and sasaki (2009) also emphasized that the students in constructing passive voice, the subject, and object are often placed away from each other, or in reserve order. the second is the use of subject-verb acuity (4)2, 69-93 4 agreement which somehow does not exist in the indonesian language caused mistakes in constructing an active and passive voice (vahdatinejad, 2008). indonesian learners have difficulties in using ‘to be' as the main verb or auxiliary verb corresponded with the subject as its antecedence in a sentence emphasized by andayanti (2010) and al-makhzoomi and awad (2010). d. cooperative learning in order to have an effective way of teaching big classes, teachers usually use cooperative learning strategies. cooperative learning is built on the basis of human nature; human beings cannot survive without cooperating with others, it also tends to be more attractive ways in learning, because it changes the atmosphere of the class become more fun (johnson & johnson, 1994). indeed, kagan (2009) stressed that cooperative learning engages students to work harder than they do in a conventional classroom. e. numbered heads together according to slavin (2008), in nht type cooperative learning students more responsible for the tasks given because in cooperative learning nht type students in groups are given different numbers. each student is charged to solve a question that matches their member numbers. the advantages in using this technique according to lie (2010), it provides wider opportunities for learners to share ideas and considers the most appropriate problem solving, which encourages learners to improve the spirit of cooperation in solving problems. moreover, nht will improve self-esteem, the conflict between personal will be diminished, students will have a deeper understanding as all the members will be actively involved in learning, and also it will improve the attendance of the students since if they are absent, then they will not be able to help their group members (nardi, 2011). even though nht has lots of advantages, there also emerged disadvantages in using this technique. this learning techniques tend to be crowded if the teacher could not properly manage the condition of the classroom especially if the class has a large number of students (febriani, 2016). therefore, the teacher should have good management of the class. f. team games tournaments cooperative learning has many strategies, one of them is team games tournament (tgt). tgt was developed by robert slavin and friends. in tgt students divided into four or five students who have a different level of ability, gender, and the ethnic background (slavin, 2008). the main idea of tgt is to motivate students to support and help each other in learning. methodology in this research, the researcher used comparative design to compare the students’ knowledge enhancement about active and passive voice construction by using acuity (4)2, 69-93 5 tgt and nht between the comparative groups. by using these strategies students were divided into groups and would work together in a group as a team. in the beginning, the two groups were given pretest to know the ability of the respondent. after that, both groups were treated with different treatment and finally, at the end of the meeting, both groups had a post-test to see whether there is an enhancement on active and passive voice construction knowledge or not. table 1 research design class pre-test treatment post-test 1 t x1 t 2 t x2 t where: t: the students' knowledge of voices construction x1: students’ learning by nht x2: students’ learning by tgt population and sample the population of the research was seventh-grade students of smpn 10 cimahi, bandung. the two classes were treated in two different strategies of a cooperative learning strategy. research instrument the instruments are a pilot test, pre-test, post-test, and non-test (questionnaire). the pre-test and post-test are multiple choice questions; these instruments are used to discover students' prior ability on sentence patterns, subject-verb agreement, past participle and also the parts of speech such as subject, object, and verbs. the test consists of 43 questions. the number of questions is retrieved after analyzing the pilot test. procedures of data collection in gathering data, the researcher used the following steps: conducting the pilot test the pilot test was conducted on the seventh-grader of smpn 10 cimahi. the objective of the pilot test was to check the validity, reliability, discrimination, and difficulty level of the test by using the spss program. after collecting the data, the researcher analyzed the data by using anates program. acuity (4)2, 69-93 6 conducting pre-test a pre-test was given to both comparative groups. a pre-test was conducted before applying the treatment to diagnose student's enhancement in constructing passive voice. it is multiple choices that focus on sentence structure, subject-verb agreement, and also parts of speech. postlethwaite (2005) defines the test as an instrument or procedure that proposes a sequence of tasks to elicit students' response. the test should be valid and reliable in order to get accurate data. giving treatment after administering the pre-test, the treatment was given to both of the classes. the procedures of teaching through nht are adopted by mardiyah (2015) while the procedures of teaching through tgt are adopted by fitriyanto (2014). table 2. procedures of strategies procedures of numbered heads together (nht) procedures of team games tournament (tgt) first step: teacher gave the materials about active and passive voice construction second step: teacher divided class into groups (contain 4 or 5 students) third step: students counted off in each group, students count off by the number of students in the group. fourth step: posed a question or problem the teacher poses a question or problem to the class and tells groups they have a specific amount of time to come to a consensus on an answer. the amount of time allotted will depend on whether the question is one with a specific "right" answer or a more openended question. fifth step: students put heads together the students put their heads together to make sure that everyone in the group has the answer or answers. sixth step: teacher called a number the teacher calls a number (e.g: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5), all students with that number stand. one of the standing students is called upon to give their group's answer. standing students with the first step: teacher gave the rules of tgt strategies, and gave the objective of learning. second step: teacher divided class into groups (contained 4 or 5 students) third step: teacher gave the worksheet about passive voice construction that should be done together and cooperatively. fourth step: after finished their work, the teacher randomly gave a simple quiz or games related to passive voice construction. every correct answers will be added to the groups’ score fifth step: tournament table: have questions card available for each tournament table. sixth step: the first team took the card and read the question. if the teams couldn't answer than the next group will have a chance to answer. the game proceeds clockwise. seventh step: the last ten minutes, the teacher calculated each point that acuity (4)2, 69-93 7 procedures of numbered heads together (nht) procedures of team games tournament (tgt) different answer can be called upon to explain their group's thinking. the teacher chooses answers that will be discussed. has been gotten by each team and the highest score got the reward. eight steps: the teacher reviewed the lesson and read the gained score by each group. post-test a post-test was conducted to check the result after applying the treatment using tgt and nht strategies, at the end of the meetings. the post-test which contains the same question with a pre-test in the different arrangement was administered to both comparative groups. data analysis on pilot test the pilot test was conducted to measure the validity, reliability, level of difficulty and discrimination of the instrument. baker (1994) stated that a pilot test can also be the pre-testing or 'trying out' of a particular research instrument. validity validity test was intended to find out whether the instrument is appropriate to be used in this research. suherman (2003) proved that the validity of an instrument depends on the constancy of the tool that is used. the following is the formula according to suherman (2003) for calculating the validity of the instrument. rxy= 𝑛 ∑ 𝑋𝑌−(∑ 𝑋)(∑ 𝑌) √𝑛(∑ 𝑋2−(∑ 𝑋)²)− (𝑛 (∑ 𝑌2−(∑ 𝑌)²) where: rxy : validity coefficient between x and y variables n : total number of participants x : participant’s score of the item score y : participant’s score of the whole item test the criteria for coefficient correlation according to suherman (2003) is shown in table 3. table 3. coefficient correlation (validity) rxy interpretation ≤ 0.00 not valid 0.00 – 0.20 very low 0.21 – 0.40 low 0.41 – 0.60 moderate 0.61 – 0.80 high 0.81 – 1.00 very high acuity (4)2, 69-93 8 the result is as follows: table 4 number of question rxy interpretation 0.80 ≤ rxy ≤ 1.00 very high 1,3,7,8,9,11,14,21,29,31,36, 37,42,47,49 0,60 < rxy ≤ 0,80 high 5,10,13,15,18,19,20,23,24, 26,27,28,35,38,39,40,44,45,46,48, 0,40 < rxy ≤ 0,60 moderate 2,6,12,16,17,22,41,43, 0,20 < rxy ≤ 0,40 low 4,25,30,32,33,34,50 0,00 < rxy ≤ 0,20 very low rxy ≤ 0,00 not valid based on the result above, there were 15 items that were high. there were, 20 items that moderate, 8 items low, 7 items were very low. therefore, it can be concluded that the items that categorized as very low are not valid. reliability reliability of a test was used to evaluate the test result in the same subject. according, suherman (2003) the reliability to measure the instrument is a tool that finds out the result that is consistent in the same subject. according to suherman (2013), the formula is following this: 𝑟11 = ( 𝑛 𝑛 − 1 ) (1 − ∑ s𝑖 2 s𝑡 2 ) where: : reliability of the instrument n: number of questions s𝑖 2: a total of variance scores each item s𝑡 2: a total of variance score the criteria of reliability according to suherman (2003) is shown in table 3.5. table 5. interpretation of reliability coefficient reliability interpretation 0.90 < r11 ≤ 1.00 very high 0.70 < r11 ≤ 0.90 high 0.40 < r11 ≤ 0.70 moderate 0.20 < r11 ≤ 0.40 low r11< 0.20 very low acuity (4)2, 69-93 9 the result is as follows: table 6 mean 20.59 correlation xy 0.86 reliability 0.92 based on the result of reliability 0.92, then it can be categorized as very high. level of difficulty to determine whether the questions are appropriate for the students, an analysis of difficulty level was conducted. the formula based on suherman (2003) as follows: ik where: ik: level of difficulty : number of correct answers from the upper group : number of correct answers from the lower group : number of students from the upper group : number of students from the lower