copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 1, january 2021 e-issn: 2723-2146 55 identifying the students’ difficulties in comprehending toefl reading test dahlan state islamic university (uin alauddin makassar), indonesia dahlanrida7279@gmail.com abstract the study aimed to find out the students’ difficulties in comprehending toefl reading test. the description of the data through the question as explained in the previous section showed that the students have some problems or difficulties in toefl. there are five items of the difficulties faced by students of fourth-semester students of iain palopo in the academic year 2016/2017 about determining the main idea, supporting detail, vocabulary, reference and inference. those facts are also backed up by the result of the questionnaire which show that those items must be considered to be resolved. key words: reading comprehension, students’ difficulties, toefl test introduction english is an international language which is learned all over the word. in education english has been chosen as one of the subject that should be mastered by the student; in junior high school, senior high school, and university level. in indonesia teaching english focuses on four basic skills, namely; listening, reading, speaking and writing, one of the fair raise skill which is very important in learning english reading. kinds of reading which have been recognized comprehensively is become one of basic skill but it regarded as difficult one by the student. they think that reading is required a lot of vocabulary to understand the given passegges.in reading there are a few things to note, for example, punctuation in reading the text, how to capture the intent of the text, and the difficulty in understanding a passage, so that the reader can get clear information from a text that was written by an author. moreover, a reader should pay attention word for word from the text so that use pronoun can get the meaning and purpose in reading the text. one of them most complaints is difficulties in doing the toefl test that is a test of english language proficiency and become a global standard for viewing one’s ability in the english language as a whole therefore, it becomes very important the understanding because toefl is a test used to determine ability to master english especially related to the academic purposes. toefl test is designed to measure the english language proficiency for those whose everyday language is not english. toefl is a common requirement when we want to apply for scholarship abroad or work requirement in many companies. to be able to do the toefl test well and get a high sore, in accordance with the allocation of time, it takes the right technique. one alternative that can be applied is difficulties in comprehending reading copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 1, january 2021 e-issn: 2723-2146 56 toefl. when looking for details, we expect students to concentrate on the minutes of what they are reading. by using technique the participant can cover the whole problem on the items on the toefl test is very varied and has a difficulty level is quite high. the writer chooses this technique because it is considered to help to plan, communicate, become more creative, save time, solve problems, focus, organize and clarify thoughts, recall them better, learn faster and efficient, and see the whole picture. achieving a high toefl scores particularly in reading comprehension is often a problem for most people, especially those who are required to take the test because many students who cannot read fast and understand quickly because lack of rich vocabulary of well-established. so wealth richer vocabulary possessed the more easily achieve fast read and understand quickly. the lack of ability in comprehend the reading text, be, such as; inability in scanning, skimming, guessing meaning from the context, etc. the students unable in getting the message from the text and they will be failure in answering the question related to the text. methods the method that applied in this research was quantitative descriptive method. it is used to give description about students’ difficulties in comprehending toefl reading test at fourth semester of iain palopo. design design in uses research was a questionnaire distributed to students in the fourth semester of study completed s1. this questionnaire which gives data related to teaching reading toefl test to be resolved as a condition to determine how well the students’ answer the questions that have been created. the questionnaire consisted of 50 questions and 10 types in the toefl. population and sample the population of this research wereall of the fourth semester students of iain palopo. the number of population was 124 students from four classes. they are a, b, c, and d. sample was a part of population that can represent all of population. in this case, the researcher applied purposive sampling, it can represent a class a in fourth semester because the english language proficiency is tolerable another classes. the researcher took 20 students in class a of iain palopo. instrument the research toefl reading test by using a toefl reading test in the form of multiple choicequestionsconsistingof50 questions, that asking about the students’ difficulties in iain palopo. copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 1, january 2021 e-issn: 2723-2146 57 questionnaire questionscreated by the authors is the question to the students about what the difficulties faced in working toefl reading test. the number of question consist 8 (eight) question and have three multiple choice namely strongly agree (ss), agree (s), and easy (m). procedure of collecation data the procedure of the research following steps: 1. the writer explained little about toefl reading 2. the writer conducted test and questionnaire, and then explained how to do the test. the time for doing the test took 55 minutes and questionnaires will be taken 15 minutes. 3. the writer analyzed the result of the test and questionnaire. 4. classified the data based on the students ability and students difficulties in toefl reading. technique of data analysis in analyzing the data the writer used descriptive analyzing the data: test the writer analyzed the ability of the fourth semester at iain palopo in toefl reading test by using the following: scoring the students answer score = total correct answer total test item x 10 classifying the students score based on the following classification m= ∑× 𝑁 where: m= mean score ∑×= total score n= total sample classifying the students score based on the following classification excellent : 9.6-10 very good : 8.6-9.5 good : 7.6-8.5 fairly good : 6.6-7.5 copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 1, january 2021 e-issn: 2723-2146 58 fairly : 5.6-6.5 poor : 3.6-5.5 very poor :0-3.5 questionnaire to analyze then responses in comprehending toefl reading test at fourth semester of iain palopo, the writer used percentage of the questionnaire the writer used the following formula: p = fq n x 100% where: p = rate percentage f q = frequency of respondent n = total sample results toefl reading test table 1. the score of toefl reading test no respondent correct answer score 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 r1 r2 r3 r4 r5 r6 r7 r8 r9 r10 r11 r12 23 17 17 17 18 18 15 15 15 18 16 15 4.6 3.4 3.4 3.4 3.6 3.6 3 3 3 3.6 3.2 3 copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 1, january 2021 e-issn: 2723-2146 59 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 r13 r14 r15 r16 r17 r18 r19 r20 13 13 12 11 11 11 13 16 2.6 2.6 2.4 2.2 2.2 2.2 2.6 3.2 n=20 95 from the table 4.1, there are only 4 students who scored 4.6, 3.6, 3.6 and 3.6. the other students got very less than the maximum value. means can be seen students still have difficulty in toefl reading test. table 2. rate percentage of the students score in toefl reading test no classification score frequency percentage 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 excellent very good good fairly good fairly poor very poor 9.6-10 8.6-9.5 7.6-8.5 6.6-7.5 5.6-6.5 3.6-5.5 0-3.5 13 7 65% 35% 20 100% copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 1, january 2021 e-issn: 2723-2146 60 1. questionnaire table 3. the answering question in toefl reading test no classification frequency percentage 1 2 3 very difficult difficult easy 2 14 4 10% 70% 20% total 20 100% source: number 1 questionnaire discussion the description of the data through question as explained in the previous section showed that the students have some problem or difficulties in toefl reading. student difficulties in comprehending toefl reading test at fourth semester in iain palopo. in reading toefl test, there are five items among the five items to the difficulties faced by students fourth semester class a are the supporting details, because the average student in the toefl test carried there are some students who go a very minimal value of item is in reading toefl test. as for the y difficult problem answered by students of fourth semester is iain palopo: main idea 33. some scientists believe that the african bees which have devastated the latin american beekeeping industry will be come gentler as they interbreed with the previously introduced european varieties. a. european bees will not be advantageous to the latin american beekeeping industry b. african bees are ferocious and destructive c. the latin american beekeeping industry bees interbreed d. african bees as well as european bees live in latin america 37. elephants are slowly becoming trapped in isolated forest enclaves completely surrounded by land cleared for agriculture. a. hunters are trapping elephant’s in isolated forest enclaves to get their ivory tusks. b. people are destroying the elephant’s habitat to make farms c. elephant’s would have to cross through farmland to migrate to different forests d. people are trapping elephant’s to use them for clearing land for agriculture supporting details 44. “medical authorities have been reluctant to support the findings of some nutritionists that vitamin c given in large doses can prevent the common cold copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 1, january 2021 e-issn: 2723-2146 61 a. medical authorities support the nutritionists’ views about the value of vitamin c in preventing the common cold b. nutritionists have found that medical authorities are not in favor using vitamin c to prevent the common cold c. some nutritionists have found that large doses of vitamin c doses of vitamin c can prevent the common cold, but this has not been completely accepted by medical authorities d. according to nutritionists and some medical authorities, the common cold can be prevented by giving large doses of vitamin c” 45. “a silver compound has been found to kill parasitic protozoa which are carried by the dreaded tsetse fly causes sleeping sickness a. the dreaded tsetse fly causes sleeping sickness and kills the parasitic protozoa used for finding silver compound b. it has been found that the silver compound which is carried by the dreaded tsetse fly and causes sleeping sickness kills the parasitic protozoa c. sleeping sickness, which is caused by the dreaded tsetse fly, has been found to kill the parasitic protozoa in silver compound d. parasitic protozoa which causes sleeping sickness and are carried by the dreaded tsetse fly can be killed with a silver compound” vocabulary 8. the false theory of spontaneous generation was disproved by louis pasteur a. sagacious c. circumstantial b. automatic d. surreptitious reference 13. researchers believe that mao (monoamine oxidase) in the brain has an effect on behavior by breaking down the chemical neurotransmitters that carry messages between neurons. scientists have found a connection between levels of mao and adult behavior. one study found approximately the same range of mao levels infants and adults. a. mao and behavior patterns c. one study mao b. what is mao d. mao’s effect on adults behavior inference questions 21-30 a relatively new feature of radio broadcasts in unites states is the call-in therapy shows , in which callers get the opportunity to air problems, however intimate while the hosts offer copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 1, january 2021 e-issn: 2723-2146 62 line 5 them free, and immediate, advice. the started, like so many other self-help psychology ideas, in california in the early 1970’s, but now they have spread to many other parts of the century and enjoy considerable popularity. this phenomenon certainly doe not please all psychologists and the shows have line 10 become a matter of some concern to their professional association, the apa. presents apa guidelines merely prohibit psychologists from diagnosing problem, line 15 or from offering psychotherapy on the radio, while the earlier ones had prohibited all giving of advice outside die traditional therapist-patient relationship. this prohibition fails to satisfy many psychologists. some consider all giving of psychological advice line 20 over die radio totally unacceptable, but there are others who believe there should be even more of it. the former are typified by a hasting center psychiatrist. who describes the line 24 activity as “disgusting”. on one occasion, he backed up view by line 25out of a radio program when the host insisted he answer listeners’ calls. but radio therapy hosts, who are mostly attractive, youngish and qualified women, are fully capable of backing up theirs, and do so charmingly and effectively, as might be line 30 expected from professionals combining psychological expertise with entertainment know-how. 23. this phenomenons (line 9) refers to a. the fact that the shows started in california b. the fact that callers air intimate problems c. the fact that the shows started in the early 1970’s d. the fact that shows enjoy considerable popularity the previous most of questions difficulty students choose answer c, where as the correct answer to question no44isd. supporting details of matter we can see the in fourth semester students still lack of understanding of the content or context of the sentence reading in reading it. most students rely on the ability to guess without regard to reading the text well. besides subsequent difficulties faced by students are the main idea item, reference, and inference, where as the vocabulary items fourth semester classes a student has been able to answer well although the answer is far from perfect. there are several issues which in a sense is hard on them about the reference and the main idea. the students difficulty in answering the questions in the test toefl reading is because they are lazy students read about there dingiest tool on grand the vocabulary used in the reading toefl rarely used so that students can only rely on guesses answer. that is why the answer toefl class (a) fourth semester students are still far from perfect. the others cause is the difficulty of students in findings main idea in toefl read; it can be seen on the table 4.9. seven students said very difficult, ten students said difficult, and just four students said easy. it also cause of lack of student lack of speed read as seen on the table 4.10, ten students said difficult to the speed reading in toefl reading test. some students also copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 1, january 2021 e-issn: 2723-2146 63 difficult in when reading the literature, understand the information written in the toefl reading test, as seen on the table 4.11, but a half of the respondent took in this research said easy to reading literature the information written after reading toefl test in a passage. for the question number 8, sixteen students said difficult, four students said easy, and none students’ said very difficult of toefl reading test. some students are difficult in using expression when is working toefl reading test, it can be seen 4.8 were two students chose very difficult, nine students said difficult, and nine said easy. it means that almost a half of the students taken as sample in this research easy to use expression in toefl reading. from the eight questionnaires, just two questions that is most of the students said easy. it is the questionnaire number five and six easy notice the punctuation when is working or reading in toefl test. conclusion student difficulties in comprehending toefl reading test at fourth semester of english department in iain palopo 2014/2015 academic years in toefl reading are: 1. difficulties in comprehending toefl reading test. in vocabulary items, the fourth semester students is much more able to answer questions toefl test well in the appeal other items, readings that is too long to make students become bored to read, the students on average fourth semester playing is difficulties in this item, because the vocabulary is still rarely use dignitary in every day, the students rely solely on answers guess that makes no right answer, and the items inference students almost answered with good about the test. 2. the students responses about toefl reading test. the researcher think there are three difficult faced by students in toefl reading test, namely: 1). limited time, 2). limited vocabulary, and 3). lack of concentration. therefore, in the work or answer questions toefl reading must use time as efficiently as possible, in addition to the students in required to reproduce in required to reproduce the vocabulary before taking the test toefl vocabulary before reading. because in reading there are lot of difficult vocabulary understand and students are suggested to concentrate on the work toefl test. references ali, irham, saifuddin. (2010). 34 trik ampuh capai skor tinggi toefl”, penerbit laksana. amaliah, suci. (2012). pengertian toefl dan soal test toefl. online : http://suciamaliah.bogspot.com/2012/09/pengertian-toefl-dan-soal-test-toefl.html arikunto, suharsimi. (1992). prosedur penelitian suatu pendekatan baru dalam teori dan praktek; jakarta: pt. rineka cipta. bowman. (2014). online: http://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/reading http://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/reading copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 1, january 2021 e-issn: 2723-2146 64 bull, victoria. (2008). oxford learners’s pocket dictionary. fourth edition. newyork: oxford university press cliffs. (2005). toefl preparation guide, india: willy-dreamlech india pvt.ltd. cristal, david. (1985) a dictionary of linguistics and phonetics, new york: basil blackwell lid. david, nunan. (1996). language teaching methodology: a textbook for teachers. great britain: redwood books grallet, fransise. (1981). developing reading. london: cambridge. harmer, jeremy. (1998). how to teach english. longman: cambridge university press. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/reading,.comprehension. accessed on january, 20th 2014 inmon & lenier. (1992). college reading book 2. new york: prentice hall. malik, afia. (2005). the study of students ability in reading comprehension by using sq3r technique (a case study), makassar: unhas. middin, farida. (2007) the difficulties of students in finding main idea and supporting details text reading comprehension of the second years students of english department in stain palopo. a thesis s1. unpublished thesis: stain palopo. minarti. (2009). increasing the students’ reading skill at the second year of sma negeri 1 baebunta through anecdotes. palopo: uncokro palopo. nuttal, cristian. (1982). teaching reading skill in foreign language. london: cambridge. phillips, deborah. () longman preparation course for the toefl test the paper test. pearson longman. riyanto, slamet. (2007). the 1st students choice toefl (test of english as a foreign language). pustaka pelajar. ridwan. (2003). dasar-dasarstatistika. jakarta: rineka cipta. said, suherniati. (2009). difficulties faced by the eleventh year students of madrasah aliyah rantebelu, kec. larompong in arranging english noun phrase. a thesis s1. unpublished thesis: stain palopo. sulpiana. (2008). the difficulties faced by the second year students of english program stain palopo in reading. unpublished thesis: stain palopo. team of five. (2006). improving reading skill in english for university students book 3. 4 workbook 3. jakarta: kencana http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/reading,.comprehension copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 114 using story mapping technique in teaching writing skills at sman 1 palopo 1ashar daung allo, 2wahibah, and 3magfirah thayyib 1,2.3institut agama islam negeri palopo (iain palopo), palopo, indonesia asharplp22@gmail.com1 *wahibah@iainpalopo.ac.id2 magfirah_thayyib@iainpalopo.ac.id3 abstract the purpose of this research was to find out whether the use of story mapping technique effective to improve students’ writing recount text at the first grade of sman 1 palopo. this research applied quasi experimental. the research was carried out in two classes, experimental and control classes. the population of this research was the first grade students of sman 1 palopo. the samples of this research were class x mipa 2 as a control class and class x ipa 3 as experimental class. the sampling technique in this research was random sampling. the instrument of this research was writing test. the writer gave pretest and posttest to the students. the data was analyzed by using spss 20.the result of this research showed that the use of story mapping technique in teaching writing recount text is effective. it could be seen from the result of calculation that the students’ score in experimental class which was higher than students’ score in control class. the mean score of posttest in experimental class was higher than the mean score of pretest (76.7667>61.6667). while in control class the mean score of posttest was also higher than the mean score of pretest (71.0667>67.8000). it means that there was significant difference between the students’ score in teaching writing recount text by using story mapping technique and students’ score in teaching writing recount text without using story mapping technique at the first grade of sman 1 palopo. key words: writing, technique, recount text. introduction english is very important in daily life. as an international language, it plays an important role in communication which many people are involved in. english has many connections with various aspects of human being. there are four skills that have to be mastered. they are speaking, writing, reading and listening. listening and reading are receptive skills, because student just receive and understand language without producing it. these skills are known as passive skills. on the other hand, speaking and writing are productive skills because students are producing a language. they are also known as active skills (irvy, 2020). writing is a skill that must be improved by the students. in the process of teaching and learning writing, some teachers do not know how to teach writing appropriately (yahya et al., 2020). the teacher usually only asks the students to write as much as possible without knowing how to make the students do the instruction. this fact motivated the researchers to focus on encouraging the students to write recount text or to tell stories of their past experience in the written form (anwar et al., 2020). however not all students can adopt the methods used by the teacher. learning with the same technique make students bored and have no idea to write. that is why teachers must master various methods and creativity in teaching in order to assist student in learning process. there are many factors affecting the students in writing. the difficulty http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 mailto:asharplp22@gmail.com1 mailto:wahibah@iainpalopo.ac.id mailto:magfirah_thayyib@iainpalopo.ac.id3 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 115 to get ideas, low in grammar skills, lacked of vocabulary are the problem in the classroom. these problems are the causes of students’ poor writing ability. the activities done by the teacher did not encourage the students to learn and write more. the teacher usually just asks the students to write based on the instruction, but it is very difficult for them to write directly in an empty paper. asking the students to rearrange words into sentences or sentences into paragraphs cannot stimulate their willingness to write (anggraeni et al., 2020). based on the observation in sman 1 palopo that had been done and had been explained above, the low writing ability was affected by some factors and that would be impossible to analyze all of them one by one in this research. story mapping is the best solution to solve students 'problems in writing recount text, because it greatly facilitates students in organizing students' stories into a mapping. methods the research applied a quasi-experimental design. the research involved in two groups, experimental and control group. the experimental group received treatment by using story mapping technique, the control group received treatment by using conventional method. group pre treatment post treatment class control class o1 o2 x o3 o4 where: treatment class : experimental method control class : conventional method o1 : result of pre-test (in experimental method) o2 : result of pre-test (in conventional method) x : treatment (story mapping technique for treatment class) o3 : result of post-test (in experimental method) o4 : result of post-test (in conventional method). variable this research consists of two variables. dependent variable is ability of the student in writing recount text. independent variable is story mapping technique population and sample the writer took the first grade students of sman 1 palopo as a population. the writer took two classes as sample, x mia 2 and x mia 3 of sman 1 palopo academic year 2019/2020. there were 60 students (30 students of control class and 30 students of experimental class). random sampling was used to take a sample of this research research instrument the data collected by using writing test. the writer used writing recount text to know ability of the students in english before and after giving treatment. the writing test is about their experiences in the most memorable experience. technique of data analysis the data were analyzed by using statistical produce and service solution (spss) ver. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 116 20 for windows. it would be tabulated into independent sample test, mean score, standard deviation, and standard error deviation. results the students score of experimental class table 1. the students’ pre-test result in experimental class classification score frequency percentage excellent 90-100 0 0% good 80-89 0 0% adequate 70-79 8 26.66% inadequate 60-69 12 40% unacceptable below 60 10 33.33% table 1 shows that there are 30 students observed in experimental class before giving treatment. there are eight students (26.66%) who get adequate score, twelve students (40%) who get inadequate score, ten students (33.33%) who get unacceptable score. table 2. the students’ post-test result in experimental class classification score frequency percentage excellent 90-100 6 20% good 80-89 5 16.66% adequate 70-79 12 40 % inadequate 60-69 7 23.33% unacceptable below 60 0 0% the table shows that there are 30 students observed in experimental class after giving treatment. there are six students (20%) who get excellent score, five students (16.66%) who get good score, twelve students (40%) who get adequate score, seven students (23.33%) who get inadequate score. the students score in control class table 3. the students’ pre-test result in control class classification score frequency percentage excellent 90-100 0 0% good 80-89 1 3.33% adequate 70-79 13 43.33% inadequate 60-69 12 40% unacceptable below 60 4 13.33% table 3 shows that there are 30 students observed in control class before teaching without using story mapping technique. there is one student (3.33%) who got good score, thirteen students (43.33%) who get adequate score, twelve students (40%) who get inadequate score, five students (13.33%) who get unacceptable score. table 4. the students’ post-test result in control class classification score frequency percentage excellent 90-100 1 3.33% good 80-89 3 10% adequate 70-79 13 43.33% http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 117 inadequate 60-69 11 36.66% unacceptable below 60 2 6.66% table 4 shows that there are 30 students observed in control class after teaching using conventional method. there is one student (3.33%) who get excellent score, three students (10%) who get good score, thirteen students (43.33%) who get adequate score, eleven students (36.66%) who get inadequate score, two students (6.66%) who get unacceptable score. the students’ mean score in pre-test and post-test and post-test in experimental class and control class table 5. the mean score and standard deviation of students’ pre-test and post-test in control class descriptive statistics n minimum maximum sum mean std. deviation statistic statistic statistic statistic statistic std. error statistic pretest 30 48.00 82.00 2034.00 67.8000 1.47967 8.10449 posttest 30 55.00 90.00 2132.00 71.0667 1.60955 8.81587 valid n (listwise) 30 table 6. the mean score and standard deviation of students’ pre-test and post-test in experimental class descriptive statistics n min. max. sum mean std. deviation statistic statistic statistic statistic statistic std. error statistic pretest 30 42.00 78.00 1850.00 61.6667 1.72162 9.42972 posttest 30 61.00 93.00 2303.00 76.7667 1.64190 8.99304 valid n (listwise) 30 table 5 and table 6 show that the distinction between the pre-test and post-test mean score and standard deviation. the scores of control class after teaching using conventional method show good progress from 82 becomes 90 and the scores of experimental class after giving treatment (using story mapping) show very good progress from 78 becomes 93. the standard deviation of control class in pre-test and post-test is 8.81 and the standard deviation of experimental class in pre-test and post-test is 8.99. to know whether the control class and experimental class are significantly different, and also to know acceptability of hypothesis of this research, the researcher use test analysis and calculate it by using spss 20. the result could be shown in the table of group statistic and independent sample test. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 118 the calculation of t-test pre-test and post-test in experimental and control class table 7. the probability value of t-test of pre-test in experimental and control classes 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 score equal variances assumed .966 .330 2.702 58 .009 6.13333 2.27011 1.58921 10.67746 equal variances not assumed 2.702 56.719 .009 6.13333 2.27011 1.58702 10.67964 table 7 show that the mean score of difference between control class and experimental class did not have significant difference table 8. the probability value of t-test of post-test in experimental and control class 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 score equal variances assumed .026 .872 3.185 58 .002 -7.30000 2.29212 11.88818 2.71182 equal variances not assumed 3.185 57.989 .002 -7.30000 2.29212 11.88820 2.71180 the table 8 show that the probability value was lower than alpha (α) (0.002 < 0.05) which means that there is significant difference in post-test. it indicated that the alternative hypothesis (h1) is accept and the null hypothesis (h0) is reject it show that the use of story mapping strategy effective to improve the students’ writing and give significantly contribution the students’ writing skill. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 119 discussion there are five items of writing assessment that is used by the researcher to analyze the data namely content, organization, vocabulary, language use and mechanics. based on the students’ score in pretest, for both experimental and control class had a little different significant before giving treatment. students’ score of both classes in post test had significantly difference. in experimental class, there is item had significant result in writing between pre-test and post-test. organization criteria in pre-test, the data shows that most of students got good to average score. there are thirteen students who got good to average score, eleven students who got fair to poor score, six students who got very poor score. organization criteria in post-test, the data shows that most of students got good to average score. there are seven students who got excellent to very good score, nineteen students who got good to average score, four students who got fair to poor score. this is because students found it easier to group storyline from the beginning, the middle, and ending, because they had already been made their own storyline in the story mapping technique. based on result of the data analysis above shows that use story mapping technique effective to improve students’ writing skill, it can be seen on the table before after giving treatments continually (by using story mapping technique) the mean score students’ experimental class is 77.90 while students’ control class is treat by conventional teaching or teaching without using story mapping technique is 71.06. besides that, the students score in post test of experimental class is higher than the students score in post test of control class that is 96>90. it means that after giving treatment using story mapping technique is better than teaching without using story mapping technique. pertaining to the result of the research, it is consisted with the theory proposed by li (2007) who says story mapping is used to help the students to plan their writing because a story map contains the components of a story such as settings, events, and re-orientation. this practically can be their guidance to process their ideas before writing a well-organized text. ( li, 2007) in fact, teaching writing recount text by using story mapping technique at sman 1 palopo, the students got significant improvement in their score writing recount text. therefore, it could be stated that story mapping technique in teaching learning of writing have solved the students’ writing problem and increase the students’ writing skill for the first grade of the students at sman 1 palopo. so, the hypothesis proposed in this research which says ‘’story mapping technique effective to improve the student ability to write recount text’’ is accepted. conclusion based on the findings and discussion that had been presented in the previous chapter, it can be concluded that there is significant differences in learning result of the students who learned writing through story mapping technique with the students who took the learning with conventional method. based on the data analysis the probability value was lower than alpha (α) (0.002 < 0.05) which means that there is significant difference in post-test. it indicated that the alternative hypothesis (h1) is accept and the null hypothesis (h0) is reject it show that the use of story mapping strategy effective to improve the students’ writing and give significantly contribution the students’ writing skill. the mean score of post-test was higher than the mean score of pre-test (76.7667>61.6667). while in control class, the mean score of post test was also higher than the mean score of pretest that (71.0667>67.8000). based on data analysis it can concluded that teaching writing recount text by using story mapping technique is http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 120 effective to improve the students’ ability. it can be proved that the students score in experimental class higher than students in control class. references anderson, a, & anderson, k. (2002). text types in english 3. south yara: macmillan education australia pty ltd anggraeni, w., wahibah, & assafari, a. f. (2020). teachers’ strategies in teaching speaking skills at sman 1 palopo. foster: journal of english language teaching, 1(1), 83–97. https://doi.org/10.24256/foster-jelt.v1i1.9 anwar, l., furwana, d., & iksan, m. (2020). developing reading worksheet for tenth grade students of sma negeri 4 palopo. foster: journal of english language teaching, 1(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.24256/foster-jelt.v1i1.2 akbar, muhammad, 2008, improving studentss writing skill through pair interview at the eleventh year students of sman 2 palopo, a thesis stain palopo 2008 byrne, donn. 1984. teaching writing skills-new edition. london: longman bram, barly. 1995. write well .yogyakarta: kanisius brown, h. douglas. 1994. teaching by principles: an interactive approach to language pedagogy. englewood cliff: prentice hall. chen s, zhou j. 2010. creative writing strategies of young children: evidence from a study of chinese emergent writing. amsterdam: elseiver. fromkin, victoria and robert rodman, 1993, an introduction to language, fifth edition, harcourt brace jovanovich college publisher flynn, naomi & rhona stainthorp. the learning and teaching of reading and writing. west sussex: whurr publisher, 2006. hartono, r. (2005). genre of texts. semarang: english department faculty of language and art semarang state university. hedge, tricia. resource books for teachers. hong kong: oxford university press, 1988. heaton j.b, writing english language test (new edition). (longman inc. new york, 1988), p.135 harmer, jeremy. 2001. how to teach english: an introduction to the practice of english language teaching. malaysia: longman. irvy, i. i. (2020). understanding the learning models design for indonesian teacher. international journal of asian education, 1(2), 95–106. https://doi.org/10.46966/ijae.v1i2.40 leo sutanto, english for academic purpose, essay writing, penerbit andi, p.1 li, d. (2007). story mapping and its effect on the writing fluency and word diversity of students with learning disabilities, learning disabilities: a contemporary journal, 5(1), 42-50. nilmah, 2009, contribution of parallel writing technique to develop student’s writing skill http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 121 at the eleventh year students of sman bupon, a thesis stain palopo oshima & hogue. 1997. introduction to academic writing-second edition. new york: longman raimes, ann. techniques in teaching writing. new york: oxford university press, 1983. rahmat idul, 2011, improving students’ writing at the third year students of smpn 8 palopo through describing picture in pairs, a thesis stain palopo. richards, jack c. & renandya, willy a. 2002. methodology in language teaching. new york: cambridge university press. wahyuni dini, 2015, using peer teaching strategy to improve the students ability to write recount text at the tenth year students of smkn 1 mappadeceng, iain palopo. wardiman anton, dkk, 2008, english in focus for grade viii junior high school (smp/mts), jakarta: pusat perbukuan, weigle, sara cushing. 2002. assessing writing. cambridge: cambridge university press. yunda riska, (2017), improving students’ ability in writing recount using anecdote technique, syiah kuala university, banda aceh. zygouris, coe v & glass, 2004. story mapping. for-pd’s reading strategy of the month. yahya, a., jaya, f. a. i., & jufriadi. (2020). national examination in smpn 2 palopo: a case study on students’ readiness in english test. international journal of asian education, 1(2), 107–116. https://doi.org/10.46966/ijae.v1i2.38 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 2, april 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 331 the correlation between students’ anxiety and speaking performance at the second grade in sman 1 pantai cermin kabupaten solok peni oktavia1, syahrul2 * state islamic collage of bukittinggi, bukittinggi1,2 syahrulsabri@gmail.com abstract the background of this research was the presence of anxiety among some students in their english-speaking activities in the school. in addition, some students had anxieties when speaking english because anxiety affected performance while some other students had no problems. this research used a quantitative approach in the type of correlation design. the population of this research was all class of the second grade in sman 1 pantai cermin and all of them became sample because they were less than a hundred. the data was got through a questionnaire and documentation. the students fill the questionnaires directly relate to their anxiety in speaking. the data of the documentation were taken from the students’ final scores in the speaking. to analyze the data, the researcher used the spss version 20 for windows. in analyzing the data, the researcher used the person product moment formula to find out the significant correlation, to find out the correlation direction and to find out the correlation magnitude. the results of the research showed that there was a correlation between students’ anxiety and speaking performance at the second grade of sman 1 pantai cermin. keywords: english language learning, speaking performance, students’ anxiety. introduction in the globalization era, english is one of the languages that should be learned by students, especially at senior high school. besides, as an international language, english is very important and has many interrelationships with various aspect of life own by a human being (iksan & duriani, 2015). in learning english, four skills should be mastered by the students such as listening, speaking, reading, and writing. speaking is one of the skills that have an important role in the language learning process. speaking is one of the most important skills of the four language skills because individuals who learn a language are referred to as the speakers of that language (penny ur,1991). in addition, speaking can help students to use and effectively transmit knowledge. indeed, it is an important skill that should be mastered by the students and should be applied in daily communication. speaking is a way for the students to express their knowledge, to share their feelings and to show their performance. the students can make social contact with others when http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 mailto:syahrulsabri@gmail.com copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 2, april 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 332 interacting. they can express their thoughts, even they can respond directly to what the people say to them, so the students become to understand what they say. in addition, there are three main functions of speaking that is talk as interaction, talk as a transaction, and talk as performance (richards, 2008). in conclusion, those function of speaking will help the students to understand what is said. generally, speaking performance can be defined as the act of express ideas orally. related to the definition of speaking performance, speaking performance is public talk that talks to transmit previous information to an audience, such as classroom presentation, public announcement, and speeches (jack richards, 2008). some students when communicating with other people may feel hesitant to speak in english, while others who have their encouragement will be brave to practice speaking english . it means that, when the students more practice speak english, they can communicate actively and fluently. many students cannot use english fluently either inside or outside the classroom. because english is not their mother tongue and there is no enough time to practice. it is rarely used and they tend to use their mother tongue in daily activities to interact with others. in addition, many of them become worried, nervous and afraid of making mistakes when they use their english. this kind of situation is called anxiety. anxiety is a feeling where someone hesitant with their ability or what they want to do. it can be described that someone having low confidence so that they can’t get maximal of their life. related to the definition of anxiety, there are some different opinions of experts about anxiety. anxiety is feelings of self-consciousness, desire to speak perfectly, and fear of making mistakes (horwitz, 1981). meanwhile, spielberger (zahiri, sibarani, and sumarsih, 2017) stated that anxiety is the subjective feeling of tension, apprehension, nervousness, and worry associated with an arousal of the autonomic nervous system. it means that anxiety is a factor of hindrance in speaking that should be avoided or decreased by the students. there are two levels of anxiety. the first level is low anxiety. when the student has low anxiety; automatically he or she has low ability in speaking. the optimal anxiety is the second level. when the student has optimal anxiety; automatically he or she has a high ability in speaking (deyuan he,2018). the level of anxiety is very crucial. it is not easy to identify. in conclusion, it occurs when the students feel anxious, nervous, and afraid to express their feelings. on preliminary research on january 2019/2020 at sman 1 pantai cermin kabupaten solok, the researcher conducted observation and interviewed one of the english teachersrisfanelti and some students to find some problems related to the students’ anxiety and speaking performance. in addition, some students had anxieties when speaking in front of the class while some other students had no problems. the researcher found some of the problems. first, some of the students felt afraid to get negative opinion when they spoke beside their friend. based on observation, fear of negative opinions appeared when the teacher asks some students to speak english in material cause and effect. when some students will start to talk, then other friends refute and some laugh and the students who are http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 2, april 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 333 asked to speak feel scared and silent. thus, some students who felt anxious about their negative opinion become afraid to express their ideas in english in front of many people. secondly, some students have a lack of confidence and lack of vocabulary when they spoke besides their friend is a second problem (wiraldi, jufriadi, 2020). based on the interview, they admitted that speaking performance was a serious problem in learning english. some students said that they did not have vocabulary mastery and less knowledge of grammar in english. hence, they were being able to speak english fluently. then, some students appeared to be shy, not comfortable, and not confident in practising speaking english. however, in other condition, some students cannot appear to be shy. thus, it can be concluded that vocabulary mastery, grammar knowledge, influent, students’ self-problem affected their achievement in speaking performance (iksan & t. palangngan, 2018). based on the explanation above, the researcher was interested in research “the correlation between students’anxiety and speaking performance at second grade in sman 1pantai cermin kabupaten solok”. methods. this section looks into the study design, population and sample size, research instrument, data collection instruments, and analysis methods. study design this research used the quantitative approach in the form of a correlational one because the researcher used a numerical system to find the data. population the population of this research was all class of second grade in sman 1 pantai cermin kabupaten solok in the 2020/2021 academic years, which consists of four classes. the population would be described in the table below: table 1. the total of second students no. class total students 1. xi ipa 1 25 students 2. xi ipa 2 23 students 3. xi ips 1 25 students 4. xi ips 2 24 students total 97 students source: administration staffs of sman 1 pantai cermin kabupaten solok http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 2, april 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 334 sample size from the data in population, it showed that the data of the population was more than 100 students. arikunto stated that if the population is less than a hundred, it must be taken all as the sample. however, if the population was a hundred or more, it should be taken 10%15% or 20%-25% or even more. indeed, the sample of this research was 97 students from all class because the population was less than a hundred. instruments the researcher got the data from two kinds of instrumentation that were questionnaire and documentation. questionnaire to get the data, the researcher used a closed questionnaire. the questionnaires were adapted from (horwitz,1986) about the foreign language classroom anxiety scale (flcas) then the researcher adapted the questionnaires to be translated into indonesian, to make it easy and avoid misunderstanding of the respondents on the content of the questionnaire. the flcas questionnaires were distributed to all students in the second grade in sman 1 pantai cermin. then, the students were asked to fill or give a checklist of the statements. the students responded to the items on the questionnaire in 15 minutes. practically, flcas consists of three components such as communication apprehension, test anxiety, and fear negative evaluation. the flcas consists of 33 statements. the questionnaire was divided into positive statements and negative statements. the questionnaire was used a likert scale model which very disagreed, disagree, neither agree and disagree, agree and very agreeable. in this research, the researcher gave a score of 5 for those who chose very agree. if the students chose to agree, they gave a score of 4. while score 3 for those students who chose less agree. score 2 gave for the students who chose disagree, and score 1 gave for the students who chose very disagree. it can be seen on the table below: table2. scala of likert scale alternative opinions positive negative very agree 5 1 agree 4 2 less agree 3 3 disagree 2 4 very disagree 1 5 source: suharsimi arikunto’s book the data calculated manually with a range of score from 33 to 165. the last score took from the total answers to a questionnaire given by the researcher. in addition, the high and low score showed the anxiety range. if the students obtained a score of 33 to 98, they had http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 2, april 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 335 low anxiety. whereas, if the students achieved a score of 99 to 165, they had high anxiety. in conclusion, by using a likert scale, the researcher was easier to measure the students’ score on the statements in the questionnaire. from the questionnaire, the researcher got the level of students’ anxiety after being calculated the score from each number. besides, the likert scale was more flexible than other measurement techniques. the number of items or statements was up to the consideration of researchers. documentation the researcher used documentation to collect the data about the students’ speaking. the students’ score was gotten by the researcher from english teacher of sman 1 pantai cermin. where the students’ score was known as documentation. the documentation was taken from the students’ daily score of speaking because the students often practised speaking on the learning process. data collection the data was collected as following the steps below: questionnaire a. gather the respondents b. explain what to do to the respondents c. ask the respondents to fill the questionnaire d. distribute the questionnaire to the respondents e. collect the answer sheet documentation a. the researcher got the score of speaking performance from the teacher. b. the researcher collects the students’ score from each class data analysis technique the researcher analyzed the data using pearson product moment (geoffrey e. mills, 2018) by the assistant of spss 20 for windows. results students anxiety and speaking performance table 3. students’ anxiety score (xi mia 1) no students ei score 1 ah 97 2 asm 86 3 a 113 4 aj 92 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 2, april 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 336 table 4. students’ anxiety score (ximia 2) no nama ei score 1 aj 80 2 az 92 3 af 115 4 ba 100 5 crb 93 6 dm 113 7 fr 94 8 fs 104 9 gar 116 10 ha 85 11 hap 116 12 im 126 13 jk 111 14 lf 125 15 mbdr 118 16 ma 105 17 n 107 18 pk 115 19 pm 131 20 ra 113 21 sw 102 22 vs 98 5 ds 96 6 dwa 106 7 faz 96 8 fo 75 9 fj 99 10 hep 93 11 hap 121 12 ii 97 13 ij 96 14 jt 94 15 ls 122 16 mm 93 17 ns 101 18 na 119 19 os 102 20 ryp 75 21 rs 87 22 tmp 84 23 yas 112 24 yqa 102 25 zs 109 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 2, april 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 337 23 zrw 112 table 5. students’ anxiety score (xiips 1) no nama ei score 1 aep 104 2 ap 96 3 ar 92 4 any 98 5 ah 96 6 aap 94 7 dps 92 8 fs 96 9 ff 94 10 fs 92 11 hp 94 12 mr 88 13 mr 97 14 nr 93 15 pca 94 16 pr 98 17 ray 90 18 rpo 88 19 rh 92 20 rs 94 21 ss 94 22 sap 92 23 so 94 24 sr 98 25 ti 94 table 6. students’ anxiety score (xiips 2) no nama ei score 1 ai 94 2 ap 92 3 ar 94 4 aa 94 5 ar 94 6 ak 80 7 dh 92 8 dy 94 9 dch 95 10 em 97 11 fra 88 12 fz 94 13 fr 92 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 2, april 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 338 14 hn 90 15 ima 92 16 kp 94 17 mn 93 18 mi 92 19 mf 98 20 ra 94 21 rd 88 22 sw 92 23 sa 93 24 ss 92 table 7. students’ speaking score ximia 1 no nama ei score 1 ah 65 2 asm 75 3 a 70 4 aj 70 5 ds 65 6 dwa 65 7 faz 65 8 fo 70 9 fj 60 10 hep 70 11 hap 85 12 ii 65 13 ij 65 14 jt 65 15 ls 65 16 mm 65 17 ns 60 18 na 70 19 os 80 20 ryp 65 21 rs 80 22 tmp 80 23 yas 75 24 yqa 70 25 zs 70 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 2, april 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 339 table 8. students’ speaking score ximia 2 no nama ei score 1 aj 65 2 az 75 3 af 80 4 ba 65 5 crb 70 6 dm 85 7 fr 70 8 fs 80 9 gar 75 10 ha 75 11 hap 85 12 im 80 13 jk 60 14 lf 75 15 mbdr 60 16 ma 75 17 n 70 18 pk 75 19 pm 60 20 ra 85 21 sw 80 22 vs 85 23 zrw 85 table 9.students’ speaking score xiips 1 no nama ei score 1 aep 60 2 ap 75 3 ar 65 4 any 60 5 ah 80 6 aap 65 7 dps 75 8 fs 80 9 ff 65 10 fs 75 11 hp 65 12 mr 60 13 mr 85 14 nr 60 15 pca 85 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 2, april 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 340 16 pr 65 17 ray 65 18 rpo 85 19 rh 80 20 rs 65 21 ss 60 22 sap 65 23 so 85 24 sr 75 25 ti 80 table 10. students’ speaking score xiips 2 no nama ei score 1 ai 85 2 ap 80 3 ar 70 4 aa 65 5 ar 70 6 ak 60 7 dh 80 8 dy 70 9 dch 65 10 em 65 11 fra 70 12 fz 65 13 fr 60 14 hn 60 15 ima 80 16 kp 65 17 mn 75 18 mi 65 19 mf 65 20 ra 70 21 rd 70 22 sw 75 23 sa 60 24 ss 80 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 2, april 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 341 table 11. correlations correlations students anxiety speaking performance students anxiety pearson correlation 1 ,143 sig. (2-tailed) ,162 n 97 97 speaking performance pearson correlation ,143 1 sig. (2-tailed) ,162 n 97 97 the table above showed the correlation coefficient equalled r=0.143, which indicated there was a positive correlation between the two variables. from the r number (0.143) the researcher could use it to know the strength of correlation between two variables. the number of 0.143 resided between 0.000-0.200 which means the strength is very low correlation. based on the table above can answer the third question in this research : a. is there any significant correlation between students’ emotional intelligence and speaking achievement? the correlation coefficient which shows the relationship between students anxiety and speaking performance is 0,143. thus, there is a significant correlation between students anxiety and speaking performance. b. what is the correlation direction between students’ anxiety and speaking performance? to answer the second question of this research, the correlation coefficient that shows the correlation between anxiety and speaking performance is 0,143. namely, there is a significant correlation between student anxiety and speaking performance because the result of this calculation has a positive symbol. c. what is the magnitude of the relationship between students’ anxiety and speaking performance? to know the magnitude of the correlation between students anxiety and speaking performance, the researcher consults with the interpretation table below: http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 2, april 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 342 table 12: magnitude of correlation coefficient magnitude of correlation 0,80 1,00 very high 0,60 – 0,79 high 0,40 – 0,59 sufficient 0,20 – 0,39 low 0 – 0,19 very low source: lijan poltak sinambela, metodologi penelitian kuantitatif, ..., p. 208 shortly, the correlation coefficient that shows the correlation between students anxiety and speaking performance is 0,143. this interpretation answers the third question in this research. based on the interpretation table above, 0,143 has a “very low” correlation because it is between 0,00 – 0,19. it can be concluded that the magnitude of the correlation between student anxiety and speaking performance is very low. discussion based on the data analysis above, the researcher has found that the coefficient of correlation between students anxiety and speaking performance at the second grade of sman 1 pantai cermin kabupaten solok was 0,143. there is a positive correlation between the two variables because the result has a positive symbol. from the result above, the magnitude of the correlation is very low because it is between0 – 0,19. if the students have high anxiety automatically she/he have the low ability in speaking or when the students have low anxiety automatically she/he have high ability in speaking performance. this research is about the correlation between students’ anxiety and speaking performance at the second grade of sman 1 pantai cermin kabupaten solok. it can be said that correlates between students’ anxiety as variable x and speaking performance as variable y. the data are gotten from questionnaire and documentation. the questionnaire uses a likert scale which consists of “strongly disagree, disagree, neither agree, agree, and strongly agree” for responding. in analysis data, the researcher calculated students’ anxiety and speaking score by using the product moment formula. it is found that there is a correlation between students’ anxiety and speaking performance at the second grade of sman 1 pantai cermin kabupaten solok. moreover, there is also a positive correlation between the two variables. a positive correlation has meant that if the students have high anxiety automatically she/he have the low ability in speaking or when the students have low anxiety automatically she/he have high ability in speaking performance. this research supporting by the theory from walker in deyuan he. according to walker in deyuan he, there are two levels of anxiety. the first level is low anxiety. when the student has low anxiety; automatically he or she has low ability in http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 2, april 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 343 speaking. the optimal anxiety is the second level. when the student has optimal anxiety; automatically he or she has a high ability in speaking. additionally, based on hypothesis testing, the result of 𝑟𝑥𝑦 is 0,143, and r-table is 0,1996 on df = 97-2 = 95, alpha = 0,05. because 𝑟𝑥𝑦 is smaller than the r-table, ha is rejected and ho is accepted. it means that there is a correlation between students’ anxiety and speaking performance at the second grade of sman 1 pantai cermin kabupaten solok. in summary, the result of this research supports the research hypothesis that there is a very low correlation between students’ anxiety and speaking performance at the second grade of sman 1 pantai cermin kabupaten solok. conclusion the purpose of this research is to know whether there is a correlation or not between students’ anxiety and speaking performance at the second grade of sman 1 pantai cermin kabupaten solok. in this research, students’ anxiety score and the students’ speaking performance have a correlation. the result of the research indicated that the students’ anxiety and speaking performance have a positive correlation. students anxiety influenced their speaking performance, it was shown by the result of their test. briefly, if the students have high anxiety automatically she/he have the low ability in speaking performance or when the students have low anxiety automatically she/he have high ability in speaking performance. acknowledgment as a result, the writer wants to highly express her sincere gratitude and appreciation to the following person for their valuable contributions. 1. syahrul, m. pd as an advisor for her care, time, attention, guidance, valuable advice, suggestion, critics and patience in accomplishing this thesis. her suggestions and contributions are highly appreciated. 2. all of the lecturers who have given their knowledge, ideas, and contributions to the completion of this journal and educated his precious things in many fields during his study. 3. the writer also shows thanks to my beloved family, especially for my dad and mom (kasri and samsimar), all of my sisters (dodi putra, tipa yunita and peri oktaviadi, savira amanda) who had given their love, pray and supports to accomplish this thesis soon. 4. the writer also shows thanks to beloved friend refa yando, yona meidiastitu and another friend. thanks for the support, motivate, and suggest to finish this study. references pamungkas, adji. (2018). the effect of english language anxiety on speaking performance. (surabaya state univerrsity.vol 6 no. 3 t) http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 2, april 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 344 arikunto s. (1998). procedure penelitian: (rineka cipta: jakarta) budi susetyo. (2010). statistika untuk analisis data penelitian, (bandung: pt. refika aditama) deyuan he. (2018). foreign language learninganxiety in china-theories and applications in englishlanguage teaching. (kowloon, hong kong) geoffrey e. mills, l. r. g. (2018). educational research: competencies for analysis and applications. in educational research (12th ed.). pearson education, inc. iksan, m., & duriani. (2015). a survey of students’ language learning strategies and their english learning achievement in sma negeri 1 palopo. ideas: journal on english language teaching and learning, linguistics and literature, 3(2), 12–27. https://doi.org/10.24256/ideas.v3i2.146 iksan, m., & t. palangngan, s. 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(2011). english language learning anxiety among foreign language learners in the philippines. philippine esl journal, 7, 102113. retrieved from http://www.philippine-esljournal.com/v7-a5.pdf. mayer, d. p. (2008). overcoming school anxiety: how to help your child deal with separation, tests, homework, bullies, math phobia, and other worries. (united states of america. library of congress cataloging-in-publication data.) nunan, d. 2003. practical english language teaching. (new yok: mcgraw-hill) penny ur. 1991. a course of language teaching, practice and theory, (cambridge university press, new york) soradova, daniela, 2015. foreign language learning anxiety. (handbook) http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://www.philippine-esljournal.com/v7-a5.pdf copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 2, april 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 345 sugiyono, 2017.metodepenelitiankuantitatif, kualitatifdan r&d, bandung: alfabeta) wiraldi, jufriadi, m. i. (2020). improving vocabulary mastery of the seventh year students using scattergories game in smp negeri 8 palopo. foster: journal of english language teaching, 1(2), 159–167. zahiri, sibarani, and sumarsih. 2017. to what extent do anxiety and self efficacy effect the efl students english monologue speaking skill. (international journal of education and research) http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 101 1 nera wita,2 veni roza 1, 2 nerawita710@gmail.com abstract this research aimed to reveal the effectiveness of using the inside-outside circle technique in teaching speaking. based on the observation in january 2021, the researcher found several problems. first, students lacked vocabulary. second, students were not speaking fluently. and the last, some students speaking skills were still varied. thus, the researcher has done the research in smkn 1 baso to know whether the use inside-outside circle technique is effective or not toward students speaking ability. this research was descriptive-quantitative. the researcher used purposive sampling to determine the sample because the researcher has some consideration to determine the samples. the researcher chose two of six classes as the sample. the sample in this research was 42 students of class x akl and x pkm. the technique of data collection in this research was documentation. the research results show that using the inside-outside circle technique is effective in teaching speaking. the percentage of the students was between 61-80 %, with the mean score calculated as 78,59, with the rating quality being effective. it means the data proved that the inside-outside circle technique is effective in teaching speaking in 10th grade of smkn 1 baso introduction in learning english, four basic skills need to be mastered; listening, speaking, reading, and writing. students should be able to use the skills, whether oral or written. one of the four english language skills that students must study is speaking. speaking is very important to help the students to learn english. with the ability to speak well, students can achieve the goal of speaking. it means that students are expected to speak english to be able to communicate with teachers, friends, and other people. penny ur states that of four skills, speaking seems intuitively the most important (ur, 2009). thus, speaking is very important based on the explanation above, especially for students. speaking well and correctly, students can share their opinions or ideas in english. students need to communicate verbally with the teacher and their friends to convey ideas and feelings when doing activities in the classroom. nunan said that speaking is a productive oral skill that produces systematic verbal utterances to convey meaning (nunan, 2003). thus, it can be concluded that speaking is a productive oral skill not only about skills but also about how to produce verbal utterances to convey ideas or meanings to be shared. the effectiveness of inside-outside circle technique in teaching speaking at vocational high school keywords: english language teaching, inside-outside circle technique, teaching speaking. state islamic institute of bukittinggi, bukittinggi. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 mailto:nerawita710@gmail.com copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 102 learning to speak several techniques can be applied, one of which is the inside-outside circle technique. in the inside outside circle, kagan states that students rotate in concentric circles facing new partners for sharing, quizzes, or problem-solving (kagan, 2009). one of the english teachers at smkn 1 baso also used the inside outside circle technique. at the step stage, the students formed pairs. then, students stand in two concentric circles. students in the inside circle face out, and students in the outside circle face the contrary, so each student faces a partner in the other circle. students who were in the inside circle asked questions in the outside circle. after they finished questioning, the teacher asked them to change roles. next, the students in the inside circle will answer the students in the outside circle who ask questions. after that, the teacher asked for one circle to rotate to the next partner. this activity was carried out until the students met their first partner outside the circle. even though the technique has been implemented according to the procedure, problems are still found in applying the technique. based on the preliminary observation of 10th-grade students in smkn 1 baso on january the 13th, 2021, the students still faced difficulties in speaking even though the teacher had already applied the inside-outside circle technique. students have limited vocabulary to speak english. some students have organized their ideas. however, they have difficulty expressing ideas clearly in speaking english. second, students do not speak fluently. the used inside-outside circle technique, students were not fluent in english. they still had a lot of pauses in speaking english and didn't have fluency in speaking english. even though the students spoke slowly, they still didn't pay attention to the correct grammar of the sentences they were talking about. finally, talking about the scores after using the inside outside circle technique, some students daily speaking scores were still below standard minimum completeness (kkm), and some students' scores were already above standard minimum completeness (kkm). therefore, based on the explanation above, the researchers have researched the effectiveness of the inside-outside circle technique in teaching speaking. 1. concept of teaching speaking teaching has a basic meaning as a process of providing knowledge or information to students. when carrying out teaching activities, the teacher teaches knowledge, messages, or skills to students, and at that time, an interactive process occurs between the teacher and the students. likewise, teaching speaking also teaches knowledge about good speaking procedures. according to nunan in kayi, teaching speaking means teaching listeners to: 1. produce english sounds and sound patterns 2. using words and sentences that emphasize intonation and rhythm 3. choose the right words and sentences according to the situation and conditions 4. organize thinking in terms of meaning and logic 5. using language to express, value, and evaluate 6. use language quickly and confidently or called fluency thus, speaking is teaching given, starting from producing sounds and choosing words and sentences to use the language fluently. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 103 teaching speaking also has a purpose for teaching. according to hughes, the goal of teaching speaking is to develop the ability to interact successfully in language and involve understanding. thus, the goal of teaching speaking is to develop the ability to speak fluently. there are five principles of teaching speaking proposed by nunan, namely: 1. consider the context of learning a second and foreign language. 2. provide students with exercises with fluency and accuracy. accuracy matches the pronunciation with the target language. fluency is where the speaker speaks quickly and confidently without any hesitation. 3. allow students to speak using group or pair work, and limit teacher talk. 4. planning a task that involves negotiating means. this activity is to clarify and confirm whether students have understood each other. this activity can be done by asking for clarification, repetition, or explanation during the conversation to gain understanding. 5. designing class activities involves guidance and practice in transactional and interactional speaking. interactional speaking is communication with someone for a specific purpose. for example, this step includes establishing and interpreting social relationships. in addition, transactional speaking involves communication to get things done, including exchanging goods and services. thus, from the five principles of teaching speaking, it can be concluded that learning to speak must be carefully designed or prepared so that students speak fluently and accurately and practice in pairs or groups. an assessment must be conducted to measure the students' achievement in language learning. assessment can be done at the beginning, through the teaching-learning process, and also at the end of the meeting. according to arthur, the speaking assessment contains five components that describe students' speaking abilities, including their accent, grammar, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension(hughes, 2003). 2. inside outside circle technique some approaches and methods can be used in teaching speaking, one of which is cooperative learning methods. according to jolliffe, cooperative learning requires students to work together in small groups to support each other and enhance their learning and the learning of others (jolliffe, 2007). based on the explanation above, cooperative learning is students are grouped in small groups to support each other. a cooperative learning method has several types: think pair share, three-step interview, and inside-outside circle. according to kathleen and nunan, an inside-outside circle is a technique that allows students to repeat conversations or interviews with new people to build fluency and confidence. (bailey & nunan, 2004). kagan states that students rotate in the inside outside circle, in concentric circles facing new partners for sharing, quizzes, or problem-solving (kagan, 2009). moreover, wahyuni et al. said this technique places students facing each other in two concentric circles for verbal interaction between students, allowing them to practice more with their partner in turns. (wahyuni et al., 2013). based on the definition above, the researcher states that an inside-outside circle is a http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 104 technique where students form two concentric circles and exchange information with a partner until the teacher signals the outside circle to move in one direction, giving each student a new peer to talk to. students can discuss and share information and ideas with their classmates through the inside-outside circle technique. it encourages students to move and have a conversation. it also helps students share ideas and hear different opinions from different partners. inside outside circle technique has several procedures in the application. the procedures of the inside-outside circle technique according to fitrianingsih & sholihah, the procedure for the inside outside circle technique in learning to speak begins with forming a group. students will be divided into two groups. one group forms an inner circle, and the other forms the contrary while facing each other. one circle rotates to the next partner. indirectly, they will face their new partner. it will stop when students have found their first partner.(fitrianingsih & sholihah, 2017). furthermore, sulung et al. added the steps of the inner-outer circle as follows. first, the teacher divided the class into two groups. second, the students formed two circles facing each other. third, students from inside the circle answer the questions given by their friends by sharing them with their partners. students who form the outer circle give ideas related to questions and ask the inner circle pairs again. fourth, after a few minutes, the teacher instructs the students to turn to the next partner and discuss again with the same topic (sulung et al., 2017). finally, according to kagan, the steps for the inside outside-circle technique are as follows: students form pairs. one student from each pair moves in a large circle in the classroom facing outward. the remaining students find and face their partners so that each student faces the other. students in the inner circle ask questions from their question cards and are answered by the outer circle. partners switch roles: students outside the circle ask questions and the inner circle answers. when finished, the teacher tells them how many to play, and they face the new partner until they meet their first partner. (kagan, 2009) based on the explanations above, the teacher used the inside outside technique based on expert kagan. there are several advantages of the inside-outside circle technique, according to ulfah & pujihartono, i.e., it can help the students obtain different information from the material at the same time. it can also make the learning process easier and more fun, especially in speaking and can make students improve vocabulary and review the vocabulary terms obtained. (ulfah & pujihartono, 2017). furthermore, saputri et al. state that the advantage of the inside-outside circle is that it first allows all students in the class to participate in speaking. they dare to express their ideas, thoughts, and feelings to their classmates. and second, students become more active in the classroom so that the learning process becomes more lively and fun. (saputri et al., 2020). thus, from the explanation above, the insideoutside circle technique makes students able to learn in more fun situations, can participate actively, can obtain different information, can increase their vocabulary, and students will be more confident and courageous. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 105 methods design of the research the researcher used descriptive quantitative research. quantitative research is a kind of research that collects data in numerical the research problems. according to mills and gay, descriptive research collects numerical data to answer questions about the research subject (mills & gay, 2012). furthermore, according to muijs, quantitative research explains phenomena by collecting numerical data analyzed using statistical methods (muijs, 2004). thus, descriptive research is described or explains phenomena by collecting data that was analyzed using statistical methods to answer questions about the current research subject. therefore, this research gathered information to analyze and describe the effectiveness of inside-outside circle in teaching speaking at 10th grade smk n 1 baso. the population and sample of the research the population is part of the research. according to creswell, a population is a group of individuals who have something in common (creswell, 2011). the population in this research were students of class 10th of smkn 1 baso. there were seven classes in the tenth grade. the sample is part of the population. the sample of this research was determined by using purposive sampling. according to sugiyono, purposive sampling is a technique with certain considerations (sugiyono, 2009). there were x akl and x pkm, which consisted of 42 students. the researcher chose x akl class and x pkm as the sample for this research since the teacher who teaches these classes has used the inside outside circle technique which is the variable of this research instrument of the research documentation is a technical data collection by using documents. according to arikunto, the documentation method looks for data about something or variables in notes, transcripts, books, newspapers, magazines, inscriptions, meeting minutes, agendas, etc. (arikunto, 2010). thus, the researcher used the results transcript score of students' daily activities. the teacher takes the assessment through a speaking test carried out after learning or what is called the daily activity score. the researcher took this documentation of daily activity scores from the english teacher. the technique of collecting data documentation the data was collected through daily scores in x pkm and x akl that the teacher gave after using the inside-outside circle technique in teaching speaking. researchers asked for the daily activity scores from the teacher, and the scores were collected through daily scores in speaking after the teacher used the inside-outside circle technique. the technique of analyzing data documentation analysis http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 106 a. the researcher collected the students speaking test scores after scoring by the teacher. b. the researcher analyzed the students' speaking activity scores by arranging scores from the lowest to the highest. c. the researcher found the interval of the data by using formulas (gunawan, 2015): 𝐼 = 𝐵 𝑅 where : i : interval of data r : the highest score the lowest score + 1 b : 1+ 3,3 log n (n= total sample) d. the researcher put the score into the distributional table. e. the researcher determined the mean score median, modus. to find the scores, the writer used the formula as follows: mean 𝑥 = ∑ 𝐹𝑥 𝑛 median 𝑚𝑒 = 𝑙 + ( 1 2 𝑛−𝑓𝑘𝑏 𝑓1 ) 𝑖 modus 𝑚𝑜 = 𝑙 + ( 𝑓𝑎 𝑓𝑎+𝑓𝑏 ) 𝑖 (gunawan, 2015) f. the students' percentage was arranged into the diagram of rating quality percentage g. then, the meaning of the percentage is arranged in the table of the rating scale. as a result, the researchers used a rating scale to arrange the level of effectiveness. the researcher gave an interpretation of the result by using tables, which are described below: table 1: the interpretation of the effectiveness percentage percentage of the rating scale rating quality 81-100 % very effective 61-80 % effective 41-60 % sufficiently effective 21-40 % not effective 0-20 % not very effective source: sari & amrozi, 2020 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 107 h. the researcher made conclusions based on the percentage of students' scores in using the inside outside circle technique results documentation to collect the data, the researcher used documentation, namely students' daily scores in speaking at class x akl and x pkm, which were obtained from the english teacher. class x akl was 22 students. class x pkm was 20 students. the finding of data about the students' daily scores are described in the table: table 2: the result of the x akl students' daily scores in speaking x akl x pkm no name score 1 ar 77 2 aa 77 3 dy 80 4 fd 83 5 h h.s 80 6 is 77 7 ia h 77 8 j y 73 9 mc 73 10 m r 83 11 m f 77 12 n 80 13 po 87 14 ra 77 15 rs 70 16 ro 73 17 rs 80 18 rm 67 19 sij 90 20 sjs 83 21 spm 77 22 ta 80 table 3: the result of the x akl students' daily scores in speaking x akl x pkm http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 108 no name score 1 ap 77 2 dr 73 3 ef 80 4 ip 83 5 ki 77 6 lf 80 7 ma 73 8 na 87 9 nl 83 10 n 70 11 nao 77 12 na 90 13 o 67 14 ra 80 15 si 83 16 sz 80 17 tpa 87 18 za 77 19 zfs 73 20 zf 77 source: the score from the teacher the researcher collected the data from the english teacher. then, the researcher identified the students' speaking scores by arranging scores from the low to the high as below: table 4: tally of the students' daily score in speaking score tally frequency 67 ii 2 70 ii 2 73 iiii i 6 77 iiiiiiii ii 12 80 iiii iiii 9 83 iiii i 6 87 iii 3 90 ii 2 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 109 the table shows the score of 42 students in various which the high score was found 90 and the low was 67 r = (h – l) + 1 b = 1 + (3,3). log n r = (90 – 67) + 1 b = 1 + (3,3). log 44 r = 24 b = 1 + (3.3) 1.62 = 6 i = 𝑅 𝐵 = 24 6 = 4 it was calculated into the data interval that has been mentioned previously. it is calculated in the distribution frequency table: table 5: statistical data of the students' speaking ability score f x fx fkb fka 87-90 5 88,5 442,5 42 4 83-86 6 84,5 507 36 9 79-82 9 80,5 724,5 27 15 75-78 12 76,5 918 15 24 71-74 6 72,5 435 9 36 67-70 4 68,5 274 5 42 42 ∑fx= 3301 mean = ∑ 𝑓𝑥 𝑛 = 3301 42 = 78,59 the mean calculated above was 73.95. the mean is average from all of the scores. after that, the researcher determined the medium and mode by using the formula: median 𝑚𝑒 = 𝑙 + ( 1 2 𝑛−𝑓𝑘𝑏 𝑓1 ) 𝑖 = 74,5 + ( 21−15 12 ) 4 = 74,5 + ( 6 12 ) 4 = 74,5 + 2 = 76,5 the result of the median was 76.5. the median is the middle value from the data. modus 𝑚𝑜 = 𝑙 + ( 𝑓𝑎 𝑓𝑎+𝑓𝑏 ) 𝑖 = 74,5 + ( 24 24+15 ) 4 = 74,5 +2,4 = 76,9 modus from the calculated above was 76,9. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 110 the students' percentage in speaking scores was arranged in the graphic, which is described below: graphic 1: student's percentage for speaking score based on the diagram above, five students scored between 87-90. then, six students get a score between 83-86. then nine students get a score between 79-82, twelve students get a score between 75-78, six students get a score between 71-74, and only four students get a score between 67-70. then, the students' mean score of percentage in speaking score was arranged into a rating scale. as a result, the researcher uses a rating scale to arrange the level of effectiveness. finally, the researcher interpreted the result by using the table below. table 6: the result of percentage in speaking score percentage of the rating scale percentage (mean) rating quality 81-100 % very effective 61-80 % 78,59 effective 41-60 % sufficiently effective 21-40 % not effective 0-20 % not very effective the table shows percentage mean score of students was 78,59 (61-80 % ). the score was obtained from the students speaking. it was found that students' ability with a score percentage of 78,59 was effective. to sum up, the ability of the students speaking ability was effective. 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 87-90 83-86 79-82 75-78 71-74 67-70 f http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 111 discussion this research was about the effectiveness of the inside outside circle technique in teaching speaking. this section discussed the research findings based on theories. one of the techniques in teaching speaking is the inside outside circle technique, and this technique is also used by a teacher at smkn 1 baso according to kagan, in the inside outside circle, students rotate in concentric circles facing new partners for sharing, quizzes, or problemsolving (kagan, 2009). thus, the inside-outside circle technique is where students rotate in a circle facing each other to share information, ask questions, and solve problems. students face obstacles or problems when using the inside outside circle technique: first, students have limited vocabulary, and because of the limited vocabulary, students find it difficult to respond to their partner with the inside outside circle technique. second, students are not fluent in speaking. in using the inside outside circle technique, students are not fluent in speaking english. there are still many pauses, and also not fluent in english. even though the students had spoken slowly, they also did not pay attention to how the grammar was correct in the sentences they were talking about. finally, talking about scores after using the inside outside circle technique, some students' daily speaking scores are still below the minimum completeness standard (kkm), and some students' scores are above the minimum completeness standard (kkm). based on the results of data analysis, the researchers found the percentage of the speaking score of the students was in score 78,59, where the score falls within the range between 61%-80%. at the same time, sari and amrozi said that the score range between 61%-80% is effective(sari & amrozi, 2020). therefore, the inside-outside circle technique effectively taught speaking ability in the tenth grade of smkn 1 baso. the explanation above shows that using inside outside circle effectively teaches speaking at x akl and x pkm in smkn 1 baso. conclusion based on findings and discussion, the mean score of the students' speaking score by using the inside outside circle technique was 78,59. the rating scale showed that 78,59 in the 61-80 % range was effective. in conclusion, the use of inside outside circle techniques effectively taught speaking at the 10th grade of smkn 1 baso. references arikunto, s. (2010). prosedur penelitian suatu pendekatan praktik. rineka cipta. bailey, k., & nunan, d. (2004). practical english language teaching speaking. mcgraw-hill. creswell, j. w. (2011). educational research planning, conducting and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research. pearson education, inc. fitrianingsih, s., & sholihah, l. (2017). the influence of using inside-outside circle (ioc) technique toward students' speaking ability at the second year of ma negeri 1 east lampung. universitas muhammadiyah, 5, 143. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 112 gunawan, m. a. (2015). statistik penelitian bidang pendidikan, psikologi dan sosial. parama publishing. hughes, a. (2003). testing for language teachers. cambridge university press. jolliffe, w. (2007). cooperative learning in the classroom putting into practice. paul chapman publishing. kagan, s. (2009). kagan cooperative learning. kagan publishing. mills, g. e., & gay, l. . (2012). educational research competencies for analysis and applications,. pearson education limited. muijs, d. (2004). doing quantitative research in education. sage publications. nunan, d. (2003). practical english language teaching. mcgraw-hill. saputri, d. a., sale, f., & siam. (2020). the effect of inside-outside circle (ioc) technique on students' speaking ability at sma negeri 1 kabangka. halu oleo university, 161. sari, d. r., & amrozi, f. (2020). analisis efektifitas pembelajaran jarak jauh (pjj). jurnal penelitian politeknik penerbangan, 5, 4. sugiyono. (2009). metode penelitian pendidikan pendekatan kuantitatif, kualitatif dan r&d. sulung, s., y, y. g. s., & arifin, z. (2017). technique, encouraging students to speak through inside-outside circle. jurnal pendidikan dan pembelajaran khatulistiwa, 3. ulfah, n., & pujihartono, l. g. (2017). improving the students' speaking ability in conversational activity through inside outside circle technique. jurnal dialektika, 5, 97. ur, p. (2009). a course in language teaching ; practice and theory. cambridge university. wahyuni, d. s., mukhaiya, & kusn. (2013). improving students' speaking skill by using inside-outside circle technique. unp, 21. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 3, july 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 387 mother-tongue interference in learning english in english meeting club rahayu1, nurfajriah basri2 sawerigading university of makassar1,2 *rahayumahsyar.unsa@gmail.com abstract interference is a phenomenon that occurs in a society when learning a new language and bilingualism is one of the causes why interference is. interference occurs mostly because the speakers who have more than one language used to interact with one another. this study aimed to describe the kind of interference errors made by learners of english in english meeting of disorders caused by the mother tongue. this study used qualitative method which total subject was taken from participants of english meeting consists of 10 learners that was taken by random sampling. instrument of data collection used audio recording which was converted into transcription. the results showed that interference errors committed by english language learners' is generally influenced to phonetic refers to speech sounds, lexical interference to the level of words and grammar disorder refers to the rules of grammar in language. this is due to the fact that the speaker indonesia experienced a huge obstacle when trying to use english as the target language as first language learners have mastered. the source of the difficulties is based on the level difference between the indonesian system and the english system keywords: english meeting club, error analysis, mother-tongue interference introduction learning a second language is not easy to be mastered because there will be many errors that occur both in terms of spelling, pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar. however, it is entirely due to the difference between the learner's mother tongue and the language he is learning. speaker or writer who failed in transferring the items or structures that are different in both of language is referred to as negative transfer or interference. according to zaim (2002) said that interferences happens because the learner makes the similarity between the sentence in english as target language and the sentence in indonesian as mother tongue that he has mastered. kesmez (2014) conducted an analysis of the l1 interference errors of turkish university learners in their written productions. he concluded that these errors stemming from turkish were initially categorized into four major categories; morphological, lexical, syntactic and orthographic and then those mentioned major categories were also divided http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 mailto:rahayumahsyar.unsa@gmail.com copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 3, july 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 388 into sub-categories. according to the results, the lexical category-including word for word translation errors, wrong use of uncountable nouns and verb errorsconstitutes the largest group among the interference errors in the writing productions of learners. the other interference errors were located in syntactic, morphological, and orthographic categories respectively. bada (2001) stated that native language influence on the production of english sounds by japanese learners. from result his research he concluded that some sounds were found to pose some difficulty of production, and that the difficulty is attributable to nl, others were produced with much less difficulty due to the already-present nl system of phonology. other non-interlingual learning strategies were also observed to be employed by the learners in producing english sounds. baloch (2013) conducted his research that l1 (arabic) interference in learning l2 (english): an analysis of english spelling used by arabic speakers at undergraduate level. after the careful analysis it can be concluded that the replacement of ‘b’ with ‘p’ and vice versa happens because of the mother tongue interference. learners do not find ‘p’ in their mother tongue and they try to change it with the nearest letter in pronunciation in their mother tongue. as far omission and addition of ‘e’ is concerned, it happens because we do not find rules for ‘e’ in english spellings if it is places in the final position of a word. based on the observations, the researchers found that many english learners who use english in this case speaking, they have difficulty in switching their first language to a second language in addition the types of mistakes made by english learners were variously from phonetic, lexical or grammatical , voice and accent by novice learners. so based on the problem statement above, the researcher formulate the research question as follows : “what type and cause of interference errors that are made by english learners in english meeting?. objective of this research is to find out what type and cause of interference errors are made by english learners in english meeting caused by mothertongue interference so that it can help english learners solve their problem in learning english speasially in speaking skill. methods this research is qualitative research. this qualitative research took a place in english meeting (roterdam makassar) since the source of data was discussion activity in natural setting by using recording technique to analyze the efficiency data. recording was used to know what type of intereference errors and interview to know what cause of interference error. time and location of the research the location of the research was conducted at rotterdam (english meeting club) and the time of research started from desember 2020 until february 2021. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 3, july 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 389 data source the subjects in this study are all of english learners in english club but the researcher focused on 10 participants who were chosen based randaomly. object of research in this study is the performance of english learners at rotterdam english meeting. the technique of data collection observation the researcher conducted an observation to know whether english learners did interference errors in speaking english. the observation was to obtain data by simply watching the participants. it means that the researcher only watched the situation in the english meeting while doing recording in group discussion. the researcher observed the learning process but he did not interact or participate in the classroom.the emphasis during observation was on understanding the natural environment as lived by participants without altering or manipulating it. techniques for collecting data through observation are: • the researcher wrote descriptions the researcher makes written descriptions of the design data that want to find out. • voice recording to make clear and validity the data of the research, allows the researcher to make a voice recording record. it makes it easy for the researcher to analyze the type of interference errors of english learners. interview the researcher did the interview to english learners. it was given to know the cause interference errors by english learners. the open ended questions were designed to permit the respondents to feel completely free to express their answers as they wished, as detailed and complex, as long or as short as they felt are appropriate. these questions were intended to evoke fuller and richer responses and probe deeper. this way, unanticipated findings could be discovered. in this study used 10 questions to get the maximal result. the technique of data analysis in this research, the researcher will analyze the data that has been obtained from the research site using analytical methods to study the results of the research. includes what type of interference errors used by the teaching learners. after that, researchers will summarize the results of research into a conclusion. from that conclusion, the researcher will find out what the results of his research. results this part presents the findings of the research and the discussion of the research findings. the findings of the research cover the description of mother tongue interference in learning english in english meeting club. the types of interference errors in learning english in english meeting are as follows: http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 3, july 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 390 phonetic interference in phonological level, the problem of interference concerns the manner in which a speaker perceives and reproduces the sounds of one language in terms of another. this interference occurs in the speech of bilingual as a result of the fact that there are different elements in sound system between one language and another in the present data, there are two examples were found in learners’ errors in phonetic interference. the examples were taken from audio recording which it was formed of transcription data. extract 1: two speakers in conversation in first circle group speaker 1 : ok, move to..you speaker 3 : if you ask me how important car for me. it s not really important for me@ because the first reason is because i don’t have a car maybe@ then, i can go any by motorcycle. so if u ask me the such question i should say it is no really important for me and also i don’t like to go by car because sometimes i feel bad when i go by car. speaker 1 : so that s no important for u right? speaker 3 : yes. extract 2 : two speakers in conversation in second circle group speaker 1 : okay, let’s move to our sister. what is your name sister? speaker 4 : uni. speaker 1 : oke, uni. speaker 4 : …the advantages and the disadvantages. the advantages, of course, we can go to anywhere easily. and we can shorten our time to go to the place and the disadvantages, of course it will cause a traffic jam and also pollution not only not only in air but also the voice of the car. and also sometimes there is accident because of the car okay, i think that’s the disadvantages of the car. from the extracts above, it can be identified that extract (1)and (2) employed phonetic interference as learners’ error . it can be showed when speaker 3 in extract (1) give an opinion. it was showed when speaker 3 spelt important by saying /impo’tent/. based on cambridge dictionary, it should be /ɪmˈpɔː.tənt/ . in same case, speaker 4 in extract (2) did the same errors in spelling words such as advantages and disadvantages by saying /ad’ventejis/ and /dis’ad’ventejis/. in fact, it should be spelt /ədˈvɑːn.tɪdʒ/ and /ˌdɪs.ədˈvɑːn.tɪdʒ/. both of extracts above shows that the learners’ errors in spelling words in english is influenced by mother tongue (indonesia) which the speakers use indonesian alphabet in saying english word. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 3, july 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 391 lexical interference (lekova, 2010) lexical interference occurs at the level of words. interference at a lexical level provides for the borrowing of words from one language and converting them to sound more natural in another. this type of interference is divided into two types. the first is how the speaker fails considering the character of a word. the second type is interference caused by the lack of ability to express a concept using more words in english. in the present data below, it had been found the learners’ errors in lexical interference. the examples were taken from the transcription of members of english member club which were doing discussion. extract 3: dialogue in two speakers in discussion activity in first circle group speaker2 : according to me advantages with the car we can go in somewhere it is not feel hot and the what is the meaning barang barang things or stuff we can easy to bring only that speaker1 : ok . disadvantages ..[kekurangan] extract 4: dialogue in two speakers in discussion activity in first circle group speaker1 : just driving motorcycle. so it is no important for u? speaker5 : important does not mean every day, every time, every moment you will use car. important means someday u will use it. speaker1 : but she said it no really important because she ..how often you go back to your hometown? speaker6 : just one year two time by looking at both of extracts above, it can be identified that extract (3) and (4) categorized as lexical interference. it can be showed when speaker 2 in extract (3) starting his sentence by saying according to me to represent his own opinion. the expression is usually used as disclaimer. in same case, speaker 6 in extract 4 said two time to express how often something happen. the expression still refers to mother tongue which in english should be adverb of frequency. it shows that the learners’ errors in using words in english are caused by speakers fail considering the character of a word and their choice from all the possible meanings is inappropriate extract 5: dialogue in two speakers in discussion activity in second circle group speaker 3 : i don’t agree we must change maybe the question. i will be our government when stop the producing . they maybe…yeah mengurangi kali yah. reduce the producing of car for example tax high export new car and if one family want to buy second car its rule the second highest tax so that want to buy second car because the tax very expensive …..[continue conversation]…… http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 3, july 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 392 speaker 5 : i think its no easy when money talks . of course government will get much advantages from produce many cars every year[yeah] in extract 5 above, speaker 5 commented what the speaker 3 said by saying “ money talks”. the idiom is used to express that money has power to influence people. this is categorized as lexical interference in second type which caused by the lack of ability to express a concept using more words in english, this last subcategory generally is the case of a literal translation of an idiom. grammatical interference grammatical interference is defined as the first language influencing the second in terms of word order, such as; in using of pronouns and determinants, tense and mood. based on wienriech in (martanti, 2011) grammatical interference is divided into three types. the first type is interference belongs in morphology. the second type is grammatical relations which relates to syntax, namely word order. the last type is interference relates to functions or meanings of grammatical forms. in the present data below, it had been found the learners’ errors in grammatical interference. the examples were taken from the transcription of members of english member club which were doing discussion. extract 6: dialogue in two speakers in discussion activity in second circle group speaker 1 : okay, move to the next, our brother. how important car for you? speaker 2 : how important car here, as we know that car always bring us wherever we wanna go. like we come here by car. then we can go to our village if we want to have having what is the vision we should in drive driving car together car is very important for us but there is a negative effect of the car. so… speaker 1 : so? speker 2 : car is important hehe extract 7: dialogue in two speakers in discussion activity in third circle group speaker 3 : i like your comment speaker 4 : yess , i agree you statement speaker 5 : ohh you have statement same with me, ok ok. why you agree with me , i think speaker 3 : i like your comment maidas speaker 4 : really after looking at the extracts above, it can be identified that extract (6) and (7) categorized as grammatical interference. it can be showed when speaker 2 in extract (6) said “bring” which it is verb. according to the rule of simple present tense, verb after subject is added by s or es. in same case, speaker 4 in extract 7 said “you” to express possessive. in fact, “you “ to represent possessive can use your or yours. both of extracts http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 3, july 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 393 above shows interference occurs because the transfer of morphemes from the first language or mother tongue in target language usage. this is called as grammatical interference first type. extract 8: dialogue in two speakers in discussion activity in first circle group speaker5 : how far you can walk? speaker7 : i think one kilometer. speaker1 : but in indonesia is so strange go to walking actually. it is different with other country…the country provides the line. so we can walk around the city and we feel comfort they provide really good line. it is different with our country always seem really rush, quite and walking is not best choice for us to go somewhere but driving motorcycle more better in extract 8 above, speaker 5 asked a question by saying “how far you can walk?. it is included as statement which if it is a question should modal put before subject. the error is caused by first language influence to target language. the speaker tried to ask the question with using a statement sentence which it does not need an answer actually. this is called as the second type of grammatical interference which it relates to word order. extract 9: dialogue in two speakers in discussion activity in third circle group leader : what about you? speaker 2 : .. i think i think i choose use ee motor cycle, because if motor cycle faster and we can’t come late to school, if we using car using car is slower than motor cycle , soo we come late to school. yes, may just that. in extract 9 above, leader asked a question to speaker 2 about his opinion. then, speaker 2 expressed his opinion by saying “motorcycle faster”. it is called as nominal sentence which its predicate is to be (am ,is ,are). those errors are caused by interference of mother tongue. indonesian does not have “to be / auxiliary” like english. this interference relates to functions or grammatical meaning of language that occurs when a speaker identifies the morpheme or grammatical of first language and then use it in target language. so this is called as third type in grammatical interference. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 3, july 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 394 table 1. data display no interference types example extract 1. phonetic interference how important car for me? the advantages and the disadvantages. 1 2 2. lexical interference considering the character of a word according to me advantages with the car just one year two time 3 4 the lack of ability to express a concept i think its no easy when money talks 5 3 grammatical interference morphology as we know that car always bring us yess , i agree you statement 6 7 syntax, word order how far you can walk?8 functions or meanings of grammatical forms motor cycle faster 9 discussions the previous studies described above are similar to the author's research in the field of interference. the main difference from the previous research is that it discusses interference errors in speech. dulay et al., (1982) distinguish interference into two parts, namely psychological and sociolinguistic. psychological refers to the influence of old habits when new ones are learned, whereas sociolinguistics refers to the interaction of language when two language communities are in contact. therefore, based on the author's experience and observations, learners often have difficulty in mastering a second language because of interference, which is influenced by old habits, popular with mother tongue and bilingual contact in society. in this study, the object of research is the interference used by english learners in the english meeting club. the activity of the english meeting is discussion. the discussion between english learners about the english meeting was conducted in english which was then transcribed to obtain detailed interference data. the discussion in this english meeting was formed as a sharing forum in an outdoor setting. each learner can express his opinion in speaking; it means that each learner is a speaker but it is done in turns. speakers who are bilingualism then fail to transfer different items or structures in both languages which is referred to as negative transfer or interference. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 3, july 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 395 negative interference or transfer is the effect of language learners' first language on the production of the language they are learning. that is, the speaker's first language influences the second language. inference errors made by english learners refer to three types of interference, namely phonological, lexical, and grammatical interference according to what has been stated by lekova (2010). the three types of interference are influenced by the mother tongue (indonesia) which mostly produces sounds, words or sentences following the indonesian language system. english learners who want to master english are considered to be able to reduce errors by learning more of the target language system. interference errors made by english learners are generally influenced by phonetics referring to speech sounds, lexical refers to the word level and grammatical interference refers to the grammatical rules in the language. . this is because indonesian speakers experience considerable obstacles when trying to use english as the target language that has been mastered by first language learners. the source of difficulty is based on the difference in level between the indonesian system and the english system. in addition, to minimize interference errors made by english learners, especially in english meetings, there are several ways that english learners themselves can try. first, as long as speakers are bilingual, they must arrange or arrange or spell carefully the sentences they want to say. second, the addition of target language vocabulary is also important to reduce interference. then the third is the speaker must know the standard pattern that will be used in compiling the target language (english). the three methods above can be very effective if applied properly. english learners who really want to master english can follow this strategy because as we know that in society, especially in english meetings, there are no teachers who will teach us exactly how to master english. sharing knowledge, experiences and opinions can be found there, english meeting. conclusion interference is a common phenomenon for english language learners. it is very difficult to avoid interference in learning english because the first language for novice learners has a dominant role, so reducing interference errors in english is very difficult. however, from the results of this study, several things can be obtained that are very helpful for english learners, especially for those who choose english club as a learning place namely : 1. english learners at meeting club, especially rotterdam, can easily find out what types of mistakes that they made and what the causes of intereference errors so that they can reduce their mistakes. 2. english learners can be selective in choosing english meeting club so that learning abilities can be maximized because in english club there are no teachers who will guide http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 3, july 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 396 us precisely how to master in english. sharing knowledge, experiences and opinions can be found there at the english meeting. 3 . for further research, this can be used as a reference to help solve the problem of interference errors, speaking and other multibilingual problems commonly experienced by novice learners acknowledgment i would like to give a great thanks to prof. a melantik rampogading m.h, as the rector of sawerigading university of makassar and dean of literature faculty of sawerigading university of makassar, dra.mardiani m.hum and all of the lecturer and friend that have helped to finish the research. references bada, e. (2001). native language influence on the production of english sounds by japanese learners. the reading matrix, 1(2), 15. . retrieved from http://www.readingmatrix.com/articles/bada/article.pdf baloch, s. s. (2013). l1 (arabic) interference in learning l2 (english): an analysis of english spelling used by arabic speakers at undergraduate level -a case study. european scientific journal, 9(16), 226–232. berthold, m., mangubhai, f., & batorowicz, k. (1997). bilingualism & multiculturalism: study book. distance education centre. in university of southern queensland. toowoomba, qld. dulay, h.; burt, m.; krashen, s. (1982). language two. in new york. oxford univ. press. ellis, r. (2008). the study of second language acquisition (2nd ed.). in new york. oxford university press. kesmez, a. (2014). an analysis of the l1 interference errors of turkish university students in their written productions. the journal of academic social science studies, 34, 395– 402. lekova, b. (2010). language interference and methods of its overcoming in foreign language teaching. trakia journal of sciences, 8, 320–324. lott, d. (1983). analysing and counteracting interference errors. elt journal, 37/3, 256– 261. martanti, p. (2011). an analysis of grammatical interference in articles of berani newspaper. in jakarta. state islamic university. weinreich u. (1963). languages in contac: findings and problems. in the hague. mounton & co. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 3, july 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 397 zaim, m. (2002). kesalahan sintaksis dan semantis dalam terjemahan pembelajaranbahasa inggris. in padang. universitas negeri padang press. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 3, july 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 358 the correlation between the teacher’s oral feedback and the students’ writing motivation edita dininorani seran1; rifki irawan2* 1,2 universitas pgri yogyakarta rifkizam@upy.ac.id abstract this study aims to determine the correlation between the teacher’s oral feedback and the students’ writing motivation. this study is quantitative research with a correlation method. the researcher conducted this study at smpn 2 kasihan. the population of this study included all of the 8th graders and one teacher. the sample of this study consists of 93 students. to gain the data, the researcher distributed the questionnaires to the students and a teacher. the data analysis technique used in this research used rank spearman correlation, with spss version 23 for the windows program. the result of the research showed that there is a correlation between the teacher’s oral feedback and the students’ writing motivation. it is evidenced by the rank spearman correlation test results with the significance value of 0.000, where it is <0.05. keywords: corrective feedback, writing motivation, teaching writing skills introduction teacher’s role in classroom teaching and learning activities is crucial in achieving the specified learning objectives. mostly the teaching-learning process and the students learning outcomes are determined by the role of a teacher. the teacher’s task is not only to teach but also to motivate the students to be enthusiastic and active in learning, whether they are any subject matter, including english that in indonesia is regarded as a foreign language. there are still many students who do not like english, especially english as foreign language (efl) students because it has many skills that have to be mastered as listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills. it can affect the learning process and learning outcomes. writing is the pretty complex language skills, especially for efl students. the teacher often finds mistakes in students writing assignments. whether it misspelling, punctuation, lost or misuse articles, and others. it can affect the results of students writing. teachers sometimes only give the students writing assignments and scribble the wrong parts of students’ work without telling them why it is wrong. if it is forwarded, it will certainly make the students dislike or have no motivation to write. one way to motivate students in writing is to provide feedback on student writing (ellis, 2009). by giving feedback, the teachers can also correct the students’ work, whether true or false. in this case, the teacher should scribble the students’ answers and inform the students where it goes wrong and the correct answers to the question, so the students can find out their shortcomings and improve them. providing http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 3, july 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 359 feedback helps students to become conscious of the differences between their actual performance and learning objectives. besides, feedback can also be a helpful tool to help recognize and correct errors (van loon & van de pol, 2019). by giving the students feedback, they can know their strengths and shortcomings to improve them for their learning progress. oral feedback is one of the several types of feedback that the teacher can give to the students. it is a form of feedback that involves direct interaction between students and teachers. oral feedback is the teacher’s feedback orally during the learning activities to the learners (nsw education and communities, 2015). for example, a student can answer a question or do it correctly, then the teacher says good, brilliant, or well done, then the student will feel happy and satisfied with his/her work and feels that the teacher appreciates his / her effort. it can make the students motivated to continue to learn. whereas for the students who cannot answer the question or their answers are incorrect or make errors and mistakes in writing, the teacher can say their answer is not entirely correct, the article they use is false, or the spelling is correct others. thus, the students know their errors and mistakes and then improve them. giving feedback to the students’ writing can be provided direct and indirectly, but the researcher focuses on the direct feedback. direct error correction resulted in more accurate revisions than indirect error feedback (jamalinesari, rahimi, gowhary, & azizifar, 2015). however, not all teachers realize that providing feedback can motivate students to write. the teacher focused only on correcting the right or wrong answer or the results of students’ work in doing assignments and giving scores without telling them why it is wrong. besides, the teacher also rarely gives recommendations or praising to the students who answer or do their assignments correctly. finally, the students do not know their writing result progress and do not know or confuse why he/she gets the bad scores in the writing learning. as a result, they make the same mistake repeatedly because the teacher does not provide feedback to the students’ writing. therefore, the researcher is interested in researching the correlation between the teacher’s oral feedbacks with the students’ writing motivation. the research title is “the correlation between the teacher’s oral feedback and the students’ writing motivation”. feedback is an information on aspects of one's performance or knowledge offered by an agent (e.g., teacher, peer, books, parents, self, experience) as a result of performance (hattie ja, 2007). feedback is about presenting knowledge in a way that allows the receiver to consider it, focus on it, learn from it, and hopefully make improvements (deanery, 2019). when teachers share their feedback verbally, students have a positive opinion of it (agricola, prins, & sluijsmans, 2020). moreover, feedback affects students' emotions and learning in a positive and productive way (bajaj, kaur, arora, & singh, 2018). from the above statements, the writer can conclude that feedback refers to the information given to someone related to his/her performance or behavior, whether it is good or not, so he/she can improve that is not good to be better than before. it also helps the students in learning activities, for they are more motivated to study. some recommendations for making feedback more effective and meaningful in terms of student learning have been made. first, make the students comprehend what constitutes http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 3, july 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 360 a good performance or achievement. then, simplify the process of learning improvement through self-assessment or reflections. thirdly students should be provided with accurate information about their studies. moreover, peer dialogue should be allowed in order to better grasp the feedback. the next is providing opportunities to reduce the gap between current and desired performance, and instilling positive motivating attitudes. effective feedback can give teachers with information that can be used to assist shape their instruction. the teacher should provide positive feedback. finally, choose the appropriate time and place and a variety of e-feedback approaches(mamoon-al-bashir, kabir, & rahman, 2016). to give learners feedback, it is essential to pay attention to provide feedback strategies and feedback content to the students to be helpful and valuable for them. there are several dimensions of feedback strategies. they are timing, amount, mode, and audience. on feedback content, choosing feedback requires choices about focus, comparison, function, and valence (arapakis, 2008). the purpose of focus is to describe specific qualities of the work about learning objectives, analyze the learning processes and techniques of the students to help them to find out how to develop and promote the student self-efficacy by creating links between the work of the students and their active, deliberate actions, and avoid personal comments. there are three comparisons in giving feedback to the students: norm-referencing (comparing the performance of the student with the other students); criterion-referencing (comparison of the students’ results to standard) with the test score; and self-referencing (comparing the students’ performance with his or her previous outcomes). the purpose of functions is to describe students’ work and avoid measuring or judging the students’ work to deter the students from attempting to improve. the purpose of valence is to use constructive words to explain what does right and give recommendations about what to develop. clarity is important. the students need to understand the details about feedback as the teacher expects to. the students have different languages, diverse cultures, and diverse experiences. the clarity criterion is whether the writing or expression is transparent to the individual students specificity means to give the students direction but not to do the job. it also means to offer suggestions that are sufficiently clear to encourage the students to take concrete next steps. in this study, the researcher conducted one type of feedback, named oral feedback. oral feedback is given orally as one form and followed by an interaction between feedback giver and recipient. this form of feedback can be provided before, during, and after writing activities to one learner, several learners, and all learners as a whole methods in this study, the researcher uses a quantitative approach. the method used in this research is the correlation method. a correlation study aims to assess if two or more variables are related (marvasti, 2018). the population is all members of the human community, organisms, activities, or objects that exist together in one location and intended to become the final results of a research target conclusion. the population of this research is http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 3, july 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 361 123 of 8th graders at smpn 2 kasihan. to determine the sample size, the researcher uses slovin’s formula. in this study, the researcher uses questionnaires as the data collection technique. the definition of a questionnaire is simply a list of printed questions completed by a respondent to give his/her opinion (roopa & rani, 2012). the researcher uses the questionnaires to measure the teacher’s oral feedback and students’ writing motivation. table 1. the questionnaire grille of the teacher’s oral feedback dimension of giving feedback indicators description number of item sum feedback strategies timing timing refers to when the right time to provide feedback. 11, 12, 13 3 amount to decide how much feedback to give — how many, on how many points. 7, 8 2 audience it refers to whether the feedback is providing individual or groups/classes. 14, 15 2 feedback content focus focus on students’ tasks, processes, and techniques, which part of students’ work should give feedback. 1, 2, 9 3 comparison it refers to compare students’ performance to others and to the past performance of the student itself, compare students’ results to standards for successful work. 3,4,5 3 function it refers to whether the feedback given is a description or evaluation/judgment. 6, 10 2 valence it means using a positive or negative comment to describe what on students’ work. 20 1 clarity use vocabularies and concepts that students will understand. in providing feedback, it is better to consider the amount and content of comments by the developmental stage of the students. 16, 18, 19 3 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 3, july 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 362 specificity provide feedback clear enough that students know what to do and notice mistakes or types of error, but avoid correcting them. 17 1 total 20 items table 2. the questionnaire grille of the students’ writing motivation research instrument testing validity dimension of students’ writing motivation indicators number of item sum integrative motivation a learner is motivated by integration as he/she wants to know more about the culture and values of the foreign language community, to communicate with the language speakers, or to live in the country concerned. 11 1 instrumental motivation the learner's aim to learn a language to achieve a particular practical objective, such as a better job or a higher salary, or to pass an exam at school. 14, 15, 18 3 intrinsic motivation the eagerness and interest in doing and participating in any other things because an individual think that those things are attractive and fun. 1,2,3,4,5,6, 9 13 8 extrinsic motivation extrinsic motivation is the propensity to participate in the actions for reasons not linked to the purpose of hoping for reward or punishment, such as success at a test or having a high score. 7, 8, 10,12, 16, 17 19, 20 8 total 20 items http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 3, july 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 363 validity refers to the degree to which, in quantitative analysis, a definition is accurately measured (heale & twycross, 2015). here the researcher will use pearson product moment for the validity test. 𝑟𝑥𝑦 = 𝑵∑𝑿𝒀 − (∑𝑿)(∑𝒀) √[𝑵∑𝑿𝟐__ (∑𝑿)𝟐]. [∑𝒀𝟐 − (∑𝒀)𝟐] if the significance <0.05, it means that the instrument or the items of the question correlate significantly towards the score total (totally valid), whereas if the significance value >0.05, it means that the question items are invalid (raharjo, 2014). whereas, reliability refers to an instrument score consistent and stable (creswell, 2012). to measure the reliability of the research instrument, the researcher will use cronbach alpha. reliability measurement can determine by cronbach’s alpha (mohamad, sulaiman, sern, & salleh, 2015). if cronbach’s alpha score is >0.6, then an instrument is reliable. if cronbach’s alpha score is <0.6, then an instrument is not reliable. to test the validity and reliability of the questionnaires, the researcher distributed the questionnaires to 15 respondents. then the researcher used the pearson correlation formula to process the data with the spss 23 program. the validity and reliability tests showed that the questionnaires are proper to use to collect the research data. to analyze the data, the researcher uses the rank spearman correlation. spearman correlation coefficient is a statistical measure of the intensity of a monotonic relationship paired data. monotonic relationships are when one variable increases, one another increases, or one variable decreases one other decreases. the researcher used the rank spearman coefficient of correlation was due to the data from the instrument using the likert scale resulted in ordinal or tiered data. spearman’s formulation (kalra, 2017) 𝑟𝑠 = 1 − 6∑𝑑𝑖² 𝑁(𝑁2 − 1) where: rs=rank spearman correlation di² = total squared differences between the ranks n = number of the research sample the followings are the guidelines to describe the strength of the correlation for the absolute value of rs . table 3. the guidelines to describe the strength of the correlation between the variable size of correlation interpretation .00-.19 very weak .20-.39 weak http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 3, july 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 364 results & discussion the results of validity and reliability test the results of validity test to test the validity of the questionnaires, the researcher distributed the questionnaires to 15 respondents. then the researcher used the pearson correlation formula to process the data with the help of the spss 23 program. table 2 is the results of the questionnaire trials for the teacher’s oral feedback and the students’ writing motivation variables. table 4. the validity test of the teacher’s oral feedback .40-.59 moderate .60-.79 strong .80-1.0 very strong number of items significance value criteria explanation item 1 0.000 0.000<0.05 valid item 2 0.005 0.005<0.05 valid item 3 0.010 0.010<0.05 valid item 4 0.053 0.053>0.05 invalid item 5 0.000 0.00<0.05 valid item 6 1.000 1.000>0.05 invalid item 7 0.030 0.030<0.05 valid item 8 0.000 0.000<0.05 valid item 9 0.000 0.000<0.05 valid item 10 0.076 0.076>0.05 invalid item 11 0.003 0.003<0.05 valid item 12 0.105 0.105>0.05 invalid item 13 0.053 0.053>0.05 invalid item 14 0.010 0.010<0.05 valid item 15 0.008 0.008<0.05 valid item 16 0.024 0.024<0.05 valid item 17 0.000 0.000<0.05 valid item 18 0.029 0.029<0.05 valid item 19 0.001 0.001<0.05 valid item 20 0.065 0.065<0.05 invalid http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 3, july 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 365 based on table 2, we can see that there are six invalid items. it is because the significance value of these items is>0.05. so the researcher repaired the invalid items and redistributed them. then the researcher conducted a validity test on the items. the results are in table 3. table 5. validity test results of redistributed items for the teacher’s oral feedback from the table above, we can see that the significance value of the six items where four items are valid with the significance < 0.05. meanwhile, there are two invalid items because the significance value of the items is >0.05. table 6. the validity test for the students’ writing motivation cronbach’s alpha n of items cronbach’s alpha n of items item 1 0.076 0.076>0.05 invalid item 2 0.018 0.018<0.05 valid item 3 0.001 0.001<0.05 valid item 4 0.003 0.003<0.05 valid item 5 0.002 0.002<0.05 valid item 6 0.002 0.002<0.05 valid item 7 0.007 0.007<0.05 valid item 8 0.096 0.096>0.05 invalid item 9 0.014 0.014<0.05 valid item 10 0.293 0.293>0.05 invalid item 11 0.011 0.011<0.05 valid item 12 0.003 0.003<0.05 valid item 13 0.002 0.002<0.05 valid item 14 0.001 0.001<0.05 valid item 15 0.066 0.066>0.05 invalid item 16 0.057 0.057>0.05 invalid item 17 0.002 0.002<0.05 valid number of items significance value criteria explanation item 4 0.04 0.04<0.05 valid item 6 0.115 0.115>0.05 invalid item 10 0.000 0.000<0.05 valid item 12 0.000 0.000<0.05 valid item 13 0.051 0.051>0.05 invalid item 20 0.006 0.006<0.05 valid http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 3, july 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 366 item 18 0.003 0.003<0.05 valid item 19 0.012 0.012<0.05 valid item 20 0.259 0.259>0.05 invalid based on table 4, we can see that there are six invalid items. it is because the significance value of these items is greater than 0.05. from the six invalid items, the researcher excluded two items. for the four invalid items were repaired and redistributed. then the researcher conducted a validity test of the four redistributed items. from the table 5, we can see that the significance of 4 items is <0.05, which means the items are valid. below are the results: table 7. validity test results of redistributed items for the students’ writing motivation cronbach’s alpha n of items cronbach’s alpha n of items item 8 0.001 0.001<0.05 valid item 10 0.000 0.000<0.05 valid item 15 0.004 0.004<0.05 valid item 16 0.007 0.007<0.05 valid the result of reliability test table 8. reliability test results for the teacher’s oral feedback variable. cronbach’s alpha n of items .907 18 table 9. the reliability test results of students’ writing motivation variable. cronbach’s alpha n of items .900 18 in table 6 and 7, the results or the reliability test analysis on the teacher’s oral feedback variable was 0.907 and on the students’ writing motivation variable was also 0.900. based on the results of the reliability test of the two variables, when compared with the cronbach alpha value of 0.6, the scores of the two variables >0.6. it means that the two variables are reliable. from the results of validity and reliability tests, we can conclude that the questionnaires are proper to use to collect the research data. the analysis of each research variable data from the teacher’ oral feedback for feedback content indicator the researcher made a description of the data to find out the description of the oral http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 3, july 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 367 feedback from the teacher for indicator of feedback content of the viii grade students at smpn 2 kasihan. the data was presented in the form of a frequency distribution table and score categorization. in obtaining the oral feedback content data, the researcher used a questionnaire instrument consisting of twelve statement items. the questionnaires have been tested for validity and reliability. then, the researcher distributed the questionnaire to 93 of class viii students of smpn 2 kasihan. the highest score of the data is 57, the lowest score is 29 and the range is 28. moreover, based on the calculation of the central tendency and variability of the data, it is known that the mean is 41,505 (round up 42), the median is 42.00, the mode is 38, and the standard deviation is 5,633 (roundup 6). the total of the class is 7,539 (roundup 8) and the length of the class is 3,713 (roundup 4). furthermore, the feedback strategies data from the teacher is presented in a frequency distribution table in the following table. then, the data is presented in a categorization table the score of feedback content in table 9. table 10. frequency distribution of the scores of the teacher's oral feedback (indicator of feedback content) table 11. categorization of the teacher's oral feedback (indicator of feedback content) indicator score frequency relative frequency (%) category feedback content x≥48 13 14% high 36≤x˂48 66 71% moderate x˂36 14 15% low total 93 100% based on the table of the score categorization of the indicator of feedback content, it is shown that the students’ responses towards the feedback content given by the teachers at smpn 2 kasihan, the majority are included in the moderate category, namely at the percentage of 71%. no. interval class frequency frequency (%) cumulative frequency 1 29–32 4 0,043 0,043 2 33–36 12 0,129 0,172 3 37–40 25 0,269 0,441 4 41–44 19 0,204 0,645 5 45–48 23 0,247 0,892 6 49–52 8 0,086 0,978 7 53–56 1 0,011 0,989 8 57–60 1 0,011 1,000 total 93 1,000 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 3, july 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 368 data from the students’ writing motivation in obtaining the students’ writing motivation data, the researcher used a questionnaire instrument consisting of 18 statement items. the questionnaire has been tested for validity and reliability. then, the researcher distributed the questionnaire to 93 class viii students of smpn 2 kasihan. the highest score of the data is 90, the lowest score is 30 and the range is 58. moreover, based on the calculation of the central tendency and variability of the data, it is known that the mean is 59.82 (roundup 60), the median is 59.00, the mode is 54, and the standard deviation is 10.67 (roundup 11). furthermore, the students’ writing motivation data is presented in a frequency distribution table in the following table. table 12. frequency distribution of the scores of the students' writing motivation no. interval class frequency frequency (%) cumulative frequency 1 32–39 1 0,011 0,011 2 40–47 10 0,108 0,119 3 48–55 23 0,247 0,366 4 56–63 29 0,312 0,678 5 64–71 16 0,172 0,850 6 72–79 10 0,108 0,957 7 80–87 3 0,032 0,989 8 88–95 1 0,011 1,000 total 93 1,000 table 13. categorization of the students’ writing motivation variable score frequency relative frequency (%) category the students’ writing motivation x≥60 43 46% high 49≤x˂60 36 39% moderate x˂49 14 15% low total 93 100% based on the score categorization of the students’ writing motivation, it is shown that the students’ writing motivation at smpn 2 kasihan, the majority are included in the high category, namely at the percentage of 46%. the correlation analysis between the research variables the researcher formulated the hypothesis to analyze the correlation between the teacher’s oral feedback and the students’ writing motivation variable, the hypotheses are: http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 3, july 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 369 null hypothesis (ho): the teacher’s oral feedback does not relate to the students’ writing motivation. alternative hypothesis (ha): the teacher’s oral feedback relates to the students’ writing motivation. the hypothetical test criteria are as follows: null hypothesis (ho) is accepted if the significance ˃ 0.05 means the alternative hypothesis (ha) is rejected. alternative hypothesis (ha) is accepted if the significance ˂ 0.05, which means the null hypothesis (ho) is rejected. in analyzing the correlation between the teacher’s oral feedbacks with the students’ writing motivation data, the researcher used the spearman rank correlation test with the help of the spss 23 for the windows program. below are the results of t rank spearman correlation analysis. table 14. the results of rank spearman correlation test the teacher’s oral feedback the students’ writing motivation spearman’s rho the teacher’s oral feedback correlation coefficient sig. (2-tailed) n 1.000 . 93 .426 .000 93 the students’ writing motivation correlation coefficient sig. (2-tailed) n .426 .000 93 1.000 . 93 based on the spearman rank correlation analysis test, the significance value of the two variables is .000. from the result, the significance value of the correlation test results of the two variables is .000. when the result is compared with a significance value of 0.05, both variables’ significance value is <0.05. it means that there is a correlation between the teacher’s oral feedback and students' writing motivation. so the conclusion is the null hypothesis (h0) is rejected, whereas the alternative hypothesis (ha) is accepted. it means that there is a relationship between the teacher’s oral feedback and student writing motivation. the guideline for the strength of the relationship between the two variables when viewed from the 𝑟𝑠 value is .426. the 0.426 in the relationship strength guideline table is at moderate strength (.40-.59). the relationship direction shows that it is unidirectional and positive, which means that the higher/often the teacher provides oral feedback on students’ writing, the higher the students' writing motivation. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 3, july 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 370 conclusion based on the results of the rank spearman correlation analysis, the statement of hypothesis alternative (ha) of this study is that says there is a relationship between the teacher's oral feedback and the students' writing motivation is accepted; whereas the statements of the null hypothesis (h0) that says the teacher's oral feedback does not relate to the students' writing motivation is rejected. it is evidenced by the significance value of the rank spearman correlation test of 0.000 is <0.05. so the conclusion is there is a correlation between the teacher's oral feedback and student motivation in writing. reference agricola, b. t., prins, f. j., & sluijsmans, d. m. a. (2020). impact of feedback request forms and verbal feedback on higher education students’ feedback perception, self-efficacy, and motivation. assessment in education: principles, policy & practice, 27(1), 6–25. https://doi.org/10.1080/0969594x.2019.1688764 arapakis, i. (2008). affective feedback. in proceedings of the 31st annual international acm sigir conference on research and development in information retrieval sigir ’08 (p. 891). new york, new york, usa: acm press. https://doi.org/10.1145/1390334.1390566 bajaj, j. k., kaur, k., arora, r., & singh, s. j. (2018). introduction of feedback for better learning. journal of clinical and diagnostic research. https://doi.org/10.7860/jcdr/2018/36744.12402 creswell, j. (2012). educational research: planning, conducting and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research (fourth edi). boston: pearson education. retrieved from http://www.ghbook.ir/index.php?name= های ف رسانه و رهنگ option=com_dbook&task=readonline&book_id=13650&page=73&chkhashk=ed9c9&نوین 491b4&itemid=218&lang=fa&tmpl=component deanery. (2019). what is feedback and why is it so important ? retrieved from http://www.bradfordvts.co.uk/educational-supervision/feedback/ ellis, r. (2009). corrective feedback and teacher development. l2 journal, 1(1). https://doi.org/10.5070/l2.v1i1.9054 hattie ja, t. h. (2007). the power of feedback. [5];77:81-112. review of educational research., 5, 81–112. heale, r., & twycross, a. (2015). validity and reliability in quantitative studies. evidence based nursing, 18(3), 66–67. https://doi.org/10.1136/eb-2015-102129 jamalinesari, a., rahimi, f., gowhary, h., & azizifar, a. (2015). the effects of teacher-written direct vs. indirect feedback on students’ writing. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 192, 116–123. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.06.018 kalra, a. (2017). decoding the bland–altman plot: basic review. journal of the practice of http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 3, july 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 371 cardiovascular sciences, 3(1), 36. https://doi.org/10.4103/jpcs.jpcs_11_17 mamoon-al-bashir, m., kabir, m. r., & rahman, i. (2016). the value and effectiveness of feedback in improving students’ learning and professionalizing teaching in higher education. journal of education and practice, 7(16), 38–41. marvasti, a. (2018). research methods. in the cambridge handbook of social problems (pp. 23– 38). cambridge university press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108656184.003 mohamad, m. m., sulaiman, n. l., sern, l. c., & salleh, k. m. (2015). measuring the validity and reliability of research instruments. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 204, 164–171. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.08.129 nsw education and communities. (2015). types of feedback oral and written feedback oral feedback. retrieved from http://www.ssgt.nsw.edu.au/documents/1types_feedback.pdf raharjo, s. (2014). cara melakukan uji validitas product moment dengan spss. roopa, s., & rani, m. (2012). questionnaire designing for a survey. journal of indian orthodontic society, 46(4_suppl1), 273–277. https://doi.org/10.1177/0974909820120509s van loon, m., & van de pol, j. (2019). judging own and peer performance when using feedback in elementary school. learning and individual differences, 74, 101754. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2019.101754 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 270 flipped learning for enhancing intensive reading comprehension via google classroom: a quasi-experimental study hanifah amaliah1*, yayu heryatun 2, cucum rohmawati 3 1,2,3 universitas islam negeri sultan maulana hasanudin banten, serang, indonesia yayu.heryatun@uinbanten.ac.id abstract this research delved into the efficacy of the flipped learning strategy in enhancing students' intensive reading comprehension and explored their responses to its implementation via google classroom. a quasi-experimental study involved 66 seventh-grade students from a state junior high school in cilegon, strategically divided into an experimental group adopting flipped learning and a control group utilizing traditional scientific methods. data, gathered through pre-tests and post-tests to gauge reading comprehension and questionnaires to capture student perspectives, were analyzed using spss. an independent sample t-test revealed that the experimental group achieved significantly higher post-test scores (80.06) compared to the control group (74.27), underscoring the superior effectiveness of flipped learning in boosting reading comprehension. furthermore, the questionnaire results showed a predominantly positive student outlook on leveraging google classroom within this flipped pedagogical framework. consequently, this study concludes that flipped learning, powerfully supported by google classroom, stands as a robust and well-received strategy for refining students' intensive reading comprehension keywords: flipped learning, google classroom, intensive reading comprehension, quasi experimental study introduction in the era of globalization, reading has become an important academic skill, specifically intensive reading, which focuses on understanding complex texts in detail. according to (brown, 2001), intensive reading assists students develop their vocabulary, enhance grammatical awareness, and improve reading comprehension. this skill is particularly essential for academic success, as it enables learners to interpret and analyze written materials effectively. despite its importance, conventional classroom instruction often limits students' opportunities to engage in intensive reading because of time constraints and teacher-centered approaches. traditional methods tend to focus on passive learning, where students only listen, take notes, and rely a lot on teacher explanations. this condition results in limited student interaction, lack of motivation, and inadequate development of reading strategies (zainuddin & halili, 2016). http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 271 to address these limitations, researchers have explored the use of flipped learning—a pedagogical model where students study basic materials at home and engage in interactive activities in class. in this model, students acquire foundational knowledge independently, which allows classroom time to be used for collaborative discussions, problem-solving, and deeper analysis (kakarougkas & abdellatif, 2022). the integration of digital platforms such as google classroom into the flipped learning model enhances accessibility and flexibility. it enables teachers for delivering structured content, monitoring student progress, and promoting self-paced learning. research conducted by (osman et al, 2023) and (febriyanti et al, 2023) indicate that using google classroom in a flipped classroom environment can improve students’ engagement, readiness, and academic performance. in indonesia academic setting, specifically in one state junior high school in cilegon, many seventh-grade students experience challenges in understanding english texts, particularly in intensive reading tasks. classroom observations show that students often lack preparation, remain passive during lessons, and exhibit minimal engagement. teachers have to spend significant time to explain material that students can have explored independently beforehand. this classroom dynamic reflects the issues noted in conventional instruction and underlines the need for a more interactive and student-centered approach. although the flipped learning model has been widely explored, limited empirical studies have specifically addressed its impact on intensive reading comprehension in indonesian junior high schools, particularly with the integration of google classroom. furthermore, prior study has rarely focused on how flipped learning influences students' reading strategies, critical thinking, and classroom engagement in this context. therefore, this study seeks to address this gap by examining the effectiveness of flipped learning—supported by google classroom—to improve students' intensive reading comprehension and identifying students' responses to its implementation methods this research employed a quasi-experimental study with a pre-test and post-test control class. the research aimed to examine the effectiveness of the flipped learning strategy using google classroom in improving seventh-grade students’ intensive reading comprehension. a total of 66 seventh-grade students from one state junior high school in cilegon participated in this study, meticulously divided into two distinct groups: class vii e serving as the experimental class (n=33), and class vii b as the control group (n=33). participant selection employed purposive sampling, guided by the english teacher's insights into students' academic performance and prevailing classroom conditions, ensuring a comparable baseline in reading ability. while the experimental class received instruction via the flipped learning strategy, integrally supported by google classroom, the control class adhered to conventional scientific teaching methods. both groups underwent identical pretests and post-tests to quantify advancements in intensive reading comprehension." to collect students' responses toward the flipped learning strategy, a questionnaire was distributed to the experiment class. the validity of the questionnaire was established through expert judgment by two english lecturers. the reliability of the instrument was http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 272 tested using cronbach’s alpha, resulting in a coefficient of 0.87, which indicates high internal consistency. before data analysis, the researchers conducted a normality test (kolmogorov– smirnov) and a homogeneity test (levene’s test). because the data were normally distributed and homogeneous, an independent sample t-test was applied using spss software to compare the post-test results between the two groups. descriptive statistics were also used to analyze questionnaire results. regarding ethical considerations, informed consent was obtained from students before data collection. participants were informed that their responses would be kept anonymous and used only for research purposes. the headmaster also provided written approval for the implementation of the study during regular class hours. results this study involves data that has to be statistically assessed; quantitative approaches are used for data analysis. in addition, the researchers employed the software program spss (statistical product and service solution) for their computations. it helps with the process of finding correlation results from the collected data. after gathering data from the pre-test and post-tests, the researchers processed, examined, and contrasted the test results. before implementing the flipped learning approach, the students' pre-test scores were low, which is indicative of their poor comprehension of the context. moreover, there are restrictions on the use of intensive reading strategies for comprehension instruction. however, after the treatment, the post-test results showed the effects of the flipped learning strategy. post-test results have improved, and the pre-test results support observations. students are more receptive to teacher’s instruction. additionally, because students share ideas and insights while reading a text, students are more engaged. results of pre-test in the pretest, there were 33 students who had been tested on the first experimental group, and 33 students on the control group. this is the result of pretest of reading comprehension: table 1. the result of reading comprehension pretest in experimental and control class experimental class control class name score name score air 65 an 60 ava 65 afr 40 az 85 akr 50 asa 70 alr 65 aad 75 am 70 ags 75 am 65 aek 65 ar 75 c 60 badmp 60 deag 70 cmha 45 da 70 da 55 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 273 fhr 60 ens 60 fa 65 erm 65 gsa 75 fph 60 har 55 his 55 kg 65 kznh 70 kas 80 kpr 55 ldi 75 kr 60 map 80 met 75 map 70 mpss 45 mdk 60 mnpp 65 mif 70 mdan 60 mrab 75 mfr 75 mma 65 mhpw 70 ni 70 mrs 55 prw 65 na 70 ra 50 nah 50 rbp 65 nra 55 rrp 75 qkr 60 ra 70 rd 70 sdr 75 rwpi 55 sm 55 rd 60 sgb 75 sf 45 tm 65 sad 70  2260  1995 average score 68,48 average score 60,45 the highest score 85 the highest score 75 the lowest score 50 the lowest score 45 from the table above, it can be seen that the sample size (n) was 33 where in the experimental class, the mean score of the pre-test was 68.48, with a standard deviation of 7.755. the median score was 70, the variance was 60.133, the lowest score recorded was 50, and the highest score archieved was 85. meanwhile in the control class, the mean score of the pre-test was 60.45, with a standard deviation of 9.384. the sample size (n) was 33, the median score was 60, the variance was 60.133, the lowest score recorded was 40, and the highest score archieved was 75. the whole calculation http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 274 results of post-test in the posttest, from 33 students who had been tested on the first experimental group, and 33 students on the control group, the result of reading comprehension posttest is as follow: table 2. the results of reading comprehension posttest in experimental and control class experimental class control class name score name score air 90 an 70 ava 75 afr 75 az 95 akr 65 asa 95 alr 80 aad 80 am 65 ags 90 am 75 aek 85 ar 75 c 100 badmp 80 deag 80 cmha 75 da 95 da 65 fhr 75 ens 70 fa 80 erm 80 gsa 80 fph 75 har 95 his 95 kg 75 kznh 75 kas 85 kpr 80 ldi 85 kr 65 map 80 met 85 map 95 mpss 65 mdk 90 mnpp 70 mif 85 mdan 75 mrab 75 mfr 80 mza 90 mhpw 90 ni 95 mrs 65 prw 85 na 70 ra 85 nah 80 rbp 90 nra 75 rrp 85 qkr 80 ra 85 rs 65 sdr 75 rwpi 75 sm 90 rd 70 sgb 90 sf 65 tm 80 sad 80  2840  2455 average score 86,06 average score 74,27 the highest score 100 the highest score 90 the lowest score 75 the lowest score 65 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 275 the table shows that the experimental class, the mean score of the pre-test was 86.06, with a standard deviation of 7.263 the sample size (n) was 33, the median score was 85, the variance was 52.746, the lowest score recorded was 75, and the highest score archieved was 100. meanwhile in the control class, the mean score of the pre-test was 74.27, with a standard deviation of 7.220 the sample size (n) was 33, the median score was 75, the variance was 52.122, the lowest score recorded was 65, and the highest score archieved was 95. results of normality test table 3. tests of normality class kolmogorov-smirnova shapiro-wilk statistic df sig. statistic df sig. result pre-test control class .118 33 .200* .951 33 .143 post-test control class .139 33 .107 .903 33 .007 pre-test experiment class .145 33 .077 .959 33 .236 post-test experiment class .134 33 .142 .924 33 .023 *. this is a lower bound of the true significance. a. lilliefors significance correction there were more than 50 samples analyzed in this study, so the kolmogorov-smirnov test was used. “the shapiro-wilk test is more appropriate for small sample sizes (<50 samples), while the kolmogorov-smirnov test is used for n ≥ 50,” according to (mishra et al , 2019). each test has a null hypothesis stating that the data comes from a normally distributed population. the null hypothesis states that the data used in both tests should come from a regularly distributed population. if the significance value (p-value) is more than 0.05, the null hypothesis is accepted, and the data is considered normally distributed. based on table above, it shows that the sig. (p-value) for pre-test and post-test in the experimental class are 0.077 and 0.142. furthermore, the sig. (p-value) of the control class is 0.107 for the post-test and 0.200* for the pre-test, with α = 0.05. the fact that the results (p-value) > α indicates that the null hypothesis (ho) is accepted. therefore, it can be said that the data of the experimental and control classes follow a normal distribution. result of homogeneity test table 4. tests of homogeneity of variances levene statistic df1 df2 sig. result based on mean .812 3 128 .489 based on median .797 3 128 .498 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 276 based on median and with adjusted df .797 3 123.214 .498 based on trimmed mean .812 3 128 .490 according to table 2, the sig. (pvalue) based on the mean was 0.489, with α = 0.05. this indicates that the sig. (pvalue) is > α, so the null hypothesis (ho) is accepted. therefore, the conclusion is that the data exhibit the same variance or are homogeneous. result of hypothetical test table 5. the results of hypothetical test 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 result equal variances assumed .031 .862 6.385 64 <.001 11.667 1.827 8.016 15.317 equal variances not assumed 6.385 63.884 <.001 11.667 1.827 8.016 15.317 based on the results obtained from the independent sample t-test shown in the table above, it is observed that the significance value (sig. or p-value) was < 0.001, which is < α = 0.05. therefore, the null hypothesis (ho) was rejected, and the alternative hypothesis (ha) was accepted. based on the computation, it can be concluded that there was a significant effect of using flipped learning strategy to improvie students’ intensive reading comprehension at seventh grade of one state junior high school in cilegon. result of questionnaire the questionnaire results show that the majority of students have a positive perception of flipped learning using google classroom to improve their intensive reading skills. a total of 54.5% of students felt that this method was very effective, while the other 45.5% rated it as effective. besides, google classroom was considered very helpful by 51.5% of students and helpful by 48.5% of students in flipped learning, and was considered useful by 100% of students (42.4% very useful, 57.6% useful). as a medium of learning, 45.5% of students found google classroom very influential and 51.5% found it influential, while only a few were neutral (3%). dealing with improving text comprehension, google classroom was very impactful according to 51.5% of students, and another 48.5% agreed that the impact was positive. in terms of the completion of assignments, 33.3% were always on time, 63.6% were http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 277 mostly on time, and only 3% were sometimes late. during discussions, 24.2% of students felt very positive, 60.6% felt positive, and 15.2% were neutral. these results show that flipped learning using google classroom is seen as effective, relevant, and contributes positively to improve students' intensive reading skills. discussion the effectiveness of flipped learning strategy the flipped learning strategy, which allows students to study basic materials independently before class and engage in interactive activities during class, was indicated to be effective to improve intensive reading skills. the improvement was evident from the significant increase in students’ post-test scores in the experiment class. these findings align with (vygotsky, 1978), which emphasizes that learning is enhanced through social interaction within the zone of proximal development (zpd). there are challenges commonly faced by students prior to the intervention include a lack of interest in reading, poor mastery of reading strategies, and limited ability in text analysis. lack of engagement is often related to the perception that reading activities are irrelevant to daily life. recent studies conducted by (yang & chen, 2024) and (chen & yang, 2021) support that the flipped classroom increases students' motivation and engagement by making learning more autonomous and meaningful. moreover, students often lacked familiarity with effective reading strategies such as skimming, scanning, and inference-making. in flipped learning environments, students are introduced to these strategies prior to class, allowing them to engage in deeper analysis during discussion time. a study by (lo & hew, 2019) showed that integrating metacognitive reading strategies within flipped instruction significantly enhanced efl students’ reading comprehension and their critical thinking. students also struggled with analyzing texts and drawing inferences. these are higherorder cognitive processes that require repeated practice and scaffolding. flipped classrooms provide opportunities for practicing through peer discussion and teacher-guided tasks. according to (al-harbi & alshumaimeri, 2023) flipped learning enhances students’ ability to engage in analytical reading through structured peer interaction. the absence of sufficient reading practice in traditional classes was another obstacle. the flipped model provided additional reading opportunities outside the classroom and used in-class time for application and feedback. (zainuddin & halili, 2016) also highlighted that flipped learning increases time efficiency and deepens learning through deliberate practice. finally, allowing students to preview materials at home was a solution to overcome students’ difficulty in understanding textual context. rather than relying on classroom explanation, students can activate prior knowledge and contextual understanding before inclass tasks. recent evidence by (setiawan et al, 2022) confirms that flipped instruction in efl contexts supports comprehension by facilitating more contextualized, student-prepared discussions. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 278 statistical data supported these findings. the experiment class’s mean score increased from 68.48 (pre-test) to 86.06 (post-test), whereas the controll class improved from 60.45 to 74.27. the hypothesis testing results (sig. < 0.001) confirmed the significance of the flipped learning intervention. finally, this study confirms that flipped learning—particularly with the support of google classroom—promotes better comprehension of text structure, improves reading strategy use, and supports inference-making. these findings are consistent with recent research that advocates for flipped learning as an effective model in efl instruction (chen hsieh et al, 2020); (zainuddin & halili, 2016). students’ respond to the implementation of flipped learning the analysis of the questionnaire results showed that students had a highly positive perception of flipped learning facilitated by google classroom in enhancing their intensive reading comprehension. most students agreed that the method helped them better understand the texts, complete assignments more effectively, and participate actively in class discussions. these findings are appropriate to recent research indicating that flipped classrooms enhance student engagement and motivation in language learning environments. for instance, (al rowais, 2022) found that flipped learning promotes learner autonomy, increases interest in reading tasks, and creates a more student-centered learning environment. additionally, the flexibility offered by google classroom allows students to revisit materials as needed, facilitating students to have better preparation and confidence during in-class activities (nguyen et al, 2021). in this study, google classroom served as a only one platform for content delivery, task management, and communication. students reported that the google classroom was easy to use and allowed them to access materials anytime and anywhere, which aligns with (osman et al, 2023), who emphasized the role of mobile and cloud-based applications in supporting asynchronous learning. the structure provided by google classroom enabled students to manage their learning more independently, reinforcing the principles of self-regulated learning (pandero, 2017). dealing with assignment submission, over 95% of students reported submitting tasks either on time or mostly on time, indicating high accountability. this level of compliance and responsibility suggests that flipped learning promotes a stronger sense of ownership in the learning process. previous studies (setiawan et al, 2022) and (lo & hew, 2019) similarly report increased punctuality and task completion rates in flipped classrooms due to the clarity and accessibility of materials. student responses to class discussions were also extremely positive. students expressed that they felt more prepared and confident to engage in group discussions, particularly because they had previewed the materials in advance. according to (chen & yang, 2021), flipped learning enhances student collaboration and peer interaction, which are crucial in developing higher-order thinking skills and deeper understanding. in general, students viewed both the instructional strategy and the technological platform positively. this suggests that the integration of flipped learning and google http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 279 classroom not only improves students’ intensive reading skills but also fosters better learning behaviors and classroom dynamics. these conclusions are supported by a growing body of literature affirming the effectiveness of flipped classrooms in english as a foreign language (efl) contexts (chen hsieh et al, 2020); (al-harbi & alshumaimeri, 2023). conclusion based on the findings of this study above, it can be concluded that the implementation of a flipped learning strategy using google classroom significantly improves seventh-grade students' intensive reading comprehension. students in the experiment class demonstrated greater academic gains and showed more active participation and responsibility in the learning process compared to the control class. the flipped model allowed students to study material in advance, thereby enhancing the effectiveness of in-class discussions and text analysis. furthermore, students responded positively to the integration of google classroom, perceiving it as a helpful and engaging platform to support their learning. the flipped learning strategy was proven to be more effective than conventional scientific teaching methods, as evidenced by the higher post-test mean score of the experiment class (86.06) compared to the control class (74.27). therefore, flipped learning—supported by digital platforms like google classroom—can be considered a viable instructional model for improving reading comprehension in junior high school efl contexts. this research has several limitations. first, the sample size was relatively small and limited to one school only, which may affect the generalizability of the results. second, the duration of the intervention was short (limited to one instructional unit), which might not fully capture the long-term effects of flipped learning on students’ reading skills. in addition, students’ perceptions were collected through questionnaires, in-depth qualitative insights such as interviews or classroom observations were not included. for future study, it is recommended to: 1. conduct longitudinal studies involving multiple schools and a larger sample size; 2. explore the impact of flipped learning on other language skills such as writing or speaking; 3. incorporate qualitative methods to provide deeper insights into students’ learning experiences and challenges; 4. investigate how individual student characteristics (e.g., motivation, learning style, digital literacy) interact with flipped learning environments. regarding these aspects above, future studies can provide a more comprehensive understanding of how flipped learning supports language acquisition in diverse educational settings. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 280 references al-harbi, s., & alshumaimeri, y. (2023). flipped learning for efl reading: an analytical study of saudi middle school leraners. journal of language teaching research, 14(2), 155–168. al rowais, a. (2022). learner autonomy in flipped classroom: voices from elf learners. international journal of instruction, 15(1), 21–36. brown, h. d. (1995). teaching by principles: an interactive approach to language pedagogy. in prentice hall regents. chen, y.-l., & yang, s. c. (2021). enchancing efl students’ learning motivation and selfefficacy through a flipped writing class. educational technology & society, 24(1), 150– 163. chen hsieh, j. s., wu, w. c. v., & marek, m. (2020). using the flipped classroom to enhance efl learning. computer assisted language learning, 33(5–6), 418–442. febriyanti, m. p., bektiarso, s., & maryani, m. (2023). the effect of the flipped classroom model assisted google classroom on learning result and student’s responses in subject straight motion dynamics in senior high school. journal of social research, 3(1), 84–94. https://doi.org/10.55324/josr.v3i1.1661 kakarougkas, a., & abdellatif, r. (2022). a flipped classroom approach and digital learning in an undergraduate molecular biology course. journal of college science teaching, 51(33), 43–50. lo, c. k., & hew, k. f. (2019). the impact of flipped classrooms on student achievement in engineering education: a meta-analysis of 10 years of research. journal of engineering education, 108(4), 523–546. https://doi.org/10.1002/jee.20293 mishra, p., pandey, c. m., singh, u., gupta, a., & sahu, c. (2019). descriptive statistics and normality test for statistical data. annals of cardiac anaesthesia, 20(4), 437–441. nguyen, t., netto, c. l. m., wilkins, j. f., et al. (2021). online teaching and learning strategies: a practical guide. education and information technologies, 26, 703–734. osman, n., mohd noor, s. s., che hat, n., mohmad rouyan, n., mat saad, k. n. (2023). students’ acceptance of flipped learning through google application. online journal of communication and media technologies, 13(4). pandero, e. (2017). a review of self regulated learning: six models and four direction for research. frontiers in psyhology, 8, 422. qiaoying yang & chongbin chen. (2024). the effectiveness of flipped classroom on autonomous learning ability: a meta-analysis. asia pasific education review, 22(4). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564-024-10013-2 setiawan, a., asib, a., & drajati, n. a. (2022). the effectiveness of flipped classroom to foster reading comprehension in efl context. asian efl journal, 29(3), 80–101. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 281 vygotsky, l. s. (1978). mind in society: the development of higher psychological processes. harvard university press. zainuddin, z., & halili, s. h. (2016). flipped classroom research and trend from different fields of study. international review of research in open and distributed learning, vol. 17, n, 313–340. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 1, january 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 29 language anxiety for students of intermediate speaking proficiency level enni akhmad1*, la aba2, &yuwin r saleh3 enni@iaingorontalo.ac.id abstract the focus of research on students' anxiety when speaking a foreign language, such as english, has shifted to language learning and education. however, the experience of students who reached the intermediate level remains underexplored, particularly in the context of students in intermediate speaking classes. this study aims to identify the students’ reasons for feeling anxious and whether intermediate students also experience language anxiety. this qualitative research involved 20 participants from an intermediatespeaking class of fifth-year english education department undergraduate students at iain sultan amai gorontalo. data were collected using an unstructured interview and an observation sheet. triangulation was used to analyze data by checking the credibility of data from interviews and observations. according to the findings of this study, students were anxious for three reasons: they were afraid of making mistakes, they were shy to speak, and they had lost motivation to speak. the students who joined the intermediate speaking class experienced anxiety as their psychological disorder. anxiety was identified as the dominant psychological disorder among the students. it supported the previous research that found students of all levels experienced anxiety in their speaking english class. as a result, to alleviate students' anxiety about speaking a foreign language, teachers must consider the students' anxiety when developing teaching materials and media. keywords: english speaking, intermediate proficiency level, language anxiety introduction language anxiety is one of the psychological phenomena faced by students learning a foreign language, such as english. because it can obstruct the learning process, anxiety harms language learning. abundant evidence from the research showed that anxiety in language learning contributed highly to the student's achievement in language learning. the greater the students' anxiety, the lower their performance in public speaking. when they experience language anxiety in class, they lose concentration and perform poorly. language anxiety is the state of being afraid, apprehending, doubting, or feeling insecure about one's ability to communicate or produce language in 1,2,3sultan amai state islamic institute of gorontalo, gorontalo, indonesia http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 1, january 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 30 conversation. (zhanibek, 2001), cited scovel (1978), who defines anxiety as "a state of apprehension, a vague fear..." (dyah & iswari, 2012) et al. cited howirtz (2001), who stated that anxiety influenced language learning negatively and is one of the most highly examined variables in all of psychology and education. (fahmi djaguna 1* & megawati basri 2 2020) (2020) quoted locke (2015) as saying that anxiety is intrusive, causes stress and functional impairment, and often encompasses multiple domains. in language learning, anxiety will disturb students’ focus, and they will not perform well in the teaching and learning process. moreover, fahmi et al. explained that anxiety is mostly related to foreign language anxiety or fla. it can be defined as anxiety specifically felt in language-learning situations. the negative influence of anxiety on learning has urged some researchers to investigate the phenomenon. the research found three types of language anxiety: trait anxiety, state anxiety, and situational anxiety. (hutabarat & simanjuntak, n.d.) et al. (2013) summarized the negative effects of anxiety on language learning by saying that anxiety prevents the productive performance of language learners while learning the target language. they also quoted na (2007), who said that anxiety can discourage language learners, lose confidence in their abilities, escape from participating in class activities, and even abandon attempts to learn the language well. the researchers also found the factors of language anxiety: communication apprehension, test anxiety, and fear of negative evaluation. because foreign language learners very often experience this kind of anxiety, research on language anxiety is always carried out by testing the language anxiety experienced by students in certain situations, at certain levels, and in certain learning classes. although the symptoms of language anxiety are general, it is interesting to know the main factors contributing to the anxiety experienced by foreign language learners. language anxiety is also casual; for example, research conducted on 127 third-semester students at ahmad dahlan university showed that, in general, students had a moderate level of language anxiety; only one person had a very high level of anxiety, and 13 people had a high level of anxiety (fahmi djaguna 1* & megawati basri 2, 2020). meanwhile, research on english department students at airlangga university showed that, on average, students experienced a moderate level of foreign language anxiety ((rachmawati & airlangga, 2020). other studies have found that foreign language anxiety negatively correlates with students' language achievement, as experienced by 50 students in sulaiman yasin samarinda class viii ((dyah & iswari, 2012). therefore, it is interesting to examine cases of foreign language anxiety experienced by students majoring in english tadris who are categorized as having intermediate proficiency levels in speaking skills. from the existing research, only a few have examined it based on the language fluency level category; for example, (garau 2009) et al. studied students in spain but at all http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 1, january 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 31 levels. (pamungkas, 2003) examined the effect of language anxiety on student performance in the academic speaking class in the advanced proficiency level category. thus, this research is here to fill in the information gap to explain how students at the intermediate proficiency level experience anxiety. the description in the previous paragraph forms the basis of this research, which aims to explain the condition of students at the intermediate level of proficiency who experience foreign language anxiety when learning speaking skills. thus, the question answered in this study is, "how is the foreign language anxiety experienced by students of the english department who are categorized as being at an intermediate level of proficiency in learning language skills?" methods this research used qualitative methods in a study case design to analyze the situation of students experiencing foreign language anxiety, such as communication apprehension, test anxiety, and fear of negative evaluation. the subjects of this research were 20 students from the english education department of iain, sultan amai gorontalo, who joined the intermediate speaking course. this class was taken as a sample because it fulfilled the research aims, namely, to find out the experience of the intermediate class in experiencing foreign language anxiety. this research used an interview sheet to determine why students had language anxiety. three questions were taken as guidelines for the interview, namely: "why do you feel afraid to make mistakes?" "why do you feel shy to speak?" and "why do you lose motivation to engage in conversation?" data from interviews were put into coding and arranged into observation sheets. data analysis used triangulation by confirming the interview and observation data. interviews and an observation sheet were used to check the data's credibility and transparency. thus, observing them in the classroom confirmed the students’ answers in the interview. data were concluded after reducing and displaying steps. results data analysis showed that the students in the intermediate-speaking class experienced medium-language anxiety, which was categorized as trait anxiety. data from the observation sheet showed that nine out of 20 students experienced language anxiety. the data showed the reasons for students’ language anxiety as follows: table 1. students’ interview results no foreign language anxiety indicator students’ situation in experiencing foreign language anxiety 1 feel afraid to make mistakes the students who felt afraid to make mistakes in intermediate class did so because of their expectations about their 1. before attending the class, i actually prepared myself to speak." i memorized more than 30 words that concerned the material; i learned the grammar; and i absolutely understand what my friend says. however, in speaking, i think too http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 1, january 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 32 competence. they said that actually they have earned many vocabularies, they have known the pronunciation, they understand the grammar, and they comprehend to reply someone utterances. however, they are not able to perform themselves. they were very careful in speaking, and thus it seems that they feel afraid to speak much, so it affected my performance. "it looks like i am afraid to speak." 2. “actually i have many words in my brain, i know how to reply a conversation, but i feel nervous when my turn to speak it is coming to me. i feel afraid and worry too much that my speaking will make someone else laughing. i feel afraid to speak, thus i just kept silent in the class” 3. i prepared myself before attending to the class, i train my tongue to speak in front of the mirror and i listen a music, i also sing the english song. however, i felt shock in the class because i could not talk as fluent as when i am alone. i feel afraid to make mistaken in front of someone else 2 feel shy to speak the students who felt shy to speak in intermediate class, because they were insecure to image his/her friends would laugh when he/she speak. they felt shy to speak, mainly when they were asked to come forward and speak in front of their friends. 1. "i feel so shy and could not produce sentences when the lecturer asked me to come forward and speak in front of my classmates. although i have managed my speech, it lost its impact when i stood in front of my friends. 2. i feel shy and insecure when the lecturer invite me to speak in the class. i worried that my friend laughed on me, because of my pronounciation or my grammar mistaken. the shyness made me nervous and i could not speak well 3. i wanted to involve in the conersation with my classmates during the learning process, but i feel insecure with my pronounciation and my grammar. eventhough i have enough vocabularies to speak, but i cannot speak, because i feel shy. 3 lose motivation to engage in conversation the students were lost their motivation to involve in conversation, when they did 1. i could not be active in conversation when i was not interested in the topic." however, i forced myself to be involved, but my tongue was rigid and my idea could not find its meaning. 2. i have to understand the topic well in order to be motivated in converstaion. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 1, january 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 33 not interest with the topic of speaking. 3. my motivation was lost when the lecturer suddenly give a topic of conversation in the class. i could not prepared myself only for 15 minutes, therefore i couldnot involve in conversation and feel nervous. meanwhile, the result of the observation sheet confirmed that the students feel afraid to speak, shy, and lose motivation. those types indicated that the students got foreign language anxiety in the intermediate speaking course. the following table shows the types. it is categorized following the foreign language anxiety scale by howirtz et al. (1986), quoted by ardi marwan ((marwan, n.d.) 1. never felt quite sure of speaking in the class 2. tremble when the lecturer called on in the class 3. frightens me when not understand what the teacher is saying in class 4. be panic when speaking without preparation in class 5. embarrass to be volunteer answers questions in class 6. felt anxious even if have well preparation 7. felt heart pounding when calling on in class 8. felt very self-conscious about speaking english in front of other students 9. got nervous when failed to understand every word the english teacher says 10. got afraid that the other students will laugh when making mistakes 11. got nervous when coming to class with little preparation 12. felt embarrassed not saying english words correctly discussion data showed that 3 (three) students are the reason for experiencing language anxiety in intermediate speaking classes. they felt afraid to make mistakes because they already have good competence, but they should be very careful in their speaking performance. the students felt shy to speak because they were insecure about speaking in front of the class. the students lost motivation to engage in conversation because the speaking topic was not interesting. the result of the research reflected the phenomenon that students’ language anxiety in speaking was not only caused by state anxiety (hardanti, 2016) (dyah & iswari, 2012) or they were lack of language aspects such as vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar but also caused by their psychological problems. for example, feel afraid, shy, and lose motivation. these indicators are categorized as communication apprehension. as quoted http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 1, january 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 34 by setya et al. (2016), tanveer states that a specific type of situation or event, such as public speaking, examinations, or class participation, arouses the situation=specific anxiety. horwitz et.al., (aida, 1994) argued that the disturbing emotional reactions of being anxious, nervous or tense the learners experience in learning a foreign language differed from those similar reactions they encounter in other situations. part, it was regarded to be related to performance evaluation within academic and social contexts as foreign language learning activities generally involve many communicative tasks, interpersonal interactions, and error correction anxiety. in numerous studies concerning language anxiety, the students frequently addressed speaking activities as anxiety-provoking. the students reported speaking to raise anxiety as they encountered negative emotional experiences during speaking activities. they feared for not being able to convey messages well, felt shy for not being used to speak in front of others, felt uncomfortable with their appearance as they became the center of attention, and thought to have lack of information about the topic ((wahyudi, 2016), (pappamihiel, 2002), ((maisarah, 2019), and ((hardanti, 2016) young (1991) identified that language anxiety may originate from three main sources: the learner, the teacher, and the learning process. of these origins, the causes can further be classified into six specifications: 1) personal and interpersonal anxieties, 2) learner belief about language learning, 3) instructor belief in language teaching, 4) instructor-learner interactions, 5) classroom procedures, and 6) language testing. meanwhile, (turula, n.d.) considered factors behind the learners’ anxiety to be within two classifications: the classroom and social context. classroom-related factors include individual sense of self, self-related cognitions, and insufficient commands and instructions. in many cases, the way students view the language learning process was justified to provoke anxiety. as reported concerning speaking activities, the students considered speaking problematic not only due to psychological factors of having a lack of self-confidence, being afraid of making mistakes, nervousness, and shyness toward others but also because of the thought that speaking requires good mastery of several linguistic elements covering pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, fluency, and idea comprehension (sayuri, 2016). similarly, the strict classroom environment and how the instructor managed the class were also blamed for the tension and uneasiness the students experienced during foreign language learning. capan and simsek (2012) noted that one student particularly attributed his language anxiety to the teacher for having an unpleasant experience with mistake correction. other students pointed out that they were reluctant to speak in front of the classroom because they feared being humiliated by their peers when making mistakes. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 1, january 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 35 the result of this research implied that lecturer/teacher should ensure that students who are mistaken in learning foreign language learning, mainly in speaking skill, is normal. therefore, chomsky's theory states that language production is often difficult because language competence does not always align with performance. mistakens are generally caused by performance factors. limitations in remembering something or forgetfulness cause errors in pronouncing language sounds, words, word order, word stress or sentences (reni supriani, ida rahmadani siregar, 2019, p. 69). this error is random, meaning it can occur at various linguistic levels. students themselves can usually correct errors if they are concerned when they are more reflective, more aware or focused. the lecturer/teacher should put the students in small groups to minimize their shyness in speaking. small group gives students many benefits, such as they have many opportunities to speak or to express their ideas. in addition, small groups can improve students’ vocabulary mastery (sumiatun & nugroho, 2019) and (andi & aji, 2020). the students will be more secure when they speak in small groups. to anticipate students losing motivation to be involved in a conversation, the lecturer/teacher should facilitate them with speaking material according to their interests. therefore, the lecturer/teacher should discuss or brainstorm to determine the material of speaking in the learning process. the brainstorming method is a technique to explore as many opinions or ideas as possible on a problem. brainstorming is a combination of question and answer or discussion, which refers to extracting ideas based on the creativity of human thinking. students are free to express opinions without criticism and assessment because, at the stage of collecting ideas, all opinions or ideas are accommodated and recorded without exception (hanny, 2020.). conclusion this result of the research has answered the questions of 3 (three) reasons for students’ language anxiety who joined intermediate speaking classes, namely they felt afraid to make mistakes because they have good competence but were very careful in performance. they felt too shy to speak because they had to come forward and speak in front of the class, lecturer and other students. they lost the motivation to be involved in conversations because the topic of speaking was not interesting to them. therefore, the lecturer/the teacher should pay attention to students’ language anxiety, which relates to the language aspect (state anxiety), and language anxiety is related to psychological factors (trait anxiety). both become barriers to the success of the teaching and learning process. moreover, the lecturer/the teacher should arrange the strategies to minimize the students’ language anxiety in class. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 1, january 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 36 this research recommended further research to examine the good method of teaching english as a foreign language, which is very effective in escaping students’ language anxiety. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 1, january 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 37 acknowledgment we are pleased to thank the committee of the third international conference on english language teaching (iconelt) 2022. references aida, w. (1994). examination of horwitz, horwitz, and cope’s construct of foreign language anxiety: the case of students of japanese. andi, h., & aji, p. (2020). membuat siswa lebih produktif dalam berbahasa “accountable talk. jurnal al-azhar seri humaniora, 5(3), 168–173. dyah, & iswari, w. p. (2012). foreign language anxiety and english achivement of eighth grade students of mts sulaiman yasin samarinda in the 2011 / 2012 academic year. 2, 17–24. fahmi djaguna 1* & megawati basri 2, b. h. (2020). anxiety level in english speaking among ahmad dahlan students. lire journal (journal of linguistics and literature), 4(1), 40–49. garau, m. j. (2009). effects of language anxiety on three proficiency-level courses of spanish as a foreign language. 94–111. hanny, s. k. (n.d.). efektivitas metode pembelajaran brainstorming terhadap pemahaman konsep dan aktivitas belajar peserta didik. hardanti, k. n. (2016). factors that affect academic achievement student. jurnal akuntansi, 7(2), 91–101. hutabarat, a., & simanjuntak, d. c. (n.d.). a phenomenological study : speaking anxiety overwhelms english learners. 4(1), 44–58. maisarah. (2019). factors causing anxiety in speaking english. x(2), 232–243. marwan, a. (n.d.). the exploration of factors triggering foreign language anxiety : learners voice. 119–126. pamungkas, a. (2003). the effect of english language anxiety on speaking performance of english department students. retain, 6(2001), 228– 236. pappamihiel, n. e. (2002). english as a second language students and english language anxiety : issues in the mainstream classroom. rachmawati, d. i., & airlangga, u. (2020). investigating english department students ’ foreign language speaking anxiety : a case study in universitas airlangga , indonesia. 1(may), 22–34. https://doi.org/10.25273/she.v1i2.6624 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 1, january 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 38 sumiatun, r., & nugroho, a. (2019). meningkatkan keterampilan berbicara siswa melalui teknik diskusi kelompok kecil. 1–8. turula, a. (n.d.). language anxiety and classroom dynamics. wahyudi, a. (2016). a study on student’s anxiety.pdf (pp. 56–67). zhanibek, a. (2001). the relationship between language anxiety and students’ participation in foreign language classes. a thesis, july. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 331 integrating artificial intelligence to enhance students’ english writing competence: evidence from a quasi-experimental study fibri indira lisanty ad1*, andi mangnguntungi sudirman 2, & nur ummul khaerat3 1, 3 institut ilmu kesehatan pelamonia kesdam xiv/hasanuddin, makassar, indonesia 2 universitas cokroaminoto, palopo, indonesia indirafibrie@gmail.com abstract this research investigates the influence of artificial intelligence (ai) as an interactive learning medium in enhancing students’ english writing skill, with a particular focus on midwifery students at the pelamonia institute of health sciences. writing skill is a crucial skill in academic and professional contexts; however, many students face challenges related to grammar, vocabulary, and coherent text organization. to investigate the influence of artificial intelligence as interactive learning medium in enhancing students’ writing skill, the researcher employed a quasi-experimental design. it was employed with two groups: an experimental group using ai-based learning media and a control group applying conventional methods. data were collected through pre-tests, post-tests, questionnaires, and classroom observations. the results reveal that there is a significant influence in the experimental group after implying ai as the medium in writing learning. it is proven by the result of two-way anova analysis confirmed a statistically significant difference between the groups (p < 0.05). in addition to cognitive gains, the integration of ai supported students’ metacognitive development by enabling self-evaluation, independent learning, and strategic awareness during the writing process. questionnaire findings further indicate that students perceived ai as an effective, motivating, and user-friendly tool, although challenges such as limited technological access and potential overreliance were identified. overall, the findings concludes that ai integration is highly influence in enhancing english writing skill, offering pedagogical implications for technology-enhanced language learning. keywords: artificial intelligence, english writing competence, higher education, quasiexperimental study, technology-enhanced language learning introduction writing is an important skill in mastering english, especially for students studying the language. writing serves not only as a means of communication but also as a tool for expressing ideas, opinions, and knowledge. however, many students experience difficulties in writing, both in terms of grammar, vocabulary, and text structure. this challenge is also faced by midwifery students at the pelamonia institute of health sciences, who continue to demonstrate low proficiency in english writing skills. this is reflected in inaccurate http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 mailto:indirafibrie@gmail.com copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 332 grammar usage, limited mastery of medical vocabulary in english, and low confidence in composing academic texts coherently and logically. such suboptimal writing skills pose significant obstacles to participating in global literacy-oriented lectures and completing academic assignments that require strong written communication in english (fikri amir anggeraja & aeni, 2024). in era digital moment, technology information and communication have been a part integral from learning process (sung, 2016). one of the most significant innovations in education is the use of artificial intelligence (ai). among its applications, chatgpt developed by openai—has attracted considerable attention. chatgpt functions as an interactive instructional medium that provides real-time feedback, thereby helping students improve their writing skills (ahmed et al., 2025). several studies have highlighted the effectiveness of ai-based chatbots in education. for instance, (carr et al., 2015) found that students who practiced writing with chatbots showed significant improvement in writing quality compared to those who did not use such technology. similarly, (ghedir & bouchareb, 2025) demonstrated that interaction with ai systems can enhance students’ metacognitive strategies in writing. the findings indicate that students not only correct technical errors but also begin to adopt new writing techniques after sustained interaction with ai-based tools. other studies (e.g., bae, 2021; garrison, 2023) further support these results. nevertheless, the quality of online resources varies, making it essential for students to carefully select reliable learning materials to avoid misinformation. unlike previous studies that generally focused on overall language proficiency, this research specifically examines the impact of ai-based learning media on students’ mastery of english linguistic competence. by doing so, it aims to provide deeper insights into how ai supports the acquisition of fundamental linguistic skills. the findings are expected to contribute significantly to the development of more effective, technology-enhanced english language learning strategies. based on this framework, the present study seeks to investigate how the integration of ai-based learning media influences students’ mastery of english linguistic competence and to identify the factors that support or hinder its effectiveness. methods this research employed a quasi-experimental design with preand post-tests to measure the impact of an ai-based learning medium on students' linguistic competence. the research was conducted at the pelamonia institute of health sciences, where a purposive sampling method was used to select two groups of 30-40 midwifery students each: an experimental group that used an ai-based learning platform and a control group that received traditional instruction. the intervention for the experimental group consisted of six 90-minute sessions over a six-week period, during which they used an ai tool that provided real-time feedback on grammar, vocabulary, and sentence structure. the research used three main instruments: an english writing proficiency test, questionnaires, and classroom observations. the writing test, administered as both a http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 333 pre-test and a post-test, was developed and validated by experts, with its reliability confirmed by a cronbach's alpha of 0.89. questionnaires were used to gather data on student perceptions and motivation, while observations documented student engagement with the tool. before the research began, ethical approval was obtained from the institutional review board, and all participants provided informed consent. finally, the test results were analyzed using descriptive statistics and anova to determine the effectiveness of the ai intervention. by comparing test results before and after the application of learning media, the research assesses changes in students’ linguistic abilities (pasaribu, 2024). the research population consists of all midwifery students at the pelamonia institute of health sciences, makassar. the sample was determined using purposive sampling by selecting two groups of students with similar characteristics but differing in learning methods: (1) the experimental group, which used ai-based learning media, and (2) the control group, which learned through traditional methods without technological assistance. the target sample size is 60–80 students, with each group consisting of approximately 30– 40 participants (rogers, 2019). the research instruments include: (1) english writing proficiency tests designed to assess the students’ competence in writing skill and administered as both pre-tests and post-tests to measure improvements after the intervention (ahmed et al., 2025); (2) questionnaires distributed to participants to collect data on their perceptions of aibased learning media and their learning motivation (phan, 2023); and (3) classroom observations conducted during the teaching and learning process to capture lecturer– student interactions and students’ engagement with technological tools (yuan & liu, 2025). the research procedure follows several steps (mondol, n.d.): preparation: developing ai-based teaching materials aligned with the english curriculum. pre-test: administering initial tests to both groups to establish baseline linguistic competence. intervention: the experimental group engaged in english writing activities supported by ai-based learning media (e.g., applications or digital platforms with features such as automatic grammar correction, vocabulary suggestions, and feedback on writing structure). the intervention is consisted of six sections. the control group learned through conventional methods, including lectures, discussions, and writing exercises, with comparable materials and topics to ensure differences in outcomes can be attributed to the learning approach. post-test: both groups completed a final test to evaluate improvements in their linguistic competence. additional data collection: distributing questionnaires and conducting classroom observations to capture students’ learning experiences. the data from pre-test and post-test results were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. descriptive statistics describe sample characteristics and baseline results, while independent t-tests or anova determined significant differences between groups and evaluate the effectiveness of ai-based learning media on students’ http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 334 mastery of english linguistic competence (mondol, n.d.). results the influence of i artificial intelligence integration on students’ english writing skill this chapter presents the results of the research entitled “the influence of artificial intelligence integration on students’ english writing skill.” the findings are organized to address the research objectives and to provide a clear description of the data collected during the research. the results are displayed through tables, figures, and statistical analyses in order to give a comprehensive understanding of students’ performance before and after the integration of artificial intelligence in the writing process. table 1. table of pre-test and post-test scores for the experimental class no respondent code pre-test post-test 1 e1 59 79 2 e2 61 84 3 e3 57 78 4 e4 60 82 5 e5 58 80 6 e6 62 85 7 e7 56 78 8 e8 60 83 9 e9 59 81 10 e10 61 84 11 e11 55 77 12 e12 60 82 13 e13 57 79 14 e14 62 85 15 e15 58 81 16 e16 59 80 17 e17 60 83 18 e18 61 84 19 e19 56 78 20 e20 58 81 21 e21 60 83 22 e22 57 79 23 e23 59 82 24 e24 61 85 25 e25 60 83 26 e26 58 81 27 e27 62 86 28 e28 59 82 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 335 29 e29 57 78 30 e30 60 83 total 1772 2446 average 59.1 81.5 based on the pre-test and post-test results data from 30 respondents who participated learning english writing with using learning media interactive based intelligence artificial intelligence (ai), visible existence significant improvement in average student score. the average pre-test score was 59.1, while the average post-test score increased to 81.5, indicating a gain of 22.4 points. this result demonstrates that the integration of ai in learning has a positive impact on improving students’ writing abilities. the improvement reflects not only cognitive mastery but also enhancements in metacognitive and psychomotor aspects. from a metacognitive perspective, the use of ai enables students to receive direct feedback, independently evaluate their errors, and develop greater awareness of their own thought processes during writing. meanwhile, from a psychomotor perspective, interactive features such as automatic correction, sentence suggestions, and simulation-based exercises help students consistently and systematically practice technical writing skills. the data also reveal that all participants experienced score improvements from pretest to post-test, indicating that the effectiveness of ai-based learning was evenly distributed among students. thus, the integration of artificial intelligence as an interactive learning medium has been proven to exert a positive and significant influence on english writing learning, particularly in strengthening students’ metacognitive and psychomotor skills. table 2. pre-test and post-test scores for the control class no respondent code pre-test post-test 1 k1 59 64 2 k2 58 63 3 k3 60 65 4 k4 61 66 5 k5 57 62 6 k6 59 64 7 k7 60 65 8 k8 56 61 9 k9 62 67 10 k10 58 63 11 k11 59 64 12 k12 60 65 13 k13 61 66 14 k14 57 62 15 k15 59 64 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 336 16 k16 60 65 17 k17 58 63 18 k18 61 66 19 k19 59 64 20 k20 60 65 21 k21 57 62 22 k22 59 64 23 k23 60 65 24 k24 58 63 25 k25 61 66 26 k26 60 65 27 k27 59 64 28 k28 58 63 29 k29 60 65 30 k30 57 62 total 1773 1923 average 59.1 64.1 based on the pre-test and post-test results of 30 respondents in the control class, the average pre-test score was 59.1, while the average post-test score increased to 64.1, indicating an improvement of 5 points after the learning process without the use of interactive ai-based learning media. this improvement shows that although conventional learning methods are still able to provide positive results, the impact tends to be more limited and less significant compared to the class that received ai-based intervention. in this context, conventional learning remains relatively passive and offers minimal direct feedback, which reduces the potential for optimal development of students’ metacognitive and psychomotor aspects. in addition, the improvement pattern in the control class was relatively uniform, ranging only between 3–6 points. this indicates that while students did experience some progress in writing ability, the improvement was moderate and not sufficient to reflect deeper changes in their thinking processes or technical skills. thus, the control class data serve as a valid comparison for the experimental class, highlighting that the use of ai-based technology in learning has a more significant influence on enhancing students’ writing abilities, particularly in the metacognitive and psychomotor aspects. this research employed a quasi-experimental design with a pre-test–post-test control group model. the research subjects were divided into two groups: (1) the experimental group, which received writing instruction integrated with artificial intelligence (ai), and (2) the control group, which received writing instruction without ai assistance. both groups underwent a pre-test before the treatment and a post-test after the learning process was completed. the data were analyzed using two-way anova to examine the main and interaction effects, along with paired t-tests to measure score improvements within each group. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 337 table 3. statistical results descriptive group pre-test average post-test average improvement experiment 59.10 81.53 +22.43 control 59.10 64.10 +5.00 based on the table, it can be seen that the experimental group had an average pre-test score of 59.10 before receiving treatment, which then increased to 81.53 in the post-test after learning through the integration of artificial intelligence (ai). the improvement of +22.43 points demonstrates a highly significant enhancement in writing skills. meanwhile, the control group started with the same pre-test average score of 59.10 and increased to 64.10 in the post-test. the improvement of only +5.00 points indicates progress, but on a much smaller scale compared to the experimental group. the substantial difference in score improvement highlights that the integration of ai has a stronger positive impact on students’ writing competence compared to conventional learning methods(rashed & almohesh, 2024). table 4. two-way anova results effect f p-value information group (experimental vs control) 641.29 4,420 × 10⁻⁴⁹ significant test (pre vs post) 1597.98 1.122 × 10⁻⁶⁹ significant interaction group × test 646.22 3.033 × 10⁻⁴⁹ significant the results of the two-way anova analysis show a highly significant difference between the experimental group and the control group, with an f-value of 641.29 and a pvalue of 4.420 × 10⁻⁴⁹, which is far below the significance threshold of 0.05. these findings indicate that, overall, the mean scores of the two groups differed significantly, regardless of the test stage. in addition, the main effect of the test (pre-test vs. post-test) also revealed a highly significant difference, with an f-value of 1597.98 and a p-value of 1.122 × 10⁻⁶⁹, demonstrating that both groups experienced improvement after the learning process. furthermore, the interaction effect between groups and test stages was also significant, with an f-value of 646.22 and a p-value of 3.033 × 10⁻⁴⁹. this confirms that the improvement from pre-test to post-test differed significantly between the experimental and control groups, where the experimental group showed a much greater increase in scores after receiving ai-integrated learning compared to the control group that relied on conventional learning methods. factors supporting and inhibiting the effectiveness of using learning media based ai in increase competence writing students http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 338 table 5. the result of questionnaire statement average standard deviation minimum maximum q1 3.3 1.3 2 5 q2 3.6 1.1 2 5 q3 3.2 1.3 2 5 q4 3.4 0.9 2 5 q5 3.1 0.9 2 5 q6 3.3 1.2 2 5 q7 3.3 1.1 2 5 q8 3.5 1.1 2 5 q9 3.5 1.3 2 5 q10 3.6 1.0 2 5 q11 3.7 1.0 2 5 q12 3.5 1.1 2 5 q13 3.2 1.1 2 5 q14 3.8 1.1 2 5 q15 3.5 1.2 2 5 q16 3.6 1.1 2 5 q17 3.7 1.2 2 5 q18 3.7 1.2 2 5 q19 3.7 1.2 2 5 q20 3.5 1.1 2 5 q21 3.7 1.2 2 5 q22 3.4 1.2 2 5 q23 3.2 1.2 2 5 q24 3.7 1.4 2 5 q25 3.9 1.1 2 5 q26 3.6 1.2 2 5 q27 3.5 1.1 2 5 q28 3.7 1.1 2 5 q29 3.8 1.2 2 5 q30 3.5 1.1 2 5 based on the results of the questionnaire recapitulation from 30 respondents across 30 statements related to the use of artificial intelligence (ai) based learning media in improving students’ writing competence, it can be concluded that, in general, students’ perceptions tend to be positive. this is reflected in the mean values of the statements, which ranged from 3.1 to 4.0, with the majority above 3.5. this indicates that respondents agreed to strongly agreed with the effectiveness and benefits of using ai in writing instruction. the highest mean score, such as in q25 (m = 4.0), shows that students felt encouraged to study http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 339 independently with ai assistance, while also experiencing improvements in self-confidence and understanding of writing structure. meanwhile, the relatively low standard deviation values (around 1.0–1.2) on several items indicate that respondents’ perceptions were fairly consistent, with no extreme distribution of opinions. however, some items obtained lower averages, such as q5 and q13 (around 3.1–3.2), which reflect certain challenges still faced by students, such as suboptimal lecturer support or limited access to technological devices. overall, these results reinforce the finding that the integration of ai as interactive learning media received a positive response from students and has great potential to enhance their metacognitive and psychomotor aspects in academic writing skills(prokhorova et al., 2024). it shows a significant difference between the experimental and control groups. the experimental group, which used ai-based interactive learning media, experienced a substantial increase in average scores from 59.10 (pre-test) to 81.53 (post-test), or an improvement of 22.43 points. in contrast, the control group, which relied on conventional learning methods, only improved by 5.00 points (from 59.10 to 64.10). the two-way anova analysis further supports these findings. the main group effect (f = 641.29, p < 0.05), the main test effect (f = 1597.98, p < 0.05), and the group × test interaction (f = 646.22, p < 0.05) all showed very high significance. these results confirm that the improvement differences between the two groups are not coincidental but are directly attributable to the different learning treatments. the use of ai clearly accelerates the development of students’ writing ability, particularly in terms of writing structure, grammar, and idea organization (li & ni, 2021; zhang, 2020). from a pedagogical perspective, this success can be explained through the theory of active learning (carr et al., 2015) scaffolded instruction, and intelligent tutoring systems (its), which have become part of ai development in education. its theory emphasizes that ai can act as a virtual tutor by providing individualized feedback, monitoring learning progress, and adapting material to learners’ abilities (anderson et al., 1995). in the context of writing, ai supports the process-writing approach (flower & hayes, 1981)which highlights the stages of planning, drafting, revising, and editing, through immediate and relevant feedback (godwin, 2015). furthermore, cognitive load theory (sahem, 2024)highlights the importance of reducing cognitive load in learning. ai facilitates this by offering automatic correction, vocabulary suggestions, and grammar analysis, enabling students to focus more on idea development and text organization rather than being burdened by technical issues (kalyuga, 2009). according to hyland (2003), effective writing instruction requires interaction between writer, reader, and social context. ai serves as a facilitator that bridges these aspects by providing relevant feedback to help students better understand academic writing expectations(dana r. ferris, 2010). questionnaire analysis also reveals several supporting factors, such as ease of technology use (q1, q6, q10), adaptive and automatic feedback (q3, q5, q8), increased selfconfidence and motivation (q4, q7, q9), academic environment support (q13–q15), and improvement in core writing competencies (q16–q20). the highest score appeared in q25 (m = 3.9), confirming that students felt encouraged to learn independently with ai support http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 340 (godwin, 2015). nevertheless, some challenges were identified, such as limited devices and internet access (q21, q26, q27), potential overdependence on ai (q23), restricted ai features (q22, q24, q28, q30), and confusion due to the abundance of features (q25), which need to be addressed (ken beatty, 2013). in conclusion, this research confirms that the use of ai in writing instruction is not only effective but also has strong potential to comprehensively enhance students’ writing skills. by referring to ai theories in education and academic writing frameworks, it is evident that ai can serve as a strategic tool to optimize writing instruction provided that it is supported by adequate infrastructure, proper training, and learning strategies that foster student autonomy. in addition to the data above, supporting observational data collected during the implementation of ai-based media with the active learning teaching method in enhancing students’ writing abilities indicates that students in the experimental group were more active, reflective, and skilled in developing their writing skills compared to the control group. students using ai appeared to formulate ideas more quickly, correct grammatical errors more efficiently, and organize paragraphs more coherently. this demonstrates improvement in metacognitive aspects, as students were able to independently evaluate and revise their writing after receiving automatic feedback from the system. furthermore, psychomotor aspects also improved, reflected in enhanced technical writing skills such as the use of varied academic vocabulary, complex sentence structures, and improved inter-sentence coherence(yogatama & anggraheni, 2025). in contrast, students in the control group remained dependent on instructor corrections, resulting in writing that tended to be simplistic, repetitive, and underdeveloped. for example, below is a writing sample from one student in the experimental group on the health theme after using ai during drafting and revision: student writing sample (experimental group, health theme): "maintaining a healthy lifestyle is very important for university students. regular exercise and balanced nutrition help to improve concentration and reduce stress. using artificial intelligence applications, i can track my daily activities, such as calories intake and sleeping hours, which makes me more aware of my habits. in addition, ai also provides suggestions for better food choices and workout plans. therefore, integrating technology in health management can support not only physical well-being but also academic performance." this writing demonstrates improvement in academic vocabulary usage (concentration, nutrition, academic performance), more complex sentence structures, and better coherence among ideas. the student successfully connected health concepts with technology utilization an element rarely observed in their initial writings prior to ai implementation. during the learning process in the control group, observations indicated that students did show some progress, but the improvement remained relatively limited. their writings tended to be simplistic, featuring limited vocabulary, predominantly simple sentence structures, and recurring grammatical errors (aprillia wahyudi, 2025). http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 341 from a metacognitive perspective, students were unable to independently identify errors in their writing due to the absence of instant feedback. meanwhile, regarding psychomotor aspects, technical writing skills developed only at a basic level using elementary vocabulary and simple paragraph structures, without significant variation. writing motivation was also generally lower compared to the experimental group, as the learning process felt more passive and reliant on manual corrections from instructors(rahayu balai diklat keagamaan ambon & laksdya leo wattimena, n.d.-a). student writing sample (control group, health theme): "health is important for students. we must eat food and drink water every day. exercise is good for body. sleep is important because without sleep we cannot study well. students must be healthy to study better and to have good life." this writing shows that although students understood the health theme, their presentation remained confined to simple, repetitive sentence patterns. vocabulary usage lacked variety (food, water, sleep, study, good life), and ideas were not developed in depth. inter-sentence coherence was also weak, making the writing resemble a list of points rather than a coherent academic paragraph(rahayu balai diklat keagamaan ambon & laksdya leo wattimena, n.d.-b). from this comparison, it is evident that the experimental group demonstrated significant progress in both metacognitive aspects (evaluating and revising writing) and psychomotor aspects (technical writing with varied vocabulary and complex structures). in contrast, the control group exhibited only moderate development at a basic level, without meaningful leaps in writing quality. conclusion based on the results of the research, it can be concluded that ai integration in writing learning provides impact significant positive in students’ writing ability. improvement high score in the group experiment show that ai is capable increase quality of writing through bait come back instant, adjustment materials, and support in the revision process. in addition, ai helps student improve grammar, expand vocabulary, as well as organize ideas more structured. ai also supports learning independent with give consistent and personalized guidance. the effectiveness of ai is very noticeable in improving motivation learning, trust self, as well as involvement active student in the learning process. with thus, ai is not only as tool help, but also as partners learning that can be speed up achievement competence writing as expected acknowledgment the researcher would like to express sincere gratitude to the ministry of research and technology/national research and innovation agency kemdiktisaintek for the generous support and funding provided through the pdp research grant, which made this research possible. special appreciation is also extended to the rector of institut ilmu kesehatan (iik) pelamonia kesdam xiv/hasanuddin, for her continuous encouragement, guidance, and institutional support throughout the research process. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 342 the researcher is also indebted to colleagues, students, and all parties who contributed their time, effort, and valuable insights, which greatly enriched the quality of this research. without their cooperation and assistance, this research entitled “the influence of artificial intelligence integration on students’ english writing competence” would not have been successfully completed. references ahmed, m. r., mekheimer, m. a., & mahdi, e. (2025). chatbots for writing skills: a synthesis of research. bsu-journal of pedagogy and curriculum, 4(7), 254–275. https://doi.org/10.21608/bsujpc.2025.311761.1052 anderson, j. r., corbett, a. t., koedinger, k. r., & pelletier, r. (1995). cognitive tutors: lessons learned. the journal of the learning sciences. 4(2), 167–207. aprillia wahyudi, n. (2025). analisis penggunaan media belajar ai untuk meningkatkan keterampilan menulis bahasa inggris (vol. 4). carr, r., palmer, s., & hagel, p. (2015). active learning: the importance of developing a comprehensive measure. active learning in higher education, 16(3), 173–186. https://doi.org/10.1177/1469787415589529 dana r. ferris. (2010). second language writing research and written corrective feedback in sla. studies in second language acquisition, 10(3), 181– 121. fikri amir anggeraja, m., & aeni, n. (2024). the use of chatgpt in enhancing students writing ability. journal of excellence in english language education, 3(3). flower, l., & hayes, j. r. (1981). a cognitive process theory of writing. college composition and communication, 32(4), 365. https://doi.org/10.2307/356600 ghedir, h., & bouchareb, a. (2025). the role of artificial intelligence in educational practices for english as a foreign language (efl) university education: a systematic literature review. atras journal, 6(2), 101–115. https://doi.org/10.70091/atras/vol06no02.7 godwin, r. (2015). the evolving roles of language teachers: trained coders, local researchers, global citizens. language learning & technology, 19(1), 10–22. http://llt.msu.edu/issues/february2015/emerging.pdfhttp://llt.msu.edu/issues/feb ruary2015/emerging.pdf ken beatty. (2013). teaching and researching computer-assisted language learning (2nd ed., vol. 3). routledge. mondol, m. (n.d.). statistical analysis & report on pre-test & post-test ii. https://doi.org/10.13140/rg.2.2.11241.97128 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 343 pasaribu, t. a. (2024). quasi-experimental research design in language learning. journal of applied linguistics and education. 5(1), 33–47. phan, t. n. le. (2023). students’ perceptions of the ai technology application in english writing classes. proceedings of the asiacall international conference, 4, 45–62. https://doi.org/10.54855/paic.2344 prokhorova, y., gujrati, r., & uygun, h. (2024). the use of ai chatbots in higher education: the problem of plagiarism. review of artificial intelligence in education, 5, e031. https://doi.org/10.37497/rev.artif.intell.educ.v5i00.31 rahayu balai diklat keagamaan ambon, s., & laksdya leo wattimena, j. (n.d.-a). pemanfaatan artificial intelligence (ai) dalam penulisan artikel ilmiah. rahayu balai diklat keagamaan ambon, s., & laksdya leo wattimena, j. (n.d.-b). pemanfaatan artificial intelligence (ai) dalam penulisan artikel ilmiah. rashed, a., & almohesh, i. (2024). ai application (chatgpt) and saudi arabian primary school students’ autonomy in online classes: exploring students and teachers’ perceptions. in international review of research in open and distributed learning (vol. 25). rogers, j. (2019). the routledge handbook of research methods in applied linguistics. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/334250281 sahem, f. (2024). the role of artificial intelligence in language learning language. sung, y. t. (2016). the effect of integrating technology into language learning. educational research review. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2016.05.001, 68–84. yogatama, a., & anggraheni, d. (2025). meningkatkan speaking dan writing skill mahasiswa menggunakan artificial intelligence (ai) pada kelas bahasa inggris psikologi. in indonesian research journal on education web jurnal indonesian research journal on education (vol. 5). yuan, l., & liu, x. (2025). the effect of artificial intelligence tools on efl learners’ engagement, enjoyment, and motivation. computers in human behavior, 162, 108474. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2024.108474 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 377 taking and making notes for knowledge: elevating junior high students’ reading comprehension rani rizqi ambarwati1, ruslin2, zulfikri3, afifah4 1,2,3,4 english education, datokarama state islamic university palu, sulawesi tengah, indonesia ruslin@uindatokarama.ac.id abstract reading comprehension remains a persistent challenge for many efl learners, especially at the junior high school level, where students often struggle to actively engage with texts. this study, however, examined the effectiveness of the taking and making notes (tmn) technique in improving reading comprehension in these situations. this study used a quantitative quasi-experimental design with 64 eighth-grade students at smpn 1 palu involving two parallel classes. the experimental class was taught using the tmn technique, while the control class was taught using the conventional method. data were obtained through preand post-tests, consisting of 20 multiple-choice questions and essays. spss version 31 was used to conduct statistical analysis, including descriptive statistics, normality and homogeneity tests, independent and paired samples t-tests. the results showed that the experimental class achieved a significant increase in the mean score from 49.06 during the pre-test to 80.78 during the post-test; meanwhile, the control class's score only increased from 53.75 to 66.56. by increasing students' active engagement, improving retention, and enhancing their thinking skills, the independent samples t-test showed a statistically significant difference between the two groups (p < 0.05), indicating that tmn can be a useful method for improving students' reading comprehension. keywords: efl teaching, reading comprehension, tmn technique introduction reading comprehension is a vital life skill for academic success and allows students to interact with and understand the world of knowledge. students acquire a wealth of information through reading, which enhances their comprehension and critical thinking skills (grabe & stoller, 2019). therefore, reading is considered not only a school subject; it is also considered a vital life skill for success, both academically and non-academically. reading is becoming increasingly important in learning english as a foreign language (efl) because it provides students with the opportunity to interact with the target language and grasp meanings deeper than mere literal comprehension (zhambylkyzy & molotovskaya, 2021). well-designed reading texts can demonstrate authentic language use, enrich vocabulary, and improve students' writing skills (nation & macalister, 2021). http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 mailto:ruslin@uindatokarama.ac.id copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 378 therefore, teachers must provide reading lessons that are relevant, meaningful, and supported by appropriate teaching approaches. reading learning is greatly influenced by high-quality teaching materials and strategies. students can gain an understanding of cultural elements, native language, and idiomatic expressions through good reading materials, which is useful for improving their language skills (alamri, 2025; salame et al., 2024). however, conventional teaching approaches that only present text without interaction often reduce students' motivation to learn and make them less engaged (almaagbh, 2020). this can lead to student boredom and negatively impact their academic achievement (al-amri, 2025). therefore, interactive learning strategies that encourage active participation are crucial. according to experts, reading is an active process that creates meaning. duke & cartwright (2021) considers reading as a process of guessing, verifying, and refining hypotheses. thus, juan et al (2023) state that successful readers use cognitive and metacognitive strategies to comprehend texts. however, many students struggle to use these strategies because they are not accustomed to using them (khellab et al., 2022). a study conducted in indonesia showed that students in that country have low metacognitive awareness, meaning they are more likely to passively engage with complex texts (mustopa et al., 2024). similar findings were made in other situations where understanding results were adversely impacted by students' restricted usage of strategies (meyer et al., 2024; voyer et al., 2022). junior high school students, in particular, still experience difficulties in finding main ideas, inferring implicit meanings, and connecting reading to academic contexts (tawali, 2021). various strategies are used to improve reading comprehension, one of which is the technique taking and making notes (tmn). tmn technique helps students rewrite information in their own words, making it easier to understand and remember the reading content (bakri et al., 2022; fausia et al., 2021; rusdiansyah, 2019; siswanto, 2019). recent research also confirms that tmn technique is effective in improving comprehension and critical thinking (linh & kien, 2025; pahrizal et al., 2025; seo, 2025). however, other studies have shown that some note-taking methods have no significant effect on reading comprehension. leonard et al (2021)and xu et al (2024) found that note-taking highlighted in paper texts had no significant effect compared to the no-note condition. supporting factors such as review activities determine their effectiveness; the benefits of note-taking are limited in the absence of review (jin & webb, 2025). furthermore, li & yan (2024) stated that differences between note-taking and print reading media did not affect students’ comprehension outcomes. based on these diverse findings, previous research still places more emphasis on taking notes rather than making notes. studies on the tmn technique in efl contexts, particularly at the junior high school level, are still limited. most previous studies focused on high school or college students (khan et al., 2021; permana et al., 2019; syahputra & inayah, 2022) and only assessed final outcomes without examining metacognitive processes. furthermore, low metacognitive engagement and critical thinking skills among indonesian students remain a major problem (ruslin et al., 2022). therefore, quasi-experimental research to test the effectiveness of tmn technique at the junior high school level is needed to fill this gap. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 379 initial observations in july 2025 at smp negeri 1 palu confirmed this problem. the majority of eighth-grade students had not yet mastered essential reading techniques. they often copied text directly without finding the main idea or rewriting it in their own words. according to hüseyin (2019), low strategic engagement prevents students from systematically identifying, summarizing, and recording important information. as a result, their reading comprehension is limited. based on the results of initial observations and literature review, the research problem is formulated as follows: is the tmn technique effective in improving the reading comprehension of eighth-grade students of smpn 1 palu? therefore, this research aims to examine whether the use of tmn technique to improve reading comprehension of the eighth-grade students at smpn 1 palu. this research is expected to provide theoretical contributions and practical benefits also to provide new insight into the use of tmn technique in teaching reading comprehension. methods quantitative research refers to scientific theories that are tested by examining relationships between measurable variables. research instruments are used to assess them, and statistical techniques are used to analyze the results (creswell & creswell, 2023). in language education research, quasi-experimental designs are highly recommended because they can determine how effective a learning intervention is in the field (adeoye, 2023). in line with this framework, the present study applied a quantitative approach with a quasi-experimental design to explore the effectiveness of the tmn technique in improving reading comprehension of the eighth-grade students at smpn 1 palu. the design was employed to ascertain whether there was a distinction between the experimental class, which received instruction using the tmn technique, and the control class, which was taught through conventional methods. the quasi-experimental design was selected because the participants could not be randomly assigned to groups. the population of this study comprised all eighth-grade students of smpn 1 palu, with a total of 351 learners. the sampling technique applied was purposive sampling, as two classes were deemed the most appropriate to meet the research objectives. these classes were identified as having relatively lower learning abilities compared to the others. consequently, class viii d, consisting of 32 students, was designated as the experimental group, while class viii e, with 32 students, served as the control group. the data collection was carried out using tests aimed at measuring students’ learning outcomes within the cognitive domain. the instrument included 20 multiple-choice and essay questions, was administered in two stages: a pre-test and a post-test. these tests were used to evaluate students’ reading comprehension in both the experimental and control groups, before the application and after the application of the treatment. the test items were piloted with a group of students from a different class at the same school and examined by two english education specialists to guarantee the instrument's validity. changes were made in response to expert input and the outcomes of pilot tests. cronbach's alpha was then used to assess the instrument's reliability; the result was a http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 380 coefficient of 0.82, suggesting that the test had high internal consistency and was appropriate for use in research. the data obtained from the pre-test and post-test were analyzed with spss version 31 for windows in several stages: descriptive statistics to describe and summarize the data (mean, minimum, maximum and standard deviation) before further analysis. a normality test and a homogeneity test are used as an absolute requirement before conducting the ttest. the t-test is used to determine whether a difference between the means of two samples is significant. according to pallant (2020), many educational experimental studies recommend the t-test to measure the difference in means between two groups. the t-table and t-calculated values are compared at a significance level of 0.05 to make a decision. the researcher used t-test statistics or t-count, which were compared with the t-table to examine the effectiveness of tmn technique aimed at improving the reading comprehension of eighth graders. ethical principles such as scientific integrity, confidentiality, anonymity, and "confirmation of information" were used in conducting this research (kozinets & gretzel, 2024; zhang et al., 2024). permission was obtained from the school, and written consent from parents and students was obtained. furthermore, this research adhered to the research integrity policy statement of datokarama islamic university, palu, which sets high standards for research integrity (kti, 2021). the principles of trustworthiness and methodological triangulation helped maintain data authenticity (mirza, 2023). researcher committed to maintaining accurate data, preventing manipulation, and obscuring participant identities. after verification, sensitive documents were discarded to ensure compliance with international ethical standards. results the findings of data derived from a quasi-experimental study concerning the effectiveness of the tmn technique to improve reading comprehension of the eighth-grade students at smpn 1 palu as are presented in the following way. this research applied a quasiexperimental design; one experimental group was taught using the tmn technique, and the other control group was taught through the conventional method. this study consisted of two main variables: tmn technique (x) as the independent variable and students’ reading comprehension (y) as the dependent variable. the instrument was a test comprising 20 multiple-choice and essay items. the collected data were processed and analyzed using spss software 31 to provide a clearer depiction of the research results. the descriptive statistics of the pre-test and post-test outcomes are presented in the following table, which summarizes the data and the analysis conducted in relation to the research problem. table 1. descriptive statistics of pre-test and post-test class test mean minimum maximum std. deviation control control experiment experiment pre test post test pre test post test 53.75 66.56 49.06 80.78 25 40 20 55 80 95 75 100 14.591 15.629 13.164 13.566 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 381 descriptive statistics serve to present and summarize the data. they are primarily concerned with outlining the characteristics of the sample. referring to the table, the mean score of the experimental group demonstrated a considerable increase, rising from a poor level (49.06) to a good level (80.78) after the treatment. on the other hand, the control group experienced only a modest improvement, increasing from a fair level (53.75) to still within the fair level (65.56). additionally, effect sizes were calculated for clarity. cohen's d value was 0.97, indicating a large category. this suggests that tmn technique can improve students' reading comprehension. testing assumptions normality and homogeneity tests were performed before inferential testing. normality test: all data (pre-test and post-test for both groups) had significance values more than 0.05, according to the findings of the kolmogorov-smirnov method. therefore, the data were normally distributed. homogeneity test: the levene's test revealed homogenous variances in the data, with a significance value of 0.400 (> 0.05). after completing the descriptive analysis, the researcher continued with the normality test as the subsequent stage. the study involved a total sample of 64 students. aslam (2024),explains how researcher should interpret the p-value results of normality tests and the ability to choose the level of significance according to the characteristics of the data. the results of the normality test are presented in the following table : table 2. test of normality kolmogorov smirnov class statistic df sig. pretest (control) .100 32 .200* result posttest (control) .128 32 .199 pretest (experiment) .122 32 .200* posttest (experiment) .133 32 .158 *. this is a lower bound of the true significance. a. lilliefors significance correction based on the normality test results shown in the table, the significance value of the control class pre-test was 0.200 and the post-test was 0.199, both of which are higher than 0.05. meanwhile, the significance value of the experimental class pre-test was 0.122 and the post-test was 0.200, which are also greater than 0.05. therefore, it can be concluded that the data from both the control and experimental classes are normally distributed. to verify the reliability of the data, a homogeneity test was carried out to determine whether the variances were uniform across the groups. the analysis was performed using spss, the decision-making criteria in the homogeneity test were: if the significance value > 0.05, then the variance of two or more groups of population data can be said to be homogeneous (emerson, 2022), and the findings are displayed in the table : http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 382 table 3. homogeneity test class levene statistic df 1 df2. sig. based on mean .717 1 62 .400 based on median .696 1 62 .407 result based on median and with adjusted df .696 1 61.187 .407 based on trimmed mean .716 1 62 .401 based on the data, the significance value obtained from the mean is 0.400, which exceeds the threshold of 0.05. this result confirms that the data possess homogeneous variance. inferential results since both the normality and homogeneity tests indicate that the variances are uniform and the data are normally distributed. a t-test for independent samples was performed to examine whether a significant difference exists between the experimental and control groups. to compare the means of two groups that are independent of each other, this test was chosen because it meets the assumptions of normality and homogeneity of variance (muhammadpour & khalili sabet, 2024) . the results are presented in the following table: table 4. independent sample t-test levene's test for equality of variances f sig. t df sig. (2tailed) result equal variances assumed .717 .400 3.887 62 .001 equal variances not assumed 3.887 60.799 .001 based on levene’s test for equality of variances, the significance value was 0.400 > 0.05, indicating that the data have homogeneous variances. therefore, the independent sample t-test was conducted under the assumption of equal variances. the significant value (sig. 2-tailed) of the independent sample t-test result was 0.001 < 0.05, which means there is a statistically significant difference between the experimental class taught using the tmn technique and the control class taught with conventional methods. after obtaining the results of the independent sample t-test comparing the two groups, a paired sample t-test was carried out to examine the presence of a significant difference between pre-test and post-test results within the experimental class.hariyanti et al (2024), also stated this test is relevant because it compares two measurements from the same participant before and after treatment to evaluate the internal intervention effect (the http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 383 kolmogorov-smirnov & levene test has been met). the outcome of the paired sample t-test is presented in the table below: table 5. paired sample t-test paired differences mean std. dev std. error mean 95% confidence interval of the diference t df sig. (2tailed) lower upper pretestposttest 31.719 18.431 3.528 38.364 25.074 9.735 31 .001 based on the paired sample t-test result, it is shown that the t-count value is 9.735 with a significance value (2-tailed) of 0.001. since this value is lower than 0.05, h0 is rejected while ha is accepted. this indicates that there is a significant difference between the pre-test and post-test results after the used of the tmn technique. in addition, the hypothesis testing is further supported by comparing the t-count with the t-table. at a significance level of 0.025 (derived from 0.05/2) with 34 degrees of freedom (df), the t-table value is 2.032. because the t-count (9.735) is much higher than the t-table value (9.735 > 2.032), it confirms that h0 is rejected and ha is accepted. in addition, the effect size was calculated to strengthen interpretation cohen’s d = 0.97, which indicates a large effect. this demonstrates that tmn technique has a substantial and significantly impact on improving students’ reading comprehension. discussion this study shows that the tmn technique improves reading comprehension in eighthgrade students at smpn 1 palu. students in the experimental class achieved significantly higher post-test scores than those in the control class, indicating that tmn technique is more effective than conventional learning approaches. the results of this study align with numerous international studies that emphasize the benefits of active and interactive tmn technique. for example, linh & kien (2025) in vietnam and seo (2025) in south korea reported that students' reading comprehension improved and they were more engaged in learning when using structured note-taking methods. similarly, voyer et al (2022) and meyer et al (2024) demonstrated that generative strategies such as paraphrasing and reorganizing ideas can improve comprehension and long-term retention. khellab et al (2022) found that metacognitive reading strategies had positive effects in the middle east. conversely, juan et al (2023) found that training in cognitive and reflective strategies can improve reading ability. these consistent crosscontextual results enhance the effectiveness of tmn technique as a learning method. theoretically, this research supports the view of reading as a process active psycholinguistics (duke & cartwright, 2021), where readers form hypotheses, monitor, and construct meaning from text. tmn technique actualizes this theoretical perspective by engaging students in both cognitive processes (identifying and organizing information) and http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 384 metacognitive processes (monitoring and reflecting on understanding). pedagogically, the results of this study indicate that implementing tmn technique in efl classrooms can create more interactive and engaging reading lessons, while simultaneously improving comprehension skills and encouraging students' independent learning. however, this study has limitations. first, it was conducted in only one school (n = 64), so the results cannot be broadly generalized. second, the study only measured short-term outcomes through a post-test, without assessing long-term retention. third, the data used were solely quantitative, excluding qualitative data such as classroom dynamics or student perceptions. therefore, future research could expand on the findings by collecting more qualitative data (mirza, 2023). overall, this study has both theoretical and practical benefits. theoretically, it strengthens the empirical evidence on the tmn technique for improving reading comprehension at the junior high school level, an area that is still rarely studied in the efl context in indonesia. practically, this study offers an organized approach for teachers to improve students' reading skills by encouraging them to actively participate in tmn technique. furthermore, these findings are relevant for others in efl who struggle with passive reading habits. therefore, tmn technique can be used as a pedagogical method to support students' academic success and independent learning. conclusion this study showed that the tmn technique significantly improved students' reading comprehension, as indicated by higher post-test scores in the experimental class and the rejection of h0 in both t-tests. this method helped students find core concepts, summarize important information, and reorganize texts more effectively than conventional methods. the results show that tmn technique can help students overcome passive reading habits by encouraging student-centered and active learning. furthermore, tmn technique improves students' comprehension and critical thinking skills. practically, teachers are encouraged to design more engaging and rewarding reading lessons with tmn technique. to enhance the benefits of tmn technique, further research should be conducted to test its effectiveness on other language skills, long-term memory, different educational levels, and broader learning contexts. acknowledgment the author sincerely expresses gratitude to the english education study program for granting permission and providing continuous support during the research process. special appreciation is also extended to the eighth-grade students of smpn 1 palu for their active participation as research subjects, as well as to the observers who kindly assisted in the technical aspects throughout the study. furthermore, the author also expresses deepest gratitude to the two supervisors for their continuous guidance, direction and motivation so that this research can be completed well. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 385 references adeoye, m. a. 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(2021). improving students’ reading comprehension through listen-readdiscuss (lrd) strategy. jurnal paedagogy, 8(3), 322. https://doi.org/10.33394/jp.v8i3.3852 voyer, d., ronis, s. t., & byers, n. (2022). the effect of notetaking method on academic performance: a systematic review and meta-analysis. contemporary educational psychology, 68, 102025. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2021.102025 xu, l., cai, s., liu, y., chen, j., peng, s., & andrasik, f. (2024). the effects of the medium of notetaking on the delayed learning effect of college students: a mediated moderation model. behavioral sciences, 14(9), 756. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs14090756 zhambylkyzy, m., & molotovskaya, o. v. (2021). authentic materials in teaching english. bulletin of l.n. gumilyov eurasian national university. philology series, 136(3), 138– 147. https://doi.org/10.32523/2616-678x-2021-136-3-138-147 zhang, y., fu, j., lai, j., deng, s., guo, z., zhong, c., tang, j., cao, w., & wu, y. (2024). reporting of ethical considerations in qualitative research utilizing social media data on public health care: scoping review. journal of medical internet research, 26, e51496. https://doi.org/10.2196/51496 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 3, july 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 346 an analysis of students’ problem in writing a personal letter at 11th grade of man 4 agam 1mutia rahmi arnelia, 2 syahrul 1,2state islamic collage of bukittinggi, bukittinggi. *rahmiarnelia59@gmail.com abstract there were some students’ problems that the writer found at man 4 agam. first, some students could not develop their ideas when writing. second, some students were confused about using tenses. next, some students had limited vocabulary. the last, some students were wrong in diction. this research aimed to discover the students’ problems in writing personal letters and the causes of students’ problems in writing personal letters. in this research, the researcher used mix method by using descriptive design. the mixed-method was the combination of quantitative and qualitative research. the informants of this research were the students of the xi is-1 class, which consisted of 19 students. the data were obtained through documentation and interview. this research found five aspects of students’ problems in writing a personal letter—the problems which percentage 18,2 % was content. the second was organization, with a percentage of 15,4 %. next, the student's problem in grammar was 25,3 %. after that, the problem of vocabulary was 23,2 %. the last, mechanics’ problem was 17,7 %. therefore, from the percentage, the most common of students’ problems was grammar. there were some causes why students got a problem in writing a personal letter. there was the psychological, linguistic, and cognitive problem. thus, based on an interview with some students, the most cause of the problem was linguistic problems. keywords: students problem, writing introduction writing is one of the productive skills in language learning, like speaking. in writing, there is a message and idea delivered by the writer. nunan said that writing is when someone invents ideas, expresses ideas, and organizes ideas into statements or paragraphs (nunan, 2003). thus, it is a process that the writer can explore the message and his mind and give the readers information through his thought—one of the important skills required by the students in writing. writing is important because it is used extensively in higher education and the workplace. if students do not know how to express themselves in writing, they do not communicate well with professors, employers, peers, or just about anyone else. the english language teaching practitioners have realized the importance of writing. good language users are supposed to be able to express themselves in written language. as an attempt to increase the proficiency of learners in the written is the production of english. furthermore, writing is important because it plays a major role in expressing one’s ideas, thoughts, opinions, and attitudes. through the activity, people can share ideas, feelings, persuading and convincing others. people may write for personal enjoyment or some other purpose. there are many different styles of writing, formal and informal. formal writing is done by rules suitable for an official or important situation or occasion, while informal is having a relaxed, friendly, or unofficial style. to do good writing, students should focus on content, organization, grammar, vocabulary, organization, and mechanics. all of them are essential aspects that students know when producing good writing. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 3, july 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 347 thus, students should improve their writing and practice a lot. then, they should comprehend the structure and materials in writing because it is the key to do good writing. according to harni et al., they said that in writing skills, writers need to know and master the writing components (basonggo et al., 2016). furthermore, haris stated that to do good writing, the writer needs to recognize writing skills such as content, forms, grammar, vocabulary, and mechanics (testing a second language, 1969). thus, these components will help the writer to produce good writing. in language learning, writing is a language skill that is very important for the students. writing personal letters is necessary for the students to express and convey their ideas to their friends or family. therefore, to make the reader understand their letter, the students have to pay attention to writing rules. students often got a problem when they are asked to write their ideas in english because, as we know, english in this context is not our first language. it is natural if students get the problem. the teacher cannot expect students to learn perfectly for the first time. in the curriculum of senior high school, the students had learned about the letter. the students are taught how to write the letter. the students were told the components of the letter, both formal and personal letter. the formal and personal letter has a difference in structure, form, content, and style. a formal letter has essential points: the heading, name and address, salutation, body, and closing. at the same time, the personal letter has structure, namely the heading, salutation, body of the letter, and closing. based on the preliminary research at man 4 agam, the researcher did it on february 10, 2020, and february 27, 2021. the researcher interviewed two students and a teacher. the researcher found some problems from the interview with students: first, some students could not develop their ideas when writing. they were not able to organize their idea; meanwhile, they had more ideas. it was supported by students’ statement “writing tu susah miss, karna translate per kata, terus vivi susah mengembangin idenya miss”. from the statement, the researcher knew that she got difficulties in expressing ideas. second, some students were still confused about using tenses, such as simple present tense or simple past tense. most of them got difficulty determining what verb that they have to use in writing personal letters. it was supported by students’ statement “ kadang ingin menceritakan masa lalu kan ms, tapi untuk past tense itu awel kurang”. third, they had limited vocabulary. limited vocabulary made some students could not make or arrange sentences. besides interviews with students, the researcher also interviewed the teacher. the researcher found some problems: the first, students were lack of vocabulary. some students were wrong in diction. when learning english, most of the students did not bring a dictionary. it was supported by teachers’ statement “ masalah yang paling sering dihadapi siswa itu kosa kata g dibuat anak, yaa biasa tia anak-anak minim kosakata, pemilihan kata-katanya masih banyak yang salah”. the second was a grammatical error. students made ambiguous sentences because they got a problem with grammar. miss nurhayati said that most of them got a problem with grammar. sometimes she did not understand what students write. it was supported by statement “ kebanyakan grammar anak-anak tersebut bermasalah, kadang apa yang dibuat anak ibuk kurang bisa pahami. ada juga sebenarnya idenya yang bisa ibuk mengerti, tapi ya karna grammar sama susunannya kata nya kenak, jadi kelihatan ambigu.” based on the explanation above, the researcher found that the students still had difficulties writing personal letters. moreover, the researcher expects to research the students’ problems and the causes of students’ writing problems. methods research design this research used a mixed-method. the mixed-method was the combination of quantitative and qualitative research. gay explained that “mix method research is a research style that uses procedures for conducting research that is typically applied in both quantitative and http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 3, july 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 348 qualitative studies to understand a research problem more fully” (gay et al., 2012). creswell stated that mixed-method research is a procedure for collecting, analyzing, and mixing quantitative and qualitative methods in a study (creswell, 2012). thus, it was suitable for this research because the researcher found the answer to the question from understanding the data patterns. the researcher used a quantitative method to answer research questions about the students’ problems in writing personal letters. then, to find about the causes of students’ problem, the researcher used qualitative method. . the subject of the research the subject or the informant or of this research was xith students of man 4 agam. there were four classes. the researcher did not use all of the population as the informant, but the researcher chose one class. it was xi is 1, which consist of 19 students. the researcher chose it because it can help the researcher discover, understand, and doubtless things related to the research. instrument of the research the instruments were used in this research were documentation and interview. the researcher used documentation from the students’ writing to answer the research question about the students’ problem in writing a personal letter. the researcher got students’ writing from the teacher—the interview used by the researcher to get information about causes of students’ problems in writing a personal letter. the researcher interviewed eight students because they have more problems than other students. the technique of collecting data 1. documentation in this research, the researcher used the documentation in written form. the researcher asked the students’ tasks from the teacher. the document that the researcher used was the 19 students’ task about personal letters. thus, the researcher used documentation to answer research questions related to the students’ problems in writing personal letters. 2. interview the researcher used the interview until got information from eight students to collect the data and answer the causes of students’ problem writing personal letters. the researcher did an interview directly. the technique of analysis data 1. documentation after the researcher collected the data, it was analyzed to achieve the intended purposes. then, the researcher signed the problems by underlined or gave a circle. the researcher used raters to help analyzed data to determine scores of the students’ assignments. in analyzing the data, the researcher used a mixed-method to found out students’ problems in writing. the procedure is as follows : a. after the researcher collected the data from 19 students’ tasks as documents, then assess the data. to make the validity of the data analysis, the researcher joined with their english teacher to analyze the data. three persons assessed the data. the first rater was the researcher, the second and the third were the english teacher. b. tabulation. the score of students’ writing is tabulated after getting the score on each aspect of the problem in writing a personal letter. the researcher found out the average of each score from raters 1,2, and 3. the result of data is included in the table below : http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 3, july 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 349 table 1. the students’ problem in writing personal letter no name criteria content organization grammar vocabulary mechanics r1 r2 r3 r1 r2 r3 r1 r2 r3 r1 r3 r3 r1 r2 r3 the researcher used the formula by sudijono in diana to determine the average of the first, the second, and the third rater. the formula of average : 𝑀𝑥 = 𝑋1 + 𝑋2 + 𝑋3 n mx: mean of average x1: score from rater 1 x2: score from rater 2 x3: score from rater 3 n: number of raters (lisa & in, 2017). c. after the students’ score was classified, the researcher found the percentage of classification. the researcher used a formula of percentage : 𝑝 = 𝑓 n x 100 % p: percentage of problems’ item f: frequency n: total of problem by using the formula above, the researcher calculated the total score of students for each aspect of the problem in writing. d. describing the data the researcher described students’ problems in writing a personal letter e. analyzing the data the researcher analyzed students’ problems in writing a personal letter f. making conclusion the researcher concluded the analysis of students writing to look at the problem of students in writing a personal letter. after that, the researcher used the interview to see the causes of students’ problems writing personal letters. there were several procedures to analyze the data with the interview as proposed by such as: 2. interview the data was analyzed by using some steps; according to sugiyono, it would be explained as follow : a. data collection : the researcher collected the data through interviews. b. data reduction : the researcher resumed the data and focused on the research aspects, and unnecessary aspects were reduced. c. display the data : the researcher made the result of the research about the causes of the problems. d. conclusion : the researcher concluded the finding (sugiyono, 2013). http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 3, july 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 350 results a. documentation the documentation analysis in this research was 19 students’ written tasks. in analyzing data, the researcher analyzed students’ tasks based on five aspects of writing. there were content, organization, grammar, vocabulary, and mechanics. the documentation was taken from the teacher. after the researcher collected students’ documentation, the researcher got the students’ data to analyze students' problems in writing personal letters. to make valid data, the researcher asked three raters to help of analyzing them. the researcher joined with the english teachers to analyze the data. the first rater was the researcher and the second and third rater was the english teacher. to assess it, the researcher used the assessing writing rubric from cohen to get the score. after that, the score of students’ writing is going to tabulate. the score could be seen in table 4.1 as follow : table 2. students’ score of problem in writing a personal letter from 3 raters name criteria content organization grammar vocabulary mechanic r1 r2 r3 r1 r2 r3 r1 r2 r3 r1 r2 r3 r1 r2 r3 di 1 2 1 1 2 2 1 1 1 2 1 2 2 2 2 sp 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 3 3 4 3 2 2 3 wfj 4 5 4 4 5 4 3 4 4 3 5 5 3 4 5 aw 1 2 2 1 2 3 1 3 2 2 2 2 1 1 2 naf 2 4 3 2 2 2 2 3 2 3 3 2 3 3 3 aj 3 2 4 3 3 4 1 2 3 3 2 4 3 4 4 ps 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 4 4 4 4 5 4 4 sna 3 4 3 3 4 3 3 3 4 3 4 3 3 4 4 spp 3 3 2 3 3 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 op 3 4 4 4 3 3 2 3 3 2 3 3 3 3 3 rs 5 4 5 5 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 nm 2 2 2 2 2 3 2 3 2 2 2 2 3 2 2 apd 3 2 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 3 2 3 mrw 3 2 2 3 2 3 2 2 3 2 2 2 3 2 3 fa 3 3 4 3 3 4 2 3 3 3 3 4 3 3 4 inh 4 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 3 3 3 4 3 3 3 yi 4 3 3 3 2 3 3 2 2 3 2 2 2 2 2 mks 1 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 3 3 4 4 3 4 4 fm 1 1 1 3 4 3 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 the researcher added the scores within the 1-2 range of each rater from the data above. the data were obtained from the counting scores of students who had a problem with the range 1 and 2 that were made in red from each rater. after that, the researcher counted the average of each problem and found the percentage of them. moreover, got results like the table below : table 3. the students’ problem in writing a personal letter item of problem rater 1 rater 2 rater 3 average percentage content 8 14 11 11 18,2 % organization 8 14 6 9,3 15,4% grammar 18 14 14 15,3 25,3% vocabulary 13 14 15 14 23,2 % http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 3, july 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 351 item of problem rater 1 rater 2 rater 3 average percentage mechanic 9 14 9 10,7 17,7 % total 60.3 99,8 % = 100 % according to the data above, the researcher found that grammar was the common students’ problem with a total score of 15,3 or 25,3 %. the second was vocabulary, with a total of 14 scores or 23,2 %. the next is content with 11 total scores of 18,2 %. then, mechanics with a total of 10,7 scores or 17,7 %. the last was an organization with a 9,3 score or 15,4 %. after that, the result of each aspect of students’ problem in writing a personal letter can be seen in the following chart below: figure 1. the students’ problems as explained in chapter two, there were five students’ problems that the researcher found. the researcher used initial students’ names to make identification easier. the researcher described the five problems that were found as the following: content there were some indicators in this aspect. they were whether the paragraph was understandable or not and paragraph unity. paragraph unity itself had sub-indicators consists of the main idea, change opinion clearly, topic sentence. the document students’ written result showed that the students have a problem in making good content. based on the data from di, the researcher found he wrote a personal letter just in one paragraph. she wrote a paragraph that started by greeting. her idea was still ambiguous. the researcher was unable to understand the paragraph. it was caused due to the main ideas were not at all clear. the reader could understand the information of this personal letter. at the end of the paragraph, di also wrote a conclusion, but the conclusion was too brief. aw did the same thing, but she wrote a personal letter in two paragraphs. from her written task, the researcher found that she could not express her idea. each sentence could not be understood. she was unable to develop her ideas. each sentence was not described the topic sentence. she wrote a personal letter in two paragraphs, but the first and second paragraphs were not connected. in the second paragraph, the reader is unable to understand what idea will be delivered. it just consisted of one sentence. in aw’s letter, there was no conclusion. moreover, based on mks’s letter, the researcher found that she wrote an invitation card, she did not tell about her or something which the letter should be like. it can be seen that she did not understand what the teacher means. the teacher's instruction was to write a personal letter, but in fact, she wrote an invitation card. 17,7% 15,4 % 25,3 % 23,2 % 18,2 % percentage content organization grammar vocabulary mechanic http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 3, july 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 352 on the other hand, the researcher found a personal letter that had an average category, apd, made it. his letter was able to understand. he wrote a personal letter in three paragraphs. although each paragraph consists of a minim sentence, the content of this letter was quite clear. in the first paragraph, he talked about his holiday; he talked about his hobby in the second paragraph. for the last paragraph, he wrote the conclusion. every sentence was not too clear, but the reader can understand it—furthermore, ssp’s letter. the paragraph was quite difficult to understand because of grammatical and spelling errors. organization the indicator of the organization was coherence. it has sub-indicators consists structuring the paragraph, topic development of a paragraph. the researcher found that some students got a problem organizing ideas. it can be seen from the nas’s task. the researcher found that she made a mistake in organizing personal letters. nas had the problem of structuring the paragraph. she wrote jumping ideas. for example, it was quoted by nas task, “ how are you ? i miss you so much. gloomy me self. i miss you”. in this sentence, she could not arrange the sentence. in the first sentence, she asked about her friend's condition, next followed by an expression of missing. then, the sentence “ gloomy my self,” which was the opposite of the previous sentence. so that reader cannot understand what she will tell. there was some sentence that could not support the topic. moreover, the researcher found that nm did not understand how to do good writing well. she could not arrange her idea. however, it was quite to be understood. her sentence was not too jump. at the end of her writing, she did not conclude clearly. on the other hand, the researcher had analyzed ps’s writing. the researcher found that ps was able to arrange the paragraph. each sentence supported the topic idea so that she could write a good paragraph. she told me the reason why she sent the letter well. from the data found by the researcher, for aspect organization, only four students had a problem in the organization. the percentage of the organization supported it was 15,4 %. grammar the researcher found the problem in grammar. the problem in grammar will influence certain patterns of how words are put together to form the correct sentences. some students are still confused about using verb tense, pronoun, auxiliary, and word order. they were not able to select correct verbs based on the tenses they use when writing. it happened because the students did not understand it well yet. the researcher found that most of the students got a problem with grammar. for examples : table 4.3 students’ problem in grammar no grammatical error correct sentence 1 i know you angry (to be) i know you are angry 2 you will got an exam tomorrow right? (word order) will you get an exam tomorrow, right? 3 i miss you and if all your family i miss you and all of your family 4 how you are? (word order) how are you? 5 so time i wont to house you (tenses) sometimes, i want to come to your house 6 you idola (possessive pronoun) sna your idol 7 what you still to remember whith i do you still remember me? 8 you to know (nas) do you know? 9 do you plan to come have? (word order) do you have a plan to come? 10 i wish you can to accept i hope you can accept http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 3, july 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 353 11 i travelling to padang with my family in the next holiday (tenses) i will travel to padang with my family in the next semester holiday 12 i hape you are (ag) i hope you are fine vocabulary besides some problems above, vocabulary is another problem that students faced in writing. researcher found some problems in diction. the problem is explained as follows : a. incorrect: i wishing very can meet you more (di) correct : i wish can meet you again b. incorrect : now, i’m together and family in linggai (fa) correct : now, i am with my family in linggai c. incorrect : to begin with (psy) correct : in beginning d. incorrect : i am sorry because no can audience party brother (nm) correct : i am sorry because i cannot attend your birthday party e. incorrect : i to expect you happy there (nas) correct : i hope you happy there f. incorrect : as like padang beach, transmarket, zoo, and as to much spot picnic. correct : as like padang beach, transmarket, zoo, and other spot picnic g. incorrect : you can winner olympiad math ( yid) correct : you can win math olympiad h. incorrect : so time i want to house you (yid) correct : sometime, i want to come to your house i. incorrect : i to hope for you good2 there (di) correct : i hope you are fine there j. incorrect : i hope you will succeed in the next time (apd) correct : i hope you’ii be successful next time from the explanation above, the researcher found if the students still had difficulty in diction. researchers found that some students were lack of vocabulary. their writing showed it. mechanics the indicators of mechanics were capitalization, punctuation, and spelling. based on documents resulting from students’ written tasks, most students did not pay attention to capitalisation, punctuation, and spelling when writing personal letters. for examples : 1. wen i araif (spelling error) the correct sentence : when i arrive 2. i’m sorry becaus no can audience (spelling error) the correct sentence : i am sorry because no can audience 3. my birthday parti (spelling error) the correct sentence : my birthday party 4. how are you? i wish to invite you to go to the agenda (capitalization) the correct sentence : how are you? i wish to invite you to go to the agenda 5. my friend i miss you. (punctuation) the correct sentence : my friend, i miss you http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 3, july 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 354 6. i hape you mis me too (spelling error) the correct sentence : i hope you miss me too 7. hi, ayu. how are you? (capitalization) the correct sentence : hi, ayu. how are you? 8. ….father and mather wil give you some present ( spelling error) the correct sentence : …. father and mother will give you some presents 9. januari 21, 2020 the correct sentence : january 21, 2020 10. sunday i and friend the other go to play …. the correct sentence : sunday, i and my friend the other go to play based on the data above, the researcher found that most students got mechanical problems writing personal letters. they were errors or mistakes in spelling. then, some students also got problems with capitalization and punctuation. interview this interview aims to find out what the causes of students’ problem in writing a personal letter. three indicators involve the research question: psychological problem, linguistic problem, and cognitive problem. the first was psychological problems. some of the students had a lack of self-confidence, lack of motivation, and writing anxiety. it was supported by the student's statement, such as di said that she got a problem when writing personal letters because before she started to write, she always thought that she would make mistakes, which made her lack selfconfidence and lack of motivation. nm also said that writing the personal letter was difficult, and it caused her was lazy to write, and she did not have the motivation to write. furthermore, apd also said that “ iya, saya tidak percaya diri dalam menulis personal letter, karna saya selalu merasa tidak bisa untuk menulis dalam bahasa inggris. saya merasa bahasa inggris itu susah, ketika membuat sebuah kalimat dan menghafal kosa katanya”. in addition jovita said that “ iya ms, karena banyak kata yang tidak saya ketahui dalam bahasa inggris ms “some students also said that they were lack of self-confidence if they used dictionary when learning. from the statement above can be seen that some students were lack self-confidence. they always thought that they would be wrong. it can be concluded that psychological problems influenced problem writing. the second was linguistic problems. the linguistic problem influences students writing. linguistic refers to grammatical, limited vocabulary, difficulties in word classes. the students’ statements supported it. some students said that sometimes when they have ideas, they could not express their idea. they could not write in english because, in english, they should be aware of grammar correctly. they also have limited vocabulary. it was supported by yi statements " iya sulit ms, vocabulary saya kurang ms, jadi untuk menulis personal letter saya harus ada kamus untuk membantu saya.” meanwhile, they seldom brought the dictionary when learning english. students said that they made a paragraph in indonesia form firstly, after that they will translate into english, it caused they did not care about grammar. nm said “ kalau saya suka bingung miss, di surat tersebut saya ingin menceritakan kejadian yang lalu, jadi saya pertama membuat paragraph nya dalam bahsa indonesia, setelah itu baru saya translate pakai kamus ke dalam bahasa inggris miss. jadi untuk verbnya saya sukak ragu, mau pakai present atau past tense”. it is similar to sarah’s opinion; she was confused when she wanted to write. in addition, septia said http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 3, july 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 355 she worried that what she was about to write was not what she meant because she did not understand grammar. the third problem was cognitive problems. it refers to student problems in organizing paragraphs, getting lost the generic structure, concluding. based on the researcher's data, some students said they got problems when making a coherent paragraph. they also did not care about the generic structure. they tend to write what they think without being aware of organizing paragraphs. di’s statement supported it. she said that she was not understood how to formulate her idea. furthermore nm said that “ ga tau miss, yang saya tau saya menulis apa yang ada di fikiran saya aja miss”. then, most of the students did not conclude their letter. it can be concluded that they did not care about the generic structure in personal letters. aw's statement supported it. aw said “ saya ga hafal komponen-komponen dalam surat miss, saya hanya menuliskan apa yang ingin saya sampaikan” . it was similar to another student’s opinions. apd said that “ saya tidak terlalu hafal generic structure dalam personal letter, yang saya tau cuma ada isi dan tangan serta pengirim dan penerima surat” from the statement above can be seen that they did not care about the generic structure then, them was a lack of extensive reading. it also supports by student's written tasks, seldom of students that concluded in their writing. discussion the researcher has found five aspects of students’ problems identified in 19 students’ writing a personal letter based on the data analysis above. those problems include content, organization, grammar, vocabulary, and mechanics. from the data above, it can be concluded that students still had difficulty in writing. writing becomes the most difficult skill when foreign language learners learn it. according to rass in zulaikha (2018: 13) stated that writing is a difficult skill for native speakers and non-native speakers due to writers must be able to write it multiple issues such as content, organization, purpose, vocabularies, audience, and mechanics such as spelling, punctuation, and capitalization (zulaikah et al., 2018). this statement supports this research because there were students who got the problem for all off aspects. based on the data analysis above, the researcher found that grammar with percentage was 25,3 %. the researcher concluded that grammar in writing personal letters could be the biggest problem because when students wrote it, they tried to improve their language. they tend to wrote what they think without think about grammar. writing a personal letter was different from writing formal letters due to formal letter differences in structure, form, content, and style. otherwise, based on dwi's finding, she found the most dominant aspect in the students’ writing is the language use and vocabulary aspects, and conversely in the organization, mechanics, and content (octaviani, 2016). grammar is an essential part of the language that cannot be understood easily. the second problem was vocabulary, with a percentage of 23,2 %. some students possess a limited vocabulary. so that they got difficulties in doing their writing a personal test. researchers also found that some students were wrong in diction. for example: “i to hope for you good2 there” it should be “i hope you are fine there.” another example was “you can winner olympiad math” it should be “ you can win olympiad math.” the next problem was content. the percentage of this problem was 18,8 %. the researcher found that some students wrote an incomprehensible personal letter. meanwhile, there was more content in writing personal letters that could be understood while there were grammatical errors. the fourth problem mechanics with a percentage of 17,7 %. it happened due to the students ignored spelling, capitalization, and punctuation. according to gowere in alfaki, spelling problems happened due to other languages, variant pronunciations, and other historical reasons; the english spelling system, which has become inconsistent, is complex for students (alfaki, 2015). in addition, for the capitalization problem, alfaki stated that learners have problems using capitalization properly (alfaki, 2015). there are reasons for students’ problems in using proper http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 3, july 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 356 capitalization. the rules of capitalization are not universal, and classifying nouns as proper and common nouns is difficult for students. the last problem was an organization with a percentage of 15,4 %. the indicator of the organization was coherence. it has sub-indicators consists structuring the paragraph, topic development of a paragraph. the researcher found that some students got a problem organizing ideas. from the finding of the interview’s data, the researcher found that there were three causes of writing. the first cause is based on an interview with students was a psychological problem. the psychological problem made students got a problem when writing a personal letter. self-confidence and motivation have large influences to support students when writing. davis in dwi warry octaviana states that the students will be encouraged to write if writing tasks motivate them and keep them interested (octaviani, 2016). the desire of the writer to communicate something is very important because it is much more difficult for students to write about something they have no interest in. so then, the students’ motivation is said to relate to how the students acquire writing knowledge intensely. the next cause was linguistic problems. linguistic problems refer to grammatical errors, vocabulary. students that have limited knowledge and did not understand grammar, vocabulary will get problems in writing. in this research, the researcher found that some students sometimes have ideas, but they could not express their ideas. it was caused due to they should be aware of used grammar correctly. they also have limited vocabulary. then, students made a paragraph in indonesia form firstly, after that they translated into english, it caused they did not care about grammar. the last cause of problems was cognitive problems. it influenced their writing, but it did not have a significant impact on their writing. conclusion the purposes of the research were to find out the student's problems and the causes of problems in writing a personal letter. based on the findings and the discussions, it can be concluded that students in 11 are 1 of man 4 agam in this study have committed five aspects of students’ problem. the problems were found by collecting the documentation of 19 students’ writing. those problems include content, organization, grammar, vocabulary, and mechanics. those aspects answer the first research question of the study. the most common problem in the students’ writing a personal letter was grammar with 25,3 %. according to analysis, the problems happened because of psychological problems, linguistic problems, and cognitive problems. psychological problems related to the lack of motivation, lack of motivation, writing anxiety. linguistic problems related to ungrammatical, limited vocabulary. the last problem was the cognitive problem, and it is related to organizing paragraphs, difficulties in remaining word classes, getting lost the generic structure, concluding, and punctuation. acknowledgment as a result, the writer wants to express her sincere gratitude and appreciation to the following person for their valuable contributions. 1. syahrul, ss, m.pd as advisor was highly appreciated for the care, time, attention, guidance, valuable advice, and patience in accomplishing this thesis. 2. all the lecturers of iain bukittinggi who have given their knowledge, ideas, and helps. 3. her beloved parents, naswar and mutia rahmi arnelia, her brother ahmad ikhsan and her sister mutia rahmi arnelia for their endless love, pray, supports and patience. 4. the researcher also shows thanks to my beloved partner fadil muhammad zikri and dearest friends indah paramitha, mona anggraini, cici wahyuni, nofia gadisma, nuraisyah merlin, dezy saifatul, femilia putri, afifah mardiyah, fitrah nurjannah, erin hayfitma, rinola absari putri, resti rahmadani, stevi rahmi dewati. thanks for their support, motivation, and suggestions to finish their study. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 3, july 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 357 references alfaki, i. m. (2015). university students’ english writing problems : diagnosis and remedy. international journal of english language teaching, 3(3), 40–52. basonggo, h., said, m. m., & dewi, a. k. (2016). developing writing skills of grade viii students. e-journal of english language teaching society (elts), 4(1), 1–11. creswell, j. w. (2012). educational research planning, conducting and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research fourth edition. gay, l. ., mills, e. g., & airasian, p. w. (2012). educational research competencies for analysis and application. lisa, d., & in, z. a. (2017). an investigation of students’ problem in writing recount text at the first semester of the eighth grade of smpn 4 bandar lampung in the academic year of 2016/2017. nunan, d. (2003). practical english language teaching. octaviani, d. w. (2016). the causes of efl students’ difficulties in writing english. etlic conference, 01(1), 1–7. sugiyono. (2013). 6. sugiyono.pdf. testing a second language. (1969). zulaikah, agustina, e., & muklas, m. (2018). an analysis students’ ability in writing descriptive text of second semester of english educational program at stkip nurul huda oku timur. jurnal darussalam; jurnal pendidikan, komunikasi dan pemikiran hukum islam, x(1), 12–30. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 1, january 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 13 the use of literary adaptations in the efl classroom: a case study chahra beloufa1 arab open university, hittin, saudi arabia c.beloufa@arabou.edu.sa abstract the marriage of the two arts, literature and cinema, gave birth to the production of literary adaptations, which is inspiring to explore in an efl (english as foreign language) literature classroom because efl students are becoming reluctant readers with limited critical literacy. literary texts in print might cause a loss of interest in literature class. that is why the teacher has always secured material that will keep students' learning literature an enjoyable experience. the researcher experimented on a group of fourth-year english classical system students at djilali liabes university, sidi bel abbes, algeria, to bring about a change. in their british literature classroom, one projected "pride and prejudice," austen's film adaptation (2005), to observe students' abilities in criticizing the film and discussing it and to discover to what extent it will make them eager to read the novel and get engaged. hence, based on the structured observation during the film projection and the semistructured questionnaires, the researcher found that austen's adaptation was fruitful since it pushed students into critiquing what is visual and showing interest in further reading the written word. in addition, it contributed to memorizing and discovering some of the british cultural aspects of that era. therefore, opting for a cinematic milieu in a literature classroom can have dual aims: educating and entertaining, raising students' visual awareness through readings of adaptations by concertizing what is written. keywords: cinematic literature, efl classroom, literary adaptations, visual awareness introduction literature in english as a foreign language (efl) classroom has become an important subject matter to study since the authenticity of its contents and the diversity of its genres provide both teachers and students not only with cultural, social, and historical settings but also with rich linguistic resources that arise students' language awareness. through reading drama, fiction, and poetry, students acquire a sense of creativity, respond critically to what they have read, and analyze it. therefore, it is worth noting that literature attempts to contribute to students' personal growth since it stimulates their personal feelings and imagination skills. giving students a selected piece of literary writing to read and study within communicative tasks does not reflect some of their involvement in the classroom. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 1, january 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 14 using printed copies in one's classroom daily for the year may demotivate and passive students. hence, the quality of teaching and learning probably will decrease. literature as art is usually meant to be viewed and seen. that is why the integration of visual means can bring about a change in the literature classroom. the emergence of technology has brought with it new practices that aim at innovating and provoking change in teaching and learning. the teacher can use motion pictures, visual poems, and films to portray the studied genre. films have become a symbol of advancements in teaching approaches where academic research has investigated their effectiveness as technological innovation. film adaptations used in the classroom can be debatable. nowadays, almost all well-known novels and plays have been adapted into movies and serials. that inspired one to investigate the present issue. one may find that some have read these adaptations without having read before the written text, and others have read it but did not watch its adapted version. each film has a particular audience as well as a book too. therefore, projecting film adaptations in the literature classroom can have a particular effect and may or may not elicit student responses. to test and explore the concept of the cinematic value of adaptations and the incorporation of digital media, one targeted the fourth-year english classical system students inquiring: 1-what are the fourth-year english classical system students' attitudes and responses when watching austen's adaptation of "pride and prejudice"? 2-what are the benefits and results of integrating "pride and prejudice" in the fourthyear english classical students' british literature lecture? after reviewing the literature on interactive literature and film adaptations, the researcher then hypothesizes that: 1-students might not have been able to fully examine, study, and critically analyze the film since they might not be aware of critical literacy instruction. 2-the concrete visual representations of the printed text (novel) facilitate and make students aware of cultural aspects of the target language. hence, to confirm or reject the stated assumptions, one applied a test, observation and questionnaire on several fourth-year english classical system students randomly selected to know to what extent film adaptations benefit a literature classroom in general and a british literature course in particular. through the present study, the research does not prioritize film versions over literary written works. one's objective is to explore what can the usage of film adaptations bring to literature. the actual study has been carried out with the belief that films can be as rich as books are, though they are derivative products. testing austen's "pride and prejudice" film adaptation is aimed at attracting students' attention and exposing them to the milieu of the emergent "cinematic society" denzin (1995). it is high time for students to perceive film adaptations as products that convey cultural meanings. in addition, the researcher's investigation seeks to determine the ability http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 1, january 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 15 of students' visual perception. the present study was carried out regarding various aspects, which ensures the validity of one's assumptions' testing. the test was applied according to the time given as well as the observation, which was a part of the test and the questionnaire administered to students after they however, to understand the motives of the researcher's study in particular and her objectives, it is necessary to contextualize it by covering some important points such as the students' literature program, its content and the materials used in their british literature classroom. therefore, the coming sub-sections determine and locate one's research, exploring what appropriate tools have been selected to obtain the required data. literature review the ongoing introduction of technological tools and visual materials in the english language teaching branch (elt) has changed today's classroom teaching and learning practices. as a new classroom tool in literature, films, particularly film adaptations, may have entered the teacher's repertoire. the exciting call of digital media and the rise of the production of these classical adaptations, which may hold an important place not only in the world of cinema but its reflection of the literary work to some extent, made it intrude the literature class to a media through which students are visually stimulated. one notes that the evolution of the technology of film-making literary content has created a new perspective on cinematic literature. literature and technology literature is witnessing great changes that are driven by technology. in a remote time, it was the age of manuscripts and books where literature was and still is printed material representing diverse philosophies, cultural stereotypes, and much knowledge. however, the absolute evolution of the internet age and technology resulted in the creation of electronic texts, audiobooks, and films adapted from past written classics. with the emergence of digital information technology, many literary, art and cultural historians have inquired about publication modes, ideas of creativity and the literary works produced on the net. several opinions exist on the acceptance of literature mixing with technology. some view literature's divinity as not being diluted in these antithetical modes of thought. this attitude was romantic, such as blake and keats, who opposed technology to the arts. however, photographers and writers found great beauty in modern machines during the twentieth century. literature has not only been influenced by technological tools but by cinematic productions as well. literature and cinema cinema tells a story to the illiterate person and the literate one. filmmakers modernized the cinema field by producing films relying not on their creative cinematic writings but formerly written literary works transformed into films. the marriage of the two arts, literature and cinema, gave birth to the world of film adaptations that appeal to the audience instead of the reader to decode scenes that may render one visually literate. one can be eager to inquire about the fact of how film adaptations contribute to the transmission http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 1, january 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 16 of different messages. are adaptations products of commercialization or a tool of educative benefit? first, to sketch the relationship between film and literature, it is essential to proceed to its definition. film adaptations: definition and polemics watching a film is different from reading a novel. both films and novels take one to a new world where the person escapes from his own life for a while to immerse in the lives of others. reading novels requires the reader's mental ability to process images differently from films, where visual perception is conceptualized through the person's eye. generally defined, films are acts played out in scenes comprising particular modes, as mcfarlane insists that films: "has its codes: we are required to distinguish lengths of shot, the distance of action from the camera, angles from which the action is viewed, the kinds of editing employed…". cinema reflects daily social conflicts and issues; it has also portrayed many concepts according to diverse cultures, such as freedom, love, and colonization. these ideas pictured in movies and serials are sometimes inspired, whether by real-life stories or fantasy that would, depend on the genre of the film. the penetration of literature into the cinematic world gave birth to film adaptation production. the fusion of both arts resulted in the conception of literary adaptations. this genre of films has often been discussed in terms of loyalty since filmmakers interpret literary works into films. the question here is how much filmmakers preserve the novels' or the literary work's plot. filmmakers started to adapt stories and novels artistically, visualizing actions and dramatizing events, especially of english writers and others closely connected to the united kingdom in cinema in the 1990s and 2000s. the rise of media and film production has led to the concept of adaptation. george bluestone notes that "changes are inevitable the moment one abandons the linguistic for the visual medium." plenty of adaptations can be cited, such as "the great gatsby" (1926), "dracula" (1931), "emma" (1972), "the adventures of sherlock holmes" (1939), "pride and prejudice" (1940), and "sense and sensibility" (1981). types of adaptations adaptations have always been described to be infidel to the original text. when watching its adaptation, readers of that particular work expect to explore the landscape of their reading viewed in scenes. however, some adaptations can expose the original content. stam (2000) reveals some criticisms about film adaptations, stating: "the language of criticism dealing with the film adaptation of novels has often been profoundly moralistic, awash, in terms of infidelity, betrayal, deformation, violation, vulgarisation, and desecration, each carrying its specific charge of outraging negativity" (stam, 2000) features of adaptations differ from one to another. gramnetti (2004) cites three different types of adaptation: the loose, the faithful, and the literal one. first, the loose adaptation, the resemblance between the original text and the film, is far. in this type of http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 1, january 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 17 adaptation, the director may only use the original story's idea or characters to create the film. second is the faithful adaptation; in this kind of adaptation, the resemblance between the original text and the film is close; the film retains the characters, storylines and most events. as subtypes of loose adaptation, rachel malchow (2002) identifies five kinds: displaced, acculturated, politicized, commercialized, and radical. in displaced adaptation, the setting changes, but the text's language is retained. the context of film can be altered in the acculturated adaptation where both setting and language are changed. when the adaptation is commissioned for political issues such as "henry v," it is called a politicized adaptation. besides, an original text transformation can be done for a larger audience for commercialization. that is why it is named commercialized adaptation. the type of loose adaptation is radical. as the name suggests, this adaptation is an entirely new version with radical change, as in "shakespeare in love." pride and prejudice: a classic novel adaptation the novel pride and prejudice was published in 1813. it is austen's most well-known novel where its heroine, elizabeth benneth, is a middle-class woman who marries the rich darcy fitzgerald. the character of elizabeth was featured with intellect, wit, charm and beauty, struggling for her individuality and independence. the adaptation of this novel was produced in 1995 concerning the content, style and mood. one can have an idea about this latter classical adaptation from imelda wheleham's (1999) definition. she states that a classic adaptation is "a recognizable film genre which is, in turn, an adaptation of other films with intertextual links with its contemporary counterparts." therefore, what are the leading features of the "pride and prejudice" adaptation? dialogue and conversation in "pride and prejudice" occupy a great part of the novel that reveals men's and women's voices. thus, the film displays the actors' conduct who are supposed to articulate the roles of the characters. the fans of "pride and prejudice" have claimed that the adaptation contains austen's dialogue respecting the description she made in her novel. that is, the mise-en-scene has been according to the details enumerated, such as the architecture, fashion and musical styles, all the latter made pride and prejudice appealing to the contemporary audience. it is commonly acknowledged that classic adaptations generally shed light on class and gender issues, which can often provoke debates about women and their social position in the past. films that portrayed women's treatments and status are understood through images, whereas adaptation's transmission to the latter situation has already been provided from the original text, as dudley andrew emphasizes: "the celluloid of an adaptation resembles that of other films: meaning rises from images and sounds inscribed on its surface! however, the value of an adaptation's meaning depends on an additional dimension, the dimension of depth provided by the substrate text that supports what is on the celluloid." http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 1, january 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 18 in short, watching adaptations can be compared to reading novels to some extent. the watcher is constantly exposed to visual material which may entertainingly supplement his knowledge. as a result, for what purposes this type of visual material is integrated into education and efl classrooms in particular? uses of adaptations in efl classroom films' use in the classroom was largely investigated. adaptations were appealing in their productions' representation of the english milieu. therefore, films became viewed as cultural products, confirmed by an official document 2005 declaring that british films are part of its cultural heritage. the film holds a well-defined position in classrooms; as lefranc (1959) wrote in a unesco publication for the united nations (un), "the place of the filmstrip is in most school systems screens to be fairly well defined." the vocabulary of cinema, such as scenes, scenery, colors, religions and ethnicities of the characters, was introduced as a cinematic pedagogy in the classroom mentioned in various writers' books, for example, miller's (1979) film is the classroom a practical guide. one of the works that encouraged the use of films and broadened the notion of films in the classroom is katz' (1972) a curriculum in film. the use of films is not new. its popularity started with the foundation of the national council of teachers of english, where they recognized the importance of motion pictures. educators then became concerned with fostering students' film appreciation and raising their critical awareness. to illustrate, the following table depicts some percentages of the frequency of the use of films in the classroom. table 1. estimated teacher use of films by level 1954 frequently occasionally never elementary 42% 33% 11% secondary 23% 33% 19% *source: based on data from the national education association. "audiovisual education in urban school district. 1953. 54. "research bulletin 33" (october 1955): p. 114. films can be utilized to direct learning and provide certain skills! films, in general, are viewed as supplementing our perceptual knowledge; they contribute to the sense of reality thanks to their movements, which are brought alive by sounds and personages. interestingly, foreign actors in american films perform roles that may raise a debate concerning identity questioning. one can be eager about the usage of films by educators. so, as educators' pedagogical styles differ, it is obvious that usages are dissimilar from one to another. some teachers use films as a device; they insert the video and let the film do all the teaching, which is inappropriate. effective usage of films can be determined through students' exposure to films aiming at rendering students visually literate. exposing students to a visual environment can be an advantage to extend learning. the research cited by neurobiologist marc prensky (2001) shows that students' brains are physically different due to the large exposure to large amounts of media. therefore, using http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 1, january 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 19 film adaptations as audiovisual tools will increase awareness of cultures and highlight differences between cultures. however, careful consideration must be made of the nature of film for the best interest of learning. that is why the material selected should obey certain criteria, which are as follows: 1. the language appropriateness 2. freedom from bias 3. relevance of themes and the film validity 4. the objective of the usage to resume, through film adaptations, students can visually witness emotions of joy, sorrow, and pain, facilitating their understanding. the use of adaptations should not be implemented for pleasure or entertainment. however, there may be reasons that lead to students' motivation, yet to understand an adaptation, students need to know how to approach film adaptations. "pride and prejudice" the novel and the film to teach the film adaptation of "pride and prejudice," one must first view the novel. austen's novel comprises many interesting themes and ideas for the reader and the instructor. the novel's opening introduces the subject of marriage with the famous sentence stating that "it is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife." this truth is believed by the bennets' daughters and their mother, whose business is only to get them married. austen's tone and satiric dialogues convey a particular meaning about marriage approaching: those who get married for fortune and others for passion. from the novel's title, one can have a general idea about the novel and the film itself. as in "sense and sensibility," austen examines the problem of judgment, which is recurrent in social relationships. the conflict of prejudice starts at the assembly ball when darcy insults elizabeth with a remark that wounds her vanity and provokes the beginning of prejudice against him. darcy's decision starts to change with his close watching of elizabeth, which leads him to wish he knew more about her, then soon, he realizes that no woman ever bewitched him as he was by her. whickham tells elisabeth that darcy badly treated him, and her discovery that her sister's separation from bingley was his fault made her prejudices arise strongly. approaching austen's film adaptation some of jane austen's adaptations are ten years old but remain essential in the academic world. many educators have discussed and questioned whether these adaptations can enrich students' readings by developing appreciation via the visual representation of the original text. m. casey diana conducted an experiment where she introduced "sense and sensibility" to her students, who were divided into two groups. the first group was asked to read the novel before watching it, and the other was assigned to watch it before reading it. at the end http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 1, january 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 20 of the experiment, diana deduced that the students who had seen the film were eager to read the novel. besides, they did well in the text interpretation. therefore, film adaptations were concluded to be beneficial pedagogical tools in case they are used properly. film adaptations supplement discussions in the classroom. in addition, they interpret the novel by visualizing it, simplifying the activity of imagining to be easily understood. yet, adaptations must not be used to replace the reading activity since the latter can cause students to become lazy readers. when the film adaptation is loyal to the mother text, it would be a listening practice for students to listen to the actors' pronunciations and imitate for tongue training. a film adaptation lecture should be designed to achieve some results. after the course, students should demonstrate competence in understanding film theory. students are required to analyze the construction of visual imagery critically. as a result, students will be aware not only of issues representations but also to read these visual images critically, allowing them to be visually literate. methods the availability of technological tools may not be a problem in a literature classroom. yet, the choice of the content and the savoir-faire in presenting it within a computer and a data show will ensure students' involvement in the lecture. in any literature lecture, whether british or american, students are always required to analyze the piece of literary work. the notion of analyzing texts, poems and passages in literature, the advancements in media use and the emergence of hypertext lead one to ruminate over using such tools in the british literature classroom. therefore, one's intention is to acquaint students with the film adaption of the literary narrative and bring about a change in the british literature classroom. to measure this change, conducting a test was essential. as it is important to get the reliability of one's research result, a test was done to examine how valid are one's propositions. the next subsections include full descriptions of the procedures of the main study, which constituted the participants' background and the systematic instruments used to collect information to clarify the researcher's goals better. the essential phase in research making and hypotheses proving or rejecting is collecting information about the theoretical or practical side that is frequently based on the participants and concrete recordings. therefore, the research involves using some systematic instruments to relate different variables and form possible theories to obtain what is required. however, the choice of the tool depends on the researcher's approach to her study since each technique is specific to a particular kind of data, might it be statistics, figures, opinions… etc. after considering what hypotheses need to be proven and how reliable and valid they can be, a test, observation and a questionnaire were chosen to answer the present inquiry's hypotheses. one's main research target is introducing film adaptations in the fourth-year english classical literature classroom. the researcher intends to bring out the routine from the traditional literature class with the projection of "pride and prejudice" as a sample of feminine writings in austen's era. since students have studied literary genres and mainly http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 1, january 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 21 fiction, it has been therefore thought that it may be appropriate to incorporate the latter film adaptation during one of their sessions. based on one's assumptions, the film was projected to test and explore to what extent students will be involved in this new model of the lecture where they are exposed to visual images, measuring this media's influence on them. the duration of the test was an hour and a half. the participants were not chosen since they were not informed that it was for the aim of testing, which is why it is worth noting that students were very few. during one's research, the target population is fifteen fourth-year english classical system students. the latter students were not selected. they were among the few students who attended the lecture on british literature. the present students were not informed of the test; it was under natural circumstances to best observe the changes that would occur in the classroom. one can note that most of the students were females, varying in age too. only females were available to answer the questionnaire. observation during the test procedure, the researcher undertook a disguised observation so that his presence was unknown to the students. it is a controlled observation because it involves pre-arranged plans. in other words, the researcher already knows in advance what to observe. it is a structured observation where the investigator has only to put a tick or write the answers to the two questions she planned before. observation is an essential scientific tool in one's investigation because when students are engaged in watching the film, they are incapable of verbalizing their feelings. in addition, how effectively the film was chosen will be answered through this systematic instrument, which is why a careful recording was necessary. the tool is considered as the second phase was undertaken that began at the same time as the application of the test started. it is worth mentioning that observation, through its limitedness of currently noting what is happening, gives the researcher access to observe students' reactions during the teaching process and observing the teacher can help the observer to clarify the success or failure of the test since the teacher is the performer of the test. hence, the researcher's role is not only as an actual observer, but she may discover and note a new phenomenon to be further studied. so, the observation can confirm and explain what is impossible to find out in questionnaires or interviews, as it can be deduced in these statements: "real-world situations than they can ever discover simply by asking questions of those who experience them (no matter how probing the questions maybe), and by looking only at what is said about them in questionnaires and interviews" (wilkinson and birmingham 2003: 117) the questionnaire in a continuous dialogue with oneself, the researcher sees the reasonable use of a questionnaire, which will help justify the test findings through its quantitative and qualitative data. the questionnaire encompasses two types of questions: open-ended and close-ended. for the present study, the former has been used to obtain diverse responses; http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 1, january 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 22 besides, one allows the students to report the difficulties and advantages they grasped from the present designed test, as it is prescribed by ellis (2004) that the questionnaire allows students to self-report their language learning aspects. one's questionnaire comprises eight questions. questions have been logically ordered and clearly stated to make it easier for students to provide the researcher with data. one question is structured, and the remaining are semi-structured, where students will explain and elucidate their point of view. the questionnaire was administered to 15 students of the fourth-year english classical system. the questionnaire aims to confirm what has been observed and inform them of their attitudes towards the film. the questions have been structured from the general to the particular so that students could answer adequately. limitations of the study the present case study cannot be generalized. though the researchers use three tools, the findings of one's investigation still cannot be generalized due to the number of students tested and given the questionnaire. the limited sample population was due to the time one held the test, where students' attendance decreased when they were about to sit for their exams. therefore, the short period given to the researcher to accomplish her inquiry was a very limited time. the objectives of the inquiry the ability to interpret visual images has become important in daily life. the presentation of this audiovisual material would help the students keep the image in mind, associating it with written material through the introduction of "pride and prejudice," one aim is to make students who have not read the novel eager to explore it where they can compare between the film version and the written source. the researcher is aware to some extent that students lack the skill of analyzing and reading images. when watching films, they only report what is obvious among themes such as love, marriage, etc. thus, they may have a limited sensory experience. that is why the researcher has introduced "pride and prejudice" as a sample of film adaptations with an implicit intention to seed an awareness for both teachers and students that it is high time to look at films as cultural products to be visually literate persons able to see, understand, read, and interpret, seeing the meaning behind images by examining them carefully and critically. so, for the reasons mentioned above, one tried to concretize them by applying the selected research procedures and reviewing the literature on this concept. results the observation of students' attitudes towards the film the researcher observed fifteen students; the process lasted one hour and a half. observing was objective, structured and guided by two main pre-planned questions. the first question, which interested the observer, is: how do students react to the film? it is noticeable that students were attentive, looking at the screen projector. from time to time, some noise of inquiries was heard. some students seemed uninterested in watching the film at its start, so they left the classroom. but though, the majority of students looked http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 1, january 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 23 involved, gazing at the film. at the end of the film, a scene seemed to bother a few students, which was clear through their facial grimaces. the researcher's second point of interest was to measure students' responses to the film and see what critical views would adhere to it. thus, the researcher has noted no interference from any student. they have listened to the explanation provided to them about the novel's social and cultural perspectives. yet, no remarks have been pointed out. analysis of students responses towards "pride and prejudice" through one's observation, it is worth noting that students were not fully aware of their watching of "pride and prejudice" as an educative material through which they were normally asked to perform tasks beforehand or afterward to prepare them for such a visual exposure. this slight unconsciousness was apparent in students' whispers and the others from their leave. nevertheless, students had acquired some aspects of british culture at a given time. the visual representation and the portrayal of the adaptation to the novel gave students easy access via a visual exploration of the novel. their discovery of a new meaning rendered them silent but not passive. they were mentally involved in examining the film, as anyone's objective when watching a film is to figure out what it is about. the questionnaire report will provide more precise and proven details to confirm these facts observed and deduced. the results of the students' questionnaire the questionnaire comprises eight questions, administered to some students who took part in one test only fifteen. one aims to cross-check results with the observation's data and discover reasons for such attitudes. besides, the investigation would be more reliable and valid. question 01 do you like watching film adaptations? the objective of this question is to know if students have already watched some adaptations before. hence, out of fifteen respondents, fifteen (15) (100%) answered "yes" they like watching these genres of films. figure 1. students' attitude towards film adaptations question 02 0% 50% 100% yes no yes no http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 1, january 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 24 do you prefer reading the novel, watching its adapted version (the film), or both? why? through this question, students express their opinion about the novel and the film, indirectly choosing between the two materials and explaining the reasons behind their choice. figure 2. students' preferences again, all students prefer to watch the film directly. they all agreed that the adaptation gave them a clear image of the novel, making it easier to understand. one pointed out, "i prefer watching the film because it gives us a clear idea." they stated that it is not as boring as reading a novel since it takes a long time. question 03 does the audiovisual aspect of literary adaptations represent the only difference compared to novels? explain this question looks for students' notions of dissimilarities as far as novels and adaptations are concerned! thus, all students (100%) replied that sounds and images differentiate adaptations from novels! figure 3. students' notions about novels and adaptations dissimilarity question 04 did your watching "pride and prejudice" fulfill your education needs or serve something for you? explain all students (100%) confirmed that they learned something during the british literature lecture when watching "pride and prejudice"; they cited that they have easily 0% 50% 100% yes no yes no 0% 50% 100% yes no yes no http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 1, january 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 25 grasped the novel's idea, though they have not read it before! also, the adaptation portrayed the novel's themes. one student pointed out, "it gave me a clear image of the british society…and social class." figure 4. the benefit of "pride and prejudice" as a literary adaptation question 05 how did you feel when you watched "pride and prejudice"? the majority of students (80%) claimed that they enjoyed the film and it was pleasant to watch, giving them the feeling of discovering and exploring a new cultural environment! few students (10%) reported that they felt nothing! the remaining (10%) said they felt "pride and prejudice" gave them shyness and embarrassment! question 06 did you face any problems when you watched the film? explain though most students enjoyed the film, they reported some difficulties they encountered during the session, such as language and pronunciation! only (20%) of students faced no problem! figure 5. students difficulties when watching "pride and prejudice" question 07 write a few lines where you critically analyze "pride and prejudice" (the film). 0% 50% 100% yes no yes no 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% yes no yes no http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 1, january 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 26 this question seeks to measure students' kinds of responses to the film! therefore, students enumerated the new things they noticed, such as the lifestyle and the society, noting that it is a form of cinematic literature! question 08 do you think watching adaptations in the literature classroom is the media for learning the target language's culture? cite a few aspects of culture you have learned. all students responded that adaptations can render them culturally aware! they cited some aspects: the way of thinking, social classes, family, marriage, love, the position of women, and etiquette! figure 6. students' confirmation of adaptations' effectiveness towards cultural enhancement by obtaining the results reported above, the researcher can draw her conclusions. most students expressed a positive attitude about the adaptation of "pride and prejudice," which is confirmed through their answers to the first question in the questionnaire. noticing that some students in the lecture display their disinterest in the film. generally, films are different genres. therefore, it may be the film genre that did not please students. conclusion most students find it easy to watch a literary adaptation since the characters' enactment of the series of scenes facilitates their comprehension of the novel's main idea. thus, the representation of the novel's setting makes it enjoyable for students to be in life at the moment. during an hour and a half, students discovered "pride and prejudice" through its adapted version (2005). however, if the teacher had to present the novel without the film, it might have been boring for students to seek further information about it. in contrast, the film rendered them active watchers, where they memorized characteristics of the british social environment through the novel portrayal. relating one's data, one deduced that english students of the fourth-year classical system acquired cultural aspects primarily british, specifically in austen's era. their responses to the film and answers to the questionnaire confirmed the latter. as far as the critical analysis of the adaptation is concerned, students could not concentrate on it. they still have not acquired the notion of "visual analysis" since it is a new experience that confirms one's probability. 0% 50% 100% yes no yes no http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 1, january 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 27 testing literary adaptation in the english fourth-year british literature classroom was a beneficial experience for the researcher and the participants. students' responses contributed to investigating one's assumptions. adaptations as a tool in the literature classroom, in general, can be beneficial regarding students' levels, interests and needs. it is high time teachers consider films not only as products of entertainment but also of study and educative achievement. references anjanetti, d. (2008). film adaptations in the classroom: an investigation of methods of teaching. us: umi. cutchins, d. raw, l. and james, m. w. (2010). the pedagogy of adaptation. uk: scarecrow press, inc. dona, h. and reiss, d. (2000). learning literature in an era of change innovations in teaching. usa: stylus publishing. dudley, a. (1984). conception in film theory. london: oxford university. ellis, r. (2004). individual differences in sll. handbook of applied linguistics. oxford: blackwell. geraghty, c. (2008). now a major motion picture film adaptations of literature and drama. usa: rowman and littlefield. godfrey, m. e. (2006). film and education: a symposium on the role of the film in the field of education. california: prelinger library. gramnetti. (2004). teaching literature to adolescents. usa: lawrence erlbaum associates. guerroudj, n. (200?). teaching american literature: towards a holistic approach in developing efl learners' literary competence. hutcheon, l. (2006). a theory of adaptations. great britain. routledge. imelda, w. (1999). adaptation revisited: television and the classic novel. uk: manchester university press. larry, c. (1986). teachers and machines: the classroom use of technology since the 1920s. new york: columbia university. lefranc. (1959). the film, politics, and education: cinematic pedagogy across disciplines. leitch, t. (2007). film adaptations and discontents: from gone with the wind to the passion of the christ. usa: the johns hopkins university press. marc dipolo. (2007). emma adapted: jane austen's heroine from book to film. germany: peter lang publishing group. mary, h. synder. (2011). analysing literature to film adaptations: a novelist exploration and guide. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 1, january 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 28 miliani, m. and benzaoui, f. (2008). multidisciplinary approach to teaching of literature. alger: office des publication universitaire. prensky, m. (2001). multicultural literature and response affirming diverse voices. usa: greenwood publishing group. rachel, m. (2002). teaching literature to adolescents. usa: lawrence erlbaum associates. volkan, t.y. and gulsmun, c. (2010). transformative learning and outline education: aesthetics and dimensions. wilkinson α birmingham. (2003). how to research. 3rd edition. england: open university press. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 3, no. 1, january 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 55 a decade of researching on professional development in a graduate program a systematic review le xuan mai1*, le thanh thao2 1,2 can tho university, can tho, vietnam lxmai@ctu.edu.vn abstract this paper aims to provide a logical and comprehensive systematic review of ma students’ theses related to professional development (pd) in an educational institution in the mekong delta of vietnam. this systematic review used a qualitative method to analyze 28 unpublished pd theses (2010 – 2020) in a graduate program of a public tertiary institution in the mekong delta, vietnam. there were four main research concerns, including (1) research aims, (2) research methodology, (3) findings, and (4) limitations of the theses. after the review, a list of strengths and weaknesses of these studies is found, evaluated, and presented in this article. the review shows that these studies did contribute diverse knowledge and practices of pd in the educational system of vietnam, particularly in the mekong delta. on the other hand, the data collection instruments and research designs needed improvement to a certain extent. specifically, observations were not used much in the theses. besides, the candidate researchers overused a descriptive research design for their theses. thanks to the analysis, some implications and new ideas for further research in pd are discussed at the end of this paper. keywords: efl teachers, master theses, mekong delta, professional development, systematic review introduction first and foremost, english has become obligatory in many asian countries, including vietnam. english plays the role as the working language of the association of southeast asian nations (asean) nations to support this group to interact efficiently and get more possibilities to cooperate with the more cosmopolitan global ones (asean secretariat, 2009). however, most of them have not had sufficient resources or high-quality efl teachers. as a result, professional development (pd) in english teaching and learning has gotten much attention from vietnam educators. the conceptualizations of pd have been explored in-depth and width by researchers from all corners of the world (e.g., friend & cook, 1992; hargreaves & fullan, 1992; guskey, 2000; bailey, 2001; and so on). in brief, teacher pd are those activities enabling them to enhance pedagogical knowledge and empower them to help promote their students’ achievements in learning. along with the history of research in this field, many pd activities enhancing teachers’ professionals have http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 mailto:lxmai@ctu.edu.vn copyright © the author(s) vol. 3, no. 1, january 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 56 been explored in previous articles (e.g., ganser, 2000; guskey, 2000; garet et al., 2001; villegas-reimers, 2003; boyle et al., 2004; diaz-maggioli, 2004; richards & farrell, 2005; murray, 2010; and so on). based on these studies, there are six main groups of pd activities, namely (1) training/ qualification programs, (2) observations, (3) collaborations/ interactions, (4) scientific work, (5) reflective teaching, and (6) participating in workshops and conferences. however, many factors hinder the impact of pd activities, such as lack of funding (smith & gillespie, 2007), limited-time (darling-hammond, 1999), daily activities (cochran-smith, 2004), teachers’ hesitance of failure and avoidance to get much attention (duke, 2004), and a few others. as observed in these studies, both internal and external factors can affect the impact of teachers’ pd on their teaching practices. in the vietnamese context, many reforms in curriculum design, development, revision, and review have been made by the ministry of education and training (moet) to help efl teachers develop their teaching (le et al., 2019). notwithstanding, the proactive government interruption based on the one-size-fits-all approach faced a counterproductive effect that vietnamese efl teachers were unable to catch up with the changes and neglected to meet the expectations of their superiors (le et al., 2019; author, 2020). less qualified teachers who are struggling with changes need to have chances to develop their professionals. furthermore, it seemed to be formidable when the vietnamese government approved vietnam’s national foreign languages 2020 project (nflp 2020) with a fund of millions of dollars to heighten the number of opportunities for vietnamese people in the universal race (le et al., 2019). many english language teaching (elt) pedagogical reforms were offered in this project, such as teaching english as a mandatory subject in the school curriculum, employing either untrained or partially trained english native speakers as efl teachers, increasing instructional ampere-hours, using new textbooks, applying the learner-centred task-based method, or maximizing learners’ exposure to english in-and-outside of the classrooms. however, after the intervention, the results of english in the annual national graduation examination of vietnamese high school students are still far from the expectations and teachers’ competence is the foremost reason for these setbacks (le et al., 2019). consequently, numerous studies have been conducted to explore the impact of professional development (pd) on efl teaching and learning. remarkably, the researched institution has been consistently encouraging their students, bachelors, masters, or doctorates, to conduct their research for their graduation theses in this field. in respect of this dedication, pd has been understood at a certain level. however, after a decade of learning about this field, some shortcomings were explored as duplicated topics, unbalanced research designs, lack of in-depth investigations of current issues, and so on. consequently, the findings of these theses seem to be not as significant well as expected. related to the abovementioned issues, this systematic review addressed four main research concerns, including (1) research aims, (2) research methodology, (3) findings, and (4) limitations of the theses. consistently, the review addressed four main research questions: 1. in the theses, what did the candidate researchers aimed to investigate? 2. how did the candidate researchers design their theses? 3. what did the candidate research find in their theses? http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 3, no. 1, january 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 57 4. what limitations could be observed in the theses? methods a qualitative method was used to conduct this review on 28 unpublished pd theses in a graduate program of a public tertiary institution in the mekong delta, vietnam. the analysis was conducted according to the following themes: research topics, research objectives, research designs, frameworks, research instruments, participants, research contexts, key results, and research limitations. from the theses review, the reviewers discussed and suggested comprehensive ideas for further investigations. these ma theses were conducted on efl teachers’ pd in a decade (2010-2020). they were selected according to these criteria: (1) they are currently stored in the main library of the institution and have e-versions, or (2) the theses were supervised by one of the researchers. the researchers made a list of all the theses and then read through them to note down and comment on the information. the notes and comments were made according to the content of the main parts of theses. there are twenty-eight theses about the pd research area. they were written between 2010 and 2020. the number of theses in each year is summarized in table 1. table 1. summary of theses information reviewed, 2010 – 2020 year number of theses 2020 3.00 2019 8.00 2018 3.00 2017 2.00 2016 3.00 2015 1.00 2014 2013 3.00 2012 3.00 2011 2010 2.00 total 28.00 except for 2011 and 2014, pd was selected as the field that graduate students in the program desire to learn about. significantly, eight theses about pd were conducted in 2019. related to this year, throughout educational legislation, the vietnamese government removed lifelong payroll for teachers. as a result, vietnamese teachers need to develop their profession, or they can be eliminated by the external or objective selection in which the better will survive, and the worse will be left. it is inferred as one of the reasons for the highest number of research in relevance with pd in 2019. on the other hand, the projects of textbook renewal in 2011 and changes from summative assessment to formative one in 2014 might distract the graduate students’ attention to pd issues. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 3, no. 1, january 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 58 the researched institution is located in a central city in the mekong delta in southwest vietnam. those who do not know about the mekong delta are known as the western region of the south or south-western region in vietnam. this region comprises can tho as a central city in the south of vietnam and twelve other provinces, namely long an, tien giang, ben tre, vinh long, tra vinh, hau giang, soc trang, dong thap, an giang, kien giang, bac lieu, and ca mau. in vietnam, the mekong delta is considered a “low-land” in education; as a result, it becomes a potential research site to explore the issues related to pd for teachers with the hope that students’ academic performance and competence will be enhanced. the analysis procedures followed the following steps. first, the researchers used an online management system containing the theses provided by the institution in order to read the theses related to pd. then, the researchers created a table including five columns, namely title, year, aims, methodology, findings, and limitations. after that, the researchers read through the theses and summarized the necessary information for the review in the abovementioned table. finally, the researchers cross-checked and compared the summaries. the similarities would be kept, but the differences would be rechecked and debated for making decisions between keeping or deleting. results research aims compared to the proposed frameworks, despite an unequal number of theses, they have covered all issues in pd activities. table 2 displays the summary of investigated themes according to pd activities. table 2. summary of investigated themes according to pd activities pd activities number of theses general views 10.00 collaborations/ interactions 5.00 observations 4.00 reflective teaching 4.00 inquiry/ action research 3.00 mentoring/ coaching 1.00 workshops/ conferences 1.00 total 28.00 among 28 theses, ten of them did not focus on a particular pd genre (n=10). in terms of theses on a specific type of pd activities, the most concerning topics related to pd activities are collaborations/ interactions (n=5), observations (n=4), reflective teaching (n=4), and inquiry/action research (n=3). on the other hand, although the topics including peer mentoring/ coaching (n=1) and attending workshops and conferences (n=1) have been examined, at an inadequate level. related to specific concerns of the researched papers, none of them focused on a particular issue. it could enrich the findings on pd issues in general; however, the reviewing http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 3, no. 1, january 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 59 process showed that these theses did not investigate an in-depth understanding of the impact of specific pd activities on efl teaching and learning in vietnam. table 3 illustrates the summary of researched themes according particular interests of ma students. table 3: summary of researched themes according to particular issues researched themes number of theses impact and factors 14.00 impact and suggestions 4.00 expectation and satisfaction 3.00 impact and satisfaction 3.00 satisfaction and suggestion 2.00 impact and expectation 2.00 total 28.00 specifically, the combination of the impact of and factors affecting pd in teaching practice was well-investigated (n=14). other combinations did not attract the researchers at that high level. specifically, they included impacts of and suggestions for other pd (n=4), expectations of and satisfaction with pd (n=3), the impact of pd and satisfactions with pd (n=3), satisfactions with and suggestions for other pd (n=2), and impact and expectations of pd (n=2). besides, it is effortless to figure out that the researchers were interested in the impact of pd on teaching and learning practice the most (n=23). on the other side, participants’ satisfaction with pd (n=8), suggestions for other pd (n=6), and expectations of pd activities (n=5) are not received much attention from the researchers. methods participants the reviewed theses focused on investigating efl teachers’ perceptions of pd rather than other stakeholders in terms of participants. the summary of participant information is summarized in table 4. table 4. participant information participants number of theses k12 teachers 16.00 high education lecturers 4.00 private language centre teachers 4.00 novice teachers 3.00 school administrators 1.00 total 28.00 specifically, k12 teachers were paid attention to the most (n=16), followed by higher education lecturers (n=4), private language centered teachers (n=4), and novice teachers http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 3, no. 1, january 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 60 (n=3). another one conducted their study to investigate administrators’ perceptions (n=1). other stakeholders’ ideas were not observed in these theses (n=0). research contexts what was observed is that not all cities or provinces were selected as the research sites by the ma students of this educational institution a decade ago. table 5 summarizes the research contexts in the theses. table 5. summary of research contexts research context number of theses can tho city 11.00 ca mau province 2.00 soc trang province 2.00 ben tre province 2.00 vinh long province 2.00 tien giang province 1.00 kien giang province 1.00 bac lieu province 1.00 no specific context 6.00 total 28.00 specifically, can tho city is the most concerned venue (n=11), followed by the provinces such as ca mau (n=2), soc trang (n=2), ben tre (n=2), vinh long (n=2), tien giang (n=1), kien giang (n=1), and bac lieu (n=1). meanwhile, the other provinces as an giang, dong thap, tra vinh, and long an, were not significantly paid adequate attention to (n=0). besides, some theses collected data from efl teachers in general, not those working in a specific city or province (n=6). research designs research designs in these theses were analyzed to state that almost all studies were conducted as a descriptive research design (n=27), and only one study was administered as a case study (n=1). the others, such as action research, casual design, cohort design, crosssectional design, experimental design, exploratory design, historical design, longitudinal design, observational design, philosophical design, and sequential design, were not used. data collection instruments besides the research designs, data collection instruments also differ studies from each other. the summary of data collection instruments is illustrated in table 6. table 6. summary of data collection instruments instruments number of theses questionnaire only 1.00 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 3, no. 1, january 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 61 questionnaire and interview 21.00 questionnaire, interview, and content analysis 3.00 interview, content analysis, and observation 1.00 questionnaire, interview, and observation 1.00 interview and content analysis 1.00 total 28.00 most of the studies used mixed-method approaches to collect data, except a study using a single questionnaire (n=1). specifically, the most used mixture is the combination of questionnaires and interviews (n=21), followed by the combination of three different instruments, questionnaires, interviews, and content analysis (n=3), the combination of trios, including interviews, content analysis, and classroom observations (n=1), the combination of interviews and content analysis (n=1), and the combination of questionnaires, interviews, and classroom observations (n=1). prominent findings in the theses related to the contributions of the previous studies to the literature, their prominent findings are divided into four main categories, including the impact of existing pd on teaching practice, participants’ satisfactions with pd, their expectations from pd, and factors hindering pd. first, pd activities bring many benefits to efl teachers. specifically, pd activities help them perform well in the classrooms and bring better students’ learning outcomes (n=5); broaden academic and pedagogical knowledge (n=4); understand teaching values, classroom and students (n=3); establish a trusting relationship with colleagues (n=3); improve teachers’ professional identities related to developing english teaching competences (n=3); enhance cooperation and interaction between students and teachers (n=2); change the teaching beliefs, use the materials and apply technology more effectively (n=1); understand more about high school contexts, and adjust pedagogical behaviours (n=1); realize their colleagues’ strengths, increase staff relationships, and improve communicative skills (n=1); increase students’ engagement, and motivate students’ selfstudy (n=1); and be more self-confident, determine self-efficacy (n=1). second, despite many beneficial features that pd brings to teachers’ teaching practice, some studies found that teachers were not satisfied with the pd activities they used to have. compared to the mentioned reasons above, some reviewed theses showed that efl teachers were satisfied with their trainers (n=4). however, another remarkable finding in the reviewed theses stated that some pd activities were not practical (n=3). third, to meet teachers’ expectations, understanding their needs or expectations is essential. here are some teachers’ expectations that they want to gain after participating in pd activities: developing instructional strategies, teaching skills, and academic knowledge (n=5); planning practical lessons, creating a meaningful and supportive learning environment, designing practical assignments and activities (n=3); developing technology for teaching (n=3); organizing workshops taken place in their province in summer by qualified university teachers as trainers (n=2); acknowledging additional testing and http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 3, no. 1, january 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 62 assessment types, syllabus design, ict, and classroom management (n=2); gaining a deep understanding of learners (n=1); and promoting resource adaptation and selection and having training courses (n=1). finally, many factors hindering pd have been found in the reviewed theses. however, time constraints, excessive workload (n=8), and lack of institutional support (n=5) were highly prominent. common limitations the most common limitation of the previous ma theses related to pd in this institution was small samples. two possible explanations were provided for this limitation. first, the ma students, researchers of the previous studies, did not have sufficient financial and political power to enlarge their research samples. the other possible explanation is that these ma students did not fully understand the concept of a small sample, so they just mentioned it as one of the limitations. additionally, most authors agreed that it was disappointed to conduct their studies without using observations or other instruments for the data collection. an empathetic response has been made to explain this limitation that the researchers might not have enough time to conduct observations. discussion the number of theses that did not focus on one type of pd is overwhelming compared to those investigating each category separately. it has helped provide a general picture of pd in the region; however, the picture just covered the surface of the issue, not in-depth understanding. besides, this also proved that vietnamese educators had been confused about which type of pd activities can foster efl teaching in practice the most; as a result, research on pd is just in a repetitive cycle. k12 teachers were overpaid attention to by these theses. on the other hand, the pd of vietnamese teachers for higher education and private language centres, novice teachers, or educational administrators was not understood clearly because of the lack of investigations. furthermore, other stakeholders, consisting of parents, media, community representatives, students, and so on, have not had chances to raise their voices yet. the findings did not align with leisyte and westerheijden's (2014) beliefs, who indicated that all stakeholders play their specific and essential roles in teaching and learning development. therefore, without their perspectives, understanding the pd issues in these reviewed theses seemed to be unfulfilled. understandably, the researchers paid much attention to the impact of pd on teaching and learning practice because it is the best way to measure pd's effect. regarding these measurements, the impact of pd has been well-explained in the vietnamese educational context. however, other issues, including efl teachers’ satisfactions, suggestions, or expectations, also play a remarkable role in increasing the quality of pd activities. as explained by guskey (2002), evaluation is an intentional process to collect and analyse the information through appropriate methods and techniques to determine its value. besides, timmermans et al. (2016) added that the measurements of teachers’ expectations of a http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 3, no. 1, january 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 63 particular pd activity also prove its value on their teaching in practice. otherwise, more research is needed on the impact or effects of particular pd activities such as reflective teaching, action research, attending conferences, the community of practice, and classroom observations. the pd issues in a particular city, such as can tho, could be well-studied within itself. on the other hand, these issues in the other provinces have been little researched. therefore, it lacks a comparison among pd activities implemented in different places. besides, six reviewed theses collected data from the teachers working in the mekong delta in general, but the sample size could not generalize their results. to ensure the reliability of results in a study, the sample should satisfy the criteria for the sampling technique proposed by parel et al. (1973). as a result, the understanding of pd in this region is not as depth as expected. according to anastas (1999), although descriptive studies can collect a large amount of data for analysis in detail, the results from a descriptive study cannot answer a hypothesis thoroughly or convincingly. therefore, the reviewed theses might provide a potential number of participants to draw a general view of pd in the mekong delta. however, the results should be rechecked by employing other types of research design. while quantitative data from the questionnaires provide information on a large sample and yields results on frequency and magnitude of trends, qualitative data from the interviews offer insightful perspectives on the research topics and explain the issues in detail. however, to measure the impact of pd on teaching and learning in practice, the results from those instruments seemed to be unconvincing. for example, as stated in eddy et al. (2015), the classroom observation tools can identify implementing elements that have been shown to increase student outcomes related to achievement, logic development, or other relevant learning goals. moreover, the tool can clarify the research-supported elements of best practices for classroom interactions in practice. the most prominent findings were that pd activities help improve teaching performance, professional knowledge, and students’ learning outcomes. in general, the findings related to the impacts of pd found in those theses were in line with several previous studies (e.g., buczynski & hansen, 2010; piasta et al., 2012; earley & porritt, 2014; and so on). besides, the findings regarding teachers’ satisfactions with pd were aligned with bayar and kösterelioğlu (2014), who listed five main reasons for teachers’ low satisfaction with pd, namely offering only traditional pd activities, not involving teachers in the design of pd activities, ignoring teachers’ needs during the process of planning of pd activities, offering activities unrelated to authentic classroom situations, and having low quality of instructors in pd activities. additionally, attested as a more complicated role rather than an effective teacher, teacher educator has to categorize for affective needs, coach a large number of participants, interpret unexpected situations and provide appropriate feedback, point out particular needs of trainees, and so on (o’dwyer & atli, 2015). then, it was indicated as a reason failing pd in the study by helterbran and fennimore (2004) which asserted that pd sometimes was irrelevant, ineffective, and unrelated to participants’ needs. in terms of institutional support, it is in line with opfer and pedder (2011), who found that the absence of institutional supports strongly decreased efl teachers’ willingness to http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 3, no. 1, january 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 64 participate in pd. regarding time constraints and excessive workload, teachers in the study by teig et al. (2019) complain that time constraints from the excessive workload and social life had prevented them from implementing cognitive-activation strategies to enhance their self-efficacy, although they strongly believed in the values of those strategies. conclusion research aims of the theses have been well-achieved. the researchers of the theses explored most of the themes efficiently even though they did not much provide in-depth understanding of the issues. in the general terms, the theses completed their missions answering the research questions. therefore, the literature in the field has been strongly enriched thanks to the remarkable efforts of the researchers. in terms of research design, the unbalance is shown. remarkably, most theses focused on descriptive research rather than experimental research. previous research has shown that efl teachers’ perceptions of pd can be significantly different from how they practice in real classrooms. then, regarding the participants, most theses investigated k12 efl teachers, rather than efl lecturers in tertiary education or those at vocational institutions, and among k12 teachers, few were teaching at primary schools. also, most of these theses studied the teachers rather than the administrators, pd organizers or coordinators, pd trainers, and other stakeholders. as a result, potential graduate students and researchers can focus on these categories of participants. additionally, researchers are emboldened to invite teachers working in private language centres and freelancers or novices to partake in their studies. regarding research contexts, the sample should be chosen in those provinces without any previous investigation, such as an giang, dong thap, tra vinh, and long an. these research sites may provide more significant findings in order to enhance the pd quality in vietnam. related to data collection instruments, it is undeniable that questionnaires and interviews, mainly semi-structured interviews or the like, are extremely useful to collect data to understand human beings. nonetheless, they have been overused. after reviewing the ma theses towards pd in this tertiary institution in the mekong delta, vietnam, for ten years (2010-2020), some strengths and weaknesses were found. in general, twenty-eight theses are not an impressive quantity. much evidence shows how pd is necessary for an educational system; therefore, it is difficult to determine that vietnamese efl teachers are much concerned about pd. nevertheless, all of them have shown a sufficient augmentation to promoting pd in practice. regarding the findings of the theses, they have contributed to the development of literature on pd activities in vietnam. moreover, they provided informative data for school administrators worldwide on how they can meet efl teachers’ demands or avoid the hindering factors for pd, especially institution supports. there are three remarkable common limitations found in the theses, including small nsize, time constraints, and lacking the use of appropriate collecting data instruments. because of the mentioned above limitations, the theses just explored the issues on the surface, not in-depth understanding. in short, the candidate researchers significantly contributed to the enrichment of the field. most of the theses profoundly found interesting and useful results for enhancing the quality of pd events in the vietnamese context. however, there was space for them to http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 3, no. 1, january 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 65 improve. for instance, research design, collecting data instruments, and research sites should be taken into careful considerations. implications overusing descriptive research design leads to a doubt whether pd training in vietnam has a significant impact on teachers’ practice. to find the answer, no other choice except to conduct more classroom observations with good checklists. therefore, future theses can experiment and report the effects of pd programs or activities on efl teachers. besides, prediger et al. (2019) also proposed three interesting strategies for setting research agendas dealing with the multi-level structure of pd activities, including lifting strategy, nesting strategy, and unpacking strategy. researchers interested in conducting pd studies can use these three practical strategies to employ their work. the diversity of types participants who play different roles in efl teaching and learning in the theses drew a general picture of pd in the southwest of vietnam. one more idea is that english-native speakers or second language speakers should be selected as participants for further research in the vietnam context. additionally, it could be fascinating to differentiate teachers’ responses to pd in separate research sites that were not obvious in the previous studies. if possible, other parts of vietnam should be elected as the research site for the comparison. the differences between the north and the south of vietnam in terms of education may exist. in this knowledge economy era, it could be worthy of checking which area has trained the human resources better throughout the quality of pd training. moreover, for pd investigations in the future, more data collection methods should be utilized. for example, observations should be used to research the impact of pd on teaching practices. instead of only semi-structured interviews, focus group interviews can also be employed. also, researchers should use more research methods to collect data related to content and documents like journals and official document analysis. despite these significant benefits, potential ideas and directions for future research are suggested as follows. in terms of pd research topics, future pd theses can be administered to investigate the impact of specific pd activities, such as training or attending workshops and conferences, the community of practice, reflective journals, and the like, on teachers’ professional growth. also, more research should investigate the follow-up activities that the teachers implement after their training programs. moreover, just a few studies on teachers’ satisfaction or evaluation of pd activities were conducted. notwithstanding, without shortcoming recognitions, the quality of pd activities seems to be far from expectations. it has indirectly explained the learning outcomes of vietnamese students, which were unsatisfactory. therefore, administering more studies to investigate all issues surrounding pd is essential to produce more qualified teachers and meet the expectations of the vietnamese government. for the deficiencies admitted by the ma scholars, to solve the problem of small sample size, it is crucial to help promote their power through addressing cover letters to research sites, establishing a partnership with other institutions to expand the research objects, or making a tight connection with moet to accommodate researchers sufficient support. in http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 3, no. 1, january 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 66 another assumption, researchers were not aware of what a small sample is. as a piece of evidence, none of them cited a framework for a small sample. to help beginning researchers, the research team introduced parel et al. (1973) to advise them on ways of determining sample size. besides the sample size issue, ma students also face trouble with the time constraints for the motive of accompanying observations in their studies. according to zohrabi (2013), despite the many benefits that observations can make, an observational process takes a tremendous amount of time. accordingly, researchers should not be under high pressure of on-time submission. this theses review hopes to provide readers helpful literature and inputs for their future research in the mekong delta contexts. this review summarizes what has been done in the field of efl teachers’ pd by graduate students in the mekong delta between 2010 and 2020. it also includes suggestions and recommendations for future research in the field. the reviewers look forward to more new research, thanks to their work. acknowledgement thanks to all researchers who are the authors of the twenty-eight reviewed papers. these studies have significantly contributed to enhancing the quality of pd training in vietnam and worldwide. furthermore, without the support of these researchers, the writers were not able to finish their work and proposed this valuable review to people who need. hopefully, this article can be published in a reliable publication to spread its impact. references anastas, j. (2000). research design for social work and the human services. columbia university press. asean secretariat. (2009). asean socio-cultural community blueprint. jakarta: author. author (2020) bailey, k. m. (2001). twenty questions about action research. pasaa: a journal of language teaching and learning in thailand, 32, 1-18. bayar, a. & kösterelioğlu, i̇. (2014). satisfaction levels of teachers in professional development activities in turkey. turkish studies, 9(2), 321-333. boyle, b., while, d., & boyle, t. (2004). a longitudinal study of teacher change: what makes professional development effective?. curriculum journal, 15(1), 45-68. buczynski, s., & hansen, c. b. (2010). impact of professional development on teacher practice: uncovering connections. teaching and teacher education, 26(3), 599-607. cochran-smith, m. (2004). the problem of teacher education. journal of teacher education, 55(4), 295-300. darling-hammond, l. (1999). target time toward teachers. journal of staff development, 20(2), 31-36. duke, d. l. (2004). the challenges of educational change. allyn & bacon. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 3, no. 1, january 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 67 earley, p., & porritt, v. (2014). evaluating the impact of professional development: the need for a student-focused approach. professional development in education, 40(1), 112129. eddy, s. l., converse, m., & wenderoth, m. p. (2015). portaal: a classroom observation tool assessing evidence-based teaching practices for active learning in large science, technology, engineering, and mathematics classes. cbe life sciences education, 14(2), 14-23. friend, m., & cook, l. (1992). interactions: collaboration skills for school professionals. longman publishing group, 95 church street, white plains, ny 10601. ganser, t. (2000). an ambitious vision of professional development for teachers. nassp bulletin, 84(618), 6-12. garet, m. s., porter, a. c., desimone, l., birman, b. f., & yoon, k. s. (2001). what makes professional development effective? results from a national sample of teachers. american educational research journal, 38(4), 915-945. guskey, t. r. (2000). evaluating professional development. corwin press. guskey, t. r. (2002). professional development and teacher change. teachers and teaching, 8(3), 381-391. hargreaves, a., & fullan, m. g. (1992). understanding teacher development. teachers college press, 1234 amsterdam avenue, new york, ny 10027. helterbran, v. r., & fennimore, b. s. (2003). collaborative early childhood professional development: building from a base of teacher investigation. early childhood education journal, 4(31), 267-271. le, v. c., nguyen, h.t.m., minh, n.t.t., & barnard, r. (eds.). (2019). building teacher capacity in english language teaching in vietnam: research, policy and practice (1st ed.). routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429457371 leisyte, l., & westerheijden, d. f. (2014). stakeholders and quality assurance in higher education. in drivers and barriers to achieving quality in higher education (pp. 8397). brill sense. murray, a. (2010). empowering teachers through professional development. in english teaching forum (vol. 48, no. 1, pp. 2-11). us department of state. bureau of educational and cultural affairs, office of english language programs, sa-5, 2200 c street nw 4th floor, washington, dc 20037. o’dwyer, j. b., & atlı, h. h. (2015). a study of in-service teacher educator roles, with implications for a curriculum for their professional development. european journal of teacher education, 38(1), 4-20. opfer, v. d., & pedder, d. (2011). the lost promise of teacher professional development in england. european journal of teacher education, 34(1), 3-24. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429457371 copyright © the author(s) vol. 3, no. 1, january 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 68 parel, c. p., caldito, g. c., & ferrer, p. l. (1973). sampling design and procedures. new york, singapore: the agricultural development council inc. piasta, s. b., justice, l. m., cabell, s. q., wiggins, a. k., turnbull, k. p., & curenton, s. m. (2012). impact of professional development on preschool teachers’ conversational responsivity and children's linguistic productivity and complexity. early childhood research quarterly, 27(3), 387-400. prediger, s., roesken-winter, b., & leuders, t. (2019). which research can support pd facilitators? strategies for content-related pd research in the three-tetrahedron model. journal of mathematics teacher education, 22(4), 407-425. richards, j. c., & farrell, t. s. c. (2005). professional development for language teachers: strategies for teacher learning. ernst klett sprachen. smith, c., & gillespie, m. (2007). research on professional development and teacher change: implications for adult basic education. review of adult learning and literacy, 7(7), 205-244. teig, n., scherer, r., & nilsen, t. (2019). i know i can, but do i have the time? the role of teachers' self-efficacy and perceived time constraints in implementing cognitiveactivation strategies in science. frontiers in psychology, 10, 1697-1697. timmermans, a. c., de boer, h., & van der werf, m. p. (2016). an investigation of the relationship between teachers’ expectations and teachers’ perceptions of student attributes. social psychology of education, 19(2), 217-240. villegas-reimers, e. (2003). teacher professional development: an international review of the literature. paris: international institute for educational planning. zohrabi, m. (2013). mixed method research: instruments, validity, reliability and reporting findings. theory and practice in language studies, 3(2), 254-262. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 456 exploration of phrasal verbs in elt textbooks: a corpus-based analysis of lower secondary level bangladeshi books naywaz sharif shubha university of dhaka, dhaka, bangladesh naywaz01sharif@gmail.com abstract the current study aims at exploring the usage of the phrasal verbs in the lower secondary bangladeshi elt textbooks which are prescribed by the government of bangladesh at national education levels. the methodological approach continues in this study based on the corpus tools and related analysis on the topic of phrasal verbs usage in those textbooks. the phrasal verbs that are found in the textbooks are extracted from the textbooks; their frequency distributions are analyzed, and finally checked with the two most authentic corpus of the english language the british national corpus (bnc) and corpus of contemporary american english (coca). alongside, deriving the top fifteen phrasal verbs in the textbook corpus with their significant values; the relative positions to the two reference corpora and other corpus-related scores of the phrasal verbs are compared, with reference to the study of liu (2011), which are also included in the advanced research of phave list (2015). the results find that the phrasal verbs used in the selected textbooks are quite irrelevant to the two standard big corpora. especially the corpus scores vary greatly when compared with the reference corpora. finally, based on the findings some remarks and implications are prescribed for pedagogical purposes. the current study would be the first one that examines the bangladeshi lower secondary elt textbooks assisted by the corpus approach. keywords: bangladeshi textbooks, corpus analysis, english language teaching, lowersecondary, phrasal verbs. introduction multi-word verbs or pvs are found numerously in english language usage. often it seems problematic for second language (l2) learners, and it needs extra effort and special focus. the underlying reasons can be derived from research studies about the difficulty in acquiring the phrasal verbs (hereon, pvs) in the l2, for example, exploring why pvs as morphological structures are difficult. in definitive termspvs are a group of words consisting of a verb that combines two adverbs or prepositions (mayor, 2009). in regular grammar books, the pvs are defined as multi-word verbs (quirk, 2010). the most effective identifying characteristics of pvs are that they combine a preposition or any article with the verb. pvs are defined by scholars as morphological structures carrying a verb and adverb http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 457 particle (richards & schmidt, 2013). some others defined pvs in the same way consisting of a verb and adverb particles or prepositions (broukal et al., 1990). scholars even find that the pv sometimes becomes difficult to classify them into a definite morphological category and deciding their relation to the semantics (cappelle et al., 2010). in a broader overview, the pvs can be divided into three types of multi-word expressions or the verbs-the first one is pvs in general, the second category is the verbs which are called prepositional verbs, and the last one in the category of verbs that are both mixture of phrasal and prepositional verbs but used as a single category; also the term pv denotes three types altogether (walter, 2008). many other scholars have identified the different classification of multi-word pvs, mostly have derived three (armstrong, 2004), and some others describe them as two types (jackendoff, 2012). most of these scholars have defined different classifications from each other based on the characteristics and the function of the verbs. biber et al. (2002) differentiate among different kinds of pvs and also additionally explain the underlying reasons for the variance in patterns and meaning that brings the difference between them. also, the pv might belong to other categories such as prepositions, words, or rather multi-word verbs, depending on the criteria that might include it in a separate category. but it has been also suggested that the differentiation between these categories arises due to grammatical characteristics (gardner & davies, 2007). in the english language, there exist different types of pvs, the first type has two parts in them, it’s a verb adjoined with adverb particles. these adverb particles are fixed in numbers and some scholars even included these smallest particles within a shortlist (macgregor, 2006). the research area in the sector of multiple-expressions is thriving day by day (gardner & davies, 2007). in the english language, pvs are often found in common usage, and they are considered as a part of proficiency in the l2 acquisition process (garnier & schmitt, 2015). but this acquisition process of pvs for the l2 learners is often very difficult in the context of the english language (siyanova & schmitt, 2007). the importance of pvs and multi-word expressions in english sla rises due to the high frequency in english (darwin & gray, 1999). it has been suggested that the l2 competency grows if a learner has stronger competence over the pvs which might help him achieve the target goals in the l2 acquisition (garnier & schmitt, 2015). some researchers have suggested pvs are indicators of the lexical richness of a language (gardner & davies, 2007). this argument can also be regarded as the key point encountering the question of why pvs should be a core element to acquire native-like competence in the english language (wray & perkins, 2000). as already mentioned in the earlier paragraph that pv might become a problematic factor in the language acquisition of english. some scholars like siyanova and schmitt, (2007) also suggest that in the l2 acquisition process, pvs can be framed as a problematic issue. the answer to the question of why the difficulty arises is because the pvs are very much recurrently used in the english language (white, 2012). other researchers have found that in the l2 acquisition process pvs are found among the most difficult ones to learn and to teach. (boers & lindstromberg, 2008) as the problem of the pvs have made their existence as an obstacle to the learning process of the l2 learners, there have also been attempts to http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 458 explore the cause of the problem. some research studies recently attempted to solve the problem of mixing teaching methods with cognitive linguistics (lee, 2012). some other researchers like white (2012), have also mixed not only the cognitive aspects but also the sociocultural framework with the teaching aspects. the important part is that not simply the difficulties, rather pvs are considered one of the most difficult aspects which can hinder the learning process (gilquin, 2015). the evolution of the pvs might explain a reason for the difficulty because the existence of the pvs is conceptualized as the historical evolution of the ie (indo european) language family. some scholars suggest that multi-word verbs mainly exist for semantic relations (claridge, 2000). many researchers have selected and elaborated on some reasons why pvs in an l2 are quite difficult to learn, one of the important reasons is the distinctive variance found in the structures and semantics of the pvs (kurtyka, 2001). scholars have related meaning aspects to the pvs because many a time as idiomaticity arises from them (claridge, 2000). another reason and which is very much complicated is that the pv occurs with different words and expressions; after being separated from the multi-words’ original form. the nature of the pvs being combined with different types of words makes it difficult to be learned by l2 learners. and also, it confuses the l2 learners of english (side, 1990). li et al. (2003) have found that language learners from foreign countries often show a tendency in avoiding the usage of pvs. because most of the time they might not be familiar with combinations and separation contexts of the multi-words usage. on the other hand, researchers also have suggested that native speakers continuously give rise to new pvs in their language usage, and it happens unconsciously (armstrong, 2004). some research studies are found stating that they found about 33% of the whole words are pvs (li et al., 2003). the trend of corpus-based studies is not something new in the study of linguistics and related research. thus the importance of corpus-based studies cannot be denied in the l2 acquisition process. especially, the field of the corpus-based approach to l2 acquisition is broader than any other field. for example, it has been observed by several scholars finding out frequent verbs in different corpus analyzed with corpora tools. some of the most authentic studies showed some hundred highest occurring pvs in the british national corpus (bnc), which has been represented in a smaller list from the whole corpus. other studies included the coca corpus as a reference corpus to find out the most frequent pvs. in applied fields, relating to these kinds of studies, many of the recent ones on the pvs cooperated with dictionary-making procedures, published for the l2 learners of english. popular study materials found on pvs include a large number of entries, for example, about 5000 pvs are included in longman and about 6000 pvs in cambridge. the huge number of entries clearly shows that the process tried to include all the existing forms of the verbs, although, in reality, it's an impossible task. it is also not possible to enlist all the words that exist in a language. there have been recent studies on the pvs in the british national corpus, finding pvs from both written and spoken sample text (both formal and informal usage) and found near about hundred and sixty pvs comprising 50% of the usage in the bnc and the usage list could be extended up to 100 verbs in bnc (gardner & davies, 2007). liu (2011) gives 150 most http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 459 occurring pvs found in the coca, in addition to bnc; showing that both british and american english share the same mostly used pvs in english. both of these research studies have been criticized for finding similar frequency lists as they fall short of pedagogical implications, meaning the studies do not relate to the polysemous nature of the pvs (garnier & schmitt, 2015). also, the researchers, garnier & schmitt (2015) added to their critical description that these 200 words relate to at least 700 other semantic extensions and each of these carrying at least six different meanings on average, and these facts are very important for further implications. for example, the learning load of particular 200 pvs should be extensively emphasized over any other vocabulary or multi-word expressions in english (garnier & schmitt, 2015). more importantly, these findings are more useful for designing proper schemes which can benefit the l2 learners and teachers. garnier & schmitt (2015) used the same verbs which were found (about 150) by liu (2011) but added extensive meaning implications in the pedagogical aims. so, in their study, garnier & schmitt (2015) combined a list from previous research by liu (2011) and gardner & davies (2007), and called it phave list; adding different meaning senses to the verbs for l2 teaching purposes. another study by trebits (2009) derived the 25 pvs that were mostly used in the eu documents’ corpus, however, half of these pvs in that list are missing in the phave list (garnier & schmitt, 2015). the study by trebits (2009) might not be conducive for the esl learner context as most of those documents of eu had formal language usage, more specifically those official and secretariat language doesn’t relate to daily usage in real life. many other studies have been done on the topic of multi-word verbs, on their structures, semantic explorations, patterns in the learners’ contexts etc. based on different methodologies and purposes (abdolvahed zarifi & mukundan, 2012; abdolvahed zarifi & mukundan, 2013a; abdolvahed zarifi & mukundan, 2013b; abdolvahed zarifi & mukundan, 2014; abdolvahed zarifi & mukundan, 2014; alavi & rajabpoor, 2015; abdul rahman & abid, 2014; a zarifi & mukundan, 2015; el-dakhs, 2016; jacobsen, 2013; jahedi & mukundan, 2015; ke, 2017; tsai, 2015; yamamura, 2015). most of the studies on this topic are from the linguistic point of view or analysis, which were both done with basic research and intellectual efforts as well as involving different corpus methods and analysis. however, a larger number of studies on the pvs should have been more focused on pedagogical implications, for the convenience of l2 teaching purposes. but a relatively small number of studies are found on the topic of multi-word verbs or pvs in l2 acquisition, which focuses on exploring the difficulties in the acquisition of the target language. additionally, research studies can also strongly suggest the elements and materials in l2 teaching and what to include or not in the syllabus design and curriculum. thus the current study focuses on the textbooks pvs (on learning material) rather than directly on the learner’s contexts. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 460 methods method & data collection two english language teaching (elt) books published and distributed by the government of bangladesh were chosen for comparing the phrasal verbs with the past studies. the two books are mainly prescribed for the grade 6 and 7 in bangladeshi high school context. it is to mention that grade 6 and 7 is considered to be a junior grade at high school level. after the completion of the last stage of the primary levels at grade 5, with the examination of psc (primary school certificate examination); the children are promoted to the junior secondary level in the high schools. then after grades 6 and 7, in grade 8 another examination (junior secondary school certificate examination-jsc) is taken to take the students to senior secondary school levels. so, in the context of bangladesh, grades 6 and 7 are the very first stage of the secondary school stage, which comes after the psc exam which means that they have successfully completed primary education. thus the current study selected only the two books of the beginning high school level which starts soon after the completion of the primary levels. collecting the textbooks the selected two books needed to be in electronic format for the making of the corpus, as the corpus tools needed. firstly, the two books were downloaded from the government website which provided free distribution of the electronic version of the books, freely available at http://nctb.gov.bd/site. the books started freely distributing in printed versions after 2010, and have been made available free on the internet since 2015. these english literature books are prescribed for the education of the grade 6 and 7 in higher secondary levels. both of these books are designed to teach english to non-native bangla-speaking students of grades 6 and 7. the learning materials include different types of activities, selected english literary, historical, poetic texts, essays to read, comprehend and learn. conversion of the texts and further data cleaning process for the creation of the text corpus, the pdf versions of the textbooks were then transcribed into plain text format using an online software pdf2go (available online at https://www.pdf2go.com/pdf-to-text). this process included uploading the pdf to the server and then converting them into text formats. after the conversion was completed, the texts were downloaded to the local computer drive storage. the plain text version makes it easy to conduct searches with corpus tools. primarily, the text versions of the books contained all the words and unidentifiable figures including the cover pages, introductory sections, and preface, commentary sections, headings on each page, back matter, etc. it is more reasonable that these unnecessary texts should not be included in the corpus; thus the broken text, unnecessary punctuation, http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://nctb.gov.bd/site copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 461 preliminary front matter texts, introductory sections, preface, and other unnecessary sections were excluded from the text data. this cleaning process greatly made the text clearer for the corpus to read and find the desirable patterns for the study. corpus software, compilation, and further corpus search with the plain text versions, the textbook corpus was then created using the sketch engine online software. sketch engine is a popular software program that is widely used in corpus linguistics. at present, it has got hundreds of users worldwide. with the available software, the previously downloaded texts were then compiled into a single corpus containing two separate text files (each of the whole books were converted into single plain text files). after the compilation, the corpus is ready to use for further analysis. the corpus had a total of 45,949 words and 57,010 token types. additionally, it contained 4,690 lemmas and also had a total of 55 tags (pos and others). this current study would firstly find out what are the phrasal verbs that have been used in this corpus (along with particle distributions). the second step would be deriving the top 15 lemmas of the pvs. then the third step would find out if all the phrasal verbs in the textbook corpus come in the bnc, coca (from the list of liu, 2011) and match with the relative frequency in (coca), per million word measures (pmws), etc. then lastly the phrasal verbs used mostly would be compared to the list created by garnier & schmitt (2015). it would be clearer if the national curriculum planner of the textbooks has used any guidelines regarding the fact these books are designed for the efl contexts. results & discussions frequency distribution of the lemma verbs and particles the extensive search in the whole corpus availed us with a total of 127 phrasal verb occurrences found in the whole corpus. out of these 127 pvs occurrences, about 120 phrasal verbs are the lexical verbs, which is 94% of the total phrasal verbs found in the current corpus. about 7 of the verbs (which is about 6%) here are not lexical verbs, which are of course pvs with functional category. these verbs (about 7 of the 127 pvs) are as the following‘is over’ occurs 4 times and ‘was/were over’ occurs 2 times, and additionally ‘do’(+ing)+around comes in the list 1 time. in tables a and b, 120 phrasal verbs have been represented, which are only lexical of types. however, these 120 phrasal verbs are always found with certain adverbial particles or prepositions. in this present corpus search, the number of the adverbial particles is limited. the represented 120 phrasal verbs always occur with only 9 particles, which are down, out, up, around, away, on, along, off, and across. these particles always adjoin with the lexical verb lemmas and are used as the phrasal verbs in the english language contexts. the results are presented in the following table a and b separately. table a. represents the 74 phrasal verbs from the total of 120 phrasal verbs, where each of the lemma and their corresponding verb particle has been separated into rows and http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 462 columns. each of the tables a and b clearly shows how the different adverbial particles are distributed with the lemma verbs in the real language usage in the corpus. all the verbs in tables a and b are ordered in alphabetical order and the particles are ordered by frequency measures, from higher to lower frequency. table 1. the frequency distribution of the phrasal verbs and related particles in the textbook corpus part a. the list of total used verbs found in the textbook’s corpus (only lexical verbs ) verbs down out up around away on along across total act 4 4 add 1 1 climb 1 1 come 5 2 1 8 cut 1 1 draw 1 1 fill 1 1 2 find 4 4 get 8 8 give 4 3 7 go 1 5 1 1 1 1 10 grow 1 1 heat 2 2 look 1 5 4 10 lump 1 1 make 1 1 pick 4 4 put 1 1 1 3 reach 1 1 read 1 1 run 1 1 1 3 total 74 table a holds two important lexical lemma verbs. the verbs with the second-highest frequency are in this table, with the absolute hits (frequency) 10, for the verbs ‘go’ and ‘look’. other high-frequency verbs are also found, with the frequency of 8 (‘come’ and ‘get’). the second table b. has also got some significant distributions. it contains the highest occurring verb ‘write down’ at a frequency of 11. additionally, it has got numerous least occurring verbs with the frequency 1. the tables clearly show that the most used verb particle with all the phrasal verbs is ‘up’, found the highest number of times occurring with the phrasal verb lemmas. after that, http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 463 the verb particle ‘out’ is used mostly according to distribution and counts. and in the 3rd position, the particle ‘down’ is used mostly, which is again apparent from the frequency distribution of the particles in both the tables. the least used for particles in the tables that are found includealong, across, and off. however, this table only helps to show the distribution and the particle usage with the lexical phrasal verbs, but for getting deeper insights into the textbook corpus, a more detailed representation is necessary. table 2. the frequency distribution of the phrasal verbs and related particles in the textbook corpus part b. the list of total used verbs found in the textbook’s corpus (only lexical verbs ) verbs down out up around away along off total set 6 6 sit 2 3 5 take 2 2 throw 1 1 2 wake 4 4 walk 1 1 2 warm 3 3 write 11 11 calm 1 1 burst 1 1 jump 1 1 shout 1 1 play 1 1 cool 1 1 charge 1 1 see 1 1 issue 1 1 stand 1 1 stretch 1 1 total 46 top 15 lexical phrasal verbs the next search result was regarding the top 15 lexical phrasal verbs lemma in the corpus. this finding is a bit more important and more focused on statistical and numerical significance with the corpus data. the findings are represented in table c., which represents the data regarding the phrasal verbs which are distributed into different categories like the number of hits, the number of hits per million tokens, percentage of the whole corpus, and lastly percentage amongst all the phrasal verbs in textbooks. these current findings clearly show which are the top 15 most frequent phrasal verbs in the textbook corpus. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 464 table 3. the top fifteen (15) lexical pvs (lemmas) and their data in the current textbook corpus top 15 lexical (phrasal) verbs (lemma) in the corpus verbs number of hits number of hits per million tokens per cent of the whole corpus percentage amongst all the phrasal verbs in textbooks write +advp. 11 192.95 0.02% 8.73% go 10 175.41 0.02% 7.94% look 10 175.41 0.02% 7.94% come 8 140.33 0.01% 6.35% get 8 140.33 0.01% 6.35% give 7 122.79 0.01% 5.56% set 6 105.24 0.01% 4.76% sit 5 87.7 0.01% 3.97% act 4 70.16 0.01% 3.17% find 4 70.16 0.01% 3.17% pick 4 70.16 0.01% 3.17% wake 4 70.16 0.01% 3.17% put 3 52.62 0.01% 2.38% run 3 52.62 0.01% 2.38% warm 3 52.62 0.01% 2.38% total 90 71.43% in table c., the most frequent phrasal verb lemma in the corpus found is “write”, which occurs 11 times. the second and the third position is occupied by the verbs go and look. all three phrasal verbs in the first three positions clearly show that the language-related verbs are of directive usage or related to commands. these three (3) phrasal verbs comprise 25% of all the occurrences of the phrasal verbs that are used in the whole textbook corpus. other phrasal verbs coming just after these arecome, get, give, set and, sit. these lexical lemmas of the phrasal verbs combine with other particles that occur several times in the corpus and make a higher position than the rest ones. the top 15 most frequent phrasal verbs are found a total of 90 times in frequency, out of 120 lexical phrasal verbs. this means that these top 15 lexical phrasal verbs comprise almost 71% of all the phrasal verbs in the whole textbook corpus. (see, table c) this also implies that the most frequent phrasal verbs are dominating the usage in real contexts. these top 15 most used pvs make a small number in the percentage of the whole corpus, for example, the top three (3) most frequent phrasal verbs take 0.02% of the whole corpus, and the rest of the lexical verbs takes 0.01%. if all the numbers in percentage are added http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 465 together, even then the most frequent phrasal verbs in this list take only 0.18% or approximately 0.20% of the whole corpus. this means that even the highest frequent phrasal verbs take a very small portion of the whole corpus texts. it is to note that this table doesn't indicate which adverbial particles separately come with which of the lexical lemmas. rather only the lexical verb lemmas with indefinite adverbial particles (with their exact number of hits) are represented in the table. pvs (separately) with particles and their inclusion in bnc and coca the next search results are more crucial and give a clearer picture of the pvs that are used in the selected textbooks' corpus. in these findings, the phrasal verbs are separately represented with each of the adverbial particles, which means the results that we found earlier as the lemma verbs, would now be separately listed for each of the particles that were adjoined with those lemmas. table d depicts the data of the current findings. it is to be noted that the phrasal verbs have been listed here without the measure of frequencies. every phrasal verb that was found in different inflicted or passive forms in the earlier list now contains only the base form. consequently, these current findings include only one form (for each pvs) from several occurrences of the phrasal verbs in the corpus texts. table 4. the total pvs (58) in the current textbook corpus and their inclusion in two standard corpora all the pvs found in the textbooks a) pvs listed in coca & bnc (27) b. pvs not in coca & bnc (31) come down go out go away run away climb up come out come up heat up run up calm down get up go around put on give away run around burst out write down made up put up warm up cut down jump out look out go down fill out read out put across shout out lookup go up stand up walk-up reach up play around look down give up take out walk around add up cool down sit down wake up go on throw away draw up charge along sit up find out pick up throwdown lump along see off set up grow up act out fill up issue out stretch out note: this inclusion-exclusion are based on liu’s list (2011) http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 466 it can be seen from table d that the table is divided into two parts, one part containing the phrasal verbs listed in coca and bnc, and the other containing the verbs that are not inserted in the coca and bnc. this table contains only 58 lexical phrasal verbs which make the total 120 occurrences in different forms and shapes; because of the inflection or passive structures as already mentioned. so to be precise, the textbook corpus actually contains not more than 58 lexical phrasal verbs that are found in different contexts and frequencies. out of these 58 phrasal verbs, 27 phrasal verbs (46.55%) are found in the coca and bnc corpus, and the rest of the 31 verbs (53.45%) are not found in coca and bnc. it is to be noted that the inclusion-exclusion in this table is based on liu’s list (2011). these findings clearly show that there exists a large number of phrasal verbs (31), which is 64% of the 58 pvs in the textbook corpus might be of less importance in academic contexts. even this number points to the fact that there exist deficiencies in the textbook design. these findings might be utterly disappointing and also intriguing, which stimulates the study's interest to find even if the included phrasal verbs (46.55%) (in the bnc and coca) have been correctly used in the language contexts. to find the results, the phrasal verbs in bnc&coca have to be compared with exact positions to a reference corpus. the next interesting findings clearly can answer these queries. comparison with coca the next findings regarding the phrasal verbs were mainly comparison to a larger reference corpus, coca. the reference corpus, coca, is the short form used for the contemporary corpus of american english, and it's a large corpus containing millions of words. the reason for choosing this corpus (coca) is referring to the study of liu (2011), where 150 phrasal verbs with relative order to coca, with their frequencies and position, are found. as already the table d. lists the pvs that are included in both bnc and coca, those 27 pvs can be easily compared to find out the positions, frequencies, and per million tokens measures for the verbs. the current findings illustrate the following results in table e. table e clearly shows the phrasal verbs are chronologically ordered by frequency measures. the additional columns include positions and frequencies, and the rest columns come with the number of hits per million tokens in reference to coca. thus the special findings in this table are the specific numerical data extracted from coca for the targeted 27 phrasal verbs. some significant results are found in this current table. the topmost occurring pvs in the textbook corpus-‘write down’ has got a very disappointing value in the number of hits per million tokens. in the textbook corpus, it is the most popular phrasal verb with a score of 192.95 (hits per million words), but very disappointingly it has got a poor score of 9.04 (hits per million words) in coca. this result is also supported by the position of the verb in both of the corpuswhereas it’s got the first position in the textbook corpus; it comes at the 119th place in coca (from the 150 pvs list by liu (2011). http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 467 other results’ in these findings are also disappointing. only three phrasal verbs from the top ten list in coca come in these 27 phrasal verbs, which arego out, act out and come out. the only similarity found in both the corpus is for the pv ‘go out. it has got the sixth position in the textbook corpus, and it is also in the same position in coca. however, for other pvs, comparing the positions does not match with the scores with the coca at all. even the numbers of hits per million tokens of the top five (5) phrasal verbs in the textbook corpus (tablee.) are very dissimilar and disappointing. table 5. the comparison between the pvs of the textbook and the coca the textbook corpus coca position pvs frequency number of hits per million tokens number of hits per million tokens position 1 write down 11 192.95 9.04 119 2 get up 8 140.33 47.41 23 3 set up 6 105.24 65.11 11 4 come down 5 87.7 34.58 31 5 look out 5 87.7 23.97 46 6 go out 5 87.7 70.77 8 7 look up 4 70.16 50.24 20 8 give up 4 70.16 56 11 16 9 pick up 4 70.16 89.95 2 10 wake up 4 70.16 29.54 35 11 find out 4 70.16 80.43 6 13 sit up 3 52.62 12.83 93 16 come out 2 35.08 72.51 7 17 sit down 2 35.08 47.43 22 19 take out 2 35.08 34.1 24 20 come up 1 17.54 54.97 4 21 look down 1 17.54 24.96 41 22 go around 1 17.54 17.96 115 24 go away 1 17.54 54.43 26 25 go on 1 17.54 148.33 1 26 go up 1 17.54 33.23 33 30 grow up 1 17.54 69.36 10 33 made up 1 17.54 54.43 17 39 put on 1 17.54 14.08 87 40 put up 1 17.54 24.49 43 45 fill out 1 17.54 8.46 121 57 stand up 1 17.54 36.46 30 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 468 even the results clearly show that the phrasal verbs which are positioned very later in the reference corpuscoca, are mostly found in the textbook corpus at an early position, which can greatly harm the learners to be acquainted with the most useful phrasal verbs usage. the only pleasant finding in these results is that out of these 27 phrasal verbs in the textbook corpus, 81% of the verbs (22 pvs) come within the top 50 positions in coca. although this might not be fruitful in pedagogy, at least it asserts that these phrasal verbs would be of some use for esl students. table 6. the missing pvs in coca and bnc with related corpus data absolute frequency & frequency per million tokens for pvs (31) (*not enlisted in the bnc and coca) s. pvs f. npmt s. pvs f. npm t s. pvs f. npmt 14 give away 3 52.62 3 5 run up 1 17.54 4 9 burst out 1 17.54 15 warm up 3 52.62 3 6 run around 1 17.54 5 0 jump out 1 17.54 18 heat up 2 35.08 3 7 cut down 1 17.54 5 1 shout out 1 17.54 23 go down 1 17.54 3 8 put across 1 17.54 5 2 play around 1 17.54 24 go away 1 17.54 4 1 reach up 1 17.54 5 3 cool down 1 17.54 27 read out 1 17.54 4 2 add up 1 17.54 5 4 charge along 1 17.54 28 walk up 1 17.54 4 3 draw up 1 17.54 5 5 see off 1 17.54 29 walk around 1 17.54 4 4 lump along 1 17.54 5 6 issue out 1 17.54 31 throw away 1 17.54 4 6 fill up 1 17.54 5 8 strech out 1 17.54 32 throw down 1 17.54 4 7 climb up 1 17.54 34 run away 1 17.54 4 8 calm down 1 17.54 s.= position in the textbook corpus, pvs= phrasal verbs, f.= frequency, npmt= number per million tokens alongside these findings, some other findings were extracted from the corpus for the pvs that were missing in bnc and coca previously. this was done to understand the remaining phrasal verb’s position and compare them with the standard reference corpus. the derived information and the related data have been summarized in table f. some http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 469 significant numerical figures are found in table f, especially in the score of npmt (number per million tokens), at least three phrasal verbs (positions14,15,18) have significant scores. these words are not found in the previous list of liu (2011) which had included a total of 150 phrasal verbs in that list with positions to the bnc and coca, but their scores show that they have been used in significant numbers in the current corpus texts. however, they are not so important according to the inclusion list of liu (2011) in the two standard corpora. lastly, the comparison of the textbook pvs was compared to the list made by garnier & schmitt (2015), which is also popularly known as the phave list. it is quite evident from the comparison between liu (2011) and garnier & schmitt (2015) that both of the lists include the same verbs, thus there was no need to compare again. the phave list had extensive exemplification of the verbs as an additional feature. conclusion the current study discovers that a greater number of pvs used in the selected textbook corpus are not found in the standard bnc and coca corpora. additionally, the frequencies and per million measures for the pvs are also not satisfactory in terms of comparison with the standard values. consequently, many unnecessary pvs are found in those textbooks, and also many important ones are missing. these findings can be implemented in the textbooks’ next editions and future designs, and the study can be broadened to greater extensions with further funding and research interests for implementation in the national education levels. references abdul rahman, z. a. a., & abid, r. z. 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(2011). the most frequently used english phrasal verbs in american and british english: a multicorpus examination. tesol quarterly, 45(4), 661–688. https://doi.org/10.5054/tq.2011.247707 macgregor, f. (2006). practical english usage . michael swan. oxford: oxford university press, 2005. xxx+ 658 pp. japan association for language teaching, 28(2), 210. mayor, m. (2009). longman dictionary of contemporary english. pearson education india. quirk, r. (2010). a comprehensive grammar of the english language. pearson education india. richards, j. c., & schmidt, r. w. (2013). longman dictionary of language teaching and applied linguistics. routledge. side, r. (1990). phrasal verbs: sorting them out. siyanova, a., & schmitt, n. (2007). native and nonnative use of multi-word vs. one-word verbs. trebits, a. (2009). the most frequent phrasal verbs in english language eu documents--a corpus-based analysis and its implications. system, 37(3), 470–481. tsai, k.-j. (2015). profiling the collocation use in elt textbooks and learner writing. language teaching research, 19(6), 723–740. walter, e. (2008). cambridge advanced learner’s dictionary. cambridge university press. white, b. j. (2012). a conceptual approach to the instruction of phrasal verbs. the modern language journal, 96(3), 419–438. wray, a., & perkins, m. r. (2000). the functions of formulaic language: an integrated model. language \& communication, 20(1), 1–28. yamamura, h. (2015). a corpus-based investigation of phrasal verbs in english phrasebooks published in japan (theoretical studies and experimental studies, the 44th celes conference in yamanashi). journal of the chubu english language education society, 44, 103–110. zarifi, a, & mukundan, j. (2015). a corpus-based study of semantic treatment of phrasal verbs in malaysian esl secondary school textbooks. pertanika journal of social sciences \& humanities, 23(4). zarifi, abdolvahed, & mukundan, j. (2012). phrasal verbs in malaysian esl textbooks. english language teaching, 5(5), 9–18. zarifi, abdolvahed, & mukundan, j. (2013a). phrasal verb combinations in corpus-based http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 472 studies: a critical review. international journal of applied linguistics and english literature, 2(4), 212–217. zarifi, abdolvahed, & mukundan, j. (2013b). selection and presentation of phrasal verbs in esl textbooks. theory \& practice in language studies, 3(10). zarifi, abdolvahed, & mukundan, j. (2014). grammatical presentation of phrasal verbs in esl textbooks. pertanika journal of social sciences \& humanities, 22(2). http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 83 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license teachers' strategies in teaching speaking skills at sman 1 palopo widya anggraeni1, wahibah2, amir faqihuddin assafary3* islamic state institute of palopo (iain palopo) *wahibah@iainpalopo.ac.id abstract the study aimed to know the strategies used by teachers at s.m.a. negeri 1 palopo to teach speaking skills. this thesis employed qualitative method. the writer applied the purposive sampling technique to obtain the samples of the study. in getting data, the writer examined two english teachers in s.m.a. negeri 1 palopo. the writer also used observation-checklist, semi-structured interviews, and reports to get the data. the result of this study showed that teacher 1 used discussion, role-play, brainstorming, writing, conversation, blogging, picture description, and learning assignment. while teacher 2 used conversation, modeling, role-play, brainstorming, writing, questioning, reading, explaining, and playing ice hockey. both teachers use various strategies in teaching speaking. keywords: teacher's strategies, english language teaching, speaking skills introduction teaching is the way to convey information about a topic that would be learned by the students. the purpose of the teaching-learning process is to make students get knowledge and ability to understand the knowledge. to achieve the purpose of teaching, the teacher is a key that should be creative in choosing the materials and strategies of teaching to make the students easy to understand the knowledge (iksan & dirham, 2018). besides that, the role of the teacher is also very important to make the learning process run well. one of the most important skills that teachers should have in teaching and learning process is the ability to use various teaching strategies. teachers should be able to use some kinds of teaching strategies that enable students to learn in order to obtain the expected results. if teachers cannot use a proper teaching strategy, teaching and learning process would not run effectively. in learning english, the objective is to enable students to master language skills, one of them is speaking. richards & renandya (2000) stated that we use speaking to give instruction or to get things done. it means, when a student wants to convey his goal, it is necessary to speak in order that the purpose is delivered properly. vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation must be mastered in speaking. it is needed to make students fluent and accurate in speaking. the strategies in teaching this speaking skill cannot be denied as a factor influencing the teaching and learning outcome. teachers' teaching strategies is very important since it can help the students to speak english well. to achieve it, english teachers may apply different kinds of teaching strategies in the teaching and learning process. the strategies used should be based on students' needs and interests. teaching strategies in speaking activities are very important to overcome students' difficulties in speaking. regarding this issue, several studies have been conducted by scholars including anjani putra (2013) who studied the teacher's strategies in teaching http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 84 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license speaking to students at the secondary level, found that the strategies of teaching speaking that the teacher used were cooperative activities, creative task, role play, and drilling. then, adinugroho (2015) who investigated the teacher's strategies in teaching speaking at l.p.k. padma widyanata, he concluded that the teacher used encouraging students to speak, giving motivation and making aware of scripts as the strategies to teach speaking. furthermore, erik yuda pratama & yani awaliyah(2015) also studied the teacher's strategies in teaching speaking to young learners, and found that the strategies the teachers used are role play, watching a video, jazz chant, digital storytelling, games, and repetition. the teacher faced several barriers in teaching speaking in the classroom, such as reluctant students, missing pronunciation, and lack of vocabulary, but the lecturer could overcome those barriers by using various techniques like implementing media and designing the lesson using topical-based-syllabus. based on the narration above, the writer concluded how important teachers' strategies in teaching especially in teaching speaking. therefore, the writer initiated to conduct the study regarding this issue. methods study design this study used a qualitative method as a fundamental aspect of the study. in line with that, this study will be conducted to investigate the teachers' strategies in teaching speaking at s.m.a. negeri1 palopo. moreover, this study will be employed to find out how the teacher uses the strategies in teaching speaking at s.m.a. negeri 1palopo. furthermore, the case-study study will be conducted in this study in order to find a deep investigation of the techniques used by the teacher when teaching speaking. location this study was conducted at s.m.a. negeri1 palopo. this school is located at jl. andi pangerang, palopo city. the subject of the study the writer has applied the purposive sampling technique in getting data because the sample data sources need special consideration. in getting data writer has observed two english teachers in s.m.a. negeri 1 palopo. instruments of the study in conducting this study, there were some instruments used. they are observation checklist, semi structures interviewed, and documentation. observation checklist the teacher observed by the writer using the observation checklist. in this case, the writer was observed whatever done by the english teacher related to the teaching strategies in teaching speaking in the classroom. it was used to investigate the speaking teaching strategies used by the teacher in teaching. semi-structured interviewed this instrument was used to gain spoken data from the participants on what teacher's strategies used by the teacher in teaching speaking and how the teacher uses the teaching strategies. this instrument consists of 15 questions but the question can be http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 85 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license more than it during the interview later. the interview was done with the english teacher. the interview will be done after finished the teaching and learning process. documentation documentation as a provident of study results like the camera to take the picture to complete this study. technique of collecting data to collect the data, the writer used direct observation and observation checklist, semi-structured interview, and documentation as the instruments. further, in conducting the study the following steps will be done: 1. this study chose two english teachers in s.m.a. negeri 1palopo. 2. preparing the observation checklist and interview guideline as to the study instrument; 3. observing the class activities in six meetings. each meeting will take two hours of lessons, and each hour's lesson takes 40 minutes and all the teaching process will be video recorded. 4. collect the data from syllabus and r.p.p. 5. preparing the documents 6. analyzing the obtained data from observation, interview, and documents; 7. interpreting the findings from those instruments; and 8. drawing a conclusion based on the obtained data. technique of data analysis in this study, the writer used a qualitative data analysis technique. to analyze the data, the writer followed the steps proposed by huberman in presley (2012). the data analysis in this study will be broken down into three stages; they are data reduction, display, the data, and drawing the conclusion. data reduction the observational checklist is checked out as the way to investigate that all of the study problems will be answered. data from observation is about teaching strategies in teaching speaking skills and the writer will transcript the video of observation to know clearly the result of the writer. display the data in this section, the writer started to prepare the data that will be displayed in the study and make interpretations. drawing the conclusion in the last section in analyzing data, the writer made the conclusion as the result of the study. referring to the data analysis, the writer will analyze the speaking teaching strategies using the theory proposed by kayi, h. (2006). results findings base on general findings on teachers' strategies in teaching speaking no strategies in teaching speaking teacher 1 teacher 2 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 86 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license 1 discussion √ √ 2 simulation √ 3 role-play √ √ 4 brainstorming √ √ 5 storytelling √ √ 6 information gap 7 interviews √ √ 8 story completion 9 reporting √ √ 10 playing card 11 describingpicture √ √ 12 find the differences 13 picture narrating 14 learning project √ 15 playing ice ball √ based on the table above can be understood that both teachers use their own strategies in teaching speaking. teacher 1 used 9 strategies. the fist is a discussion where the students can give their opinion with their friends and it can practice their speaking skill. the second is role play where they practice speaking based on the character that they play. the third is brainstorming where the teacher 1 used it to lose the students' bored by using picture or media to explain the main topic. the fourth is storytelling where the students should tell about the one-story and exactly it can practice their skill. the fifth is the interview, the teacher 1 used it by giving the question one by one and then the students should answer it. these activities directly can practice their skill. the sixth is reporting where the students should report one news and then they should present in front of the class. this activity also can practice their speaking skill. the seventh is describing a picture where the teacher 1 asked the students to describe the picture based on their own words so that can practice and improve their speaking skill. the last is a learning project that becomes the main strategy where the students are asked to make something and then it can be used to practice their speaking skill. the teacher 2 used discussion, simulation, role-play, brainstorming, storytelling, interview, reporting, describing the picture and playing ice ball. the first is a discussion where this activity can practice their speaking by using many words to speak. the second is a simulation where the students have practised the speaking skill by using their words or sentences. the third is role play where they speak based on their character on the story. in other words, the role can practice their speaking skill. the fourth is http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 87 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license brainstorming where the teacher 2 used it by using an interesting picture to explain the main topic of the material. the fifth is storytelling where the students should tell one story based on their own words. the sixth is the interview where the teacher 2 gave questions to the students especially for the oral test. it can know their real knowledge. the seventh is reporting where the students should report news and then they practice their skill by using it. the eighth is describing a picture where the students should describe the picture by using their own words and then it can practice their speaking skill. the last is playing ice ball and it is the main strategy for the teacher 2. the applying of ice ball is the activities that can practice the students' skill by using the ball from the paper, and on the paper, there are some topics that must be explained by them. teacher's strategies in teaching speaking teacher 1 the first question that is given by the writer about the discussion method in the classroom because most of the teachers used it when she or he taught in the classroom. here the teacher 1 answered the writer's question about it. he or she did it to get the spirit of the students. he or she gave a complete opinion about this strategy. "yes, i usually discussion model but it is not all of the material because that is based on the material which will be taught. so, if the material about asking and giving opinion exactly we should use discussion model" (teacher 1 on october 17th, 2019) based on the interview above, it can be understood that the teacher 1 used the discussion model in the classroom but based on the topic material that will be taught. from the result also can be gotten if the topic in the classroom for example about asking and giving opinion exactly he or she applied the discussion model. in other words, she or he applied it so that all of the ideas from the students can arise. finally, they can practice their speaking skill. "i usually apply a role model in a specific topic so that my students can speak based on the characteristic. in other words, they can give full attention based on the characteristic" (teacher 1 on october 17th, 2019) teacher 1 also gave a comment from the research's question. he or she usually applied role model so that the students can practice their speaking skill based on the character. this is very important because if they knew the character based on the topic in one story, exactly, they can give full attention. in other words, all skills they got can be applied. the next question that was given by the writer about the applying of brainstorming in the classroom. this part is very important because it is the main point of the teacher's strategy. "yes, before teaching process of speaking i usually use brainstorming to lose bored situation my students in teaching and learning process because in studying english must enjoy" (teacher 1 on october 17th, 2019) based on the result above can be understood that the teacher 1 used brainstorming in teaching speaking. he or she used it in order that can lose the students' bored. this thing is important because in studying english especially speaking the condition of a class must be enjoyed. all of it in order that they can comprehend the material completely. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 88 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license the next part when the material of the english into a specific discussion. it means that there is another way to comprehend it. for example, if the topic of the speaking skill is the text. therefore, the writer gave again the question about it. "if i explain the narrative text, i have the students to tell their daily activity. so, they tell in front of their friends" (teacher 1 on october 17th, 2019) from the result above can be understood that the teacher 1 if explain the material of the narrative text, he or she asks for the students to make daily activity. after that, they should tell them in front of their friends. this is very good because it can improve their skill and ability. the most important part based on their daily activity they can also practice their braveness. it is the main part to practice the skill in speaking. if they have big braveness, exactly they can speak well. the writer continued her questions. this part about applying the interview section in the classroom. it can be known that interview also is one of the main parts of speaking skill. if they can make an interview, they can speak english well. "if the interview technique i usually use it but not for all of the material. just in the material that must use interview" (teacher 1 on october 17th, 2019) based on the result above the teacher 1 usually used the interview technique but not for all the material. he or she used it just on the material that should use the interview. based on it they can practice their speaking skill because interview needs some questions. the next part the writer wanted to know about the next material that usually is taught by teacher 1. for example, the material that has relation with the speaking skill like a news item. this topic made the writer is curious. therefore, she asked about it to the teacher 1. "yes, when i teach the material of news item, i ask for to the students to seek the magazine or newspaper and then they present in front of the class to be informed to their friends" (teacher 1 on october 17th, 2019) based on the result above can be understood that the teacher 1 asked for the students to seek the magazine or newspaper and then they should present in front of the class. in other words, they should seek one topic in the magazine or newspaper; they can choose which one they wanted. after that based on one topic, they should make a summary or conclusion and then they should present in front of the class. the next discussion their presentation in front of the class can practice their ability and skill to speak with many people. besides that, it also can practice their braveness in speaking. in other words, if there is braveness, exactly there is ability in speaking. after that, the writer gave again the question about the next material for teacher 1. here the teacher 1 discussed the descriptive text in speaking skill. "i give the picture to my students and then they should describe that picture" (teacher 1 on october 17th, 2019) based on the result above can be understood that the teacher 1 in teaching speaking skill to the students, he or she gave the picture. after that, they should describe that http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 89 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license picture. this is another material in teaching speaking in the classroom after narrative, interview and presentation. based on the picture exactly there are many vocabularies that will be arisen. then those vocabularies can be used for them to describe the picture and this thing can be called one of the ways to improve speaking skill. the next discussion exactly how the students applied the teachers' strategy so that they can improve their speaking skill. the main point of the strategy that is applied by the teacher is how they can speak well without a problem. the main problem of speaking exactly the vocabulary. it means that there is just a good way in order that the vocabulary is not difficult again for them. one of the ways that are applied by teacher 1 is in the classroom he or she asked for the students to tell the event one by one based on the time. here he or she used again the picture to apply it. a picture is one of the ways that is offered by him or her. based on the picture exactly there are many vocabularies that can be arisen without they should think harder. they just seek the meaning vocabulary on the dictionary and then they can make sentence based on it. "yes, after giving the picture to the students i ask for them to tell what happens with the picture and how the characteristic on the picture" (teacher 1 on october 17th, 2019) based on the result above can be gotten that the teacher 1 in the classroom gave the picture to the students. this is very important because there are many vocabularies that can be gotten from the picture. this is also one of the ways that are used by the teacher 1 in teaching speaking skill. the students should tell the events based on the picture and how also the characteristics. the next question is about the main point of this research. the writer asked about the strategy that is used by teacher 1 in teaching speaking in the classroom. here the strategy that is used in the classroom in teaching english especially teaching speaking. "there are some strategies that i use in teaching speaking. the first is a learning project. it is about projects like making english speech and then they show it. the second they make a project such as a report and then they should present it" (teacher 1 on october 17th, 2019) based on the result above can be understood that there are two strategies that are used by teacher 1. the first strategy is the best learning project. for this strategy, the students are asked to make an english speech. after that, they should tell or present their speech in front of the class. exactly this activity can practice their speaking skill because they should be brave to speak by using their speech. besides that, after presenting the speech their friends can give one or more questions. based on these questions they can also practice again their speaking skill. the second strategy by teacher 1 is making the project like a report and then they should present in front of the class. this strategy also can practice their speaking skill because based on their report they can speak in much time. in this par, their friends also can give some questions. based on it, they can practice their speaking skill. for the last question, the writer asked about the reason why the teacher 1 used both of those strategies. exactly he or she had the main reason to use them. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 90 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license "actually, there are many strategies that can be used but the first thing that must be considered is the condition of the class and the condition of the students because the time that is given by curriculum is very little. so, just project form that i apply in the classroom" (teacher 1 on october 17th, 2019) based on the last question above can be understood that the teacher 1 used best learning project because they considered the condition of the class and the condition of the students. besides, that time problem is the main cause so that teacher 1 used it. the time that is given by the curriculum is very little in order that he or she just applied the best learning project. teacher 2 in teaching speaking in the classroom, teacher 2 exactly also used the strategy. therefore, the writer also interviewed him or her about it. same with the teacher 1, the writer gave some questions to get a result about the strategy that is used by the teacher 2 in teaching speaking skill. the first question that is asked by the writer is the applying of discussion method. how the applying of discussion method during teaching and learning process of speaking in the classroom. "yes, if the material about exposition text i use discussion. for applying by giving them a topic and then i ask them to observe it. the mean students are asked for to be discussed for their group and exactly every group presents the result from what they have discussed" (teacher 2 on october 17th, 2019) based on the result above can be understood the teacher 2 used the discussion method in teaching speaking in the classroom. this method can practice their speaking skill by producing many vocabularies and then they can use them to speak in front of the class. besides that, in applying the discussion method the teacher 2 gave the topic and they are given into some groups. after that, based on their group, they should observe the content of the topic. then every student presented the result on by one as a vice of the group. "besides that, if the topic of the material, they should bring all of the tools from their home like the tools that can support their role" (teacher 2 on october 17th, 2019) based on the result above can be understood that the teacher 2 used the role model. this model can be used if the topic of drama. they can play a role and should bring all of the tools that can support their role. the drama also is a good way of teaching speaking because they are active to speak. there are many activities, topic, and vocabularies. all of it can improve their speaking skill. "i especially like to use the drama because there are many dialogues. so, that is easier than debate method" (teacher 2 on october 17th, 2019) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 91 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license the more explanation the teacher 2 prefers drama than debate method. this thing can happen because in drama there are many dialogues. in the dialogue, there are many vocabularies and they can use it to speak with their friends. this method exactly is effective because they are active in speaking. if they are active in speaking, they can improve their speaking skill. different from the debate, they should seek vocabulary and then they used it to speak. this is difficult for them because they need a dictionary to seek the meaning of vocabulary. after that, the writer continued for the main point of the research. the question about the main strategy in teaching speaking. she asked complete with the definition, example, and the applying. "exactly brainstorming is used as an introduction. we give simple way in order that the students have attended to the material that will be taught by us so that they can study maximal in the class" (teacher 2 on october 17th, 2019) based on the result above can be understood that the teacher 2 used brainstorming in teaching speaking as an introduction. this is strategy is used in order that the students have attended with the material that will be taught in the classroom. by using it they can practice their speaking skill. therefore, if they have attended for their material, they can study maximal. the next question from the writer about the topic of the teaching process in the classroom. what is the topic and how the applying of this topic especially in teaching speaking? "yes, in the recount material i usually ask for the students to tell their unforgettable experience in front of their friends. this activity is very effective to practise their speaking skill" (teacher 2 on october 17th, 2019) based on the answer to the question can be gotten the information that the teacher 2 if explain the recount material, he or she asked for the students to tell their unforgettable experience. after that based on it, they should tell in front of their friends. then their friends can ask one or more questions. they tell it in 5 until 6 minutes is enough to practice their speaking skill. the next question is about applying an interview in the classroom. the writer wanted to know if the teacher 2 used it. "for the interview, i usually use it in an examination for speaking. the score is for an individual. here we can look the ability of every student to deliver their argument in speaking form. exactly interview become measurement to see their ability in speaking" (teacher 2 on october 17th, 2019) based on the result above can be understood that the teacher 2 used the interview just for examination. the students are given the questions one by one and then they should answer it. the scoring is individual. besides that, the interview also can determine their ability because they should answer the question from their teacher directly without writing the answer in the paper. exactly it will be seen the real ability from the students. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 92 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license the next question about the content of the speaking skill. the topic of the material in the classroom. the writer wanted to know about the using of magazine or newspaper that has been they read. "yes, if the material of speaking is about a news item, i usually ask them to take from the news in the newspaper and then they deliver by using their own language based what they have read" (teacher 2 on october 17th, 2019) based on the result above can be understood that the teacher 2 asked for the students to seek the news from the newspaper. they can choose one topic and then they should develop the topic became one news. after that, they should deliver the report of a news item in front of the class. then their friends can give one or more questions. the next question about the picture that is used by teacher 2 in the classroom. it can be known that picture is one of the media that is usually used by the teacher to teach english especially in teaching speaking. "the picture can be used for the first class especially for class x because the material of the x class is easy. so, i ask them to bring the picture in the classroom and then they should describe it based on their knowledge" (teacher 2 on october 17th, 2019) based on the result above can be understood that the teacher 2 used the picture just for the first class like class x. in the picture, there are many vocabularies that can be produced. the students can use it as content to practice their speaking skill. "for the next explanation, if there is textbook that has picture especially on the descriptive material, i ask the students to explain it" (teacher 2 on october 17th, 2019) for this opportunity, the teacher 2 asked for the students to explain the picture on their textbook. it means that they can practice again their ability in speaking. the picture became the key because it can produce many vocabularies. the next question again for the main point about the strategy in teaching speaking. the writer here gave a complete question about it. the most important part of how the applying of the strategy. "talking about the strategy based on the ability of the students and can make them enjoy studying. for example, playing ice ball by describing something. like i throw the ball to a then a describes on the ball and the a throws to the b and then also describe it and so on. the purposes to make students are happy in studying english. so, back again all of should be based on the condition of the class. if the students have high ability, we can use also high strategy while for the class who have the low ability we can give based on their ability. the main point we don't force one strategy because all of based on the condition of the class and students. besides that, i ever use debate method. from it, the students can practice their speaking skill because every student can help each other because they are divided into some groups" (teacher 2 on october 17th, 2019) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 93 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license based on the result above can be understood that the teacher 2 used another strategy in teaching speaking. the strategy is playing ice ball. where one student if get the ball, they should explain the word on the ball. after that, the ball is given to another student and then they should also explain it and so on until the last students. the key to the applying of this strategy is the condition of the class and the students. everybody has the purpose to make the students joyful and happy in studying english especially in studying speaking. if they are joyful and happy, they will understand and comprehend the material easily. after that, the writer gave the question about the reason for the teacher 2 so that he or she used the strategy in teaching speaking skill. this is the last question from teacher 2. "because the name is speaking, we hope there is feedback from the students. so, as a teacher just give direction and observe them in the classroom" (teacher 2 on october 17th, 2019) based on the result above can be understood that the reason so that the teacher 2 used all the strategies. the key is there is feedback from the students. the most important part is the teacher in the classroom just gave the direction and observed them in the classroom. beside that in this era, the students should act if they study in the classroom. the mean the teacher did not explain in a long time but just explain the main point. the more the students should be active in sharing the explanation from their teacher. this is can be called by the students' centre. therefore, the writer made the main point of the findings of this research. this table shows the strategy that is applied by the teacher in teaching speaking skill in the classroom. table 4.1 teachers' strategies in teaching speaking no teachers strategies 1 teacher 1 brainstorming, discussion, roleplay, storytelling, interview, reporting, describing picture, learning project 2 teacher 2 brainstorming, discussion, simulation, storytelling, interview, reporting, describing picture, role play, playing ice ball discussion in teaching speaking skill in the classroom teacher 1 used two strategies. the first strategy is brainstorming. he or she used it to lose the students' bored in the classroom. the first thing that must be lost from the students is a boring situation. if there is a boring situation in the classroom, exactly they will be lazy in studying. it means that the teacher 1 use the brainstorming to lose their bored. he or she applied it by mapping the main point of the material and use the unique way like using the picture or diagram in order that the students will be comforted in studying. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 94 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license beside that teacher 1 also use brainstorming in order that the students can enjoy the teaching and learning process. the key here is enjoying. the mean if they enjoy the process of learning in the classroom, exactly they will be attending in studying. so, brainstorming here have the purpose to lose the students' bored and then they can enjoy the learning process. the second strategy that is applied by the teacher 1 is a learning project. the applying of this strategy by asking the students to make two something. the first is the students should make english speech. after that, they should practice their ability in speaking by using their speech. they key they should comprehend about their speech because later they should present in front of their friends. exactly this strategy will make them study hard because there are many friends of them that they will listen about. later, after they have been finished in presenting their speech, one or two of their friends will give some questions. exactly they should answer the question from their friends. in answering the questions, they can practice their speaking skill answered the question without seeing the speech. by using the speech, teacher 1 can see the ability of the students. the second one in applying learning project the students should make some reports like news. later the students should make some reports and then they should report it also in front of the class. they should report it one by one and the teacher or their friends can also give some questions. the key to practising their speaking skill they should answer the question without seeing the report. it means that before presenting the report they should practice at home in order that they can show the maximal effort in practising their speaking skill. teacher 2 also applied two main strategies in teaching speaking. the first strategy that is applied by the teacher 2 also same with teacher 1 is brainstorming. the differences from the teacher 1 are from the purpose. the teacher 2 applied the brainstorming in order that the students have full attention to the material in the classroom. beside that brainstorming is applied by using simple way in picture or diagram. in other words, they can see all the complete materials just with the picture or diagram. after they have full attention, exactly they can understand the material completely. they can know the content, the example or the applying of one topic that is explained by their teachers. so, brainstorming here is applied to make them have full attention to the material that is taught by their teacher. the second strategy that is applied by the teacher 2 is playing ice ball. the event that makes them are enjoyable is from the applying of playing ice ball. the teacher 2 provided ball and on the ball, there are some words or sentences. after that, teacher 2 threw the ball to student 1. then the student 1 has to explain the word or sentence on the ball. in explaining it he or she has to need time at about 5 minutes. this time is taught by teacher 2 is enough to practice their speaking skill. after the student 1 is finish in explaining the topic, student 1 can throw the ball to the student 2. after that the student 2 also the topic on the ball until on the last student they should explain the topic on the ball. teacher 2 also applied the students with many activities in order that they can improve their skill by themselves. besides that, the teacher 2 just observed and gave the correction if in practising the speaking skill the students make some mistake. the first mistake that usually is done by the students is pronunciation in speaking. if this thing happens, teacher 2 can give the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 95 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license correction in order that they did not make the same mistake. the second mistake that usually is done by the students are they did not know the meaning of vocabulary in english. teacher 2 also can help them in seeking the meaning of vocabulary in english. so, by using playing ice ball the students can practice and improve their speaking skill with enjoying the game and many activities. based on the strategies above that are used by the teacher there are some strategies that are not used by the teacher in teaching speaking. the teacher 1 did not use simulation, information gap, story completion, playing card, find differences, picture narrating and playing ice ball. he or she did not use those strategies because has applied own strategies like the explanation above neither general nor specific. the teacher 2 did not use information gap, playing card, find differences, picture narrating and learning project. same with the teacher 1, the teacher 2 did not use those strategies because has applied own strategies neither general nor specific. conclusion in teaching speaking skill in the classroom, there are two teachers who applied their own strategies. the teacher 1 applied to brainstorm and learning project as the main strategies. both strategies are used for the students so that they are active with the activities in the classroom. if they are active with the activities in the classroom, they can practice and improve their speaking skill. besides that, there are supporting strategies that are used for example discussion, roleplay, storytelling, interview, reporting and describing picture. all of the strategies that are used by the teacher 1 in teaching speaking. teacher 2 also applied two strategies in teaching speaking skill. the first is also brainstorming and the second is playing ice ball. by using both strategies especially playing ice ball the students are active in activities. these activities can practice and improve their speaking skill because in the playing ice ball there is some topic that makes them active to speak in english. besides that, there are also supporting strategies that are used like discussion, simulation, storytelling, interview, reporting, describing picture and roleplay. all of the strategies that are used by the teacher 2 in teaching speaking. been presented in a seminar or conference, you can also mention them in this section. bibliography anjaniputra, ginanjar, a. 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(2005). how to teach speaking. england: pearson educational limited. harmer, jeremy. 2007. the practice of english language teaching fourth edition. harlow http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 97 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license valette,r.m.(1983).modern language testing. newyork: harcourt brace jovanovich, inc. william, m., & burden, r. l. (2003). psychology for language teachers: a social constructivist approach. cambridge: cambridge university press summers, d. (2003).longman dictionary of contemporary english. harlow: longman robiasih and widyanigsih,2018 "teacher's strategies in teaching speaking skill for eleventh grade students at sma bopkri 2 yokyakarta" (universitas sarjana wiyata taman siswa) saliha, tifani anis,2017" teacher’s strategies in teaching speaking at the daffodils english course kampunginggris-pare” (university of nusantara pgri kediri) richards, jack c., & willy a. renandya. (2000). “methodology in language teaching: an anthology of current practice”. u.s.a.: cambridge university press maulindar khaira,gani.a.,&samad abdul.(2019).” teacher’s strategies in teaching speaking for cadets in bp2ip malahayati aceh”.universitas syiah kuala, banda aceh, indonesia http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 206 communicative orientation of english language classes marie ruffie ceballos-mier1, gem aiah b. blanco2 1,2 bukidnon state university, malaybalay city bukidnon, philippines *ruffieceballos@buksu.edu.ph abstract this study explored on communicative orientation of english language classes employing the classroom discourse analysis in qualitative research design. the participants of the study are the first year secondary education-english students of bukidnon state university, college of education. the data gathering was facilitated through the use of communicative orientation of language teaching observation scheme. the findings revealed that participant organization was mainly student to student in most of the activities with the same assigned task among learners; class management is apparently through discipline, functions, and discourse analysis with limited range of topics that are highly controlled by the teacher; students’ mode of interaction was more on speaking; there is very minimal use of materials for classroom interaction. further, the participants used l2 than l1; students were noted to have genuine requests and the giving of information were mostly relatively predictable; students’ speeches were to a minimal extent due to the activity type used; the teacher and students showed very limited use of explicit code reaction to errors committed by students; expansion, commenting, and elaboration were found to be prevalent; students were found to have a higher frequency of discourse initiation during classroom interaction; relative restriction of linguistic form was rarely observed; and two other features surfaced which were not predetermined features are on code-switching and the use of fillers. the study revealed that the first-year bse english students’ speeches are in l2 and to a minimal extent depending on the activity type used by the teacher. therefore, communicative events such as activity types have direct impact to the use of the different communicative features. keywords: communicative competence, communicative events, communicative features, communicative language teaching, communicative orientation introduction language teaching has been the subject of common pedagogical changes and innovation in the development of language teaching ideologies. according to richards and rodgers (2001), the history of language teaching has been characterized by a search for the most effective way in which students can learn a second or foreign language. teaching english as a second language (l2) was once viewed as a process of mechanical habit formation through having students’ correct sentences and not through making mistakes (richards, 2006). with this process, students’ errors are avoided through controlled http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 mailto:ruffieceballos@buksu.edu.ph copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 207 opportunities for production of both spoken and written, however, knowing what is involved in putting sentences together (grammatical competence) is only one part of what is meant by knowing a language,and it does not guarantee that if one can clearly understand the structure, then one can communicate effectively. in the initiation of language researches, learning l2 can be viewed from different perspectives. interactions of students and teachers, collaborative learning, and meaningful learning of the language are now given much importance. these techniques are viewed as communicative language teaching (clt) which was originally related to chomsky’s language theory in the 1960s and was conceptually based and laid by halliday in the 1970s. clt uses the communicative approach of teaching that focuses on meaning rather than on form. according to this approach, the goal of language teaching is to develop what hymes (1972) referred to as "communicative competence.” communicative competence (cc) emphasizes on one’s ability to use and comprehend the language well in a culturally-appropriate manner and to extend interactions (richards & rodgers 2001). in a more elaborated manner, this means that an individual who can communicate competently does not only mean he/she can follow the rules, knows correct arrangements of words, and can speak but also can take up a message and understand the intent of the encoded message and decode it in his/her language without changing its meaning. hymes’ (1970) concept of developing communicative competence supports the principle of the communicative language teaching (clt) approach. clt, as a functional and communicative potential approach, focuses on language learning (laksanasut, 2020). this approach was initiated in the intentions of language teaching paradigm shifts in the 1960s. this modern society at present needs language programs that many economic sectors demand, to develop and produce english-proficient workforces in this period of the global spread of english. this has become the reason for paradigm shifts. moreover, the reformation of methodologies in teaching was considered with high priority as this demands more effective language teaching approaches from many different contexts. the communicative approach to second language instruction such as in communicative language teaching emphasizes the need for more meaningful and natural use of target language. in the concept of clt, teachers of the second language need not define it in general rather the lists of indicators of students’ communicative behavior should be compiled and analyzed to come up with more effective strategies and activities in teaching and learning the target language. this analysis can be related to the idea of communicative orientation of language teaching (colt) used by allen, frolich, & spada (1985) in identifying the differences of students’ orientation through creating a scheme that looks into the different classroom events and activity types. the use of clt in teaching language was found very important, interesting, and effective. one undeniable problem of implementing it in the context of the students at bukidnon state university (buksu) in general, based on the researcher’s observation is that many of the learners still lack the confidence to use english. it has been a stigma among students that speaking english becomes a measure of intelligence, as observed by many language teachers. this mindset causes students to limit the use of the target language. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 208 with buksu’s goal for each graduate to be competent individuals for sustainable development, this study is interested in identifying students’ communicative orientation of the first-year english students of the college of education in their english class considering the different activities provided in the classroom. this study looks into how specific activities develop students’ communication skills in learning english as the second language and functionally using it. with their interaction in every activity, different communicative features are presumed to be observed. further, how the students and the teacher either use the language in a natural process or simply using it intentionally in activities involving learning the english language will also be uncovered. as future educators, the participants of this study are also expected to have the ability to articulate their thoughts using english and comprehend what they hear as they overcome challenges imposed in face-to-face communication especially that they will be teaching in the future. with the advent of communicative language pedagogies, grounded knowledge of activities fosters communicative competence among learners. these essential factors greatly affect the researcher’s goals to identify the communicative orientation of language teaching to better prepare teachers and students with the attainment there of. methods this study employed a classroom discourse analysis in qualitative research design applying the communicative orientation of language teaching (colt) observation scheme of allen, et al. (1984). field notes and video recording are used a data-gathering technique. classroom discourse analysis refers to a method that studies the language which students and teacher use for communication in a context. its medium is through talking or conversation that most teaching takes place in a face-to-face classroom situation. rumenapp (2016) highlights the following importance of classroom discourse analysis: 1) it can be a tool for on-going teacher development as it helps in the understanding of student-teacher interaction in a classroom; 2) analyzing discourse can lead to a more dynamic view of identity, and 3) awareness of the role of language in positioning students may lead to change in pedagogy in teaching through analyzing classroom discourse. the study was conducted at bukidnon state university (buksu) main campus. it is located in the capital city of the province of bukidnon, malaybalay. college of education, as the flagship of buksu, caters to students coming from the different parts of the province and even in the region. buksu-college of education is one of the largest teacher training institutions in the province and has proudly produced graduates who were among the top ten licensure examination for teachers (let) placers. its main objective for its learners is to be equipped with the knowledge and skills in teaching and be efficient future educators and professionals. bse english as one of the programs of the college ensures the development of future english educators in their proficiency in oral and written communication and hardly trains them as effective language teachers in the future, where they are not only expected to be efficient in communication but also share their knowledge about the language and develop their future students’ capacity to functionally use the language. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 209 the main participants of the study are first-year college students of the college of education (coe) with english as their major course in the secondary education program. the class is composed of 32 students (7 boys and 25 girls), and the subject under which the observation transpired was purposive communication during the first semester of the school year 2019-2020. based on the researcher’s observation, these students differ in their level of communicative competence as they differ in their orientation on the use of target language, information gap, sustained speech, reaction to code or message, incorporation of preceding utterances, discourse initiation and relative restriction of linguistic form. qualitative perspectives and techniques were followed in the data collection. these included the natural recurring situation in-classroom observation and checklist for field notes and audio-video recording were utilized. the researcher personally observed the participants four times during their classes employing the communicative orientation of language teaching colt observation scheme. transcribed observations were gradually analyzed and coded through a validated codebook, which indicators are also adapted from the colt observation scheme of allen et al. (1984). results and discussion communicative events and activity types in the english language classroom activities that develop communication play a key role in clt as one of the methods to better promote training for students’ communicative competence. with these activities come the different events that are evident in the classroom observation. allen, et. al (1984) state that these communicative events show how learners involved themselves in language learning whether in a group or as an individual, reflects the lesson content which involves the classroom management, topic range, and topic control, identify students’ mode of communication either through reading, writing, listening, speaking, or viewing, and classify materials according to its type, source, and length of use. activity type is one foretelling indicator of achieving classroom goals in terms of communicative teaching. educators must plan out activities in classrooms to provide an immense communicative experience among students, as gunduz (2004) mentions that activity type is the first factor that predicts success in allowing students to communicate freely and achieve the goals of communicative teaching. mantei and kervin (2009) state that authentic activities are learning opportunities that teachers design and aim to facilitate students’ participation in ordinary practices and events of a group. therefore, classroom activities should allow learners to meaningfully interact and develop their fluency in the use of language (laksanasut, 2020). below is a summary table on the activity types and the communicative events in an english language classroom. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 210 table 1. summary table of communicative events in the english language classroom from the four observations, ten activity types surfaced (class discussion, role-play, storytelling, tedtalk, and question and answer), and the teacher used at least two to three activity types per meeting. the activity type was largely dependent on the topic and lesson for the day. a review of the previous lesson was done twice in introducing a new lesson among students. this was used as a springboard for the new lesson to be discussed. the class discussion was used mostly in one hour during the classroom observation. students use this activity type to express direct answers to a question with few words only. depending on the exchange, the students' answers during the discussion allows for a longer language exchange. however, not all answers led to further discussion, as observed. spada (1985) points out that teachers commonly use the discussion method in allowing students to pitch in their ideas on a topic. a role-play was also observed in the class observation; this was used to allow students to use specific language functions in an actual context of communicative exchange. this allowed students to contextually use language functions and letting them explore language as a whole. frohlich (1984) postulates that students’ self-expression of the actual language use strengthens one’s communicative skills and that students must be given chances to communicate following their context and level. this was seen through the richness of language use and exchange during the role play. the assumption of roles during this activity type using definite function adds to the claim by frolich (1984) that it strengthens language use. participant organization as communicative event in english language classroom another indicator that builds up the colt scheme is on participant organization. this describes how students are organized as participants in classroom interactions. mckay http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 211 (1994) emphasized that there are pieces of evidence that communicative patterns in language classrooms are affected by participant organization. this is how students are grouped and interact within the class. it can be gleaned that in four observations, student to student interaction is apparent, which is a positive characteristic of a language classroom, according to krashen (1994). if the student to student interaction is evident, this means classroom competition and anxiety in language learning is low. if this is low, it will allow students to freely use the target language, which is the goal of clt. moreover, the tasks given to the students were the same, which can be improved in a clt classroom to cater to individual differences, and the different learning styles will be met. varied classroom tasks are one success indicator, according to kolb (1984), letting learners do different tasks, but with one objective can give way for maximum learning opportunities. the sameness of the task, in this case, is also due to standardized assessments in classroom activities, which the teacher likely was thinking of in planning the tasks for the class. in participation, groupings and individualized activities were both used by the teacher during the observation (see table 1). this may be due to the evaluative aspects of language teaching that comes with mastery of language among students. spada (1984) mentions how class size may affect participant organization. according to toro, et.al (2018), group work, which highly involves student interaction, is one strategy of clt which can improve students’ communicative competence. alfares (2012) also mentioned that group could encourage fluency in the language, which enables students to discuss issues or engage in activities that can push them to talk or share their thoughts. however, this goal of grouping students in activities only works when teachers also ensure that there is real interaction and collaboration happening in a group. in the case of the english class observed, class size was at thirty, and grouping students together may only be due to a specific learning objective. if a learning objective is achievable by making tasks individualized and class size and class time will suffice, then teachers most likely resort to using individual tasks as to participant organization. content as communicative event in english language classroom the result of the study relating to content was focused on discipline, which in this case is the english language intertwined with the subject matter, which is purposive communication. language proponents such as frohm (2009) believes that using the target language most often results in strengthened language fluency over time. it is vital that teachers enforce content on the english language because it means many other things, for example, vocabulary learning in context. for the second category for content, language focus is exemplified. among the four subcategories of language focus, two indicators surfaced through the classroom observation. these are language functions and discourse. function targets the development of how language functions within the different contexts are used (mohan and slater 2005). discourse, on the other hand, is the intended meaning in a given context. halliday (2002) magnifies the importance of students knowing how language functions work. halliday (2002) believes that as one’s knowledge in language functions deepen, his/her ability to communicate fluently is also achieved. the other sessions also revealed that discourse is used as content in language learning (see table 1). the students were made to create their http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 212 version of tedtalk after being able to see what one is like and were given the liberty to choose which topic they are to present in class. after each student had delivered his/her speech, the class as a whole dissected the meaning and implications of the speech. koteyko (2014) claims that one of the least learned aspects of language is pragmatics, specifically, discourse analysis among learners. content also contains the range of content discussed in class which appears to be a more limited range in the four sessions. it can be gleaned that a limited range of content in the four-session with corresponding episode or activity, which are question and answer, role play, and discussion, also the four sessions revealed a broad range of topics. the topic ranges do not solely vary on the subject matter, but the questions and answers of students as well can allow for a spectrum of topics. this was observed during the sessions when one student clarifies something as a result of an experience that is related to the content being discussed. topic control, as another category of content, points out that the topics were equally controlled by students and the teacher. in connection to the discussion above on content range, content range may be broad if students control the topic following their insights, questions, and observations outside the main content being learned in class. this shared control of the topic is one aspect that promotes high-class interaction, according to laksanasut (2020). student modality as a communicative event in english language classroom student modality, as defined by allen, et. al. (1983), are the students’ various skills which may be involved in a classroom activity. sadiku (2015) explained that each skill – listening, reading, speaking, writing, and viewing, is as important as the others and are the necessities in language learning. their main purpose as being used in classroom activities should help meet the students’ standards in gradually developing their communicative competence. furthermore, teachers develop varied instructions and activities to ensure that students can learn in their preferred modality. the study reveals that among the five macro skills of language, speaking, in general, was used as a mode of communication (see table 1). this may be because it was a purposive communication class that focuses on oral communication. although the course syllabus revealed that students also had activities that involved other modalities, during the class observations, only speaking and listening were observed. this is also partly because the time of the observation fell on the dates where the skill to be learned was oral fluency. materials as a communicative event in english language classroom rich materials and resources for learning are as important as the content and pedagogy itself, as claimed by kolb (1990) in teaching. however, during the four sessions observed, it was only in session three, where an educational material was used to facilitate learning and discussion. the material was identified as an audio-visual, minimal, non-pedagogic, and minimally controlled. the material used during this session was presented by the student through a power-point presentation that contains the components of the student’s speech. it was only used to springboard the main task, which was to deliver a speech like that of a http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 213 tedtalk. the use of the ppt this way makes it non-pedagogic because it is from the student’s end to facilitate the attainment of the main objective for that class. communicative features in english language classroom the second major component of colt is the communicative features that refer to any distinctive characteristics in communication in a certain situation. based on allen’s (1983) idea of colt, this major component has corresponding categories and sub-categories: use of target language, information gap, sustained speech, reaction to code or message, incorporation of preceding utterances, discourse initiation, and relative restriction of linguistic form. use of target as a communicative feature in english language classroom the use of target language feature covered two categories, l1 and l2. l1 refers to the use of the first language, which is cebuano, and l2 refers to the use of the target language, which is english. the researcher included the use of code-switching and fillers since these two, as other use of language, were also observed in the class used both by the students and the teacher. the researcher found out that in the ten activity types during the four class observations, the students used the l2 compared to the l1, as can be seen by the frequency of use of the target language. table 2. use of target language as communicative feature in english language classroom the study reveals that among college students taking english classes, both the teacher and the students strive to communicate in the target language, which is english (see table 2). the subject in which the observation happened was in a purposive communication class, which requires students to use the target language during interaction and class discussions. selinker (1997) claims that the more often one uses target language in communication, he/she will more likely develop fluency in the target language. the teacher is also obliged to use english as a medium of instruction as it is an english class. the coded data also reveals other features and these are the use of code-switching and fillers in oral communication, which are basic characteristics of language learning from a first language to a second language, as claimed by gonduz (2004). there are parts of the conversations where there are insertions of these cebuano (l1) phrases in a language exchange that uses english as the target language. some of these uttered lines are mostly in http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 214 english, but with insertions of words and lines like and ‘what was that again? hala nakalimut na sila, and mao nang giingun nga you learn now forget later. this goes the same to students who also uttered both l1 & l2 like: how we make our decisions sa atong life, choose the right path for us bitaw to, and at first… yeah kanang. these utterances are considered as codeswitching in the context of a single conversation as defined by poplack (1980) cited by azlan and narasuman (2012) when a speaker moves between two or more languages. brown (1986) mentioned that a filler word is a meaningless word, phrase, or sound that marks a pause or hesitation in speech. krashen’s (1990) view on the use of fillers also indicates a lack of fluency among second-language speakers. however, torky (2006) proves in his study that fillers allow for a think time in putting together thoughts before communicating as found in the sample above, “ahm, if i would speak…” discloses that the filler functioned as a think time for the student to process his / her thoughts rather than a sign of language incompetence. this is because the filler was followed by an answer to the question raised by the teacher. information gap as a communicative feature in english language classroom another communicative feature is the information gap. this feature refers to the extent to which the information requested and exchanged is unpredictable – meaning not known in advance (allen et al., 1983). from the four sub-categories of information gap, result of the study shows that in requesting information, more of the coded feature is genuine-requests, and in giving information relatively predictable has a little higher frequency than the relatively unpredictable. ismaili and bajrami (2016) support that one of the features in language learning that promotes communicative competence is information gap activities. also, they promote student-centered classrooms that may increase intrinsic motivation and inspire critical thinking, and increases students talking time (jondeya, 2011). from the students’ group conversations, it can be understood that in requesting information , it is genuinely asked and is not anticipated ahead. this happened because, during their group practice for their presentation, students just share their thoughts naturally on how they will present their scene. however, each group was given a specific situation to present. communicative language teaching (clt) aims that students and language learners can request and give accurate information in a communicative discourse. this is the main goal of clt to allow for a free flow of ideas in communicating within the range of the topic (richards, 2006) http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 215 table 3. information gap as a communicative feature in english language classroom in giving or responding to information/request, most of the students’ utterances were their answers from the review of the lesson activity in the class. the students answered the questions of the teacher and provide information, which the student already possesses from the previous discussions. these pieces of information are the expected answers to the questions. it can be presumed that the information was known already since the student was able to give out the proper term and answer after the teacher clarified the specific word. roehr (2007) measures language competence through one’s ability to give out correct information in parallel to what is being requested. however, theories about the nature of communication emphasize that a high degree of unpredictability is a characteristic of natural language use (bree & candlin, 1980, marrow, 1981; widdowsosn, 1978; canale, 1983). although the data used may not be conclusive enough to indicate such in this communicative event maybe because of the nature of the activity, which is a review on the previous lesson, it is still worth noting that students in english classes possess this communicative feature. sustained speech as communicative feature in english language classroom sustained speech as a communicative function is intended to calculate the degree to which speakers participate in speech or restrict their conversation to a minimum of one sentence, clause, or word (allen et al., 1983). it is categorized as ultra-minimal, minimal, and sustained. table 4. sustained speech as a communicative feature in english language classroom http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 216 research indicates that in the four sessions observed, student’s responses are mostly minimal and not sustained speeches. this means that students’ interactions in oral exchanges using l1 and l2 are usually limited and not sustained. minimal is characterized as a phrase or string of words delivered upon interaction. in general, the class observed presented the largest number of minimal utterances from the three categories and is followed by sustained. these minimal utterances, which are mostly observed, are answers to the information requested by the teacher and from the whole class. with sustained speech as the second-highest number, these are continued or follow-up information that the students and teacher shared. during the observation, there were instances that the teacher made most of the conversations, especially in giving of directives, in the review of previous lessons, and the execution of every activity. although there might be more opportunities for conversations and the students were able to speak for as long as they wish, they usually chose to answer in a minimal possible way. explicit code reaction as a communicative feature in english language classroom even worth remembering is that the least observed communicative feature is on explicit code reaction. this pertains to the teacher or student feedback, correction, or cues that would lead to the correctness of speech of the speaker, according to allen (1984). table 5. reaction to code or message based on the result presented in table 5 there were only seven occurrences of this type of communicative feature in all four class observations. this communicative feature is on feedback or redirection to an error or mistake done by one of the interlocutors. this feedback aims to redirect the speaker into using the correct form of the uttered error. spada (1985) believed that the explicit code reaction allows immediate feedback among errors done by l2 learners. as these language errors occur, students’ structural framework of the language develops. if errors are not corrected, these would likely be thought of as correct utterances by the students, which is why immediate and explicit feedback should be done by teachers or language facilitators in cases where these are observed. an example utterance which falls on the correction of use of word was when the student used the auxiliary verb ‘are’ to show an action done the other night, as in “just last night, april and i are about to go home,” and even before the student can finish the sentence, the teacher and the other students said, “were.” this auxiliary verb was said after a phrase containing a grammatical error by the teacher and the students, and the student immediately corrected his/her speech. allen et al. (1984) points out that reaction to code or message as a communicative feature should allow students to communicate with proper feedback and http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 217 correction to make the utterance accurate, but not to the point that the speaker’s affective filter will be heightened. incorporation of preceding utterances as a communicative feature in english language classroom. the fifth communicative feature of part b of colt is the incorporation of preceding utterances as the fifth communicative feature of part b of colt refers to the different ways that participants may react to each other’s contributions in the conversation. in a certain conversation, there may be different reactions. these could be a comment or reaction or clarification, elaboration, or expansion. table 6. incorporation of preceding utterances as a communicative feature in english language classroom among the six sub-categories that were all observed, the most prevalent sub-category is expansion. this communicative feature deals with an extension of a specified context during communicative exchanges. the least observed is paraphrasing, which was observed 26 times only in an average time frame of four hours in all four class observations. the most common activity type used during the time of the class observations was discussion. the discussions that are done between the teacher and the students centered on one topic, which was about speech communications and other things attached to this activity. as presumed, students who were called gave out specific answers to a given content, which can be categorized as expansion, thus, getting the highest occurrence among five sub-categories of incorporation of preceding utterances. discourse initiation as a communicative feature in english language classroom discourse initiation presents the equality in discourse roles and rights in which the speaker may or may not only respond to elicitations but also spontaneously initiate a talk. the two categories of this feature are: students as the initiator while the teacher is the responder, and students as the responder while the teacher is the initiator. in the usual language classes, the classroom environment appears to be opposite in the outside environment where natural or spontaneous interaction happens. table 7 below presents the result of students’ discourse initiation in english language class. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 218 table 7. discourse initiation as a communicative feature the study revealed that students as initiators got a higher percentage. this shows that students are capable of discourse initiation in a communicative exchange. spada (1984) believes that active language learners are much ready for serious communicative tasks than those passive ones. passive learners are those who only respond rather than initiate conversations or discourses. encouraging students to initiate interaction is a major goal for clt because it does not limit the student’s responses and allow l2 learners to express themselves through communicating in the target language. in clt’s framework, the preciseness and accuracy are only secondary to fluency. fluency is measured by one’s ability to get ideas across and to allow oneself to communicate without anxiety or fear. relative restriction of linguistic form as a communicative feature in english language classroom the last communicative feature of colt is the relative restriction of linguistic form. this feature explains the use of a wide variety of linguistic forms to express the meaning that the speaker wishes to convey. this feature has three sub-categories: the restricted use, limited restriction, and unrestricted use. table 8. relative restriction of linguistic form as a communicative feature the result of the study reveals that students’ communicative use of the target language is somehow unrestricted. however, restricted and limited use of the target language does not lag far behind as a communicative feature. this leads back to what allen (1985) suggested that teachers’ preparation and the instructional plan has to include opportunities for students to use language without limit and restrictions but adhering to language appropriateness and form. unrestricted use of linguistic forms suggests that the environment where the students are in promotes a healthy exchange of conversation among http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 219 second language learners. spada (1985) suggests that language experts must only facilitate the exchange without having to limit the opportunities for conversations and language use. conclusion the following conclusions are drawn based on the findings of the study: 1. on communicative events: a. because participant organization is mainly student to student and has utilized both individual and group work, hence, english classrooms implored cooperative teaching strategies in the class activities; b. if the content was mainly on discipline, function, discourse, and teacher controlled which were all in a limited range, then the teacher adhered to the required content for the subject taught; c. if student modality focused on speaking, thus, clt’s goals were met but the three other macro skills were disregarded during observation; and d. if materials are minimally used, therefore, the production of materials for english classes was not observed. 2. on communicative features a. since students used l2 more than l1 in all activity types, therefore students are more comfortable in using the target language in most cases in their classes; b. because students generally used information gaps, then it follows that requesting and giving of information in the classroom were considered regardless of the activities; c. since students have manifested minimal and sustained speech, then it can be concluded that students engage in extended interactions in the different classroom activities; d. students’ reaction to code or message were found as low, therefore attention to the correctness or incorrectness of the words or sentences were not given much priority inside the classroom; e. in the incorporation of preceding utterances, expansion, commenting, and elaboration are manifested; thus, students tend to react to other students’ or the teacher’s contribution in speech acts. f. in terms of discourse initiation, students mostly initiate in talks; therefore, students are active speakers, and the objective of the subject purposive communication was followed. g. since the relative restriction of linguistic form was rarely observed in the students’ conversations, it can be assumed that in class discussions, students were not encouraged to use language freely. recommendations 1. language teachers must put much thought and planning in designing the lessons which will emphasize the goals of clt, which is to give ample avenue for students to communicate. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 220 2. language teachers must see to it that communicative competence must be developed among students keeping in mind communicative features as part of skills to be developed. 3. english language curriculum must plan out activities that would encourage students to communicate more openly. 4. schools must reinforce teachers’ knowledge and competence in developing lessons and activities through seminars and workshops. 5. further studies may be conducted on this aspect, investigating mainly on communicative features applied among different learners with different planned activities to evaluate how language teachers can optimize classroom time for higher interaction among students. acknowledgment the researcher would like to express her profound gratitude and appreciation to the following people who are in one way or another, had helped in the realization of this research endeavor. 1. dr. oscar b. cabañelez, president, bukidnon state university and dr. estela c. itaas, former vice president for academic affairs of bukidnon state university, for supporting all academic pursuits of the researcher; 2. dr. hazel jean m. abejuela, vice president for academic affairs of bukidnon state university, program director, chairman of the thesis committee and professor, for her expertise in teaching and assistance in the crafting and accomplishment of this paper; 3. ms. gem aiah b. blanco, the researcher’s thesis adviser and motivator, for her academic intellect, constant encouragement and patience in giving comments, suggestions, and providing input as great help for the success of this endeavor; 4. prof. lina c. hidalgo, member of the panel of experts, for her valuable time and suggestions for the improvement of this study and ms. ann sheila c. del rosario, member, professor, code book validator and inter-coder, for her consistent support and motivation to the researcher, and for providing enough idea for the completion of this work; 5. dr. beverly g. taga, secretary, for patiently recording the minutes during thesis presentation, and ms. katherine b. akut, inter-coder, for her effort in coding the data; 6. dr. elle christine d. melendez, dr. rizza r. consad, dr. maribel g. valdez, dr. edna t. maganding, ms. amor m. clarido, ms. salome l. escalona, ms. grenna marie joy p. simene, mr. derren gaylo, and ms. lora e. añar, the researcher’s professors, for their guide, input, and encouragement; 7. dr. mercidita s. villamayor, dean of the college of education, for her untiring support and encouragement; 8. to the coe faculty especially the bse program faculty, for the good relationship, guidance and motivation to the researcher as their colleague; to ms. desiree a. barroso, bse program chair of the college of education, for keeping the researcher motivated and challenged to finish this work; to ma’am catherine d. libertad and ma’am daisy c. mugot, two of the researcher’s favorite college instructors and now colleagues, for the love, encouragement, and guidance; http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 221 9. to ms. katrina faith m. melig for her willingness to welcome the researcher during the observation in her class and to the bse-english first students for their participation of this study; 10. to the researcher’s family, friends, and relatives, both ceballos and mier family, especially carl and clyde – the life of the researcher, for their unconditional understanding and untiring support to lighten up the pressure; 11. above all, to the almighty father, the source of all wisdom and strength, who provides the researcher with knowledge and courage to pursue this piece of work, to him alone, the researcher gives honor and glory! references allen, p., frohlich, m., & spada, n. 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(2015). improving listening skill by activating students’ prior knowledge poplack, s. (1980). "sometimes i'll start a sentence in spanish y termino en espa ol": toward a typology of code-switching. linguistics 18(7/8): 581-618. richards, jack (2006). communicative language teaching today. cambridge: cambridge university press http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 https://www.scribbr.com/methodology/discourse-analysis/ copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 223 rogers, c. r. (1986). development of the person-centered approach rost, m. (1994). the teaching of listening. edited by r. carter & d. nunan: the cambridge guide to teaching english to speakers of other languages rumenapp, j. (2016). analyzing discourse analysis: teachers’ views of classroom discourse and student identity sadiku, l.m. (2015). the importance of four skills reading, speaking, writing, listening in a lesson hour. european journal of language and literature. selinker, l. (1997). rediscovering interlanguage. london: longman. torky, s. (2006). the effectiveness of a task-based instruction program in developing the english language speaking skills of secondary stage students toro, v., pinza, e., camacho-minuche, g., & paredes, f. (2018). the use of the communicative language teaching approach to improve students’ oral skills widdowson, h.g. (2007). discourse analysis. oxford introduction to language study http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 1 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license developing reading worksheet for tenth grade students of sma negeri 4 palopo 1lestari, 2dewi furwana, 3muhammad iksan 1,2,3state islamic institute (iain palopo), indonesia dewifurwana@yahoo.com abstract this research about developing students' reading worksheet of tenth grade at sma negeri 4 palopo, the researcher formulated the research question as follow: what kind of reading worksheet are suitable for tenth students'. the objective of this research is to create and develop reading worksheets for tenth-grade students' by using the addie design model. in this research and development from the addie model, this consists of analyzing, designing, implementation, and evaluating. there are 14 students and two experts' validation. the instrument of the data collection is a questioner. the result of the research shows that the researcher develops and make a product based on the students' need. and the development of this product is also carried out based on the syllabus and curriculum that apply in the school itself. based on the worksheet, have a development already appropriate necessity and lack of the students, and with the development worksheet would students' reading ability. keyword: developing, reading, worksheet. introduction the use of students' worksheets or speak bahasa lks in teaching reading comprehension is importantly needed because it covers many kinds of exercises, reading, and activity. it will make students more active in learning reading. the use of worksheets in the teaching and learning process is really helpful for both teachers and students. besides that, the worksheet created for a tenth grade should be based on the curriculum, which is implemented in sma negeri 4 palopo. the base of observation the researcher found out the weakness of the study, including unsystematic and inappropriate reading learning media, which were taught by the study without considering the learner's need bases on their english competency levels (enever, 2014). hence in this study, the researcher focused on developing materials to make worksheet media. the researcher found many kinds of problems that we never found before, usually composed of how to solve them or what to do about them. in this case, students problem in doing the reading is that he does not know the language all enough or chunk effectively. based on the problem statement above, the researcher formulates the research question as follows: "what kind of reading worksheets is appropriate for tenth-grade students at sman 4 palopo?" the objective of this research is to create and develop reading worksheet for the tenth-grade students by using the addie design model (wang & hsu, 2008)that the students become more accustomed to the exercises and types of reading this worksheet will drive the students to improve their comprehension in reading for tenth grade and the other side, to help the teacher to teach and as a reference into the teaching of sma negeri 4 palopo. methods procedures of development the research analyzed the syllabus used to gain information about the objective of the course and the materials needed by students. after analyzed the objective and material, research would consult them to the two experts and the lectures to decide whether the objective should be revised or not. the researcher also got information about students' compounds in reading ability http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ mailto:dewifurwana@yahoo.com copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 2 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license from the observation. the research would researcher the objective of the course and selected the delivery materials. after that, research sequences the materials from the easiest to most difficult. also, the researcher designed the selected materials in the form of worksheet and audio learning materials that appropriate and qualify learning materials (iksan & dirham, 2018). it is for increasing students' skills in reading. the researchers develop and make a product according to need. shortcoming of students', and the development of this product is also carried out based on syllabus and curricula that apply in the school itself. before the researcher asks the teacher to use research, researchers in the researcher product in class validating by using small forum group discussion (fgd) is the earlier action that research did. in other words, the worksheet would develop by applying this product to the students. the product to the tenth grade at sma negeri 4 palopo and this step finally until the first and fourth steps. the researcher try-out the worksheet reading for students design of the material try-out before making a worksheet for use in reading in the tenth grade, the researcher will interview and give the questionnaire to the students who become samples from each class. so, the researcher can know their need to increase their reading skill. after knowing students' needs, the researcher will design worksheets that suitable and appropriate for applying in their class. then, the worksheet that already made by the researcher will be given to the teacher to use in the class for teaching the object of this study. this aims to get information (feedback) from the student about the worksheet. after the end of the class, the researcher will give the second questionnaire to the students and also the teacher for qualifying the worksheet that they used and also enactive the worksheet. is that suitable or not. the population in this researcher is all students at tenth grade, sma negeri 4 of palopo. and the sample of this researcher is one class (1 class). this research will be conducted at agustus 2018 until the end of tenth grade sma negeri 4 palopo. this research would be conducted at the sma negeri 4 of palopo, south sulawesi, especially for students oft tenth grade. the population in this research is all students ips in tenth grade. the sample of this research is 14 students in each class. the research was conducted in agustus 12th 2018. procedure for collecting data the researcher would be given some questionnaires to the students, and collecting information about lacks, wants, and necessities from those questionnaires. the researcher would be observed the condition of students, the class, materials, and the level of the students. the researcher would be used documents and data records to the students and lesson plan, and syllabi. data analysis technique data technique analysis of this research used qualitative and descriptive because the data collected is qualitative data. the researcher gets the data from the questionnaires given to the students and also from the interview to some students and teachers, and it is for the qualitative data. the researcher would be trying to describe and give an explanation of the data taken from the questionnaires and worksheet validity. results based on the questionnaire given to the teacher, the researcher get information about the problem in the student class x what is still need and the lack of students lies in the lack of vocabulary mastery, and from the data that researcher can see that students' prefer in worksheet reading. in this need analysis, the populations consist of 150 students, and the sample consists of of14 students of tenth grade. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 3 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license tabel 4.1 analyze the result of the questionnaire no questions a b c d e 1 1 10 1 2 1 2 2 4 3 6 2 3 3 7 2 1 4 4 4 6 3 4 1 5 5 7 3 4 6 6 7 3 3 1 7 7 7 4 2 1 8 8 4 6 4 9 9 3 3 7 1 10 10 4 6 4 11 11 3 10 1 12 12 2 2 3 5 2 average 64 42 31 28 4 1. result of the question 1. what is your current level of reading mastery? a. basic (lower): knowing a little vocabulary and limited grammar mastery. b. intermediate (upper): although they still have difficulties in vocabulary and grammar, they can engage in writing c. advance: able to read smoothly on most topics, and has only a few obstacles. d. intermedial (lower): knowing a little vocabulary and limited grammar mastery. e. intermediate (upper): although still has difficulties in vocabulary and grammar, but can engage in writing f. advance: able to read smoothly on most topics, and has only a few obstacles. g. others (specify if any) …………………………………………… diagram 4.1 the percentage of the question shows that grade tenth level in ips 2 is still in the basic (lower) level. it shows the percentage of students are choosing option a = 10 students. it means that 85% of students are in the basic (lower) level. 10 1 2 1 a b c d e http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 4 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license 2. the course grid according to the syllabus and curriculum in the school, and this school uses the k 13 curriculum, from this syllabus and curriculum researcher made the material that was used by each school and the creation of this worksheet itself was inseparable from the data and information that had been obtaining from class x in the odd semester. the worksheet made consisted of two-unit, the first unit contains recount text and the second unit contains material about the descriptive text. 3. result of expert validation in this expert validation, the researcher validated the material by giving questionnaires to content and layout experts that contains questions about the product. there are 20 questions in the questions asking about all aspects of the product. those aspects are content and layout, which were assessed by two experts. below are the results from those three experts. a. content validation lecture i question number score question number score 1 2 11 2 2 2 12 3 3 3 13 2 4 3 14 2 5 3 15 3 6 3 16 2 7 2 17 2 8 3 9 1 10 2 total score 40 table 4.2 mean = 40 17 = 2 based on the table above the content validation lecture i the researcher find the question number 1), the expert gave two scores, the question number 2), the expert gave two scores, the question number 3), the expert gave three scores, the question number 4), the expert gave three scores, the question number 5), the expert gave three scores, the question number 6) the expert gave three scores, the question number 7) the expert gave two scores, the question number 8) the expert gave three scores, the question number 9) the expert gave one score, the question number 10) the expert gave two scores, the question number 11) the expert gave two scores, the question number 12) the expert gave three scores, the question number 13) the expert gave two scores, the question number 14) the expert gave two scores, the question number 15) gave three scores, the question number 16) the expert gave two scores. the question number 17) the expert gave two scores. b. content validation lecture ii question number score question number score 1 4 11 4 2 4 12 4 3 4 13 4 4 4 14 4 5 4 15 4 6 4 16 4 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 5 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license 7 4 17 4 8 4 9 4 10 4 total score 68 table 4.3 mean= 68 17 =4 based on the table above the content validation lecture ii the researcher found the in question number 1), the expert gave four scores, in question number 2), the expert gave four scores, the question number 3), the expert gave four scores, in question number 4), the expert gave four scores, in question number 5), the expert gave four scores, in question number 6), the expert gave four scores, in question number 7), the expert gave four scores, in question number 8), the expert gave four scores, in question number 9), the expert gave four scores, in question number 10), the expert gave four scores, the question number 11), the expert gave four scores, in question number 12), the expert gave four scores, in question number 13), the expert gave four scores, the question number 14), the expert gave four scores, the question number 15), the expert gave four scores, in question number 16), the expert gave four scores and in question number 17), the expert gave four scores. from those two tables of experts' validity lecture i, the data show that the reading worksheet designed by the researcher is already qualified to apply in the class. 4. result question for students' conducted to done interview with some student's, the researcher found that: 1. some students like to work in pairs to finish the assignment, and some of them like to work individually to finish the assignment. 2. most of the students are difficult to understand the reading because they are lack vocabulary, and they are difficult to find the main topic of the text. 3. this school does not have a worksheet to students 4. some students like to read because they are think reading makes bored. students need fun activities in these materials. but, some of them also think that reading comprehension materials can help them to increase their ability, especially in reading english. 5. result of the try-out worksheet after researcher try-out, the worksheet in some students, the researcher found that almost students say in terms of the material it's very good and perfect and some students say in terms of design had interested the students in teaching and reading, but one student would the researcher add the games into the worksheet. and conduct try-out the worksheet the students enthusiastic in done the worksheet and students very enjoy and according to the students the worksheet it's very easy. from this result, we could say that the worksheet already in accordance with what in need, desirable, and lack of students. discussion this research has covered all material and the indicator of material. this research can develop many fixtures of text, questions, and exercises. the researchers need to focus on each material. arrange of the material needs need some revision to make students easier to understand reading comprehension. (iksan & palangngan, 2018) the researcher used the long exercises will be difficult for students to understand. the researcher needs to give the vocabulary list in the read of reading text. it would be made students easy to understand the material. add http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 6 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license the vocabulary list also would increase the students' knowledge about the new vocabulary that they never read before. the materials consist of two units. the topics are recount text, write text declarative, interrogative, and text descriptive. the researcher gets information about the problem in the student class x what is still need, and the lack of students lies in the lack of vocabulary mastery. from the data, that researcher can see that students prefer in worksheet reading. and this researcher had five steps: analysis. the research analyzed the syllabus used to gain information about the objective of the course and the materials needed by students. after analyzed the objective and material, research consults them to the two experts and the lectures to decide whether the objective should be revised or not. the researcher also got information about students' competence in reading ability from the observation. design the research designed the objective of the course and selected the delivery materials. after that, research sequences the materials from the easiest to most difficult. also, the researcher designed the selected materials in the form of worksheet and audio learning materials that appropriate and qualify learning materials. it is for increasing students' skills in reading. development in this step, the researcher develops the material design of the media. the designed what the component of the worksheet, what kinds in the worksheet, how to design material from the syllabus and curriculum implementation. before the researcher asks the teacher to use research, researchers in the researcher product in class validating by using small forum group discussion (fgd) is the earlier action that research did. in other words, the worksheet would develop by applying this product to the students—the product to the tenth grade at sma negeri 4 palopo. the researcher evaluated the worksheet that has been developed, and the evaluation is done to the 10grade students to find out how the students respond to the worksheet presented by the researcher. the researchers develop and make a product in according with need and shortcomings of students', and the development of this product is also carried out on based on syllabus and curricula that apply in the school itself. before the researcher ask the teacher to use research researchers in the researcher product in class validating by using small forum group d iscussion (fgd) is the earlier action that research did. in other words, the worksheet would develop by applying this product to the students—the product to the tenth grade at sma negeri 4 palopo. after all the step of analyzed, designed, development, implementation, evaluate had been done, the researchers concluded that students use in sman 4 palopo. the researcher try-out the worksheet to the students. this research with the research by is this research made a worksheet as a media and research by the siti munirah made an article as media. this research used 14 students, and the research by the nurul halima used 20 students. and the similarity of this research from previous research is that both want to make a media to facilitate students in learning and to improve students' reading skills. conclusion a worksheet that is suitable for palopo 10th grade students is a worksheet that matches the worksheet class that matches the needs, disadvantages, of the students, and in accordance with the syllabus and curriculum that applies and is used in the school. the primary purpose of the research is to develop reading worksheet material for tenth-grade students in an odd semester. this worksheet developed to help students and teachers in the teaching and learning process. this worksheet will help students to understand and improve their reading ability because the worksheet includes many kinds of readings, questions, activities, and games. based on the student's need analysis, the researcher concluded that most students' abilities in reading still on the basic (lower) level. besides that, most of the student necessity in learning reading is they need to improve their ability in vocabulary section and comprehend, in the other point of view, students lack in mastering vocabulary, the researcher wants to improve the reading by the read many kinds of text such as recount text, and descriptive text. on the other side, the researcher also concluded that the worksheet that the researcher developed already qualified to http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 7 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license apply in the class. it is proven by the expert validation, which shows the interval of the score is "appropriate." references abdullah idi. pengembangan kurikulum teori dan praktik. 2007. yogyakarta: ar ruzz media. bachtiar. 2007. implementasi pengembangan content curriculum dalam proses perencanaanpembelajaran. google scholar. surabaya: universitas negeri surabaya. borg and gall (1983).educational research, an introduction. new york and london. longman inc. bambang sutedjo,pengembangan bahan salinan bambang sutedjo pengembangan bahan ajar.http:id.wikipedia.org/wiki/wikipedia: hak_cipta,diakses tgl 8 mei 2017 pkl 22.00 wita.salinan danielle s mcnamara. 2006. reading comprehension strategy. ( new year). p. 3 emzir. 2011. metodologi penelitian pendidikan. jakarta: raja grafindopersada. enever, j. (2014). primary english teacher education in europe. elt journal, 68(3), 231–242. https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/cct079 grellet, f.i(developing reading skill, cambridge university press 1982 hasanah, uswatun. 2015. penerapan bahan ajar worksheet dalam mencaapai ketuntasan belajar siswa. google scholar. blitar indonesia: state islamic institute of tulungagung. iksan, m., & dirham, d. (2018). the influence of the economic students' motivations and language learning strategies towards their english achievement in stie muhammadiyah palopo. ethical lingua: journal of language teaching and literature, 5(1), 110–121. https://doi.org/10.30605/ethicallingua.v5i1.737 iksan, m., & palangngan, s. t. (2018). pemberdayaan remaja masjid sebagai fasilitator pembelajaran bahasa inggris di desa lestari kecamatan tomoni kabupaten luwu timur. prosiding, 3(1), article 1. http://journal.uncp.ac.id/index.php/proceding/article/view/819 kelly, a.v. (1999). the curriculum: theory and practice (4th ed.). london, uk: paul chapman publishing ltd. marsudi.2014. hakekat kurikulum dan prinsip-prinsip pengembangan kurikulum. google scholar. yogyakarta: pppptk seni dan budaya. metode penelitian research and developing ( r&d) | belajarbahasadansastra http:// berbahasabersastra.blogspot. com /2011/10metode-penelitian –research-and. html morris, p., and adamson, p. (2010). curriculum, schooling, and society in hong kong. hong kong, hksar:hong kong university press. shobirinma’as, subyantoro and rusilowatiani.2013. pengembangan lembar kerja siswa bahasa inggris bermuatan nilai pendidikan karaterkelas v madrasah ibtidaiyah semarang.google schoolar. semarang: journal of primary educational. sukirman. 2008. designing worksheet of english academic word for english education department student at iain palopo.research article.palopo indonesia: islamic institut of palopo. sukirman. 2011. developing language learning materials for undergraduate students. research article.palopo indonesia: american scientific. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 8 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license teori, penelitian dan pengembangan volume 1nomor 7 bulanjulitahun 2016 halaman 1224-1228 wang, s.-k., & hsu, h.-y. (2008). using addie model to design second life activities for online learners. 2045–2050. https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/29946/ wayan, santyasa. (2009). metode penelitian pengembangan & teori pengembangan modul. makalah disajikan dalam pelatihan bagi para guru tk, sd, smp, sma, dan smk tanggal 12-14 januari 2009, di kecamatan nusa penida kabupaten klungkung. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 26 types of problematics that affect undergraduates’ competence in translating english collocations and phrasal verbs fahima mohamed bannur1*, dalya abdullah akkila2, & fawzia mohamed elwafi3 1,2,3university of tripoli, faculty of education, department of english, tripoli, libya. 1,3university of alhadera, department of english, tripoli, libya. *f_mohb@yahoo.com abstract this study aims at exploring the libyan undergraduates’ capability in comprehending english collocations and phrasal verbs and translating them into arabic. it also targets investigating the types of obstacles that these students encounter when they translate english collocational expressions. the methodology used in this study was based on quantitative and qualitative methods where a translation test consists of two main parts was given to sixty two (62) female undergraduates from english department, faculty of education, university of tripoli. in-depth analysis of participants’ answers was performed and the results were reported. the study concluded that the participants faced difficulties in translating english collocations and phrasal verbs. in addition, the translation production reveals that grammatical, lexical, and cultural problems were the main problematic areas identified in students’ answers. these problems are related to the influence of li (arabic), lack of appropriate vocabulary, difficulty in understanding vocabulary use, lack of translation practice, the misuse of literal translation and translation teaching methods. however, though the cultural gap between l1 (arabic) and l2 (english) is huge, it could be minimized and bridged by using new techniques in teaching collocations and translation as well as frequent practice in translation. keywords: english collocations, english competence, phrasal verbs, problems, translation. introduction as collocations and phrasal verbs play a vital role in the translation domain, they need to be taken into serious consideration by trainee translators and students. they also need to be well-defined during translation courses as this will affect the quality of the translation production itself. therefore, this study purports to determine the extent to which english language major undergraduates can comprehend and translate english collocations and phrasal verbs appropriately and identifying the problems that they usually face in translating collocations and phrasal verbs. it is well known that translation has contributed in the spread and development of language cultures. it has also become a focus of recent research as it tries to bridge the gaps that exist across languages, particularly cultural and linguistic ones. in general, as stated by ghazala (1995), translation refers to all the procedures and methods adopted to transfer the meaning of the source language (sl) into the target language (tl). the process of translating texts from english into arabic involves the use of equivalent terms, new words for which http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 27 there is no arabic equivalent, foreign words written in arabic letters, and foreign words modified to fit arabic pronunciation, spelling, and grammar. in addition, ghazala (2008), states that the main focus in translation is meaning which is a set of linguistic elements that includes grammar, vocabulary, style, and phonology. according to him translation difficulty refers to any barriers encountered during translation that causes language users to halt and seek assistance. grammar, vocabulary, style, and sounds may be the core of the issue. for arab learners and libyans among them, the translation of collocations is problematic due to the differences between the two languages in terms of grammar, semantics and culture. these differences appear as a result of the different origins of the two languages: arabic as a semitic language and english as a western language. the word collocation is composed of sections that contain the words “col” (meaning “together, with”), “loc” (meaning “to place or put”), “ate” (a verb suffix), and “ion” (a noun suffix). collocations, in other words, are words that are grouped together (nation, 1990:32). hence, collocation is defined as a common combination of terms in the oxford advanced learner's dictionary (shammas, 2013:107). collocation is a type of word pairing that is characterized as a set of words that work well together. since the middle of the twentieth century, researchers have begun to focus their emphasis on teaching vocabulary, which is seen as more essential than grammatical structures (pawley and syder, 1983). wang and shaw (2008: 103) go on to say that “while learning another language, it is obvious that we must acquire both grammatical accuracy and idiomatic preference.” furthermore, teaching vocabulary using memorization and exercises in isolation is less effective than teaching words in chunks or context. collocation, according to mccarthy (1990:12), is “an organizing element in the lexicon of every language.” in other words, collocations must be taught, especially when the language to be taught is a foreign one. in this regard, lewis (2000:132) defines collocation as “the way in which words cooccur in natural text”. further, richard and schmidt (2002:.87) define collocation as “the way in which words are used together regularly”. hence, collocation refers to the words used frequently together. yet, pecina (2009) asserts that “there is no commonly accepted definition of collocation.” in reality, collocation is the combination of two words where elements are chosen on the basis of meaning. in terms of collocation types, different types were categorized. according to lewis (2000) and ghazala (2008), collocations can be lexical or grammatical. lexical collocations are collocations that combine two content words, such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. for example: verbnoun, e.g. (run accompany: شركة يدير ) adjective-noun, e.g. (warm reception: حار استقبال ), noun-noun e.g. (nerve cell: عصبية خلية ), adjective-adjective, e.g. (right and proper: حال أحسن في ), adverbadverb, e.g. (willy nilly: أبى أم شاء ), and noun-verb, e.g. (doors creak: واباالب صرير ). grammatical collocations are types derived from the combination of one open class word i.e. noun, verb, adjective and one closed class which is mainly a preposition. they can be: noun – preposition e.g. (a protest against: على احتجاج ), preposition noun, e.g. (in advance: ً سلفا ً أو مقدما ), adjectivepreposition, e.g. (fond of: ب مغرم ), verb preposition, e.g. (long for: إلى يشتاق ), and adverb adverb collocations, e.g. (wholly and heartedly: ( الكمال و بالتمام ). http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 28 collocations are crucial for fluency and the use of them can highlight the difference between native speakers and nonnative language learners since natives have already learnt and profited from such ready-made collocational units, whereas efl learners tend to convey their thoughts using long sentences (mccarthy, 1990). hence, learners' lack of understanding of collocations prevents them from using the collocational expressions properly. therefore, when teaching english as a foreign language, collocations must be emphasized since collocational input improves students' fluency and expands their mental vocabulary. unfortunately, both students and teachers place little attention to collocations, making them one of the most difficult areas of vocabulary to master and use (martynska, 2004). in both translation domain, teaching of vocabulary and use of collocations, it is obvious that efl learners encounter various problematic areas in dealing with collocations. collocational use has hindered learners' ability to express themselves in english. in their speaking and writing activities, they have significant difficulties with many sorts of collocational patterns. in a study conducted by sadeghi & panahifar (2013), they demonstrate that different forms of collocations pose difficulties for iranian efl students. the most problematic categories were prepositional collocations in general and verb preposition in particular. this indicates that collocations are hard to be used by efl learners and need specific attention to be taught and practiced in context. zarei (2002) highlights the significance of collocations in achieving native-like english proficiency. he observed that prepositional collocations are the most problematic patterns. boonyasaquan (2006) used a translation test to assess the collocational ability of 32 thai efl students from bangkok university. the adjective-noun pattern was found to be the most difficult to work with. in a comparative study, wang and shaw (2008) demonstrate that the most common collocational mistakes done by chinese and swedish english learners were verbnoun collocations with “have, do, take and make” because learners were unfamiliar with the real patterns. in general, when efl learners produce a foreign language, they make various mistakes. when dealing with collocations, the problem becomes more complicated and numerous collocational mistakes are done. research has shown that english learners use certain techniques to learn collocations. because l2 vocabulary development is usually impacted by their native language (l1), the most common approach is language transfer (swan, 1997). learners may also use the synonymy method, repetition, guessing and overgeneralization. based on this, doughty and williams (1998:26) state that learning a new language is impacted by the student’s previous linguistic knowledge in a principled, if not direct, contrastive way. when a learner's understanding of l1 improves his capability to comprehend l2, this impact can be positive. on the contrary, negative transfer indicates that the learner's ability to comprehend l2 is affected negatively by his knowledge of l1. many researchers believe that language transfer is a main cause of mistakes among foreign language learners. as a result, mistakes caused by transfer have an impact on phonological, syntactic, and semantic elements of language (corder, 1971). as a matter of fact, learners’ native language (l1) influences how they comprehend and utilize collocations (nisselhauf, 2003). however, transfer from the learner's l1 results in adequate production when http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 29 collocations in both languages are identical (ellis, 2008). in arabic and english, for example, the phrase "in reality" appears to be possible. as a consequence, arab students will be able to transfer this collocation from l1 to english easily, (mahmud, 2005). in other words, aberrant collocational structures arise when collocations in the native language and the target language do not match. huang (2001) found that l1 interference in the collocational output of efl taiwanese learners who were given a sentence completion test was apparent. there were collocational patterns created, such as “black horse” for “dark horse.” in reality, when it comes to collocational use, it is noticed that students depend heavily on their l1 knowledge (koya, 2003). similarly, fan (2009) examined the written products of esl students and native students. he concluded that the first group's essays were impacted by their use of l1, particularly for collocational patterns. in addition, sadeghi (2009) found that first language interference was also a noticeable factor of the disparity in collocational use between persian and english learners. furthermore, boonyasaquan (2006) requested a group of thai students to translate some of phrases from their first language to english. in this regard, ellis (1994: 300) claims that where the two collocations in sl and tl were identical, learning could take place easily through positive transfer of the native like form. on the contrary, if the two collocations were different, learning difficulty arose, and errors resulting from negative transfer were likely to occur. as a result, language transfer may lead to a performance gap in efl students’ collocations production. in other words, it is the main source of students’ collocation problems. regarding the misuse of collocations, many researchers reported that synonymy has seemed to be as a popular learning technique. research has shown that arab efl students usually depend on substituting a foreign word by its synonym which leads to ungrammatical collocation. another important element in translation is the translation of phrasal verbs. phrasal verb is usually known as a verb which consists of a verb and a particle. when they combined together, they create one meaning. phrasal verbs have the same properties of english language verbs. they are very common and many people use them spontaneously without even realizing their meaning. according to payne (2011), the main distinction between other kinds of verbs and phrasal verbs, is that phrasal verbs consist of two or three parts: the verb plus a particle or two. phrasal verbs can occur in different syntactic structures and represent various semantic situations. they are in different types; verb-adverb combination e.g. (take off, cut out), verb-preposition combination (go with, look after), and verb-adverbpreposition combination (come up with, put in for). besides, phrasal verbs can be classified in four different types; first, transitive phrasal verb such as (look after, carry on, switch on). this type of verbs requires an object to give a complete meaningful sentence. second, intransitive phrasal verb such as (break down, run away, grow up). this type of phrasal verbs does not require an object in the sentence to make it sound complete. third, separable phrasal verb; in this type, the verb and preposition can be separated. in other words, this phrasal verb can be used as an in-joined form as well as in the separated form, for example, (switch off the lights or switch the lights off). forth, nonhttp://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 30 separable phrasal verb; this type of phrasal verbs cannot be separated for using it in different places in the given sentence and the two parts remain together, for example, (stay away, give up). however, understanding the structure and meaning of phrasal verbs is an important part in learning english as a foreign language. according to ghazala (1995), phrasal verbs are difficult and challenging for arab learners to be translated from english into arabic because they are misleading and are usually confused with prepositional verbs. for him, what makes phrasal verb translation challenging for arab learners is that they are generally unpredicted and unfamiliar to them. as a result, arab learners and libyans among them struggle when they translate english phrasal verbs into arabic and they usually avoid using them and instead they prefer to use single-word verbs. in reality, many phrasal verbs users, both native and non-native, have no idea what they mean and they use them naturally. however, phrasal verbs may have negative impacts on language interpretation by combining the meanings of two or three words into a single unit with a totally different formula and semantic meaning. beneatha (2015) investigates the role of translation from english into arabic as a learning strategy that may assist efl students in appropriately understanding and using english phrasal verbs. the findings of the study demonstrated that students recognized the valuable role of phrasal verbs expressions in learning english. the study also revealed that translation had a negative impact on learning how to use english phrasal verbs. aldahesh (2008) investigates the challenges faced by arabic professional translators and arabic translation students while translating the idiomatic category of english phrasal verbs into arabic. in his study translating idiomatic english phrasal verbs into arabic, translation tests were used to determine the kinds of mistakes and translation difficulties encountered by the study participants. the findings of the study revealed that there are several challenges in translating english phrasal verbs into arabic, including literal translation, mistranslation, idiom reduction to meaning, and violation of the arabic language, along with various errors in translation. saleh (2011) examines the semantic and syntactic issues that prevent students from understanding phrasal verbs in english. to achieve this, a test is administered to fourth-year english language students at tikrit university to assess their understanding of phrasal verbs and identify any difficulties they may face in recognizing and comprehending their exact meaning. the study findings reveal that students encounter many challenges, the most common are idiomaticity, i.e. the unexpected nature of phrasal verbs, and transitivity, i.e. the word order of phrasal verbs can change depending on the object. thus, it can be concluded that efl students encounter different challenges in understanding, producing and translating collocational expressions and phrasal verbs. collocations and phrasal verbs can be regarded as one of the most complicated area in the foreign language learning and teaching domain. based on the previous literature, it can be said that mastering a foreign language (fl) needs more than learning a basic understanding of its grammatical and semantic principles. learners must obtain a deep understanding of how native speakers use language in everyday natural situations by using variety of prepared forms such as collocations and phrasal verbs. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 31 a native speakers’ understanding of their own language allows them to recognize when one collocation is logical and when another is not. unfortunately, libyan learners’ limited english knowledge may not be sufficient to produce the appropriate translation of the collocation. moreover, it is observed that libyan undergraduates have different difficulties in translation where the majority of them encounter challenges in translation especially when they are not allowed to use dictionaries during the translation exams. many libyan students deal with translation as a complicated task and depend heavily on the literal translation which is ineffective in translating collocations and phrasal verbs. as a result, mistakes in translating collocations and phrasal verbs frequently hinder the libyan learners’ speech and writing where collocational expressions need specific understanding and cultural background to be translated appropriately. therefore, the following hypothesis is put forward; libyan undergraduates at the english department, faculty of education, university of tripoli may come across various types of problems in translating english collocations and phrasal verbs due to different factors. hence, the study seeks to find answers to these two questions; firstly, what kind of problematic areas do libyan undergraduates encounter in translating english collocations and phrasal verbs? secondly, what are the factors that affect students’ collocation translation performance? and how students can be assisted to overcome these problems? accordingly, this research aims at exploring the libyan undergraduates’ capability in understanding english collocations and phrasal verbs and translating them into arabic. it also examines the types of problems that these students encounter when they translate collocational expressions into arabic. methods the study adopted quantitative and qualitative methods where the data obtained from test results were in quantitative and qualitative form. it was conducted at the department of english, faculty of education, university of tripoli. the following table summarizes the socio-demographic data of the study participants: table 1. socio-demographic data of the study participants (n=62) variable response frequency percentage faculty education 62 100% department english 62 100% gender female 62 100% male 0 0% age 20-25 years 62 100% semester 4th, 5th, 6th, & 7th 62 100% nationality libyan 62 100% first language (l1) arabic 62 100% as it is shown in table (1) above, all participants are libyan female students aged between 20-25 years. their native language is arabic. they study translation as a http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 32 compulsory subject in the english department, faculty of education, university of tripoli. students were from fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh semesters. to achieve the research objectives and find answers to the research questions, a translation test was designed and used as a main tool to collect data. the test was composed of two parts. in the first part, students were asked to translate seventeen (17) collocations and five (5) phrasal verbs from english into arabic, while in part two; students were asked three open-ended questions to probe their perceptions regarding english collocations and phrasal verbs. the test time was allocated and the test rubrics were reviewed carefully. it was direct, clear and used common collocations and phrasal verbs. it considered the test takers’ language abilities and individual differences. it was administrated to students who have studied the translation course and have background about translation. before the test administration, students were given clear instructions about the purpose of the test and how they should perform throughout the test items. students were asked to answer the test items without using dictionaries. the test papers were collected and corrected by the researchers. test results were used to answer the research questions and to report the final conclusions. data obtained from the test papers were examined, classified and organized manually in tables. each collocation and phrasal verb were organized in a separate table. students’ translation of each collocation and phrasal verb were grouped together to identify the type of problem they made about each expression. then, students’ answers were arranged again in tables to be analyzed systematically. to perform the analysis process, data collected from the translation test were finally organized in two main tables (see table, 2 &3 below). data obtained were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. comments are provided below each table. it is important to know that explanations provided about each collocation and phrasal verbs are supported by samples extracted from students’ incorrect answers in terms of grammatical, lexical and cultural problems with many arabic spelling mistakes. results analyzing students’ translation of english collocations this section presents data obtained from students’ answers based on their translation of seventeen (17) english collocations. the collocations were simple, common and they have equivalents in arabic. table (2) displays students’ responses in terms of correct, incorrect, and left answers. it also reflects the number and type of mistakes the participants committed. most importantly, comments below the table contains some example that have been taken from students’ incorrect answers about each collocation in terms of grammatical, lexical and cultural mistakes based on arabic language. these examples demonstrate the difficulties of comprehending and interpreting the collocational expressions. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 33 table 2. analyzing students’ answers in translating english collocations regarding the collocation “heavy rain”, it seems that this collocation wasn’t difficult for most of the participants because it has an equivalent in their l1. the number of correct answers was forty eight 48 (77.5%), incorrect answers were eleven (11) (17.7%) and three (3) answers were left (4.8%). there were four (4) answers classified as grammatically wrong in terms of arabic grammar where students translated “heavy rain” as (أن يجب تجرًي , من وابل and eight (8) lexical and cultural mistakes where students translated the collocation (االمطار literally as ( االمطار من وابًل , , خفيف مطر ثقيل مطًر ).this indicates that students couldn’t use the exact arabic equivalent of this collocation. for the collocation (snakes hiss), all students translated it incorrectly where fifty five (55) answers (88.7%) were incorrect and seven (7) answers (11.3%) were left. none of the answers was correct. as it is noticed from the table above students’ answers contained many mistakes. these mistakes were grammatical mistakes such as ( , تعابين, سم مثل يتلوء, أفعى صوت فتنه, األفعاء ) and lexical and cultural mistakes such as ( مثل يتلوء, أفعى صوت, سامة أفعى, الثعابين همسة األفعى حفيف, فتنه, األفعاء ). in checking students’ answers in translating the collocation (commit a mistake), it is found that twenty (20) students ( 33.3%) provided correct meaning of the collocation but p articip an t s collocation correct arabic translation participants’ answers types of problems correc t incor rect left gramm atical lexical cultura l 62 heavy rain غزيرًةًأمطار 48 11 3 4 8 8 snakes hiss األفاعيًفحيح 0 55 7 20 24 32 commit a mistake خطًأًيرتكب 20 42 0 24 54 54 bread and butter ملحا ًًوًخبزا ً 10 48 4 8 44 44 pay a visit بزيارةًيقومً/يزور 8 47 7 12 30 45 have a heart رحيما ًًكن 17 42 3 17 38 39 know by heart قلًبًظهرًعنًيحفظ 5 49 8 21 28 47 in a heartbeat تردًدًدونًبسرعة 0 57 5 30 56 57 a big cheese ًًوًمسؤولًشخص مهًم 0 59 3 42 59 59 brain drain ًاألدمغةًهجرة العقول\ 1 53 8 43 48 54 bright victory باهرًانتصار 46 10 6 7 10 10 form and content المضموًنًوًالشكل 6 49 7 47 49 49 trees rustle الشجًرًحفيًف 5 48 9 35 48 48 means and ends الغاياتًوًالوسائل 0 55 7 16 55 55 pass a law قانونا ًًيسن 0 58 4 43 55 56 raging storm هوجاًءًعاصفة 14 38 10 4 38 36 draw a sward سيفا ًًيستل 6 45 11 29 40 43 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 34 these answers contained grammatical mistakes where they translated this collocation as ( خطأ ارتكب ) in the past instead of ( خطأ يرتكب ) in present, forty two (42) students (70%) provided incorrect answers. the incorrect answers contained grammatical mistakes as for example, ( اخطاء, أخطاء يصحح, ذنب اقترف ), lexical and cultural mistakes as ( تراكم, الخطأ على علق الخطأ على علق, أخطاء يصحح, كثيرة أخطاء, األخطاء ). however, there was no left answer. as it is shown in table (2) above, concerning the collocation (bread and butter), only ten (10) students (16.1%) provided correct answers ( ملحا ً و خبزا ً and ملح و عيش ), forty eight (48) answers (77.4%) were incorrect and four (4) answers (6.5%) were left. moreover, in analyzing the type of students’ mistakes, it is found that eight answers (8) had grammatical mistakes such as ( ساهل, ملح العيش ) and forty four (44) lexical and cultural problems as ( و الخبز جدا ً سهل, سهل و صعب, الزبدة ). in investigating the answers related to the collocation (pay a visit), students’ answers showed that only eight (8) answers (12.9%) were correct though some of them were correct in meaning but they were ungrammatical where two students provided answers in the past بزيارة قام ) ), while forty seven (47) answers (75.8%) were incorrect where students committed compound mistakes; i.e. grammatical mistakes as ( الزيارة فرصة, بالصدفة زيارة ), lexical and cultural mistakes such as ( بسح ألة, زيارة ادفع, الزائر يدفع, طيبة زيارًة ) and seven (7)answers (11.3%) were left. for the collocation (have a heart), it is clear that students depended on literal translation. forty two (42) answers (67.7%) were incorrect, seventeen (17) answers (27.4%) were correct, and three (3) answers (4.8%) were left. students’ incorrect answers contained various types of mistakes. for example, in terms of grammatical mistakes students provided answers such as ( قلبا ً امتلك, ضمير يملك, ضمير لديه ), and lexical and cultural mistakes such as ( قلب وجع, االحساس عديم, القلب اتدق, عالي احساس ). regarding the collocation (know by heart), it seems that students found it hard to be translated. only five (5) answers (8.1%) were correct where the participant translated it as ( قلب ظهر عن ). on the other hand, forty nine (49) answers (79.0%) were incorrect and eight answers (12.9%) were left. it is obvious that this collocation was a challenge to all students. different mistakes were pointed; grammatical mistakes such as ( بالقلب تعرف ,قلب ظهر عن عرًف بعقله ليس و بقلبه يعلم ) as well as lexical and cultural mistakes such as ( يعرف, عالي احساس, دليلي قلبي بالفطرة يعرفه, القلب بواسطة ). for the collocation (in a heartbeat), it was translated incorrectly by all participants. the incorrect answers were fifty seven (57) (91.9%) and five (5) answers (8.1%) were left. the translated answers reflected students’ misunderstanding of this collocation where different types of mistakes were identified; grammatical such as ( قلبك اعماق من, حياته في, القلب دقات في ,) lexical and cultural such as ( القلب نوايا القلب دقات من ,الحساس الهدف, القلب نبضات فًي .) hence, all answers were far away from the real meaning of this collocation. it is observed that the collocation (a big cheese) was also hard for all participants. all students translated it incorrectly where they depended on literal translation. fifty nine (59) answers ( 95.2%) were incorrect, three (3) answers (4. 8%) were left. students provided answers with various types of mistakes. these mistakes were classified as grammatical such http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 35 as ( كبير جبن, األكبر راختيا ) and lexical and cultural mistakes such as ( ابتسامة, كبيرة حصة, عظيمة فرصة جميل نصيب, كبيرة ). the collocation (brain drain) was also hard to be translated for the participant. only one answer (1.6%) was correct where the participant translated it as ( األدمغة هجرة ). on the contrary, fifty three (53) answers (85.5%) were incorrect and eight (8) answers (12.9%) were left. the incorrect answers contained three types of mistakes which are grammatical, lexical and cultural. students provided incorrect translation as ( , العقل فقدان, المهجور العقل, جنون فارغ دماغ , بحكمة تصرف, جاف لعق .) it is observed that the collocation (bright victory) was not that hard for the majority of the participants. forty six (46) answers (74.2%) were correct, ten (10) answers (16.1%) were incorrect and six (6) answers (9.7%) were left. grammatical mistakes such as ( انتصار العظيم نصر, ساحق النصر, قاضية ), lexical mistakes such as ( , الصاحق النصر المع انتصار ) and cultural mistakes such as ( معال انتصار, العظيم نصر, قاضية انتصار ) were detected. regarding the collocation (form and content), six (6) answers (9.7%) were correct, forty nine (49) answers (79.0%) were incorrect and seven (7) answers (11.3%) were left. the majority of students understood and translated the word (content) as (محتوى), but as a collocation they couldn’t translate it correctly. grammatical mistakes such as ( و القاعدة المحتويات, المعنى صيغة, المحتويات ) were noticed, lexical and cultural mistakes such as ( قاعدة, الهيكل المعنى صيغة, االتصال و شكل, محتوى ) were also detected. for the collocation (trees rustle), only five (5) answers (8%) were translated correctly, forty eight (48) answers (77.4%) were translated incorrectly and nine (9) answers (14.5%) were left. this indicates that this item was hard to be translated by students. different types of mistakes were counted. these mistakes are grammatical mistakes such as ( , حفيف األشجار متفرعة الشجر ), lexical and cultural mistakes such as ( صوت, األشجار جذور, األشجار غبار, العائلة شجرة األشجار أوراق ). referring to the collocation (means and ends), it is found that all students were unable to translate it correctly. fifty five (55) answers (88.7%) were incorrect and seven (7) answers (11.3%) were left. the provided answers were far from the intended meaning and different mistakes were categorized. all the incorrect answers contained grammatical, lexical and cultural mistakes where students provided answers such as ( معاني, النهاية في العبرًة نهايات و معاني, نهايات و بدايات, نهاية و طريق ,النهايات ). for the collocation (pass a law), it is observed that all participants were incompetent to translate it. fifty eight (58) incorrect answers (93.5%) and four (4) answers (6.5%) were left. the mistakes were clear and reflected students’ poor understanding the target meaning. their answers contained grammatical mistakes such as ( قانون ذعوا, القانون مخالف, القانون تمرير ) as well as lexical and cultural mistakes such as ( يكسر, منخفض تمرير, القانون عن خارج, نونقاال اختراق القانون تمرير, القانون ). this indicates that students know the word (law) and they do not know the meaning of the collocation (pass a law) as one unit. the provided answers showed that students depended on guessing more than realizing the exact meaning of this collocation in arabic. in examining students’ answers for the collocation (raging storm), it is clear that this item wasn’t difficult to be understood by the majority of participants. it is noticed that two http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 36 (2) answers ( هوجاء عاصفة ) were correct (3.2%) and another thirty six (36) (58.1%) were acceptable because students gave nearer correct translation such as ( , عنيفة عاصفة, قوية عاصفة شديدة اصفةع ). on the other hand, fourteen (14) answers (22.6%) were incorrect and ten (10) answers (16.1%) were left. students provided answers that contained grammatical mistakes such as ( عاصفة تحتدم ) and lexical mistakes such as ( الشديد الغضب, وهجاء عاصفة ) and cultural mistakes as ( غضب ثورة, عنيفة عاصفة, الشديد الغضب ). regarding the final collocation given in the translation test (draw a sward), it is noticed that only six (6) answers (9.7%) were near the correct answer where students translated the item as السيف يسحب) ) and no one translated it as ( سيفا ً يستل ). this indicates that the participants have a cultural gap even in their first language (arabic) where they do not know the word (يستل) as well as the arabic collocation ( سيفا ً يستل ). it seems that even this item was difficult were forty five (45) answers (72.6%) were incorrect and eleven (11) answers (17.7%) were left. grammatical mistakes such as ( سيفا رسًم, خطة لرسًم ), lexical and cultural mistakes such as ( سيفا ً رسم, سيفا ً ارسم ,سيفا ً يسحب ) were observed. analyzing students’ translation of english phrasal verbs this section displays data obtained from students’ answers based on their translation of five (5) english phrasal verbs. these phrasal verbs were clear and common. table (3) displays students’ responses in terms of correct, incorrect, and left answers. it also shows the type and number of grammatical, lexical, and cultural, mistakes that were committed by the participant. however, students’ answers contained many arabic spelling mistakes as it is shown in the comments below. table 3. analyzing students’ answers in translating english phrasal verbs regarding the phrasal verb (slow down), it seems that it wasn’t hard for the majority of students though many of them used the word (يبطئ) in their translation which is not the exact meaning of the collocation. forty three (43) answers (69.4%) were correct, seventeen (17) answers (27.4%) were incorrect and only two (2) answers (3.2%) were left. though the majority of participants figured out the meaning but grammatical mistakes such as (بطء, اهدأ ببطء، لألسفل ) as well as lexical and cultural mistakes such as ( بتأني, ببطئ ينزل, أبطا ) were found. p articip an ts phrasal verb correct arabic translation participants’ answers type of problem correc t incorre ct left gram matica l lexica l cultura l 6 2 slow down 17 16 8 2 17 43 تمهل /تأن /السرعة خفف think up 46 46 8 4 46 12 فكرًة كون اخترع figure out حل-قرر اكتشف يستنتًج -ستخرجا 7 50 5 9 46 48 go on 9 10 4 1 11 50 استمر / تابع come up with فكرة يقترًح ابتكر – أدرك حل او خطة او 6 48 8 8 45 48 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 37 though the phrasal verb (think up) wasn’t difficult, many students translated it as an infinitive verb (يفكر).there were twelve (12) correct answers (19.3), forty six (46) incorrect answers (74.2%) and four (4) answers (6.5%) were left. students did some grammatical mistakes such as ( أعتقد,التفكير أرفع ), lexical and cultural mistakes such as ( التنبؤ, خمم, بفكرك ارتقي ). these mistakes indicated that students were able to translate the verb (think) but they were unable to translate the phrasal verb (think up) as one unit. in analyzing students’ answers of the phrasal verb (figure out), it is noticed that this phrasal verb was harder than other phrasal verbs included in the test. only seven (7) answers (11.3%) were correct, fifty (50) answers (80.6%) were incorrect and five (5) answers (8.1%) were left. grammatical mistakes such as ( اكتشاف, معرفة, يشير, بتعرف ), lexical and cultural mistakes such as ( يتعرف, فكر, مدة ) were detected. considering the phrasal verb (go on), it is observed that this item wasn’t difficult because it is a part from students’ language use in class where teachers and lecturers use this phrasal verb regularly. fifty (50) answers (80.7%) were correct, eleven (11) answers (17.7%) were incorrect and only one answer (1.6%) was left. however, grammatical mistakes such as ( ابتعد, بعيدا ً يذهب ), lexical and cultural mistakes such as ( ابتعد بعيدا ً يذهب, ينفذ, تجاوز ) were identified. as it can be clearly seen, the phrasal verb (come up with) was hard to be translated. only six (6) answers (9.7%) were correct. on the other hand, forty eight (48) answers (77.4%) were incorrect and eight (8) answers (12.9%) were left. grammatical mistakes such as ( شيء ابعاد, مرافقة, اتفقا ) which are far away from the exact meaning were noticed. further, lexical and cultural mistakes such as ( معه تعال, مع اتفق, مع تعال, مع أنجز ) were also observed. this phrasal verb reflected how students depend on the literal meaning and their lexical competence is poor. analyzing students’ openended questions based on the data extracted from students’ answers from the translation test part two which consists of three open-ended questions, data revealed that students have their views about english colocations and phrasal verbs. data obtained from the first question in part two: do you think that translation of english collocations and phrasal verbs is a difficult task? why? the majority of students, fifty nine (59) of them, answered with (yes) and only three students said (no). moreover, to justify their answers, students provided and reported different reasons such as, “...many english words have multi meanings and they can’t be translated easily and literally”, “english collocations and phrasal verbs are complex because they have different and difficult meaning”, “collocations are difficult because we don’t use them in class and we don’t know the real meaning of expressions” and “collocations need practice and experience because they are not easy”. the study participants also claimed that they didn’t study english collocations and their use in the vocabulary development subject and they don’t have sufficient knowledge and background about english collocations and phrasal verbs. students are aware of the fact that english collocations are related to english culture and need to be understood to be translated properly. they reported that collocational expressions need special knowledge and must have solid language and culture background. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 38 regarding the second question in part two of the test: what kind of problems do you usually face when you translate from english into arabic and translation of english collocations and phrasal verbs specifically? students reported many problems such as, “the english word may have a specific meaning but it has different meaning in the collocation expression and i cannot use the exact meaning efficiently”, “i face difficulty in finding the real meaning of the english words and understanding how native speakers use them in their life”, “i have a problem in recognizing and understanding compound words and phrases”. additionally, students also stated that they can’t find the intended meaning of collocations easily, they don’t use collocational expressions a lot in their daily life, collocations cannot be found in standard dictionaries, collocations and phrasal verbs are unpredictable, it is difficult to find the exact equivalent meaning for some collocations, they find difficulties in understanding the meaning of some collocations and phrasal verbs, and lack of background in terms of the real meaning of collocations in a foreign language and other’s culture. concerning the third question in part two: how can libyan efl learners overcome translation problems that related to collocations and phrasal verbs? students reported some ways to overcome the collocation and phrasal verbs problems for example, “...reading different english sources can help in understanding english expressions and culture.”, “focusing on using idioms, collocations and phrasal verbs regularly in class.”, “we need to practice how to use dictionaries that explain the meaning of collocations.” likewise, most of the participants insist on “practice” as a key to overcome the translation problems. they emphasized the fact that collocations need to be practiced as possible as they can. students reported other solutions as intensive reading, exposure to different types of texts, translating stories, magazines and legal contracts. in addition, some students said that collocations should be listed and learned by heart to memorize them. they also said that they are in need for specialized dictionaries which deal with collocations, phrasal verbs and idioms. students were aware of the importance of collocation use where they emphasized that they should use them in their daily life by communicating with foreigners to learn their culture. they also highlighted the importance of the role of teachers where they said “instructors should pay more attention and give more time for collocations and phrasal verbs use in teaching”. discussion based on the data analysis section, it is clear that libyan undergraduates who participated in this study encounter various problems in understanding the real meaning of english collocations and phrasal verbs. since the meaning is the target element of the translation process and students ignore the meaning and actual use of these collocations, they commit various mistakes in their translation outputs of the given collocations and phrasal verbs items. data obtained to answer the research question what kind of problematic areas do libyan undergraduates at the university of tripoli encounter in translating english collocations and phrasal verbs?, indicates that students encounter different serious problems where their answers contained many mistakes. moreover, many answers were left without any translation trials. this indicates that these expressions were hard for students who confronted challenges in translating the provided collocations and phrasal verbs. as indicated earlier, these mistakes were classified as grammatical, lexical and cultural which http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 39 caused incorrect translation production, (see figure 1). in addition, many answers contained arabic spelling mistakes which affected the quality of the translation output. figure 1. types of the participates’ translation problems data gained from the translation test has shown that the majority of students have poor competence in translating english collocations and phrasal verbs. hence, in inspecting the question what are the factors that affect students’ collocation translation performance? and how students can be assisted to overcome these problems? it can be stated that there are many reasons that affect students’ poor translation competence and performance. these factors are due to; first, the misunderstanding of collocational meanings which is mainly affected by the huge negative interference and transfer of students’ native language (l1) which is arabic on l2 (english). this matches the study that conducted by huang (2001), koya, (2003) and fan (2009), which indicated clearly the l1 interference in collocational production of efl students. accordingly, the major reason of libyan students’ erroneous production of language lies in their l1 knowledge and ignorance of collocation meaning and use. therefore, the majority of them translated the collocations literally and others ignored totally the equivalents. second, it is obvious that the main problem in translating collocations and phrasal verbs is due to the lack of practice and use of these expressions. many libyan undergraduates do not know the collocational use because they do not learn and use them in their both productive contexts (spoken and written) regularly. this results in deficiency in real use of language in general and the use of collocations in particular. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 40 hence, libyan learners cannot achieve the native like competence of language and their miss-collocational use still represents a constraint from expressing and using of these expressions. third, it is observed that participants’ instructors neglect teaching collocations neither in translation texts nor in vocabulary development courses. it has been noted that there was no methodology implemented to teach vocabulary regarding collocations to enrich students’ knowledge about word combinations and phrases. however, it is clear that translating phrasal verbs was easier than collocations due to two reasons; first, students studied phrasal verbs in grammar subject, second: phrasal verbs were easy to be guessed in meaning because students know the meaning of the first part (verb). for example they know that think means (يفكر) and think up as a phrasal verb can be inferred. hence, this lack of emphasis on teaching collocational use in vocabulary course leads learners to make unlimited mistakes in translation because they depend on guessing and literary translation to create the meaning instead of using the real target meaning of collocations. furthermore, it is obvious that students’ responses to the test items reflect the misuse of cultural expressions not only in english but also in arabic where students in many answers understood the meaning of collocational expressions and provided similar meanings but their production had many mistakes in terms of lexical and cultural mistakes due to their poor background not only in english but also in the formal arabic expressions. though many students guessed some words’ meaning but lexical and cultural choice of arabic words caused problems in translation. students’ answers contained compound mistakes where many answers contained grammatical and lexical mistakes or lexical and cultural ones. there is a correlation between lexical and cultural mistakes. in other words, students make mistakes because of lexical misunderstanding as well as poor cultural background in their mother tongue. collocations such as (snakes hiss and trees rustle) cannot be classified as hard collocations to be understood or translated but the problem is that students do not recognize the exact meaning of sound in arabic. this is a huge cultural problem which effects the translation production. conclusion it is apparent that libyan students encounter challenges in translating english collocations and phrasal verbs where they commit enormous language mistakes due to various factors and influences. lack of translation interest, misunderstanding and misuse of collocations can be regarded as a core cause of translation problems among libyan students’ which affects their translation competence and performance. the majority of libyan students depend on guessing and the use of literal translation which affects negatively their cognitive translation capability. additionally, there is a clear cultural gap in both english and arabic because even when students got the meaning of collocation they couldn’t provide the correct expression in their mother tongue. consequently, the problematic areas refer not only to their incapability in translation and understanding of english collocational expressions, but also to their poor performance in choosing the arabic words where many test answers contained mistakes in arabic grammar and spelling. there is an urgent need to find solutions that will assist students to improve their language use ability. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 41 it seems that when students got the meaning of the collocation, they can give the equivalent in their mother tongue which emphasizes the important role of culture in translation. when expressions are bounded to culture, this will facilitate the translation process. the majority of students' cultural background and experience in translation are poor and require more attention and follow-up. there is a huge gap in understanding and applying of the translation methods and techniques where many students used the literal translation method. some of them even left some collocations unanswered, and this indicates their incapability to translate these collocations. furthermore, translation teaching methodology affected students’ performance where they reported that they are still in need for using dictionaries in translation. many libyan efl instructors and teachers neglect teaching collocations as a part of translation and vocabulary courses and they allow their students to use dictionaries in the translation tasks. therefore, students find difficulties in translating collocational expressions since they have specific meaning and they cannot be found in standard dictionaries. thus, students are in need to know the meaning and how to use collocational expressions by recognition and memorization of them within a context. to conclude, libyan students find the translation of collocations and phrasal verbs a hard task and in fact, their ignorance of real meaning and use of collocational expressions hinders them from achieving the translation product competently. suggestions and recommendations collocations and phrasal verbs are important parts in vocabulary and translation subjects. learning how to use them efficiently helps in enhancing students’ language knowledge, cognitive ability and use. thus, some suggestions may be provided: libyan instructors, researchers and language curriculum designers in higher education need to pay more attention to collocations for the sake of diminishing collocational errors among libyan efl learners and enhancing collocational and vocabulary learning and use. due to the complexity of translating collocations and phrasal verbs, lecturers and teachers should facilitate the teaching of translating phrasal verbs and collocations. they need to come up with some new ideas and techniques to teach collocations, phrasal verbs and other idiomatic expressions properly. learners' awareness and cognitive ability should be developed and activated by practicing translation of word combination, idioms and phraseological units. thus, posters, videos, films, spoken dialogues novels, stories, advertisements, news, cards, drawings, transcriptions and peripheral learning drawings that are well designed need to be presented with an emphasis on new vocabularies, phrases, clauses and sentences that emphasize the language use (chunk or context) rather than words or forms or sentences in isolation. therefore, collocation expressions and phrasal verbs will become part from students’ vocabulary knowledge and use. cognitive ability and memory are important elements in the field of translation; hence, students should be encouraged to read different texts and literary works where they will meet different collocational expressions and phrasal verbs that are used in real written or spoken contexts by native speakers. more importantly, learners need to be taught at early stages how to be creative and teachers and instructors ought to search for different idiomatic http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 42 and collocational expressions to make them as a part of their students’ knowledge and culture. finally, translation and arabization should be emphasized among libyan learners because of their importance in enhancing language teaching and learning. when students practice translation and arabization, they will meet different texts and their competence in comparing between the source text (st) and the target text (tt) will be enriched and then the translation process will become easier and more enjoyable. thus, further research can be conducted to enhance areas of translation teaching and learning to enhance the use of cultural bound expressions and to help students to overcome the misuse of collocational and idiomatic expressions. references aldahesh, a. y. (2008). translating idiomatic english phrasal verbs into arabic. (phd dissertation). university of western sydney. bensaha, k. (2015). investigating teachers and students’ attitudes toward the role of translation from english into arabic on learning the use of phrasal verbs. (ma dissertation). larbi ben m’hidi university-oum el bouaghi. boonyasaquan, s. (2006). the lexical approach: an emphasis on collocations. journal of humanities, 28 (1): 98-108. corder, p. (1971). the significance of learners’ errors. international review of applied linguistics in language teaching.5 (4): 161172. doughty, c. & williams, j. (1998). focus on form in classroom second language acquisition. cambridge: cambridge university press. ellis, r. (2008). the study of foreign language acquisition. oxford: oxford university press. fan, m. (2009). an exploratory study of collocational use by esl students –a task based approach. system, 37.110-123. ghazala, h. (1995). translation as problems and solutions: a course book of university students and trainee translators. beirut: dar wa maktabet alhilal. ghazala, h. (2008). translation as problems and solutions: a textbook for university students and trainee translator. beirut: dar el-ilm lilmalayin. huang, l. s. (2001). knowledge of english collocations: an analysis of taiwanese efl learners. retrieved from: www.utexas. edu|students| fleas|tpfle|contents 7.doc. koya, t. (2003). a study of collocation in english and japanese noun-verb combinations. intercultural communication studies, 12(1), 125-141. lewis, m. (2000). teaching collocation: further development in the lexical approach. london: commercial color press plc. mahmoud, a. (2005). collocation errors made by arab learners of english. asian efl journal, 5(2), 117-126. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://www.utexas/ copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 43 martynska, m. (2004). do english language learners know collocations? in investigations linguistical, vol.xi:1-12. mccarthy, m. (1990). vocabulary. oxford: oxford university press. nation, i.s.p (1990). teaching and learning vocabulary. boston: heinle & heinle publishers. nisselhauf, n. (2003). the use of collocations by advanced learners of english and some implications for teaching. applied linguistics, 24(2).223-242. pawley, a. & syder, f. (1983). two puzzles for linguistic theory: native-like selection and native-like fluency. in richards, j. and schmidt, r., editors, language and communication, london: longman, 191-226. payne, e. t. (2011). understanding english grammar. a linguistic introduction. cambridge university press. pecina, p. (2009). lexical association mesures collocation extraction. institute of formal and applied linguistics, series of studies in computational and theoretical linguistics 4(4). 137. richard, j. c & shmitt, r. (2002). longman dictionary of language teaching and applied linguistics. london: longman. sadeghi, k. (2009). collocational differences between l1 and l2: implications for efl learners and teachers. tesol canada journal, 26.100-124. sadeghi, k., & panahifar, f. (2013). a corpus-based analysis of collocational errors in the iranian efl learners' oral production. journal of teaching language skills, 31(4), 5378. saleh, m. y. m. (2011). semantic and syntactic problems in" comprehending english phrasal verbs. journal of tikrit university journal for humanities, 18(7), 427-451. shammas, n. a. (2013). collocation in english: comprehension and use by ma students at arab universities. international journal of humanities and social science, 3(9), 107122.. swan, m. (1997). the influence of the mother tongue on second language vocabulary acquisition and use. vocabulary: description, acquisition and pedagogy, 156-180. wang, y. & shaw, p. (2008). transfer and universality: collocation use in advanced chinese and swedish learner english. icame journal, 32, 201-232. zarei, a. (2002). what is wrong with collocations? an investigation of the iranian advanced learners' problems with english collocations. journal of humanities of university of sistan and balouchestan, 7(18), 240-280. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 2, april 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 282 prospects of creating the reflective teacher for continuing professional development (cpd) yousra ali aghanimi1, fawzia mohamed elwafi2, & fahima mohamed bannur3* 1,3 university of tripoli, tripoli, libya 2 university of alhadera, tripoli, libya f_mohb@yahoo.com* abstract teacher self-evaluation is an important dimension in the overall evaluation activities in educational programs. however, this dimension is often overlooked and not given its rightful share of importance in the libyan context. teacher self-evaluation is neither included in teacher training programs nor is considered a basic requirement from teachers as they develop in their careers. hence, this research aimed at drawing attention to teacher selfevaluation as an essential tool in continuing professional development. the significance and value of teacher self-evaluation as a core element in continuing professional development requires that self-evaluation proceed with all other forms of evaluation. to support the claim that teacher self-evaluation is a missing element in the area of investigation, the researchers adopted a quantitative study where a questionnaire was administered and a sample of 86 libyan teachers was chosen randomly from eleven schools. the results of the study showed that while many teachers perform some sort of self-reflection about their teaching, they do not recognize self-evaluation as a basic requirement in developing their career. when the effectiveness of teacher self-evaluation was probed in contrast to external evaluation, most teachers agreed that teacher self-evaluation could play a far more vital role in continuing professional development. keywords: continuing professional development, external evaluation, self-evaluation introduction a teacher is traditionally viewed as someone responsible for transmitting sort of knowledge to learners. generally speaking, a teacher is seldom viewed as a learner. however, the learning process never stops for teachers especially for those who are eager to be creative in the teaching domain. development demands constant updating and coping with the new trends in the ever-changing field of education (kaso et al., 2021). a teacher is indeed a learner; a learner in a vast field whose concern is not only seeking the knowledge of the specialized field but more importantly it is concerned with learning to teach. continuous development can be guaranteed by different procedures of which evaluation is a basic requirement. teacher evaluation is traditionally performed by external bodies in the form of periodic visits in which teachers are observed and judged. however, evaluation can also be internal. this occurs when evaluation is undertaken by the teachers http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 mailto:f_mohb@yahoo.com copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 2, april 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 283 themselves or by their peers and students. the libyan educational programs lack adequate evaluation activities. evaluation through current inspection performed by external bodies is limited and insufficient for teacher development. teacher self-evaluation as another supporting source of evaluation is almost non-existent in the libyan schools and teacher training programs. recently, teacher self-evaluation attracted scholars' attention where it is considered a valuable part of teachers’ professional development. self-evaluation refers to the process where teachers collect information about their classroom teaching and classroom management to make judgments about the effectiveness of their performance. it is a form of evaluation undertaken by the teacher for professional development. on basis of these judgments, future decisions and plans are made. teacher self-evaluation is considered an immediate and practical method for promoting the use of more effective teaching (bullard, 1998; kilbourn, 1991; cited in keller et al. 2005 and stronge 2005). teacher self-evaluation has a fundamental role in the teacher's professional, experience and academic development. first, it can be seen as the main measuring tool for evaluating teachers’ efficiency and professionalism. the teacher's monitoring of his or her work, knowledge, skills and attitudes is the foundation on which improvement can proceed. second, it promotes a self-directed teacher as it is believed by (wilcox et al. 1998, cited in koutsolis, 2007) that teachers’ self-evaluation will enhance teacher autonomy where teachers become responsible for the continuing improvement of instruction. raising the awareness of teachers to the importance of self-evaluation in developing their career and making them realize that achieving development should stem first from the teacher's side, would be a basic step towards developing a self-directed teacher. third, it is a shift towards formative evaluation (process evaluation). teachers are evaluated for two main purposes described as either formative or summative. the formative evaluation consists of evaluation practices meant to shape, form, or improve teachers' performances. in contrast, summative evaluation aims at providing summary judgments of teachers for purposes such as promotion, employment, rewarding or employment termination. general evaluation practices typically target summative purposes rather than formative purposes. rea-dickins & germaine (1992:37) state that using observation for promotion purposes is extremely limiting and draws attention to the importance of “…formative value of classroom observation where the feedback from the evaluation will be used to further develop or improve an aspect of classroom or teacher self-development.” formative evaluation does not only depend on outside personnel, but it should also involve teachers, where a more participant-oriented evaluation is significant in raising teachers' awareness and a key feature of the teacher development process. fourth, it is an aid of following up change and new trends. change is one main characteristic of the field of education. new visions are constantly introduced with new strategies and equipment. teachers need to update their knowledge base concerning both knowledge of the subject matter and knowledge of teaching strategies. teacher selfevaluation could provide the teacher with the chance to measure and compare his or her capacity and resources with the recent trends in education. external inspection is currently the most common tool for evaluating teachers. however, the limitation of external evaluation systems and the lack of adequate and regular http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 2, april 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 284 communication between inspectors and teachers have weakened the contribution of inspectors in responding to the teachers' need for consultation and improvement. teachers, apart from some quantitative remarks, do not get detailed feedback about their performance. therefore, according to neil & morgan ( 2003: 196) “…inspection is summative with judgments made using standardized criteria for accountability purposes”, and for (hopkins et al. 1999 cited in koutsoulis, 2007:340) “…the occasional character of teacher inspection does not contribute to the improvement of the quality of the education.” therefore, teacher self-evaluation might serve as good means to overcome the shortcomings of a traditional evaluation carried out through external sources. this argument does not imply that external evaluation is to be ignored. the importance of an outside experienced eye that could uncover things that could not be seen by the teachers cannot be dispensed with. horne & pierce (2013) suggest that self-evaluation should come as a step before external evaluation. this step could help in identifying possible areas of focus and provide evidence to assist in the evaluation process. besides, self-confidence independence, creativity, and self-reliance are all facilitated when self-criticism and self-evaluation are basic and evaluation by others is of secondary importance. teacher self-evaluation is often confronted with questions such as: how reliable is personal judgment? how objective is it? could teachers' ratings of themselves correspond to the inspectors' ratings? are the criteria of good teaching well known to the teacher? the main criticism of self-evaluation stems from a claim that teachers are not capable of assessing themselves objectively. as a result, it is claimed that teachers tend to under-mark or over-mark themselves when compared with inspectors' evaluation. buchanan & jackson (1998) and kagan & tippens (1991 cited in keller et al. 2005) have discussed the value of using self-evaluation techniques which included attention to the accuracy in collecting specific data on one's teaching as well as using this data to make decisions. it was found that initial attempts at self-evaluation do not correspond with external evaluation. self-evaluation tend to be more positive than supervisors' ratings. however, we must bear in mind that self-evaluation is a complex task that requires the training and support of professional evaluators. most teacher education programs do not include such activities. the following studies show that intervention programs in selfevaluation lead to more realistic and objective results. the study that was conducted by keller et al. (2005) was an attempt to show that when teachers are trained to look for specific data and devise proper techniques to measure a specific behaviour, they might improve their ability to judge themselves. to prove this hypothesis, the researchers experimented on three trainee teachers to examine the effects of a self-evaluation intervention on the instructional behaviour of these teachers. the researchers used video-based teacher self-evaluation. the specific target for evaluation was "using specific social praise in the classroom". in the experiment, the student teachers were asked to measure the amount of praise they use in the classroom before and after an intervention program. the intervention was in the form of giving interns individual training sessions. all three interns immediately increased their use of the targeted behaviour (specific social praise) when the intervention was implemented. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 2, april 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 285 wright et al. (2012) conducted an experiment that aimed to show the effect of immediate or delayed video-based teacher self-evaluation on teachers' use of praise. they presented 51 teachers with a self-evaluation package, which included observation skills training, self-monitoring, and goal-setting. the results showed that the evaluation package significantly increased the amount of teachers' general praise and the intervention affected the teachers' performance. therefore, answering the question of how reliable self-evaluation could be is a matter that is highly dependent on training. for a teacher to possess the ability of self-assessment, the teacher must satisfy a basic background of knowledge or experience that forms the base for further improvement. as research on libyan efl teachers self -evaluation can be considered scarce since most of the conducted research is concerned with other aspects related to the teaching process, the researchers intended to investigate this domain due to its essential role in qualifying teachers and developing their teaching capabilities. the research specifically seeks to answer two questions. first, does teacher selfevaluation exist in the libyan education programs? second, do libyan teachers use selfevaluation procedures in their teaching to develop their career? the research aims to draw attention to the importance of teacher self-evaluation in continuing the professional development of teachers. it also aims to show that teacher self-evaluation does not constitute a part of the evaluation process in the current libyan educational program and it is not recognized by both the libyan schools and teachers as a vital requirement of professional development. methods to testify the claim that teacher self-evaluation is neither included in the teacher training program nor is formally recognized by schools and teachers in the libyan context, the researchers designed a questionnaire that consists of eight questions to probe teachers’ views about the study theme. the survey covered 11 schools in the tajoura area (eastern part of tripoli) and involved 86 libyan teachers aged between 22-40 years. they were picked randomly from 5 elementary, 3 preparatory and 3 secondary schools. the teachers were 25 males and 61 females. they were of different specializations (mathematics, english, history, biology, physics, and physical education) and different experiences (ranged from beginners to teachers of over 15 years of experience). the questionnaire was piloted to test its validity and reliability before it was used to collect the required data. quantitative data were collected, classified, organized and then analyzed using the microsoft excell program. moreover, while administering the questionnaire, the researchers had valuable discussions with the teachers who participated in the survey. these discussions provided another source of information that concerned the availability of training courses, relationship with inspectors, criteria of good teaching, availability of adequate resources and student feedback. the content of these discussions is laid out in the discussion below. the results of the questionnaire are listed in tables (1&2) and figures (1&2) below. because the educational system in tajoura is officially part of the central system in tripoli, the researchers expect http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 2, april 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 286 that the results might be applied and generalized to many schools in tripoli as well as libyan schools. results data obtained from the questionnaire are summarized as follows: table 1. teachers' responses about teacher self-evaluation theme(questionnaire items 1-7) *n.a. refers to unanswered questions further, teachers’ views about questionnaire items 1-7 are presented in figure(1): responses always sometimes rarely never na* no. % no. % no % no % does the school introduce teachers to self-evaluation techniques? 13 15.1 27 31.3 9 10.4 37 43 do teacher training courses include sections for selfevaluation? 5 5.8 15 17.4 13 15.1 51 59.3 2 are high quality teaching criteria well-known to the teacher? 37 43 35 40.6 6 6.9 4 4.6 4 do you reflect on your performance after lessons? 66 76.7 15 17.4 2 2.3 3 3.4 do you use self-evaluation procedures periodically? 7 8.1 28 32.5 17 19.7 32 37.2 2 do you ask peers to observe and evaluate your performance? 10 11.6 34 39.5 12 13.9 30 34.8 do you ask your students their feedback about your performance? 33 38.3 31 36 12 13.9 10 11.6 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 2, april 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 287 figure 1. teachers’ responses about teacher self-evaluation (questionnaire items 1-7) table 2. teachers' responses about self-evaluation effectiveness ( questionnaire item 8) figure 2 displays the percentages of the teachers’ views about whether self-evaluation is more effective than inspectors’ evaluation. 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 questionnaire results, items 1-7 always sometimes rarely never responses strongly agree agree disagree strongly disagree no. % no. % no % no % 8. do you believe self-evaluation is more effective for teacher development than inspectors' evaluation? 67 77.9 16 18.6 2 2.3 1 1.1 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 2, april 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 288 figure 2. teachers’ perception about self-evaluation effectiveness (questionnaire item 8) discussion the questionnaire results illustrated in the table (1), (items 1-7) and figure (1), support the research claim that the schools of the area under investigation lack adequate teacher self-evaluation activities. this is shown in the answers to question 1, does the school introduce teachers to self-evaluation techniques?, where 37 teachers ( 34% ) say that the school does not introduce the self-evaluation concept altogether so needless to say they further present them with self-evaluation techniques. some of the teachers, whose answers were "always or sometimes", said that self-evaluation is introduced as an optional activity and was not an obligatory requirement. it is understood that while self-evaluation is desired by some schools, it is often considered marginal. the schools depend entirely on the limited and occasional visits of inspectors which do not respond to the needs of the teachers for development. therefore, in line with the assertions of goddard and emerson (1995), the need to raise the awareness of the school and the teachers of the importance of teacher selfevaluation in creating the autonomous teacher persists. teacher self-evaluation, like all the other elements of teaching, needs training. buchanan & jackson (1998) found that initial attempts at self-evaluation do not correspond with objective, external evaluation. however, keller et al. (2005) assert that intervention training programs could lead to more accurate self-evaluation rates. therefore, it was necessary to question the participants about the availability of such training programs. answering question 2, do teacher training courses include sections for self-evaluation?, 51 teachers (59 %) say that self-evaluation does not constitute a part of any training programs they attend and commented that training programs, in general, are scarce and they do not expect such activity to be included. 67 16 2 1.2 questionnaire results, item 8 strongly agree agree disagree stongly disagree http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 2, april 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 289 for a teacher to possess the ability of self-assessment, he must satisfy a basic background of knowledge or experience that forms the base for further improvement. on questioning the participants about their knowledge about the criteria of high-quality teaching, question 3, are high-quality teaching criteria well-known to the teacher?, 37 (43 %) of the participants say they are aware of these criteria, 35 (40.6%) say sometimes, and only 4 answered" never". however, we should be cautious of such a high percentage of claimed awareness of high-quality teaching criteria. we must bear in mind that theoretical knowledge does not guarantee that these criteria are applied in actual performance. it is hard to provide evidence that these criteria find their way inside classroom practices given the limited evaluation activities by the school, teacher and inspectors. those who answered rarely or never, say that they did not have the chance to study teaching methods and strategies. indeed it seems that a considerable percentage of teachers are graduates of different faculties such as engineering, agriculture, general sciences, who haven't received any training as teachers. therefore, any teacher self-evaluation training program must include a section about the basic teaching criteria necessary for efficient teaching. question 4, do you reflect on your performance after lessons? is critical for the research because it aims to measure teachers' readability to adopt self-evaluation procedures in their classrooms. the result was 66 teachers (76.7%) answered that they do some sort of reflection after the end of classes. the discussion with some of the teachers revealed that these reflections do not target specific criteria, but they are general in that they aim to judge whether the teaching process was generally successful or not. however, according to readickins & germaine (1992), it is important to be able to determine the cause of success and the cause of failure. gathering information about the teacher's performance throughout the course and reflecting on them would enable the teachers to understand what contributes to successful teaching and learning. nevertheless, it suffices at the time being that these reflections are present. if these inclinations are nurtured and developed into actual formal procedures taken by the teachers, this would constitute an important step towards establishing self-evaluation practice in schools. the aim of question 5, do you use self-evaluation procedures periodically? is to test whether teachers formally and systematically use self-evaluation procedures. during discussing the questionnaire items, it appeared that many teachers had no idea of what these procedures could be. it was important to present some techniques of self-evaluation such as lesson reports, video-taping, checklists and peer watching. the teachers were very interested to learn about such techniques. the result was 32 teachers (37.2 %) said they never use them and 17 (19.7%) answered " rarely". however, some of the 28 teachers (32.5%) who answered “sometimes”, use some sort of report writing about the lesson. two said they sometimes videotape themselves using their mobile phones. it might be said that even when these techniques are used, they are not used and analyzed systematically nor kept in records such as a teacher's portfolio. more importantly, these techniques are not recognized as a requirement for professional development. the high percentage for those teachers who are not familiar with such techniques raises the urgent need to indulge teachers in training programs that target self-evaluation. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 2, april 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 290 the aim of question 6, do you ask peers to observe and evaluate your performance? is to explore teachers' cooperation with their colleagues in this regard. 34 (39.5 %) of teachers say they sometimes do that, but not necessarily attending each other's classes, but mostly in the form of sharing ideas, methods, and materials between experienced teachers and novices. teachers' preference of dealing with teachers inside the school agrees with marshall 1998 who stated that working with peers creates a more effective working environment than working with external sources of evaluation. question 7, do you ask your students their feedback about your performance? was met with reserve from teachers thinking that this would mean allowing students to evaluate their teachers. the traditional view that students are not qualified to evaluate the teacher's classroom performance still dominates. it is found that the 33 teachers (38.3%) who answered “always” and the 31 of them (36%) who answered “sometimes” believe that asking their students for understanding, for example; “do you understand?” and “shall i repeat?" are the main type of feedback they could get from their students. but engaging students in real evaluation concerning the method, material and students' interest is not present. however, recent research findings such as ronald ferguson's project (2009) show that learners can recognize effective teaching and they urge policymakers, educators and teachers to seriously consider students feedback. the participants are not aware of the nature of feedback they might obtain from students. some teachers pointed out that it is difficult to get feedback from elementary school students. students’ feedback is an issue that needs further investigation to determine the type and nature of feedback necessary for the enhancement of the learning process. furthermore, teachers were asked about the effectiveness of self-evaluation in question 8: do you believe self-evaluation is more effective for teacher development than inspectors' evaluation? the responses have been displayed in table (2) and figure (2) above. this question opened up long discussions with the teachers about the controversial issue of the role of inspectors' evaluation in the development of teachers' performance. the 67 teachers (77.9 %) who strongly agreed about the importance of their evaluation over inspectors show that the role of inspectors in the development of teachers is almost nonexistent. teachers have a rather negative attitude towards inspectors. in agreement with koutsoulis (2007), most participants complained that they do not have enough contact with their inspectors, and when they do, it is often brief and does not meet the teacher's need for consultation. most participants believe that inspection, as it is functioning today, does not contribute to the teachers' development. instead, teachers value the role of experienced teachers inside school more than inspectors. teachers say that, unlike inspectors, the school experienced teachers are present every day and they are familiar with the school environment, conditions, resources and also familiar with the students. these specific conditions enable experienced teachers to pass on more reliable and valid judgments about teachers. conclusions http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 2, april 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 291 throughout the study, the researchers have emphasized the valuable role of teacher self-evaluation. they have come up with several important findings where there is a shred of evidence that: 1. there is a serious lack of teacher self-evaluation activities in libyan schools. 2. there are no self-evaluation training programs. 3. the role played by external inspectors in teacher development is inefficient. 4. there is an urgent need to raise awareness about self-evaluation as a tool for teacher continuing development. 5. teachers favour self-evaluation over inspector evaluation. 6. teachers prefer dealing with experienced teachers inside schools rather than external personnel from outside the school. 7. the role of the student in the evaluation process is not clear to the teachers and needs further research. 8. the teachers' readiness and eagerness to learn more about self-evaluation procedures is evident. teacher self-evaluation enables teachers to discover their points of weaknesses and strengths and subsequently put plans of remedy and improvement. hence, teacher selfevaluation should form a part of libyan educational training programs where teachers are introduced to the procedures and steps necessary for implementing self-evaluation in their careers. if teachers succeed in identifying their needs and problems, only then they could benefit from external expertise and only then there would be effective communication between the teacher and other external observers. it can be concluded that teacher self-evaluation ought not to be marginalized. it should be considered seriously in teacher training programs. there is an urgent need to raise awareness of the significance of self-evaluation as a tool for continuing development. there is a shred of evidence that teachers are eager to learn more about this vital evaluation tool. the study recommends conducting valuable workshops where teachers receive training for using different tools of self-evaluation and improve their capacity to judge themselves and reach objective results about their performance. self-evaluation should be adopted as a regular and systematic tool of evaluation together with other evaluation tools. references bullard, b. (1998). teacher self-evaluation. a paper presented at the annual meeting of the mid-south educational research association (27th, new orleans, la, november 6, 1998). (eric document reproduction service no. ed428074). buchanan, d. o. u. g. l. a. s., & jackson, s. (1998). supporting self-evaluation in initial teacher education. scottish educational review, 30, 110-124. ferguson, r. f. (2009). from the courtroom to the classroom: the shifting landscape of school desegregation. harvard education press. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 2, april 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 292 goddard, i. & emerson, c. (1995). appraisal and your school. oxford. heinemann horne, h., & pierce, a. (2013). a practical guide to staff development and appraisal in schools . routledge. hopkins, d., harris, a., watling, r., & beresford, j. (1999). from inspection to school improvement? evaluating the accelerated inspection programme in waltham forest. british educational research journal, 25(5), 679-690. kagan, d. m., & tippins, d. j. (1991). helping student teachers attend to student cues. the elementary school journal, 91(4), 343-356. kaso, n., ilham, d., aswar, n., & iksan, m. (2021). the principal’s leadership: how to improve the quality of teaching and learning process in state junior high school of luwu. in jurnal ad’ministrare (vol. 8, issue 1). http://ojs.unm.ac.id/index.php/administrare/index koutsoulis, m. (2007). teacher evaluation through inspection. the enterprise of education, 337. keller, c. l., brady, m. p., & taylor, r. l. (2005). using self-evaluation to improve studentteacher interns' use of specific praise. education and training in developmental disabilities, 368-376. http://daddcec.org/portals/0/cec/autism_disabilities/research/publications/educa tion_training_development_disabilities/2005v40_journals/etdd_200512v40n4p368 -376_using_self_evaluation_improve_student_teacher_interns_use.pdf neil, p., & morgan, c. (2003). continuing professional development for teachers: from induction to senior management. psychology press. rea-dickins, p., & germaine, k. (1992). evaluation. oxford university press. stronge, j. h. (2005). evaluating teaching: a guide to current thinking and best practice . corwin press. wright, m. r., ellis, d. n., & baxter, a. (2012). the effect of immediate or delayed videobased teacher self-evaluation on head start teachers’ use of praise. journal of research in childhood education http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://daddcec.org/portals/0/cec/autism_disabilities/research/publications/education_training_development_disabilities/2005v40_journals/etdd_200512v40n4p368-376_using_self_evaluation_improve_student_teacher_interns_use.pdf http://daddcec.org/portals/0/cec/autism_disabilities/research/publications/education_training_development_disabilities/2005v40_journals/etdd_200512v40n4p368-376_using_self_evaluation_improve_student_teacher_interns_use.pdf http://daddcec.org/portals/0/cec/autism_disabilities/research/publications/education_training_development_disabilities/2005v40_journals/etdd_200512v40n4p368-376_using_self_evaluation_improve_student_teacher_interns_use.pdf copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 197 oral feedback for english language learners development vindy nita yusovi1*, siti asmiyah 2, & muhtarom 3 abstract in elt there are many types of oral feedback that can be used by teachers to respond and correct the mistakes of language learners. however, there are still many teachers who have difficulty or less reflection in choosing the appropriate feedback for students. therefore, this study aimed to identify the important role of the types and ways in giving oral feedback by an english teacher in language learner development. this study uses a content analysis method using secondary data taken from the previous study in the form of journal articles and thesis published in indonesian and international journal sites in the past two decades. the result of this study revealed that from 2009 to 2021 there were many changes regarding the application of oral feedback. however, it was found that corrective feedback always be used continuously from year to year, while one of the most dominant types of oral feedback used was explicit feedback. keywords: english language learner, language development, oral feedback introduction feedback plays an important role in language development. this is because through feedback, learners can understand how well they are doing. feedback can also help either improve learner specific points or help to make a plan for their learning. in english language teaching context, feedback is also a consideration used by teachers to manage learners' mistakes when using english as a target language. this is because learners may not have a complete knowledge, skills and a context on how the language is used. harmer (2003) states that in the learning process, the teacher needs to manage the learners' mistakes and give appropriate and relevant feedback in teaching and learning. therefore, feedback plays a strong role in elt especially in language development. this important role of feedback has been highlighted by previous research findings (see hattie & timperley, 2007; herra & kulińska, 2018; klimova, 2015; obilor, 2019). among the roles of feedback signified by previous findings are facilitating students' understanding in learning english as a foreign language (see ha et al., 2021; lochtman, 2002; merry & orsmond, 2008; rudzewitz et al., 2018). another role is the use of oral feedback for mediating language development (see bitchener & knoch, 2010; hoff, 2009; mashrah, 2017; owens, 1989) . there is also another important benefit students get from feedback as explained from the previous study by (bajaj vindy.yusovi123@gmail.com 1,2,3 sunan ampel state islamic university of surabaya, surabaya, indonesia http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 mailto:vindy.yusovi123@gmail.com copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 198 et al., 2018; mamoon-al-bashir, 2016; race, n.d. 2022). in language development, feedback is widely used as an evaluative approach that indicates the effectiveness of teaching strategies as well as the level of learners' understanding. this has been confirmed by findings in the previous study from k. hyland & f. hyland (2006) which discussed feedback on second language students. it is stated that giving feedback will facilitate a learner's better understanding of the meaning, the context, the language construction itself and the learner’s self-confidence. lewis states that feedback is one of the best ways of telling the students or language learner mistakes, then it can show the learning progress and facilitate them in improvement. several studies have discussed oral feedback in the classroom context, both oral feedbacks given by the teacher or by peers. the results of several studies revealed that teacher's oral feedback facilitate classroom interaction (irawan & salija, 2017; sahyoni, 2018; smith & higgins, 2006) in the classroom. based on those previous studies, there are a lot of types of oral feedback that is used to correct students' errors. however, only a certain type of oral feedback is used by the teacher. in addition, those studies also discussed the response of the students when the teacher applied oral feedback, mostly students perceived positively because the students realize that oral feedback gives positive effects to improve their achievement in learning language. other research from lee & leong (2017) and hernandez & reyes (2012)discussed teachers' perspectives in giving oral feedback. from that study, it is stated that there is a significant difference in the students either in writing or speaking skills between after and before the teacher provides oral feedback. meaning that oral feedback can give a direct impact to the teaching result as it can improve the student's skills. the researchers collected findings from previous studies that are relevant to this topic which contain how teachers give oral feedback for their students or language learner development. based on the previous study by lyster and ranta (1997) there are six types of oral feedback; those are recast, clarification request, metalinguistic feedback, elicitation, repetition of error and explicit correction. another perception from tunstall & gipps (1996) noted that there are 5 types of oral feedback, those are evaluative feedback, descriptive feedback, corrective feedback, interactional feedback and motivational feedback. therefore, from those previous studies, the researcher found 11 types of oral feedback which means that oral feedback can take several forms. in addition, there are many studies who discuss feedback, especially in the context of oral feedback. however, based on black & wiliam (1998c) it is noted that teachers still have less reflection on how to assess or correct the learners' errors. therefore, this study focuses on identifying the important role of the types and ways of oral feedback used by the english teachers in giving oral feedback for the students in the context of developing students in learning english as a foreign language. the researchers will get the results by analyzing the data taken from the previous study of the past two decades. thus, the findings in this study are valuable to be considered by not only teachers but also for practitioners and experts in education as a model in providing effective oral feedback in the classroom. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 199 methods this study used a content analysis method using secondary data from previous studies in the form of written document. the materials analyzed in this research were journal articles and these taking the topic of oral feedback in elt context. the researchers collected 30 documents from previous studies that consist of journal articles and thesis published in indonesian and international journal sites in the past two decades. each document consists of several categories such as oral feedback for elt, oral feedback for young learners, students or teacher perspective about the oral feedback used, and correlation between oral feedback and language development. the data of this study were interpreted descriptively to describe the differences and the similarity among the types, the preferences and to elaborate the importance of selecting and applying oral feedback for language learner development. results findings by analyzing and categorizing oral feedback used by the teachers in teaching english as a foreign language in the language learner development. the content of some previous studies, it highlights the following findings on the important role of the types of oral feedback used by the teacher in developing students' skill in learning english as a foreign language. the data gathered from the analysis in the articles of oral feedback given by the teacher in elt from the past two decades. table 1 shows the types of oral feedback from the previous studies published articles between 2009 and 2022. table 1. types of oral feedback types of oral feedback year and frequency 2009 2013 2014 2015 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 explicit 1 1 2 1 2 4 2 1 metalinguistic 1 1 1 2 2 1 1 recasts 2 1 2 2 1 repetition 1 1 2 2 1 1 elicitation 1 1 2 3 1 1 correction 1 clarification requests 1 2 2 1 1 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 200 paralinguistic signal 1 1 1 1 evaluative feedback 1 immediate 1 descriptive feedback 1 interactional feedback 1 motivational feedback 1 body language 1 combined strategies 1 praise maker 1 1 from the table above, there are some significant differences between the selection of types of oral feedback from year to year. from 2009 to 2013, the oral feedback that was mostly used found by the researcher was corrective feedback. however, it is only explicit feedback and praise makers, some of them also used metalinguistic and paralinguistic signals. it is supported by the reason from the previous study conducted by z. amalia, e. fauziati, s. marmanto (2009) in the speaking class at the student level, regarding student preferences, it is explained that explicit feedback and metalinguistic feedback are the easiest types of oral corrective feedback, because it can make students quickly recognize their mistakes in speaking practice, while clarification request is the most ambiguous way. then moving on to 2014 to 2015, the use of oral feedback became larger by using all types of corrective feedback ranging from explicit, metalinguistic, recasts, repetition, elicitation, etc. it is shown by the previous study conducted by rieny. a, josefa. j (2014) found that five out of seven types of oral corrective feedback were used by the teacher, which are recast, metalinguistic feedback, elicitation, explicit correction, and repetition. furthermore, types of learners' uptake following the teacher's corrective feedback were self repair, peer repair, repetition, same error, different error, partial repair and hesitation. from that previous study it can be concluded that oral corrective feedback may lead the students to show signs of learning or understanding implied in the students' reaction to the teacher's oral feedback. then continued from 2017 to 2019 the use of oral feedback was increasingly varied, not only focusing on corrective feedback but also evaluative, descriptive, interactional and motivational feedback. proven by the previous study conducted by erfiani. i and salija. k (2017) there were two new ways of oral feedback found in that research. they were praise http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 201 and correction in corrective feedback and giving help in motivational feedback. there is oral feedback that was already found by that study which hasn't been discussed yet in the theory from another previous study, those are questioning and giving help in interactional feedback as well as expectancy in motivational feedback. the teachers give that feedback because it is their responsibility and obligation to provide it to students. this shows that in this era, english teachers are starting to realize how important oral feedback is in language learning. however, when it moves to the range of 2020 to 2021, the use of oral feedback begins to change slightly, meaning that it is not as varied as it used to be. this indicates that the english teacher is starting to choose and sort out which oral feedback can be used and appropriate to the needs and characteristics of students. discussions as an educator, it is suggested that foreign language teachers should expect their students to make a lot of mistakes, because this can be used as part of the language learning process. even most students agree if they get feedback and if their mistakes are corrected. however, some students do not want to be given explicit feedback, this is because they feel afraid, embarrassed and depressed. then, by looking at the previous studies that have been collected by the researcher regarding oral feedback, there are many types used by every teacher. however, there is a change in the use of feedback almost every year, even though there is one type of oral feedback that is still used from time to time, namely explicit feedback. from the past two decades it is shown that corrective feedback with an explicit type of feedback which is highly implemented for language learners at the young learner, secondary to college level. this is supported by a previous study by elis homsini (2013) regarding the use of explicit feedback as negative feedback which not only serves to justify student mistakes but also expands conversations, scaffold learning and negotiating meaning and form. this is also supported by research from yustika nur fajriah (2018) which states that in the past, many teachers failed to develop language learning because they did not find the right type of corrective feedback, and from this problem, it was found that explicit feedback was given after students finished speaking is one of the most effective ways to be used in correcting errors made by students. also supported from the previous study conducted by z. amalia, e. fauziati, s. marmanto (2009) about the preferences for the types of oral feedback in the speaking classroom, there are two types, the first one is explicit feedback because the students wanted the teacher to correct their error immediately as well as correct it clearly so it doesn’t need much time to think about the error part and it is easy to be understood, comprehended and recognized. another type is metalinguistic feedback, where the teacher gives a clue then the students recall what their mistakes were. this may take a longer time because students have to do self-correction. however, it can be shown that learning is more meaningful. the results of this study was also analyzed based on the theory of elis (2009) which states that there are seven kinds of oral feedback, namely positive feedback, metalinguistic feedback, recast, repetition, elicitation, paralinguistic signals and requests for clarification. furthermore, there is also a theory from lyster and ranta (1997) which states that there are http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 202 six types of oral feedback, including recasts, elicitation, requests for clarification, metalinguistic feedback, explicit correction. meanwhile, based on the results of collecting data from previous research on the types of oral feedback used by teachers in the last few decades as shown in the table above, the researchers found that in total there were 16 types of oral feedback. from the several types found, the oral corrective feedback was mostly used by the teacher. however, there were also types that were rarely used, including: immediate, descriptive feedback, evaluative feedback, interactional feedback, motivational feedback, body language, and combined strategies. meanwhile, from previous studies which can be seen in the table above, it has been found that most of them use corrective feedback and it shows that explicit feedback is the most frequently used. however, this finding is different from previous study conducted by lyster & ranta (1997) which stated that recast is the type of corrective feedback that is most often used in second language teaching. meanwhile, only a few studies have addressed the effectiveness of recast oral feedback used in second language teaching especially in the indonesian context. this is because most of the research conducted internationally uses an interactional approach, which in indonesia mostly focuses on corrective feedback in general. therefore by looking at the previous studies that have been collected by the researchers regarding the oral feedback and also the findings. then, it means that there are many types of oral feedback used by every teacher. still, the results from the data collected by the researchers certainly cannot be generalized as a whole. since the researchers only took a few samples from several journals and articles. although, this research is sufficient to provide an overview related to the frequency of the use of oral feedback from year to year, and what are the considerations of the way in applying the correct oral feedback to learning english. with many oral feedbacks, every teacher has different preferences. however, the effective strategies undertaken by teachers to provide corrective feedback for students are the correct forms obtained and greatly affect student learning outcomes. it can be said that feedback is not only an answer, as the power of feedback is greater than just an answer. on the use of oral feedback in language learner development, its better if the teacher provides elaboration through clear instructions rather than just giving feedback that poorly understand concepts, if feedback is applied at the correct level then it will lead language learners to engage, comprehend and develop effective strategies to process the information intended that is learned. not only that, providing feedback can also help language learners to develop their own linguistic accuracy. therefore, strategy in the selection of corrective feedback chosen by the teacher found in this study was to facilitate students through the process of language development. conclusion from the findings above it can be revealed that in the articles published regarding oral feedback between 2009 and 2022 it can be said that the types of oral feedback are not too different from year to year. in this case, the teacher still uses corrective feedback in elt, and the types of oral feedback that are often used are elicit, explicit, repetition, metalinguistic, recasts and clarifications. while, the explicit types are the most dominant. however, to make http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 203 the teaching and learning process can be carried out meaningfully, teachers should consider student preferences, especially in providing corrective feedback on student errors, as it can minimize the discrepancy between student perceptions and teacher perceptions in the teaching and learning process. besides that, student knowledge also needs to be taken into consideration. hopefully with these considerations in implementing feedback, it can help students to make corrections for their mistakes and have meaningful learning that can be very useful for language learner development. the researchers hope that in the future, there will be a further research that can explore in depth about the impact of oral feedback on language learning from time to time. acknowledgment the researcher would like to express many thanks to previous studies related to the topic of feedback, as the result can help the researcher to elaborate the use of oral feeback for language learner development from time to time. references amalia, zaky dzulhiza hawin, endang fauziati, and sri marmanto. “preferences for the oral corrective feedback types in speaking classroom : voices from male and female university students.” proceeding of 3rd international conference of arts language and culture, no. 1997 (2009): 109–116. bajaj, j. k., kaur, k., arora, r., & singh, s. j. (2018). introduction of feedback for better learning. journal of clinical and diagnostic research, 12(12), fc11–fc16. https://doi.org/10.7860/jcdr/2018/36744.12402 bitchener, j., & knoch, u. (2010). the contribution of written corrective feedback to language development: a ten month investigation. applied linguistics, 31(2), 193–214. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amp016 black, p., and d. wiliam. 1998c. assessment and classroom learning. assessment in education: principles, policy & practice 5, no. 1: 7–74 ellis, r. (2009). corrective feedback and lecturer development. l2 journal , 1 (1), 3. ha, x. van, nguyen, l. t., & hung, b. p. (2021). oral corrective feedback in english as a foreign language classrooms: a teaching and learning perspective. heliyon, 7(7), e07550. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e07550 hattie, j., & timperley, h. (2007). the power of feedback the meaning of feedback. 77(1), 81– 112. https://doi.org/10.3102/003465430298487 hernandez, e., & reyes, r. (2012). teachers ’ perceptions about oral corrective feedback and their practice in efl teachers ’ perceptions about oral corrective feedback and their practice in efl classrooms percepciones de los docentes acerca de la retroalimentación correctiva. december. herra, a., & kulińska, a. (2018). the role of feedback in the process of learning english as a http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 204 foreign language. forum filologiczne ateneum, 1(1(6)2018), 127–143. https://doi.org/10.36575/2353-2912/1(6)2018.127 hoff, e. (2009). erika hoff language development. hyland, ken, and fiona hyland. “feedback on second language students’ writing.” language teaching 39, no. 2 (2006): 83–101. irawan, e., & salija, k. (2017). teachers’ oral feedback in efl classroom interaction (a descriptive study of senior high school in indonesia). elt worldwide: journal of english language teaching, vol 4, iss 2, pp 138-152 (2017). https://doi.org/10.26858/eltww.v4i2.4496 j. harmer. the practice of english language teaching (3rd ed.), 2003. edinburg: longman klimova, b. (2015). the role of feedback in efl classes. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 199, 172–177. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.07.502 lochtman, k. (2002). oral corrective feedback in the foreign language classroom: how it affects interaction in analytic foreign language teaching. international journal of educational research, 37(3–4), 271–283. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0883-0355(03)00005-3 lyster, roy, and leila ranta. “corrective feedback and learner uptake.” studies in second language acquisition 19, no. 1 (1997): 37–66. lyster, roy, and leila ranta. “corrective feedback and negotiation of form in communicative classrooms.” studies in second language acquisition 19, no. 01 (1997): 37–66. http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_s0272263197001034. lee, hwee hoon, alvin ping leong, and geraldine song. “investigating teacher perceptions of feedback.” elt journal 71, no. 1 (2017): 60–68. mamoon-al-bashir, m. (2016). journal of education and practice www.iiste.org issn. 7(16). www.iiste.org mashrah, h. t. (2017). the role of implicit negative feedback in language development-some reflections. international journal of english language & translation studies, 1–7. merry, s., & orsmond, p. (2008). students’ attitudes to and usage of academic feedback provided via audio files. bioscience education, 11(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.3108/beej.11.3 maolida, elis homsini. “relating teachers oral corrective feedback to young learners uptake: a case study in a young learner efl classroom.” indonesian efl journal 3, no. 2 (2017): 181–192. nur fajriah, yustika. “corrective feedback as perceived by an efl teacher and students in speaking classroom.” english education and applied linguistics journal 1, no. 1 (2018): 1– 9. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 205 obilor, e. i. (2019). feedback and students’ learning. in article in international journal of innovative research in education. www.seahipaj.org owens, r. e. (n.d.). language development. race, p. (n.d.). using feedback to help students to learn feedback and learning. retrieved june 12, 2022, from www.seda.demon.co.uk. rudzewitz, b., ziai, r., de kuthy, k., möller, v., nuxoll, f., & meurers, d. (2018). generating feedback for english foreign language exercises. 127–136. http://grammarly.com sahyoni, s. (2018). corrective feedback and classroom interaction at sma 1 payakumbuh sumatera barat. ta’dib, 21(1), 9. https://doi.org/10.31958/jt.v21i1.1027 smith, heather, and steve higgins. “opening classroom interaction: the importance of feedback.” cambridge journal of education 36, no. 4 (2006): 485–502. tunstall, pat, and caroline gipps. “teacher feedback to young children in formative assessment: a typology.” british educational research journal 22, no. 4 (1996): 389–404. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 70 abstract this paper investigated the pronunciation especially about the labiodental fricative sound by students with a buginese background in the english department at tarbiyah faculty and teacher training in 2019-2020. the purpose of this study was to determine the ability of students with buginese backgrounds to produce labiodental fricative sounds in english. the method used in this research is descriptive qualitative method.the populations were buginese students in english department at the tarbiyah faculty and teacher training at iain palopo. to choose the samples, the writersused a purposive sampling technique, in which the researchers took 10 samples divided into several levels, namely 2 people from the second semester, 2 people from the fourth semester, 4 people from the sixth semester, and 2 people from the eighth semester. all samples are students with buginese background. from a series of studies that have been carried out, the results obtained in this research are students with a buginese background get some problems in english pronunciation, especially in labiodental fricative / f / and / v / sounds. because the buginese language does not have labiodental fricative sounds and there are transfer errors made by students when pronouncing english words. keywords: english pronunciation, iain palopo, labiodental fricative introduction communicative competence takes the element of pronunciation as one of the things that make oral communication successful. why good pronunciation is essential because it is the basis of good communication (gimson:1980). as one component of language, pronunciation needs to be known by students. but in reality, some indonesia students who are familiar with their mother tongue which is mainly different in sound and spelling from english find it difficult for indonesia students to pronounce english words correctly. there are many differences between the buginese language and indonesia, especially in terms of symbols and sounds. ramelan said that it was difficult for students to learn foreign languages if there were many similarities between them (ramelan: 1985). for example, in english “fan” is pronounced /fᴂn/ but usually, students say it /fan/ as written. that was because he was accustomed to speaking their mother tongue which was mainly different from english pronunciation. therefore, it is important to teach pronunciation. the english pronunciation of buginese students in english department of iain palopo nurul cahyu annisa 1*,wahibah 2 1,2.3institut agama islam negeri palopo (iain palopo), palopo, indonesia nurulcahyuannisa@gmail.com *wahibah@iainpalopo.ac.id http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 mailto:nurulcahyuannisa@gmail.com1 mailto:amalia_yahya@iainpalopo.ac.id2 mailto:amalia_yahya@iainpalopo.ac.id2 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 71 according to harmer, for all people who learn english and are aware of pronunciation problem, it will benefit them, both for their production or for their understanding of spoken english (harmer: 1998) that is students who have good pronunciation will be easy to understand english spoken and understood by others. from observation made by the researcher in the english department of iain palopo, the researcher realized that there were still many students who did not pay attention to the pronunciation when speaking english words. even though in terms of grammar, they are superior. this is unfortunate because seeing in the world of work that will be widely used in spoken english not written english. this is because good pronunciation with weak grammar will be easier for native speakers to understand than vice versa. because bad pronunciation can damage perfect grammar.1 that is, students who have better pronunciation will have more opportunities to communicate naturally with native speakers. mispronounced words in english can create misunderstandings and miscommunication. this is often found among indonesia students who study english as a foreign language. for example, the word “live” is spelled as “life”, or the word “love” is spelled as “laugh”. this can be very fatal for students who have difficulty understanding and being understood by other language communities. that is, if someone mispronounced english words, it would have a completely different meaning from what the speaker said because english words have many words that are almost similar to each other in saying it. in learning english as a foreign language, pronunciation mistakes can occur because the phonological system of english is different from indonesian (iksan & dirham, 2018; iksan & duriani, 2015). indonesian students also find many difficulties in learning english, especially in producing english sounds accurately. one of the sounds of english is consonants. although some english consonants are similar to indonesia consonants, many indonesia students mispronounce them. the use of indonesia as a mother tongue by indonesia students influences the production of english sounds. problems arise when indonesia students produce english sounds that are not in indonesia by using the most similar speech. sometimes, the replace existing or original words. betty said asserts that difficulties in learning english occur because some english sounds are not present in the learner's mother tongue (lanteigne: 2017). david links pronunciations with the basic field of linguistics that deals with scientific studies of the structure of language, which is phonology. furthermore, he mentioned that it was different from other fields of linguistics. where in phonology, the structure of language that is owned by the structure of sound in a language. according to richards, platt & weber, phonology discusses two main things, are phonemic namely the study of different sound units and phonetics which are mainly related to speech sounds (richard, et.al: 1992). it should be noted that at the same level as phonology, pronunciation is in essence, also related to sound. the way the sound is made is called the articulation method. the way articulation is focused on the wat consonant sounds are pronounced. there are several types of articulation methods such as stop articulation, fricative articulation, and approximation. based on the type of articulation above, this study focuses on fricative because students make the most http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 72 mistakes in pronouncing fricative consonant sound that is labiodental fricative consonants. but in this study, researchers only took one fricative consonant sound that is labiodental fricative sounds. this research will focus on the way students, especially students with bugis background produce fricative sound labiodental. according to indriani, labiodental fricatives are sounds produced by involving the lower lip and the edge of the upper teeth. this sound is produced when the soft palate is raised and the nasal resonator is turned off. meanwhile, the lower lip with the edge of the upper teeth touches each other so that the air that comes out-produces friction. based on the observations of researchers in the english department of iain palopo, researchers looked at various kinds of mother tongue used in daily interactions. however, of the many english students at iain palopo, students who speak luwunese are more dominant, followed by students who speak bugis and other mother tongues. because in the beginning, the researcher focused his research on the fricative labiodental sound (f, v), the researcher would focus on students with a bugis language background because, in the bugis language symbol, there is no fricative labiodental symbol (f and v). therefore, researchers took the initiative to conduct a research to study to find out the ability of students with a buginese background in producing english labiodental fricative sounds. methods the research method used in this research is qualitative research. it is used to describe how the students with buginese background pronounce certain english consonant labiodental fricative sounds in the three positions, they are initial, medial, and final position. this study used a direct observation method by recording the sounds of the chosen english consonants produced by students in the english department with the buginese background of iain palopo. population and samples the population of this research was the students in the english department of iain palopo. there are 16 classes of 4 semesters. this research used a random sampling technique, it's mean that the writer knows the total number of students is 505 and the sample is 10 samples. all students are from buginese. they are 2 people from the first semester, 3 people from the third semester, 3 people from the fifth semester, and 2 people from the seven semesters. source of data research researchers get data from several instruments. data were taken from interviews and recordings. the purpose of this study is to identify the specific english labiodental sounds made by students. researchers get data sources from students. the results of interviews and recordings are processed as data that can explain how students with a bugis background pronounce the fricative labiodental sounds http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 73 the instrument of the research the researcher used two kinds of instruments, namely: 1. pronunciation task. to find out the student's pronunciation, the researcher will ask the students to read the word list, sentences, and paragraph reading tasks. reading task is the reading which contains the sounds of certain english labiodental fricatives. the words used in reading text are contained labiodental fricative sounds such as /f/ and /v/ sounds. a. word list reading task. this task contains the voiced /v/ and voiceless /f/ in english labiodental fricative sound. these certain english labiodental fricatives are distributed in three-word positions (initial, medial, and final). b. sentence reading task. the sentence reading task is created based on the word list. all of the words in the word list are also found in the sentences of the sentence task. c. paragraph reading task. the paragraph will also use the word list in it. it should be noted that the words containing english labiodental fricative sounds are not italicized format when they are given to the respondents to read to make their pronunciation more natural. 2. interview. the interview was conducted to validate the survey result. the instrument of the interview that was used to help the researcher to obtain valid data is recording. the procedure for collecting data the procedure of data collection to find out the buginese students in pronouncing english labiodental fricative sounds are; 1. the writer shows these words to the students of buginese, then asks them to pronounce all of the word lists from initial, medial, and final positions of english labiodental fricative sounds. 2. the researcher saving the data results by using a voice record application on the samsung a20 mobile phone. 3. the analyzing and classifying, the researcher focused on the initial, medial, and final position of english labiodental fricative sounds. the technique of data analysis data analysis is the process of systematically searching and compiling data obtained from the results of interviews, field notes, and documentation, by organizing data into categories, break down into units, do synthesis, arrange inward patterns, choosing which ones are important and which will be learned, and making conclusions so that they are easily understood by yourself and others (sugiyono: 2008) the following is a data analysis technique that will be carried out by this research. 1. transcription of recording data. after recording the recorded speech of the bugis language speakers, the researcher then transcribes the data by converting the spoken language of the bugis language speakers recorded into orthographic units. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 74 2. data identification. after the recorded data is transcribed, the researcher then carries out the process of identifying the data. the researcher identified the data by marking words with fricative labiodental sounds that experienced sound changes. 3. record the data table that has been provided. data marked at the next identification stage is recorded in a table. copies of data, intended to facilitate the classification of data made based on the similarity of certain characteristics or characteristics. 4. data classification after copying the data in the table, the researcher then classifies the data, i.e., grouping the data found based on the similarity of characteristics in the data. 5. analyzing data. data that has been classified are then analyzed by the researcher. the analysis was carried out by observing the changing labiodental fricative sound. the researcher describes the symptoms of the sound change by opposing the original english sound symbol shape with the sound symbol spoken by the bugis language speaker, and then explains the shape of the change that occurred. 6. data percentage. to find out the participants’ score of pronouncing test, it can be calculated using the following formula: p = 𝑁 𝑇 𝑥 100 p = percentage n = frequency of occurrence t = number of occurrence 7. data verification. verification or conclusion is the last step in data analysis. at this stage the researcher summarizes the symptoms observed in the data by making statements stating the conclusions of the data found. results in the previous chapter, the researcher described how the researcher obtained the data and the analysis process. because seeing the current conditions during a pandemic, the researchers conducted research online. data is taken from the pronunciation of students when reading the pronunciation task that has been given previously. they read words, sentences, and paragraphs that have been given by researchers by recording sounds. after collecting all the recordings from each respondent, the researcher then transcribed the recordings. then, the researcher analyzed the english sound symbols that the respondents have produced and compared them with the original sound symbols. after researching respondents, the researcher found bys are the existence of some mistakes made by respondents in producing sound / f / and / v /. such as sound change / f / to / v /, sound changes / f / to / p /, sound changes / v / to / f / and sound changes / v / to / p /. for more details, the researcher has presented the results of the pronunciation assignment that the researcher obtained are as follows. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 75 1. word list the result of students' answers through word list recordïng. table 1. sound /f/ in the initial position. no respondents fire /faɪə/ flag /ˈflæg/ flower /flaʊər/ phone /ˈfəʊn/ fresh /freʃ/ 1 r 01 | faɪə | | ˈflæg | | flaʊər | | ˈfəʊn | | freʃ | 2 r 02 | feə | | ˈflæg | | flaʊər | | ˈfəʊn | | freʃ | 3 r 03 | faɪə | | ˈflæg | | flaʊər | | pɔːn | | freʃ | 4 r 04 | faɪə | | ˈflæg | | flaʊər | | paʊnd | | freʃ | 5 r 05 | ˈfaɪə | | flæt | | ˈflaʊə | | fəʊn | | freʃ | 6 r 06 | ˈfaɪə | | flæɡ | | ˈflaʊə | | fəʊn | | freʃ | 7 r 07 | ˈfaɪə | | flæɡ | | ˈflaʊə | | fəʊn | | freʃ | 8 r 08 | ˈfaɪə | | fleɪk | |ˈflaʊəz | | fəʊn | | freʃ | 9 r 09 | faɪə | | ˈflæg | | flaʊər | | ˈfəʊn | | freʃ | 10 r 10 | faɪə | | ˈflæg | | flaʊər | | pəʊn | | freʃ | table 2. sound /f/ in the middle position. no respondents before /bɪˈfɔːr/ different /ˈdɪfrənt/ office /ɒfɪs / offside /ɒfˈsaɪd/ after /ˈɑːftə/ 1 r 01 | bɪˈfɔːr | |ˈdɪfrənt | | əv feɪs| | ɒfˈsaɪd| | ˈɑːftə | 2 r 02 | bɪˈfɔːr | |ˈdɪfrənt | | ɒfɪs | |ɒfˈsaɪd | | ˈɑːftə | 3 r 03 | bɪˈfɔːr | |ˈdɪfrənt | | ɒfɪs | |ɒfˈsaɪd | | ˈɑːftə | 4 r 04 | bɪˈfɔːr | |ˈdɪfrənt | | ɒfɪs | |ɒfˈsaɪd | | ˈɑːftə | 5 r 05 | bɪˈfɔː | | ˈdɪfrənt | | ˈɒfɪs | |ɒfˈsaɪd | | ˈɑːftə | 6 r 06 | bɪˈfɔː | | ˈdɪfrənt | | ˈɒfɪs | |ɒfˈsaɪd | | ˈɑːftə | 7 r 07 | bɪˈfɔː | | ˈdɪfrənt | | ˈɒfɪs | |ɒfˈsaɪd | | ˈɑːftə | 8 r 08 | bɪˈfɔː | | ˈdɪfrənt | | ˈɒfɪs | | ɒfˈsaɪd | | ˈɑːftə | 9 r 09 | bɪˈfɔːr | | ˈdɪfrənt | | ɒfɪs | | ɒfˈsaɪd | | ˈɑːftə | 10 r 10 | bɪˈfɔːr | | ˈdɪfrənt | | ɒfɪs | | ɒfˈsaɪd | | ˈɑːftə | table 3. sound /f/ in final position. no respondents enough /ɪˈnʌf / stuff/stʌf/ golf /ɡɒlf / laugh /lɑːf/ wolf /ˈwʊlf / 1 r 01 | ɪˈnʌf | | stʌf | | ˈɡov | | ˈlʌv | | ˈwʊlf | 2 r 02 | ɪˈnʌf | | stəʊv | | ɡɒlf | | ˈlʌv | | ˈwʊlf | 3 r 03 | ɪˈnʌf | | stʌf | | ɡɒlf | | ˈlʌv | | ˈwʊlf | 4 r 04 | ɪˈnʌf | | stʌf | | ɡɒlf | | ˈlʌv | | wuːf | 5 r 05 | ɪˈnʌf | | stʌf | | ɡɒlf | | ˈlʌv | | ˈwʊlf | 6 r 06 | ɪˈnʌf | | stʌf | | ɡɒlf | | ˈlʌv | | ˈwʊlf | http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 76 7 r 07 | ɪˈnʌf | | stʌf | | ɡɒlf | | ˈlʌv | | ˈwʊlf | 8 r 08 | ɪˈnʌf | | stʌf | | ɡɒlf | | lɑːf | | ˈwʊlf | 9 r 09 | ɪˈnʌf | | stʌf | | ɡɒlf | | ˈlʌv | | ˈwʊlf | 10 r 10 | ɪˈnʌf | | stʌf | | ˈɡov | | ˈlʌv | | waf | table 4. sound /v/ in the initial position. no respondents vocation /vəʊˈkeɪʃn̩/ value /ˌvælju:/ vampire /ˈvæmpaɪər/ view /vjuː/ virus /ˈvaɪərəs/ 1 r 01 |vəʊˈkeɪʃn̩| |ˌfɒləʊ | | frəm pɪər | | vjuː | |ˈvaɪərəs| 2 r 02 |vəʊˈkeɪʃn̩| |ˌvælju: | |ˈvæmpaɪər| | vjuː | |ˈvaɪərəs| 3 r 03 |vəʊˈkeɪʃn̩| | ˈvæljuː| | ˈvæmpaɪər| | fjuː | |ˈvaɪərəs| 4 r 04 |vəʊˈkeɪʃn̩| |ˌvælju: | |ˈvæmpaɪər | | fjuː | |ˈvaɪərəs| 5 r 05 | vəˈkeɪʃn̩ | | ˈvæljuː| | ˈvæmpaɪə | | vjuː | |ˈvaɪərəs| 6 r 06 |vəʊˈkeɪʃn̩| |ˈvæljuː | |ˈvæmpaɪə | | vjuː | |ˈvaɪərəs| 7 r 07 |vəʊˈkeɪʃn̩| | ˈvæljuː| | ˈvæmpaɪə | | vjuː | |ˈvaɪərəs| 8 r 08 | vəˈkeɪʃn̩ | | ˈvæljuː| |ˈvæmpaɪə | | vjuː | |ˈvaɪərəs| 9 r 09 |vəʊˈkeɪʃn̩| | ˌvælju:| | ˈvæmpaɪər| | fjuː | |ˈvaɪərəs| 10 r 10 |vəʊˈkeɪʃn̩| | vanue | | ˈvæmpaɪər| | fjuː | |ˈvaɪərəs| table 5. sound /v/ in medial position. no respondents service/ˈsɜːvɪs/ however /haʊˈevə/ available /əˈveɪləbl̩/ invite /ɪnˈvaɪt/ investing /ɪnˈvestɪŋ / 1 r 01 | ˈsɜːfɪs | |haʊˈevə| | əˈveɪləbl|̩ |ɪnˈvaɪt| |ɪnˈvestɪŋ| 2 r 02 | ˈsɜːfɪs | |haʊˈevə| | əˈveɪləbl|̩ |ɪnˈvaɪt| | ɪnˈvestɪŋ| 3 r 03 | ˈsɜːfɪs | |haʊˈevə| | əˈveɪləbl|̩ |infight| | infisting| 4 r 04 | ˈsɜːfɪs | |haʊˈevə| | əˈveɪləbl|̩ |ɪnˈvaɪt| | ɪnˈvestɪŋ| 5 r 05 | ˈsɜːvɪs | |haʊˈevə| | əˈveɪləbl|̩ |ɪnˈvaɪt| | ɪnˈvestɪŋ| 6 r 06 | ˈsɜːvɪs | |haʊˈevə| | əˈveɪləbl|̩ |ɪnˈvaɪt| | ɪnˈvestɪŋ| 7 r 07 | ˈsɜːvɪs | |haʊˈevə| | əˈveɪləbl|̩ |ɪnˈvaɪt| | ɪnˈvestɪŋ| 8 r 08 | ˈsɜːvɪs | |haʊˈevə| | əˈveɪləbl|̩ |ɪnˈvaɪt| | ɪnˈvestɪŋ| 9 r 09 | ˈsɜːfɪs | |haʊˈevə| | əˈveɪləbl|̩ |ɪnˈvaɪt| | ɪnˈvestɪŋ| 10 r 10 | ˈsɜːfɪs | |haʊˈevə| | əˈveɪləbl|̩ |ɪnˈvaɪt| | ɪnˈvestɪŋ| http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 77 table 6. sound /v/ in final position. no respondentss observe /əbˈzɜːv/ drive /draɪv/ active /ˈæktɪv / improve /ɪmˈpruːv/ stove /stəʊv / 1 r 01 | əbˈzɜːv | | draɪv | | ˈæktɪv | |ɪmˈpruːv| | stəʊv | 2 r 02 | əbˈzɜːv | | draɪv | | ˈæktɪv | |ɪmˈpruːv| | stəʊv | 3 r 03 | əbˈzɜːv | | draɪv | | ˈæktɪv | |ɪmˈpruːv| | stʌf | 4 r 04 | əbˈzɜːv | | draɪv | | ˈæktɪv | |ɪmˈpruːv| | stəʊv | 5 r 05 | əbˈzɜːv | | draɪv | | ˈæktɪv | |ɪmˈpruːv| | stəʊv | 6 r 06 | əbˈzɜːv | | draɪv | | ˈæktɪv | |ɪmˈpruːv| | stəʊv | 7 r 07 | əbˈzɜːv | | draɪv | | ˈæktɪv | |ɪmˈpruːv| | stəʊv | 8 r 08 | əbˈzɜːv | | draɪv | | ˈæktɪv | |ɪmˈpruːvd| | stəʊv | 9 r 09 | əbˈzɜːv | | draɪv | | ˈæktɪv | | ɪmˈpruːv | | stəʊv | 10 r 10 | əbˈzɜːv | | draɪv | | ˈæktɪv | | ɪmˈpruːv | | stɒp | 2. sentences the result of students' answers through sentence recordïng. table 7. sounds /f/ and /v/ in sentences no r e s p o n d e n t s 1. his wife will drive the van. 2. i have five knives and four forks. 3. will you phone before you visit the farm? 4. my family loves to laugh on vacation. 5. save the four wolves who live in the cave. 6. please forgive me for forgetting the leftover food!. 7. however, he invited me to see his vampire collection. 8. stove washing service is available. 9. the soccer player is in an offside position. 10. investing money is his job 1. | hɪz waɪf ˌwi:l ˈdraɪv ðə væn | 2. |ˈaɪ həv faɪv naɪvz ənd ˌfɔ:r fɔːks | 3. |ˌwi:l ju ˈfəʊn bɪˈfɔː ju ˈvɪzɪt ðə fɑːm|? 4. | maɪ ˈfæməli ˈlʌvz tu lɑːf ˈɒn vəˈkeɪʃn̩ | 5. | seɪv ðə ˌfɔ:r wʊlvz ˈhuː ˈlaɪv ɪn ðə keɪv | 6. | pliːz fəˈɡɪv miː fə fəˈɡetɪŋ ðə ˈleftəʊvə fuːd| ! 7. | haʊˈevə| ˈhi: ɪnˈvaɪtɪd miː tu ˈsi: ɪz ˈvæmpaɪə kəˈlekʃn̩ | 8. | stəʊv ˌwɒʃɪŋ ˈsɜːvɪs ɪz əˈveɪləbl̩ | 9. |ðə ˈsɒkə pleɪər z ɪn ən ɒfˈsaɪd pəˈzɪʃn̩ | 10. | ɪnˈvestɪŋ ˈmʌni z ɪz dʒɒb | 11. 1 r 01 1. | hɪz waɪf ˌwi:l ˈdraɪv ðə fʌn | 2. | ˈaɪ həv faɪv naɪvz ənd ˌfɔ:r fɔːks | 3. | ˌwi:l ju ˈfəʊn bɪˈfɔː ju ˈvɪzɪt ðə fɑːm | ? 4. | maɪ ˈfæməli ˈlʌvz tu lʌk ˈɒn vəˈkeɪʃn̩ | http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 78 5. | seɪv ðə ˌfɔ:r wʊlvz ˈhuː ˈlaɪv ɪn ðə keɪv | 6. | pliːz fəˈɡɪv miː fə fəˈɡetɪŋ ðə ˈlet ˈəʊvə fuːd | ! 7. | haʊˈevə |ˈhi: ɪnˈvaɪt tu miː ˈsi: ɪz vampir kəˈlekʃn̩| 8. | stəʊv ˌwɒʃɪŋ ˈsɜːvɪs ɪz əˈveɪləbl̩ | 9. | ðə ˈsɒkə pleɪər z ɪn ən ɒfˈsaɪd pəˈzɪʃn̩ | 10. | ɪnˈvestɪŋ ˈmʌni z ɪz dʒɒb | 2 r 02 1. | hɪz waɪf ˌwi:l ˈdraɪv ðə fʌn | 2. | ˈaɪ həv faɪv kenives ənd fə fɒks | 3. | ˌwi:l ju pəʊn bɪˈfɔː ju ˈvɪzɪt ðə fɑːm | ? 4. | maɪ ˈfæməli ˈlʌvz tu lɒk ˈɒn vəʊˈkeɪʃn̩ | 5. | seɪv ðə ˌfɔ:r wʊlvz ˈhuː ˈlaɪv ɪn ðə keɪv | 6. | pliːz fəˈɡɪv miː fə fəˈɡetɪŋ ðə ˈleftəʊvə fuːd | ! 7. | haʊˈevə |ˈhi: ɪnˈvaɪt miː tu ˈsi: ɪz ˈvæmpaɪə kəˈlekʃn̩ | 8. | stəʊv wasing ˈsɜːvɪs ɪz əˈveɪləbl̩ | 9. |ðə ˈsɒkə pleɪər z ɪn ən ɒfˈsaɪd pəˈzɪʃn̩ | 10. | ɪnˈvestɪŋ ˈmʌni z ɪz dʒɒb | 3 r 03 1. | hɪz waɪf ˌwi:l ˈdraɪv ðə fʌn | 2. | ˈaɪ həv faɪv kenives ənd ˌfɔ:r fɔːks | 3. | ˌwi:l ju ˈfəʊn bɪˈfɔː ju ˈvɪzɪt ðə fɑːm | ? 4. | maɪ ˈfæməli ˈlʌvz tu ˈlʌv ˈɒn vəˈkeɪʃn̩ | 5. | seɪv ðə ˌfɔ:r wʊlvz ˈlaɪv ɪn ðə keɪv | 6. | pliːz fəˈɡɪv miː fə fəˈɡetɪŋ ðə ˈleftəʊvə fuːd | ! 7. | haʊˈevə |ˈhi: ɪnˈvaɪtɪd miː tu ˈsi: ɪz vampir kəˈlekʃn̩ | 8. | stəʊv wasing ˌsɜ:fɪs ɪz əˈveɪləbl̩ | 9. | ðə ˈsɒkə pleɪər z ɪn ən ɒfˈsaɪd pəˈzɪʃn̩ | 10. | ɪnˈvestɪŋ ˈmʌni z ɪz dʒɒb | 4 r 04 1. | hɪz waɪf ˌwi:l ˈdraɪv ðə væn | 2. | ˈaɪ həv faɪv naɪvz ənd ˌfɔ:r fɔːks | 3. | ˌwi:l ju ˈfəʊn bɪˈfɔː ju ˈvɪzɪt ðə fɑːm | ? 4. | maɪ ˈfæməli ˈlʌvz tu laug ˈɒn vəˈkeɪʃn̩ | 5. | seɪv ðə ˌfɔ:r wʊlvz ˈhuː ˈlaɪf ɪn ðə keɪv | 6. | pliːz fəˈɡɪv miː fə fəˈɡetɪŋ ðə ˈleftəʊvə fuːd | ! 7. | haʊˈevə |ˈhi: ˈɪnfɪnət tu ˈsi: ɪz ˈvæmpaɪə kəˈlekʃn̩ | 8. | stəʊv ˌwɒʃɪŋ ˌsɜ:fɪs ɪz əˈveɪləbl̩ | 9. | ðə ˈʃɒk əv pleɪər z ɪn ən ɒfˈsaɪd pəˈzɪʃn̩ | 10. | ɪnˈvestɪŋ ˈmʌni z ɪz dʒɒb | 5 r 05 1. | hɪz waɪf ˌwi:l ˈdraɪv ðə væn | 2. | ˈaɪ həv faɪv naɪvz ənd ˌfɔ:r fəʊks | 3. | ˌwi:l ju ˈfəʊn bɪˈfɔː ju ˈvɪzɪt ðə fɑːm | ? 4. | maɪ ˈfæməli ˈlʌvz tu lɑːf ˈɒn vəˈkeɪʃn̩ | 5. | seɪv ðə ˌfɔ:r wʊlvz ˈhuː ˈlaɪv ɪn ðə keɪv | 6. | pliːz fəˈɡɪv miː fə fəˈɡetɪŋ ðə ˈleftəʊvə fuːd | ! 7. | haʊˈevə |ˈhi: ɪnˈvaɪtɪd miː tu ˈsi: ɪz ˈvæmpaɪə kəˈlekʃn̩ | 8. | stəʊv ˌwɒʃɪŋ ˈsɜːvɪs ɪz əˈveɪləbl̩ | 9. |ðə ˈsɒkə pleɪər z ɪn ən ɒfˈsaɪd pəˈzɪʃn̩ | 10. | ɪnˈvestɪŋ ˈmʌni z ɪz dʒɒb | 6 r 06 1. | hɪz waɪf ˌwi:l ˈdraɪv ðə væn | http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 79 2. | ˈaɪ həv faɪv naɪvz ənd ˌfɔ:r fɔːks | 3. | ˌwi:l ju ˈfəʊn bɪˈfɔː ju ˈvɪzɪt ðə fɑːm | ? 4. | maɪ ˈfæməli ˈlʌvz tu lɑːf ˈɒn vəˈkeɪʃn̩ | 5. | seɪv ðə ˌfɔ:r wʊlvz ˈhuː ˈlaɪf ɪn ðə keɪv | 6. | pliːz fəˈɡɪv miː fə fəˈɡetɪŋ ðə ˈleftəʊvə fuːd | ! 7. | haʊˈevə |ˈhi: ɪnˈvaɪtɪd miː tu ˈsi: ɪz ˈvæmpaɪə kəˈlekʃn̩ | 8. | stəʊv ˌwɒʃɪŋ ˈsɜːvɪs ɪz əˈveɪləbl̩ | 9. | ðə ˈsɒkə pleɪər z ɪn ən ɒfˈsaɪd pəˈzɪʃn̩ | 10. | ɪnˈvestɪŋ ˈmʌni z ɪz dʒɒb | 7 r 07 1. | hɪz waɪf ˌwi:l ˈdraɪv ðən væn | 2. | ˈaɪ həv faɪv naɪvz ənd ˌfɔ:r fəʊks | 3. | ˌwi:l ju faʊnd bɪˈfɔː ju ˈvɪzɪt ðə fɑːm | ? 4. | maɪ ˈfæməli ˈlʌvz tu lɑːf ˈɒn vəˈkeɪʃn̩ | 5. | seɪv ðə ˌfɔ:r wʊlvz ˈhuː ˈlaɪv ɪn ðə keɪv | 6. | pliːz fəˈɡɪv miː fə fəˈɡetɪŋ ðə ˈleftəʊvə fuːd | ! 7. | haʊˈevə |ˈhi: ɪnˈvaɪtɪd miː tu ˈsi: ɪz ˈvæmpaɪə kəˈlekʃn̩ | 8. | stəʊv ˌwɒʃɪŋ ˈsɜːvɪs ɪz əˈveɪləbl̩ | 9. | ðə ˈsɒkə pleɪər z ɪn ən ɒfˈsaɪd pəˈzɪʃn̩ | 10. | ɪnˈvestɪŋ ˈmʌni z ɪz dʒɒb | 8 r 08 1. | hɪz waɪf ˌwi:l ˈdraɪv ðə væn | 2. | ˈaɪ həv faɪv naɪvz ənd fə fəʊks | 3. | ˌwi:l ju ˈfəʊn bɪˈfɔː ju ˈvɪzɪt ðə fɑːm | 4. | maɪ ˈfæməli ˈlʌvz tu lɑːf ˈɒn ə vəˈkeɪʃn̩ | 5. | seɪv ðə ˌfɔ:r wʊlvz ˈhuː ˈlaɪv ɪn ðə keɪv | 6. | pliːz fəˈɡɪv miː fə fəˈɡetɪŋ ðə ˈleftəʊvə fuːd | 7. | haʊˈevə |ˈhi: ɪnˈvaɪtɪd miː tu ˈsi: ɪz ˈvæmpaɪə kəˈlekʃn̩ | 8. | stəʊv ˌwɒʃɪŋ ˈsɜːvɪs ɪz əˈveɪləbl̩ | 9. | ðə ˈsɒkə pleɪər z ɪn ən ɒfˈsaɪd pəˈzɪʃn̩ | 10. | ɪnˈvestɪŋ ˈmʌni z ɪz dʒɒb 9 r 09 1. | hɪz waɪf ˌwi:l ˈdraɪv ðə fʌn | 2. | ˈaɪ həv faɪv naɪvz ənd ˌfɔ:r fɔːks | 3. | ˌwi:l ju ˈfəʊn bɪˈfɔː ju ˈvɪzɪt ðə fɑːm | ? 4. | maɪ ˈfæməli ˈlʌvz tu ˈlʌv ˈɒn vəˈkeɪʃn̩ | 5. | seɪv ðə ˌfɔ:r wʊlvz ˈhuː lɪvz ɪn ðə keɪv | 6. | pliːz fəˈɡɪv miː fə fəˈɡetɪŋ ðə ˈleftəʊvə fuːd | ! 7. | haʊˈevə |ˈhi: ɪnˈvaɪtɪd miː tu ˈsi: ɪz ˈvæmpaɪə kəˈlekʃn̩ | 8. | stəʊv ˌwɒʃɪŋ ˈsɜːvɪs ɪz əˈveɪləbl̩ | 9. | ðə ˈsɒkə pleɪər z ɪn ən ɒfˈsaɪd pəˈzɪʃn̩ | 10. | ɪnˈvestɪŋ ˈmʌni z ɪz dʒɒb | 10 r 10 1. | hɪz waɪf ˌwi:l ˈdraɪv ðə pæn | 2. | ˈaɪ həv faɪv naɪvz ənd ˌfɔ:r fɔːks | 3. | ˌwi:l ju ˈfəʊn bɪˈfɔː ju ˈvɪzɪt ðə fɑːm | ? 4. | maɪ ˈfæməli ˈlʌvz tu left ˈɒn vəˈkeɪʃn̩ | 5. | saɪd ðə ˈfɔːm ˈwɔ:l ˈhuː ˈlaɪv ɪn ðə keɪv | 6. | pliːz fəˈɡɪv miː fə fəˈɡetɪŋ ðə ˈleftəʊvə fuːd | ! 7. | haʊˈevə |ˈhi: ɪnˈvaɪtɪd miː tu ˈsi: ɪz ˈvæmpaɪə kəˈlekʃn̩ | 8. | stɒp ˌwɒʃɪŋ ˈsɜːvɪs ɪz əˈveɪləbl̩ | http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 80 9. | ðə ˈsɒkə pleɪər z ɪn ən ɒfˈsaɪd pəˈzɪʃn̩ | 10. | ɪnˈvestɪŋ ˈmʌni z ɪz dʒɒb | 3. paragraph the result of students' answers through paragraph recordïng. table 8. sounds /f/ and/v/ in paragraph no respondents a little rainbow of her own vegetables come in a large variety of shapes, sizes, and colors. my neighbor, vi, owns a vegetable farm. the farm belonged to her parents until they became too old to work on it. vi started farming when she was seven. she didn't know how much she loved her vegetable farm until she tried something else. for a few years, she saved her money to become a vet. she liked animals and thought she would enjoy helping them. she volunteered at a veterinary clinic. during her visit, she observed mostly nice animals, but some were very mean. after this experience, she was convinced that she wasn't brave enough to work as a veterinarian. besides, she liked the privacy she had while working on the farm. having and working on her land gave her a strong sense of satisfaction. she believed that she was part of her environment and that was her driving force to grow the freshest vegetables in the valley. vi was positive that her vegetable farm was her own piece of heaven. she loved what she did and that was enough for her. | ə ˈlɪtl̩ ˈreɪnbəʊ əv hər əʊn | ˈvedʒɪtəbl̩z ˈkʌm ɪn ə ˈlɑ:dʒ vəˈraɪəti əv ʃeɪps |ˈsaɪzɪz |ənd ˈkʌlərz |maɪ ˈneɪbə |sɪks |əʊnz ə ˈvedʒɪtəbl̩ fɑːm |ðə fɑːm bɪˈlɒŋd tu hə ˈpeərəntsʌnˈtɪl ˈðeɪ bɪˈkeɪm tuː əʊld tu ˈwɜ:k ˈɒn ˈɪt |sɪksˈstɑːtɪd ˈfɑːmɪŋ wen ˈʃi: wəz ˈsevn̩ |ˈʃi: ˈdɪdntˈnəʊ haʊ ˈmʌtʃ ˈʃi: ˈlʌvd hə ˈvedʒɪtəbl̩ fɑːmʌnˈtɪl ˈʃi: ˈtraɪd ˈsʌmθɪŋ els | |fər ə fjuː ˈjiəz |ˈʃi:seɪvd hə ˈmʌni tu bɪˈkʌm ə vet |ˈʃi: ˈlaɪkt ˈænɪml̩z ənd ˈθɔ:t ˈʃi: wʊd ɪnˈdʒɔɪ ˈhelpɪŋ ðəm | ˈʃi: ˌvɒlənˈtɪəd ət ə ˈvetrɪnri ˈklɪnɪk |. | ˈdjʊərɪŋ hə ˈvɪzɪt | ˈʃi: əbˈzɜːvd ˈməʊstli naɪs ˈænɪml̩z | bət səm wə ˈveri miːn | ˈɑːftə ðɪs ɪkˈspɪərɪəns ˈʃi: wəz kənˈvɪnst ðæt ˈʃi: ˈwɒznt breɪv ɪˈnʌf tu ˈwɜ:k əz ə ˌvetrəˈneriən | bɪˈsaɪdz | ˈʃi: ˈlaɪkt ðə ˈprɪvəsi ˈʃi: həd waɪl ˌwɜ:kɪŋ ˈɒn ðə fɑːm | ˈhævɪŋ ənd ˌwɜ:kɪŋ ˈɒn hər əʊn ˈlænd ɡeɪv hər ə strɒŋ sens əv ˌsætɪsˈfækʃn̩ | ˈʃi: bɪˈliːvd ðæt ˈʃi: wəz pɑ:t əv hər ɪnˈvaɪərənmənt ənd ðæt wəz hə ˈdraɪvɪŋ ˈfɔ:s tu ɡrəʊ ðə ˈfreʃɪst ˈvedʒɪtəbl̩z ɪn ðə ˈvæli | | sɪks wəz ˈpɒzətɪv ðæt hə ˈvedʒɪtəbl̩ fɑːm wəz hər əʊn pi:s əv ˈhevn̩ | ˈʃi: ˈlʌvd wɒt ˈʃi: dɪd ənd ðæt wəz ɪˈnʌf fə hə | zoo fire http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 81 there was a fire at the zoo last week. all of the animals lived, but an elephant, giraffe, buffalo, and fox got out through a burnt fence. the sheriff and the fire chief have their staff looking for them right now. they hope the animals didn't run into the forest or fall off a cliff. they heard the animals like the smell of coffee, breakfast, waffles, and muffins, and may try to find the animals using these four things. they want to find the animals fast. | zuː ˈfaɪə | ðə wəz ə faɪər ət ðə zuː lɑːst wiːk | ɔ:l əv ði ˈænɪml̩z lɪvd | bət ən ˈelɪfənt | dʒɪˈrɑːf | ˈbʌfələʊ | ənd fɒks ˈɡɒt aʊt θruː ə bɜːnt fens | ðə ˈʃerɪf ənd ðə faɪə tʃiːf həv ðeə ˈstɑ:f ˈlʊkɪŋ fə ðəm ˈraɪt naʊ |ˈðeɪ həʊp ði ˈænɪml̩z ˈdɪdnt ˈrʌn ˈɪntə ðə ˈfɒrɪst ɔː fɔːl ɒf ə klɪf | | ˈðeɪ hɜːd ði ˈænɪml̩z laɪk ðə smel əv ˈkɒfi | ˈbrekfəst | ˈwɒfl̩z | ənd ˈmʌfɪnz | ənd meɪ ˈtraɪ tu faɪnd ði ˈænɪml̩z ˈjuːzɪŋ ðiːz ˌfɔ:r ˈθɪŋz | ˈðeɪ ˈwɒnt tu faɪnd ði ˈænɪml̩z fɑːst | 1 r 01 | ə ˈlɪtl̩ ˈreɪnbəʊ əv hər əʊn | ˈvedʒɪtəbl̩ ˈkʌm ɪn ə ˈlɑ:dʒ vəˈraɪəti əv ʃeɪps | ˈsaɪzɪz | ənd ˈkʌlərz | maɪ ˈneɪbə | sɪks | əʊnz ə ˈvedʒɪtəbl̩ fɑːm | ðə fɑːm bɪˈlɒŋɪŋ tu hə ˈpeərənts ʌnˈtɪl ˈðeɪ bɪˈkeɪm tuː əʊld tu ˈwɜ:k ˈɒn ˈɪt | sɪks ˈstɑːtɪd ˈfɑːmɪŋ wen ˈʃi: ˈhæz ˈsevn̩ | ˈʃi: ˈdɪdnt ˈnəʊ haʊ tu ˈmʌtʃ ˈlʌv wɪð hə ˈvedʒɪtəbl̩ fɑːm ʌnˈtɪl ˈʃi: rɪˈtaɪəd ˈsʌmθɪŋ els | fər ə fjuː ˈjiəz | ˈʃi: seɪvd hə ˈmʌni tu bɪˈkʌm ə fɪt | ˈʃi: ˈlaɪkt ˈænɪml̩z ənd ˈθɔ:t ˈʃi: wʊd ɪnˈdʒɔɪ ˈhelpɪŋ ðəm | ˈʃi: ˌvɒlənˈtɪəd ət ə ˈvetrɪnri ˈklɪnɪk | | ˈdjʊərɪŋ hə ˈvɪzɪt | ˈʃi: əbˈzɜːvd ˈməʊstli naɪs ˈænɪml̩z | bət ˈsʌmweə ˈveri miːn | ˈɑːftə ðɪs ɪkˈspɪərɪəns | ˈʃi: wəz kənˈvɪnst ðæt ˈʃi: ˈwɒznt breɪv ɪˈnʌf tu ˈwɜ:k əz ə ˌvetrəˈneriən | bɪˈsaɪdz | ˈʃi: ˈlaɪkt ðə ˈprɪvəsi ˈʃi: həd waɪl ˌwɜ:kɪŋ ˈɒn ðə fɑːm | ˌhevi ənd ˌwɜ:kɪŋ ˈɒn ði əʊn ˈlænd ɡeɪv hər ə strɒŋ sens əv ˌsætɪsˈfækʃn̩ | ˈsi: bɪˈliːvd ðæt ˈsi: wəz pɑ:t əv hər ɪnˈvaɪərənmənt ənd ðæt wəz hə http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 82 ˈdraɪvɪŋ ˈfɔ:s tu ɡrəʊ ðə ˈfɜ:st hedz ˈvedʒɪtəblz̩ ɪn ðə ˈpælət | | sɪks wəz ˈpɒzətɪv ðæt hə ˈvedʒɪtəbl̩ fɑːm wəz hər əʊn pi:s əv ˈhevn̩ | ˈʃi: ˈlʌv ˈɪt wɒt ˈʃi: dɪd ənd ðæt wəz ɪˈnʌf fə hə | | zuː ˈfaɪə | ðə wəz ə faɪər ət ðə zuː lɑːst wiːk | ɔ:l əv ði ˈænɪml̩z ˈli:v ˈɪt bət ən ˈelɪfənt | dʒɪˈrɑːf | ˈbʌfələʊ | ənd fɒks ˈɡɒt aʊt θruː ə bɜːnt fens | ðə ˌsevn ənd ðə faɪə tʃiːf həv ðeə stʌf ˈlʊkɪŋ fə ðəm ˈraɪt naʊ | ˈðeɪ help ði ˈænɪml̩z ˈdɪdnt ˈtɜ:n ˈɪntə ðə ˈfɒrɪst ɔː fɔːl ɒf kɪl | ˈðeɪ hɜːd ði ˈænɪml̩z laɪk ðə ˈmel əv ðə ˈkɒfi | ˈbrekfəst | ˈwʊlf lez ənd ˈmʌfɪnz | ənd meɪ tu faɪnd ˈænɪml̩z ˈjuːzɪŋ ðə stɔː ˈθɪŋz | ˈðeɪ ˈwɒnt tu faɪnd ði ˈænɪml̩z fɑːst | 2 r 02 | ə ˈlɪtl ̩ˈreɪnbəʊ ɔː hər əʊn | ˈvedʒɪtəbl̩z ˈkʌm ɪn əˈlɜːt farty set | saɪz ənd ˈkʌlər | maɪ net wɜːθ sɪks | əʊnz ə ˈvedʒɪtəbl̩ fɑːm | ðə fɑːm ˌwi:l ˈwɜ:k tu hə ˈpeərənts ʌnˈtɪl ðen bɪˈkʌm tuː əʊld tu ˈwɜ:k ˈɒn ˈɪt | sɪks ˈstɑːtɪd ˈfɑːmɪŋ wen ˈʃi: wəz ˈsevn̩ | ˈʃi: ˈdɪdnt ˈnəʊ haʊ ˈmʌtʃ ˈʃi: ˈlʌvd hə ˈvedʒɪtəbl ̩fɑːm ʌnˈtɪl ˈʃi: ˈtraɪd ˈsʌmθɪŋ els | fər ə fjuː ˈjiəz | ˈʃi: seɪv hə ˈmʌni tu bɪˈkʌm ə vet | ˈsi: laɪk ˈænɪml̩z ənd ˈtɔːk ˈsi: ˈwɜ:ld ɪnˈdʒɔɪ ˈhelpɪŋ ðəm | ˈsi: ˈfɔːlən streɪt ənd ˈfeðəri ˈklɪnɪk | | ˈdjʊərɪŋ hə ˈvɪzɪt | ˈsi: əbˈzɜːv ˈməʊstli naɪs ˈænɪml̩z | bət ˈsʌmweə ˈfeəri miːnz | ˈɑːftə ðɪs ɪkˈspɪərɪəns ˈʃi: wəz kənˈvɪnst ðæt ˈʃi: ˈwɒznt breɪv ɪˈnʌf tu ˈwɜ:k əz ə ˈfetə leɪn ˈeərɪən | bɪˈsaɪdz | ˈʃi: laɪk ðə professi ˈʃi: həd waɪl ˌwɜ:kɪŋ ˈɒn ðə fɑːm | ˈhʌfɪŋ ənd ˌwɜ:kɪŋ ˈɒn hə ˈaʊə ˈlænd ɡeɪv hər ə strɒŋ sens əv ˌsætɪsˈfækʃn̩ | ˈʃi: bɪˈliːvd ðæt ˈʃi: wəz pɑ:t əv hər ənd fɪər ˈɒn mæn ənd ðæt wəz hə ˈdraɪvɪŋ ˈfɔ:s tu ɡrəʊ ðə freʃ ˈvedʒɪtəbl̩z ɪn ˈfɪli || sɪks wəz ˈpɒzətɪv ðə heə ˈvedʒɪtəbl̩ fɑːm wəz hər əʊn pi:s əv ˈhevn̩ | ˈʃi: ˈlʌvd wɒt ˈʃi: dɪd ənd ðæt wəz ɪˈnʌf fə hɪə | http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 83 | zuː ˈfaɪə | ðə wəz ə faɪər ət ðə zuː lɑːst wiːk | ɔ:l əv ði ˈænɪml̩z lɪvd | bət ən ˈelɪfənt | gɪər ʌp | ˈbʌfələʊ | ənd fɒks ɡɜːl ɔː twelv ə bɜːnt fens | ðə ˈserɪf ənd ðə faɪə seɪf həv ðeə ˈstɑ:f ˈlʊkɪŋ fə ðəm ˈraɪt naʊ | ˈðeɪ həv ði ˈænɪml̩z ˈdɪdnt ˈrʌn ˈɪntə ðə faɪt ɔː fɔːl ɒf ə klɪf | ðə hɜːt ði ˈænɪml̩z laɪk ðə smel əv ˈkɒfi | ˈbrekfəst | ˌwel fɑːst ənd move-ins | ənd maɪ ˈtraɪ tu faɪt ði ˈænɪml̩z ˈjuːzɪŋ dʒəst ˌfɔ:r ˈθɪŋz | ˈðeɪ ˈwɒnt tu faɪnd ði ænɪml fɑːst | 3 r 03 | ə ˈlɪtl ̩ˈreɪnbəʊ əv hər əʊn | ˈvedʒɪtəbl̩z ˈkʌm ɪn ə ˈlɑ:dʒ vəˈraɪəti əv ʃeɪps | ˈsaɪzɪz | ənd ˈkʌlərz | maɪ neikbor sɪks ˈwɒnts ə ˈvedʒɪtəbl̩ fɑːm | ðə fɑːm ˈjʌŋɡə tu hə ˈpeərənts ʌnˈtɪl ˈðeɪ bɪˈkeɪm tuː əʊld tu ˈwɜ:k ˈɒn ˈɪt | sɪks ˈstɑːtɪd pəˈfɔːmɪŋ wen ˈʃi: wəz ˈsevn̩ | ˈsi: ðeə ˈnəʊ haʊ məʊst bɪˈlʌvɪd hə ˈvedʒɪtəbl ̩frəm ʌnˈtɪl stɑːt ˈsʌmθɪŋ els | fər ə fjuː ˈjiəz | ˈʃi: seɪvd ˈfɔːθ ˈhɑːməni tu bɪˈkʌm vet | ˈʃi: laɪk ænɪml ənd tʌf ˈʃi: wɒt ɪnˈdʒɔɪ ˈhelpɪŋ ðəm | ˈʃi: ˈplɑːntɪd ət ˈvetrɪnri ˈklɪnɪk | | ˈdjʊərɪŋ hə ˈvɪzɪt | ˈsi: əbˈzɜːv məst naɪs ˈænɪml̩z | bət ˈsʌmweə ˈveri miːn | ˈɑːftə ðɪs ɪkˈspɪərɪəns ˈʃi: wəz kənˈvɪnst ðæt ˈʃi: ˈwɒznt breɪv ɪˈnʌf tu ˈwɜ:k əz ə ˌvetrəˈneriən | bɪˈsaɪd | ˈʃi: ˈlaɪkt ðə ˈprɪvəsi cn ˌwi:l ˌwɜ:kɪŋ ˈɒn ðə fɑːm | ˈhelpɪŋ ənd ˌwɜ:kɪŋ ˈɒn hər əʊn ənd ɡeɪv hər ə strɒŋ sets əv ˌsætɪsˈfækʃn̩ | ˈʃi: bɪˈliːvd ðæt ˈʃi: wəz pɑ:t əv hər ɪnˈvaɪərənmənt ənd ˈɪt wəz hə ˈdraɪvɪŋ ˈfɔ:s tu ɡrəʊ ðə fɪʃ ˈvedʒɪtəbl̩z ɪn ðə ˈfɪli | | sɪks wəz ˈpɒzətɪv ðæt hə ˈvedʒɪtəbl̩ fɑːm wəz hər əʊn pi:s əv ˈhevn̩ | ˈsi: ˈlʌvd wɒt ˈsi: dɪd ənd ðæt wəz ɪˈnʌf fə hə | | zuː friː | ðæt wəz ə ˈfri: ət ðə zuː lɑːst wiːk | ɔ:l əv ði ˈænɪml̩z laɪv | http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 84 bət ən ˈelɪfənt | dʒɪˈrɑːf | ˈbʌfələʊ | ənd fəʊks ˈɡɒtə ˈnəʊ əˌbaʊt frendz | ðə ˈserɪf ənd ðə faɪv ˈsi: ɪf həv ðeə ˈstɑ:f ˈlʊkɪŋ fə ðəm ˈraɪt naʊ | ˈðeɪ həʊp ði ˈænɪml̩z ˈdɪdnt ˈrʌn ˈɪntə ðə ˈfɒrɪst ɔː fɔːl ɒf ə klɪf | ˈðeɪ hɜːt ði ˈænɪml̩z laɪk ðə smel əv ˈkɒfi | ˈbrekfəst | ˈwɒfl̩z | ənd ˈmʌfɪnz ənd ˈmeɪbiː ˈtraɪ tu faɪnd ði ˈænɪmlz̩ ˈjuːzɪŋ ðɪs fə ˈθɪŋz | ˈðeɪ ˈwɒnt tu faɪnd ði ˈænɪml̩z fɑːst | 4 r 04 | ə ˈlɪtl ̩ˈreɪnbəʊ əv hər əʊn | ˈvedʒɪtəbl̩z ˈkʌm ɪn ə ˈlɑ:dʒ vəˈraɪəti əv ʃeɪps | ˈsaɪzɪz | ənd ˈkʌlərz | maɪ ˈneɪbə | sɪks əʊnz ə ˈvedʒɪtəbl̩ fɑːm | ðə fɑːm bɪˈlɒŋd tu hə ˈpeərənts ʌnˈtɪl ˈðeɪ bɪˈkeɪm tuː əʊld tu ˈwɜ:k ˈɒn ˈɪt | sɪks ˈstɑːtɪd ˈfɑːmɪŋ wen ˈʃi: wəz ˈsevn̩ | ˈʃi: ˈdɪdnt ˈnəʊ haʊ ˈmʌtʃ ˈʃi: ˈlʌvd hə ˈvedʒɪtəbl ̩frəm ʌnˈtɪl ˈʃi: ˈtraɪd | fər ə fjuː ˈjiəz | ˈʃi: seɪvd hə ˈmʌni tu bɪˈkʌm ə vet | ˈsəʊ laɪk ˈænɪml̩z ənd dəʊnt ˈʃi: wɔːk ɪnˈdʒɔɪ ˈhelpɪŋ ðəm | ˈʃi: falender ət ə ˈvenjuː nɪə ˈklɪnɪk | | ˈdjʊərɪŋ hə ˈvɪzɪt | ˈʃi: əbˈzɜːvd ˈməʊstli naɪs ˈænɪml̩z | bət səm wə ˈveri miːn | ˈɑːftə ðɪs ɪkˈspɪərɪəns | ˈʃi: wəz kənˈvɪnst ðæt ˈʃi: ˈwɒznt breɪv ɪˈnʌf tu ˈwɜ:k əz ə faɪə ˈnjʊərɒn | bɪˈsaɪdz | ˈʃi: ˈlaɪkt ðə ˈprɪvəsi ˈʃi: həd waɪl ˌwɜ:kɪŋ ˈɒn ðə fɑːm | ˈhævɪŋ ənd ˌwɜ:kɪŋ ˈɒn hər əʊn ˈlænd ɡeɪv hər ə strɒŋ sens əv ˌsætɪsˈfækʃn̩ | ˈʃi: bɪˈliːvd ðæt ˈʃi: wəz pɑ:t əv hər ɪnˈvaɪərənmənt ənd ðæt wəz hə ˈdraɪvɪŋ ˈfɔ:s tu ɡrəʊ ðə ˈfreɪz ˈvedʒɪtəbl ̩ɪn ˈvæli | | sɪks wəz ˈpɒzətɪv ðæt hə ˈvedʒɪtəbl̩ fɑːm wəz hər əʊn pi:s əv ˈhevn̩ | ˈʃi: ˈlʌvd wɒt ˈʃi: dɪd ənd wəz ɪˈnʌf fə hə | | zuː feə | ðə wəz ə faɪər ət ðə zuː lɑːst wiːk | ɔ:l əv ði ˈænɪml̩z laɪf | bət ən ˈelɪfənt | ɡreɪv | ˈbʌfələʊ | http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 85 ənd fəʊks ˈɡɒt aʊt θruː ə bɜːnt fens | ðə ˈʃerɪf ənd ðə faɪə tʃiːf həv ðeə ˈstɑ:f ˈlʊkɪŋ fə ðəm ˈraɪt naʊ | ˈðeɪ həʊp ði ˈænɪml̩z ˈdɪdnt ˈrʌn ˈɪntə ðə ˈfɒrɪst ɔː fɔːl ɒf ə klɪf | ˈðeɪ ˈwɜ:d ði ˈænɪml̩z laɪk ðə smel əv ˈkɒfi | ˈbrekfəst | ˈwɒfl̩z | ənd ˈmɑːvl̩z | ənd maɪ ˈtreɪd tu faɪnd ði ˈænɪml̩z ˈjuːzɪŋ ðiːz ˌfɔ:r ˈθɪŋz | ˈðeɪ ˈwɒnt tu faɪnd ði ˈænɪml̩z fɑːst | 5 r 05 | ə ˈlɪtl ̩ˈreɪnbəʊ əv hər əʊn | ˈvedʒɪtəbl̩z ˈkʌm ɪn ə ˈlɑ:dʒ vəˈraɪəti əv ʃeɪps | ˈsaɪzɪz | ənd ˈkʌlərz | maɪ ˈneɪbə sɪks əʊnz ə ˈvedʒɪtəbl̩ fɑːmz | ðə fɑːm bɪˈlɒŋd tu hə ˈpeərənts ʌnˈtɪl ˈðeɪ bɪˈkeɪm tuː əʊld tu ˈwɜ:k ˈɒn ˈɪt | sɪks ˈstɑːtɪd ˈfɑːmɪŋ wen ˈʃi: wəz ˈsevn̩ | ˈʃi: ˈdɪdnt ˈnəʊ haʊ ˈmʌtʃ ˈʃi: ˈlʌvd hə ˈvedʒɪtəbl ̩fɑːm ʌnˈtɪl ˈʃi: ˈtraɪd ˈsʌmθɪŋ els | fər ə fjuː ˈjiəz | ˈʃi: sɜːvd hə ˈmʌni tu bɪˈkʌm əv ðæt | ˈʃi: ˈlaɪkt ˈænɪml̩z ənd ˈθɔ:t ˈʃi: wʊd ɪnˈdʒɔɪ ˈhelpɪŋ ðəm | ˈʃi: ˈfɒləʊd ɪm ət ə ˈvetrɪnri ˈklɪnɪk | | ˈdjʊərɪŋ hə ˈvɪzɪt | ˈʃi: əbˈzɜːvd ə ˈməʊstli naɪs ˈænɪml̩z | bət səm wə ˈveri miːn | ˈɑːftə ðɪs ɪkˈspɪərɪəns ˈʃi: wəz kənˈvɪnst ðæt ˈʃi: ˈwɒznt breɪv ɪˈnʌf tu ˈwɜ:k əz ə ˌvetrəˈneriən | bɪˈsaɪdz | ˈʃi: ˈlaɪkt ðə ˈprɪvəsi ˈʃi: həd waɪl ˌwɜ:kɪŋ ˈɒn ðə fɑːm | ˈhævɪŋ ənd ˌwɜ:kɪŋ ˈɒn hər əʊn ˈlænd ɡeɪv hər ə strɒŋ sens əv ˌsætɪsˈfækʃn̩ | ˈʃi: bɪˈliːvd ðæt ˈʃi: wəz pɑ:t əv hər ɪnˈvaɪərənmənt ənd ðæt wəz hə ˈdraɪvɪŋ ˈfɔ:s tu ɡrəʊ ðə ˈfreʃɪst ˈvedʒɪtəbl̩z ɪn ðə ˈvæli | | sɪks wəz ˈpɒzətɪv ðæt hə ˈvedʒɪtəbl̩ fɑːm wəz hər əʊn pi:s əv ˈhevn̩ | ˈʃi: ˈlʌvd wɒt ˈʃi: dɪd ənd ðæt wəz ɪˈnʌf fə hə | | zuː ˈfaɪə | ðə wəz ə faɪər ət ðə zuː lɑːst wiːk | ɔ:l əv ði ˈænɪml̩z lɪvd | bət ən ˈelɪfənt | dʒɪˈrɑːf | ˈbʌfələʊ | ənd fɒks ˈɡɒt aʊt θruː ə bɜːnt fens | ðə ˈʃerɪf ənd ðə faɪə tʃiːf həv ðeə ˈstɑ:f ˈlʊkɪŋ fə ðəm ˈraɪt naʊ | ˈðeɪ həʊp ði ˈænɪml̩z ˈdɪdnt ˈrʌn ˈɪntə ðə ˈfɒrɪst ɔː fɔːl ɒf ə klɪf | http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 86 ˈðeɪ hɜːd ði ˈænɪml̩z laɪk ðə smel əv ˈkɒfi | ˈbrekfəst | ˈwɒfl̩z | ənd ˈmʌfɪnz | ənd meɪ ˈtraɪ tu faɪnd ði ˈænɪml̩z ˈjuːzɪŋ ðiːz ˌfɔ:r ˈθɪŋz | ˈðeɪ ˈwɒnt tu faɪnd ði ˈænɪml̩z fɑːst | 6 r 06 | ə ˈlɪtl ̩ˈreɪnbəʊ əv hər əʊn | ˈvedʒɪtəbl̩z ˈkʌm ɪn ə lɑːk vəˈraɪəti əv ʃeɪps | ˈsaɪzɪz | ənd ˈkʌlərz | maɪ ˈneɪbə | sɪks | əʊnz ə ˈvedʒɪtəbl̩ fɑːm | ðə fɑːm bɪˈlɒŋd tu hə ˈpeərənts ʌnˈtɪl ˈðeɪ bɪˈkeɪm tuː əʊld tu ˈwɜ:k ˈɒn ˈɪt | sɪks ˈstɑːtɪd ˈfɑːmɪŋ wen ˈʃi: wəz ˈsevn̩ | ˈʃi: ˈdɪdnt ˈnəʊ haʊ ˈmʌtʃ ˈʃi: ˈlʌvd hə ˈvedʒɪtəbl̩ fɑːm ʌnˈtɪl ˈʃi: ˈtraɪd ˈsʌmθɪŋ els | fər ə fjuː ˈjiəz | ˈʃi: seɪvd hə ˈmʌni tu bɪˈkʌm ə vet | ˈʃi: ˈlaɪkt ˈænɪml̩z ənd ˈθɔ:t ˈʃi: wʊd ɪnˈdʒɔɪ ˈhelpɪŋ ðəm | ˈʃi: ˌvɒlənˈtɪəd ət ə ˈvetrɪnri ˈklɪnɪk | | ˈdjʊərɪŋ hə ˈvɪzɪt | ˈʃi: əbˈzɜːvd ˈməʊstli naɪs ˈænɪml̩z | bət səm wə ˈveri miːn | ˈɑːftə ðɪs ɪkˈspɪərɪəns ˈʃi: wəz kənˈvɪnst ðæt ˈʃi: ˈwɒznt breɪv ɪˈnʌf tu ˈwɜ:k əz ə ˌvetrəˈneriən | bɪˈsaɪdz | ˈʃi: ˈlaɪkt ðə ˈprɪvəsi ˈʃi: həd waɪl ˌwɜ:kɪŋ ˈɒn ðə fɑːm | ˈhævɪŋ ənd ˌwɜ:kɪŋ ˈɒn hər əʊn ˈlænd ɡeɪv hər ə strɒŋ sens əv ˌsætɪsˈfækʃn̩ | ˈʃi: bɪˈliːvd ðæt ˈʃi: wəz pɑ:t əv hər ɪnˈvaɪərənmənt ənd ðæt wəz hə ˈdraɪvɪŋ ˈfɔ:s tu ɡrəʊ ðə ˈfreʃɪst ˈvedʒɪtəbl̩z ɪn ðə ˈvæli | | sɪks wəz ˈpɒzətɪv ðæt hə ˈvedʒɪtəbl̩ fɑːm wəz hər əʊn pi:s əv ˈhevn̩ | ˈʃi: ˈlʌvd wɒt ˈʃi: dɪd ənd ðæt wəz ɪˈnʌf fə hə | | ˈzɪərəʊ ˈfaɪə | ðə wəz ə faɪər ət ðə zuː lɑːst wiːk | ɔ:l əv ði ˈænɪml̩z laɪf | bət ən ˈelɪfənt | dʒɪˈrɑːf | ˈbʌfələʊ | ənd fɒks ˈget aʊt drɒp ə bɜːnt fens | ðə ˈʃerɪf ənd ðə faɪə tʃiːf həv ðeə ˈstɑ:f ˈlʊkɪŋ fə ðəm ˈraɪt naʊ | ˈðeɪ həʊp ði ˈænɪml̩z ˈdɪdnt ˈrʌn tu ðə ˈfɒrɪst ɔː fɔːl ɒf ə klɪf | ˈðeɪ hɜːt ði ˈænɪml̩z laɪk ðə smel əv ˈkɒfi | http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 87 ˈbrekfəst | ˈwɒfl̩z | ənd ˈmʌfɪnz | ənd meɪ ˈtraɪ tu faɪnd ði ˈænɪml̩z ˈjuːzɪŋ ðɪs fə ˈθɪŋz | ˈðeɪ ˈwɒnt tu faɪnd ði ˈænɪml̩z fɑːst | 7 r 07 | ə ˈlɪtl ̩ˈreɪnbəʊ əv hər əʊn | ˈvedʒɪtəbl̩z ˈkʌm ɪn ə ˈlɑ:dʒ vəˈraɪəti əv ʃeɪps | ˈsaɪzɪz | ənd ˈkʌlərz | maɪ ˈneɪbə | sɪks | əʊnz ə ˈvedʒɪtəbl̩ fɑːm | ðə fɑːm bɪˈlɒŋd tu hə ˈpeərənts ʌnˈtɪl ˈðeɪ bɪˈkeɪm tuː əʊld tu ˈwɜ:k ˈɒn ˈɪt | sɪks ˈstɑːtɪd ˈfɑːmɪŋ wen ˈʃi: wəz ˈsevn̩ | ˈʃi: ˈdɪdnt ˈnəʊ haʊ ˈmʌtʃ ˈʃi: ˈlʌvd hə ˈvedʒɪtəbl̩ fɑːm ʌnˈtɪl ˈʃi: ˈtraɪd ˈsʌmθɪŋ els | fər ə fjuː ˈjiəz | ˈʃi: seɪvd hə ˈmʌni tu bɪˈkʌm ə vet | ˈʃi: ˈlaɪkt ˈænɪml̩z ənd ˈθɔ:t ˈʃi: wʊd ɪnˈdʒɔɪ ˈhelpɪŋ ðəm | ˈʃi: ˈvɒləntri ət ə ˈvetrɪnri ˈklɪnɪk | | ˈdjʊərɪŋ hə ˈvɪzɪt | ˈʃi: əbˈzɜːvd ˈməʊstli naɪs ˈænɪml̩z | bət səm wə ˈveri miːn | ˈɑːftə ðɪs ɪkˈspɪərɪəns ˈʃi: wəz kənˈvɪnst ðæt ˈʃi: ˈwɒznt breɪv ɪˈnʌf tu ˈwɜ:k əz ə ˌvetrəˈneriən | bɪˈsaɪdz | ˈʃi: ˈlaɪkt ðə ˈprɪvəsi ˈʃi: həd waɪl ˌwɜ:kɪŋ ˈɒn ðə fɑːm | ˈhævɪŋ ənd ˌwɜ:kɪŋ ˈɒn hər əʊn ˈlænd ɡeɪv hər ə strɒŋ sens əv ˌsætɪsˈfækʃn̩ | ˈʃi: bɪˈliːvd ðæt ˈʃi: wəz pɑ:t əv hər ɪnˈvaɪərənmənt ənd ðæt wəz hə ˈdraɪvɪŋ ˈfɔ:s tu ɡrəʊ ðə ˈfreʃɪst ˈvedʒɪtəbl̩z ɪn ðə ˈvæli | | sɪks wəz ˈpɒzətɪv ðæt hə ˈvedʒɪtəbl̩ fɑːm wəz hər əʊn pi:s əv ˈhevn̩ | ˈʃi: ˈlʌvd wɒt ˈʃi: dɪd ənd ðæt wəz ɪˈnʌf fə hə | | zuː ˈfaɪə | ðə wəz ə faɪər ət ðə zuː lɑːst wiːk | ɔ:l əv ði ˈænɪml̩z lɪvd | bət ən ˈelɪfənt | dʒɪˈrɑːf | ˈbʌfələʊ | ənd fɒks ˈɡɒt aʊt θruː ə bɜːnt fens | ðə ˈʃerɪf ənd ðə faɪə tʃiːf həv ðeə ˈstɑ:f ˈlʊkɪŋ fə ðəm ˈraɪt naʊ | ˈðeɪ həʊp ði ˈænɪml̩z ˈdɪdnt ˈrʌn ˈɪntə ðə ˈfɒrɪst ɔː fɔːl ɒf ə klɪf | ˈðeɪ hɜːd ði ˈænɪml̩z laɪk ðə smel əv ˈkɒfi | http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 88 ˈbrekfəst | ˈwɒfl̩z | ənd ˈmʌfɪnz | ənd meɪ ˈtraɪ tu faɪnd ði ˈænɪml̩z ˈjuːzɪŋ ðiːz ˌfɔ:r ˈθɪŋz | ˈðeɪ ˈwɒnt tu faɪnd ði ˈænɪml̩z fɑːst | 8 r 08 | ə ˈlɪtl ̩ˈreɪnbəʊ əv hər əʊn | ˈvedʒɪtəbl̩z ˈkʌm ɪn ə ˈlɑ:dʒ vəˈraɪəti əv ʃeɪps | ˈsaɪzɪz | ənd ˈkʌlərz | maɪ ˈneɪbə | sɪks | əʊnz ə ˈvedʒɪtəbl̩ fɑːm | ðə fɑːm bɪˈlɒŋd tu hə ˈpeərənts ʌnˈtɪl ˈðeɪ bɪˈkeɪm tuː əʊld tu ˈwɜ:k ˈɒn ˈɪt | sɪks ˈstɑːtɪd ˈfɑːmɪŋ wen ˈʃi: wəz ˈsevn̩ | ˈʃi: ˈdɪdnt ˈnəʊ haʊ ˈmʌtʃ ˈʃi: ˈlʌvd hə ˈvedʒɪtəbl̩ fɑːm ʌnˈtɪl ˈʃi: ˈtraɪd ˈsʌmθɪŋ els | fər ə fjuː ˈjiəz | ˈʃi: ˈsed hə ˈmʌni tu bɪˈkʌm ə vet | ˈʃi: ˈlaɪkt ˈænɪml̩z ənd ˈθɔ:t ˈʃi: wʊd ɪnˈdʒɔɪ ˈhelpɪŋ ðəm | ˈʃi: ˌvɒlənˈtɪəd ət ə ˈvetrɪnri ˈklɪnɪk | | ˈdjʊərɪŋ hə ˈvɪzɪt | ˈʃi: əbˈzɜːvd ˈməʊstli naɪs ˈænɪml̩z | bət səm wə ˈveri miːn | ˈɑːftə ðɪs ɪkˈspɪərɪəns ˈʃi: wəz kənˈvɪnst ðæt ˈʃi: ˈwɒznt breɪv ɪˈnʌf tu ˈwɜ:k əz ə ˌvetrəˈneriən | bɪˈsaɪdz | ˈʃi: ˈlaɪkt ðə ˈprɪvəsi ˈʃi: həd waɪl ˌwɜ:kɪŋ ˈɒn ðə fɑːm | ˈhævɪŋ ənd ˌwɜ:kɪŋ ˈɒn hər əʊn ˈlænd ˈget hər ə strɒŋ sens əv ˌsætɪsˈfækʃn̩ | ˈʃi: bɪˈliːvd ðæt ˈʃi: wəz pɑ:t əv hər ɪnˈvaɪərənmənt ənd ˈɪt wəz hə ˈdraɪvɪŋ ˈfɔ:s tu ɡrəʊ ðə ˈfreʃɪst ˈvedʒɪtəbl̩z ɪn ðə ˈvæli | | sɪks wəz ˈpɒzətɪv ðæt hə ˈvedʒɪtəbl̩ fɑːm wəz hər əʊn pi:s əv ˈhevn̩ | ˈʃi: ˈlʌvd wɒt ˈʃi: dɪd ənd ðæt wəz ɪˈnʌf fə hə | | zuː ˈfaɪə | ðə wəz ə faɪər ət ðə zuː lɑːst wiːk | ɔ:l əv ði ˈænɪml̩z lɪvd | bət ən ˈelɪfənt | dʒɪˈrɑːf | ˈbʌfələʊ | ənd fɒks ˈget aʊt θruː ə bɜːnt fens | ðə ˈʃerɪf ənd ðə faɪə tʃiːf həv ðeə ˈstɑ:f ˈlʊkɪŋ ˈraɪt naʊ | ˈðeɪ həʊp ði ˈænɪml̩z ˈdɪdnt ˈrʌn ˈɪntə ðə ˈfɒrɪst ɔː fɔːl ɒf ə klɪf | ˈðeɪ hɜːd ði ˈænɪml̩z laɪk ðə smel əv ˈkɒfi | http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 89 ˈbrekfəst | ˈwɒfl̩z | ənd ˈmʌfɪnz | ənd meɪ ˈtraɪ tu faɪnd ði ˈænɪml̩z ˈjuːzɪŋ ðiːz ˌfɔ:r ˈθɪŋz | ˈðeɪ ˈwɒnt tu faɪnd ði ˈænɪml̩z fɑːst | 9 r 09 | ə ˈlɪtl ̩ˈreɪnbəʊ əv hər əʊn | ˈvedʒɪtəbl̩z ˈkʌm ɪn ə ˈlɑ:dʒ vəˈraɪəti əv ʃeɪps | ˈsaɪzɪz | ənd ˈkʌlərz | maɪ ˈneɪbə | sɪks | əʊnz ə ˈvedʒɪtəbl̩ fɑːm | ðə fɑːm bɪˈlɒŋd tu hə ˈpeərənts ʌnˈtɪl ˈðeɪ bɪˈkeɪm tuː əʊld tu ˈwɜ:k ˈɒn ˈɪt | sɪks stɑːt ˈfɔːmɪŋ wen ˈʃi: wəz ˈsevn̩ | ˈʃi: ˈdɪdnt ˈnəʊ haʊ ˈmʌtʃ ˈʃi: ˈlʌvd hə ˈvedʒɪtəbl̩ fɑːm ʌnˈtɪl ˈʃi: ˈtraɪd ˈsʌmθɪŋ els | fər ə fjuː ˈjiəz | ˈʃi: sɜːvd hə ˈmʌni tu bɪˈkʌm ə jet | ˈʃi: ˈlaɪkt ˈænɪml̩z ənd ˈθɔ:t ˈʃi: wʊd ɪnˈdʒɔɪ ˈhelpɪŋ ðəm | ˈʃi: ˌvɒlənˈtɪəd ət ə ˈvetrɪnri ˈklɪnɪk | | ˈdjʊərɪŋ hə ˈvɪzɪt | ˈʃi: əbˈzɜːvd ˈməʊstli naɪs ˈænɪml̩z | bət səm wə ˈveri miːn | ˈɑːftə ðɪs ɪkˈspɪərɪəns ˈʃi: wəz kənˈvɪnst ðæt ˈʃi: ˈwɒznt breɪv ɪˈnʌf tu ˈwɜ:k əz ə ˌvetrəˈneriən | bɪˈsaɪdz | ˈʃi: ˈlaɪkt ðə ˈprɪvəsi ˈʃi: həd waɪl ˌwɜ:kɪŋ ˈɒn ðə fɑːm | ˈhævɪŋ ənd ˌwɜ:kɪŋ ˈɒn hər əʊn ˈlænd ɡɪv hər ə strɒŋ sens əv satisfication | ˈʃi: bɪˈliːvd ðæt ˈʃi: wəz pɑ:t əv hər ɪnˈvaɪərənmənt ənd ðæt wəz hə ˈdraɪvɪŋ ˈfɔ:s tu ɡrəʊ ðə ˈfreʃɪst ˈvedʒɪtəbl̩z ɪn ðə ˈfɪli | | sɪks wəz ˈpɒzətɪv ðæt hə ˈvedʒɪtəbl̩ frəm wəz hər əʊn pi:s əv ˈhevn̩ | ˈʃi: ˈlʌvd wɒt ˈʃi: dɪd ənd ðæt wəz ɪˈnʌf fə hə | | zuː ˈfaɪə | ðə wəz ə faɪər ət ðə zuː lɑːst wiːk | ɔ:l əv ði ˈænɪml̩z lɪvd | bət ən ˈelɪfənt | dʒɪˈrɑːf | ˈbʌfələʊ | ənd fɒks ˈɡɒt aʊt θruː ə bɜːnt fɪnz | ðə ˈʃerɪf ənd ðə faɪə tʃiːf həv ðeə ˈstɑ:f ˈlʊkɪŋ fə ðəm ˈraɪt naʊ | ˈðeɪ help ði ˈænɪml̩z ˈdɪdnt ˈrʌn ˈɪntə ðə ˈfɒrɪst ɔː fɔːl ɒf ə klɪf | ˈðeɪ hɜːd ði ˈænɪml̩z laɪk ðə smel əv ˈkɒfi | ˈbrekfəst | http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 90 ˈwɒfl̩z | ənd ˈmʌfɪnz | ənd meɪ ˈtraɪ tu faɪnd ði ˈænɪml̩z ˈjuːzɪŋ ðɪs fə ˈθɪŋz | ˈðeɪ ˈwɒnt tu faɪnd ði ˈænɪml̩z fɑːst | 10 r 10 | ə ˈlɪtl ̩ˈreɪnbəʊ əv hər əʊn | ˈvedʒɪtəbl̩z ˈkʌm ɪn ə ˈlɑ:dʒ vəˈraɪəti əv ʃeɪps | ˈsaɪzɪz | ənd ˈkʌlərz | maɪ ˈneɪbə | sɪks | əʊnz ə ˈvedʒɪtəbl̩ fɑːm | ðə fɑːm bɪˈlɒŋd tu hə ˈpeərənts ʌnˈtɪl ˈðeɪ bɪˈkeɪm tuː əʊld tu ˈwɜ:k ˈɒn ˈɪt | sɪks ˈstɑːtɪd ˈfɑːmɪŋ wen ˈʃi: wəz ˈsevn̩ | ˈʃi: ˈdɪdnt ˈnəʊ haʊ ˈmʌtʃ ˈʃi: ˈlʌvd hə ˈvedʒɪtəbl̩ fɑːm ʌnˈtɪl ˈʃi: ˈtraɪd ˈsʌmθɪŋ els | fər ə fjuː ˈjiəz | ˈʃi: ˈsed hə ˈmʌni tu bɪˈkʌm ə vet | ˈʃi: ˈlaɪkt ˈænɪml̩z ənd ˈθɔ:t ˈʃi: wʊd ɪnˈdʒɔɪ ˈhelpɪŋ ðəm | ˈʃi: ˌvɒlənˈtɪəd ət ə ˈvetrɪnri ˈklɪnɪk | | ˈdjʊərɪŋ hə ˈvɪzɪt | ˈʃi: əbˈzɜːvd ˈməʊstli naɪs ˈænɪml̩z | bət səm wə ˈveri miːn | ˈɑːftə ðɪs ɪkˈspɪərɪəns ˈʃi: wəz kənˈvɪnst ðæt ˈʃi: ˈwɒznt breɪv ɪˈnʌf tu ˈwɜ:k əz ə ˌvetrəˈneriən | bɪˈsaɪdz | ˈʃi: ˈlaɪkt ðə ˈprɪvəsi ˈʃi: həd waɪl ˌwɜ:kɪŋ ˈɒn ðə fɑːm | ˈhævɪŋ ənd ˌwɜ:kɪŋ ˈɒn hər əʊn ˈlænd ɡeɪv hər ə strɒŋ sens əv satisfication | ˈʃi: bɪˈliːvd ðæt ˈʃi: wəz pɑ:t əv hər ɪnˈvaɪərənmənt ənd ðæt wəz hə ˈdraɪvɪŋ ˈfɔ:s tu ɡrəʊ ðə freʃ ˈvedʒɪtəbl̩z ɪn ðə ˈvæli | | sɪks wəz ˈpɒzətɪv ðæt hə ˈvedʒɪtəbl̩ fɑːm wəz hər əʊn pi:s əv ˈhevn̩ | ˈʃi: ˈlʌvd wɒt ˈʃi: dɪd ənd ðæt wəz ɪˈnʌf fə hə | | zuː ˈfaɪə | ðə wəz ə faɪər ət ðə zuː lɑːst wiːk | ɔ:l əv ði ˈænɪml̩z lɪvd | bət ən ˈelɪfənt | kreɪv | ˈbʌfələʊ | ənd fɒks ˈɡɒt aʊt θruː ə bɜːnt fens | ðə ˈʃerɪf ənd ðə faɪə tʃiːf həv ðeə ˈstɑ:f ˈlʊkɪŋ fə ðəm ˈraɪt naʊ | ˈðeɪ həʊp ði ˈænɪml̩z ˈdɪdnt ˈrʌn ˈɪntə ðə ˈfɒrɪst ɔː fɔːl ɒf ə klɪf | ˈðeɪ ˈeɪtʃ ði ˈænɪml̩z laɪk ðə smel əv ˈkɒfi | ˈbrekfəst | ˈwɒfl̩z | http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 91 ənd ˈmʌfɪnz | ənd meɪ ˈtraɪ tu faɪnd ði ˈænɪml̩z ˈjuːzɪŋ ðiːz ˌfɔ:r ˈθɪŋz | ˈðeɪ ˈwɒnt tu faɪnd ði ˈænɪml̩z fɑːst | based on the tables word list, sentence, and passage reading task most of the respondents can pronounce this target sound well. it is indicated by the frequency of the occurrence of the target sound which higher its variations. based on the data analysis that has been described, it can be known the highest frequency of the variations occur. in target sounds 'f' in the wordlist, there are (89.9%), in the sentences, there are (93.5%), and in the passage, there are (95.1%). while in target sounds /v/ in the word list there are (89.3%), in the sentences, there are (93.5%), and in the passage, there are (93.3%). table 9. target sound /f/ in the word list no sound production frequency of occurrence percentage 1 target sound /f/ 134 89.3% 2 substituted by /v/ 9 6% 3 substituted by /p/ 7 4.7% 4 total 150 100% table 10. target sound /f/ in sentence no sound production frequency of occurrence percentage 1 target sound /f/ 150 93.5% 2 substituted /v/ 8 5% 3 substituted /p/ 2 1.5% 4 total 160 100% table 11. target sound /f/ in the reading passage no sound production frequency of occurrence percentage 1 target sound /f/ 428 95.1% 2 substituted by /v/ 15 3.3% 3 substituted by /p/ 7 1.6% 4 total 450 100% table 12. target sound /v/ in the word list no sound production frequency of occurrence percentage 1 target sound /v/ 134 89.3% 2 substituted by /f/ 15 10% 3 substituted by /p/ 1 0.7% 4 total 150 100% http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 92 table 13. target sound /v/ in sentence no sound production frequency of occurrence percentage 1 target sound /v/ 197 93.5% 2 substituted by /f/ 10 4.9% 3 substituted by /p/ 3 1.6% 4 total 210 100% table 14. target sound /v/ in reading passage no sound production frequency of occurrence percentage 1 target sound /v/ 308 93.3% 2 substituted by /f/ 12 3.4% 3 substituted by /p/ 10 3.3% 4 total 330 100% the title of the tables should be on top, while the title of the image, picture, or chart should be placed beneath. for scripts written in english, thousands are marked using commas; e.g., 1200300 is written as 1,200,300. decimal points are marked with a period followed by two number digits, e.g., 12.34. for figures lower than 1, the zero is not needed; e.g., .12. for mathematical symbols or notations, the alphabet is italicized, but greek letters are written upright using the correct symbols. the equal sign is given a punch space before and after; e.g. (english format): r = .456; p = .008. for statistical values having degrees of freedom such as t, f, or z, the figure of the degree of freedom is written in parentheses such as t(52) = 1.234; f(1, 34) = 4.567. the statistical calculation for hypothesis testing should be completed with effect sizes; for example, the t-test using cohen’s d, the f-test using partial eta squared, or other posthoc tests in line with the references under consideration. for qualitative research, data from interviews, observations, text interpretations, etc. are condensed or summarized into a brief substantial resume or summary to be reported. these significant findings can be presented in descriptive tables to facilitate ease of reading. excerpts or extracts from interviews, observation results, texts, and others containing answers to research questions are shown in the discussion as authentic evidence. interpretation of results should not be included in this section unless the research required a combination of both findings and analysis in one part. discussion this part discusses the profile of labiodental fricative sounds uttered by students. the researcher discussed the data of fricative consonant pronunciation taken from students of the english education department of iain palopo. in this research, the number of words used as a pronunciation test was 30 labiodental fricative words, which were divided into 15 words with a / f / sound and 15 words with a / v / sound, 10 sentences, and 2 reading passage. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 93 from the results of the analysis that has been carried out, it can be seen that of the 10 respondents studied, some respondents have a good pronunciation of english words and are good at using target english accents, namely: r5 to r8. this is due to their habit of pronouncing words in english. they have an intermediate level of english skills and their habit of reading arabic letters, in this case reading the al-qur’an. meanwhile, respondents who had problems with english pronunciation said that they rarely practice using english. they only use english in class. this causes them to make many mistakes in the pronunciation of english words as in the previous findings. however, if they pronounce the words in the local language, the words sound nice and clear. this approximates the interference factor where the language patterns between bugis and english have differences. so that some of the respondents experienced difficulties in pronouncing english words as pringgawidagda said in the previous chapter. from the data table and analysis results, the researcher obtained several descriptions of the speech errors made by the respondents as follows: word list in the wordlist, sound /f/ there was several mistakes made by the respondent. like the consonant 'gh' in the word “laugh” should be pronounced with the sound /f/, but from 10 respondents, only 1 people or about 10% pronounce the sound, and 9 people or about 90% changed the sound from 'f' to sound 'v'. in consonant 'ph' in the word “phone” should be pronounced with the sound /f/, but from 10 respondents, there are 7 people or about 70% pronounce the sound, and 3 people or about 30% changed the sound from /f/ to sound /p/. the consonant 'f' in the word "golf" should be pronounced with the sound /f/, but from 10 respondents, there are 2 people or about 20% changed the sound from /f/ to sound /v/ and 8 people or about 80% pronounce the sound. the consonant 'ff' in the word “stuff” should be pronounced with the sound /f/, but from 10 respondents, only 1 people or about 10% pronounced the sound, and 9 people or about 90% changed the sound from 'f' to sound 'v'. in addition, there were also several mistakes made by respondents regarding the / v / sound. like the consonant 'v' in the word "value" should be pronounced with the sound /v/, but from 10 respondents, just 1 people or about 10% changed the sound from /v/ to sound /f/ and there are 9 people or about 90% pronounce the sound. the consonant 'v' in the word “service” should be pronounced with the sound /v/, but from 10 respondents, there are 4 people or about 40% pronounce the sound, and 6 people or about 60% changed the sound from /v/ to sound /f/. the consonant 'v' in the word "stove" should be pronounced with the sound /v/, but from 10 respondents, 2 people or about 20% changed the sound. among others are 1 people change sound from /v/ to sound /f/ and 1 people change sound from /v/ to /p/, and 8 people or about 80% pronounce the sound. from the word analysis that has been done like the data above, it can be seen that some respondents made mistakes in several words. this is called a negative transfer. where noor said in the previous chapter that negative transfer is a way for someone to produce a language or sound that is not by the target language or voice. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 94 sentences apart from the word list, the respondent also made several mistakes in producing the sounds / f / and / v /. like the word “laugh” that ends with the sound /f/ in the sentence "my family loves to laugh on vocation" out of 10 respondents, there are 6 people or about 60% who change the sound /f/ into /v/ sound. so the word laugh turns into the word love. the word “live” that ends with the sound /v/ in the sentence "save the four wolves whos live in the cave” out of 10 respondents, there are 2 people or about 20% who change the sound /v/ into /f/ sound. so the word “live” turns into the word “life”. interference also occurs in the data analysis section above. the respondent also made negative transfers in producing the / f / and / v / sounds in the sentence. reading passage from the analysis that has been done by researchers, in the reading section, almost all of them have read it well. only a few made mistakes, or about 4.9% of respondents made pronunciation errors of the / f / sound and around 6.7% of the /v/ sound. as we can see in the previous data in table 4.11 and table 4.14. so, based on all the discussions related to the results of this study, it can be seen that some students made mistakes in the pronunciation of the target language. as petter said, there are several types of mispronunciation, one of which is transfer errors. this shows that from the results of data analysis and interviews conducted by researchers, it can be concluded that in producing labiodental fricative sounds, there are some difficulties felt by some respondents. firstly, the bugis language does not have a labiodental fricative sound as seen in table 2.3. second, because of differences in student abilities, because the respondents in this research are students of various levels. third, because of the lack of habituation of students in producing english words, and the fourth, there is interference from l1 to l2 so that there is a negative transfer in producing the target language. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 95 conclusion errors in pronunciation usually occur due to several factors. one of them is like negative transfer, where the speaker says a word that is not in accordance with the target language. so, based on the results that the researcher found, it can be concluded that people with a buginese background, if they often practice speaking english words, especially labiodental fricative sounds, have more knowledge of pronunciation and always speak arabic words, meaning they are able to read the qur'an. 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"american english." hanbook of internatinal phonetic association, 1999: 41-44. lanteigne, betty. "common." persistent errors in english by brazilian portugese speakers tefl web journal, 2017: 1. lass, roger. phonology: an introduction to basic concepts. cambridge, uk, new york, melbourne, australia: cambridge university press, 1984. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 97 lee, chris. phonetics: consonants, vowels, diphthongs, ipa chart definition and example. february 8, 2017. https://www.myenglishteacher.eu/blog/phonetics-consonantsvowels-diphthongs-ipa-chart/. odden, david. introducing phonology. cambridge: cambridge university press, 2006. padhillah, nur. the causal factor of buginese-bone accent interference on the pronunciation in english conversation. makassar: uin alauddin makassar, 2017. rahman, nurhayati. "sejarah dan dinamika pengembangan huruf lontaraq di sulawesi selatan." international workshop on endangered scripts of island southeast asia, tokya university of foreign studies, 2014: 2. ramelan. english phonetics. semarang: ikip semarang press, 1985. roach, peter. english phonetic and phonology. britain: cambridge university press, 1996. seidlhofer, christian dalton and barbara. pronunciation. usa: oxford university press, 1995. sudarman. improving students' pronunciation through mininal pairs at the eleventh year students of pmds putri palopo. palopo: stain palopo, 2008. sugiyono. metode penelitian kuantitatif, kualitatif, dan r&d . bandung: alfabeta, 2008. syarifuddin, ilham. the pronunciation of english fricative by makassarese students in second semester of english literature department of adab and humanities faculty. makassar: uin alauddin makassar, 2014. ur, penny. a course in language teaching . cambridge: cambridge university press, 1996. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 29 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license improving students` vocabulary mastery through observe and remember game at the seventh grade smpn 2 palopo abstract this thesis is about improving students mastery vocabulary through observe and remember the game at the seventh grade smpn 2 palopo. the problem statement of this thesis: is the use of observe and remember the game useful to improve the students’ vocabulary at the seventh grade smpn 2 palopo? the objective of the research: to find out whether or not the use of observe and remember the game is effective in improving students’ vocabulary in the seventh grade smpn 2 palopo. this research applied pre-experimental. the population of this research was the seventhgrade students of smpn 2 palopo. the population there is only one class that consists of 30 students, and the taking sample technique is total sampling. the instrument of the research was a vocabulary test. the pre-test was given to know the basic ability of the students’ vocabulary and the post-test given to know the students’ improvement in students’ vocabulary after given the treatment and the research used to observe and remember the game. then the test was calculated and analyzed using spss 20. the researcher can conclude that using observe and remember games is useful in improving students’ vocabulary at the seventh grade smpn 2 palopo. it was proven by a significant difference between the students’ mean score of pre-test and post-test. in the pre-test, the students’ mean score is 51.00, and the students’ score in the post-test is 92.33. observe and remember the game can improve students’vocabulary because students are active in learning english. besides, using the game can improve communication between students and teachers when learning processes. keywords: observe and remember game, teaching vocabulary, vocabulary mastery introduction in english, there are some skills and the basics of a foreign language are mainly in improving the development of english in the form of vocabulary. where by having vocabulary can help to make english conversation. so the talk we can run smoothly with the mastery of vocabulary in stages. vocabulary is a set of word that instrumental at english in forming a sentence, which expresses his thoughts and feelings about the content perfectly, whether oral or written. vocabulary is one way to improve english skill and talking about english definitely require vocabulary. student will not be proficient in english if they do not master a lot of vocabulary. english without vocabulary students cannot read, write, speak and listen to english conversation. according to martin manser, generally the language skills are listening, speaking; reading as well as writing and its components consist of grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation (iksan, n.d.). vocabulary is a language center and of critical necessary for the typical language learners. lack of vocabulary give result lack of meaning full communication. vocabulary is one of the language elements the need for be acquir by english learner. vocabulary does helma state islamic institute of palopo (iain palopo), indonesia helma@iainpalopo.ac.id http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ mailto:jufriadi@iainpalopo.ac.id copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 30 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license very necessary to study language because the people can’ not communicated without enough vocabulary. vocabulary is one more important because it can understand everything that wants to be communicated and knows the fundamental principles, whether in general or individual situations. based on pre-survey the writer found that the learners were lack of interest in learning english especial in vocabulary. because the teacher only explains the material and then assigns the task.how to teach it without using games or media. so, students are lazy to learn thing like that will not be able to improve learning english. while some scholars introduced that games are very helpful in english language teaching, one mentioned that the game is very motivating because this game does fun and interesting. we commit be use to provide training in all language skill and are use to practice various type from communication.(ersöz, 2000). also mentioned that there are four type of game, they are class game, individual game, couple work game, and group work game. (wright andrew, betteridge david, 2006) related to this issue, there have been numbers of studies that hav been conducted by scholars i.e. husni in his study “the implementation of observe and remember game to improve students’ vocabulary mastery at seventh grade of mts s. al-washliyah tembung” the researcher uses classroom action research. the instrument of collecting data were from interview, observation sheets, diaries, and photographic evidence. then, qualitative data is analyze of the student scores in the pre-test and post-tests. research shows that there has been an increase in students` scores in vocabulary mastery by using a game of observation and remembering. (husni, 2017) further more ruwaida nusa putri in her study ”the application of observe and remember games in improving students’ achievement in vocabulary at the seventh grade of mts islamiyah medan ” this study used classroom action research. this study used were taken from interview and observation sheet as the instrument. tests are gave for learners in form of a initial test, and two final test. the subject of the study consists of 22 students. the study suggests that has been a significant improvement in learner vocabulary mastery. this commit be seen from the average score of initial test and final test, there is significant increase. and the results of observations and interviews indicate that students are instigation in the teaching-learning process during observation and remembering meetings. so this game is succed for use in teaching and in learning processes.(putri, nusa, 2017) besse kartika (2014) in her study investigating the use of vocabulary through snakes and ladders board game at the seventh year of smpn bajo. she found that there was a significant balance between the result of the pre-test and post test. she concluded that teaching vocabulary through snake and ladders board game is effective in the seventh year of smpn 2 bajo. methods research design this researcher the write be useful pre-experimental method. the method was be useful to know the effectiveness from remember and observe game in teaching vocabulary at the seventh grade of smpn 2 palopo. the formula of researcher design was illustrated below: initial test treatment final test http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 31 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license o1 x o2 o1 = initial test x = treatment o2= final test variable the were two variable the researcher, namely: 1. observe and remember as independent variable. game is good way for test abilities for the learners at observing and recall their moment study especial regard english vocabulary. 2. learners vocabulary as dependent variable. the ability of students in english is different, especially, in speaking and writing. if the students have not vocabulary, the students will be difficult to understand to learner about english. to improve students vocabulary can used the observe and remember game to teach students and to improve their vocabulary. population and sample this population on the researched is seventh grade learners from smpn 2 palopo an 2019/2020 academic year. total population 248 learners from eight class. because the population was only one class so that the taking sample technique is total sampling. the researcher chose the seventh grade to be respondent in this research. there were 31(17 female and 14 male) sample in smpn 2 palopo. instrument of the research at this study, researchers be useful a vocabulary tests. this initial test and final test. this purpose of the vocabulary tests is to find out this level of student vocabulary. this number of tests is 20 items. the forms of the test match picture with words. procedure of collecting data the data will collect through the following procedures: pre-test the author gave the treatment after the learners was given initial test. in the element the author was going for gave the test that was consist of speaking assessment. the test was for measure learners vocabulary before apply remember and observe. treatment after the initial test, author treats students through the game of observing and remembering. each meeting has different material. the material is objects and images. there are four meetings in this treatment. the steps of the game are as follow: 1. the first meeting on 05th february 2020: a. the researcher introduced vocabulary particularly part of speech. b. the author introduced this game. c. the author explain this rules of playing this game. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 32 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license d. students sat according to the group, then, the students were welcomed to observe one by one the objects provided by researcher into 2 minutes. (noun thing: in the classroom) e. after that the players were invited to set for a moment so they can discuss with their group member with the time provided by researchers for 5 minutes. f. a few moments later the thinking time is up, participants were asked to write down whatever objects they have seen on the paper. then collected on the table or in researcher. g. the game ends when there are students left as winners. h. the researcher wrote vocabulary in the whiteboard that they did not write. i. each student in one group was asked to mention the vocabulary on the objects indicated. for example, the researcher showed an eraser, and says “what is this?” and every student in the group was asked to name the item. j. and the winner of this game is the one who writes the most objects provided by the researcher correctly. k. the match ends when there is a winner. l. the winner got a prize. 2. the second meeting 07th february 2020: a. the researcher introduced particularly part of speech. b. the author introduced this game. c. the author explained again this rules of playing game. d. students sat according to the group, then, the students were welcomed to observe one by one the objects provided by researchers with the time given by researchers for 2 minutes. (noun animals) e. after that the players were invited to set for a moment so they can discuss with their group member with the time provided by researchers for 5 minutes. f. a few moments later the thinking time is up, participants were asked to write down whatever objects they have seen on the paper. then collected on the table or in researchers. g. the game ends when there were students left as winners. h. the researcher wrote vocabulary in the whiteboard that they did not write. i. each student in one group was asked to mention the vocabulary on the objects indicated. for example, the researcher showed an eraser, and says “what is this?” and every student in the group was asked to name the item. j. and the winner of this game is the one who wrote the most objects provided by the researcher correctly. k. the match ends when there was a winner. l. the winner got a prize. m. 3. the third meeting 12th february 2020: a. students sat according to the group. then, the students were welcomed to observe one by one the objects provided by researcher with the time given by researcher for 2 minutes. (noun thing, in the kitchen). b. after that the players were invited to set for a moment so they can discuss with their group member with the time provided by researcher for 5 minutes. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 33 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license c. a few moments later the thinking time is up, participants were asked to write down whatever objects they have seen on the paper. then collected on the table or in researcher. d. the game ends when there were students left as winners. e. the author wrote vocabulary in this white board that they did not write. f. each student in one group was asked to mention the vocabulary on the objects indicated. for example, the researcher showed an eraser, and says “what is this?” and every student in the group was asked to name the item. g. and the winner of this game is the one who wrote the most objects provided by the researcher correctly. h. the match ends when there was a winner. i. the winner got a prize. 4. the fourth meeting 14thfebruary 2020: a. students sat according to the group. then, the students were welcomed to observe one by one the objects provided by researcher with the time given by researcher for 2 minutes. (noun thing, in the bathroom). b. after that the players were invited to set for a moment so they can discuss with their group member with the time provided by researcher for 5 minutes. c. a few moments later the thinking time is up, participants were asked to write down whatever objects they have seen on the paper. then collected on the table or in researcher. d. the game ends when there were students left as winners. e. the author wrote vocabulary in this white board that they did not write. f. each student in one group was asked to mention the vocabulary on the objects indicated. for example, the researcher showed an eraser, and says “what is this?” and every student in the group was asked to name the item. g. and the winner of this game is the one who wrote the most objects provided by the researcher correctly. h. the match ends when there was a winner. i. the winner got a prize. 5. the fifth meeting 19th february 2020: a. students sat according to the group. then, students were welcomed to observe one by one the objects provided by researcher with the time given by researcher for 2 minutes. (noun animals) b. after that the players were invited to set for a moment so they can discuss with their group member with the time provided by researchers for 5 minutes. c. a few moments later the thinking time is up, participants were asked to write down whatever objects they have seen on the paper. then collected on the table or in researcher. d. the game ends when there were students left as winners. e. the author wrote vocabulary in the white board that they did not write. f. each student in one group was asked to mention the vocabulary on the objects indicated. for example, the researcher showed an eraser, and says “what is this?” and every student in the group was asked to name the item. g. and the winner of this game is the one who wrote the most objects provided by the researcher correctly. h. the match ends when there was a winner. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 34 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license i. the winner got a prize. 6. the six meeting 21th february 2020: a. students sat according to the group. then students were welcomed to observe one by one the objects provided by researcher with the time given by researcher for 2 minutes. (noun thing, in the bedroom) b. after that the players were invited to set for a moment so they can discuss with their group member with the time provided by researcher for 5 minutes. c. a few moments later the thinking time is up, participants were asked to write down whatever objects they have seen on the paper. then collected on the table or in researcher. d. the game ends when there were students left as winners. e. the author wrote vocabulary in this white board that they did not write. f. each student in one group was asked to mention the vocabulary on the objects indicated. for example, the researcher showed an eraser, and says “what is this?” and every student in the group was asked to name the item. g. and the winner of this game is the one who wrote the most objects provided by the researcher correctly. h. the match ends when there was a winner. i. the winner got a prize. post-test after give this treatment, author will gave final test for know this result from learners vocabulary after teaching by through observe and remember. technique of analysis data after analyzing this data, the author will collect this data and analyze them by through procedures as follow: a. analyze this raw data from test. each from the learners correct answers got 1 and this wrong answers got 0. b. score this learners corrected answer of initial test and final test. score = student′s correct answer total number total number × 100 c. classifying learners scores based on this follow classification: 1) 81 to 100 are classified as very good 2) 61 to 80 is classified as good 3) 41 to 60 are classified as fair 4) 21 to 40 are classified as poor 5) 1 to 20 as classify is very poor (kasiran, 1984) d. calculate this rate percentages from learners score by through follow formula: p = 𝐅 𝐍 × 100 where: p= percentage f= frequency n= total sample http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 35 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license e. calculating average score, standard deviation, frequency table and test between vocabulary achievement from the pre experimental by through spss 20 window to evaluation. results findings this findings of this study comprised the learners score pre-test and post-test, classification percentage of the learners score in pre-test and post test, the mean score and standard deviation of students’ pre-test and post-test. the score of students’ pre-test and post-test table 4.1 the score from learners initial test and final test respondent pre-test posttest r1 25 90 r2 55 90 r3 35 85 r4 30 100 r5 45 100 r6 45 100 r7 60 70 r8 55 100 r9 50 100 r10 25 100 r11 55 90 r12 55 100 r13 75 100 r14 55 100 r15 60 90 r16 40 90 r17 55 90 r18 55 100 r19 25 55 r20 60 65 r21 80 100 r22 55 80 r23 80 100 r24 35 85 r25 55 90 r26 45 100 r27 30 100 r28 75 100 r29 50 100 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 36 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license r30 65 100 table 4.1 shows that there is a difference between score of the students` pre-test and score of the student post-test. because when the students did the pre-test, the researcher not yet gave the treatment to the students. and, why the score of the students` post-test was higher because the researcher already gave the treatment to the students. and most students answer vocabulary about nouns. that happens because, according to students noun are easier rather than adjective(altenberg, evelyn; vago, m., 1393; eckersley, 1933) and verb. the rate percentage of the students’ pre-test table 4.2 the rate percentage score from learners initial test classification score frequency percentage very good good fair poor very poor 80-100 61-80 41-60 21-40 1-20 0 5 17 8 0 0% 17% 56% 27% 0% total 30 100% table 4.2 shows there were 5 (17%) learners got a good score, 17 (56%) learners got a fairs core, 8 (27%) students got poor score and there was no student got a very good and a very poor score. the mean score and standard deviation of the students’ pre-test table 4.3 the average score from learners correct answer initial test descriptive statistics n minimum maximum mean std. deviation pretest 30 25 80 51.00 15.614 valid n (listwise) 30 table 4.3 show which the highest score from the learners was 25 and lowest score was 80. besides, it also indicates which the mean score from learners initial test was 51.00., mean score of students’ and the standard deviation of pre-test was15.614 the rate percentage of the students’ post-test table 4.4 the rate percentage score from the students’ final test classification score frequency percentage very good good fair poor 80-100 61-80 41-60 21-40 26 3 1 0 87% 10% 3% 0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 37 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license very poor 1-20 0 30 0 100% total table 4.4 shows there were 26 (87%) learners got a very good score, 3 (10%) learners got a good score, 1 (3%) learners got fair score and there was no learners got a poor and a very poor score. the mean score and standard deviation of the students’ post-test table 4.5 the average score and standard deviation of students’ post-test descriptive statistics n minimum maximum mean std. deviation posttest valid n (listwise) 30 55 100 92.33 11.651 30 table 4.5 show which the highest score from the learners was 100 and the lowest score was 55. beside, it also indicates which the average score of students’ in post-test was 92.33 and the standard deviation was 11.651. the mean score and standard deviation of pretest and posttest table 4.6 the mean score of the students’ post-test paire d samples statistics mean n std. deviation std. error mean pre-test posttest 51.00 92.33 30 30 15.614 11.651 2.851 2.127 table 4.6 shows the average score of the learners pre-test was 51.00 and the learners score from post-test was 92.33. standard deviation from initial test was 15.614 and the standard deviation from final test was 11.651. it means the use of stand up sequences game improved the student’s vocabulary. the paired samples test of pretest and posttest table 4.7 the paired sample test of pre-test and post-test paired samples test paired differences t df sig. (2tailed) mean std. deviation std. error mean 95% confidence interval of the difference lower upper pair 1 pretest– posttest -41.333 17.416 3.180 -47.837 -34.830 -12.999 29 .000 the hypothesis was tasted by through spss 20. in the case, the writer use test (testing of significance) for pair sample test, which is a test for know the significance difference between the result from learners average score in initial test and final test. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 38 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license the probability value of test of the students’ achievement table 4.8 the probability value from test from learners achievement variable p-value (α) x2 x1 0.00 0.05 assuming which the level from significance (α) = 0.05, the only thing which is need; the degree of freedom (df) = n – 1, where df = 34, which the test is present in the following table. b. discussion observe and remember games is appropriat strategy appli in the classroom in teaching vocabulary. this strategy is help for increase learners interest and enjoy in learn which make them more involve in their vocabulary mastery. the results of the statistical analysis for the significance level of 0.05 with degrees any reedom (df) = n-1, where (n) = 30, df = 34. probabili value were smaller than α (0.00 <0.05). the show which the alternative hypothesis (h1) was accept and the null hypothesis (h0) was reject. the mean which the remember and observe game is effective for improve learners vocabulary. in the beginning of the author, the author explain that the were several procedure use to find out the vocabulary of students. several tests were conducted to collect data such as pre-test and post-test. teaching vocabulary through remember and observe game make the teaching and learning process a more enjoy and productive place for both learners and teacher. remember and observe game commit be a used game to teaching the noun around us because the teacher commit use the thing in the class, in the garden, in the library and in any places. by through the objects and picture given in the class, the learner will remembering strong the new word which we commit get. this research line with ruwaida nusa carried out a research about ‘’the application from remember and observe game in improving learners achievement in vocabulary in the seventh grade of mts islamiyah medan in the academic year 2016/2017’’. explained that remember and observe games can improve the learners vocabulary mastery because remember and observe games has a significant effect to increase the learners vocabulary. she said that the using of observe and remember games is one of the alternative game to teach vocabulary because it has a positive response from the learners. in this author prove which word building is not only improve the learners vocabulary mastery but also it commit upgrade the learners speaking skill and pronounce. in addition, husni baraqih(2016) explain the same of benefit of learning include summed up learning motivation, clarifying teaching material, and increasing learners activity especially for disabilities learners. moreover, it was perceiv which the learners were more eager and intereste learning english, especial for the implementation of the remember and observe game in the learners classroom, it was proved which this method influenc the learners’ motivation to study english comfortab. however, it was not denied which there also some weaknesses which found in implement this method. therefore, the creative and good preparation of every teacher is very essential during the processof implement this method. in summary, the author assert which remember and observe game is necessary to be applied in teaching vocabulary especial for those and we want to learn it. observe and remember game make people easy to learn about vocabulary in the further discussion. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 39 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license from the results of previous studies researchers found which using game commit improve the learners vocabulary. discussion observe and remember games is appropriat strategy appli in the classroom in teaching vocabulary. this strategy is help for increase learners interest and enjoy in learn which make them more involve in their vocabulary mastery. the results of the statistical analysis for the significance level of 0.05 with degrees any reedom (df) = n-1, where (n) = 30, df = 34. probability value were smaller than α (0.00 <0.05). the show which the alternative hypothesis (h1) was accepted and the null hypothesis (h0) was reject. the mean which the remember and observe game is useful for improving learners vocabulary. in the beginning of the author, the author explain that the were several procedure use to find out the vocabulary of students. several tests were conducted to collect data such as pre-test and post-test. teaching vocabulary through remember and observe game make the teaching and learning process a more enjoy and productive place for both learners and teacher. remember and observe game commit be a used game to teaching the noun around us because the teacher commit use the thing in the class, in the garden, in the library and in any places. by through the objects and picture given in the class, the learner will remembering strong the new word which we commit get. this research line with ruwaida nusa carried out a research about ‘’the application from remember and observe game in improving learners achievement in vocabulary in the seventh grade of mts islamiyah medan in the academic year 2016/2017’’. explained that remember and observe games can improve the learners vocabulary mastery because remember and observe games has a significant effect to increase the learners vocabulary. she said that the using of observe and remember games is one of the alternative game to teach vocabulary because it has a positive response from the learners. in this author prove which word building is not only improve the learners vocabulary mastery but also it commit upgrade the learners speaking skill and pronounce. in addition, husni baraqih(2016) explain the same of benefit of learning include summed up learning motivation, clarifying teaching material, and increasing learners activity especially for disabilities learners. moreover, it was perceiv which the learners were more eager and intereste learning english, especial for the implementation of the remember and observe game in the learners classroom, it was proved which this method influenc the learners’ motivation to study english comfortab. however, it was not denied which there also some weaknesses which found in implement this method. therefore, the creative and good preparation of every teacher is very essential during the processof implement this method. in summary, the author assert which remember and observe game is necessary to be applied in teaching vocabulary especial for those and we want to learn it. observe and remember game make people easy to learn about vocabulary in the further discussion. from the results of previous studies researchers found which using game commit improve the learners vocabulary. conclusion the author concluded the remember and observe game improve learning vocabulary at the seventh grade smpn 2 palopo. it could be proven by the learning result of the mean score in the pre-test of initial test was 51.00 and the mean score of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 40 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license learning in the final test was 92.33. after giving treatment to the learning and based on the result of data analysis or the finding, the author found which the p value was 0.00 and the alpha was 0.05, therefore p<α (0.00<0.05). it evidence which the null hypothesis (h0) was alternative hypothesis (ha) was accept. references altenberg, evelyn; vago, m., r. (1393). english grammar: understanding the basics. cambridge university press. eckersley, c. (1933). a concise english grammar for foreign students. ersöz, a. (2000). six games for the efl / esl classroom. vi(6). husni, b. (2017). the implementation of ebserve and remember game to improve students’ vocabulary mastery at seventh grade of mts s. al-washliyah tembung. repository uin s.uumatera utara medan. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9781107415324.004 iksan, m. (n.d.). a survey of students’language learning strategies and their english learning achievement in sma negeri 1 palopo. putri, nusa, r. (2017). the application of observe and remember games in improving students’ achievement in vocabulary at the seventh grade of mts islamiyah medan in the academic year 2016/2017. wright andrew, betteridge david, b. m. (2006). games for language learning (issue 1). cambridge university press. https://doi.org/10.16309/j.cnki.issn.10071776.2003.03.004 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 2, april 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 309 please strategy for teaching writing viewed from students’ self-esteem arief eko priyo atmojo1* 1 iain surakarta, indonesia arief.atmojo93@iain-surakarta.ac.id abstract this research aims to examine whether: (1) please strategy is more effective than raft strategy for writing; (2) students having high self-esteem are better in writing than those having low self-esteem; and (3) there is an interaction between the strategies and the students’ self-esteem. this research was done at a state secondary school located in sragen, jawa tengah, indonesia. cluster random sampling was employed to get the sample consisting of two classes. please strategy was used in the experimental class meanwhile raft strategy was employed in the control class. the students in each class were categorized into students having high self-esteem and low self-esteem. writing test and self-esteem questionnaire were utilized to gather data. multifactor analysis of variance anova 2 x 2 test and tukey test were employed to analyze the data after normality and homogeneity tests were undergone. the results indicate that: (1) please strategy is more effective than raft strategy for writing; (2) students having high self-esteem are better in writing than those having low self-esteem; and (3) there is an interaction between the strategies and the students’ self-esteem. it suggests that please strategy is an effective strategy for writing compared to raft strategy. further researches comparing please strategy to other strategies, techniques, or methods and collaborating it with media and innovative materials for writing are encouraged. keywords: please strategy, raft strategy, self-esteem, teaching writing skill. introduction writing is needed in classroom activities and tasks (guzel-ozmen, 2009). students’ achievement in writing are important for their lifelong success. in fact, enhancing students’ writing is a challenging task for teachers. many publications related to writing suggest that further researches on instructional methods are still necessary. the existing literature cannot sufficiently provide the best teaching practices (nielsen, 2012). puteh, rahamat, & karim (2010) argue that writing is a fundamental and essential skill to exhibit content knowledge. however, students experience many problems such as lack of ideas, difficulty to seek interesting topic, and inability to find words to use. rijlaarsdam, bergh, & couzijn (2005) state that writing is difficult because it involves many interactive cognitive activities including content generation and organization, text organization and production, and revision. flynn & stainthorp (2006) agree that writing http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 2, april 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 310 requires simultaneous integration of many activities and gives great demands on the cognitive system. it is a challenging, difficult, complicated, and demanding process (ka-kandee & kaur, 2015). writing is an interactive and complex activity relying on mental process of creating thoughts and considering the best way to put them through symbols which begins with making decisions on the amount and type of information, gradually continues to arrange the information, and ends up with the decisions of how all messages will be linguistically expressed to make an intelligible text aiming to share meanings and make impressions (adler-kassner & o’neill, 2010; browne, 2007; byrne, 1993; hyland, 2009; koutsoubou, 2005). writing consists of five aspects namely mechanics, vocabulary, grammar or language use, content, and organization (adler-kassner & o’neill, 2010; brown, 2001; davison & dowson, 2002; nation, 2009; nik, hamzah, & rafidee, 2010). self-esteem has an important role in writing. positive self-esteem is useful to motivate the students to demonstrate their writing. otherwise, students having low selfesteem experience many problems in writing (khansir & abdolahi, 2014). fahim & rad (2012) assert that some writing problems emerge from psychological aspects, especially self-esteem which has become a concern and had determining effects on language learning. self-esteem is someone’s fundamental self-assessment of his competence in dealing with life challenges based on the incongruity between his self-concept and ideal self and his own worth to be happy which is influenced by some considerations of his aspirations and standards about life as well as the actions and reactions of other persons towards him (branden, 1995; caunt, 2003; lawrence, 2006; mruk, 2006; plummer, 2005). self-esteem consists of four aspects namely competence, confidence, worthiness, and acceptance (branden, 1995; greene, 2003; lawrence, 2006; plummer, 2005). in this research, please strategy is employed in the experimental class. please strategy is a metacognitive strategy to cope with difficulties in writing process including prewriting planning, composition, and paragraph revision. it equips students with a set of behaviors by utilizing a first-letter mnemonic to remind each strategic step and guide them to accomplish a writing task independently (milford & harrison, 2010; welch, 1992). the steps of please strategy are stated as follows: (a) pick a topic to be written; (b) list ideas related to the topic; (c) evaluate the list to obtain relevant ideas; (d) activate with topic sentences; (e) supply supporting details to complement the topic sentences; and (f) end with a conclusion (milford & harrison, 2010). on the other hand, raft strategy is used in the control class. raft strategy is a creative writing strategy helping students through writing experience to understand their role as a writer, their audiences, the format of their writing, and the topic being addressed before they start writing. every raft work is written from a viewpoint except that of the student, to audiences except the teacher, and in a format except the standard theme (santa et al., 1988; sejnost & thiese, 2010; yerger, 2014). the steps of raft strategy are stated as follows: (a) determine important ideas based on reading assignment to determine the topic; (b) brainstorm the possibility of roles which the students can assume to determine their roles; (c) determine the audiences; and (d) decide the format of writing (sejnost & thiese, 2010). http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 2, april 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 311 some previous researches (akincilar, 2010; fahim & rad, 2012; khansir & abdolahi, 2014; milford & harrison, 2010; welch, 1992; welch & jensen, 1990) have been reviewed to gain deeper insights on the effectiveness of please strategy for writing and the relationship between students’ writing and their self-esteem. this present research differs from the previous researches. the difference is on the strategy used in the control class, the attributive variable employed, and the health condition of the sample. therefore, this research aims to reveal whether: (1) please strategy is more effective than raft strategy for writing; (2) students having high self-esteem are better in writing than those having low self-esteem; and (3) there is an interaction between the strategies and the students’ selfesteem. methods this research was carried out at a state secondary school located in sragen, jawa tengah, indonesia. it employed a quasi-experimental design because the sample was two already existing classes selected by cluster random sampling. it used factorial design 2 x 2 with post-test only design (no pre-test). the sample was classified into an experimental class and a control class. each class consisted of 26 students. please strategy was employed in the experimental class meanwhile raft strategy was used in the control class. a writing test and a self-esteem questionnaire were administered to gather data. the writing test instruction was tried out first to check its readibility. the self-esteem questionnaire was also tried out to get valid items and ensure its reliability. it proved reliable since ro (0.89) was higher than rt (0.388). normality test and homogeneity test had been done before the data were analyzed. the data are considered as in normal distribution if lo is lower than lt at the significance level α = 0.05. moreover, the data are considered as homogeneous if o2 is lower than t2 at the significance level α = 0.05. descriptive and inferential statistics were then employed to analyze the data. descriptive statistics were used to seek mean, median, mode, and standard deviation which ranged from 5.4 to 9.1. further, inferential statistics were employed to test hypotheses. anova 2 x 2 test and tukey test were utilized here. results having had been taught eight meetings each, both control and experimental classes were then given a writing test and requested to fill in a self-esteem questionnaire. the students’ writing and self-esteem scores of both classes can be seen in table 1 and table 2 following sequentially below: http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 2, april 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 312 table 1. the students’ writing and self-esteem scores of control class no. name writing score self-esteem score 1 student c-a 72 57.5 2 student c-b 66 56.88 3 student c-c 75 60 4 student c-d 72 61.25 5 student c-e 58 61.25 6 student c-f 54 54.38 7 student c-g 70 66.88 8 student c-h 68 57.5 9 student c-i 74 66.88 10 student c-j 55 57.5 11 student c-k 67 65.62 12 student c-l 82 66.25 13 student c-m 68 47.5 14 student c-n 76 63.12 15 student c-o 72 68.12 16 student c-p 66 63.12 17 student c-q 80 67.5 18 student c-r 59 59.38 19 student c-s 62 61.88 20 student c-t 70 56.88 21 student c-u 63 64.38 22 student c-v 73 58.75 23 student c-w 78 59.38 24 student c-x 71 56.88 25 student c-y 63 60.62 26 student c-z 63 57.5 total 1777 1576.90 mean 68.35 60.65 table 2. the students’ writing and self-esteem scores of experimental class no. name writing score self-esteem score 1 student x-a 71 58.12 2 student x-b 86 68.75 3 student x-c 82 62.50 4 student x-d 66 58.75 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 2, april 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 313 5 student x-e 77 67.50 6 student x-f 93 63.12 7 student x-g 76 60.62 8 student x-h 64 56.25 9 student x-i 67 61.88 10 student x-j 78 71.25 11 student x-k 61 55.00 12 student x-l 90 65.62 13 student x-m 65 60.62 14 student x-n 79 74.38 15 student x-o 72 71.25 16 student x-p 69 62.50 17 student x-q 63 51.25 18 student x-r 64 61.25 19 student x-s 74 60.62 20 student x-t 84 66.25 21 student x-u 75 71.88 22 student x-v 69 55.62 23 student x-w 59 55.62 24 student x-x 74 80.62 25 student x-y 70 59.38 26 student x-z 67 68.75 total 1895 1649.35 mean 72.88 63.44 anova 2 x 2 test was later done to test the hypotheses. h0 is rejected if fo is higher than ft (fo > ft) indicating that there is a significant difference. the computation results of anova 2 x 2 test are shown in table 3. in addition, the results of mean scores are presented in table 4. table 3. the results of anova (multifactor analysis of variance) 2 x 2 test source of variance ss df ms fo ft(0.05) between columns 267.77 1 267.77 5.50 4.04 between rows 694.23 1 694.23 14.26 columns by rows (interaction) 295.69 1 295.69 6.07 between groups 1257.69 3 419.23 within groups 2336.62 48 48.68 total 3594.31 51 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 2, april 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 314 table 4. the results of mean scores self-esteem (b) strategies (a) total average please strategy (a1) raft strategy (a2) high self-esteem (b1) 78.92 69.62 74.27 low self-esteem (b2) 66.85 67.08 66.96 total average 72.88 68.35 70.62 drawing on the results of anova 2 x 2 test, it can be inferred that: firstly, the score of fo between columns (strategies) is 5.50 while the score of ft at the significance level α = 0.05 is 4.04. the difference between columns is significant since fo is higher than ft or fo > ft. as results, h0 which means there is no difference between please strategy and raft strategy is rejected. it means that please strategy is significantly different from raft strategy. the writing mean score of the students in the experimental class (72.88) is also higher than that of the students in the control class (68.35). it means that please strategy is more effective than raft strategy. secondly, the score of fo between rows (self-esteem) is 14.26 while the score of ft at the significance level α = 0.05 is 4.04. the difference between rows is significant since fo is higher than ft or fo > ft. as results, h0 which means there is no difference between students having high selfesteem and those having low self-esteem is rejected. it means that the students having high selfesteem are significantly different from those having low self-esteem. the writing mean score of the students having high self-esteem (74.27) is also higher than that of the students having low selfesteem (66.96). it means that the students having high self-esteem are better in writing than those having low self-esteem. lastly, he score of finteraction (6.07) is higher than ft (4.04). the difference columns by rows is significant since finteraction is higher than ft or finteraction > ft. as results, h0 which means there is no interaction between employed strategies for writing and students’ self-esteem is rejected. it means that there is an interaction between two variables, namely strategies and self-esteem. in other words, the effect of the strategies depends on the degree of the students’ self-esteem. the results of anova 2 x 2 test indicate that there are effects and interaction between strategies and self-esteem toward writing. as results, it needs to compare the mean of each group to other means using tukey test to find out the means which significantly differ from the others. the results of tukey test are presented in table 5. table 5. the results of tukey test no. data sample qo qt α meaning status 1 a1 and a2 26 3.32 2.91 0.05 qo > qt significant 2 b1 and b2 26 5.34 2.91 0.05 qo > qt significant 3 a1b1 and a2b1 13 4.81 3.06 0.05 qo > qt significant 4 a1b2 and a2b2 13 0.12 3.06 0.05 qo < qt not significant drawing on the results of tukey test, it can be inferred that: firstly, writing using please strategy is significantly different from that of using raft strategy since qo between columns (3.32) is higher than qt at the significance level α = 0.05 (2.91). the writing mean score of the students using please strategy (72.88) is higher than that of the students using http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 2, april 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 315 raft strategy (68.35). it can be inferred that please strategy is more effective than raft strategy for writing. secondly, the students having high self-esteem are significantly different from those having low self-esteem since qo between rows (5.34) is higher than qt at the significance level α = 0.05 (2.91). the writing mean score of the students having high self-esteem (74.27) is higher than that of the students having low self-esteem (66.96). it can be inferred that the students having high self-esteem are better in writing than those having low self-esteem. thirdly, please strategy is significantly different from raft strategy for the students having high self-esteem since qo between cells a1b1 and a2b1 (4.81) is higher than qt at the significance level α = 0.05 (3.06). the mean score of a1b1 (78.92) is higher than that of a2b1 (69.62). it can be inferred that please strategy is more effective than raft strategy for the students having high self-esteem. lastly, please strategy is not significantly different from raft strategy for the students having low self-esteem since qo between cells a1b2 and a2b2 (0.12) is lower than qt at the significance level α = 0.05 (3.06). the mean score of a1b2 (66.85) is lower than that of a2b2 (67.08). it can be inferred that raft strategy is more effective than please strategy for the students having low selfesteem. discussion the difference between please strategy and raft strategy the results show that there is a significant difference between please strategy and raft strategy. please strategy is found to be more effective than raft strategy for writing since the mean score of the students using please strategy is higher than that of the students using raft strategy. it can be inferred that please strategy is more effective than raft strategy for writing. please strategy is very helpful to deal with particular types of writing problems in prewriting planning, composition, and paragraph revision. it works as a metacognitive problem solver. the students are equipped with a set of behaviors by utilizing a first-letter mnemonic to guide them in accomplishing a writing task independently (welch, 1992). moreover, milford and milford & harrison (2010, pp. 330–332) reveal that please strategy is useful for students to maintain their ideas on a topic sentence. it can be employed to enhance students’ writing and monitor their writing development and writing process. please strategy is also effective to develop students’ metacognitive knowledge in composing paragraphs (welch, 1992). further, it can effectively foster the writing of inefficient learners (welch & jensen, 1990). raft strategy facilitates students through writing experience to understand their role as a writer, their audiences, the format of their writing, and the topic being addressed before they start writing (santa et al., 1988; sejnost & thiese, 2010). moreover, raft strategy demands a teacher to model it first before his students begin to use it independently. it needs long process to make the students familiar with the way to use this strategy. the teacher needs to assign all students the same role, audience, format, and topic for their writing until they are familiar with the way to use this strategy (sejnost & thiese, 2010). it is obvious that please strategy gives more advantages to the students rather than raft strategy. the difference between students having high self-esteem and students having low self-esteem problems and failures are better coped by people having high self-esteem. their equilibrium can be quickly recovered rather than that of people having low self-esteem. people having high selfesteem are good in determining informed decisions. they are eager to try new things, learn from mistakes, and increase their confidence to deal with the next challenges. they are able to develop http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 2, april 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 316 their particular strengths and encounter changes well. they can enjoy life and build successful relationships than those having low self-esteem (plummer, 2005). people having high self-esteem are firm and supple to manage their lives and learn from mistakes without any fear of rejection. high self-esteem can be recognized from several signs like optimism, good self-care, non-blaming behavior, et cetera (soureshjani & naseri, 2011). people having high self-esteem are confident in society and school environment. they can keep their learning curiosity. they feel happy and enthusiastic to face new challenges (lawrence, 2006). they are also more persistent to cope with challenges. high self-esteem seeks challenging and stimulating events (branden, 1995). people having high self-esteem typically perform a positive degree of competence and worthiness (mruk, 2006). high self-esteem functions as positive feelings which are useful in several situations. it also leads to greater initiatives. people having high self-esteem commonly initiate interactions and relationships. they are brave to speak up in a group (baumeister, campbell, krueger, & vohs, 2003). in addition, they feel appropriate to life, confident, competent, and worth (branden, 1995). in contrast, people having low self-esteem are troublesome to make relationships. low selfesteem causes anxiety and confusion resulting in an impertinent viewpoint of self and others. people having low self-esteem are typically passive. however, they are aggressive to protect themselves from onset or rejection. they are difficult to set goals and solve problems. they are not confident. they are not willing to try new things because of their fear of failures. their abilities are underrated. their achievement is frequently refuted. as results, they cannot do their best in academic and social environments (plummer, 2005). people having low self-esteem do not believe in their abilities to be successful. they probably try to prevent humiliating situations (lawrence, 2006). they require lots of attention (luxmoore, 2008). they also tend to give up or try without doing their best. low self-esteem seeks familiar events for safety (branden, 1995). it leads to lacks of competence and worthiness (mruk, 2006). low self-esteem can be recognized from several syndromes such as negative view of life, fear of being ridiculed, fear of taking any risk, et cetera (soureshjani & naseri, 2011). affective variables or attitudes truly affect students’ writing (alluhaybi, 2015). it has been revealed that there is a positive relationship between students’ self-esteem and their writing (fahim & rad, 2012; khansir & abdolahi, 2014). therefore, the difference between the students having high self-esteem and those having low self-esteem suggests that the students having high self-esteem are better in writing than those having low self-esteem. the interaction between strategies and students’ self-esteem the difference between please strategy and raft strategy for writing has been discussed leading to several insights. please strategy is more effective than raft strategy and gives more advantages to the students rather than raft strategy. however, there are two groups of students namely the students having high self-esteem and the students having low self-esteem. these two groups of students are also different as their difference has also been discussed. this difference affects their learning behaviors and results. it implies that an effective strategy may have different results when it is used by different groups of students. in lights of the characteristics of the students having high self-esteem and the students having low self-esteem as well as their writing mean scores, please strategy is more impactful and effective when it is used by the students having high self-esteem. please strategy is more effective than raft strategy for the students having high self-esteem. in contrast, please strategy is not significantly different from raft strategy when it is used by the students having low self-esteem. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 2, april 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 317 raft strategy is even more effective than please strategy for the students having low self-esteem. it can be inferred that there is an interaction between the strategies and the students’ self-esteem. conclusion drawing on the research results, it can be concluded that: (1) please strategy is more effective than raft strategy for writing; (2) students having high self-esteem are better in writing than those having low self-esteem; and (3) there is an interaction between the strategies and the students’ self-esteem. however, this research has some limitations. it does not investigate classroom situations when please strategy is employed. it merely gathers and analyzes quantitative data. moreover, it does not use pre-test on the students’ writing. it also does not utilize media, except powerpoint presentation, white board, and handout. further researches employing qualitative data to investigate classroom situations are encouraged. it is also suggested to seek students’ perceptions on the use of please strategy and teachers’ belief on please strategy. moreover, classroom action research is welcome to discover how much each indicator of students’ writing develop through some cycles. researches incorporating please strategy with innovative media and materials are encouraged too. different attributive variables can also be interesting to be investigated. references adler-kassner, l., & o’neill, p. (2010). reframing writing assessment to improve teaching and learning. utah: utah state university press. akincilar, v. (2010). the effect of “please” strategy training through the self-regulated strategy development (srsd) model on fifth grade efl students’ descriptive writing: strategy training on planning. ankara: unpublished thesis. alluhaybi, m. (2015). psychology and efl writing. procedia-social and behavioral sciences, 192, 371– 378. baumeister, r. f., campbell, j. d., krueger, j. i., & vohs, k. d. (2003). does high self-esteem cause better performance, interpersonal success, happiness, or healthier lifestyles? psychological science in the public interest, 4(1), 1–44. branden, n. (1995). the six pillars of self-esteem. new york: bantam books. brown, h. d. (2001). teaching by principles: an interactive approach to language pedagogy (1st ed.). new york: longman. browne, a. (2007). teaching and learning communication, language and literacy. london: paul chapman publishing. byrne, d. (1993). teaching writing skills (new edition). london: longman. caunt, j. (2003). boost your self-esteem. london: kogan page limited. davison, j., & dowson, j. (2002). learning to teach english in the secondary school: a companion to school experience. london: routledge. fahim, m., & rad, s. k. (2012). the relationship between self-esteem and paragraph writing of iranian efl learners. psychology, 3(01), 24. flynn, n., & stainthorp, r. (2006). the learning and teaching of reading and writing. west sussex: john wiley & sons ltd. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 2, april 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 318 greene, i. (2003). how to improve self-esteem in the african american child. san diego: p. s. i. publishers. guzel-ozmen, r. (2009). modified cognitive strategy instruction: an expository writing strategy. intervention in school and clinic, 44(4), 216–222. hyland, k. (2009). teaching and researching writing (2nd ed.). harlow: pearson education limited. ka-kan-dee, m., & kaur, s. (2015). teaching strategies used by thai efl lecturers to teach argumentative writing. procedia-social and behavioral sciences, 208, 143–156. khansir, a. a., & abdolahi, z. (2014). self-esteem and writing achievements of iranian efl learners. international journal of english language and literature studies, 3(2), 155–164. koutsoubou, m. (2005). deaf ways of writing narratives: a bilingual approach. in effective learning and teaching of writing (pp. 151–167). springer. lawrence, d. (2006). enhancing self-esteem in the classroom (3rd ed.). london: paul chapman publishing. luxmoore, n. (2008). feeling like crap: young people and the meaning of self-esteem. philadelphia: jessica kingsley publishers. milford, t., & harrison, g. l. (2010). using the please strategy with a struggling middle school writer with a disability. intervention in school and clinic, 45(5), 326–332. mruk, c. j. (2006). self-esteem research, theory, and practice: toward a positive psychology of selfesteem (3rd ed.). new york: springer publishing company, inc. nation, i. s. p. (2009). teaching esl/efl reading and writing. new york: routledge. nielsen, k. (2012). self-assessment methods in writing instruction: a conceptual framework, successful practices and essential strategies. journal of research in reading, 37(1), 1–16. nik, y. a., hamzah, a., & rafidee, h. (2010). a comparative study on the factors affecting the writing performance among bachelor students. international journal of educational research and technology, 1(1), 54–59. plummer, d. (2005). helping adolescents and adults to build self-esteem: a photocopiable resource book. london: jessica kingsley publishers. puteh, s. n., rahamat, r., & karim, a. a. (2010). writing in the second language: support and help needed by the low achievers. procedia-social and behavioral sciences, 7, 580–587. rijlaarsdam, g., bergh, h. van den, & couzijn, m. (2005). effective learning and teaching of writing. in effective learning and teaching of writing (pp. 1–16). springer. santa, c. m., havens, l., nelson, m., danner, m., scalf, l., & scalf, j. (1988). content reading including study systems: reading, writing and studying across the curriculum. iowa: kendall/hunt publishing company. sejnost, r. l., & thiese, s. m. (2010). building content literacy: strategies for the adolescent learner. california: corwin. soureshjani, k. h., & naseri, n. (2011). an investigation into the relationship between self-esteem, proficiency level, and the reading ability of iranian efl language learners. journal of language teaching and research, 2(6), 1312. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 2, april 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 319 welch, m. (1992). the please strategy: a metacognitive learning strategy for improving the paragraph writing of students with mild learning disabilities. learning disability quarterly, 15(2), 119–128. welch, m., & jensen, j. b. (1990). write, please: a video-assisted strategic intervention to improve written expression of inefficient learners. remedial and special education, 12(1), 37–47. yerger, w. (2014). three dynamic approaches to create successful writers. international journal of languages and literatures, 2(1), 1–19. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.3, no. 2, april 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 113 application of reader-response theory in efl teaching and learning in nigeria abraham temitayo adewoye cyprus international university, institute of graduate studies and research, lefkosa, turkey. sholleymatui@gmail.com abstract this research article focuses on the interventions to enhance english language teaching and learning through literature in nigeria's senior secondary school educational system. the research looks at the application of reader-response theory to the teaching of literature to realize its ability to improve students' quantity and consistency of talk in the english language classroom. the underlying ideas were whether the reader-response approach would broaden the reach of communicative language instruction beyond literature-based classrooms and provide the ability to build learner independence outside of the classroom. however, the study would also emphasize the advantages of this technique, such as increasing language competence and abilities and offering more suitable cognitive difficulties to nigerian senior secondary school students enrolled in an english language course. the results suggest that the basis of knowledge-base, in this case, the high school curriculum, did not lay a strong knowledge base framework. keywords: curriculum, english language teaching, literature, reader-response theory introduction in nigeria, english is one of the required subjects in senior high school. listening, speaking, reading, and writing is the four skills that makeup english. reading is one of the skills that contribute significantly to the progress of language learning. we gain knowledge in life primarily by reading, which is why reading is so critical. according to westwood (2016), readers who comprehend what they are reading can better predict, infer, and relate the text or details on the website. the majority of curriculum revisions have aimed to reexamine the purposes, priorities, strategies, processes, and resources used in the successful execution of the english curriculum over the years. in reality, one school of curriculum theory claims that the implemented curriculum is the most successful. however, there are two other viewpoints from which curriculum should be examined before this feat in the curriculum is accomplished: prescription; intended curriculum, and practice; a curriculum that has been implemented according to hendrix & griffin (2016), in ideal conditions, what is recommended, what is practised, and, as a result, what is accomplished, as a result, will be a perfect match. in the nigerian context, one would expect english as a second language (esl) learners to be educationally, grammatically, and cognitively competent in social http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.3, no. 2, april 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 114 contexts outside the education system after good ages of knowledge in english and using it for teaching at the prime and secondary stages, which is the end objective. on the other hand, the sociolinguistic facts are distinct in that english in nigeria is essentially a restricted code language. as a result, the challenge raised by this situation has become one of the most pressing concerns in our educational system in recent years, especially in elementary and secondary schools, which have seen a significant decline in english learners' expressive and linguistic competence (mccullough, 2017). the condition at the high school level is one in which the aim is to transfer rather than master english. the situation at the high school level is one in which the objective is to communicate rather than master english. however, in a real-life communicative context, the ability to comprehend a language and generate it in clear communication isn't just about following a descriptive requirement, which is emphasized in examination-oriented english programs. this is because actual language use necessitates a wide range of information that has never been attempted to be crammed into manuals or grammar. the acceptance of english as a means of intra-national and inter-national contact is due to the multilingual and multicultural existence of the nigerian polity on the one hand and the lack of a national unity indigenous language on another. more specifically, english has become the pivot around which nigeria's educational wheel revolves. in addition to being a mandatory school subject that must be adopted at all educational levels in nigeria, the language serves as the medium of instruction for all academic subjects from elementary schools to universities. in recent years, a significant cause of the decrease in educational development and personal standards in nigeria has been attributed to students' mixed attitudes in english language national exams (garzon & castaneda-pena, 2015). one of the most profound issues that efl students face in their specific course of study appears to be having difficulty completely understanding the contents and concepts of the different subjects of the curriculum taught in the target language. this is the same issue that nigerian esl students face in public exams, where they perform poorly in different school subjects. this could be attributable to their shortcomings in the english language, the medium of instruction, which could damage their overall academic performance. when students lack proficiency in learning, they will inevitably struggle in the target language's school subjects. as a result, the overall success of nigerian esl students is heavily reliant on their english language skills. due to the conflicting attitude among students and teachers, this paper examines the views these two categories have on the use of reader-response, particularly in nigeria. the construction of meaning in reader response theory the reader-response theory is founded on the idea that a literary work occurs in a reciprocal partnership between the reader and the text. the reader deconstructs literature and connects it to their personal experience (gibbs et al., 2016). emotional reactions that arise from this mutual bond may help to cement classroom learning. rosenblatt's transactional perspective affirms that readers build their own experiences. the text activates a stimulus that acts as a guide, a regulator, a blueprint, and a means of understanding. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.3, no. 2, april 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 115 to put it another way, the text stimulates the reader's early encounters with literature and life; it controls the collection, dismissal, and order of what is presented; and it governs what should be brought to the reader's attention. according to reader-response theory, the reader creates meaning from the text using either an aesthetic or efferent stance. aesthetic reactions provide readers with a range of options for paying attention to the reading experience. the readers are expected to consider a variety of potential interpretations. efferent responses, on the other hand, provide a continuum for readers to create context. the readers are supposed to have a straightforward answer to the text's context. efferent stance is concerned with what readers rely upon in reading, while aesthetic attitude is associated with what readers have encountered. the term efferent refers to a type of reading in which the focus is primarily on the information to be retrieved and maintained after the assignment is completed. the ideas, facts, instructions, or conclusions to be kept, used or acted on after the reading are abstracted out and analytically structured (pope & round, 2016). learners improve their thought skills, gain exposure to other cultures, speculate on concepts and expand their understanding of them, enhance their interpretive skills, and sharpen their creative writing abilities through the process of meaning building. teachers and curriculum, on the other hand, have a significant impact on response. teachers have a substantial effect on whether or not readers react positively to literature in discussions. the level of learner response is influenced by the instructional methods used by teachers and the literature they choose. several factors governed by the instructor in classroom environments, according to hickman (2016), affect learner responses. • emphasizing the quality and relevance of titles for classroom use • choosing literature-related resources based on students’ ability to ensure that they access the text • to recapitulate the stress of discussions and events, offer a gist of literary texts. • to accommodate learners and literature research, provide recommendations, encourage high expectations, claim the importance of literature, acknowledge flexibility in time and space, and cater for materials. • allowing students to ponder literary texts in detail and become sense creators invigorates learning. according to reader-response theory, the reader is an active agent who gives the work "true life" and completes its meaning through interpretation. according to reader-response criticism, literature must be regarded as a performing art in which each reader produces their own, probably exceptional, text-related output. it is opposed to classicism and the based on new theories. the reader-response approach is based on an attempt to illuminate the reader-text relationship. "literary texts often include social dilemmas and conflicts," the underlying concept goes. readers must react personally to such reading." (gibbs et al., 2016). the theory concentrates on various roles readers can adopt while engaging in reading for http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.3, no. 2, april 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 116 readers to make sense of these written works. reader response theory is based on the idea that readers and the text play a role in interpreting an overall experience. the attitude of students and teachers on the nature of the english curriculum in nigerian schools in today's learner-centred approaches to teaching in particular and language teaching, learners' needs are potentially fundamental. the preparation of a successful language education program begins with a needs review. although the esl curriculum is chosen and presented for hypothetical and unrestrained purposes, a slight focus is put on communicative aids in social settings both in and outside the although the verbal and straightforward material in the syllabus is expected to encourage communicative abilities, it is firmly found that students still have low abilities in everyday life communication situations. curriculum concerns resulting from the national policy on education (npe) involve, among several other things, escalating vernacular as a way of fostering communal justice. conversations, formal harmony, and cultural safeguarding. as a result, the english syllabus not lone provides material but besides allows esl teachers to apply required linguistic insights and create necessary activities for their students. it is intended to encourage the students to learn the fundamentals of the language and supposed that the linguistic perspectives can assist esl teachers in interpreting and characterizing language learning in terms of efficient and responsive language learning. equally these skills remain required for communicative language capability. when considering the basis of the english curriculum including the aims, priorities, strategies, and resources, it is fair to assume that an over-reliance on textbooks that do not adequately treat lesson contents should be discouraged. as a result, in the classroom teaching and learning phase, communicative engagement can take the form of multiple interactions, including both vocal and non-vocal communication (blentyne & varga, 2016) the communicative methodology aims to provide students of english as an additional language with a normal situation to engage in unrestrained happenings. such will allow students to seek from the outset to comprehend, and there appear to be flaws in the teacher's approach compared to learner-centred approaches. overcrowding in classes, for example, is one of the causes of these shortcomings. lack of teaching materials, pressure to cover the course content in a short amount of time, and a lack of motivation for teachers to do their best; thus, english professors instruct students in the language. mechanically, students learn as well, with little involvement in the creation of their knowledge. as a result, rather than appropriate teaching and linguistic professionalism, teaching and learning activities become teacher-centred, focusing on cognitive, and educational outcomes. most language teachers are wary of communicative methods because they are afraid of incorrect and ill-formed sentences, which communicative practices, whether spontaneous or directed learning, can encourage a desire to learn communicative skills. their fear of the target language being fossilized or pidginized should not be a justification to avoid it (pope & round, 2016). it is critical to encourage students to use the english language for accurate communication rather than with the intent of imposition of grammatical constructs and http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.3, no. 2, april 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 117 meanings abstracted from their social contexts or circumstances. this means that english teachers must devise activities that will enable students to participate fully in the educational activities taking place in school. in light of this, a group of language educators argues that task-based learning should not believe that language must be homogenized and exercised in small chunks, but rather that language is learned when learners are forced to use some or all of their linguistic resources to communicate meaningfully. several secondary school teachers are more associated with distributing facts, knowledge, and concepts about how to do this except that in the classroom setting than with teaching communication skills or helping children to do and learn, practice, and participate in language activities aimed at developing communications competence or expertise. literature review reader response theory westwood (2016) has eloquently stated that reading literature is an exploration in which readers use feelings and histories to create meaning. context, according to her, is built by a transaction between the reader and the author. in the trade, learners bridge the differences in the text using their prior experience and disposition and their comprehension of the text (thomas,2020). the transactional view of reaction, which stems from rosenblatt's work, holds that the reader is "not treated as a separate agent acting upon the world, nor the environment acting on the organism, but all parts acting like a complete occurrence" (garzon & castaneda-pena, 2015). after all, the reader's perceptions or definitions "are a product of the reader as well as the text"(ghandehari,2017). this complex reading method would enable the reader to elicit a reaction to a text's events and characters by involving his or her emotions and thoughts. it is essential to keep in mind that active reading, emotional and analytical interest in the text, sense construction, and response elicitation are imperative aspects of literature debates (mart, 2019). according to westwood (2016 ), rrt improves students' reasoning abilities. furthermore, as quoted by garzon & castaneda-pena (2015), contends that the instructor should consider "various definitions" of a text rather than just the "literal understanding" because it allows for innovative and analytical thought in the classroom. in other words, using reader-response theories helps students to understand diverse points of view, encourages them to speak up and participate in discussions, and trains them to be innovative and imaginative thinkers. there are three additional languages during formal education time in nigeria: hausa, yoruba, and igbo (park, 2016). these languages are taught in the junior grades. nigeria stated that the initial three years of essential learning should be taught in the child's native language (kelly et al., 2016). english is the language of contact after the first three years of formal education before completing formal education. this strategy element is not as strictly enforced in private learning institutions. the program's immediate focus on english as a language of teaching and learning was its prominent presence in the world's national languages and as a means of instruction in the nigerian education system (blentyne & varga, 2016). the english language has helped nigeria gain access to foreign communities. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.3, no. 2, april 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 118 this demonstrates to esl teachers that what is most important is not the text's referential concepts but what students can make of them. language teachers seem to be particularly interested in teaching both efferent and aesthetic literacy "(ghandehari,2017). this could help to balance language instruction of form and meaning-making. literature: an earlier onset on the use of literature in language teaching the use of literature in esl classes may be a powerful method for working with writing. nonetheless, specific literature experts argue that the use of literature in writing courses is inappropriate because literature "is only suited for the study of literature" ( hendrix & griffin,2016). despite these historical ramifications, it is remarkable to contend that literature has a presence in all modes of esl teaching today. there are several advantages of using literary works in esl instruction. literature texts are inspiring sources for language learning because they involve learners in the lessons suggested in the classroom and enable them to study the language they are learning in a more formal setting. according to raditsebe (2016), esl students may be strengthened in a demanding proposal to meet their learning targets by using everything from reader-response e-journals to literature. literary text critics contend that the vocabulary used in academic texts is complex, artificial, and even grammatically incorrect. students can, however, encounter difficult words and unnatural ways in their everyday lives and use of english. promotion of critical thinking through literature raditsebe (2016) provides a six-level perception hierarchy. in this model, a person starts with the fundamental level, known as the information level, and then progresses to the comprehension level. students must characterize, illustrate, say, classify, mention, call, clarify, discuss, distinguish, and restate these lower-order thought skills ( hendrix & griffin,2016). the thinker advances through the intellect ladder until he or she hits the most complex stage, which is assessment. individuals at this stage appraise, judge, or criticize based on clear expectations and requirements. it may be argued that attention is turned toward what is immediately lived through in the transaction with the paper, toward what is being formed as the plot or the poem concerning rrt (thomas,2020). individuals advance in small measures. this means that one must learn one step before moving on to the next. this does not mean that each move operates independently or that thought is made up of fragments. as a result, human learning is a cyclical phenomenon in which we actively link our convictions and personal ideals to our skills to develop more complex thought processes "(ghandehari,2017) proponents of the communicative approach to language instruction have agreed that using natural resources is a practical initiative for developing language learners' communicative skills. based on the claim that conventional grammar teaching is fragmented and artificial in terms of negotiating significance, the use of literature confirms substantive communication success as a result of contact with genuine content. literature can help language learners develop their speech repertoires. according to mart ( 2019)., the function of literature is not to include details about specific pieces of literature in the syllabus but to get learners to understand how these particular pieces exemplify more general concepts of http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.3, no. 2, april 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 119 communication. the presentation of literature to students will help them become more aware of how vocabulary is used to communicate. adapting literature broadens not only communicative skills but also empowers imaginative abilities. theory-literature reading connections what is important to note is how the relation between literature reading and rrt was made. according to (gibbs et al., 2016), reader-response critique focuses on understanding how the reader can collaborate with the author of a text to create context and how nigerian students can benefit from their experiences reading literature and discussing interpretations others. educating student-teachers and developing english curricula must take into account who they are and where they are going. as a result, the approach to reading literature is a way to improve english students’ and teachers' comprehension of the language as a whole and directly links with their lives and the environment. according to yilmaz ( 2018), the teacher's power should value the authentic essence of literature itself. however, it should be noted that rrt was not initially developed as a language learning technique, but it has been modified and accepted by scholars in the applied linguistics domain. assessment although no large-scale comprehensive studies in adult learning have been conducted to establish those ties, the improving formative evaluation initiative is demonstrating the significance of identifying the links between legislation, teachers' and students' attitudes about learning, and the results of assessment practices in adult literacy and numeracy programs (blentyne & varga, 2016); as a result, the analysis is analytical primarily, with only tentative generalizations regarding appropriate practice. nonetheless, it emphasizes preliminary messages on good practice and proposes prospective study issues. texts of various types may be used, including narration, descriptive, description, recount, facts, essay, exposition, and argumentation. according to observations made by the researcher during the teaching practice program, the narrative is the students' preferred text genre. the three facets of substantive, engaging, and inspiring can be compared to each other in the learning process by a narrative (hendrix & griffin,2016). a narrative has many different styles, including passion, humour, science fiction, suspense, and many others. according to blentyne & varga (2016), the narrative has the aim of presenting a story in which it offers either the readers or the viewers a way out of difficulties and also brings the story alive by expressing the three values of social, spiritual, and moral from the story to real life. methods a review of the teachers and students of the english language on the teaching and knowledge of grammar word difficulties in nigerian institutes, especially at the children's level, was investigated in this study. teachers' and students' english ability, schoolroom methods for teaching word difficulties, and scholars' methods of resolving word difficulties were all evaluated in this way. the impact of the treatment on learners' ability to solve algebraic word problems was then studied. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.3, no. 2, april 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 120 the methodology for pulling information for the subject is presented in this chapter. secondary data analysis was used to select papers and comprehensive research on the topic for this analysis, and the findings were then examined and the results provided. the information presented in this study was collected from secondary sources of data; secondary research, also known as desk research, is a form of research that uses data that has already been collected. data sources and analysis criteria the information in this article was collected from books, published sources, journals, government records, and websites. secondary data analysis is the method of evaluating data that another researcher has obtained for a different reason. scholars use secondary data to save time and money that would otherwise be spent collecting primary data. the criteria for making the analysis involved: • locating data from different sources; involved how the information was accessible and where it was located • they evaluate the relevance and validity of the information, considering essential points such as when the data was collected and if it relates to the topic under study. • determining the credibility of the data; constructing the initial researchers' credentials, looking for a complete explanation of methodology, including any issues found, determining how compatible the data is now with data from various sources, and evaluating if the information has been used in any reliable published research. results and discussion before they can enjoy literary texts, students must first learn to speak and understand english. since the teaching of literature is rooted in the broader purpose of improving language proficiency, it is vital to consider the spa communicative approach spaces. in the context of this report, i interpreted pck in teaching literature to esl students in nigerian secondary schools to refer to the various ways in-service trainees turn subject matter for teaching. as they read comprehension passages and multiple genres of literature with the students, they will likely use techniques such as discussion of the different aspects of literature, such as symbolic vocabulary, characterization, storylines, stories, and environments. on the one hand, teacher trainees must consider the varied language experiences of their pupils and their various levels of preparation while teaching at the secondary school level. teachers must develop students' prior learning; an example of pck will be guiding students to differentiate between various genres such as fiction, novel, drama, play, and poetry; and teacher trainees with deep content expertise would be able to organize and reflect such subject matter by responding to their students' varied interests and abilities. recommendations the research showed the importance of teachers improving their students' postreading practices. these events mainly consisted of book reviews and narrations of previously read stories. teachers must delegate more complex assignments to their students to teach them to read thoroughly and to foster a literacy community in their classrooms. a http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.3, no. 2, april 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 121 school with a better reading community would need to bring systems in place, such as libraries, to provide vigorous and comprehensive reading. the long-term viability of these tools is critical to the survival of the reading world. this will result in students becoming passionate readers. with the help of their teachers, they will also be encouraged to engage in fun and meaningful post-reading experiences such as discussing what they read or dramatizing the material of the books. the post-reading exercises would likely increase students' proficiency as well. conclusion reader response theory is a reader-centered approach to teaching successful literacy. the reader-response approach to improving literacy education engages all learners by emphasizing the value of the transaction between a reader and a book. teachers can use this element of the philosophy to motivate students to become habitual, ardent readers. reader answer provides teachers with the ability to meet the needs of all students and engage them at levels relevant to their progress. teachers can entice more students to explore the field of reading and stay for a lifetime by encouraging them to intersect their previous expertise and diverse, personal encounters with their lessons of literature. the present research investigated the reading perceptions, behaviors, and activities of in-service teacher trainees in nigerian secondary schools to determine the degree to which literature is embedded and valued in the classrooms of their esl students. the theoretical starting point was the idea of pedagogical content awareness, which argues that teachers need pedagogical skills, deep academic rigor, and knowledge of curriculum design objectives and accessible resources. references balentyne, p., & varga, m.a. (2016). the effects of self-paced blended learning of mathematics. journal of computers in mathematics and science teaching, 35(3), 201– 223. garzon, e., & castaneda-pena, h. (2015). applying the reader-response theory to literary texts in efl-pre-service teachers' initial education. english language teaching, 8(8). doi: 10.5539/elt.v8n8p187. ghandehari, s. (2017). definition of the reader, as a relative concept, in the reader-response theories procedia social and behavioral sciences, 70, 1381 – 1388. gibbs, p., cartney, p., wilkinson, k., parkinson, j., cunningham, s., & james-reynolds, c. et al. (2016). literature review on the use of action research in higher education. educational action research, 25(1), 3-22. doi: 10.1080/09650792.2015.1124046. hendrix, r. a., & griffin, r. a. (2017). developing enhanced morphological awareness in texas journal of literacy education | volume 5, issue 2 | winter 2017 adolescent learners. journal of adolescent & adult literacy, 61(1), 55–63. doi:10.1002/jaal.642. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.3, no. 2, april 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 122 kelley, h. m., siwatu, k. o., tost, j. r., & martinez, j. (2016). culturally familiar tasks on reading performance and self-efficacy of culturally and linguistically diverse students. educational psychology in practice, 31(3), 293–313. doi:10.1080/02667363.2015.1033616. mccullough, r. g. (2017). the relationship between reader response and prior knowledge on african american students' reading comprehension performance using multicultural literature. reading psychology, 34(5), 397–435. doi:10.1080/02702711.2011.64353. park, j. y. (2016). re-imaging reader-response in middle and secondary schools: early adolescent girls' critical and communal reader responses to the young adult novel speak. children's literature in education, 43(3), 191–212. doi:10.1007/s105830129164-5. pope, j., & round, j. (2016). children's responses to heroism in roald dahl's matilda. children's literature in education, 46(3), 257–277. doi:10.1007/s10583-014-9233z raditsebe, r. 2016. english is an all-important subject. the midweek sun, 11 march. 2016. thomas, a. f. (2020). the effects of implementing a reading workshop in middle school language arts classrooms. journal of instructional pedagogies, 9(1), 1–16. westwood, p. s. (2016). reading and learning difficulties: approaches to teaching and assessment. camberwell: victoria acer press, an imprint of australian council for educational research ltd. yılmaz, c. (2018). literature instruction through readerresponse approach: does it foster reading comprehension? international journal of language learning and applied linguistics world (ijllalw), 3(4). http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 1, january 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 an analysis of students’ speaking fluency at grade xi of ma kmm kauman padang panjang 1annisa aditya & 2 hilma pami putri state islamic collage of bukittinggi, bukittinggi.12 annisaaditya17@gmail.com abstract the purposes of this study were to describe students’ fluency level and to identify students’ disfluency factors at ma kmm kauman padang panjang. it employed quantitative research method with the class of grade xi students as the research population. there were 25 students taken as the research sample selected through purpossive sampling technique. the data were collected through speaking test and a set of questionnaire. in the speaking test, students were allowed to choose one of five topics provided and were asked to deliver short talks for 2 minutes. these short talks were recorded. in addition to the speaking test, there were 20 questions with four options as the answers. these questions represented five main factors of disfluency such as task with task difficulty, meaning focused, time pressure, planning and preparation, and task repetition. the collected data were mainly in the form of transcription texts mined from the recordings of the short talks as well as the answers from the questionnaire. the results of the study show that students’ fluency level at grade xi of ma kmm kauman padang panjang is good (level 3). however, the information on disfluency which prevented them to get a higher score were also identified. most of the main disfluency factors were task with task difficulty, meaningfocused, time pressure, planning and preparation, and task repetition. keywords: disfluency factors, speaking fluency, teaching speaking skills,. introduction speaking is the productive oral skill that consists of producing systematic verbal utterances to convey meaning (nunan, 2003 : 48). on the contrary speaking is oral activities developing sound to express idea and construct the meaning. because of that, students be able to get information and be able to understand the meaning and students be able to share the information to others. speaking is base communication, so it is a skill that most important that people have (fernanda, 2015) . speaking is one of the aspect language skill that are productive, it means a skill that people have to convey ideas, thoughts, and feelings so that ideas that available in the mind of the speaker can be understood by others. speaking also is connected someone with others in sharing information. in the development of skill there are two aspects of oral language will be develop; accuracy and fluency. accuracy is the extent to which students’ speech matches what http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 mailto:annisaaditya17@gmail.com copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 1, january 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 people actually say when they use the target language (nunan, 2003 : 55). thus, accuracy is control activities to give students’ persuasion and encouragement who focus on mastery a language. fluency is the extent to which speakers use the language quickly and confidently, with few hesitations or unnatural pause, false starts, word searches, etc (nunan, 2003 : 55). thus, speaking fluency will give students to more practice and use english as a tool communication. nowadays, students life at the time where speaking english as a second language fluently are important. in the development of speaking fluency, students must be mastered any components of english language. speaking fluency has known as the pure ability to speak spontaneously, fastly and comprehensibly with a number of errors that can divert the speakers attention from the speaker’s message. when the researcher did the obseravation toward grade xi of ma kmm kauman padang panjang. the researcher found several problems related to speaking fluency. first, students often used such hesitation when they feel hesistant about their speech. when students spoke with their friend or in front of the class, they often said hmm, aaaa, and uuuu. it took many times because they difssssficult to express their idea and can not explain well about what are going to say. thus, when the students often said hmm, aaa, and uuu during speaking, it caused they cannot express their idea well. second, student feel-blocked mind because of they were afraid of making mistake. over much focused on the script made students difficult to speak freely. when students spoke in front of class they could not enjoy and they still like remembering something. therefore, they were difficult to speak freely because they only focused on the script. third, students had difficulties in expressing idea spontaneously because had lack of vocabulary. lack of vocabulary made students pauses too long and did not know what they are going to say. it caused they rarely read a book related to english and lack of practice. sometimes, when they difficult to express their ideas and did not know what its vocabulary, they choosed alternative way to use code mixing and code switching. thus, in this case lack of vocabulary was affected students to speak fluently because they difficult to expressing idea spontaneously. the teachers’ suupport is needed in development of students’ speaking fluency (anggraeni et al., 2020). the support was giving like some activities such as; every tuesday morning, the english teacher asked the student to performed their english talent especially on speech. the teacher gave the schedule for every class, the member of the class choosen 5 students to prepare their performanced. the student would speech in the yard of the school and the performance seen by all the students and the teachers. the students were given half an hour to performe their speech and their performance will be assessed by the teacher and will be input into skill scores. this activity was carried out to improve speaking fluency of the students (fitriani et al., 2020; marwati & syamsudarni, 2020). in learning process, the teachers also asked the students should be mastered on these skills especially on speaking. on the other hand, the school also applied a program to improve their speaking ability. its program is english week program students must speak english arround the school whether in the classroom, outside, with their friend, their http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 1, january 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 teacher and the staff. thus, supposed by that program the students have opportunity to fluent in speaking. generally the problem occurs when the students speak to others; the students tried to make the hearers uderstand about what they want to say (salam mairi, 2016) . the students tended to hesitate and fragmentary while speaking. this condition made the students speak hesistantly and fragmented, as mean the frequency of pause filler such as “mmm” and “eee” and also the production of disfluency such as repetition, repair and also restart. based on the problem above the researcher expect to conduct the research to know how are the level of students’ speaking fluency ? and what are factors students’ disfluency in speaking? methods research design research design is the set of methods and procedures used in collecting and analyzing the research. in this research, the researcher use the descriptive quantitative. quantitative as a numerical method of describing information or a result of a study and it deals with a mathematical calculation to analyze the data and to search out for the result (craswell, 2009). the researcher used quantitative research to calculate an ability of students’ speaking fluency and to find out factors influenced students speaking disfluency. the research aims to know the students’ speaking fluency level and factor students’ disfluency at grade xi of ma kmm kauman padang panjang. population and sample the population in this research is all of students at grade xi of ma kmm kauman padang panjang to get more information about the students’ speaking fluency and factors students’ speaking disfluecy. the total populations are 4 classes. table 1. the total of grade xi students no. class total students 1. xi mipa 1 26 students 2. xi mipa 2 25 students 3. xi ips 27 students 4. xi itt 27 students total 105 students source: data siswa 2019 in this research, the researcher used purposive sampling technique. the researcher already choosen xi mipa 2 with total of students are 25 students to be a sample. the researcher choosed xi mipa 2 class because when the researcher did teaching practice in http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 1, january 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 that school class xi mipa 2 is more interested and actived while learning english especially in speaking. instrument of the research the instrument was used in this research were test and questionnaire. test aims to know how students’ speaking fluency level and questionnaire aims to know what are factors students’ speaking disfluency. test requires the students’ short talk to be recorded. the test was used by researcher to know the students’ level in speaking fluency. second, the instrument is questionnaire. the researcher used close questionnaire to find the data. in this research, the researcher gives questionnare in order to know factors students’ speaking disfluency. technique of collecting data the researcher collected data by using oral test. the researcher explained to the students how to do the test. by doing test, the researcher gave five topics to the students. each students choosed one topic that they wanted and delivered a short talk for 2 minutes long to be record after 20 minutes preparation and not allowed to bring any helping aids like note, picture and so on. questionnaire contain of 20 questions to know factors of disfluency. the questions divided into five indicators; task difficulty, meaning-focused, time pressure, planning and preparation and task repetition. in respond to the questionnaire, students indicate wheteher she or he is strongly agree (sa), agree (a), netral (n), disagree (d) and strongly disagree (sd) about the questions. table2. level of speaking fluency score level description 1-10 0 disfluent 11-30 1 limited fluency. 31-50 2 intermediate fluency. 51-70 3 good fluency 71-90 4 advanced fluency. 91-100 5 native-like fluency. source : mairi et al (2017) tabel 3. likert scale point value explanation average score 5 strongly agree 4,01-5,00 4 agree 3,01-4,00 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 1, january 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 3 neutral 2,01-3,00 2 disagree 1,01-2,00 1 strongly disagree 0,00-1,00 source : mairi et al (2017) after collected the data, the speaking test recorded analysed by four speaking fluency measurement which are speech rate (sr), pause rate (pr), disfluent syllable (ds) and mean length of run (mlr). the data was calculated by using stockdale’ theory as follow (stockdale, 2009:5): a. speech rate (sr) sr = number of syllable times in second × 60 speech rate score srs= speech rate 230 × 100 b. pause rate (pr) pr = total of pause time the number of total pause × 100 pause rate score prs = 100 − ( total pause time 120 × 100 ) c. disfluent syllable (ds) 𝐷𝑆 = the number of disfluent syllable the total number of syllable × 100 disfluent syllable score dfs= 100 − ( total number of disfluent syllable 230 × 120 ) d. the mean length of run (mlr) 𝑀𝐿𝑅 = total number of syllables total number of runs the data analysed by using computer softwares which are audacity and microsoft excel. then scores of students would categories into 6 level whether disfluent (d),limited fluency (lf), intemediate fluency (if), good fluency (gf), advanced fluency (af) and native-like fluency (nlf). for the questionnare, likert scale used to measure the students’ disfluency in speaking. in order, to get the mean score of data the researcher used the formula that suggested by sudijono as follow (sudijono, 2014:80): m = ∑𝑥 𝑁 m : mean ∑ 𝑥 : total score http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 1, january 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 n : total responden http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 1, january 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 results a. test the data based on the test used to know students’ speaking fluency level. test had given by the students was five topics and they choosed one of the topic to speak. after the researcher collected recording of the students, the researcher got the students’ data to be analysed. to know the students’ speaking fluency level, the researcher used the table as follow: table 4. the students’ speaking fluency level analysis. sample speech rate (sr) pause rate (pr) disfluent syllable (ds) mean length of run (mlr) total score level description 1 134,0 79,12 10,4 11,82 58,29 3 good 2 143,5 81,6 12,9 13,04 55,57 3 good 3 178,0 53,84 7,0 29,50 64,50 3 good 4 160,4 79,07 10,3 16,37 58,55 3 good 5 173,9 73,01 5,6 21,06 64,37 3 good 6 149,0 75,97 7,1 16,55 54,35 3 good 7 106,7 79,46 11,8 10,00 55,95 3 good 8 141,8 60,32 10,9 10,57 57,06 3 good 9 118,3 74,44 10,7 10,75 53,17 3 good 10 126,3 62,96 15,1 13,76 57,78 3 good 11 113,6 62,10 17,2 10,92 53,51 3 good 12 114,1 56,40 17,9 10,17 50,12 3 good 13 129,5 59,29 16,5 10,41 53,75 3 good 14 167,0 47,79 7,2 15,04 59,92 3 good 15 162,0 47,46 10,7 20,68 64,59 3 good 16 121,6 60,09 12,4 11,21 54,11 3 good 17 159,2 54,78 11,5 16,58 59,69 3 good 18 122,7 62,44 15,4 11,37 52,94 3 good 19 155,4 52,42 11,1 12,7 60,06 3 good 20 113,3 45,08 15,1 10,04 53,54 3 good 21 123,0 66,94 12,6 11,18 56,18 3 good http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 1, january 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 22 103,4 52,13 20,8 9,93 49,78 2 intermediate 23 104,6 46,37 26,11 9,17 50,28 2 intermediate 24 116,4 63,76 14,21 12,00 52,70 3 good 25 107,4 62,30 24,84 10,01 50,21 3 good total 3334,2 1563,63 336,53 334,83 1395,68 3 good mean 133,4 62,55 13,46 13,39 55,83 it was found that the answer of the first research question seen that most students had low speaking fluency level. in fact, the average speaking fluency level of the grade xi of ma kmm kauman padang panjang is level 3 or good with the average 55,83 for the 4 measurement. in addition, the table showed that there are exactly 23 students in level 3 (good) and 2 students in level 2 (intermediate) from the total 25 students. b. questionnaire. the researcher collect data based on the questionnaire used to identify factors of students’ disfluency in speaking. questionnaire had given by the students, the questions consist of five indicators and they gave a checklist on colomn wheteher they strongly agree (sa), agree (a), neutral (n), disagree (d) and strongly disagree (sd). after the researcher collectedthe answer of the students, the researcher got the students’ data to be analyze. to identify the students’ factors of students’ disfluency in speaking, the researcher used the table as follow: table 5. the analysis of disfluency factors sample difficult task meaning focused time pressure planning and preparation task repetition s d s d s d s d s d 1 4,25 sa 2,75 n 3,75 a 3,75 a 2,75 n 2 3,5 a 3,25 a 3,25 a 2,25 n 2,75 n 3 3,75 a 3,25 a 3,5 a 3 n 3 a 4 3,5 a 3,5 a 3,25 a 2,5 n 3,25 a 5 4,25 sa 3,75 a 3 n 2,25 n 2,75 n 6 3,75 a 2,75 n 4,75 sa 4 a 2,75 n 7 4 a 3,5 a 4 a 3,5 a 2,50 n 8 3,5 a 4 a 3 n 2,5 n 3 a 9 3,75 a 3,25 a 4 a 3,25 a 3 a 10 3,5 a 2,5 n 3 n 3,5 a 2,50 n http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 1, january 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 11 4,5 sa 3,25 a 4,75 sa 5 sa 2,75 n 12 3,5 a 3,75 a 4 a 4,25 sa 3 a 13 3,75 a 3,5 a 4 a 4 a 4 a 14 4,25 sa 3,25 a 4 a 5 sa 2,75 n 15 3,5 a 2,5 n 4,75 sa 4,5 sa 2,25 n 16 3,75 a 2,75 n 4 a 3,5 a 2,50 n 17 3,75 a 3,5 a 2,75 n 3,5 a 2,75 n 18 3,75 a 3 n 3,75 a 3,25 a 3,25 a 19 4 a 3 n 3 n 3,75 a 2,50 n 20 3,75 a 2,75 n 3,25 a 3,25 a 3,50 a 21 4 a 3,25 a 3 n 2,75 n 2,50 n 22 4,25 sa 3,5 a 4,25 a 5 sa 3 a 23 4 a 3,5 a 3,75 a 3,75 a 3 a 24 4,75 sa 2,5 n 4 a 4,5 sa 3 a 25 3,75 a 3,5 a 3,75 a 3,5 a 2,75 n mean 3,88 a 3,2 a 3,7 a 3,6 a 2,87 n s= score d=description sa : strongly agree a : agree n : neutral d : disagree sd : strongly disagree it was found that the answer of the second research question seen that most students agreed (4) that factors disfluency in speaking are task difficulty, meaning focused, time pressure, planning and preperation. the most students’ answered is neutral (3) it mean task repitition is not an important factor to their disfluency. in fact, the average of disfluency in speaking based on five indicators of the grade xi of ma kmm kauman padang panjang is agree (a), such as task difficulty is 3,88 (a), meaning focused is 3,2 (a), time pressure is 3,7 (a), planning and preparation is 3,6 (a) and task repetition is 2,87 (n) . discussion this research was to complete two research questions. first how are the level of students’ speaking fluency level and second what are factors of students’ disfluency in speaking. the researcher also used two instruments test and questionnaire. test aims to know students’ fluency level and questionnaire aims to know factors students’ disfluency in http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 1, january 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 speaking. based on the data analysis above, the researcher analysed the data used stockdale’s theory to find out students’ speaking fluency level and mean score’ formula to find out factors of students’ disfluency in speaking. a. test in this finding, the measurement of students’ speaking fluency level consist of speech rate, pause rate, disfluent syllable and the mean length of run. it was found that the students’ speaking fluency is level 3 (good). jong and hulstjin in mairi stated “good fluency candidate speech has acceptable speed, but may be somewhat uneven. long utterances may exhibit some hesitations; but most words are spoken in continuous phrases. there are several repetitions or false starts per utterance. speech has not too many long pauses, and does not sound staccato (51-70)” (mairi, 2016 : 164). it will be discussed below: first, speech rate (sr). from the data on table 4.2, the average of syllable found on the research were 133 syllables per minute to the average of normal syllable was 162-230 syllables. it seen that the students could rounded up 58% of the normal average number of the syllable. the students have to cover ground the lack of 42%. thus, the score of 58 means mostly the students had good level of speech rate. second, pause rate (pr). it could be seen on figure 4.1 that the pause rate score of the students was 63. it means the students had lower score on pause rate. it was not to deny the fact that the students who had more pauses and better speaking fluency level. getting score 63 out 100 points is considered not good with more than half of speech was filled pauses, errors and repetitions. it conclude that most students were not really fluent because the highpause rate. third, disfluent syllable. according to the data, it was found that students’ disfluent syllable rate was actually low. it was only 14%. it means that most students did not find so many difficulties in minimizing the difluent syllable involvement when their speech. it is proven by their high disfluent syllable score at 86 points. it is a good accomplishment since the students are efl learner. fourth, mean length of run. the current mean length of run of the students on the speaking showed that the average mean length of runs of those students speech still low. it is 13% of the total short talks delivered. it indicates most of students had lower score. mostly, the average score still shows the unexpected number. b. qustionnaire in this finding, it can be seen the second research question is factors of students’ speaking disfluency. the questionnaire consisted 20 questions which were divided into five indicators task difficulty, meaning focused, time pressure, planning and preparation and task repetition. these five indicators will be discussed below: first, task difficulty. this factor includes several component such as background knowledge, lessons, learned, topics and the familiarity of the task to the students’ background knowledge. the students’ answered based the statement about task difficulty had the result 3,88. most of the students were agreed about the statement that the task was difficult. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 1, january 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 second, meaning focused. speaking test should be meaning focused if it goal to measure the students’ fluency in speaking. when the task is not meaning focused, it will not help the students to increase their good speaking especially in speaking fluency. the students’ answered toward the statement about meaning focused had result 3,2. most of the students were agreed which meant meaning focused as a part of disfluency factors. next, time pressure. in this research, the researcher apllied the time pressure to the students by limiting 20 minutes to preparation and 1-2 minutes to short talk. the time pressure would encourage the students to perform well. in order to know the result, were statement were put in the questionniare. the students answered toward the statement about time pressure had result 3,6. most of the students were agreed which meant the students can not perform well without the existance of time pressure. then, planning and preparation. planning and preparation is very important to the students before performing the task. the students did not get enough time for planning and preparation so that they could perform well. it seem based the result planning and preparation had 3,7 it meant they were agreed planning and preparation is important in students’ speaking fluency. last, task repetition. this factor includes 4 statements were questioning if the students can easier to speak about the task that they had ever done previously. the result of task repetition had 3,39. this answer meant that they agree to put task repetetion as not an important factor to their disfluency. conclusion the purposes of this reseach were to described speking fluency level and to identified disfluency factors in speaking of grade xi of ma kmm kauman padang panjang. this research used two instruments; speaking test and questionnare. based on data analysis of speaking test, it was found that most student achieved level 3 or good fluency level. however, the data also showed two students were at level 2 or intermediate. therefore, it is believed that the students at grade xi of ma kmm kauman padang panjang still needs to be aware and to concern more on how to improve the fluency level of those in level 2 or intermediate. moreover, it is also necessary to concern about the improvement of the students in level 3 or good. in fact, it was found that disfluent syllable and pause rate were highly. the pause rate was the main holders and problems so that the students difficult to achieve a higher level. in addition, based on the questionnaire of factors disfluency. it found that most students agreed (4) that factors disfluency in speaking are task difficulty, meaning focused, time pressure, planning and preperation. the most students’ answer is neutral (3) of task repitition, it means task repitition is not an important factor to their disfluency. thus, implementing the 4 methods which are creating easier task with progressive difficulty, giving appropiate time pressure, planning and preparation well and making meaning focused task to counter those disfluency factors can be helpful in developing a better method of fluency development. based on the findings of the researcher. there are some suggestions given based on this research : http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 1, january 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 1. to the students of grade xi of ma kmm kauman padang panjang the researcher suggests them to practice more so that they could improve their speaking fluency. it is suggested to develop more materials, create more meaning focused activity, progressive task difficluty, and giving more time for the students to plan and prepare themselves. this action will help students achieve higher speaking fluency level and getting better in their speaking ability. 2. for the next researcher, it is expected to include more variable like perceived base test so there will be more comprehensive study of fluency. acknowledgment as a result, the writer want to highly express her sincere gratitude and appreciation to the following person for their valuable contributions. 1. hilma pami putri, m. pd as advisor for her care, time, attention, guidance, valuable advices, suggestion, critics and patience in accomplishing this thesis. her suggestions and contributions are highly appreciated. 2. all of the lectures who have given their knowledge, ideas, and contributions to the completion of this journal and educated his precious things in many fields during his study. 3. the writer also shows thanks to beloved family, especially for my dad and mom (aditya warman and syafrida, se), all of my sisters (fania aditya, afifa aditya and jihan aprilda aditya) who had given their love, pray, and supports to accomplish this thesis soon. 4. the writer also shows thanks to beloved friend annisa rahma nada, asih sari ningrum, nova syafitri, indah paramitha, ari saputra, gebi rahmatia putry, sridewi sartika, serly dwitina, and yolanda putri asyuthi. thanks for them support, motivate, and give suggestion to finish this study. references anggraeni, w., wahibah, & faqihuddin assafari, a. (2020). teachers’ strategies in teaching speaking skills at sman 1 palopo. foster: journal of english language teaching, 1(1), 83-97. https://doi.org/10.24256/foster-jelt.v1i1.9 brown, h. douglas. 2004. language assessment: principles and classroom practices. longman. new york: pearson education. cameron, lynne. 2001 teaching languagt to young learners. cambridge: university press. farahani, a. & kouhpaeenejad, m. (2017). the relationship between temporal measures of oral fluency and ratings of fluency: a case of iranian advanced efl learners. international journal of english language & translation studies. volume: 05 issue: 03 july-september, 2017 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 2, no. 1, january 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 fernanda, yogi. 2014. speaking activity in the english literary classroom. sumatera barat: stkip pgri sumbar. fitriani, a., rustan, & yahya, a. (2020). show and tell technique in teaching speaking skills at sman 2 palopo. foster: journal of english language teaching, 1(2), 98113. https://doi.org/10.24256/foster-jelt.v1i2.12 j., w.,creswell.2009.qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approach. (universityod nebraska-lincoln: sage. luoma, s. 2004. assessing speaking. (cambridge: cambridge university press. marwati, & syamsudarni. (2020). improving students’ speaking skill through drama at the eighth grade of smpn 9 palopo. foster: journal of english language teaching, 1(1), 41-54. https://doi.org/10.24256/foster-jelt.v1i1.6 nation and newton. 2009. teaching esl/efl listening and speaking. new york: routledge nunan, david. 2003. practical english language teaching. singapore: mcgrawhill. schmidt, r. 1992. psychological mechanism underlying second language fluency. studies in language acquisition. cambridge: cambridge university press. stockdale, d. ashley. 2009. comparing perception of oral fluency to objective measures in the efl classroom (unpublished thesis). birmingham: university of birmingham. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 9 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license improving grammar mastery by using scramble method of the eleventh-grade students at senior high school number 2 palopo andi hasriani1, masruddin2 state islamic institute (iain palopo), indonesia masruddin@iainpalopo.ac.id abstract this research focused on using the scrambling method to teach grammar at the eleventh-grade students of senior high school number 2 palopo. the research problem of this research was: “does the scrambling method effectively improve students’ grammar mastery?”. the objective of this research was to find out whether or not the scrambling method effectively improves students’ grammar mastery. in this research, the researcher used pre-experimental design, and the treatments were conducted in six meetings. the population of this research was the eleventh-grade students of senior high school 2 palopo. the researcher used a total sampling technique. there were 26 students from ipa 3 class involved in this research. the instrument used to collect data was a written test. it was divided into pretest and post-test. the data of this research were analyzed quantitatively by using spss program version 20. the result of this research showed that the scrambling method effectively improves students’ grammar mastery. the mean score in the pretest is lower than the mean score in the post-test (63, 85 < 82, 23). the researcher found that the p-value is 0.00, and the alpha is 0.05, therefore p<α (0.00 < 0.05). meanwhile, the mean score of the post-test is better than the mean score of pretest (82,23 > 63,85). keywords: english language teaching, grammar mastery, scramble method. introduction in language learning, grammar is one of the main language aspects, especially in speaking and writing. to get good communication with other people, someone has to make the correct structure or grammar so that people do not misunderstand our speaking and writing (esl, 2009). grammar evolves both the use and the lack of human population. formal grammars are a context of use developed by documentation over and over again, and with rules established and developed, prescriptive concepts of grammatical tenacity could arise. this often creates discrepancies between contemporary use and what has been adopted, over time, as the right thing. grammar is a rule established in the english language itself. formal grammar studies are an important part of education for children from a young age to advanced learning, although the rules taught in schools are not “grammar” in the sense that most linguists use the term, because they are often receptive and not descriptive (esl, 2009). according to rudy haryono, language is a means of communication, to communicate well, we must know about the grammatical language. grammar is one of language learns about the way of arranging the word to become a sentence. so if we want to learn about the english language, also understanding grammar (haryono, 2003). to write a sentence the students have to know about grammar. the common problem of english language grammar has to be overcome by all students, and the difficulties they find are similar in all part of the word. flor and jan aarst says that grammars play an important part in the student’s linguistic education. apart from their role in language acquisition they form the basis on which the student’s further, more theoretical, linguistic training can be founded. students who have studied pedagogical grammars may be supposed to know english (flor & aarts, 1982). based on observation, the students in senior high school 2 palopo, especially in the eleventh class, there were still difficult to use the structure of grammar. based on an exercise in http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ mailto:masruddin@iainpalopo.ac.id copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 10 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license the problems that have been given, they were having trouble working on that exercise. they had a problem in understanding how to compile words to form good sentences. many students commonly make mistakes in grammar. therefore, students need another method in grammar that can help them formulate good sentences. scramble method would help found some mistake so it was processed to repaired became correct sentences. so the learning process took place in enjoying and interesting way. methods in this research, the researcher used the pre-experimental method. this method was used to know the effectiveness of the scramble method in teaching grammar at eleventh-grade students of senior high school 2 palopo. the researcher took the population from the eleventh-grade students of senior high school 2 palopo in 2019/2020 academic year. because the size of the population was petite so that the taking sample technique was total sampling. the researcher would examine the entire population that have a practical set of characteristics, they still had low achievement in grammar. the researcher took one class of the eleventh grade of senior high school 2 palopo as the sample, class ipa 3 which consisted of 26 students to be respondent in this research. they had the same proficiency level, they still had low achievement in grammar. the procedure of data collection the procedures for collecting data were described as follows: 1. pretest before treatment took place, the class was given a pretest. the aim of pretest was to find out the students’ prior knowledge in grammar. 2. treatment after giving pretest, the researcher treats the treatment through the scramble method, each meeting has different material. the materials were introduced about the scramble method (scramble sentence and scramble discourse), and teach some kinds of tenses (simple past, simple present and simple future). the treatments consisted of four meetings. 3. post-test the post-test was given to the students after being taught and given the treatment. the purpose of post-test was to assess their achievement on grammar mastery. instruments of the research the tests were pretest and post-test. the purpose of the writing test was to know the students’ level in grammar. the form of the test was to complete the paragraph by using the phrasing of words into a sentence. the technique of data analysis in giving scores to the students after following the pretest and post-test, the researcher adopted the scoring classification which is suitable with the grammar testing criteria. those criteria or classification are presented as follows: table 3.2 scoring classification using in grammar no classification score 1 excellent 96-100 2 very good 86-95 3 good 76-85 4 fairly good 66-75 5 fairly 56-65 6 poor 36-55 7 very poor 0-35 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 11 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license results the findings from the research were showed to describe the result based on the analysis of data collected. the researcher got the data by calculating students’ pretest and post-test score. the students’ score of pretest and post-test result table 4.1 the students’ in pretest and post-test result no students score pretest posttest 1 s1 70 91 2 s2 65 91 3 s3 65 96 4 s4 70 75 5 s5 70 86 6 s6 65 84 7 s7 65 75 8 s8 65 75 9 s9 65 80 10 s10 55 75 11 s11 60 75 12 s12 55 83 13 s13 65 80 14 s14 60 75 15 s15 60 93 16 s16 60 80 17 s17 65 89 18 s18 70 82 19 s19 65 80 20 s20 65 80 21 s21 55 75 22 s22 60 85 23 s23 65 80 24 s24 65 80 25 s25 65 80 26 s26 70 93 totally 1.650 2.138 table 4.2 the students’ percentage in pretest and post-test result clarification score frequency percentage pretest posttest pretest posttest excellent 96-100 1 4% very good 86-95 6 23% good 76-85 12 46% fairly good 66-75 7 27% fairly 56-65 19 73% poor 36-55 7 27% very poor 0-35 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 12 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license table 4.2 showed that there were 26 students observed in experimental class before giving treatment and after giving treatment. in the pretest, there were 7 students (27%) who got a poor score, there were 19 students (73%) who got fairly score. there was no student who got the excellent score, very good score, good score, fairly good score and very poor score. in the posttest, there were 7 students (27%) who got a fairly good score, there were 12 students (46%) who got a good score, there were 6 students (23%) who got a very good score, and there was 1 student (4%) who got an excellent score. there was no student who got fairly score, poor score and very poor score. the mean score of students’ in pretest and post-test result table 4.3. mean score of students’ in pretest result descriptive statistics n minimum maximum sum mean std. deviation pretest 26 55 70 1660 63.85 4.540 valid n (listwise) 26 table 4.3 showed that the highest score of students in pretest was 70 and the lowest score was 55. besides, it also indicated that the mean score in pretest was 63.85, and the standard deviation was 4.54. table 4.4 mean score of students’ in posttest result descriptive statistics n minimum maximum sum mean std. deviation posttest 26 75 96 2138 82.23 6.489 valid n (listwise) 26 table 4.4 showed that the highest score from students in post-test was 96 and the lowest score was 75. besides, it also indicated that the mean score in post-test was 82,23, and the standard deviation was 6,48. the t-test pretest and posttest result table 4.5 below shows the possible value is better than alpha (α) (0.000 < 0.05). it means that h1 is accepted and h0 is rejected. it is concluded that there was a significant difference after treatment. it could also be stated the scramble method was effective to improve grammar mastery of the eleventh-grade students at senior high school number 2 palopo. table 4.5 the paired sample test of pretest and post-test paired samples test paired differences t df sig. (2tailed) mean std. deviation std. error mean 95% confidence interval of the difference lower upper pai r 1 pretest posttest -18.385 6.646 1.303 -21.069 -15.700 14.106 25 .000 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 13 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license discussion in this research, grammar test was given to the students that were still learning basic english, there was the class of ipa 3 at senior high school 2 palopo. based on the result of data analysis of students’ grammatical error in the pretest, the researcher found that students were still lack understanding of the worming structure correctly. the data that can be seen from the one that found the error is last “i not could sleep a night” should be “i could not sleep last night”. of the data, students have many mistakes in worming structure correctly. it means that the students did not remember or still lack of understanding about tenses so that students make mistakes in making a sentence. based on the result of the data analysis shows that the scramble method is effective to improve the students’ grammar mastery, it can be seen on the table before and after giving treatments continually (by using scramble method) the score of students’ in pretest is 70 while the score of students’ in post-test is 96. it means that after giving treatment using scramble method is effective to improve the students’ grammar mastery. in this case, scramble method could attract the students in learning grammar mastery. based on the research that had been conducted, during this research teaching grammar by using scramble method could make the students motivated to learn, they enjoyed and they were enthusiastic in the learning-teaching process. the students felt easier to write sentences or text by using the scramble method. it is evidenced that the scramble method could help the students to learn grammar. it has been discussed in chapter ii that scramble is a rutting method that invites students to find answers and solve problems by handing out problem sheets and answer sheets along with available alternatives. besides that, this research also in line with according to robert b. taylor scramble is one of the learning methods that can improve students’ concentration and speed of thought. this method requires students to combine the right brain and the left brain. in this method, they not only asked to answer the questions but also to guess quickly answer questions that are available but still in random conditions (huda, 2014). so that students can improve their grammar skill because students are trained to answer questions even in random form. in fact, teaching grammar by using the scramble method at senior high school number 2 palopo, the students got better score grammar mastery. therefore, it could be started that scramble method in teaching-learning of grammar has solved the students’ grammar problem and increase the students’ grammar skill for the eleventh-grade students of senior high school number 2 palopo. so, the hypothesis proposed in this research which says “the use of the scramble method is effective to improve students grammar mastery” is accepted. the similarities in the research of previous study and the researcher, they have used scramble method, they want to found out whether or not the scramble method was effective to improve students’ skill in learning english. as for differences in the previous study and the researcher are in the previous study, they did research in smp and mi, and they taught about writing skill. while the researcher did research in senior high school and taught about grammar mastery, focus on form/structure and meaning/semantics. the component of form/structure covers about an agreement with the genre of the text, and how it appears in certain literature, and pinning down the framework of a text, including the sequence of events, how they were told, and how they all fit together. the component of meaning/semantics covers of constructs a relation between adjoining words and clarifies the sense of a sentence, and literal or figurative. conclusion the researcher concluded that the use of the scramble method is effective to improve grammar mastery of the eleventh-grade students at senior high school number 2 palopo. based on the result from pretest and post-test, the maximum score in pretest is 70, and the maximum score in post-test is 96. the mean score pretest is 63,85 and the mean score post-test is 82,23. it concluded that there was a significant difference in teaching grammar mastery before and after using the scramble method. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 14 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license suggestions from the conclusion above, there were some suggestions proposed by the researcher: 1. the teachers should be more creative in teaching and learning process to increase students’ motivation in learning english. 2. the students have to be more active or have better motivation in teaching and learning process. the students have to pay attention to the teacher so that they can improve their grammar mastery. 3. the researcher appreciates that this thesis is still far from perfect words and because of that; upbuilding comments and advice are really expected for the perfection of this thesis. the researcher hopes that the result of this research can be useful for the readers. it is expected to the readers will get more information about interactive technical activities. 4. the researcher suggests the next researcher choose sentences or texts that can be easier to understand by students and give students more new vocabulary so as to increase students’ knowledge. bibliography afrizal, m. 2016 “improving students’ writing skill by using scramble sentence method to the second years students of smp negeri 3 bireuen”. bireuen. agraini, dewi oktavia, 2017. penerapan metode pembelajaran scramble untuk meningkatkan hasil belajar bajasa inggris peserta didik kelas iii mi thoriqul huda kromasan ngunut tulungagung. brown, douglas, teaching by principles an interactive approach to language pedagogy, (san francisco state university, 2001). esl.2009. “teaching grammar”, online: www.wikipedia.com. accesses on october 10th, 2009. flor and jan aarts, english syntactic structures. (pergamon press 1982). huda, miftahul, model-model pengajaran dan pembelajaran (yogyakarta: pustaka belajar, 2014). komalasari, kokom. 2010. pembelajaran kontekstual: konsep dan aplikasi. pt refika aditama. bandung. kurniawan, bella aditya, 2016. “the effectiveness of scramble method in teaching writing procedure text to the seventh grade students at smp muhammadiyah 1 purworejo in the academic year 2015/2016” purworejo. muhajirah, m. (2020). basic of learning theory: (behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism, and humanism). international journal of asian education, 1(1), 37-42. https://doi.org/10.46966/ijae.v1i1.23 nisak, rohmalia dita khoirun, “pengaruh mode scramble didukung media bagan terhadap kemampuan memahami kegiatan jual beli di lingkungan rumah dan sekolah siswa kelas iii sd mojoroto 1 kota kediri tahun pelajaran 2016/2017”, (artikel skripsi universitas nusantara pgri kediri, 2017). nordquist, richard, what is grammar? (http://grammar.about.com) accessed on 30th october 2011 radford, andrew. transformational grammar, (new york: cambridge university press, 1998). shoimin, aris, 2013. 68 model pembelajaran inovatif dalam kurikulum, (yogyakarta: ar-ruzz media, 2014). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://www.wikipedia.com/ http://grammar.about.com/ copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 159 improving vocabulary mastery of the seventh year students using scattergories game in smp negeri 8 palopo institut agama islam negeri palopo (iain palopo), palopo, indonesia123 wirahamsung@gmail.com1 *miksan@iainpalopo.ac.id3 abstract this thesis is about improving vocabulary mastery of the seventh year students using scattergories game in smp negeri 8 palopo. the problem statements of this research are scattergories game effective in improving the students’ vocabulary mastery in smp negeri 8 palopo. the objective of the research to find out whether or not scattergories game effective in improving the students’ vocabulary mastery in smp negeri 8 palopo. the research design used a pre experimental design. the research instrument used a vocabulary test. from the findings, the researcher concluded that the use of the scattergories game was effective in improving the vocabulary of students at smp negeri 8 palopo. the increase in students' vocabulary after treatment, this can be proven by the results of the pre-test students with an average score of 58.8333 and an average post-test score of 85.7000, the value of t0 (tcount) = 21.604 and df (degrees of freedom) based on these results, namely 21.604 ˃ 2.045, from these results the researcher concluded that t0 (tcount) is higher than tt (ttable), t0 ˃ tt. it means that there is a significant difference between vocabulary mastery before and after using the scattergories game. key words: english language teaching, scattergories game, teaching vocabulary. introduction in language learning, the element that needs to be possessed in learning english is vocabulary because vocabulary can connect or organize ideas in sentences, so many students are still confused when they are asked to translate certain words, sentences, and texts. most of them lack vocabulary about the material provided. even though their teacher had given them a stack of vocabulary lists, they were lazy to read them; when the researcher asks them “why don't you open the vocabulary list? they say, “it's boring reading and remembering the whole list, sir”. the experience of the observation program inspired me to think of ways that students would not be bored in learning vocabulary. in learning english, vocabulary is an important part of the language for english learners to learn. good vocabulary mastery can support students in mastering english. in communication, vocabulary is needed to convey what someone wants to say, through vocabulary someone can express his or her feeling, ideas, emotion, and desires. at the school, the english teacher teaching vocabulary is mostly 1wiraldi, 2muhammad iksan mailto:wirahamsung@gmail.com1 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 160 done by using traditional techniques, such as giving definitions, doing oral drills, and doing writing practice. traditional techniques in teaching vocabulary made students bored and affected in their academics. as school students, they need to learn english vocabulary that students their needs related to the material that will be able discussed by the teacher. they must understand and be able to use vocabulary especially the material they will learn. when the students know the vocabulary in about certain material, it is showed that the students mastering the material well. allen (1983) said that predicting what is needed by students in vocabulary is important in choosing what to teach; just as important is ‘creating the sense of need for a word’(virginia f allen, 1983) teaching vocabulary through games will be more effective rather than teaching it through repetition and memorization. according to amy, who said that implementing the game is the right choice and is also a fun activity where students can interact, think, learn, and strategize how to solve problems. the researcher thinks the game can create attention and a good link between teacher to students (amy, 2010) and as rohani stated that the esl fun games are a great way to arouse student's interest in the class and often also helps them absorb and store more information than if they only learned to pass an exam or complete an assignment (rohani maryam, 2015) generally, the same as other games, this scattergories game can provide interesting activities and students can be active in the learning process in the classroom; unfortunately with various rules and greater combination of the game, scattergories only match for the adult learners. with a simple alteration, the researcher conducts this scattergories game to be applied at smp negeri 8 palopo. the researcher wants to take the main benefit of this game that is to train the students to think fast and categorize the vocabulary through the material given. also besides, the games scattergories can be adjusted to the needs of the teacher. the researcher wants to confirm in teaching vocabulary is an effective technique by using scattergories games. it helps the students to categorize vocabulary. eg: if they asked about zebra, horse, and cow they can categorize that they are animals, especially mammals. in this game, the teacher can align the content according to the learning objectives. especially in english, this game can also help in teaching vocabulary such as to categorize the vocabulary needed in a particular chapter. after having done an observation in smp negeri 8 palopo, the researcher found that scattergories game has not yet applied in this school in teaching vocabulary. the researcher wants to utilize and promote this game as a teaching technique in my research. from the results of research observations, students are bored and not interested in traditional techniques, the teacher needs to find interesting teaching technique to eliminate students in order boredom to improve their motivation in learning vocabulary. in this case, the researcher assumes that using games as a teaching technique offers the students to explore new vocabulary in a fun, interactive, interesting, and effective way during the learning process methods copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 161 research design this research design uses a pre-experimental design. in the pre-experimental research, the researcher focuses on one group of students where the researcher conducts pre-test before treatment and post-test after treatment, the aim is to determine the students effectiveness in using scattergories games (sugiyono, 2018) population the research population gave problems to the research results. the population of this research was conducted at smp negeri 8 palopo, especially the seventh year students, which focused on grade vii 3. the total population was 288 students. sample this research sample uses total sampling. there are 30 students as the sample as an ideal teaching-learning process. the procedure for collecting data below is the data collection procedure which is presented in chronological order as follows: 1. pre – test before the treatment was carried out, the researcher gave pre-test questions to test the students' ability to know their vocabulary. the test model in the pre-test is a vocabulary test. 2. treatment after knowing the results in the pretest questions, the researcher then gave treatment to the students, namely the scattergories game. this treatment is expected to affect the result of learning. to find out which treatment affects the variable, the researcher provides treatment material six times and in the learning process it follows according to the lesson plan listed in the attachment. here are the steps: a) at the first meeting. the researcher explained to the students about vocabulary (definition of vocabulary and types of vocabulary) and the scattergories game method (definition and how to play the scattergories game). and the researcher taught the word "home area" to the experimental class by using a scattergories game. as many as 30 students took part in this first round game and the second round was continued at the next meeting. b) second meeting. at this meeting, the researcher taught the words "school area" in the first round and "animals" in the second round to the experimental class using the scattergories game. in each round, as many as 30 students take part in this game c) third meeting. the researcher taught the words "fruits & vegetables" in the first round and "occupations" in the second round to the experimental class by using the scattergories game. in each round, as many as 30 students take part in this game. d) the fourth meeting. the researcher taught the word "parts of body" to the experimental class using scattergories game and as many as 30 students participated in this game. 3. post – test copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 162 the post-test is given to students in the same number from the pre-test to determine the student's vocabulary achievement after doing the treatment. researchers provide posttest questions to determine the extent to which students' abilities after playing the scattergories game in improving student vocabulary. the instrument of the research the research instrument was a vocabulary test. it means that the researcher gives some commands, consist of six points. they are about home area, school area, animals, fruits & vegetables, occupations and parts of body. each point there are 40 items. each item has 1 score for every correct answer. so, the total of scores is 40 if the students can answer all of the questions correctly. in the text, students instruct to use vocabulary text through matching test and translation test. the text aims to know the improvement of scattergories game in teaching vocabulary in smp negeri 8 palopo. the technique of data analysis the data collected through the test were analyzed quantitatively by using statistical calculations and calculating the hypothesis using the spss 20 program. the procedure undertaken in quantitative analysis used the following formula: 1. calculating the students’ correct answer of pre-test and post-test. score = total correct answer total test item × 100 2. classifying the students’ scores by using a percentage as cities below: 𝑃 = 𝐹 𝑁 × 100% notes : p : percentage f : the cumulative frequency of subjects n : total number of samples 3. to know the level of the students, the researcher score the following classification were use: excellent : 90% 100% good : 80% 89% adequate : 70% 79% inadequate : 60% 69% failing : < 60%. (h. dougls brown, 2003) results to calculate the mean score of students’ correct answers, the researcher calculated it by using spss 20. the result can be presented in the form of a table descriptive statistic, it can be seen in table 1 table 1. the mean score of students’ correct answer in pre – test copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 163 descriptive statistics n minimum maximum mean std. deviation pretest 30 50.00 70.00 58.8333 6.39010 valid n (listwise) 30 from table 1, it can be seen the highest score of students is 70.0 and the lowest score is 50.0. besides, this shows indicates that the mean score of student’s accuracy in pre test is 58.8333 and the standard deviation error is 6.39010. to calculate the mean score of students’ correct answers, the research calculated it by using spss 20. the results can be presented in the table descriptive statistic it can be seen in table 2 table 2. the mean score of students’ correct answer in post – test descriptive statistics n minimum maximum mean std. deviation posttest 30 75.00 93.00 85.7000 4.69152 valid n (listwise) 30 from table 2, it can be seen that the highest score of students is 93.0 and the lowest score is 75.0. besides, this shows that the mean score of student’s accuracy in post test is 85.7000 and the standard deviation error is 4.69152. after displaying the mean score in the vocabulary subjects of the students, in this study, the researcher will also display the student scores on the pre-test and post-test, the total mean score and standard deviation on the pre-test and post-test, and then compare the two. the results are presented in tabular form and descriptive statistics can be seen in tables 3. table 3. the paired samples test of pre-test and post-test paired samples test paired differences t df sig. (2tailed) mean std. deviation std. error mean 95% confidence interval of the difference lower upper pair 1 pre test – post test 26.86667 6.81142 1.24359 -29.41009 -24.32324 -21.604 29 .000 given interpretation based on criteria hypothesis acceptability. df = n – 1 = 30 – 1 = 29 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 164 ttest = 2.045 from the table sample test 4.11, the researcher got the data that t0 (tcount) = 21.604 and df (degree of freedom) = 29. according to the gay the value of tt = 2,045, t was the standard of signification 0.05 with a degree of freedom (df) = 29. based on the result, the researcher concluded that t0 (tcount) was higher tt (ttable), t0 ˃ tt, discussion the result of statistical analysis for the level of significance 0.05 with the degree of freedom (df) = n-1, where n = 30, df = 29. the probability value was smaller than tt = 2,045, t0 (tcount) = 21.604. (t0 ˃ tt,). it indicated the alternative hypothesis (ha) was accepted and the null hypothesis (h0) was rejected. it means that the scattergories game is effective in improving the students’ vocabulary. from the research results, the researcher found that using the scattergories game given to students could improve their vocabulary. this is evidenced by the mean score between the students pre-test and post-test. in this research, the researcher carried out several procedures in collecting data, while the following procedure the researcher gave pre-test questions to students to determine their ability to understand vocabulary. then students are given attention as a vocabulary learning process through the scattergories game. in the pre-test, students are asked to answer a vocabulary test. based on the noun thematic question, out of 40 pre-test and posttest questions, respondent 1 answered the pre-test question correctly 23 digits compared to the post-test question, the respondent answered the question correctly by 34 numbers. respondent 7 correctly answered the pre-test question 28 digits compared to the respondent's post-test question correctly answered 35 questions. most students answer questions during the pre-test on the match test and translation test. as for the pre-test questions that most students incorrectly answer this question is in determining the word class and its meaning, matching and choosing words that match the images available. this all happened because of the low student vocabulary. in the post-test, the researcher gives a similar vocabulary test in the pre-test. post-test is done after giving 6 treatments to students whose aim is to find out the score in the post-test can improve student vocabulary. and the results it was found that the results of the post-test students achieved a good classification. this can prove that using the scattergories game is very effective in improving students vocabulary. conclusion based on the findings and discussions of the study, the researcher concluded that the use of the scattergories game was effective to improve students’ vocabulary at smp negeri 8 palopo. the student’s vocabulary after conducting treatment, it could be proven by the students result in pre-test with mean score 58.8333 and post-test of mean score 85.7000, copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 165 the score of t0 (tcount) = 21.604 and df (degree of freedom) based on the result, namely 21.604 ˃ 2.045 the researchers concluded that t0 (tcount) was higher then tt (ttable), t0 ˃ tt. it means that there was a significant difference between vocabulary ability before and after using the scattergories game. through scattergories game, the students have many to enrich their vocabulary, all activities involve students so that the students also could build up their minds to memorize vocabulary. most of them get honor after answering the question and they enjoy the material. references alqahtani, mofareh, ‘the importance of vocabulary in language learning and how to be taught’, international journal of teaching and education, iii.3 (2015), 21–34 <https://doi.org/10.20472/te.2015.3.3.002> anwar, l., furwana, d., & iksan, m. 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(2014). improving students vocabulary through head and tall at the seventh year students of smp pmds putri palopo. palopo: stain palopo. copyright © wisran et al. vol. 6, no. 1, january 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 43 managing learning: mistakes feedback oral and written work wisran1, dewi furwana2, andi husni a. zainuddin3* & fauziah tanjung4 1,2,3,4 state islamic institute of palopo (iain palopo), palopo, indonesia *andihusni69gmail.com abstract this study explores the critical role of mistakes and feedback in the learning process, focusing on the management of student performance in oral and written assessments. mistakes are considered an inherent part of learning, so this study discusses strategies to effectively assess student performance, provide timely feedback, and create an environment that encourages continuous improvement. the first part of this study highlights that mistakes can be valuable learning opportunities. the study delves into the details of providing feedback in oral tasks, including how to deliver constructive feedback, encourage student reflection, identify areas for improvement, and motivate active participation in the learning process. the next section of the study addresses another crucial aspect of feedback, focusing on written assessments. it emphasizes effective methods to provide feedback to help students refine their writing skills. additionally, it discusses how feedback can foster a growth mindset, increase resilience, and create a positive learning environment. the conclusion of this study advocates a holistic approach to learning, recognizing the role of mistakes while emphasizing the transformative impact of constructive feedback. by addressing both oral and written components, this study offers insights into effectively managing learning and creating an educational environment that supports continuous growth and improvement. keywords: managing learning, mistakes feedback, oral work, written work introduction learning a new language presents numerous challenges, and students often make errors during this process. making errors is the most natural thing in the world and is intrinsically linked to being human; it is a necessary part of learning, and teachers should leverage these errors to achieve better results in the classroom (li & vuono, 2019). this suggests that teachers of a second language need to be both experienced and adequately qualified to harness these mistakes as learning opportunities (shadiev & yang, 2020). furthermore, teaching english is an extraordinarily complex endeavor. not everyone proficient in english is equipped to teach it effectively (solhi & eǧinli, 2020). therefore, it is crucial for english teachers to enhance their teaching strategies by understanding the learning difficulties and the factors that influence english language acquisition, which can be gleaned from the errors students make. mistakes tell us more about what children understand about language than the correct things they say (ahmad, 2011; getie, 2020). http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 andihusni69gmail.com copyright © wisran et al. vol. 6, no. 1, january 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 44 despite generally good writing skills, indonesian efl students still face significant challenges in various aspects of writing such as content, organization, vocabulary, grammar, and mechanics (tarigan et al., 2023). these difficulties stem not only from a limited understanding of writing components and essay structures but also from personal factors such as a lack of writing practice, aversion to writing, writing anxiety, negative perceptions of writing, low motivation, insufficient time during tests, and inadequate instructional methods in the teaching of writing (supiani et al., 2023). to address these issues, it is essential for improvements in teaching writing to be a collaborative effort involving both students and lecturers, aimed at overcoming the students' specific challenges and enhancing their writing skills (toba et al., 2019). on the other hand, the oral abilities of indonesian students in english as a foreign language (efl) contexts have been the focus of numerous studies. these students often find oral presentations beneficial for enhancing their english and academic skills. their speaking abilities are commonly evaluated through presentations in university-level courses (purwandari, 2023). moreover, indonesian efl students consider the ability to communicate in english one of the most challenging skills to master (sari et al., 2021). these observations underscore the need to focus on and improve the oral communication skills of indonesian students in efl settings. methods the research method employed in this study is a literature review, which was selected to systematically explore and analyze existing scholarly works, studies, and theoretical frameworks (snyder, 2019). this method focuses particularly on the effective management of learning processes, emphasizing how mistakes are addressed and feedback is provided in both oral and written assessments. by critically examining a broad spectrum of academic sources, this research aims to synthesize and evaluate the prevailing state of knowledge, identify predominant themes, and derive valuable insights into the best practices for managing learning through strategic handling of mistakes and feedback. the literature review facilitates a comprehensive examination of diverse perspectives, theoretical underpinnings, and empirical findings. this approach contributes to a more nuanced understanding of the topic and helps inform practical applications for educators and learners alike. results mistakes and feedback the literature review reveals several intriguing findings about why students continue to make the same mistakes despite repeated corrections. these mistakes categorized into three types: 'slips', which students can correct themselves once pointed out; 'errors', which they cannot correct without further explanation; and 'attempts', where students try to express something but lack the correct method. particularly challenging for teachers are 'errors', as these reflect a deeper misunderstanding and 'attempts' which can offer insights into a student's current linguistic understanding and provide opportunities for targeted instruction. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © wisran et al. vol. 6, no. 1, january 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 45 two primary sources of errors have been identified: 'interference' from the student’s first language, and 'developmental errors' common in language acquisition. 'interference' occurs as students apply rules or sounds from their native language to english, leading to specific errors depending on their linguistic background. for example, arabic speakers may confuse certain phonemes, while french students might struggle with grammatical constructions like the present perfect due to differences in time expression in their native language. 'developmental errors' resemble those seen in child language development, where learners over-generalize language rules, such as applying incorrect past tense forms like "goed" instead of "went." to effectively eradicate these mistakes, the research proposes three necessary conditions: the student's desire or need to correct the mistake, awareness of the mistake through some form of feedback, and opportunities for repeated practice in real-world conditions. this approach suggests that mistake correction is not just about pointing out errors but also about motivating students, providing clear and constructive feedback, and allowing ample practice in contextually meaningful settings. feedback during oral work the research emphasizes that feedback should be specifically tailored to the actions of the individual rather than their personal characteristics to foster effective learning. such personalized feedback helps learners recognize the consequences of their actions, making it more likely for them to adopt changes. for example, when learners are provided with specific oral feedback on the correct pronunciation of words, they not only learn the accurate pronunciation but are also more inclined to use it regularly, understanding its benefits such as adherence to standard pronunciation norms like received pronunciation. however, it's crucial to moderate the amount of corrective feedback given, as excessive feedback can lead to discouragement and negative outcomes. feedback in educational settings is often categorized by its delivery method, oral or written, and its focus, which can either be on accuracy or fluency. before engaging in the feedback process, it's important for english as a foreign language (efl) teachers to distinguish between the types of errors students typically make. systematic errors are usually due to incomplete knowledge of the language and require different instructional strategies compared to mistakes, which are often caused by external, non-linguistic factors such as fatigue or distractions. four primary forms of corrective feedback used by teachers. clarification requests prompt students to repeat or reformulate their statements, aiding in clearer understanding. recasts involve teachers subtly correcting errors by modeling the correct language form during their response. elicitations encourage learners to correct themselves through strategic questioning that leads them to the correct form. finally, metalinguistic feedback involves teachers providing explanations that include linguistic terms to clarify why certain forms are incorrect and how to correct them. the study also considers the emotional and psychological aspects of receiving feedback. since feedback can often feel like criticism, it may be met with resistance or rejection by learners. the emotional impact of feedback is significantly influenced by how it http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © wisran et al. vol. 6, no. 1, january 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 46 is presented and managed. needs into the feedback process suggests that ensuring basic needs such as physiological safety and social belonging are met can create a supportive learning environment. this foundation allows learners to progress towards higher needs like esteem and self-actualization, promoting a more receptive and proactive engagement with feedback and personal development. feedback on written work responding to student writing is a fundamental aspect of teaching writing, which significantly influences students' learning processes. effective feedback enables students to refine and develop their writing skills crucially. in educational settings where feedback is not integrated into teaching practices, or where students struggle to comprehend and apply the feedback provided, developing sufficient writing proficiency becomes a formidable challenge. the capacity to access and effectively utilize teacher feedback is thus a critical element of the learning-to-write process. it is in these interactions that students learn to navigate the complexities of written expression and fine-tune their communicative abilities. the importance of teacher feedback in writing has been extensively documented within both esl (english as a second language) and efl (english as a foreign language) writing research. particularly in classrooms adopting a process-oriented approach to writing instruction, the role of feedback is profoundly acknowledged by both teachers and students. this process-oriented approach emphasizes continuous revision and refinement of student work, where teacher feedback acts as a pivotal guide. it helps students understand where their writing meets expected standards and where it falls short, providing clear directions for improvement. teacher written feedback typically encompasses any comments, questions, or corrections made on students' assignments and can take various forms such as questions, error corrections, praises, suggestions, and criticisms. research in esl education has highlighted the utility of teacher feedback as a powerful tool that encourages student revisions and facilitates the learning-to-write process. it is through feedback that teachers communicate the necessary changes and improvements required, making the revision process a central component of writing development. prominent educators and researchers have stressed the significance of this practice. the teacher’s role as a "feedback provider" as central to the process-oriented approach to teaching writing. teacher feedback is crucial as it not only identifies students’ strengths and weaknesses but also significantly enhances their motivation during the writing process. echoing this sentiment, peterson points out that feedback informs students about the reader’s reactions, thereby serving as a crucial link between the student writer and the audience. by providing insight into how their writing is perceived, teachers help foster students’ development as writers and nurture their confidence, making feedback an indispensable tool in the education of effective communicators. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © wisran et al. vol. 6, no. 1, january 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 47 discussion mistakes and feedback the literature review conducted by julian edge provides a structured understanding of the recurring mistakes made by students in language learning, categorizing them into 'slips', 'errors', and 'attempts' (edge & darling, 1989). each category represents a different level of cognitive processing and linguistic understanding, demanding tailored instructional responses. 'slips' are relatively minor and can be self-corrected upon recognition, suggesting a level of knowledge that merely requires cueing (akhzhibek & kudaibergenova, 2023). on the other hand, 'errors' signify a deeper lack of understanding and require more substantive instructional intervention, indicating areas where learners have not yet internalized the correct linguistic forms. 'attempts' highlight the explorative nature of language acquisition, where students try to articulate thoughts without having fully mastered the necessary linguistic structures, providing educators with valuable insights into the learners’ developmental stage and potential areas for focused teaching (edge & darling, 1989; juraj, 2024). the research also identifies two predominant sources of these errors: 'interference' from a student's first language and 'developmental errors' typical of the language learning process. interference errors occur when students unconsciously apply phonetic, grammatical, or lexical rules from their native language to the new language, which can lead to systematic mistakes depending on their linguistic background (ratnaningsih & azizah, 2019; saeed al-sobhi, 2019). for example, the confusion of phonemes by arabic speakers or the misuse of tense by french speakers illustrates how native language structures can impede the acquisition of english structures. developmental errors, akin to those observed in child language development, occur when learners apply rules too broadly, evident in overgeneralizations like using "goed" instead of "went" (pasaribu, 2021; yusuf et al., 2021). these errors are part of the natural learning process but require correction to prevent them from becoming ingrained. the effective elimination of these mistakes hinges on fulfilling three conditions: students’ motivation to change (driven by the need or desire to correct the mistake), their awareness of the error (typically enhanced by specific feedback), and sufficient opportunities for practice in contextually relevant settings. this holistic approach emphasizes not only the correction of mistakes but also the motivational and practical aspects of learning, suggesting that real progress in language proficiency requires more than just the identification of errors—it requires creating an environment where students are encouraged to understand their mistakes and are given ample opportunities to apply corrections in meaningful contexts (han, 2019; mao & crosthwaite, 2019; reynolds & kao, 2021). this methodology not only addresses the cognitive aspects of learning but also acknowledges the emotional and practical dimensions, fostering a more comprehensive and effective learning experience (johnson, 1988; zhang et al., 2021). http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © wisran et al. vol. 6, no. 1, january 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 48 feedback during oral work the research underscores the critical importance of tailoring feedback to the specific actions of learners rather than their personal characteristics, emphasizing the effectiveness of personalized feedback in facilitating meaningful learning experiences. such feedback helps learners understand the implications of their actions, thereby increasing their likelihood to make necessary adjustments (bergmann et al., 1997; chen et al., 2020). for instance, providing learners with targeted oral feedback on pronunciation not only helps them grasp the correct sounds but also motivates them to consistently apply these corrections in their speech, appreciating benefits such as adherence to standard pronunciation norms like received pronunciation (almusaed et al., 2023; saine & santoso, 2024). however, the study cautions against the overuse of corrective feedback, which can be counterproductive, leading to discouragement and adverse educational outcomes. the methodology of delivering feedback, whether oral or written, and its focus—on either accuracy or fluency—plays a significant role in the educational context, especially for english as a foreign language (efl) teachers. teachers must be adept at distinguishing between systematic errors, which stem from an incomplete understanding of language structures, and mistakes caused by external factors like fatigue or distractions (ha et al., 2021; tricia hedge, 2000). lightbown and spada identify four primary types of corrective feedback: clarification requests, recasts, elicitations, and metalinguistic feedback, each serving a unique purpose in aiding students' comprehension and correction of errors (spada & lightbown, 1999). clarification requests help clarify misunderstandings, recasts provide subtle corrections within the flow of conversation, elicitations probe students towards selfcorrection, and metalinguistic feedback offers deep insights into language rules (khanahmadi, 2024; menyani & merabti, 2024). furthermore, the study delves into the emotional and psychological impacts of receiving feedback, acknowledging that feedback can often be perceived as criticism, which might lead to resistance or outright rejection from students. the emotional response to feedback is significantly shaped by its presentation and management. integrating principles from maslow's hierarchy of needs into the feedback process can greatly enhance its effectiveness (ihensekien & joel, 2023; spada & lightbown, 1999). by ensuring that basic physiological and safety needs are met, and fostering a sense of belonging and esteem, educators can create a supportive learning environment that not only facilitates error correction but also promotes personal growth and self-actualization among learners (alqahtani, 2011; hassan, 2019). this holistic approach to feedback not only addresses linguistic competencies but also supports the overall developmental needs of students, making the feedback process a powerful tool for educational and personal development. feedback on written work responding to student writing effectively is a cornerstone of teaching in processoriented writing classrooms, particularly in esl and efl contexts (mack, 2009). the study highlights the indispensable role of teacher feedback in enhancing the learning-to-write process, emphasizing that without adequate feedback, students struggle significantly to develop writing proficiency. feedback serves as a critical tool for guiding students through http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © wisran et al. vol. 6, no. 1, january 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 49 the iterative process of writing, revising, and refining their work (van der kleij, 2020). in environments where feedback is lacking or not properly utilized, students often fail to make the necessary progress in their writing skills (fathia baresh, 2022). this underscores the importance of not only providing feedback but also ensuring that it is accessible and actionable for students. the nature and implementation of teacher feedback can greatly influence the effectiveness of the learning process. feedback is defined broadly to include any comments, questions, or corrections teachers provide on student assignments, and it can take many forms from specific corrections and questions to praise and more general suggestions. this versatility allows teachers to address diverse aspects of a student's writing, tailoring their feedback to the individual needs of each student (eskelinen, 2016; wihastyanang et al., 2020). prominent educators like jeremy harmer and researchers such as silver and lee have noted that effective feedback not only helps correct immediate errors but also plays a crucial role in developing students' overall writing abilities (harmer, 2015; silver & lee, 2007; zhang et al., 2021). it boosts their motivation, helps identify their strengths and weaknesses, and provides essential insights into how their writing is perceived by others. peterson's research further supports this by highlighting how feedback informs students about the reader’s reactions, thereby building their confidence and helping them understand the impact of their writing. thus, teacher feedback transcends mere error correction; it is a fundamental component of teaching that fosters deeper learning, encourages self-reflection, and supports students in becoming more competent and confident writers (peterson & mcclay, 2010; williams & beam, 2019). conclusion this study explores strategies to enhance the learning process by addressing mistakes and optimizing feedback mechanisms in both oral and written assessments. through an extensive literature review, key themes emerged, highlighting the critical role of specific, timely, and empowering feedback in boosting student performance. the research also emphasizes the importance of fostering a positive attitude towards mistakes, encouraging students to view them as essential learning opportunities. this shift in perspective is vital for students to embrace errors as part of their educational growth rather than setbacks, with effective feedback principles found to be universally applicable across different assessment modes. the findings of this study provide a nuanced understanding of managing mistakes and delivering effective feedback, offering educators practical insights into best practices for improving learning outcomes. it underscores that a well-crafted feedback mechanism, coupled with a positive learning environment, significantly enhances both oral and written educational experiences. as education continues to evolve, the paper suggests that educators adopt strategies that not only correct errors but also empower students, fostering a culture of continuous improvement and resilience. this approach has the potential to transform educational practices, creating more supportive and enriching learning environments. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © wisran et al. vol. 6, no. 1, january 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 50 references ahmad, n. 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(2020). evaluation of the ‘feedback engagement enhancement tool’ to examine and enhance students’ engagement with feedback on their writing. studies in educational evaluation, 66(july), 100907. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.stueduc.2020.100907 wihastyanang, w. d., kusumaningrum, s. r., latief, m. a., & cahyono, b. y. (2020). impacts of providing online teacher and peer feedback on students’ writing performance. turkish online journal of distance education, 21(2), 178–189. https://doi.org/10.17718/tojde.728157 williams, c., & beam, s. (2019). technology and writing: review of research. computers and education, 128, 227–242. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2018.09.024 yusuf, y. q., mustafa, f., & iqbal, r. m. (2021). an inquiry into grammatical errors in writing committed by high achieving efl students. international journal of language studies, 15(2), 1–22. zhang, t., chen, x., hu, j., & ketwan, p. (2021). efl students’ preferences for written corrective feedback: do error types, language proficiency, and foreign language enjoyment matter? frontiers in psychology, 12(april), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.660564 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.3, no. 2, april 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 80 sustainability of e-learning in the undergraduate efl classrooms 1asma-ul-ferdous, 2nazia forhin shifat, & 3mohammad ehsanul islam khan* 1asa university of bangladesh (asaub), dhaka, bangladesh 2notre dame university bangladesh (ndub), dhaka, bangladesh 3manarat international university (miu), dhaka, bangladesh *asad.helloteen@gmail.com abstract the present study investigated the probable sustainability and effectiveness of e-learning in english language teaching (elt) to learners in an english as a foreign language (efl) classroom. since the beginning of technology, it has always influenced our lives, thinking, and learning areas. one significant model in today's world in education is e-learning. today, one aspect of technology that has a considerable impact on our livelihood is english language learning in the efl context. data were collected using a google form questionnaire with 20 close-ended questions on a 5-point likert scale and analyzed in percentage. ninety-two undergraduate efl learners randomly participated in the survey. the quantitative method has been used to analyze the data. the results showed that integrating e-learning is a blessing to language learners though students face some challenges entirely using it. learners have found educational technology effective in developing their fours language skills, including vocabulary problem-solving skills, performance improvement, etc. the study finally recommended increasing e-learning practices alongside the traditional approach in the efl context of bangladesh along with secured and controlled techniques. keywords: blended learning, e-learning, efl, elt, sustainability introduction since the advent of technology, its blessing has been experienced in all domains of daily life. from government bodies to business companies and casual households, e-learning has benefited. although it brought immense advancement in the english language education sector, the stance of people who either got in the vanguard of this advancement or merely have any idea about it is fearsome. in today's world where life is busy and living is competitive, e-learning in learning the english language presents multitudes of options that profit and make teacher-students' life comfortable and serene. e-learning provides organizations with other resources set forth by tech giants to assist learners in gaining additional knowledge, certificates, and degrees in english language learning courses. this helps learners learn regardless of their full-time jobs if they are living in distant countries, as well as mastering skills outside their mainstream course. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 mailto:youremailaddress@emailservprov.domain copyright © the author(s) vol.3, no. 2, april 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 81 nevertheless, as pupils and adolescents explore aspects that come with the good fortune of accessing the internet, it is overwhelming. they are also recorded to have spent countless hours using various applications and browsing eccentrically on devices. the parents' despair and endless worries reach prodigious levels with time. questions arise about whether their immediate next generation is appropriately raised as complete human beings. e-learning can be found in language apps, video conferencing tools, virtual tutoring, online learning software, moodle, and many more (li & lalani, 2020). however, the timehonored axiom of e-learning brought a new spectrum on how the present generations depict their english language learning grid and pursue their degrees. despite being lauded universally, in bangladesh, virtual learning or online education is passing its early stage, and therefore, it requires providing all technical support to the students for virtual learning (yesmin & khan 2021). to the language teachers, though the uses of mobile phones, computers, projectors, and the internet are not new, the practice of computer-based learning, e-learning, distancelearning, or online learning is very new to many which are regarded as a dynamic, complex, and interdisciplinary enterprise (shifat, khan & chowdhury, 2021). the infrastructure of blended learning lies upon the infusion of web-based technology and mode of convenient learning. this realm of understanding allows english language learners to gain access to a wide range of information to conceptualize their learning object from different angles. from higher education to primary level schemes, all incorporate electronic devices and the internet depending on studies. this lattice of information and communication technologies constructs downhill innovative ways students can interact with tutors online and offline, fellow peers and faculty, and content. as bangladesh has faced several challenges in the education sector during the covid-19 pandemic, to continue the adequate flow of education in the post-pandemic situation, it is essential to utilize the modernization of blended learning (khan, 2021). instead of simply relying on rigid traditional techniques, such as memorizing grammar, vocabulary, re-writing, and re-reading volumized books, students can access authentic and experimented methods of effective english language learning. the web offers multitudes of collaborative materials and ideas, which elevates students' total depth of knowledge that assists them in understanding better. the emerging arrays of multimedia learning improve legitimate learning strategies of english language learners. according to rabbani, raihan and khan (2020), to increase students' more profound knowledge of technology by using internet supported education, it is required to increase the rate of administering tests and homework or assignment through the internet as a means of formative assessment, which can make them more collaborative, cooperative, and communicative. according to zakarneh (2018), e-learning mood is a better mode of enhancing performance and a better tool for testing and evaluation. moreover, recently many universities and colleges proffer longstanding and near-term courses on numerous english courses in parallel with vast fields of interest. the certificate and degrees earned from these programs later help learners of different ages to have supplementary incomes and set ingenious demonstrations for others to follow on the internet. apart from institutes, many organizations offer such english programs at a much lower price through websites for people to join. this way, e-learning based on blending http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.3, no. 2, april 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 82 learning is applicable for long-distance classes and could be appropriately used for the conventional education system (kristanto et al., 2017). different industries, agencies, and business associations accept online certificates and accreditations for individuals applying for positions depending on expertise in a particular english language sector. thus, practitioners explore an array of opportunities to enhance their careers further. apart from promising career advancement and raising employee qualifications, english language learners working part or full time can immediately bring new cognizance and competence to their job, increasing profits, including innovations. furthermore, students no longer have to commute to multiple destinations, juggling several tasks within a single day. hence, they get to spend some time on self-enhancement, meditation, or even make a trial run on courses outside their academic program. most students engaged in an e-learning do not have to incur traveling expenses or afford to live in foreign cities, as they get to study from home. the framework of e-learning creates feasible opportunities to help people be trained virtually. however, the integration of media technology assists learners in acquiring four language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing (ahmad, 2012). technology-based learning provides flexibility and pacing option. hence students can absorb information with more concentration in a comfortable environment. pupils can practice self-discipline at a young age as no teacher would aggravate the assignment deadlines, nor would a friend call on a monday morning to ensure the group project has reached the end completion. as a result, students build a more robust self-governance and determination. this plays a significant role in other aspects of life such as fitness, work ethics, or even relationships between friends and family. unlike the synchronous learning environments where students have to focus on ongoing lectures despite feeling unmindful, students can now choose to have a very altering study schedule. so, this paper aims to investigate the effectiveness of elearning as a mode of teaching the english language in universities in bangladesh. also, to determine the factors of e-learning that contoured the dogma of the traditional learning environment. since the beginning of the rise of technology, it has always influenced our paths of life, way of thinking, and learning options. in the present day, it shapes our daily life. one aspect of technology that has a massive impact on our livelihood is our english language learning. the time-honored axiom of e-learning brought a new spectrum on how the present generations depict their english language learning education grid and pursue their degrees. even though there are two sides to every story, both sides of this concept are hard to judge, and even if a conclusion is reached, the snowball effect would be hard to amend. several studies have been conducted on e-learning and its feasibility, effectiveness, and challenges in different streams. very few have been on the english language teaching, which made researchers interested in studying its energy and difficulties in teaching english. various literary works revealed that an e-learning platform is an effective platform for teaching the english language. after the pandemic outbreak, google classroom has become popular around the world. google classroom helps carry out this online learning well (anggraini & syahrul, 2021). http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.3, no. 2, april 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 83 zakarneh (2018) conducted a study on the effectiveness of e-learning mode in arab universities for teaching the english language. he found e-learning appropriate for acquiring vocabulary, speaking skills, listening skills, reading skills, and writing skills more effective than in the traditional classroom. students can learn better through e-learning. such an elearning platform is considered an appropriate and better means for acquiring vocabulary, developing speaking skills, english language grammar, reading skills, writing skills, listening skills, and a better mode of enhancing performance in english than the traditional classroom model. they find e-learning a better tool for testing and evaluation and prefer it to other conventional methods. sung and yeh (2012) found the perceptions of online technology among taiwanese university students in language education and found students' satisfaction because of its convenience and practicality. ahmad (2012) studied the integration of media technology to english language teaching and found satisfactory results from students' perceptions. cai (2012) found out that with the help of computers and the internet, e-learning can change pedagogical strategies and improve teaching and learning efficiency. mutambik (2018) conducted a study on the role of e-learning on saudi arabia students and found out it is a flexible, interactive way of learning the english language. mohammadi et al. (2011) studied the effects of e-learning on language learning. they found that people can be autonomous by using the internet, and they can be independent of books and teachers. also, internet media like blogs; message boards, podcasts; and video sharing are other faces of e-learning that provide teachers and students with creative and practical ideas. however, the researchers found a considerable gap in the previous related studies for surveying the present research on the efficacy and probable sustainability of e-learning in the bangladesh context. methods data were collected through a structured questionnaire. the questionnaire aimed to discover the opinions of students on the effectiveness of e-learning in developing english language skills and vocabulary in the classroom in comparison with face-to-face instruction and on the implementation of the e-learning course for distance students based on the frequencies of their responses and the qualitative signs (year of study, field of study). the questionnaire was supportive as the research instrument to collect data on phenomena that cannot be observed, such as attitudes, self-concepts, etc. the questionnaire was prepared in google form; it was designed to be automatically scored and summed up. efl students were given the freedom to keep their identities anonymous. the questionnaire consists of 20 close-ended questions. all questions were written in english, as the participants were chosen from the undergraduate level. they have been studying english since their primary education till now. the questions emphasized learners' opinions, views, and attitudes towards e-learning. twenty close-ended questions were written on a 5-point likert scale of always (a), very often (vo), sometimes (s), rare (r), and never (n). the questionnaire is divided into two sections. the first part deals with students' demographic information; the second part deals with whether e-learning in their classroom is practical to their language learning. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.3, no. 2, april 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 84 the questionnaire was sent to the undergraduate efl learners of the english departments of three universities. participants and universities were selected randomly, and a total of 20 questionnaires were filled out by the 96 participants and returned. the participants were chosen from the undergraduate level who went through placement tests, assignments, and quizzes were categorized for english language achievements. the researchers used the random sampling technique because it uses randomization to ensure that each population element gets an equal chance to be selected. this nonprobability sampling technique was used for the convenience, availability, accessibility, and proximity of participants from whom data was collected, which is identified as the most appropriate method. the use of this random sampling technique method made it easy for the researchers to sample and collect data from participants. qualitative data were analyzed using microsoft excel. accordingly, participants' responses were analyzed using graphs and tables. results data analysis and findings table 1. participants' responses to the sustainability of e-learning in the efl classrooms sl items a (5) vo (4) s (3) r (2) n (1) percentage (%) 1 our teachers integrate e-learning into our traditional classroom. 41.9 22.6 30.1 33.2 22.2 2 e-learning is an enjoyable and exciting learning tool. 42.1 23.6 26.3 3.2 0 3 i find a wide variety of sites and information to learn. 66.3 15.8 15.8 2.1 00 4 e-learning helps to learn more english vocabulary and grammar. 66.3 15.8 15.8 1.1 1.1 5 i can develop my writing skill through e-learning. 34.4 18.8 33.3 8.3 5.2 6 our linguistic skill is fastened by e-learning. 36.8 24.2 20 13.7 5.3 7 my listening skill is increasing through e-learning. 58.3 11.5 24 4.2 2.1 8 my reading skill is improving through e-learning. 36.8 28.4 23.2 10.5 1.1 9 i perform better in english through e-learning mode than in the traditional classroom environment. 29.5 21.1 30.5 10.5 8.4 10 it is an immense motivation for me to learn using the internet. 57.4 16 20.2 6.4 0 11 integrating e-learning makes me more autonomous and independent. 44.7 20.2 27.7 3.2 4.3 12 elt courses assessment is tested better through the e-learning method. 30.9 22.3 30.9 7.4 8.5 13 it is better to learn through e-learning than traditional learning. 27.1 13.5 34.4 8.3 16.7 14 it is a waste of time to learn through this mode. 7.4 6.3 25.3 15.8 45.3 15 students lose interest in their studies for internet-based learning mode. 16.8 12.6 44.2 10.5 15.8 16 during online classes, students have physical problems (back pain, headache, blurred vision). 30.5 23.2 31.6 10.5 4.2 17 e-learning can be a standard method of teaching besides physical classrooms. 38.9 15.8 26.3 6.3 12.6 18 all english language courses should be taught through the e-learning mode. 21.1 15.8 31.6 5.3 26.3 19 i understand english courses better if e-learning is used. 29.5 27.4 21.1 10.5 11.6 20 e-learning should be incorporated to traditional classrooms. 0 46.3 38.9 3.2 11.6 teachers' integration of e-learning into the traditional classroom when learners were asked whether their teachers integrate e-learning into their traditional classroom majority, 41.9% replied that they always use it. in comparison, 30.1% sometimes said they use it, and 22.6% responded very often. the results indicate that elearning has been one of the integral parts of teaching in the classroom (item-1). all incorporate electronic devices and internet-dependent studies from higher education to http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.3, no. 2, april 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 85 primary level schemes. this lattice of information and communication technologies constructs downhill innovative ways students can interact with tutors online and offline, fellow peers and faculty, and content. based on the survey result, 41% of participants consistently demonstrated that integration of e-learning was helpful in the traditional classroom. more than 50% of the students agreed with the teachers' integration of e-learning in the english classes. around 5% of the participants were unaware that e-learning was a valuable teaching model. in the statement, whether it's better to learn through e-learning than traditional learning, the total of 61.5%, the aggregated result of always 27.1% sometimes 34.4% agreed on it. only 13.5% answered 'very often', and 16.7% said 'never' (item-13). also, in the opinion of whether e-learning can be the traditional method besides offline classroom majority of 65.2 %, the total of always 38.9% sometimes 26.3%, agreed on it. only 15.8% said very often, and 12.6% never said (item-17). insights about e-learning as an exciting tool many students (42%) think that a mingling of blended learning lies in the infusion of web-based technology and mode of convenient learning. more than 60% of the students believe this realm of learning allows english language learners to access a wide range of information to conceptualize their learning object from different angles (item 2 and 3). instead of simply relying on rigid traditional techniques, such as memorizing grammar, vocabulary, re-writing, and re-reading volumized books, now can rout out authentic and experimented methods of effective english language learning. the web offers multitudes of collaborative materials and ideas that elevate students' real depth of knowledge that assist them in understanding better. the emerging arrays of multimedia learning improve legitimate learning strategies for english language learners. it enthuses learners to navigate the theoretical and practical complexities of recontextualizing the concepts taught in traditional manners. a relatively large percentage of participants (36.8%) were agreed with the statement that e-learning fastened by e-learning. however, only 13.7%% did not agree strongly with the idea. on the contrary, 24.2% agreed with the information (very often-24.2% and sometimes-20%) that e-learning was a better means of developing language skills (item-6). participants (34.4%) consistently agreed that e-learning was better for learning writing skills, with 18.8% very often and 33.3% sometimes agreeing. however, only 8.3% rarely agreed with the statement that e-learning was better for learning writing skills (item-5). more than 36% of participants (always-36.8% and very often 28.4%) were in agreement with the statement that e-learning was better meant for developing reading skills. 23.2% of participants agreed that sometimes e-learning helped build reading skills, and 10.5% rarely agreed with the statement that e-learning was a better means for developing reading skills (item-8). however, the majority of participants (58.3%) were in agreement with the statement that e-learning was always better meant for developing english listening skills. on the contrary, only 11.5% of participants mentioned it very often, and 24% agreed with the statement that e-learning was a better means of developing listening skills (item-7). http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.3, no. 2, april 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 86 challenges in e-learning for efl learners although it has an abundance of bright sides, e-learning has shortcomings too. based on research, studies, and surveys, the students find e-learning, especially the online classes, much more challenging to manage for learning all the english courses (21.1% said always, 15.8% said very often, 31.6% said sometimes, and 26.3% said never) (figure-18). individuals found it challenging to shift pedagogically from age-long in-class practice to mentally and physically electronic learning with fewer materials. thus, students faced several physical problems such as back pain, headache, and blurred vision during online classes (30.5% of the participants suffered all time, 23.2% of learners suffered very often, and 31.6% of the students sometimes suffered during or after the class), (item-16). this led to depression, frustration, and anxiety as well, of which there is no option in traditional inclass learning. although e-learning lays out a diverse array to ensure proper education, teachers and students fail to understand that the effectiveness of e-learning in teaching and learning the english language lies under the strict rote learning system and interactive critical thinking sessions. therefore, 46.3% of the participants thought e-learning could not be the standard teaching method; rather, it would be best for 'sometimes' beside the traditional classroom. 38.9% agreed very often, and 11.6% disagreed with the statement (item-20). 16.8% of students always lose interest in studying for internet-based learning mode because the home is not an ideal study environment. a classroom creates a quiet and actual place to learn, inspiring them and bringing along the vibe to study. 15.8% of students felt the household is chaotic and busy with chores, causing students to lose concentration, even no work to be accomplished. they (12.6%) feel lost hurrying to finish and turn in assignments under pressure. 44.2% of the students often experience the absence of willingness and desire to study (item-15). although 30.9% of the students felt that elt courses evaluation and assessment were tested better through the e-learning method, 22.3% said it was often done better, and 30.9% said sometimes english courses were tested better through the online mode. interestingly, 8.5% of the students usually had a rush to complete their assignments to obtain passing credits without even giving reasonable efforts to learn the course material and disagreed with the statement. they also claimed that authorities at the same time gave relatively easy question papers and designed assessments that could be graded quickly for mass people to pass on their first attempt itself (item-12). discussion although e-learning providers are constantly trying to pave new ways to keep learners engaged in studies in the best effortless way, they still found that people generally fail to culminate and finish their course. with the emerging innovations, although e-learning outlays innumerable opportunities, many learners look for the sustainability of online learning. in parallel with third-world countries, many students, from teenagers to young adults in first-world countries, spend more time browsing the internet in the name of online classes and e-learning. with just a few clicks and taps, pupils can gain entrée to various sites, social media, and games. english language students spend uncountable hours fidgeting http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.3, no. 2, april 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 87 through the internet, playing games, and scrolling through social media sites aimlessly. researches show that individuals usually become obsessed with content represented and fall into internet addiction. this leads to detrimental effects on their psychology and mental health. besides inefficacious and out-of-reach internet connections in rural areas, parents are now more concerned about young learners' deprivation of the internet. the results of this study are supported by several comparative studies that have investigated the effectiveness of e-learning or online learning against the traditional forms of learning and found differences in student outcomes. cai (2012) also showed similar results when he found out how students find it interesting to get the reading materials from the internet. zakarneh (2018) showed that an e-learning platform is an appropriate and better means for acquiring vocabulary, developing speaking skills, english language grammar, reading skills, writing skills, and listening skills than the conventional classroom model. they see elearning as a better tool for testing and evaluation and prefer it to other traditional methods. the findings also supported the study of sung & yeh (2012), where the usefulness of computer-based english learning for developing essential skills like listening (gruba, 2004), reading, and writing was encouraged. the increased presence of elt learners has raised serious concerns about the safety of internet and social media use. difficulty in self-regulation, lack of awareness of the repercussions of privacy compromise, and susceptibility to peer pressure are reasons for teenagers' cavalier attitude towards online risks such as cyberbullying and exposure to inappropriate content as they navigate the tricky waters of social media (ramasubbu, 2015). besides the devastating effects on their mental health, it has adverse aftermaths on physical health too, whether by studying or habitually browsing without any useful purpose. keeping eyes fixated on that one bright, many-hued screen for excessive hours disposes of damaging effects on the eye (alavi et al., 2011). according to the findings of ahmad (2012), a large number of students reported that media technology provides students with an exciting experience in the learning process, tremendously increases their motivation level, and improves their performance rate. so, this study recommended expanding the e-learning system for the undergrads but in a controlled use of e-learning with utmost security and safety ensured by the respective institutions. conclusion e-learning has gained a new height in recent days. the study reported that exciting elearning tools, a multidimensional learning environment, distance learning, digital classrooms, and online gadgets have already paved sustainable ways for modern learners to improve their english language skills. the learners have found the e-learning effective and time-saving, which indicates the future sustainability of e-learning in the bangladesh context. however, interventions are brought forth to make academic life facile, pleasant, and comfortable. similarly, the basis of the combination of english language education with technology is to make its branches accessible to the majority of the teachers and students out there. e-learning has its place. it has given opportunities and improved lifestyles, http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.3, no. 2, april 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 88 especially for students who would otherwise not attend in-class sessions, especially in the covid-19 pandemic. nevertheless, the jeopardy of the hopeful prospect needs to be given enough attention. however, students and their guardians feel the need to rethink e-learning in english language teaching with proper guidance, practiced discipline, and standardized cutting-edge well-structured courses to eliminate the many concerns and improve effectiveness. moreover, it is time to think about sustainable learning techniques, which are more productive than the traditional, convenient learning system, to brighten a career in english communication. further research can be conducted on the efficacy of e-learning at different levels of education in the efl context. references ahmad, d. j. 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(2018). the role of e-learning in studying english as a foreign language in saudi arabia: students' and teachers' perspectives. english language teaching, 11(5), http://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v11n5p74 rabbani, k. m. m. g., raihan, m. a., & khan, m. e. i. (2020). constraints of using internet in technical and vocational education: bangladesh context. journal of elt and education, 3(2), 34-43, retrieved from https://jee-bd.com/journal/3262020/ shifat, n. f., khan, m. e. i., & chowdhury, m. s. a. (2021). learner acumens of online efl classes at the private universities in bangladesh. european journal of open education and e-learning studies, 6(2), http://dx.doi.org/10.46827/ejoe.v6i2.3838 sung. d., & yeh. c. y. (2012). perceptions of using online technology in language education: an interview study with taiwanese university students. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 51, 405–410, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.08.180 yesmin, q. f., & khan, m. e. i. (2021). virtual learning of the tribal students in bangladesh: constrictions and propositions. international journal of evaluation and research in education, 10(3), 1038-1046, http://doi.org/10.11591/ijere.v10i3.21315 zakarneh. b. m (2018). effectiveness of e-learning mode for teaching the english language in arab universities. international journal of applied linguistics & english literature, 7(7), 171-181, http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.7n.7p.171 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 306 together we learn: students’ perceptions of the benefits of group work in learning english deni asrida1, nanda dwi aksari2 uin mahmud yunus batusangkar, batusangkar, indonesia deniasrida@uinmybatusangkar.ac.id abstract although group work is widely promoted in english as a foreign language (efl) pedagogy, most studies have examined its benefits in isolation, focusing primarily on cognitive or affective aspects. few scholarly studies have explored students’ perceptions holistically across cognitive, affective, and conative dimensions, particularly in indonesian secondary school contexts where sociocultural norms influence classroom interaction. this qualitative study addresses that gap by examining how ninth-grade students at smpn 2 batusangkar perceive the role of group work in english learning. thirteen students were purposively selected based on participation levels and teacher recommendations. data from semistructured interviews were analyzed using the miles and huberman framework. findings indicate that group work enhances comprehension, accelerates task completion, and stimulates idea generation (cognitive); fosters enjoyment, self-confidence, and occasional frustration with passive peers (affective); and promotes activeness, responsibility, and collective problem-solving (conative). the study’s unique contribution lies in providing a culturally contextualized, multidimensional account of group work perceptions, offering actionable insights for designing structured, equitable, and engaging collaborative activities. these findings have key implications for efl educators and curriculum developers seeking to balance learner autonomy with guided support to optimize participation, language development, and essential 21st-century skills. keywords: collaborative learning, efl learning, group work, indonesian secondary education, students’ perceptions introduction in recent decades, the global shift from teacher-centered to learner-centered pedagogy has emphasized the importance of collaborative learning strategies in second language classrooms. this shift reflects broader educational reforms aimed at promoting learner autonomy, critical thinking, and communicative competence rather than passive knowledge transmission. among these strategies, group work has gained increasing recognition as a powerful pedagogical tool that fosters engagement, promotes peer interaction, and facilitates deeper learning (johnson & johnson, 1999; slavin, 1995). in english as a foreign language (efl) context, where opportunities for authentic communication are often limited, group work offers learners meaningful platforms to practice the target language, negotiate meaning, and develop confidence in expressing themselves (brown & lee, 1994; oxford, http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 307 1997). this makes collaborative learning particularly relevant in asian settings, where large class sizes and exam-oriented instruction often restrict opportunities for individualized language practice. the benefits of group work are widely documented in both theoretical and empirical research. classic cooperative learning theories emphasize that collaboration enhances learning through positive interdependence, where students support one another to achieve shared goals (johnson & johnson, 1999), and through the zone of proximal development, where peer scaffolding enables learners to achieve tasks they could not accomplish alone (vygotsky, 1978). research has consistently found that group work stimulates cognitive engagement by encouraging learners to explain ideas, challenge perspectives, and coconstruct new knowledge (gillies & ashman, 2007; webb, 2009). in indonesian contexts, sajidin and ashadi (2021) found that group-based activities sustained student engagement and improved comprehension of english materials, while (gunawan, 2025) demonstrated that project-based collaboration enhanced speaking fluency, critical thinking, and teamwork skills among university students. affective benefits are also evident: group collaboration reduces anxiety and fosters emotional comfort by providing safe spaces for learners to test ideas before presenting them publicly. meilasari et al. (2023) found that cooperative learning significantly alleviated speaking anxiety among indonesian efl learners, while alzubi et al. (2024) reported increased motivation and self-confidence through group discussions. conatively, group work helps students develop responsibility, strengthen accountability, and engage more actively, preparing them with the collaborative and communicative skills required in modern learning environments. (situmorang, 2021). yet, despite its well-established potential, group work is not without its challenges. studies consistently highlight the problem of unequal participation, with dominant learners overshadowing quieter or less proficient peers, leading to disparities in contribution and learning (burke, 2011). in collectivist societies such as indonesia, cultural values of harmony and respect for authority may prevent students from openly addressing peers who fail to participate fully, resulting in frustration or passive compliance (abbott, 2017; suryati, 2015). coordination difficulties also emerge when group tasks lack clear structure, leading some learners to view group work as inefficient or time-consuming (alfares, 2017). interpersonal conflicts, arising from mismatched personalities or proficiency levels, can further undermine group cohesion and create negative learning experiences (chen, 2018). additionally, while digital tools have expanded opportunities for group collaboration, they have also introduced new challenges, such as reduced accountability and reliance on teacher intervention, particularly when online interactions are not carefully facilitated (oktaviani & sadiq, 2023). these challenges underscore that group work is not a universally effective strategy but one whose success depends on contextual factors such as task design, teacher facilitation, and students’ social orientations. the coexistence of these benefits and challenges has produced a nuanced and sometimes contradictory body of research. on one hand, group work is celebrated as a transformative learning process that supports cognitive development, emotional security, and behavioral engagement (gunawan, 2025; meilasari et al., 2023). on the other hand, it is critiqued for its tendency to reproduce inequities, create inefficiencies, and generate http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 308 interpersonal tensions (supriyadi et al., (2022). what is missing in much of the literature is an integrative perspective that accounts for the complex ways in which cognitive, affective, and conative dimensions interact to shape students’ perceptions of group work. existing studies often emphasize one dimension at the expense of the others focusing, for instance, on academic achievement without considering emotional factors, or on motivation without analyzing behavioral accountability. as a result, there is limited understanding of how students experience group work holistically, and how these experiences influence both their language learning outcomes and their broader development as autonomous, collaborative learners. this study seeks to address that gap by exploring students’ perceptions of group work in efl classrooms through the lens of the cognitive, affective, conative. by examining how group work shapes students’ thinking, feelings, and behaviors, this research aims to provide a more comprehensive understanding of its role in english language learning. specifically, it investigates the experiences of ninth-grade students in an indonesian secondary school, highlighting how collaborative activities enhance comprehension, foster emotional comfort, and encourage active engagement, while also acknowledging the challenges of participation inequities and coordination issues. drawing on qualitative interview data, the study is guided by the central question: how do students perceive the role of group work in enhancing their english language learning? the findings are expected to inform teachers and curriculum developers about how to design and implement group-based activities that maximize benefits, mitigate challenges, and align with the needs of learners in diverse efl contexts. in doing so, the study contributes both to the theoretical refinement of engagement research and to the practical advancement of collaborative pedagogy in language education. methods this study employed a qualitative research design to explore the perceptions of ninthgrade students at smpn 2 batusangkar regarding the use of group work in english language learning. a qualitative approach was selected to allow for rich, in-depth insights into participants’ experiences, perspectives, and the meanings they assign to collaborative learning in their specific educational and cultural context. the study involved 13 students from class ix who had prior experience participating in group work during english lessons. participants were selected through purposive sampling to capture variation in participation levels (high, medium, and low) and breadth of group work experience. selection was based on recommendations from the english teacher and the researcher’s direct observations during a teaching practicum (plb). prior the data collection, ethical approval was obtained from the research ethics committee of uin mahmud yunus batusangkar. as the participants were minors, both written guardian and student consent were secured. all participants were informed of the study’s objectives, procedures, potential risks, and benefits. they were assured that their involvement was voluntary and that they could withdraw at any time without consequence. to maintain anonymity, pseudonyms (s1–s13) were assigned in all transcripts and reporting. personally, identifying information was removed, and all digital data such as audio, video, and transcripts were stored securely on password-protected devices accessible only to the research team. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 309 data were collected using semi-structured interviews guided by an interview protocol informed by existing literature on group work in efl settings. interviews were conducted both in person and via online platforms, depending on participant availability. each interview lasted approximately 20–30 minutes. questions were open-ended to encourage reflective, detailed responses. examples included: “can you describe how group work affects your understanding of english lessons?”. “how do you feel when working with classmates in a group?”. “what do you usually do if a group member is not participating actively?”. “can you share an example of a group task that you found especially helpful or challenging?”. all interviews were audio-recorded with consent, and brief field notes captured non-verbal cues and contextual details to supplement the transcripts. the data analysis followed the miles & huberman (2014) interactive model, encompassing data reduction, data display, and verification. data reduction began with verbatim transcription of all interviews, followed by repeated readings to gain familiarity with the content. an initial coding framework was developed deductively from the study’s cognitive, affective, conative (cac) dimensions, then refined inductively to incorporate emergent codes from participants’ narratives. two researchers independently coded a subset of transcripts to enhance coding reliability. the resulting codes were compared, discussed, and consolidated into a final codebook. codes were then organized into thematic categories and summarized in narrative and tabular displays to facilitate interpretation. patterns were examined in relation to relevant theoretical frameworks, including vygotsky’s sociocultural theory, cooperative learning theory, and krashen’s affective filter hypothesis. credibility was strengthened through member checking, whereby key points from each interview were summarized and verified with participants to confirm accuracy. triangulation was achieved by drawing on multiple data sources: interviews, field notes, and researcher observations. results this study aims to find out the students’ perception of ninth grade students towards group work in english learning at smpn 2 batusangkar. the data results were analyzed based on three components of perception, namely: cognitive, affective, and conative. cognitive components the cognitive component is students' knowledge and understanding of group work. the research findings show that most students have a good and positive understanding of the implementation of group work in learning english. group work helps in understanding the material the findings from this study reveal that group work significantly contributes to students’ understanding of english learning materials. a notable number of informants (s1, s2, s3, s4, s5, s6, s8, s9, s10, s11, and s13) expressed that learning through group collaboration helped them grasp concepts more effectively. this is primarily due to the accessibility and relatability of peer explanations, which students often found easier to comprehend than teacher-led instruction. one student, s1, remarked: http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 310 “yes miss, because of group work, i can get help from my friends, which opens up my understanding.” this statement suggests that group work creates a supportive learning environment where students feel comfortable seeking help. the phrase "opens up my understanding" implies that group interactions provide new perspectives or simplify complex topics through peer-to-peer assistance. it emphasizes the social nature of learning, where knowledge is co-constructed among members of the group. another student, s9, explained: “sometimes i need help from others to understand the material better, such as how to solve a particular problem.” this highlights the functional role of group work in problem-solving. the student acknowledges that there are moments when individual understanding is insufficient, and collaboration becomes essential. the sharing of strategies or solutions within a group context fosters deeper comprehension, especially in language learning where diverse interpretations and approaches often arise. s10 shared a broader perspective: “it is very helpful, miss, because students have different levels of understanding. by working together, we can ensure everyone understands.” this quote reflects an awareness of the diversity in learners' abilities and the compensatory effect of group work. students recognize that by working together, they can bridge gaps in understanding and promote collective academic growth. it also illustrates how group learning nurtures empathy and responsibility, as students assist their peers in achieving shared learning outcomes. taken together, these excerpts illustrate that group work not only aids individual understanding but also builds a collaborative classroom culture. it aligns with vygotsky’s sociocultural theory, particularly the concept of the zone of proximal development (zpd), where learners can achieve higher levels of understanding with the support of more capable peers. these findings underscore the importance of integrating structured group activities into english language instruction. when implemented effectively, group work encourages active participation, mutual support, and a deeper engagement with the learning material. group work speeds up task completion in addition to facilitating understanding, group work was also perceived by several students as an effective strategy for completing tasks more efficiently. informants s3, s5, s9, and s10 expressed the view that collaborative learning enables faster task execution due to the distribution of responsibilities and the benefits of collective problem-solving. s3 stated: “when i don’t understand something, i ask friends and we discuss it, making it easier to complete.” this quote emphasizes how the group environment creates opportunities for immediate clarification and idea exchange, which streamlines the completion process. the act of discussing with peers not only aids comprehension but also reduces the time typically http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 311 spent struggling alone with difficult content. this illustrates the dual function of group work: enhancing learning while simultaneously increasing productivity. similarly, s5 observed: “tasks are finished more quickly and easily when we discuss them and share ideas.” this reflection highlights the time-saving advantages of collaborative dialogue. the sharing of ideas within a group allows students to approach tasks from multiple perspectives, often leading to more efficient and creative solutions. rather than working in isolation, students benefit from the collective knowledge of the group, which speeds up decision-making and reduces redundancy in effort. s10 offered a more comprehensive explanation: “because our understanding differs, we help each other, making the task easier and faster to complete.” the student points out that diversity in cognitive abilities becomes an asset when leveraged in a cooperative setting. differences in understanding are not seen as barriers but rather as complementary strengths. through mutual support, students compensate for each other's weaknesses, leading to both improved quality and speed in task completion. taken together, these responses reflect the positive impact of group dynamics on students’ academic efficiency. the delegation of roles, division of labor, and continuous peer interaction serve as mechanisms that simplify complex tasks and shorten the time required for completion. from a theoretical perspective, this finding supports constructivist views of learning, where knowledge is co-constructed through social interaction, and learning becomes more effective in authentic, task-oriented environments. moreover, it aligns with the principles of collaborative learning, which emphasize interdependence, individual accountability, and shared goals. practically, this suggests that educators should consider incorporating structured group assignments, especially for complex tasks, as they promote both time efficiency and deeper engagement with the material. proper guidance in group formation and role assignment can further enhance the productivity benefits of this approach. group work adds insight or ideas another important theme that emerged from the data is the perception that group work contributes to the enrichment of students’ ideas and perspectives. informants s8, s9, and s13 highlighted the value of collaborative discussions in generating new insights, which might not have emerged during individual learning. this theme emphasizes the cognitive benefits of group interaction, particularly in stimulating critical thinking and expanding conceptual understanding. s8 shared the following: “difficult problems become easier when discussed. friends often give ideas i hadn’t considered.” this statement underscores the transformative effect of collaborative dialogue. by working in a group, students are exposed to diverse viewpoints and strategies, which help simplify complex problems. the phrase “ideas i hadn’t considered” points to the unexpected http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 312 yet beneficial nature of peer contributions. students often encounter novel approaches that challenge or expand their own thinking. this reflects how group work serves as a platform for intellectual exploration. similarly, s9 noted: “group members complement each other; we share what we know and learn from each other.” this quote reflects the reciprocal nature of collaborative learning. each group member brings unique prior knowledge and skills to the discussion, which collectively enrich the learning experience. the mutual exchange of information fosters a deeper understanding, making the group setting not only a social environment but also an academic resource. this aligns with the principles of knowledge co-construction, where learning is enhanced through shared experiences and dialogue. s13 expressed a particularly striking transformation: “working in a group increased my understanding from 50% to 100% through the exchange of ideas.” this comment quantifies the perceived benefit of group work in a compelling way. it illustrates how peer discussions can fill in gaps in understanding and reinforce learning. the student explicitly attributes full comprehension to the collaborative process, implying that the diversity of thought and the interactive nature of group work are critical to achieving deeper cognitive engagement. affective components the affective component relates to students' feelings or attitudes towards the implementation of group work. most students feel happy, comfortable, more confident and resentment towards passive members when learning in group work. feeling of enjoyment and reduced boredom the theme “feeling of enjoyment and reduced boredom” reflects students’ positive emotional responses toward group work in english language learning. based on interview data from informants s1, s3, s5, s8, and s9, group work fosters a more enjoyable and less monotonous learning atmosphere. for instance, s1 stated: “it’s more fun doing assignments with friends because we can chat and collaborate, which prevents boredom.” this statement illustrates how group interaction and collaboration made learning activities less monotonous and more engaging. the opportunity to share tasks, exchange ideas, and socialize contributed to a more relaxed and stimulating atmosphere. students also highlighted the sense of comfort that group work provided. many participants noted that working with peers allowed them to feel more at ease, particularly when tackling challenging assignments. the presence of friends in the learning process reduced tension and made classroom activities feel less stressful. this comfort appeared to encourage greater willingness to participate, suggesting that emotional support from peers was a motivating factor in sustaining involvement. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 313 increased self-confidence the theme “increased self-confidence” highlights the positive impact of group work on students’ willingness to express themselves in english learning contexts. informants s1, s2, s4, s5, s9, s10, and s13 reported feeling more confident when working in groups, as the collaborative environment reduced the pressure of individual performance. for example, s2 stated: “in front of the class, i’m scared of making mistakes, but in groups, i can ask my friends first.” while s4 added: “groups make me feel more secure because i can confirm my ideas with friends before sharing.” some students mentioned that discussing ideas within their groups helped them feel more assured before presenting to the teacher or the entire class. the peer-to-peer validation acted as a steppingstone for participation, especially for students who might otherwise be reluctant to speak up. for these learners, group work created a space where they could try out their ideas and receive encouragement, leading to stronger confidence in their abilities. however, not all affective experiences were positive. some students expressed dislike toward group members who were passive or uncooperative. these students reported feeling frustrated when they had more responsibility or when others failed to contribute meaningfully. such negative emotions indicate that while group work can enhance enjoyment and confidence, it can also produce dissatisfaction when group dynamics are imbalanced. the frustration associated with unequal participation suggests that emotional outcomes are closely tied to the effectiveness of collaboration and the fairness of workload distribution. conative components the conative component relates to students' behavioral tendencies in response to group work. most students demonstrated active, responsible and collective problem-solving strategies. group work encourages activeness the theme “group work encourages activeness” captures students’ perception that working in groups enhances their participation and engagement in english language learning. this theme emerged from the responses of informants s1, s2, s4, s5, s8, s10, s12, and s13, who consistently expressed that being part of a group setting motivated them to become more involved in classroom activities. based on the excerpt s2 stated: “i’m more active because i don’t want my group to fail to complete the task,”. highlighting the sense of responsibility and accountability that group members feel toward one another. this sense of shared responsibility often prompts students to put in http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 314 more effort, not only for their own success but also for the benefit of the entire group. similarly, s12 remarked: “i try to engage my friends, so everyone participates in the group activity.” demonstrating that group work can also foster leadership qualities and initiative, as students take active roles in supporting and encouraging one another. s13 added: “even when i feel lazy, my group motivates me to stay active.” it points to the influence of peer motivation in sustaining engagement even when individual drive may be lacking. in such environments, students are more likely to exert effort, remain engaged, and take initiative because they feel a sense of obligation and support within their teams. furthermore, the collaborative nature of group work activates social motivation, which can lead to increased persistence and task completion, especially in language learning contexts that often require repeated practice and communicative risktaking. from a psychological perspective, group dynamics reduce social isolation and provide a platform for mutual encouragement, which is essential for sustaining motivation in second language learning. in practical terms, these results suggest that well-structured group activities can be strategically used by teachers to promote higher levels of student activeness. group work not only supports linguistic interaction but also cultivates a classroom environment where peer influence, shared goals, and collaborative responsibility drive student participation. therefore, incorporating group work into english learning activities offers a valuable pedagogical approach for increasing student engagement and fostering a more dynamic, supportive, and participatory learning atmosphere. group work fosters responsibility the theme “sense of accountability in group tasks” illustrates that students perceive a strong personal and collective responsibility when engaging in group-based english learning activities. informants s1, s2, s3, s4, s6, s7, s8, s9, s10, s12, and s13 consistently emphasized the importance of contributing actively and supporting their peers to ensure the completion and success of group assignments. s7 stated: “even if the task is difficult, we try to help each other and share the responsibility.” underscoring the cooperative nature of group work and the willingness of students to persevere through challenges as a team. s9 added: “i actively contribute to completing assignments and ensuring group success.” it reveals a personal commitment to the group's academic outcomes. meanwhile, s12 expressed a deeper level of involvement by saying: “if others don’t understand, i feel the need to explain and support them.” it indicates that group work can foster a sense of leadership and peer tutoring among students. tool for instilling a sense of responsibility, mutual support, and accountability among learners. it shifts the focus from teacher-centered instruction http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 315 to student-centered collaboration, where learners actively manage their own roles and contribute to the group’s collective progress. as such, incorporating collaborative tasks into english learning curricula not only enhances linguistic competence but also cultivates a stronger sense of ownership and teamwork essential components of effective 21st-century learning environments. collective problem-solving strategies the theme “collective problem-solving strategies” highlights the way students collaboratively approach academic challenges in group settings, particularly during english learning activities. informants s3, s4, s5, s6, s7, s8, s9, s10, s11, s12, and s13 described a clear pattern of engaging in group discussions to solve problems collectively before seeking external help. s4, s6, s9, s12 stated: “if we can’t solve a problem through discussion, we ask the teacher for help.” it indicates that students prioritize peer-based collaboration and turn to the teacher as a secondary resource. s9 emphasized this process further by saying: “we try to understand the task together before asking the teacher.” it suggests a proactive learning attitude and a desire for group autonomy. similarly, s13 noted: “we discuss within the group and only approach the teacher, when necessary.” it reinforces the idea that students prefer to rely on peer dialogue and mutual reasoning before escalating to instructor assistance. the students’ willingness to work together to understand instructions, clarify confusion, and resolve difficulties reflects the development of critical thinking, communication, and teamwork skills, all essential for effective group learning. moreover, their restraint in immediately seeking teacher intervention shows a level of self-regulation and cognitive engagement. students are not passive recipients of knowledge but active participants in the problem-solving process. it also echoes the principles of collaborative learning, where knowledge is co-constructed, and learners benefit from the diverse perspectives and strategies offered by peers. pedagogically, this theme suggests that fostering collective problem-solving practices within group work settings can empower students to take initiative, strengthen peer collaboration, and reduce overdependence on the teacher. teachers can support this by designing tasks that require group negotiation, promoting inquiry-based learning, and encouraging students to exhaust peer resources before seeking help. ultimately, such practices not only enhance students’ linguistic and academic development but also nurture independence, responsibility, and higher-order thinking skills, all of which are crucial in 21st-century education. discussion http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 316 the findings of this study provide compelling evidence that group work in english language learning offers cognitive, affective, and conative benefits for students. the integration of qualitative data from student interviews reveals not only how learners perceive group work but also the depth of their engagement and the multiple dimensions it impacts. these findings are best understood through the lens of socio-constructivist theory (vygotsky, 1978), cooperative learning theory (johnson & johnson, 1999), and krashen’s affective filter hypothesis (1982), which collectively frame the learning process as socially mediated, emotionally influenced, and behaviorally constructed. the cognitive benefits reported in this study enhanced comprehension, accelerated task completion, and the generation of diverse ideas strongly align with a substantial body of evidence supporting the cognitive advantages of collaborative learning (gillies & ashman, 2007; webb, 2009). most participants indicated that peer explanations offered in group settings were more relatable and easier to internalize than teacher-led instruction. this resonates with sajidin & ashadi (2021), who demonstrated that group work in indonesian junior high schools promotes active learning by enabling students to process material through familiar peer communication styles. similarly, gunawan (2025) reported that project-based collaborative learning significantly enhanced both speaking fluency and higher-order thinking skills, showing that such approaches benefit not only linguistic but also analytical capacities. the emphasis on time efficiency as a motivator for engagement represents a noteworthy extension the literature. while studies such as alfares (2017) have acknowledged efficiency as a driver of participation in higher education, few have documented its importance in adolescent efl contexts. students saw efficiency not as a shortcut but as an enabler of deeper engagement freeing up cognitive resources for problemsolving and idea elaboration. this pragmatic appreciation of group work suggests that cognitive benefits are not limited to comprehension and recall but also include strategic time management skills, an often-overlooked academic competence. furthermore, the repeated observation that exposure to multiple viewpoints enriches understanding aligns with kuliahana & marzuki (2024), who found that structured group discussions improved speaking fluency and expanded students’ repertoire of communicative strategies. in our study, students used peer contributions to reconsider their own ideas and integrate alternative perspectives behaviors that echo vygotsky (1978) concept of the zone of proximal development (zpd), where cognitive growth occurs through the support of more capable peers. from a pedagogical standpoint, these findings suggest that teachers should deliberately structure group activities to maximize these cognitive benefits. this might include assigning roles that ensure diverse viewpoints are heard, scaffolding peer explanations with targeted prompts, and encouraging time management practices within groups. doing so would not only deepen comprehension but also equip students with transferable skills such as negotiation, synthesis, and collaborative reasoning. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 317 the affective benefits observed enjoyment, reduced boredom, and increased selfconfidence are consistent with krashen (1982) affective filter hypothesis, which suggests that language acquisition is facilitated when learners are in low-anxiety, high-motivation environments. these benefits are echoed in recent empirical studies. meilasari et al. (2023) found that cooperative learning reduced speaking anxiety and promoted fluency among indonesian secondary efl students, while kuliahana & marzuki (2024) highlighted students’ preference for group discussions due to the supportive, motivating atmosphere they create. importantly, this study offers a more nuanced view of affective experiences in group work. while most students reported positive emotions, several expressed frustrations with inactive group members. this dual affective reality mirrors findings from burke (2011) in higher education contexts, where uneven participation can undermine group cohesion. however, it contrasts with supriyadi et al. (2022), whose research in indonesian classrooms emphasized harmony and collective unity over the expression of discontent. the frankness with which our participants voiced dissatisfaction may reflect a generational shift toward valuing individual accountability within collectivist cultures. from a theoretical perspective, these affective dynamics can be understood through vygotsky’s concept of social interaction as a learning mediator. emotional comfort in group settings appears to serve as a scaffold for risk-taking and experimentation with language, while frustration may function as a motivator for setting clearer group norms. pedagogically, the implications from group work are not automatic but depend on structures that promote equitable participation. teachers might integrate strategies such as rotating roles, setting explicit participation expectations, and incorporating peer evaluation to balance emotional comfort with accountability. the conative outcomes improved activeness, a stronger sense of responsibility, and a preference for collective problem-solving reinforce johnson & johnson’s (1999) cooperative learning principle of positive interdependence, wherein group success is depending on each member’s contribution. these behaviors resonate with sajidin and ashadi (2021), who found that active learning strategies like group work increased students’ willingness to participate and assume responsibility for shared tasks. they also align with gunawan (2025), whose participants demonstrated improved collaboration and self-direction in project-based contexts. participants not only fulfilled their assigned tasks but also actively supported peers, explained materials, and encouraged engagement. such proactive behavior has been more commonly documented in tertiary education (kamardikaningsih, 2023) than in secondary classrooms, indicating that adolescents, when provided with the right structures, can develop advanced leadership and facilitation skills. the preference for peer-based problem-solving before consulting the teacher marks a significant departure from alrashidi (2022) findings, where secondary efl students relied heavily on teacher guidance. instead, the data align with oktaviani and sadiq (2023) who reported that teacher-facilitated group work especially in computer mediated settings can http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 318 foster independence and self-regulation. this shift suggests a development of learning strategies among younger learners, potentially influenced by the growing emphasis on student agency in 21st-century education policy. pedagogically, fostering conative development means giving students structured autonomy. teachers can encourage this by providing clear, achievable goals while allowing students space to negotiate their processes. this balance of guidance and independence may be particularly effective in contexts where traditional teacher authority remains strong. conclusion this study has explored the multifaceted perceptions of students regarding group work in english language learning, highlighting its significant role in promoting cognitive engagement, emotional comfort, and behavioral motivation. through interview data, it is evident that group work fosters a positive affective environment, where students experience greater enjoyment and reduced boredom during learning activities. moreover, the findings reveal that collaborative learning builds self-confidence, encourages active participation, and cultivates a sense of responsibility and accountability toward completing shared tasks. from a cognitive standpoint, students benefit from collective problem-solving strategies, which not only enhance their comprehension but also strengthen peer to peer scaffolding and interaction. this aligns with socio-constructivist theories such as vygotsky (1978), which emphasize the social nature of learning. the data also indicate that group work nurtures mutual support, allowing students to clarify ideas and confront challenges together before seeking help from teachers. these outcomes illustrate how group dynamics contribute to both academic development and social-emotional growth, validating prior literature on cooperative learning (johnson & johnson, 1999; slavin, 1995). importantly, this study also underscores that the effectiveness of group work is not automatic; it requires thoughtful and deliberate implementation. for teachers, this means designing collaborative activities with clear structures, assigning roles to ensure equitable participation, and facilitating reflection sessions that allow students to evaluate both their contributions and group processes. attention must also be given to the affective climate of the classroom teachers should encourage peer support systems while addressing challenges such as unequal participation. for curriculum developers, the findings suggest that groupbased pedagogy should be embedded more systematically into english curricula, with explicit training modules on collaboration, communication, and leadership skills. by doing so, schools can cultivate not only language proficiency but also the broader competencies essential for 21st-century learning, including critical thinking, teamwork, and adaptability. while this research contributes new insights by framing group work through the combined cognitive, affective, and conative dimensions, it also opens avenues for further investigation. future studies could adopt a mixed methods design to triangulate student perceptions with classroom observations and performance data, thereby strengthening claims of causality. comparative studies across different educational levels or cultural contexts would also help identify how group dynamics vary with age, proficiency, or sociocultural norms. furthermore, longitudinal research could examine whether the http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 319 benefits of group work persist over time, particularly in relation to sustained motivation, language retention, and learner autonomy. exploring the role of digital and hybrid learning environments in shaping group work dynamics also remains a pressing area for inquiry, especially as technology increasingly mediates collaborative language learning. in short, this study confirms that group work, when carefully structured and facilitated, is not merely a classroom technique but a transformative pedagogical tool. it meaningfully enhances language learning experiences by engaging learners cognitively, emotionally, and behaviorally, while also preparing them with the collaborative and leadership skills required beyond the classroom. by attending to the design, support, and assessment of group learning, educators and curriculum developers can maximize its potential, and future research can continue to refine its implementation across diverse educational landscapes. references abbott, a. (2017). indonesian identity and cultural values. in educational sovereignty and transnational exchanges in post-secondary indonesian education (pp. 135-161). springer. alfares, n. (2017). benefits and difficulties of learning in group work in efl classes in saudi arabia. english language teaching. alrashidi, o. (2022). exploring learner autonomy: secondary school efl teachers’ beliefs and practices in the saudi context. world journal of english language, 12(8). https://doi.org/10.5430/wjel.v12n8p97 alzubi, a. a., nazim, m., & ahamad, j. (2024). examining the effect of a collaborative learning intervention on efl students’ english learning and social interaction. journal of pedagogical research, 8(2), 26-46. https://doi.org/10.33902/jpr.202425541 brown, h. d., & lee, h. (1994). teaching by principles: an interactive approach to language pedagogy (vol. 1). prentice hall regents englewood cliffs. burke, a. (2011). group work: how to use groups effectively. journal of effective teaching, 11(2), 87-95. chen, y. (2018). perceptions of efl college students toward collaborative learning. english language teaching, 11(2), 1-4. gillies, r. m., & ashman, a. f. (2007). cooperative learning. cooperative learning: integrating theory and practice. . https://doi.org/10.4135/9781483329598 gunawan, i. d. (2025). enhancing speaking and collaboration skills through project-based learning: a case study of indonesian efl university students. project (professional journal of english education), 8(4), 1071-1077. https://doi.org/10.22460/project.v8i4 johnson, d. w., & johnson, r. t. (1999). learning together and alone: cooperative, competitive, and individualistic learning. prentice-hall, inc. krashen, s. (1982). principles and practice in second language acquisition. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 https://doi.org/10.5430/wjel.v12n8p97 https://doi.org/10.33902/jpr.202425541 https://doi.org/10.4135/9781483329598 https://doi.org/10.22460/project.v8i4 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 320 kamardikaningsih, s. l. (2023). efektivitas penggunaan kerja kelompok untuk meningkatkan hasil belajar pembuatan busana custom made di smk negeri 2 selong lombok timur. nusra: jurnal penelitian dan ilmu pendidikan, 4(1), 44–54. kuliahana, n., & marzuki, a. g. (2024). group discussion strategy to enhance efl learners’ confidence and speaking fluency. tesol international journal, 19(5), 122–138. miles, h. (2014). qualitative data analysis. sage publication inc. meilasari, t. a., rofi’i, a., kustini, t., & herdiawan, r. d. (2023). integrating cooperative learning in efl classroom to alleviate students’ speaking (fluency) anxiety. ijlecr (international journal of language education and cultural review), 9(2), 1-11. https://doi.org/10.21009/ijlecr.v9i2.37859 oktaviani, n. d., & sadiq, n. (2023). an indonesian secondary english teacher’strategies to accommodate computer mediated communication for group discussions: an interview study. journal of english and education (jee). oxford, r. l. (1997). cooperative learning, collaborative learning, and interaction: three communicative strands in the language classroom. the modern language journal, 81(4), 443-456. sajidin, s., & ashadi, a. (2021). how do their" group work" works as an active learning strategy of efl learning. jurnal cakrawala pendidikan, 40(2), 480-494. https://doi.org/10.21831/cp.v40i2.36234 situmorang, r. (2021). building responsibility and accountability through collaborative learning in secondary efl classrooms. indonesian journal of english language education, 8(1), 55–70. slavin, r. e. (1995). cooperative learning: theory, research, and practice. allyn &bacon. supriyadi, d., sholihah, l., & shafwati, d. (2022). the effect of group work strategy in english teaching and learning in smp bandar lampung. aksara: jurnal bahasa dan sastra, 23. https://doi.org/10.23960/aksara/v23i1.pp1-5 suryati, n. (2015). classroom interaction strategies employed by english teachers at lower secondary schools. teflin journal, 26(2), 247. https://doi.org/10.15639/teflinjournal.v26i2/247-264 vygotsky, l. (1978). interaction between learning and development. readings on the development of children, 23(3), 34-41. webb, n. m. (2009). the teacher's role in promoting collaborative dialogue in the classroom. british journal of educational psychology, 79(1), 1-28. https://doi.org/10.1348/000709908x380772 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 https://doi.org/10.21009/ijlecr.v9i2.37859 https://doi.org/10.21831/cp.v40i2.36234 https://doi.org/10.23960/aksara/v23i1.pp1-5 https://doi.org/10.15639/teflinjournal.v26i2/247-264 https://doi.org/10.1348/000709908x380772 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 122 the analysis of junior high school teacher-made tests for the students in enrekang abstract the research aimed at finding out information about the preparation of constructing teacher-made tests in enrekang, the quality of english teacher-made test according to item analysis, and the level cognitive domain of the teacher-made test. the test quality was determined after it was used in school examination test. this research employed survey research using descriptive method. the researcher analyzed the data and then described the research finding quantitatively. the population of this research was the teachers who teach in ninth grade at junior high schools in enrekang. this research applied simple random sampling technique by taking four different schools as sampel. the results of analysis show preparation that junior high school teachers follow in constructing teacher-made tests in enrekang is divided into five main parts. in preparing the test, the procedures were considering tests’ materials and proportion of each topic, choosing to check the item bank that match to syllabus and indicators, or preparing test specification. in writing test, teachers’ procedures were re-writing chosen test item from internet and textbook, re-writing items that was used before and allowing the other teachers to verify it, combining items from item bank and text book, or making new item. while in analyzing a test, the procedures used by the teachers were analyzing and revising test based on its item difficulty, predicting the item difficulty and revising the test, or doing nothing to analyze the test. about the timing in preparing the test, there are three out of five teachers who need only one week to construct multiple choice tests. besides, there are two out of five teachers who need two weeks to construct multiple choice tests. while the teachers have different ways in providing test based on students’ ability. moreover, the item analysis shows that no test is perfectly good. it was found that almost all tests need to be revised. it was also found that there were only three categories works in all tests based on the cognitive domain of the test namely knowledge, comprehension, and application categories. there was no item belong to analysis, synthesis, and evaluation categories. keywords: teacher-made test, test quality introduction teaching and learning process at school has to follow several things to get successful. before teaching and learning process, the teacher has to consider about designing curriculum, determining teaching and learning objectives, need analysis, and preparing materials (musbaing, 2020; nurdin et al., 2019). the next process is the teaching and learning process, including designing lesson plan and teaching practice. the last process is the learning and teaching evaluation. in order to measure students’ understanding, teacher needs to conduct a test. testing can be conducted before, during, and after teaching. nitko (2001: 5) defines test as an instrument or systematic procedure husni a. universitas muhammadiyah palopo, palopo, indonesia husni@umpalopo.ac.id http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 mailto:husnani@umpalopo.ac.id copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 123 for observing and describing one or more characteristics of a student using either a numerical scale or a classification scheme. the test is scored by adding the students’ point from each question. in this term, students are described using numerical scale. after conducting a test, it is very important to conduct item and test analysis. these analyses evaluate the quality of the items and of the test as a whole. such analyses can also be employed to revise and improve both items and the test as a whole(iksan & dirham, 2018; irvy, 2020). nowadays, teacher-made tests are also used as a complement aspect that determine whether students can pass or not in national examination (iksan, 2017). the teacher-made tests are considered to have more ability to show students understanding, but then it gets some critical comments, because some researchers claimed that the test is not proper to use. therefore, we need to conduct item and test analyses to see and prove the quality of the test. kubiszyn and borich (2003: 1) stated that tests are only tools, and tools can be appropriately used, unintentionally misused, and unintentionally abused. so it is an important thing to carry out test analysis to see the quality of teacher-made test. in this research, the researcher also tried to analyze the test related to the levels of cognitive domain of the tests. there are six levels of cognitive domain. they are knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation (bloom, 1956; bloom, hastings & madaus, 1971). in this research the tests will be analyzed which one belongs to those levels of cognitive domain. the other problems in trusting teacher-made test is caused by tendency where teachers are increasingly caught up on raising students’ scores (popham 2001: 16). it is very important for the teacher in particular an english teacher to know how to construct a good test. constructing a good quality english test instrument, especially for multiple-choice test, is definitely not easy. a trial run must be applied on the freshly designed test before the instrument used. therefore, the analysis will always be needed to evolve the quality of the english test. to review and revise the english tests instrument mostly are designed and used by the teachers as stated above, therefore, the researcher was interested to conduct a research under the title “the analysis of junior high school english teacher-made tests for the students in enrekang.” methods this research employed survey research using descriptive method. it aimed at giving description about the way teachers prepare the teacher-made multiple choice tests, the quality of the english tests used in school examination test of the second semester in 2019/2020 academic year at several junior high schools in enrekang, including its validity, reliability, items difficulty, items discrimination, distractors analysis of the tests and level of cognitive domain of the tests. the researcher analyzed the data and then described the research finding quantitatively. the variables of this research were the teachers’ way in preparing teacher-made multiple choice tests and test quality. in term of test quality, it consists of some sub-variables. test quality as whole will be analyzed based on its validity and reliability, item difficulty, discrimination index, and distractors power. besides that, test item quality was analyzed based on levels of cognitive domain of the tests.the population of this research was the teachers who teach in ninth grade at junior high schools in enrekang. there were eight junior high schools in enrekang city. this research applied simple random sampling technique by taking four different schools as sampel. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 124 the data that were analyzed in this research was the english tests instrument used in school examination test in the second semester 2019/2020 academic year at four junior high schools in enrekang city. the data took from the teachers of english for the ninth (ix) grade of each school.there were two instruments that employed in this research namely document analysis and questionnaire. data collected in this research consisted of the following data: 1. teacher-made test documents 2. students’ answer sheets 3. teachers’ responses in questionnaire firstly, the researcher collected and organized the data taken. then the collected data was analyzed by using the procedures as follows: 1. teacher’s test in preparing teacher-made test. the teachers’ responses from questionnaire analyzed and interpreted to determine and describe teachers’ way in preparing teacher made test. the data was tabulated in the table of frequency to identify the modus of preparing teacher-made multiple-choice test. 2. test quality test quality was analyzed using software named anates. anates is a computer application program that can be used to analyze multiple-choice test. anates is easy to learn and to be used. the facilities of this program are scoring system, defining upper and lower group, reliability analysis, validity analysis, distractor analysis, counting item difficulty, and discrimination index. in determining test validity, coefficient of each test item was compared with r-table to find out the degree of significance. if the correlation is bigger than r-table value, it means that correlation is significant. but if the correlation is smaller than r-table, it is assumed to be insignificant. furthermore, test is assumed highly reliable if its coefficient is bigger than 0.70. if its coefficient is lower than 0.70, it means the test have low reliability. in order to get the detail information about the quality of the test, item difficulty of each test was analyzed. the level of item difficulty is too easy, easy, fair, difficult, and too difficult items. a good test should contain easy, fair, and difficult items, not only focused on one level of difficulty. too easy or too difficult items are not acceptable to be used in a test. the following criterion is used to determine item difficulty. item difficulty interpretation 0 – 15% too difficult 16% 85% acceptable 86% 100% too easy the next analysis was item discrimination. it was determined the effectiveness of each item to differentiate students based on their knowledge. the maximum item discrimination difference is 100%. it is occurred when all students in upper group answered correctly and all students in lower group answer incorrectly. the detailed criteria that were used to determine the interpretation of discrimination index can be seen in following table. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 125 discrimination index interpretation negative – 0.29 improper 0.30 – 1.00 proper the other important element in determining the quality of the test items is distractors power. in this stage, performance of each incorrect option was analyzed to find out effective and ineffective distractors. a distractor can be classified as working properly if it is selected by at least 5% students for 3 answer choices and 3% students for 4 answer choices. 3. the level of cognitive domain of test in order to determine the level of cognitive domain of test, each item of the teacher made multiple choice tests were analyzed by using bloom’s taxonomy guide to writing question. results four different tests used in tests were collected and analyzed as sample of teachermade multiple choice tests. smp a test consists of 50 items which mainly focused in testing reading test (35 items), vocabulary test (12 items) and grammar test (3 items). 50 items in smp b test have test components namely reading test (38 items), vocabulary test (10 items), and grammar test (2 items). furthermore, 50 items of smp c test consists of reading tests (42 items), grammar test (4 items), and vocabulary test (4 items). while smp d test has 50 items consists of reading test (41 items), grammar tests (2 items), and vocabulary test (7 items). the findings for preparation of tests constructions in constructing multiple-choice tests were derived from questionnaire. therefore the quality of the tests was determined from item analysis. referring to the problem statements, researcher came up with the research result as follow. 1. the preparation of the teacher in constructing teacher-made tests in enrekang a. preparing the test the result of questionnaire shows teachers’ procedures in writing multiple-choice tests. it is found that teachers have various procedures. there are four out of five teachers re-write test item that have chosen from the item bank, for example teacher from smp a stated: “saya pilih dari bank soal yang ada hubungannya dengan materi atau sesuai dengan standar kompetensi dan kompetensi dasar” moreover there was only one out of five teachers combine tests that were used before and chose new items from internet or textbook and allow their colleagues to check the test items. it helped test writers to identify ambiguous words, irrelevant information, and unrealistic distractors as the teacher from smp c stated: “kami menyimpan soal-soal yang telah diujikan sbelumnya sebagai bank soal. seringkali kami mengambil dari sumber lain seperti buku, bse dsb. kemudian mendiskusikan dengan rekan sesama guru” b. writing the test the result of questionnaire shows teachers’ procedures in writing multiple-choice tests. it is found that teachers have various procedures. there are three out of five teachers combine test item that have chosen from the item bank and textbook test. before http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 126 writing the items, the teachers choose the material, write test specification, and then construct test. for example the teacher from smp b stated: “memilih materi esensial, menulis kisi-kisi soal, menulis soal, dan membandingkan dengan soal-soal yang ada pada buku paket dan bank soal” furthermore there are two out of five teachers combine test items that used before and new items from internet or textbook and allow their colleagues to check the test items. it helps test writers to identify ambiguous words, irrelevant information, and unrealistic distractors. c. analyzing the test in analyzing the test, none of the teachers conducts complete item analysis to find out their test quality. most of teachers only consider item difficulty as the most important thing. there are two out of five teachers just predicted the item difficulty and revised test items. as the teacher from smp c stated: “melihat dari indikator. kesesuain indikator dengan kalimat apa yang sesuai dengan kaidah tata bahasa dan tidak ambigu” moreover, there are three out of five teachers admitted that no item analysis procedure was conducted during the test construction. as the teacher from smp d stated: “tidak pernah menganalisis dan tidak tahu menguji validitas soal. jujur tidak pernah memantau kualitas tes yang dibuat. yang terpenting adalah siswa bisa memahami dan bisa memberi jawaban” d. timing in preparing test the result of questionnaire shows how long the teachers prepare the test. based on the questionnaire, there are three out of five teachers who need only one week to construct multiple choice tests. besides, there are two out of five teachers who need two weeks to construct multiple choice tests. actually the teachers realize that their multiple choice tests were not perfectly good, since no summative test was tried out or fully analyzed. moreover, most of teachers stated that the given time is not enough to construct a good multiple choice test. they need more time to fix the tests. e. providing test based on students’ ability based on the questionnaire that was given to five teachers in five different schools in enrekang, the teachers have different ways in providing test based on students’ ability. smp a, the teacher provided test based on students’ ability by deciding 10 easy items, 25 middle items, and 15 difficult items. furthermore, teacher in smp b has no specification in providing test based on students’ ability. the teacher only constructs multiple choice tests based on the curriculum without considering students’ ability. the teachers in smp c stated that the proportion of test commonly acceptable items. while the teacher in smp d stated that all the items are easy. even though, only few students can answer the items correctly. 2. the quality of teacher-made test in enrekang based on item analysis the quality of teacher-made test is based on five categories. the tests’ reliability and validity were analyzed to see its test quality as whole. furthermore, item difficulty, http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 127 discrimination index, and distractor power were analyzed to describe test item quality. all categories were analyzed quantitatively using anates version 4.0. a. validity validity is determined by the correlation between item score and total score and compared to r-table to see the degree of significance. if an item has high correlation, it means that it has higher validity. in contrary, if the correlation is lower than r table, it means that item validity is low. table 1. validity of the tests school grade category item number percentage smp a ix valid 23 items 46% not valid 27 items 54% smp b ix valid 23 items 46% not valid 27 items 54% smp c ix valid 23 items 46% not valid 27 items 54% smp d ix valid 16 items 32% not valid 34 items 68% overall valid 85 items 42.5% not valid 115 items 57.5% based on statistical analysis result, the existing data showed that each teachermade test used in each school has different degree of validity. it is found that none of the tests are valid entirely. it is also found that the amount of invalid items in each school is different. based on test analysis, it is found that in smp a there is 23 valid items (46%) and 27 invalid items (54%). in smp b, the test consists of 23 valid items (46%) and 27 invalid items (54%). furthermore, there are 23 valid items (46%) and 27 invalid items (54%) in smp c. while the test from smp d has validity with 16 valid items (32%) and 34 invalid items (68%). overall, there are only 42.5% test items that can be classified as valid and there are 57.5% invalid items. b. reliability another important characteristic of a measurement procedure is reliability. reliability is described as the degree of consistency that a test have in measuring students’ ability. the reliability was calculated based on students’ answer sheets. according to sudijono (in jabu, 2008: 124), the acceptable degree for test reliability is 0.70. if the result is greater than 0.70, it means that the test is highly reliable. in contrary, if the result is lower than 0.70, it means that the test is not highly reliable. the following table shows reliability degree of each test. table 2. reliability of the test school grade reliability interpretation smp a ix 0.57 low reliability smp b ix 0.86 high reliability smp c ix 0.62 low reliability http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 128 smp d ix 0.84 high reliability overall mean 0.72 high reliability based on the analysis, it is found that there are four test samples have high reliability. they are tests from smp b and smp d. furthermore, smp a and c test are low reliability. the test reliability is about 0.57 to 0.86. the lowest reliability is found in smp a that is 0.57. the reliability in smp d is 0.84, while in smp c test’s reliability is 0.62. furthermore, smp b test’s reliability is 0.86. the highest reliability is found in smp b with 0.86. in general, it can be said that only four tests have acceptable reliability and one test is unreliable. overall, the mean of all tests is 0.72 which can be assumed as high reliability. c. item difficulty based on the item analysis, 39 (78%) items from smp a are acceptable and the other 11 (22%) items are unacceptable because they are too easy and too difficult. in smp b, there are 34 (68%) acceptable items and 16 (32%) too difficult and too easy items. there are 41 (82%) too easy items, 9 (18%) acceptable items in smp c. furthermore, there are 37 (74%) acceptable items and 12 (24%) too easy items in smp d. overall, 59.5% test item is acceptable in terms of difficulty level. it is also found that there are 30.5% items that interpreted as too easy and unacceptable, while 10% items are considered unacceptable because they are too difficult for the students. table 3. item difficulty of the test school grade category item number percentage smp a ix too easy 5 items 10% acceptable 39 items 78% too difficult 6 items 12% smp b ix too easy 3 item 6% acceptable 34 items 68% too difficult 13 items 26% smp c ix too easy 41 items 82% acceptable 9 items 18% too difficult 0 item 0% smp d ix too easy 12items 24% acceptable 37 items 74% too difficult 1 items 2% overall too easy 61 items 30.5% acceptable 119 items 59.5% too difficult 20 items 10 % d. discrimination index discrimination index shows the ability of an item to distinguish high achievers and lower achievers. high discrimination index is achieved if items are mostly answered by high achievers. on the contrary, low discrimination index is found if items are answered mostly by lower achievers. based on the analysis result, the discrimination index is tabulated in the following table. table 4. discrimination index of the tests http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 129 school grade category item number percentage smp a ix improper 11 items 22% proper 39 items 78% smp b ix improper 11 item 22% proper 39 item 78% smp c ix improper 2 items 4% proper 48 item 96% smp d ix improper 5 items 10% proper 45 items 90% overall improper 29 items 14.5% proper 171 items 85.5% based on the table, it can be seen that all test have improper items in terms of discrimination index. in smp a, there are 39 (78%) items that can discriminate the upper group and lower group properly and there are 11 (22%) items that fail in discriminating. in smp b, there are 39 (78%) items that work properly and 11 (22%) improper items. furthermore, there are 48 (96%) proper items and 2 (4%) improper items in smp c. while test result from smp d shows that there are 5 10(%) proper items and only 45 (90%) improper items. overall, the amount of items with proper discrimination index is higher than item with improper discrimination index. it is found that there are 14.5% items which have improper discrimination index, and there are 85.5% items with proper discrimination index. in other words, it can be concluded that there are 14.5% items that fail to discriminate the higher achievers and lower achiever and there are 85.5% items can effectively discriminate higher achievers and lower achievers. e. distractor analysis distractor power is identified by students’ response on each item distractors. distractor is acceptable if it can make the less knowledgeable students to be confused and choose it. each option of the tests is analyzed to check the effective and not effective items. the findings show that every test has ineffective distractors in it. the following table will summarize distractor power of each test. table 5. distractor power of the tests schools grade no. of mc items effective distractors per item none one two three smp a ix 50 4 24 13 9 smp b ix 50 16 15 9 10 smp c ix 50 8 20 12 10 smp d ix 50 15 15 9 11 overall 200 43 74 43 40 percentage 100% 21.5% 37% 21.5% 20% based on data calculation, it is found that there are 4 items with no effective distractors, 24 items with only one effective distractor, 13 items with two effective distractors, and 9 items with perfect distractors in smp a test. test from smp b has 16 items with no effective distractors at all, 15 items with only one effective distractor, 9 items with two effective distractors, and 10 items with 3 perfect distractors. moreover, there are 8 items with no effective distractors, 20 items with one effective distractor, 12 items with two effective distractors, and 10 items with three effective distractors in smp http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 130 c test. while in smp d test, there are there are 15 items with no effective distractors, 15 items with one effective distractors, 9 items with two effective distractors, and 11 items with perfectly effective distractors . overall, it can be seen that there are 21.5% items with no effective distractor at all, 37% items with only one effective distractor, 21.5% items with two effective distractors, , and 20% items which all its distractors perfectly work. in general, the amount of ineffective distractors still dominates overall tests. based on the previous findings, it is found that each test has different quality. the overall findings about tests quality based on validity, reliability, item difficulty, discrimination index, and distractor power are summarized in the following chart. figure 1. results of test quality from each school after finding each test quality based on item analysis, acceptable items are determined. it is found that there are some test items that can reuse without any revising. in smp a test, there are only 4 (8%) item out of 50 items that can directly reuse for next test, while there are 6 items (12%) out of 50 items in smp b that can directly reuse again. in smp c, there is only 1 (2%) items out of 50 items that perfectly working. furthermore, smp d test have 5 (10%) items out of 50 items that perfectly effective. the comparison of perfectly working items from each test can be seen in the following chart. figure 2. percentage of perfectly working items 3. the level of cognitive domain of the teacher-made tests in enrekang four different tests that used in tests were collected and analyzed as sample of teacher-made multiple choice tests. smp a test consists of 50 items which mainly focused 23 23 23 16 0.57 0.86 0.62 0.84 39 34 9 3739 39 48 45 9 10 10 11 smp a smp b smp c smp d validity reliability item difficulty discrimination index effective distractor 4 6 1 5 0 2 4 6 8 smp a smp b smp c smp d percentage http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 131 in testing reading test (35 items), vocabulary test (12 items) and grammar test (3 items). and there are 3 items (6%) belong to knowledge, 43 items (86%) belong to comprehension, and 4 items (8%) belong to application term. there is no item belong to analysis, synthesis, and evaluation test. in smp b there are 50 items have test components namely reading test (38 items), vocabulary test (10 items), and grammar test (2 items). there are 9 items (18%) belong to knowledge, 39 items (78%) belong to comprehension, and there are only 2 items (4%) belong to application. same in smp a, there is no item belonging to analysis, synthesis and evaluation test. furthermore, 50 items of smp c test consists of reading tests (42 items), grammar tests (4 items), and vocabulary tests (4 items). there are 12 items (24%) belong to knowledge, 35 items (70%) belong to comprehension, and there are only 3 items (6%) belong to application. same in smp a and b, there is no item belonging to analysis, synthesis and evaluation test. while smp d test has 50 items consists of reading test (41 items), grammar tests (2 items), and vocabulary test (7 items). there are 7 items (14%) belong to knowledge, 41 items (82%) belong to comprehension, and there are only 2 items (4%) belong to application. and there is no item belonging to analysis, synthesis and evaluation test. table 6. level of cognitive domain of test school level of cognitive domain of tests know comp app ana syn eva smp a 3(6%) 43(86%) 4(8%) 0% 0% 0% smp b 9(18%) 39(78%) 2(4%) 0% 0% 0% smp c 12(24%) 35(70%) 3(6%) 0% 0% 0% smp d 7(14%) 41(82%) 2(4%) 0% 0% 0% overall 31(15.5%) 158(79%) 11(5.5%) discussion 1. the preparation of the teacher in constructing teacher-made tests in enrekang based on teachers’ responses on questionnaire, most of the teachers prefer to directly consider which materials or topics they want to use in the tests. their main reason is practicality. so, they can find test items that related to specific topics. the teachers’ only have approximately a week to prepare and constructing their test before handing it over to school administrator. they think this process saves time, so they can finish their test on time. it is an easy way that can be done by the teachers to accomplish the deadline, but we can’t see the detailed information about the test. so, we can’t prove whether the test items represent the indicators properly or not. from all teachers who respond the questionnaire, there are only 100% respondents who make test specification for their tests (anggraeni et al., 2020; sagita et al., 2020). the problem is rising because it is also found that actually the teachers made test specification after the test draft is used. there is a tendency that the test specification is made only to fulfill school administrative requirement. the other three of respondents choose to check item bank that match with the syllabus. based on the findings, we can assume that most of the teachers didn’t provide proper test specification. it should be a great concern since test specification gives the teachers guidance and assistance to construct better test. based on the findings in teachers’ procedure in writing test, it can be concluded that test is actually not completely made by the teachers. most of the respondents just adopted test mainly from several textbooks or internet. their own made tests can be found mostly http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 132 in grammar section. the rationale for this is they do not have enough time to write their own test. another excuse is the teachers did not have a lot of choice in deciding how to test their students. the decision about the test form comes from school administrator. the third process in test construction is test analysis. the analysis process actually should be started by test tryout. based on teachers’ response, none of them tryout their tests before re-use it again. some of the test items were used before but they never analyzed after using it. even none of the respondents conduct full item analysis, the questionnaire shows that two respondents feel enough by predicting item difficulty before revising. it can be seen that the main concern on item analysis is only item difficulty. the teachers tend to choose moderate difficulty for their test. furthermore, three respondents do not take any item analysis for the test. for some reasons, the teachers think that tryout the test draft is not possible to do because they might leak the test. even so, it does not mean that the teacher should not conduct full item analysis. in constructing summative test, test item can be chosen from the previous test that have been used and analyzed before. so, the teachers should not try out their summative tests and minimized leakage problem. the fourth is about timing that the teachers need in preparing teacher-made multiple choice tests (jh & baderiah, 2020). the result of questionnaire shows how long the teachers prepare the test. based on the questionnaire, there are three out of five teachers who need only one week to construct multiple choice tests. besides, there are two out of five teachers who need two weeks to construct multiple choice tests. actually the teachers realize that their multiple choice tests were not perfectly good, since no summative test was tried out or fully analyzed. moreover, most of teachers stated that the given time is not enough to construct a good multiple choice test. they need more time to fix the tests. the last item to be considered in preparing teacher-made multiple choices is providing test based on the students’ ability. based on the questionnaire that given to five teachers in five different schools in enrekang, the teachers have different way in providing test based on students’ ability. smp a, the teacher has his own way to decide how many easy, middle, and difficult items by using formula 30% easy items, 40% middle items, and 30% difficult items. it means that there are 15 easy items, 20 middle items, and 15 difficult items. smp b, the teacher provide test based on students’ ability by deciding 10 easy items, 25 middle items, and 15 difficult items. the teacher only constructs multiple choice tests based on the curriculum without considering students’ ability. the teacher in smp c state that the proportion of test commonly acceptable items. while the teacher in smp d stated that all the items are easy. even though, only few students can answer the items correctly. 