group table 7. interpretation of difficulty level tk (level of difficulty) interpretation 0.71 1.00 easy 0.31 0.70 moderate 0.00 0.30 difficult the result is as follows: table 8. index of difficulty level number level of difficulty difficulty degree 27,44 0.71 – 1.00 easy 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,10,11,12,13,14,15,16 17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,28,29,30 31,35,36,37,39,40,41,42,43,46,47,49 0.31 – 0.70 moderate 9,32,33,34,38,45,48,50 0.00 – 0.30 difficult based on the result above, there were 2 items that were easy, 39 items that were moderate and 9 items were difficult. due to its difficulty level, the researcher consulted the result to her adviser regarding all items; after consultation, there were 2 numbers of items that were modified: questions number 16 and 50. acuity (4)2, 69-93 10 discrimination index the calculation was done to determine the discrimination between high-ability students and low-ability students according to suherman (2003) using the formula as follows: dp = jba − jbb 𝐽𝑆𝐴 or 𝐷𝑃 = jba − jbb jsb where: jba = total student of the upper group which answer correctly or number of correct answers for the upper group jbb = total of students of the lower group who answer correctly or number of the correct answer for the lower group jsa = number of student upper group jsb = number of student lower group table 9. criteria of discrimination level interpretation < 0.00 very bad 0.00 0.20 bad 0.21 0.40 satisfactory 0.41 0.70 good 0.71 – 1.00 excellent the result as follows: table 10. discrimination index number of question discrimination index interpretation 33,34 < 0.00 very bad 4,30,32,50 0.00 0.20 poor 2,6,12,16,17,22,25,26 0.21 0.40 satisfactory 5,7,9,10,13,15,19,20,24,27, 35,38,39,41,43,44,45,46,48, 49 0.41 0.70 good 1,3,8,11,14,18,21,23,28,29, 31,36,37,40,42,47 0.71 – 1.00 excellent based on the table above, there were 2 items in the very bad category, 4 questions in the poor category, 8 items in a satisfactory category, 20 items in good category and 16 items in the excellent category. acuity (4)2, 69-93 11 the result of recapitulation of pilot test this research used 43 questions for pre-test and post-test. to analyze the result of the data, the anates program was used. the recapitulation of the test result can be seen in table 3.11. table 11. the recapitulation of pilot test number of questions validity difficulty level discrimination 1 high moderate excellent 2 low moderate satisfactory 3 high moderate excellent 4 very low moderate poor 5 moderate moderate good 6 low moderate satisfactory 7 high moderate good 8 high moderate excellent 9 high difficult good 10 moderate moderate good 11 high moderate excellent 12 low moderate satisfactory 13 moderate moderate good 14 high moderate excellent 15 moderate moderate good 16 low moderate satisfactory 17 low moderate satisfactory 18 moderate moderate excellent 19 moderate moderate good 20 moderate moderate good 21 high moderate excellent 22 low moderate satisfactory 23 moderate moderate excellent 24 moderate moderate good 25 very low moderate satisfactory 26 moderate moderate satisfactory 27 moderate easy good 28 moderate moderate excellent 29 high moderate excellent 30 very low moderate poor 31 high moderate excellent 32 very low moderate poor 33 very low difficult good 34 very low difficult good 35 moderate moderate good 36 high moderate excellent acuity (4)2, 69-93 12 37 high moderate excellent 38 moderate moderate good 39 moderate moderate good 40 moderate moderate excellent 41 low moderate good 42 high moderate excellent 43 low moderate good 44 moderate easy good 45 moderate difficult good 46 moderate moderate good 47 high moderate excellent 48 moderate difficult good 49 high moderate good 50 very low difficult poor based on the recapitulation test, this research used 43 questions for pretest and post-test. they were question number: 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 23, 24, 25, 36, 27, 28, 29, 31, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50. those are based on the result of questions analysis; that the 43 questions will be able to measure the students’ knowledge in voice construction. non-test instrument (student’s response questionnaire) the non-test instrument was given to the students in order to know the students' response toward the lesson and strategy that were used in the teaching-learning process. this questionnaire was given after the post-test conducted. the statements in the questionnaire are about nht and tgt in enhancing the students' knowledge of active and passive voice construction. there are four alternate answers in this questionnaire, those are: strongly agree (sa), agree (a), disagree (d), strongly disagree (sd). the completed questionnaire is classified by arikunto (2012) as follows: the calculation of a number of positive responses for each item is on positive items, strongly agree (sa), agree (a), and the negative items, disagree (d), strongly disagree (sd). the percentage was calculated according to arikunto (1991) using the following presentation formula as follows: table 12. scoring of student’s response with positive item type alternative answer score strongly agree 4 agree 3 slightly agree 2 disagree 1 for the questionnaire with the negative item, the scoring reversed, so the criteria are as follow. acuity (4)2, 69-93 13 table 13. scoring of student’s response with negative item type alternative answer score strongly agree 1 agree 2 slightly agree 3 disagree 4 the questionnaire has 10 statements, so the maximum score for the questionnaire is 40 and the minimum score is 10. after the data obtained, then the percentage of student response was calculated with this formula: where, ri = student i response score si = total of score item of student i smax = maximum score table 14. interpretation of students’ response degree in percentage interpretation 80 ≤ t ≤ 100 very good 60 ≤ t ≤ 80 good 40 ≤ t ≤ 60 moderate 20 ≤ t ≤ 40 bad t ≤ 20 very bad statistical treatment the researcher utilized the statistical package for social science (spss) 16 to calculate the data. spss is a kind of computer program for statistical computation. the level of significance is 5%. (0.05) normalized gain to determine the magnitude of the increase in the enhancement students’ knowledge about active and passive voice construction in both comparative groups, the researcher performed an analysis of the results of the pretest and posttest. analysis performed using normalized gain. the formula for the gain normalized using the mean (average normalized gain) are considered to be effective according to supranto (2009) as follows: (𝑔) = (𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑠𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑒)−(𝑃𝑟𝑒𝑡𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑆𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑒) (𝑀𝑎𝑥𝑖𝑚𝑢𝑚 𝑆𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑒−𝑃𝑟𝑒𝑡𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑆𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑒) where: (g) : mean normalized gain (pre-test score) : percentage of the mean score of pre-test (pro-test score) : percentage of the mean score of post-testt acuity (4)2, 69-93 14 the classification of gain score: table 15: classification of gain score gain score interpretation 0.00-0.30 low 0.31-0.70 moderate 0.71-0.100 high normality test normality test was done to see whether the data obtained from the population is normally distributed or not. to test the normality, shapiro wilk test was utilized. the formula according to ruseffendi (1998) is as follows: w where: w: test statistic : statistics order the constant obtains from the average value �̅� : the average of sample data based on the statistical test above the criteria for normality test is: if it means h0 is rejected where h0: data population is normally distributed criteria of normality test for α = 0.05, (if using spss) data is normal if p-value (sig) > α = 0.05, then h0 is not rejected, means that data population is normally distributed. data is normal if ρ-value (sig) ≤ α = 0.05, then h0 has rejected means that data is not normally distributed. homogeneity test to determine the units between both comparative groups for testing whether they are homogeneous or not which means having the same basic qualities. according ro ruseffendy (1998), the formula for homogeneity: f = where: f = f value (variance variable data) = variance of nht group class. = variance of tgt group class criteria of homogeneity: data is homogeny if value (sig) =.0.05, means h0 is accepted. data is not homogeny if value (sig) =.0.05, means h0 is rejected. mean differences hypothesis testing acuity (4)2, 69-93 15 if the two populations are normally distributed, then the statistics that the researcher used t-test with the formula: t = with: sd where: �̅�1: mean scores for the first group �̅�2: mean scores for the second group n1: number of the first group n2: number of the second group s1: standard deviation of the first group s2: standard deviation of the second group criteria used if data analyzed using spss: if the p-value is lesser than (≤) 0.05, it means that there is a significant difference in students’ knowledge enhancement about passive voice construction who were taught through team games tournament and numbered heads together. if the p-value is larger than ( ) 0.05, it means that there is no significant difference in students’ knowledge enhancement about passive voice construction who were taught through team games tournament and numbered heads together. if the data is not normally distributed and the population variance is not homogeneous, then the two different test average used is a non-parametric test, mann-whitney with formula according to supranto (2009): u = criteria for u-test: is rejected if criteria: h0 is rejected if the p-value is lesser than (≤) 0.05, it means that there is a significant difference in students’ knowledge enhancement about passive voice construction who were taught through team games tournament and numbered heads together. h0 is not rejected if the p-value is greater than ( ) 0.05, it means that there is no significant difference in students’ knowledge enhancement about passive voice construction who were taught through team games tournament and numbered heads together. research results and discussion descriptive analysis in analyzing the data, the researcher used microsoft excel and spss 16.0. pre-test the result of the pre-test of each class can be seen in the following table: table 16 pre-test and standard deviation acuity (4)2, 69-93 16 nht tgt mean st. deviation mean st. deviation pre-test 59.07 7.409 58.33 8.010 minimun score 43 36 maximum score 70 70 msi 100 based on the result on table 16, it can be seen that the mean pre-test of group 1 which is nht is 59.07 with std. deviation 7.409 and for the minimum score is 43 and the maximum score is 70. for tgt, the mean of the pre-test is 58.33 with std. deviation 8.010 and the for the minimum score is 36 and the maximum score is 70. it can be concluded that the initial knowledge means for both classes are 58.33 and 59.07, then it becomes the answer to research question number one. post-test the result of the post-test of each class can be seen in the following table: table 17 post-test and standard deviation nht tgt mean st. deviation mean st. deviation post-test 80.27 9.566 72.27 9.055 minimun score 64 56 maximum score 95 93 msi 100 based on the result of table 17, it can be seen the mean post-test of nht class is 80.27 with std. deviation 9.566 and for the minimum score is 64 and the maximum score is 95. for tgt, the mean of the post-test is 72.27 with std. deviation 9.055 and the for the minimum score is 56 and the maximum score is 93. it can be concluded that the initial score for both classes is quite high. gain score the result of the gain of each class can be seen in the following table: acuity (4)2, 69-93 17 table 18 based on the result on the table above, it can be concluded that mean gain of the nht class is 0.499 and for the tgt class 0.339, it can be concluded that the knowledge of both classes has enhanced in constructing active and passive voice. test of normality gain the researcher conducted a normality test for the result of the gain score. the result can be seen on the table below. table 19. the normality test result for normalized gain based on the table, it can be concluded that the population of the data is normally distributed for both classes, it is because the significant value of nht is 0.194 >  (0.05) and the significant value tgt is 0.434 > 0.05. test of homogeneity variance for gain score to see the homogeneity of population variances, homogeneity was done. the result can be seen in table 19. table 20. the homogeneity result for normalized gain score acuity (4)2, 69-93 18 according to the data above, the significant value is 0.034 < 0.05, so it means that the population variances were not homogenous. independent sample test for gain score since the data is normally distributed, independent sample t-test is conducted and the result depicted on table 20 table 21. the independent sample t-test result for gain score from the result, the significant (2-tailed) of equal variances not assumed the value is 0.005 < 0.05, so that means ho is rejected, then it becomes the answer of the second statement of the problem that there is a significant difference between those who are taught using nht and those who are taught using tgt. questionnaire the additional data required for the present study were collected by administering a questionnaire to the subjects in order to know their response toward nht and tgt. the results are explained in table 21: table 21 nht questionnaire subj ect sa a d sd total score (total score/ 40) x100 interpretat ion 1 8 3 17 0 28 57.5 moderate 2 4 21 0 2 27 67.5 good 3 0 0 16 2 18 45 moderate 4 0 3 9 15 27 49.5 moderate 5 0 12 10 1 23 57.5 moderate acuity (4)2, 69-93 19 6 4 0 12 3 19 47.7 moderate 7 0 24 6 0 30 75 good 8 8 18 2 1 29 72.5 good 9 0 18 4 2 24 60 good 10 4 21 0 2 27 67.5 good 11 8 3 11 0 22 55 moderate 12 12 6 8 0 26 65 good 13 4 21 2 0 27 67.5 good 14 0 24 2 1 27 67.5 good 15 20 9 6 2 33 82.5 very good 16 24 3 0 1 28 70 good 17 0 21 2 2 25 62.5 good 18 4 5 17 3 29 72.5 good 19 0 16 0 2 18 45 moderate 20 0 28 0 1 29 72.5 good 21 4 21 2 1 28 70 good 22 0 12 10 1 23 57.5 moderate 23 8 18 2 1 29 72.5 good 24 0 0 12 15 27 67.5 good 25 6 18 2 0 26 65 good 26 4 12 2 0 18 45 moderate 27 7 16 4 0 27 67.5 good 28 0 15 8 1 24 60 good 29 12 18 0 1 31 77.5 good 30 8 18 2 1 29 72.5 good table 22. the result of nht questionnaire percentage degree in percentage interpretation 10.60 80 ≤ t ≤ 100 very good 30.32 60 ≤ t ≤ 80 good 59.08 40 ≤ t ≤ 60 moderate 0 20 ≤ t ≤ 40 bad 0 t ≤ 20 very bad from the table above, it is concluded that the mean percentage of students response in class nht is calculated as the sum of the percentage of students' response divided by the number of the respondent, the result is 63.83, that can be categorized as “good”. acuity (4)2, 69-93 20 table 23. tgt questionnaire subject strongly agree (a) agree (b) disagree (c) disagree (d) total score (total score/ 40) x100 interpretation 1 4 24 6 0 34 85 very good 2 0 16 0 2 18 45 moderate 3 24 3 0 1 28 70 good 4 0 21 2 2 25 62.5 good 5 0 12 10 1 23 57.5 moderate 6 4 21 0 1 26 65 good 7 0 24 0 2 26 65 good 8 4 21 2 1 28 70 good 9 0 12 10 1 23 57.5 moderate 10 0 28 0 1 29 72.5 good 11 0 0 24 2 26 65 good 12 8 18 0 0 26 65 good 13 0 12 10 1 23 57.5 moderate 14 12 12 0 2 26 65 good 15 0 24 0 2 26 65 good 16 4 21 2 1 28 70 good 17 8 18 0 0 26 65 good 18 8 18 2 1 29 72.5 good 19 0 18 4 2 24 60 good 20 20 6 9 2 33 82.5 very good 21 0 18 4 2 24 60 good 22 4 0 12 3 19 47.7 moderate 23 0 0 16 2 18 45 moderate 24 4 3 12 2 21 52.5 moderate 25 0 24 0 2 26 65 good 26 0 16 0 2 18 45 moderate 27 24 3 0 1 28 70 good 28 8 18 2 1 29 72.5 good 29 0 15 8 1 24 60 good 30 12 12 0 2 26 65 good table 24. the result of tgt questionnaire percentage degree in percentage interpretation 22.03 80 ≤ t ≤ 100 very good 31.27 60 ≤ t ≤ 80 good 46.7 40 ≤ t ≤ 60 moderate 0 20 ≤ t ≤ 40 bad 0 t ≤ 20 very bad acuity (4)2, 69-93 21 based on the result of the tgt questionnaire, the mean percentage is 63.34 which mean the response of tgt group is “good”. from the data above, it can be said that most of the students from both classes agreed for the implementation of nht and tgt strategy in enhancing their knowledge on voice construction. seeing the responses from students’ data analysis and the discussion is said there is a significant difference among the two strategies. they have students’ responses at the same level, pre-test, post-test, were all at the same level. students in both classes enjoyed the strategies. results and discussion the result of the data showed that the initial knowledge of students in the nht group is 59.07 and in tgt group is 58.33. it is also known that there is a significant difference in students' reading comprehension between those who are taught using tgt and those who are taught using nht. from the result of normalized gain, it can be seen that the students who are taught using nht got 0.4997 and those who are taught using tgt got 0.3392. so, it can be said that both treatments are applicable in teaching voice construction and it showed that both strategies enhanced the students' knowledge on voice construction. the response of both classes also showed that they are enjoyed in learning english, proved by the results of the questionnaire from both classes are 63.83 and 63.34 which categorized as “good”. conclusion & recommendation after interpreting the data, the researcher concluded that there is a significant difference between students who are taught using nht and students who are taught using tgt strategy. in relation to the conclusion above, the researcher gives several recommendations: english teachers. it is recommended for english teachers to use both methods to teach active and passive voice construction because it has been proven by the researcher that the results also showed that students' knowledge on constructing active and passive voice has been enhanced. english learners. learning by groups is highly recommended since it can enhance students’ knowledge in constructing active and passive voice. future researcher. the researcher hopes that the results of this study can be used as additional references 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(2008). students’ error analysis and attitude towards teacher feedback using a selected software: a case study. unpublished masters thesis. universiti kebangsaan malaysia, bangi. issn 2336-2022 international journal of teaching and education vol. 2 (3). wang, m. (2012). effects of cooperative learning on achievement motivation of female university students. asian social science; vol. 8 (15). acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no.2. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 244 role-playing improves speaking proficiency skills caroline v. katemba1 & ruth m. grace2 ctobing@unai.edu universitas advent indonesia doi: 10.35974/acuity.v8i2.3153 abstract the goal of this research is to determine whether the role play technique may improve students' speaking skills, particularly in grade xi. the study was carried out at sman 1 cisarua, bandung barat, with 34 students from grade xi science-3 serving as the sample. this is a pre-experimental study. after 16 hours of treatment (two hours per meeting utilizing the role play technique), the students were given a pre-test and a post-test. after analyzing the data, it was discovered that there is a substantial difference in enhancing students' speaking skills following therapy with the role play technique. based on the interpretation of the data analyzed it was found that the p-value is 0.000 (sig.) ≤ α (0.05) then ha is accepted and ho is rejected. the pre-test score is 42,08 % and the post-test score is 62,6 %. and the gain is 0,377. it is recommended to keep motivating the students to use the roleplay properly in the future to improve their english speaking skills. keywords: speaking skills, role play technique, pre-experimental background of the study english is regarded as an international language. speaking in english is an important aspect of foreign language learning and instruction because it is an action used to communicate with others. nowadays, practically every school requires the purpose of teaching speaking, which enhances students' communicative abilities, because students must be able to employ speaking skills in their daily lives. speaking is an interactive process of meaning construction that comprises information production, reception, and processing. students should be able to communicate in english so that they can work together. to develop the ability to talk, teachers can focus on encouraging kids to speak up while they are involved in a speaking activity in the classroom. speaking is one of the macro skills of languages that refers to the ability to carry out spoken communication activities such as conversations, dialogue, monologue, newscasting, and so on. (hakim, 2016) according to fabio (2015), the concerns were discovered because pupils are not active in the practice of speaking because there are little opportunities to do so. some issues made it challenging for the pupils to communicate in english. shyness, lack of selfconfidence, fear of others' judgment, laziness, and so on are examples. in every chat or discussion in the speaking lesson, they are generally passive. they are often bashful and mailto:ctobing@unai.edu acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no.2. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 245 afraid to respond to the teacher's questions. this can happen if they are unconfident and lack motivation in every speaking activity. students also appeared to use their first language the majority of the time, making little or no attempt to improve their english speaking skills. they were also embarrassed to talk in front of their classmates, displaying anger, bother, and lack of participation. according to katemba (2016), indonesians enjoy talking. students will feel more confident if they can communicate interactively on a regular basis. the english instructor is the one who can make the classroom more interactive. most teachers struggle with encouraging students to speak properly and confidently in class. according to fitriati (2016), in indonesia, several evidence demonstrate that most students find it difficult to explain their ideas in english orally. furthermore, heriansyah (2012) discovered that students in the english department make a lot of mistakes when speaking. pronunciation faults (word stress and intonation) are among the mistakes. many ways have been used and developed to solve this challenge, and role play is one of them. siregar (2017) defines interactive drama as a sort of deconstructed play that uses the environmental theatre paradigm of blending venues for audience and actor and blurs the line between the two. in interactive play, the performer serves as the audience. this type of drama techniques refers to activities that allow students to express their personalities, thoughts, and ideas rather than performing on a stage in front of an audience (maley & duff, 1982.) the researcher conducts this study based on past research on role play. based on hartatik's research in 2012, she concluded in her paper titled "using role-play method toward improving student's speaking achievement of fifth-grade students in mi sukerejo 02 suruh in the academic year of 2011/2012" that using the role play method the samples can improve their speaking ability. however, the examples are from elementary students. suryani, l(2015) concluded in her research entitled "the effectiveness of role-play in teaching speaking" in the year 2015 that role-play is effective in teaching speaking at the junior high level. that is why the researcher wishes to do a similar study with high school students as the subjects. literature review speaking speaking is one of the four english language skills, besides the other three are reading, listening, and writing taught in english teaching. it is a complex skill that involves the knowledge of sounds, structures, vocabularies, and culture subsystems of language. it is also a mean of communication. (mueller, 2016) pronunciation is the way for the students to produce clearer language when they are speaking. pronunciation includes many aspects that include; articulation, rhythm, intonation, and phrasing and more peripherally even gesture, body language and eye contact. (suska, 2018) however, assessing speech is difficult since there are so many aspects that influence our perception of how well someone can speak a language, and we expect test results to be accurate and acceptable. as a result, it is critical to concentrate test or assess on speaking class since learners and teachers may measure how far they have progressed after learning to talk using the approach provided. (louma, 2004). the oral test will assess pupils' speaking abilities. acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no.2. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 246 inhibition, having nothing to say, a lack of confidence or inconsistent involvement, and the usage of the native tongue are all examples of speaking issues. students do not want to speak english because they are too shy to do so, they are afraid of making mistakes or having their friends laugh at them, and they are also anxious because they have not had many opportunities to speak or because the teacher always criticizes and corrects their mistakes immediately (fauzan, 2014). during the teaching and learning process, the researcher administers a battery of tests to assess the student's speaking skills. grammar (the appropriate structure or grammar in structuring the dialogues to avoid misunderstanding), fluency (the speed and flow of the student's speech in executing the dialogues), vocabulary, pronunciation, and details are the scoring factors. furthermore, comprehension refers to the student's knowledge of their dialogues. mueller (2016) poses that a speaking task is considered authentic and meaningful if it is carried out based on two characteristics: 1. students are required to construct their responses rather than select from the ones presented 2. the task reflects the challenges faced in the real world. the speaking task must reflect on what we face in our daily life. teaching speaking according to brown (2001), the purpose of a language classroom is communicative competence. communicative goals are best achieved by paying attention to language use rather than just usage, fluency rather than accuracy, authentic language and context, and the student's final demands. and the teacher must promote speaking as a communicative competency for the students.. harmer (2012) states that teachers need do play several of different roles during the speaking activities, those are : a) as a prompter. ➔ teachers should be able to assist pupils who become disoriented, can't think of what to say next or lose the fluency that the teacher expects of them. the teacher can assist them by making ideas without interfering with debates or forcing students to change positions. it will relieve students' aggravation when they reach a stalemate with a language or ideas. b) as a participant. ➔ teachers may want to take part in the discussion or role-play themselves. however, a teacher has to be careful that they do not participate too much. c) as a feedback provider ➔ the teacher may give feedback on the content of the activity and the language used directly after the students complete an activity or later at the end of a meeting. speaking ability encompasses not only language and turn-taking knowledge, but also all communication factors such as sense, culture, and discourse. one utterance will be appropriately translated if the listener understands the words, syntax, and meaning based on the context, allowing conversation to continue smoothly. the mechanics, function, and sociocultural rules of the language being taught must all be considered by the teacher when planning a speaking class. the second area in which the teacher must be involved in the learning process is to improve the communicative ability of the learners, which is reflected in the syllabus by using an appropriate method and approach in teaching. the teacher must acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no.2. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 247 analyze speaking performance in order to see the progress of learning goals and to implement more beneficial teaching methods and tactics. thornbury (2005a) speaking assessment in this research, the researcher tried to assess the effectiveness of speaking skills in some areas, such as, fluency, pronunciation and accent, vocabulary, grammar and details. the researcher explaine it one by one. a) fluency in speaking ➔ fluency in a language means speaking easily, reasonably quickly and without having to stop and pause a lot. good speakers communicate and get their message across smoothly, even though they may make mistakes. communication is the most important part of speaking and it is important to communicate your ideas as naturally as possible. be very clear about the message you want to communicate. (british council, 2017) b) pronunciation and accent in speaking pronunciation is the way we pronounce sounds. so the way we move our mouth to make sounds. many people want to either neutralize their accents or even perfect their spoken english as much as possible. their goal is to improve their english accent as much as they can to sound more like native english speakers. (british council, 2017). c) vocabulary ➔ a vocabulary is a set of familiar words within a person's language. a vocabulary, usually developed with age, serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge. acquiring an extensive vocabulary is one of the largest challenges in learning a second language. a person's speaking vocabulary is all the words he or she uses in speech. it is likely to be a subset of the listening vocabulary. due to the spontaneous nature of speech, words are often misused. this misuse – though slight and unintentional – may be compensated by facial expressions, tone of voice. it means, the range of vocabulary that the students have during their speaking time. (british council, 2017). d) grammar ➔ english grammar is how meanings are encoded into wordings in the english language. this includes the structure of words, phrases, clauses, and sentences, right up to the structure of whole texts. in this research, grammar is used to assess the accuracy & variety of structures when the students are speaking in english. (british council, 2017). e) details ➔ the details mentioned here are the details of the level of description when someone speaking in english. it means that whether they include the additional details about the ideas, or not, and if their information is completed or not. it means to give the other additional information about the speaking topic. ( british council, 2017). role play "role" refers to the actor's part in the play (a person's task or obligation in an endeavor). "play" refers to activities done for fun or recreation, such as stage theatre (hornby, 1995). in this study, role-playing refers to the technique used in this research, in which students are instructed to practice the dialogue in front of the class. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/words https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/language https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/communication https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/learning https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/second_language https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/speech https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/english_language https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/english_language https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/words https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/phrases https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/clauses https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/sentence_(linguistics) acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no.2. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 248 role-playing is one strategy that can be used to improve students' speaking skills. roleplaying encourages pupils to communicate in a specific situation in which they play a role. students act and communicate in ways that reflect their future role (arham r, 2016). role play is a teaching strategy that allows students to engage all of their senses, interactions, feelings, and additional experiences while also broadening and stimulating their imagination. students are encouraged to speak and communicate, even if they have low language skills, by employing nonverbal communication techniques such as body language, gestures, and facial expressions. one of the primary purposes of employing role play techniques in education is to create and improve social skills, hence increasing awareness of the art of making impressions and playing different parts. the impression we make in regular social life can be quite important. the way other people perceive us is mostly determined by our relationships and communication abilities. role playing techniques have the ability to assist us in practicing various ways of presenting ourselves in everyday life, allowing us to acquire and polish the necessary abilities. it is more difficult to shape and influence what others see in our performance or what others think of us in a target language context, owing to inhibitions created by potential language hurdles and faults in our target language expertise. role play is a perfect tool for language learning. it plays a crucial role to make students participate in a more communicative context. the focus is thus on identifying with characters, enacting roles, and entering into the inner experience of imagination and fantasy. based on the research of suryani, l (2015), role play can be divided into two forms, scripted and unscripted role play. in details, those types of role-play activities are described as follows: a. scripted role play scripted role play involves interpreting either the textbook dialogue or speaking text in the form of speech. the main function of the text, after all, is to convey the meaning of language items in a memorable way. it will need good preparation. b. unscripted role play in contrast to scripted role-play, the situations of unscripted role-play do not depend on textbooks. it is known as free role play or improvisation. the students themselves have to decide what language to use and how the conversation should be developed. to do this activity, no need good preparation from the teacher and students is really necessary. based on the explanation above, there are some kinds of role play that can be used in the teaching and learning process. this study uses scripted role-playing materials. because this strategy will improve their speaking abilities in less time than the unscripted way. it means that the researcher will offer the students a script to deliver in class. the researcher will supply the script, which the students will utilize to do the role-play. role play allows using language in real communicative surroundings for learners. it develops all linguistic skills, especially speaking fluency. what is more, it strengthens the motivation towards learning because activities are provided in a relaxed atmosphere, within fun and entertainment. role play technique in teaching speaking will carry out the basic concept of drama with influential elements that build a play, and then it is manifested into a strategy in classroom interaction for language learning. by applying the role play technique in classroom activities, it accommodates the implementation of students’ speaking skills which can be shown by communicative competence. the progress of students speaking skills can be indicated by students'‟ accent, grammar, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension improvement. as a natural art, full of expression (act and speak) – role play which then manifested into a technique in teaching speaking, is a good way in improving the speaking acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no.2. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 249 skill of sman 1 cisarua bandung students because this technique provides emotional inclusion which helps the student to overcome their problems in expressing ideas. by reading, discussing and analyzing the given scripts automatically the students will enrich their vocabulary – lack of vocabulary is the most barrier to student confidence in speaking english. sehriban dundar (2013) stated the nine types of drama activities( drama and language games, role play, improvisation, simulations, mime, skits, froze image building, scriptwriting and readers theatre) in which they are seen as an ideal way to bring the grammar, pronunciation and speaking skills together in a course where the focus is on fluency. thus, drama is considered a powerful language-teaching tool. and in this research, we will focus on the role play technique. role play bridges the gap between course-book dialogues and natural usage, and can also help to bridge a similar gap between the classroom and real-life situations by providing insights into how to handle tricky situations based on the explanation provided that speaking is one of the skills that students must have. the students hesitate to speak english because they are afraid of making mistakes when they try to speak english. to analyze the problems that make students get some difficulties speaking in english, the researcher has done classroom observation. unfortunately, although individuals obtain english training for many years in schools, they are not fluent enough to communicate. some of them are not able to produce even some simple sentences. they are not able to describe experiences and events and give explanations for opinions and plans whilst traveling in the area where the language is spoken. thus extended activities in the form of drama, games, role play, and simulation are vital in developing the communicative ability and oral skills of learners. this research was conducted based on a specific research question, which is : “ is there any significant difference using roleplay technique in improving student’s speaking skills?” the researcher tried to find out whether the role play technique can improve the english speaking ability in grade xi students in sman 1 cisarua bandung the researcher constructed the following hypothesis: null hypothesis (ho) there is no significant difference using role-play technique in improving student’s speaking skills alternative hypothesis (ha) there is a significant difference using role-play technique in improving student’s speaking skills methodology the research method used by the researcher in this study is pre experimental research. because the researcher would like to find out whether the role play technique does improve the english speaking ability of the grade xi students or not. the data analyzed quantitatively using spss 24. the research design used in this study was pre-experimental design with one group pretestposttest design. according to phakiti (2014); cited by randy (2017), the pre-experimental design is an exploration regarding making inferences about the relationship between an independent variable and a dependent variable. there is no randomization in a preexperiment. in this study, the pretest is given at the beginning of the study to know the ability acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no.2. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 250 of the respondent before giving treatment and the posttest in the last meeting of the study to know the differences with the result from the pretest population and sample the population of the research is grade xi of senior high school students in bandung. the research sample is taken from 34 students of grade xi of sman 1 cisarua bandung. the sampling technique that was used in this research is purposive sampling, choosing respondents based on the teacher’s recommendation. research instrument the research instrument truly determined the result of the research activity. therefore, the instrument used in this study are as follow: 1. voice recorder → the researcher uses a voice recorder to record and transcribe the speech by the students in the pre and post test. the recorder that used by the researcher is sony icd ux-553. it featured two microphones with decent stereo imaging, the icd-ux533 records at a high bit rate and has a good noise reduction filter. it’s also the smallest device we tested – at just 1.44 x 3.99 inches, it’s only slightly bigger than most flash drives. before recording, the researcher can choose from five audio-quality formats: lpcm 44.1khz/16-bit, mp3 192kbps, mp3 128kbps, mp3 48kbps (mono) and mp3 8kbps (mono), has 4 gb storage and 30 hours battery life. figure 2 audio recorder 2. video recorder for each treatment, the researcher also records the video of each group's performance. so, for each meeting, the researcher can give input and feedback to the students about their progress. the researcher uses her own canon dlsr camera eos 1300d kit (ef s18 – 55 is ii) as a device for the video recorder with it features 18 mega pixel aps-c cmos sensor & digic 4+, 9 point af with 1 centre cross-type af point, and standard iso 100 – 6400 (expandable to 12800). figure 3 video recorder 3. speaking assessment acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no.2. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 251 in this study, the technique utilized to test students' speaking ability was employing speech for a topic, in which the students were asked to answer some questions given by the researchers about various themes. the assessment was performed twice during this study. the first time was during the pretest, and the second time was during the posttest. the speaking evaluation sheet comprises five areas of assessed speaking ability. (vocabulary, grammar, and details). each aspect has its criteria with a scale of 1-5 (brown, 2004). it can be seen on tables 1 table 1. speaking rubric sheet fluency pronunciation and accent vocabulary grammar details 5 smooth and fluid speech; few to no hesitations; no attempts to search for words; volume is excellent. pronunciation is excellent; good effort at accent excellent control of language features; a wide range of well chosen vocabulary accuracy & variety of grammatical structures excellent level of description; additional details beyond the required 4 smooth and fluid speech; few hesitations; a slight search for words; inaudible word or two. pronunciation is good; good effort at accent good language control; good range of relatively well-chosen vocabulary some errors in grammatical structures possibly caused by attempt to include a variety. good level of description; all required information included 3 speech is relatively smooth; some hesitation and unevenness caused by rephrasing and searching for words; volume wavers. pronunciation is good; some effort at accent, but is definitely nonnative adequate language control; vocabulary range is lacking frequent grammatical errors that do not obscure meaning; little variety in structures adequate description; some additional details should be provided 2 speech is frequently hesitant with some sentences left uncompleted; volume very soft. pronunciation is okay; no effort towards a native accent weak language control; basic vocabulary choice with some words clearly lacking frequent grammatical errors even in simple structures that at times obscure meaning. description lacks some critical details that make it difficult for the listener to understand 1 speech is slow, hesitant & strained except for short memorized phrases; difficult to perceive continuity in speech; inaudible. pronunciation is lacking and hard to understand; no effort towards a native accent weak language control; vocabulary that is used does not match the task frequent grammatical errors even in simple structures; meaning is obscured. description is so lacking that the listener cannot understand acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no.2. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 252 ( brown, 2004) instrument in this study, a pre-test and post-test are employed, which is a set of questions concerning various themes in daily life delivered by the researcher. in this study, the researcher gave a speaking test in the pilot test from a higher level, which is grade xii, and it was utilized for the pre-test and post-test and give the questions for the respondent to answer verbally. the researcher recorded and transcribed the respondents' conversations. the questions on the pre-test and post-test were identical. the instrument pre-test was pilot tested to the higher level, which is grade xii of senior high school, in which they had already learned about speaking abilities in the previous semester before being employed in this research. the researcher uses the anatest to analyze the results of the instrument testing. several assessments have been performed to determine whether the test is feasible to employ. 1. validity validity is intended to find out whether the instrument test is appropriate to be used in this research or not. the validity of the data was categorized based on the criteria used in the table 3.8 below. table 2. criteria of validity questions rxy interpretation ≤ 0 not valid 0.00 – 0.20 very low 0.20 – 0.40 low 0.40 – 0.60 moderate 0.60 – 0.80 high 0.80 – 1.00 very high after administering the pilot test, was found that questions number 1, 2, and 8 seem very high significance. it was valued more than 0.80, so the researcher decided to take out those 3 questions and went with the 10 questions for the pre-test. the validity of the pilot test data will be shown in table 3.9 table 3. validity data questions number coefficient correlation validity information questions information 1 0,880 very easy very significant 2 0,875 easy very significant 3 0,882 moderate very significant 4 0,870 moderate very significant 5 0,903 moderate very significant 6 0,940 moderate very significant 7 0,829 moderate very significant acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no.2. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 253 8 0,890 easy very significant 9 0,833 moderate very significant 10 0,873 moderate very significant 11 0,813 moderate very significant 12 0,897 moderate very significant 13 0,893 moderate very significant 2. reliability according to hoover (2016) test reliability refers to the degree to which a test is consistent and stable in measuring what it is intended to measure. most simply put, a test is reliable if it is consistent within itself and across time. if a test is not valid, then reliability is moot. in other words, if a test is not valid there is no point in discussing reliability because test validity is required before reliability can be considered in any meaningful way. likewise, if a test is not reliable it is also not valid. procedures of data gathering in gathering the data, the researcher has used the following steps : 1. preparation stage during this preparation, the researcher conducted a preliminary study to gain an understanding of the research sample. the researcher next prepares the research instrument, a lesson plan for eight meetings, obtains a letter of research ethics, and locates a school where the research will be conducted. 2. data collection a. conducting the pilot test the pilot test was conducted to the higher level which is grade xii perguruan advent salemba jakarta for 2 hours with 13 questions provided by the researcher. the students will answer the questions given by the researcher . b. conducting pretest the pretest was given before the treatment being implemented to know the prior ability of the students in speaking. the test was in the form of 10 questions that had been pilot tested before and valid. the students came one by one to the front of the class, then they answered all of the questions given by the researcher, and the researcher recorded their answer, transcribed it then put in the criteria of grading. c. giving treatment the researcher used the role play technique to improve the students’ speaking ability. the treatment was held for 8 meetings to one sample group for around 2 months in the grade xi science 3 of sman 1 cisarua students. d. treatment procedure after preparation is ready, the procedures in the classroom every meeting had been conducted as follows: allocation time: 80 minutes (2 x 40 minutes) 1. the researcher introduced the speaking skills and the objective of the lesson for certain days. 2. the researcher divided the class into pairs and gave each group a scripts for their role play 3. the researcher played audio of their scripts around 2 times and asked the student to listen carefully, especially to the words that might be new to them acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no.2. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 254 4. then the researcher gave time for the students to ask about the characters/ roles in the scripts to them, and help them understand how to act it out 5. the researcher asked the students to practice in their group for their role, with the correct expression and pronunciation. 6. each group performed in front of the class for around 5 minutes for every group, and the researcher recorded in the video for each performance. 7. the researcher shares some of the group recording videos before the end of the class, so they can review it by themselves. 8. the researcher gave a short comments and advice for their role-play action. e. conducting posttest after giving the treatment, the students had been given the post-test to know the improvement of the students’ speaking ability after using the role play technique. it is the same format with the pre test treatment, which is answered all of those questions asked by the researcher. then the researcher recorded their speeches, transcribed it and grading their performance. hypotheses testing hypotheses testing is made to answer the research question. in this study, spss was used by the researcher to calculate the result of hypotheses testing which is a one-sample ttest. below is the criteria: if p-value (sig.) ≤ α (0.05) then ha is accepted and ho is rejected. it means that there is a significant difference using the role-play technique in student’s speaking ability. if p-value (sig.) ≥ α (0.05) then ho is accepted and ha is rejected. it means there is no significant difference using the role-play technique in student’s speaking ability. (randy, 2017) findings & discussion description of student’s speaking achievement the treatment was administered to one grade xi class in sman 1 cisarua, which is xi science 3, as the experimental group, in order to answer the research question, "is there any significant difference using role-play technique in improving student's speaking ability?" the class has 34 pupils, 18 of whom are male and 16 of whom are female. spss 24 was used to calculate the data collected from the students' pre and post tests. table 4 shows that the student's speaking abilities improved after receiving the role play treatment. table 4. recapitulation table students pre test pre test (%) post test post test (%) gain s1 135 54% 200 80% ,565217 s2 91 36,4 174 69,6% ,522013 s3 89 35,6% 100 40% ,068323 s4 83 33,2% 150 60% ,401198 s5 90 36% 168 67,2% ,487500 s6 216 86,4% 245 98% ,852941 s7 110 44% 130 52% ,142857 s8 148 59,2% 232 92,8% ,823529 acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no.2. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 255 from table 4. we can see that the mean of the pretest was 42,08 and the mean of the post-test was 62,6. and the gain calculated from both pre-test and post-test was 0,3770. this is the improvement finding from some of the samples that were collected before and after the treatment. pre-test transcribed conversation of s1 (r = researcher, s = student) s : hello my name is dennis erlangga maulana r : can you stay in the dormitory? s : mmm.. i think.. mm i cant stay in the dormitory r : why? s : because mmm.. they. they have their own rules here. r : what store do you like most in the department store? s : ahh.. i like visit toooo.. sport station, because i’m basketball player r : do you prefer go to travel agent or buy online for airline tickets? s : mmm, i prefer to go online because its.. its more easy and simple r : do you have any experience in a coffee shop? s : ahh. no.. because ahh i don’t like go to coffee shop. r : what do you want to take in the university after graduate from high school? s : ahh. i want to continue my study to indonesian education university in fpok r : okay. what do you think about the televison show nowadays? s : ahh, i,,ahh,, apa itu gak nonton.. i don’t watch tv. s9 111 44,4% 113 45,2% ,014388 s10 104 41,6% 150 60% ,315068 s11 221 88,4% 250 100% 1,000000 s12 92 36,8% 141 56,4% ,310127 s13 100 40% 180 28,8% ,533333 s14 82 32,8% 180 72% ,583333 s15 111 44,4% 175 70% ,460432 s16 150 60% 123 49,2% -,270000 s17 98 39,2% 111 44,4% ,085526 s18 156 62,4% 188 75,2% ,340426 s19 105 42% 158 63,2% ,365517 s20 115 46% 185 74% ,518519 s21 102 40,8% 132 52,8% ,202703 s22 83 33,2% 131 52,4% ,287425 s23 50 20% 150 60% ,500000 s24 83 33,2% 106 42,4% ,137725 s25 100 40% 177 70,8% ,513333 s26 75 30% 120 48% ,257143 s27 82 32,8% 171 68,4% ,529762 s28 72 28,8% 151 60,4% ,443820 s29 75 30% 159 63,6% ,480000 s30 50 20% 170 68% ,600000 s31 150 60% 132 52,8% -,180000 s32 75 30% 150 60% ,428571 s33 123 49,2% 150 60% ,212598 s34 50 20% 180 72% ,650000 mean 105,2059 42,08 % 159,7647 62,6 % ,377000 st. dev 39,70557 36,54060 maximum 221 88,4% 250 100% acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no.2. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 256 r : is it more efficient to shop in the department store than in the market? s : ahh.. yes because.. ahh because we can, we can get anything what we need. r : what do you think about hospital? s : ahh. i think hospital is clean, is , is quiet, and, and apa ya. ok. r : what is the benefit to have saving account in the bank? s : ahh. i can save my money and, .. r : what do you think about airport service? s : i think airport service is very busy. r : okay, thank you. based on the transcription above, the student still lacks comprehension of speaking skills. he still could not use the gap filler, a lot of pauses, and was only able to provide simple sentences, could not expand the answer, and a lot of grammatical errors. here below is the score he got from the pre-test based on the criteria from table 5. (speaking rubric sheet) s1 table 5. (speaking rubric sheet) no questions category total f p v g d 1 what do you want to take in the university after graduate from high school 2 4 3 2 2 13 2 can you stay in a dormitory? 