2. the quality of teacher-made tests in enrekang based on item analysis teachers sometimes can get the wrong idea about test scores. they may assume that high scores mean good instruction and lower scores mean poor scores. whereas high score can be acquired from a really easy test which only measuring simple instructional objectives, biased scoring procedures or other factors that influenced the scores, such as cheating or providing unintentional clues to the right answers. low score can be derived from a really difficult test, trick questions, testing content not covered in class, or other factors that influence the scores, such as grader bias or insufficient time to complete the http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 133 test (zimmerman et al, 1990: 17). therefore, item analysis is conducted to provide evidence that the test is appropriate to reflect students’ knowledge. a. validity the validity based on the item correlation and total score found that overall 85% test items have significant validity. it can be caused by some factors, such as well constructed item, word choice, or easy items. since most of the test items are adopted from textbooks or internet, it is found that all tests mostly have well-constructed items. based on test samples from those four schools, it is also found that it is consist of easy items and familiar word choices. b. reliability based on the previous findings, the mean of overall test reliability is classified as highly reliable. however, the degree of reliability coefficient in each test is different. it is influenced by several factors. students’ test scores from smp a, b, and d are more heterogeneous than students’ score from smp c. there is only low variance of students’ score in smp c. in smp c, students’ scores spread mostly in upper range rather than lower range. in the other words, high scores are dominant in smp c test. while in the other three tests, students’ scores spread in wider range. the other factors, test length and time limit, are not considered to bring a lot of differences in reliability coefficients among tests because test length from all tests is same 50 items and time limit is 90 minutes in all tests. c. item difficulty the ideal test should consist of all easy, fair, and difficult items. easy item is used to encourage less knowledgeable students in answering the test, while the difficult item is used to set higher parameter in discriminating the more knowledgeable students. based on item analysis, it is found that there are three schools with easy, fair, and difficult items. they are tests from smp a, smp b, and smp d. while the test from smp c almost consist of too easy items. there are 82% tests items belong to too easy items in smp c. based on the questionnaire; the teacher from smp c stated that the important thing in constructing tests is the purposes of teaching learning process from basic competence and standard competence. the teacher decided more too easy items in order to help students answer the test correctly. according to jabu (2008:42), there are several additional constraints that may need to be imposed on the decision to reject items as too difficult or too easy. we need to include specific content although the items are very easy or very difficult to ensure that the test has face or content validity, provide an easy introduction to overcome psychological apathy on the part of the examinee, shape the test information curve, and consider the availability of items. it can be concluded that the test from smp c is unacceptable in this research. the other important thing is item sequence. based on the analysis, it is found that all tests’ sequences are irregular. smp a test is directly started with fair items and easy items. in smp b test, difficult items and fair items are ordered interchangeably. moreover, smp c test is mostly started with very easy and easy items. while smp d test is started with fair items, easy and very easy. in reality, it is better to start the test with easy items first then it can be followed by fair and difficult items. this is supported by soureshjani (2011: 52) who found that items sequence affect foreign language learners’ performance. he is also found that students who take easy to difficult test have better performance than http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 134 students who take difficult to easy items. it is also found that easy to difficult tests may encourage and motivate language testees to take the test with more care and interest. in contrast, difficult to easy tests may cause demotivation, stress, and a set of other negative traits in testees and consequently, they may underperform the test. d. discrimination index based on data analysis, it is found that percentage of proper discrimination index range from 78% to 96%. all tests have bad items in terms of discrimination power. in general, it can be seen that all test has more proper items than improper items. therefore, it is also found that improper discrimination index can be seen in all tests. item difficulty is one factor that affecting degree of discrimination index. too difficult or too easy items usually have low discrimination index. other factor that can affect discrimination index is the amount of correct answer in lower group and upper group. if lower group choose more correct answer than the upper group, the discrimination index will decrease. item with improper discrimination index need to be revised because it fails to discriminate students based on their understanding. e. distractor analysis distractor is considered working if it is chosen at least by 5% of total testee. based on the finding, it is found that there are 21.5% items with no effective distractors at all. it is mainly caused by easy item, so students’ can easily choose correct answer without being disturb by the distractors. it indicates that distractors fail to do their main task. in order to make better distractors, all ineffective distractors need to be revised. 3. the level of cognitive domain of the teacher-made tests in enrekang based on the finding, most of the items from four examples of teacher-made multiple choices include in comprehension category. it because almost items in four schools consist of reading test. smp a test consists 35 items reading test out of 50 items and there are 86% items belong to comprehension. in smp b there are 38 items reading test out of 50 items and there are 78% items belong to comprehension. furthermore, 50 items of smp c test consists of reading tests 42 items 70% belong to comprehension. while smp d test has reading test 41 items and there are 82% belong to comprehension. there is no items belong to analysis, synthesis, and evaluation in four samples of teachermade multiple choices. this research finding different with the research finding of marfuah (2008). in her research stated that based on the distribution of their cognitive level proposed by bloom is not proportional. in the first semester, the proportion for knowledge 24%, comprehension 22%, application 32%, analysis 20%, synthesis 2%, and evaluation is 0%. in the second semester, for knowledge level 48%, comprehension 16%, application 14%, analysis 20%, synthesis 2%, and evaluation level 0%. constructing multiple choices in analysis category is more complex because it is in the fourth level of student understanding. analysis needs deep students understanding to answer question in analysis level. according to bloom, analysis is defined in terms of application and comprehension. analysis emphasizes the detection of relationships of the parts and of the way they are organized. also in synthesis and evaluation levels needs deep students understanding to answer question especially for junior high school students. bloom explains that synthesis http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 135 of cognition most clearly calls for creative behavior on the part of the student because it involves newly constructed and oftentimes unique products. while evaluation involves making judgments about the value of knowledge. by definition, evaluation is a form of decision making, done at a very conscious and thoughtful level. conclusion based on the result of data analysis and finding in the previous chapter, the researcher puts forward the following conclusion: 1. there are five main stages that the teachers follow when constructing tests. they are preparing, writing, analyzing the test, considering time, and providing the test based on students’ ability. in preparing the test, considering tests’ materials and proportion of each topic becomes the teachers’ major concern. the other teachers choose to check the item bank that match to syllabus and indicators. while the other combine items that is used before and new items from internet and allow the other teacher check or verify it. 2. the test analysis shows that no tests are perfectly good. it is found that almost all tests need to be revised. test quality as whole shows 42.5% of all test items are valid. furthermore, it is found that 2 tests are highly reliable and there are 2 tests have low reliability. based on the findings, it is found that the proportion of each difficulty level needs to be revised. in terms of discrimination index, it is found that 85.5% items are effectively discriminate higher achievers and lower achievers and there are 14.5% items that fail to discriminate higher and lower achievers. while in distractor analysis, overall it can be seen that there are 21.5% items with no effective distractor at all, 37% items with only one effective distractor, 21.5% items with two effective distractor, and 20% items which all its distractors perfectly work. 3. there are only three categories works in all tests based on the cognitive domain of the test. they are knowledge, comprehension, and application categories. based on the findings, it is found that the proportion of knowledge is 15.5%, while comprehension is 79%, and there are only 5.5% proportions of application category. there is no item belong to analysis, synthesis, and evaluation categories. references alauddin. 2002. the analysis of the teacher made multiple choice english test for the students of state smu in polewali sub-district. unpublished thesis. universitas negeri makassar anggraeni, w., wahibah, & assafari, a. f. 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http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://www.damandiri.or.id/detail.php?id=820 http://www.esf.edu/assessment/documents/assessmentpracticesandtskills.pdf http://www.esf.edu/assessment/documents/assessmentpracticesandtskills.pdf copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 167 the use of hume ai in speaking assessments: teachers’ perceptions in senior high school contexts nisa fahria nasution1, diah safithri armin2 1,2universitas islam negeri sumatra utara, medan, indonesia nisa0304212059@uinsu.ac.id abstract this research aims to investigate the perception of teachers about the use of hume ai for assessing students’ speaking skills in senior high school. english teachers (n=4) from public senior high schools in north sumatra participated in this study. this research employed a descriptive qualitative method with semi-structured interviews and field note observations. the data was examined by using thematic analysis. the result indicated that hume ai has a positive impact on students’ enthusiasm and interest. however, several challenges hinder the optimal use of hume ai in speaking assessments, particularly in spontaneous speaking, including their low motivation to learn english due to socio-economic factors, and insufficient access to technological infrastructure within schools. despite these obstacles, teachers acknowledged the potential of hume ai to enhance speaking assessment and recommended its integration as both a learning and assessment tool. these findings offer insightful information for teachers, policymakers, and ai developers looking to implement ai-based tools in language learning and assessment practices. keywords: hume ai, learning media, speaking assessment, teachers’ perceptions. introduction teachers hold a crucial position in the realm of english learning, teaching exactly in designing, executing, and evaluating (hattie, 2012; mundy et al., 2008). one of the most crucial functions of a teacher in a language classroom is to serve as an organizer, as it requires organizing both the students and the variety of activities involved in language learning (naibaho, 2019). the english teacher was an organizer who created lesson plans, organized the syllabus, and oversaw the teaching and learning process (budiharto & affandi, 2018). as an executor, in addition to overseeing all classroom activities, the english teacher is in charge of the class. in this case, english teachers will transfer the knowledge they have to students. in general, an english teacher is in charge of assessing student progress regarding language proficiency as well as their areas of strength and weakness (poudel, 2022). in the conventional learning and teaching process, teachers are the central source of information, in which the teachers explain and students only listen, which is nowadays being reduced (anggreini et al., 2023). recently, the system began to change to be a learning http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 mailto:nisa0304212059@uinsu.ac.id copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 168 media-based method. information-distributing media that are utilized to facilitate the learning process are referred to as learning media. learning media constitute an integral and crucial component in determining the effectiveness of information delivery, particularly as tools that support student assessment. their appropriate use ensures that the intended learning outcomes, as outlined in the instructional design, can be successfully and optimally achieved (mutia et al., 2020). the efficiency of the learning process in the classroom can be assessed by the extent of students' interest and active engagement in the instructional activities facilitated by the teacher. in order to ensure that students remain motivated throughout the learning process, it is the responsibility and duty of teachers to consistently maintain and enhance their students' motivation to learn. teachers must actively seek effective strategies to boost students' enthusiasm for learning, address declines in motivation, encourage self-directed learning, and cultivate a sustained sense of motivation within the learners themselves (dwijuliani et al., 2021). therefore, it is essential to employ specific techniques and strategies that support the effectiveness of the teaching and learning process. technology-based interactive media can significantly enhance the learning process, as technology provides a hardware-oriented approach that facilitates the implementation of educational activities. the use of technology-based interactive media has the potential to actively engage all students in the learning experience. this involves the use of various instructional tools such as teaching machines, films, slides, simulators, overhead projectors, and videotape recorders (kustyarini et al., 2020). in the face of global challenges such as the climate crisis, security threats, and the covid-19 pandemic, societies are compelled to explore and implement innovative, forwardthinking solutions to ensure resilience and sustainability (stenbom & geijer, 2025). digital transformation, driven by technological innovation, provides a strategic avenue for reenvisioning and strengthening resilience across multiple sectors, particularly within the domain of education (lasi et al., 2014; vial, 2021). this transformation, characterized by the intricate convergence of cultural, political, and economic dynamics, fundamentally reconfigures human-technology interaction and engenders far-reaching implications for educational systems and theoretical paradigms, thereby necessitating a comprehensive reexamination of pedagogical practices and learning methodologies (berry & dieter, 2015; gorecky et al., 2014). likewise, indonesia's education sector is witnessing a significant increase in the integration of information technology. this transition reflects the sector's adaptive response to the demands and challenges posed by an increasingly dynamic and fast-evolving era (widodo et al., 2021). ongoing technological advancements continually contribute to the increased efficiency and practicality of various facets of human life. among the most recent developments is the emergence of artificial intelligence (ai), which has garnered substantial scholarly and societal attention for its potential to emulate human cognition and behavior (fitria, 2025). the development of tools for generative artificial intelligence (genai), such as chatgpt, has raised challenging questions about the nature of teaching, learning, and assessment in schools and universities (tang et al., 2024). genai is expected to revolutionize http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 169 and change how we learn, think, and work by producing original material quickly. it will quickly make everyone who does not comprehend it feel left behind. the usage of ai software and robots as assistants, tutors, and peer learning facilitators in classrooms around the world is not surprising given the growing integration of ai technology into education (vasagar, 2017). artificial intelligence (ai) has been utilized in education for more than three decades, with applications such as predicting student performance, personalizing learning experiences, and automating assignment grading. in recent years, the integration of ai in education has become even more prominent, particularly following the release of advanced ai tools such as chatgpt (zawacki-richter et al., 2019; zhu et al., 2019). for the effective integration of artificial intelligence (ai) into educational practice, it is essential for educators to systematically evaluate methods for maximizing its positive impact on learning outcomes, while concurrently addressing potential risks and mitigating any adverse effects (kim, 2021). in indonesia, the integration of artificial intelligence into educational media remains limited, primarily due to the unequal distribution of adequate technological infrastructure across schools (helmiatin et al., 2024). moreover, the utilization of artificial intelligence in indonesia remains highly significant, particularly for educators and technology developers who advocate for the integration of ai-driven learning strategies within educational contexts (jo, 2024). in the field of education, assessing students’ activities of various types is an integral part of teachers’ workload (alsalem, 2024). as asserted by (beaumont et al., 2011), assessment has long been recognized as a crucial element that significantly contributes to both teaching and learning processes. anton, within the field of elt (anton, 2009), argue that assessment plays a vital role in fostering the learning process and can effectively support learners in enhancing their academic development (safdari & fathi, 2020). according to permendikbud no. 104 of 2014, tests and attitude scales are examples of assessment instruments, which are tools used to evaluate student learning results. speaking is thought to be the most difficult of the four language skills (speaking, listening, reading, and writing) for junior high school teachers to evaluate (navidinia et al., 2019; rahmawati & ertin, 2014; zaim, 2017). speaking ability examinations are used to assess students' speaking proficiency. the assessed aspects common for the speaking test are addressed to fluency, accuracy, pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, and gesture (brown, 2007). learners can be considered to possess strong speaking skills if they demonstrate proficiency in the following categories (aprianoto & haerazi, 2019). nevertheless, empirical research focusing on the development and assessment of learners’ speaking proficiency remains relatively scarce (vercellotti, 2015). there are extensive studies exploring the use of various media to support speaking assessments; this area remains a subject of ongoing investigation. as hung and huang (hung & huang, 2015), examined the application of web 2.0 tools, specifically blogs, as instruments for assessing and evaluating efl learners' speaking performance. their study revealed that blogs significantly contribute to the development of students' oral presentation skills and foster a positive learning experience. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 170 nevertheless, the focus of research should extend beyond assessment tools to include the underlying frameworks and assessment models that inform the evaluation of speaking proficiency. in this regard, safdari and fathi (safdari & fathi, 2020) highlighted dynamic assessment (da) as a process-oriented, alternative assessment approach that promotes learners' active engagement and autonomy in the learning process (crick & yu, 2008). da has a significant impact on speaking accuracy of the participant; however, for speaking fluency, da did not significantly improve. based on some of the previous studies above, there are still very few studies that discuss ai as a tool in speaking assessment. therefore, this research was conducted to find out how teachers perceive an ai used to assess students' speaking skills. specifically, the focus of this research are: 1) how teachers perceive the hume ai as a tool to assess students’ speaking skills in senior high school? 2) what are the challenges faced by teachers while using this tool for assessing speaking skill? top of formbottom of form the findings of this study offer valuable insights for readers, particularly teachers, regarding the potential use of artificial intelligence, specifically hume ai, as a tool for assessing students' speaking skills. the integration of such technology is expected to provide practical benefits for teachers by facilitating a more efficient and objective assessment process. furthermore, this study contributes to the existing body of literature and may serve as a reference for future researchers interested in exploring the application of hume ai in educational assessment. in addition, the findings may serve as constructive input for ai developers, encouraging the development of applications that function not only as learning media but also as reliable assessment instruments. methods this study employed descriptive qualitative research to investigate the perspective of teachers while using the hume ai to assess students’ speaking skills and employed phenomenology, which is specialized to emphasize the lived experiences of participants and is frequently based on in-depth interviews (patton, 2002). this study used a qualitative method due to the desire to learn more about instructor perspectives and gain a deeper understanding of all of them. for the study, four english teachers in senior high school from four public schools in north sumatra were chosen. the participants in this study were english teachers with over ten years of teaching experience. these teachers were selected based on their extensive professional background and their considerable experience in teaching a diverse range of students. all participants in this study were female teachers. furthermore, these teachers were identified as individuals who are well-regarded by their students, as reflected in their positive rapport and favorable reputation within the school community. this intentional decision is warranted since the qualitative case study's sample selection procedure emphasizes the depth of the participants' comprehension of the problem rather than the population's representativeness. the data were collected by classroom observations and semi-structured interviews. to find out how teachers utilize hume ai to evaluate students' speaking abilities and whether hume ai can evaluate speaking skills in general, non-participant, less structured http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 171 observations of each teacher and some students were carried out by field notes. the semistructured interview has the following section: 1) perception of teachers related to the use of hume ai to assess speaking skill 2) challenges that are faced by teachers while using hume ai. these broad topics were considered to cover the teachers’ holistic experience and perspective. qualitative content analysis was employed to examine the information gathered from semi-structured interviews and classroom observations. in this investigation, four stages of the analytical method were used. the verbatim transcription of the data was the first step in the data analysis process, which was conducted with the simultaneous gathering and interpretation of the qualitative data in mind. the researchers manually entered the transcriptions into word processing papers. all of the recordings were turned into texts because the qualitative element was the main emphasis. in order to become familiar with the facts, the texts were then read and reread in their entirety. the first step in the data reduction and interpretation process was text coding. the texts were divided into sections during the first coding process, and the parts were labelled, frequently in the participants' own words. hard copy printouts of the texts were utilized for the first coding, and the margins were labelled. higher-order themes were then created by grouping the original codes that shared concepts. results teachers’ perceptions of students’ enthusiasm and interest in using hume ai respondents were asked to share their response on students’ enthusiasm and interest when using the hume ai for assessment. the findings showed that teachers observed all students displayed heightened enthusiasm when first introduced to hume ai as a tool for assessing their speaking skills. the novelty of technology like this ai seemed to capture their interest, leading to a more engaged learning environment. in the school, this ai was first implemented in english language learning as media for assessing speaking skill, but most students seem to like and be very interested in this ai. as one teacher noted, “so, if we continue to use this, i think it will grow because this way these students will be enthusiastic, especially when they first hear it”. another teacher added: i think it is the best one. i see they like it very much, and they are definitely motivated. i think it can improve their interest, their ability, and they will try to focus. the word ‘definitely motivated’ highlights the positive impact of using hume ai on student motivation. the teacher indicated that the integration of technology in the classroom could enhance not only the interest and enthusiasm of students but also students' motivation to participate in speaking activities. in addition, findings from student observations support the respondents' statements, indicating that when hume ai was first introduced and practiced in class, students expressed positive emotions, such as smiling and showing enthusiasm. the students listened attentively and in an orderly manner to the instructions on how to use hume ai. they also actively asked questions when they encountered difficulties in understanding how to http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 172 operate the application. furthermore, during the practice session, many students showed interest and were eager to directly communicate with hume ai. the reason why students are motivated and enthusiastic because the current generation, who are mostly high school students, are very exposed to technological developments. therefore, they are more enthusiastic and excited when this ai is implemented in their english assessment. like one teacher stated: “they look motivated because i think they are not far from items or technologies like this. isn’t it?” the majority of senior high school students were able to engage with and benefit from english learning through the use of hume ai. they also demonstrated ease in understanding the instructions for operating the ai during the speaking assessment conducted by the teacher. teachers perceived the advantages of hume ai for assessing speaking skill when participants were asked to say their opinion regarding the advantage of hume ai, especially as a media for supporting speaking assessment, the majority of teachers reported that they actually seldom integrate technology into assessment practices. technology is predominantly utilized for instructional purposes, such as delivering learning materials through presentations or videos. in contrast, assessments are generally conducted using conventional manual methods, as one teacher stated: “……., then the assessment is straightforward. directly assessed. manual.” in conventional manual methods, speaking assessments are typically conducted through dialogues or conversations based on written texts, which they subsequently memorize. similarly, some teachers organize activities such as drama performances or debates; however, these tasks also rely on written scripts that students are expected to memorize in advance. overall, the majority of speaking assessments conducted in these contexts require students to produce written texts, commit them to memory, and then present them orally in front of the class. “yes, written and then read or practiced by the students in front of the class”. teachers believe that measuring students' speaking abilities can be effectively conducted through practical speaking exercises. however, on average, teachers do the assessment manually so that when this ai was first implemented at school, especially in assessment, teachers seemed enthusiastic because they thought this ai could measure students' speaking skills. as the teacher stated: “if you measure students' abilities, it can be measured because hume ai is directly practical, the ai directly talks to students.” based on the observation of students who participated in the assessment using hume ai, teachers appeared satisfied, as the use of this ai encouraged students to actively engage their thinking in order to understand and formulate appropriate responses during the assessment. furthermore, the assessment process conducted by the teacher proceeded smoothly. the direct interaction, where students articulate their thoughts, allows for immediate assessment of their fluency, pronunciation, and overall speaking competence. students will http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 173 also be more focused on listening and answering questions and also train to be quick and responsive in giving and answering questions without preparing and memorizing the answer in advance. this suggests that real-time speaking activities are crucial for evaluating students' oral skills. on the other hand, teachers emphasize the importance of aligning ai assessments with the existing curriculum and syllabus. the expectation is that by the time students graduate from senior high school, they should be able to speak english fluently. teachers stated: “it means that in senior high school, graduate from senior high school, students are expected to be able to speak english fluently. so that is an indicator of students who have learned english in senior high school.” since one of the requirements for passing english learning in senior high school is the ability to communicate fluently in english, hume ai can be utilized as a learning tool, particularly as an assessment instrument for english speaking skills. if students can speak english fluently with this ai whose background language is native speakers, students are expected to be able to face the world of work and college. as one teacher stated: “……after graduating from senior high school, students can be speaking directly to apply for jobs in english.” that is curricular goals, ensuring that students are adequately prepared for real-world applications of their language skills, such as job interviews. teachers’ perceptions of challenges faced by teachers while using hume ai for assessing speaking participants were asked to share their insight on challenges faced by elt while using hume ai. the results indicate that one of the primary challenges encountered during the implementation of hume ai for speaking assessment is students limited foundational knowledge of english-speaking skills. this was particularly evident during classroom observations, where students frequently exhibited confusion when responding to questions posed by the ai. it was also observed that students often sought clarification from the teacher regarding the meaning of the ai's questions, which disrupted the assessment process and hindered its effectiveness. consequently, teachers were required to divide their attention between assessing students' speaking performance and translating or explaining the ai's prompts. in many cases, students who struggled to comprehend the ai's instructions remained silent or abandoned the assessment before it was completed. as one teacher stated: “………yes, that's how the students are here. they really don't know anything at all.” students’ knowledge was only up to writing in a structured way, but to speak and interact directly using english, they had a bit of difficulty. there are some students who can speak well using the hume ai, but that is only at the beginning; in the middle, many students do not know and understand what is being asked. besides that, during the assessment process, many students are limited in vocabulary mastery. a lot of unfamiliar vocabulary they hear from the ai, so the students do not catch the meaning of the questions given. the reason why students do not have a strong english base is that students lack motivation and interest in learning english. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 174 “on average students show a lack of interest in learning, particularly in speaking english. we have given motivation, indeed lack of interest in learning, lack of persistence, especially in english. so, it's difficult if you make a media-based strategy for improving english listening skills, because students tend to lose focus and become disengaged from the beginning.” the loss of motivation and lack of interest of students is influenced by the economic situation of the family. the average student treated by ai has a middle to lower economy. thus, making students not interested in learning, especially english, because they think learning english will not be useful for them. “here the economy is lower middle class; most of their parents are fishermen. that means they have no interest in english. and also, they don't think learning english is important to them.” another reason why students do not have a strong english base is because students do not take courses outside school. most students are unable to pay for tutoring outside of school. as one teacher stated, ‘that's why it's difficult for students to take lessons outside. it's difficult to eat every day’. several students who can communicate with this ai have a background and are currently taking english lessons outside of school. “………….at least from taking a course, it will help them to explore this lesson using this ai.” in addition, the challenge faced by teachers is insufficient facilities. limited facilities are an obstacle in developing teaching methods. in english language learning, facilities are an important aspect to support the quality of learning. the 4 main aspects of english (writing, reading, listening, and speaking) mostly require adequate facilities so that students can easily practice. but some schools have limitations in having these tools or media. because the school facilities are also less supportive, we are also delayed too. for facilities we are very much looking forward to media tools to help with english as a speaking tool. based on observations in several schools, the facilities that support english learning are still very limited. for example, in some schools, there is only one projector available, which forces the teachers to take turns using the device. regarding speakers, only a few schools provide high-quality speakers, while others do not have speakers at all. due to the lack of facilities, teachers' ideas and plans to make lessons fun and interactive must always fail, especially during speaking lessons, which are always postponed later and later. this causes teachers to finally rarely use technology and use manual methods to keep lessons active and exciting. as one teacher said, 'actually in this school, most of the teachers teach manually.’ limitations such as the internet network and tools that support speaking assessments, such as speakers and projectors, are the weaknesses of this ai implemented in schools. like teachers stated: “if it can be held, one of them is the internet network here. there is no network at school; besides that, there are no radio speakers here.” discussion this study set out to explore how teachers perceive hume ai as a tool for assessing speaking skills among senior high school and the challenges faced by teachers while using this ai for assessing speaking. the findings revealed that the heightened enthusiasm and motivation demonstrated by students upon the introduction of hume ai aligns with research http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 175 highlighting the positive impact of technological innovation on student engagement (fitria, 2025; vasagar, 2017). the novelty of ai-based assessment tools appeared to spark students' interest, supporting the notion that technology can enhance learner motivation and participation (dwijuliani et al., 2021). moreover, the current generation of learners, who are accustomed to digital devices and technological advancements, exhibited increased receptiveness to ai-based learning environments, corroborating previous studies emphasizing the importance of aligning educational approaches with learners' technological backgrounds (widodo et al., 2021). teachers acknowledged the practical benefits of utilizing hume ai for assessing speaking skills. compared to traditional, predominantly manual assessment methods—such as memorized dialogues, debates, or oral presentations—hume ai offers real-time, interactive speaking tasks that better reflect authentic language use. this aligns with brown’s (brown, 2007) emphasis on assessing fluency, accuracy, pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, and gesture through spontaneous speaking activities. furthermore, teachers perceived that ai-based assessment could help prepare students for real-world applications, such as job interviews, consistent with the curricular goals of senior high schools. nevertheless, several challenges emerged that may hinder the optimal integration of hume ai in speaking assessment. the most significant barrier relates to students' insufficient english language proficiency, particularly in oral communication. this finding resonates with previous research emphasizing speaking as one of the most challenging language skills to master and assess (navidinia et al., 2019; zaim, 2017). students' limited vocabulary, lack of listening comprehension, and unfamiliarity with spontaneous interaction in english created obstacles during ai-assisted assessments. furthermore, the socioeconomic background of students, characterized by low-income families and limited access to private english courses, exacerbated these challenges, reducing students' motivation and preparedness for speaking tasks—a phenomenon previously observed in similar educational contexts (jo, 2024). additionally, this study highlights infrastructural constraints as a major limitation. inadequate facilities, such as insufficient internet connectivity, lack of supporting devices (e.g., speakers, televisions), and outdated technological infrastructure, impede the effective use of ai-based assessment tools. this finding echoes helmiatin's (helmiatin et al., 2024) argument regarding the unequal distribution of technological resources in indonesian schools, which restricts the widespread adoption of ai in education. in line with kim (kim, 2021), it is imperative for educational stakeholders to adopt a systematic, context-sensitive approach to ai integration. such an approach should prioritize not only the technological dimensions but also the pedagogical, infrastructural, and socioeconomic factors that influence the successful application of ai in language assessment. overall, while the integration of hume ai in speaking assessment demonstrates promising potential to enhance student engagement, motivation, and authentic assessment practices, its effectiveness is contingent upon addressing several contextual barriers. these include improving students' english language foundation, increasing access to supplementary language learning opportunities, enhancing technological infrastructure, and providing adequate teacher training for ai-assisted assessment implementation. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 176 conclusion this study revealed that the integration of hume ai has a positive impact on enhancing speaking assessment practices by fostering student enthusiasm, increasing motivation, and providing a more authentic and interactive assessment experience. teachers reported that students demonstrated increased interest and active engagement when hume ai was introduced, highlighting the relevance of integrating technology into the learning and assessment process to align with students' familiarity and comfort with digital tools. moreover, teachers acknowledged the potential of hume ai to support the achievement of curricular goals, particularly in preparing students to use english fluently for real-world communication, including future employment opportunities. however, several challenges hinder the optimal use of hume ai in speaking assessments. the most prominent challenges include students limited english proficiency, particularly in spontaneous speaking, their low motivation to learn english due to socioeconomic factors, and insufficient access to technological infrastructure within schools. these issues reflect broader systemic constraints that must be addressed to ensure the effective integration of ai in educational settings. therefore, while hume ai offers promising opportunities to enhance speaking assessment in senior high schools, its successful implementation requires comprehensive efforts to improve students' language competence, strengthen their motivation, and provide adequate technological support. acknowledgment with profound respect and heartfelt gratitude, the author extends her deepest appreciation to her beloved parents for their unwavering love, steadfast support, sincere prayers, and constant encouragement, all of which have served as a strong foundation throughout the research process. the author also wishes to convey sincere thanks to the supervisor for her invaluable guidance, constructive feedback, and insightful contributions at every stage of this study. may all their kindness and support be rewarded abundantly by allah swt. references alsalem, m. s. 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(2017). how robots are teaching singapore’s kids. financial times, 1–7. https://www.ft.com/content/f3cbfada-668e-11e7-8526-7b38dcaef614 vercellotti, m. lou. (2015). the development of complexity, accuracy, and fluency in second language performance: a longitudinal study. applied linguistics, 38(1), 90–111. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amv002 vial, g. (2021). understanding digital transformation: a review and a research agenda. routledge. widodo, a. w., solikhatun, i., raharja, s., salam, a. a., & wartini, s. f. (2021). a utilization of information technology on education in indonesia (2017-2020): a systematic literature review. journal of physics: conference series, 1779(1). https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/1779/1/012024 zaim, m. (2017). implementing scientific approach to teach english at senior high school in indonesia. asian social science, 13(2), 33. https://doi.org/10.5539/ass.v13n2p33 zawacki-richter, o., marín, v. i., bond, m., & gouverneur, f. (2019). systematic review of research on artificial intelligence applications in higher education – where are the educators? international journal of educational technology in higher education, 16(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-019-0171-0 zhu, m., liu, o. l., & lee, h. s. (2019). the effect of automated feedback on revision behavior and learning gains in formative assessment of scientific argument writing. computers and education. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2019.103668 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 3, no. 1, january 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 44 sq3r method in teaching reading: how it improves students’ comprehension of narrative texts at sman 2 trenggalek 1wawan prasetyo 1stkip pgri trenggalek, trenggalek, indonesia wawprasetyo23@gmail.com abstract many students think that reading skill is really difficult and complicated. students said that finding meaning is confusing. sometimes students misinterpret the text even if they have sufficient vocabulary. the problem in understanding the text is likely to trigger another problem in english, such as giving up easily and being lazy to continue studying their english activity. moreover, reading is the activity most frequently done by students. they read the lesson written by their teacher on the whiteboard and from the books. meanwhile, reading narrative text is of reading types that are mostly discussed in senior high school. in trying to solve this problem, the writer did classroom action research in his school. this research was done to improve students’ reading comprehension in the tenth-grade students of sman 2 trenggalek through the sq3r method. the data of this research was gained from the interview, observation, test, questionnaire and english score. this research was conducted in two cycles. the result of the first cycle and second cycle indicated that the number of students who passed the test is increasing significantly. based on the result of the study, it can be concluded that the sq3r method can improve reading comprehension skills. keywords: narrative text, reading comprehension, sq3r method introduction the first most probable thing that new enrolled student do is read and write activity. it is usually used by the teachers to measure the academic competence for new students. similarly, the new english student is usually considered fairly competent if they can read and write. it is not weird because read and write activity are one which is frequently done at school. however, reading is done a lot since the material given by teachers are usually delivered through media such as whiteboard or presentation on application or another printed media. at the first stages of learning, teacher will explain the material first. they also use books as reference and to give more explanation about the lesson. after giving lesson, exercise is also provided to measure the achievement of the students. and it is through reading will the students take the learning process. reading skill is really important for teaching and learning process. students can gain more information if they are good at reading. they can read and understand lots of information from every sources. reading can make us find unlimited information we want. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 mailto:wawprasetyo23@gmail.com copyright © the author(s) vol. 3, no. 1, january 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 45 we can get many knowledge, information, even create new work or product (galuh & romadhon, 2020). we can find everything from everywhere when we are good at reading. nowadays, students can seek for whatever information they wish from the internet. they can gain what they cannot get from the classroom. in addition, the activity of reading is not only done for academic purpose only. students can read for pleasure and fun activity. they can read newspaper, magazine, article on the internet for his leisure time. reading fiction is also good for students. reading is usually undertaken for some purpose, in a social context, and that social context itself contributes to a reader’s notion what it means to read, or, as recent thinkers tend to put it, to be literate (alderson, 2005). so, reading comprehension skill can support students to grow themselves. however, many students think that reading is really difficult and confusing. many research showed that the indonesian’s reading ability is low (masruuroh, 2015). besides their vocabulary problem, many students said that finding meaning of text is complicated. they got confused to find the meaning resides on text and often misinterpret the meaning. this also happens when they read fictional works. it takes many times to understand works written in narrative text. narratives are read more quickly than expository text, and scores on recall and comprehension tests are generally higher for narrative text (hudson, 2011). one of many ways in teaching reading skill is using sq3r sequence (brown, 2007). the recent studies done by some writers showed that sq3r strategy could improve students’ reading comprehension. in addition, sq3r method is applicable to most reading text and reading assignments which can be done in a group or individually (dharma, ahmad surya. abdullah, 2013). research done by prasutiyo (prasutiyo, 2014) from state university of yogyakarta showed that this strategy could also improve reading comprehension of student of junior high school 1 jogonalan klaten, central java. he focused his research in recount text. he did his research using collaborative classroom action research since he was not teaching in the subject class. he collaborated with english teacher and his research partner. his finding was that sq3r method was successful in teaching english recount text. students became more confident to recite or tell their experience in front of the classroom because they already knew in detail what should be told to class. it made students more enthusiastic and more motivated. another study was done by yenisa from syarif hidayatullah islamic university jakarta (yenisa, 2017). he used quasi experimental to study the effectiveness of sq3r in student’s reading comprehension ability in hortatory exposition text. the subject of the research he used is eleventh science grade students of sma annajah bogor. he compared two group of students divided into experiment group and control group. he gave the treatment to experimental group by teaching them reading of hortatory text using sq3r strategy which would be compared with control group taught by conventional strategy. his analysis showed that there is significant difference result of using sq3r in teaching reading hortatory exposition text. in other words, he concluded that teaching reading of hortatory exposition text using sq3r strategy is more effective than teaching it using conventional ones. unlike the studies above, the writer focuses on reading comprehension using narrative text. the text given to the students comprises of orientation, complication, resolution and http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 3, no. 1, january 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 46 reorientation as the generic structure. therefore, there are more points to recites structurally compared with the previous studies. at school, reading narrative is not taught separately as it is integrated in text together with another skills and exercises. however, as the writer has observed previously, the skill of reading must be possessed by students to make the learning process goes well. reading is not just the activity of transmitting symbol to a message or finding meaning inside the text only. we can translate text that we read too. moreover, comprehending reading can also be influenced by the reader’s previous knowledge too. this research focused on reading narrative text. narrative is an account of a series of events, facts, etc., given in order and with the establishing of connections between them. elliot said that narratives (stories) in the human sciences should be defined provisionally as discourses with a clear sequential order that connect events in a meaningful way for a definite audience and thus offer insights about the world and/or people’s experiences of it (elliott, 2005). furthermore, narratives deal with problematic events which lead to a crisis or turning point of some kind, which in turn finds a resolution (rohim, 2009). in narrative text, we can see the sequence starting from orientation, complication, resolution and reorientation (lubis, 2017) . from the observation made by the writer, it was found that there were some problems that was faced by the tenth-grade students of sman 2 trenggalek. first, the students were less motivated to study english and their enthusiasm in learning english text was really low. that is why students think english is really difficult. when students do not know the answer of a question, he/she is likely to give up easily. in fact, good achievement in reading can boost motivation as well (jannah, 2018). second, the students did not pay much attention in the classroom because they gave up earlier when they know that they have to understand the text. usually what happen in reading class is just answering question and find difficult word only. consequently, students mostly wait for teacher’s instruction only. in other words, the lesson became teacher centered. as the result it is difficult to comprehend reading the text. therefore, their reading achievement is low. to solve the problem, the writer applied a method in teaching reading. the method is called sq3r which stands for survey, question, read, recite and review.” it is one effective series of procedures for approaching a reading text which consists of five steps.”(brown, 2007). sq3r is also easy to use and applicable to another texts genres (risdianti, 2020). and as explained above, the writer here did the research to higher level students from social class. the writer here was curious enough to do inquiry to social class, not to science classes which have been studied by many writers. methods the research design used was classroom action research taken from kemmis and mc taggart (latief, 2015). it has four research stages, they are planning, implementing, observing and reflecting. the writer collaborated with the english teacher in doing the research. the population of the research is the tenth-grade students of sman 2 trenggalek in the academic year of 2020/2021. the writer used purposive sample because he has certain goal (arikunto. s, 2010). he wanted to know the progress of the class which already http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 3, no. 1, january 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 47 got a problem in reading comprehension. and the sample of this research is x ips 4. the writer chose this class following the english teacher recommendation as this class have the lowest average english score. the class consisted of 32 students. the data were collected by using test and non-test instrument. to measure the reading comprehension achievement, pretest and posttest were used. the writer used multiple choice test, the most popular method of testing a reading knowledge of vocabulary and grammar (brown, 2004). while to record the activity of writer, students, learning process and to complete the data, the writer used observation sheet and interview sheet as the non-test instrument. the observation done in this research was participant observation since the writer was actually teaching this class, but different lesson. therefore, the writer could do structured observation as he already knew the variable to observe(sugiyono, 2012). meanwhile, the writer also used structured interview as he already knew information to get as well (sugiyono, 2012). the data analysis is conducted in different ways, there are qualitative and quantitative data. qualitative data is used to analyze data from interview, observation and fieldnote. then, the quantitative data is used in order to analyze data from the students’ reading comprehension achievement. results this part discusses the result of preliminary study and the inquiry. there are 2 cycles in this research, action cycle 1 and action cycle 2. preliminary study was conducted by interviewing the english teacher of sman 2 trenggalek. it was done to know about the problems and difficulties in teaching and learning of english especially reading comprehension. based on the interview, the writer found that there were some problems faced by the students in teaching and learning process in the classroom. in addition to gain the raw data, the writer also interviewed several students. after doing the interview, the writer identified some problems. first, the students were not really interested in reading english text since the activity usually done in the classroom was only answering question from the text. second, the students did not pay attention and were not enthusiastic when the teacher gave explanation. besides the monotonous routine itself, students think that english is complicated and difficult. as a result, they got difficulty to comprehend reading the text. after interviewing the english teacher, the writer gave pre-test to measure the students’ reading comprehension. by giving the test, the writer knew that the students’ reading comprehension was still low. it was exactly the same as the english teacher had informed to the writer beforehand. in the preliminary test done by the writer, it was found that among 32 students, only 8 students got score more than 68 and 24 students got score less than 68. the percentage of success is: 8 x 100% = 25% 32 from this calculation, the writer found that the students who passed the preliminary study of reading comprehension test were 25% or 8 students and there were 75% or 24 students could not reach the minimum criteria. the criteria of success that had been http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 3, no. 1, january 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 48 determined were 70% of the students who should pass the test and the standard value were 68. it was based on the minimum standard score issued from school. the preliminary test showed that this test result could not achieve the criteria of success. based on the result of the preliminary study above, the writer and the english teacher worked together to plan the use of sq3r to improve the reading comprehension achievement. the first step was designing the lesson plan. it was used by the writer to guide the students to implement the strategy in teaching learning process. the lesson plan was consisted of identity of school, standard competence, basic competence, indicators, learning objectives, teaching material, teaching technique, teaching procedures, learning sources and assessment. the writer also made some instruments that were needed by the writer in implementing the strategy during the teaching learning that had been done and to get the data in cycle 1. the instruments used by the writer were interview guidance, observation sheet, reading test and questionnaire. the second step was acting. this section presented the description of activities during the writer in each meeting. there were two meetings conducted in cycle 1 including first meeting for teaching and learning process and second meeting for giving a test. then, the teacher discussed about sq3r method and its steps, that is: survey, question, read, recite and review. the students should understand about the sq3r method, what is the meaning, what is the purpose and also about its steps. after the students get the point and understand about sq3r method, the teacher asked students to practice it. at the first meeting, the first step is survey, the teacher asked students to skim the example of narrative text that had been given. the writer gave a text entitled “golden eggs.” the second step is question, the teacher asked students to make some question related to the text by themselves. then, the third step is read, here the students were asked to read whole text carefully and also to find the answer of the question that was made by the students. after the students find the answer, they discussed together, it has to know whether the answer is correct or incorrect. next, fourth step is recite. in this step, students were asked to recite the text to strengthen their memory about the content of the text. and the last step is review. in this step the teacher asked the students to summarize, make a note and write the main points of each paragraph in the text with their own words. afterwards, the second meeting was given and focused on giving a test to the students. in main activity, the teacher gave students worksheet contains of narrative text. then, asked the students to do the worksheet by using sq3r method. the teacher gave several times to finish the task. after the students finish doing the task, the teacher asked students to exchange their worksheet with their friends. then, asked the students to discuss the answer together and also correct their friend’s worksheet. after it has already done, the teacher asked the students to give score to their friend’s worksheet. then, asked the students to collect their worksheet. the third step was observing. the observation is done during the action. it was very important in order to monitor the activity concerning with the implementation of sq3r method in teaching reading. the writer was helped by the english teacher to be the observer in the classroom. the observer used observation sheet to observe the writer’s and the student’s activities in line with the plan or not. in this research, the observation sheets in the form of checklist are used to record the student and the research activity during the teaching http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 3, no. 1, january 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 49 and learning process using sq3r method. the writer used the observation sheet in observing. based on the result of observation in meeting 1 and 2, the writer found some problems that was faced during teaching learning process. although, the teacher did all of activity based on lesson plan. in addition, the teaching procedures in the classroom were also suitable with lesson plan. but it was found the weaknesses in teaching strategy. the teacher did not give enough attention for the students thoroughly. he focused only on paying some students who were active in the class. besides that, the students did not pay attention when the teacher gave explanation and some students talked each other. the last step of the first cycle was reflecting. the writer conducted reading post-test 1. the test was done to measure the students’ comprehension in reading narrative text. it was also to know the effectiveness of implementing sq3r method in teaching reading narrative text. the writer gave 10 questions in multiple choices form (each of right answer has score 10 and the wrong answer has score 0) and gave the time to finish this test was 80 minutes. the result of the test on cycle 1 was compared with the criteria of success. from posttest done, 18 students got score more than 68 and 14 students got less than 68. the percentage of success is: 18 x 100% = 56.25% 32 based on the reading post-test 1, the students who could pass in this cycle were 18 or 56.25% students and 14 or 43.75% students were still failed. meanwhile, the criteria of success that had been determined were 70%. so, it means that the research was not successful yet. the writer also analyzed the observation sheet, it also found the weaknesses of implementation of sq3r method in reading teaching learning. the teacher did not give enough attention to the whole students. he focused only on those paying attention or who were active in the classroom. besides that, the students did not pay attention when the teacher gave explanation and even some students talked each other. considering the result of the post test that was given in the cycle 1, learning from the class criteria of success has not been achieved, therefore; cycle two had to be done. in cycle 2, the writer needed to make several improvements. it was needed to solve the problems that have been found in cycle 1. the action of the cycle 2 was based on the revision of the lesson plan in the cycle 1 by considering the students weaknesses in the action of teaching learning process. in cycle 2, before doing the action, the writer designed the lesson plan as the first start. the writer designed the lesson plan in cycle 2 with some differences. these changes were focused on the main activity in teaching learning process. in cycle 2, students were divided into group. each group consist of 4 students. so, students would do the assignment in groups. in addition, after doing the assignment students should present their work in front of the classroom. besides that, the writer made some instruments to record the process during the action done and got data on cycle 2. next step in cycle 2 is acting. the application of the acting was carried out based on the lesson plan made by the writer before. in main activity, the teacher explained again about the narrative text. then, based on the revised lesson plan, the teacher asked the students to make a group consist of 4 students. after that, the teacher gave students worksheet contains of narrative text entitled http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 3, no. 1, january 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 50 cinderella. the teacher asked the students to do the worksheet with their groups by using sq3r method. the students did survey by skimming the whole text. they skimmed and put their more attention to points of generic structure of narrative text. they focused on the orientation of the text at the first phase of reading. afterwards they found the complication and the resolution of the text. after it had already done, the teacher asked the students to present their work in front of the class group by group. next, in group, they tried to find questions from the text. afterwards they read the whole text and recite it alternately. in the last stage students review the answer of the question together in group and present them in front of the classroom. when each group presented in front of the class, another group were paying attention. then, after all off the group had a presentation in front of the class, the teacher and the students discussed the answer of the questions together. next step is observing. the observation was done during the action. it was very important in order to monitor the activity concerning with the implementation of sq3r method in teaching reading. the writer was again helped by the english teacher to be the observer in the classroom. based on the result of observation, the teacher did all of activity based on lesson plan. the teaching procedures in the classroom were also suitable with lesson plan. the teacher not only focused with some students who active in the class, but also, he focused and supported other students to be active. besides that, it was found that understanding the text in group was easier than individually. they could share and help each other so it made the student more active entirely. the next step was giving test to the students. the test was done to measure the students’ comprehension in reading narrative text. it was also to know the effectiveness of implementing sq3r method in teaching reading narrative text. the result of the test on cycle 2 was compared with the criteria of success. the result of the test was that 30 students got score more 68 and only 2 students got less than 68. the percentage of success was: 30 x 100% = 93.75% 32 after the implementation the action and also giving post-test, the writer made reflection. the reflection was done after analyzing the results of the observation and the reading posttest in cycle 2. the reflection evaluated the teacher and the students’ activities in teaching learning process. based on the reading post-test 2, the students who could pass in this cycle were 30 or 93.75% students and only 2 or 6,25 % students were failed. meanwhile, the criteria of success that had been determined were 70%. so, it means that the research was successful. the writer also analyzed the observation sheet. based on the result of observation in meeting 1 and 2, the teaching procedures in the classroom were also suitable with lesson plan. the writer not only focused with some students who active in the class partially, but he focused on whole students to be active. besides, this activity is much easier done in group. they were able to share and completed each other so it made the student more active and enthusiastic. in conclusion, the action in this cycle ran successfully and the writer had stopped the cycle. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 3, no. 1, january 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 51 discussion by observing the students’ reading comprehension from preliminary study, test of reading comprehension both on the first and the second cycle, there was significance increase of the success. the percentage of success in pretest was really low at the beginning. the percentage was only 25%. the post test of the cycle one showed little improvement on the percentage. after carrying out the first cycle, the success percentage goes up to 56.25 %. and the success percentage rose significantly on the post test of cycle two where it reached 93.75%. it is obvious that there is improvement of the students’ reading comprehension from preliminary study to post-test 1 and post-test 2. these percentages were compared with the criteria of success which had been set by the writer referring to the school curriculum. from the explanation in the previous chapter, the writer determined that the criteria of success in this research was 70%. on preliminary study, the students who could pass the cycle 1 were 8 or 25% students and the 24 or 75% students were failed. then on the post-test 1, the students who could pass in cycle 2 were 18 or 56.25% students and the 14 or 43.75% students were failed. although it had not reached the criteria of success, but there was increasing of the success. on the post-test 2, the students who could pass in this cycle were 30 or 93.75% students and the 2 or 6.25% students were failed. it had reached the criteria of success and it was increasing of the success. it means that the test was successful. because it was compared with the criteria of success and more than 70% students passed the test. in addition to the reading comprehension test, the data was taken from questionnaire sheet that was given to the students as the respondent after cycle 2 was accomplished. the writer gave some items in questionnaire to know the students’ response of sq3r method. the writer made closed question with 2 options; “yes” and “no” and allowing students to give their opinion. then he analyzed every item by using guttman scale. “yes” answer scored 1 and “no” answer scored 0 (riduwan, 2010). the percentage of each item is analyzed and compared to the criteria of interpretation score. the first question was if the students like reading book. 20 students or 62.5% students said that they like reading. most of them like reading fictional book. they like reading book which can amuse them. in other words, they like reading story book more than scientific book. in here the material could meet their expectation. the second question was if the students like narrative text. 25 students or 78.12% students said that they like reading narrative text. they like narrative text because there is story which can make them amused. elliot said that narratives (stories) in the human sciences should be defined provisionally as discourses with a clear sequential order that connect events in a meaningful way for a definite audience and thus offer insights about the world and/or people’s experiences of it (elliott, 2005). the story of the narrative text can give them experience and pleasure. then, the writer asked if the students like sq3r method. 31 students said that they can follow this method and can enjoy the stages. in other words, 96.87% students like this method. they also said that this method can give students more experience. they felt that there is a challenge in every step that they must accomplished. this method attracts the students to find clues in reading text. the clues can help students to understand the text because there is always key ideas in sentences (djuharie, 2008). once http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 3, no. 1, january 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 52 we know key ideas on sentences, we will be able to comprehend the text easily. next, the writer asked if students feel easier in comprehending the text using this method. 30 students said that they felt easier to comprehend the text using this method. 93.75% students said that this method can give them direction to do the next instruction. this method facilitates students to prepare and anticipate the questions. it made them ready to answer the problem, therefore this method can also boost the confidence of the student. prasutiyo (2014) in his research said that sq3r method is successful in encouraging students to comprehend the text. when students know what to do they are likely to be confident enough to take the challenge in reading class. another question was if the students are more motivated in studying reading using this method. they said that this method can make them feel easier in comprehending text so the students feel more motivated. once the level of confident rose the students are more eager to do more instruction. and the last question was about if the students like doing assignment in groups. 32 students of 100% students said that they like accomplishing assignment in group. they said it is much easier and lighter because they do the instruction together with their friends in a group. they can complete one another and they can help one another anytime the found difficulties. they can finish the work even faster in group. therefore, they like studying in group more than done individually. group work can create a learning community. by studying in a group, every student will have more space to learn. they are likely to have opportunity to engage themselves into learning process. so, students will feel welcome and have more chances to contribute to the learning in the group or society. in fact, human have a basic need to be part of a social community (barkley, 2010). from the result above, it can be concluded that the students are interested and excited to follow this strategy. consequently, their reading comprehension can be improved and developed. conclusion the writer finds that after the implementation of the strategy, the students’ reading comprehension can be improved. so, it means that implementation of sq3r can improve the tenth-grade students’ reading comprehension at sman 2 trenggalek. it can be seen by the increase of the student’s reading test result from preliminary study, to cycle 1 and cycle 2. from the cycle 1, it is known that the number of the students who passed the reading comprehension test has increased. there were 56.25% or 18 out of 32 students who passed the reading comprehension test. but it has not met the criteria of success. so, the writer did the cycle 2. the writer found another increasing number of the students who passed the reading comprehension test on cycle 2. the result of the study on this cycle was 30 or 93.75% students passed the test. it was successful and it has met the criteria of success. it means that the students’ reading comprehension increased after the strategy had been implemented. based on the students’ responses, the writer concluded that the implementation of sq3r method makes easier for students to understand the material. the students also pay more attention on the teachers’ explanation. in other words, the successful learning using this method can increase the motivation in learning (jannah, 2018). and in this research, all of them were so attracted to have implementation of sq3r method. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 3, no. 1, january 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 53 based on the conclusion above, some suggestions are offered to the students, the teachers and other writers in order to improve reading comprehension achievement. the students of sman 2 trenggalek are suggested to practice and carry out this strategy when they have reading class. while based on the result of the research, the implementation of sq3r method was successful as an alternative way that could improve the tenth-grade students’ reading comprehension at sman 2 trenggalek. so, the writer suggested that english teacher at sman 2 trenggalek should use sq3r method as alternative way in teaching reading to improve their students’ reading comprehension. besides that, the sq3r method could make the student easier to understand the material and also could improve the students’ ability to identify important points and better retention or the material. in addition, the writer hopes that this study will be useful for the future writer as the reference to make further research. it is also advisable for them to use other method in their study that can be used for improving the students’ reading comprehension. acknowledgment the writer would like to express his gratitude to his college, stkip pgri trenggalek for giving the writer facility to do the research. the gratitude also addressed upon the headmaster of sman 2 trenggalek for giving permission to the writer to do the research. last but not least, the writer expresses his greatest gratitude to the rector of state islamic institute palopo and foster team for giving opportunity to publish this article. references alderson, j. c. (2005). assesing reading. cambridge university press. arikunto. s. (2010). prosedur penelitian (14th ed.). rineka cipta. barkley, e. f. (2010). student engagement technique. jossey-bass. brown, h. d. (2004). language assesment: principles and classroom practices. pearson education, inc. brown, h. d. (2007). teaching by principles an interactive approach to language pedagogy. pearson education, inc. dharma, ahmad surya. abdullah, s. (2013). the implementation of sq3r strategy to teach reading news item text to tenth grade students of. universitas negeri surabaya, 4. djuharie, o. s. (2008). extensive reading top-down reading. yrama widya. elliott, j. (2005). [jane_elliott]_using_narrative_in_social_research. sage publication inc. galuh, m., & romadhon, e. (2020). the implementation of robinson ’ s strategy ( sq3r ) to enhance the reading ability in english class. december, 17–18. hudson, t. (2011). teaching second language reading. oxford university press. jannah, m. (2018). the effect of survey, question, read, recite, and review (sq3r): method and learning motivation of achievement in learning indonesian language. international research journal of engineering, it & scientific research, 4(1), 1–11. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 3, no. 1, january 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 54 https://doi.org/10.21744/irjeis.v4i1.585 latief, m. a. (2015). research methods on language learning an introduction (2nd ed.). universitas negeri malang. lubis, r. f. (2017). narrative text. english education : english journal for teaching and learning, 5(2), 1. https://doi.org/10.24952/ee.v5i2.1176 masruuroh, m. s. (2015). sq3r implementation in teaching reading comprehension: a case study of eight grade students at one state mts in sumedang. journal of english and education, 3(1), 106–121. prasutiyo, a. r. (2014). improving the eight grade students reading skill through sq3r technique in smpn 1 jogonalan in the academic year of 2013/2014. universitas negeri yogyakarta. riduwan. (2010). metode dan teknik menyusun tesis (7th ed.). alfabeta. risdianti, r. (2020). the effect of sq3r technique on students’ reading comprehension of spoof texts. syarif hidayatullah islamic university of jakarta. rohim, f. (2009). teaching reading. ministry of national education. sugiyono. (2012). metode penelitian pendidikan (15th ed.). alfabeta. yenisa, m. r. (2017). the effectiveness of using sq3r technique in students’ reading comprehension of hortatory exposition text. state islamic university syarif hidayatullah. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.3, no. 3, july 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 172 lexical semantic errors in undergraduate students' academic writing puleng makholu letsoela1*, litsepiso matlosa2 1, ,3 university of eswatini, kwaluseni, swaziland, 2national university of lesotho, roma, lesotho pulengmakholu@gmail.com abstract in language teaching and learning, the correct use of vocabulary in the target language is as important as the language's grammar. this study investigates lexical semantic errors in the academic writing of 4th-year undergraduate students at the national university of lesotho. using the random sampling method, ten action research reports were selected. errors were identified and analyzed using hemchua and schmitt's (2006) classification. findings in the study indicate that errors resulting from the confusion of sense relations were most frequent, followed by errors in collocation and translation errors. the study recommends that teaching communication skills courses offered at the year 1 level should include explicit vocabulary teaching to minimize semantic errors, which, as is argued, result in incomprehensible texts. keywords: error analysis, lexical semantic errors, text comprehension introduction success at university is, to a large extent, determined by students' mastery of writing skills. this is because it is through writing that students can demonstrate that they comprehend what they gathered from listening to lectures and other academic talks and reading different texts and can express the information logically. therefore, a successful text submitted for assessment is expected to have relevant content and should not be marred by errors. however, students' written texts have been observed to contain different errors. to understand the causes of students' errors, error analysis, a theory proposed by corder (1967), has been applied. corder (1967) makes a distinction between errors and mistakes. explains that mistakes are performance-related in that a learner knows the rules of the target language, but during the performance, he/she can deviate from those rules. this explanation suggests that he/she can easily recognize and correct mistakes. this is why owu-ewie and williams (2017:464) refer to them as a "slip of a pe." on the contrary, errors reflect a learner's lack of competence in the target language as he/she makes systematic errors and cannot easily correct them. the error analysis approach demonstrates that errors in l2 are due to an array of complex factors, including l1 interference. it can therefore be used to analyze any type of error. many studies have analyzed and categorized student writing errors in different countries. these studies aimed to determine the cases and the frequency of these errors. for example, ander and yildirim (2010) analyzed lexical errors of efl students at anadolu http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.3, no. 3, july 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 173 university school of foreign languages. e following categories of errors were observed in the students' compositions: errors of wrong word choice, literal translation, errors of omission or incompletion, errors of misspelling, errors of redundancy, errors of collocation, and errors of word formation. muchemwa (2015) also studied students' errors at solusi university in zimbabwe and observed errors in word inflection, punctuation, incomplete sentence, subject-verb agreement, and word order. orthographic errors are spelling errors stemming from students writing words as they sound, overgeneralizing the rules, and interference with the mother tongue. as regards semantic errors, they mostly used the wrong words. that is, they would write one thing while they meant another thing. another study was conducted by afrin (2016). it focused on language problems in the writing of stamford university bangladesh undergraduate students. the errors are mostly similar to those inmuchemwa's (2015) study. for example, there were fragments, subject verb agreement, punctuation, and spelling errors. her errors concerned organizational problems such as ineffective paragraphing. as regards semantic errors, it was observed that students made errors in word choice. from the foregoing review, it can be observed that students struggle with different aspects as they write in a second or foreign language. although it is important to note that all errors impact negatively on the student's grades, it can be argued that lexical errors, particularly those involving word meanings, are the most serious, as inappropriate choices can result in texts that are difficult to comprehend, even if written in well-constructed sentences. indeed, khalil (1985:346) rightly points out that semantic errors affect text intelligibility, and even native speakers may find them difficult to interpret. below we highlight some recent studies that focussed on lexical errors (formal and semantic), but for our research purposes, we present only findings related to semantic mistakes (i.e., those that involve meaning). shalaby et al. (2009) examined lexical (formal and semantic) errors in 96 writing samples of female saudi students enrolled in a prep-year program at a university in saudi arabia. findings indicate that there are 434 semantic errors (60.45% of the total errors). the most frequent error category was a confusion of sense relations, followed by collocation and stylistic errors, respectively. another study was conducted by mutlu (2016), who conducted a study analyzing 16 turkish-speaking university students' essays. findings on semantic errors reveal that confusion of sense relations, mainly involving the use of near-synonyms, was the most frequent category, accounting for 50% of all errors. these were followed by errors in preposition partners and semantic word selection at 24 and 22%, respectively. the other errors were quite infrequent, making a combined count of 6%. jassim (2016) analyzed 94 paragraphs written by their year students in the department of english at an iraqi university. the researcher observed a total of 434 semantic errors made of 286 sense relation errors, 87 collocation errors, and 61 stylistic errors. the most frequent errors concerned sense relations, accounting for 65.89 % of total errors. these were followed by collocation and stylistic errors at 20 and 14%, respectively. another study relevant to this research was conducted by owu-ewie and williams (2017). the analysis of 150 senior high school students' essays revealed that grammatical errors such as articles, tense, prepositions, and number constituted 61%, while lexical (semantic) errors constituted 39%. they observed that most errors at the lexical level http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.3, no. 3, july 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 174 were due to homophone problems. a recent study was carried out by saud (2018). the researcher investigated errors made by 30 third-year english students at king khalid university. the study found that semantic errors constituted 14.6% of all errors. most semantic errors concern confusion about sense relations, particularly near-synonyms. the remaining errors were collocation errors. this brief literature review shows that the emerging pattern in most studies relates to rankings of the categories of errors where the confusion of sense relations (in particular, near-synonyms) dominates in frequency count. the current study is based in lesotho, a former british protectorate. lesotho recognizes sesotho (dominant l1) and english (l2) as official languages, with english being used as a medium of instruction from standard 4 up to the university level. all other subjects, except sesotho, are offered and examined in english. this means that on entering tertiary schooling, students would have received instruction in english for nine years. in the researchers'' experience of teaching at the national university of lesotho [nul] for over 20 years, there has always been a concern about the poor writings skills of the university students. this concern emerges despite the university admitting students who have passed the english language at high school. in addition, all first-year students must take courses in scholarly communication and study skills, as well as remedial grammar. although the names and codes for these courses have changed over the years, the aim is to enhance students'' language skills appropriate for the university level. it could be expected that students, having received instruction in these courses, would produce errorfree texts. however, complaints about students'' weaknesses in writing, even at senior levels, continue to be raised. there is not much research on nul students' writing errors. available literature includes letsoela (2014) on the inappropriate use of transition markers, letsoela and ntsane (2015) on spelling errors, and ekanjume-ilongo and morato-maleke (2020) on different types of errors in students'' essays. therefore, further research on errors in nul students' academic writing is needed. the current study fills that gap in the existing literature. this study thus examines the lexical semantic errors in writing nul final-year undergraduate studies. specifically, the objectives of the study are to: 1. identify and categorize the lexical semantic errors 2. explain the likely causes of the errors 3. examine the extent to which they affect intelligibility hopefully, this study's findings will contribute to the existing knowledge of the semantic errors students commit when writing in english as a second language. furthermore, upon noticing the types of errors in the students' writing, it is envisaged that lecturers will devise ways of assisting students in avoiding or minimizing them. methods design the current study employed both quantitative and qualitative approaches. since the overall aim of this research was to examine errors in students' academic writing, the quantitative approach, or more precisely, descriptive statistics, was used to calculate http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.3, no. 3, july 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 175 frequencies and percentages of the errors and their types. after identifying and counting the errors in the student's texts, the possible causes of the errors and how they affect comprehension were considered. this is a qualitative analysis. combining these two approaches helped to bring about a fuller understanding of the errors committed by the students. data the data for the study were fourth year bachelor of education [b.ed]students' action research reports. the reports were submitted as part of the student-teachers' teaching practice assessment. the projects were written by basotho esl students who majored in the english language and would, therefore, be qualified to teach at senior levels in high schools upon completion of their degrees. ten projects, labeled s1 to s10 to protect the identities of the student writers, were randomly selected. as the research design is partly qualitative and therefore concerned with information richness and not necessarily sample size, the researchers felt that this limited number allowed for an in-depth analysis. in addition, the choice for final year students writing was influenced by the fact that the writers were senior students who had been exposed to different writing tasks in their four years at university. their writing was expected to be advanced and, to a large extent, free from language errors. the reports were personal accounts and reflections on the student's teaching practice sessions. they would include aspects such as background about the schools they were based at, the topics they taught, challenges they faced, and how those challenges were addressed. each report was, therefore, unique. data analysis the researchers made two copies of each report. each researcher read through each set of reports and identified the errors. the researchers also read each other to ensure that no errors went unnoticed. thus, each report was independently analyzed by the two researchers. these researchers have experience teaching writing skills at universities. in addition, they offered courses in introductory semantics. they, therefore, have equal competence in the analysis of semantic errors. after identification, the errors were categorized using hemchua and schmitt (2006) semantic classification, which is itself a modification of james (1998) classification. although hemchua and schmitt (2006) 's complete classification of lexical errors has two major categories, formal lexical errors and semantic lexical errors (p12), the former is outside the scope of this study. below we reproduce the classification of the semantic error, including explanations and examples as provided by the authors: figure 1. lexical semantic error taxonomy 1 confusion of sense relations 1.1 using a superonym for a hyponym. a more general term is used where a specific one is needed. therefore the meaning is underspecified (for example, we have modern equipment in our house). http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.3, no. 3, july 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 176 1.2 using a hyponym for a superonym. an overly specific term is used (for example, the colonels live in the castle).* 1.3 using inappropriate co-hyponyms (for example, i think the city has good communication such as a lot of buses). 1.4 using a wrong near synonym (for example, a regretful criminal or sinner).* 2 collocation errors (word combinations that do not sound natural and correct. inappropriate collocation may not be absolutely wrong, but rather infelicitous. 2.1 semantically determined word selection (for example, the city is grown ). 2.2 statistically weighted preferences (for example, an army has suffered big losses ).* 2.3 arbitrary combinations and irreversible binomials (for example, hike-hitch ). 2.4 preposition partners (verb or noun + particular preposition, preposition + noun) (for example, some channels in television, surrounded with nature). 3 connotation errors (for example, there are too other advantages of living in the city) 4 stylistic errors 4.1verbosity (for example, i informed my girlfriend of the party through the medium of telephone).* 4.2 underspecification (meaning is not clear, for example, although cars in the country are lower our analysis retained all subcategories relating to sense relations, collocation, and stylistic errors. the fifth subcategory, under sense relations, was drawn from our data and thus added to the classification. the category included cases where students used antonyms of words in place of the words they intended to use. we also introduced two new categories, namely, translation errors, for those errors that seemed to be caused by literally translating l1 (sesotho) expressions to english and 'othe' to cater to cases where there was no semantic relation between the word used and the one intended or cases where students would just make up words. lastly, during the analysis and classification of errors, it was observed that some sentences contained only one error while others contained two or more errors. therefore, in cases where there were multiple errors in a sentence, these were counted separately. furthermore, regarding cases where the same student repeatedly made the same error, such an error was measured once. this was done to avoid exaggerating the frequency of the errors. the following figure can summarise the analysis: http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.3, no. 3, july 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 177 figure 2: semantic errors classification (adapted from hemchua and schmitt (2006:12) semantic errors 1 confusion of sense relations 1.1 general term for specific one 1.2 overly specific term 1.3 inappropriate co-hyponyms 1.4 near synonyms 1.5 antonyms 2 collocation errors 2.1 semantic word selection 2.2 statistically weighted preferences 2.3 arbitrary combinations 2.4 preposition partners 3 stylistic errors 3.1 verbosity 3.2 underspecification 4. translation errors 5.other 5.1 no relation between the word used and the one intended 5.2 nonsensical results as indicated earlier, the paper aims to examine the lexical semantic errors nul students commit. findings suggest that there were 172 semantic errors distributed among the ten students' research reports. this distribution is presented in table 1 below: table 1. distribution of semantic errors errors type frequency percentage 1. confusion of sense relations general term for specific term 14 8 hyponym instead of a superordinate term 4 2 near synonyms 28 16 homonyms 16 9 antonym of intended word 1 1 total 64 37 2. collocation errors semantic word selection 32 19 statistically weighted preference 9 5 arbitrary combinations 4 2 preposition partners 11 6 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.3, no. 3, july 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 178 total 56 33 3. stylistic errors verbosity 11 6 underspecification 4 2 total 15 9 4. translation errors 21 12 total 21 12 5. other no relation between the word used and the word intended 9 5 nonsensical 8 5 total 17 10 grand total 172 100 as seen from table 1 above, most errors concerning sense relations with more than a third of all occurrences can be seen. this category was followed by collocation with a count of a third of all occurrences. errors for other types were fairly few as they together constituted slightly over 20 per cent of the occurrences. discussion categorization of errors it has been observed that confusion of sense relations was the most frequent error type. sense, broadly defined, concerns relationships inside language (hurford and heasley 1983:1) in that it is through the knowledge of the correct meaning of a word that speakers establish the relationships that hold the words themselves (palmer 1981: 29). it therefore, follows that as reimer (2010:136) rightly explains," knowing an expression's meaning does not simply involve knowing its definition or inherent semantic content. as well as knowing a word's definitional meaning, a competent speaker knows how it relates to other words of the language". most errors in sense relations concern near-synonyms. students thus made errors such as the following: 1. the student-teacher resumed <assumed> teaching on the 17th february-2009, in form d1. [s10] 2. …they responded spontaneously without too much < many > grammar and spelling mistakes. [s5] the student used the word resumed instead of assumed in the first example. while the two are similar in that they refer to the taking on of responsibility (in this case, teaching). the student seems not to be aware that resumed means assume again. for example, a teacher who is reporting on his/her teaching practice experience started the practice on 17th february. therefore, the word assumed should have been used. in the same way, student 5 seemed not to have internalized the rule that english uses different determiners for countable and uncountable nouns to express abundance. much is http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.3, no. 3, july 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 179 used to express a great quantity, while many are used to express a great number (countable). since the student was referring to mistakes, many were the correct word. another frequent error in sense relations concerned the relation of hyponymy. students seemed to have problems concerning when to use a superordinate term or a hyponym. the following examples illustrate: 3. during the post-observation conference<meeting >, the student teacher and the cooperating teacher decided that all new words should be explained. [s1] 4. english is a very ambiguous course<subject >. [s5] in example 3, the general term meeting was appropriate. this is because, while conference and meeting share the meaning of gathering people, a conference is used for a large official gathering, not an encounter between the student-teacher and the cooperating teacher, for instance. in example 4, the student used course in reference to english, which was his/her major subject. from a single subject, several courses can be derived. another error in sense relations involved homonymy, particularly homophones (words that sound identical but are written differently). examples in the students' texts include: 5. all these made students loose<lose > all hope they had of passing…[s7] 6. students turned<tend > not to care. [s9] 7. she came ones< once > or twice when she had a little time to spare. [s5] the error with the least frequency, and one which was not identified in previous studies, involved a case where one student used an antonym of the word he/she intended to use. the student wrote: 8. *it is also seen that leniency of teachers can harm the operation of the teaching and learning activities and so it is important to loosen up but be done with caution. [s2] a close reading of the sentence suggests that the student's intended message was that teachers need to be a little lenient when they deal with students, as their strictness can negatively affect the process of teaching and learning. it could therefore be concluded that the student did not know the meaning of leniency. although this was an isolated case, it is worrying that an aspiring english teacher might not know the meanings of such a common word. collocation was the second most frequent category of semantic errors, with counts of 33%. collocation is largely determined by meaning because it is based on the understanding that part of the knowledge of the meaning of a word involves knowledge of words with which it co-occurs. collocation errors concerned word selection and statistically weighted preferences, as illustrated below: 9. the study has been done <conducted> by one student teacher autonomously <independently > at holy cross high school…[s5] 10. it improves the listening and asking<questioning > skills of learners. [s9] http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.3, no. 3, july 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 180 11. the procedures< steps > in constructing a paragraph should be followed. [s10] another type of error in collocation concerned preposition partners. in this category, it was observed that students used inappropriate prepositions, omitted prepositions where they were not required; or used two prepositions because they could not decide which one was more appropriate. the following examples illustrate these types of errors: 12. the teacher was also familiar to<with > employing the method when teaching. [s4] 13. also it has been observed that the students are fully reliant < on > the teacher. [s1] 14. in the revision session, the student-teacher put up < omit up > emphasis on the error of subject-verb agreement…. [s3] 15. an action research also equips me as the practising teacher with an understanding of about<omit about > events and things…[s9] the next category of errors involved stylistic errors which concerned redundancy, underspecification and translation. with regards to redundancy, it was observed that students would use two words with the same meaning while only one would have been sufficient. these words were joined with and, suggesting that the students considered them not to mean the same thing. the following examples illustrate: 16. this study has shown that the efficiency and effectiveness of the teaching aids relies much on the commitment and dedication of the teacher. [s2] 17. the main reason and purpose for using these groups of people was finding views, relationships, and concerns with regard to…[s9] it is not clear what the students hoped to achieve by using two words that mean the same thing, but if we consider the use of the conjunction, this might suggest that the students were not aware that they had chosen words that meant the same thing and this had no effect on the meaning of the text. another stylistic error was underspecification; students simply used vague terms instead of precise ones to communicate their intended meaning. they would, for instance, write: 18. the purpose of a paragraph is to separate ideas, and a new paragraph means a new idea is being talked about<introduced >. [s8] 19. this research will help other student teachers on how to teach paragraphs so that learners write very wonderful<effective > paragraphs. [s3] there were also translation errors where students would translate from their l1 (sesotho) into english. some of the translations did not render the sentences incomprehensible, as illustrated in the following sentence: 20. when they got to class, the cooperating teacher introduced the student teacher to the students and told them that the student teacher would take over as their teacher starting from the week to come <following week >. [s1] http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.3, no. 3, july 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 181 the reader could easily guess that the student meant the following week when he/she used the phrase from the week to come. although errors such as this"may not significantly confuse readers in relation to communicative meaning, they do create a bad impressio" (hemchua and schmitt 2006:16). translations could, however, be interpreted only by the reader who understands the writers' native language. the following examples illustrate: 21. learners can be passive because they hate the teacher or they are bored with subject/topic or they are depressed or even taken off <very impressed > by the previous teacher or a lesson. [s2] 22. most of the slow learners are less attentive in class, being more concerned with the social problems surrounding< affecting > them. [s4] in the first example, the writer translates the sesotho slang expression nkeh' which means to be impressed/captivated. the second example is a sesotho translation of a metaphor of problems as enemies which can surround a person. the last category, which we labelled'othe', included cases where it was impossible to categorize the errors because the sentences were simply incomprehensible. as seen in the following examples, the sentences do not make sense: 23. teaching methods are essential to encourage the mastery of bodies of knowledge, and motivation for learning is supplied by inspiration from the teacher …..[s7] 24. after employing several teaching techniques to teach english in form b3, the student teacher employed several problems in which students could not retain what they have been taught. [s10] other examples involved cases where there was no relation between the words used and what seemed to be the intended meaning, as determined by the context of use. examples include: 25. i feel that i view< prefer > planning and assessment instead of a traditional lecturing style of teaching. [s9] 26. basing myself on self-evaluation andlearners' responses of the questions which were asked to them, i became<came up > with the following ideas. [s3] in summary, it has been observed that nul students made errors mostly with sense relations and collocation. these findings are consistent with other studies where these categories were the most frequent (see, for instance, shalaby et al 2009, mutlu 2016, jassim 2016 and saud 2018). likely causes of the errors having identified the types of errors students make, it is also important to consider why such errors occur. firstly, as has been observed that most errors concerned confusion of sense relations where students would confuse words that are somehow similar in meaning, it can be assumed that the students, being english l2 speakers, might not have reached the optimal vocabulary competence to recognize that words may be related in http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.3, no. 3, july 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 182 meaning without necessarily being synonymous or interchangeable in all contexts of use (see palmer (1981). looking at the data, it can be concluded that the fact that the majority of sense relation errors concerned near-synonyms suggests that students might not be aware that synonyms differ in several ways. the same argument about students' insufficient competence with regard to word associations can be maintained about errors involving collocation and stylistic choices. his deficiency inhibits students from using precise terms or correct prepositions, as has been seen in the previous section. another cause of the errors is the students' l1 (sesotho) interference. studies that have dealt with l2 writing have noted that many errors are a result of l1 interference. with grammar, for example, learners apply the rules of their l1 to construct sentences in the target language. ekanjume-ilongo and morato-maleke (2020), for instance, observed that nulstudent' texts had english phrases/sentences which were translated from their mother tongue sesotho. lastly, it has been noted that the students' carelessness caused some errors. looking at examples 5-7, it is difficult to conclude that fourth-year english majors do not know the difference between those homonyms. looking at these errors, especially when final-year english language majors make them, they may be a result of students' carelessness and failure to proofread their work. it could be argued that they seem to be mistakes and not errors, but if these are errors where students do not know the difference between loose and loss, tend and turned, once and ones, for example, then there is even more reason for worry as these are the people who are being trained to teach at high schools. it should be noted that in a study of error analysis of second-year english language and linguistics students' essays, there were no errors in the use of homophones. it is quite surprising to find them in the writing of senior students majoring in english language and linguistics. one would have expected to find errors in the use of homonyms in the writing of second-year students and none, if not less, in final-year students writing. effect on text comprehension concerning the effect of these errors on text comprehension, it is realized that most of the errors do not affect text comprehension. this can be seen in confusion of sense relations and collocation errors; the reader can easily and correctly interpret the intended meaning (see examples 2, 3, and 5, for instance). with stylistic errors, however, particularly the errors of underspecification, the lecturer, who is the primary reader and is also testing the students understanding of content, may be left with doubts on whether the student's understanding is adequate. for example, in example 19, it can be argued that while the lecturer would know that ' wonderfu' paragraph is an effective paragraph in terms of structure and content, it will not be clear to him/her if this is what the student means by using the word 'wonderfu' as the term is just too vague. it can also be argued that the errors most likely to affect text comprehension are l1 interference errors, especially to readers who do not share an l1 with the student writers. without knowing the students' l1, expressions such as those in examples 21 and 22 simply render the sentences incomprehensible or nonsensical in the same way as those in examples 25, and 26 hamper communication. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.3, no. 3, july 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 183 conclusion to conclude, it is evident that while fourth-year students, particularly english majors, are expected to produce error-free texts, this is not the case with nul students. the results indicate that rigorous teaching must be employed in delivering compulsory first-year academic communication and study skills and remedial grammar courses to set a solid foundation for these students. teaching materials should be designed to address these kinds of cases; students should not only be taught basic grammar, but lexical and semantic knowledge should be included in the curriculum. as pointed out earlier, these errors can lead to text misunderstanding. it is hoped that the results obtained in this study will inform the communication and study skills unit, which is tasked to equip students with effective study, academic reading, and writing skills. it is also hoped to provide appropriate input for university learning that deals with the problems that students face so that these problems may be addressed more rigorously. verhallen and schoonen (1993) rightly point out that analyzing errors in students' writing could be an invaluable source of information for lecturers. it can reveal problem areas and thus help the lecturers design appropriate remedial courses for students. in this regard, it is recommended that the syllabus should include explicit teaching of vocabulary to minimize errors such as the ones observed in this study. furthermore, as the findings suggest references afrin, s. (2016). writing problems of non-english major undergraduate students in bangladesh: an observation. open journal of social sciences, 4, 104-115. ander, s., & yildirim, ö. (2010). lexical errors in elementary level efllearners' compositions. procedia social and behavioral sciences (pp. 5299–5303). elsevier. corder, s.p. (1967). the significance of learner's errors. international review of applied linguistics in language teaching, 5(4), 161-170. ekanjume-ilongo,b and morato-maleke, m. (2020). error analysis in the essays of second year students of the national university of lesotho. journal of african languages and literary studies, 1(1), 71-91. hemchua, s., and schmitt, n. (2006). an analysis of lexical errors in the english compositions of thai learners. prospect, 21(3), 2–24. hurford, j. r. and heasley, b. (1983). semantics: a coursebook. cambridge: cambridge university press. james, c. (1998). errors in language learning and use: exploring error analysis. london: longman. jassim, l.l. (2016). an analysis of semantic errors in iraqi efllearners'writings. journal of thi-qar university,11(4),162-184. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.3, no. 3, july 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 184 khalil, a.m. (1985). communicative error evaluation: nativespeakers' evaluation and interpretation of written errors of arab efl learners. tesol quarterly,19,335351. letsoela, p.m. (2014). inappropriate use of transitions by national university of lesotho students. international journal of english language education,2(1), 100-112. letsoela, p.m. & ntsane, m. (2015). analysis of spelling errors among national university of lesotho undergraduate students. annals of modern education, 7(1), 1-9. muchemwa, s. (2015). learning english for an academic purpose: the errors of an english learner. iosr journal of humanities and social science (iosr-jhss), 20 ( 9), 52-58. doi: 10.9790/0837-20925258 mutlu, g. (2016). an analysis of lexical errors of turkish university students learning english. in başaran, b. ç., cengiz, b.h., gümüşok, f. and şafak, d.f. (eds). 9th international metu postgraduate conference on linguistics and language teaching. ankara: gazi kitabevi.189-208. owu-ewie, c. and williams, r. (2017). grammatical and lexical errors in students' english composition writing: the case of three senior high school (shs) in the central region of ghana. sino-us english teaching,14 ( 8), 463-482. doi:10.17265/15398072/2017.08.001 palmer, f.r. (1981). semantics (2nd ed). cambridge: cambridge university press. saud, w.i. (2018). lexical errors of third year undergraduate students. english language teaching,11(11),161-168. shalaby, n.a, yahya, n. and el-komi, m. (2009). analysis of lexical errors in saudi college students' compositions. ayn, journal of the saudi association of language and translation, 2(3), 65-93. university of amsterdam verhallen, m. and schoonen, r. (1993). lexical knowledge of monolingual and bilingual children. applied linguistics, 14(4), 344-363. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 3, july 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 189 efl students’ perception on using mobile learning application for learning to write anifatur rohmah1*, erna iftanti2, & arina shofiya3 1,2,3 sayyid ali rahmatullah state islamic univerisity of tulungagung, tulungagung, indonesia *r.anifatur13@gmail.com abstract one way to aid in english learning is mobile learning. the main features of the mobile learning application are simplicity, engagement, and instant sharing. mobile learning also has the potential to make learning to spontaneous, anywhere, and adapted to the wishes of the teacher or students (miangah and amin nezarat, 2012). the objective of this study is to find out the efl students’ perception on using mobile learning application for learning to write. this study used descriptive quantitative research with survey design. to collect the data of the research, the data were collected through questionnaire. the population were efl students and sample of the study were 56 students. from the data analysis, it is concluded that most of the efl students perceive the use of mobile learning application for learning writing skills positively. the total number of positive perceptions was 77%. meanwhile, 23% students have negative perceptions. mobile learning application used by efl students include edmodo (11%), google classroom (36%), google meet (18%), twitter (7%), and quiz (28%). the most dominant mobile learning application is google classroom. keywords: efl students perceptions, mobile learning application, teaching writing introduction mobile learning is one way to support learning english. using mobile learning has many good impacts for learners. it is a useful feature include the ability to learn independently and to explore a wide range of english-related topics. besides, it can contribute to supporting learning after covid 19. due to the use of mobile learning applications, students are able to accessibility and communicate easily of learning. the contribute the mobile learning application basically for ease of use, interaction, and immediate sharing. (koole, 2009) state more specifically, we mean the act of accessing and studying educational resources while using a mobile learning application to connect with other students, teachers, or institutions. furthermore, making progress with english learning on the fly is made easier by using mobile devices and applications. moreover, both within and outside of the classroom, people can access educational resources, interact with others, and create content using mobile devices (unesco, 2017). mobile learning also has potential to make learning has to spontaneously, anywhere, and adapted to the wishes of teacher or students (miangah and amin nezarat, 2012). there http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 mailto:r.anifatur13@gmail.com copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 3, july 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 190 have been some previous studies which covers four areas. the first area was described the utilizing mobile learning in the process of undergraduate studies as a tool for instruction how view teaching and learning english (natalia mospan, 2021). however, her study has some limitations that students with various degrees, educational backgrounds, and cultural backgrounds represented the participants in this study. the following previous study by djamdjuri, retnowati, herawati (2022) in their study claimed that promoting character values for efl students through digital learning materials. the result was discovered that six aspects such as religion, honesty, self-reliance, curious nature, friendliness, and accountability account for the majority of the students' understandings of integrated character qualities. next, previous study was written by ament and edwards (2018) in their study described the better teaching and more learning in mobile learning courses againts a model of personable learning. the result is about role of the teacher and provides an innovative model that highlights the necessity of personalized mobile learning. the last area, the effect of mobile phone on students' vocabularies, indicates that mobile phone is effective to support students' increasing their vocabulary number (shurooq fakhir abdul zahraa ,2020). however, the purpose of this article is created to complete the shortcomings of previous research which was only limited to discussing research similar to this research especially for learning to write by using mobile learning application. the utilize of mobile learning has goal for english learning process. pehkonen et al (2003) said that the objectives of mobile education organizing learning objectives and activities, but also defining various usage settings and particular needs, which can involve parents, teachers, and students. in the other hand, the goals of mobile learning are guide users and elaborates the context of use should be taken into account when creating mobile content and applications, and learners should be able to access personalized information that is relevant to their situation (o'malley et al., 2003, p. 32). the teachers' contribution to the most essential source of educational inspiration needs to be reviewed by the mobile learning community (schrager and wang, 2017). from the perspective of language learners, a study of mobile learning for english learning process is still in its infancy. the majority of studies examining the usefulness of mobile learning in higher education's language instruction focused on the insights from researchers and language experts. the reason why this study is very important for the learners for example students can improve their creativity. due to instructors' increased involvement with students and ability to foster an active learning environment, mobile learning has provided possibilities for both teachers and students (hutchison, beschorner, & schmidt-crawford, 2012). it was studied and suggested that efl students use mobile learning as an instructional tool during their university studies in order to expand their perspectives on how students view english teaching and learning. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 3, july 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 191 the participants who implement mobile learning had very positive views toward mobile learning since it gave them both form and meaning, were instruction-focused, and were technically prepared for bringing mobile learning into practice (shurooq fakhir abdulzahra, 2020). so, this research the researcher interest to investigated on what efl students’ perception on using mobile learning application for learning to write? literature review efl student perceptions according to gerhard (2006), efl students are those who study english while existing in a region where english is not commonly spoken as a first language. students have little opportunities to use english for communication outside of the classroom in this scenario. efl is defined similarly by harmer (2007), who says that it is the teaching of english to students who are either taking short courses in english or learning the language at home. additionally, efl students only spend a few hours a week to english study. therefore, there are few opportunities for efl students to use their new language skills into practice. numerous parties have conducted extensive research on perception itself. one of them is harisah and masiming (2008), which argues that generally speaking, experts contend that aspects including experience, background knowledge, physical backdrop, social background, and culture also influence the likelihood of perception. as a result, perception can alternatively be defined as the outcome of one's thinking in a specific circumstance (tarmiji et al., 2016). irwanto (2002: 71) states that there are two different types of perception: positive perception positive perceptions are those that characterize all knowledge, whether it is known or not, and attitudes that will continue with efforts to put it to use. positive perception also denotes a favourable reaction toward the viewed target. negative perception the term "negative perception" refers to any knowledge, whether it be true or not, and any actions that are not consistent with the thing being perceived. negative perception also denotes a negative attitude toward the viewed target. additionally, irwanto (2002:71) claimed that someone's perception, whether good or negative, constantly influences their choice of action. the way a person describes all of their information about an object being observed affects whether those positive or negative perceptions exist. in addition to the two categories of perception mentioned above, there is neutral perception. when both positive and negative affect are reasonable, neutrality results. this event illustrates the impartial condition in which one experiences neither strong positive nor negative emotions (gasper, 2018). therefore, neutral perception is when a person does not have a strongly good or negative feeling toward the subject being perceived. miftah toha (2003: 154) mentions the following elements as those that affect a person's perception: http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 3, july 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 192 1) internal factors include a person's emotions, attitudes, and personalities, as well as prejudice, desires, and expectations, physical and mental health, learning processes, values and needs, as well as interests and motivation. 2) external factors such as childhood experiences, knowledge of one's surroundings, needs, intensity, dimensions, opposites, regularity of motion, and the presence of both new and familiar objects. these variables affect how individuals perceive an object and cause their perceptions to differ from one another. individual differences, personality differences, attitude differences, or motivational differences may be linked to variations in perception. in this case, focusing on using mobile learning applications in students’ collage. the needs and expectations of the learners should be taken consideration and developing a system for mobile learning apps to ensure that it is both acceptable and practical (o'malley et al., 2003). many research investigations have emphasized the benefits of mobile learning, including the degree of engagement of students, its role in improving course content, its accessibility, and how it fosters collaboration and interaction (lehner & no sekabel, 2002; wentzel, van lammeren, molendijk, de bruin, & wagtendonk, 2005. additionally, several of these studies have attempted to look at how students perceive the use of mobile learning tools and applications in higher education (cruz e costa, ojala, & korhonen, 2008; jacob & isaac, 2007). then, the perception of students about efl students’ perception on using mobile learning application for learning to write. mobile learning application in the era of technology, to meet the demands of teaching using technology, new and enhanced media are being accepted and deployed. the success and use of distance learning, e-learning, and mobile learning have been demonstrated, especially for those who are unable to attend classes due to financial, physical, or geographic constraints (al-fahad, 2009). the implementing mobile learning in an educational setting has many advantages, including its accessibility, motivating characteristics, and social involvement. one of these advantages is related to the portability and accessibility of mobile learning; students can access it whenever and wherever they choose (benmoussa et al., 2003; hampe, 2002; turban, lee, king, warkentin, & chung, 2002). the ability to select the time, location, and learning material makes mobile learning applications even more individualized for learners (narayanasamy & mohamed, 2013). teaching writing skills writing is a difficult skill that calls for students not only put their thoughts into words but also use various ways to express those thoughts (ruhama & purwaningsih, 2018). according to brown (2000), writing requires students to have the ability to generate ideas, organize them coherently, use appropriate references and rhetorical devices to put together a cohesive written text, revise text to avoid ambiguity, edit for the use of appropriate grammar, and finally produce the written product. moreover, according to richards and http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 3, july 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 193 renandya (2002), there are four key stages of writing such as planning, drafting, rewriting, and editing. however, teaching writing using mobile learning application as contemporary approaches to education. additionally, students who feel a desire to learn anywhere and at any time have supported the use of mobile devices (evans, 2008). teaching writing using mobile learning application usually conduct use some technology or certain platform. mobile applications that can enable online learning are available in a wide variety. each online learning tool has a distinctive structure and method of operation for example google classroom application, google meeting, zoom, whatsapp, you tube, edmodo, and others. the benefit of mobile learning application for teaching writing are the suitability of materials and assignments during online learning, the interest in following the online learning process, the attraction is seen from the appearance of mobile learning itself, the level of understanding in covering the materials can be mastered, being able to complete tasks through mobile learning productivity in completing the given tasks (jayanti et al, 2019). method the design of this study is descriptive quantitative approach with survey design. concerning with the quantitative approach, this study used survey design. creswell (2012:376) survey designs describe the views, opinions, behaviors, or features of the population, researchers may use survey designs in quantitative research, in which they administer a survey to a sample of participants or the entire population. because quantitative research gives numerical data, which is more reliable than just narration and description, the writer chose this approach. here, the writer investigated the efl students’ perceptions in using mobile learning application for learning to write. the instrument of this study is questionnaire. mayang, et., al (2017) note that, questionnaires are frequently used as a method, because they are very easy to complete. the questionnaire was adopted from natalia mospan’s (2021) interest in using information technology and mobile apps for the language learning. the questionnaire consists of 10 questions with close-ended question because it is easy to answer by the respondents. in addition, it makes the writer easy to code analyze the data. the questionnaire distributing through google form. then, the participants fulfil the questionnaire. therefore, english and bahasa indonesia was used in the questionnaire of this study. according to larasati (2019) the population is composed of all individuals of interest to the researcher. thus, population were efl students who have study english using mobile learning application for learning to write. arikunto (2002: 112) argues the use a big sample is one of the characteristic features of descriptive research, and it recommends that one choose a sample from 10%-20% or 25%-50% of the accessible population. for the sample if population are more than 100 number. it means this study use 20%-25% of sample and technique of sampling using purposive sampling. this sample of study were 56 students. data is the quantity of the fact that the author obtained and utilized as the study's information. data of this study were efl students’ perception in using mobile learning application for learning to write. then, the writer analyzed the data with theoretical study http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 3, july 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 194 and presents the result with data percentage also drawing conclusion. to analyze the data the writer employed some steps, such as: identification of efl students’ perception in using mobile learning application for learning to write, classification of efl students’ perception, calculating the percentage each type of efl students’ perception, then makes a conclusion about efl students’ perception in using mobile learning application for learning to write. findings the writer addressed a set of questions in the form of questionnaire to which the students had to respond efl students’ perception on using mobile learning application for learning to write. the results from data analyses were given in tables with conclusions after completion. the information is given in percentage. to answer the research question, the writer described the results of the questionnaire’s response are subdivided into the following sections: table 1. responses of questionnaire no statement strongly agree agree disagree strongly disagree 1 use of educational technology and mobile apps in our language classrooms increases my motivation 44,6% 55,4% 2 computer based teaching activities make the lesson more enjoyable. 41,1% 58,9% 3 technology can be boring and unnecessary 1,7% 17,9% 41,1% 39,9% 4 i can understand language better when my teacher uses technology in the class 25% 66,1% 7,1% 1,8% 5 using mobile apps and educational technology tools distract me 8,9% 55,4% 28,6% 7,1% 6 different technological devices and/or mobile apps should be used in class to increase my motivation for learning english 41,1% 48,2% 8,9% 1,9% 7 when we use technology all the time, it makes the lesson long and boring 1,8% 14,3% 48,2% 35,7% 8 computer-and mobile-based lessons are more enjoyable and effective than traditional lessons 42,9% 46,4% 10,7% 9 web-surfing i do when preparing for my english classes makes me more active in the learning process (writing). 32,1% 66,1% 1,8% 10 using educational technology and mobile apps improves my english skills of writing. 35,7% 64,3% http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 3, july 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 195 based on table above, the writer concluded that majority of students strongly agree and agree with the statement of questionnaire. in contrast with statement of disagree and strongly disagree. this article analyzed based on the theoretical stated by irwanto (2002: 71) about perceptions of learners. table 2. the classification of efl students perceptions based on data above, the diagram pie drawn 77% students have positive perceptions. it calculated score 155 (28%) strongly agree and 275 (49%) agree. meanwhile, 23% students have negative perceptions. it calculated score 82 (15%) disagree and 48 (8%) strongly disagree. the dominant perception is positive perceptions. from figure 1 diagram efl students’ perceptions the dominant perception is agree (49%). in addition, the efl students’ perceptions strongly agree and agree in several condition as follow: mobile apps can increase motivation, lessons are more interesting when they are computer-based, using technology make easy understand, using mobile apps can distract the students, using combination of mobile apps to increase motivation for learning english, mobile learning application. effective for learning english, using web-surfing for learning process (writing), and using educational technology and mobile apps can improve english skills of writing. to develop the questionnaire, the writer gives open ended questionnaire for the respondents. the questionnaire is about kinds of mobile learning application are used by the learners to write. it shows in table below: table 3. mobile learning application using by the learners no application score percentage 1 edmodo 6 11% 2 google classroom 20 36% 3 google meet 10 18% 4 twitter 4 7% 5 quiz 16 28% total 56 100% according to table above, there are several kinds of mobile learning application to support the students in learning to write. there are include edmodo, google classroom, google meet, twitter, and quiz. start from dominant application or the highest that using by the students is google classroom with score 20 (36%). next, quiz is second dominant with no classification score percentage category perception total 1 strongly agree 155 28% positive perceptions 77% 2 agree 275 49% positive perceptions 3 disagree 82 15% negative perceptions 23% 4 strongly disagree 48 8% negative perceptions 560 100% 100% http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 3, july 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 196 score 16 (28%). then google meet with score 10 (18%). edmodo with score 6 (11%). and the lowest application is twitter with score 4 (7%). discussion after got a result of finding data, the writer shows the discussion based on the theory by expert. in case, based on the finding there are two classifications type of perceptions including positive perceptions and negative perceptions. positive perceptions positive perceptions called good response toward the target being received. it has broad section. it also familiar and dominant perception. in positive perceptions, the students full agree with any response or perspective. it is in line with theory stated by irwanto (2002: 71) positive perceptions are those that characterize all knowledge, while people are aware of it or not, and responses that support efforts to put it to use. the situation of positive perception likely students felt agree when they use of educational technology and mobile apps in their language classrooms can increases the motivation, lessons are more interesting when they are computer-based, using mobile application and educational technology in teaching learning, variation of technological devices or mobile application, use technology all the time can makes the lesson enjoy and kindly. preparing english classes can more active in the learning process of writing, computer-and mobile-based lessons are effective more than traditional lessons and using educational technology and mobile apps improve english skills of writing. negative perception the term "negative perception" refers to any knowledge, whether it be true or not, and any actions that are not consistent with the thing being perceived. negative perception also denotes a negative attitude toward the viewed target. in this article show the negative perception in some term it causes by technology can be boring and unnecessary. in this study, the students have almost little of negative perceptions. it containing the result of disagree and totally disagree responses about 23%. based on irwanto (2002:71) state the statement of negative perception is the response can’t be received by the people. so, it can be concluded that the negative perception like as an expressing of disagreement. the negative perceptions are, technology can be boring and unnecessary, using mobile apps and educational technology tools distract the learning process, any variation of mobile apps should be used in classroom to increase the motivation for learning english, and using technology all the time it makes the lesson long and boring. mobile learning application mobile learning application as the media technology to support and enhance the successful of learning process. from the result of study, students have several mobile learning applications for example edmodo, google classroom, google meet, twitter, and quiz. furthermore, the advantages of using mobile learning application are students easy to access material for learning, make students simple doing english learning process, and http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 3, july 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 197 become one way to social interaction. it is in line with statement by (ben moussa et. al, 2003, and hampe, 2002; turban, lee, king, warkentin, & chung, 2002) the implementing mobile learning in an educational setting has many advantages, including simplicity, motivating characteristics, and social involvement. one of these advantages is connected to the portability and accessibility of mobile learning; students can access it whenever and wherever it is easy for them. conclusion the result of this study mentioned that the efl students’ perception on using mobile learning application for learning to write is positive perception. the total 77% students have positive perceptions. it calculated score 155 (28%) strongly agree and 275 (49%) agree. it means that strongly agree and agree response are categories of positive perception. meanwhile, 23% students have negative perceptions. it calculated score 82 (15%) disagree and 48 (8%) strongly disagree. the dominant perception is positive perceptions. it means that strongly disagree and disagree response are categories of negative perception. mobile learning application using by students to support learning to write. there are including edmodo, google classroom, google meet, twitter, and quiz. start from dominant application or the highest that using by the students is google classroom with score 20 (36%). next, quiz is second dominant with score 16 (28%). then google meet with score 10 (18%). edmodo with score 6 (11%). and the lowest application is twitter with score 4 (7%). furthermore, the writer suggests for future researchers when conduct same topic it can be used large sample and different level of institutions. references albiansyah, a., & hardiyanti, e. 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(2022). promoting character values for efl students through digital learning materials. english journal vol. 16, no. 1; march, pp. 24-37. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 3, july 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 198 fahad alkhezzi, wadha al-dousari (2016). the impact of mobile learning on esp learners’ performance. the journal of educators online-jeo july issn 1547-500x vol 13 number 2. linuwih, e.r., winardi, y.k. (2020). improving students’ writing skill using a mobile learning application. vol. 07 no.02. natalia mospan (2021) mobile teaching and learning english a multinational perspective. teaching english with technology, 18(4), 105-125, http://www.tewtjournal.org. shurooq fakhir abdul zahraa (2020) the effect of using mobile phones for learning new vocabulary items by iraqi non-english major college students. satriani, et al., contextual teaching and learning approach. (2012). contextual teaching and learning approach to teaching writing. indonesian journal of applied linguistics, vol. 2 no. 1, july 2012, pp. 10-22. vanessa ament and richard edwards (2018) better teaching and more learning in mobile learning courses: towards a model of personable learning. wenyuan, guo. (2017). using smart phone to facilitate vocabulary mobile learning and teaching in chinese college. international journal of arts and commerce. issn 19297106. www.ijac.org.uk. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://www.tewtjournal.org/ http://www.ijac.org.uk/ copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 98 show and tell technique in teaching speaking skills at sman 2 palopo 1,2.3institut agama islam negeri palopo (iain palopo), palopo, indonesia abstract this research focused on using show and tell techniques to develop students’ speaking skills at eleventh class of sma negeri 2 palopo. the researcher used pre-experimental method. the population of this research is 157 students of xi class. the research sample is chosen purposively and got the xi ipa1 consisting of 35 students. in collecting the data, the researcher used speaking observations, divided into pre-survey and post-survey. after giving pre-survey and post-survey, this research provides pre-survey and postsurvey to students. data were analyzed using spss program version 20. the results of the study indicated that the use of show and tell technique is effective for improving students’ speaking skills. it can be seen calculation results that the scores of students in the control class. based on the analysis of the data it can be concluded that the teaching skills of speaking using show and tell techniques at eleventh class of sma negeri 2 palopo. the implementation of this research for those who are interested in conducting research on problem statements, it is recommended to apply it to students who have basic speaking language skills and researchers hope that the results of this study can be beneficial to readers. keywords: english language teaching, show and tell technique, teaching speaking skills introduction speaking is one of the communication main elements. in efl, instruction it was requires that particular attitude and distraction. interaction effectively comes from analysis carefully of this place along adequately language usage and promotional some interest it that will with gradual help students speak english with fluent and correctly (richard: 2002). kang sumin said that speaking language is particularly difficult for students to use language correctly in social interactions. to learn a second language or foreign languages difficult as we learned our native language as a child (clasrk: 1997). in addition to factors in students, teacher teaching methods and styles also greatly affect students’ speaking abilities. the lack of teacher knowledge about learning methods to stimulate students’ speaking abilities is also one of the causes (irvy, 2020). teachers usually only use the lecture method (teacher centered) and rarely provide opportunities for students to talk about their experiences or express their opinions in front of the class. learning methods that only use one-way methods namely the teacher explains or lectures make students become very minimal. this makes the development of students’ speaking abilities less optimal so that students are less motivated and stimulated by their speaking abilities and vocabulary addition. with the importance of the ability to speak, it is necessary to have a stimulus given both from parents and teachers and the anis.anisahfitriani.bakri@gmail.com anisah fitriani http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 mailto:anis.anisahfitriani.bakri@gmail.com mailto:*rustan_santaria@iainpalopo.ac.id mailto:amalia_yahya@iainpalopo.ac.id copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 99 environment to develop students’ speaking abilities. as an educator should be creative and innovative in providing learning methods and media to students to stimulate and motivate students’ speaking abilities (anwar et al., 2020). motivation or stimulus given to students should be given outside or the environment and from within students themselves. it is the problem faced by students was very difficult in speaking and not mastered speaking, not confident especially in asking questions or answer a question given by the teacher, the student was less motivated and who has not mastered speaking because of lack of vocabulary. and the use of english was very difficult to master by students because in addition to using the english language is also able to know the purpose of the sentence. so that, in the learning process students was not creative in talking and making sentences in daily activity. numbers of study have been conducted related to the show and tell metohod, including wulandari (2014) doing a research about improving the children confidence through show and tell method found that students’ confidence in the a paud miana v group increased after adopting a method of show and tell technique. it can make students more confidents as learning english and also more courageous and more organized children to tell stories to their teachers or friend, they can do their own duty. on the other hand, nurvitasyari (2017), studying about the use of show and tell method in teaching vocabulary at smp negeri 4 galesong selatan kabupaten takalar” found that the use of show and tell method can increase students’ vocabulary mastery. the method contributes to student control in the vocabulary. it can increase students’ understanding of words. this method can enhance student vocabulary control. this is evidenced with value of t-test 14.12 greater than the value of t-table 2.042. in 2015, eka trislijayanti also had research about the use of show and tell method in teaching bahasa indonesia smp negeri 1 seririt. she concluded that: a) of students’ speaking skills get increased applying show and tell methods; b) the learning steps to speak properly by applying performance methods and informing with media pictures are divided into three stages, namely introduction, core activity, and closure(iksan, 2017). in the preliminary stage, the teacher gives apperception related to the material being taught. at the core activity stage, the teacher assigns students to describe pictures. in the closing stages, the teacher reflects on and evaluates the activities that have already taken place and provides reinforcement to students because they are already active when learning takes place; c) students gave very positive responses to the application of the show and tell method with picture media in speaking learning. the studies above show positive findings about the use of the method in language teaching and learning. while, based on the fact found on preliminary investigation, generally, students’ ability at sma negeri 2 palopo speaking skill were still low. therefore, the writer was interested in conducting a research to find out whether show and tell technique improves students’ speaking skill at eleventh class of senior high school negeri 2 palopo. methods research method and design in this research, author employed before-experimental system. this system was applied to know effectiveness of show and tell technique in instruction saying ability at eleventh class of sma negeri 2 palopo. formula of research design is illustrated below: http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 100 where: o1 : pre-survey x : treatment o2 : post-survey (sugiyono: 2008) location and time of research 1. location researcher delivered editing at eleventh of sma negeri 2 palopo. 2. time of the research the researcher conducted research at eleventh grade of sma negeri 2 palopo start from on february 20th to march 11th, 2020. variable the variable of this research, the researcher was consisting of two variables socalled self-sufficient variable and depend variable: 1. show and tell technique as independent variable show and tell technique was a technique that plays about describing thing. 2. students’ speaking skill as dependent variable the ability of students in english is different, especially, in vocabulary and listening. if the students have not speaking, the students will be difficult to understand to learn about english. to improve students speaking skill can used the show and tell technique to teach students and to improve their speaking. population and sample 1. population population of this editing is entire eleventh class of sma negeri 2 palopo in 2019/2020 academic year that consisted of 157 students, there were five classes, class xi ipa1 consisted 35 students, class xi ipa2 consisted 34 students, xi ipa3 consisted 26 students, xi ips1 consisted 32 students and xi ips2 consisted 30 students. 2. sample author applied which was used sampling technique. in this case, author will select room xi ipa1 as sample. the students consisted 35 students. there were boys and girls. they were around seventeen-years old. they had the same level of proficiency, because they are taught by the same teacher. instrument of the research in this research, author applied show and tell technique. the test consisted of presurvey and post-survey. the show and tell technique of survey was describing noun or thing which consisted of 8 parts of speech, 3 tenses, and descriptive text. the researcher used show and tell method which has 5e in the learning process that is having an engagement, exploration, explanation, elaboration, and then evaluation. pre-survey treatment post-survey o1 x o2 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 101 procedure of collecting data the procedure of collecting data held with the sequence as follows: 1. giving pre-survey the pre-survey applied to find out the students’ ability of speaking that uses show and tell technique. a pre-survey was used to know the previous mastery of students in mastering speaking skills before giving treatment. the show and tell technique will be given the students to describe about things every meeting. for the things that had described, the students made a sentence by linking the things. 2. giving treatment the researcher conducted treatments done four meetings. processes are as follows: a. second meeting on february 20th, 2020. the researcher had given the treatment in class the material gave were what is show and tell technique? and what is noun? example words of noun such things. in treatment, author described delineation about noun to learners with applying images. then, research would provide 10 vocabulary words for each meeting. b. the third meeting on february 26th, 2020. the material gave parts of speech. the researcher asked students to mention what is part of speech. then, the researcher gives an understanding of the part of speech along with an example. the parts of speech are noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, conjunction, and interjection. then, the researcher will provide 10 vocabulary words. c. the forth meeting on march 04th, 2020. the material gave tenses. the researcher asked students to mention what are tenses. then, the researcher gave an understanding of the tenses along with an example. the tenses were simple past tense, simple present tense, and simple future tense. then, the researcher would provide 10 vocabulary words. d. the fifth meeting on march 11th, 2020. the material gave what is descriptive text? example about descriptive text by using pictures and show and tell technique. 3. giving post-survey since allocating treatments to four meetings, author allocated the post-test. in post-survey, researcher gave the test the same test as in the pre-survey to the students. this survey was to know whether the students. this exam was to know whether students have a different result after giving treatment or not. technique of analyzing data the researcher was use quantitative analysis with incoming point and standard deviation of data and t-test paired sample with used spss 20.0. the author surveyed it with used assessment score accuracy, fluency, and comprehension from heaton (1990). to analyze learner’s speaking test, there would be some identity applied by the author for learner’ point by scoring the students speaking test result. those assessment criteria as follows: table 1. accuracy criteria rating accuracy 6 articulation is only very with slight governed with mother tongue. two or three small grammatical or lexical wrongs. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 102 5 articulation is with slight governed with mother tongue. a few small grammatical and lexical wrongs but most facial experiences were true. 4 articulation was still with moderate governed with mother tongue but no solemn phonological wrongs. handful grammatical and lexical wrongs but only one or two major wrongs raising disorder. 3 articulation is governed with mother tongue but only handful solemn phonological and lexical wrongs, several of which raise disorder. 2 articulation with solemn governed with mother by wrongs raising a snap in communications. many elementary and grammatical wrongs. 1 solemn articulation wrongs as good as many elementary grammatical and lexical wrongs. no proof of telling dominated several of language abilities and places does in purpose. table 2. fluency criteria rating fluency 6 says without overly amazing and venture by fair extensive way of idiom. quests for words with occasional but not only one or two no natural halt. 5 has to create an attempt at periods to seek for words. soft dispatch on all and only handful no natural paused. 4 he is created an attempt and seeks for paragraphs, they are not overly many no natural paused. with fair smooth delivery with most. with occasional incomplete but successful in bringing public purpose. just range distance. 3 is creates an attempt for many of periods. often is seeks for desirable purpose. better hesitate dispatch and incomplete. distance of idiom often finite. 2 lengthy rest while he/she author for desirable purpose. with frequent incomplete and hesitate dispatch. almost give up creating attempts at period. finite distance of idiom. 1 full of lengthy and no natural rest. very hesitate and incomplete dispatch. at periods gives up creating attempt. very finite distance of idiom. table 3. the comprehensibility criteria rating comprehensibility 6 simple of hearer comprehend speaker’s intention and public purpose. very handful interferences or clarification that is need. 5 speaker’s purpose and public purpose are with fair pure. handful interference with hearer for towards for illustration was necessity. 4 most of what sayer speaks in simple to obey. his/her mention is always understood but some distractions were necessity to assist him/her to speak letter to asked explanation. 3 hearer can to comprehend a lot of what is spoken, but he/she must with constant asked explanation. cannot comprehend many of speaker’s more involved or longer sentences. 2 only little handful (generally low sentence and phrase) can be realized and then with considerable attempt with someone who is applyed to hearing to sayer. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 103 rating comprehensibility 1 with hard anything of what is spoken can be realized. even when hearers create a great attempt suppress, sayers is incapable to clarity anything he/she seems to has spoken. (heaton: 1990) result of students’ speaking tests will be determined by classification students. it could be seen in the table below. the score of three tables above was converted into a score in the next table by using formula below: a student’s score = the gain score x 100 the maximun score (brown: 2004) beside technique for pointing through six balance above, author also makes evaluation classification to survey student’s saying aptitude. obeying was evaluation balance classification: table 4. evaluation balance classification classification scale evaluation excellent very good good fairly good poor very poor 86-100 71-85 56-70 41-55 26-40 1-25 6 5 4 3 2 1 daryanto: 2007) data collection analyzed with applying quantitative with applying statistical procedure and service solution (spss) ver. 20 for windows. spss 20 is computer software/program for stepping, evaluating or analysis data of statistics. results findings of research showed result of data that have been analyzed with statistical. it comprised students’ score of pre-test and post-test. students’ score of pre-survey table 5. point of students’ pre-test result students aspects of speaking skill mean accuracy fluency comprehensibility s1 2 1 2 5 s2 2 2 1 5 s3 1 2 2 5 s4 3 3 3 9 s5 1 2 1 4 s6 2 2 1 5 s7 3 3 3 9 s8 1 1 1 3 s9 3 3 3 9 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 104 students aspects of speaking skill mean accuracy fluency comprehensibility s10 2 1 1 4 s11 1 2 2 5 s12 2 2 1 5 s13 1 2 1 4 s14 2 2 1 5 s15 3 2 2 7 s16 2 1 2 5 s17 1 1 1 3 s18 2 1 2 5 s19 2 3 3 8 s20 3 3 3 9 s21 3 3 3 9 s22 2 2 1 5 s23 2 2 2 6 s24 2 2 2 6 s25 2 2 2 6 s26 2 1 2 5 s27 2 2 1 5 s28 3 3 3 9 s29 2 2 1 5 s30 2 1 2 5 s31 3 2 1 6 s32 2 2 1 5 s33 2 2 2 6 s34 2 1 2 5 s35 3 3 3 9 speaking ability composed of three aspects; namely accuracy, fluency, and comprehensibility. author would allocate and pack intend point of learners saying ability one with one. all of those would describe with attending lists: table 6. rate percentage point of students’ accuracy in pre-test result classification score frequency percentage excellent 6 very good 5 good 4 fairly good 3 8 23% poor 2 17 51% very poor 1 10 26% total 35 100% table 6 shows that, there were 8 students (23%) got fairly good score. there were 17 students (51%) who got poor score. there were 10 learners (26%) who got very poor score. table 7. rate percentage point of students’ accuracy in pre-test result http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 105 descriptive statistics n range minimum maximum sum mean statistic statistic statistic statistic statistic statistic std. error accuracy presurvey 35 2 1 3 69 1.97 .119 valid n (listwise) 35 table 7 explains intend point of accuracy got with learners in pre-test. it can be regarded with clear from these lists intend point is 1.97 and it represents these saying aptitude of the students. table 8. rate percentage point of learners’ fluency in pre-test result classification score frequency percentage excellent 6 very good 5 good 4 fairly good 3 11 29% poor 2 19 54% very poor 1 5 17% total 35 100% table 8 shows that there were 11 students (29%) got fairly good score. there were 19 learners (54%) who got poor score. there were 5 learners (17%) who got very poor score. table 9. mean point of students’ fluency pre-test result descriptive statistics n range minimum maximum sum mean statistic statistic statistic statistic statistic statistic std. error fluency presurvey 35 2 1 3 73 2.09 .111 valid n (listwise) 35 in table 9, it can be seen that highest point of learners is 3 and the lowest point was 1. it also indicates that mean point of learners’ accuracy 1.97 and standard deviation error was 111. table 10. rate percentage point of learners’ comprehensibility in pre-test result classification score frequency percentage excellent 6 very good 5 good 4 fairly good 3 8 23% http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 106 poor 2 13 37% very poor 1 14 40% total 35 100% table 10 shows that, there were 8 students (23%) got fairly good score. there were 13 learners (37%) who got poor score. there were 14 learners (40%) who got very poor score. table 11. mean point of learners’ comprehensibility pre-survey result descriptive statistics n range minimum maximum sum mean statistic statistic statistic statistic statistic statistic std. error comprehensibility pre-survey 35 2 1 3 64 1.83 .133 valid n (list-wise) 35 in table 11, it can be seen that highest point of learners was 3 and lowest 1. it also indicates that mean point of learners’ comprehensibility in pre-survey was 1.83 and standard deviation error is 133. students’ score of post-survey after knowing learners’ point in pre-test, author to take them treatment with applying show and tell technique. the result of learners’ point in post-test gave in attending list with dividing them into three aspect, they were accuracy, fluency, and comprehensibility. table 12. learners’ score students the aspects of speaking skill mean accuracy fluency comprehensibility s1 4 2 3 9 s2 3 3 2 8 s3 2 3 3 8 s4 5 5 6 16 s5 2 2 2 6 s6 3 3 2 8 s7 6 5 4 15 s8 4 3 2 9 s9 6 5 6 17 s10 3 2 4 9 s11 5 4 5 14 s12 5 3 4 12 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 107 s13 3 2 3 8 s14 4 3 2 9 s15 5 5 4 14 s16 3 4 2 9 s17 3 3 2 8 s18 3 3 4 10 s19 3 5 5 13 s20 5 5 4 14 s21 6 5 4 15 s22 5 4 3 12 s23 4 4 4 12 s24 4 4 5 13 s25 5 3 4 12 s26 4 4 3 11 s27 4 3 4 11 s28 5 5 5 15 s29 4 3 2 9 s30 4 4 3 11 s31 5 4 4 13 s32 5 4 5 14 s33 5 3 4 12 s34 3 3 2 8 s35 6 5 5 16 in other side, author had classified based on english saying assessments that composed of accuracy, fluency, and comprehensibility and it is presented through list distribution frequency and percentage. table 13. rate percentage point of learners’ classification score frequency percentage excellent 6 very good 5 9 26% good 4 9 26% fairly good 3 13 37% poor 2 4 11% http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 108 very poor 1 total 35 100% table 13 shows that, there were 9 learners (26%) got very good score. there were 9 learners (26%) who got good score. there were 13 learners (37%) who got fairly good score. there were 4 learners (11%) who got poor score. table 14. mean point of learners’ accuracy descriptive statistics n minimum maximum sum mean statistic statistic statistic statistic statistic std. error accuracy postsurvey 35 2 5 128 3.66 .169 valid n (listwise) 35 in table 14, it can be seen that highest score of learners’ accuracy were 5 and lowest score were 2. it also represents that mean point of learners’ accuracy in post-survey were 3.66 and standard error .169. table 15. the rate percentage score of students’ fluency classification score frequency percentage excellent 6 4 11% very good 5 11 31% good 4 9 26% fairly good 3 9 26% poor 2 2 6% very poor 1 total 35 100% table 15 shows that, there were 4 learners (11%) got excellent point. there were 11 learners (31%) who got very good point. there were 9 learners (26%) who got good point. there were 9 learners (26%) who got fairly good score. there were 2 students (6%) who got poor score. table 16. mean point of learners’ fluency descriptive statistics n minimum maximum sum mean statistic statistic statistic statistic statistic std. error fluency postsurvey 35 2 6 146 4.17 .190 valid n (listwise) 35 in table 16, it can be seen that highest point of learners were 6 and lowest point were 2. it also indicates that mean point of learners’ fluency in post-survey is 4.17 and standard error .190. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 109 table 17. rate percentage point of learners’ comprehensibility classification score frequency percentage excellent 6 2 6% very good 5 6 17% good 4 12 34% fairly good 3 6 17% poor 2 9 26% very poor 1 total 35 100% table 17 shows that, there were 2 students (6%) got excellent score. there were 6 learners (17%) who got very good point. there were 12 learners (34%) who got good point. there were 6 learners (17%) who got fairly good point. there were 9 learners (26%) who got poor score. table 18. mean point of learners’ comprehensibility descriptive statistics n minimum maximum sum mean statistic statistic statistic statistic statistic std. error comprehensibility post-survey 35 2 6 126 3.60 .206 valid n (list-wise) 35 in table 18, it can be seen that highest point of learners’ were 6 and lowest point were 2. it also indicates that mean point of learners’ comprehensibility in post-survey is 3.60 and standard error .206. the mean score of students’ pre-survey and post-survey result. table 19. mean point of learners’ pre-test result descriptive statistics n minimum maximum sum mean std. deviation pre-survey 35 3 9 206 5.89 1.827 valid n (listwise) 35 table 19 shows that highest point of learners in pre-survey was 9 and the lowest score were 3. besides, it also indicated that mean point of learners in pre-test was 5.89 and standard deviation was 1.827. table 20. mean point of learners’ post-survey result descriptive statistics n minimum maximum sum mean std. deviation post-survey 35 6 17 400 11.43 2.893 valid n (list-wise) 35 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 110 table 20 shows that highest point of learners in post-survey was 17 and lowest points are 6. besides, it also indicated that mean point of learners in post-survey was 11.43 and standard deviation is 2.893. the calculation of t-test pre-survey and post-survey result table 21. students’ result of t-test from pre-survey and post-survey result one-sample statistics n mean std. deviation std. error mean pre-survey 35 5.89 1.827 .309 post-survey 35 11.43 2.893 .489 table 21 shows that survey mean of pre-test is 5.89 and survey mean of post-test is 11.43, the n (number of the case) was 35 students. the standard deviation for pre-survey was 1.827 and the standard deviation for post-survey was 2.893. the standard error mean for pre-survey was .309 and standard error mean for post-test is .489. the description of t-test was described by the following table. table 22. probability value of t-test of pre-survey and post-survey table 22 shows that probability value is lower than alpha (α) (0.000 < 0.05) and degree of freedom 94 which means that there is significant difference in post-survey. it indicated that the null hypothesis (h1) was accepted and, of course, the alternative hypothesis (h0) was rejected. it showed that the use of show and tell technique as an authentic material significantly improve the students’ speaking and give significantly greater contribution to the students’ speaking skill. based on research findings. the data analysis above shows that applying show and tell techniques is effective in improving students’ speaking skills. in the post-survey, it can be seen in the table before after giving continuous treatment using show and tell technique. discussions in this section, researchers take 3 students as representations that have different abilities, namely students s8, s9, and s24. from these three students, there are differences in the comparison of speaking skills in show and tell technique, namely high, medium and low in the class. the first student is the student (s9), the study found that students could explain the topic in the pre-survey, because he is fluent and comprehensive in explaining the topic. in addition, after researchers provide treatment about show and tell technique, students are increasingly eager to put out the words paired samples test paired differences t df sig. (2tailed) mean std. deviation std. error mean 95% confidence interval of the difference lower upper pair 1 pre-survey – post-survey 5.543 1.704 .288 -6.128 -4.958 19.248 34 .000 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 111 spoken. before the researcher gave treatment, he got a score of 9 in the pre-survey and after giving treatment, students got 16 scores in the post-survey. the second student is a student (r24) got a moderate ability to describe a topic. after research provides treatment about show and tell technique, these students have the motivation to learn to speak, especially in terms of confidence to appear in public. after that, before the researcher gave treatment, she got a score 6 of pre-survey and after giving treatment the student got 13 scores on the post-survey. the third student is a student (r8). this student has a different comparison between the two students above, because he has a very low level of student r9 and student r24. after the researcher gives treatment about show and tell students are lazy to put out words and are ashamed to appear in front. before the researcher gave treatment, he got 3 scores on the pre-survey and after giving the treatment, students got 9 scores on the post-survey. the difference between wulandari, in her thesis entitled “meningkatkan rasa percaya diri anak usia dini melalui metode show and tell”. the result of her research indicates the self-confidence of the students in group a paud miana v increased after implementing the show and tell method. the second research is nurvitasyari, in her thesis entitled “the use of show and tell (s&t) method in teaching vocabulary at the second year students of junior high school (smp) negeri 4 galesong selatan kabupaten takalar”. the differences between research nurvitasyari uses show and tell. similarities between research nurvitasyari teaching students’ vocabulary. the third study was eka trislijayanti (2015) had research “penggunaan metode show and tell dalam pembelajaran bahasa indonesia untuk meningkatkan keterampilan berbicara siswa kelas vii.c di smp negeri 1 seririt tahun ajaran 2014/2015”. the difference between eka trislijayanti concluded that an increase in the average score of students’ speaking skills by applying the show and tell method with picture media occurred in cycle i and cycle ii in car (classroom action research). based on the explanation, speaking teaching skills using show and tell technique at sma negeri 2 palopo, the students got a significant improvement in their speaking skills scores. therefore, it can be stated that show and tell technique in teaching speaking learning have solved students’ speaking skills for eleventh grade students of sma negeri 2 palopo. so, the hypothesis put forward in this study that says “the effective show and tell technique to teach speaking skills” is accepted. conclusions based on the research findings it can be concluded that the use of show and tell technique is effective to improve students’ speaking skill at eleventh grade of sma negeri 2 palopo. in other words, it can be proven that there are significant differences in the learning outcomes of students who learn to speak through show and tell technique with students who take learning without show and tell technique. based on data analysis in the class, the pre-survey average score is 5.8900. while in the post-survey average score is 18.4300. based on the analysis of the data it can be concluded that the teaching skills of speaking using effective show and tell technique at eleventh grade of sma negeri 2 palopo. it can be proven that the scores of students in the post-survey are higher than in the pre-survey. suggestions http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 112 based on conclusion of study, the author suggests to attending parties: 1. for teachers, it is recommended to other teachers to use show and tell technique in teaching speaking as an effective way to improve students' speaking skills. 2. for students, they can use show and tell technique to improve their speaking skills 3. for researchers, in this thesis researchers hope that results of this study can be useful for readers. it is hoped that readers will get more information about the use of show and tell technique. in this study, future researchers are expected to conduct research to find other significance of show and tell technique in other english skills. bibliograpghy ag. bambang setiyadi, teaching english as foreign language, jakarta: terpadu 2006 anonym, http://www.buzzle.com/articles/oral-communication-skills.html, accessed on january 16th 2014 at 10.42 am. artono wadirma, et al, english in focus: for grade vii junior high school (smp/mts), (jakarta: pusat perbukuan, depdiknas, 2008) anwar, l., furwana, d., & iksan, m. (2020). developing reading worksheet for tenth grade students of sma negeri 4 palopo. foster: journal of english language teaching, 1(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.24256/foster-jelt.v1i1.2 christine c. m. goh, teaching speaking in the language classroom, relc porthfolio series 15 daryanto, evaluasi pendidikan (jakarta pt. rineka cipta, 2007) djalius syah, international english conversation eka ningsih, improving speaking skill by using classroom observation technique at the eight year in smp pmds putra palopo, (palopo: stain palopo, 2013, ) eka trislijayanti, penggunaan metode show and tell dalam pembelajaran bahasa indonesia untuk meningkatkan keterampilan berbicara siswa kelas vii.c di smp negeri 1 seririt tahun ajaran 2014/2015 foley j. a., new dimension in the teaching of oral communication, (singapore: seameo, regional language centre, 2005) h. dougles brown, teaching by principles: an interactive approach to language pedagogy. (ed ii; san fransisco: addison wesley longman inc., 2001), p. 268 h. martin manser, oxford learners pocket dictionary, (new edition ; 1995) hebert h. clark, psychology and language. (united state of america: harcoun brace joranovicz, ich., 1997) hebert h. clark and eve v clark, psychology and language, (united state of america: harcount brace joranovich, ich., 1997), p. 223 iksan, m. (2017). empowering business group peanut tenteng. proceeding international conference on natural and social science (iconss) 2017, 1(1). http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://www.buzzle.com/articles/oral-communication-skills.html copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 2, october 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 113 irvy, i. i. (2020). understanding the learning models design for indonesian teacher. international journal of asian education, 1(2), 95–106. https://doi.org/10.46966/ijae.v1i2.40 imelda wardi, haan basri, abdul waris, improving the ability in writing descriptive text trought guided question technique, jurnal of english language teaching society (elts) vol. 2, no 1, 2014 j.b heaton, writing english language test (ed. i: new york inc, 1998) jack c. richards, teaching listening and speaking from theory to practice (new york: cambridge university press, 2008) jack c. richard and willy a. renandya, methodology in language teaching (ed. i: new york cambridge university press, 2002) leni widia, i nengah astawa, improving speaking skill through task based learning strategy (jurnal santiaji pendidikan, vol. 4 , nomor i, at seventh grade students of smp negeri 3 baturiti in academy year 2014) m. basri wello and hafsah amin j. nur, an introduction to esp. (ujung pandang: sunu baraya, 1999) muhammad rasyid and hafsah amin j. nur, teaching english and foreign language nasikhatun listya atika farah, improving the student’s english speaking skills through show and tell method, (universitas madura: madura 2016) nurvitasyari, the use of show and tell (s&t) method in teaching vocabulary at the second year students of junior high school (smp) negeri 4 galesong selatan kabupaten takalar, 2017 penny ur, a., course in learning teaching, practice and theory, (great britain: cambridge university press, 1996) siti nurbaya, dkk, improving students speaking ability through role play, (tanjung pura university: pontianak 2015) siti sadatul fajriah, the effect of mind mapping technique on students’ writing of descriptive text, a thesis, (jakarta: syarif hidayatullah state islamic university 2017) sugiyono, metode penelitian pendidikan: pendekatan kuantitatif, kualitatif, dan r&d (bandung:alfabeta) p. 2015 wilga m. rivers, teaching foreign language skill, (ed. ii. london: the university of chicago press, 1981) willy a renandya and jack c richards, teaching speakingin the language classroom, relc portopolio series wulandari, indarti a, meningkatkan rasa percaya diri anak usia dini melalui metode show and tell, subdistrict sukasari, bandung city school year 2014/2015 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 4, october 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 199 students' motivation in learning english in islamic higher education masruddin1 & muhammad zuljalal al hamdany2 institut agama islam negeri palopo, palopo, indonesia masruddin_asmid@iainpalopo.ac.id abstract in the learning process, motivation has an important role because motivation can foster interest in learning. this research will be conducted on semester 1 students of the islamic religious education study program at iain palopo with the aim of describing student motivation in learning english and the factors that influence student motivation in learning english. this research is a descriptive research, which describes existing events by combining quantitative and qualitative. data collection techniques are questionnaires, observations, and interviews. the subjects of this study were first semester students of the islamic religious education study program who took basic english courses. the results showed that second semester students of islamic religious education had high motivation in learning english, which consisted of internal and external factors keywords: higher education, learning english, learning motivation introduction motivation is an effort made to create a certain situation so that someone has the desire to do something that can be obtained from outside or within a person. in the learning process, motivation has an important role because motivation can foster interest in learning. someone who has motivation will study harder than someone who does not have motivation. research has shown that there is a relationship between student motivation and success in learning english (christiana, i. o, 2009: 30, choosri, c and intharaksa, u, 2011: 1, and alizadeh, m, 2016: 11). english has been taught from elementary school level to university level. in the islamic religious education study program at iain palopo, english is taught for 3 semesters, namely semesters 1, 2 and 4. in semester 1, students receive basic english courses, semester 2 students receive applied english courses, and semester 4 students receive english for specific purpose (esp) courses. this research was conducted on semester 1 students of the islamic religious education study program at iain palopo. students in the first semester need to know their motivation to improve their english skills. ihsan (2016: 33) states that motivation needs to be known before someone joins a program. in addition, the motivation that students have can encourage them to study harder, for example a student's motivation in learning english is to be able to speak with foreigners, then these students will study english harder in order to be able to speak with foreigners. lecturers also have an important role in knowing the motivation of their students. lecturers can use student motivation as a consideration in choosing the right teaching methods and strategies. lecturers who already know the level of student learning http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 mailto:_asmid@iainpalopo.ac.id copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 4, october 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 200 motivation in learning english can carry out the learning process according to the needs and interests of students so that learning objectives can be fulfilled. yufrizal (2007: 11) states that the factors that influence success in learning english include motivation and behavior in speaking english. thus, research on student motivation and the factors that influence student motivation in learning english is important to do. theories regarding motivation have existed since the 1950s due to the influence of behaviorist theory (oletic and ilic, 2014: 24). motivation is something related to psychology, level of behavior and interest and cannot be seen (ihsan, 2016:32). motivation encourages someone to do something. in learning, motivation is one of the factors that can increase interest in learning. dornyei in xiao (2010: 61) explains the importance of motivation in learning english which can affect learning outcomes. motivation has a positive correlation and influences learning outcomes (warti, 2016 and sobandi, 2017). gardner in long, et al. (2013: 136 – 137) states that there are four aspects of motivation to learn english, namely one's goals in learning, the effort to learn, the desire to achieve goals, and attitudes in learning. indicators of learning motivation consist of the desire and desire to succeed, the encouragement and need for learning, the hopes and aspirations for the future, the appreciation in learning, the interesting activities in learning, and the existence of a conducive learning environment so that it is possible to study well (uno, 2010). effective learning is when the learning reflects the new atmosphere around it and changes the views of the learner based on that reflection (kim, 2014). suardi (2018: 10) mentions two important elements in learning, namely understanding and change in a person. in the learning process, a person will experience interactions that can come from within or outside of oneself. with this interaction will cause changes in the individual. the learning process is successful if there is a change from within the individual who is learning. this change must be directed and in accordance with the norms or values that are related to and embraced by society. method this research is a descriptive research, which describes events that have existed. in this study combining quantitative and qualitative. the quantitative method is used to describe the level of student motivation in learning english and the factors that influence students in learning english. while the qualitative method is used to describe the description of motivation and the factors that influence student motivation. the subjects of this study were first semester students of the islamic religious education study program at iain palopo who took basic english courses. this research will be conducted for 6 months, from july to november 2022. in this study, data collection techniques were used including questionnaires, observations, and interviews. questionnaire the questionnaire used in this study is student learning motivation. the questionnaire used is a closed questionnaire. the use of closed questionnaires is based on the advantages of closed questionnaires, namely data that is easy to process, respondents who do not need to write down their thoughts, filling in a short amount of http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 4, october 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 201 time, and being able to capture a relatively large number of respondents (sudaryono, 2013). the score weight on student answers is detailed as follows: 4: strongly agree 3: agree 2: disagree 1: strongly disagree observation observations made in this study were direct observations, namely observing the learning process in class. the researcher filled out the observation sheet by giving a tick according to the conditions at the time the learning took place. the observation sheet uses a multilevel scale, with the following weighted values. 5: very good 4: good 3: average 2: bad 1: very bad data analysis techniques in this study used quantitative analysis. the data obtained from the questionnaire was processed using descriptive statistics. the researcher calculated the scores obtained from the questionnaire and student grades. the data is presented in a frequency distribution table of mean scores and a table of frequency distribution values. to calculate the percentage and frequency using the following formula (bungin, 2014). notes: n = total number fx = individual frequency results and discussion this research was conducted on first semester students of the islamic religious education study program. questionnaires were distributed to students. there were 26 students who filled out the questionnaire consisting of 4 students and 22 female students. in addition, research data was taken based on interviews. questionnaires and interviews are used to find out the following. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 4, october 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 202 students' perceptions of english interest in learning english figure 1. sstudents'interest in learning english english learning in class figure 2. sstudents'perception on the english learning in class 0.00% 10.00% 20.00% 30.00% 40.00% 50.00% 60.00% 70.00% students' interest in learning english interested not interested 0.00% 10.00% 20.00% 30.00% 40.00% 50.00% 60.00% 70.00% 80.00% students' perception on the english learning in class very pleasant pleasant less enjoyable not enjoyable http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 4, october 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 203 the influence of the teacher on interest in learning english chart 3. teacher's influence on interest in learning english from the results of data analysis, it was found that there were 65.4% of students who liked english and 34.6% of students who did not like english. none of the students thought that learning english in class was unpleasant. of all students, 69.2% thought learning english was fun, 19.2% students thought learning english was not fun, and 11.5% thought learning english was very fun. students think that learning english is fun in class. from the results of the interviews it was found that learning english is fun because the teachers are good, fun, and cool. in addition, students think that using english can increase self-confidence. the use of english can show one's intelligence. the english teaching method can be a reason for students liking or disliking learning english. fun english teaching methods can make students interested in learning english. according to budiana and djuwari (2018: 201) students can be interested in learning english if the teacher knows interesting strategies in teaching. conversely, inappropriate teaching methods also make english unpleasant, for example learning that is too serious and not fun. teachers who give too many assignments also make learning english unpleasant. the teacher also influences learning english to be less enjoyable. as many as 92.3% stated that the teacher had a great influence on students' interest in learning english and the remaining 7.7% of students stated that the teacher had no influence on students' interest in learning english. usman, et al (2016: 141) stated that students have motivation to learn english because the teachers are good, that is, have the character and competence of the teacher. another factor that causes learning english in class to be less enjoyable is that english is difficult to understand such as difficult pronunciation and not knowing vocabulary. other students stated that they were afraid when pronouncing wrong and 0.00% 10.00% 20.00% 30.00% 40.00% 50.00% 60.00% 70.00% 80.00% 90.00% 100.00% is there a teacher's influence on students' interest in learning english? yes no http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 4, october 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 204 that english was boring. this is also experienced by english learners in asia. research has shown that difficulties in english are caused by students' fear of making mistakes in using the language english and there are problems in mastering vocabulary which makes it difficult to understand reading (khattak, et al and souvannasy in souriyavongsa, et al.,2013). according to students, the english language skill that was the most difficult for students to master was grammar 65.4%. the next most difficult english skill is vocabulary 57.7%. furthermore, the ability to speak is felt difficult by 53.8% of students. the next most difficult english skills are listening (46.2%), reading (19.2%). in writing skills, students have no difficulty. there were no students who chose writing as a difficult skill. this is different from several previous studies which state that writing is the most difficult skill to master by second language learners, even for speakers of that language because writing requires a long process (humpreys, 2003 and richards, 1990 in gharabally, 2015). factors supporting success in speaking english are from internal and external factors. internal factors, namely from yourself, including diligently practicing english, being persistent, and having motivation in learning. external factors include the teacher and the methods used by the teacher in learning english. williams and burner in usman, et al (2016: 134 – 135) state that the teacher is an external factor that can influence success or failure in learning that is supported by the learning process, namely learning activities and materials, feedback, and classroom atmosphere. sstudents'motivation in learning english to find out students' motivation in learning english, a questionnaire adapted from gadner's attitude/motivation test battery was used (gardner, 1960). student motivation in learning english can be seen in table 1 below. table 1. sstudents'motivation in learning english no statements sa a m d sd 1 i learned english in order to be able to speak fluently with foreigners 46,2% 53,8% 2 i study english in order to understand foreign culture. 30,8% 53,8% 15,4% 3 i learn english so i can read the news, listen to songs or watch movies in english. 38,5% 53,8% 3,8% 3,8% 4 i learn english to make me more respected by other people. 15,4% 46,2% 30,8% 7,7% 5 i study english so i can get a job easily. 26,9% 53,8% 15,4% 3,8% http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 4, october 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 205 6 i study english to continue my studies abroad. 38,5% 53,8% 3,8% 3,8% 7 i like learning english because the material and learning are fun. 11,5% 65,4% 23,1% 8 i always practice language materials my new english. 57,7% 24,6% 7,7% 9 i always look forward to the schedule for learning english. 61,5% 26,9% 7,7% 3,8 % 10 i like learning english because i always get good grades in english class. 11,5% 46,2% 42,3% 11 i feel guilty if i fail in learning english. 19,2% 57,7% 19,2% 3,8 % 12 i will get a higher score if i study english harder. 34,6% 57,7% 7,7% from table 1 it can be seen that students' motivation to learn english is to be able to speak fluently with foreigners. all students answered agree on this statement item. speaking is the most important skill because speaking is a necessary skill to have a conversation (leong and ahmadi, 2017). in addition, the second motivation of students to learn english is to get higher scores. a high score can be an award and a bad score can be a consequence for students given by the teacher. getting a low score can make students who do not master english become frustrated and unmotivated (qashoa, 2006). furthermore, littlejohn in qashoa (2006) states that a teacher should be able to motivate students that they can master english. understanding foreign cultures is also a student motivation in learning english. this is different from the results of research by qashoa (2006) which states that none of the respondents chose to study english to get to know american and british literature. english course is not a subject that can motivate students to learn english. this can be seen from the students' choices on the questionnaire. there were no students who answered strongly agree on the item looking forward to the schedule learning english, even 3.8% of students answered strongly disagree. thus, english teachers must work harder to make english a subject that students look forward to. conclusion students of the islamic religious education study program at iain palopo have high motivation in learning english. the highest factor that influences student learning motivation is the desire of students to be able to talk to foreigners and get high scores in english class. in contrast, students do not have high motivation in english class as seen from the low response of students in waiting for english class. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 4, october 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 206 student motivation is also influenced by teachers and learning methods used in class. teachers have an important role in motivating students to learn english. students like learning english if the teacher has a good character in teaching and students do not like english if the teacher gives a lot of assignments and cannot make the class fun. using appropriate learning methods can also motivate students to learn english. references alizadeh, m. 2016. the impact of motivation on english language learning. international journal of research in english education (1) 1: 11 – 15. budiana, k.m. dan djuwari. 2018. the non-native sstudents'motivation in learning english at stie perbanas surabaya. journal of language and literature 12 (2): 195 – 202. bungin, b. 2014. metodologi penelitian kuantitatif. jakarta: kencana prenada media group. choosri, c dan intharaksa, u. 2011. relationship between motivation and sstudents'english learning achievement: a study of the second-year vocational certificate level hatyai technical college students. proceedings the 3rd international conference on humanities and social sciences: 1 – 15. christiana, o.i. 2009: 34, influence of motivation on sstudents'academic performance. the social sciences jurnal (4) 1: 30 – 36. gharabally, m. a. 2015. the writing difficulties faced by l2 learners and how to minimize them. international journal of english language and linguistics research (3) 5: 42 – 49. ihsan, m.d. 2016. sstudents'motivation in speaking english. journal of english educators society (1) 1: 31 – 48. kim, j. 2014. college efl llearner'sspeaking motivation under english-medium instruction policy. the journal of asia tefl (11) 1: 37 64. leong, l.m. dan ahmadi, s.m. 2017. an analysis on factors influencing llearners'english speaking skill. international journal of research in english education 34 – 41. long, c., et. al. 2013. the study of student motivation on english learning in junior middle school-a case study of no.5 middle school in gejiu. english language teaching ccsenet journal (6) 9 : 136 – 145. oletic, a dan ilic, n. 2014. intrinsic and extrinsic motivation for learning english as a foreign language. elta journal (2) 2: 23 – 38. qashoa, s.h.h. 2006. motivation among learners of english in the secondary schools in the eastern coast of the uae. disertasi: institut of education british university in dubai. sobandi. 2015. pengaruh motivasi belajar terhadap hasil belajar bahasa indonesia pada siswa kelas viii mts negeri 1 pangandaran. jurnal diksatrasia vol 1 no 2 agustus 2017 hal 306 310. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 4, october 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 207 souriyavongsa, t, dkk. 2013. factors causes students low english language learning: a case study in the national university of laos. international journal of english language education 1 (1): 179 -192. suardi, m. 2018. belajar dan pembelajaran. yogyakarta. deepublish. uno, h. b. teori motivasi dan pengukurannya. jakarta. bumi aksara. usman, b, dkk. 2016. the influence of teacher's competence towards the motivation of students in learning english. jurnal studies in english language and education, vol 3 nomor 2. hal 134 – 146. warti, e. pengaruh motivasi belajar siswa terhadap hasil belajar matematika siswa di sd angkasa 10 halim perdana kusuma jakarta timur. jurnal mosharafa volume 5 nomor 2 mei 2016. hal 177 185. xiao, j. 2010. motivation and beliefs in distance language learning: the case of english learners at srtvu, an open university in china. the journal of asia tefl (7) 3 : 59 – 91. yufrizal, h. 2007. an introduction to second language acquisition. bandung: pustaka reka cipta. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.3, no. 3, july 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 123 pedagogy training courses in the mekong delta: efl teachers' satisfaction and expectations le xuan mai1*, phan thanh dat2, le thanh thao3 1,3 can tho university, can tho, vietnam 2 kien giang college, kien giang, vietnam thaole@ctu.edu.com abstract this study investigates efl teachers’ expectations and satisfaction with the teaching pedagogy training courses in the mekong delta. the study was conducted on teachers of english in the mekong delta of vietnam, including 51 teachers answering the questionnaires, and six teachers were randomly invited for the interview. the results from the study revealed that the efl teachers showed high expectations in the teaching pedagogy training courses. significantly, the teachers expected to train on language teaching methodology, lesson planning, and technology the most. additionally, most participants expressed high satisfaction with the teaching pedagogy training courses they had participated in. remarkably, they were delighted with the program issues and academic aspects of training. the significant findings of this study were expected to contribute to the insightful understanding of efl teachers’ needs. based on the teachers’ needs, the study suggested solutions to improve the quality of further professional development training. keywords: efl pedagogy training, mekong delta, teachers’ expectations, teachers’ satisfactions introduction vietnam has been integrated widely and deeply into international relations in both regions and worldwide. for instance, vietnam became a member of the association of southeast asian nations (asean) in 1995, the world trade organization (wto) in 2007, and the asia pacific economic cooperation (apec) in 2008. as a result, the necessity of enhancing the english competence for vietnamese human resources is more significant. to improve the quality of english teaching and learning in the vietnamese context, the ministry of education and training (moet) has approved the implementation of vietnam’s national foreign language 2020 (nfl 2020). the ambitious project aims to enhance vietnamese people’s language competencies that help them compete in the international job market. however, after nearly a decade of employing the project, the minister of moet, mr phung xuan nha, admitted that the project had no expected effects as the initial targets (nguyen, 2017). the lack of qualified teachers was one of the fundamental reasons for project 2020. consequently, the need to enhance teacher professional development becomes essential. karimi (2011) finds that professional development can help improve teachers’ efficacy in teaching. in other words, teachers’ teaching strategies employed in classes are closely related to their knowledge and skills. consequently, teachers can get new beliefs in http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 mailto:thaole@ctu.edu.com copyright © the author(s) vol.3, no. 3, july 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 124 their capabilities and may interrupt or change their previous beliefs. partaking in professional development training has helped improve teachers’ teaching practices and increase their students’ learning achievements (desimone et al., 2002). the pedagogy training has gained special consideration by both teachers and educators in developing professional development. postareff and colleagues' (2007) study found that pedagogy training plays an important role, a compulsory part of training teachers in norway, the uk, and sri lanka, especially for teachers in higher education. additionally, lingard and colleagues (2003) described pedagogy as “the interrelated aspects of teaching and learning” (p.400). inayati and emaliana (2017) also agreed that pedagogy should be implemented under teachers’ beliefs about teaching and learning, mainly discussing teacher-centred education and student-centred learning. according to the findings of that study, the trainee teachers have performed more student-centred and less teacher-centred. moreover, their teaching skills have also improved significantly. from the idea of “global thinking, local teaching” (kramsch & sullivan, 1996, p.200), an authentic elt pedagogy is realized through teaching methodologies and materials. participating in pedagogical training could improve teachers’ pedagogical thinking and teaching skills (postareff et al., 2007). according to voss et al. (2011), teachers’ pedagogical components include classroom management, classroom assessment, and understanding of teaching methods. in other words, language teaching methods are one of the critical pedagogical components that teachers must develop. in brief, plenty of training programs have demonstrated that enhancing efl teachers’ competence is essential, so an investigation to improve the quality of professional development activities is vital. teachers’ background, motivation, and program characteristics are three influential factors affecting teachers’ satisfaction with pd activities (nasser & shabti, 2010). background characteristics, such as educational qualifications, teaching and learning experience, and school duties, are usually included in the pd activities' participation standards. subsequent, familiar approaches view motivation as psychic and dynamic energy that encourages people to do tasks and comprehensively explain their activities (helms, 2006). there is a separation between external and internal motivation (ryan & deci, 2000). the responses of externally motivated individuals are driven by considerations such as salary promotions, an educational degree, and development in the shape of their job or avoiding acquiescence such as losing status or circumstances. one’s intrinsic motivation is driven by inquisitiveness and affair. recognizing the correlation between sources of the impulse to participate in pd and comfort can escort policy-makers in investigating productive techniques for boosting education personnel to engage in pd projects. the third set of variables that correlate to satisfaction from pd programs refers to program characteristics. parts of the program should meet participants' needs and demands to feel fulfilled (scollon et al., 2004). it depends on whether they are advantageous or disadvantageous to individual well-being, needs, and cultural norms. among the domains and various competencies in moet (2013), the present study primarily concentrates on the territory of knowledge of language teaching to investigate efl teachers’ needs and expectations in the pedagogy training courses, including the http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.3, no. 3, july 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 125 competencies regarding the language teaching methodology, lesson planning, conducting a lesson, assessment of language learning, resources technology for language teaching. bui (2016) and kazemi and ashrafi (2014) are two typical studies on teachers’ satisfaction. bui (2016) researched the in-service training program for vietnamese primary school teachers of english. the participants were separated into three groups, including 100 teacher participants answering the questionnaire, 30 participants participating in the course, and 17 school-head teachers. both questionnaire and interview questions aimed to evaluate the in-service training program by focusing on content, methods, materials, management, teachers or trainers, objectives, acceptability, and attendance fee. the findings showed that all aspects of the program had positive comments from participants. in kazemi and ashrafi’s study (2014), in-service training programs were researched to help teachers stay up-to-date and address their practical teaching issues. besides some essential elements of those programs like the mandate, time, and budgets, the study mainly scrutinized the adequacy of objectives (considering the weaknesses and strengths of those programs) for the trainee teachers. according to the qualitative data from the semistructured interviews, the study emerged into seven categories, including teachers’ needs, contents, teaching skills improvement, proficiency development, teachers’ motivation, and teachers’ involvement in making decisions. the findings revealed the lack of teachers’ expectations of in-service training programs in iran. the participants of this study mostly gave negative perceptions and discussed the weaknesses of the programs. for example, they mentioned that the contents and topics were irrelevant to their needs, expectations, and practical teaching; they did not improve their proficiency and knowledge and commented on unqualified teacher educators. it is essential to investigate teachers’ expectations of offering practical training workshops. igawa (2008) investigated the professional development needs of efl teachers in korea and japan. based on the hypotheses that (1) efl teachers are professionals and (2) they need activities and processes for their ongoing growth, the researcher collected data from 44 teachers, including japanese and korean educational institutions, including 38 nonnative speakers and six native speakers. the result showed that efl teachers in japan and korea are mainly concerned with teaching skills and methods, language improvement, communication skills, and others when participating in professional development activities. zein (2017) also studied primary efl teachers' and teacher educators' professional development needs. consequently, the researcher tried to elucidate professional development activities' improved practice and effect. from the data obtained via semistructured interviews, teachers are expected to develop skills, including classroom management, error correction, lesson planning, giving feedback, teaching integrated skills, and working with various students. in addition, nguyen (2018) also conducted a study on efl teachers’ professional development needs in bac lieu city, the mekong delta, specifically related to the training programs' content, time, and formats. moreover, to recognize the similar and different needs of efl secondary and high school teachers, the researcher invited 62 participants to complete the questionnaire survey and semi-structured interview. the result indicated that http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.3, no. 3, july 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 126 most participants showed strong expectations of developing their competencies. moreover, the time and formats of professional development programs were also considered. le and nguyen (2019) employed a study on efl teachers’ expectations of professional development training in soc trang province, vietnam. sixty-seven efl teachers were invited to answer a questionnaire including seven main clusters language proficiency, language teaching methodology, lesson planning, conducting a lesson, assessing language learning, resources, and technology for language teaching. the findings indicated that most participants showed high expectations of those. additionally, their experience also affected their satisfaction with the professional development programs. although many researchers have investigated this area, few were born in the mekong delta. furthermore, it is necessary to regularly conduct studies on teachers’ views on the training programs to adjust them in a timely manner. this study was conducted to fill in these gaps based on these reasons. methods design this study was descriptive, mixed-method research using quantitative and qualitative approaches. specifically, a questionnaire was considered a quantitative method and interviews believed a qualitative method was combined to answer all two research questions. first, the questionnaire investigated teachers’ needs and expectations when attending the teaching pedagogy training courses and teachers’ satisfaction levels with the system. moreover, semi-structured interviews were employed to collect qualitative data to gain insight into teachers’ opinions about what they expect from the courses. instruments questionnaire fifty-one efl teachers working in some high schools in cantho city took part in the questionnaire, and their information is displayed in table 1. table 1. participants for the questionnaire variables number percentage genders male 19 37.3 female 32 62.7 degrees bachelor 44 86.3 master 7 13.7 doctorate 0 0.0 teaching experience <5 years 22 43.1 5-10 years 13 25.5 11-15 years 14 27.4 >15 years 2 4.0 in this study, the questionnaire was designed with forty-two items. there are two main sections involved in the questionnaire. those are described in table 2. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.3, no. 3, july 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 127 table 2. summary of the questionnaire cluster items efl teachers’ satisfaction levels of the teaching pedagogy training courses non-academic aspects 1, 2, 3 academic aspects 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 reputation 11, 12, 13, 14 access 15, 16, 17 programs issues 18, 19 efl teachers’ expectations of the teaching pedagogy training courses language teaching methodology 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25 lesson planning 26, 27 conducting a lesson 28, 29, 30 assessment of language learning 31, 32 resources 33, 34 technology 35, 36 to ensure the validity and reliability of the questionnaire, the online questionnaire was piloted among seventeen efl teachers in some parts of the mekong delta. they have similar backgrounds and experience participating in teaching pedagogy training courses. after the piloted questionnaires were collected, the data was analyzed on ibm spss statistics 20. the result showed that the reliability of the questionnaire with 36 items was high (α=.93>.70). in other words, the questionnaire was reliable enough to gather the data for the present study. instruments interview after completing the questionnaire, six teachers were randomly chosen to continue with the interview for further information. table 3 displays the information of the participants for interviews. table 3. participants for the interview a b c d e f gender male male female female male male qualification bachelor bachelor bachelor bachelor bachelor bachelor teaching experience 5 years 2 years 20 years 8 years 6 years 8 years the current study employed the semi-structured interview to gain insights into six efl teachers’ expectations of the teaching pedagogy training courses. for each main question, there were some sub-questions to gain further insights from the conversations. furthermore, the interview questions were translated into vietnamese versions to ensure the respondents’ deep understanding of the questions and the research validity and reliability. each interview was voice-recorded to save all precious information. the transcripts were sent back to the respondents, who helped check the meaning before the data were analyzed. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.3, no. 3, july 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 128 results and discussions participants’ satisfaction with pd activities table 4 presents the results of a descriptive statistic test on the teachers’ satisfaction with the teaching pedagogy training courses. table 4. the teachers’ satisfaction with the teaching pedagogy training courses clusters n min max mean sd non-academic aspects 51 2.00 5.00 3.88 .72 academic aspects 51 2.57 5.00 3.96 .65 reputation 51 2.75 5.00 3.93 .64 access 51 3.00 5.00 3.92 .61 program issues 51 3.00 5.00 4.01 .64 mean satisfaction 51 2.95 5.00 3.94 .57 according to the results, the mean score of teachers’ satisfaction levels with the teaching pedagogy training courses was high (m=3.94), and this also means the efl teachers were delighted with the teaching pedagogy training courses in the mekong delta, vietnam. after the one-way anova tests were run, there was no difference found among groups of participants in terms of their information, namely teaching experience, qualifications, and gender (t=-.69, df=50, p=.50>.05). therefore, the teachers in this study had high satisfaction with the courses. their satisfaction was not affected by any elements related to their demographic information. this finding is different from kazemi and ashrafi (2014), who found that efl teachers in that study were disappointed with the training courses because the training did not meet their needs. as observed in table 4, the highest mean score belonged to program issues (m=4.01), and the lowest was for non-academic aspects (m=3.88). it could be concluded that the teachers were most satisfied with the courses aiming to train them in terms of program issues, and the satisfactions for non-academic aspects were the least. however, after running the pair-sample t-tests, the insignificant differences among these clusters conclude that the teachers were satisfied with all types of courses at the same level. moreover, the teachers were delighted with the trainers. the shreds of evidence are stated based on the teachers' responses to those items representing issues related to the trainers, such as their knowledge, preparation, logical instructions, clear explanations, and persuasive answers. besides that, the teachers also felt appreciated for the reputation of the courses, the evaluation of the programs, and the goals and objectives of the courses. furthermore, the qualitative data shared similar views that explain more about why the teachers were happy with those training courses: • the teachers were satisfied with the trainers in terms of their knowledge and their instructions. • the applicable content of the courses also played an essential role in enhancing the teachers’ satisfaction. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.3, no. 3, july 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 129 • the teachers were motivated by the trainers' gifts during the course. • the good-looking or well-organized trainers impressed and inspired the teachers to be engaged. interviewees b and d said, generally, i was pretty content with those training courses. firstly, i was delighted with the quality of the duration since the instructors were well-prepared and knowledgeable. the instructed knowledge was up-to-date and practical, so i could apply it to my classes immediately. also, those courses were free for participants, but they could get some presents when they actively participated in the activities or gained outstanding performances during the courses. so, it made me motivated and unpressured. (teacher d, female, 8 years of teaching experience, bachelor) my most remarkable impression about the training course was the training contents. i mean the linguistic knowledge and teaching methods the instructors introduced in the course. to be honest, it was novel for me. in some cases, i gained benefits when applying those to my classes. i highly respected how they prepared the lessons, presented the lectures, and organized classroom activities regarding the instructors. they were knowledgeable and good-looking. also, the related procedures were not complicated. (teacher b, male, two years of teaching experience, bachelor) on the contrary, the findings also showed that the teachers might feel unhappy with the class size, the equipment, the unqualified infrastructure, the institutions running the programs, and especially the balance of theory-practice in the courses. in the interviews, they also complained about the class size. interviewees b and d stated, i think the class size was problematic. because of the crowded classes, some training activities could not occur as smoothly as the instructors expected. (teacher d, female, eight years, bachelor) because of my first participation in the training course, i did not record any difficulty or unsatisfied situations. however, the course i participated in was crowded, so i think it was hard for the instructors to include all participants in their training activities. (teacher b, male, two years of teaching experience, bachelor) in summary, the teachers were delighted with the courses, and their satisfaction was not affected by any elements related to their demographic information. it is different from nguyen (2018), who found that teaching experience did affect teachers’ satisfaction with the training courses in the study. they felt happy with the trainers, the reputation of the courses, the evaluation of the programs, and the goals and objectives of the courses. the findings are also different from kazemi and ashrafi (2014), who indicated that teacher educators or trainers are why efl teachers in the study were unsatisfied with the training courses. however, the findings of this paper were in line with those in bui (2016); efl teachers in the study also gave much positive feedback on the training courses. in the current study, some aspects should be improved: the class size, the equipment, the unprofessional appearance of the training institutions, the institutions running the programs, and especially the balance of theory-practice in the courses. these findings, somehow, share the same views with bui http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.3, no. 3, july 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 130 (2016), who found that some courses did not meet elf teachers’ needs as they could not achieve what they had expected. in nguyen (2018), the contents or formats of the professional development programs were reconsidered by the participants in the study. participants’ expectations for pd activities a descriptive statistic test was run to see teachers’ expectations of the teaching pedagogy training courses in general. the results are presented in table 5. table 5. descriptive statistics of teachers’ expectations of the teaching pedagogy training courses clusters n min max mean sd language teaching methodology 51 3.33 5.00 4.36 .41 lesson planning 51 3.50 5.00 4.29 .42 conducting a lesson 51 3.00 5.00 4.04 .48 assessment of language learning 51 2.00 5.00 3.69 .76 resources 51 2.50 5.00 3.70 .62 technology 51 1.50 5.00 3.41 .88 mean expectations 51 3.35 5.00 4.03 .36 table 5 shows that the mean score of teachers’ expectations of the teaching pedagogy training courses was high (m=4.03). the mean score (m=4.03; sd=.36) and the test value of 4.0 also confirmed the conclusion above (t=.62; df=50; p=.54). therefore, teachers' expectations of the teaching pedagogy training courses were high. the findings are similar to nguyen (2018) and le and nguyen (2019), who found that efl teachers are highly expected in professional development programs. in contrast, those are different from kazemi and ashrafi (2014), who indicated that efl teachers lack expectations on training courses. furthermore, table 5 also states that the mean scores of the six clusters of teachers’ expectations of the teaching pedagogy training courses ranged from 3.41 to 4.36. the highest mean score belonged to language teaching methodology (m=4.36), and technology got the lowest (m=3.41). the teachers expected to learn about language teaching methodology the most and wanted to know about technology at the lowest level. specifically, in terms of participants’ expectations of language teaching methodology, except for practising teaching skills, all other items in this cluster, including teaching techniques, lesson planning, or strategies for conducting a lesson, are highly anticipated. it can be inferred that the teachers were confident in their teaching skills, and what they needed to improve was to know, apply, and use more strategies and techniques to integrate four basic skills with different types of students for honest conversations. in the interviews, nearly all participants showed that they also expected to use various strategies and techniques to integrate the four skills for authentic communication. interviewee d expressed, in terms of teaching methodology, i want to be trained in the ways to integrate teaching, listening, speaking, reading, and writing towards the orientation of developing students’ competence. (teacher d, female, eight years of teaching experience, bachelor) http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.3, no. 3, july 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 131 the strict consideration of the orientation of competence-based teaching was explained as meeting the new educational goals that emphasize developing students’ competence, and the teachers must up-to-date their professional knowledge. remarkably, the new textbooks were piloted and applied, and there were no other choices for the teachers whose expectations for some training to approach new strategies and techniques to teach the four skills. for instance, interviewee a remarked, i want to learn and approach new teaching methods appropriate to the current change, especially teaching methods, to develop students’ competence. because i have not done well in that case, i have concentrated on teaching grammatical points and content related to students’ examinations. (teacher a, male, five years of teaching experience, bachelor) interviewee b added, because the ministry of education and training has been adapting and introducing new textbooks, thus if teachers are not trained well, they cannot achieve the expected target (teacher b, male, two years of teaching experience, bachelor) besides that, participants also wanted to learn more methods to identify students’ needs. in conclusion, the teachers showed high expectations of knowing more strategies and techniques to integrate all skills in a lesson. moreover, they needed training on applying and using these strategies or techniques effectively for different students whose needs are entirely different. besides that, the teachers somehow showed their confidence in their teaching skills. these findings aligned with igawa's (2008) study found that efl teachers’ main concerns are their teaching skills and methods, competence, and communication skills. besides that, the findings are similar to zein (2017), who indicated that efl teachers expect to improve their pronunciation and speak to give instructions better, learn how to integrate different skills in a lesson, and use more strategies to cater to students’ learning styles. moreover, nguyen (2018) also shared that efl teachers showed strong expectations of their competencies development. for participants’ expectations of lesson planning, the teachers were highly willing to learn and design more lesson plans, assignments, and activities for applying to their classes. although several teachers were confident in planning lessons, five of six interviewed teachers agreed that it was essential to participate in training courses that train them to design assignments, activities, and games to integrate the 4-skills effectively. for example, interviewee f said, in my opinion, learning more assignments or activities to develop students’ competence was good. (teacher f, male, eight years of teaching experience, bachelor) it is conspicuous that the teachers have high expectations of improving lesson planning to participate in the teaching pedagogy training courses. it also supports the findings from zein (2017), who indicated that efl teachers want to learn more about lesson planning. it was related to participants’ expectations of conducting a lesson. the majority of participants highly expected to create a supportive and meaningful learning environment. likewise, the participants all wanted to learn something related to effectively carrying out http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.3, no. 3, july 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 132 the lesson plans to give students significant chances to communicate in english. compared to the ideas just mentioned, the teachers had a lower expectation of courses aiming to train them to manage classroom activities for authentic communication. regarding the interview findings, some exceptionally experienced teachers are less expected to conduct lessons because of their confidence in this area. interviewee f stated, i am confident in creating a good learning environment or carrying out my lessons. therefore, i wonder why i need those kinds of training. (teacher f, male, eight years of teaching experience, bachelor) however, not all of the teachers felt the same. the inexperienced teachers also wanted to participate in the training courses of conducting lessons to meet the students’ needs. interviewee a expressed, i like teaching methods that flexibly catch up with students’ needs but are not hard and compulsive as traditional ones. (teacher a, male, five years of teaching experience, bachelor) although this cluster's results were not high compared to the previous ones, the teachers were still highly expected. furthermore, this cluster also shared a new finding that teaching experience somehow affected the teachers’ expectation of their willingness to participate in these courses. specifically, the more experienced teachers tended to expect from other types of courses rather than those aiming to train how to manage classroom activities because they were confident in doing these things in their classrooms. on the other hand, novice teachers would love to join in the courses training them on how to conduct lessons to meet students’ needs. this finding shares the same vein with zein (2017), who found that efl teachers love to develop their classroom management skills. in investigating participants’ expectations of language learning assessment, just half of the teachers desired to be trained in formative and summative assessment tools and techniques. however, nearly three-quarters still wanted some training to develop their abilities to design and use age-appropriate assessment tools. it can be inferred that instead of learning more tools or techniques related to formative and summative assessment, they tended to have more training in designing and using these tools effectively. it can be explained well throughout the findings from the interview. interviewee d stated, i have participated in those courses so far, so i do not have to join those again. (teacher d, female, eight years of teaching experience, bachelor) furthermore, one of the teachers showed very high expectations of applying onlineassessing programs or online tests. interviewee b asserted, i significantly want it. especially those are online testing or examining programs. (teacher b, male, two years of teaching experience, bachelor) in conclusion, the teachers did not want to learn more about summative and formative assessment tools as they had previously participated in many courses. however, it does not mean that they did not care about assessment. they wanted to apply new ways of evaluating students’ progress, namely online testing or evaluation software. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.3, no. 3, july 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 133 regarding participants’ expectations of resources, the teachers were less interested in those training. just half of the teachers responded to the items positively. these results also were explained well in the findings of the interviews. interviewee f stated, i think it is good to participate. however, being an experienced teacher in a high school, i find that the contents of the textbooks are diverse and much, so extra learning resources are just used to give extra assignments to students. (teacher f, male, eight years of teaching experience, bachelor) to conclude, the teachers would like to find more professional books, newspapers, and the like to use in their teaching. however, they found conveying everything in the required textbooks challenging. it led to the finding that the texts' contents were used for further assignments or homework only. then, it downed their willingness to participate in the training regarding resource use. finally, in the participants’ technology expectations, nearly two-thirds wanted to be trained in using technology for language teaching and learning, especially using powerpoint in their teaching. the teachers frequently used this application to make the lessons more exciting. interviewee e remarked, i think it is essential. now, i frequently introduce some teaching activities and games with powerpoint slides; i usually show videos for teaching purposes. (teacher e, male, six years of teaching experience, bachelor) in terms of basic computer skills courses or programs, they seemed unsure or unwilling to study more. the data of the interviews also provided a view of this finding. specifically, the teachers are highly expected to be trained in online testing programs. however, age seemed to be an obstacle for them to catch up with the rapid technological development. interviewee c said, in this field, i am not confident. my colleagues have instructed me to use powerpoint, but i am still not confident using it. maybe, it is hard for the old to improve it. (teacher c, female, 20 years of teaching experience, bachelor) in conclusion, the teachers were interested in learning more about using technology in their teaching. however, some obstacles related to their ages prevented them from studying more about technology. interestingly, powerpoint, a specific computer program developed by microsoft corp., enhances the teachers’ expectations of participating in training related to using technology in teaching. conclusion the current study found that the teachers were delighted with the training courses. the teachers are delighted with the trainers, the reputation of the courses, the evaluation of the programs, and the goals and objectives of the courses. however, several aspects needed improvement. specifically, they were the class size, the equipment, unqualified infrastructure, the institutions running the programs, and especially the balance of theorypractice in the courses. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.3, no. 3, july 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 134 regarding expectations for pd, the teachers are expected to join in more training courses on language teaching methodology, lesson planning, and conducting a lesson. however, they also showed a lower level of willingness to learn more about assessment of language learning, resource adaption, and using technology in teaching. the current study's findings brought many benefits to the vietnamese educational system and administrators. first, the teachers had opportunities to raise their voices and express their expectations of what they wanted to improve or benefit from through the teaching pedagogy training courses. specifically, they shared many reasons why they need some specific training courses in terms of methodology. additionally, the findings of this study should be evidence of the high quality of the providing pedagogy training that occurred so far, which was expressed by teachers’ satisfaction levels. therefore, the vietnamese moet should continue these training courses to improve the teachers’ abilities in teaching. also, the findings provided a better view for conducting more courses that potentially meet the teachers’ needs. last but not least, based on the findings of this study, educational administrators or educators can avoid the weaknesses of previous courses. in another way, they should continue promoting the strengths and improving former professional development training shortcomings. the sample size is a remarkable limitation of this study. therefore, further research should be conducted on an enormous population to generalize the findings. besides, classroom observations should be considered to investigate more significant findings. also, teacher trainers’ viewpoints should be profoundly presented to help enhance the quality of professional development training. references bui, p. h (2016). evaluation of an in-service training program for primary school teachers of english in vietnam. international journal of english linguistics, 6(4), 96-103. desimone, l. m., porter, a. c., garet, m. s., yoon, k. s., & birman, b. f. (2002). effects of professional development on teachers’ instruction: results from a three-year longitudinal study. educational evaluation and policy analysis, 24(2), 81-112. helms, m. m. (2006). motivation and motivation theory. encyclopaedia of management, 1, gale cengage. igawa, k. (2008). professional development needs of efl teachers practicing in japan and korea. international buddhist university bulletin, 45(3), 431-445. inayati, d., & emaliana, i. (2017). the relationship among pre-service efl teachers' beliefs about language learning, pedagogical beliefs, and beliefs about ict integration. dinamika ilmu, 17(1), 83-99. karimi, m. n. (2011). the effects of professional development initiatives on efl teachers’ degree of self-efficacy. australian journal of teacher education, 36(6), 50-62. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.3, no. 3, july 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 135 kazemi, a., & ashrafi, m. (2014). in-service training programs for iranian efl teachers revisited. international journal of asian social science, 4(10), 1062-1076. kramsch, c., & sullivan, p. (1996). appropriate pedagogy. elt journal. oxford university press, 50(3), 199-212 le, x. m., & nguyen, t. m. t. (2019). professional development for efl high-school teachers: a case study in the mekong delta. 1st international conference on innovation of teacher education, hanoi national university, 74-85. lingard, b., hayes, d., & mills, m. (2003). teachers and productive pedagogies: contextualising, conceptualizing, utilizing. pedagogy, culture and society, 11(3), 399424. ministry of education and training. (2013). competency framework for english language teachers: user’s guide. hanoi: vietnam education publishing house. nasser, f., & shabti, a. (2010). satisfaction with professional development: relationship to teacher and professional development program characteristics. procedia-social and behavioral sciences, 2(2), 2739-2743. nguyen, t. (2017). vietnam’s national foreign language 2020 project after 9 years: a difficult stage. in the asian conference on education & international development. nguyen, t. l. d (2018). professional development needs of efl secondary and high school teachers bac lieu city (unpublished master dissertation). can tho university. postareff, l., lindblom-ylänne, s., & nevgi, a. (2007). the effect of pedagogical training on teaching in higher education. teaching and teacher education, 23(5), 557-571. ryan, r. m., & deci, e. l. (2000). the darker and brighter sides of human existence: basic psychological needs as a unifying concept. psychological inquiry, 11(4), 319-338. scollon, c. n., diener, e., oishi, s., & biswas-diener, r. (2004). emotions across cultures and methods. journal of cross-cultural psychology, 35(3), 304-326. voss, t., kunter, m., & baumert, j. (2011). assessing teacher candidates’ general pedagogical/psychological knowledge: test construction and validation. journal of educational psychology, 103(4), 952–969. zein, m. s. (2017). professional development needs of primary efl teachers: perspectives of teachers and teacher educators. professional development in education, 43(2), 293313. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 2, april 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 120 communicative language teaching (clt) in improving speaking skills of tertiary level efl students of bangladesh paulomi rahman nisha ef education first, cambridge, united kingdom e-mail: paulomi.rahman.nisha@gmail.com abstract in the english as a foreign language (efl) context, students must be given a proper foundation of communication skills necessary in various dynamic real-world situations. this study investigates learner perception of the effectiveness of communicative language teaching (clt) in improving the speaking skills of tertiary-level efl students in bangladesh. a mixed-methods approach was used to collect and analyze data from 30 students, of different private universities of bangladesh. the data was gathered by analyzing the results from the survey. the results of the study showed there was a statistically significant improvement in the speaking skills of efl students after the clt intervention. the students demonstrated an increase in fluency and complexity in their speaking performance. furthermore, findings revealed that the students had positive perceptions of clt and found it effective in enhancing their speaking skills. the findings of this study provide valuable insights into the benefits of using clt as a teaching method in efl environments. this suggests the importance of incorporating communicative and interactive activities in language classrooms to promote language learning and student engagement. keywords: speaking skills, clt efl students, communication, improving, communicative competence 1. introduction there is a growing need for fluent communication skills in today's globalized world. millions of people speak english as a second or foreign language, and it has been recognized as the world's language (crystal, 2003). english language proficiency is considered an essential skill, and its importance has been recognized by many countries, including bangladesh. teaching foreign languages is becoming increasingly challenging in today's globalized world due to the demand for fluent communication skills. the students need to receive a solid foundation of communication skills that are required in various interactive real-world situations outside of the classroom. language teachers throughout the world have taken into consideration the effectiveness of communicative teaching methods as a point of discussion in the current era. this study aims to address clt's effectiveness in speaking skills in efl classrooms in bangladesh. the study also aims to explore the students' perceptions of clt and its impact http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 mailto:paulomi.rahman.nisha@gmail.com copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 2, april 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 121 on their speaking performance. the findings of this study are expected to contribute to the development of effective language teaching methods in bangladesh and promote the use of clt in efl classrooms. in the 1980s, communicative language teaching emerged as a response to the growing need for a language curriculum that enables learners to use a second or foreign language in a real-life context. according to richards and rodgers (2001), clt began with a theory of language as communication, with the aim of developing the communication communicative competence of students. a central component of clt is communication. “communicative language teaching can be understood as a set of principles about the goals of language teaching, how learners learn a language, the kinds of classroom activities that best facilitate learning, and the roles of teachers and learners in the classroom” (richards, 2006, p.6). by using repetitive oral practices and student-to-student cooperation, communicative language teaching methods prepare students to be confident communicators in different real-life contexts. interaction among students is crucial when implementing a communicative teaching method. richards and schmidt (2013) explained that a communicative language approach is used in teaching foreign or second languages. the goal of language learning is emphasized as communicative competence, focusing classroom activities on meaningful communication and language use. eventually, the main goal of language is to facilitate communication. the interaction that takes place in a classroom-based foreign language course or online language learning session, where students spend the majority of the class period speaking and interacting in the target language, is the main focus of clt. the effectiveness of clt has been widely researched in various language skills, including speaking, listening, reading, and writing, and has been discovered to be more successful than traditional methods of helping students improve their language skills. literature review improving speaking skills through communicative competence according to chaney & burk (1998), speaking is the process of building and sharing meaning in a range of contexts by using both verbal and nonverbal symbols. in recent years, it has been recognized that the aim of teaching speaking skills is to improve students' communication abilities so they may express themselves freely and interact with others in an effective manner (kayi, 2012). the importance of establishing communicative competence is emphasized in the clt approach. hymes (1979) stated it as communicative competence; “the ability to use linguistic knowledge of language appropriately in a variety of social situations” p. 3. enhancing practical communication ability requires the integration of productive (speaking & writing) skills (boonkit, 2010). according to zaremba (2006), speaking is the skill needed for communication. rather than being a teaching method with an apparent and well-defined record of classroom activities, clt is classified as a broad approach to teaching foreign languages (banciu & jireghie, 2012). hymes emphasizes the significance of communicative ability (as cited in dos santos, 2020). according to the author, this word describes the knowledge and skills a learner requires to be able to utilize a target http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 2, april 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 122 language within a specific language group. therefore, the primary purpose of clt is to improve the communication abilities of learners, which enable them to communicate effectively in a foreign language (halliday, 1975). bangladeshi efl context teaching english as a foreign language (efl) presents several challenges, especially in developing countries like bangladesh, where the traditional grammar translation method is still prevalent in language classrooms. gtm mainly focuses on grammatical rules, memorization of vocabulary, and translation exercises, which fall short of giving students the linguistic skills they need to interact successfully in everyday situations. when teachers are expected to teach and implement a clt curriculum, (ali, hamid, & hardy, 2018; rahman, sing, & pandian, 2018), it is noticed that following gtm earlier had a strong influence on them (begum & farooqui, 2008). traditionally foreign language teaching has focused on grammatical competence, rather than developing students' communication and interaction skills. whereas the current curriculum of bangladesh requires the four main language skills should be taught with equal emphasis. it will help students to “use the competence for effective communication in real-life situations” (nctb, 2012: p. 74). since british colonial rule, english has dominated higher education in bangladesh as a medium of instruction (emi). “english will remain as a medium of instruction in higher education along with bangla” according to the national education policy. (education ministry, 2010: 24). though the introduction of the private university act of 1992, does not address language or the medium of instruction, most of the universities have adopted english as a medium of instruction (emi) by default. in 1995, bangladesh's ministry of education adopted an english curriculum based on communicative competence. developing the students' communication skills is the goal of the current curriculum. in fact, the national education commission (nec) of 2003 observed that the education sector is "on the verge of a disaster" due to the lack of a definitive language policy (rahman, 2010. p. 93). as a result, there is a growing need to adopt more effective and innovative teaching methods prioritizing communication and interaction in language classrooms. in addition to having few opportunities to speak english outside of the classroom (zhang, 2009), efl students also rarely get the chance to interact with english speakers (boonkit, 2010). nctb (2012) recommends that “class activities should be varied. learners’ attention can be drawn through discussions, group works, story writing, drawing, debates, role-play, practical work, question answer, demonstrations” p. 17. the university grants commission (ugc) of bangladesh is the main organization overseeing higher education in bangladesh. the university grants commission (ugc) must ensure equity and quality among these diverse entities while respecting their autonomy and diversity (zaman, 2023). communicative language teaching(clt) is one such method that has grown in popularity recently. therefore, the present scene is changing gradually. according to hamid and baldauf jr. (2008), students in bangladesh "are taught english communicatively using communicative language teaching (clt) methodology" officially. bd curriculum implies “creativity and critical thinking through english language” (nctb, 2012: p. 74) should be developed. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 2, april 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 123 methods the selected participants fell within the age range of 18 to 22 years old and were undergraduate students. the study employed a targeted approach in which a questionnaire was distributed both physically and electronically (via google docs forms through emails). purposeful sampling was utilized to select the study's target population, and subsequently, 30 respondents were chosen using the convenience sampling method. this method was adopted as it facilitated the inclusion of participants who were readily willing to contribute to the study. the majority of them agreed to take part in the research. all participants shared bengali as their first language, and they were in the process of learning english as a foreign language (efl). this focused and diverse participant group aimed to provide comprehensive insights into the learner perception dynamics within the tertiary level efl context in bangladesh concerning the enhancement of speaking skills through clt. a mixed method has been adopted to interpret the results according to the research needs to achieve the research objectives. to investigate, a 15-item questionnaire survey was formulated among 30 participants. a systematic sampling approach was employed to identify and engage participants from various tertiary-level educational institutions. the sampling pool was drawn from different private universities in bangladesh, providing a diverse representation of tertiary-level efl students. the e-questionnaire was filled out by participants who enthusiastically submitted their responses. this sampling strategy aimed to capture a refined understanding of learner perceptions regarding speaking skill enhancement through clt in the context of tertiary-level efl education in bangladesh. results and findings table 1. students’ experiences and perceptions of clt (items 1.1-1.4) sl questions yes no percentage (%) 1.1 have you ever received formal instruction in english speaking skills before enrolling at your university? 33.3 66.7 1.2 have you ever experienced clt in any of your language classes? 73.3 26.7 1.3 do you think that clt has helped improve your speaking skills in english? 96.4 3.6 1.4 will you recommend clt as a language teaching approach to other language learners? 100 0 the participants were asked in item no. 1.1 if they have received any formal instruction in english speaking skills before enrolling at their universities. the majority of the participants (66.7%) answered they did not have. although their nctb board books were designed in the clt approach, very few students get proper instructions, focused on listening and speaking skills. most of the secondary and higher secondary educators focus on reading and writing instead. as a result, students lack formal instruction on speaking skills. however, 33.3% of participants answered they had received speaking skills http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 2, april 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 124 instructions before entering the tertiary level, which indicates that, some educators of secondary and higher secondary level still focus on speaking skills in their classrooms. in item number 1.2 the students were asked if they had ever experienced clt in any of their language classes. the majority of the students (73.3%) answered that they got the experience of clt in their language classes. it signifies that the students are familiar with the teaching and learning method. when the students were asked if clt had helped them improve their speaking skills in english in item no 1.3, the majority of them answered (96.4%) positively, which manifests that this method is beneficial for english-speaking skills. on account of this when they were asked in item no 1.4 if they would recommend clt as a language teaching and learning approach to other language learners 100% of the participants answered positively. it signifies that the learners find clt an advantageous learning method for speaking skills. table 2: students' insights of clt (percentage) items 2.1-2.9 sl items sa a n d sd percentages (%) 2.1 my preferred method of learning english is through group or pair interaction tasks (role plays, conversations, dialogues). 23.3 60 10 3.3 3.3 2.2 i believe that the most efficient and common way to communicate in day-to-day circumstances is through oral english conversation. 40 43.3 10 6.7 0 2.3 based on how i performed in my english oral presentation, my teacher tells me what i did correctly or incorrectly and what i need to improve on. 13.3 70 10 6.7 0 2.4 instead of grammatical explication, oral communica tion should be the main focus of the class activities. 33.3 36.7 16.7 3.3 10 2.5 my classroom experience of clt as a language learning method was beneficial for my speaking skills. 33.3 40.7 25.9 0 0 2.6 do you agree/disagree that clt has improved your ability to understand and use english in different social and cultural contexts? 20 60 13.3 3.3 3.3 2.7 how much do you agree that clt has encouraged you to take more risks and experiment with new ways of expressing yourself in english? 16.7 60 23.3 0 0 2.8 i think the clt method helped me to develop my listening and speaking skills simultaneously. 30 36.7 16.7 13. 3 3.3 2.9 overall, i feel positive about clt as a languagelearning approach in the classroom. 73.3 13.3 13.3 0 0 in table 2, sa strongly agree, a – agree, nneutral, d – disagree, sd strongly disagree. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 2, april 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 125 table 3: students' insights of clt (mean & standard deviation) item 2.1-2.9 in table 3, a five-point likert scale was used for item no. 2.1 to 2.9, in which 1= strongly disagree, 2= disagree, 3= neutral, 4= agree, 5= strongly agree. in item 2.1, the majority of the students (60%) prefer learning english through group or pair interaction tasks such as role plays, conversations, and dialogues, indicating a strong inclination towards the clt method. in item no 2.2, 43.3% of students believe that the most efficient and common way to communicate in day-to-day circumstances is through oral english conversation. 70% of the students agreed with the statement in item no 2.3, which states that based on how they performed in their english oral presentation, their teacher tells them what they did correctly or incorrectly and what they need to improve on. in item no 2.4, most of the students (36.7%) agreed to the statement that, instead of grammatical explication, oral communication should be the main focus of the class activities. while the majority support oral communication as the main focus, a significant minority still see value in grammatical instruction. in item no 2.5, a large number of students (40.7%) experienced clt as a beneficial language learning method for their speaking skills in the classrooms. notably, no students disagreed or strongly disagreed, underscoring the perceived effectiveness of clt among the participants. when the students were asked if they agreed/disagreed that clt has improved their ability to understand and use english in different social and cultural contexts, in item no 2.6, the majority of the students (60%) agreed. in item 2.7, a significant majority of students (60%) agree that clt has encouraged them to take more risks and experiment with new ways of expressing themselves in english. in item no 2.8, a significant number of students (36.7%) agreed that the clt method helped them develop their listening and speaking skills simultaneously. additionally, 30% of the students strongly agreed with this statement, further emphasizing the effectiveness of clt in fostering dual-skill development. however, 16.7% of the students were neutral, indicating some variability in individual experiences. a smaller percentage (13.3%) disagreed, and a minority (3.3%) strongly disagreed, suggesting that while clt generally supports the simultaneous development of listening and speaking skills, it may not equally item no. 1 2 3 4 5 mean sd (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) 2.1 23.3 60 10 3.3 3.3 3.97 1.11 2.2 40 43.3 10 6.7 0 4.17 1.35 2.3 13.3 70 10 6.7 0 3.90 1.08 2.4 33.3 36.7 16.7 3.3 10 3.80 1.37 2.5 33.3 40.7 25.9 0 0 4.07 1.18 2.6 20 60 13.3 3.3 3.3 3.90 1.11 2.7 16.7 60 23.3 0 0 3.93 1.19 2.8 30 36.7 16.7 13.3 3.3 3.77 1.33 2.9 73.3 13.3 13.3 0 0 4.60 1.22 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 2, april 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 126 benefit all students. in item no 2.9, the majority of students (73.3%) expressed a positive overall sentiment towards clt as a language-learning approach in the classroom. additionally, 13.3% of students strongly agreed with this statement, highlighting a generally favorable reception of clt. however, another 13.3% of students were neutral, indicating that while the overall response was positive, some students might have had mixed experiences. moreover, the absence of any negative responses (0% in the "strongly disagree" and "disagree" categories) suggests a high level of satisfaction and acceptance of clt principles among the students surveyed. overall, these results highlight the positive impact of clt on students' language learning experiences and their willingness to engage in active communication and experimentation. chart 1. rating english speaking skills before clt intervention chart 1 shows the results of item no 3.1, when the participants were asked to rate their speaking skills in english before the clt intervention, the majority of students (62.1%) considered their skills to be average. additionally, 17.2% rated their speaking skills as somewhat good, while 10.3% rated them as very poor. this distribution indicates that most students felt their speaking abilities were moderate before experiencing clt, with a smaller proportion acknowledging weaker skills. interestingly, no students rated their skills as very good, suggesting a general consensus of needing improvement prior to the intervention. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 2, april 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 127 chart 2. the aspects of clt students find most helpful in language learning chart 2. signifies the results of item no 3.2. the students were asked to identify the most helpful language learning aspects of communicative language teaching (clt). the responses highlighted that real-life situations were the most beneficial, with 76.7% of students selecting this aspect. interactive activities were also highly valued, chosen by 43.3% of the students. authentic communication was considered helpful by 36.7% of the respondents. these findings suggest that students greatly appreciate clt elements that simulate real-world communication and involve active participation. in order to familiarize and help students understand the real-life setting of the subject being taught, the clt often incorporates authentic material (hiep, 2005). discussion the data demonstrated a statistically significant enhancement in the speaking skills of the participants with the clt intervention. this aligns with the findings of recent studies, on the use of clt to teach speaking that demonstrated, clt can help students improve students’ speaking skills (efrizal, 2012). kelly (1980) believes that students are greatly influenced by their classroom environment. therefore, spoken expressions are influenced by conditions in the classroom and beliefs. this method places a strong emphasis on the value of real-world engagement and conversation in language learning, encouraging students to engage in meaningful communication and use the language in real-life situations. students discover certain attitudes and beliefs about their real-world experiences through elaboration, which they use to understand text-world experience (beach, 1998). in this study, students identified reallife situations, interactive activities, and authentic communication as the most beneficial aspects of clt. this underscores the significance of contextual and meaningful language use in learning, as highlighted by richards (2006), who argued that effective language teaching should prioritize communication in real-world contexts. in the view that allowing students to speak and write for extended periods of time without interruption is the best way to inspire them. educators like krashen (1981) have emphasized the need to refrain from editing students' work completely. in clt the students get the feedback after their complete output without interruption. a great deal of foreign language learners face difficulty adjusting to a new language and culture. oxford (1994) used http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 2, april 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 128 the phrase "cultural texture" to refer to the multitude of aspects of culture that teachers must teach to their students. the results of this study reveal that clt helped the learners in enhancing learners' ability to navigate different social and cultural contexts. this highlights the effectiveness of clt in promoting not only linguistic competence but also sociocultural awareness. the survey results show the majority of the students agree with practicing oral interaction in language classrooms as the main focused activity rather than grammatical explication, suggesting a significant endorsement that aligns with current educational trends that advocate for practical communication skills over theoretical knowledge of grammar. although oral interaction is the main focus of clt we cannot completely exclude grammar from efl classrooms. while students are taught grammar deductively (harmer, 2007:63. larsen-freeman, 2011:18. brown, 2007:19) in traditional methods like gtm, thompson (1996) emphasizes that teachers should teach grammar inductively or through a retrospective approach in the clt method. apart from these, the techniques and materials used in clt classes are "authentic material", "scrambled sentences", "language games", "picture strip story" and "roleplay"(larsen-freeman, 2000). additionally, the students agreed that clt has encouraged them to take more risks and experiment with new ways of expressing themselves in english, highlighting the positive impact of clt on learners' willingness to engage and explore the language. the majority of the participants of this study, (96.4%) perceived clt as effective in improving their speaking skills, with 100% recommending it to other learners. this finding underscores the effectiveness of communicative language teaching in fostering a supportive learning environment that promotes confidence in speaking skills. by emphasizing meaningful communication and authentic language use, clt encourages learners to step out of their comfort zones and explore different linguistic expressions. the findings revealed significant improvements in students' speaking abilities and positive attitudes towards clt, supporting the broader literature on the benefits of communicative approaches in language teaching. however, further research with more diverse perspectives and larger population samples is needed to enhance and expand these insights. conclusions in conclusion, this study indicates that clt is an effective method for enhancing speaking skills. the positive perceptions and significant improvements observed among participants underscore the potential of clt to transform language learning experiences. furthermore, significant improvements reported by the participants suggest that clt not only enhances language skills but also boosts learner motivation and engagement. this aligns with the broader educational goals of fostering autonomous, confident, and proficient language users. by highlighting the positive impacts of clt in this setting, the research provides empirical evidence supporting the shift towards more interactive and communicative teaching approaches in bangladeshi efl classrooms. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 2, april 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 129 references ali, m. m., hamid, m. o., & hardy, i. (2018). ritualisation of testing: problematising highstakes english-language testing in bangladesh. compare: a journal of comparative and international education. banciu, v, & jireghie, a. (2012). communicative language teaching. revista de administratie publica si politici sociale bangladesh gazette extraordinary. (1992, august 9). act no. 34 of 1992, the private university act, 1992. beach, r. (1998). constructing real and text worlds in responding to literature. theory into practice, summer 98, vol. 37, issue 3. begum, m., & farooqui, s. (2008). school-based assessment: will it really change the education scenario in bangladesh? international education studies boonkit, k. (2010). enhancing the development of speaking skills for non-native speakers of english. procedia-social and behavioral sciences. brown, h. d. (2007). teaching by principle; an interactive approach to language pedagogy. 3rd ed. new york: pearson longman. chaney, a. l., & burk, t. l. (1998). teaching oral communication in grades k-8 (1st ed.). boston, allyn and bacon: pearson. crystal, d. (2003). english as a global language. new york: cambridge university press. dos santos, l. (2020). the discussion of communicative language teaching approach in language classrooms. journal of education and e-learning research. efrizal, d. (2012). improving students’ speaking trough communicative language teaching method at mts ja-alhaq. international journal of humanities and social science. felder, r. & henriques, e. (1995). learning and teaching styles in foreign and second language education. foreign language annals. halliday, m. a. k. (1975). learning to mean—explorations in the development of language. london: edward arnold. hamid, m. o., & baldauf jr., r. b. (2008). will clt bail out the bogged down elt in bangladesh? english today, 24(03), 16-24. doi:10.1017/s0266078408000254 harmer, j. (2007). the practice of english language teaching. 4th ed. cambridge: pearson longman. hiep, p. h. 2000. ‘traditional versus modern teaching methods.’ teacher's edition hymes, d. h. (1979). on communicative competence. in c. j. brumfit, & k. johnson (eds.), the communicative approach to language teaching malta: oxford university press. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 2, april 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 130 kayi, h. (2012). teaching speaking: activities to promote speaking in a second language. новейшие научные достижения. kelly, a. (1980). exploration and authority in science learning environments, an international study. european journal of science education krashen, s.d. 1981. second language acquisition and second language learning. oxford: pergamon press. larsen-freeman, d. (2000). techniques and principles in language teaching. oxford: oxford university press. larsen-freeman, d. and anderson, m. (2011). techniques & principles in language teaching. oxford: oxford university press. national curriculum and textbook board (nctb) (2012). english classes vi-x. dhaka: national curriculum & textbook board. oxford, r. l. (1994). teaching culture in the language classroom: towards a new philosophy. in j. alatis (ed), georgetown university round table on language and linguistics 1994. washington dc: georgetown university press. rahman, m. (2010). improving the relevance of humanities higher education in bangladesh monash university, melbourne. richards, jack c. and schmidt (2013). longman dictionary of language teaching and applied linguistics. routledge. richards, j. c. (2006). communicative language teaching today. cambridge university press. richards, j. c., & rodgers, t. s. (2001). approaches and methods in language teaching. new york: cambridge university press. thompson, g. (1996). some misconceptions about communicative language teaching. elt journal. 50 (1) 9-15. zaman, f. (2023, november 7). ugc plays key role in our tertiary education. daily observer. https://www. https://www.observerbd.com/news.php?id=445042 zaremba, a. j. (2006). speaking professionally. canada: thompson south-western. zhang, y. (2009). reading to speak: integrating oral communication skills. english teaching forum. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 1, january 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 19 multilingualism in bugis language context: a case study on english language teaching interactions masruddin1, andi husni a. zainuddin2*, & magfirah thayyib3 1,2,3state islamic institute of palopo, palopo, indonesia *andi_husniazainuddin22@iainpalopo.ac.id abstract this study explores the intricate dynamics of multilingualism within the bugis language context and its impact on english language teaching (elt) at the technical implementation unit of state elementary school unit 251 pae-pae. with a focus on the bugis community in indonesia, the research delves into the complexities of language interaction in daily life and the teaching process. the bugis language, embedded in rich cultural heritage, coexists with indonesian and english, presenting a unique multilingual tapestry. the study employs a qualitative case study approach, including in-depth interviews with an english teacher. findings reveal variations in language use within the family, community, and classroom contexts. challenges arise in understanding nuanced meanings between languages, particularly in higher grades. the english teacher supports a multilingualism approach in teaching, emphasizing its role in enhancing students' adaptability and cultural sensitivity. the study contributes valuable insights to the broader discourse on language education and multilingualism in a globalized world, affirming the significance of a multilingual pedagogical approach in preparing students for diverse communication scenarios. keywords: communication and interaction, english language teaching, multi-cultural education, introduction multilingualism, the coexistence of multiple languages within a particular community or context, has emerged as a significant area of study in the field of linguistics and language education (andini 2021; herlina kusuma ningrat 2019). in this globalized era, where communication transcends borders and cultures, the exploration of multilingualism becomes imperative for understanding the intricate dynamics of language interaction (botes, dewaele, and greiff 2020). one such context that warrants attention is the bugis language environment, where the interplay of various languages shapes the landscape of english language teaching. the bugis community, primarily residing in the coastal regions of indonesia, boasts a rich linguistic heritage with the bugis language at its core (saleh, rahman, and hasyim 2021). however, the contemporary linguistic scenario in bugis communities is marked by a mosaic of languages coexisting and influencing one another (andini 2021). english, as a global lingua http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 mailto:*andi_husniazainuddin22@iainpalopo.ac.id copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 1, january 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 20 franca, plays a pivotal role in this multilingual tapestry, especially in educational settings (köylü and tracy-ventura 2022). this case study delves into the intricate dynamics of multilingualism within the bugis language context, with a specific focus on its impact on english language teaching (elt). understanding how other languages interact with english in the bugis linguistic milieu is crucial for educators, researchers, and policymakers seeking to enhance language education in this diverse and dynamic environment. as globalization continues to connect societies and facilitate cross-cultural interactions, the bugis language context provides a unique lens through which we can examine the multifaceted nature of multilingualism (hasnawati, abdul, and darlina 2021). by unraveling the complexities of language interaction in the realm of elt, this case study aims to contribute valuable insights to the broader discourse on language education and multilingualism in a globalized world. literature review multilingualism multilingualism, or the ability to use and comprehend more than one language, encompasses situations where individuals or communities possess proficiency in multiple languages. it extends beyond mere bilingualism, involving the capacity to communicate in three or more languages with varying degrees of fluency (berthele 2021; duff 2019; stavans and porat 2019). multilingualism can manifest at both individual and societal levels. on an individual level, it may involve a person continuously acquiring proficiency in various languages throughout their life, while at the societal level, a community can be considered multilingual when its members collectively command more than one language (gramling 2021; schissel, leung, and chalhoub-deville 2019). in a multilingual context, languages often interact with each other, leading to phenomena such as word borrowing, the adoption of phrases, or the blending of elements from different languages. the proficiency of an individual in different languages can be context-dependent, varying based on the situation, whether formal or informal, professional or everyday life (duff 2019; gramling 2021). the importance of multilingualism becomes particularly evident in a globalized world, where cross-border interactions necessitate communication with diverse cultures and communities (berthele 2021). furthermore, multilingualism is not solely about linguistic skills; it also involves an understanding and appreciation of the cultures associated with the languages spoken (schissel et al. 2019). in the era of globalization, multilingualism is becoming increasingly normalized as individuals and societies recognize its value in shaping identity and enriching communication experiences in an interconnected world (stavans and porat 2019). thus, multilingualism goes beyond language proficiency; it is a dynamic and culturally significant aspect of human communication that contributes to the diverse tapestry of our global society (berthele 2021). http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 1, january 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 21 bugis language the bugis language is spoken by the bugis community, an ethnic group residing in the coastal region of south sulawesi, indonesia. its rich historical roots reflect the extensive development of the bugis people in the area and their involvement in the austronesian language family, specifically within the south sulawesi language group. with a diverse phonological system, the bugis language features a distinctive combination of consonants and vowels, while its intricate grammar encompasses rules related to word formation, sentence structure, and morphology (andini 2021; saleh et al. 2023; sandi untara and sri rahayu 2021). the bugis language is preserved through the traditional writing system known as lontara script, which has become an inseparable part of bugis culture and history (sandi untara and sri rahayu 2021). utilized in various contexts, from literature to historical documents, the lontara script plays a crucial role in the transmission of bugis cultural heritage. beyond being a means of communication, the bugis language holds significance as a cornerstone of local wisdom and cultural identity. in the multilingual context of south sulawesi, bugis individuals often possess the ability to speak more than one language, including bugis and indonesian (hasnawati et al. 2021; saleh et al. 2023). the importance of the bugis language is evident in its pivotal role in strengthening the bugis community's identity and preserving their cultural richness. despite facing challenges posed by modernization and globalization, the bugis language remains a vital element in safeguarding and passing down cultural heritage and traditional knowledge from one generation to the next (andini 2021; muhsyanur 2020). with its unique history and characteristics, the bugis language stands as an inseparable aspect of the diverse life and cultural heritage of the bugis community. english language teaching english language teaching (elt) encompasses a comprehensive set of practices and processes dedicated to instructing individuals in the english language. this dynamic field integrates various language acquisition theories, including behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism, to inform teaching methodologies. central to elt is the development of structured curricula addressing language skills, grammar, vocabulary, and cultural nuances, tailored to the proficiency levels and needs of learners (schissel et al. 2019; tavares 2021). in the realm of elt, a diverse array of teaching methods and approaches is employed, ranging from traditional grammar-translation methods to more communicative and taskbased strategies. the choice of method is often contextual, shaped by specific learning goals and the characteristics of the learners. an emphasis is placed on enhancing the four language skills—listening, speaking, reading, and writing—through activities and exercises that foster proficiency in each domain (gramling 2021; stavans and porat 2019; tavares 2021). assessment and evaluation are integral components of elt, with teachers utilizing various tools such as tests, quizzes, and projects to gauge students' language proficiency and monitor their progress. additionally, the integration of technology, including language learning software and multimedia resources, has become a prominent feature in modern http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 1, january 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 22 elt, offering interactive and engaging platforms for language practice (iskandar et al. 2022; lee 2021; tavares 2021). cultural competence is another key aspect of elt, aiming not only to develop language proficiency but also to instill an understanding of the cultural context of the english language. this cultural awareness contributes to effective communication and language use (schwarzenthal et al. 2020). furthermore, elt recognizes the importance of continuous professional development for teachers, keeping them abreast of language acquisition research, educational technologies, and innovative teaching methods. as english continues to serve as a global medium of communication, elt plays a pivotal role in facilitating crosscultural interactions, supporting academic pursuits, and enhancing career opportunities for language learners on a global scale. methods this research employs a qualitative approach (hollstein 2015) through a case study to delve into the phenomenon of multilingualism in the bugis language context, specifically within the framework of english language teaching in upt sp sdn 25 pae-pae, wasuponda. the primary focus of the study is to depict the interplay of languages occurring in the process of teaching english within the bugis community. in-depth interviews conducted with english teacher, providing profound insights into the influence of multilingualism on the teaching process. findings after conducting interviews with the english teacher at sdn 251 pae-pae, the researcher observed variations in the language used by the teacher across different contexts, namely, at home, and in the community. the research findings indicate that in the home contexts, the teacher tends to use the bugis language more frequently, while in the community setting, indonesian is more predominant. nf as the english teacher of sdn 251 pae-pae stated that: “very different. in my family, we often communicate using the bugis language, while in the community setting, we use indonesian in our daily lives.” this reflects the differences in language use in the respondents' daily lives. within the family scope, the bugis language is frequently employed, reflecting traditions or customs within the family environment. conversely, in the community, indonesian is chosen for everyday interactions, possibly influenced by the need for communication in a broader social context. this provides insight into how respondents navigate two distinct languages, reflecting linguistic and cultural dynamics in indonesian society. the researcher then inquired about the level of comfort and frequency of using the english language. nf answered that: “yes, i feel very comfortable using the english language. i often use english in specific situations, such as when communicating with friends, students, and others who can understand or speak english.” the respondents expressed their comfort in using the english language. this statement reflects that english is a comfortable choice for communication among the respondents. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 1, january 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 23 furthermore, the respondents also explained that the use of english is not only limited to common situations but also frequently occurs in specific contexts, such as when talking to friends, students, and others who can understand or speak english. however, it turns out that most of the students at the technical implementation unit of state elementary school unit 251 pae-pae. come from the wasuponda area itself, with other areas including toraja. this presents a uniqueness and a challenge for the english teacher who is only proficient in the bugis language. however, after further conversation with the respondents, the researcher found that the students' regional origin does not affect their understanding of the bugis language. this is because many of their neighbors use the bugis language, leading their families to also communicate in bugis. next, the researcher asked how many languages are used in the classroom, and nf responded: “i have several languages that i use, including english, indonesian, and bugis. i sometimes use bugis during class hours, especially as an icebreaker, to create a more relaxed classroom atmosphere and entertain students while learning english.” from the respondent's answer above, it was found that the use of bugis language in this context serves not only as a means of communication but also as a strategy to enhance social interaction and students' comfort in the english language learning process. this reflects a creative approach in using language as a tool to achieve communicative and educational goals. the respondents also stated that their ability to understand and learn english is slightly influenced by multilingualism. for example, when speaking, they sometimes experience language confusion, wherein they mix words a and b in their expressions. also, the respondent has encountered difficulties in understanding the meanings of words or phrases in english that have different meanings in their local language. this was expressed by nf: “in the lower grades, like 1st and 2nd grade, i never experienced difficulties because i used words or phrases as simple as possible to be understood. however, in higher grades, like 4th and 5th grade, i have encountered situations where there is a difference in understanding phrases or words, for example, the word 'mengiris,' which in english is translated as 'slice,' as in the sentence 'my sister slices the apple = saudaraku mengiris buah apel.' it should be noted that the meanings of the words 'mengiris' and 'memotong' are different in english, but in the local language, especially among elementary school children, the meaning of the word 'mengiris' is considered the same as 'memotong.'” such understanding reflects the challenges that students may face in interpreting and transferring the meaning of words or phrases between the local language and english. these challenges become more complex, especially at higher levels of education, where students' ability to master the differences in meaning between languages becomes increasingly important in the context of english language learning. the interview was then concluded with the respondent's support that english language teaching at the technical implementation unit of state elementary school unit 251 pae-pae. could better leverage the students' multilingualism. nf stated: “yes, multilingualism is very important and beneficial for students, especially for teachers. therefore, personally or with other fellow teachers, i make every effort to integrate multilingualism into teaching, so that students can become accustomed and not feel surprised or http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 1, january 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 24 shocked when communicating with others from different backgrounds. this approach is expected to broaden the students' overall communication scope.” the respondent believes that the use of more than one language (multilingualism) is a crucial key, not only for the development of students but also for teachers. by incorporating multilingualism into teaching, the respondent and fellow teachers strive to create an environment where students can become accustomed and not feel surprised or shocked when communicating with individuals from different language backgrounds. this approach is expected to enhance students' communication skills in interacting with people from diverse backgrounds, supporting their holistic growth. discussion in the interview results, the respondent conveyed information covering aspects of language use in daily life and its implications for the learning process, particularly in the context of teaching english at the technical implementation unit of state elementary school unit 251 pae-pae.. the respondent explained that within their family environment, bugis language is frequently used. this linguistic preference could be indicative of a deep-seated family tradition or a habitual mode of communication within the familial setting (wang, mcconachy, and ushioda 2021). the choice to consistently employ the local language within the family suggests a cultural or heritage-based approach to interpersonal communication (andini 2021). the family, as the primary social unit, plays a crucial role in shaping linguistic preferences, and the routine use of the local language underscores its significance within the familial dynamics (lee 2021; saleh et al. 2021). this linguistic context within the family environment not only reflects cultural continuity but also contributes to the development of a shared linguistic identity among family members. in community and classroom interactions, both indonesian and english serve as the predominant languages, with an increased emphasis on english usage in higher grades, notably 4th and 5th grades. challenges arise at these educational levels, as students grapple with understanding words or phrases carrying nuanced connotations in english compared to the local language. the linguistic dynamics observed align with existing research (berthele 2021; chen et al. 2020; schissel et al. 2019), emphasizing the prevalence of indonesian and english in these contexts. however, difficulties in connotation comprehension align with findings by forbes et al. (2021), underscoring the necessity for nuanced vocabulary understanding, particularly in educational settings where language proficiency plays a crucial role. ideally, the teachers could facilitate the students to take advantage of multilingualism experience at school(rustan et al. 2023). furthermore, the interviewee advocates for the adoption of a multilingualism approach in teaching english at the technical implementation unit of state elementary school unit 251 pae-pae.. they posit that employing more than one language in instruction can acclimate students, mitigating surprise when communicating with individuals from diverse linguistic backgrounds. this methodology not only facilitates linguistic adaptability but also aligns with scholarly research (baso and agussalim 2021). exposure to varied languages in the educational setting not only augments language proficiency but also fosters increased cultural sensitivity and open-mindedness (chen et al. 2020; sabirova and http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 1, january 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 25 khanipova 2019; tompo, sahraini, and magfirah thayyib 2023). additionally, students gain practical language skills for real-world, cross-cultural interactions, cultivating comfort and confidence in diverse linguistic contexts (iskandar et al. 2022). ultimately, this pedagogical approach resonates with the overarching objective of equipping students with the necessary skills and adaptability for our increasingly interconnected and multicultural global society. this support provides insight into ways to enhance teaching effectiveness and prepare students for broader and more heterogeneous communication situations. in conclusion, the interview results reflect the complexity of language use in daily life and provide ideas for improving english teaching at the school through a multilingualism approach. conclusion this research unveils the complexity of language use in daily life and instruction at the technical implementation unit of state elementary school unit 251 pae-pae.. the respondents reflect the dynamics of bugis language usage within the family, transitioning to indonesian and english in community interactions and the classroom, with challenges in understanding the meanings of words or phrases at higher educational levels. the respondent's support for the multilingualism approach in teaching english highlights its benefits in shaping language adaptability skills and cultural sensitivity in students. relevant research provides a theoretical foundation for this strategy, reinforcing the urgency of using more than one language in educational settings. thus, the conclusion of this research affirms that the multilingualism approach can enrich students' learning experiences, preparing them to communicate in an increasingly interconnected and multicultural global society. references andini, citra. 2021. “the use of 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1, january 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 1 the role of project-based learning in fostering students’ writing creativity: a perception-based study sitti hawaena1*, nurhaya2, andi adisaturrahimi3 1stkip abmul dampal selatan, toli-toli, indonesia 2stai al-azhary, mamuju, indonesia 3universitas negeri makassar, indonesia *wenaw154@gmail.com abstract the purpose of this study is to examine students' perceptions of the effectiveness of projectbased learning (pbl) in enhancing creative writing skills. utilizing robbins' framework of perception—acceptance, understanding, and evaluation—this research employs a qualitative methodology. the participants consisted of twenty students selected purposively from a larger literacy organization at stkip abmul, dampal selatan. data collection instruments included observational checklists and semi-structured interviews. the findings reveal that the pbl model significantly contributes to the improvement of students' writing abilities, particularly in fostering creativity, imagination, and critical thinking. the participants expressed increased motivation and interest in writing, particularly in crafting short stories. as an outcome of their engagement with pbl, a student-initiated literacy organization was formed, serving as a collaborative space to nurture creative expression through written work. keywords: project-based learning, student perception, writing creativity introduction the advancement of technology has considerably influenced educational practices, necessitating pedagogical transformations that meet 21stcentury learning demands. education serves as a fundamental benchmark for national development, and curricular reform is central to improving educational quality. in the indonesian context, successive reforms have taken place, including the transition from ktsp to the 2013 curriculum, culminating in the implementation of the merdeka belajar (freedom to learn) curriculum. this latest reform, spearheaded by the minister of education and culture, emphasizes learner autonomy, critical thinking, and character development (hasim, 2020; makarim, 2020). this approach is consistent with global trends that advocate for constructivist learning paradigms, such as project-based learning (pbl), which supports active inquiry, collaboration, and real-world relevance (thomas, 2000; bell, 2010). project-based learning has been widely recognized for its pedagogical value across various disciplines. it provides learners with opportunities to engage in meaningful and http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 mailto:wenaw154@gmail.com copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 1, january 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 2 complex tasks that mirror authentic contexts. according to larmer and mergendoller (2015), pbl enables students to acquire deep content knowledge and develop essential skills by solving problems collaboratively. in the indonesian setting, nugrohadi and anwar (2022) argue that pbl fosters autonomous learning by positioning students as active participants in constructing knowledge through hands-on experiences. in the context of language learning, pbl has shown promise in enhancing learners’ engagement and achievement, especially in writing. writing, as one of the core productive language skills, is often perceived as challenging due to the demands it places on coherence, organization, vocabulary use, and grammatical accuracy. hawaena (2022) asserts that writing is a structured articulation of ideas, emotions, and experiences, while brown (2001) describes it as a process involving the generation, development, and organization of ideas through written language. as such, instructional approaches like pbl can scaffold learners’ writing development by providing structure, feedback, and motivation. a key feature of pbl in language education is its capacity to cultivate creativity. according to craft (2005), creativity in education involves imaginative activity fashioned so as to produce outcomes that are both original and of value. in writing, creativity extends beyond linguistic proficiency to include the capacity for narrative invention, emotional expression, and critical reflection. these qualities are essential in literary genres such as short stories. short stories serve as an accessible and engaging medium for student expression. nurgiyantoro (2007) defines short stories as fictional narratives that can be read in a single sitting, typically focused on a single theme or conflict with limited characters and settings. at stkip abdul mujib laewang, a student-led literacy movement has embraced this pedagogical approach. students engage in collaborative writing projects that culminate in the production and publication of story original. these experiences foster not only writing proficiency but also a sense of ownership, motivation, and creative identity. moreover, the use of pbl in such contexts aligns with sociocultural theories of learning, which emphasize the role of community, interaction, and shared meaning-making (vygotsky, 1978; lantolf & thorne, 2006). despite the growing body of literature on pbl and its effectiveness in language learning, limited research specifically addresses its impact on students’ creative writing in indonesian higher education institutions, particularly in localized literacy-based communities. previous studies have often concentrated on general language proficiency or writing mechanics, overlooking the creative and expressive dimensions that are essential for literary genres. moreover, studies rarely investigate students' subjective perceptions regarding how pbl influences their creative process and motivation. this study fills that gap by exploring the nuanced perceptions of students actively involved in a community-driven literacy movement, thereby offering a contextualized understanding of pbl's pedagogical potential. the novelty of this research lies in its focus on the intersection between project-based pedagogy, student creativity, and literary writing within an indigenous academic setting. by anchoring the investigation in students’ lived experiences and applying robbins and judge’s http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 1, january 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 3 (2012) model of perception, the study provides unique insights into how pbl nurtures creative agency in aspiring writers. given the growing interest in innovative writing instruction, this study seeks to examine students’ perceptions of the effectiveness of pbl in enhancing creative writing. the theoretical framework is informed by robbins and judge’s (2012) model of perception, encompassing the processes of acceptance, understanding, and evaluation. through qualitative inquiry, the study aims to address the research question: how do students perceive the implementation of pbl in enhancing their writing creativity within a literacyfocused organizational context. method research design this study employs a qualitative descriptive approach to explore students' perceptions of project-based learning (pbl) in enhancing their writing creativity, particularly within the context of a student-led literacy initiative at stkip abdul mujib laewang. a qualitative paradigm is appropriate as it enables the researcher to capture the depth and complexity of participants' lived experiences, thoughts, and meanings (creswell & poth, 2018). the study adopts a case study design, focusing on a single bounded system— a literacy movement involving collaborative short story writing. this approach allows for an in-depth understanding of how pbl influences the creative writing process from the perspectives of students who actively participate in such initiatives. participants participants were twenty students from the language and literature education program who had engaged in a semester-long pbl-based creative writing project. they were selected through purposive sampling to ensure that only those with substantial involvement in the literacy movement and short stories writing were included. this sampling method is deemed suitable for qualitative studies that prioritize depth over breadth (palinkas et al., 2015). instruments data were collected through semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and document analysis. semi-structured interviews allowed flexibility while ensuring alignment with the study’s objectives. the interview protocol was guided by robbins and judge’s (2012) model of perception—covering acceptance, understanding, and evaluation. participant observation was conducted during writing workshops and group meetings to document students’ interactions, challenges, and collaborative processes. field notes captured spontaneous expressions and contextual behaviors (merriam & tisdell, 2016). document analysis involved reviewing students’ written outputs to triangulate insights from interviews and observations with actual creative artifacts. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 1, january 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 4 data analysis data analysis followed the thematic analysis method proposed by braun and clarke (2006), comprising six phases: familiarization with data, generation of initial codes, searching for themes, reviewing themes, defining and naming themes, and producing the report. this method ensures a systematic approach to identifying patterns related to students’ perceptions of pbl and creativity. the analysis was also informed by robbins and judge’s (2012) perceptual model, which facilitated the categorization of data into three perceptual domains: acceptance : how students receive and internalize pbl as a pedagogical approach. understanding : how students interpret its influence on their writing creativity. evaluation : how students assess the outcomes of their engagement with pbl. to ensure credibility, the study employed data triangulation across interviews, observations, and document analyses. member checking was conducted by sharing interview transcripts and thematic interpretations with participants for validation. dependability was addressed through detailed documentation of research procedures. ethical clearance was obtained from the institutional review board, and participants signed informed consent forms. all names were anonymized to protect confidentiality. results this study explored students’ perceptions of the project-based learning (pbl) model in the context of creative writing, particularly in developing short stories. semi-structured interviews were conducted in the literacy organization. thematic analysis revealed three main aspects of perception in line with robbins and judge’s (2012) perceptual model: acceptance, understanding, and evaluation. students’ acceptance of the pbl model attitudes toward the pbl model students generally expressed positive attitudes toward pbl, emphasizing the model’s emphasis on creativity, collaboration, and engagement. one participant noted: “i think this project is good for me. it focuses on developing creativity. we work together in our literacy organization to write stories, and this model helps me become more imaginative.” (participant 1) another participant highlighted the collaborative aspect of pbl: “we can discuss and collaborate to determine which project to do. this model teaches us to produce real work together.” (participant 2) participants also appreciated the enjoyment of group-based learning: “this project was enjoyable. we worked in groups to discuss story ideas and shared experiences. it helped increase our knowledge through cooperation.” (participant 3) http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 1, january 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 5 these responses demonstrate that students welcomed the pbl model, finding it enjoyable and conducive to both creative development and peer learning. engagement with short stories writing students were also enthusiastic about writing cerpen, viewing it as a medium for emotional expression and self-therapy. as one participant explained: “writing allows us to tell stories. it’s therapeutic—i can express feelings through it.” (participant 4) others mentioned the importance of reading, discipline, and motivation in writing: “to write well, we need references—reading and joining webinars help. but most importantly, the desire to write must be there.” (participant 5) “i express myself through writing about life experiences. it’s a way of exploring personal phenomena.” (participant 6) these insights suggest that short stories writing was perceived not just as a task but as a meaningful creative outlet, promoting emotional well-being and personal identity development. challenges encountered in pbl writing despite the benefits, students also described challenges, particularly related to idea generation, time constraints, and motivation. one student reflected: “i experienced writer’s block and struggled to read more due to other activities. working in groups can also be challenging.” (participant 7) another noted: “sometimes we have ideas, but it’s hard to develop and manage the storyline.” (participant 8) mood and motivation also influenced writing productivity: “when i’m in a bad mood, i feel lazy to write. that’s the hardest part.” (participant 9) these reflections highlight typical barriers to creativity in writing, such as lack of time, fluctuating motivation, and cognitive constraints—common issues in project-based learning environments. students’ understanding of the pbl model application of pbl in literacy activities participants demonstrated a clear understanding of how pbl functions in their writing practice, especially through their literacy community. one participant explained: http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 1, january 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 6 “we apply pbl in our literacy group by generating and developing ideas together. we’ve done projects like writing novels, and now we focus on short stories.” (participant 10) others emphasized autonomy and exploration: “this project makes us more independent and allows us to freely explore different skills.” (participant 11) “we are encouraged to read, try new things, and even if we only write a few words, we keep going.” (participant 12) these responses suggest that pbl fosters autonomy, initiative, and sustained creative effort. students’ writing portfolios many students had already produced substantial creative work. as one shared: “i’ve written novels, comics, and short stories. some of my books have been published with isbns, like adaptasi, memoar luka, and ikrar cinta.” (participant 13) another added: “i wrote a novel called mengenang 2020, and another group project was aku dan duniaku.” (participants 14 & 15) these achievements reflect that pbl has facilitated real-world outcomes in the form of published work, reinforcing the model’s effectiveness in cultivating sustained writing practice. motivations for writing students expressed varied and personal motivations for writing. these included emotional expression, role modeling, and intrinsic interest. one participant shared: “writing helps me express what i can’t say aloud. it’s my hobby and makes me feel relaxed.” (participant 16) another was inspired by a peer: “my motivation is sister indar. i admire her for publishing many books. she encouraged me to join the organization. at first, i wasn’t confident, but i ended up writing my first short story.” (participant 17) one participant added: “i love to write imaginative stories. writing is a way to channel feelings that are hard to express verbally. it’s therapeutic.” (participant 18) these insights reveal that writing serves both as a psychological outlet and a social motivator, confirming the deep personal investment many students had in the writing process. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 1, january 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 7 students’ evaluation of the pbl model perceived benefits of pbl overall, students evaluated pbl positively, particularly in terms of fostering creativity and independence. as one student noted: “this model suits me as a writer. i enjoy doing creative projects, especially writing.” (participant 19) “at first i was just trying it out, but now i’m interested. writing short stories was my first real writing project.” (participant 20) the active involvement in determining project themes was also appreciated: “in pbl, we’re directly involved in every activity. we choose our own themes, and that makes it meaningful.” (participant 21) benefits for the literacy organization students felt that pbl strengthened the organization’s culture of learning. one shared: “it made me more independent and creative. i could explore anything freely.” (participant 22) “i became more focused and motivated. i learned to value others’ knowledge and skills.” (participant 23) “the organization became a support system. that’s the real benefit.” (participant 24) these responses indicate that pbl enhanced community learning, peer support, and creative productivity within the literacy group. perceived disadvantages of pbl despite its strengths, students identified time constraints as a key limitation. for instance: “it’s hard to balance time between this project and homework from lectures.” (participant 25) “i’m also a schoolteacher, so it’s difficult to find time for writing.” (participant 26) however, some participants reported minimal drawbacks: “every model has disadvantages, but for me, this one works well for writing activities.” (participant 27) this suggests that while pbl is broadly effective, scheduling and competing responsibilities can hinder its implementation, especially for students with external obligations. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 1, january 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 8 table 1. summary of key themes theme sub-themes observations acceptance enjoyment, collaboration, storytelling, creative freedom students feel pbl supports creativity, enjoyment, and peer learning understanding application of pbl, writing portfolios, motivation students understand how to apply pbl in real writing projects and are intrinsically motivated evaluation independence, real-world outcomes, time challenges students recognize both the benefits (e.g., motivation, productivity) and challenges (e.g., time constraints) of the model discussion this study provides compelling insights into how project-based learning (pbl) can positively impact students’ perceptions, experiences, and outcomes in the context of creative writing. the qualitative data obtained through in-depth interviews with twenty active members of a student literacy organization revealed several critical themes regarding student acceptance, understanding, and evaluation of the pbl model. these themes are in line with recent scholarly discussions on the benefits and challenges of pbl, especially within language and literacy education. students’ acceptance of pbl the data demonstrate strong student acceptance of the pbl model. students expressed that pbl not only facilitated their creativity but also made writing more enjoyable and meaningful. they appreciated the collaborative nature of the projects and the opportunity to express personal feelings through literary forms such as short stories. these findings align with those of nugrahani and suryani (2022), who found that students engaged in pbl contexts exhibited greater ownership of their learning and higher levels of motivation compared to those in traditional instruction. in a similar vein, mubarok and fitriana (2022) reported that students working on collaborative creative writing projects displayed increased confidence and deeper emotional investment in their tasks. participants also referred to writing as a form of therapy and a method for expressing their inner thoughts and emotions. this observation resonates with wulandari and widodo (2023), who described writing as a psychological release mechanism for students, helping them process emotional experiences and gain mental clarity. such findings reinforce the affective dimensions of language learning, suggesting that writing is not only a cognitive activity but also a means of emotional regulation (zins et al., 2020). however, acceptance does not imply that students encountered no challenges. some mentioned difficulties in group coordination and initial resistance due to a lack of familiarity with the model. these barriers echo the findings of ariyanti et al. (2020), who observed that initial adaptation to pbl can be overwhelming for students unfamiliar with autonomous and http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 1, january 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 9 collaborative learning frameworks. nevertheless, as learners became accustomed to the model, their acceptance grew, indicating that structured support during early phases is crucial. students’ understanding of pbl the responses further indicate that students gained a strong understanding of how to apply pbl in writing contexts. they described the process of collaboratively selecting topics, brainstorming ideas, writing drafts, and editing stories for publication. this aligns with the constructivist principle that learning is most effective when students are actively engaged in creating knowledge rather than passively receiving it (vygotsky, 1978; lantolf & poehner, 2020). students emphasized that pbl gave them the freedom to explore diverse themes and ideas. they reported increased independence and a deeper sense of engagement, especially when writing pieces based on personal experiences or imaginative scenarios. these findings corroborate those of putri et al. (2021), who found that pbl encourages student autonomy and nurtures problem-solving skills. furthermore, the students’ ability to publish their work, such as novels and short story collections with isbns, highlights the authenticity of the learning process. this supports mubarok and fitriana’s (2022) assertion that productoriented learning enhances learner identity and agency. importantly, students’ achievements in publishing creative works illustrate a key feature of pbl—authentic outcomes. the sense of accomplishment derived from seeing one’s work in print reinforces motivation and validates the learning process. this phenomenon has been discussed by sari and marlina (2020), who argue that authentic assessment in pbl settings boosts learners’ intrinsic motivation and encourages continued participation in academic and extracurricular writing activities. students’ evaluation of pbl students’ evaluations of pbl were predominantly positive. they cited multiple benefits, including increased creativity, improved focus, enhanced collaboration, and a stronger sense of belonging to a community of writers. these responses are consistent with research by hidayati and fatimah (2022), who found that pbl strengthens both cognitive and social dimensions of learning. students in their study reported higher engagement and a stronger connection with peers when involved in collaborative writing projects. furthermore, students expressed that the pbl model provided a flexible and motivating framework that allowed them to explore and refine their unique voices. the freedom to choose topics, collaborate with peers, and publish their writing fostered a deeper engagement with the writing process. this supports the sociocultural theory advanced by vygotsky (1978), which emphasizes the role of social interaction and cultural tools in cognitive development. the student literacy organization served as a zone of http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 1, january 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 10 proximal development (zpd), where learners supported one another’s growth through shared experiences and mutual encouragement. however, challenges were also acknowledged. students identified time management as a major obstacle, especially for those juggling academic responsibilities and teaching jobs. these findings reflect those of kusuma and hidayati (2021), who reported that time constraints and workload imbalance often hinder the successful implementation of pbl, particularly in higher education settings. similarly, rahman and hasanah (2021) emphasized the need for institutional support and realistic scheduling to optimize the benefits of pbl. additionally, students mentioned difficulties such as writer’s block, lack of reading references, and occasional lack of motivation. these factors hindered their ability to generate ideas or maintain productivity. as noted by ariyanti et al. (2020), these obstacles are common in creative disciplines, where intrinsic motivation and mental state significantly impact performance. nonetheless, the overall positive evaluation of pbl indicates that such issues are manageable within a supportive and well-structured learning environment. implications and recommendations the findings of this study have several pedagogical implications. first, they affirm the value of integrating pbl in writing instruction to foster student creativity, independence, and engagement. second, they highlight the importance of building supportive communities, such as literacy organizations, where students can share knowledge, provide feedback, and motivate each other. third, the challenges reported by students suggest the need for teachers and curriculum designers to provide guidance on time management, collaborative work, and emotional resilience. future research should explore the long-term impact of pbl on students’ writing skills and identity development. mixed-method studies that include both qualitative and quantitative data could offer deeper insights into how various elements of pbl contribute to learning outcomes. it would also be beneficial to compare pbl’s effectiveness across different educational settings and student demographics. conclusion this study demonstrates that project-based learning (pbl) significantly enhances students’ engagement, autonomy, and emotional investment in creative writing, particularly when integrated into a supportive literacy organization. the participants' experiences revealed that pbl fosters creativity, collaboration, and ownership of learning, enabling students to explore personal and imaginative themes while developing authentic literary products. these findings are consistent with recent research (e.g., nugrahani & suryani, 2022; mubarok & fitriana, 2022; wulandari & widodo, 2023), which underscores http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 1, january 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 11 the multifaceted benefits of pbl, not only as a pedagogical tool but also as a medium for emotional expression and identity development. moreover, this study highlights how writing, when embedded in a meaningful social context, can serve as both an academic and therapeutic practice. while students faced challenges such as time constraints, motivational lapses, and limited resources, these obstacles were mitigated by peer support and structured guidance. the overall positive outcomes suggest that pbl holds strong potential for transforming writing instruction, especially in settings that emphasize authentic output and learner agency. future research is encouraged to investigate the long-term impacts of pbl across diverse educational contexts and to explore its integration with digital platforms and hybrid learning environments. references ariyanti, a., rahmawati, y., & fitria, t. n. (2020). exploring students' obstacles in projectbased learning during covid-19 pandemic. journal of language teaching and learning, 7(3), 221–230. bell, s. (2010). project-based learning for the 21st century: skills for the future. the clearing house, 83(2), 39–43. braun, v., & clarke, v. (2006). using thematic analysis in psychology. qualitative research in psychology, 3(2), 77–101. brown, h. d. (2001). teaching by principles: an interactive approach to language pedagogy (2nd ed.). longman. craft, a. (2005). creativity in schools: tensions and dilemmas. routledge. creswell, j. w., & poth, c. n. (2018). qualitative inquiry and research design: choosing among five approaches (4th ed.). sage. hasim, m. (2020). implementasi kurikulum merdeka belajar dalam sistem pendidikan indonesia. jurnal pendidikan nusantara, 10(1), 1–10. hawaena, m. (2022). teaching writing through contextual-based approach. journal of language and education, 8(2), 44–55. hidayati, d. n., & fatimah, n. (2022). project-based learning and students’ social competence: a qualitative study in indonesian classrooms. journal of educational sciences, 6(1), 55–67. kusuma, b. r., & hidayati, n. (2021). constraints of project-based learning implementation: a case in indonesian tertiary education. jurnal pendidikan bahasa dan sastra, 21(1), 78–90. lantolf, j. p., & poehner, m. e. (2020). sociocultural theory and the pedagogical imperative in l2 education: vygotskian praxis and the research/practice divide. routledge. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 1, january 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 12 lantolf, j. p., & thorne, s. l. (2006). sociocultural theory and the genesis of second language development. oxford university press. larmer, j., & mergendoller, j. r. (2015). gold standard pbl: essential project design elements. buck institute for education. makarim, n. a. (2020). konsep merdeka belajar. kementerian pendidikan dan kebudayaan republik indonesia. merriam, s. b., & tisdell, e. j. (2016). qualitative research: a guide to design and implementation (4th ed.). jossey-bass. mubarok, h., & fitriana, r. (2022). enhancing writing skills through project-based learning: evidence from indonesian vocational students. elt-echo, 7(1), 44–58. nugrohadi, s., & anwar, y. (2022). pembelajaran berbasis proyek dalam pengembangan keterampilan abad 21. jurnal inovasi pendidikan, 14(1), 75–88. nugrahani, f., & suryani, l. (2022). engaging students in active learning: the effectiveness of project-based approach in english writing. jurnal pendidikan dan pembelajaran, 11(2), 165–178. nurgiyantoro, b. (2007). teori pengkajian fiksi. gadjah mada university press. palinkas, l. a., et al. (2015). purposeful sampling for qualitative data collection and analysis in mixed method implementation research. administration and policy in mental health and mental health services research, 42(5), 533–544. putri, d. p., marlina, l., & wahyuni, d. (2021). pbl model in improving writing analytical exposition texts. j-shmic: journal of english for academic, 8(1), 43–51. rahman, m. f., & hasanah, u. (2021). exploring the metacognitive impact of project-based writing tasks. indonesian journal of applied linguistics, 11(3), 523–533. robbins, s. p., & judge, t. a. (2012). organizational behavior (15th ed.). prentice hall. sari, r. p., & marlina, r. (2020). students’ critical thinking in project-based learning. journal of english language teaching and literature, 5(1), 70–79. thomas, j. w. (2000). a review of research on project-based learning. buck institute for education. vygotsky, l. s. (1978). mind in society: the development of higher psychological processes. harvard university press. wulandari, t., & widodo, r. (2023). writing as healing: a qualitative inquiry into therapeutic writing among university students. indonesian journal of language and literature, 14(1), 17–28. zins, j. e., weissberg, r. p., wang, m. c., & walberg, h. j. (2020). building academic success on social and emotional learning: what does the research say? teachers college press. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 1, january 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 13 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 2, april 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 55 innovation in language and culture preservation through the development of a trilingual digital dictionary: batak toba – indonesian – english orli binta tumanggor 1*, winda syafitri 2, suci khairani 3, & lamtiur sinambela 4 1,2,3,4 politeknik negeri medan, medan, indonesia orlitumanggor@polmed.ac.id abstract language is a vital part of human culture and reflects the identity of a community. over time, many regional languages face extinction due to a decline in native speakers. one such language is batak toba. its use is decreasing among younger generations because of factors like migration, inter-ethnic marriages, and the growing dominance of indonesian and foreign languages. if this trend continues, batak toba may disappear in the coming generations. this study aims to preserve the batak toba language and culture by developing a trilingual digital dictionary (batak toba–indonesian–english). the instructional development process adheres to the 4-d model framework, encompassing the stages of definition, design, development, and dissemination. the resulting dictionary undergoes rigorous evaluation to determine its validity, practicality, and overall effectiveness. the research starts with several analyses: front-end, student, language, task, concept, and goal setting. then, research instruments are created, media and formats are selected, and an initial prototype is developed. this first version is validated by experts, revised, and tested in classroom settings. data from these evaluations are analyzed to determine whether the product meets quality standards. the result is a final version of the digital dictionary that is proven to be valid, practical, and effective for language preservation. keywords: batak-indonesian-english, cultural preservation, language preservation, research and development, trilingual digital dictionary introduction language is one of the essential elements of human culture. in addition to functioning as a means of communication, language also serves as the identity of a community group. however, with the progression of time, many regional languages are endangered due to the decreasing number of active speakers. one such language is batak toba. according to ethnologue (2021), the batak toba language is spoken by around 2 million people, primarily in north sumatra, indonesia. however, its use is declining among the younger generation due to various factors such as migration, inter-ethnic marriages, and the influence of indonesian and foreign languages (sibarani, 2018; brenzinger et al., 2003). empirical studies have shown that members of the younger generation within the batak http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 mailto:orlitumanggor@polmed.ac.id copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 2, april 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 56 toba community engage minimally in the use of the batak toba language during social interactions, a pattern that contrasts markedly with that of the older generation (marpaung & tampubolon, 2022; e. p. simamora et al., 2025; sinaga, 2019). this phenomenon suggests a lack of awareness among the youth regarding the significance of preserving their linguistic and cultural heritage. the batak toba language, as a mother tongue, is frequently perceived as having lower sociolinguistic prestige in comparison to the national language, indonesian, or to foreign languages, thereby contributing to a decreased motivation to acquire, use, and sustain the language. academic research on the batak toba language is still limited, resulting in a lack of references and data that can be used in the development of learning materials and translation tools. information on the batak toba language-particularly in terms of its structure, linguistic components, and other relevant aspects-remains limited or poorly coordinated in documentation, making it difficult for researchers and learners to access and utilize. the lack of well-organized and accessible resources constitutes a major obstacle to efforts aimed at the preservation and learning of the language (pasaribu, 2021; n. j. simamora et al., 2022). numerous speakers of the batak toba language have reported a significant lack of accessible learning resources to support the study of their own language, particularly in digital formats that align with contemporary technological use. simanjuntak et al. (2022) emphasize the importance of local wisdom in everyday communication, their study does not specifically address the availability or development of digital educational materials for the batak toba language. recent initiatives aimed at digitalizing cultural learning resources relevant to the batak toba community have primarily concentrated on traditional decorative arts, with limited attention given to the linguistic dimension of the language itself (azis et al., 2023). the existing resources are often not easily accessible to the general public, especially the younger generation who are more accustomed to digital technology. the lack of adequate tools for translating the batak toba language into indonesian and english, and vice versa, presents a challenge in cross-linguistic communication. in the context of globalization, the ability to communicate in multiple languages is becoming increasingly important, including for the batak toba community, which is spread across various countries (nababan, 1991). the development of technology for minority languages is often neglected, resulting in inadequate digital tools that do not optimally meet users' needs. investment in the development of digital technology for the batak toba language, including digital dictionaries, remains very limited (calvin et al., 2025; silalahi et al., 2024). if this trend continues, it is feared that the batak toba language could become extinct within the next few generations. to preserve the batak toba language, various efforts are needed, one of which is through the development of a dictionary. a dictionary serves a crucial function in preserving and standardizing a language’s lexicon, including word meanings, pronunciations, and usage. (pusat pengembangan dan pelindungan bahasa dan sastra, 2021; svensen, 2009). in the current digital era, electronic/digital dictionaries offer several advantages over printed ones, such as practicality, portability, multimedia features, ease of http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 2, april 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 57 updates, and accessibility (hasan & iribaram, 2022; lew, 2010; nesi, 2009; e. p. simamora et al., 2025). digital dictionaries also allow for the addition of more than one language (multilingual). this is beneficial for foreign language learning and translation (prinsloo, 2012). compared to bilingual dictionaries, trilingual dictionaries can provide a more comprehensive understanding by pairing words from three languages simultaneously (guo, 2004). thus, the development of a batak toba indonesian english trilingual digital dictionary is a promising innovation. in addition to preserving the language, such a dictionary can also document the batak toba culture. as is known, language and culture are two interconnected aspects. language expresses, embodies, and symbolizes cultural realities (kramsch, 2015). by incorporating cultural terms specific to batak toba, such as kinship, traditional ceremonies, traditional music, etc., into the digital dictionary, these invaluable heritages can be passed down to future generations. the development of the batak toba indonesian english trilingual digital dictionary needs to be carried out meticulously by involving linguists, cultural experts, it specialists, and relevant stakeholders. the dictionary content must be accurate, comprehensive, up-todate, and user-friendly. the interface design and features should also be engaging and userfriendly. with careful planning and proper implementation, this dictionary could be an innovative solution for preserving the batak toba language and culture in the digital era. methods the instructional development process adheres to the 4-d model framework, encompassing the stages of definition, design, development, and dissemination (thiagarajan et al., 1974). this study involves the development of a trilingual digital dictionary-batak toba, indonesian, and english-as an innovative initiative aimed at preserving the linguistic and cultural heritage of the batak toba community. the quality criteria for the batak toba– indonesian–english trilingual digital dictionary as the product of this development research refer to the product quality criteria by nieveen (1999: 125-135), which emphasizes three core aspects: validity, practicality, and effectiveness (simanullang, 2018). this research is being conducted at sd negeri 173449 hutajulu, onan ganjang district, humbang hasundutan regency, during the 2024/2025 academic year, involving 30 students from grades 4, 5, and 6. the research instruments used in this study include: 1) a validation sheet for the batak toba–indonesian–english trilingual digital dictionary and a validation sheet for the learning outcome test; 2) assessment sheets and observation sheets for the practicality of using the batak toba–indonesian–english trilingual digital dictionary; and 3) an effectiveness assessment sheet for the use of the batak toba–indonesian–english trilingual digital dictionary, learning outcome tests, and student response questionnaires. the research process commences with a series of preliminary analyses, including front-end analysis, learner characteristics analysis, language analysis, task analysis, concept analysis, and the formulation of specific research objectives. following these steps, the study proceeds with the development of research instruments, the selection of appropriate media and formats, and the initial design of the batak toba–indonesian–english trilingual digital http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 2, april 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 58 dictionary (hereafter referred to as prototype 1). prototype 1 undergoes a process of validation, refinement, and field testing. subsequently, the analysis of expert feedback and classroom data is performed to assess the validity, practicality, and effectiveness of the batak toba–indonesian–english trilingual digital dictionary. this process culminates in the creation of a final prototype that meets the criteria for validity, practicality, and effectiveness. results the outcome of this developmental study is a batak toba–indonesian–english trilingual digital dictionary that meets the criteria of validity, practicality, and effectiveness. the collected data are systematically divided into two main categories, reflecting the consistency between assessment data and observational findings. validity of the batak toba–indonesian–english trilingual digital dictionary the validation process for the batak toba–indonesian–english trilingual digital dictionary was conducted after the design of the dictionary was completed. this process involved three experts, including one lecturer from the engineering and graphic multimedia study program, one english lecturer from medan state polytechnic, and one expert in batak toba language and culture who is a direct speaker and elder (penetua) of the batak toba tribe in onan ganjang district, humbang hasundutan. the experts evaluated the batak toba– indonesian–english trilingual digital dictionary and the learning outcome test during the validation phase. they conducted this validation prior to the classroom trial in the experimental class. figure 1 illustrates the results of the validation data. as depicted in figure 1, the batak toba–indonesian–english trilingual digital dictionary achieved mean validity scores of 4.47, 4.52, and 4.57 for the format, language, and content aspects, respectively. consequently, the overall average validity rating of the dictionary stands at 4.52. based on the predetermined evaluation standards, these results affirm that the dictionary fulfills the criteria for validity. this indicates that the developed trilingual digital dictionary possesses adequate validity. similarly, the learning outcome test received validity scores of 4.53, 4.57, and 4.67 across the same aspects, yielding an overall mean validity score of 4.59. this score similarly categorizes the learning outcome test as valid. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 2, april 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 59 figure 1. validity data of the batak toba–indonesian–english trilingual digital dictionary and learning outcome test practicality of using the batak toba–indonesian–english trilingual digital dictionary the practicality of utilizing the batak toba–indonesian–english trilingual digital dictionary was determined by analyzing the consistency between two sets of assessments: expert assessments conducted prior to classroom implementation and observer assessments carried out during the actual classroom use. the pre-implementation expert assessments involved three specialists who, drawing upon their theoretical expertise and practical experience, assessed the instructional practicality of the developed digital dictionary. meanwhile, the observer assessments were performed during the classroom trial phase to monitor the dictionary’s application in a real learning environment. the assessment was carried out while the digital dictionary was implemented in the classroom by observing the learning process using the developed batak toba–indonesian–english trilingual digital dictionary. this classroom trial activity was conducted once in three experimental classes. the practicality data for the developed batak toba–indonesian–english trilingual digital dictionary are presented in a diagram in figure 2. figure 2 presents the theoretical practicality scores of the batak toba–indonesian– english trilingual digital dictionary, assessed across the aspects of syntax, social system, and principles of reaction and management, with average scores of 4.62, 4.47, and 4.40, respectively. these results yield an overall theoretical practicality score of 4.50. according to the predetermined evaluation criteria, this indicates that, based on expert assessment, the dictionary’s practical application is categorized as high. similarly, the overall practicality score obtained from the classroom trial is 4.13, which also classifies the practical use of the batak toba–indonesian–english trilingual digital dictionary as high based on classroom implementation data. 4,35 4,40 4,45 4,50 4,55 4,60 4,65 4,70 fornat language content 4,47 4,52 4,57 4,53 4,57 4,67 a v er ag e s co re s fo r e ac h a sp ec t validity assessment aspects digital dictionary learning outcome tests http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 2, april 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 60 figure 2. practicality data of the batak toba–indonesian–english trilingual digital dictionary effectiveness of using the batak toba–indonesian–english trilingual digital dictionary the effectiveness of the batak toba–indonesian–english trilingual digital dictionary is determined by examining the alignment between two key sources of assessment: expert assessments conducted prior to classroom trial and the extent to which effectiveness indicators were achieved during the classroom trial. three subject-matter experts carried out the initial evaluation, drawing on their theoretical expertise and professional experience to assess the potential effectiveness of the digital dictionary in an instructional setting. the effectiveness assessment of using the batak toba–indonesian–english trilingual digital dictionary is reviewed from three aspects: student learning outcomes, learning time usage, and student responses, with averages of 4.33, 4.44, and 4.56, respectively. thus, the overall average theoretical effectiveness score of the batak toba–indonesian–english trilingual digital dictionary is 4.44 (see table 1). based on the established assessment criteria, it can be concluded that the effectiveness of using the batak toba–indonesian– english trilingual digital dictionary based on expert assessment is classified as high. the classroom trial was conducted once across three experimental classes. the effectiveness data related to the batak toba–indonesian–english trilingual digital dictionary are summarized in table 1. as shown in the table, the average post-test score for student learning outcomes during the trial was 86.01. based on established evaluation criteria, this score is categorized as high. the improvement in student performance was further examined by calculating the normalized gain score, which averaged 0.60–falling within the moderate improvement category. this suggests that the observed learning gains align with expected outcomes. additionally, the average student response score reached 86.10%, exceeding the 80% threshold, thereby indicating that the use of the digital dictionary during classroom implementation effectively met the targeted research benchmarks. 3,60 3,70 3,80 3,90 4,00 4,10 4,20 4,30 4,40 4,50 4,60 4,70 syntax social system reaction and management principles 4,62 4,47 4,40 4,13 4,00 4,27 a v er ag e s co re s fo r e ac h a sp ec t practicality assessment aspects practicality assessment before the trial practicality assessment during the trial http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 2, april 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 61 table 1. effectiveness data of the batak toba–indonesian–english trilingual digital dictionary aspects being assessed student learning outcomes use of learning time student responses effectiveness assessment before trials 4.33 (max 5) 4.44 (max 5) 4.56 (max 5) effectiveness assessment during trials pre = 64.98 (max 100) post = 86.01 (max 100) 4.33 (max 5) 86.10 (max 100) in reference to the validation results illustrated in figure 1, the practicality assessments outlined in figure 2, and the effectiveness metrics presented in table 1, it can be inferred that the batak toba–indonesian–english trilingual digital dictionary developed through this study satisfactorily meets the comprehensive criteria of validity, practicality, and effectiveness, thereby demonstrating its appropriateness for implementation in educational contexts. discussion the product of this development research is a trilingual digital dictionary of batak toba–indonesian–english that meets the criteria of validity, practicality, and effectiveness. the developed digital dictionary offers universal accessibility, enabling users to access it anytime and from any location. the digitization of language represents a strategic effort to preserve linguistic and cultural heritage by providing easier access for all individuals, particularly the younger generation, to engage with their native language and culture. this approach promotes cultural continuity while simultaneously allowing openness to global cultural influences (aji et al., 2022; amelia et al., 2024; nanduri & bonsignore, 2023). this allows the younger generation to learn the batak toba language more easily. this dictionary can be used as teaching material in schools, covering not only indonesian-english but also batak toba as an effort to preserve the language among students (muawanah et al., 2024; septiyana & hastomo, 2023). the use of the batak toba–indonesian–english trilingual digital dictionary in the classroom requires adequate resources, such as internet availability, digital devices, etc. the resources needed to develop and maintain digital applications often become obstacles and require attention or support from relevant stakeholders (hairah et al., 2023; oliviatika et al., 2024). the results of this study indicate that the use of the batak toba–indonesian–english trilingual digital dictionary developed in this research received positive responses from students during classroom trials. it is important to note that in utilizing technology as an effort to preserve local languages and cultures, it is necessary to develop attractive and userfriendly features so that users (students) do not feel burdened while learning. conclusion based on the previously discussed research findings, the conclusions of this development study can be summarized as follows. first, the trilingual digital dictionary of batak toba–indonesian–english that was developed has been categorized as valid. second, http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 2, april 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 62 the practicality of this digital dictionary was evaluated from two perspectives: (1) expert assessments based on theoretical knowledge and professional experience, and (2) classroom trials. the latter showed that the dictionary met high criteria in terms of syntax, social system, as well as the principles of reaction and management. third, the effectiveness of the digital dictionary was also determined through expert evaluation, which indicated a high level of effectiveness, and through classroom implementation. the classroom trial data demonstrated high student learning outcomes, with an average score of 86.01, a high average score for time efficiency in learning at 4.33, and a positive response rate of 86.10% from students regarding the use of the trilingual digital dictionary. these results collectively confirm the dictionary’s validity, practicality, and effectiveness in supporting language learning. acknowledgment the researcher expresses sincere gratitude to the pusat penelitian dan pengabdian kepada masyarakat (p3m) of politeknik negeri medan for the financial support that contributed to the implementation of this research, in accordance with the activity implementation agreement letter, number: b/159/pl5/pt.01.05/2024. the researcher also extends thanks to sd negeri 173449 hutajulu for facilitating the research process, which led to the development of the trilingual digital dictionary of batak toba–indonesian– english. references aji, a. f., winata, g. i., koto, f., cahyawijaya, s., romadhony, a., mahendra, r., kurniawan, k., moeljadi, d., prasojo, r. e., baldwin, t., lau, j. h., & ruder, s. 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(2019). sikap generasi muda batak dalam upaya pemertahanan bahasa batak: kajian sosiolinguistik. talenta conference series: local wisdom, social, and arts (lwsa), 2(3), 104–113. https://doi.org/10.32734/lwsa.v2i2.727 svensen, b. (2009). a handbook of lexicography: the theory and practice of dictionarymaking. cambridge university press. www.cambridge.org/9780521708241 thiagarajan, s., semmel, d. s., & semmel, m. i. (1974). instructional development for training teachers of exeptional children: a sourcebook. university of minnesota. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ed090725.pdf http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 2, april 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 127 peer review technique in teaching efl writing skills for senior high school students jufriadi1, fadliyah rahmah muin2*, & ria mustika3 1,2,3state islamic institute of palopo, palopo, indonesia fadliyah_rahmah_muin@iainpalopo.ac.id abstract this research aims to determine how peer review improves writing skills for the tenth grade of sma 13 luwu timur. it was applied before the experimental study, focusing on one group pretest and post-test design. the population in this research was the tenth grade of sma 13 luwu timur. the research instrument used was a writing test (pretest and post-test). the data is analyzed by descriptive statistics and calculated using spss 22. the data analyzed by calculating the mean score and paired sample t-test revealed that the mean score of students in the post-test (55.08) was higher than the pretest (49.15). the t-count (3,118) is more significant than the t-table (2.179). this shows that the alternative hypothesis (ha) is accepted, and the null hypothesis (ho) is rejected. it can be said that using peer review in learning can be recommended to improve students' writing skills. keywords: descriptive texts, english language teaching, peer review technique, writing skills. introduction one of the four talents in learning english is writing. it is used to communicate facts, emotions, and concepts in writing from authors to readers. the four language skills of speaking, listening, and reading are contrasted with writing. even for a native speaker, it is harder to master. for pupils, writing is essential. students who solely concentrate on oral communication will not be able to grasp english; they must be able to use the skills both orally and in writing. they also need to be proficient writers. writing and communicating ideas in a way that others can understand them, however, is more difficult than we might think. writing is more difficult to manage than the other three language skills. this is due to the fact that a number of factors must be taken into account when writing in order for the reader to comprehend what is being said. writing about thoughts and emotions can be challenging because the writer must typically put letters together to produce words, phrases, paragraphs, and texts. since writing is an action that requires a process, it is the hardest skill to learn. in order for the reader to understand the writer's intended message, ideas, or feelings, the texts also need to be readable and understandable. writing involves putting our thoughts into words and paying closer attention to word choice, spelling, grammar, and other small elements. it is challenging to choose the right word and use correct punctuation and spelling. furthermore, they have to write content that is related to the topic and make all the http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 2, april 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 128 paragraphs coherent with each other. students cannot build the link between their ideas and facts, lack vocabulary, and the teacher frequently uses a monotonous strategy. based on the researcher's initial observations in sma 13 luwu timur, the researcher discovered that students struggled with studying english, particularly in writing several problems; the writing issues were caused by their lack of vocabulary, making it difficult for them to write their ideas into a written form, which can make them confused about how to transfer their ideas; they needed a lot of time to think what they were written; and m the students should be familiar with a variety of writing-related texts so they can read the reader to expand their vocabulary and hone their writing skills; teaching writing via peer review is very useful and beneficial in enhancing students' writing in english. it is a strategy where students discuss and write suggestions. peer review allows students to receive feedback from their peers and receive information, which benefits them in their writing. peer review as a tool for enhancing descriptive writing has been the subject of numerous studies. leny (2017) investigating the effectiveness of peer-reviewed writing form the motivation of class ix students of smpn 1 sekampung. this experimental study implies that peer review technique is effective to teach writing for the ninth-grade students. in addition, sartika and arriyani (2006), tried to to look into how peer review affects students' writing skills and how they feel about using peer review approaches in writing classes at a junior high school in malang. the results demonstrate that the experimental group's students were instructed using the products. additionally, the results of the survey indicate that students' sentiments toward the use of peer review approaches in writing classes are favorable. in addition, sani (2018) conducted a study to determine whether using the peer evaluation method has an impact on college students' ability to write recount texts. she found that college students' recount is significantly impacted by the peer grading approach. furthermore, purna (2017) studied the impacts of peer reviewing on efl writing skills at senior high school 2 luwu discovered that the organization factor had improved more considerably. one strategy is to use peer-review techniques. this is also a technique that can be used in various schools. the similarities between the researcher and previous researchers are the types of research methods and learning techniques using peer review. the difference is that the last researcher used peer review writing to increase student motivation, discover student perceptions, and improve students' writing skills. in contrast, the researcher focused on using peer review to learn descriptive writing effectively. the researcher chose peer review because it effectively teaches writing descriptive text. after all, when the students review their peer writing result, they get more information or comment from their peer. it can also make them realize some mistakes in their peer writing result, which is used to construct their better writing result. titled" the role of peer review in teaching descriptive writing to sma negeri 13 luwu timur 10th grade students ". methods http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 2, april 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 129 in this research, the researcher applied pre-experimental studies. (pretest and submit-test) and treatment with non-magnificence assessment. the researcher carried out a pre-experimental design to research whether or not the usage of peer review affected the student's writing abilities. the students went through those steps in 3 tiers: (1) a pretest, which was used to look at the pupil's understanding; (2) treatment, which was carried out to manual the student's effective writing talents: note: t1 = pre-test x1 = treatment t2 = post-test population and sample the participants in this study are students in sma 13luwu timur's 10th grade. the study's target audience consisted of about 250 students. one class as the researcher only used one. the whole sampling techniques used in this study were customized by the researcher. this means that the sample of this study refers back to the 10th ips 2 grade students of sma 13 luwu timur, which contains 28 students in a single class. research instruments which was used as a research tool both before and after treatment and took the form of descriptive writing. the test was designed to gather data on the student's ability to write descriptively. before beginning the treatment, the researcher administered a pretest to determine their level of experience in descriptive writing. following the treatment, put-upchecks were employed to gauge the student's ability to produce a descriptive paragraph. data collection procedure initial observation prior to conducting the investigation, sman thirteen luwu timur's region and population were identified. pretest gives the students an opportunity to practice writing descriptive text by utilizing a topic to describe themselves. the kids completely focused on the issue as they produced a descriptive essay. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 2, april 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 130 treatment after the pretest, the researcher offered treatment. six sessions were held to administer the treatment. as a result, the researcher created a number of procedures to support students' descriptive writing with peer review. in each meeting, the researcher instructed the students to write an essay with different topic for each. giving posttest the effectiveness of using photographs to teach writing descriptive language will be tested in this experiment. in this posttest, the researcher administered a quiz on the topic of tourism sites in luwu timur, after which the students used peer review to create descriptive writings. data analysis methods data analysis procedures involve classifying the score, he j.b. heaton scales that make up the objective score are separated into five parts. a) content describes the concept conveyed or the essence of the writing. b) the organization's objective is to maintain organization of the content. c) the term "vocabulary" refers to any words or phrases that pupils employ in their writing. d) syntactic patterns and structural terms make up grammar. e) using the spps program in windows 22, determine the mean score, standard deviation, significant test, and standard value for the data. results in this section, the researcher showed the students' overall scores as well as their writing exam results. the researcher provided the data in tables and used spss 22 to determine the score. the researcher then displayed the pupils' full speaking skill pretest results. the results of the students' pretest scores are shown in table 1. table 1. students’ overall scores in pretest no student c o v g m scoring of test 1 s1 11 11 10 15 3 50 2 s2 15 16 13 17 3 64 3 s3 12 10 12 16 2 52 4 s4 16 15 12 11 4 58 5 s5 12 11 13 10 2 38 6 s6 7 8 9 14 3 41 7 s7 9 11 13 17 3 42 8 s8 9 9 10 12 2 42 9 s9 6 6 8 10 3 33 10 s10 10 11 13 16 2 52 11 s11 15 15 16 10 2 58 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 2, april 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 131 12 s12 15 15 16 10 3 59 13 s13 14 12 11 2 2 50 total mean score 49,15 the researcher discussed the typical rating of students' speaking abilities in this area, including content, organization, vocabulary, grammar, and mechanics. table 2. descriptive statistic of student's pretest n minimum maximum mean std. deviation pretest 13 33 64 49,15 9,335 valid n 13 (listwise) pretest results. in addition to stating that the mean score of the students' pretest was 49,15 with a standard deviation of 9,335, it also reveals that the highest student score was 64 and the lowest was 33. content table 3. students' frequency and percentage of content in the pretest classification score pretest frequency percentage (%) excellent 27-30 0 0 very good 15-26 4 30.7% good 12-14 3 23,3% fair 9-11 4 30,7% poor 5-8 2 15,3% total 13 100% the displays the frequency and content % of the students' answers on the pretest that came before the treatment. with a percentage of 30.7%, four pupils got the very good category. three pupils received a percentage of 23.3% for the "good" category, four received a percentage of 30.7% for "fair," and two received a percentage of 15.3% for "poor." organization table 4. students' frequency and percentage of organization in pretest classification score pretest frequency percentage (%) excellent 18-20 0 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 2, april 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 132 very good 15-17 4 30,7% good 12-14 1 7,7% fair 9-11 6 46,3% poor 5-8 2 15,3% total 13 100% the frequency and percentage of organization among the students during the pretest are shown in the above table. with a percentage of 30.7%, these four pupils were given the very good category. one student received a good category, worth 7.7%, six students received a fair category, worth 46%, and two students received a poor category, worth 15.3%. vocabulary table 5. students' frequency and percentage of vocabulary in the pretest classification score pretest frequency percentage (%) excellent 18-20 0 very good 15-17 2 15,3% good 12-14 6 46,3% fair 9-11 4 30,7% poor 5-8 1 7,7% total 13 100% the frequency and percentage of vocabulary used by the students in the pretest prior to treatment are shown in the table above. a very good category was awarded to two students with a percentage of 15,3%, a good category to six students with a percentage of 46%, a fair category to four students with a percentage of 30,7%, and a poor category to one student with a percentage of 7,7%. grammar table 6. students' frequency and percentage of grammar in the pretest classification score pretest frequency percentage (%) excellent 23-25 0 very good 20-22 0 good 16-19 4 30,7% fair 9-15 9 69,3% poor 5-8 0 total 13 100% http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 2, april 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 133 the frequency and proportion of grammar used by students during the pretest are displayed in the table above. nine students received a fair category with a percentage of 69.3%, while four students received a good category with a percentage of 30.7%. e. mechanic table 7. students' frequency and percentage of mechanics in the pretest classification score pretest frequency percentage (%) excellent 23-25 5 0 very good 20-22 4 1 good 16-19 3 6 fair 9-15 2 6 poor 5-8 1 0 total 13 100% in the pretest before the treatment, the shows the frequency and proportion of mechanics among the pupils. six students received an of 46.3%, six students received an of 46.3%, and one student received a very good category with a percentage of 7.7%. table 8. descriptive statistics of writing aspects in pre-test n minimum maximum mean std. deviation content 13 6 16 11,62 3,280 organization 13 6 16 11,54 3,017 vocabulary 13 8 16 12,00 2,415 grammar 13 2 17 12,31 4,191 mechanics 13 2 4 2,62 ,650 valid n (listwise) the table above shows the descriptive statistics for the pretest's writing sections. with a mean of 11,62 and a standard deviation of 3,280, the content value varies from 6 to 16, with a range from 6 to 16. the organization reports that the average score is 11,54, with a maximum of 16, a minimum of 6, and a standard deviation of 3,017. the vocabulary score varies from 8 to 16, with a mean of 12 and a standard deviation of 2,415 in between. maximum grammatical value is 17, maximum standard deviation is 4,191, minimum grammatical value is 2, and mean grammatical value is 12. according to the final calculations, the mean is 2,62, the standard deviation is, and the minimum and maximum values are, respectively. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 2, april 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 134 posttest table 9. students’ overall scores in post-test no student c o v g m scoring of test 1 s1 11 11 11 11 11 11 2 s2 15 15 15 15 15 15 3 s3 12 12 12 12 12 12 4 s4 16 16 16 16 16 16 5 s5 12 12 12 12 12 12 6 s6 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 s7 9 9 9 9 9 9 8 s8 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 s9 6 6 6 6 6 6 10 s10 10 10 10 10 10 10 11 s11 15 15 15 15 15 15 12 s12 15 15 15 15 15 15 13 s13 14 14 14 14 14 14 total mean score 55,08 the study's findings demonstrated the average rating due to the fact that writing challenges students in a number of areas, including content, business, vocabulary, grammar, and mechanics. with a final score of 55,08 on average following treatment. table 10. descriptive statistic of student's posttest n minimum maximum mean std. deviation pretest 13 34 66 55,08 10,112 valid n 13 (listwise) the descriptive facts of the scholars' submit-take a look at results are displayed in table 4.10. the bottom pupil score is 34, and the exceptional is 66, in step with this explanation. additionally, it stated that the students' put-uptest had a median score of 55,08 and a preferred deviation of seven.235. content table 11. students' frequency and percentage of content in post-test classification score pretest frequency percentage (%) excellent 27-30 very good 15-26 6 46,3% http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 2, april 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 135 good 12-14 4 30,7% fair 9-11 1 7,7% poor 5-8 2 15,3% total 13 100% the table above shows the frequency and content percentage of the students' posttest responses. six students received the very good classification after achieving a 46.3% percentage. four students received the good category, one student received the fair category, and two students received the poor category, for a cumulative percentage of 30.7%. organization table 12. students' frequency and percentage of organization in post-test classification score pretest frequency percentage (%) excellent 18-20 1 7,6% very good 15-17 2 15,3% good 12-14 6 46,3% fair 9-11 2 15,3% poor 5-8 2 15,3% total 13 100% the table above displays the frequency and level of organization among the students during the post-test. these pupils achieved a percentage of 7.6% in the excellent category. six students scored in the fair range (46.3%), two students scored in the decent range (15.3%), and two students scored in the very good range (2%). the next category, with a percentage of 15.3%, was given to two pupils. vocabulary table 13. students' frequency and percentage of vocabulary in posttest classification score pretest frequency percentage (%) excellent 18-20 2 15,3% very good 15-17 2 15,3% good 12-14 4 30,7% fair 9-11 2 15,3% poor 5-8 3 23,3% total 13 100% the table above displays the frequency and percentage of vocabulary used by the students during the publish-test. after administering the medication. there were two http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 2, april 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 136 college students who got a high-quality class with a percentage of 15,3%, students who got an excellent percentage-based total category of 15,3%, four students were given an excellent category with a percentage of 30,7%, two students were given an honest class with a percentage of 15,3%. following this, three college students received poor grades with a 23.3%. grammar table 14. students' frequency and percentage of grammar in post-test classification score pretest frequency percentage (%) excellent 23-25 0 0% very good 20-22 0 0% good 16-19 1 7,6% fair 9-15 12 92,4 poor 5-8 0 0% total 13 100% the table above shows how often and how much grammar was used by students during the post-test. with a percentage of 92.4%, twelve students were placed in the fair category, while one student was placed in the good group with a percentage of 7.6%. mechanic table 15. students' frequency and percentage of mechanics in post-test classification score pretest frequency percentage (%) excellent 5 0 % very good 4 3 23,3% good 3 3 23,3% fair 2 7 53,8% poor 1 0 0% total 13 100% the table above displays the frequency and percentage of mechanics utilized by the students in the post-test following the treatment. three students obtained a very good category with a percentage of 23.3%, three students received a good category with a percentage of 23.3%, and seven students received a fair category with 53.8%. table 16. descriptive statistics of writing aspects in post-test n minimum maximum mean std. deviation content 13 5 19 13,85 4,375 organization 13 7 18 12,62 3,280 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 2, april 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 137 vocabulary 13 7 19 12,77 3,898 grammar 13 10 17 13,62 2,022 mechanics 13 2 4 2,69 ,855 valid n (listwise) the table above shows the descriptive statistics for the pretest's writing sections. with a mean of 13,85 and a standard deviation of 4,35, the content value spans from 5 to 19, with a range in between. the organization reports that the average score is 12,62, with a maximum of 18, a minimum of 7, and a standard deviation of 3,280. with a mean score of 12,77 and a standard deviation of 3,898, the vocabulary score varies from 7 to 19. with a mean of 13.62 and a standard deviation of 2.022, grammar scores range from 10 to 17, with a range of scores. according to the final calculations, the mean is 2,69, the standard deviation is, and the minimum and highest values are, respectively. the evaluation of students' preand posttest scores table 17. comparison of the student's pretest and posttest results no classification score pretest pos-test frequency percentage (%) frequency percentage (%) 1 excellent 90-100 2 very good 80-89 3 good 70-79 4 fair 60-69 1 7,6% 5 38,4% 5 poor ≤60 12 92,3% 8 61,5% total 13 100% 13 100% table 17 displays a comparison of the findings from the pretest and posttest. a student with a percentage of 7.6% obtained a fair. a percentage of 92.3% earned the fair category for twelve pupils. on the posttest, eight students scored in the bad group with a percentage of 61.5%, compared to five students who scored in the fair category with a percentage of 38.4%. the mean scores and standard deviations of the pretest and posttest table 18. the paired samples statistic of pretest and post-test paired samples statistics mean n std. deviation std. error mean pair 1 pretest 49.15 13 9.335 2.589 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 2, april 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 138 posttest 55.08 13 10.112 2.804 table 18 displays the matched sample statistics for the pretest and posttest. according to the student's pretest, the result was 49.15. the pretest and posttest standard deviations were 9.335 and 10.112, respectively, while the posttest mean score was 55.08. table 19 the paired samples correlations of pretest and post-test paired samples correlations n correlation sig. pair 1 pretest & posttest 13 .755 .003 ` the correlation between the pretest and post-test for paired samples is shown in table 19. as can be seen, the value is 755. table 20. the paired samples test of pretest and post-test paired samples test paired differences t df sig. (2tailed) mean std. devia tion std. error mean 95% confidence interval of the difference lower upper pair 1 pretestposttest -5.923 6.849 1.900 -10.062 -1.784 -3.118 12 .009 table 20 displays the results of the paired samples test for the pretest and post-test. test = 3.118 and df (degree of freedom) = 12, according to the researcher. on the other hand, the t-table is 2,179, the pdf is 12, and the significance level is 5%. according to the data shown above, the probability value was less than a=0.003 (a=0.001.0.005), hence the test is greater than the table. the alternative hypothesis (ha) was accepted while the null hypothesis (ho) was refuted. one may argue that students use peer evaluation to hone their writing abilities. discussion researchers discovered various issues in class 10 sma 13 luwu timur, including a lack of vocabulary that makes it challenging for students to express their views in writing, which can leave them perplexed about how to convey their ideas. the researcher discovered a useful learning method for pupils to use in order to address these writing skill issues. peer review is a type of. the researcher discovered that students had trouble writing since the majority of them did not comprehend the material in the first meeting's session. many of them still give arbitrary answers. students continued to make the same error at the second and third meetings, which was that they continued to be perplexed. however, with continuous http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 2, april 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 139 explanations from researchers, students are interested in trying. but from the fourth meeting until the last meeting, they tried to write well. in the post-test, students' writing ability increased. writing ability improves: students can understand what is written. there were variances in the test results of the students following the treatment phase, according to the experimental class that examined the writing skills of the students. it is clear that the average score climbs from 33 at the pretest stage to 34 at the post-stage. the component of listening comprehension received the highest score from the students, with a maximum score, and the average score was from the pretest session. students received a maximum score of 66 and an average of 55.08 during the post-test session. in this situation, children learn more vocabulary from each of their works in addition to being able to understand the topic. this study was conducted with several results. first, the advantages of applying new knowledge. this study supports prior research by suriani binti bakar (2022), which found that educators may more readily convey knowledge by utilizing learning approaches. researchers in this study found suitable learning techniques to help students' writing skills. second, according to astuti (2018), peer review enhances kids' writing abilities. herawati (2019) claims that peer criticism enhances pupils' writing abilities the novelty of this research is in the peer review section. the most important part of the peer is feedback, suggestions, and improvements that can make students aware of mistakes in writing. peer review is an easy method. conclusion the conclusion that may be reached is that the peer review for children to understand the efficacy of teaching writing sentences to 10th-grade students of sma 13 luwu timur. the writing abilities of students are greatly influenced. this shows that using peer review in an environment where students may share their papers can help them develop their writing abilities. through their friends' writing, they can learn new things and gain fresh perspectives, and they can also develop their writing talents going forward. the english teacher has to not forget the appropriate approach primarily based on the students' needs. except, discovering the students' needs and lacks can be a beneficial guide for the teacher in serving a better lesson system. using peer overview can be an opportunity approach for teaching writing competencies and motivating for kids to realize the facts correctly. this research investigates that scholars who take part in the use of peer overview become extra enthusiastic in writing classes. furthermore, instructors can use peer review as a proposal for getting to know techniques with other kinds of speech in teaching. every kid has the chance to give a fantastic performance. to attain the learning objectives, nevertheless, the students frequently require a technique to assist them in comprehending the instruction and the key skills in certain circumstances and scenarios. peer evaluation is therefore anticipated to aid students in improving their academic performance. additionally, it is anticipated that using peer evaluation would help students find motivation for their work. (brown, douglas, 2000) http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 2, april 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 140 to assist the pupils in improving their writing abilities, the researcher suggests doing a similar research study. it is anticipated that other research will use the peer review implementation as a model or source of inspiration. the researcher also anticipates that additional researchers will. (moore, 2020) references adventris ndohna ruru, t. & sulistiyo t. (2020). journal of research on english and language learning. alfaki, i.m. (2015). university students' english writing problems: diagnosis and remedy. international journal of english language teaching, vol. 35, no. 3. 2015. anderson, m. (2003). text type in english. macmillan educational australia pty ltd. apsari, y. (2017). the use of picture series in teaching writing recount text. journal of english language teaching in indonesia, vol. 4, no. 3, 51-56. astuti. (2013). the effectiveness of peer feedback to improve the writing ability of the tenth grade students of sma kanisius harapan tirtomoyo in the academic year of 2012/2013. journal research, vol. 112, no.1. bartles, nat. (2003). written peer response in l2 writing. english teaching forum: germany. brown, d.h. (2001). teaching by principles: an interactive approach to language pedagogy, second edition. pearson education, inc. detapratiwi, r." the impact of team pair solo technique and round robin technique on students ability in writing descriptive text." journal of english language teaching 2 (2013). dietsch, b.m. (2006) reasoning and writing well: a rhetoric, research guide, reader and handbook. graw hill marion technical college. faundi. (2016). the implementation of peer review technique in teaching writing. english educational journal, vol. 19, no. 7, 402-414. fikri, c. (2016). the effectiveness of dictogloss technique on students' writing of descriptive text. uin syarif hidayatullah harmer, j. (2004). how to teach writing. pearson educational limited. longman. hidayatullah, m.s. & handayani, a.e. (2018). the effect of learning english by using pictures map towards students' ability in writing descriptive paragraphs at the second year of mts nurul wahid bukit kapur dumai. doctoral dissertation, universitas islam negeri sultan syarif kasim riau. 26-30. hansen, j.g. & liu, j. (2005). guiding principles for effective peer response. elt journal: oxford university press. hyland, k. (2003). second language writing. cambridge university press. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 2, april 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 141 hyland, k. (2002). teaching and researching writing. longman. kalsum, u. (2016). the effectiveness of using picture in teaching writing of descriptive text at the eighth grade students of mtsn purworejo in the academic year of 2015/2016. english education program. universitas muhammadiyah purworejo. leny, s. (2015). the effectiveness of peer review to teach writing at ninth grade of smpn 1 sekampung academic year 2014/2015. teaching and teacher education. lewis, m. (2022). giving feedback in language classes. the university of auckland; seamo regional language centre vol. 45. no.1 luber, j. (2016). descriptive text. http://juliantluber.blogspot.com/2014/04/descriptivetext.html. mariah. (2017) improving students' writing descriptive text ability by using peer feedback technique at ten grade students of man sipirok south tapanuli. a thesis 43, no. 9. mashadi. (2014). improving students' writing abilities through peer feedback technique at class vii d of smp negeri 1 mlati in the academic year of 2012/2023. a thesis. mcmorran, chris. peer review in student writing: managing chaos with turnitin. buzzed. mehrdad, m. (2011). online and face-to-face peer review: measures of implementation in esl writing classes'. asian efl journal. muslimah. (2018). the effect of story pyramid strategy toward students' writing narrative text. journal research vol. 29, no.2. muthoharoh (2018). using feedback in teaching writing descriptive text. english studies journal, vol. 11, no. 3. oshima, a. & houge (2007). introduction to academic writing (third edition). york: pearson education, inc. permanasari. "kemampuan menulis teks deskripsi siswa kelas vii smp negeri 1 sumber jaya lampung barat. ”jurnal pesona 99, no. 4 (januari 17, 2020). pratiwi. k. (2021) students difficulties in writing english (a study at the third semester students of english education program at university of bengkulu academic year 2011-2012. journal of linguistics and language teaching vol. 3, no. 2. purna, d. (2017). the impacts of peer reviewing on efl writing skills. state university of makassar. rahimah. (2020). an analysis of peer feedback towards the students writing skill at mas bustanul ulum. a thesis. raimes, a. (1983). technique in teaching writing. oxford university press. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://juliantluber.blogspot.com/2014/04/descriptive-text.html http://juliantluber.blogspot.com/2014/04/descriptive-text.html copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 2, april 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 142 sani, h.e. (2018). the influence of using peer review technique towards students' recount text writing ability at the second semester of the regular eighth grade of mts negeri 2 bandar lampung in 2016-2017. raden intan state islamic university lampung. sartika, d. & arriyani, n (2006) enhancing students writing skill to write descriptive text using peer review and free writing techniques. shukla, s. (2018). variable, hypotheses and stages of research. lesser. , 67, http:www.researchgate.net/publication/325127119_variab les_hypotheses_d_staes_of_research_1 zemach, d.e. and rumisek, l. a. (2005). academic writing: from paragraph to essay. macmillan publisher ltd. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://www.researchgate.net/publication/325127119_variab copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 1, january 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 40 comparing grammar translation method (gtm) and communicative language teaching (clt) in efl context: a qualitative literature review paulomi rahman nisha university of dhaka, dhaka, bangladesh *paulomi.rahman.nisha@gmail.com abstract teaching english as a foreign language (efl) differs greatly from teaching english as a first language (l1). to ensure that teaching and learning are successful and efficient, teachers must possess a broad range of pedagogical expertise. each method needs to be adjusted to the particular educational and environmental setting. the primary objective of this article is to provide comprehensive insights into two prominent language teaching methods, namely the grammar translation method (gtm) and communicative language teaching (clt). while gtm has been historically prevalent, clt has recently gained widespread popularity. this paper focuses on the understanding of educational practitioners, particularly in the domain of english language teaching (elt) setting, by conducting a comprehensive comparison of gtm and clt thoroughly, focusing on teaching techniques, characteristics of both teaching methods, and the way the instructor addresses students’ mistakes. although clt is recognized as the more realistic and advantageous method in contemporary contexts, it is still acknowledged that gtm possesses certain positive attributes. additionally, since every country has its own unique set of circumstances, social norms, and background, the teacher must be aware of the most suitable teaching-learning method. keywords: communicative language teaching, efl context, grammar translation method introduction the use of the appropriate approach is crucial when teaching english as a foreign language (efl). while the grammar translation method (gtm) is very traditional, communicative language teaching (clt) is one of the newest approaches that efl teachers apply around the world. both of these methods are highly useful, but there are clear distinctions between them in terms of approach and theoretical background. according to wardhaugh (1972), language is a system of arbitrary symbols used for human communication. according to richards & rodgers (2001) “an approach or method refers to a theoretically consistent set of teaching procedures that define best practices in language teaching” (p. 15). delving into the foundations of language teaching, henry sweet (1899) stated that a scientific study of psychology and linguistic analysis should serve as a base for good methodological principles. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 1, january 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 41 every language instructor has a different story of how they learned languages. during their own "apprenticeship of observation," instructors were trained in this manner (lortie 1975). teachers have the option to instruct differently from how they were instructed if they are clear about their views. (clarke, 2003). it is well known that educators bring to teacher preparation experiences certain notions about the teaching and learning process derived from their years as learners (lortie 1975). moreover, teachers have options for how they at present consider, and carry out when they use different ways. it is not a given that they will decide to change their existing procedure. if they are able and choose to, they will have the knowledge and resources necessary to accomplish so. this qualitative article is designed to study the comparison between gtm and clt in order to discuss these topics in greater detail. this paper serves as crucial for teachers to understand how both methods differ from each other and what approach works best for their students in the efl context. for additional information regarding both methods, a thorough analysis of the differences between gtm and clt is given in the elaboration. grammar translation method (gtm) grammar translation method (gtm), is the term for the most recognized and centuries-old method. this method has a long history of accomplishment in the teaching of english. grammar translation method (gtm) has gone by several names, language instructors have been using it for a long time. by its mere name, this method—also called the translation method—indicates that teaching the target language involves translating it into the native languages. this method is based on the idea that translation is the most effective way to teach and learn a foreign language. originally, it was initially recognized and identified as the prussian method in the united states (kelly 1969). it was formerly known as the "classical method" since it was primarily applied to the teaching of two classical languages. according to brown (1994) latin and greek, among various ancient languages, were taught using classical methods. this method was employed to assist students in reading and appreciating literature written in foreign languages (fl) earlier in the 20th century. richards and rodgers (2002) define gtm as, “a method of foreign or second language teaching which makes use of translation and grammar study as the main teaching and learning activities” (p. 231). the underlying premise is that all languages share a basic grammar and that the structure of the english language can be best learned by comparing the grammar of the native language and the target language (tl), neither of which is easier to understand and acquire. in the classroom, a native language tends to be used rather than the target language (tl). the student's native language is used as the educational medium in this method. it is employed to compare students' native language with the target language and explain new items. in this method, accuracy is prioritized over fluency. it is necessary to demonstrate the benefits of gtm to explore it more effectively. by translating each english phrase or word into the student's native language, the teacher can instantly help the students grasp it and save time. it also aids the teacher in determining whether or not the students have absorbed the foreign language. this approach is simple because it moves from the known to the unknown, which makes teaching and learning easier. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 1, january 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 42 as a result, it solidifies the memory connection between the foreign symbols and the original language. this approach is highly dependable for providing students with comprehension practice in reading. gtm prioritizes written language over spoken language and pays very little attention to spoken language. the entire process involved shifting from analysis and explanation to creating questions and answers. a crucial component of teaching languages is dictation. with this method, spoken words gradually transition from written forms. for example, learning english words starts with the letters of the alphabet. the spellings took precedence over the sound. students learned its spelling before learning the spoken form or how to pronounce a word. as a result, the fl english learner relies on spelling to determine how to pronounce words. communicative language teaching (clt) a number of movements in the us and europe in the 1970s and early 1980s contributed to the rise in popularity of communicative language teaching (clt). situational language teaching (slt) dominated the english language teaching (elt) landscape in britain until the late 1960s. upon its inception in the 1970s, communicative language teaching (clt) was largely seen as the last solution to the communication shortcomings of earlier paradigms and the demands of an increasingly interconnected world. content-based instruction, also known as content and language integrated learning (clil), became increasingly popular in the united states for english language learners as well as in language education abroad, especially in europe as well. in communicative language learning (cll) which is closer to the clt approach, students are expected to interact more with one another than with the teacher, there is often no text, and grammar standards are not presented. clt it is not the subject of a single text, a single model that is regarded as authoritative by all. it generally makes use of resources and techniques that are suitable for the particular learning environment. linguists realized that communicative competence, not only structural mastery, should be the main emphasis of language instruction. the start of the communicative approach can be seen in chomsky's work from the 1960s when he developed the concepts of "performance" and "competence" in opposition to the dominant audio-lingual method and its tenets. there was a shift in the field in the late 1970s and early 1980s from a linguistic structure-centered approach to a communicative approach (widdowson, 1990; savignon, 1997). interaction is emphasized as the primary means to achieve the objective of language acquisition in the clt approach to teaching second and foreign languages. communicative language teaching (clt) attempts to make communicative competence the goal of language instruction by utilizing the theoretical framework of the communicative approach (larsenfreeman & anderson, 2011). the communicative approach is predicated on the notion that effective language acquisition requires the ability to transmit meaningful content. learners will be able to use the language since they will be using their natural language acquisition mechanisms when engaging in authentic communication. its objective is to utilize real-world scenarios that demand communication. clt does not follow a single theory or approach. its perspectives on education come from various fields, including second language acquisition (sla), educational psychology, and cognitive science. thus, setting up the classroom as a http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 1, january 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 43 place for communication and communicative activities is the main responsibility of the clt instructor. comparative analysis this study initiates an in-depth comparative analysis of the grammar translation method (gtm) and communicative language teaching (clt) within the english as a foreign language (efl) context, delving into their distinctive methodologies and assessing their effectiveness in language instruction. based on factors such as the medium of instruction, main-focused language skills, the teaching and learning process, motivation, and response to mistakes, a detailed comparative analysis will be presented below. medium of instruction whereas clt places more of an emphasis on communication and allows students to experiment with the language so they can learn it naturally, gtm lessons are taught mostly in the students' native language with little to no active usage of the target language. since l1 is used in gtm, to interpret the target language(tl), native language plays a crucial role in the process. learners will apply to their native language all that they have learned about the target language (harmer, 2007). additionally, both teachers and students attempt to comprehend grammar in their native languages while studying it. the majority of the teaching and learning processes are carried out in the native language, which the teacher also uses to investigate the grammar of the target language. in clt the target language is used throughout the entire teaching and learning process. (brown, 2007). therefore, the aim of this approach is to acquaint the students with the target language as well, enabling them to communicate effectively and meaningfully. main-focused language skills for learners to be proficient in language, they must master four abilities. they are speaking, writing, listening, and reading. according to (harmer, 2007) listening and reading are receptive skills, and speaking and writing are productive skills. reading and writing are the two abilities that are prioritized in the gtm method. this implies that students only learn one skill—that of obtaining information—and one skill—that of producing and delivering information. as a result, this method is less suitable for improving students' language proficiency, particularly when learning a foreign language. in contrast, the clt starts the teaching and learning process by teaching the students the four skills. the students are typically split up into small groups, and it is via these groups and classes that they learn the four talents. since students utilize the language in class and in their daily lives, even though they make a lot of mistakes, they achieve perfect competence and performance using this method. overall, compared to the gtm approaches, the teacher teaches skills to the students more thoroughly in the clt method. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 1, january 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 44 the types/modes of interaction gtm focuses mostly on teacher-to-student interaction. the majority of the teachinglearning process originates with the instructor (brown, 2007; harmer, 2007). with this method, the teacher serves as the primary resource for both instruction and learning, providing a one-way demonstration of the subject matter. if any of the students are unclear about the meaning of words or the structure of a sentence, they simply ask the teacher the question. to help students understand the lesson, the teacher will accomplish this by providing the solution right away. in contrast, the teacher and students actively interact when using the clt approach. to achieve the purpose of teaching and learning, the teacher serves as a mentor. there is active communication between the teacher and the students as well as between the students and the teacher in clt (thompson, 1996; brown, 2007; hiep, 2005). students rarely engage with one another during the teaching and learning process when employing the gtm method. as a result, students never discuss the subject with one another and only acquire information from the teacher. on the other hand, the clt method places a strong emphasis on student engagement (hiep, 2005). to address the issue and respond to the teacher's inquiry, students may interact. breen and candlin's (1980) emphasize negotiation in clt, “the role of learner as negotiator – between the self, the learning process, and the object of learning” (p. 110). clt approach is highly beneficial to the learning process because it allows the instructor to act as a co-communicator with the learners, increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of the teaching and learning process to achieve its objectives, marks (prabhu 1987). teaching and learning process grammar translation method (gtm) mainly involves the student in vocabulary memorization, translation of foreign literary and scholarly texts, and translation into the native language. deductive application of grammatical rules is mostly used in the gtm method. hedge and thornbury (2001) state that gtm not only gives language learners access to input but also make grammatical aspects easier to understand, which is particularly beneficial for efl learners. wilkins (1976) remarks that clt syllabuses emphasize notions and functions over grammatical structures. according to littlewood (1981), one of the distinguishing features of communicative language teaching is its systematic focus on both the functional and structural aspects of language. classroom activities textbooks for gtm mostly comprised definitions of terms and lists of vocabulary. most of the time, the only activities the students do is translations. gtm would provide little oral competency, and students were frequently expected to travel overseas and immerse themselves to acquire fluency. in contrast, clt emphasizes the importance of learnercentered language instruction and provides chances for students to utilize language communicatively. littlewood (1981); finocchiaro and brumfit (1983) in their guidelines for classroom practice propose that, in the course of an activity, the teacher observes, motivates, http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 1, january 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 45 and refrains from providing answers to gaps in vocabulary, grammar, and strategy. instead, these gaps are recorded for subsequent discussion and communicative exercises. clt focused on the kinds of task-work, group work, and information-gap activities that could serve as a basis for a communicative approach. addressing the communication needs of the learners and the classroom activities are the main priorities. according to richards and rodgers (2001), “clt, promotes learning through communication in pairs or small groups” (p. 174). johnson and johnson (1998) identify that students must be able to create and understand authentic messages—that is, ones with real meanings. for this reason, information transfer and sharing are emphasized in clt. motivation while comparing the clt and gtm methods, it can be said that whereas gtm is monotonous and involves a one-way transmission, clt is more communicative and cooperative than gtm in terms of improving students' language skills. the primary source of the teaching and learning process is the teacher. according to brown (1994), “the students have little motivation to go beyond grammar analogies, translations, and rote exercises” in gtm. (p. 53). the students might feel demotivated. on the other hand, the clt uses a variety of teaching strategies to engage students in the class and make them feel at ease and pleased. moreover, clt is a modern approach that views the teacher and the students as collaborators in the learning process. as a result of having the chance to share their ideas, interests, and feelings, students feel at ease with the teacher. in addition to being the primary source, the instructor can also serve as a co-communicator and facilitator for the students. students also attentively study because, in a clt classroom, the teacher motivates students to achieve the objectives (brown, 2007). response to mistakes the teacher will correct the students' mistakes directly in gtm. although the students are directly aware of their errors, this method may not be beneficial in the long run because it reduces their confidence in their ability to speak in class. accuracy is seen as essential in the gtm method (harmer, 2007). after all, students fear making mistakes. moreover, the students exhibit great caution in their performance and possess the ability to evaluate language, but they lack the confidence and skill to use the language effectively, especially in communicative situations. it is important that teachers respect the ways in which they do these tasks and anticipate that students will manage the results of their choices. (szabo & scharle, 2000). the teacher will assist students in finding and correcting their mistakes. (brown, 2007). in contrast, clt is student-centered since it allows the teacher to accept mistakes made by the students. positively, students are confident and do not hesitate to use the language in everyday situations. they also feel at ease and content when using it. in summary, the gtm method responds to students directly, while the clt method responds indirectly. each method has benefits and drawbacks of its own. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 1, january 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 46 findings and discussion the comparative analysis between the grammar translation method (gtm) and communicative language teaching (clt) has unveiled significant differences in instructional approaches. both of the methods differ greatly. from the comparative analyses, the major differences between gtm and clt are evident in the following: table 1. major differences between gtm & clt criteria gtm (classical /traditional) clt (latest/ modern) medium of instruction mostly native language or first language (l1) is used as a medium of instruction. target language (tl) or foreign language (fl) is used as a medium of instruction. learning approach the vocabulary of foreign literature is memorized. the students learn the target language (tl) mostly through situational and real-world content. role of the teacher the teacher takes on an authoritative role. the teacher functions as a facilitator. role of students students are expected to translate and analyze the text of a foreign language. students are expected to use the language in the real world. pronunciation little or no attention is given to pronunciation. pronunciation is often integrated and receives more attention. goal of learning focus on presenting deductive grammar explanations before generating sentences. focus on encouraging students to actively engage and interact in the target language. skills focused places emphasis on reading and writing skills. prioritizes all four language skills. interaction the teacher mostly interacts with the students (t-ss) in a traditional lecture-based classroom. the students engage in active communication (s-s/ ss-ss), forming pairs, and small groups interacting with the entire class. error correction the teacher provides direct correction of student errors. the teacher allows errors and guides students in revising them. it is evident that while interactive communication activities were prioritized in clt, reading and writing were the first steps in the english language learning process in gtm. the use of translation as a teaching tool for first language (l1) is eliminated from educational settings that teach foreign languages. the findings of this study underscore the pronounced differences between these two methods. it is evident in the findings that gtm relies on memorization, whereas clt prioritizes real-world content. the findings of this study also highlight that gtm features an authoritative teacher role, with students translating and analyzing while clt emphasizes a facilitator role, expecting students to use the language authentically. this choice significantly influences learner interaction. moreover, gtm lacks emphasis on pronunciation and focuses on reading and writing. clt integrates pronunciation and prioritizes all language skills. it is also apparent that gtm http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 1, january 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 47 involves limited interaction and direct error correction. clt encourages student interaction, allowing for natural language acquisition. for this reason, information transfer and sharing are emphasized in clt activities, which are focused on the kinds of task-work, group work, and information-gap activities that could serve as a basis for a communicative approach. the systematic focus on both functional and structural aspects in clt explains the comprehensive skill development. individual interpretation and variance are allowed far more than most approaches allow. since clt first emerged, british language instruction was prepared for a paradigm change. people who were looking for a more humane approach to teaching—one that prioritized interactive communication processes—found clt appealing. however, the foundation of clt is the notion that effective language learning requires the ability to convey genuine meaning. learners will be able to use the language since they will be using their natural language acquisition mechanisms when engaging in authentic communication. by navigating through these findings, a comprehensive understanding emerges—highlighting the need for a dynamic and adaptable method that aligns with the goals of language learners. the integration of different theories solidifies the implications of adopting the accurate method in contemporary language teaching contexts. it is noteworthy that both the grammar translation method (gtm) and communicative language teaching (clt) are well-acknowledged by teachers. despite the perceived outdated nature of gtm when compared to the more contemporary clt method, it persists in some educational settings. the coexistence of these methods suggests that each has its relevance within specific national contexts, shaped by unique conditions, contexts, and social cultures. educators, therefore, must exercise awareness and discretion in selecting the most effective teaching strategies tailored to the needs of their students. conclusion teaching foreign or second languages does not have a single, definitive optimum method. a successful educator will not stick to just one method. a technique that works well with one class one day may not work well with the same class the next. there is unlikely to be any trouble if we recognize students and design our program to meet the demands of the class. overall, teachers are conversant with both the gtm and clt methods. even though gtm is an outdated method when compared to the clt method, it is still used in some nations. given that every country has a unique set of conditions, contexts, and social cultures, educators must be aware of the best teaching strategies for their students. while this study contributes valuable insights into the ongoing discourse on language teaching methods, it is imperative to acknowledge its limitations. the findings are based on a specific set of conditions and contexts, and the results should be approached with caution. for further advanced understanding of language instruction, future research endeavors should explore diverse educational environments and consider additional factors influencing the choice and effectiveness of language teaching methods. this could include investigating the impact of cultural nuances, classroom dynamics, and varying proficiency levels of students. such endeavors will contribute to the continual evolution of effective language-teaching strategies and enhance the body of scientific knowledge in the field. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 1, january 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 48 references breen, m. candlin, c. n. (1980). the essentials of a communicative curriculum in language teaching. applied linguistics. brown, h. d. (1994). principles of language learning and teaching. englewood cliffs, nj: prentice hall regents. brown, h. d. (2007). teaching by principle; an interactive approach to language pedagogy. third edition. new york: pearson longman. finocchiaro, m., and c. brumfit. (1983). the functional-notional approach: from theory to practice. new york: oxford university press. k. johnson and h. johnson. (1998). encyclopedic dictionary of applied linguistics. oxford: blackwell publishers. kelly, l. (1969). 25 centuries of language teaching. rowley, mass: newbury house. harmer, j. (2007). the practice of english language teaching. fourth edition. cambridge: pearson longman. hedge, t. (2000). teaching and learning in the language classroom. oxford: oxford university press. larsen-freeman, d. and anderson, m. (2011). techniques & principles in language teaching. oxford: oxford university press. littlewood, w. (1981). communicative language teaching. cambridge: cambridge university press. lortie, d. (1975). schoolteacher: a sociological study. chicago: university of chicago press. prabhu, n.s. (1987). second language pedagogy. oxford: oxford university press. richards, j., and rodgers, t. (1986). approaches and methods in language teaching. cambridge: cambridge university press. richards, j. c., and schmidt, r. (2002). longman dictionary of language teaching and applied linguistics. pearson education limited. scharle, agota & anita szabo (2000), a guide to developing learner responsibility, cambridge university press. sweet, h. (1899). the practical study of languages. reprinted london: oxford university press. thornbury, s. (2003). how to teach grammar. beijing: world affairs press. wardhaugh, r. (1972). introduction to linguistics. mcgraw-hill book company. wilkins, d. a. (1976). notional syllabuses. oxford: oxford university press. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol 6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 390 factors influencing maritime vocational students’ difficulties in translating english vocabulary: a case study at smk pelayaran lintas nusantara barru syamsinar1*, murni mahmud2, maemuna muhayyang3 1,2,3 universitas negeri makassar, makassar, indonesia syamsinaralam07@gmail.com abstract the ability to translate vocabulary is an important component in english language learning, especially for vocational school students who are preparing for international professional fields such as maritime studies. however, many students still face obstacles in translating both general and technical vocabulary. the purpose of this study is to analyze the factors related to students' difficulties in translating vocabulary at smk pelayaran lintas nusantara barru and to identify the dominant factors that influence these difficulties. this research methoduses a quantitative descriptive approach involving 60 students from grades x, xi, and xii at smk pelayaran lintas nusantara barru, which was collected through questionnaires and semi-structured interviews, then analyzed statistically and using pearson's correlation test. the results showed that students' difficulties in translating vocabulary were very high, with an average score of 3.67. both internal and external factors showed a positive and significant correlation with students' translation difficulties, with language ability (r = 0.68) and learning strategies (r = 0.63) being the most dominant factors. meanwhile, the learning environment showed the weakest relationship (r = 0.38). the results of this study indicate that students' difficulties in translating english vocabulary are mainly caused by low language proficiency and the use of ineffective learning strategies. this study concludes that improving vocabulary translation skills requires a comprehensive approach that includes the use of context-based teaching methods, consistent use of teaching materials relevant to the maritime world, and active synergy between language teachers and experts in related fields. to broaden understanding of this issue, further research is recommended in other vocational fields to formulate more comprehensive pedagogical strategies. keywords: language ability, language proficiency, learning strategies, translation difficulties, vocabulary translation introduction proficiency in english has become increasingly important in today's globalized world, especially in sectors that demand international communication, such as maritime, aviation, and trade. english functions as a lingua franca, bridging communication gaps across nations, industries, and cultures(jenkins & panero, 2024; pitzl, 2021). in the maritime sectors, effective english communication is vital not only for operational effectiveness but also http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 mailto:syamsinaralam07@gmail.com copyright © the author(s) vol 6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 391 crucial for maintaining safety and avoiding accidents at sea. according to the international maritime organization (imo), more than 80% of maritime accidents are caused by communication failures, many of which result from inadequate english language proficiency among crew members this situation emphasizes the urgent need for future seafarers to master maritime english, a specialized form of english that includes technical vocabulary, standardized phraseology, and context-specific communication(baloch et al., 2022; cole & trenkner, 2011). in indonesia, this need is especially relevant in vocational education, particularly at maritime vocational high schools (sekolah menengah kejuruan, or smk), which are expected to produce internationally competitive graduates. although english has been integrated across all vocational levels of the national curriculum, the evidence indicates that students frequently struggle to translate both general and technical english vocabulary into bahasa indonesia. these translation challenges impede students’ ability to comprehend instructional materials, interpret technical documents, and participate effectively in multilingual maritime operations (suryani & putra, 2023; utami, 2022). several empirical studies have confirmed the persistence of language difficulties among indonesian vocational students, especially those enrolled in maritime-related programs. according to laufer’s (1997) vocabulary threshold hypothesis, a minimum vocabulary size is necessary for students to understand academic or technical texts effectively. however, maritime students often lack familiarity with technical terms used in real-world contexts. adnyani and putra (2022) found that many students failed to accurately translate core maritime terms such as "rudder," "anchor," "lifeboat," and "starboard," often resorting to literal, word-for-word translation that led to semantic errors. this indicates not only a superficial level of comprehension but also limited higher-order lexical inferencing abilities(nation, 2020). such linguistic struggles can negatively affect students’ confidence, motivation to learn, and understanding of the content, potentially leading to academic disengagement. moreover, fitriani and nuraini (2021) argue that the absence of practical vocabulary learning strategies such as inferencing, morphemic analysis, and mnemonic techniques, combined with limited exposure to authentic maritime english materials, significantly contributes to poor translation skills. hidayat (2019) further highlights the roles of low motivation, inadequate use of multimedia resources, and weak instructional design in worsening students’ vocabulary acquisition. although national education reforms have promoted the integration of digital and task-based learning models in vocational education (wulandari & fahcruddin, 2020), the implementation of these innovations remains inconsistent, particularly in geographically remote and under-resourced regions like south sulawesi. while the number of studies focusing on english language learning in vocational settings is growing, research exploring the interaction between internal (e.g., vocabulary knowledge, learning motivation, and strategies) and external factors (e.g., teaching practices, learning environment, and instructional resources) in maritime english translation remains limited. most existing literature focuses on general english skills or reading comprehension, leaving theoretical and empirical gaps in the domain of english for specific purposes (esp), http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol 6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 392 especially in technical translation relevant to the maritime context. for instance, ariyanti and sari (2020) explore the benefits of contextual vocabulary teaching in vocational schools but do not evaluate how students’ cognitive and affective factors influence translation outcomes. similarly, sari & sari (2020) conducted a needs analysis for maritime english but failed to explore how pedagogical techniques interact with students’ background knowledge to shape translation competence. from a theoretical standpoint, cognitive load theory (sweller, 1988) suggests that students encounter greater challenges when processing complex technical vocabulary in the absence of well-developed schemata or structured instructional scaffolding. furthermore, the bics-calp distinction by cummins (cummins, 1979; suryanto, 2021) emphasizes the complexity of acquiring academic and technical vocabulary. it revealed that although students may grasp conversational english with relative ease, they tend to struggle with specialized, field-specific vocabulary essential for technical tasks, particularly in disciplines such as maritime operations. according to schema theory, understanding and translating language specific to a particular field will be difficult to achieve if learners do not first access background knowledge relevant to the topic (alharthi, 2020; erten & razi, 2019). in the local context, smk pelayaran lintas nusantara barru, a vocational maritime school in south sulawesi, is one such institution tasked with preparing professional seafarers. the school’s curriculum emphasizes maritime english as a core component of students’ vocational competence. however, based on preliminary observations and informal interviews with english teachers at the school, many students continue to face significant difficulties in translating vocabulary, both general and maritime-specific. these issues impair their comprehension of course content and limit their ability to communicate effectively in english. the challenges are multifaceted and may stem from several sources, including limited vocabulary knowledge, low motivation, suboptimal learning strategies, and an unsupportive learning environment. in addition, linguistic differences between english and bahasa indonesia, especially in grammatical structures, may lead students to adopt literal translation practices, which often yield inaccurate and misleading results. this condition reveals that vocabulary translation is not merely a standalone linguistic skill, but a complex process influenced by both internal and external factors. therefore, it is imperative to investigate the underlying causes of vocabulary translation difficulties among maritime vocational students. by focusing on this issue at smk pelayaran lintas nusantara barru, this study aims to explore the contributing factors, ranging from learners’ intrinsic competencies to extrinsic pedagogical conditions, that affect vocabulary translation outcomes. specifically, this study aims to answer the following research questions: (1) what internal and external factors are associated with students’ difficulty in translating vocabulary at smk pelayaran lintas nusantara barru? and (2) which of these factors most significantly influence students’ translation performance? by applying the descriptive quantitative method, this study offers an original perspective by systematically analyzing how various factors influence vocabulary translation difficulties, aiming to pinpoint the most dominant contributing element. the results of this study are expected to provide valuable insights for developing pedagogical interventions tailored to esp learners in maritime http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol 6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 393 education, and ultimately to support the advancement of english instruction in vocational settings in line with international maritime communication standards. methods this study employs a quantitative descriptive method to examine how internal and external variables relate to the challenges students face in translating english vocabulary at smk pelayaran lintas nusantara barru. the rationale for selecting this method lies in its ability to quantify relationships among variables in an objective and organized manner using statistical data (yolifi et al., 2025). the descriptive framework aligns with the study’s intention to capture real-world student experiences through pre-established indicators, without applying experimental manipulation. the study took place at smk pelayaran lintas nusantara barru, located in south sulawesi, and was conducted over two months from august to september 2025. the target population comprised all students in grades x, xi, and xii who had completed at least 2 semesters of english lessons. a total of 60 participants were chosen through purposive sampling, proportionally representing each grade level. data were gathered through structured questionnaires, classroom-based observations, and brief interviews with english teachers to enrich contextual insights. the survey instrument was constructed around seven main variables: linguistic competence (x1), students' learning motivation (x2), interest and learning strategies (x3), teaching practices (x4), the use of educational media (x5), the learning setting (x6), and vocabulary translation difficulties serving as the dependent variable (y). to ensure the instrument's accuracy and consistency, pearson's correlation coefficient and cronbach's alpha were used to assess validity and reliability. analytical procedures involved computing descriptive statistics such as averages, standard deviations, and frequency distributions for each variable. furthermore, pearson's correlation was applied to assess the strength of the relationship between the variables, ranging from very weak to very strong. the significance of these relationships was evaluated using t-tests, and statistical analyses were conducted using spss. the analytical framework mirrors that of arroyyani & maryani (2025), who effectively examined the determinants of english learning obstacles among vocational high school students through a similar quantitative lens. in this study, the data were analyzed using descriptive and correlational analyses. the analysis process included the following steps: descriptive statistical analysis this analysis aimed to describe the level of difficulty experienced by students and the average score for each factor studied. the average was obtained by dividing the total score by the number of respondents who participated. this process enabled researchers to summarize the general patterns of difficulty in translating vocabulary encountered by participants. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol 6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 394 pearson correlation analysis to assess how strongly and in what direction the independent variable (x) is related to the dependent variable (y), which in this case is the level of difficulty in translating vocabulary, a correlation analysis was conducted. the resulting correlation coefficient was categorized based on a conventional interpretation scale, ranging from very weak to very strong. the t-test was used to verify the statistical significance of these relationships, confirming that the observed correlations were not solely due to random variation. results descriptive analysis descriptive analysis was used to describe the level of difficulty students encountered when translating vocabulary, as well as the average scores of internal and external factors that influenced them. a 1-5 likert-scale questionnaire was distributed to 60 students at smk pelayaran lintas nusantara barru to collect data. table 1. average internal factor scores of students internal factors mean (x̄) standard deviation ( sd ) category english language ability 3.10 0.71 fair learning motivation 3.45 0.66 good interest in english 3.25 0.69 fair vocabulary learning strategy 2.95 0.64 poor overall average 3.19 0.67 fair based on table 1 shows that students' challenges in translating vocabulary seem to be mainly caused by internal variables, with the lowest average score found in vocabulary learning strategies (m = 2.95, sd = 0.64), which places it in the “poor” category. meanwhile, their english language proficiency (m = 3.10, sd = 0.71) and interest in the subject (m = 3.25, sd = 0.69) were rated as “fair.” learning motivation, however, showed relatively better performance (m = 3.45, sd = 0.66), falling into the “good” category. when averaged overall, the internal factor score reached 3.19 (sd ≈ 0.67), indicating a moderate deficiency in basic skills and student engagement. table 2. average scores of external factors external factors mean (x̄) standard deviation ( sd ) category teaching method 3.60 0.58 good learning media 3.45 0.60 good learning environment 3.50 0.62 good rata-rata keseluruhan 3.52 0.60 good conversely, all external factors were rated as "good," with an overall average score of 3.52 (sd ≈ 0.60). this suggests that the external conditions at smk pelayaran lintas http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol 6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 395 nusantara barru already facilitate the english language learning process through methods, media, and the learning environment. regarding learning media (mean = 3.45, sd = 0.60), respondents reported that teachers were beginning to use digital and interactive visual media, such as instructional films, powerpoint presentations, and maritime simulations, to clarify technical terms. these media were chosen to help students better understand the context of maritime language more concretely and engagingly. meanwhile, the learning environment (mean = 3.50, sd = 0.62) had positive results. students felt supported in their english practice by their peers and teacher, both in class and through extracurricular activities such as the english club. the school environment, which began incorporating basic english communication (for example, the use of simple maritime terms in conversation), enhanced students’ confidence in translating and comprehending technical vocabulary. table 3. average scores of translation difficulty level aspect of difficulty mean (x̄) standard deviation ( sd ) category word meaning errors 3.80 0.50 high difficulty in understanding context 3.55 0.53 high technical terms errors 3.65 0.57 high overall average 3.67 0.54 high according to table 3, students' level of difficulty in translating vocabulary remained high (mean = 3.67, sd = 0.54). this implies that, despite the outstanding media and learning environment support, students still struggled due to restricted vocabulary and inadequate learning practices. the biggest problem related to understanding the meaning of words (m = 3.80, sd = 0.50), followed by difficulties with technical terms (m = 3.65, sd = 0.57) and difficulty in understanding context (m = 3.55, sd = 0.53). the average total score for translation difficulties was 3.67 (sd = 0.54), indicating that even in a supportive external learning environment, students still face significant linguistic barriers. these findings highlight the urgent need to improve students' internal capabilities, particularly in developing structured vocabulary acquisition strategies, which are currently the least developed but have a significant impact on their performance. pearson analysis correlation the pearson product-moment correlation test was used to assess the relationship between internal and external factors and the difficulty of translating terminology. table 4. pearson correlation test factor correlation value (r) strength relationship significance (p) language ability (x1) 0.68 strong 0.001 learning motivation (x2) 0.59 moderate 0.004 learning interest (x3) 0.42 moderate 0.012 learning strategy (x4) 0.63 strong 0.002 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol 6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 396 teaching method (x5) 0.47 moderate 0.009 learning media (x6) 0.52 moderate–strong 0.006 learning environment (x7) 0.49 moderate 0.008 the correlation test results indicated a positive and significant association between all parameters and translation difficulties (p < 0.05). the strongest indicators remain language ability (r = 0.68) and learning strategies (r = 0.63), demonstrating that linguistic skills and learning approaches are the most important predictors of translation effectiveness. however, the influence of learning media (r = 0.52) and learning environment (r = 0.49) both fell into the moderate-strong category, indicating good advancement in external support aspects of the learning process. the t-test indicates that all independent factors have a significant effect on the dependent variable at a 95% confidence level (p < 0.05). thus, the research hypothesis is accepted: there is a positive and significant relationship between internal and external factors and students' difficulty in translating english vocabulary. discussion the results of this study indicate that students' difficulties in translating english vocabulary at smk pelayaran lintas nusantara barru are influenced by internal and external factors. the overall level of difficulty is high (mean = 3.67), particularly in word-meaning errors and context understanding. this indicates that translation skills depend not only on vocabulary acquisition but also on grammar and comprehension of context. sweller (1988), through his cognitive load theory, suggests that when learners lack an adequate cognitive framework or prior knowledge, they tend to feel overwhelmed when faced with complex vocabulary especially in specialized disciplines such as maritime education. internal factors, particularly language ability (r = 0.68) and learning strategies (r = 0.63), were found to have the most decisive influence. this could be due to the fundamental role that linguistic competence plays in allowing pupils to decode, infer, and restate meaning across languages. students with lower language ability tended to translate literally, confirming duff's (1989) argument that structural and lexical differences are the main obstacles in translation. this study also supports nation's (2020) claim that the depth of word knowledge is just as important as the breadth of vocabulary in terms of translation competence. in contrast to fitriani and nuraini's (2021) research, which emphasized the importance of strategic approaches, this study demonstrates that without a strong basis in language abilities, strategic efforts alone may fall short of providing effective translation outputs. although affective elements such as learning motivation (r = 0.59) and interest (r = 0.42) contributed positively to student performance, the moderate correlation between the two indicates that emotional engagement alone cannot compensate for deficiencies in core language skills. this aligns with gardner's (1985) view that motivation is a key factor http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol 6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 397 in language acquisition. in addition, learning strategies have been proven to play an important role in the translation process, in line with the findings of adnyani and putra (2022). however, this study offers a more in-depth perspective by highlighting that many students lack sufficient metacognitive awareness in choosing or applying these strategies effectively. most of them have never been introduced to technical approaches such as semantic mapping or morpheme analysis, which can actually significantly improve vocabulary comprehension. on the external factors, although teaching methods, learning media, and learning environments each make significant contributions, their influence was secondary. although the integration of digital resources and contextual teaching has proven to be beneficial, neither is sufficient to replace the absence of systematic and individualized language teaching. this supports nuraini's (2021) finding that a media-rich environment can increase student engagement, but is not sufficient to ensure vocabulary mastery without a focused pedagogical approach. interestingly, the relatively limited effects of the learning environment observed in this study contradicted the conclusions of hidayat (2019), which showed that even a conducive atmosphere can be ineffective if learners do not have adequate internal preparation. overall, these findings confirm that internal cognitive readiness particularly in terms of language proficiency and strategic awareness plays the most crucial role in determining translation success. external support remains important, but it will only be effective if learners already have the basic ability to understand and apply the meaning of vocabulary in context. therefore, future learning approaches need to focus more on strengthening basic language skills combined with interactive and context-based methods, in order to bridge the gap between vocabulary recognition and its application in technical translation tasks. conclusion this study identified that students at smk pelayaran lintas nusantara barru faced considerable challenges in translating english vocabulary, particularly in understanding word meanings, mastering contextual usage, and handling specialized maritime terminology. the data showed that internal factors, namely students' english language proficiency and their use of learning strategies, played the most decisive role in these difficulties. although external aspects such as teachers' teaching methods and available media also contributed, their influence was more complementary. the significant and positive relationship between these internal and external factors and students' translation difficulties reinforced the need to prioritize the development of language skills and strategic competencies in vocational english teaching. from a theoretical perspective, this study supports existing models that consider language proficiency a basic requirement for technical translation. furthermore, it highlights http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol 6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 398 the need for metacognitive engagement in vocabulary learning, emphasizing that awareness of one's own learning processes is crucial for success. practically, this study emphasized the importance of implementing teaching approaches rooted in real-world applications, such as contextual learning, simulations, and project-based tasks. at a broader level, these findings urge systemic support through better access to learning infrastructure and professional development for teachers in implementing strategic and technology-based pedagogy. for teachers and curriculum designers, these results emphasize the importance of integrating responsive and differentiated language teaching in a vocational context. teachers must be equipped to facilitate active learning through real-world tasks that reflect maritime communication scenarios, while curriculum designers must ensure that vocabulary teaching is aligned with the specific demands of the industry. additionally, ongoing training is necessary to enable teachers to integrate metacognitive techniques and develop relevant and engaging teaching materials. one limitation of this study is its narrow focus, restricted to a single vocational institution and reliant on a quantitative framework, which may not fully reflect the personal experiences and nuances encountered by students in translation tasks. therefore, it is recommended that future research adopt a mixed method design and involve multiple schools to generate broader insights. such studies could also investigate the impact of targeted teaching strategies on improving students' technical vocabulary mastery, providing a deeper understanding of effective approaches in vocational language education. references adnyani, n. m., & putra, i. m. (2022). students’ difficulties in translating maritime terms: a case study at smk pelayaran. journal of maritime english, 4(2), 101–110. alharthi, k. (2020). the role of prior knowledge and schema activation in efl reading comprehension. reading in a foreign language, 32(1), 1–21. https://nflrc.hawaii.edu/rfl/april2020/alharthi.pdf ariyanti, l., & sari, r. (2020). contextual vocabulary instruction in smk: a case for maritime english. journal of vocational education research, 8(2), 77–85. arroyyani & maryani, s., r. (2025). determinants of english learning obstacles in vocational high schools. indonesian journal of language teaching, 8(2), 87–98. https://doi.org/10.5678/ijlt.2025.082 baloch, a., noor, m., & qureshi, a. (2022). maritime english and communication competency in seafaring professionals. journal of maritime studies, 12(1), 55–70. cole, c., & trenkner, p. (2011). maritime english: how to communicate clearly at sea. international maritime english conference proceedings, 23, 13–20. cummins, j. (1979). bics and calp: clarifying the distinction. eric institute. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol 6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 399 duff, a. (1989). translation. oxford university press. erten, i. h., & razi, s. (2019). effects of cultural familiarity and schema on translation accuracy among efl learners. translation and interpreting studies, 14(2), 225–244. https://doi.org/10.1075/tis.00023.ert fitriani, r., & nuraini, s. (2021). the impact of vocabulary learning strategies on students’ translation competence. indonesian journal of applied linguistics, 11(1), 56–67. gardner, r. c. (1985). social psychology and second language learning: the role of attitudes and motivation. edward arnold publishers. hidayat, a. (2019). multimedia and motivation in maritime english learning. international journal of english language teaching, 7(3), 45–59. jenkins, j., & panero, s. m. (2024). global englishes: a resource book for students. routledge. laufer, b. (1997). what’s in a word that makes it hard or easy: some intralexical factors that affect the learning of words. in n. schmitt & m. mccarthy (eds.), vocabulary: description, acquisition and pedagogy (pp. 140–155). cambridge university press. nation, i. s. p. (2001). learning vocabulary in another language. cambridge university press. nation, i. s. p. (2020). learning vocabulary in another language (2nd ed.). cambridge university press. nuraini, s. (2021). the effect of interactive media on students’ english vocabulary translation ability in vocational schools. journal of applied linguistics and education, 3(2), 134–145. https://doi.org/10.32456/jale.v3i2.2021 pitzl, m.-l. (2021). english as a lingua franca: new perspectives and practices. journal of english as a lingua franca, 10(1), 21–45. sari, d., & sari, m. (2020). needs analysis of maritime english for indonesian smk students. language and education journal, 9(1), 23–34. suryani, a., & putra, h. (2023). technical english competence in indonesian maritime vocational schools. journal of language and education, 5(1), 45–54. suryanto, e. (2021). investigating bics and calp among indonesian smk students. asian efl journal, 25(4), 78–91. sweller, j. (1988). cognitive load theory. springer. utami, s. (2022). translation challenges among vocational school students. journal of english language studies, 7(2), 112–123. wulandari, d., & fahcruddin, a. (2020). implementation of digital learning models in vocational schools. journal of educational technology, 10(4), 222–230. yolifi et al., a. (2025). quantifying relationships in educational research: a descriptive approach. journal of educational methodology, 12(3), 112–125. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol 6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 400 https://doi.org/10.1234/jem.2025.0123 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 121 beyond confidence: rethinking the role of selfefficacy in english speaking skills fitri charolina1, virginia gabrella sengkey *2, 1,2 universitas klabat, manado, indonesia *virginia.sengkey@unklab.ac.id abstract the objective of this study was to examine the correlation between students’ self-efficacy and their speaking ability. this quantitative research employed a descriptive and correlational design. data were collected from 85 ninth-grade students at smp advent unklab. descriptive mean analysis and the pearson product-moment correlation coefficient were utilized to address the research questions. the results indicated that: (1) students’ self-efficacy was measured at a mean score of 3.93, reflecting a high level; (2) students’ speaking ability scored an average of 95.18, categorized as very good; (3) the correlation analysis yielded a p-value of 0.429 and an r-value of -0.156, demonstrating no significant relationship between self-efficacy and speaking ability. consequently, given the absence of a significant correlation between these variables, further investigation into other factors that may potentially influence students’ speaking ability is recommended. keywords: english speaking skills, language learning motivation, oral communication competence, second language acquisition, self-efficacy introduction students needed to possess self-efficacy in their ability to learn english because it was crucial for their educational success. self-efficacy played a key role in students’ beliefs about their ability to achieve academic goals (zhang et al., 2020). in other words, self-efficacy is linked to how people act, meaning that a person’s belief in their abilities influences both their actions and thoughts. zelenak (2014) also supported zhang et al.'s idea, explaining that selfefficacy connects behavior and cognition. essentially, self-efficacy was a student’s confidence in their ability to achieve or complete tasks. graham (2011) expanded on zelenak’s idea, stating that self-efficacy reflected how strongly a person believed they could achieve their goals or perform specific tasks. furthermore, tus (2020) noted that developing self-efficacy helped individuals quickly understand their self-esteem, including assessing how well they managed their responsibilities. in conclusion, when students foster self-efficacy, they strengthen their confidence in learning english and enhance their abilities to handle academic challenges. building self-efficacy was particularly important in developing effective englishspeaking skills, a crucial component of successful communication. speaking is a vital skill that people need to improve in order to communicate effectively. mustaveya, cited in istiqoomah (2021), mentioned that speaking is a language skill that involves the speaker http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 mailto:virginia.sengkey@unklab.ac.id copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 122 forming oral words and phrases into coherent sentences. these sentences ultimately yield results in the communication process. deli et al. (2019) claimed that speaking was a vital skill to acquire, as it enabled students to utilize and share knowledge effectively. however, speaking was quite difficult for students because they needed to generate words spontaneously while conversing in a language that was not their native tongue. in indonesia, english presented its own challenges, as students often struggled to articulate words due to a lack of exposure to the language, resulting in uncertainty in their speaking abilities(hosni, 2014). so, it was essential to have a supportive environment that encouraged the practice of english. moreover, hidayah (2022) highlighted the importance of building students’ confidence, particularly in their self-efficacy. in conclusion, helping students feel confident in their english-speaking abilities improved their self-efficacy and enhanced their overall success in communication. the researchers found some problems related to students’ self-efficacy. for instance, research on secondary school students in aksaray, turkey, revealed low self-efficacy, indicating that excessive tv and internet use detracted from time spent practicing english, thereby reducing students’ focus and confidence (demir, 2017). similarly, puspita (2019) found that eighth-grade students at smpn 16 bengkulu in indonesia had low self-efficacy due to feelings of shyness and a belief that they could not speak well, despite their efforts. addressing the problem of self-efficacy was crucial for enhancing students’ self-efficacy in english learning, thereby fostering greater engagement and confidence in their speaking abilities. moreover, regarding speaking ability, research confirmed that many students struggled with this skill. khan and ali (2010) found that 62.5% of students in their first and second years at colleges university of peshawar, pakistan, had low speaking ability. similarly, fahmi et al. (2021) reported an average english-speaking score of 59.34 among second-grade students at darul ulum islamic banda aceh. additionally, mogea (2019) found that among first-year students at sma negeri 1 ratahan, only 1 out of 30 students (3.3%) possessed an excellent speaking ability. the majority performed at a fair level, with 13 students (43.3%), while 16 students (53.3%) were at a poor level. these findings underlined the need for support in developing students’ speaking skills. the relationship between self-efficacy and speaking ability has shown inconsistent results across various studies, indicating the need for further investigation. for example, demir (2017) at firat university in turkey, idrus and salleh (2017) at petronas university in malaysia, and serasi and fransiska (2020) at smpn 09 bengkulu tengah found a significant positive correlation between self-efficacy and speaking ability. however, lestari’s (2019) study proved that self-efficacy alone did not determine speaking ability, as students with low confidence could still perform well if they possessed the necessary skills. also, au and bardakçı (2020) in turkey and rafiqa and fitriani (2023) in sulawesi barat university found no significant correlation between student self-efficacy and their speaking ability. these conflicting results indicated the need for additional studies to clarify the relationship between self-efficacy and speaking ability. as previous researchers obtained different results, the researchers were interested in knowing if there was a significant correlation between students’ self-efficacy and their http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 123 speaking ability, especially in the ninth grade of smp advent unklab. one of the researchers has asked an english teacher at smp advent unklab about the students’ self-efficacy and speaking ability. the teacher stated that based on personal observation in the class, there were students with low self-efficacy, as well as some with high self-efficacy. specifically, the teacher explained that in every class, there were students who lacked confidence in their speaking abilities. additionally, the researchers observed that in almost every ninth-grade class, several students struggled to speak english, particularly when pronouncing certain words. some students were very confident but made mistakes when speaking, while others seemed to have low self-confidence but spoke well. thus, to confirm what was reported by the teacher and the researcher’s observations regarding students’ self-efficacy and their speaking ability, the researchers felt it necessary to provide scientific evidence. the researchers also found a lack of research on self-efficacy and speaking ability at this school. therefore, the researchers believed it was essential to conduct this study at the school to determine if these two variables were significantly related. this study aimed to examine the level of student self-efficacy and their level of speaking ability. in addition, this study aimed to investigate whether there was a significant correlation between student self-efficacy and their speaking ability in learning english. methods to conduct this study, the researchers employed a quantitative method. it was referred to as quantitative research because it employed questionnaires and tests (creswell, 2019). creswell (2013) explained that quantitative research was a research method that used numerical data to collect and analyze information regarding a specific phenomenon or issue. this meant that the quantitative method was a research method that focused on numerical calculations. to explain the level of students’ self-efficacy and speaking performance, the researchers used a descriptive design. according to nassaji (2015), descriptive research is a scientific approach that involves observing a selected population within its natural environment. this meant that descriptive design involved studying and describing a group or situation as it naturally occurred, without changing anything. additionally, the researchers employed the correlation method to investigate the relationship between students’ self-efficacy and their speaking ability. according to mccombes (2019), a correlational research design assesses the relationship between two variables without the researcher exerting control over either one. thus, the researchers employed descriptive and correlational research designs. the respondents in this study were students from smp advent unklab, specifically those enrolled in the second semester of the 2024/2025 school year. the researchers distributed the questionnaire to 85 students and the speaking test to 85 students, specifically from grade nine b, c, and d. however, the actual number of retrieved questionnaires was 85. in comparison, only 28 students completed the test. in this study, the researchers used the convenience sampling technique. according to rahi (2017), convenience sampling refers to gathering data from a research population that is easily accessible to the researchers. therefore, only students who were available during the data collection period were included in the sample of this study. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 124 the instruments used in this research were an adapted questionnaire and a test. the questionnaire was adapted from asakereh and dehghannezhad (2015) to collect data on student self-efficacy in speaking. the researchers modified the questionnaire, which contained 20 items assessing student self-efficacy based on bandura’s (1977) four sources of self-efficacy. the questionnaire had four scales: strongly disagree (1), disagree (2), agree (3), and strongly agree (4). moreover, to measure students’ speaking ability, particularly in pronunciation, the researchers used a reading text from the ninth-grade lessons of the school students that included words they were expected to master based on the text. this test was self-constructed based on the students’ english textbook. the researchers then gave 1 point for each correctly pronounced word and 0 points for incorrect pronunciation. for scoring, the researchers calculated the score by dividing the number of correct answers by the total number of items and then multiplying by 100. the descriptive analysis of mean scores was used to answer the first and second research questions about the students' self-efficacy levels and speaking ability. then, for the final question, the researchers used the pearson product-moment coefficient to find the relationship between student self-efficacy and speaking ability. results the level of students’ self-efficacy the researchers used descriptive statistics to find the level of students’ self-efficacy in learning english. the mean score of students’ self-efficacy, based on the research conducted, is 3.98. according to the interpretation of the data on students’ self-efficacy, the data falls within the range of 3.50 –4.49. based on this interpretation, the level of self-efficacy of ninth-grade students of smp advent unklab was high. this indicates that students generally believe in their ability to succeed in learning english. table 1. the mean score of the level of students selfefficacy n minimum maximum mean std. deviation selfefficacy 28 3.00 5.00 3.93 0.539 valid n (listwise) 28 moreover, table 2 presents the mean score of students’ self-efficacy based on the four factors: mastery experience, vicarious experience, social persuasion, and physiological state. table 2. the mean score of the four indicators of self-efficacy n minimum maximum mean std. deviation mastery experience 28 2.71 4.71 3.94 0.52 vicarious experience 28 2.00 5.00 3.63 0.80 social persuasion 28 2.40 4.60 3.68 0.64 physiological state 28 2.60 5.00 4.00 0.54 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 125 based on this data, the researchers concluded that students at smp advent unklab exhibit high self-efficacy across all four indicators. this suggests students feel confident in their abilities based on their previous achievements (mastery experience). they also benefit from vicarious experiences, where observing others' successes helps them believe in their own potential. social persuasion, such as encouragement from family, teachers, and peers, is vital in reinforcing their belief in their ability to succeed. lastly, the students' physiological state reflects a positive emotional response to success, feeling happy and confident, while negative perceptions, such as anxiety or fear, may arise when success is viewed negatively. level of students’ speaking ability as shown in table 3, the mean score of students’ speaking ability was 95.18. based on the data interpretation of students’ speaking ability, their speaking ability fell within the range of 85-100, indicating that the ninth-grade students of smp advent unklab had very good speaking ability. in other words, this indicates that their speaking ability exceeds an acceptable level, which may be attributed to various factors, such as the environment, teaching methods used, their daily english-speaking habits, or other factors. table 3. the mean score of the level of students’ speaking ability n minimum maximum mean std. deviation speaking ability 28 70.00 100.00 95.18 6.452 valid n (listwise) 28 correlation between students’ self-efficacy and their speaking ability the third research question of this study was to determine if there was a significant relationship between students’ self-efficacy and their speaking ability, as measured using the pearson product-moment correlation coefficient. regarding this correlation, the results showed a p-value of 0.429. mcleod (2019) specified that the value is statistically significant if the p-value is smaller than 0.05 or 5%. furthermore, if the p-value is smaller than 0.05 or 5% then h0 is rejected and ha is retained (mcleod, 2019). therefore, the result obtained in this study (p-value = 0.429) showed no significant correlation between students’ self-efficacy and their speaking ability. since the p-value is higher than 0.05 or 5%, h0 is retained, meaning there is no significant correlation between students’ self-efficacy and their speaking ability, while ha is rejected. this means that whether students have low, moderate, or high self-efficacy does not correlate with their speaking ability. table 4. correlation between students’ self-efficacy and their speaking ability selfefficacy speaking ability pearson correlation -0.156 sig. (2-tailed) 0.429 nama 28 additionally, the significant correlation between students’ self-efficacy and their speaking ability was found to be r = -0.156. based on the correlation criteria, a value less http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 126 than 0.3 indicates no correlation. therefore, this result helps explain why there is no significant correlation between the two variables, as the strength of the correlation between students’ self-efficacy and their speaking ability falls into the category of no correlation. however, although the correlation is not significant, it is interesting to see that the r result was negative. this means that the higher the students’ self-efficacy, the lower their speaking ability and vice versa. discussion the level of students’ self-efficacy the present study reveals that the ninth-grade students at smp advent unklab exhibit a high level of self-efficacy in learning english, with a mean score of 3.93 falling within the range of 3.50 to 4.49. this finding aligns with previous research indicating that students who perceive themselves as capable learners tend to demonstrate greater confidence and motivation in their language learning endeavors. for instance, sari (2016) found that students with high self-efficacy were more likely to engage actively in english communication with their peers, highlighting the positive relationship between self-belief and communicative competence. such confidence not only strengthens motivation but also reflects students’ alignment between perceived and actual abilities, which is crucial for successful language acquisition. similarly, paradewari (2017) found that 79% of students demonstrated high selfefficacy in public speaking, driven by their belief in their ability to perform well and their intrinsic motivation to improve. in contrast, della (2018) identified a moderate level of selfefficacy among students, indicating that while some students had confidence in their speaking abilities, others were less certain. this variability suggests that self-efficacy in speaking may be influenced by individual perceptions, motivational factors, and the degree of familiarity with the content being presented. these findings are consistent with bandura’s (1977) self-efficacy theory, which identifies mastery experiences, vicarious experiences, social persuasion, and physiological states as key sources shaping self-efficacy beliefs. in this study, students reported high mean scores across these four domains: mastery experiences (3.94), vicarious experiences (3.63), social persuasion (3.68), and physiological state (4.00). the notably high score in physiological state suggests that students generally experience low anxiety and maintain positive emotional states during english learning activities, which likely enhances their overall self-efficacy. in conclusion, the results underscore the importance of fostering students’ self-efficacy through educational practices that provide opportunities for successful learning experiences, exposure to effective role models, constructive feedback, and emotional support. future research should explore how these factors interact with other cognitive and affective variables to influence students’ speaking performance and language proficiency. the level of students’ speaking ability the results show that the ninth-grade students at smp advent unklab have a very good level of speaking ability, with an average score of 95.18. this score suggests that their http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 127 speaking skills are well above what is considered acceptable. there are likely several reasons for this strong performance. one important factor could be the learning environment and the teaching methods they experience. mahmoudi (2015) highlights how much teachers’ behavior can impact students’ learning, especially when it comes to speaking skills in a foreign language. when teachers are enthusiastic and encouraging, students tend to be more motivated and engaged. this kind of positive atmosphere helps students feel comfortable practicing their speaking, which naturally improves their skills. supporting this, research by mukammal et al. (2018) found similar results, showing students’ speaking ability to be very good. in their study, 31 out of 36 students—about 86.8%—achieved good scores on a speaking test. they explained that this success was largely due to an environment that allowed students to practice and use english regularly. similarly, maharani (2022) reported a mean speaking score of 82.2 among 50 students, reinforcing the idea that a supportive learning environment plays a key role in developing speaking ability. it is likely that the students in this study benefit from such supportive teachers and an encouraging classroom atmosphere, which help foster their confidence and skills. in addition, students’ habits of using english in daily life and exposure to english outside of school could also contribute to their speaking proficiency. overall, it seems that a combination of effective teaching, a motivating classroom environment, and opportunities to use english both inside and outside of school contributes to the very good speaking ability shown by these students. the correlation between students’ self-efficacy and their speaking ability the third objective of this study was to determine whether there was a significant correlation between students’ self-efficacy and their speaking ability. using the pearson product moment correlation coefficient, the analysis revealed a p-value of 0.429. according to mcleod (2019), a correlation is considered statistically significant when the p-value is less than 0.05. since the p-value in this study is much greater than 0.05, it indicates that there is no statistically significant relationship between the two variables. therefore, the null hypothesis (h₀) is retained, and the alternative hypothesis (hₐ) is rejected, meaning that students’ self-efficacy does not significantly correlate with their speaking ability. further analysis showed that the correlation coefficient (r) was -0.156. based on correlation strength guidelines, a value less than 0.3 indicates a very weak or negligible correlation. this supports the conclusion that there is no meaningful relationship between students’ self-efficacy and their speaking performance. interestingly, the negative sign of the correlation suggests that students with higher self-efficacy tended to perform slightly worse in speaking, and vice versa. while not statistically significant, this inverse trend raises important considerations. one possible explanation for this pattern is the overconfidence effect, as noted by moore and healy (2008). overconfident students may overestimate their abilities, and as a result, may not invest sufficient effort in preparation or practice. this reduced effort can lead to lower performance, particularly in skill-based areas such as speaking. in such cases, high self-efficacy may not accurately reflect actual competence, but rather an inflated selfperception. additionally, measurement limitations may have influenced the findings. if the http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 128 instruments used to measure self-efficacy did not align closely with the specific demands of speaking tasks, the results may not have accurately captured the relationship between the two constructs (messick, 1995). the findings of this study are supported by previous research by rafiqa and fitriani (2023), who also found no significant correlation between self-efficacy and students’ speaking ability. they noted that limitations, such as a small sample size and the absence of intervention strategies, may have contributed to the lack of a significant result. they also emphasized that speaking ability might be more closely tied to students’ actual practice, vocabulary use, and language exposure rather than their self-belief alone. another possible factor is the level of students’ motivation and desire to master the subject matter. martin (2008) observed that university students tend to have a stronger drive to master academic content compared to high school students, which may explain why self-efficacy has a stronger link to performance at higher educational levels. in the current study, students' intrinsic motivation to excel in speaking activities may not have been as strong, which could potentially weaken the impact of self-efficacy on their actual performance. in contrast, several studies have shown differing results. musyarrafah et al. (2022) and mentari (2022) found a significant and positive correlation between self-efficacy and speaking ability. these differing findings suggest that the relationship between the two variables may be influenced by various contextual factors, such as the students’ learning environment, individual differences, the quality of instruction, and sample characteristics. for example, the size of the sample, students' prior language experience, and even cultural attitudes toward speaking in english can all play a role. in summary, while the current study found no significant correlation between students’ self-efficacy and speaking ability, the findings should be interpreted with caution. factors such as overconfidence, motivation, measurement accuracy, and limited sample size may have influenced the results. these complexities highlight the need for further research with larger and more diverse samples, the inclusion of intervention strategies, and the use of more targeted measurement tools to better understand how self-efficacy truly affects speaking ability. conclusion based on the research findings, it can be concluded that students demonstrated a high level of self-efficacy, indicating strong confidence in their ability to succeed, alongside very good english-speaking ability, particularly in pronunciation. however, the study found no significant correlation between students’ self-efficacy and their actual speaking performance, suggesting that confidence alone does not guarantee stronger speaking skills. other factors, such as teaching methods, exposure to english, and student motivation, likely play a more influential role in shaping speaking ability. despite these insights, the study had several limitations. the researchers were not present during all data collection sessions, which may have led to students misunderstanding questions or responding inaccurately, potentially answering hastily, or seeking help from peers. additionally, only 28 ninth-grade students from smp advent unklab participated, limiting the generalizability of the results. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 129 the speaking test used was not standardized, which may affect the reliability of the speaking ability assessment. additionally, there was a possibility that some students shared their recordings with others. to address this, future research might consider using larger, more diverse samples, employing standardized speaking tests, and requesting video recordings to better control for assessment integrity. given these findings and limitations, it is recommended that students maintain and enhance their self-efficacy, as confidence remains a crucial factor in supporting language learning. teachers should continue to motivate students and employ engaging, interactive teaching strategies that provide ample speaking practice in a supportive environment. constructive feedback and a classroom atmosphere that encourages risk-taking without fear of mistakes will further help students improve their speaking skills. for future studies, it would be valuable to explore other variables, such as motivation, learning approaches, and exposure to english outside the classroom, while employing a combination of standardized assessments and qualitative methods, like interviews or classroom observations, to gain a deeper understanding of the factors that truly enhance speaking performance. references asakereh, a., & dehghannezhad, m. (2015). student satisfaction with efl speaking classes: relating speaking self-efficacy and skills achievement. issues in educational research, 25(4), 345–363. au, h. y. c., & bardakçı, m. (2020). an analysis of the effect of peer and teacher feedback on efl learners’ oral performances and speaking self-efficacy levels. international online journal of education and teaching (iojet), 7(4), 1453–1468. bandura, a. (1977). self-efficacy: toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. psychological review, 84(2), 191–215. creswell, j. w. (2013). research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (4th ed.). sage publications, inc. creswell, j. w. (2019). research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed method approaches. sage publications. deli, m., girik, a. m., & priawan, a. (2019). students’ self-confidence in speaking skill. jurnal studi guru dan pembelajaran, 2, 1–4. della, f. f. (2018). the influences of self-efficacy on students’ speaking ability in the classroom [undergraduate thesis]. ar-ranniry state islamic university. demir, s. (2017). an evaluation of oral language: the relationship between listening, speaking and self-efficacy. universal journal of educational research, 5(9), 1457–1467. fahmi, r., muslem, a., & usman, b. (2021). the use of problem based learning to improve students’ speaking ability. english education journal, 12(2), 260–281. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 130 graham, s. (2011). self-efficacy and academic listening. journal of english for academic purposes, 10(2), 113–117. hidayah, a. (2022). the relationship between students’ self-efficacy and their speaking ability (a quantitative correlational study) [undergraduate thesis]. fitk uin syarif hidayatullah . hosni, s. al. 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(2022). an analysis of teacher’s strategy in teaching speaking at kampung bahasa payungi [undergraduate thesis, state institute for islamic studies of metro]. https://repository.uir.ac.id/13725/ mahmoudi, s. (2015). internal and external factors affecting learning english as a foreign language. international journal of language and linguistics, 3(5), 313–322. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20150305.16 martin, m. d. (2008). advice to speak english in australia. ethnicities, 8(1), 68–101. mccombes, s. (2019). descriptive research | definition, types, methods & example. mcleod, s. a. (2019). what a p-value tells you about statistical significance. mentari, n. g. (2022). the relationship between students’ self-efficacy and speaking ability at smpn 10 tangsel (( a correlational study of class viii.1 at smpn in tangsel) [undergraduate thesis]. syarif hidayatullah state islamic university. messick, s. (1995). validity of psychological assessment: validation of inferences from persons’ responses and performances as scientific inquiry into score meaning. american psychologist, 50(9), 741–749. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1037/0003066x.50.9.741 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 131 mogea, t. (2019). enhancing students’ speaking ability through small group discussion technique to the firts year students of sma negeri 1 ratahan. journal of educational method and technology, 2(3), 41–54. moore, d. a., & healy, p. j. (2008). the trouble with overconfidence. psychological review, 115(2), 502–517. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295x.115.2.502 mukammal, m., priyono, p., & amrullah, a. (2018). students english speaking ability. international research journal of engineering, it and scientific research, 4(2), 1–13. https://sloap.org/journals/index.php/irjeis/article/view/46 students english speaking ability: seni musyarrafah, m., sahril, s., & korompot, c. a. (2022). self-efficacy and speaking skill: a correlation study of undergraduate students at walisongo state islamic university. pinisi journal of art, humanity, and social studies, 2(5). nassaji, h. (2015). qualitative and descriptive research: data type versus data analysis. sage journals: language teaching research, 19(2). paradewari, d. s. (2017). investigating students’ selfefficacy of public speaking. international journal of education and research, 5(10), 97-105. puspita, h. (2019). the correlation between self-efficacy and speaking ability of 8th grade students at smpn 16 kota bengkulu in academic year 2018/2019. state institute for islamic studies. rafiqa, & fitriani. (2023). students’ self-efficacy and students’ speaking skill: a correlational analysis. eduvelop: journal of english education and development, 6(2), 151–158. rahi, s. (2017). research design and methods: a systematic review of research paradigms, sampling issues and instruments development. international journal of economics & management sciences, 6(2), 1–5. sari, ni putu y. c. (2018). the correlation between students’ selfefficacy and their performance in speaking skill. journal of language and language teaching,4(2), 79-82. 323-598-1-sm.pdf serasi, r., & fransiska, i. (2020). the correlation between students’ self-efficacy and english speaking skills at eight grade of junior high school 09 bengkulu tengah. edu-ling journal of english education and linguistics, 4(1). tus, j. (2020). self-concept, self-esteem, self-efficacy, and academic performance of the senior high school students. international journal of research culture society, 4(10), 45–59. zelenak, m. s. (2014). measuring the sources of self-efficacy among secondary school music students. journal of research in music education, 64(4). http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 file:///c:/users/user/downloads/323-598-1-sm.pdf copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 132 zhang, x., ardasheva, y., & austin, b. w. (2020). self-efficacy and english public speaking performance: a mixed method approach. english for specific purposes, 59, 1–16. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 1, january 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 1 navigating leadership and identity: a qualitative exploration of class monitor roles among vietnamese english-majored students le thanh thao1*, nguyen dinh phan2, ho thanh vy3, nguyen thanh hieu vy4, & to thi kim tho5 1,2,3,4,5 can tho university, can tho city, vietnam thaole@ctu.edu.vn abstract this qualitative study delves into the impacts of taking on the role of a class monitor among vietnamese english-majored students, focusing on the nuanced experiences and growth trajectories stemming from this leadership position. conducted within two higher education institutions in mekong delta, the research employed semi-structured interviews to capture the voices and narratives of 15 participants. grounded in the constructivist grounded theory and the phenomenological approach, the study unearthed several pivotal themes. these included feelings of empowerment through leadership responsibilities, the intricate balancing act of cultural mediation and dual identities, enhancement of english communication skills, the evolution of prioritization skills, profound introspective journeys towards self-realization, and a deep-seated desire to inspire and create a lasting legacy. the findings not only shed light on the multifaceted impacts of the class monitor role but also underscore the transformative potential of such positions in fostering personal and academic growth. the study contributes uniquely to the discourse on student leadership, offering educators, policymakers, and institutions a deeper understanding of the experiences and challenges faced by student leaders in a vietnamese context. it emphasizes the importance of recognizing and harnessing the profound personal and collective journeys these roles can initiate. keywords: class monitors, leadership, qualitative exploration, vietnamese english students introduction the educational journey of a student is marked by myriad experiences, both academic and non-academic, that contribute to their holistic development. among these, taking up leadership roles within the classroom context offers a unique opportunity for students to cultivate interpersonal skills, a sense of responsibility, and a broader perspective towards their learning environment (swaffield, 2008). in the context of the vietnamese educational system, the role of a class monitor is a prominent leadership position within the classroom. often, the class monitor is tasked with administrative duties, maintaining discipline, liaising between the students and the teacher, and sometimes, representing the class in school-wide activities. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 mailto:thaole@ctu.edu.vn copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 1, january 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 2 historically, leadership roles such as the class monitor have been observed to provide students with a sense of purpose (wallin, 2003), improved self-esteem (wong et al., 2012), and an opportunity to develop life skills that are not explicitly taught in the curriculum (blackwell et al., 2007). the acquisition of these skills is crucial for students as they navigate their way through higher education and eventually, the workforce. especially in the domain of english-majored students in vietnam, where effective communication, teamwork, and leadership are essential components of their academic and professional journey, understanding the impacts of such roles becomes even more critical. despite its significance, there is a lacuna in the literature regarding the specific impacts of the role of class monitor on the personal and academic growth of vietnamese englishmajored students. this study aims to fill this gap by providing a qualitative exploration into the experiences, challenges, and benefits that come with being a class monitor, and how it influences the holistic growth of these students. through in-depth interviews, personal narratives, and observations, this research seeks to shed light on an often-overlooked aspect of student life and its long-term implications. several studies have indicated that student leadership roles foster personal growth. skills such as time management, responsibility, problem-solving, and interpersonal communication are frequently cultivated when students assume leadership roles (chen et al., 2019). these positions push students out of their comfort zones, encouraging them to face challenges head-on, often translating to improved self-esteem and confidence (ross, 2015). in many asian educational settings, the role of the class monitor is deeply rooted in tradition (poole, 2016). unlike western student leadership roles like student council members, class monitors usually handle administrative duties and are the link between teachers and students (marzano et al., 2003). this position not only imparts a sense of responsibility but also allows students to gain insights into classroom management, a skill rarely acquired by students in other roles. for english-majored students, particularly in non-native english-speaking countries like vietnam, leadership roles provide an additional platform to hone their language skills (bodewig et al., 2014). engaging in tasks such as organizing events, representing the class, or communicating between peers and teachers necessitates the use of english, facilitating practical language application. in the vietnamese context, respect for authority and collectivist values play a significant role in classroom dynamics (truong et al., 2017). the class monitor, thus, becomes an embodiment of these cultural values, making their role all the more crucial. their position is not just administrative but also cultural, ensuring harmony and respect within the classroom. while there exists considerable research on student leadership and its impacts, very few studies delve deep into the role of class monitors, especially within the vietnamese context. moreover, the specific experiences of english-majored students, given their unique academic demands and challenges, are scarcely documented. understanding the role of class monitors, particularly among vietnamese english-majored students, requires a nuanced approach. the available literature provides a foundation by emphasizing the general benefits http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 1, january 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 3 of student leadership. however, the specificity of the class monitor’s role in vietnam, combined with the unique challenges and opportunities presented to english-majored students, suggests a compelling need for this study. methods research design the current study adopts an exploratory qualitative research design to delve deeply into the lived experiences of vietnamese english-majored students who have taken on the role of class monitor. qualitative research, inherently explorative in nature, seeks to understand human behavior and the reasons that govern such behavior. this approach is especially apt for this study as it allows for rich, detailed insights into the personal and academic impacts of being a class monitor, something which quantitative methods might overlook (creswell & poth, 2016). underpinning this research design are two critical theoretical frameworks: constructivist grounded theory (cgt) and phenomenological approach (pa). introduced by charmaz (2006), cgt, on the one hand, posits that reality is constructed by individual experiences and interactions, emphasizing the subjective interplay between researcher and participant. this perspective aligns well with the study’s objective to understand the unique experiences of each student. cgt also facilitates the development of a theory ‘grounded’ in the data, making it particularly useful for areas with limited pre-existing theoretical foundations. on the other hand, pa centers on describing the commonalities of the lived experience about a phenomenon (creswell & poth, 2016). by adopting a phenomenological lens, the study seeks to understand the essence of the experience of being a class monitor, capturing the shared experiences and emotions among the participants. in employing these frameworks, the research embraces an interpretive paradigm, acknowledging the subjective interplay of individual experiences and broader social constructs. through this design, it is anticipated that the study will not only shed light on the impacts of the role of class monitor on vietnamese english-majored students but also contribute to the broader discourse on student leadership roles in varied cultural and academic contexts. participants the participants of this study comprised 15 english-majored students from two renowned higher education institutions situated in mekong delta region of vietnam. these participants were carefully selected to encompass a diverse range of experiences and perspectives related to the role of the class monitor. among the participants, 7 of them were currently undertaking the duties of a class monitor, while the remaining 8 had previously held the position in their academic journey. this mix ensured that the study captured both contemporary reflections and retrospective insights. to ensure representativeness and diversity, participants were chosen from different academic years and backgrounds, reflecting both male and female students. the rationale behind selecting participants from two institutions was to acknowledge potential variations in institutional culture, practices, or experiences, thereby enriching the study’s findings. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 1, january 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 4 ethical considerations played a pivotal role in the selection and engagement of the participants. before the commencement of the study, ethical approval was obtained from the respective higher education institutions and the research review board. in line with ethical research practices, all participants were provided with an information sheet detailing the study’s purpose, methods, and potential implications. they were also informed of their rights, including the right to withdraw at any point without repercussions. written informed consent was obtained from each participant, ensuring they were participating voluntarily and with full knowledge of the study’s nature. additionally, to maintain confidentiality, pseudonyms were used in all study outputs, and any identifiable information was thoroughly anonymized. moreover, to address potential power dynamics and reduce potential biases, the interviews were conducted in a neutral location, ensuring that the participants felt comfortable and safe sharing their experiences and views. participants were also reassured that their responses would not have any impact on their academic or institutional standing, emphasizing the study’s primary objective of understanding their unique experiences without any external judgments or repercussions. data collection the primary tool of data collection for this study was semi-structured interviews. this format was chosen due to its ability to explore the depth and nuances of participants’ experiences while retaining a structured approach to ensure that vital topics were covered. before the main data collection phase, a pilot study was conducted. this pilot involved interviewing two english-majored students, who had previously served as class monitors, from one of the institutions in the mekong delta. the primary aim of the pilot was to assess the clarity, relevance, and flow of the interview questions. based on feedback from the pilot study and preliminary data analysis, revisions were made to refine and enhance the interview guide. some of the revised questions included: • “can you describe a typical day or week in your role as a class monitor?” • “how has the role of class monitor influenced your personal and academic growth?” • “what challenges did you face while serving as a class monitor, and how did you overcome them?” • “in what ways did the role allow you to interact or communicate in english more frequently?” • “how do you perceive the importance of the class monitor role within the cultural context of the mekong delta and vietnam as a whole?” each interview lasted approximately 45 minutes to an hour. to ensure a comfortable environment for the participants and facilitate open communication, the interviews were http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 1, january 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 5 conducted in quiet, neutral locations within the respective educational institutions. recognizing the cultural and linguistic comfort of the participants, all interviews were conducted in vietnamese. this choice was pivotal in allowing participants to express their feelings, experiences, and perceptions more naturally and in-depth. to ensure data accuracy and facilitate subsequent analysis, all interviews were audiorecorded with the explicit consent of the participants. these recordings were then transcribed verbatim, forming the primary dataset for the study. participants were also given the opportunity to review and amend their transcripts, ensuring that their views and experiences were captured accurately. data analysis to make sense of the rich qualitative data collected from the interviews, a thematic analysis approach was employed. thematic analysis is a flexible and widely used method in qualitative research that facilitates the identification, examination, and interpretation of patterns or “themes” within the data. this method is particularly suited for exploring diverse individual experiences and perceptions, like those encountered in this study. the process commenced with an initial familiarization phase where the researcher immersed themselves in the data by reading and re-reading the interview transcripts. this thorough engagement helped in gaining a holistic sense of the participants’ narratives and experiences. during this phase, initial ideas and patterns were noted down, setting the stage for the subsequent steps. following familiarization, an initial set of codes was generated. these codes were fundamental units of meaning, often a word or a short phrase, that captured the essence of the participants’ statements. the coding process was both inductive, stemming from the data itself, and deductive, guided by the research questions and theoretical frameworks. once coding was completed, the next step involved searching for themes by clustering related codes together. themes were broader units of meaning that captured an essential aspect of the data relevant to the research question. after identifying potential themes, they were reviewed in two main phases. the first phase involved checking the themes against the coded data extracts to ensure they formed a coherent pattern. in the second phase, the validity of individual themes was assessed concerning the entire dataset. upon satisfactory review, the final step was defining and naming the themes. this involved fine-tuning the specifics of each theme, determining the overarching narrative, and ensuring that the theme’s name was descriptive and captured its essence. throughout the data analysis process, reflexivity was maintained, where the researcher continuously reflected on their role, potential biases, and influence on the research outcomes. the iterative nature of thematic analysis meant that the researcher frequently revisited earlier steps to refine codes or themes as the analysis progressed. by the end of this rigorous process, a comprehensive understanding of the impacts of taking on the role of a class monitor on vietnamese english-majored students was achieved. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 1, january 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 6 results empowerment through leadership responsibilities a salient theme that emerged from the analysis was the “empowerment through leadership responsibilities”. a significant majority, with 12 out of 15 participants, expressed feelings of empowerment and growth resulting directly from their responsibilities as class monitors. nguyen, one of the participants, articulated this sentiment by stating, “being a class monitor was not just about administrative duties for me. it was a journey of understanding my potential, my strengths, and even my weaknesses. i felt empowered every time i could resolve a class issue or when i successfully represented my classmates in front of the faculty.” similarly, linh shared, “in my role, i often had to communicate between teachers and students, mediate disagreements, and even lead certain class activities. this leadership gave me a sense of empowerment, making me realize that i could make a difference, no matter how small.” these expressions align seamlessly with the cgt. participants, through their interactions and experiences, constructed their own reality of what it meant to be a class monitor. for many, like nguyen and linh, this reality was framed around empowerment, personal growth, and the development of a leadership identity. they were not just fulfilling duties; they were navigating a journey of self-discovery and potential realization. further delving into the pa, it is evident that the feeling of empowerment was not an isolated or individual sentiment. instead, it represented a shared lived experience among the participants. the role of a class monitor became a transformative phase in their academic journey, leading them towards a newfound sense of self and purpose. cultural mediation and the balance of dual identities another prominent theme that arose from the interviews was “cultural mediation and the balance of dual identities.” this theme was echoed by 10 out of the 15 participants who described their experiences as class monitors as being caught between the cultural expectations of traditional vietnamese values and the modern demands of english-majored academic pursuits. phuong expressed this tension by noting, “being an english major often meant adopting a more global perspective, questioning, and sometimes even challenging established norms. however, as a class monitor, i had to respect and uphold our traditional vietnamese values, especially when communicating with teachers or resolving class conflicts.” on a similar note, bao reflected, “i felt like i was always balancing two worlds. one where i was a budding english scholar, engaging in debates and discussions, and the other, where i was a representative of traditional student values, ensuring respect and harmony in our class.” drawing from the cgt, it is evident that participants, like phuong and bao, were constantly constructing and reconstructing their identities in response to the dynamic interplay of cultural expectations and academic demands. the role of a class monitor forced them into a space where they had to mediate between these two often conflicting identities, forging a unique reality that balanced both worlds. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 1, january 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 7 using the pa, it is clear that this experience was not merely individualistic but was a shared phenomenon among the participants. the dual identities, shaped by the intersection of vietnamese culture and english-majored pursuits, created a common lived experience. this experience was marked by the continuous negotiation of boundaries, roles, and identities, making the role of a class monitor a complex yet enriching journey. enhanced interpersonal skills and empathetic growth a further distinct theme identified from the interviews was the “enhanced interpersonal skills and empathetic growth.” this sentiment was reiterated by 11 of the 15 participants, who believed that their tenure as class monitors significantly developed their interpersonal skills, especially their ability to understand and empathize with their peers. trang shared her experience by saying, “as a class monitor, i was often the first point of contact for many of my classmates when they faced challenges. this experience made me more patient, taught me to listen actively, and to empathize with their situations.” minh, reflecting on his tenure, commented, “there were instances where i had to mediate disagreements among classmates. these moments, although challenging, made me more attuned to different perspectives and honed my skills in conflict resolution.” interpreting these experiences through the lens of cgt, it is evident that the continuous interactions and challenges faced by class monitors, such as trang and minh, acted as catalysts in shaping their perception and understanding of interpersonal dynamics. the role demanded not just administrative diligence but also a deep understanding and empathy towards peers. these experiences, over time, constructed a nuanced understanding of human behavior and enriched their interpersonal toolkit. considering the pa, this enhanced empathetic growth was not an isolated feeling but a collective lived experience among the participants. the act of constantly engaging with, understanding, and sometimes mediating between peers created a shared journey of personal growth. this journey was punctuated with moments of realization, learning, and a deeper appreciation of the diverse tapestry of human emotions and responses. development of effective communication skills in english another pivotal theme that surfaced during the interviews was the “development of effective communication skills in english.” this aspect was echoed by 9 out of the 15 participants, who felt that their roles as class monitors granted them ample opportunities to practice and hone their english communication skills in real-life scenarios. duc commented, “though we were in vietnam, as an english major, many of our class discussions, presentations, and even some administrative tasks were conducted in english. being a class monitor meant i was often at the forefront of these activities, giving me invaluable practice and confidence in my english speaking abilities.” similarly, thu added, “whether it was presenting a point to the faculty or communicating class feedback, i had to articulate my thoughts clearly in english. over time, this constant practice made me more fluent and confident.” exploring these insights through the cgt, it becomes apparent that participants like duc and thu were not just passive learners of the english language. instead, they actively http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 1, january 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 8 constructed their linguistic competencies by leveraging the real-world, authentic opportunities that the class monitor role presented. every interaction, presentation, or feedback session became a building block in their evolving english communication skills. from the standpoint of the pa, this development of english communication skills can be seen as a shared journey among the participants. the lived experience of being an englishmajored student in vietnam, combined with the responsibilities of a class monitor, created a collective narrative of linguistic growth, challenges, and achievements. sense of legacy and the desire to inspire an intriguing theme that emerged from the data was the “sense of legacy and the desire to inspire.” this sentiment was reflected by 8 out of the 15 participants who believed that their roles as class monitors gave them not only a platform to lead but also an opportunity to inspire younger cohorts and leave a lasting impact on their academic community. chi noted, “one of the most fulfilling aspects of being a class monitor was knowing that my actions and decisions could inspire younger students. i always tried to set a positive example, hoping that future class monitors could look up to and maybe even emulate.” reflecting on the ripple effect of his leadership, tan added, “during my tenure, i initiated a mentorship program for our class. seeing it being adopted by subsequent batches and knowing i had a role in that legacy is deeply gratifying.” viewing these reflections through the cgt, it is evident that participants like chi and tan actively shaped their roles beyond mere administrative responsibilities. through their initiatives and actions, they constructed a broader role for themselves—one that was rooted in mentorship, guidance, and the desire to leave a positive legacy for subsequent classes. diving deeper with the pa, it is clear that this aspiration to inspire and create a legacy was a shared lived experience. the responsibility of being a class monitor transformed from a position of leadership to a position of influence for many participants. this transformation was marked by a conscious effort to leave an indelible mark, to inspire, and to pave the way for future generations. challenge of time management and the evolution of prioritization skills yet another significant theme that materialized from the participants’ narratives was the “challenge of time management and the evolution of prioritization skills.” this theme resonated with 13 out of the 15 participants, who consistently expressed that their roles as class monitors compelled them to juggle various tasks, which, in turn, refined their time management and prioritization abilities. hai shared, “there were days when i felt overwhelmed with the dual responsibilities of academic work and class monitor duties. over time, i developed a system to prioritize tasks, allocate time, and ensure everything was done efficiently.” an echoed sentiment came from lan, who mentioned, “the role taught me the value of time. balancing studies with the duties of a class monitor was not easy, but it honed my ability to prioritize tasks, delegate when necessary, and make efficient use of available hours.” http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 1, january 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 9 drawing insights from the cgt, it becomes evident that participants like hai and lan were not merely adapting to the demands of the role. instead, they were reconstructing their approaches to time, tasks, and responsibilities. the challenges they faced acted as stimuli, pushing them to evolve and develop robust time management strategies tailored to their unique situations. when viewed through the pa, this theme stands out as a collective lived experience among participants. the pressures and demands of being class monitors created a shared journey of navigating time constraints, making tough decisions, and eventually mastering the art of juggling various responsibilities. this shared experience emerged as a cornerstone in their academic and personal growth. discovery of authentic self and the reaffirmation of purpose an unexpected yet profoundly significant theme that unveiled itself through the interviews was the “discovery of authentic self and the reaffirmation of purpose.” this theme was uniquely profound, resonating deeply with 6 out of the 15 participants. these participants felt that their tenure as class monitors acted as a mirror, reflecting their true selves and reinforcing their greater purpose in life. quyen, reflecting on her journey, said, “being a class monitor was like a journey of selfdiscovery for me. beyond the tasks and responsibilities, it made me question and understand who i truly was, what i valued, and what i wanted to achieve in life.” tien added depth to this sentiment, noting, “the role, with all its ups and downs, made me confront myself. it was like a crucible that distilled my essence, making me realize my true passions and the path i genuinely wanted to embark on.” interpreting these introspective narratives through the cgt, it is palpable that roles such as class monitors are not just about external responsibilities. for participants like quyen and tien, the role became a transformative experience, prompting introspection, selfquestioning, and ultimately leading to a richer understanding of their authentic selves. their experiences as class monitors provided them with opportunities and challenges that acted as catalysts for deeper self-reflection and construction of personal narratives. drawing on the pa, this theme, while not universally experienced by all, was a deeply shared and resonating experience among the participants who echoed it. the role of the class monitor was not merely a leadership position but a transformative phase where their external experiences fostered internal journeys of self-discovery, bringing them closer to their true selves and life’s purpose. discussion empowerment through leadership responsibilities the theme of “empowerment through leadership responsibilities” observed in our study finds resonance in a broad spectrum of literature, especially those focused on student leadership roles. historically, leadership roles within academic settings have been linked to heightened senses of responsibility, empowerment, and personal growth (cardiff et al., 2018). however, what stands out in our findings is the depth and breadth with which these feelings of empowerment are expressed and experienced by the participants. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 1, january 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 10 many prior studies, such as those by thompson (2014), have highlighted the benefits of student leadership roles in fostering a sense of responsibility and contributing to skill development. yet, the narrative of empowerment, as revealed in our study, goes beyond this conventional understanding. the participants, like nguyen and linh, described their journey not just in terms of acquired skills or tasks performed, but as a holistic experience of selfdiscovery, potential realization, and personal growth. while hairon and dimmock (2012) found that student leadership roles in some asian educational contexts primarily focus on administrative duties with limited avenues for empowerment, our study contrasts this by showcasing how vietnamese english-majored students transform these roles into platforms of empowerment. this divergence can be attributed to the cgt, where participants, shaped by their unique experiences and interactions, redefine what the role of a class monitor signifies to them. moreover, the shared essence of empowerment, as emphasized by the pa, further distinguishes our findings. previous research often paints student leadership experiences as individual journeys (kouzes & posner, 2018). however, our study underscores the collective lived experience of empowerment among class monitors, suggesting a communal narrative that transcends individual experiences. cultural mediation and the balance of dual identities the “cultural mediation and the balance of dual identities” theme uncovers a complex layer of experiences, which although evident in some strands of research, has rarely been explored with such depth in the context of vietnamese english-majored students. previous studies have occasionally touched upon the dual identities that students grapple with, especially in contexts where global education paradigms intersect with deep-rooted local cultures (kadiwal & durrani, 2018). however, the cultural mediation aspect, especially in the role of class monitors, unveils a nuanced dynamic unique to this study. in the broader academic discourse, many scholars, such as rhoads and valadez (2016), have emphasized the challenges and advantages of balancing dual identities, especially in multicultural educational settings. yet, phuong’s and bao’s experiences reveal a more intricate dance of identity negotiation, particularly amplified by their roles as class monitors in the vietnamese context. their experiences highlight not just the balancing act but also the continuous identity construction and reconstruction, as posited by the cgt. moreover, while howard (2003) did suggest that students in asia often face a tug-ofwar between traditional values and global educational aspirations, our study illuminates how this dynamic manifests uniquely for class monitors. they are not just students navigating these dualities; they are leaders entrusted with the responsibility of upholding traditional values while simultaneously embodying the spirit of their modern academic pursuits. furthermore, the shared essence of this experience, as emphasized by the pa, adds another dimension to our findings. whereas many studies often depict the balancing of dual identities as a solitary journey (harklau, 2003; torres et al., 2009), our research accentuates its collective nature among the class monitors. this shared narrative of identity negotiation, http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 1, january 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 11 boundary-setting, and cultural mediation underscores a communal experience that extends beyond individual introspections. enhanced interpersonal skills and empathetic growth the emergence of “enhanced interpersonal skills and empathetic growth” as a central theme aligns with a body of research emphasizing the significance of leadership roles in fostering interpersonal growth. various studies, for instance, goffee and jones (2015), have suggested that leadership positions, especially in academic settings, can lead to enriched interpersonal understanding and the development of conflict resolution skills. our study, however, delves deeper into these dynamics, elucidating the unique interplay between these roles and empathetic growth among vietnamese english-majored students. while earlier research like xu et al. (2019) has noted that student leadership roles often lead to improved interpersonal skills, the depth of empathetic growth as highlighted by our participants, especially trang and minh, adds a fresh perspective. their narratives suggest that the class monitor role is not just about leadership or problem-solving; it is about understanding, connecting, and growing with their peers on a deeply emotional level. this profound connection and growth, as conceptualized through the cgt, emphasize the transformative nature of their experiences. furthermore, the collective essence of this empathetic journey, underscored by the pa, presents a departure from many earlier studies. while patterson (2012) have hinted at the shared experiences of student leaders, our study emphasizes the collective empathetic growth journey experienced by class monitors. this shared narrative offers a richer understanding of the intertwined nature of leadership, interpersonal dynamics, and collective growth. development of effective communication skills in english the emergence of “development of effective communication skills in english” as a prominent theme brings to the fore the practical implications of leadership roles in linguistic development, especially in non-native english contexts like vietnam. in the realm of academic literature, several studies, such as those by ismail and al allaq (2019), have underlined the pivotal role of authentic experiences in enhancing linguistic proficiency. however, our study, with its unique setting and demographic, adds a fresh layer of understanding to this discourse. previous research, such as that by askildson et al. (2013), underscores the importance of authentic engagement in improving english proficiency. still, the role of class monitors, as exemplified by duc and thu, provides a novel lens to appreciate this dynamic. instead of mere classroom engagements, these students were at the crossroads of administrative responsibilities, peer interactions, and academic demands, all of which were often navigated in english. their narratives, through the lens of the cgt, highlight that their linguistic proficiency was not a static skill but an evolving competency, honed and refined through genuine interactions and responsibilities. contrastingly, while wood (2017) have documented the isolated journeys of students in developing english communication skills in non-native settings, our study, through the pa, http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 1, january 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 12 suggests a communal narrative. the shared experience of leveraging the class monitor role to enhance english skills indicates a collective journey of linguistic growth, challenges, and triumphs. sense of legacy and the desire to inspire the emergence of the theme “sense of legacy and the desire to inspire” accentuates a dimension of student leadership that, while recognized, is often under-explored in academic research. the idea that student leadership roles can transcend their immediate responsibilities and become platforms for long-lasting impact is echoed in some literature (e.g., love & estanek, 2004), but it gains unique significance in our study, especially in the context of vietnamese english-majored students. various studies, like hamdani (2018), have acknowledged that leadership roles often instill a sense of responsibility in students. however, chi’s and tan’s narratives illuminate a deeper emotional connection to the role, suggesting a genuine aspiration to impact future generations positively. this depth of purpose, as understood through the cgt, indicates that these students are not merely responding to their immediate roles but are proactively constructing a larger, more impactful narrative for themselves, one that emphasizes legacy and inspiration. while bowman (2007) have discussed the individual aspirations of students in leadership roles to inspire peers, our study, rooted in the pa, underscores the collective nature of this aspiration. the desire to inspire, to leave a legacy, is not an isolated journey but a shared ambition among many class monitors. their collective narrative emphasizes a transformation, where the role shifts from being a simple administrative duty to a broader platform for mentorship, guidance, and lasting influence. challenge of time management and the evolution of prioritization skills the emergence of “challenge of time management and the evolution of prioritization skills” in our study touches upon a universal theme often associated with leadership roles. time management and prioritization are frequently cited in the literature as crucial skills honed through leadership experiences (daft, 2014). however, our study unveils a more intricate relationship between these skills and the role of a class monitor, especially within the context of vietnamese english-majored students. previous research, like that of coleman and glover (2010), highlighted how academic leadership roles often foster better time management skills in students. yet, the narratives of our participants, particularly those of hai and lan, deepen this discourse by emphasizing not just the acquisition of time management skills but the evolution of a strategic, adaptive approach to managing multiple responsibilities. this adaptive nature of skill development is further corroborated by the cgt, suggesting that these students were not just passively learning but actively constructing and refining their approaches to time management. moreover, while benjamin and o’reilly (2011) did suggest that student leaders often experience an enhanced ability to prioritize tasks, our study brings forth the challenges that catalyze this skill development. the constant juggling, decision-making, and responsibility navigation painted a vivid picture of the pressures class monitors face. yet, it is these very http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 1, january 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 13 pressures, as articulated by our participants, that precipitate the honing of their prioritization skills. furthermore, the shared nature of this experience, as spotlighted by the pa, provides another layer of understanding. it suggests that this is not just an individual struggle but a communal narrative shared by class monitors. the collective journey of navigating challenges, evolving strategies, and mastering time management and prioritization becomes a defining experience in their academic trajectory. discovery of authentic self and the reaffirmation of purpose the emergence of the theme “discovery of authentic self and the reaffirmation of purpose” carves out a niche within academic discourse on student leadership roles. while literature has often alluded to leadership roles fostering personal growth (baron & parent, 2015), our findings emphasize a deeper, more introspective journey catalyzed by the class monitor role, particularly among vietnamese english-majored students. historically, scholars like day et al. (2021) have discussed how leadership positions can serve as platforms for personal development. however, the introspective journey described by participants like quyen and tien delineates a more profound transformation than traditionally depicted. their narratives suggest that the class monitor role is not just a leadership position; it is a pathway to self-realization, a catalyst for introspection, and a mirror reflecting one’s deepest values and aspirations. this intricate relationship between external responsibilities and internal reflections is further contextualized by the cgt, showcasing the active construction and understanding of their personal narratives in response to their leadership experiences. while quinlan (2014) have explored how leadership roles in academic settings can align with students’ broader life goals, our study delves into the depths of this alignment. it is not just about realizing career ambitions or honing skills for the future; it is about understanding oneself, identifying core values, and charting out a purposeful life trajectory. this profound journey of self-discovery and reaffirmation, while rooted in individual experiences, emerges as a collective narrative, as suggested by the pa. it presents a communal introspection where the role of a class monitor becomes a conduit for shared experiences of self-realization. conclusion this part consists of two (2) sub-parts: conclusion of the article and suggestions or recommendations from the research. conclude your article critically and logically based on the research findings. please be careful in generalizing the results. you should also state your research limitation in these parts. generally, the conclusion should explain how the research has moved the body of scientific knowledge forward. in suggestion, please describe your recommendation for further studies regarding your research implication. this research embarked on an exploration into the multifaceted impacts of assuming the role of a class monitor on vietnamese english-majored students, delving into the personal, academic, and developmental implications of such a leadership position. situated within the academic milieu of higher education institutions in the mekong delta of vietnam, http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 1, january 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 14 the study aimed to capture the nuanced experiences, challenges, and growth trajectories of these student leaders. utilizing a qualitative approach, the study employed semi-structured interviews as its primary data collection tool, ensuring a rich and in-depth understanding of the participants’ perspectives. the underlying theoretical frameworks, namely the cgt and the pa, provided the scaffolding for interpreting, understanding, and presenting the lived experiences of these students. these methodologies not only facilitated a rigorous exploration of the subject but also ensured that the voices and narratives of the participants remained at the forefront. our findings unveiled a tapestry of experiences and insights. from feelings of empowerment through leadership responsibilities to the intricate dance of cultural mediation and balancing dual identities, the narratives shed light on the myriad ways the role influenced these students. additionally, themes like the development of effective communication skills in english and the evolution of prioritization skills underscored the practical and transformative impacts of their roles. yet, perhaps the most profound revelations were those of introspective journeys—whether it was the discovery of one’s authentic self or the deep-seated desire to inspire and leave a lasting legacy. the findings of this research have profound implications, both academically and practically, for educators, policymakers, and institutions of higher education, especially within the vietnamese context. first and foremost, the understanding that leadership roles, such as class monitors, go beyond administrative responsibilities to catalyze personal growth and self-discovery suggests that institutions need to view and frame these roles as pivotal developmental opportunities. by doing so, they can better support and guide students, ensuring that they fully harness the transformative potential these roles offer. the theme of cultural mediation and balancing dual identities sheds light on the unique challenges faced by english-majored students in vietnam. this implies that educators should be cognizant of these cultural dynamics, tailoring their pedagogical approaches to recognize and address the dualities their students navigate. further, institutions might consider providing training or workshops focused on bridging these cultural gaps, facilitating smoother academic and personal journeys for their students. additionally, the evident enhancement in english communication skills among class monitors underscores the invaluable role of authentic, real-world practice in linguistic development. this points to the need for curricula that integrates more real-life interactions, presentations, and leadership opportunities in english, thereby accelerating students’ linguistic proficiency and confidence. furthermore, the deeply introspective journeys of self-realization and purpose reaffirmation highlight the significance of reflective practices in education. institutions and educators might benefit from integrating more reflective components—like journals, mentorship programs, or group discussions—into their curricula, ensuring that students have structured opportunities to introspect, discover, and grow. lastly, the shared experiences of time management challenges and the subsequent evolution of prioritization skills emphasize the importance of providing students with opportunities to face and navigate real-world challenges. this suggests that experiential learning, coupled with adequate support systems, can be instrumental in equipping students with critical life skills. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 1, january 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 15 given the rich insights unearthed in this research, there are several avenues for further exploration that can deepen our understanding of the impacts of leadership roles on students. it would be valuable for subsequent studies to explore similar themes in different academic disciplines within vietnam, providing a broader picture of how leadership roles influence students across diverse fields of study. additionally, a comparative study between vietnamese institutions and those in other southeast asian countries could offer a more comprehensive perspective on the cultural and educational dynamics at play. longitudinal studies following class monitors over several years, post their tenure, could provide insights into the long-term impacts and transformations induced by such roles. given the profound introspective journeys highlighted in this study, it might also be worthwhile to delve deeper into the psychological and emotional facets of these experiences, possibly employing methodologies like narrative inquiry or even psychoanalytic approaches. lastly, considering the evident linguistic benefits of the class monitor role, studies focusing exclusively on the interplay between leadership responsibilities and language acquisition could further elucidate this dynamic. while this study provides valuable insights into the impacts of leadership roles on vietnamese english-majored students, it is not without its limitations. firstly, the research was confined to two higher education institutions in the mekong delta, potentially limiting the generalizability of the findings to broader contexts or regions within vietnam. the sample size, consisting of 15 participants, while adequate for a qualitative study, may not capture the full diversity of experiences and perspectives that a larger cohort might reveal. additionally, the study relied solely on semi-structured interviews for data collection. while this method offers depth, it might have benefited from the inclusion of other qualitative methods, such as observations or focus groups, to triangulate and enrich the data. the retrospective nature of some participants’ reflections could also introduce elements of recall bias, potentially influencing the authenticity of their recollections. furthermore, the study’s scope, focused primarily on english-majored students, might not encompass the nuanced experiences of students from other academic disciplines. these limitations should be considered when interpreting the findings and should serve as points of consideration for future research endeavors in this area. references askildson, l. r., kelly, a. c., & mick, c. s. 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(2015). the road to self-leadership development: busting out of your comfort zone. emerald group publishing. swaffield, s. (2008). critical friendship, dialogue and learning, in the context of leadership for learning. school leadership and management, 28(4), 323-336. https://doi.org/10.1080/13632430802292191 thompson, a. (2014). fostering growth and development of recovering students in higher education through servant leadership. peabody journal of education, 89(2), 244-257. https://doi.org/10.1080/0161956x.2014.897101 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 1, january 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 18 torres, v., jones, s. r., & renn, k. a. (2009). identity development theories in student affairs: origins, current status, and new approaches. journal of college student development, 50(6), 577-596. https://doi.org/10.1353/csd.0.0102 truong, t. d., hallinger, p., & sanga, k. (2017). confucian values and school leadership in vietnam: exploring the influence of culture on principal decision making. educational management administration & leadership, 45(1), 77-100. https://doi.org/10.1177/1741143215607877 wallin, d. (2003). student leadership and democratic schools: a case study. nassp bulletin, 87(636), 55-78. https://doi.org/10.1177/019263650308763606 wong, m. c., lau, t. c., & lee, a. (2012). the impact of leadership programme on self-esteem and self-efficacy in school: a randomized controlled trial. plos one, 7(12), e52023. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0052023 wood, m. (2017). foreign language classrooms: native versus non-native teachers and culture integration. the cardinal, 12(3), 124-137. xu, s., wang, y. c., & wen, h. (2019). a case study for student leadership development: a goal setting perspective. journal of hospitality, leisure, sport & tourism education, 24, 168177. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhlste.2019.03.001 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 4, october 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 207 challenges in implementing learner-centered method for english language teaching in tanzanian secondary schools siriel mhando, mustapha almasi2 1university of dodoma, dodoma, tanzania, 2mzumbe university, morogoro, tanzania amustapha@mzumbe.ac.tz abstract learner-centred methods (lcm) are vital in improving students’ cognition; however, they are practiced less by teachers in tanzania. this study explores lcm teachers' use in teaching the english language, the challenges related to the use of lcm, and how teachers respond to the challenges in the selected schools. fifty (50) teachers from secondary schools deemed to use lcm were selected. a descriptive study design was used. data were collected through interviews and then analyzed through content analysis. the findings reveal that teachers in visited schools preferred debating, group discussions, and probing questions and answers. nonetheless, shortage of study materials, time factor, large number of students in classes, and students being uncomfortable with the methods were reported as key challenges. teachers responded to the challenges by setting separate learning sessions, borrowing learning materials from other schools, and setting extra hours. the findings of this study inform the need for interventions to promote the effective implementation of learnercentered methods. this study adds to the empirical evidence regarding using lcms in english language teaching, especially in countries with poor resources. keywords: english language teaching, learner-centered method, student-centered approach, tanzania introduction the traditional way of imparting knowledge tends to involve instructors as sole distributors of knowledge and learners as submissive members of the learning process. in such learning, instructors play a part as providers while learners are receivers in the learning process. this teaching approach is mainly based on behaviorism theories, which view learners as passive individuals whose role is to replicate what the instructor gives (budiman, 2019). the traditional method primarily employs a lecture style whereby the emphasis is on rote learning. teacher-centered teaching practice has been challenged as ineffective in enhancing students’ learning (bature & campus, 2020). consequently, learner-centered teaching methods (lcm) have been introduced following movements such as constructivism, connectionism, and progressivism. lcm helps build knowledge and reasoning ability and http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 mailto:amustapha@mzumbe.ac.tz copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 4, october 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 208 makes students active in learning (nzogela, 2015; kawishe, 2016; arseven, sahin, and kilic, 2016). learner-centered methods are approachable, mutual, problem-oriented, and independent (oyelana, 2016). both learners and teachers choose what to learn and when and how the learning process has to occur. teachers use various methods during the learning programs depending on the topic, the nature of students, the time available per period or lesson, and classroom size (hatch & clark, 2021). lcm, like group discussions, probing questions, role play, dramatization, think pair share, and debates, are the most used by teachers during the learning process because of their effectiveness, stimulation, and activeness among learners. they are also key in improving speaking and writing skills, retention ability, and confidence due to class presentations (lintangsari, emaliana, & kusumawardani, 2022). countries in africa and beyond emphasize using lcm (vavrus, thomas, & bartlett, 2011). for instance, the tanzania education and training policy of 2014 insists on using a student-centered approach to teaching and learning. the policy stipulates that teachers should not be regarded as sole sources of knowledge but as facilitators providing a broad range of learning experiences. by doing so, student teachers are encouraged to assume more responsibility for their learning (tanzania insitute of education, 2013). nevertheless, it becomes hard for a teacher to manage students and use lcm in large classes because such methods require effective interaction. when there are overcrowded classrooms, learning resources fail to meet the standards for providing quality education (ross & gray, 2006). studies also show that some students dislike the lcm because they are used to spoon-feeding. they lack confidence and are overwhelmed by such learning methods (kumar, 2016). regardless of the benefits of lcms, studies by mgyabuso and mkulu (2022) and kumar (2016) have shown that lcm is underused in secondary school teaching in tanzania. various reasons have been attributed to the poor use of such methods in multiple subjects, especially science-related ones. as such, there is a need to investigate whether teachers in secondary schools use lcms, the challenges they face, and how they overcome them, especially in teaching language subjects such as english. english language is a core subject for all students from primary to secondary education in tanzania. english is also used as a medium of instruction for teaching all subjects in secondary schools in the country. this study begins by identifying familiar lcm teachers' use, their challenges in using lcm, and how they respond to such challenges in their teaching. the current study contributes to the existing literature on the difficulties of learner-centered methods by providing empirical evidence on how these challenges manifest in teaching english subjects. unlike most previous studies that focused on techniques used to teach english in secondary schools and the challenges teachers face during their implementation in general, this study also explores how teachers respond to the difficulties associated with learner-centered methods. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 4, october 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 209 the study is guided by constructivist learning theory. the theory suggests that a teacher uses experience to guide or instruct learners so that they may gain insight into the learning process. through the instructors’ guidance, students achieve complex skills and competence more independently (wertsch & sohmer, 1995). this theory adds that knowledge cannot be separated from communal and artistic perspectives. therefore, students construct their understanding from their surroundings, mainly in the class where a teacher employs lcm, which stimulates students’ minds. methods this study employed a qualitative approach to gather in-depth, contextual data regarding the use of learner-centered methods (lcm) and teachers' understandings, meanings, and perceptions of how they respond to challenges related to the use of lcm in selected secondary schools in morogoro municipality, tanzania. this study amplifies teachers' voices by exploring teachers' views on implementing lcm and their strategies for addressing associated challenges. it enables them to express their feelings, stories, and experiences regarding lcm in their terms and language. as advocated by cohen and manion (2006), qualitative data collection methods were particularly well-suited for capturing the nuanced perspectives of teachers in this context. the study was conducted in the morogoro municipal council. the targeted population of the study was teachers in public schools. the decision to select teachers followed the guidelines established by miles and huberman (1984), which recommend specific criteria for sample selection. when choosing a sample, selecting a group that is likely to provide rich and relevant information about the topic under investigation and a sample that accurately represents the study population is essential. overall, teachers were thought to be imparting knowledge to students using different learner-centered methods to facilitate teaching and learning. since lcm is reported to be used almost everywhere in the country, the morogoro region was selected based on the convenience of the researchers. moreover, like other regions, morogoro has several secondary schools using lcm (fidelis, 2024). also, the area has many ordinary-level secondary schools with characteristics that comply with the research purpose and focus. however, before the main study, the first author conducted a pilot survey in secondary schools in morogoro to identify which schools were implementing lcm in their english classes. the researcher visited several schools to observe teaching practices and interviewed english teachers as part of the pilot. this initial survey confirmed that approximately twelve area secondary schools were utilizing lcm. regarding the selection of the schools, the researcher divided the region (the municipality) into five main zones (a, b, c, d, and e) and then randomly selected two schools from each zone. the study population comprised ten (10) secondary schools known to implement lcm. two schools from the initial surveyed 12 were dropped due to their remote location. this study's participants were qualified english teachers with at least three years http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 4, october 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 210 of teaching experience. the researchers considered the schools to have similar characteristics since they were all public schools under the same municipality. the sample comprised 50 participants, all english teachers selected from ten secondary schools. detailed and comprehensive information was gathered from these teachers until we reached a saturation point. saturation was assessed using a constant comparative method, in which new data were continuously compared to existing codes. when no new patterns or ideas emerged, the researchers concluded that saturation had been achieved. the study used interviews to collect data from key informants (50 english teachers from the selected 10 secondary schools). the researchers used a semi-structured interview approach to question participants and collect rich, in-depth information about the topic under study. in conducting the interview, the following procedures were followed: firstly, the researcher (the first author) was introduced to the head of the school, then to the english teachers. she explained the purpose of the study to the teachers, and then the teachers were requested to participate in the study after obtaining their consent. only those who willingly agreed to participate in the study were interviewed. this study used content analysis (krippendorff, 2004) to analyze qualitative data. the transcription process began with carefully listening to the recorded audio and converting it into written form. the audio was then translated from kiswahili to english to ensure accuracy and consistency in interpretation. once the transcripts were prepared, the researchers thoroughly reviewed the descriptive responses to identify key themes. this process involved systematically analyzing the data to discover recurring patterns and meaningful insights. the interview transcripts were carefully examined, and responses were categorized under the relevant thematic headings. after establishing these categories, the identified responses were integrated into the report, ensuring a clear and coherent presentation of the findings. the main themes identified included prominent lcms used, the effectiveness of the lcms used, and examples of the lcms used. this organized approach facilitated a comprehensive analysis, preserving the integrity of the qualitative data while effectively communicating the respondents' perspectives. results learner-centred methods used in teaching english subject this study investigated the challenges of using learner-centered methods in english language teaching in selected tanzanian secondary schools. the study's first objective was to identify learner-centered methods used by teachers in english language teaching in the selected secondary schools. the main questions asked of the respondents were: (i) which learner-centered methods do you use in teaching your subject? (ii) how effective are these learner teaching methods to your students? the researcher interviewed 50 teachers. the interviews show that group discussion, debate, question, and answers were the methods teachers used the most in teaching english in the selected secondary schools. in some cases, case studies and role plays were used. in http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 4, october 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 211 an interview session with respondent 8, the respondent replied, “…i prefer using group discussion in a class with fast learners than in a class with lower learners… (teacher, sua secondary). additionally, in an interview with respondent 14 from morogoro secondary, it was highlighted that: “as i teach, i like to use group discussion method because of the nature of students in the class, they are too lazy to speak, to make them active i divide them into discussion groups and provide questions for presentations” (teacher, morogoro secondary). regarding the above statements, it implies that english teachers use the group discussion method in the classroom because it keeps students active during the teaching and learning process. furthermore, respondent 17 added that the group discussion method is very suitable in the learning environment. in the interview, it was stated that: “i like using group discussion method because of the nature of students in my class, they are not willing to speak, so, through group discussions they get the ability to speak and build teamwork spirit” (teacher, kilakala secondary). the above statement shows that teachers use this method; it enables the students to have confidence, improves speaking ability, and builds teamwork spirit in students as they cooperate. however, the debate method was mentioned by respondent 35: "i prefer using debate method in various topics because this method plays a part in making student active members in the learning process” (teacher, morogoro secondary). additionally, respondent 18 said, “sometimes i use dialogue in terms of debate where learners argue concerning a certain topic which i have assigned to them” (teacher, kilakala secondary). regarding the above statements, the debate is used as a teaching method to activate learners' minds in the learning process. further, question and answer is another method that was found to be used. in the interview with respondent 17, it was stated that: “i like to use question and answer method to measure students understanding in various issues” (teacher, kilakala secondary).” the statement above assures us that english teachers use the question-and-answer method in the selected schools. therefore, the standard methods used by english language teachers include group discussion, debate, and question and answer. also, teachers preferred to use these methods for various reasons, such as making students active and involved and stimulating students’ learning. however, no evidence was provided regarding the claims that such methods bring out what the teachers thought they did. challenges encountered by the teachers in the use of learner-centred methods the study's second objective was to discover the teachers' challenges in using lcm. the main questions asked of the respondents were: are there any challenges you face when using the lcm in the classroom? if yes, what are they? to this end, the researchers interviewed 50 teachers. from interviews with respondents, it was found that classroom size is the biggest challenge facing teachers when using lcm. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 4, october 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 212 in the interview with participant 2, it was pointed out that: “.... aaah, we have a large number of students compared to some classes... you might find that you have seven group discussions in a single class, and the class size is insufficient to accommodate all the groups” (teacher, mafiga secondary). participant 7 added, "...there are many students in the classroom, and it gets even harder to pass through all students to supervise if they are writing or doing exercises” (teacher, sua secondary). the statements above show that there are large numbers of students compared to classroom size; this becomes a challenge in arranging group discussions. the second most mentioned challenge was the shortage of teaching and learning resources. this finding is based on the notion that lcms, such as group discussions, require learners to have their materials, such as books. this case is especially true in subjects such as english, requiring students to read stories from books. in an interview with participant 8, it was highlighted that: “the issue of resources is another challenge because you find a whole class has a single textbook” (teacher, sua secondary). further, participant 15 pointed out that: “we do not have enough books just as i have told you, we have many students such that it is hard to have enough books which will support each learner to learn comfortably” (teacher, morogoro secondary). regarding the above statements, the teaching and learning materials shortage hinders teachers from effectively using lcm. the third most reported challenge was related to students’ readiness. some teachers reported that students were not ready to learn through lcms. this finding was evidenced in some schools. for instance, in an interview, participant 9 pointed out that: “unreadiness of students to participate in the methods is a challenge, as students are used to the old method called teacher-centered method where a teacher does almost everything for his or her students” (teacher, uwanja wa taifa secondary). this finding shows that some students in secondary schools are not ready to cooperate with their teachers in the learning process. as the new syllabus and curriculum show that a teacher has only to do twenty-five percent and a student has to do seventy-five percent, students fail to fulfill their duty as they give no cooperation to their teachers because they are used to the old method where they were given everything. lastly, using lcm was considered time-consuming; therefore, some teachers felt that it consumed time to complete the curriculum. an interview with a teacher at lupanga secondary school reported that “the other challenge is the time limit, as the period is 80 minutes, so it is difficult to attain the learning objective” (teacher, lupanga secondary). teachers’ responses to challenges accrued from the use of lcm objective three explored how teachers responded to the challenges accumulated from using lcm. big classroom sizes, inadequate teaching and learning resources, lack of students’ readiness, and time factors were presented. regarding classroom size, some visited schools opted to have two different sessions or add extra learning time after normal class hours to accommodate their many students. yet, some teachers became innovative and used peer-to-peer teaching to resolve the large number of students in classes. in the interview with participant 3, it was pointed out that: http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 4, october 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 213 “...in the issue of classroom size, our school has a program of successions, where there are those who come to school in the morning and those who come in the afternoon, so by that, it becomes easy to manage the classroom” (teacher, mafiga secondary). concerning the use of peer-topeer teaching, one participant highlighted that “in overcrowded, we try to use peer teaching which is done after the lessons or free time although it is a bit challenging to manage” (teacher, kihonda secondary). regarding the shortage of instructional materials, such as books, participants reported that they made copies of a few available books and shared them with students. some asked students to buy their copies or bring copies from their homes. still, other teachers used to borrow books from neighboring schools. one participant reported that: as for me, i like to take some few books available in school and make copies from our school stationery then distribute them to the class so that we can learn quickly because without doing that, students will have a hard time in learning and that means it will be a barrier for their knowledge acquisition. teacher, sua secondary). however, the use of extra time outside of regular class hours was reported by some participants to compensate for curriculum completion. teachers continued to encourage students to learn through lcm. a summary table, table 1, has been provided showing frequencies of responses based on teachers mentioning and some selected examples of quotations. table 1: a summary table showing frequencies of responses and selected quotes objective frequency (teachers mentioning) example quotations learner-centered method 7 “i prefer using group discussion in a class with fast learners than in a class with lower learners…” (teacher, sua secondary: i prefer using debate in various topics because this method makes students active members in learning.” (teacher, morogoro secondary) “most of the time, i prefer using the question-and-answer method.” (teacher, morogoro challenges encountered by the teachers 11 classroom size: “you might find in a single class you have seven group discussions; the class size is insufficient to accommodate all the groups.” (teacher, mafiga secondary). insufficient learning materials: “a whole class may have a single textbook.” (teacher, sua secondary). http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 4, october 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 214 challenging to adopt change: “students are used to the old method where the teacher does almost everything for them.” teacher, uwanja wa taifa secondary school). language barrier: “the big challenge to my classes is the language of instruction as most of the students cannot use english. for instance, it is difficult to get 10 students who can speak english in every class.”. teacher, kola secondary school) teachers’ responses to challenges 10 “in the case of inadequate materials, we tell students to buy textbooks” (teacher, kola secondary). “as a teacher, i have been motivating students to learn and speak english by rewarding them.” (teacher, kayenzi secondary school). “in overcrowded classes, we try to use peer teaching, which is done after the lessons or free time, although it is a bit challenging to manage” (teacher, kihonda secondary discussion learner-centered methods used in teaching english subject the first objective identified teachers' learner-centered methods in teaching english language subjects in the selected secondary schools. this study presents that teachers in the schools chosen use debate, group discussion, and probing questions and answers as the most preferred learner-centered methods. in their research, arseven, sahin, and kilic (2016) found that teachers used different lcms, including debate and group discussion. teachers in the current study report that they used these methods because such methods activate learners' minds during the learning process, improve their retention ability and reasoning abilities, and help them in confidence-building due to the various kinds of presentations they do in debate and class presentations. the methods used by the teachers are also supported by constructivism theory. the theory purports that such methods enable learners to construct their knowledge from different classroom practices, like debates and discussions, because such methods allow them to participate directly in learning (wertsch & sohmer, 1995). a study by rahman et al. (2020) reports that group discussion helps students learn and improves their academic performance. the same understanding is shared by msonde (2011), who reports that appropriately arranged group discussions strengthen http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 4, october 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 215 individual and group skills, including the ability to do complicated questions and tasks and break them down to get solutions for the challenges. nevertheless, some studies, such as lecturing, indicate that teacher-centered methods are valid for practical reasons and tend to be flexible (zakirman, lufri, & khairani, 2019). the current study revealed that lcm's effectiveness depends on learners' abilities. while case studies and role-play benefited older students, their application in lower classes may be challenging due to students' limited understanding. challenges encountered by the teachers in the use of lcm classroom overcrowding was reported as a significant challenge in many schools due to insufficient high student enrollment. this leads to cramped spaces, shared desks and chairs, and difficulties for teachers to navigate the classroom and assess student progress. previous studies by kawishe (2016) and elizabeth and lazarus (2014) have identified inadequate classroom size as a significant obstacle to effective learner-centered method (lcm) implementation. recently, similar challenges have been reported in somalia by jirde & arifin (2022) and by nghia, phuong & huong (2020) in vietnam. as such, effective implementation of the competence-based curriculum proposed in the 2014 tanzanian educational policy may continue to be hindered if the issues of overcrowding and shortage of resources are not addressed. insufficient resources, including books, teaching aids, and technology equipment, posed another challenge to effective lcm implementation. these limitations hinder student learning and require teachers to find alternative methods to support their students' education. previous studies by kawishe (2016) and jabbour (2013) have highlighted the impact of inadequate resources on student learning outcomes and lcm implementation. students' lack of readiness with the lcm method was reported as a challenge in its implementation. this finding is primarily due to the previous reliance on teacher-centered methods (tcm), a teaching strategy where teachers are active participants and students are passive. in tcm, the teacher is the central figure, providing all materials and activities, while students are limited to writing and taking exams to assess their readiness for advancement. this approach contrasts sharply with lcm, which emphasizes student engagement and active learning. the findings of mwazi et al. (2023) in the zambezi region of namibia report that students lacked the motivation to learn through lcm. the issue of learner readiness has been further emphasized by the study of badjadi (2020). interestingly, several studies have reported systemic factors behind the challenges leading teachers to fail to use learner-centered methods in tanzania. these factors include issues such as curriculum implementation, assessment methods, teacher training and professional development, classroom environment, teaching and learning resources, policypractice gap, teacher workload, and cultural and societal expectations (rugambwa, anangisye & mwaikokesya, 2022); msonde & msonde, 2019; makunja, 2016). for instance, rugambwa, anangisye, and mwaikokesya (2022) examined the contribution of school-based teacher professional development to learner-centered pedagogical practices in secondary schools in tanzania and found that professional development program contributed to the improvement of the application of lcm, improvisation of teaching aids, and laboratory http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 4, october 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 216 management practice among teachers. this finding entails that the lack of it may affect the utilization of the method. similar findings were reported by msonde & msonde(2019). the study of makunja (2016) reported systemic factors such as lack of in-service training, insufficient teaching and learning resources, and low ability of students. consequently, there seems to be a cycle of events that contribute to and affect one another. while, on the one hand, there is a policy provision for the use of lcm in schools, a gap exists in implementation due to a combination of factors cited by the current study and the literature. teachers’ responses to challenges accrued from the use of lcm objective three explored how teachers responded to the challenges accrued from using lcm. big classroom sizes, inadequate teaching and learning resources, lack of students’ readiness, and a shortage of time were presented. schools employed innovative solutions to address the overcrowding issue, such as establishing class sessions in shifts. this action allowed students to attend school in different periods, reducing the number of learners in each classroom. additionally, the government was reportedly working to increase the number of classrooms in schools, providing a more conducive learning environment for students. this finding is supported by a study by elizabeth and lazarus (2014), who stated that the government has to put plans and considerations on some students who are taken in schools and provide enough funds to support those schools so that they may provide a conducive environment for learning. the current study's findings are supported by studies conducted by kawishe (2016) and elizabeth and lazarus (2014), who highlighted that the biggest challenge faced by lcm implementation in secondary schools is overcrowded classrooms. however, the cited studies did not show how teachers responded to such challenges. in responding to the challenge of insufficient resources, including books, teaching aids, and technology equipment, teachers were reported to use various tactics such as borrowing from neighboring schools, making copies of books, and asking students to bring their copies from home. similar strategies were reported by jabbour (2013), who found that borrowing books from other schools with enough resources and making copies helped solve the inadequate number of resources. however, such an approach may not be consistent if systemic arrangements do not support it. furthermore, the challenge of lack of readiness among students was responded to by teachers encouraging students to learn and see the beauty of engaging in the lesson. this corresponds to the findings of the studies conducted by munish (2016) and annie (2017), which pointed out that to solve those problems, various tactics should be used to encourage learners to participate and make their learning process in english. and that such tactics would enable students to learn quickly as well. teachers and learners have to play their part fully to implement the method better, as teachers have to set goals and standards and make plans and strategies for teaching. from the current study, teachers have responded differently on how to cope with the challenges they encounter when using lcm in schools. however, in the light of various studies, the sustainability and effectiveness of teachers' coping strategies are questioned. while some coping strategies assist teachers in navigating systemic obstacles, their overall http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 4, october 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 217 impact remains limited. for instance, some teachers reported adapting learner-centered approaches by incorporating small group discussions, even in large classes, which fosters some level of participation; however, the impact is constrained by resource limitations (donkoh & amoakwah, 2024). it further argued that in large classes, teachers struggle to provide individualized learning experiences (donkoh & amoakwah, 2024), even when they attempt to use small groups. other teachers rely on peer support and informal networks, collaborating with colleagues to share learning materials and experiences. while this collaboration can be beneficial, it often lacks consistency. this problem is because peer support networks lack formal institutional support. this finding highlights the need to develop guidelines to enhance peer support among educators during curriculum innovation and implementation (shawa & botma, 2020). furthermore, some teachers pursue external training and self-learning opportunities, such as online courses and workshops, to improve their pedagogical skills; yet, the impact of these efforts remains limited without systemic professional development reforms (garet et al., 2001). accordingly, without structural support, these beneficial practices are insufficient to drive a sustainable shift toward effective learner-centered education. as such, there is a need to form formalized collaborations among teachers to enhance knowledge sharing, resource sharing, and professional development. the existence of teacher resource centers in tanzania can help support such collaborations. furthermore, in light of the current study's findings and the cited literature, regardless of the efforts to expand classes and build more schools, teacher collaboration, sharing of meager resources among teachers, and continued teacher professional development programs must be redesigned to implement lcm effectively. this suggestion is because teachers rarely receive or attend such training. as noted in this study, teachers have been using informal ways to support each other. training should incorporate experiential learning (darling-hammond et al., 2022) and enhance school-based practicums through mentorship. assessments should transition to competence-based learning, and training should tailor lcm to local contexts. teacher professional development should move from brief workshops to sustained learning models, such as microlearning, blended learning approaches, and online learning (machumu, zhu & almasi, 2018) and mentorship, with technology-driven options broadening access (ghasia & rutatola, 2021). conclusion the study investigated english subject teachers' challenges when using lcm to teach secondary school students in morogoro, tanzania. based on the findings, this study concludes that group discussions, debates, and probing question-and-answer sessions are the most frequently used lcms by english language teachers in selected schools in tanzania. these methods have been reported to increase the likelihood of student's intellectual growth and participation in the subject. moreover, these methods have fostered positive relationships between teachers and students. this implies that teachers can effectively interact with their students, identify potential problems, and take appropriate actions to http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 4, october 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 218 address them. it would be interesting to research why teachers use only a limited range of learner-centered methods. this study did not go beyond to establish such reasons. furthermore, when using lcms, teachers face the challenge of bigger class sizes, shortage of teaching and learning materials, lack of readiness among students, and time limitations since most lcms require much time. teachers have addressed these challenges by developing different tactics; however, such tactics may not be sustainable for a long time. this challenge calls for government intervention to enable students to learn in a way that is based on the current study's findings, it is suggested that the ministry of education should implement policies to recruit more teachers and build additional classrooms to reduce student-teacher ratios, ensuring lcms are effectively implemented. this step can include introducing double shifts to schools with many students as a temporary solution. regarding the shortage of teaching and learning materials, the ministry should encourage using digital content developed by the tanzania institute of education. teachers must be trained to utilize the available digital resources. on the school side, schools may establish school-based professional learning communities to allow teachers to share best practices in lcm implementation. the ministry and schools may work to promote community-based initiatives, such as locally sourced learning materials and volunteer teaching assistants, to support english teachers. this solution can go hand in hand with developing low-cost digital resources, such as mobile apps and audio-visual aids, to support interactive learning. schools may collaborate with nearby universities to study and address practical challenges. this action may be a form of community engagement between universities and schools. on the students' side, schools may introduce orientation programs at the beginning of secondary education to familiarize students with active learning approaches such as lcm. this step may help students be aware and adapt to new ways of learning that they perhaps never used in primary schools. references arseven, z., sahin, s., & kiliç, a. 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(2006). transformational leadership and teacher commitment to http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 https://doi.org/10.21825/af.v31i1.9029 https://doi.org/10.22161/ https://doi.org/10.1177/00220574198543 https://doi.org/10.1080/03055698.2018.1555453 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 4, october 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 221 organizational values: the mediating effects of collective teacher efficacy. school effectiveness and school improvement, 17(2), 179-199. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/09243450600565795 shawa, m., & botma, y. (2020). practice guidelines for peer support among educators during a curriculum innovation. african journal of health professions education, 12(4), 186190. doi: 10.7196/ajhpe.2020.v12i4.1388 tanzania institute of education (tie). (2013). education and training policy (etp) 2014. dar es salaam: ministry of education and vocational training. vavrus, f., thomas, m., & bartlett, l. 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(2019, january). factors influencing the use of lecture methods in learning activities: teacher perspective. in 1st international conference on innovation in education (icoie 2018) (pp. 4-6). atlantis press. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 https://doi.org/10.1080/09243450600565795 http://dx.doi.org/10.7196/ajhpe.2020.v12i4.1388 copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 63 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license the use of snowball throwing in teaching reading at the second year students of smpn 8 palopo abstract this thesis uses snowball to improve student reading with the research question, "how to use snowball throwing in smpn's second-year students. this research employed classroom action research (car) with cycles: first cycle, second cycle. each cycle consists of four steps: planning. acting, observing, reflecting. four meetings during the research cycle. class viii, three samples of this study, consisted of 20 students. the study result revealed that cycle 2 was better than cycle one scores. during the lesson, the students showed great enthusiasm. cycle 2's mean score is 82,75, and the percentage of student activity observation the student reading mastery increases after cycle 2. the appropriate way to teach reading using snowball throwing is: (1) giving students more motivation to build confidence and spirit to study hard and be active in learning. (2) before starting the learning process, more explanation of the material and giving the game than allowing the students to say what they do not understand. (3) giving reward/gift for appreciation, (4) grouping students into a small group of 5 students. (5) narrative text glossaries (6) observers and writers were observing student activities. (7) testing students to know the students ' improvement in reading after using snowball throwing learning (focus on the narrative text) keywords: reading narrative text, snowball throwing, teaching reading skills introduction reading is one of the communication acts that consist of communicative activity and becomes the center for concept-building and comprehension-stimulating thinking. by having excellent reading skills, people can understand english written text well. therefore, students are supposed to have the reading skills; especially junior high school students will continue their studies in high school (iksan & dirham, 2018). to teach students to read, a teacher often finds problems, such as finding the meaning of words in the text, difficulty explaining the purpose of the text, and difficulty explaining the text. factors such as incapacity and low interest may account for some issues. many teachers believe the problem is the inability to use instructional strategies or learning techniques that help students improve their readability. students ' interest in learning a second language is influenced by the lessons and how the classroom teaches them. so if a teacher wants to improve student language mastery, they must be aware of the feelings of the students and create a supportive learning atmosphere in the classroom. in lecturing, they should give opportunities and motivate students to read actively. if students are interested, they are motivated to read. high motivation to practice reading will improve comprehension of reading. the problems in smpn 8 palopo were that the students rarely discussed and shared materials because the reading activity still depended on the teacher's explanation, e.g., wahidin state islamic institute of palopo (iain palopo), south sulawesi indonesia wahidin@iainpalopo.ac.id http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ mailto:amalia_yahya@iainpalopo.ac.id copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 64 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license the teacher explaining the materials in front of the class, and the students listened to her explanation. some students were active, but others were passive. that happened because some students dared to ask and share views with teachers, but the other students did not. the students were still afraid to answer the teacher's questions and still shy about their teacher's views. when students pay serious attention, most of the reading process comprehends the message. this situation also occurs in most second-year students at smpn 8 palopo, who still face difficulty reading skills on the narrative text and always get bored when reading the text because they repeatedly read the text to understand the next. just try to know the meaning of each word from the text to get the text's central idea. the students spent a long time understanding the next and do not have the same opportunity to understand the next. one difficulty students face is remembering what they have read. most students still can not read well and hard to understand (ilham, 2020). they are many techniques that can be used to teach an understanding of reading. however, the writer applies a snowball throwing to teach students reading comprehension as an alternative way to create an active teaching-learning process. snowball throwing technique is one kind of cooperative learning model in which students work in small groups, and each student is forced to be active in this teamwork format, and the students get the opportunity to interact. in this interaction, students enjoy learning. a narrative text is a text that focuses on specific participants. its social function is to tell stories about past events and to entertain our stories with readers / hears. the purpose of the narrative, other than entertainment, can make the reader think about an issue and teach them a lesson. the language features used in the narrative text, according to antonio wardman, are the use of adjectives that form noun phrases using time connectives, the use of adverbs, the use of past tense, the use of saying verbs, and the use of specific characters (iksan, n.d.). however, in this research, the writer focuses on using the past tense, using time-connective conjunctions, and using adverbs. it is a snowball throwing technique. cooperative learning techniques are useful for teaching reading, where cooperative learning involves learning from each other in groups (wadirman et al., 2008). the writer chose snowball throwing as smpn 8 palopo 's second-year snowball throwing students will exchange information and discuss the text in reading. snowball throwing makes students behave together towards the condition given by the teacher, and the students can go through any problem they face through working together awkward atmosphere. snowball throwing also helps to solve the problem of classes that are too large to offer many opportunities to apply their reading comprehension, and they are more active in discussing their teacher's reading material, offering many advantages, creating and encouraging the individual's insight into their comparative strengths and weaknesses to generate and share the idea. according to setiawan, the learning environment and management system of cooperative learning for snowball throwing offers opportunities for learning democracy, enhances students ' appreciation of academic learning, prepares students to learn about collaboration and social skills through the active participation of learners in small groups, offers learning opportunities. it builds a positive relationship between teacher, student, and student, and also creates a better chance to learn english more effectively (setiawan, 2019). numbers of studies were conducted on this topic, dwi melinda nebella studied (2018) youtube videos and snowball throwing technique to improve student speaking http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 65 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license skills and found that using the snowball throwing technique is effective in improving student speaking skills. nurbaya (2009) also studied the effect of using snowball throwing to improve student motivation. she concluded that improving student motivation in pai by using snowball throwing is a useful and exciting way that can be applied in any classroom. in 2009, dodi irawan also studied the effect of using snowball throwing to improve student achievement in sains in the 4th grade of elementary school 013 koto tuo.1 based on previous related studies above, the writer concluded that english teachers need an appropriate way of teaching to improve student reading comprehension. teachers should understand what the best strategy or technique can help students understand the reading. teachers should also know about good material that can make students interested and read quickly. it can also increase student knowledge after classroom study. in this study, the writer used a snowball throwing technique to improve student reading comprehension. the snowball throwing technique trains students to receive narrative text messages from other students and deliver the message to their group friends. a question paper contains questions made to the other students in a snowball paper. students receiving open paper ball answer the question. implementing this technique can be beneficial for all students to improve their class reading comprehension because they have the same opportunity to participate actively in english reading. methods research design this research applied research into classroom action. it aims to find out if using snowball throwing to improve student reading to smpn 8 palopo 's second year. in the second year of smpn 8 palopo, a student class collaborated with the class's english teacher. because the researcher is the teacher, the teacher will be the supervisor at the learning process while the writer will teach the researcher method to the students. implementing learning to improve reading; the research was conducted in from cycle: planning, acting, observing, and reflecting. the place and time of the research this research was conducted in the academic year 2019 at second-year students at smpn 8 palopo, which consists of 20 students research subject this research would apply classroom action research. it aims to find out the effectiveness of using snowball throwing in the second year students of smpn 8 palopo, in collaboration with the english teacher in charge, asrika achmad s.pd. because the researcher will be a teacher, the teacher was a supervisor at the learning process while the researcher taught the students the method and media of the researcher. technique and instruments of collecting data 1. techniques 1 dodi irawan, the effect of using snowball throwing to improve students achievement in sains at the forth grade of elementary school 013 koto tuo (university of sultan syarif kasim riau:2009) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 66 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license the collecting data techniques in this classroom action are: a. test the test was used to determine the students ' narrative text scores. the text itself contains narrative text in which the narrative text questions each contain five questions that will be given to each student; then, the student answers the questions given (sura and baya, lion, and mouse). b. interview the interview was used to find out the level of success in implementing the use of snowball throwing in teaching reading. 2. instruments the instruments used in collecting data in this classroom action research were: a. observation list: observe student participation during the use of snowball throwing in teaching reading. also, as the primary instrument in the teacher-collaborator discussion part as a way to reflect in each cycle. b. questionnaire: to find out students whether this technique can be applied in teaching in using snowball techniques in reading c. camera: the researcher takes students' picture in the learning process procedures of collection data the researcher gave two meetings for each cycle cycle i 1. planning a. analyzing the curriculum, especially the basic competence after doing the need analysis of the second year of smpn 8 palopo. b. the researcher making a lesson plan about the use of snowball throwing in teaching reading comprehension on the narrative text. c. preparing the narrative text 2. acting a. the researcher introduced himself and collaborator to the students. b. the researcher explained the aims of the learning process. c. the researcher explained the definition and structure of a narrative text. d. the researcher gave examples of narrative text ("sura and baya"). e. the researcher divided the students into two big groups. f. each student was given a sheet of paperwork and wrote down questions about the matter which has been described by the teacher, and then squeezing the paper became a ball shape. g. the researcher made a conclusion 3. observation some important things had been observed, those were: a. the researcher identified and make a note about all the problems that the teacher gets when teaching and learning process. b. the researcher did the evaluations which use the result of the study to know how far the students have improved. c. the researcher gave the students the chance to give suggestions in action research. reflection this classroom action research was a success if some of the following requirements are fulfilled: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 67 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license a. most of the students have good participation during acting (70%). b. most of the students have a good score in evaluation (75%). the technique of data analysis the data which were collected through observation in each cycle were analyzed descriptively by using percentage technique. 1. 𝑆𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑒 = 𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑠𝑤𝑒𝑟 𝑠𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑚𝑎𝑥𝑖𝑚𝑢𝑚 𝑥 100 classifying the students' scores based on the following classification: a. very good = 81 – 100 is classified as very good b. good = 61 – 80 is classified as good c. fair = 41 – 60 is classified as fairly d. poor = 21 – 40 is classified as poor e. very poor = 120 is classified as very poor calculating the mean score of the students' reading test by using the following formula: 𝑋 = ∑𝑥 𝑁 where: x = the mean score ∑x = the total raw score n = the number of students 2 2. activities of students during the learning process analyzed by considering the students' participation and classified into very active, active, less active, and not active classification. 3. implementation of learning by using snowball throwing in teaching reading could be categorized as; very good, good, fair, poor, and very poor classification. 4. the result of the interview from the interview with the english teacher, the researcher obtains information using this technique for reading comprehension in the classroom and is interested in this technique in reading class using this technique to arouse the ability of the students to read about the text. the big obstacle in teaching reading, depending on his point of view, was a lack of vocabulary. the teacher asked the students to read daily, make notes about the difficult words, and use the dictionary as often as possible. the trainer also clarified that when implementing the snowball throwing method, few restrictions were too little time to do those jobs for english subjects. whereas, the number of students in one class is too many (20 students) to be loud and crowded. the teacher also explained that most students like about this technique the learning process is interesting, fun and, on the other hand, they are happy to say that the narrative text has new words for students to make them confused about the meaning of words in the text and through this technique most students can share their knowledge and be more active when reading material table 1. reading assessment based on brown, h. douglas 2 mangkuatmodjo, pengantar statistik, (cet.1, jakarta: rineka cipta 2003), p. 58 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 68 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license poor 0,5 pts fair 1 pts good 2 pts main idea fails to identify the main idea identifies the main idea but cannot identify supporting details identifies the main idea as well as supporting details content fails to identify the content of the story identifies the content but cannot identifying independently the content can identify the content when reading vocabulary decodes an unfamiliar word, but does not interpret the meaning independently decodes the unfamiliar word but is not always able to interpret the meaning from context interpret the meanings of unfamiliar words inference can not conclude the inferred message or suggest identifies or acknowledges, but misinterprets the inference can identify when massage is inferred and can conclude the accurate meaning expression cannot identify expression in the story identifies expression, but cannot independently identify the expression when reading the text results the findings of the research explained the cycles of the teaching and learning process of this current research. in this case, there were two cycles and two meetings for each cycle. cycle i the first cycle of this classroom action research consists of planning, acting, observing, and reflecting planning a. analyzing the curriculum, especially the basic competence after doing the need analysis of the second-year students of smpn 8 palopo. b. making a lesson plan about the use of snowball throwing in teaching reading on narrative text c. preparing the narrative text (reading material) d. divide the students into a group e. preparing the instrument which is used in the cycle of classroom action research acting cycle 1 action started on september 23 , 2019, 10:20 a.m. first lesson. that is the introduction and connection. the authors discussed and studied the introduction. in this case, first, the researcher gave instructions to prepare physically or psychologically by expressing greeting and introduced himself and her co-worker, then prayed together for the beginning lesson. calling the roll, refreshing their focus, such as checking students ' attendance and encouraging them to join the learning process, explaining the narrative http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 69 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license text, and throwing a snowball at the second meeting. the student then divided the students into two big groups and then decided each group's leader. the researcher gave questions for each group leader, then returned to their group and distributed the question to each group member. the grouping at this cycle one just randomly, like as; group a they were; r003, r005, r008, r009, r002, r013, r015, r018, r016, r020 group b they were; r001, r004, r006, r007, r010, r011, r012, r014, r017, r019. further, the researcher explained the purpose of the learning process and also the basic competence that would be achieved. third, the researcher delivered the scope of the learning material and gave a little bit explanation about the title of research that would be studied. the researcher asked the students, studied the narrative text by throwing snowball? some students replied they had ever learned the narrative text, but they did not use snowball throwing. the researcher then explained what snowball throwing was, and its steps in teaching and learning comprehension of reading, what they had to do during the class. the researcher then explained the narrative text, social function, characteristic, generic structure, and many more. after explaining, the researcher gave students the narrative text. the researcher gave all students "sura and baya" text. each student was given sheet paperwork, and each student wrote down questions based on the researcher's reading topic, then they squeezed the paper into a ball shape, and then the researcher gave the command to throw the question ball from one student to another. after the students got a ball or a question, they had the opportunity to answer the question written in the ball-shaped paper, group ' a' threw the ball question to group ' b' next; the students had to keep throwing the paper ball to another student when the student could not answer the question that was related to the reading topic and the paper ball would be out. if all students could not answer correctly, the researcher could give the right answer. last, the teacher gave morality suggestions to the students and gave appreciated, and the teacher said thanks to students who participated in her research. moreover, the last, the researcher closed the teaching-learning process by saying "hamdalah" and prayer together. observing during the implementation of the teaching-learning process, the researcher and collaborator made observations using snowball throwing in the first cycle. they found that some students had improved reading comprehension. students said the learning process was interesting, enjoyable, and happy. on the other hand, the researcher also found some others still below target or criteria. such as; the students did not know the learning by using snowball throwing the class was still noisy because the students were still busy with their activity. the narrative text had some new words to confuse the meaning of the words in the text. the learning process was not active. evaluation of student reading comprehension showed that student reading comprehension mastery was mostly in low scores. evaluation of students ' reading understanding test showed that some students had low scores and the mean score was 56 table 2. score of the students reading in cycle 1 no respondents score 1 r1 60 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 70 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license 2 r2 60 3 r3 55 4 r4 45 5 r5 70 6 r6 45 7 r7 70 8 r8 55 9 r9 60 10 r10 55 11 r11 60 12 r12 35 13 r13 75 14 r14 50 15 r15 35 16 r16 80 17 r17 55 18 r18 40 19 r19 60 20 r20 55 total score 1120 calculating the mean of the students' reading test of cycle 1 𝑋 = σx 𝑁 = 1120 20 = 56 the table explains that a higher score is 80, and the lowest score is 35. there is one student who got a score of 80, there is one student who got a score of 75, there are two students who got a score of 70, there are five students who got a score of 60, there are five students who got a score of 55, there is one student who got a score of 50, there are two students who got score 45, there is one student who got a score of 40, and there are two students who got a score of 35. table 3. the rating percentage of students' in cycle 1 classification score frequency percentage very good 81-100 good 61-80 4 20% fair 41-60 11 55% poor 21-40 5 25% very poor 1-20 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 71 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license the table above shows the students' score in the test of cycle 1, there was none student got 'very good,' 4 (20%) students got 'good,' 11 (55%) students got 'fair,' 5 (25%) students got 'poor,' and none student got 'very poor' classification figure 1. diagram result of the test in cycle 1 after that, the researcher made observations on class students ' activities. the researcher did it with the observer, and she got some data on the learning process's student activities. based on the observation result, she got some data, like two students were not active, six students were less active, nine students were active, and three students were very active. the table below shows it. table 4 the observation of the students' activity in cycle 1 no respondents not active less active active very active 1 r1 √ 2 r2 √ 3 r3 √ 4 r4 √ 5 r5 √ 6 r6 √ 7 r7 √ 8 r8 √ 9 r9 √ 10 r10 √ 11 r11 √ 12 r12 √ 13 r13 √ 14 r14 √ 15 r15 √ 16 r16 √ 17 r17 √ 18 r18 √ 19 r19 √ 20 r20 √ total 2 6 9 3 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 72 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license where: 1. very active: the students are responsive and participated fully in all activities in the learning and teaching process. 2. active: the students' response to the material and interacting with others, whether to the teacher or his/her friends. 3. less active: the students pay attention and give responses once in a while. 4. not active: the students do not give a response to the material; she/he looks confused, bored and sometimes leaves the class, sleepy, fiddling mobile, write or something beyond the material, and many more. table 5. the percentage of students' active participation in cycle 1 classification frequency percentage (%) not active 2 10% less active 6 30% active 9 45% very active 3 15% 𝑃 = 𝐹 𝑁 𝑥 100 where: p: percentage f: frequency n: total of students. (oktavianti, 2016) figure 2. diagram the students' participation based on the research data in cycle two shown by the above description that included 20 students, when the learning process was running, there were two students not active in reading class and percentage reached (10%). the less active students were 6, reaching a percentage (30%). the active students were nine and reached a percentage (45%), three very active students, and a percentage (15%). this section was not a success because the researcher and collaborator still found a weakness. reflecting at this stage, the researcher had significant weakness in teaching reading comprehension in implementing or using snowball throwing in cycle i and then continued cycling 2. the class was still noisy because the students were still busy with 0 2 4 6 8 10 not active less active active very active 2 6 9 3 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 73 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license their activity and they were bothering each other. most of the students were still confused about narrative text through snowball throwing. they were still confused with the rules of this activity even though the researcher had explained. the narrative text had some new words for students, so that could make them confused about the meaning of the words in the text. it made the learning process was not active. based on the weaknesses above, it proved that this cycle 1 failed or far from the target. so, it would continue in the cycle 2. for solving the problem or weakness in cycle 1, the researcher was planned in cycle two as follows: a. the researcher who acts the teacher use glossaries in the narrative text to support the student in reading comprehension of the narrative text. it would make the learning process more effective, and the students focus more on reading narrative text. b. the teacher gave more motivation and game before beginning the learning process. c. the teacher was setting the classroom into four groups to create the learning process better. d. the teacher gave more explanation about the material. cycle ii after doing observation and reflecting in the first cycle, there was still a weakness in the first cycle. then there are two meetings in this cycle to decrease the weaknesses and create success in the second cycle, so the second cycle was done. based on the following preparation: planning the planning in the second cycle as follows: a. the researcher who acts the teacher made a lesson plan about the use of snowball throwing in teaching reading comprehension on the narrative text. b. before starting the learning process, the teacher encouraged the students by giving motivation and positive suggestions to the students in order to be more active in the learning process. c. the teacher has to give the game before beginning the learning process. d. the teacher gave more explanation about the material. e. the teacher gave glossaries in the narrative text to support the students in reading comprehension of the narrative text. f. the teacher was setting the classroom into four groups to create the learning process better. acting the second cycle continued on october 2 at 10:45 a.m. the first meeting started like a previous meeting. by greeting the students like saying hi or hello, the researcher opened the class and asked their condition by saying, "how are you?" and then prayed together for the lesson. after the researcher gave the game before the material began, the researcher reviewed the material given before. next, the researcher gave more explanation in understanding narrative text well and efficiently and gave more guidance to them on how to understand it well and smoothly. in the second meeting, the researcher explained the material about narrative text and snowballed throwing. after that, the researcher divided the students into four groups. each group consisted of five students. the researcher was grouping or combining the students base on the list of students' names. group 1, that was; r.001, r.002, r003, r004, r.005, group 2, they were: r.006, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 74 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license r.007, r.008, r.009, r.010, group 3, they were: r.011, r.012, r.013, r.014, r.015, and last group, they were r.016, r.017, r.018, r.019, r. 020. after that, called each group leader came forward to explain the matter. then the researcher gave each group leader some questions and told the member about the teacher's explanation. the researcher gave a text about "the lion and the mouse" to all groups. each student was given a sheet of paperwork, and every student wrote down a question about the reading topic which described by the researcher, then they squeezing the paper become a ball shape, and then the researcher gave the command to throw the question ball from one student to another student group. at cycle two the group 1 threw to group 2, group 2 threw to group 3, group 3 threw to group 4, and group 4 threw to group 1. it showed until three times for +/15 minutes. after the students got one ball or one question, then they had the opportunity to answer questions related to the topic that is written in the ball-shaped paper taking turns. next, the students must continue to throw the paper ball to another group when the member could not answer the question related to the reading topic and the paper ball would be thrown continuously until the member could answer correctly if all the students could not answer correctly so that the researcher could give the correct answer in the last learning conclusion. the researcher asked the students to memorize some vocabulary in the next meeting. after that, the teacher gave some positive suggestions to the students again, such as encouraging, motivating, and giving them spirit more and more before ending the meeting. observing the condition of the class in the second cycle was different from the first cycle. in this case, most of the students got better and became more be exiting. the students looked enjoyed in learning narrative text through snowball throwing. they were more active in class during the group learning process, though some students were still crowded. the grouping of the students was just based on the list of students' names, and they were at the same level so that they just were bothering each other. the narrative text had some new words for students, so that could make them confused about the meaning of the words in the text. the narrative reading only was given one for each group. it made the learning process was less active. although they still could be focused on the learning process when they practiced within their group, they proof the scores of the students were increased. the students' participation in learning narrative text through snowball throwing was more enjoyable and better because most of the students had practiced in asking, answer, responding to some questions that the researcher given and the text had some glossaries. the evaluation of students' understanding in learning narrative text through snowball throwing showed that in this cycle. the students got a better score than in the first cycle. the resulting score of students' presented was increased than in the first cycle because the students more are active, more be accuracy, and fluency in presented their answer. therefore almost all of them followed the learning process enthusiastically so that the class seemed more active than before. evaluation of the student's reading comprehension showed that students' master in reading was high scores. the mean score was 82,75. table 6. score of the students' reading in cycle 2 no. respondents score http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 75 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license 1. r1 90 2. r2 90 3. r3 95 4. r4 80 5. r5 80 6. r6 80 7. r7 90 8. r8 80 9. r9 90 10. r10 80 11. r11 75 12. r12 75 13. r13 95 14. r14 80 15. r15 80 16. r16 90 17. r17 75 18. r18 75 19. r19 80 20. r20 75 total score 1655 the mean score of the students' reading test of the cycle: 𝑋 = σx 𝑁 = 1655 20 = 82, 75 the table explains that a higher score is 95, and the lowest is score is 75. 2 students got a score of 95, 5 students got a score of 90, eight students got to score 80, five students got a score of 75. table 7. the rating percentage of students' score in cycle 2 classification score frequency percentage very good 81-100 7 35 % good 61 – 80 13 65 % fair 41 – 60 poor 21-40 very poor 1-20 the table above shows that the students' score in the test of cycle 2, there was student got 'very good,' 7 (35%) students got 'good,' 13 (65%) none students got 'fair,' got 'poor' and none student got 'very poor' classification. figure 3. diagram result of the test in cycle 2 0 20 40 60 80 100 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 76 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license after that, the researcher did observations about the activities of students in the class. the researcher did it with the observer, and she got some data about the activities of students in the learning process. based on the result of observation, she got some data, such as five students were less active none student was not active. table 8. the observation of the students' activity in cycle 2 no respondents not active less active active very active 1 r1 √ 2 r2 √ 3 r3 √ 4 r4 √ 5 r5 √ 6 r6 √ 7 r7 √ 8 r8 √ 9 r9 √ 10 r10 √ 11 r11 √ 12 r12 √ 13 r13 √ 14 r14 √ 15 r15 √ 16 r16 √ 17 r17 √ 18 r18 √ 19 r19 √ 20 r20 √ total 5 7 8 where: 1. very active: the students are responsive and participated fully in all activities in the learning and teaching process. 2. active: the students' response to the material and interacting with others, whether to the teacher or his/ her friends. 3. less active: the students pay attention and give responses once in a while. 4. not active: the students do not give the response to the material; she/he looks confused, bored and sometimes leaves the class, sleepy, fiddling mobile, write or something beyond of the material, and many more. figure 4. diagram the students' participation in cycle 2 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 77 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license table 4.12 the percentage of students' active participation in cycle 2 classification frequency percentage very active 8 40% active 7 35% less active 5 25% not active 𝑃 = 𝐹 𝑁 𝑥 100 where: p: percentage f: frequency n: total of students.3 based on the data in cycle two shown in the above description, which included 20 students, there were 5 when the learning process was running, and the percentage was 25%. the active students were 7, and the percentage reached 35%. the very active students were 8, and the percentage reached 40%. reflection some strong point in cycle 2, as follows: a. most of the students were more active during the learning process, and they were real enthusiasm to read the text. it happened because all of the students took one narrative text and made the learning process more effective, and the students more focus on reading narrative text. b. most of the students were easier to comprehend the narrative text. it happened because in each narrative text there were glossaries and memorizing some vocabularies so that it could support the students in comprehension the narrative text c. most of the students, even very active in reading text when the learning process was running, 7 were active, and eight were very active, were active in learning processes such as, are responsive and fully involved in all activities in the learning and teaching process, and were active in answering questions, less active since they did not comment or respond to the questions 3 ibid. p.73 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 not active less active active very active 5 7 8 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 78 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license d. the grouping of the students was based on the students' level. it would make them more active and focus on learning. they were not bothering each other, so the atmosphere of the class was conducive. e. the applying of snowball throwing is more attractive to students in improving reading comprehension f. it is giving students more chances to share their knowledge in the teaching and learning process. it could give students more confidence in the teaching and learning process. g. the ideal mean score has achieved, in the first cycle was 56, and then in the second cycle was become 82,75 discussion by considering the findings, the researcher presents the discussion of data given to the students, the section described on the efficacy of snowball throwing method in teaching reading comprehension, especially on the narrative text at smpn 8 palopo's second year students. the students ' score at smpn 8 palopo 's second-year students was ineffective in the first cycle, then in the second cycle. when using snowball throwing, learning can identify results cycles 1 and 2. to find out the effectiveness of the snowball throwing method on teaching reading comprehension on the narrative text on this case, the researcher discusses data analysis results according to the scope of the research. the discussion aims to know the effectiveness of the snowball throwing method in teaching second-year smpn8 palopo students reading narrative text. cycle 1 based on the student test analysis in cycle i, the mean first-period value is 56. the average score of the students in this research was 75. it showed that cycle still far from the goal. only three students, very active in the learning process, were responsive and participated fully in all learning process activities. only nine students active in the teaching process were material responses and interacting with the teacher or his friends. there were six less active students and two non-active students, because they were only once, even gave answers about the material they did not respond. it means that only 45% and 10% of students were not active in class. from data and observation, the researcher found that three students were very active and nine were active during the learning process, which caused them to like the way the researcher taught them by using snowball throwing that they could enjoy and have fun with their friends, and also the students felt happy to receive and understand the lesson. furthermore, the researcher also found class problems, why students were not active and less active because the students were not familiar with the learning by using snowball throwing, did not dare to be active during the learning process, the class was still noisy because the students were still busy with their activity. the narrative text had some new words for students, making them confused about the meaning of narrative text words. additionally, students have less language. it made students less active in reading narrative text. evaluation of the students reading comprehension showed that students' mastery of reading comprehension was mostly in low scores. the mean score was only 56, and this still far from the goal. the rating percentage of students' score in reading test of cycle 1, there was none student got 'very good,' 4 (20%) students got 'good,' 11(55%) students got 'fair,' 5 (25%) students got 'poor,' and none student got 'very poor' http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 79 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license classification. the researcher also realized that teaching had some weaknesses, as the researcher sat in the chair explaining the material to her unclear and weak. it means that in cycle one, the researcher was not successful in teaching reading comprehension on the narrative text by the snowball throwing method. before the researcher continued to the next cycle, she planned to repair some of the aspects that make the goal can be not achieved, like the weakness in teaching. therefore, the researcher had to continue to cycle 2. cycle 2 in the second cycle revised from the first cycle, we made a new plan in order to solve the problems in cycle 1. the researcher repaired the weakness in implementation— snowball throwing in teaching reading comprehension in cycle 1. the teacher planned some solutions for the next cycle to solve problems like before starting the learning process, and the researcher encouraged the students through motivation. before starting the learning process, the teacher gives games, giving more explanation about the material, giving glossaries in the narrative text to help students understand the narrative text and setting the classroom in groups to create learning process better. by doing the procedures above, the researcher found that students' participation was good; they did not look bored. the students looked enjoyed in learning narrative text through snowball throwing. there was a development from the students on reading narrative text, and the teaching material seemed more interesting for the students in cycle 2. the students' participation in learning narrative text through snowball throwing was more enjoyable and better because most of the students had practiced in asking, answer, responding to some questions that the researcher given and the text had some glossaries. meanwhile, the percentage of students' participation in cycle 2 was still varieties too. which five students were less active in reading class when learning, the process was running, and the percentage reached 5 (25%). the active students were 7, and the percentage reached (35%). very active students were 8, and percentage reached (40%). referred to the result of data analysis, the researcher found that the students' active participation was better than the result in cycle 1. the researcher found in cycle two had been improved as the accumulation from the percentage of very active was 40%, and active was 35%, and less active reached 25% however, the average score that students got in the first cycle had not reached the criteria of success in the working indicator. the problem in the first cycle motivated the teacher to students more intense. it made new plans such as rearrange the student's position in the group, giving more explanation about the material, giving the narrative reading to all students, encouraging the students to memorize vocabulary, besides, by giving more chances to the students to got the good score to share their knowledge in teaching and learning process. the researcher encouraged the students by giving motivation, gave the game before beginning the learning process, gave more explanation about the material, gave the narrative reading to all students. the grouping of the students was based on students' level randomly; it would make them more active and focus on learning, encouraging the students to memorize vocabulary, giving more chance to the students who got a good score to share their knowledge in teaching and learning process. it could give a chance for students to be more confident in the teaching and http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 80 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license learning process. the researcher gave a reward to the winner. it was stimulated their interest in learning. by doing the procedures above, the researcher found that students' participation was very good; they did not look bored. the teaching material seemed interesting for the students. there was a development from the students on reading narrative text in cycle 2, and the condition of the class can be controlled. the students easier comprehend the text and more active in the leaning process. they were enthusiastic about the learning process. meanwhile, the percentage of students' participation in cycle 2, there was none student not active, there were five students were less active in reading class when the learning process was running, and percentage reached 25%. the active students were 7, and the percentage reached 35%. the very active students were 8, and the percentage reached 40%. referred to the result of data analysis, the researcher found that the students' active participation was better than the result in cycle 1. the researcher also found that the success criteria in cycle two were achieved by accumulating the percentage of very active and active. the mean score of the students' test in cycle 1 was 56; after continued to cycle, the mean score of the students' test had improved 82,75, the rating percentage of students' score in reading test of cycle 2. it means that there were significant changes score from cycle 1, till cycle 2. in cycle 2, the students easier comprehend the text and more active in the teaching-learning process. also, the goal of the research can be achieved. the teacher gave more motivation to study. based on the observation activities, this cycle during the learning process by snowball throwing was very effective because most of the students' interest in the learning process. they are more enjoyable and more spirit in their activity, especially in their group, the class conditions were more conducive, and the students were friendly with friends. based on the result above, the teacher finished the dominant learning process, they had a level of achievement, and the researcher has known that teaching reading comprehension through the snowball throwing method was appropriate in teaching reading comprehension, especially for reading narrative text. they concluded that using the snowball throwing model is effective in teaching reading comprehension the research findings that the significant improvement of students' reading comprehension. through snowball throwing, the students showed great interest in being active in the teachinglearning process. in the classroom, they were eager to join all activities. through snowball throwing, the students did not only can learn the material but also could learn more cooperative to other students. by considering the condition in cycle 1, and cycle 2, this research proposed some procedures in using the snowball throwing method in teaching reading comprehension, as follows: a. the teacher was encouraging the students by giving motivation. b. the teacher was giving games before beginning the learning process, giving more explanation about the material. c. the teacher is giving glossaries in the narrative text to support the students in reading comprehension of the narrative text. d. the teacher is giving the narrative reading to all students. e. the grouping of the students was based on students' level randomly; it would make them more active and focus on learning. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ copyright © the author(s) vol. 1, no. 1, august 2020 e-issn: 2723-4126 81 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license f. the teacher was encouraging the students to memorize vocabulary. g. the teacher is giving a chance to the students who got good scores to share their knowledge in the teaching and learning process. it could give a chance for students to be more confident in the teaching and learning process. conclusion after finishing the research, the researcher concludes that the snowball throwing in teaching reading comprehension to the second-year students of smpn 8 palopo snowball throwing could be conducted in cycle 2, as follows: a. forming the students into a small group that consisted of 5 students, the grouping of the students was based on students' level randomly, it made them more active and focused on learning b. giving narrative text to all students .it would make the learning process more effective, and the students focus more on reading narrative text. c. giving glossaries in each text.it helped the students easier to comprehend the narrative text d. giving reward/gift for appreciating the winner e. giving more motivation to the students that working to gather is easier to comprehend the reading text f. reading comprehension of the students can be seen from the result of the mean score has increased from cycle 1 (56) to cycle 2 (82,75). so, teaching reading comprehension through snowball throwing can be implemented in reading material, especially narrative text references artono wardiman, english in focus for grade vii junior high school,p.102 agus suprijono, cooperative learning teori: dan aplikasi paikem, (yogyakarta :pustaka pelajar,2013), p. 128. cristian nuttal,teaching reading skill in foreign language,(london, crisstianuttal,1982),p.33 cicik kurniawati, bahasainggris program lmu pengetahan alam dan ilmu pengetahuan sosial untuk sma/ma, (surabaya; intanpariwara, 2011), p 92-93 dodi irawan, the effect of using snowball throwing to improve students achievement in sains at the forth grade of elementary school 013 koto tuo (university of sultan syarif kasim riau:2009) david and roger johnson,cooperative learning,2011,online http:/wwwclcrc. com/pages/cl.html.accessed on may,20th 2019 david cristal,a dictionary of linguistics and phonetics,(new york: basil blackwell lid:1985).p.63 dick king smith.http://englishonline.tki.org.nz/english-online/teacher-needs/review 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(2020). the challenge of islamic education and how to change. international journal of asian education, 1(1), 15–20. https://doi.org/10.46966/ijae.v1i1.16 irapane.http//junal.unimed.ac.id.2012.index.phpelluarticleviewfile.13941152.improvin gthe students’speaking achievement in narrative text through snowball throwing model.accessed on may,20th 2019 mangkuatmodjo, pengantarstatistik, (cet. 1, jakarta: rinekacipta 2003), p. 58 muhammad anshari, http://www.muhammadanshari9.blogspot.com/2013/10/modelpembelajaran-snowbal-throwing.html.accessed on may,16th2019 minati," increasing the students'reading skill at the second year of sma negeri 1 baebunta through anecdotes" (papolo:thesisuncokro palopo,2009),p.30. markhelffels in thesis farida middin,the difficulties of students in finding main idea and supporting detail text in reading comprehension of second year of students of english department in stain palopo,(palopo, 2007), p.13 oktavianti, o. (2016). pengaruh motivasi berprestasi dan cara belajar terhadap prestasi belajar siswa smkn 5 di kota batam. jurnal dimensi, 2(3). setiawan, e. (2019). studi perbandingan model pembelajaran snowbal throwing dengan pembelajaran konvensional terhadap aktivitas dan hasil belajar dasar perancangan teknik mesin (dptm) siswa kelas x jurusan teknik mesin smk negeri 1 bukittinggi. ranah research: journal of multidisciplinary research and development, 2(1), 238–243. wadirman, a., jahur, m. b., & djusma, m. s. (2008). english in focus for grade viii junior high school (smp/mts). jakarta: pusat perbukuan departemen pendidikan nasional. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 515 the use of small group discussion in teaching reading comprehension at junior high school suriana ningsi1, bahrun amin2, & muh. arief muhsin3 1.2.3 muhammadiyah university of makassar, indonesia yana105351135016@unismuhmakassar.ac.id abstract the background of this research is that the use of the small group discussion method is more effective than the preaching method in teaching reading comprehension. understanding because they can read more comprehensively with their friends in small groups and then discuss the information they have read. the purpose of this study was to determine the effect of student learning outcomes by using small group discussions in learning reading comprehension. this study uses a quantitative method by giving tests, namely pre-test and post-test to twenty eighth grade students at smp muhammadiyah camba. this research applied a pre-experimental design. the test given to students is in the form of multiplechoice in the form of narrative text reading. the results of this study indicate that the experiment conducted by the researcher on students affects learning outcomes by using small group discussions in teaching reading comprehension. the average value in the pretests is 49.25 while the post-tests have an average value of 82.75. it was provided in the value of the t-test (8.152) which was greater than the value of the t-table (2.093). it indicated that there were significant differences, this is also indicated h1 was accepted and h0 was rejected. keywords: english language teaching, reading comprehension, small group discussion introduction reading is an activity to get information from reading in the form of books, newspapers and others in the form of writing. reading is defined as an activity between the reader and the text. while the reader sees the text and can interpret the meaning of the written symbol, it is the correct reading. in other words, reading is an activity that does not only take words from the text but requires the reader to interpret what happens in the text. according to adhini (2017), reading is a gainful action since students get the data from the content as well as can expand their english capacity by implication. even though reading is one of the approaches to build information and to rehearse language, numerous students despite everything did not comprehend the english content. at that point, the students' concern in understanding reading text is influenced by the method of instructing reading. in addition, the main goal of the reader is to understand the content of the reading, so the reader not just reading, but the reader should know the content of the reading contained in the text (anwar et al., 2020). besides, understanding student reading means that in which they can http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 mailto:yana105351135016@unismuhmakassar.ac.id copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 516 understand what they read and that students usually use their basic knowledge, vocabulary, and knowledge of grammar, the experience of texts, and strategies to help them understand the text. teaching the understanding of reading to effectively develop english text students. to develop an understanding of students' reading, students should have certain goals in their minds before they read the text. the proper method in teaching reading can attract students’ interest to interact with various types of text. summary, in teaching reading the teacher must use the right techniques. the technique of teaching reading must coincide to read efficiently and effectively. in addition, in the teaching of reading, the teacher must make students more active in the learning objectives. for students to be more active and if class conditions become a reality, teachers are advised to try to apply reading comprehension learning techniques using small group discussions. this method can activate more students and create a controlled environment in the classroom according to the learning objectives. the small group discussion is two or more students talking face-to-face, with or without an assigned leader, so that every person is influenced by all other people in the group. the small group discussion is a teaching process by holding small group discussions so students have the skills to solve problems related to subject matter and problems encountered in daily life. the small-group discussion also means the process of two or more individuals interacting globally and facing each other about a particular goal or goal through exchanging information, defending opinions, or solving problems. according to rusmiati (2015:32) expressed that small group discussions encourage students to think profoundly and express their plans to other people. small group discussion can be a useful method to help students in the reading process and give them a clear understanding of what they read and it helps them comprehend a text. within the group, students are free to discuss answers to questions or problems in the group the small group discussion offers students the opportunity to give and receive suggestions in practising negotiating the meaning of a passage. in a small group discussion, students are required to combine their different ideas with other students in the same group to understand the text well. in this study, researchers tend to find out whether there is an effect on student learning outcomes by using small group discussions in teaching reading comprehension. then, as shown earlier, the instrument used in this study is a folklore question (text narrative) that aims to determine student learning outcomes in reading comprehension by using multiple-choice questions. group work is a learning process in the classroom consisting of two or more students who interact with each other where each group member has the opportunity to express their ideas or ideas. with group discussions, students can exchange information to make decisions or solve a problem. group work activities aim to solve a problem topic given by the teacher in the form of oral or written. better and involve a small group of students who work together elsewhere to carry out certain goals in learning. group work activities of most students have a positive impact on the learning process because group work activities help students complete the tasks given by the teacher quickly, improve student communication and develop teamwork skills. if students use group work activities in class, students can understand how to express ideas, opinions and help each other to solve problems in learning http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 517 in addition, reading comprehension is the main objective of reading where students might understand the text they are reading. the success of the teaching of reading can be seen when students finally understood the text. students must understand the reading that is read because reading comprehension is very important in gathering information, not just for understanding texts but for broader learning, success in education, and work. in reading comprehension, of course, the reader relies on at least adequate word reading. the reader does not understand of content in the text if can not identify the words of the text. so good reading comprehension will depend on readers who have good linguistic elements so that they can understand the reading. this requires an understanding of the individual words and phrases required. however, generally, understanding requires significant meanings of words and sentences. reading comprehension is basic in reading because by understanding reading students can get information from the reading. we often encounter students who do not like to read, therefore we as teachers must encourage students to be diligent in reading with techniques that are interesting for students. small group discussion is a good technique for teaching because it allows you to play while exchanging ideas with a group of friends. some people like to read because they understand the content of the reading. everyone agrees that reading comprehension is not a simple question of recognizing individual words or even understanding. reading can make students have broader knowledge related to the world. the conclusion from the description above is that reading comprehension is the main goal of the reader to find out the content of the reading by utilizing the vocabulary and grammar used by the reader to understand the meaning contained in the reading. so that it can increase knowledge about world events. there is previous relevant research from setyaningsih endang (2012), who studied “the use of small group discussion to improve students’ reading comprehension”. the method of research used is descriptive qualitative and descriptive quantitative. the research findings show that the use of small group discussions could improve students’ reading comprehension. in addition, small group discussions could be used to improve the class situation. the research also found the strengths and the weaknesses when small group discussion is used in teaching reading. siti nurhamidah (2018), studied “the analysis of teachers’ strategies in teaching reading comprehension at sman 2 padang bolak”. this research is a qualitative method. from the results of the study, it was found that the teacher activated the students' schemata to be able to understand the text in reading and reading aloud activities. meanwhile, the problems faced by teachers in teaching are noise in class, laziness to study, lack of media in learning, and lack of motivation from parents to learn. in this case, it is recommended for teachers to do several things such as motivating students to study harder, giving advice for those who often make mistakes noise or falling asleep while studying or moving seats from one place to another, and giving awards or prizes for students who understand the lesson quickly. ningsih citra kurnia (2019), studied “the effect of using small group discussion in reading comprehension at eighth grade of smp 2 jawilan”. the researcher used the quantitative method. the result of students’ achievement from pre-test to post-test showed http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 518 that there was a significant difference between students’ reading skills from the experimental class that received treatment and the control class that did not receive treatment. students in the experimental class got a better score in reading than students from the control class. based on several previous studies that have been described above, there is a difference between this study and previous research. this research focuses on experimentation using pre-test and post-test to students. reading text given to the student is a form of narrative text in the form of multiple choice. the purpose of this study is to determine the effect of student learning outcomes by using small group discussions in teaching reading comprehension to eighth-graders. so there is a significant difference between the pre-test and post-test. methods the method used in this research is an experimental research method with a quantitative approach. in experimental research, several forms of experimental design were used, namely: pre experimental design, true experimental design, factorial design, and quasiexperimental design. in this study, researchers used design research namely pre experimental design, because pre experimental is a research design that was not categorized as a real experiment. there is still external variable that influenced the formation of variables dependent. so the experimental result was not solely the dependent variable influenced by independent variables. this can happen in the absence of variable control, and the sample was not chosen randomly. there are several types of pre-experimental designs, namely: one-shot case study, one group pre-test post-test design, one group pre-test post-test design, and intact group comparison. so this study, researchers used one group pre-test post-test design in class. for the one group pre-test post-test design, there is a pre-test before did treatment, the treatment results can be known more accurately because it can compare with the conditions before being treated. the experimental class was treated by using reading text to test students' reading comprehension. in this study, researchers used the nonprobability sampling technique used the purposive sampling method to determine the sample research. the reason researchers use non-probability sampling techniques in the purposive sampling method is that this method is practical in taking research samples. thus, the sample taken for this study is class viii, totalling 20 students at smp muhammadiyah camba, south sulawesi. the pre-test gave to determine the students' ability in understanding the reading text. moreover, the post-test was given after the researcher did the treatment in the classroom. the results of the pre-test and post-test were compared to determine the ability of students before and after applying small group discussion techniques in teaching reading comprehension. it showed whether students understand the reading text or not. there were twenty questions of multiple choice. to collect data, the researcher conducted a pre-test in the experimental class. the purpose of the pre-test is to determine the students' comprehension ability in understanding the reading text. give the first appointment before treatment. the test consisted of 20 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 519 multiple choice items in the form of narrative text questions, and students are given 40 minutes to answer the questions given on the answer sheet. the first researcher conducted a self-introduction and explained the purpose of his research to the students. then the researcher gave a pre-test. after giving the pre-test, at the next meeting the researcher was treated to an experimental class using the small group discussion technique of the learning process. the researcher conducted a pretest twice with the first story question being cinderella and the second story being pinocchio, each of which had ten multiple-choice questions. so a total of twenty questions. after being given treatment, a post-test was given to students with the same questions as the pre-test. it aims to determine whether is an influence on student learning outcomes by using the small group discussion technique in teaching reading comprehension or not. students are given 40 minutes to answer all the questions provided on the answer sheet. the results of the pretest and posttest were compared to determine the students' abilities before and after applying of small group discussion method in teaching reading comprehension. results at first, when the researcher came to smp muhammadiyah camba, the researcher met the principal and gave him a research permit from the unismuh makassar campus. after conveying the objectives to the principal, the researcher meets with jafar, s.pd as the english teacher for second-grade students. the researcher asked permission to research within a period of six class meetings with the english teacher. teaching-learning process the first meeting at the first meetings, the researcher introduced herself and approached students so that students could receive the lesson well. the researcher also explained the aims and objectives of the learning. the researchers check the attendance list by mentioning it one by one. the researchers also gave entertaining and educational questions related to the narrative text. the purpose of this question is so that researchers can see students' english comprehension skills so that researchers can easily divide groups based on students' english understanding. the researcher divided the students into five groups and each group consisted of four students. after that, the researcher gave a pre-test sheet in the form of cinderella and pinocchio reading texts. after the initial test was given, the researchers asked the students to complete it within forty minutes. determine basic abilities of the students before researchers did treatment. after all, students completed the questions given, the researcher asked students to collect the answer sheets that had been answered. before ending the meeting in class, the teacher informs the students about what will do at the next meeting. the second meeting http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 520 in the second meeting, researchers entered and greet the students. researchers checked the attendance list to open activities and called the names of students one by one. the researcher also explained the learning objectives. the researchers divided students according to their respective groups. each group consists of four students. the researcher explains narrative text and examples. after explaining, the researcher gave one example of reading text to each group. before ending the meeting in class, researchers and students conclude the lesson and the researcher explains the lesson plan at the next meeting. the third meeting in the third meeting, researchers welcomed teaching in the classroom. the researcher checks the attendance list at the opening activity and mentions the names of students one by one. the researcher also explained the learning objectives. after that, the researcher asked about the lessons taught at the previous meeting and explained again about examples of narrative texts. at the end of the lesson, the researcher delivered the lesson plan at the next meeting. the fourth meeting at the fourth meeting, researchers welcomed the students. the researcher checks the attendance list at the opening activity and mentions the names of students one by one. the researcher also explained the learning objectives. after that, the researcher gave examples of garlic narrative text in each group to read and interpret the meaning of the reading. at the end of the lesson, the researcher delivered the lesson plan at the next meeting. the fifth meeting at the fifth meeting, researchers welcomed the students. the researcher checks the attendance list at the opening activity and mentions the names of students one by one. the researcher also explained the learning objectives. then, the researcher gives a post-test about cinderella and pinocchio to the students to answer. the researcher gave 40 minutes to do the multiple-choice questions which totalled twenty numbers. after finishing working on the questions, the researcher collected and explained the lesson plans for the next meeting. the sixth meeting at the sixth meeting, researchers welcomed the students class. the researcher checks the attendance list at the opening activity and mentions the names of students one by one. the researcher also explained the learning objectives. at the sixth meeting, the researchers gave prizes to the group that had the highest score and also to all students. and at the end of the meeting, the researcher said goodbye to all students and teachers. the result of the data analysis http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 521 the researcher used a story text in the form of multiple-choice questions to determine student learning outcomes using small group discussions in the reading comprehension of eighth-grade students of smp muhammadiyah camba. based on student learning outcomes following data analysis conducted and answered by students are as follows the results of students' pre-test and post-test table 1. result pre test and post test no indicators pre-test post-test 1. the first task ( cinderella ) 52 81.5 2. the second task ( pinokio ) 46.5 84 ∑x 98.5 165.5 �̅� 49.25 82.75 table 1 above shows that student learning outcomes in the first task have increased (56.73%) an average of pretest (52), posttest (81.5) about the reading text entitled cinderella. while student learning outcomes in the second task have increased (80.64%) from the average value of the pre-test (46.5) and post-test (84). the results of pre-test about the reading text entitled cinderella table 2. pretest about the reading text entitled cinderella no. category score frequency percentage (%) 1. excellent 81-100 0 0 2. good 61-80 5 25 3. fair 41-60 10 50 4. poor 21-40 4 20 5. very poor <20 1 5 total 20 100% tabel 2 above explains the results of the student pretest in the cinderella story, no students got the excellent category, there were 5 (25%) good categories, 10 (50%) fair categories, 4 (20%) poor categories and 1 (5%) very poor categories. the results of the students' post-test about the reading text entitled cinderella table 3. students' post-test about the reading text entitled cinderella no category score frequency percentage (%) 1. excellent 81-100 9 45 2. good 61-80 8 40 3. fair 41-60 3 15 4. poor 21-40 0 0 5. very poor <20 0 0 total 20 100% http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 522 tabel 3 above explains the posttest results of students in the cinderella story, there are 9 (45%) students in the excellent category, 8 (40%) students in the good category, and 3 (15%) students in the fair category. the results of the students’ pre-test about the reading text entitled pinocchio table 4. students' post-test about the reading text entitled cinderella no category score frequency percentage (%) 1. excellent 81-100 0 2. good 61-80 2 10 3. fair 41-60 8 40 4. poor 21-40 9 45 5. very poor <20 1 5 total 20 100% table 4 above explains the students' pre-test results in pinocchio's story, there are 2 (10%) students in the good category, 8 (40%) students in the fair category, 9 (45%) in the poor category, and 1 (5%) students in the very poor category. the results of the students’ post-test about the reading text entitled pinocchio table 5. the students’ post-test about the reading text entitled pinocchio no category score frequency percentage (%) 1. excellent 81-100 9 45 2. good 61-80 10 50 3. fair 41-60 1 5 4. poor 21-40 0 0 5. very poor <20 0 0 total 20 100% table 4.5 above explains the post-test results of students in pinocchio's story, there are 9 (45%) students in the excellent category, 10 (50%) students in the good category, and 1 (5%) in the fair category. t-test value analyzing t-test using to find out the significant difference of the students’ result of pre-test and post-test. to know the level of significance 5% (0.05), degree of freedom df=n1 (df is n – 1 20-1=19) it is found that the t-table value was 2.093 the result of the calculation is shown as follows : variable t-test t-table reading comprehension 8.152 2.093 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 523 the comparison between the scores t-test and t-table. the value of the t-test is greater than the t-table. the score in the variable of students’ reading comprehension (8.152 > 2.093). it can be concluded that there is a significant difference between the results of the students’ reading comprehension before and after using small group discussions. this also means that the null hypothesis (h0) was rejected and the alternative hypothesis (h1) was accepted. discussions this research was conducted in the eighth grade of the second semester at smp muhammadiyah camba, camba sub-district, maros. the purpose of this research is to determine student learning outcomes by using small group discussions in teaching reading comprehension. this study examines using small group discussion techniques to improve students' reading comprehension. researchers succeeded in collecting data using pretest and posttest, teaching narrative reading texts and multiple-choice questions as instruments to answer research questions. the pre-test on the first reading text (cinderella) and the second reading text (pinocchio) have the final score is 49.25. while the post-test on the first reading text (cinderella) and the second reading text (pinocchio) have the final score is 82.75. this means that the researcher concludes that is a significant difference between the experimental class and before the experimental class. from these calculations can be concluded are differences in student scores before and after receiving treatment. so, from this explanation, the researcher concludes that the null hypothesis (h0) is rejected and the alternative hypothesis (h1) is accepted, meaning that this research can affect students' outcomes reading comprehension by using small group discussions. therefore, the hypothesis states that there is a significant difference in students' reading comprehension after implementing small group discussions in teaching reading comprehension. the findings can be explained that the group work activities of most students have a positive impact on the learning process because group work activities help students complete the tasks given by the teacher quickly, improve student communication and develop teamwork skills. if students use group work activities in class, students can understand how to express their ideas, opinions and help each other to solve problems in learning. this is related to kondo's (2010) theory which states that group work activities provide positive responses and are also revealed such as helping each other, reducing individual workloads, encouraging students to participate in these activities. group work is a method of teaching by dividing students into several groups and they work together in solving problems or carrying out certain tasks and trying to achieve teaching goals that have been determined by the teacher. group work activity is a method to discuss a certain topic by expressing the opinion of each individual to solve a problem utilizing discussion and group work activities to help increase student interest and http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 524 motivation. better and involve a small group of students who work together elsewhere to carry out certain goals in learning. group work is very helpful for students in reading comprehension because they exchange opinions so that which helps students in doing assignments. when the researcher taught at the eighth grade muhammadiyah camba middle school, the researcher found that the students were more active in expressing ideas. this theory is the same as the observations of researchers who found that group work activities provide more information or knowledge to students because students receive input from friends or teachers so that students can understand the subject matter and automatically students have better learning achievements. conclusion there is an influence on student learning outcomes by using small group discussions in teaching reading comprehension. student learning outcomes using small group discussions in teaching reading comprehension can be seen in the pre-test results obtained are 49.25 while the final post-test results are 82.75. where the final results of the pre-test from the combination of the first reading text (cinderella) and the second reading (pinocchio) are summed as a whole, divided by two and the final result is divided by the number of eighth-grade students. meanwhile, the final post-test results obtained from the combined scores of the first reading text (cinderella) and the second reading text (pinocchio) are totalled divided by two and the final result is divided by the number of students (sample). researchers concluded that there is a significant difference in students reading comprehension at smp muhammadiyah camba for the academic year 2020/2021 by using small group discussions during the pretest and posttest. that is, there is an influence on student learning outcomes by using small group discussions in teaching reading comprehension. acknowledgement alhamdulillah, thanks to allah swt, who has allowed me to complete this article as well as possible. with his permission and blessing, the author was able to complete this journal. the author realizes that this journal would not be finished without prayers, support and encouragement from various parties. in this opportunity, the writer would like to say many thanks to: 1. prof. dr. h. ambo asse, m.ag. as chancellor of the university muhammadiyah makassar. 2. erwin akib, s.pd., m.pd., ph.d. as dean of the faculty of teacher training and education, university of muhammadiyah makassar. 3. dr. ummi khaerati syam, s.pd., m.pd. as the head of the english education study program, faculty of teacher training and education, university of muhammadiyah makassar. 4. dr. h. bahrun amin, m. hum. as the advisor i lecturer who has provided guidance in completing this journal. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 525 5. arief muhsin, s.pd., m.pd. as supervisor ii who has provided direction as well as motivation in guiding the author in compiling this journal. 6. beloved father and mother, the greatest people in this world, who always give encouragement and motivation, people who always provide prayers, and help me when compiling this journal. 7. all parties who cannot be mentioned one by one, thank you for everything. references adhini, i. n. (2017). the use of numbered head together technique on students‟ reading ability in narrative text. anwar, l., furwana, d., & iksan, m. (2020). developing reading worksheet for tenth grade students of sma negeri 4 palopo. foster: journal of english language teaching, 1(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.24256/foster-jelt.v1i1.2 arikunto, s. (2010). penelitian suatu pendekatan dan praktek. jakarta: pt rineka cipta. darise, n. (2018). the effectiveness of small group discussion method in the teaching of reading comprehension to the second grade students of state senior high school (sma negeri) 3 south sinjai (doctoral dissertation, universitas islam negeri alauddin makassar). edmunds, s., & brown, g. (2010). effective small group learning: amee guide no. 48. medical teacher. gunawardena, c. n., hermans, m. b., sanchez, d., richmond, c., bohley, m., & tuttle, r. (2009). a theoretical framework for building online communities of practice with social networking tools. educational media international. hidayat, k., & hamdy, m. f. (2020). developing efl learners’ writing ability and reading comprehension by using communicative language teaching through small group discussion. english instruction. indah, n. (2018). using small group discussion technique in teaching reading comprehension (a study at sman 1 darul makmur) (doctoral dissertation, uin arraniry banda aceh). indah, n. (2018). using small group discussion technique in teaching reading comprehension (a study at sman 1 darul makmur) (doctoral dissertation, uin arraniry banda aceh). kenz, m. a., & greg, j. b. (2000). effective in theory and practice. massachusetts: a person education company. king, n., horrocks, c., & brooks, j. (2018). interviews in qualitative research. sage. muijs, d., & reynolds, d. (2017). effective teaching: evidence and practice. sage. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.2, no. 4, october 2021 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 526 nurhamidah, s. (2018). the analysis of teachers’ strategies in teaching reading comprehension at sma n 2 padang bolak (doctoral dissertation, iain padangsidimpuan). putri, y. (2013). small group discussion technique in reading comprehension. retrieved from: https. journal-small-group-discussion-technique-in-reading comprehension. com. qrqez, m., & ab rashid, r. (2017). reading comprehension difficulties among efl learners: the case of first and second-year students at yarmouk university in jordan. arab world english journal (awej) rahemi, e. f., jufri, j., & ardi, h. (2013). the correlation between reading comprehension and translation ability: a correlational study on fourth year students at english department of unp. journal of english language teaching. rizkia, s. n. (2019). the effect of using a small group discussion in descriptive text on students' reading comprehension: a quasi experimental study at 10th grade students of smk muhammadiyah 2 cibiru kota bandung (doctoral dissertation, uin sunan gunung djati bandung). sari, f. p. n. (2016). the effect of small group discussion in reading class on students’ reading comprehension. siswanti, f. h., & setyaningsih, e. (2014). . the use of small-group discussion to improve students’ reading comprehension. english education. soifah, u. (2019). small group discussion method to improve reading text competence hortatory exposition. tajdidukasi: jurnal penelitian dan kajian pendidikan islam. sulistyowati, n. w. (2017). implementation of small group discussions and collaborative learning to improve student achievement in the accounting education study program at pgri madiun ikip. assets: jurnal akuntansi dan pendidikan. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 3, no. 1, january 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 1 bilingualism in english as a foreign language (efl) classroom context siti patonah1 & rifki irawan 2* 1,2 universitas pgri yogyakarta, yogyakarta, indonesia *rifkizam@upy.ac.id abstract this study explores the process and obstacles of bilingualism at smp muhammadiyah 3 yogyakarta. the research was descriptive qualitative research. the samples of this research were 20 students. the data used were collected from observation, questionnaires, interviews, and documentation. this data sources were students of grade viii and one english teacher at smp muhammadiyah 3 yogyakarta. data analysis was performed using a linker's scale for questionnaire data, data reduction, data presentation, verification, and conclusions. the results showed that students' interactions with students and students with teachers in the bilingual class of smp muhammadiyah 3 yogyakarta in the learning process were still ineffective and experienced difficulties that hinder the interaction process. the findings were as follows (1) students still felt insecure if they had to use full of english to interact with friends in a bilingual class, they still felt afraid of mispronouncing english correctly and adequately, they did not master vocabulary well, and they used english in bilingual with the teacher only in the classroom. (2) the obstacles that students experienced in the teaching and learning process in a bilingual class as follows: students still felt ashamed to use english to interact in a bilingual class, they still taught that using english was not a necessity in a bilingual class, sometimes, bahasa indonesia was still a language to interact with friends, and they were still afraid of using english by with excellent and correct english in pronunciation. keywords: bilingual class, students' interaction, teacher strategies introduction talking about bilingual cannot be separated from aspects of interaction. interaction is the heart of communication in the era of communicative language instruction (brown, 2001). communication must be included in every language learning activity since it is the most important aspect in communicative language education. in language learning environments, students are expected to be able to speak and communicate with others. through the interaction, they will learn how to communicate and interact. as a result, the interaction among the language classroom participants might reveal the communication in the language teaching and learning classroom . interaction is important because it is claimed that only through interaction can the learner decompose the target language structures and derive meanings from classroom http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 3, no. 1, january 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 2 events. moreover, interaction allows learners to incorporate the target language structure into their own speech. in addition, any classroom event, whether thought or not, has meaning for learners (chaudron, 1998). moreover, interaction and input is important an needed in second language acquisition. the 'correct size and form' of input, as well as the suitable frequency of engagement, should theoretically lead to more effective second language acquisition (maharsi, 2016). the functions of verbal interaction, which focuses on students' verbal language, the character, and intent of students' utterances in peer group interaction, is the first of three analytical aspects of interaction. the second was cognitive processing, which looked at how students approached and processed learning tasks in social interactions. finally, there's social processing, which looks into the nature of the social bonds formed throughout students' social activities (sembiring, 2018). the existence of an international standard school in indonesia has attracted the attention of researchers. the program that was featured was a breakthrough to improve the competitiveness of human resources. support comes from parents who want their children to be more independent and able to compete. some reasons why the parents want their children choose the bilingual school are first, superior english language skills are expected; second, preparation for foreign schools, abroad schools, and university admission; and third, parental satisfaction (santos, 2019). the mission of organizing an international standard school is to create intelligent and internationally competitive indonesians who can compete and collaborate globally (depdiknas, 2006). however, there has been no reference or school that can be used as a model for an ideal international school according to indonesian standards. one of the fundamental steps that have been used as a marker for international standard schools is still the use of a different language of instruction, namely the international language (english). however, there are some misalignments between the policies and the principles of bilingual education. they were unregulated curriculum creation based on a mix of international and national standards, the government's teacher training program for bilingual school teachers (plpg), and the establishment of standardized tests (surdyanto, 2018). some relevant studies discussed about the use of a second language in learning. first, the use of a second language in learning does not reduce students' interaction . but with the existence of bilingualism can help in the learning process of students in the classroom. in this study using interpretative qualitative research methods. by involving questionnaires, classroom observations, and interviews. the conclusion in this study is the use of bilinguals in efl classes will not reduce student learning intentions to learn english. in each learning teacher does not eliminate l1 in explaining what can not be explained by using the l2 language, this is a huge source of motivation for efl students. for the second study, speaking for a purpose: a case study of bilingual immersion pedagogy within the chinese efl context. by david roman potcek (2017) the university of windsor in this study mentioned that the second language or bilingual in learning and the world of work or the world of work is needed, bilingual use can unite cross-cultural learning such as canada and china. in this study, researchers used a qualitative framework http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 3, no. 1, january 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 3 method that is by applying narrative inquiry, observation, interview, and document analysis methods as primary data collection. the results of this study are that teachers who participate in efl teachers must always try to develop students' intentions in learning english. creating a good atmosphere, so that it will be easier for children to understand the lesson. the third study was "phenomenological study: bilingual teaching classroom of malaysian community colleges" by fandatuljana mohd noor, hairuddin harun (2014) university tun hussein on malaysia. this study uses non-structured interview methods, non-participant observation, and note-taking. the respondents in this study were instructors of course content from several different programs at the community college in malaysia. the results of this study are that most trainers are less interested in using english in the classroom except the trainers from the tourism course. the use of english in classrooms depends on the relevance and needs of the instructor, not on the interests of students. bilingual teaching classes are preferred because they help instructors to develop students' understanding of learning content and english translation. this study is wellproven, proving that bilingual teaching classes are important phenomena that exist in malaysian community colleges and this study hasn't been done before. the first thesis investigates the contribution of english in schools to english learning and the authors use mixed methods to achieve the objectives of this study; qualitative and quantitative methods. from these similarities and differences, researchers are interested in knowing the process of interaction and teaching and learning of students and teachers in bilingual classes, and the technique used in this study is a qualitative approach. this research is different from other researches because it is discussed in detail what students experienced when in a bilingual class, namely how the interactions occured, the obstacles faced by students, and the teacher's strategies in solving these obstacles, of course, the benefits that students get while in the bilingual class. the scope of this study is how the interaction process of students and students, students, and teachers and the implementation of bilingual classes in smp muhammadiyah 3 yogyakarta. our study addresses three research questions how is the process of bilingualism at smp muhammadiyah 3 yogyakarta? what are the obstacles during the implementation of bilingualism at smp muhammadiyah 3 yogyakarta? and what are the teachers’ strategies to overcome the obstacles during the implementation of bilingualism at smp muhammadiyah 3 yogyakarta? methods research setting this research was conducted in smp muhammadiyah 3 yogyakarta. the researcher has selected 20 grade viii students and one english teacher to learn related to the bilingual class. a teacher should know how important it is for a bilingual class to review the quality of learning in the classroom. schools must also know how the effects and benefits of having bilingual classes are in the school. there are many things related to english in today's era, http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 3, no. 1, january 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 4 and sometimes we are required to use english as a medium for communication with friends, colleagues, and fellow professionals. therefore, the authors wanted to know about the existence of a bilingual class in a school. research method for this purpose, it is not to separate individuals or groups into specific variables or theories. the data collected in this analysis have been collected qualitatively. there are also many types of data, including summaries of what the researcher saw and heard, what participants said and wrote, and what participants used and created. thus the essence of the data is a narrative taken from in-depth interviews and a questionnaire to answer this research question. qualitative research is a form of data to collect data from questionnaires and interviews with junior high school students. the theory above states that there are many ways to collect data when they see and hear something. data and data sources data to be taken from this research are english students, and the location will be taken at smp muhammadiyah 3 yogyakarta. sources of data come from questionnaires and interview data. primary data is data collected in the field from first-hand data sources. the source of this data can be respondent or test subjects from the results of filling out questionnaires, interviews, and findings. the primary data in this research is the correspondence substance analysed. this research was conducted at smp muhammadiyah 3 yogyakarta, one of the international standard islamic schools. the researchers took this school because not all schools had bilingual classes, and not all students at smp muhammadiyah 3 yogyakarta liked, understood, and were interested in learning languages. english, students lack motivation, lack self-confidence; the method used by the teacher is less attractive so that students find it challenging to learn english. learning english, teachers use full english in delivering lessons to students and students who are not native speakers. therefore, the researcher wanted to know how the bilingual class was implemented, the interaction process between students and students, and the teaching and learning process in the bilingual class during the learning process in the classroom at smp muhammadiyah 3 yogyakarta. twenty students will be participants in the questionnaire, and some of them will be interview participants. interviewing students will support the questionnaire. it involves english teachers at smp muhammadiyah 3 yogyakarta middle school. there will be about ten students being interviewed and taking the questionnaire and maintaining confidentiality by ensuring that the test findings, all information, and other issues, remain confidential. researchers will store all information and data collected from respondents in this study. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 3, no. 1, january 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 5 techniques of collecting data the data collection techniques used in this study were questionnaires and interviews. researchers will obtain direct interview information from respondents when speaking face-to-face via video calls and using cell phones as an instrument to record interview data, and there are ten interview questions. researchers also distributed questionnaires to students to get factual data about their perceptions. the questionnaire contains about ten statements. the author translated it into indonesian to help participants fill out the questionnaire quickly. the data collection instrument used a closed questionnaire. the questionnaire contains ten closed questions. these questions are categorized into the following concerns: students’ preferences, student interaction, significant influence, and the advantages and disadvantages. in this research, the researcher uses the likert scale to analyze the data. the likert scale is used to measure a person or group of individuals' attitudes, wealth, and beliefs about social phenomena (danuri & maisaroh, 2019). the variables to be evaluated are converted into indicator variables using a likert scale. the indicator is then used to compile instrument objects as a starting point, which may be statements or queries. the likert scale is a research scale used to measure attitudes and opinions (miles & huberman, 1994). with this likert scale, respondents are asked to fill out a questionnaire that requires them to indicate their level of conformity with a series of questions. the questions or statements used in this research are usually referred to as research variables and are explicitly determined by researchers. the name of this scale is taken from its creator, rensis likert, a social psychologist from the united states. the level of approval referred to in this likert scale consists of 5 choices of scales passed from strongly agree (sa) to strongly disagree (sda). the five options include strongly agree (sa), agree (a), neutral (n), disagree (da) and strongly disagree (sda). to determine the number of respondents studied, several techniques for determining the number of samples can be used, one of which is the sample determination technique using the slovin formula. mathematically the slovin formula used to determine the number of samples is as follows (creswell, 2012): n = n / ( 1 + n.(e)2) information: n = number of samples n = total population e = error tolerance limit below is how to solve it: n = n / ( 1 + n.(e)2) n= 32 / 1+32 x (0.05) 2 n=32/1+32x0.0025 n=32/1+0.08 n=32/1+0.08 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 3, no. 1, january 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 6 n=32/1.08 n=29,629 n=30 for example, in calculating the slovin formula, the results are 100 respondents. we will analyze the answers from 100 respondents by doing calculations like the example below: 30 respondents answered sa(strongly agree) 30 respondents answered a (agree) five respondents answered n (neutral) 20 respondents answered da (disagree) 15 respondents answered sda (strongly disagree) based on these data, 60 respondents or 60% answered agree (30 respondents) and strongly agreed (30 respondents). from these results, it can be concluded that the majority of employees in the company agree with the company regulations. data reduction data reduction in this study aims to facilitate researchers' understanding of the data that has been collected from the research results. researchers will collect data or information through questionnaires and interviews with respondents so that researchers can examine the research in detail. then the data that has been reduced will provide a clearer picture and make it easier for researchers to carry out further data collection and search for it if needed. data display in qualitative research, data can be presented in the form of brief descriptions, charts, category correlations, flowcharts, and the like (sugiyono, 2009). by displaying the data, it will be easier to understand what happened; plan the following work based on what has been understood because the method used in this research is a case study, so the data display that is done is more in the form of a description. the display of facts can enhance accepted interpretations. at this point, the researcher learns comprehensive knowledge based on the problem. verification the final step is the drawing and verification conclusion of the interpretation by the researcher: the drawing of meaning from displayed data. the qualitative analyst begins determining what things mean; nothing is about regularities, trends, explications, potential configurations, casual flows, and prepositions from the start of data collection, miles & huberman (1994). in the analysis of data related to the problem, the researcher made some moves. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 3, no. 1, january 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 7 data validity there are some ways to check the validity of the data in qualitative analysis, including authenticity, transferability, reliability, and conformability. four triangulation forms are included: process triangulation, inter-researcher triangulation, triangulation of data sources, and triangulation of theory (creswell, 2012). method triangulation is carried out in various directions by comparing the actual results or data. as is established in qualitative research, to obtain reliable data, the researcher obtains data from an interview, observation, questionnaire, and paper. triangulation of data sources sees such data through different approaches and sources of data collection methods. in addition to interviewing and observing, researchers may use participant notes, written records, and pictures or photos. from this statement, the authors decided to use the triangulation method and the triangulation of data sources to check the validity of the data and gain data confidence. results and discussions table 1. statement 1 questionnaire and interview data no statement central tendency interpretation 1 i like that teachers use english while teaching bilingual classes. 66% agree because the index value that the researcher obtained from the calculation result was 66%, it can be concluded that the respondent "agrees" with the statement, namely i like teachers to use english while teaching in bilingual classes. the results of the data value can be supported by several respondents who were interviewed and stated the same thing; the respondent agreed that it was supposed to use english in the bilingual class. transcript 1 students’ responses ns1 p1: 1. yes ……. because i can learn more or be better at using english. ns2 p1: yes ……. because yes have fun ..... not bored. ns7 p1: likes …….. because listening to people speak english is great fun ns3 p1: like ………. because it can increase knowledge, and can practice my ability to use english. ns8 p1: yes, i like it, because since i was in elementary school i was used to using english for explanations from the teacher. from the interview statement, the respondents felt they understood and paid attention when the teacher used english in the bilingual class because the respondents felt challenged to understand what the teacher was talking about so that they could practice how to speak english better according to grammar. this statement was different from the research results on the perception of english in bilingual classes in schools in bali. according to luh putu artini (artini, 2011), students feel confused and unclear about what the teacher says using english in the bilingual class at the rsbi school in bali. if students http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 3, no. 1, january 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 8 were asked what their opinion was about the teacher who delivers learning material in english, the student feels they do not fully understand what the teacher says, the percentage that gets was only 57.53%. in the bilingual class at smp muhammadiyah yogyakarta, the students believe that they understand what the teacher says in every english lesson using english. because the abilities owned in each school are different, in muhammadiyah 3 junior high school, yogyakarta students have gone through the screening process. to register for the bilingual class, students were selected first. table 2. statement 2 questionnaire and interview data no statement central tendency interpretation 2 i am happy that my english score has improved. 91% strongly agree the second statement from the questionnaire found by the researcher was 91%, so it can be concluded that the respondent "strongly agrees" with the statement that the respondents' english score increased when they were in a bilingual class. the results of the data value can be supported by the results of the interviewee's statement. transcript 2 students’ responses ns1 p3: yes, because the bilingual class teaches english more. ns5 p3: yes, my english score has improved quite a lot. ns2 p3: you could say yes because you understand more about english. ns4 p3: yes, because we are trained in english well so that we can understand better… ns8 p3: yes, increased. from the second questionnaire, most of the respondents experienced an increase in their english scores. even though some of them also tried to understand that their english scores increased, they understood that they felt they paid less attention to the teacher when their scores decreased. there were other studies on the implementation of bilingual classes in schools that were more or less the same as the answers or research results, showing that students in bilingual classes get more grades and progress in better english scores. according to yulianie kasari (kasari, 2013), the results of this research show that students were more enthusiastic in using english, students understand more about vocabulary, students have started to understand when reading stories or watching films in english. it was evident from the evaluation results conveyed by parents. table 3. statement 3 questionnaire and interview data no statement central tendency interpretation 3 my teacher always asks questions in english. 62% agree http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 3, no. 1, january 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 9 because the index value of the statement that the researcher obtained from the calculation was 62%, it was be concluded that the respondent "agrees" with the statement that a teacher always asks questions in english in the classroom. the results of the data value can be supported by student interview statements. transcript 3. students’ responses ns4 p2: my opinion is good because the teacher trains our knowledge of english ns10 p2: like it, because english classes require practice. ns9 p2: yes, but if possible, someone can use indonesian too, the problem is that i don't understand ns8 p2: in my opinion, it is very good because it can improve the pronunciation of english words ns4 p2: my opinion is good because the teacher trains our knowledge of english most students can understand when the teacher asks questions in english and always uses english throughout the lesson in a bilingual class. however, some of them want the teacher to use indonesian or translate what he was talking about. some students feel less confident, so they feel embarrassed and afraid of misunderstanding what the teacher says. the questionnaire in this section states that the teacher always asks questions in english in bilingual classes, which gets good responses from students. students themselves understand what the teacher says in the bilingual class. however, it was different from the junior high school in klaten, namely the 2 klaten public junior high school. students still feel stiff if the teacher uses english continuously in class vii (istianti, 2009). however, unlike class viii, who had been in the bilingual class a year earlier, they felt no longer stiff to use english. table 4. statement 4 questionnaire and interview data no statement central tendency interpretation 4 i am happy that i interact more smoothly with friends and teachers using english. 77% agree from the results of the questionnaire data that the researcher got from the calculation, namely 77% for the statement, i was happy that i was more fluent in interacting with friends and the teacher using english was conclude that the respondent "agree" with the statement. the results of the interview data supported this value. transcript 4. students’ responses ns1 p7: not bad, during the english lesson. ns8 p7: just sometimes. ns6 p7: not very often ns7 p7: it's rare to friends, it's not bad for teachers ns2 p7: you could say it is rare because it is not obligatory to use english. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 3, no. 1, january 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 10 the questionnaire statement said that most students could interact with friends and teachers when english lessons take place. a small proportion of students think that they could not interact with teachers and friends because they were accustomed to using english and were not obliged according to them. in this questionnaire, in his statement, students feel happy interacting with the teacher using english only as necessary to use english during class hours. the result of the research was the occurrence of social interaction between teachers and students, namely when the teacher provides material, then students give arguments and ask questions. when outside the classroom or during class hours, they were free to use language for social interaction (yuliani, 2010). table 5. statement 5 questionnaire and interview data no statement central tendency interpretation 5 my teacher always uses english in giving instructions. 71% agree where the fifth statement from the questionnaire found by the researcher was 71%, so it can be said that the respondent "agrees" that the teacher always provides instructions in english in the bilingual class, they also understand that every teacher gives instructions in english. it was also supported by the statements of several answers to the questions i gave in the interview. transcript 5. students’ responses ns2 p4: got it. ns9 p4: god willing, you understand, so far most of you have already understood your sister. ns10 p4: some i understand and some i don't. ns8 p4: yes, i understand and understand the lesson. ns7 p4: understand, if i don't understand i can ask the teacher directly ns5 p4: i understand the material provided by the teacher in english. ns3 p4: i can understand the explanation given by the teacher in english very well ns1 p4: not bad, because i will learn the meaning word by word a little at a time. from the interview statement above the students "agree" with the statement. students feel understanding what the teacher said and if students feel they do not understand what the teacher said, students dare to ask questions. some students feel that instructing english is very important because they were in a bilingual class. some students do not understand a little, students slowly understand and continue to understand what the teacher says. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 3, no. 1, january 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 11 table 6. statement 6,8 questionnaire and interview data the two statements above, namely the sixth statement from the questionnaire showing 82% presentation, namely "strongly agree," where students strongly agree with the teacher's statement, always justifies when i was wrong in interacting with friends using constructive sentences. then for the eighth statement, the percentage was 82% or "strongly agree" with the questionnaire statement, namely, the english skills of the teachers motivated me to improve my english skills. in this questionnaire, students strongly agree when students were wrong in using good and correct english, the teacher always corrects. the english language skills possessed by the teacher motivate students to learn english to be even more active, to be more fluent in pronunciation and interaction using english. this was the same as the research studied by anak agung putri maharani and ketut sri widhiasih (maharani & widhiasih, 2016). the research results were that students feel happy when learning english because students feel they get positive feedback from the teacher. however, it is not similar with the finding from (purwanti, adiwijaya, & ..., 2020) which bilingual education is not being implemented adequately in the teaching and learning process. table 7. statements 7 questionnaire and interview data no statement central tendency interpretation 7 i am excited to always try to interact using english with friends. 74% agree where from the seventh statement, the percentage was 74%, which means "agree." the respondent agrees with the questionnaire statement. namely, i was always excited to try to interact using english with friends. the questionnaire statement means that by interacting with their friends. students feel their vocabulary increases and become smoother. it was also supported by the question of the answers from the interview. transcript 6. students’ responses ns1 p5: not bad, when english lessons were held. ns2 p5: it's rare because it's better to use indonesian. ns6 p5: sometimes…. yes ns3 p5: sometimes "i interact in english with friends. table 8. statement 9 questionnaire and data interview no statement central tendency interpretation 6 the teacher always corrects me when i am wrong in interacting with friends by using constructive sentences. 82% strongly agree 8 the english skills of the teachers motivated me to improve my english skills. 82% strongly agree http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 3, no. 1, january 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 12 no statement central tendency interpretation 9 i understand easily when the teacher explains in english in a bilingual class. 71% agree 10 i am excited when the teacher uses english to give instructions. 69% agree the ninth statement shows the percentage of 71%, which means "agree" with the questionnaire statement. i quickly understood when the teacher explains using english in a bilingual class. then for the tenth questionnaire statement, the percentage was 69%, which means "agree" with the following statement i was excited when the teacher uses english to give instructions. interview answers supported this. transcript 7. teachers’ interview 1. the implementation of bilingual classes currently still focuses on additional english in collaboration with elti institutions. in the future, it is hoped that it can continue to develop, bilingual class students, can present english dramas and can communicate actively using english. 2. one of the main problems is the lack of self-confidence of students. if the school is busy with class hours so that additional english is done too late. 3. yes. often 4. yes 5. quite good, even at the time of graduation and graduation the bilingual class students are ranked in the top 10 parallel. 6. quite often 7. prepare students to face the global era. 8. through selection. multiple-choice questions were given and an interview was conducted in english. 9. very influential 10. since 2011 the interaction between teachers and students always occurs in bilingual classes using english. for student and student interaction, many students still use indonesian. in the teaching and learning process, bilingual education is not well implemented (purwanti et al., 2020). another evidence reveals that billingual class disproportionately serves middle and upper-income households when evaluating these some communities arguments (80 percent from these strata). many causes contribute to this predicament, including a variety of financial, social, and academic reasons, and the government must devote more attention to ensuring that low-income compliance criteria are followed (jayanti & sujarwo, 2019). from the results of the interviews, it is not surprising that students who enter the bilingual class are often included in the top 10 parallel winners during the distribution of report cards each semester and at graduation. there are still many hopes and aspirations for bilingual classes so that for now and in the future, the bilingual class at smp muhammadiyah 3 yogyakarta will make breakthroughs and ways to overcome some of the http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 3, no. 1, january 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 13 obstacles that students experience in bilingual classes, such as collaborating with elti institutions and it is hoped that who entered. in the future, bilingual classes can constantly interact with anyone who uses english and can appreciate drama activities in english. moreover, each individual is expected to be able to prepare for the global era. conclusion based on data analysis and discussion, it can be concluded that interactions among students and teachers that occurred in the bilingual class of smp muhammadiyah 3 yogyakarta in the learning process were still ineffective and experienced difficulties. the difficulties were students still felt insecure if they had to use full english to interact with others, still felt afraid of mispronouncing english properly and correctly. in addition, they did not master vocabulary well and used english in bilingual classes with the teacher only in the learning process. the obstacles that students experienced in the teaching and learning process in a bilingual class were students still felt ashamed to use english to interact and still thought that using english was not a necessity in a bilingual class. bahasa indonesia was still a language to interact with friends because they were still afraid of using english is not by good and correct english in pronunciation. the teacher's strategies in dealing with the obstacles that occurred in the learning process in the bilingual class at muhammadiyah 3 junior high school in yogyakarta were the school collaborated with the elti institution which was expected to continue to develop. this strategy would hone its potential so that the bilingual class could present english drama, and actively interacted using english to face the global era. moreover, there were additional hours for english classes outside of active learning hours. references artini, l. p. (2011). persepsi guru dan siswa terhadap penggunaan bahasa inggris di kelas bilingual di sekolah menengah atas berstatus rsbi di bali. jurnal ilmu pendidikan, 17(4), 307– 312. brown, h. d. (2001). teaching by principles: an interactive approach to language pedagogy. new york: pearson education. chaudron, c. (1998). second language classrooms. cambridge: cambridge university press. creswell, j. (2012). educational research: planning, conducting and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research (fourth edi). boston: pearson education. retrieved from http://www.ghbook.ir/index.php?name= های رسانه و فرهنگ option=com_dbook&task=readonline&book_id=13650&page=73&chkhashk=ed9c949&نوین 1b4&itemid=218&lang=fa&tmpl=component danuri, & maisaroh, s. (2019). metodelogi penelitian pendidikan. yogyakarta: samudra biru (anggota ikapi). depdiknas. (2006). kurikulum tingkat satuan pendidikan. jakarta: departmen pendidikan nasional. istianti. (2009). implementasi pembelajaran bilingual sebagai wujud rintisan sekolah berstaraf internasioal. surakarta: universitas sebelas maret surakarta. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 3, no. 1, january 2022 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 14 jayanti, d., & sujarwo, a. (2019). bilingual education in indonesia: between idealism and the reality. script journal: journal of linguistic and english teaching, 4(1), 12. https://doi.org/10.24903/sj.v4i1.271 kasari, y. (2013). analisis penerapan bilingual class guna meningkatkan keterampilan bahasa inggris siswa. jakarta. maharani, a. a. p., & widhiasih, l. k. s. (2016). respon siswa terhadap umpan balik guru saat pelajaran bahasa inggris di sd saraswati 5 denpasar. jurnal bakti saraswati, 5(2). maharsi, i. (2016). the importance of input and interaction in second language acquisition. journal of english and education, 5(1), 45–53. https://doi.org/10.20885/jee.vol5.iss1.art4 miles, m., & huberman, a. m. (1994). qualitative data analysis. newbury: ca sage. purwanti, k. a., adiwijaya, p. a., & ... (2020). the implementation of bilingual education at bali bilingual school kindergarten (a case study). … language teaching …, 1–15. retrieved from http://e-journal.unmas.ac.id/index.php/joselt/article/view/704 santos, l. m. dos. (2019). bilingual english education: expectation of parents who enrol their children in bilingual primary schools. international journal of instruction, 12(4). sembiring, l. t. a. b. (2018). researching students’ interaction in collaborative learning class. jall (journal of applied linguistics and literacy), 2(2), 125. https://doi.org/10.25157/jall.v2i2.2197 sugiyono. (2009). metode penelitian kuantitatif, kualitatif dan r&d. bandung: alfabeta. surdyanto, a. (2018). a brief view on bilingual schools in the capital of indonesia. ijee (indonesian journal of english education), 5(1). https://doi.org/10.15408/ijee.v5i1.8018 yuliani, r. (2010). interaksi social dalam kelompok english public speaking club (eps) di smp-sma semesta bilingual boarding school gunungpati semarang. semarang: universitas negeri semarang. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 192 digital literacy and learning interaction in indonesian efl classrooms: an ethnographic study adi f. mahmud1*, murni mahmud2, sukardi weda3, munir4 1postgraduate students of english language education department, universitas negeri makassar, indonesia/universitas muhammadiyah maluku utara, ternate, indonesia 2, 3 & 4 english language education department, universitas negeri makassar, indonesia *adi.f.mahmud@student.unm.ac.id abstract this ethnographic study examines the relationships between digital literacy and learning interactions in indonesian efl classes. the study seeks to elucidate the role of digital tools in mediating educational practices and interactional dynamics between educators and learners. data were collected over six months at sma negeri ternate, indonesia, using participant observation, semi-structured interviews, document analysis, and field notes, involving five teachers and ten students. the findings suggest a triadic interactional framework, comprising learner-content, learner-instructor, and learner-learner interactions, all of which are shaped by digital integration. students utilized multimedia resources such as youtube and chatgpt, promoting independence and multimodal understanding. the conventional assumptions of teacher authority persisted, and digital disparities frequently limited peer participation. three cultural elements emerged: technology-enhanced instruction, enduring teacher authority, and flexible peer solidarity. the study concludes that digital literacy alters classroom dynamics, but it must be grounded in local educational and cultural norms. it necessitates culturally responsive instructional design and fair access to improve engagement and maximize the educational potential of digital literacy. keywords: digital literacy, efl classrooms, ethnography, indonesian, learning interaction introduction the rapid adoption of digital technology has significantly altered educational environments globally, redefining the interactions between educators and learners, as well as their access to knowledge and engagement with the learning process (djibran et al., 2024; zou et al., 2025). in language instruction, digital technologies and platforms have created novel educational opportunities that surpass the limitations of conventional classrooms (baldoví et al., 2023; zhang, 2023). with the growing importance of digital literacy in the 21st century, its incorporation into english as a foreign language (efl) education is both unavoidable and crucial (chan & lo, 2024; lin et al., 2024). digital literacy, defined as the http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 mailto:adi.f.mahmud@student.unm.ac.id copyright © the author(s) vol. 6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 193 capability to access, assess, generate, and convey information through digital technology, constitutes a fundamental skill that enables individuals to navigate, engage in, and contribute to the global digital landscape. (amin, 2023; reddy et al., 2023). in indonesian educational settings, especially in efl classes, the integration of digital literacy is inconsistent and contingent upon context. although national education strategies have begun to prioritise digital competency, their implementation often varies among schools, particularly between urban and rural regions. numerous indonesian efl educators and learners continue to face challenges related to limited digital resources, inadequate training, and sociocultural barriers that hinder the implementation of digital literacy in everyday educational activities. (fadilah et al., 2023; sakkir et al., 2023) moreover, classroom interaction—an essential element of language acquisition—has been markedly affected by the availability or lack of digital resources (abella & rosa, 2023; zou et al., 2025). learning interaction, which involves both verbal and non-verbal communication between educators and learners, has transcended traditional face-to-face discourse and is increasingly facilitated by digital platforms, gadgets, and communication conventions (pozo et al., 2024; yaseen et al., 2025). moore (1989) delineates three key interactions within the teaching process. this idea serves as the basis for academics to investigate teacher-student interaction patterns in the efl classroom using digital literacy-based instruction. moore (1989) identified three distinct types of interaction: learner-content interaction, learner-instructor interaction, and learnerlearner interaction. despite increasing research on digital literacy in education, little emphasis has been directed towards the manifestation of digital literacy practices within the sociocultural dynamics of efl classroom interactions in indonesia. the prevailing literature primarily employs a quantitative or technocentric methodology, focusing on students' digital competencies, technological access, or the efficacy of digital tools (erwani et al., 2022; valentina et al., 2022; zahra et al., 2023). these studies frequently overlook the lived experiences, pedagogical struggles, and cultural significances that influence the incorporation of digital literacy into classroom interactions. consequently, there exists a significant deficiency of ethnographic studies that explore the intricate ways in which digital literacy affects learning relationships between teachers and students in indonesian efl contexts. furthermore, research examining the convergence of digital literacy and learning interaction rarely addresses how these dynamics manifest within diverse educational environments, particularly in marginalised areas such as rural indonesian schools (hidayat et al., 2022; nasaruddin et al., 2023). there is limited understanding of how efl teachers and students collaboratively develop digital literacy practices in their daily routines, the problems they encounter, and how digital technology is either embraced or resisted during interactions. there is a lack of comprehension regarding the intersection of digital literacy with language pedagogy, local values, and institutional limitations, which influences classroom involvement and communication. based on the various issues mention, this study focus on learning interaction in digital literacy instruction in efl classrooms. it employs an ethnographic approach to investigate learning interaction in digital literacy instruction in indonesian efl classrooms. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 194 methods this research employs a qualitative methodology with an ethnographic approach to investigate the learning interactions within digital literacy training in indonesian efl classes. ethnographic study provides comprehensive descriptions and analyses of cultural practices, highlighting the collective behaviors, language, and beliefs of a community within its natural context (mills & gay, 2016; spradley, 2006). ethnography offers a culturally informed perspective for analyzing the sociocultural aspects of teaching and learning (denzin & lincoln, 2018; creswell, 2012). the research was conducted over six months (one semester) at sma negeri 10 kota ternate, north maluku, an a-grade accredited institution recognized as a model for digital transformation. the choice of this location was based on its robust digital infrastructure, competent faculty, and alignment with principles of digital pedagogy. research participants were selected through purposive sampling (creswell & creswell, 2023), comprising ten efl students and five efl teachers with established digital literacy skills. the criterion encompassed students' access to digital resources, previous digital learning experiences, academic performance, as well as teachers' educational degrees and teaching experience. data were gathered using semi-structured interviews, participant observation, document analysis, and field notes, adhering to ethnographic standards (fetterman, 2010; spradley, 1979; mills & gay, 2016). the researchers served as the primary instrument, supplemented by additional tools, including interview protocols, observation sheets, and audiovisual recorders. interviews utilized descriptive, structural, and contrast questions (spradley, 2006), while participant observation allowed researchers to engage deeply in the learning environment. the data analysis employed spradley's (2006) four-stage model, which includes domain analysis, taxonomic analysis, componential analysis, and cultural theme analysis. domain analysis categorises various fields or specialised domains by examining both general and specific issues. an increase in the number of selected domains results in a corresponding increase in the time needed for investigation. in the taxonomy analysis, the researchers offered a more detailed description of the selected domains, emphasizing their internal structure through further investigation. it employs component analysis to discern unique characteristics of each internal structure through inter-element relationships. analysing cultural themes involves examining the interrelationships among diverse domains and their impact on the broader cultural context. it categorises these links into cultural themes, taking into account the specific focus and sub-focus of the investigation. this approach enabled a systematic analysis of the interconnected elements of digital literacy practices and cultural trends within the efl teaching environment. the amalgamation of multiple data sources enhanced the study's depth and contextual authenticity. the phases of data analysis are illustrated in the subsequent figure: http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 195 figure 1. spradley’s (2006) four-stage model of data analysis results the findings revealed that learning interaction consists of three fundamental dimensions: learner-content interaction, learner-instructor interaction, and learner-learner interaction. subsequent data illustrate the interactions between teachers and students during the implementation of digital literacy teaching in the context of english language acquisition. learner-content interaction the interaction between learners and content in the observed digital literacy-focused efl classroom illustrates a dynamic incorporation of digital media into teaching. students predominantly interact with content through multimedia resources, including youtube videos, music, and interactive digital texts, often before or during classroom sessions. this engagement promotes autonomous and cooperative learning, highlighting understanding, analysis, and content production. educators support these encounters by providing pre-class materials and guiding classroom conversations centered on them. activities like video-based procedural text creation demonstrate how digital tools enhance creative interaction with the content. the engagement transcends passive consumption, transforming students into active participants who derive meaning from digital content. this method corresponds with digital literacy competences by cultivating abilities in sourcing, analyzing, and utilizing information from digital platforms. it also fosters critical thinking as students engage with knowledge through debates and evaluations. here are the pieces of evidence on learnercontent interaction: extract 1 "some classroom teachers provide learning materials in the form of links or videos, and students are expected to study the materials prior to attending class." (field note, 2025). http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 196 extract 2 "i frequently present videos, audio clips, or images as instructional media. afterwards, i pose questions related to the materials." "i once assigned students to create a procedural text video... by the lesson on procedural texts." (interview with teacher sn, 2025). "i have also sent video links for students to study independently, which we later discussed in the following session." (interview with teacher in, 2025) extract 3 "i play videos that are already available through youtube links... students are then expected to answer guiding questions as outlined in the teaching module." (interview with teacher fs, 2025). "we assign tasks, and then discuss them in the following meeting. so, students engage in self-study at home beforehand." (interview with teacher hr, 2025) extract 4 "there is usually an interaction between students and the provided materials, followed by the teacher’s explanation of the content." (interview with student zhr, 2025). "the teacher typically presents the material through youtube and concludes with a questionand-answer session related to the video." (interview with student rth, 2025). extract 5 "materials are distributed prior to the start of class, the teacher often uses a laptop and projector screen to display videos." (interview with student nm, 2025). "the teacher asks students to open specific pages, watch videos, listen to songs, and then find out their meanings." (interview with student ptr, 2025). "we search for and study particular conversations on youtube, then complete assignments based on what we have learned." (interview with student shr, 2025) extract 6 "student interaction with the material is evident when the teacher divides the class into groups, and students discuss the content through both individual and group-based activities." (classroom observation, 2025) interaction between learners and content is also evident when the instructor assigns activities to be completed in the classroom during the instructional process. the data in the subsequent image demonstrates student engagement with instructional resources in the classroom. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 197 figure 2. learner-content interaction in efl classrooms the evidence illustrated in the preceding figure indicates that, in addition to the teacher supplying material links or video content prior to classroom instruction, student involvement with the learning materials also transpires during the lesson. the instructor disseminates student worksheets (lks) with questions to be addressed collaboratively in pairs during class. the teacher projects instructional films from youtube, which students access on their iphones. this suggests that material-student interaction in digital literacy education can occur flexibly and dynamically throughout the learning process. this trend indicates that learner-content interaction in digitally enhanced contexts improves engagement, facilitates differentiated instruction, and promotes learner autonomy. its effectiveness, however, depends on regular direction and organized reflection provided by instructors, ensuring that technology serves as a means to enhance understanding rather than a distraction. learner-instructor interaction the interaction between learners and instructors in the context of digital literacy demonstrates a pedagogical fusion of conventional teaching methods and technologyenhanced communication. educators serve as pivotal agents, commencing instruction with inquiries to stimulate existing knowledge, delivering content, and then providing assessment and feedback. despite the digital format, students exhibit a pronounced preference for direct, synchronous engagement with professors, indicating that interpersonal connection is a vital component of their educational experience. educators intentionally utilise technology, including youtube videos and ai tools, to enhance learning, often accompanied by direct discussion to foster comprehension. the subsequent evidence substantiates the findings: extract 7 "teacher-student interaction during learning is evident in the instructional stages outlined in the lesson plans (rpp).” (document analysis) http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 198 extract 8 "i provide them with instructions first, and then they begin working. even when i share materials in the group for self-study, i always follow it up with a discussion." (interview with teacher srf, 2025). "i ask them about the previous material to help them recall and engage with me. i then introduce the topic of the day and ask whether anyone is already familiar with it." (interview with teacher in, 2025). "typically, i present the material, and then the students respond or answer questions." (interview with teacher sn, 2025) extract 9 "i read out a prompting question... they responded very quickly after watching the video. my interaction with the students was quite good." (interview with teacher fs, 2025). "sometimes the teacher asks students to summarize the material first... but the teacher remains involved to assist them." (interview with teacher hr, 2025) extract 10 "the teacher usually explains the material again. we would prefer if the teacher used technology more frequently in the classroom." (interview with student zhr, 2025). "i prefer methods that involve direct interaction with the teacher rather than independent learning." (interview with student ctr, 2025). "the teacher often begins by explaining the material... followed by an evaluation session." (interview with student ptr, 2025). "there is still direct guidance between teachers and students in the classroom. digital materials or self-directed learning have not yet been implemented." (interview with students izz & st, 2025) extract 11 "the teacher begins the lesson by presenting material in the form of a youtube video, which the students observe. afterward, the teacher asks questions related to the content. additionally, the teacher often guides students to use their smartphones to access supplementary materials through google, google translate, and ai tools." (classroom observation, 2025) the subsequent data also demonstrates the interaction between the learner and teacher during the teaching process in the classroom. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 199 figure 3. learner-instructor interaction in efl classrooms the picture above illustrates that interaction between students and the teacher occurs through several means, including the introduction of the lesson topic at the beginning of class, delivering directions to students, and encouraging their engagement in learning activities. furthermore, engagement transpires through question-and-answer interactions between the instructor and students regarding the topic matter under examination. these interactions illustrate a supportive scaffolding framework in which the teacher transitions from being the exclusive source of knowledge to a facilitator and guide. furthermore, instructor engagement maintains student motivation, guarantees accountability in digital assignments, and meets the cognitive challenges of navigating online material. in classes where digital resources are not adequately utilised, both students and teachers recognise the potential for improvement. this interaction type is essential for fostering students' confidence in utilizing digital resources and acts as a conduit between independent content engagement and collaborative interpretation. the data highlight that significant teacherstudent engagement is not lost through digital tools, but rather improved when they are deliberately integrated with pedagogical intent. learner-learner interaction interaction among learners in digital literacy contexts, such as efl classes, is primarily organized around collaborative projects, illustrating the social aspect of learning in digital environments. group discussions, peer reviews, and collaborative presentations form the essence of these interactions, promoting academic engagement and social cohesion. educators deliberately create tasks that necessitate interdependence, such as interpreting audiovisual material or collaboratively solving issues. these collaborative activities facilitate peer scaffolding, wherein more proficient students assist their peers, hence enhancing http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 200 comprehension for both individuals. the use of digital information as a common reference point, such as videos and narrative assignments, significantly enhances engagement by providing a recognisable context for debate and interpretation. the following constitutes the evidence: extract 12 "student-to-student interaction during learning is most frequently observed during group discussion sessions in the classroom. after presenting the material through instructional videos, the teacher typically divides the class into several groups for discussion." (classroom observation, 2025) extract 13 "student-to-student interaction is also evident in the instructional stages designed by the teacher in the lesson plan." (document analysis) extract 14 "interactions among students usually occur during group assignments. they collaborate within their groups to solve the problems or tasks given." (interview with teacher srf, 2025). "i usually facilitate student-to-student interaction through group discussions. some students often engage in discussions outside their assigned groups... i continue to encourage them to collaborate." (interview with teacher in, 2025) extract 16 "students usually ask their peers when they do not understand something. this activity is already embedded in the teaching module... involving discussion or drawing conclusions together." (interview with teacher sn, 2025). "by working in groups, students can interact not only with me but also with their peers." (interview with teacher fs, 2025). "the most effective interaction is student-to-student interaction... especially among the more active students." (interview with teacher fs, 2025) extract 17 "there is usually more group discussion, followed by presentations of the results." (interview with student rt, 2025). "we are divided into groups for discussion. afterwards, each group presents the outcomes of their discussion." (interview with student rfl, 2025). "there are presentation or storytelling assignments where students work in groups." (interview with student izz, 2025). "most interactions occur among students. group discussions are more frequent than discussions with the teacher." (interview with students ctr & rch, 2025). "in groups, we learn to understand the material from our peers’ perspectives." (interview with student shr, 2025). this is evidence illustrating student-to-student interaction during classroom activities. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 201 figure 4. learner-learner interaction in efl classrooms the observations reveal varying levels of participation, with highly engaged students taking on leadership responsibilities, while others contribute less prominently. this underscores the necessity for pedagogical practices that guarantee equal engagement. interaction among learners is crucial for enhancing comprehension, critical thinking, and communication skills, which are essential components of digital literacy. when correctly enabled, these interactions enhance content processing and promote learner autonomy. in summary, student collaboration, facilitated by digital technologies and organised group activities, fosters a dynamic learning environment that enhances and strengthens interactions among learners, with both learners and content, as well as between learners and instructors. this is a taxonomy of instructional interactions based on digital literacy in efl classes. figure 5. a taxonomy of learning interactions digital literacy-based interaction in efl classrooms learner-content learner-instructor structure learner-learner • multimedia consumption • independent study • task-based engagement • group content discussion • guided interpretation • instruction initiation • feedback provision • evaluation • tech integration • pre-exploration • group discussion • collaborative problem solving • peer feedback • presentation/storytelling • information peer help http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 202 the study's findings demonstrate that digital literacy-focused education in efl classrooms cultivates a complex interactional ecosystem involving learner-content, learnerinstructor, and learner-learner interactions. every mode of engagement serves a unique yet synergistic function in influencing students' digital learning experiences and skills. learner-content interaction is significantly influenced by the integration of multimedia, including videos and audiovisual resources. students are encouraged to engage in self-directed study prior to class, promoting autonomy, critical thinking, and a multimodal understanding. these connections are facilitated by activities that necessitate analysis, production, and collaborative conversations, indicating a transition from passive receiving to active involvement with content. interaction between learners and instructors is fundamental to digital education, offering crucial advice, explanation, and feedback that solidify students' comprehension. notwithstanding the availability of digital tools, students have a pronounced inclination towards real-time, instructor-led learning. the teacher's position evolves into that of a facilitator who connects digital technologies with educational objectives, thereby enhancing engagement and understanding of concepts. interaction among learners flourishes in collaborative activities, including group discussions, peer evaluations, and joint presentations. these encounters enhance understanding through shared viewpoints and foster vital social and communicative abilities. they function as a medium for peer-assisted learning and critical analysis, particularly in managing digital content. integrating digital literacy into the efl classroom fosters a harmonious environment where technology enhances, rather than supplants, traditional pedagogical approaches. this taxonomy emphasizes the interrelation of interaction kinds and underscores the significance of instructional design that intentionally incorporates digital resources. when digital materials are integrally incorporated in interactive teaching methods, they can significantly enhance language acquisition, foster student independence, and cultivate 21st-century competencies essential for academic and practical success. culture themes three comprehensive and thematically coherent cultural themes arise from classroom interactions in a digitally mediated learning environment. these topics illustrate both the interactional patterns and the sociocultural processes influencing digital literacy-based instruction: technology-enhanced pedagogical mediation as a cultural norm the topic involved illustrates the integration of digital technology, especially multimedia platforms (e.g., youtube, kahoot, chatgpt), into the routine instructional culture of efl classrooms. educators do not simply employ digital technologies for instruction; they intentionally incorporate them to enhance comprehension, stimulate prior knowledge, and facilitate learning interactions. the consistent use of pre-class video materials, interactive conversations, and technology-enhanced activities indicates a transformation in pedagogical culture, wherein digital tools serve as cognitive and social mediators. this transition aligns with vygotsky's sociocultural theory, emphasizing the crucial role of mediated technologies in meaning-making and instructional practices within a digitally literate classroom environment. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 203 teacher authority and human connection in a digital landscape despite the growing influence of digital media, teacher-student contact remains culturally rooted in hierarchical yet dialogic structures. educators are still regarded as authoritative sources of knowledge and emotional support, directing digital interaction. the societal expectation for teacher engagement—via feedback, scaffolding, and real-time interaction—illustrates a hybrid pedagogy that merges traditional reverence for teacher authority with digital innovation. this subject underscores the enduring nature of collectivist and teacher-centered educational norms, despite the integration of digital platforms. culturally sensitive digital education must align with local relational norms and learner expectations around authority, direction, and interpersonal interaction. peer collaboration and digital solidarity amid structural constraints interaction among learners in the digital classroom demonstrates a cultural inclination towards solidarity, peer support, and collaborative problem-solving, especially in group assignments and informal digital networks (e.g., whatsapp). this solidarity frequently arises as a reaction to infrastructural and digital disparities, as students mitigate restricted access or understanding by depending on peer networks. although peer connection promotes engagement, it is also limited by social dynamics, digital confidence, and disparities in involvement. this subject embodies a culture of adaptable collaboration influenced by collectivist principles and practical responses to technical constraints. it necessitates the deliberate organization of digital peer work to achieve a balance of inclusion, agency, and critical discourse. discussion the research findings show the interaction is a core component of language acquisition and digital pedagogy. the results of the study in line with (moore, 1989) who classified learning interaction into three interconnected domains: learner-content, learnerinstructor, and learner-learner interaction. it also illustrates how digital platforms mediate and alter interactions in efl classes, highlighting advantages and limitations shaped by infrastructure, instructor expertise, student digital literacy, and the provide the lived experiences, pedagogical struggles, and cultural significances that influence the incorporation of digital literacy into classroom interactions. interaction between the learner and the content the principal interaction observed in this study was between learners and digital content. students frequently employed multimedia resources, including youtube videos, google translate, kahoot, and chatgpt, to enhance their understanding, pronunciation, and vocabulary learning. this notable degree of learner-content interaction aligns with anderson's (2003) interaction equivalency theorem, which posits that substantial learning can occur when at least one form of interaction, particularly learner-content, is enhanced through high-quality resources and learner autonomy. digital tools enabled asynchronous learning, allowing students to examine knowledge at their convenience, thereby enhancing comprehension and autonomy. however, not all students exhibited the same level of ability in critically analyzing digital content. many participants relied on passive consumption http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 204 rather than actively engaging in knowledge construction, supporting previous concerns that digital exposure does not automatically result in successful participation (garrison & akyol, 2013). this underscores the imperative of cultivating digital literacy skills that enable students to access, interpret, synthesize, and utilize information. interaction between learner and instructor digital platforms have transformed the traditional dynamics of learner-instructor interaction. educators employed whatsapp groups, google forms, and digital presentations to provide comments, distribute resources, and assess student understanding. these systems enhanced immediacy and response but also posed challenges. the asynchronous characteristics of specific tools often led to delayed feedback, reducing the dialogic quality of instruction. nonetheless, the findings demonstrate that educators maintained a substantial instructional presence, as outlined by garrison et al. (2000) within the community of inquiry framework. their efforts to curate and contextualise digital content, combined with the use of assessment technology like google forms, helped preserve a cognitive and educational presence. however, deeper educational involvement, including personalized feedback, dialogic inquiry, or customized support, was occasionally obstructed by time constraints, technological proficiency, and inconsistent internet connectivity. peer interaction among learners the interaction among learners was the least developed of the three categories. although numerous collaborative activities took place over whatsapp or during in-class digital tasks (e.g., team quizzes using kahoot), these interactions were primarily logistical rather than academically or socially significant. this is concerning, as peer interaction is essential for meaning negotiation, language production, and the development of intercultural competences (vygotsky, 1978; smith & macgregor, 1992). barriers to peer contact included unequal digital access, reduced confidence in digital communication, and a school environment that prioritized teacher-led instruction over peer collaboration. consequently, while digital technologies can enhance student dialogue and collaborative knowledge construction, their use requires deliberate teaching strategies and the formulation of cooperative assignments. this study demonstrates that student interactions in digital literacy-focused efl training reveal significant changes in learning dynamics within technology-mediated contexts. the findings illustrate how digital platforms such as youtube, kahoot, whatsapp, and chatgpt have transformed traditional classroom interactions by introducing innovative methods of engagement, collaboration, and learner independence. this result supports vygotsky's (1978) sociocultural theory, which emphasizes the importance of mediated tools in the joint construction of knowledge through social interaction. the students in the observed classrooms demonstrated increased motivation, which was attributed to the use of digital devices, enhancing their focus, engagement, and collaborative behaviours. video content and game-based systems, such as kahoot, cultivate a dynamic learning environment, augmenting competition and engagement. this aligns with the multidimensional engagement framework established by fredricks, blumenfeld, and paris (2004), which includes behavioral, emotional, and cognitive http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 205 elements. the active participation of students in digital quizzes, their love for multimedia content, and their enthusiasm for exploring resources beyond the classroom illustrate all three dimensions of engagement. nonetheless, while digital technologies improved students' surface interaction and task involvement, the degree of substantial academic engagement varied significantly among learners. several students demonstrated critical engagement by independently acquiring supplementary knowledge through platforms like youtube and chatgpt, thereby exemplifying learner autonomy —a key attribute of 21st-century education (redecker, 2017). in contrast, several individuals utilize technology passively or solely for entertainment, illustrating what ertmer and newby (1993) define as low-level involvement that fails to foster higher-order cognitive skills. the significance of interaction in technologyenhanced efl lessons has also evolved. students reported frequent use of whatsapp and instagram for exchanging materials and discussing assignments, indicating the formation of informal, student-led learning networks. these peer-driven interactions promote the principles of connectivism (siemens, 2005), which posits that learning occurs through decentralized, technology-mediated networks. however, these conversations often lacked moderation, and the absence of instructor engagement on these informal forums may result in uneven academic discourse and variations in participation levels. notwithstanding the apparent benefits, challenges persist. a multitude of students indicated challenges in focusing on academic content while using digital devices, often leading to multitasking or distractions. these findings align with junco's (2012) research, which suggests that excessive social media usage may be associated with reduced academic engagement if not adequately regulated. moreover, technological disparities, including limited access to devices and unreliable internet connectivity, hindered equal participation, particularly among students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. warschauer (2003) observed that the digital divide remains a considerable barrier to inclusive digital education. the research demonstrates that digital engagement is heterogeneous and significantly influenced by individual learning preferences, digital competencies, and classroom environment. educators must create structured yet flexible learning settings to effectively leverage digital resources that promote focused engagement and independent exploration. this entails integrating collaborative efforts, peer evaluation systems, and explicit digital literacy instruction into the curriculum. instruction based on digital literacy has revolutionized learning interactions in the efl classroom, particularly enhancing learner-content engagement. to fully realize the educational potential of digital communication, there must be an enhanced emphasis on dialogic interactions between educators and learners, as well as the encouragement of peer collaboration through structured digital tasks. digital resources have enhanced student engagement and interaction in efl classes; yet, consistent pedagogical approaches are crucial to deepen learning, minimize digital distractions, and ensure equitable participation. educators must adapt their roles to foster both technical and social engagement, thereby maximising the educational benefits of digital literacy. this study demonstrates that digital literacy practices in efl classrooms are profoundly interconnected with sociocultural values and local pedagogical traditions, as http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 206 evidenced by the identified culture themes: technology-enhanced pedagogical mediation as a cultural norm, teacher authority and human connection in a digital landscape, and peer collaboration and digital solidarity amid structural constraints. these elements align with vygotsky’s (1978) sociocultural theory, which posits that tools and symbols, such as digital media, facilitate cognitive growth via social interaction. the utilization of platforms such as youtube, kahoot, and chatgpt illustrates that digital tools serve not only as supplementary instructional resources but as essential mediators in the formation of knowledge, embodying what wertsch (1991) describes as “mediated action. moreover, the enduring nature of teacher authority in the context of technological integration corresponds with the collectivist cultural norms prevalent in indonesian classrooms. according to hofstede (2001), societies with considerable power distance often maintain hierarchical relationships within educational contexts. this is apparent in students' dependence on direct instructor instruction despite the presence of self-access digital resources. li and walsh (2011) reported similar findings, noting that teacher-led interaction continues to prevail in asian efl contexts, even in technologically advanced settings. peer collaboration, driven by infrastructural constraints, aligns with the conclusions of warschauer (2003) and selwyn (2011) regarding the adaptive use of technology in resource-constrained environments. the camaraderie exhibited by students via whatsapp talks and collaborative efforts illustrates the virtues and weaknesses of informal digital learning networks. this underscores the necessity for organized peer assignments that harmonize collaboration with critical involvement (smith & macgregor, 1992). in conclusion, these cultural themes suggest that digital literacy in efl classrooms encompasses not only technical skills but also the negotiation of culture. digital pedagogy must be locally anchored, harmonizing with local values while promoting critical, collaborative, and independent learning in digitally mediated settings. conclusion this study highlights that digital literacy-focused instruction in indonesian efl classrooms promotes a complex ecology of interaction among learners, teachers, and digital content. the incorporation of digital tools—such as youtube, kahoot, whatsapp, and chatgpt—has revolutionized conventional classroom dynamics by improving studentcontent interaction, promoting learner independence, and enabling multimodal understanding. notwithstanding these advantages, the study reveals ongoing issues, including disparities in digital competency, infrastructural limitations, and the inadequacy of peer-to-peer collaboration. these findings emphasize that although digital technologies provide novel opportunities for engagement and instruction, their effectiveness depends on deliberate pedagogical integration and equal access. this study has two implications. it underscores the necessity for efl educators to cultivate culturally attuned digital methodologies that harmonize autonomy, structure, and social engagement. educators must evolve from mere content deliverers to learning facilitators capable of effectively scaffolding digital engagement. curricular implications involve integrating explicit digital literacy training into language programs to enhance students' critical thinking, multimodal literacy, and collaborative abilities. moreover, the http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 207 results underscore the significance of institutional support in mitigating digital inequities and equipping educators with the skills to utilize digital tools effectively. future research should expand the parameters of this study by investigating digital literacy-based interactions in a broader range of socio-educational contexts, including rural, disadvantaged, or marginalised groups. longitudinal research could examine the evolution of digital participation over time and its enduring effects on language competency and learner identity. moreover, participatory action research that includes instructors and students as co-researchers may provide profound insights into the mutual influence of technology utilization and classroom culture. exploring the convergence of digital literacy with emotive dimensions—such as motivation, identity, and digital wellbeing—would enhance the comprehension of its significance in comprehensive efl learning. research must prioritize local perspectives and contextual realities in the development of inclusive, adaptive, and effective digital pedagogies. acknowledgment i am writing to convey my gratitude to the indonesian government's lembaga pengelola dana pendidikan indonesia (lpdp) for granting me a scholarship to facilitate my doctoral studies and the publication of this essay. references abella, j. l., & rosa, e. d. d. 