3 4 3 2 3 15 3 what do you think about hospital? 3 3 3 2 2 13 4 what store do you like most in the department store? 3 4 3 3 3 16 5 is it more efficient to shop in the department store than in a market? 2 2 3 3 3 13 6 do you prefer go to travel agent or buy online for airline ticket? 2 3 3 3 2 13 7 what do you think about airport service? 2 2 3 3 2 12 8 what is the benefit to have a saving account in the bank? 3 2 3 3 3 14 9 do you have any experience in a coffee shop? 2 3 3 2 3 13 10 what do you think about the television show nowadays? 3 3 3 2 2 13 total 25 30 30 25 25 135 note : f = fluency, p = pronunciation, v = vocabulary, g = grammar, d = details after giving the role play treatment, the student has a significant improvement as it shown from the transcription and the score below. post-test transcribed conversation of s1 (r = researcher, s = student) s : hello my name dennis erlangga maulana i am from xii science 3 r : what do you want to take in the university after graduated from high school? acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no.2. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 257 s : i want to take sport education, in upi. r : can you stay in the dormitory? s : no because i think the dormitory has many rules r : what do you think about the hospital? s : i think hospital is very clean, safety and comfort r : what store do you like most in the department store? s : i like go to sport station because i am a basketball player. r : is it more efficient to shop in the department store than in the market? s : i think in the department store more efficient because i can buy anything that i need r : do you prefer to go to travel agent or buy online ticket? s : i prefer go to buy online because its more simple and efficient r : what do you think about airport service? s : i think airport service is very busy and many people r : what is the benefit to have saving account in the bank? s : uhh saving account in the bank is the safest place to save our money r : do you have any experiences in the coffee shop? s : uhh i don’t like to go to coffee shop because its more expensive r : what do you think about the television show nowadays? s : uhh some television shows nowadays is bad for education r : thank you. table 6. and the post test score no questions category total f p v g d 1 what do you want to take in the university after graduate from high school 4 4 4 4 4 20 2 can you stay in a dormitory? 4 4 4 4 4 20 3 what do you think about hospital? 4 4 4 4 4 20 4 what store do you like most in the department store? 4 4 4 3 4 20 5 is it more efficient to shop in the department store than in a market? 4 4 4 3 4 20 6 do you prefer go to travel agent or buy online for airline ticket? 4 4 4 4 4 20 7 what do you think about airport service? 4 4 4 4 4 20 8 what is the benefit to have a saving account in the bank? 4 4 4 4 4 20 9 do you have any experience in a coffee shop? 4 4 4 4 4 20 10 what do you think about the television show nowadays? 4 4 4 4 4 20 total 40 40 40 40 40 200 note : f = fluency, p = pronunciation, v = vocabulary, g = grammar, d = details pre-test transcribed conversation of s27 (r = researcher, s = student) s : hello my name is annisa rizki nurhidayanti r : can you stay in the dormitory? acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no.2. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 258 s : yes i can because i can meet my friend everytime r : what do you think about the hospital? s : i like hospital because hospital care many people r : what store do you like most in the department store? s : book store, because i can buy many books r : do you prefer to go to travel agent or buy online ticket? s : buy online because its can efficient my time r : is it more efficient to shop in the department store than in the market? s : market r : what do you want to take in the university after graduated from high school? s : i want to .. i want to.. i want to institute technology 10 november r : what do you think about airport service? s : i think good r : what is the benefit to have saving account in the bank? s : i can save my money r : do you have any experiences in the coffee shop? s : i never go to coffee shop r : what do you think about the television show nowadays? s : last week i never watching television table 7. the pretest score no questions category total f p v g d 1 what do you want to take in the university after graduate from high school 3 2 2 2 2 11 2 can you stay in a dormitory? 2 2 2 1 2 9 3 what do you think about hospital? 1 2 1 2 2 8 4 what store do you like most in the department store? 3 1 1 1 2 8 5 is it more efficient to shop in the department store than in a market? 2 1 1 2 2 8 6 do you prefer go to travel agent or buy online for airline ticket? 1 1 1 2 1 6 7 what do you think about airport service? 3 2 2 2 1 10 8 what is the benefit to have a saving account in the bank? 2 2 2 1 1 8 9 do you have any experience in a coffee shop? 1 2 2 1 1 7 10 what do you think about the television show nowadays? 2 1 2 1 1 7 total 20 16 16 15 15 82 note : f = fluency, p = pronunciation, v = vocabulary, g = grammar, d = details she is one of the lower score average before the treatment was given. and here below is the post-test score and transcription. s : hello my name is annisa rizki from xii science 3 acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no.2. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 259 r : what do you want to take in the university after graduated from high school? s : insha allah i want continue padjajaran university education r : can you stay in the dormitory? s : yes because im independent r : what do you think about the hospital? s : hospital is where the person is sick r : what store do you like most in the department store? s : drug store and clothing store r : is it more efficient to shop in the department store than in the market? s : yes because more clean r : do you prefer to go to travel agent or buy online ticket? s : online because its so easy r : what do you think about airport service? s : airport service is a good service because priority passenger comfort r : what is the benefit to have saving account in the bank? s : can saving a money r : do you have any experiences in the coffee shop? s : yes its enjoy to hangout because i like coffee r : what do you think about the television show nowadays? s : because so boring r : thank you. table 8. post-test score no questions category total f p v g d 1 what do you want to take in the university after graduate from high school 3 3 4 3 3 16 2 can you stay in a dormitory? 4 3 3 3 3 16 3 what do you think about hospital? 4 3 4 4 3 18 4 what store do you like most in the department store? 4 3 4 4 3 18 5 is it more efficient to shop in the department store than in a market? 4 3 3 3 3 16 6 do you prefer go to travel agent or buy online for airline ticket? 4 4 4 4 3 19 7 what do you think about airport service? 4 3 4 3 3 17 8 what is the benefit to have a saving account in the bank? 4 3 4 3 3 17 9 do you have any experience in a coffee shop? 4 3 4 3 3 17 10 what do you think about the television show nowadays? 4 3 4 3 3 17 total 39 31 38 33 30 171 note : f = fluency, p = pronunciation, v = vocabulary, g = grammar, d = details acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no.2. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 260 there are high improvement from pre-test only gain 82 to 171 points after the treatment was given. here are another example of the improvement of the sample. pre-test transcribed conversation of s11 (r = researcher, s = student) s : okay my name is dewi hajar rahmawati ali. im from uhh xii science 3 r : can you stay in the dormitory? s : yes of course, because im students dormitory now. r : what do you think about the hospital? s : hospital is a place or the destinations if we getting sick. r : is it more efficient to shop in the department store than in the market? s : yes of course because we can find everything that we need easily. r : what do you think about airport service? s : actually its good enough, but i don’t know hows the best service it is. r : what do you want to take in the university after graduated from high school? s : international relation at indonesian university. r : why? s : because i like public speaking, economic, politics, etc. r : what is the benefit to have a saving account in the bank? s : uhh, we can save the money at the bank without worrying the money will lost for example. r : do you have any experiences in the coffee shop? s : uhh, yes i have we can gether fresh idea and we can enjoy the coffee freely, etc r : what do you think about the television show nowadays? s : the television show nowadays is breaking indonesian culture in the world. r : what store do you like most in the department store? s : clothing and make up store. r : why? s : because i like make up and fashion actually. r : do you prefer to go to travel agent or buy online ticket? s : i wont choose both of them because i’ll buy it directly in the airport. r : thank you s : youre welcome table. 9. pre-test score no questions category total f p v g d 1 what do you want to take in the university after graduate from high school 4 5 5 5 5 24 2 can you stay in a dormitory? 5 5 5 4 4 23 3 what do you think about hospital? 4 5 5 5 4 23 4 what store do you like most in the department store? 4 5 5 5 4 23 acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no.2. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 261 5 is it more efficient to shop in the department store than in a market? 4 5 5 5 5 24 6 do you prefer go to travel agent or buy online for airline ticket? 3 4 5 5 4 21 7 what do you think about airport service? 4 5 4 4 4 21 8 what is the benefit to have a saving account in the bank? 3 4 4 5 4 20 9 do you have any experience in a coffee shop? 4 4 4 4 5 21 10 what do you think about the television show nowadays? 4 5 4 4 4 21 total 39 47 46 46 43 221 note : f = fluency, p = pronunciation, v = vocabulary, g = grammar, d = details she is one of the student that can gain the perfect score in the post-test. here is the transcription and the post test score : s : hello my name is dewi hajar rahmawati ali and im from xii science 3 of cisarua senior high school r : what do you want to take in the university after graduated from high school? s : after graduate from high school, i’ll take international relation of indonesian university. because why? because first, i like economics, i want talking about politics, i want talking about social. beside that, ive read a book which talking about indonesian people in other country which get sexual harassment and nobody can help. so i wanna be a diplomat to help them to solve their problem. r : can you stay in the dormitory? s : of course yes i can. because since i was junior high school, im staying in the dormitory until right now. so i can uhh make my self follow all of the rules in the dormitory. r : what do you think about the hospital? s : the hospital is a place that will be a destination if we are getting a ‘ sick. beside that, hospital is a place which cares about the health of people. r : what store do you like most in the department store? s : i think i like clothing store, because i like fashion actually, and then i like make up store. yes, i like make up. r : is it more efficient to shop in the department store than in the market? s : yes it is. because the department store we can find the things that we need easier in the department store, than in the market. because in the department store always separate by the store in that place. for example. from the gate, if we turn right, all of the things from the right side is clothing store. that’s for example. and if i turn left, all of the things in the left side is food store. for example. r : do you prefer to go to travel agent or buy online ticket? s : im so sorry i won’t choose booth of them. because i would rather acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no.2. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 262 to directly in the airport because its easier than other choice. r : what do you think about airport service? s : actually the real answer is i don’t know how the best services is, in the airport, because im not airport worker, so i don’t know the best service, but uhh according to my experience, the airport service are very good, especially in indonesia r : what is the benefit to have saving account in the bank? s : of course we can save the money without worrying the money will lost. r : do you have any experiences in the coffee shop? s : yes of course. i have uhh i have uuh gone to the coffee shop and there i can get so many fresh ideas and i can enjoy the coffee, fill it as much as i want. r : what do you think about the television show nowadays? s : of course according to my opinion, according to the things that seen by me in the television nowadays, is talking about the things that can break indonesian norm, but this is only my perspectives, i don’t know what is the real. r : thank you. table 10. post-test score no questions category total f p v g d 1 what do you want to take in the university after graduate from high school 5 5 5 5 5 25 2 can you stay in a dormitory? 5 5 5 5 5 25 3 what do you think about hospital? 5 5 5 5 5 25 4 what store do you like most in the department store? 5 5 5 5 5 25 5 is it more efficient to shop in the department store than in a market? 5 5 5 5 5 25 6 do you prefer go to travel agent or buy online for airline ticket? 5 5 5 5 5 25 7 what do you think about airport service? 5 5 5 5 5 25 8 what is the benefit to have a saving account in the bank? 5 5 5 5 5 25 9 do you have any experience in a coffee shop? 5 5 5 5 5 25 10 what do you think about the television show nowadays? 5 5 5 5 5 25 total 50 50 50 50 50 250 note : f = fluency, p = pronunciation, v = vocabulary, g = grammar, d = details student’s speaking ability in sman 1 cisarua grade xi science 3 are improved after using the role play technique shown in table 4.2 below, which is the average gain for speaking skill improvement is 0,377000. according to randy (2017), if 0,30 < g ≤ 0,70 it means that the improvement of students’ performance after pretest and post-test is moderate. since the 0,30 < 0,377000, it can conclude that all the students speaking skill are improved. acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no.2. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 263 table 11. table of pre-test, post-test, standard deviation and gain based on the description above, the mean score in the pre-test is 42,08 and the standard deviation is 39,70557. after giving the role play treatment it has improved in the post test with a mean score of 62,6 with gain score 0,377000 and the standard deviation in the post test is 36,54060. from all 34 students who have given the treatment, the average gain of pretest-posttest is 0,377000. it can be interpreted as moderate improvement. one sample t-test if p-value (sig.) ≤ α (0.05) then ha is accepted and ho is rejected. it means that role play techniques do improve the english speaking ability of grade xi students. if p-value (sig.) ≥ α (0.05) then ho is accepted and ha is rejected. it means that the role play technique does not improve the english speaking ability of grade xi students. table 12. the one sample test (data taken from spss) discussion of the research finding the result of the study above that showed in table 7. that the role play technique does improve the english speaking ability of the grade xi students. since it was proved from the gain value from the pre-test to post-test, it can be concluded that the role play technique is an effective technique that can improve the english speaking ability of the students. by analyzing the transcription data, it can be seen and concluded that there are differences between student speaking skills before and after giving the treatment. before treatment, they had the difficulty to speak fluently, most of them will pause between the sentences. they have a lot of grammatical error in structure, and they also have the difficulties to explain and expand the sentences in detail. for example, when the researcher asked them about “can you stay in the dormitory?” before the role play treatment, most of them only answer with “yes” or “no”. without explaining the reason. but after the treatment given to them, when they were asked the same question, they can answer it with reason and explain it in detail like, “no, because i don’t like the rules in the dormitory, so i cannot be free do what i want” or “yes, i can because i like to be independent far from my parents and home”. it can be concluded that they have a slight high improvement in their speaking ability. in the fluency column it can be interpreted as “able to speak smooth and fluid; only a few hesitations; a slight search for words; inaudible word only one or two”. in the pronunciation and accent column, it can be interpreted as “pronunciation is good; some effort at accent, still non-native”. in the vocabulary column, it can be interpreted as “good language control; good range of relatively well-chosen sample group mean standard deviation pre -test 42,08 39,70557 post – test 62,6 36,54060 gain 0,377000 t df sig. (2-tailed) mean difference 95% confidence internal of the difference lower upper pre test 15,911 34 ,000 42,08 91,76862 118,64315 post test 26,256 34 ,000 62,6 147,39855 172,13088 acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no.2. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 264 vocabulary”. in the grammar column, it can be interpreted as “some errors in grammatical structures possibly caused by an attempt to include a variety”. and in the details column can be interpreted as “good level of description; all required and important information included”. most of them after the role play treatment can achieve 4 out of 5 points in every column in each question. in the data of the pretest, the total grading is 100% right for 10 questions and 5 columns for each question. according to the result, none of them can achieve the perfect score. the highest score in the pre-test was 86,4 %, and the lowest score was 20%. the mean average in the pre-test data was 42,08. while in the post-test, there is 1 student can achieve the perfect score, which is 100%. and the lowest score for the post-test data was 28,8%. the mean average for the post-test data was 62,6. but there are only moderate to low improvement because of some factors. not all the students from the samples taken, dare to speak. so, when they are given the questions, they will just answer yes or no, without adding more details. and some of the students also didn’t have any interest in english, so some of them skip from the classroom during the treatment that affected the average result of the research. it is also related to some of the related studies that were done before. based on the study of hartatik in 2012 in her graduating paper which entitled “using role-play method toward improving student’s speaking achievement of the fifth grade students in mi sukerejo 02 suruh in the academic year of 2011/2012” she concluded that after using the role play method the samples can improve their speaking ability. from the other study by lilis suryani in her research entitled “the effectiveness of role-play in teaching speaking” in the year of 2015 she also concluded that role play is effective in teaching speaking in the junior high level. so, this study can give a definite answer to “does role play technique improve english speaking ability of grade xi students?” the answer to this is yes, based on the finding on this study role-play improves english speaking ability. conclusion from this research, the conclusion that can be drawn are following: the role play technique is an effective technique in improving the student’s speaking ability. it was known in the research that the hypothesis testing showed there is improvement of the grade xi student’s speaking ability. so the role-play technique is one of the techniques that can be considered in teaching to improve the english speaking ability. from the researcher point of view, it was found that the grade xi students of sman 1 cisarua can speak comprehensively, as long as they are motivated and equipped to practice and they have the willingness to learn and broaden their knowledge of english speaking if they are stimulated recommendations the researcher want to give some recommendations after conducting the research and concluding the research result, since the result of this study showed that the role play technique does improve the english speaking ability of grade xi students for the future researcher, english major students, the english teacher and for everyone who wants to improve their english speaking ability. according to the research result, this role play technique are one of technique that can be considered to improve the english speaking ability because the students were excited and not bored in the classroom. they were motivated to learn more and they can also improve their confidence toward english speaking. the researcher do not know the result if it will be given in the different samples, but according to the previous research also about the role play technique it is suitable to be used for the senior high school students. acuity: journal of english language pedagogy, literature, and culture. vol.8. no.2. 2023 https://jurnal.unai.edu/index.php/acuity 265 references arham, r (2016). the use of role play to improve teaching speaking. international journal of scientific and research publications. 6(3) arikunto. 2006. prosedur penelitian suatu pendekatan praktek. jakarta: rineka cipta beck & mckeown. 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