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(1978). mind in society: the development of higher psychological processes. harvard university press. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 https://doi.org/10.18785/jetde.1701.13 https://doi.org/10.1080/08923648909526659 https://doi.org/10.33367/ijies.v6i1.3525 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0311695 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e14878 https://doi.org/10.26858/interference.v4i1.43966 https://doi.org/10.33603/perspective.v9i2.6085 copyright © the author(s) vol. 6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 210 warschauer, m. (2003). technology and social inclusion: rethinking the digital divide. mit press. wertsch, j. v. (1991). voices of the mind: a sociocultural approach to mediated action. harvard university press. yaseen, h., mohammad, a. s., ashal, n., abusaimeh, h., ali, a. a. a., & sharabati, a. a. (2025). the impact of adaptive learning technologies, personalized feedback, and interactive ai tools on student engagement: the moderating role of digital literacy. sustainability, 17(3), 1133. https://doi.org/10.3390/su17031133 zahra, i. n., anggrarini, n., wati, a., prawiro, i. y., & larasaty, g. (2023). efl undergraduate students’ politeness strategy in online classroom interaction. international journal of science education and cultural studies, 2(1), 16. https://doi.org/10.58291/ijsecs.v2i1.73 zhang, j. (2023). efl teachers’ digital literacy: the role of contextual factors in their literacy development. frontiers in psychology, 14. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1153339 zou, y. l., kuek, f., feng, w., & cheng, x. (2025). digital learning in the 21st century: trends, challenges, and innovations in technology integration. frontiers in education, 10. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2025.1562391 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 https://doi.org/10.3390/su17031133 https://doi.org/10.58291/ijsecs.v2i1.73 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1153339 https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2025.1562391 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 437 facilitating efl speaking skills through an english club: evidence from the tbi millennial english club rina ritsna gisma1, sahril nur 2, & sultan baa 3* universitas negeri makassar, makassar, indonesia sultan7304@unm.ac.id abstract this study investigates the role of the tbi millennial english club in supporting students’ speaking skill development through nonformal english learning activities. although speaking skills are essential for effective communication, many efl learners have limited opportunities for authentic oral practice in formal classroom settings. this research aims to explore how structured english club activities facilitate students’ speaking performance, engagement, and confidence. using a qualitative descriptive design, data were collected through direct observations of weekly club meetings and analysis of supporting documentation. the observations focused on student participation, types of speaking activities, facilitator–learner interactions, and the affective environment created during the sessions. the findings reveal three major contributions of the english club: (1) it provides consistent opportunities for authentic and meaningful speaking practice through activities such as role-plays, storytelling, discussions, and impromptu speaking; (2) facilitators play a crucial role in scaffolding learning by offering guidance, modeling target language use, and giving immediate, constructive feedback; and (3) the club fosters a supportive and motivating environment that reduces speaking anxiety and increases students’ confidence and willingness to communicate. overall, the study concludes that the tbi millennial english club serves as an effective supplementary learning space that enhances students’ speaking skills and communicative competence. the implications highlight the importance of integrating nonformal speaking programs into efl settings and providing facilitator training to maximise learning outcomes. keywords: efl learners, english club, qualitative observation, speaking skills. student engagement introduction in today’s global and digital era, the ability to communicate in english is an important skill for people who want to take part in international activities. as an international language, english helps people from different cultures and languages communicate and share ideas in areas such as science, technology, education, business, and international relations (roshid & kankaanranta, 2025; victoria et al., 2025). rose et al., 2021 state that english is the most http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 mailto:sultan7304@unm.ac.id copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 438 widely used language in the world, which shows its important role in global communication. in indonesia, english is taught from elementary school to university, not only as a subject but also as an important life skill that supports academic success and future career opportunities (gayatri et al., 2023; puspitasari, 2025). for many students, english is an important subject because it is taught at almost all levels of education. even so, not a few still have difficulty understanding it. learning a new language is not easy; the process can be tiring and stressful because students often make mistakes when trying to use it. for countries that do not use english as their primary language, speaking skills are one of the biggest challenges. this situation often results in students' speaking skills not being optimal (holandyah et al., 2022; kusuma, n.d.; qasemi, 2020). learning to speak a foreign language is an interesting challenge as well as a great opportunity to improve communication skills. susanti et al., (2022) state that many children still have difficulty arranging sentences correctly or accurately. in addition, children often tell stories using simple sentences because they have not fully been able to form sentences that follow standard grammatical rules. the success in higher education and global communication depends greatly on english speaking skills (adem & berkessa, 2022). however, although students often learn english in the classroom, many indonesian students still find it difficult to speak english confidently in daily life. these problems are caused by several internal and external factors, such as limited opportunities to practice and psychological issues like anxiety and low self-confidence (angraeni, 2024; kashinathan & abdul aziz, 2021). speaking is often seen as the most difficult of the four language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. it includes several important aspects such as pronunciation, intonation, grammar, and vocabulary, which together form communicative competence needed for good speaking (nurwahyuni, 2020). in daily communication, speaking is also the clearest sign of someone’s language ability. many students feel shy or nervous when they have to speak directly, even though they are good at written tests or grammar exercises. this difference between what students know and how they use it shows the need to study the factors that make them difficult to speak clearly and effectively. these problems often cause serious challenges for efl learners and slow down their overall language development. in addition, although students have learned english for many years at school and university, many of them still find it hard to speak english fluently and confidently. this may be because english ability is required for some job opportunities in indonesia (wahyuningsih & maisyanah, 2021). one way for students to solve these problems and improve their speaking skills is by participating in an english-speaking club because the club provides a place and facilities for students to communicate and interact with others. in addition, the speaking club serves as a supportive environment that helps students enhance their english skills comprehensively, especially in speaking (riyadini, 2022). the main goal is to help students develop speaking abilities, confidence, and the willingness to speak more frequently. activities in english clubs encourage students to actively use english in conversations, which helps increase their speaking confidence (rachmania et al., 2022). in addition, maming et al., 2024 found that students felt their speaking skills improved after joining an http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 439 english club because the supportive environment and their friends motivated them to keep learning and practicing. there have been several previous studies discussing the role of english club, including (ekawati & sarie, n.d.; hijrah & umar, 2021; mattarima et al., 2022; syahfutra et al., 2025). these four studies focused on english clubs as the main research subject and used a quantitative approach. these studies have not yet thoroughly revealed the actual process of interaction, the dynamics of activities, and the behavior of participants during the implementation of english clubs through direct observation in the field. therefore, the novelty of this study lies in the use of a qualitative approach with observation methods, which specifically observes how the activities conducted in the english club that can develop or improve students speaking skills to determine whether the english club is an effective environment for students to develop their speaking skills, how members and facilitators interact, the strategies used in practice, and the spontaneous responses of participants during activities. this research not only assesses results or perceptions but also reveals the actual learning process, thereby providing a more comprehensive and contextual picture of the role of english clubs in the development of english language skills. to fill this gap, the researcher interested in conducting research on “the role of tbi millennial english club in facilitating students' speaking skills.” the research question of this study is “how does the tbi millennial english club facilitate students’ speaking skills?” methods this study employed a qualitative descriptive research design to obtain a comprehensive understanding of how the time club program facilitates the development of students’ speaking skills and how the activities conducted in the club are interpreted by both students and lecturers. a qualitative approach was deemed most suitable because it allows researchers to explore meaning within natural settings and examine participants’ experiences in depth. as creswell (2014) explains, qualitative research is an approach for exploring and understanding the meanings that individuals or groups assign to a social or human problem. in line with this perspective, the present study sought to capture the authentic interactions, behaviors, and perceptions that emerged within the time club environment. the research was conducted at the time club at institut agama islam negeri bone and involved students from the tbi 1 class of the 2024 cohort who regularly participated in the program, as well as one english lecturer who also served as a club facilitator. participants were selected using purposive sampling to ensure that information-rich cases were included and to allow the researcher to obtain in-depth data relevant to the study’s focus. the criteria for inclusion required that students had attended at least 12 meetings and perceived themselves as having experienced benefits from participating in the club. the lecturer selected for the study had at least five years of teaching experience and played an active role as a facilitator in the program. data were collected through non-participant observation using an observation checklist adapted and modified from gafur (2012), complemented by field notes. the observations were conducted to capture the authentic teaching and learning processes that http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 440 occurred during time club sessions. particular attention was given to how the facilitator organized the learning stages, provided scaffolding, and supported students during activities, as well as how students interacted with peers and the lecturer. the observations also documented the ways students used english in authentic situations to practice and develop their speaking skills. before conducting observations, the researcher first carried out interviews with selected students and the lecturer to confirm that they met the sampling criteria. these interviews also helped establish baseline insights that were later compared against the naturally occurring behaviors documented during observation sessions. the data analysis followed the interactive model proposed by miles et al. (2014), which consists of three interconnected phases: data condensation, data display, and conclusion drawing or verification. during data condensation, the researcher reviewed all observation notes and relevant documents, selecting and simplifying information to focus on key aspects such as student participation, facilitator support, interaction patterns, and the overall conduct of speaking activities. the reduced data were then organized into coherent displays, including descriptive summaries and analytic matrices, to reveal relationships and recurring patterns. in the final phase, conclusions were drawn and verified by comparing findings across different data sources, cross-checking emerging interpretations, and ensuring that the conclusions reflected the actual conditions observed in the field. this analytic process ensured that the findings were grounded in empirical evidence and aligned with the goals of the study. to enhance the rigor and trustworthiness of the study, several strategies were employed, including prolonged engagement during multiple weeks of observation, methodological triangulation through the use of both observational and documentary data, peer debriefing among the research team, and the use of thick, descriptive accounts to convey the learning context. these strategies supported the credibility, dependability, and confirmability of the findings. in addition, ethical considerations were carefully observed. students and facilitators were informed about the purpose of the study, and participation was voluntary. no personal identities were recorded, and all data were treated confidentially and used solely for academic purposes. results in facilitating students' speaking skills, tbi millennial english club has several activities. based on observation, the activities carried out in the time club begin with an opening by the facilitator, in this case, the lecturer. the lecturer opens the class by saying hello and explaining that the material to be presented is speaking. before getting into the main material, the lecturer explains that they will first engage in chit-chat, the purpose of which is to train students' critical thinking. the lecturer presents the theme to be discussed, which is k-pop and mobile legends, or anything else that students know about current hot topics. this activity begins with the lecturer sharing some of their experiences related to the theme, followed by students who are given the opportunity to also share some of their experiences. after the chit-chat activity, the lecturer delivered the core material to be studied, namely “telling routine.” the lecturer delivered the material to be studied and then sent it http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 441 through the class group that had been created earlier. after that, the lecturer explained what was in the material before the students practiced it. after explaining the material, the lecturer then introduced the speaking activity to be carried out, namely “interviews.” students had to interview their friends and ask them about their daily activities. after interviewing each other and obtaining answers, the students then presented and recounted what they had learned from the interviews. after the main activity was completed, the lecturer provided some feedback and explained that the speaking activity they had done was to practice the students' speaking skills, critical thinking, and confidence. after providing some comments, the lecturer then closed the meeting with a greeting. speaking sessions are regularly provided, and all students are given speaking opportunities the main activity in the time class is a speaking session provided by the lecturer, including speeches, debates, storytelling, or discussion, and all students are given the opportunity to speak and express their opinions. the aim is to familiarize students with speaking english directly and expressing their opinions directly without having to prepare a script in advance. furthermore, the aim is also for students to improve their critical thinking so that they can explore their opinions directly. table 1. observation checklist result aspects indicators yes no notes main activity speaking sessions are regularly provided (e.g., speeches, debates, storytelling, discussions) and all students are given speaking opportunities. √ based on the observation result, before proceeding to the main activity in the speaking material, the lecturer conducted a more relaxed speaking activity called “chit-chat.” chit-chat is a more relaxed speaking activity with different themes for each meeting. in the observation results, the lecturer gave students themes related to k-pop or mobile legends, or anything that students knew about current news or viral topics. the chit-chat activity began with the lecturer sharing their experiences, after which the students were given the opportunity to share their experiences or opinions as well. extract 1 lecturer: “let’s talk about k-pop or mobile legend for the boy” students: “yes...” lecturer: “ya, you may. you can say what you know about the current or viral news. (observation) in this activity, it was observed that the chit-chat or speaking activity involved sharing experiences about k-pop or mobile legends, which was initiated by the lecturer, who shared his own experiences with k-pop and mobile legends. after sharing their experiences, the http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 442 lecturer asked all students if anyone else wanted to share their experiences as well. therefore, it can be concluded that the speaking activity conducted was a “sharing session”, and all students were given the opportunity to speak, express their opinions, or share their experiences. the facilitator gives material for the language program activity and constructive feedback in this phase, the lecturer gives materials to students through group that have been created beforehand. the materials discuss daily routines that students will use to explain their daily routines, what they do, and ask their friends about theirs as well. table 2. observation checklist result aspects indicators yes no notes main activity facilitator gives material for the language program activity and constructive feedback. √ based on observation, after doing the chit-chat with students, the lecturer announced the next activity, which was speaking practice. the speaking practice involved talking about daily routines, and the lecturer shared the prepared material with the class whatsapp group that had been created beforehand. extract 2 lecturer: “that’s some material or information about how to tell routine in english. so, actually the main points or the key elements of telling routine in english is the use of simple?” students: “simple present tense” (observation) the observation shows the lecturer asks students to do speaking practice and has distributed materials to students through a group they created earlier. the lecturer explains that the materials contain information on how to describe daily routines in english. before doing the practice, the lecturer provides some explanations about the materials, saying that the key element in describing routines is the use of the simple present tense and adverbs of frequency. in conclusion, the facilities provided by the lecturer in the time class program include several materials that will be used for speaking practice, in this case, materials about telling routines. what’s more, before practicing, lecturers first explain the steps to be taken and also explain the content and essence of the materials that have been distributed. used of varied speaking activities at this stage, the lecturer explains the rules that students must follow, which are to provide books and then interview their friends. the questions to be asked have also been http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 443 sent by the lecturer. all that remains is for the students to make a table and then conduct the interviews. table 3. observation checklist result aspects indicators yes no notes main activity used of varied speaking activity √ based on observation, after the lecturer distributed the material to the students and explained it, the lecturer then informed the students of the rules they must follow. the lecturer said that the students must conduct interviews. extract 3 lecturer: “open your book, blank page and make a table like this. so, we will practice, we will interview. i’ve sent list of questions on group. do you see the question? students: “yes” lecturer: “so, what you have to do next is interviewing. so, find do you want interview is, inside this class, your friend, whatever up to you” (observation) before conducting the interview, the lecturer instructed the students to take their books and draw tables based on the material that had been provided previously. the material also contained questions that the students would ask their friends. students could choose anyone they wanted to interview, as long as the friends they chose were still in the class. it can be concluded that the speaking activity carried out was an interview, because after explaining the material and giving instructions on what to do, the lecturer instructed the students to interview their classmates. number of students actively participating in the program during the chit-chat session between the lecturer and students, it was evident that all students were given the opportunity to express their opinions or share their experiences on the given topics, namely k-pop, mobile legends, and anything they knew about current news or viral topics. table 4. observation checklist result aspects indicators yes no notes main activity used of varied speaking activity √ based on observation, all students were given the opportunity to speak, and several students actively participated in the speaking activity. the students who spoke shared different experiences. some discussed k-pop, specifically their favorite korean boy band, http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 444 while others talked about their favorite dramas and movies. there were also those who talked about mobile legends, their favorite game. extract 4 lecturer: “anybody wants to speak? (one of student raises his hands) ya, i want hear from you. you like watching korean drama, right?” students: “yes” lecturer: “so tell me whatever about that” (observation) based on the result of observation, it can be seen that several students actively participated in talking about what they knew about the given theme or anything about their experiences. some students actively spoke in english and were more fluent in speaking. the lecturer also said that the purpose of this chit-chat activity was to make students more fluent and confident in expressing their opinions, as well as to improve their critical thinking skills. the lecturer also said that he did not care about grammar or pronunciation mistakes, as long as students were able and willing to speak and express their opinions or simply share their experiences using english. it can be concluded that lecturers provide opportunities for all students to speak english and express their opinions or simply share some of their experiences, and some students actively participate in speaking during these activities. the facilitator provides opportunities for critical thinking after the speaking activity was completed, the lecturer conveyed several messages to the students. the speaking activity was conducted to train students' critical thinking, confidence, and of course, to practice speaking english more fluently. table 5. observation checklist result aspects indicators yes no notes closing facilitator provides opportunities for critical thinking √ at the closing stage, the lecturer explained that the purpose of the chit-chat was to practice the students' speaking skills. in addition, this activity also aimed to train students' critical thinking, as practice and critical thinking are excellent ways to develop speaking skills. furthermore, confidence when speaking is also a very important part, which is why this activity was carried out. extract 5 lecturer: “okey so that’s a chit-chat part” students: “yes” lecturer: “that is to try your critical thinking, your confidence. so insyaaallah for the following meetings we also will doing chit-chat but i will not inform the topic so we http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 445 will choose the topic at the place. that’s just to train your confidence, your critical thinking and your practice” (observation) the observation shows that after conducting a speaking activity, namely “chit-chat,” the lecturer explained that the purpose of the activity was to train students' critical thinking skills, namely, how students can think critically spontaneously without prior training or concepts. additionally, the goal was also to build students' confidence or improve their confidence in speaking english. therefore, the lecturer said that before getting into the main lesson, they would first engage in chit-chat on a topic that would be decided on the spot, which was also intended as a forum for students to practice. in conclusion, this is a facility that provides opportunities for direct speaking practice, speaking in english to train students' critical thinking and confidence, not just providing materials in the form of books, modules, or explanations. facilitator provides feedback the feedback referred to here is how facilitators or lecturers respond to speaking activities that have been carried out. of course, the feedback is expected to build students' enthusiasm or motivation to learn, especially in speaking english. table 6. observation checklist result aspects indicators yes no notes closing facilitator provides feedback √ constructive feedback is very important for students to stay enthusiastic or motivated to continue learning. feedback given by the lecturer is a message that lecturers do not care about grammar mistakes or pronunciation errors because the most important thing is how students can learn to be confident when speaking english. extract 6 lecturer: “there is no grammar correction, there is no pronunciation correction. students: “yes” lecturer: “when you speak with wrong grammar or bad pronunciation, i don’t care. what i notice is your confidence, how you can speak. so that’s a really important skill in speaking, that how to speak without any preparation (observation) the results of the observation show that the lecturer give her views or responses regarding how students speak. lecturers say that they do not care about grammatical errors when speaking or pronunciation mistakes. the most important thing is how students can be confident when speaking english. in addition, the lecturer also said that confidence is one of the most important skills in speaking. no matter how someone's grammar or pronunciation http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 446 is, the most important thing is that they are willing, try, and remain confident to speak in front of others. it can be concluded that feedback is very important in encouraging a person's desire or motivation to learn and speak. after conducting speaking activities, providing feedback is very important so that students can identify their weaknesses, and this feedback must be constructive so that students remain motivated to continue learning. discussion the findings of this study indicate that the time club plays a substantial role in enhancing students’ speaking skills by providing authentic opportunities for communication, a supportive learning environment, and structured facilitator guidance. evidence from observations, as well as perceptions from both lecturers and students, confirms that the program contributes not only to the improvement of speaking abilities but also to students’ broader english language competence. among the various aspects of speaking, fluency and confidence emerged as the most notable areas of development. these findings align with hijrah & umar, (2021), who argue that english clubs act as supplementary learning spaces where students feel empowered to use english more freely. as learners gain confidence, their speaking performance improves while their motivation to continue practicing increases simultaneously. the study also supports the view that english clubs serve as effective alternative platforms for speaking development. (rao, 2019) highlights that english clubs offer learners opportunities not only to develop speaking proficiency but also to strengthen their motivation and confidence by engaging in meaningful communication. this was evident at the time club, where students reported increased comfort in expressing their ideas and participating in diverse communicative tasks. furthermore, students described improvements in vocabulary, pronunciation, and overall fluency, facilitated by engaging activities such as discussions, storytelling, and role-plays. the small number of participants allowed for equal participation and fostered a sense of security, enabling students to take communicative risks without fear of judgment. this observation is consistent with hwang et al., (2024), who emphasize that english clubs ensure equal participation by encouraging all members to speak in group discussions and structured role-play scenarios. peer support was another factor that positively influenced students’ affective responses. the collaborative and nonthreatening atmosphere encouraged learners to experiment with new expressions, learn idiomatic language, and build confidence. this aligns with kornbluh (2023), who notes that comfortable learning environments promote vocabulary development and enrich students’ communicative competence by encouraging frequent and varied language use. a key finding from the observations concerns the role of facilitator feedback. the lecturer emphasized that her primary goal was to build students’ confidence rather than demand grammatical accuracy or perfect pronunciation. this approach is in accordance with ur (1996), who maintains that feedback—whether in the form of correction, praise, or encouragement—is essential to language development because it guides learners’ attention toward meaningful aspects of performance. the lecturer’s use of encouraging and nonhttp://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 447 evaluative feedback helped reduce anxiety and promoted a focus on communication rather than correctness. at the same time, the provision of direct corrective feedback when necessary, particularly on pronunciation, grammar, or vocabulary, corresponds with long’s (1996) interaction hypothesis, which argues that negotiated interaction and corrective feedback facilitate language development and communicative competence. additionally, the reflective nature of feedback also resonates with kolb’s (1984) experiential learning theory, which emphasizes the importance of reflection in the learning cycle. feedback in the english club allowed students to evaluate their performance, recognize areas requiring improvement, and refine their communicative abilities. this reflective process made their participation more purposeful and ensured that their learning experiences translated into observable gains in speaking proficiency. overall, the discussion underscores that the time club provides a holistic environment for language development: one that integrates cognitive, social, and affective dimensions of speaking. through meaningful practice, supportive peer interaction, and constructive feedback, the environment nurtures learners’ confidence and communicative competence, demonstrating the value of extracurricular speaking programs as complementary components of english language education. conclusion this study demonstrates that the tbi millennial english club plays an important role in supporting students’ speaking development through structured, interactive, and socially supportive learning experiences. the findings show that students benefit from three key aspects of the club’s implementation: (1) consistent opportunities to engage in authentic speaking activities, (2) constructive facilitator–learner interaction supported by timely feedback, and (3) a motivational learning environment that reduces anxiety and increases learners’ willingness to communicate. together, these elements contribute to learners’ improved fluency, accuracy, and confidence in using english orally. the study highlights the potential of english clubs and other nonformal learning communities as effective complements to classroom instruction, particularly in efl contexts where exposure to real communication is limited. by providing low-pressure, highengagement speaking opportunities, such clubs can foster meaningful language use and strengthen learners’ communicative competence. practically, the findings offer several implications for educators and institutions. english departments and teacher-training programs should encourage active participation in extracurricular speaking clubs, ensure that facilitators receive proper training in providing scaffolded support, and integrate structured speaking tasks that reflect communicative language teaching principles. institutions may also consider formal collaboration between english clubs and classroom courses to enhance speaking practice beyond the limited time available in regular lessons. despite its contributions, this study is limited by its focus on one english club and reliance primarily on observational data. future research may expand the participant base, incorporate interviews or focus group discussions, and compare the effectiveness of different types of english clubs. a longitudinal design could also better capture changes in http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 448 speaking proficiency over time. further exploration of digital or hybrid english club formats may offer additional insights into technology-enhanced speaking practice. in conclusion, the tbi millennial english club provides a valuable learning space that meaningfully enhances students’ speaking skills. by integrating regular speaking opportunities, supportive facilitation, and positive peer interaction, the club demonstrates how nonformal learning initiatives can contribute significantly to students’ communicative development in efl settings. acknowledgment the researcher would like to express their deepest gratitude to institut agama islam negeri bone for granting permission to conduct research there. special thanks also go to the lecturers of tadris bahasa inggris and tbi students who took the time to participate in this research. references adem, h., & berkessa, m. (2022). a case study of efl teachers’ practice of teaching speaking skills vis-à-vis the principles of communicative language teaching (clt). cogent education, 9(1), 2087458. https://doi.org/10.1080/2331186x.2022.2087458 angraeni, l. (2024). navigating barriers to english proficiency: a qualitative descriptive study among university students in indonesia. 23(2). creswell, j. w. (2014). research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. (4 th ed.). los angeles, ca: sage. ekawati, r. a., & sarie, r. f. (n.d.). english club to develop english language skills: a case study of an elementary school in indonesia. gafur, a. (2012). desain pembelajaran: konsep, model dan aplikasi dalam perencanaan pelaksanaan pembelajaran. yogyakarta: ombak. gayatri, p., sit, h., chen, s., & li, h. (2023). sustainable efl blended education in indonesia: practical recommendations. sustainability, 15(3), 2254. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15032254 hijrah, h., & umar, n. h. (2021). english meeting club: students’ perception and their speaking skill. journal of development research, 5(2), 171–176. https://doi.org/10.28926/jdr.v5i2.181 holandyah, m., marzulina, l., erlina, d., harto, k., amalia, f., fridiyanto, f., & mukminin, a. (2022). speaking challenges in a life skill program for islamic boarding school students: a case study. journal of language teaching and research, 13(3), 670–677. https://doi.org/10.17507/jltr.1303.23 hwang, g.-j., rahimi, m., & fathi, j. (2024). enhancing efl learners’ speaking skills, foreign language enjoyment, and language-specific grit utilising the affordances of a mall app: http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 449 a microgenetic perspective. computers & education, 214, 105015. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2024.105015 kashinathan, s., & abdul aziz, a. (2021). esl learners’ challenges in speaking english in malaysian classroom. international journal of academic research in progressive education and development, 10(2), pages 983-991. https://doi.org/10.6007/ijarped/v10-i2/10355 kolb, d. a. (1984). experiential learning: experience as the source of learning and development. englewood cliffs, nj: prentice hall. http://academic.regis.edu/ed205/kolb.pdf kornbluh, m. (2023). facilitation strategies for conducting focus groups attending to issues of power. qualitative research in psychology, 20(1), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/14780887.2022.2066036 kusuma, i. p. i. (n.d.). speaking issues faced by indonesian students during classroom discussions in the us. long, m. h. (1996). the role of the linguistic environment in second language acquisition. in handbook of second language acquisition (pp. 413–468). elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-012589042-7/50015-3 maming, k., sianna, hasman, maria elaine a cabuso, & eka sasmita. (2024). existence of english meeting club in supporting the english-speaking skill of university students: their constructive voices. eduvelop: journal of english education and development, 7(2), 65–85. https://doi.org/10.31605/eduvelop.v7i2.3656 mattarima, s. m. u., afifi, n., & qamaria, r. s. (2022). english study club: how students’ mental attributes reflect their motivation. celtic : a journal of culture, english language teaching, literature and linguistics, 9(1), 120–134. https://doi.org/10.22219/celtic.v9i1.18975 miles, m.b, huberman, a.m, & saldana, j. (2014). qualitative data aanlysis, a methods sourcebook, edition 3 usa: sage publication. terjemahan tjetjep rohindi rohidi, uipress. puspitasari, m. (2025). navigating classroom challenges and curriculum changes: a qualitative study of an english teacher’s journey in the indonesian education system. power and education, 17(3), 364–379. https://doi.org/10.1177/17577438241275799 qasemi, a. s. (2020). factors affecting students’ speaking performance in english department of jawzjan university. international journal of innovative research and scientific studies, 3(4), 129–134. https://doi.org/10.53894/ijirss.v3i4.46 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://academic.regis.edu/ed205/kolb.pdf copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 450 rachmania, a., anshori, h., putri, m. k., & nanda, o. c. (2022). english club in university: exploring its advantages and disadvantages. rao, p. s. (2019). the importance of speaking skills in english classrooms. alford council of international english & literature journal (acielj), 2(2), 6-18. riyadini, m. v. (2022). english foreign language students’ perceptions of an online english speaking club in higher education: 5th international conference on current issues in education (iccie 2021), yogyakarta, indonesia. https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.220129.036 rose, h., mckinley, j., & galloway, n. (2021). global englishes and language teaching: a review of pedagogical research. language teaching, 54(2), 157–189. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0261444820000518 roshid, m. m., & kankaanranta, a. (2025). english communication skills in international business: industry expectations versus university preparation. business and professional communication quarterly, 88(1), 100–125. https://doi.org/10.1177/23294906231184814 syahfutra, w., afrezah, n. n., muthmainnah, i., hayati, nadira, p., aufa, r., & fitri, m. (2025). analysis of the effect of english club activities on student’s grammar ability. action research journal indonesia (arji), 7(1). https://doi.org/10.61227/arji.v7i1.295 ur, p. (1996). a course in language teaching: practice and theory. cambridge university press. victoria, m., xu, f. h., & pilcher, n. (2025). english as a lingua franca: intercultural interaction in the context of asian ‘third space.’ asian englishes, 27(1), 159–177. https://doi.org/10.1080/13488678.2024.2405278 wahyuningsih, s., & maisyanah, m. (2021). exploring english speaking problems in higher education: pre-service english teachers’ perspectives. journal of english teaching and learning issues, 4(1), 19. https://doi.org/10.21043/jetli.v4i1.10786 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 1, january 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 49 developing basic english module for secondary level: task based language teaching e-mail : sthartina@iainpalopo.ac.id abstract the purpose of this study is to provide a suitable english-language curriculum for smp negeri 1 bone-bone. the five steps of the addie model—analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation—are used in research and development as part of the research design. it used ellis's (2017) task based approach as a model to create the module. this research uses instruments such as observation, a questionnaire and interview for need analysis, expert validation, and a questionnaire for student and teacher perception. that designed module was tested on ten students of smp negeri 1 bone-bone. therefore, the students' perception results obtained an average score of 3.64 which shows that the english module design is suitable for smp negeri 1 bone-bone. these results are supported by the results of the student questionnaire at smp negeri 1 bone-bone which are summarized as follows: the module consists of three themes, covering student needs, attractive design and layout, various integrated activities and skills, and providing guidelines for use. with modules, students can learn independently because they are adaptive and the instructions are easy. keywords: english module, research and development, task based language teaching introduction the importance of the module is a form of teaching material packaged safely overall and systematically, including a set of planned learning experiences designed to help students master specific learning objectives. when relevant material is applied, they will realize that english can help them study their major (sahraini 2020). the module contains a minimum of learning objectives, material/substance, and evaluation (palukadang, 2020). a module is a medium that has complete functions like a book in a short and more interesting version. therefore the module allows students to study each material with a longer duration of time so that students can discover their own understanding even without teacher supervision in class (martiningsih,lisdiana,& susilowati, 2019). modules designed in such a way that students can understand it in a way themselves. so far, teachers only use general english books for learning media. existing textbooks are no longer relevant to the current curriculum, and there is no special english module. research has shown that the module is designed to help students understand individual material indicated the module's validity and practicality in improving students' reading comprehension (krimm & lund 2021; furwana 2023) eka puspa sari1, st.hartina2*, & sahraini 1,2,3state islamic institute of palopo, palopo, indonesia http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 1, january 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 50 based on preliminary observation in smp negeri 1 bone-bone, the study found no english module at the school. so far, teachers only use general english books for learning media. existing textbooks are no longer relevant to the current curriculum, and there is no special english module.teachers highly advise introducing reading modules as supplementary learning materials. this module will serve as additional material to help students learn independently whenever and wherever they want. in addition, occasionally students feel very bored and sleepy because of the monotonous learning model and the use of less interesting media. therefore, the use of additional media in the learning process is considerably essential. hopefully, it will increase students' interest in learning so that learning at school can be more effective. according to tomlison (2023), when relevant material is applied, they will realize that english can help them study their major. developing english modules aids to create of good language comprehension and decoding abilities, both of which are requirements for great reading comprehension. speaking, writing, reading, and listening are the four language abilities that are tested in modules, which also improves test accuracy and enables people to use english in a range of situations (newton et.al, 2018). the module also assists teachers in comprehending the value of academic english, second language acquisition, and teaching strategies that improve english language learners' learning. additionally, the module seeks to increase students' comfort levels with the use of english in a variety of formal and informal communication contexts (ali & razali, 2018; elleman & oslund, 2019). task-based language teaching (tblt) is a teaching method that focuses on the completion of meaningful tasks using authentic language. the goal of task-based language instruction (tblt) is to have students utilize real language to complete tasks that have meaning (ellis et.al, 2020). three phases make up the approach: language concentration, task cycle, and pre-task. the teacher presents the subject and provides students with explicit instructions and guidelines about the pre-task phase (chen & wang, 2019). the task cycle includes planning, reporting, and task completion. lastly, the teacher addresses any language-related concerns that surfaced during the task cycle and offers feedback on language use during the language focus stage (bandhari,2020). tblt is a student-centered methodology that promotes critical thinking, cooperation, and communication. adapted from ellis et.al (2020), to design a book using a task-based learning approach, educators can follow these steps. first, obtaining learner data which is aimed to understand the needs, interests, and linguistic proficiency of the students using the book in order to provide assignments that are both relevant and interesting. next, add the pre-task, task, and language focus parts to the task cycle. in pre-task, the content introduces the topic of each unit or chapter and provides clear instructions. create assignments that require students to use the target language to accomplish relevant, real-world tasks after that. after that, language focus should give students the chance to utilize the target language in real-world contexts and offer feedback on how they use it. this study aimed to design the english module for smp negeri 1 bone-bone. one of them is to help with tedious and ineffective teaching procedures for learning to read by using module teaching resources. students can manage their own previously studied educational materials by using the module. this module is designed to help students understand http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 1, january 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 51 individual material. the design of this module is made on the front cover, back cover, foreword, table of contents, basic competencies, summary, assignments, exercise, and library list. it will help direct english learning to achieve learning objectives which are prepared according to the stage of development of students' english skills.. methods design of research this research is a research and development. the research and development technique was employed in the study's design. books, worksheets, curricula, modules, software, applications, and other goods are all examples of research and development products. in husnaini’s research, the approach used in research is research and development research or development using the addie development model. the addie model created by dick and carey was employed by researchers in this study (1996). in masruddin’s research the addie method had a positive impact on research. participants of the research two hundred and five students from seven classes became users of the product. to evaluated the product directly, researchers conducted product trials on class viii students of smp negeri 1 bone-bone as research subjects, totaling 30 students. techniques of data collection the technique of data collection in this research used several instruments used by researchers in obtaining data, including: observation, questionnaire and interview. observation was conducted on september 14, 2021. researchers wasobserve the obstacles students face in learning english reading. in addition, the questionnaire is divided into two forms. the questionnaire is for need analysis, assessment and responses by experts (content experts, media experts and design and layout expert) and students’ perceptions. in st. hartina and syahrir, the need analysis is collected through a questionnaire. the data is relevant and follows the needs of students. these questionnaires are the primary data. the last, researcher conducted interviews with english teachers at smp negeri 1 bone-bone to collect data or information to support data from the questionnaire in obtaining more specific information or, in other words, secondary data. techniques of data analysis the analysis techniques of this research used two kinds of techniques. they are qualitative and quantitative descriptive. qualitative analysis is data in the form of interviews and advice from experts. the data analyzed descriptively quantitatively is questionnaire data. the data was analyzed through a quantitative descriptive method by calculating the percentage of the answer. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 1, january 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 52 development procedures the stages in developing this learning module are as follows following: 1. analysis stage: in this first stage, the researcher carried out an analysis needs and identification of problems in class viii students at smp negeri 1 bone – bone. 2. design stage: based on the results of the analysis carried out at the first step then the researcher identified results of the needs analysis to design the special objectives and instructions as well as writing a syllabus for using the module. 3. development stage: at the product development stage, the researchers collected material, selected relevant material then, it develop the to first draft by selecting the objective, learning activities, content and layout. the first draft then was validated by the language, content and design and layout expert. the correction and suggestion from all the expert then usen to revise the draft until available for trying out. 4. implementation stage: the designed draft then tried out to the students of the second grade. the researchers used the module for teaching english. next, the participants were given the questionnaire to find out the students’ perception toward the module. 5. evaluation stage: the result of students’ perception were adapted to fix the english module. after fixed, the modules were distributed to the schools. results need analysis the results of the questionnaire validation by expert in designing materials, researchers need to collect the needed information and know the characteristics of students at smp negeri 1 bone-bone. therefore, the researcher distributed 30 questionnaires related to target needs (needs, wants, and deficiencies) and learning needs (activity, setting, teacher's role, and student's role). before distributing the questionnaire to the respondents, it was validated by two validators. the results of instrument validation are shown below. table 1. the instrument validation score aspects score contents 4,33 scope of the contents 4 language 4,5 average score 4,33 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 1, january 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 53 learning materials chart 1. topic preferences for speaking activity the given chart 1 enumerates the percentages of speaking theme selection. the chart has eight themes: greeting card 18,75%, storytelling 14%. daily activity 18,37%, describing people 18%. describing place 16,37%, asking and giving permission 17,87%, expression to invite others 15,62%. checking the understanding 16,37%. eventually, students choose a reading theme, “greeting card” (18,75%). chart 2. the preferences for reading activity the given chart illustrates the reading activity preferences. it is readily apparent that there are 45% chose extensive reading, 15 % intensive reading, 20% aloud reading, and 20% silent reading. overall, the highest option is extensive reading. 18.7 14 18.37 18 16.37 17.87 15.62 16.37 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 percentage extensive reading intensive reading reading aloud category 4 45% 15.00% 20% 20% percentage http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 1, january 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 54 chart 3. necessities of writing activity chart 3 displays the preferences activity in writing class. it is clearly seen that make the sentences is the highest (43%) following by describing things (24%), summarizing the passage (13%). furthermore, writing report and other text is 13% and the last writing memo and letter (7%). chart 4. necessities for listening activity the chart above given the information about the listening activity that the students want. the highest percentage is listen and answer (46%), the second is listen and retell (37%), then listen and do (11%) and the smallest is listen and repeat (6%). designing course objectives the english module is aimed at the english language students of smp negeri 1 bonebone. the researcher formulated the following course objectives based on the needs analysis results above. after setting goals, the researcher compiled the english module topic based on the needs analysis results. the topics are daily activities, greeting cards, and it’s english time. then, the researcher formulated learning objectives for each topic. a description of the learning objectives can be seen in table 4.4 below 0 43 24 13 13 7 make sentences describing things summarizing the passage writing report , narrative and etc write memo and letter percentage 37 46 11 6 0 10 20 30 40 50 listen and retell listen and answer listen and do listen and repeat series 1 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 1, january 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 55 table 2. the learning objectives of the designed module designing material and activities at this stage, the researcher selects several appropriate materials and the activities of each unit. based on the needs analysis and research limitation results, the module was contain three units with the highest percentage of student needs; they introduce themselves and others, daily activities, and ask and give an opinion. activities are selected based on the student&#39;s knowledge and skills. furthermore, the researcher considers which activity to choose can strengthen the students of smp negeri 1 bone-bone in achieving achievement and learning objectives. the results of this stage are reflected through the course grid, shown in the attachment. the first draft of the english module the contents of the module are arranged based on the course grid. this module consists of three units and five tasks for each unit. the tasks are adapted from tb (taskbased language teaching),the module that has been made starting from the unit, learning objective, assignments, and task objective in the module. the first draft of the english module is presented below: unit 1: what does your typical day look like? unit 2: i’m so happy for you! unit 3: it’s english time! the explanation of each step is shown below: 1) let’s get ready: this chapter is an introductory session. in this phase, in general, an overview of the material is given to students. most contain brainstorming activities. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 1, january 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 56 furthermore, this phase allows students to fully engage in the learning process by discussing certain topics to be studied. 2) let’s practice: this phase of that unit provides a chance for students to practice lessons in that 3) unit. 4) grammar focus: this chapter is the part that provides lexico grammatical features needed to compose a text. it aims to assist students in mastering grammar to facilitate students in the next stage. 5) let’s do more: this chapter focuses on student practice and aims to train students to understand better what has been done before, get used to answering questions, and train students’ ability to answer questions. validation of the first draft after designing the first draft, it shared to the language, content, and layout expert. the results of the expert validation is summarized as follows: table 3. the results of the instrument’s validation by the material expert aspects score category content 3.65 the module it can be utilized without revision. language 3.42 the module it can be utilized with a little bit revision design and layout 3, 46 the module it can be utilized with a little bit revision average score 3,66 it is clearly seen that, the content expert score 3.65 which is indicated that it can be used without revision. however, both the language and layout and design expert suggest a little bit revision. therefore, the researcher revised the module draft based on the expert suggestion and correction. the revision of the final draft can be seen below: figure 1. the design of the final draft http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 1, january 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 57 implementation at this stage, the revised product is implemented for several multiple students. this trial was carried out at smp negeri 1 bone-bone in two days. held on 08-09 june 2023 with only ten students and three meetings. each meeting lasts 30 minutes. in this limited trial, the researcher only carried out several representative task effective for 30 minutes. in addition, it implements the designed english module. due to limitations, time and opportunity, the researcher briefly explained how to use the english module. the researcher begins to explain the english module guide, instructions, how to work on problems, learning journals, and how to make your mini dictionary. it aims to clarify how to use the product to students who are not confused about utilizing the english module. trials at this stage aim to determine the english modul effectiveness and attractiveness. results. the test results will be displayed at the evaluation stage. table 4. the result of students perception the result of students’ perception got a mean score of 3,64, with 91% of percentages qualified as “excellent.” it indicates that the module can be used without revision. in addition, the researcher also asked several students related to this matter about the suitability of the module english to its needs. as a result, all students answered that the english module was following their needs. besides, students provided some comments related to the designed module as below: http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 1, january 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 58 excerpt 1 “the design module is interesting. the layout is good”. excerpt 2 “the design module is really good. it contains all the activities we need in our program”. excerpt 3 the design module is interesting because it contains assignments, materials, a pronunciation guide, and grammar rules that didn’t exist before the product. it also contains space to create our mini vocabulary”. it has clear instructions that make it easier for teachers and students to use english modules. in addition, the language used is easy to understand. as a suggestion, researchers must add module usage guidelines to provide more information about the designed english reading module. final product in the books used by students at school, there is too much emphasis on providing complicated material and the assignments in the books are too monotonous so that students feel more bored, whereas in the modules, it is more direct for students to improve students’ english. this module contains three units. english modules are developed based on student needs. it is an interesting read with varied and useful topics suitable for 2 nd -grade junior high school students provided in the english module. the english is also equipped with picture illustrations related to the topic. the module provides various exercises or assignments like essays, true/false, and others to sharpen students; understanding of english texts. students’ english skills are also used in the english module. students are expected to be able to improve their thinking to achieve the english target. discussion realizing english is a skill that needs to be mastered in this modern era, but when learning this skill, students face several problems, such as lack of self-confidence, vocabulary, pronunciation and grammar. confusion in developing ideas and arranging words and not having the right learning materials to guide learning. this research aims to develop an appropriate english module for smp 1 bone-bone to overcome these problems. apart from that, it also aims to determine student perceptions of the design module to support the suitability and effectiveness of design products. with the english module, students can have written guidance in the learning process; they become more active, enthusiastic, and motivated in involving themselves to complete individual speaking assignments/practices in pairs or groups, and the learning process becomes more enjoyable (hartina & syahrir, 2021) as the product of this research, the english module was developed using addie models. it consists of five steps: analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation. product design also uses the tblt (task-based language teaching) approach in developing the english reading module. task-based language teaching (tblt) modules are strong because they allow students to use language in meaningful, practical contexts, foster http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 1, january 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 59 communication skills, and offer chances for language learning (shashikala,2018) . using real language in problem-solving activities is encouraged by tblt, which can improve students' motivation and language skills (sholeh,2020) . furthermore, by simulating important scenarios like business meetings, vacation arrangements, or social gatherings, tblt exercises enable students to use their language abilities in real-world settings (willis, 2021). additionally, this method helps pupils improve their conversational and grammatical skills. moreover, tblt is an efficient and student-centered way of teaching languages since it can be customized to meet the needs of the students (viriya, 2018; prianty,ngadiso & wijayanto, 2021). the material is selected considering the level of the student and students' problems in learning to speak. most students' reading skills are at the basic level, where these problems often occur. what they face is difficulty in reading. the type of speech corresponds to students' wishes based on the needs analysis results, which are responsive, intensive, imitative, extensive, and extensive. the activities contained in the design reading module are dialogues and creative tasks, reading greeting cards, everyday stories, and discussions. therefore, researchers adapt all sorts of activities to assign different assignments to students. the assignments in this reading module adapt the task-based language teaching approach. this similar type of module has been developed by novitri (2017) and found that the developing english module was valid and practical and and it could be used to develop students' quality in learning english (novitri, 2017) align with meidayanti (2020) which has developed a communicative basic english module for english learning. the results revealed that the module strongly affected the students' attitude in learning english. the results of the interview are also reflected in the learning objectives. it can be concluded that students in the reading module are to improve their english skills, especially in english reading. therefore, based on the needs analysis results, researchers formulated general objectives. “after completing the course, students are expected to express their thoughts and feelings by reading in english and applying them in their language environment/everyday life.” it is a vital activity in life that helps one keep up with knowledge. conclusion based on research conducted at smp negeri 1 bone-bone, the development of this english module was carried out through several stages to analyze target needs, namely, analyzing, designing, implementing, developing and evaluating. some of the components are: 1) three units of english module material, namely daily activities, greeting cards, and english time; 2) seven subunits namely learning material, let's prepare, let's practice, grammar, and let's do more; 3) incorrectly called the new task-based language activity; 4) attractive layout and media 5) other skills such as listening, speaking and writing which are complemented by grammar and vocabulary; and 6) usage guidelines. the results of student perception show an average score of 3.64, and 91% percent meet the "very good" requirements. this shows that the module can be used without revision. student perceptions are: the reading module is designed according to learning objectives, http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 1, january 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 60 the designed reading module contains quite a lot of reading text, the designed reading module has several variations of questions, and the teaching materials (text, tables, images, etc.) are taken from sources -relevant sources according to the topic discussed. references ali, a. m., & razali, a. b. (2019). a review of studies on cognitive and metacognitive reading strategies in teaching reading comprehension for esl/efl learners. english language teaching, 12(6), 94-111 chen, s., & wang, j. (2019). effects of task-based language teaching (tblt) approach and language assessment on students' competences in intensive reading course. english language teaching, 12(3), 119-138. elleman, a. m., & oslund, e. l. (2019). reading comprehension research: implications for practice and policy. policy insights from the behavioral and brain sciences, 6(1), 3-11. ellis, r., skehan, p., li, s., shintani, n., & lambert, c. (2020). task-based language teaching: theory and practice. cambridge university press. ellis, r. (2017). task-based language teaching. in the routledge handbook of instructed second language acquisition (pp. 108-125). routledge. furwana, d. (2023). developing english material for sharia economy study program at iain palopo. language circle: journal of language and literature, 17(2), 309-316. hartina, st., syahrir, s. (2021). the inappropriateness of english for specific purposes (esp) with learner’s goals: a need analysis on communication and islamic broadcasting program. elsya: journal of english language studies, 3(3), 225-235. krimm, h., & lund, e. (2021). efficacy of online learning modules for teaching dialogic reading strategies and phonemic awareness. language, speech, and hearing services in schools, 52(4), 1020-1030. martiningsih, i., lisdiana, l., & susilowati, s. m. e. (2019). development of modules based on scientific contextual additives material to increase learning outcomes and science process skills in junior high school. journal of innovative science education, 8(2), 128137. meidayanti, a. (2020). development of a communicative basic english module for english learning at tpq al-amin (doctoral dissertation, iain ponorogo). newton, j. m., ferris, d. r., goh, c. c., grabe, w., stoller, f. l., & vandergrift, l. (2018). teaching english to second language learners in academic contexts: reading, writing, listening, and speaking. routledge. novitri, s. (2017). developing cooperative learning based module for teaching reading to the second semester students at english department of fkip uir. j-shmic: journal of english for academic, 4(1), 92-103. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 1, january 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 61 prianty, t., ngadiso, n., & wijayanto, a. (2021). indonesian efl teachers’ perceptions of taskbased language teaching approach. pedagogy: journal of english language teaching, 9(1), 26-37. pulukadang, w. t., uno, h. b., panal, h., & panjaitan, k. (2020). integrated learning module development on department of pgsd students, gorontalo state university, indonesia. international journal of advanced engineering, management and science, 6(7). sahraini, s. developing english material for early childhood education students at the faculty of education and teacher training in islamic higher education indonesia. asian efl journal. shashikala, h. p. l. w. (2018). exploring task-based approach to teaching oral communication skills in english to sri lankan undergraduate students. journal of literature and art studies, 8(6), 932-945. sholeh, m. b. (2020). implementation of task-based learning in teaching english in indonesia: benefits and problems. language circle: journal of language and literature, 15(1), 1-9. tomlinson, b. (ed.). (2023). developing materials for language teaching. bloomsbury publishing. viriya, c. (2018). using task-based learning with students of academic english. arab world english journal (awej) volume, 9. willis, j. (2021). a framework for task-based learning. intrinsic books ltd. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 5, no. 4, october 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 271 prospects and challenges of the peer teaching approach in the intermediate efl classrooms of bangladesh mohammad nazmul haque shikder shiblu1, tamanna akter 2, samia islam 3*, & md. nasim mahmud4 1department of english, manarat international university, dhaka, bangladesh 2department of english, daffodil international university, dhaka, bangladesh 3department of english, german university bangladesh, gazipur, bangladesh 4editorial associate, journal of elt and education, card, dhaka, bangladesh *samia.helloteen@gmail.com abstract the current study aimed to investigate the opportunities and challenges of utilizing the peer teaching approach at the intermediate level classrooms in the english as a foreign language (efl) context of bangladesh. the researchers employed a mixed-method approach to conduct this study. the study participants were 128 students and 15 teachers from five intermediate colleges in bangladesh. the participants were selected through a convenience sampling technique. the researchers used two questionnaire surveys: the teacher questionnaire and the student questionnaire, to collect the study's quantitative data. a focus group discussion (fgd) was conducted with five experienced teachers to obtain in-depth information about the prospects and challenges of implementing the peer teaching approach and its policy implications. the study’s findings revealed positive perceptions of the approach at the intermediate efl classrooms in bangladesh to develop communication and presentation skills in the english language, learning attitude, lesson engagement, learners’ autonomy, peer feedback, etc. however, the most significant challenge to the effective implementation of peer teaching is the large class size of the institutions. keywords: efl classroom, intermediate level, peer interaction, peer teaching introduction the quality of an educational system is a cornerstone of a country’s development and prosperity. modern education focuses on students’ skills-based learning (fitria et al., 2023), therefore, in the ever-evolving landscape of contemporary education, innovative teaching methodologies are crucial to address emerging needs and challenges of successful efl practices. peer teaching approach (henceforth, pta) is a transformative strategy that promotes students’ soft skills in enhancing their cognitive knowledge and comprehension. this approach can potentially transform traditional classroom dynamics since it involves students taking active roles as both learners and teachers. this exploratory study investigates the implementation of the pta in bangladeshi intermediate efl classrooms, http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 mailto:samia.helloteen@ copyright © the author(s) vol. 5, no. 4, october 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 272 exploring its potential advantages, challenges, and wider implications for educational practices. pta evolved based on the constructivist theory of learning, which advocates that learners actively construct knowledge through engagement and build their understanding (mcleod, 2024). in a peer-teaching setting, students engage in peer-to-peer instruction, facilitating a better comprehension of the english language through collaborative learning, discussion, and problem-solving activities. this approach reinforces academic comprehension and fosters critical thinking, communication, and leadership skills. pta can be advantageous in bangladesh's intermediate education in numerous ways. firstly, increasing students’ engagement and knowledge retention through active learning can make learning more effective. secondly, creating a collaborative and student-centred learning environment enhances students' enthusiasm and motivation in learning. moreover, the dual roles of teaching and learning motivate students to foster critical soft skills such as leadership and effective communication. the peer-teaching approach helps students take a proactive role in their educational journey while teachers assume a more facilitative role. to encourage peer teaching, many educational institutions in bangladesh have supported activities such as group study, roleplays, peer teaching and student-led activities (anta, 2019; rahman & humaidi, 2023). positive impacts on students’ achievement and engagement have been demonstrated through such initiatives (anta, 2019). despite these efforts, the application of pta at the intermediate level remains underexplored. by integrating pta into intermediate education, students can support each other, develop critical evaluation skills, and enhance their overall learning experience. this shift from teacher-led instruction to a more interactive and collaborative approach can drastically improve student engagement, understanding of english texts, and the enhancement of teamwork abilities. developed in the late 18th century england, the lancasterian system is one of the earliest examples where advanced students taught basic literacy and numeracy skills to their younger peers (lancaster, 1798). in the mid-20th century, developmental psychologists in education like jean piaget (1959) and vygotsky (1978) further popularized teaching, emphasizing the importance of social interaction and collaboration in learning. vygotsky’s theory, particularly his assertion that “problem-solving in collaboration with more capable peers” enables learners to explore new potential (vygotsky, 1978, p. 86), highlights the cognitive and social advantages of peer teaching. pta continued to develop in the 1970s later as researchers explored its applicability across various subjects and contexts. allen and bloom (1976) noted that peer tutoring can spur the educational progress of both tutor and tutee, indicating its efficacy in promoting learning and achievement. the advent of technology has further broadened the pta, integrating online platforms, discussion boards, and collaborative tools that accelerate peer teaching beyond traditional classroom environments. regardless of geographical limitations, students can be more engaged in sharing knowledge and meaningful learning interactions through technological improvements. bangladesh, a south asian country with a vast and growing population, faces significant challenges in improving its education system. despite substantial efforts by the government http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 5, no. 4, october 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 273 to expand educational access, concerns about the consistency of teaching quality and students’ development. the intermediate level, bridging secondary and higher education, is crucial in preparing students for further academic pursuits or the workforce. however, traditional teacher-centred methods dominate the educational landscape, emphasizing rote memorization and passive learning. armstrong (2012) critiques this approach, pointing out that "traditional education ignores or suppresses learner responsibility," emphasizing the need for pedagogical reforms that promote active student participation and critical thinking. the intermediate educational stage in bangladesh is a pivotal period where students make crucial decisions about their future academic and professional pathways. innovative teaching approaches like peer teaching, which promote active learning and skill development, are essential to address the limitations of traditional education. implementing pta can lead to enhanced learning outcomes, evolved student engagement, and the development of skills valued in the modern economy. investigating the implementation of pta in the bangladeshi context not only aligns with global educational trends but also contributes to the body of knowledge on effective pedagogical practices, aiding educators and policymakers in making informed decisions. notwithstanding the potential benefits, numerous obstacles may hinder the full implementation of the pta model in bangladesh. resistance to change, cultural traditions that prioritize teacher authority, and a lack of sufficient training and support for students and teachers are key challenges. investigating the implementation of pta at the intermediate level is crucial for overcoming these problems and informing current pedagogical practices. a thorough understanding of these factors can lead to effective strategies for integrating pta into the curriculum, eventually enhancing educational outcomes and better preparing students for future academic and professional pursuits. the primary objective of this tentative study was to explore and evaluate the potential benefits and challenges of implementing the pta in intermediate efl classrooms in bangladesh. specifically, it seeks to examine the impact of pta on learning outcomes, student engagement, and classroom dynamics from both students' and teachers' perspectives in a bangladeshi efl context. additionally, the study investigates the pros and cons of using peer teaching as a training tactic at the intermediate level, examining how peer instruction influences students' interest, enthusiasm, and self-assurance. the overarching goal is to enhance teaching and learning practices at the intermediate level in bangladesh by addressing key research questions about the prospects and challenges of pta in the classroom. literature review peer teaching is based on the principle that students have the access to participate effectively as both learners and educators in the classroom for a diversified experience of the learning environment. the review of the literature examines various perspectives on shaping the implementation and efficacy of the pta. lancaster (1798) introduced the original foundation of peer teaching where students were involved as ‘monitors’ to assist learning among their peers (rayman, 1981). khan (2023) mentioned that by having students http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 5, no. 4, october 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 274 teach each other in the classroom, they are forced to be involved with the study materials more profoundly which leads to a better understanding of the subject matter. jony (2016) examines the trend towards student-centred learning environments, highlighting the significant endorsement from teachers for this change. nevertheless, the study revealed a deficiency in the incorporation of pta, which has the potential to enhance the efficacy of these settings by increasing student motivation, engagement, and inspiration. according to jonassen et al. (2003), the significance has been given to meaningful learning, advocating genuine, dynamic, and collaborative educational experiences. keppell et al. (2006) defined peer learning as it is an addition of sharing knowledge and the establishment of mutually beneficial interconnections among students that build a sense of accountability for one's way of learning journey. concurring with this notion boud et al. (1999) defined peer learning as a teaching-learning approach in which students participate in collaborative learning excluding the direct teacher involvement, applying approaches such as group-wise projects and student-led workshops. slavin (1995) elucidated that modes of learning through collaboration such as the pta, are more valuable in comparison to conventional individualistic techniques. in the context of bangladeshi situations, these techniques have the prospect of bringing about a new era in the field of education. boud (2001) shares more viewpoints on the outcomes of peer learning which encircle critical inquiry, evaluative reflection, and the capacity to regulate one's learning productively. katz and earl (2010) emphasize that collaboration can improve the adaptability of cognitive frameworks, hence promoting the learning of advanced knowledge. the pta relies on the notion that collaborative learning environments are essential. miquel and duran (2017) have observed the successful implementation of peer tutoring in many subject areas, indicating its potential versatility and efficacy. according to wessel (2015), common peer learning tactics, such as group-based discussions and student-led classes, strongly correspond to the pta. weimer (2012) and brown (2008) emphasize the significance of learner-centred instruction, which involves students actively and empowers them to assume responsibility for their learning processes, promoting innate curiosity and collaborative learning. according to moore (1989), the contact between learners, known as 'learnerlearner' interaction, is identified as essential for successful learning. this idea is a fundamental part of the pta. in his work, coffman (2003) outlines ways that students might employ to assume responsibility in the classroom. he depicts the merits of engaging in the learning process actively and responsibly. this thorough analysis of the literature emphasized the aspects of scopes and challenges related to the pta as it prioritizes the proven success of peer teaching in history. the prominent role of actively participatory learning and the feasibility of these approaches can enhance pedagogical practices at the intermediate level in bangladesh. methods this study employed a mixed-method design to assess the efficacy of the peer-teaching approach in the intermediate level (grade 11 & grade 12) classroom compared to the conventional teaching approaches. the study was carried out in five intermediate colleges in the dhaka division of bangladesh. the strength of mixed-method is that “it combines the http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 5, no. 4, october 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 275 advantages of each form of data; that is, quantitative data provide for generalizability, whereas qualitative data offer information about the context or setting” (creswell & guetterman, 2019, p. 553). the aim was to evaluate the impact of pta intervention on students’ involvement, peer interaction, motivation, self-efficacy, and learning outcomes over two weeks from april 15 to april 30, 2024. the key participants of the study were the 15 efl teachers selected through a convenience sampling method according to their “convenience and availability” (creswell & creswell, 2018, p. 211). the researchers received verbal consent from the principals or coordinators of the colleges to collect data for the study. the researchers worked on three phases for the data collection from the teachers. in the ‘pre-implementation phase’, the researchers arranged an online orientation session for the teachers introducing the pta and its principles in the efl classroom. in the ‘implementation phase’, the teachers assigned some students specific topics to teach their peers under their guidance in a micro-teaching format encouraging group discussion and collaborative learning. the teachers observed and documented the classroom interaction in this phase. finally, in the ‘post-implementation phase’, the researchers collected teachers’ feedback on the effectiveness of pta in the classroom in a questionnaire survey of 15 statements to explore any opportunities and challenges among the students in comparison to their traditional classes. moreover, after the pta implementation, the researchers surveyed the learner perception through another questionnaire survey about the opportunities of pta in efl classrooms. the participants in this study comprised of randomly selected 128 students, aged 16 to 19 of the selected colleges. the teacher participants helped administer the questionnaire among the students. the participants were well-informed about their roles in the study and were ensured that their identities would remain anonymous in the final report. quantitative data were gathered by conducting the surveys among the efl teachers and the students. these items were aimed to assess several aspects of students in the classroom, such as student engagement, peer interaction, motivation and attitude, self-efficacy, and learning outcomes during the peer-teaching sessions. the researchers selected these items being inspired by khan (2023) who recommended pta for the enhancement of students’ performance and engagement in the classroom. five experienced teachers participated in a focus group discussion (fgd) at the end about the issues, prospects and policy implications of pta in the institutional and national curriculum to collect qualitative data. the researchers used the thematic analysis of braun and clarke (2006) to identify and analyze the themes within the fgd data. results teachers’ perception the researchers explored the teachers’ perceptions about the prospects and problems of pta regarding peer interaction, motivation, attitude, self-efficacy or learning outcomes in the classroom during the time of the pta implementation period with 15 statements on the likert scale. the teachers responded to the questionnaire about any changes and developments among the students in the pta classroom in that of the traditional classroom. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 5, no. 4, october 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 276 below, table 2 demonstrates the significant insights into the usefulness of pta by revealing the teacher responses. the researchers used a descriptive analysis with mean score and standard deviation (sd) score of the teacher responses to the statements. table 1. teachers’ perception of the prospects and challenges of pta sl statements mean sd attention, engagement & active participation 1 pta helped students pay close attention during instructional activities in the efl classes. 3.80 1.32 2 students partook in class discussions and hands-on activities during peerteaching sessions. 3.13 1.51 3 students asked questions without hesitation in the peer-teaching sessions. 3.33 1.59 collaboration, communication & peer interaction 4 students collaborated well with classmates in the peer-teaching sessions. 3.33 1.50 5 the students can communicate ideas in english with peers effectively. 3.73 1.16 6 students exchanged feedback with classmates. 3.80 1.26 motivation & attitudes towards learning 7 pta motivated the students to participate in class activities. 4.07 0.96 8 students enjoyed class lessons and peer-led activities during peer-teaching sessions. 4.20 0.68 9 pta has the scope to make the english classes more interactive. 3.60 1.18 confidence & soft skills development 10 pta boosts students’ confidence to complete academic learning tasks in english. 3.67 1.29 11 explaining lesson concepts to peers helps the students develop their academic presentation skills in english. 3.80 0.86 12 pta can enhance different soft skills among the students taking on challenging tasks. 4.40 0.63 learning outcomes and self-reflection 13 students utilized different learning materials effectively in peer-teaching sessions. 3.53 1.41 14 pta helps achieve learning goals and objectives for students. 3.60 1.18 15 pta is supportive of students’ academic assessments and tests. 3.07 1.16 table 1 demonstrates that the participants generally agreed that pta is helpful for students being attentive in instructional activities in the efl classrooms (mean: 3.8, sd: 1.32) indicating a moderate variability in statement 1. in the second statement, responses were more diverse (mean: 3.13, sd: 1.51) regarding students’ participation in class discussions and hands-on activities. statement 3 about students’ asking questions without any hesitation also received a variability in responses (mean: 3.33, sd: 1.59). participants moderately agreed about students’ collaboration with peers (statement-4, mean: 3.33, sd: 1.50) which shows mixed responses. in statement 5, the mean score was slightly higher (3.73) with lower variability (sd: 1.16) reflecting students’ communication with their peers effectively. exchanging feedback among students in statement 6 demonstrates a positive response from teachers with some variability (mean: 3.80, sd: 1.26). participants mostly http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 5, no. 4, october 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 277 agreed that pta motivated the students to participate in class activities (mean: 4.07, sd: 0.96). likewise, strong agreement was found in statement 8 that students enjoyed the peerteaching sessions with a low score of standard deviation (0.68). however, the participants moderately perceived that the pta classes were more interactive than traditional classes (mean: 3.60, sd: 1.18). in statement 10, participants observed that pta moderately boosted confidence among the students to complete academic tasks in english. teachers believed that explaining lesson concepts to peers helps students develop their academic presentation skills in english (mean: 3.80, sd: 0.86). in addition to that, teachers strongly believed that pta can enhance students’ soft skills to work on challenging tasks with a mean score of 4.40 and low variability (sd: 0.63). in statement 13, participants variably agreed that students utilized different learning materials effectively during pta sessions (mean: 3.53, sd: 1.41). in statement 14, teachers moderately think that pta helps achieve learning goals and objectives (mean: 3.60, sd: 1.18). however, regarding academic assessments and tests, teachers moderately agreed that the pta is supportive in this regard. so, the responses of the teacher participants reflected both strengths and larners’ perception this section is also a significant part of the research articles and is usually the longest part of an article. a discussion of the research presented in this section is the result—the process of data analysis, such as statistical calculations or other methods for the achievement of its study. please present the discussion narratively. table 2. learner perception of pta sl statements 5 sa 4 a 3 n 2 d 1 sd mean std percentage (%) 1 i felt confident to speak in front of the class in peer-teaching sessions. 31.25 39.06 15.62 7.81 6.25 3.81 1.15 2 i felt motivated to lead the class with a lesson topic participating in the peerteaching sessions. 39.06 50.78 7.81 2.34 0 4.38 0.73 3 pta reduced my hesitation and nervousness about speaking in class. 40.63 37.50 8.59 12.5 0 4.14 0.78 4 pta can improve my communication skills. 32.03 41.41 11.72 8.59 6.25 3.84 1.15 5 i enjoyed the class lessons during the pta intervention. 35.16 39.06 6.25 11.72 7.81 3.89 1.16 6 i spontaneously participated in the classroom activities. 21.88 31.25 17.19 22.66 7.03 3.38 1.25 7 i shared my feedback with my classmates spontaneously. 30.47 36.72 17.97 9.38 5.47 3.77 1.14 8 pta helped me comfortably adjust to the learning environment in the class. 28.91 42.19 14.84 7.81 6.25 3.80 1.13 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 5, no. 4, october 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 278 9 pta helped me become more attentive during instructional activities in the efl classroom. 21.88 47.66 8.59 14.84 7.03 3.63 1.18 10 pta inspired me to stay focused during the lesson. 21.09 35.94 11.72 23.44 7.81 3.39 1.27 table 2 encapsulates student’s responses to pta sessions, where the responses were enlisted in five categories (strongly agree to strongly disagree) along with highlighting the mean scores and standard deviations for each item. the data reveals significant trends in students' perceptions of pta. the highest level of agreement was found in the statements reflecting ‘motivation’ (mean: 4.38, sd: 0.73) and reducing ‘hesitation and nervousness’ (mean: 4.14, sd: 0.78) to speak before the class with a low variability which indicates a positive impact of pta to foster students’ confidence and engagement. a moderate agreement was noticeable, regarding communication skills (statement 4), enjoying the class (statement 5) and adjustment to the learning environment in the class (statement 8) where the mean score ranged from 3.75 to 3.89 and sd remained relatively low (sd ≈ 1.13–1.16). these findings also indicate the efficacy of pta to create an interactive and supportive classroom atmosphere. regarding spontaneous participation and focus on class lessons, the students demonstrated mixed responses with a mean score of 3.38 and 3.39 respectively with a relatively higher variability (sd ≈ 1.25–1.27) suggesting some potential challenges in fostering consistent engagement and attention across all the students. from the statistical viewpoint, the sd scores were found with relatively low variability implying consistent responses among the learners regarding peer-teaching sessions. higher variability shows student experiences in the case of participation and focus. to sum up, the peer-teaching sessions were found effective in enhancing motivation, diminishing hesitation, and improving classroom involvement, while drawing attention to opportunities for more improvement in advocating continuous participation and focus. fgd data on the challenges and policy implications of pta the fgd with five participants underscored that the large class size is the primary concern in the implementation of pta in the classroom. teachers usually face difficulties to accommodate all students effectively during pta sessions. teachers shared common concerns that overpopulated classrooms result in the ineffectiveness of pta as it limits the time and attention they can allocate to each student. a participant (t2) mentioned the fact that there are around one hundred students in the class and we cannot expect that everyone has the same level of confidence to speak in front of all the students. t1 revealed that many students do not feel interested and lack motivation to lead the class activities which is also a barrier to effective implementation of pta. another participant (t5) mentioned the irregular attendance of the students and that a large number of students also remain absent from the class. however, all the participants agreed that the pta has scope to engage students in the lesson topic. above and beyond, rahman and pandian (2018) identify a common tendency through the variations in student abilities in educational contexts that some passive learners are being dominated by some active learners. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 5, no. 4, october 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 279 to alleviate the challenges, teachers advised policy measures aimed at reducing class size or implementing pta sessions for smaller groups within large-size classes. they also emphasized that regardless of the challenges, systematic application of pta can significantly contribute to enhancing students’ communication skills, leadership ability and selfconfidence. teachers recommended pta be included in the english syllabi and curriculum with the structured roadmap and adapting its procedures to the realities of densely populated classrooms by rotating leadership opportunities. khan et al. (2024b) mentioned that the syllabi should be supplemented by task-based real-life experiences with pair work, group work and face-to-face conversation what pta includes indeed. they also draw attention to the necessity of institutional support to facilitate resources, and teachers training for the smooth operation of such sessions. to the core, with proper policies and adjustments, pta can become a transformative tool in bangladeshi education, promoting student engagement and skill empowerment. discussion to explore the opportunities and challenges of pta in bangladeshi classrooms, particularly at the intermediate level, this study triangulated data from teacher opinions, student perceptions, and focus group discussions with senior teachers of the selected institution. the findings demonstrate both the opportunities and challenges of pta, highlighting its potential to improve student involvement, communication skills, and confidence while indicating the systemic barriers to its implementation. across all data sources, it was widely agreed that pta elevated student enthusiasm and reduced speaking hesitancy. according to teachers’ opinions, students’ increased attentiveness (mean= 3.80, sd= 1.32) and confidence in completing academic tasks in english (3.67, sd= 1.29) aligned with students’ perceptions of enhanced motivation (mean: 4.38, sd= 0.73) and reduced hesitation (4.14, sd= 0.78). these findings emphasize the transforming role of pta in enhancing students’ self-assurance and engagement. comparably, the fgd participants noted that pta sessions facilitated students to develop critical skills such as communication and leadership, even despite large class sizes. these findings are consistent with earlier studies emphasizing the role of collaborative learning in fostering active participation and confidence (vygotsky, 1978; topping, 2005). however, the data also revealed several challenges. teachers noted the variability in student involvement during discussions (mean: 3.13, sd=1.51) and question-asking (mean: 3.33, sd=1.59), which echoed students’ lower scores for focus (mean: 3.39, sd=1.27) and spontaneous participation (mean: 3.38, sd=1.25). as highlighted in the fgd, these mixed outcomes were attributed to many students in classrooms, whereas teachers claimed difficulty accommodating all students during pta sessions. large-size classrooms restrained the ability to provide individual attention, while disparities in student interest and motivation further complicated pta implementation. this is in keeping with findings from rahman and pandian (2018), who highlighted large class sizes as an immense barrier to active learning in bangladeshi contexts. despite these challenges, teachers and students strongly agreed that pta enhanced classroom interaction and skill development. teachers revealed that pta enhanced http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 5, no. 4, october 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 280 collaboration (mean: 3.33, sd=1.50) and communication (mean: 3.73, sd=1.16), findings mirrored by students’ responses on communication (mean: 3.84, sd=1.15) and comfort in adjusting to the learning environment (mean: 3.80, sd=1.13). prior research supports this remark, stressing that peer teaching can promote essential skills such as collaboration, critical thinking, and leadership (johnson & johnson, 1989; michaelsen et al., 2004). fgd also emphasized the potential of pta to strengthen skill-building if combined into the curriculum with structured guidelines, group activities, and teacher training to address challenges posed by large class sizes. the data triangulation underlines the substantial implication of the pta approach in fostering student engagement and skill development in bangladeshi classrooms, particularly at the intermediate level. while motivation and skill development emerged as key strengths, the challenges of large class sizes and everyone’s participation remain barriers. policy interventions concentrating on reducing class sizes, enhancing teacher training, and allocating resources are significant to implementing pta effectively. this study contributes to the increasing evidence supporting active learning as a transformative educational tool (freeman et al., 2014; wieman, 2014). based on the findings, several practical recommendations can be made to enhance the effective implementation of pta in bangladeshi classrooms. first, policies should focus on reducing classroom sizes to allow for more tailored attention and practical peer-teaching sessions. alternatively, pta can be applied in smaller groups within larger classrooms to ensure equitable involvement. second, a designed teacher training program should be formed to equip the teachers with the efl skills necessary to facilitate pta sessions as the teacher's interaction matters to a great extent for a ‘constructive’ classroom environment (khan, 2020). if the efl teachers are trained they will be able to address the challenges such as student motivation and classroom management. above all, the teachers mostly make a difference in a better classroom environment (khan & maniam, 2021). finally, institutional support in the form of teaching aids, collaborative learning spaces, and clear guidelines for incorporating pta into the curriculum is necessary for its thriving implementation. khan et al. (2024a) also mentioned that the authorities should offer administrative support to create an environment encouraging pedagogical experimentation fostering a culture that values innovation and providing time and resources for teachers to develop and implement new teaching methods. conclusion this study demonstrates that pta encourages in advancement of student engagement, motivation, and skill enhancement in bangladeshi intermediate-level classrooms. although this approach is effective in alleviating hesitation, and strengthening leadership and communication skills, obstacles like large class sizes, resource limitations, and variable student participation must be resolved to fully optimize its impact. strategic policy intervention and institutional commitment are highly needed to overcome these obstacles and establish the effective integration of pta in the education system in bangladesh. these efforts will further establish pta as a transformative pedagogical tool in modern education. further research on pta should discuss the long-term implications on academia and skill http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 5, no. 4, october 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 281 acquisition where the major focus would be on diversity of the students. moreover, further inquiries are needed to explore subject subject-wise implementation of pta in the class as this study considered participants from only intermediate efl classes. examining the efficacy of pta across various educational levels and contexts, a comparative analysis would also uncover notable perspectives. in addition, hybrid teaching models and technology can pave the way for new opportunities in establishing its accessibility in resource-constrained settings. references anta, a. 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(2005). trends in peer learning. educational psychology, 25(6), 631645. https://doi.org/10.1080/01443410500345172 vygotsky, l. s. (1978). mind in society: the development of higher psychological processes. harvard university press. wessel, a. (2015). peer learning strategies in the classroom. journal on best teaching practices, 2(1), 14-16. wieman, c. (2014). large-scale comparison of science teaching methods sends clear message. proceedings of the national academy of sciences, 111(23), 83198320. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1407304111 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 https://doi.org/10.1080/01443410500345172 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1407304111 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 2, april 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 94 the accuracy of chatgpt in translating colloquial terms in dawan language iis aprianti1, yoni rahayu2, soraya grabiella dinamika3, muhammad muslim nasution4 1universitas timor, kefamenanu, indonesia 2,3,4universitas medan area, medan, indonesia iisaprianti@unimor.ac.id abstract chatgpt, a multilingual translation application has made intercultural conversation simpler including local language. however, chatgpt's translation accuracy should be reviewed due to limits in recognizing domain-specific terms and cultural context. the aim of this study is to find out the translation accuracy of chatgpt in translating colloquial terms in dawan language. this study used qualitative method. the participants of this study were from the sixth semester english department students of university of timor. the data source of this study was the translation result in dawan into indonesian language. while, the data of this study are chatgpt’s translation result obtained from students’ word list from dawan into indonesian language. the result of the analysis showed showed that chatgpt performs relatively well in translating basic vocabulary and common expressions, with 60% of the translations deemed accurate. however, the tool demonstrated significant limitations in handling culturally embedded and context-dependent terms. keywords: chat gpt, dawan language, language translation, translation accuracy, introduction in recent years, technology and translation go hand in hand. translation has been revolutionized by the rise of artificial intelligence (ai). the advancement of ai models in machine translation has expedited translation processes and aided millions of individuals in comprehending texts in a variety of languages. among these ai models, chatgpt has not only drawn considerable interest for its ability to generate human-like text and perform translations but has also emerged as a potential solution for language translation. chatgpt is an artificial intelligence-based natural language model trained on extensive datasets and applied across various tasks, such as serving as a virtual assistant to help users work more efficiently, including in text translation (kasneci et al., 2023; mendoza et al., 2022). it can assist in generating content for various types of documents and provide feedback on grammar, style, and textual coherence (sutanto et al., 2024). interestingly, chatgpt, as a machine translation tool, offers more than conventional translation; by enhancing prompts, it can be tailored to yield outputs aligned with professional translation standards (aeni et al., 2024). http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 2, april 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 95 according to the author's review, multiple studies have explored chatgpt and translation, such as analyses of its translation accuracy in scientific texts (aeni et al., 2024), morphological and syntactic translation errors (al-salman & haider, 2024), the use of chatgpt in translation learning (nurfaiza, 2024), and comparisons of chatgpt's performance with other translation services (hidayati & nihayah, 2024). however, these studies have not yet addressed the acceptability and readability of chatgpt translations in local languages. while chatgpt performs effectively for instructional materials and achieves high translation quality in standardized contexts, it faces greater challenges in translating complex texts—particularly those in underrepresented local languages such as dawan. the dawan language, primarily spoken in east nusa tenggara, indonesia, is used by over one million people, including the dawan tribe and other ethnic groups in the timor island region. as with many regional languages, dawan struggles with digital representation and automated translation due to its unique grammar, sentence structure, and culturally embedded expressions, which often lack direct equivalents in other languages. these linguistic and cultural intricacies present significant hurdles for chatgpt. moreover, the limited availability of training data for low-resource languages like dawan further contributes to potential translation inaccuracies. although chatgpt demonstrates reliable performance on simpler texts, its accuracy declines when dealing with more complex content that demands cultural and contextual understanding. given this phenomenon and the growing trend in ai-based translation, there is a compelling need for research to explore the accuracy of chatgpt in translating colloquial terms in the dawan language, particularly in terms of meaning conveyance, contextual appropriateness, and cultural sensitivity. translation is more than a linguistic act; it is also a cultural and cognitive process that involves interpreting meanings between languages and contexts (munday, 2016). in this framework, colloquial language refers to informal, everyday expressions deeply embedded in the speaker's cultural and regional context (nida, 2015; house, 2016). unlike standard language, colloquial expressions often carry idiomatic or metaphorical meanings, making them particularly challenging to translate accurately. catford (2017) emphasized that the equivalence in translation, especially for colloquial or idiomatic expressions, is seldom direct. instead, it requires contextual awareness, cultural familiarity, and semantic flexibility. venuti (2017) argued that the translator must balance between domestication—making terms familiar to the target audience—and foreignization—preserving the unique features of the source language. the growing use of machine translation (mt), including tools like google translate and deepl, has shown promising results for formal and standardized texts (wu et al., 2016). however, colloquial expressions remain a major barrier for most mt systems due to their cultural specificity and non-literal meanings (toral & way, 2018). garciarena et al. (2020) noted that mt tools typically rely on parallel corpora, which are scarce for lowresource languages and informal registers. recent developments in neural machine translation (nmt) have improved mt accuracy. bahdanau et al. (2015) introduced attention-based models that allow machines http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 2, april 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 96 to weigh parts of the input sequence differently, enhancing the interpretation of idiomatic language. yet, as koehn and knowles (2017) observed, even advanced nmt systems struggle to retain the nuance of colloquial terms without domain-specific training. openai's chatgpt, based on the gpt-3 and gpt-4 architecture, represents a leap in natural language understanding and generation (brown et al., 2020; openai, 2023). unlike earlier mt systems, chatgpt can respond contextually, learn from prompts, and simulate human-like conversations. this capacity makes it a candidate for more nuanced translations, including colloquial speech (kasneci et al., 2023). however, despite its fluency, several studies have noted limitations in chatgpt's translation performance. tang et al. (2023) pointed out that while gpt models can generate plausible translations, they sometimes prioritize grammatical fluency over semantic accuracy. mendoza et al. (2022) further found that gpt-based models occasionally "hallucinate" translations that are contextually inappropriate, especially for languages with limited digital presence. low-resource languages, such as dawan, often lack large annotated corpora, making them difficult for both traditional mt and ai models to process accurately (anastasopoulos & neubig, 2019). according to faten (2021), the cultural depth and oral nature of many indigenous languages contribute to translation complexity. sutanto et al. (2024) also emphasized that the translation of local languages requires cultural intelligence and familiarity with linguistic variations at the regional level. moreover, ebrahimi et al. (2018) argued that without sufficient exposure, ai models tend to normalize low-resource languages into dominant linguistic patterns, leading to semantic loss or misinterpretation. for colloquial terms specifically, lack of training data limits chatgpt's ability to understand the pragmatic and cultural implications embedded in those expressions. dawan, spoken primarily in timor island, is rich in metaphor, idiomatic phrases, and cultural references (schapper, 2017). colloquialisms in dawan often rely on metaphors drawn from nature, kinship, or traditional customs. as such, their meanings cannot be easily deduced without cultural immersion (lole, 2020). for instance, a simple expression like “naek ba tasa” (literally “go to the plate”) may imply readiness to face a challenge— something a machine might misinterpret literally. studies on indigenous language preservation have highlighted the urgency of digitizing and documenting such expressions before they are lost (grenoble & whaley, 2016; lewis & simons, 2021). the integration of these languages into ai systems like chatgpt could play a role in digital revitalization, but only if done carefully and ethically. accuracy in translation is often measured through three main criteria: adequacy, fluency, and fidelity to the source meaning (popović, 2015). tools like bleu (bilingual evaluation understudy) and human evaluators are used to assess these aspects. however, as graham et al. (2017) argue, standard metrics do not always account for cultural and contextual nuances—especially in colloquial and low-resource language settings. manual evaluations, especially by native speakers and bilingual experts, remain the gold standard in assessing the translation of culturally embedded expressions. for http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 2, april 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 97 languages like dawan, community participation is essential to ensure that translations are not only accurate but respectful and contextually grounded (bird, 2020). in summary, the existing literature underscores several critical points. first, colloquial expressions represent one of the most difficult areas in translation due to their cultural and idiomatic nature. second, while chatgpt has advanced capabilities in natural language processing, its effectiveness for low-resource and colloquial language translation remains uncertain without tailored training and contextual knowledge. third, dawan language poses specific challenges due to its rich oral traditions and metaphorical expressions. therefore, investigating chatgpt's ability to translate dawan colloquialisms not only contributes to the field of ai and linguistics but also supports broader efforts in indigenous language preservation. methods this study conducted qualitative method. the results of this study are not formed in general conclusions or generalization but in a description. thus, they are focused and detailed. the subject was the sixth semester students of academic year 2025 in english department of university of timor. the data source of this study was the translation result in dawan into indonesian language. while, the data of this study are chatgpt’s translation result obtained from students’ word list from dawan into indonesian language. then, the translation data will be analyzed using content analysis with nababan's translation quality assessment model which consists of accuracy, acceptability and readability. in the analysis stage, the translation data will be grouped and coded according to the theme, then analyzed and given an interpretation and ended with a conclusion. results this study analyzed the translation of 50 colloquial terms in the dawan language into indonesian using chatgpt. the evaluation was guided by nababan’s translation quality model, which assesses translations across three core dimensions: accuracy, acceptability, and readability (nababan & nuraeni, 2012). these dimensions collectively determine how well a translation conveys meaning, conforms to target language norms, and remains easily understandable to readers. translation accuracy the accuracy scores were categorized into three levels—accurate, less accurate, and inaccurate—based on the degree of semantic equivalence between the source (dawan) and target (indonesian) terms: • 30 terms (60%) were rated as accurate. • 12 terms (24%) were rated as less accurate. • 8 terms (16%) were rated as inaccurate. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 2, april 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 98 accurate translations the highest accuracy was observed in terms where there is a direct semantic and syntactic equivalent in indonesian. for example: • ha’u → saya (i): this translation is both contextually appropriate and linguistically accurate, as it reflects the standard first-person pronoun in both languages. • mone → anak laki-laki (boy): this translation precisely captures the intended meaning. such terms are lexically simple, and their cultural connotations are minimal or universal enough to translate easily. less accurate translations translations were considered less accurate when the core meaning was preserved, but additional or inappropriate semantic elements were introduced. a good example is: inan → ibu kandung (biological mother): while technically correct, this translation is over-specified. in everyday use, inan generally means ibu (mother) in dawan culture. the addition of kandung could mislead readers to think the context distinguishes biological from non-biological motherhood, which was not intended. such cases reflect the model’s literal bias—a tendency to generate formal definitions or high-frequency mappings, rather than selecting the most pragmatically appropriate equivalents. inaccurate translations some terms were significantly mistranslated, resulting in a distortion of cultural meaning. notably: tobe → kepala desa (village head): this translation misses the ceremonial and tribal leadership function embedded in the term tobe, which refers to a traditional community leader in dawan society. the bureaucratic notion of kepala desa fails to capture these indigenous values. these inaccuracies underscore chatgpt’s inability to recognize sociocultural contexts, especially where terms involve customary law, traditional hierarchies, or oral metaphors. acceptability and readability translation outputs were also evaluated for linguistic acceptability and ease of reading in indonesian. the results showed: • 80% of the translations were acceptable and highly readable. • the remaining 20% included translations that, while grammatically sound, were stylistically awkward or unnatural in colloquial indonesian. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 2, april 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 99 chatgpt’s tendency to use standard and neutral syntax contributed positively to readability. for example: ha’u besi → saya pergi (i go): the structure is clean, straightforward, and conforms to normative indonesian grammar. however, problems arose when dealing with compound or idiomatic expressions. consider: ana-ana mone → anak-anak laki-laki: while grammatically correct, this translation lacks pragmatic nuance. in dawan, the phrase may imply “sons” or “young boys” depending on the social context. more culturally fitting translations might include para anak laki-laki or anak-anak lelaki. such examples show that literal translation can hinder naturalness and cultural clarity, especially in socially embedded expressions. interpretation and implications these findings highlight both the capabilities and limitations of chatgpt as a tool for translating low-resource and culturally rich languages. while the model performs well on standard vocabulary and syntax, it struggles with idiomatic, metaphorical, and cultural expressions—a trend that aligns with prior research (al-salman & haider, 2024; aeni et al., 2024). several factors likely contribute to these limitations: 1. data scarcity: dawan is a low-resource language with limited presence in publicly available corpora. as noted by anastasopoulos & neubig (2019), mt systems perform poorly when training data is scarce or domain-specific. 2. lack of domain adaptation: chatgpt is not fine-tuned on indigenous languages or culturally grounded idioms. this often leads to overgeneralization or approximation using dominant language structures. 3. contextual misalignment: the ai's understanding is based on probabilistic pattern recognition. without cultural intelligence or regional linguistic insights, it cannot fully infer implicit meanings behind colloquial terms (ebrahimi et al., 2018). this situation suggests the need for a human-in-the-loop approach, especially in tasks requiring cultural nuance. native speakers or linguists must be involved in post-editing or fine-tuning ai output, particularly when translating for educational, ceremonial, or historical purposes. furthermore, these results reinforce the urgency of digitally documenting indigenous languages (grenoble & whaley, 2016) and exploring ethical ai integration that does not erase the cultural uniqueness of minority communities. if well-trained, ai tools like chatgpt could play a pivotal role in language preservation and revitalization. conclusion this study examined the accuracy of chatgpt in translating colloquial terms from the dawan language into indonesian. the analysis showed that chatgpt performs relatively well in translating basic vocabulary and common expressions, with 60% of the translations http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 2, april 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 100 deemed accurate. however, the tool demonstrated significant limitations in handling culturally embedded and context-dependent terms. the main challenges stemmed from chatgpt’s lack of sensitivity to cultural nuances and its reliance on general linguistic patterns. terms such as tobe, which hold deep traditional meaning in the dawan community, were often mistranslated due to the absence of direct equivalents in indonesian and insufficient contextual understanding by the ai model. despite these challenges, chatgpt offers notable potential as a preliminary translation tool, especially for lesser-known languages. its ability to provide readable and grammatically sound outputs makes it useful for first drafts or informal translation tasks. nevertheless, for translations involving indigenous or culturally rich languages, human intervention remains essential to ensure the preservation of meaning and cultural integrity. in the future, integrating more localized data into ai training sets, enhancing prompt engineering strategies, and adopting hybrid human-ai translation workflows may help improve the accuracy and cultural sensitivity of machine translation tools like chatgpt. in sum, this study demonstrates that: a. chatgpt is reasonably effective at translating basic dawan vocabulary into indonesian with high readability and structural fluency. b. however, accuracy suffers when the input includes culturally loaded or contextsensitive terms. c. colloquial and traditional expressions are often mistranslated or diluted, leading to loss of cultural integrity. thus, chatgpt can serve as a preliminary translation aid, but must be supplemented by human expertise, particularly for underrepresented and culturally rich languages like dawan. future work should explore the development of localized language models trained on regional corpora, and the inclusion of indigenous communities in ai tool design and evaluation. acknowledgment the researcher would like to express their sincere gratitude to the sixth-semester students of the english department at the university of timor for their valuable contributions in providing the dawan word lists used in this research. special thanks are also extended to the lecturers and faculty members who supported the data collection process. this research would not have been possible without their active participation and collaboration. references aeni, r., putera, l. j., & melani, b. z. (2024). the accuracy of chatgpt in translating linguistics text in scientific journals. didaktik: jurnal ilmiah pgsd stkip subang, 10(1), 59–68. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 2, april 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 101 al-salman, s., & haider, a. s. (2024). assessing the accuracy of mt and ai tools in translating humanities or social sciences arabic research titles into english: evidence from google translate, gemini, and chatgpt. international journal of data and network science. https://api.semanticscholar.org/corpusid:271237784 anastasopoulos, a., & neubig, g. (2019). pushing the limits of low-resource morphological inflection. proceedings of the 57th annual meeting of the association for computational linguistics, 980–986. bahdanau, d., cho, k., & bengio, y. (2015). neural machine translation by jointly learning to align and translate. international conference on learning representations (iclr). bird, s. (2020). decolonising speech and language technology. proceedings of the 28th international conference on computational linguistics (coling 2020), 3504–3519. brown, t., mann, b., ryder, n., subbiah, m., kaplan, j. d., dhariwal, p., ... & amodei, d. (2020). language models are few-shot learners. advances in neural information processing systems, 33, 1877–1901. ebrahimi, j., rao, a., lowd, d., & dou, d. (2018). hotflip: white-box adversarial examples for text classification. proceedings of the 56th annual meeting of the association for computational linguistics, 31–36. faten, s. (2021). challenges in translating indigenous languages: a cultural perspective. journal of translation studies, 18(2), 122–134. garciarena, u., gonzalez-agirre, a., & rigau, g. (2020). evaluating multiword expression identification in machine translation. computational linguistics, 46(1), 1–36. graham, y., baldwin, t., moffat, a., & zobel, j. (2017). can machine translation systems be evaluated without human references? proceedings of the 2017 conference on empirical methods in natural language processing (emnlp), 3769–3779. grenoble, l. a., & whaley, l. j. (2016). saving languages: an introduction to language revitalization. cambridge university press. house, j. (2016). translation as communication across languages and cultures. routledge. kasneci, e., sessler, k., yu, y., bannert, m., dementieva, d., fischer, f., & schmidt, a. (2023). chatgpt for good? opportunities and challenges of large language models in education. learning and individual differences, 103, 102274. koehn, p., & knowles, r. (2017). six challenges for neural machine translation. proceedings of the first workshop on neural machine translation, 28–39. lewis, m. p., & simons, g. f. (2021). assessing endangerment: expanding fishman’s gids. revue roumaine de linguistique, 66(1), 55–70. lole, a. j. (2020). cultural metaphors in dawan language. timor linguistics journal, 4(1), 23–35. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 https://api.semanticscholar.org/corpusid:271237784 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 2, april 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 102 mendoza, m., et al. (2022). enzymatic transfer of acetate on histones from lysine reservoir sites to lysine activating sites. science advances, 8(3), eabj5688. munday, j. (2016). introducing translation studies: theories and applications (4th ed.). routledge. nida, e. a. (2015). language, culture, and translating. shanghai foreign language education press. nurfaiza. (2024). pengaruh penggunaan chatgpt dalam pembelajaran terjemah indonesiaarab. at-turost: journal of islamic studies, 99–113. openai. (2023). gpt-4 technical report. https://openai.com/research/gpt-4 popović, m. (2015). chrf: character n-gram f-score for automatic mt evaluation. proceedings of the tenth workshop on statistical machine translation, 392–395. schapper, a. (2017). a grammar of bunaq: a papuan language of east timor. de gruyter mouton. sutanto, v. m., de giacomo, g. g., nakazawa, t., & yamada, m. (2024). chatgpt as a translation engine: a case study on japanese-english. in proceedings of the 30th annual conference of the association for natural language processing (pp. 2096– 1201). tang, r., et al. (2023). evaluating chatgpt’s translation capabilities: benchmarks and breakdowns. ai & society. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-023-01596-4 toral, a., & way, a. (2018). what level of quality can neural machine translation attain on literary text? translation quality assessment, 78–91. venuti, l. (2017). the translator’s invisibility: a history of translation (3rd ed.). routledge. wu, y., schuster, m., chen, z., le, q. v., norouzi, m., macherey, w., ... & dean, j. (2016). google’s neural machine translation system: bridging the gap between human and machine translation. arxiv preprint arxiv:1609.08144. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 https://openai.com/research/gpt-4 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 1, january 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 165 teachers’ perceptions of using google translate in the teaching english pronunciation dwi ayu tiara1, rifki irawan2 1,2, universitas pgri yogyakarta, yogyakarta, indonesia rifkizam@upy.ac.id abstract this study aims to investigate and describe teachers’ perceptions toward the use of google translate as a medium for teaching english pronunciation. this study applies a qualitative method, with data collected through observation and interviews. in getting data, the writer examined three english teachers from different schools in yogyakarta who have used google translate in their classrooms. the result of this study showed that teachers have both positive and negative perspectives on using google translate as a medium for teaching pronunciation. the positive points of using google translate as a learning medium are that it is suitable and effective for helping students improve their pronunciation and ease of access and use. they believe that using google translate as a learning media has a good effect on students, increasing their interest in and motivation to learn pronunciation. in addition, the negative points of using google translate are that it depends on an internet connection, and using smartphones to access google translate in the classroom can be a distraction for students. although there are some negative perceptions, it can be concluded that teachers have more positive perceptions towards using google translate as a learning medium to teach english pronunciation. keywords: google translate, learning medium, pronunciation, teacher’s perception. introduction the 21st century is commonly called the era of technology. according to (eady & lockyer, 2013) technology plays an important role in education, allowing teachers to design meaningful learning experiences involving technology. to maximize the learning process, it is essential to utilize technology as an appropriate learning medium. the use of learning mediums by teachers facilitates the attainment of learning objectives. one of the most famous and widely used technologies by the public and education is google; one of its features is google translate (septiadi, 2019). in english, there are four basic language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. according to (leong et al., 2017), speaking is one of the most important skills to develop and enhance for effective communication. good speaking skills involve various aspects, including articulation, pronunciation, fluency, use of vocabulary, grammar, and non-verbal communication. english pronunciation is one of the most challenging skills to learn, and http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 mailto:rifkizam@upy.ac.id copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 1, january 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 166 learners should spend a lot of time improving their pronunciation (gilakjani, 2016). according to (khasanah et al., 2022) one media that can be used to learn pronunciation is google translate. in addition, google translate has a text-to-speech feature that enables users to hear how a word or phrase is pronounced in the target language, which enables students to practice pronouncing words in the foreign language they are learning. in this research, the researcher observed one english class at sma pgri 1 kasihan. from the observations, it can be identified that certain students have difficulty with pronunciation due to a lack of habituation and appropriate medium in learning english. regarding this issue, several studies have been conducted by scholars including (khasanah et al., 2022) who investigated students’ perception of the use of google translate in learning pronunciation, and found that students' perception of using google translate as a medium for learning pronunciation was positive because students can learn practically and independently. then, (sain & cobar, 2023) studied the improvement in students’ pronunciation in word stress through the tts (text to speech) feature: on a google translate application, the results showed a significant improvement in students’ pronunciation after the use of text-to-speech software. in addition, (lestari et al., 2023) investigated the students’ perceptions towards google translate as a supporting media to learn english. the results indicated that the students held a positive perception of google translate as a supplementary learning tool for english, the majority of their responses indicated that they agreed that google translate assisted them in their english language learning including translation, pronunciation checking, spelling correction, and synonym identification. the researcher realized that most students use google translate to learn english pronunciation at school, and they have positive perceptions toward using google translate in english language learning. based on the above, the author concludes it is crucial to ascertain teachers’ perceptions regarding using google translate to teach pronunciation to students. this research aims to investigate and describe english teachers’ perceptions regarding using google translate as a medium for teaching english pronunciation. this research was conducted due to the limited existing literature on teachers’ perceptions of using google translate as a medium for teaching english pronunciation. therefore, the researcher is interested in examining the teachers' perceptions of using google translate to teach pronunciation. methods study design according to the research question, “what are teachers' perceptions of using google translate as a medium for teaching english pronunciation?” a qualitative methodology was used in this study. qualitative research is the study of how individuals perceive their environment; this means that qualitative researchers study things in their natural settings, attempting to make sense of or interpret phenomena in terms of the meanings people bring to them (aspers & corte, 2019). the researcher used a qualitative methodology because this study aimed to discover and explore teachers' perceptions of using google translate in http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 1, january 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 167 teaching pronunciation. the findings of this study will be presented verbally rather than through numerical data, and the form of the data is in words. research setting and participant the research was conducted in january 2024 in several middle schools in yogyakarta. the researcher observed one of the classes in sma pgri 1 kasihan and interviewed three english teachers from different educational institutions who had previously employed google translate as a learning medium in their classroom as respondents. instruments of the study in conducting this study, the researcher used some instruments to collect data. they are observation and interview. observation to gather varied information on the data, the researcher observes teaching and learning activities in the classroom. in this case, the researcher focuses on the learning process, especially the teacher's use of google translate to teach pronunciation skills. the researcher’s findings will be examined as data to be analyzed. first, the researcher made introductions and explained the purpose of the observation. then, researchers conducted observations to obtain data. interview an interview is a methodical approach to talking and listening to individuals; it is an additional way of acquiring data from people through conversation (utibe monday, 2020). this instrument was used to obtain spoken data from the participants on teachers’ perceptions of using google translate in the teaching english pronunciation medium. this instrument consists of 10 questions that will be asked of english teachers. technique of collecting data to collect the data, the researcher used observation and interviews as the instruments. the following steps will be undertaken in conducting the study: 1. this study chose three english teachers from different educational institutions in yogyakarta who had previously employed google translate as a learning medium in their classrooms. 2. preparing the observation sheets and interview guidelines as the instruments of the study. 3. observing the english class in sma 1 kasihan. 4. conducted interviews with three english teachers to obtain data. 5. analyzing the obtained data from observation and interview. 6. interpreting the findings from those instruments. 7. drawing a conclusion based on the obtained data. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 1, january 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 168 technique of data analysis this study used a qualitative data analysis technique. to analyze the data, the researcher followed the thematic analysis steps (braun & clarke, 2006): understanding the data to comprehend the interview’s content, researchers must familiarise themselves with the data. this means that researchers must be deeply involved in understanding the data by repeatedly reading and listening to it to gain a comprehensive understanding. coding the researcher will code the main themes from the interviews that have been obtained which involves identifying and evaluating relevant and irrelevant themes. finding a theme the researcher should group the codes into potential themes and collect all the data that is relevant to each potential theme, each theme will be evaluated to determine how it relates to the question. reviewing theme this stage involves two levels of review and refinement of themes. level one consists of reviewing at the level of the coded data extracts. level two consists of a process similar to that of the whole data set, where the researcher considers the validity of each theme concerning the data set. defining and naming the theme the researcher defines and identifies the central aspects of each theme, determining which data is captured by each theme. it is essential to assign concise and catchy names to the final analyses that immediately convey the themes' essence to the reader. producing the report the goal of writing a thematic analysis is to narrate the complex data story in a way that convinces the reader of the usefulness and validity of the analysis. results to answer the research question, the researcher conducted a semi-structured interview with the selected english teachers. in this section, the researcher has determined several questions related to the research. the researcher collected the data by recording the interview process. the positive perceptions of using google translate as a medium to teach pronunciation the simplicity of utilization the first result of the teacher's perception of the use of google translate as a medium in teaching english pronunciation is the simplicity of utilization. in the interview, the respondents shared their experiences in the following statement: http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 1, january 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 169 respondent 1 “i think using google translate as a medium to teaching is very user-friendly, and it also offers some features that support learning, especially pronunciation.” respondent 2 “i have used google translate as a learning medium. it is suitable for teaching pronunciation because students can easily access and use it through the web. google translate as a medium to teach pronunciation is very practical and flexible, as it can be used whenever we need it.” respondent 3 “i have been using google translate because of its ease of use, especially in learning how to pronounce difficult words through the text-to-speech feature and teaching basic pronunciation to my students in class.” enhancing the pronunciation abilities of students the second result of the teachers’ perceptions of the use of google translate as a medium in teaching english pronunciation is that it is appropriate to enhance and improve the pronunciation abilities of students. in the interview, the respondents shared their perceptions in the following statement: respondent 1 “from my perspective, using google translate as a medium to teach pronunciation can make students more interested in imitating the pronunciation that comes out of the text-to-speech feature because students can directly listen to a native speaker.” respondent 2 “in my opinion, it is suitable to use google translate as a medium in the classroom to teach pronunciation because the students can hear the correct pronunciation directly from a native speaker.” respondent 3 “i believe that using google translate as a learning medium for teaching pronunciation to students is appropriate. with the use of text-to-speech, students can know their pronunciation and practice their pronunciation. the use of the text-to-speech feature on google translate can be beneficial for teachers to deliver the correct pronunciation to the students.” http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 1, january 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 170 increasing students learning motivation the following result of the interview was that respondents explained that teachers' use of google translate as a new and exciting teaching medium could motivate students to improve their pronunciation skills by utilizing the features that are available on google translate. in the interview, the respondents shared their perceptions in the following statement: respondent 1 “i think using google translate as a learning medium can motivate students. many features support students in learning and improving their english skills. furthermore, it is simple to use so that they can study independently at home.” respondent 2 “in my opinion, the use of google translate can motivate students because when teachers use it as a medium for teaching pronunciation, students have to be more interested in how native english speakers pronounce their words so that students want to improve their pronunciation to be like a native speaker.” respondent 3 “i think the effect of using google translate as a teaching medium is quite good for increasing students’ motivation because the existence of new media like the text-tospeech feature on google translate can increase students’ motivation to learn speaking seriously, especially pronunciation.” the negative perceptions of using google translate as a medium to teach pronunciation the internet access based on the interviews conducted by the researchers, internet access is the first result of the negative perspective of using google translate as a learning media for teaching pronunciation. in the interview, the respondents shared their experiences in the following statement: respondent 1 “the disadvantage of using google translate is that it needs to be connected to the internet, so if the connection is bad, google translate won’t work.” http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 1, january 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 171 respondent 2 “the disadvantage of using google translate as a teaching medium is that i must always connect to the internet to access it. in addition, not all schools provide free internet facilities to their teachers and students, and students do not necessarily have a quota of internet access.” respondent 3 “the disadvantage is the internet aspect because to use google translate, you must always be connected to the internet, and the signal is not always good.” smartphones as a distraction respondents also mentioned the use of smartphones, which can be a distraction in the classroom, as the negative perspective of the use of google translate as a learning media for teaching pronunciation. the respondents shared their experiences in the following statement: respondent 1 “as google translate is available on smartphones and computers, there is a risk that some students may be misusing it to access other applications.” respondent 2 “another disadvantage is that if students access google translate during the lesson, they may access other applications that can disrupt the lesson.” respondent 3 “the other disadvantage is that if students access google translate during learning, they may not listen to the teacher and are more preoccupied with their smartphones.” discussion the positive perceptions of using google translate as a medium to teach pronunciation the simplicity of utilization all of the respondents agreed that google translate was an easy and accessible tool, both for teachers and students. the respondents’ statements are in line with (khasanah et al., 2022), who stated that google translate was easy for the students to use anytime, anywhere, and it can also help them improve their pronunciation skills. in addition, (afandi et al., 2023) stated that the utilization of google translate for enhancing students’ speaking proficiency, especially pronunciation, has the benefit of offering simplicity of use for both http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 1, january 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 172 teachers and students, which may facilitate the enhancement of students’ speaking abilities while they are engaged in study. the respondents’ statements show that teachers frequently utilize google translate as a medium for teaching english pronunciation to students in the classroom because is because google translate is a valuable tool that is easily accessible and usable. the utilization of google translate in teaching offers teachers and students a convenient and accessible tool for language learning. with its user-friendly, google translate seamlessly integrates into the classroom environment, facilitating smooth communication and comprehension across languages. teachers can effortlessly incorporate this resource into their lessons, enhancing students’ understanding and engagement with diverse linguistic content. moreover, the availability of google translate across multiple devices ensures flexibility and convenience, empowering both teachers and students to leverage its benefits anytime and anywhere. overall, the simplicity of use and effectiveness of google translate make it an indispensable asset in modern language education, revolutionizing the way languages are taught and learned. enhancing the pronunciation abilities of students the respondents stated that teachers can use the text-to-speech feature on google translate as a teaching medium to improve students’ pronunciation skills. in line with the data from classroom observation, teachers and students employed the text-to-speech function in google translate to listen to the correct pronunciation, which they then practiced together. as the lesson continued, students exhibited greater interest in understanding and improving their pronunciation, mainly due to the assistance provided by google translate. corroborating the data from classroom observations, (hutapea et al., 2023) stated that to enhance pronunciation, students can imitate native speakers or use recorded materials. according to the result of the research done by (sain & cobar, 2023), the use of google translate by teachers as a learning media gives significant results in the improvement of the students' pronunciation after using the text-to-speech feature on google translate. the findings of the research conducted by (martina mulyani & fakhrunisa afina, 2021) also mentioned that google translate was beneficial to students in facilitating the pronunciation of words like that of native speakers. the statement of the respondents is also consistent with the study by (khasanah et al., 2022), who stated that google translate could improve pronunciation skills, allowing students to practice pronouncing difficult words. teachers' incorporation of google translate as learning media has been shown to improve students’ pronunciation skills. the use of google translate in the classroom setting provides students with valuable resources to refine their pronunciation effectively. through guided exercises and interactive activities facilitated by teachers, students can utilize google translate to practice pronunciation with accuracy and receive immediate feedback. furthermore, the ability to listen to the pronunciation repeatedly helps to reinforce learning and improve their skills. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 1, january 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 173 increasing students learning motivation the interview's outcome is in line with (taka, 2019), who stated that using learning media will bring new interest and desires in students, inspire and stimulate learning practices, and psychologically influence the learner. google translate has the potential to make a significant difference in the motivation and confidence of students as they master pronunciation. the platform empowers students to perfect their pronunciation skills precisely and efficiently by providing instant feedback from the text-to-speech feature. according to (afandi et al., 2023), using google translate to support speaking achievement emphasizes its positive effect on students’ interest and motivation in practicing their speaking skills. furthermore, (lestari et al., 2023) specifically highlight that the utilization of google translate is a motivating factor for students in learning english. google translate allows students to practice the pronunciation of difficult words and makes them more motivated and confident in their learning. the platform offers a supportive learning environment where students can compare and adjust their pronunciation in real time, leading to deeper understanding. as students observe their progress through improved pronunciation, their confidence naturally grows, encouraging further engagement and enthusiasm for language learning. in addition, the data from classroom observation indicated that students exhibited a heightened interest in comprehending and enhancing their pronunciation, particularly due to the guidance provided by google translate. in this way, google translate can function as a practical learning media and as a stimulant to increase students’ confidence and motivation to learn pronunciation. the negative perceptions of using google translate as a medium to teach pronunciation the internet access as one of the technologies that can only be accessed through the internet, one significant drawback of using google translate as a medium for teaching pronunciation is its dependence on internet access. it is in line with the result of the research by (khasanah et al., 2022) that the obstacles when using google translate to learn pronunciation were that google translate often had errors and could not be used offline. in addition, (agustin, 2022) also mentioned that the availability of an internet connection has an impact on the utilization of google translate. while the platform offers extensive pronunciation guides, its effectiveness depends on a stable internet connection. the accessibility of an internet connection has a significant impact on the utilization of google translate as a medium for teaching pronunciation; with a stable connection, both teachers and students can seamlessly access google translate’s text-to-speech feature, which enables them to listen to the accurate pronunciation of words and phrases. this availability enhances students' educational experience, as they are permitted to repeatedly listen to correct pronunciation until they have grasped it accurately. however, without reliable internet access, students may encounter difficulties accessing this resource, thereby hindering their ability to effectively use google translate as a pronunciation aid. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 1, january 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 174 consequently, the availability of an internet connection is paramount in enabling the effective utilization of google translate as a valuable learning medium for pronunciation instruction. smartphones as a distraction the accessibility of smartphones can tempt students to divert their attention from the lesson at hand. this distraction can be detrimental to learning, as it diverts attention. in line with the result of the classroom observation, it became evident that several students were not paying attention to the instructions given by the teacher. when the teacher directed the students to use their smartphones to open google translate, some students instead used their smartphones to engage in activities unrelated to the learning process, such as playing games or accessing social media. this can undoubtedly act as a distraction for students, preventing them from being actively involved in the learning process. it also had a considerable negative influence on the students' academic performance due to the lifestyle associated with smartphones, which served to distract students from schoolwork. in addition, (yin, 2019)stated that the prevalence of social media and smartphone gaming could distract students during class time. instead of engaging with the material or participating in class discussions, students may issue their smartphones to engage in non-educational activities such as social media, gaming, or messaging during class time. this distraction not only distracts from the learning environment but also affects students’ ability to fully understand and engage with the material being taught. according to (soyemi & abiodun samson oloruntoba, 2015), students' uncontrolled use of smartphones is the main reason for their poor academic performance. teachers must be very aware of how to manage and avoid the misuse of technology during class time to ensure that students are focused and actively engaged in their learning activities. while smartphones offer numerous benefits, their presence in the classroom requires careful management to mitigate their negative impact on academic performance. conclusion according to the findings and discussion that explain teachers’ perceptions of using google translate to teach english pronunciation, the researcher can conclude that teachers have positive and negative perceptions of this medium. the teachers agreed that google translate, as a medium for teaching english pronunciation, is simple to use and accessible because users can access it at any time. they considered using google translate as a medium appropriate and efficient for teaching english pronunciation because of its text-to-speech feature. moreover, they also mention that using google translate as a medium for teaching english pronunciation can increase students’ interest and motivation to learn pronunciation. on the other hand, the teachers also mention the negative perceptions of utilizing google translate as a medium for teaching english pronunciation. the most significant drawback is that using google translate depends on a stable internet connection. furthermore, using smartphones to access google translate in the classroom can distract students, which could divert students' attention and be the main reason for students’ poor academic performance. although there are some negative views towards the use of google translate as a learning http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 1, january 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 175 medium, it can be concluded that teachers have more positive views towards using google translate as a learning medium to teach english pronunciation. references afandi, a. r., kurniawan, e. h., & amroni, a. (2023). the use of google translate to support speaking achievement in basic level of z-generation international foundation. jurnal pendidikan bahasa inggris proficiency, 5(1), 29. https://doi.org/10.32503/proficiency.v5i1.3287 agustin, s. n. (2022). students' perception on the use of google translate for english learning. aspers, p., & corte, u. (2019). what is qualitative in qualitative research. qualitative sociology, 42(2), 139–160. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11133-019-9413-7 braun, v., & clarke, v. (2006). using thematic analysis in psychology. qualitative research in psychology, 3(2), 77–101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa eady, m. j., & lockyer, l. (2013). tools for learning: technology and teaching strategies. gilakjani, a. p. (2016). english pronunciation instruction: a literature review. international journal of research in english education, 1(1). hutapea, n. r. p., lubis, n., & manik, s. (2023). error analysis of students’ pronunciation in pronouncing english vowels. khasanah, u., madjdi, a. h., & nuraeningsih, n. (2022). students’ perception on the use of google translate in learning pronunciation. borneo educational journal (borju), 4(1), 50–60. https://doi.org/10.24903/bej.v4i1.912 leong, l.-m., school of educational studies, universiti sains malaysia, malaysia, ahmadi, s. m., & university of guilan, rasht, iran. (2017). an analysis of factors influencing learners’ english speaking skill. international journal of research in english education, 2(1), 34–41. https://doi.org/10.18869/acadpub.ijree.2.1.34 lestari, l. i., nurcahyo, a. d., & romadlon, f. n. (2023). the students' perception towards google translate as a supporting media to learn english. prominent, 6(2), 95–102. https://doi.org/10.24176/pro.v6i2.8453 martina mulyani & fakhrunisa afina. (2021). the students' attitude towards google translate. jela (journal of english language teaching, literature and applied linguistics), 3(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.37742/jela.v3i1.36 sain, y., & cobar, j. (2023). improving students’ pronunciation in word stress through tts (text to speech) feature: on a google translate application. ideas: journal on english language teaching and learning, linguistics and literature, 11(1), 837–844. https://doi.org/10.24256/ideas.v11i1.3321 septiadi, a. r. (2019). english freshman students’ attitudes towards the use of google translate at iain palangka raya. iain palangka raya. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 1, january 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 176 soyemi, j. & abiodun samson oloruntoba. (2015). analysis of mobile phone impact on student academic performance in tertiary institution. international journal of emerging technology and advanced engineering. taka, s. d. (2019). teaching speaking by using snake and ladder board game. ideas: journal on english language teaching and learning, linguistics and literature, 7(2). https://doi.org/10.24256/ideas.v7i2.1021 utibe monday, t. (2020). impacts of interview as research instrument of data collection in social sciences. journal of digital art & humanities, 1(1), 15–24. https://doi.org/10.33847/2712-8148.1.1_2 yin, n. (2019). the negative impact of smartphones and how teachers improve teaching activities through smartphones. 2019 2nd international conference on contemporary education and economic development. https://doi.org/10.23977/ceed.2019.026 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 1, january 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 22 gamification in elt: a systematic review of its effects on learner engagement and motivation dzul ashfiah1, rafi’ah nur 2, salasiah ammade 3, ammang latifa4, syawal5 1,2,3,4,5 universitas muhammadiyah parepare, sulawesi selatan, indonesia *dsulasfiahpolman88@gmail.com abstract gamification is gaining increasing attention in english language teaching (elt) as a strategy to increase learner engagement and motivation through game elements such as points, badges, leaderboards, and digital platforms such as kahoot, duolingo, and quizizz. this systematic literature review (slr) analyzes 30 empirical studies published between 2021 and 2025 using the prisma framework to investigate the effects of gamification on learner motivation and engagement. the review finds that gamification generally has a positive impact on learner participation and enjoyment, increasing intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. however, challenges remain regarding the long-term sustainability of these motivational benefits and the risks of over-reliance on extrinsic rewards. the analysis also reveals that while digital tools dominate gamification in elt, the use of mixed or adaptive strategies is limited. furthermore, little research addresses the long-term effects of gamification on language proficiency and skill retention. these findings highlight the need for future research to explore adaptive gamification models, the integration of non-digital elements, and their alignment with pedagogical principles. this review offers valuable insights for educators and curriculum developers who wish to implement effective and sustainable gamification strategies in elt. keywords: english language teaching, gamification, learner engagement, motivation, systematic literature review introduction gamification has gained significant attention in english language teaching (elt) as a pedagogical strategy to address the challenge of maintaining learner motivation and engagement in digital learning environments. traditional instructional approaches often fail to resonate with digital-native learners, who are accustomed to interactive, visually rich, and goal-oriented experiences (deterding et al., 2011; kapp, 2012). by integrating game elements such as points, badges, leaderboards, and interactive platforms, gamification aims to enhance learners' intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, foster engagement, and improve learning outcomes (subhash & cudney, 2018; su & cheng, 2015; kuo-wei lee, 2023). a growing body of empirical research further supports the relevance of gamification in elt. several studies have shown that gamified platforms like kahoot, quizizz, and duolingo http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 mailto:dsulasfiahpolman88@gmail.com copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 1, january 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 23 not only increase student participation but also foster positive emotional responses to learning (amin, 2021; mahbubah & anam, 2022). in contexts where learners face anxiety or lack of motivation, gamification has been shown to reduce affective barriers and promote autonomous learning (zarzycka-piskorz, 2016; daulay & adelita, 2023). for example, inayati and waloyo (2022) found that quizziz-based gamification enhanced both discipline and interaction in online english classes. likewise, yu (2023) reported that gamification significantly improved vocabulary acquisition and learner satisfaction compared to traditional instruction. despite these promising findings, the current literature presents several critical limitations. most studies focus on short-term outcomes such as motivation, satisfaction, or engagement but rarely examine the long-term effects on actual language proficiency (baah, govender, & subramaniam, 2023; zhou & yu, 2022). furthermore, many interventions are limited in duration and scope, often involving small or homogeneous samples, and rely heavily on perception-based data rather than objective language performance measures (sadeghi et al., 2022; huseinović, 2023). another significant concern is the lack of pedagogical alignment in gamified instruction. while gamification tools are widely adopted, few studies integrate them with well-established instructional frameworks such as bloom's taxonomy, gagné's nine events of instruction, or constructivist learning theories (aguilar-cruz & álvarez guayara, 2021; torres rodríguez et al., 2023). this disconnect can result in a superficial application of gamification that emphasizes entertainment over educational value. consequently, educators may struggle to design gamified activities that promote deeper learning processes such as analysis, synthesis, and application. moreover, research rarely addresses how gamification impacts specific language skills such as grammar, speaking, listening, and writing in a targeted and sustained manner. most studies aggregate outcomes under general constructs like "motivation" or "engagement," leaving unclear whether gamification leads to measurable improvements in linguistic competence (rodríguez et al., 2023; nordin & swanto, 2023). additionally, there is limited exploration of adaptive gamification strategies that tailor learning experiences to individual learner needs, proficiency levels, or learning preferences (oliveira et al., 2022). these limitations point to an urgent need for more comprehensive and theoretically grounded research in the field. future studies should adopt longitudinal and mixed-method designs, assess specific skill outcomes, and evaluate how gamified instruction aligns with pedagogical principles. by addressing these gaps, educators and researchers can better understand not only whether gamification works but how and why it contributes to sustainable language learning.based on this gap in the literature, this study seeks to answer two key questions: (1) what is the effect of gamification on learners' engagement in english language teaching (elt)? (2) what is the effect of gamification on learners' motivation in english language teaching (elt)? and (3) (what are the limitations and potential improvements in gamification strategies in elt, particularly concerning long-term impact and instructional design? the novelty of this study lies in its dual emphasis on pedagogical alignment and longitudinal effectiveness. unlike previous reviews, this systematic literature review http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 1, january 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 24 critically evaluates not only learners' perceptions but also the extent to which gamification supports sustainable language proficiency and the development of targeted language skills. this comprehensive synthesis offers actionable insights for designing adaptive, skill-specific, and theory-driven gamified instruction for diverse elt contexts. methods this study employed a systematic literature review (slr) method to investigate the effects of gamification on learner engagement and motivation in english language teaching (elt). the research followed the prisma 2020 (preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses) guidelines to ensure transparency, objectivity, and replicability throughout the review process. the slr approach was selected as it allows researchers to comprehensively synthesize empirical findings across multiple studies, evaluate current trends, and identify knowledge gaps in a structured and evidence-based manner. the review process was conducted in four main stages according to the prisma flow: identification, screening, eligibility, and inclusion. these steps helped ensure that only highquality and relevant studies were selected and that the findings would reflect the actual state of research in the field. the goal of this review was to answer the following questions: (1) what is the effect of gamification on learners' engagement in english language teaching (elt)?, (2) what is the effect of gamification on learners' motivation in english language teaching (elt)? and (3) (what are the limitations and potential improvements in gamification strategies in elt, particularly concerning long-term impact and instructional design? to collect relevant studies, a comprehensive search was conducted using the mendeley database. mendeley was chosen due to its accessibility and functionality in organizing academic literature. the search was carried out using predefined keyword combinations such as "gamification" and "english language teaching," "gamification" and "learner engagement,” and "gamification" and "motivation.” these keywords were selected to ensure that the search results would include studies that specifically focused on gamification strategies within english language teaching contexts. the initial search yielded a total of 87 records. to ensure the quality and relevance of the included studies, the researchers established clear inclusion and exclusion criteria, as summarized in the following table: table 1. study selection criteria in the review process inclusion criteria exclusion criteria empirical studies (quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methods) non-empirical studies (e.g., literature reviews, conceptual papers, editorials) peer-reviewed articles articles not published in peer-reviewed journals published between 2021 and 2025 articles published before 2021 written in english articles written in languages other than english focused on gamification in english language teaching (elt) studies outside the scope of elt or not involving gamification http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 1, january 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 25 to ensure the systematic and transparent selection of relevant studies, this research employed the prisma 2020 (preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta analyses) flow diagram, which outlines the step-by-step screening and inclusion process. figure 1. flow chart process selection the study selection process followed the prisma 2020 flow. in the identification stage, 1026 records were retrieved from the mendeley database using the defined keywords. during the screening stage, 53 duplicate records were removed, leaving 973 articles for initial review. these remaining studies were screened by reading their titles and abstracts, resulting in the exclusion of 943 articles that did not meet the predefined inclusion criteria such as being non-empirical or irrelevant to elt and gamification. in the eligibility stage, 30 full-text articles were assessed in detail. all 30 studies met the inclusion criteria and were considered eligible. finally, these 30 articles were included in the synthesis and thematic analysis stage of the review. to collect and organize relevant information from the selected studies, the researchers used a structured data extraction approach. each article was reviewed to gather data on the authors, year of publication, research setting and country, educational context (such as primary, secondary, or tertiary education), research methodology (quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methods), gamification elements applied (such as points, badges, leaderboards, and platforms like kahoot, duolingo, or quizizz), variables measured (e.g., motivation, engagement, or learning outcomes), and major findings and limitations. this structured documentation ensured that all studies could be compared systematically and fairly. the extracted data were then analyzed using thematic analysis. this approach involved reading each study multiple times, identifying repeated patterns and meaningful themes, and grouping them into categories relevant to the research questions. the coding process figure 1. flowchart process selection records identified from*: mendeley (n = 1026) keyword 1 = 18 keywors 2 = 21 keyword 3 = 987 records removed before screening: records remaining after removing the duplicates (n = 973) title screened (n = 973) records excluded** (n = 861) reports sought for retrieval (n = 112) reports not retrieved (n = 67) subject matter not relevant after evaluating title and abstract. reports assessed for eligibility (n = 45) reports excluded: unrelated articles on elt (n = 2) articles are slr (n = 13) studies included in review (n = 30) http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 1, january 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 26 was both deductive, based on the objectives of the review, and inductive, emerging from the actual content of the articles. the main themes that emerged included the effectiveness of gamification in enhancing motivation and engagement, the variety and frequency of gamification elements used, the short-term versus long-term impact of gamification, and the methodological limitations in current research. to ensure replicability and academic rigour, the review process was documented and followed consistent procedures at every stage. although the study did not involve experimental instruments or human participants, it was conducted with full adherence to research ethics and transparency. by using the prisma framework, defining clear inclusion criteria, and employing a structured analysis method, the researchers ensured that the findings of this review could be reliably validated and extended by future research in similar contexts. results distribution of research methodologies in gamification studies in elt in research on gamification in english language teaching (elt), various methodological approaches are employed to analyze its effectiveness and impact. each approach has its advantages, whether in measuring outcomes quantitatively, exploring learners' experiences qualitatively, or combining both methods for a more comprehensive understanding. the following pie chart displays the distribution of research methodologies utilized in 30 studies on gamification in english language teaching. figure 2. distribution of research methodology in 30 studies in gamification & elt this pie chart illustrates the distribution of research methodologies used in 30 studies on gamification in english language teaching (elt). the numbers show that 40% (12 studies) used a quantitative approach to find out how gamification affected language learning. these studies mostly used experiments, surveys, and questionnaires. meanwhile, 26.7% (8 studies) adopted a qualitative approach, focusing on interviews, observations, and http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 1, january 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 27 thematic analyses to explore students' perceptions of gamification. in addition, 33.3% (10 studies) used a mixed-methods approach, which combined quantitative and qualitative methods to get a fuller picture of how gamification affects elt. this distribution highlights the dominance of quantitative research in gamification studies, while mixed-methods research also plays a significant role in offering deeper insights. gamification in english language teaching: an analysis of commonly used elements gamification has gained increasing attention in english language teaching (elt) as an innovative strategy to enhance student engagement and motivation. by incorporating gamelike elements into learning activities, educators aim to create more interactive and enjoyable experiences for students (deterding et al., 2011; kapp, 2012). this study analyses findings from 30 empirical studies to identify the most commonly used gamification elements and their effectiveness in elt. the results provide valuable insights into which gamification features are most prevalent and how they contribute to student learning. figure 3. usage of gamification elements in 30 studies based on the analysis of 30 studies, digital tools such as kahoot, quizizz, and duolingo were the most frequently used gamification elements, appearing in 9 studies. these tools enhance student engagement by providing interactive learning experiences and real-time feedback. leaderboards, used in three studies, help foster a sense of competition among students by ranking their performance and motivating them to improve. similarly, badges, also used in 3 studies, serve as virtual rewards that recognize achievements and encourage continuous participation in learning activities. surprisingly, only one study used points, a fundamental gamification feature, suggesting their limited adoption in educational contexts. interestingly, despite being a common feature in game-based learning, none of the analyzed studies explicitly mentioned quests. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 1, january 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 28 in addition to individual gamification elements, 14 studies combined multiple elements to create a more engaging learning experience. these studies incorporated different combinations, such as digital tools with leaderboards or badges with points, to enhance motivation and student performance. the findings suggest that blended approaches, integrating multiple gamification elements, may be more effective in fostering student engagement. overall, digital tools emerged as the most dominant gamification element, while points and quests were the least utilized in the reviewed studies. from the 30 studies analyzed, digital tools were the most frequently used gamification element, followed by leaderboards and badges. no study explicitly mentioned points or quests. additionally, 14 studies combined multiple gamification elements, showing that blended approaches may be more effective for student engagement. the effects of gamification on learner engagement in elt the following table summarizes various studies that investigate the impact of gamification on learner engagement in english language teaching (elt). these studies employ diverse methodologies and focus on different aspects of engagement, providing a comprehensive overview of how gamified strategies influence student participation and interaction in the classroom. table 2. studies investigating the effect of gamification on learner engagement in elt no author(s) year title methodology gamification elements key findings strengths & limitations 1 oliveira et al. 2022 the effects of personalized gamification on students’ flow experience, motivation, and enjoyment mixed factorial customized based on brainhex types (points, badges, leaderboard, etc. no significant differences; some gamer types preferred nonpersonalized version streng: controlled design, validated tools. limitations: limited personalization, short duration 2 amalia, inayati, marini, 2023 improving students’ motivation in learning english through gamification classroom action research (2 cycles) nearpod, quizizz, mentimeter, zoom whiteboard, canva gamification increased motivation, participation, and classroom engagement; some students had speech anxiety streng: real classroom setting, mixed methods, multiple platforms. limitations: small sample, short duration, online constraints, emerging issue of speech anxiety 3 sausan nafis amin, 2021 gamification of duolingo in raising student’s english language qualitative case study lingots, leaderboard, xp points, badges, skill tree, streaks, translation/ duolingo increases motivation and engagement; gamification elements make learning streng: real-life mobile application use; detailed gamification features. limitations: small sample size, limited generalizability; lacks grammar http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 1, january 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 29 learning motivation speaking/lis tening tasks enjoyable and consistent instruction, internetdependent 4 baah, govender & subraman iam, 2023 exploring the role of gamification in motivating students to learn quantitativ e points, leaderboard, freedom to fail only satisfaction significantly influenced motivation; other arcssdt factors were not significant streng: strong theoretical model, quantitative rigor, 90% variance explained. limitations: small sample, cross-sectional, no qualitative data 5 kuo-wei lee, 2023 effectiveness of gamification and selection of appropriate teaching methods of creativity 6-week interventio n, ahp method, selfassessment survey points, leaderboard, competitive tasks, reward (cash red envelope) gamification increased motivation, creativity, collaboration, and communicatio n. scamper, balloon competition, and mandala thinking were the most effective methods streng: studentcentered, mixed methods, ahp-based ranking. limitations: small sample, short duration, only selfreport data, team composition & fairness issues. 6 lamija huseinovi ć,2023 the effects of gamification on student motivation and achievement in learning efl in higher education surveybased quantitativ e research, descriptive stats, regression, correlation games & apps: duolingo, babbel, memrise (points, badges, levels, leaderboard s) significant positive correlations between game use and motivation, language skills, and academic performance streng: large diverse sample, comprehensive analysis, reliable instruments. limitations: selfreported data, no experimental control, possible bias, some students viewed games as childish 7 zhonggen yu, 2023 learning outcomes, motivation, and satisfaction in gamified english vocabulary learning quasiexperiment + semistructured interviews (mixedmethod) kingsoft powerword (points, games, vocabulary test games, rankings, rewards, progress tracking) gamification significantly improved learning outcomes, motivation, and satisfaction compared to non-gamified learning streng: strong design, multiple measures, real context. limitations: limited to one app (kingsoft), short duration, gender imbalance in sample http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 1, january 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 30 8 casanovamata (2023) enhancing english acquisition: effects of among us game-based gamification on language competence, motivation, attention, and attitude towards the english subject experiment al (pretest/posttest, control vs. experiment al group) classdojo, points, badges, levels, minigames, impostor roles, storybased gameplay gamification improved writing skill, motivation, attention, attitude, and participation; significant gains in experimental group strength: wellstructured gamified design, multidimensional assessment. limitation: small sample, shortterm, potential emotional variability due to competition 9 kusumani ngrum & binarti (2021) jeopardy classroom instruction: fostering students’ motivation to learn english vocabulary classroom action research (3 phases) jeopardy game (points, competition, team play, feedback) jeopardy improved motivation, engagement, and test scores; reduced anxiety and failure avoidance behaviors strength: rich classroom insight, multi-instrument data, clear behavioral impact. limitation: small scope, no long-term tracking, uneven student motivation at start. 10 sholihatul hamidah daulay & devika adelita (2023) using scrabble as a gamification to enhance students’ motivation and vocabulary acquisition qualitative, case study with open and closed questionnai res game-based learning using digital/physi cal scrabble games scrabble increases motivation through fun, competition, and challenge; vocabulary improves due to contextual word use, exploration, and memorization via play. strengths: rich teacher insights; qualitative depth; practical relevance. limitations: small sample size; limited to teacher perspectives; lacks student performance data; challenges with resources (e.g., dictionaries, tile limitations). 11 mezia kemala sari, nurul hadina, nahla rahmand a (2022) duolingo as an attractive application to upgrade student’s motivation in learning english quantitativ e, closed questionnai re achievemen ts, lingots, crown levels, daily goals, forum, vocabulary/ speaking/lis tening/trans 75% agreed duolingo motivates independent learning; 62.5% felt it gives more learning opportunities; 43.75% were strengths: high student approval, real-world relevance, explores gamification features. limitations: small sample size, single school, only uses perception data http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 1, january 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 31 independentl y lation exercises encouraged to study more outside class. duolingo makes learning fun, accessible, and game-like, increasing curiosity and consistency. without performance measurement. 12 dedi rahman nur (2021) student’s voices on kahoot at tertiary level in east kalimantan descriptive qualitative design; questionnai res (open and closedended); 5point likert scale; spss analysis kahoot: classroom competition, reward system, time limits, visual content, social media sharing kahoot increased student interest, motivation, understanding, teamwork, and created a competitive classroom atmosphere strengths: structured instrument, popular and easy-to-use app, positive student responseslimitations: technical issues (slow/freeze), dependency on stable internet connectivity 13 sausan nafis amin (2021) gamification of duolingo in raising students’ english language learning motivation case study; in-depth interviews and observatio ns; qualitative analysis duolingo: skill trees, badges, xp points, leaderboard s, streaks, rewards (lingots), voice/speec h recognition, visual/audio elements duolingo significantly increased motivation and engagement; students preferred it over textbookbased learning; game elements made learning fun and consistent strengths: deep qualitative insights; detailed exploration of gamified mechanics; strong practical applicationlimitations: very small sample; no quantitative performance data; limited generalizability table 2 summarizes key studies that examine the effectiveness of gamification in promoting learner engagement within english language teaching (elt). the most commonly used gamification strategies involve digital tools and platforms such as kahoot, quizizz, duolingo, nearpod, and classdojo. these tools integrate various game elements— including points, badges, leaderboards, timed challenges, and interactive interfaces—to foster active participation, attentiveness, and collaboration. a number of studies also implemented physical or hybrid games, such as scrabble and jeopardy-style classroom games, demonstrating that both digital and non-digital approaches can be effective when aligned with classroom dynamics. different gamification elements appear to influence learners' engagement in specific ways. points and leaderboards, for instance, were frequently associated with increased behavioural engagement, as they triggered competitiveness and goal-oriented participation. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 1, january 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 32 badges and achievement systems tended to support emotional engagement by offering visible recognition and satisfaction. a smaller number of studies incorporated storytelling elements or role-playing mechanics, which helped enhance cognitive engagement by immersing learners in meaningful, contextualized tasks. when these elements were combined in a blended approach, studies reported stronger engagement outcomes, suggesting that multi-faceted designs are more impactful than single-feature implementations. gamification was found to be particularly effective in secondary and tertiary education, especially among learners with intermediate to advanced proficiency levels. additionally, several studies demonstrated that online learning environments—especially during remote instruction—benefited significantly from gamified tools, as they helped mitigate distraction and foster real-time interaction. nonetheless, studies conducted in offline or hybrid contexts also showed positive results, particularly when physical interaction and group-based activities were incorporated. to measure learner engagement, researchers adopted diverse instruments, including classroom observations, engagement rubrics, surveys, and interviews. some studies applied multi-dimensional frameworks that evaluated engagement through behavioural, emotional, and cognitive indicators. while many relied on qualitative insights, such as student reflections and teacher observations, others supported their findings with quantitative data, such as participation rates or performance improvements during gamified sessions. this combination of methods provided a holistic understanding of how and to what extent gamification fosters engagement in elt classrooms. the effects of gamification on learner motivation in elt understanding the role of motivation in language learning is essential, as it significantly influences students' commitment, effort, and overall achievement. in the context of english language teaching (elt), gamification has emerged as a promising strategy to enhance both intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors. table 3 presents a summary of selected empirical studies that specifically investigate the relationship between gamification and learner motivation. the table outlines the research methodologies, types of gamification elements implemented, key findings, as well as the strengths and limitations identified in each study. table 3. studies investigating the effects of gamification on learner motivation in elt no author(s) /year title methodology gamification elements key findings strengths & limitations 1 laily mahbub ah & syafiul anam (2022) students’ perceptions on the implementat ion of kahoot! in english descriptive qualitative; questionnai re and semistructured interviews; classroom kahoot features: realtime quizzes, immediate feedback, leaderboards, timers, game pins; mda kahoot increased motivation, comprehension, and classroom participation; learning became fun, engaging, and less boring strengths: detailed observation of engagement types; triangulated data collection (survey & interview)limitation s: internet connectivity issues; http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 1, january 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 33 language teaching with brainstormi ng and kahoot quiz sessions (mechanics, dynamics, aesthetics) framework applied lack of prior experience with tech tools; limited time and device access 2 ahmed ennouar i & khalid houssai ni (2023) transformat ive impacts of ict-based gamification on english language teaching in moroccan education quasiexperiment al design; preand post-tests; surveys; anova statistical analysis; classroom observation s; teacher interviews digital games, kahoot, duolingo, mobile apps, leaderboards, quizzes, feedback, interactivity experimental group showed significantly higher motivation, comprehension, achievement, and positive behavior; ict gamification proved effective over traditional methods strengths: robust design with control group; triangulation of data; detailed statistical analysislimitations: small sample size; short-term scope; minimal impact on attendance; some teachers lacked ict skills 3 nina inayati & alimin adi waloyo (2022) the influence of quizzizonline gamification on learning engagement and outcomes in online english language teaching descriptive case study; observation s, interviews, and test results across six sessions quizziz: timed quizzes, realtime leaderboard, instant feedback, visuals, accessibility on mobile devices engagement improved steadily over time; learning outcomes fluctuated; quizziz was effective for motivation but not consistent for achievement strengths: multimethod data collection; observed real-classroom dynamicslimitations: short study duration; no control group; learning gains not consistent across topics 4 benjami n panmei & budi waluyo (2023) the pedagogical use of gamification in english vocabulary training and learning in higher education quasiexperiment al; pre/post vocabulary tests; surveys; correlation and t-tests quizizz: online quizzes, instant feedback, leaderboard, memes, accessible via mobile, autonomous practice mixed results: no overall significant improvement between groups; experimental group outperformed in some tests; positive perceptions of quizizz remained high strengths: rigorous design; reliable instruments; explored underresearched app (quizizz)limitations: no qualitative data; short duration; app not designed specifically for vocabulary; perceptions decreased slightly post-intervention 5 paola julie aguilarcruz & henry a serious game to learn english: the case of qualitative case study; open interviews; preand bethe1challe nge game: missions, levels, points, feedback, positive perceptions: 76% found the game fun and useful; 94% felt motivated by gamified activities; strengths: rich qualitative insights; practical classroom integration; triangulation of http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 1, january 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 34 alberto álvarez guayara (2021) bethe1chall enge post-tests; thematic analysis and paired t-test learning analytics; plus gamified activities (e.g., scavenger hunt, spelling bee, bingo, debates, tictac-toe) measurable english improvement (e.g., pre-/post-test gains) datalimitations: only 57% had access to the game due to device and registration issues; repetitive tasks; lack of in-game interaction 6 paola julie aguilarcruz & henry alberto álvarez guayara (2021) a serious game to learn english: the case of bethe1chall enge qualitative case study; open interviews; preand post-tests; thematic analysis and paired t-test bethe1challe nge game: missions, levels, points, feedback, learning analytics; plus gamified activities (e.g., scavenger hunt, spelling bee, bingo, debates, tictac-toe) positive perceptions: 76% found the game fun and useful; 94% felt motivated by gamified activities; measurable english improvement (e.g., pre-/post-test gains) strengths: rich qualitative insights; practical classroom integration; triangulation of datalimitations: only 57% had access to the game due to device and registration issues; repetitive tasks; lack of in-game interaction 7 trinh t. h., nguyen m. n., & tran t. t. h. (2022) teachers and students' perceptions of using digital games in improving vocabulary at nonenglishmajored class mixedmethods (questionna ires + semistructured interviews); piloted instruments quizizz, kahoot, wordwall; competitive rankings, colorful design, instant feedback, interactivity teachers and students view dgs positively for enhancing engagement, motivation, and vocabulary retention; however, drawbacks include time constraints, distractions, and technical issues strengths: rich qualitative & quantitative data; dual perspectives (students & teachers); rigorous pilotinglimitations: limited generalizability; lack of game-content effectiveness analysis; occasional access issues (devices, connectivity) 8 salome stepheni a nordin & suyansa h bin swanto (2023) the impact of implementin g quizizz on developing vocabulary skills in language learning among malaysian quasiexperiment al (pretest/posttest); questionnai re for perceptions ; descriptive and inferential quizizz: gamified quizzes, instant feedback, collaboration, leaderboards, interactive design significant improvement in vocabulary scores post-quizizz; high student satisfaction and engagement; positive views on collaboration and feedback strengths: real classroom application; strong statistical evidence; rural context relevancelimitations : small sample size; limited generalizability; technology & http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 1, january 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 35 secondary school students in rural areas statistics (ttest) connectivity barriers in rural areas 9 kibbeu m na & kwangh ee han (2023) how leaderboard positions shape our motivation: the impact of competence satisfaction and frustration on motivation in a gamified crowdsourci ng task online experiment; image tagging game; leaderboard manipulate d (high or low rank); behavioral and selfreport measures leaderboards : fixed high/low rank, point scores, feedback; selfdeterminatio n theory applied low-rank users showed increased motivation and effort; high-rank users showed complacency; neither group demonstrated intrinsic motivation; trait competitiveness did not significantly moderate effects strengths: strong sdt theoretical framework; diverse motivation measures (behavioral + subjective); novel experimental designlimitations: limited generalizability (lab setting, one-time task); only competence need studied; small sample for trait competitiveness effects 10 zhou zhihao & yu zhongge n (2022) the impact of gamification on the timelimited writing performance of english majors mixedmethod; quasiexperiment (control vs. experiment al group), 5week duration, writing tests, questionnai res, interviews points, badges (bronze/silve r/gold), levels (bronze/silve r/gold), leaderboards, bonus tasks gamification significantly improved all aspects of writing; motivation peaked in week 3, then declined; excessive rewards reduced motivation strengths: rich data sources (quantitative + qualitative); strong gamification design; real classroom settinglimitations: short duration; unclear which game elements had most effect; varied responses by personality type; drop in novelty effect 11 rabea ali & moham med abdalga ne (2022) the impact of gamification “kahoot app” in teaching english for academic purposes quasiexperiment al design; pre/post vocabulary tests and motivation questionnai re; 4-week interventio n kahoot: mcqs, timed responses, game-based feedback, individual play, leaderboard (disabled for objectivity) kahoot significantly improved vocabulary scores and motivation compared to traditional methods; students enjoyed the gamified environment strengths: detailed and structured methodology; controlled group comparison; reliable tools (vocab test + scale)limitations: small sample; short intervention period; no long-term retention measures 12 pandu perdana putra & arif suryo students' perception toward gamification applied in descriptive qualitative; questionnai res (likert kahoot, quizizz; points, badges, leaderboards, strongly positive perceptions: increased engagement, enjoyment, strengths: rich student feedback via multiple instruments; clear data http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 1, january 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 36 priyatm ojo (2021) english language classroom scale) and interviews competition, rewards motivation, understanding; minimal distraction; competition and fun fostered learning presentationlimitati ons: small sample; limited to one school; no academic performance data 13 frieska angelia, suharjit o & sani m. isa (2020) improving english learning by gamification with mda framework mixed methods; paired t-test (score improveme nt), user experience survey; design and implementa tion of gamified app mda: mechanics (timed quiz), dynamics (competition, feedback), aesthetics (pride, excitement, fear); points, badges, leaderboards, achievements statistically significant improvement in learning outcomes; users highly motivated by gamified elements; positive perceptions of interface and engagement strengths: custombuilt app; robust gamification model; quantitative + experiential datalimitations: small sample; short usage period; no long-term retention evaluation 14 torres rodrígu ez, d. a., armijos ramírez, m. r., criollo vargas, m. i., & salazar chamba, e. m. (2023) gamification strategies on the developmen t of english listening comprehensi on skills mixedmethod action research; pre-/posttests, questionnai res, observation checklists; 10-lesson interventio n based on gagné’s nine events games: “simon says,” “pass the ball,” “running dictation,” “pointing out,” “shopping race”; badges, leaderboards, rewards, competition post-test scores rose from 6 to 8.3/10; subskills significantly improved; students felt highly motivated and engaged; gamified lessons enhanced comprehension strengths: wellstructured intervention; integration of theory (gagné events); both qualitative and quantitative insightslimitations: small sample; results context-specific (single school); short-term scope 15 mohsen jabali & carol walker (2021) an exploratory crosssectional study: flipquiz as a digital tool for learning english vocabulary in language classroom quasiexperiment al; pre/post vocabulary tests; likert-scale surveys; comparison between control (traditional ) and experiment al (flipquiz) groups flipquiz: digital gameboard, verbal response, feedback, interactive play, competitive review format no statistically significant difference in vocabulary scores, but experimental group showed higher engagement and positive attitudes toward tech-based learning strengths: direct classroom application; comparative design; clear motivation datalimitations: short duration (2 weeks); limited age and gender diversity; potential verbal participation bias (flipquiz required speaking) 16 hayatul mila & an alternative sequential explanatory board game: physical participants reported high strengths: mixedmethod approach; http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 1, january 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 37 moh. arif mahbub (2022) board game to promote efl learners’ grammatica l skill mixedmethod; online likert questionnai re + semistructured interviews interaction, engagement mechanics, challenge, fun, collaborative play motivation, engagement, and fun; gamification made grammar more accessible and enjoyable deep qualitative insight; strong reliability (cronbach’s alpha = 0.928)limitations: very small sample (n=4); limited to one institution and skill area; not generalizable 17 kiki dwi sartika, dwi fita heriyaw ati & sonny elfianto (2023) the use of blooket: a study of students’ perception enhancing english vocabulary mastery descriptive quantitative ; 12-item likert-scale questionnai re analyzed with spss blooket: points, avatars, images, competitive game modes (e.g., racing, tower defense), instant feedback students found blooket fun, competitive, and helpful for vocabulary learning; visuals and feedback enhanced understanding; minor tech issues noted strengths: valid & reliable instrument (cronbach’s alpha = 0.836); practical classroom use; detailed analysislimitations: descriptive only; no learning performance metrics; tech dependency table 3 provides a detailed synthesis of empirical studies that explore the role of gamification in enhancing learner motivation within english language teaching (elt) contexts. the analysis reveals that the most commonly used gamification strategies include the use of digital platforms such as kahoot, quizizz, duolingo, and blooket, which often incorporate elements like points, badges, leaderboards, levels, and instant feedback. these elements are frequently combined to create interactive, competitive, and rewarding learning experiences that aim to sustain learners' interest and encourage active participation. among these, leaderboards and badges are particularly prevalent, used to generate extrinsic motivation by offering visible recognition and competition, while features like missions, levels, and game-based tasks are more aligned with intrinsic motivators such as autonomy, curiosity, and the sense of achievement. different gamification elements influence motivational outcomes in distinct ways. for instance, points and rewards tend to boost extrinsic motivation, especially when linked to performance tracking or competition, whereas interactive gameplay and personalized progression systems (e.g., levels or challenges tailored to learner ability) are more effective in fostering intrinsic motivation. however, several studies caution that over-reliance on external rewards can diminish long-term engagement if not balanced with meaningful learning goals. gamification has been applied effectively across various educational contexts, with notable success in secondary and tertiary education, particularly in vocabulary acquisition and writing skills development. contexts with flexible access to technology and supportive classroom environments reported the most consistent motivational gains. conversely, in under-resourced or rural settings, the effectiveness of gamification was sometimes limited by technical constraints such as internet access and device availability. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 1, january 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 38 to assess motivational outcomes, researchers employed a range of measurement tools, including likert-scale questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, pre-and post-tests, and observation protocols. some studies used well-established theoretical frameworks, such as self-determination theory (sdt) or the mda framework (mechanics, dynamics, aesthetics), to guide their measurement and interpretation of motivation. while self-report instruments were the most commonly used method, a few studies incorporated mixed methods to triangulate data and enhance the validity of findings. overall, the findings presented in table 3 suggest that gamification, when thoughtfully designed and pedagogically aligned, can significantly enhance learner motivation in elt settings. nevertheless, researchers emphasize the importance of contextual sensitivity, balanced reward systems, and ongoing evaluation to ensure that gamification contributes meaningfully to both student engagement and language learning outcomes. discussion interpretation of key findings the findings of this systematic literature review reinforce the increasingly recognized role of gamification in enhancing learner engagement and motivation in english language teaching (elt). across the 30 analyzed studies, gamification—particularly through digital tools like kahoot, quizizz, and duolingo—was consistently associated with increased learner participation, enjoyment, and attentiveness (mahbubah & anam, 2022; amin, 2021; yu, 2023). these outcomes align with motivational theories such as self-determination theory (deci & ryan, 1985), which posits that autonomy, competence, and relatedness are key drivers of intrinsic motivation. game-based elements such as leaderboards and badges support this by offering immediate feedback, encouraging self-directed learning, and fostering a sense of achievement (subhash & cudney, 2018). notably, the frequent use of blended gamification strategies amplifies positive outcomes compared to single-element implementations. studies that combined multiple elements—such as points, badges, and interactive platforms—tended to report more robust engagement and motivation (kapp, 2012; oliveira et al., 2022). this suggests that variety and interactivity are crucial factors in maintaining learner interest, echoing the findings of kuo-wei lee (2023) and reinforcing the importance of design diversity in gamified environments. shortcomings in implementation and research scope despite these positive trends, several limitations within the body of research were evident. many studies suffered from short intervention durations, making it difficult to assess the sustainability of gamification's effects over time (baah, govender, & subramaniam, 2023; zhou & yu, 2022). this temporal limitation raises important questions about the long-term pedagogical value of gamification: does initial excitement translate into meaningful language acquisition, or is the impact fleeting? additionally, the over-reliance on self-report measures—such as perception surveys or interviews—poses concerns about validity and objectivity. few studies included performance-based metrics or assessed actual gains in language skills (huseinović, 2023; http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 1, january 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 39 aguilar-cruz & álvarez guayara, 2021). this methodological weakness limits the capacity to draw firm conclusions about gamification's effectiveness in improving specific competencies such as vocabulary retention, grammar accuracy, or speaking fluency. moreover, the literature shows a disproportionate focus on general engagement or motivational outcomes, while core language skills are often under-examined. only a minority of studies directly measured improvements in vocabulary, speaking, listening, or writing (rodríguez et al., 2023; nordin & swanto, 2023). this reveals a gap between gamification's psychological effects and its instructional impact and points to a need for greater alignment between gamified design and specific learning objectives. implications for theory and practice the findings highlight the need to bridge gamification practice with pedagogical theory. while many studies implement gamification for engagement, few explicitly integrate it with frameworks such as bloom's taxonomy or constructivist learning models (aguilarcruz & álvarez guayara, 2021; torres rodríguez et al., 2023). doing so could help ensure that gamified activities not only motivate but also facilitate higher-order thinking, such as application, analysis, and synthesis (landers, 2014). from a practical standpoint, educators and curriculum designers should prioritize the strategic integration of gamification, ensuring that game elements align with learning outcomes, learner profiles, and classroom realities. personalized and adaptive gamification models—those that respond to individual student progress, preferences, and needs—appear especially promising but remain underexplored in current literature (toda, valle, & isotani, 2019). directions for future research given the limitations identified, future studies should adopt longitudinal research designs to assess the lasting impact of gamification on language proficiency. research should also move beyond affective outcomes and explore how gamification influences academic performance, particularly in specific language domains (yu, 2023; sadeghi et al., 2022). furthermore, integrating mixed-method approaches—combining quantitative performance data with qualitative learner insights—would provide a richer, more balanced understanding of gamification's pedagogical value. finally, there is a need to explore nondigital or hybrid gamification models, especially in contexts where technological access is limited (mila & mahbub, 2022). conclusion this systematic literature review explores the impact of gamification on learner engagement and motivation in english language teaching (elt), based on 30 empirical studies. results show that gamification—especially via digital platforms—positively influences learner motivation and participation, particularly when multiple game elements are combined, aligning with self-determination theory. however, most studies had short durations, limited sample diversity, and relied on selfreported data, offering only a partial view of gamification’s instructional impact. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 1, january 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 40 additionally, few studies focused on specific language skills such as vocabulary, grammar, or speaking. future research should apply longitudinal, mixed-method designs and target skillspecific outcomes. incorporating adaptive gamification aligned with pedagogical frameworks like bloom’s taxonomy or constructivism is recommended. in conclusion, while gamification enhances motivation and engagement in elt, its full pedagogical potential lies in thoughtful, learner-centered implementation and long-term impact evaluation. future educational innovations should move beyond surface-level engagement to integrate gamified strategies that foster measurable language proficiency, align with instructional goals, and adapt to diverse learner needs. this will ensure gamification evolves from a motivational tool into a sustainable and transformative practice in english language education. references aguilar-cruz, p. j., & álvarez guayara, h. a. 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(2022). the impact of gamification on the time-limited writing performance of english majors. education research international, 2022, article id 4650166. https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/4650166 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 https://doi.org/10.1186/s40561-022-00194-x https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci13010024 https://doi.org/10.15294/elt.v10i1.40558 https://doi.org/10.29240/ef.v7i2.7406 https://www.jstor.org/stable/jeductechsoci.18.2.4 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2018.05.028 https://doi.org/10.5220/0007728300870097 https://doi.org/10.58995/redlic.ic.v1.n2.a51 https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440231158332 http://www.tewtjournal.org/ https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/4650166 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 4, october 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 244 the roles of the fanbase online game to the efl reading comprehension skills sandi nuur ilma nabella1*, rifki irawan2 1,2 universitas pgri yogyakarta, yogyakarta, indonesia rifkizam@upy.ac.id abstract the proliferation of online games and fanbase communities has created new opportunities for language learning outside traditional classroom settings. games designed for specific fan communities, such as those centred around k-pop groups, incorporate substantial english language content that may influence english as a foreign language (efl) learners’ reading skills. this study aims to investigate the role of the fanbase online game “bts island in the seom” in developing efl students’ reading comprehension skills among indonesian university students. a qualitative case study approach was employed with purposive sampling of five indonesian university students who had reached level 3000 in the game. data were collected through semi-structured interviews and document analysis, including academic transcripts and gameplay recordings. thematic analysis was used to identify patterns and relationships in the data. four significant roles of the fanbase online game were identified: (1) functioning as an english learning medium that contextualizes language acquisition, (2) facilitating vocabulary enrichment and mastery through repeated exposure, (3) enhancing motivation to engage with english content due to fan interest, and (4) directly improving reading comprehension skills as evidenced by academic performance improvements. fanbase online games can serve as effective informal learning environments for developing efl reading comprehension when they successfully integrate engaging content with authentic language use. the strong motivational component derived from fan identity appears particularly significant in sustaining engagement with potentially challenging language content. keywords: bts island, efl learning, fanbase learning, online game, reading comprehension introduction in the contemporary digital landscape, online games have become integral to daily entertainment for many people worldwide. the rapid advancement of technology has led to the proliferation of high-quality online games that are increasingly accessible across platforms and demographics. while excessive gaming has been associated with potential negative impacts such as eye strain and decreased mental health (pinem, 2012), there is growing recognition of the educational potential of these digital environments, particularly for language acquisition. many online games incorporate english as their primary language for instructions, narratives, and player communication, creating opportunities for incidental language learning through immersive exposure. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 mailto:rifkizam@upy.ac.id copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 4, october 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 245 with the rise of digital gaming, the global spread of korean popular culture (k-pop) represents another significant technological and cultural phenomenon. the accessibility of digital platforms has facilitated the rapid international dissemination of k-pop content, connecting fans across geographical and linguistic boundaries. among the most globally influential k-pop groups is bts (bangtan sonyeondan or “bulletproof boy scouts”), whose fanbase—known as army (adorable representative mc for youth)—constitutes one of the largest and most dedicated fan communities worldwide. the convergence of these two phenomena—online gaming and k-pop fandom— materialized in june 2022 with “bts island in the seom,” a mobile game featuring bts members as characters. the game’s narrative structure includes extensive character dialogues, storylines, and instructions predominantly in english. what makes this particularly noteworthy is the rapid progression of players through the game’s initial 1,000 levels, compelling developers to implement weekly 50-level updates to keep pace with player demand. this phenomenon raises important questions about how fan communities engage with the english language content embedded within the game, especially considering that many army members, including those in indonesia, are non-native english speakers. the educational significance of this intersection becomes even more apparent when considering the broader context of reading comprehension skills among indonesian students. reading constitutes what anderson et al. (1985) describe as “a basic life skill,” but compelling reading requires comprehension beyond mere text decoding. as ke (2022) emphasizes, understanding the meaning contained within the text is essential for functional literacy. indonesian students often face challenges with reading comprehension in english as a foreign language (efl), making any potential facilitator of improvement worthy of investigation. previous research has established preliminary connections between gaming and language learning outcomes. amin and wahyudin (2022) demonstrated the significant impact of the game “age of empires ii” on students’ comprehension of narrative texts. more recently, syal and nietfeld (2024) found that game-based learning environments improved reading comprehension and intrinsic motivation more than traditional approaches. sylvén and sundqvist (2012) documented correlations between extramural english activities, including gaming, and l2 proficiency among young learners. chen and yang (2013) observed that adventure games featuring problem-solving elements could enhance reading comprehension by providing contextual language learning opportunities. however, limited research exists on the specific dynamics of fanbase-driven gaming and its impact on efl reading comprehension. the unique motivational factors in fan communities, particularly the intense engagement characteristic of k-pop fandoms, may create distinctive conditions for language acquisition that merit dedicated study. this research seeks to address this gap by investigating the specific roles that fanbase online games play in developing efl reading comprehension skills. this study explicitly examines bts island in the seom as a case study to explore how engagement with a fanbase online game influences indonesian university students’ english reading comprehension skills. by investigating this phenomenon, we aim to contribute to a more nuanced understanding of how affinity spaces centred around popular culture can potentially function as informal language learning environments. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 4, october 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 246 methods study design this research employed a qualitative case study approach to explore the relationship between fanbase online gaming and efl reading comprehension skills. according to creswell (2012), qualitative methods are particularly appropriate for investigating phenomena that require in-depth exploration and interaction with individuals through flexible data collection methods. the case study format allowed for a detailed examination of participants’ experiences with bts island in the seom and its perceived impact on their english language learning, particularly reading comprehension. this approach enabled capturing rich, contextual data about participants’ engagement with the game and their language learning trajectories. research setting and participant the study was conducted online using the whatsapp application’s video call feature during january-february 2023. this virtual setting was selected to accommodate the geographical distribution of participants while maintaining the quality of face-to-face interaction necessary for in-depth interviews. five participants were selected through purposive sampling, which patton (2015) describes as selecting “information-rich cases for in-depth study.” the specific inclusion criteria were: 1. active players of bts island in the seom who had achieved level 3000 or higher (demonstrating substantial engagement with the game) 2. indonesian university students currently enrolled in programs where english is taught as a foreign language 3. willingness to share academic transcripts showing english language or reading course performance both before and after exposure to the game (dating from before and after june 28, 2022, when the game was released) the small sample size (n=5) was deliberate, allowing for an in-depth investigation of individual experiences and learning trajectories. as creswell and poth (2018) note, qualitative case studies typically involve a limited number of cases to facilitate detailed analysis. while this approach limits generalizability, it enables a rich exploration of the phenomenon. the participants represented diverse academic backgrounds (different majors and universities) but shared the common characteristic of being dedicated players of the game and members of the bts army fanbase. the sample size limitation is acknowledged as a constraint on the generalizability of findings. however, as stake (1995) argues, case studies aim for “particularization, not generalization,” seeking to understand the uniqueness of specific cases rather than producing broadly applicable conclusions. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 4, october 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 247 instrument of study interview semi-structured interviews served as the primary data collection instrument. the interview protocol consisted of 15 open-ended questions to elicit detailed accounts of participants’ experiences with the game and perceptions of its impact on their english reading skills. questions explored gameplay habits, strategies for dealing with unfamiliar english content, and perceived changes in reading abilities. as hunter (2015) explains, interviewing is “a main data collection technique that involves various styles, from informal to formal conversations,” enabling researchers to access participants’ perspectives and interpretations of their learning processes. document document analysis provided complementary data sources that triangulated interview findings. following becks et al. (2000), document data were collected to “understand the context, support interpretation, and provide additional information” about participants’ learning trajectories. three types of documents were collected: 1. personal documents: participants’ notes, learning journals, and self-assessments related to their gameplay and english learning 2. official documents: academic transcripts showing english course performance before and after exposure to the game (dating from before and after june 28, 2022) 3. audiovisual documents: recordings of gameplay sessions demonstrating how participants engaged with in-game text and navigated language challenges these documents provided objective evidence to corroborate self-reported learning outcomes and captured aspects of the learning process that might not emerge during interviews. technique of collecting data the data collection process followed these sequential steps: 1. initial screening of potential participants through social media groups dedicated to bts army in indonesia to identify those who met the selection criteria 2. development of detailed interview protocols and document collection guidelines based on research questions and literature review 3. conducting individual interviews via video call, with recording for later transcription 4. collection of supporting documents, including academic transcripts, gameplay records, and personal notes 5. follow-up interviews where necessary to clarify points or explore emerging themes 6. organization of collected data into a secure database for analysis each step incorporated measures to ensure data quality and ethical compliance. participants were informed about the research purpose and data usage, and their consent was obtained to record interviews and analyze documents. confidentiality was maintained through pseudonymization of all data. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 4, october 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 248 technique of data analysis this study employed thematic analysis, as described by braun and clarke (2006), “a method for identifying, analyzing, and reporting patterns (themes) within data” that offers flexibility while maintaining methodological rigour. the analysis followed six systematic stages: 1. familiarizing with the data: at this stage, researchers must understand the data collected through various techniques. reading and understanding data on an iterative basis is necessary to find meanings, patterns, and other elements needed to start the coding process. 2. generating code: this process involves systematic coding across the data set, identifying interesting data segments, and assigning codes. coding helps to organize the data and prepares for identifying themes. 3. looking themes. themes themselves are essential patterns in the data that connect the resulting codes. this step involves grouping similar codes to form a theme, developing a theme from a group of codes with a broader meaning, and then describing the relationship between the code and the topic. 4. reviewing themes: two steps are carried out during the review process. the first is a review at the code level, and this is done to find out whether the code formed in the code is a consistent pattern. then secondly, a review of the data collection helps find the identified themes that represent all the material and can answer the research questions. 5. defining themes: in defining themes, several things are involved, including the need to write in detail for each topic, identify the nature of each subject and the knowledge it represents, and give the topic a clear and descriptive name. 6. producing report: in making the report, the main themes are explained and supported with data references, and the thematic findings are linked to existing literature and research questions. the report provides an in-depth analysis and interpretation of the topics found. results and discussion bts island as an english learning media for media the first central theme identified in the data analysis revealed that participants perceived bts island in the seom as an effective english learning medium. four respondents acknowledged the game’s potential for developing reading comprehension skills, citing specific aspects of gameplay that facilitated language learning. the narrative-driven nature of the game emerged as a key factor in creating a meaningful context for language acquisition. respondent 1 articulated: “of course, it is possible because it is not just a puzzle; there is a story, and from this story, we follow and understand the plot and what the characters say.” this comment highlights how the game’s storytelling elements created a situation where understanding english text became intrinsically essential to gameplay progression and enjoyment, aligning with gee’s (2007) concept of “situated meaning”, where language is learned within contextually rich environments. the reduced affective barriers to learning within the gaming environment were emphasized by respondent 2: “i think it can because the game can help me improve my english http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 4, october 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 249 skills, and i do not feel burdened while playing it, so it is beneficial.” this observation reflects krashen’s (1982) affective filter hypothesis, suggesting that the low-anxiety context of gameplay may facilitate more effective language acquisition compared to formal instructional settings where performance anxiety can impede learning. the process of incremental vocabulary acquisition through repeated exposure was noted by respondent 3: “in my opinion, it is possible because from the beginning of using it to the end of using it several times, at the beginning, the english was still a bit lacking, but after some time because of it often, for example, there is a word that i do not know, open google translate so i can increase my vocabulary.” this description aligns with webb’s (2007) findings on the value of repeated encounters with vocabulary in varied contexts for developing deep lexical knowledge. the appeal of game-based learning for younger generations was highlighted by respondent 4: “maybe it can. the current generation is more exciting and not monotonous, so games help us learn different things. if we do not understand, we should look for the meaning.” this perspective echoes prensky’s (2001) concept of “digital natives” who may respond more positively to interactive, technology-mediated learning experiences than traditional textbased instruction. document analysis of participants’ academic transcripts provided objective support for these perceptions, showing that three participants demonstrated improved performance in english courses after engaging with the game, while two maintained stable scores. audiovisual records confirmed that all five participants consistently engaged with in-game dialogue rather than skipping it, suggesting genuine interaction with the english content rather than mere superficial gameplay. these findings align with previous research on digital game-based language learning. toufik and hanane (2021) found that online video games (ovgs) enhanced intercultural communication skills among efl learners by providing authentic contexts for language use. similarly, kobis and tomatala (2020) demonstrated that the game mobile legends: bang bang (mlbb) facilitated various english language skills, with 67.7% of participants reporting improvement in speaking and pronunciation and 58.1% noting enhancement in reading abilities. the evidence from this study extends these findings by highlighting how the fan-based nature of bts island creates additional layers of engagement with the language content. unlike generic educational games, the connection to beloved cultural figures enhances the willingness to persist through language challenges that might otherwise cause frustration or disengagement. enrich and mastery in vocabulary a second prominent theme emerging from the data was the role of the game in facilitating vocabulary acquisition and mastery. participants consistently reported that encountering unfamiliar words in the game prompted them to seek out meanings, effectively driving selfdirected vocabulary learning. respondent 2 described a problem-solving approach to vocabulary gaps: “there must be instructions, and some people do not understand them when opening a dictionary or laptop to understand them.” this fact reflects how the gameplay created authentic communicative needs http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 4, october 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 250 that motivated strategic learning behaviours, similar to the task-based language learning approaches advocated by ellis (2003), where meaningful tasks drive language acquisition. respondent 3 explicitly linked gameplay to vocabulary development over time: “from the start of playing the game to the end of playing it a few times in the beginning, like when it comes to english, it is still lacking, right? however, over time, because you play it often, for example, there is a word i do not know. open google translate so you can increase your vocabulary.” this account demonstrates how repeated exposure to vocabulary in meaningful contexts led to incremental acquisition, supporting nation’s (2001) assertion that vocabulary learning is enhanced when words are encountered multiple times in varied contexts. document analysis revealed different vocabulary learning strategies among participants. one participant demonstrated high comprehension with minimal need for vocabulary support—another employed inferential strategy, using context to guess meanings during gameplay and confirming them afterwards. the remaining three participants, who initially struggled more with the in-game text, developed systematic approaches, including keeping vocabulary notebooks to record new words and phrases—a strategy that schmitt and schmitt (1995) identify as effective for vocabulary retention. the study findings suggest that the vocabulary acquisition facilitated by bts island is particularly valuable because it exposed learners to words and phrases beyond those typically encountered in formal english instruction. the specialized vocabulary related to the game’s themes and narratives expanded participants’ lexical knowledge in ways that traditional textbooks might not, while the meaningful context of gameplay supported retention and appropriate usage understanding. this finding aligns with research on digital game-based vocabulary learning. lubis and zulfitri (2022) found that users of the “mr. detective” game application showed significantly enhanced vocabulary mastery compared to control groups, with experimental group participants scoring an average of 80.00 versus 70.56 in the control group. similarly, hafifah et al. (2022) documented how children playing various online games acquired specific english vocabulary terms relevant to gameplay. a limitation of this study is the lack of formal pre-and post-testing of vocabulary knowledge to quantify gains precisely. future research should incorporate standardized vocabulary assessments to measure the breadth and depth of vocabulary acquisition resulting from gameplay more accurately. motivating the efl to learn english the third central theme centred on motivation, with participants consistently reporting that their desire to understand the game’s narrative and character interactions drove them to engage more deeply with english language content. respondent 5 articulated this motivational aspect clearly: “the role is more about motivation to understand the conversation; it will automatically improve reading skills.” this statement highlights how intrinsic interest in the game content translated into motivation for language learning, creating what gardner and lambert (1972) would describe as integrative motivation—a desire to learn a language to participate in a valued community or activity. document analysis of this respondent’s academic transcripts corroborated this selfassessment, showing improved performance in english courses after engaging with the game. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 4, october 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 251 this study suggests that the motivational effects extended beyond the gaming context to influence formal academic achievement, supporting dörnyei’s (2005) concept of the “l2 motivational self system”, where language learning is driven by a vision of oneself as a competent language user in personally meaningful contexts. the motivational impact of bts island appears to derive from multiple sources. first, the bts fandom connection created strong affective engagement, as fans were motivated to understand content related to their favourite musical artists. second, the game’s ranking system and competitive elements introduced achievement motivation. third, the social dimension of group events within the game (allowing up to 30 players to collaborate) created community-based motivation. these findings align with gamlo’s (2019) research on mobile game-based language learning applications, demonstrating increased motivation among efl students. similarly, marsa et al. (2021) found that the game-based learning platform kahoot! positively influenced reading comprehension achievement through enhanced motivation. what distinguishes bts island from other educational games is the fanbase dimension. participants described being motivated to complete levels quickly and understand all storyline elements as “a form of support and love from fans for their idols.” this integration of fan identity with language learning created a powerful motivational synergy that sustained engagement over time, reflecting jenkins’ (2006) concept of “participatory culture”, where fans actively engage with and create meaning around the media they care about. the time-limited nature of in-game events created additional motivational pressure, as players needed to complete specific missions within deadlines to unlock special features and character appearances. this combination of intrinsic interest in bts-related content and external gameplay pressures created a rich motivational environment that sustained language learning efforts even when challenging. a limitation of this study is its focus on already-motivated fans, raising questions about the generalizability of these motivational effects to non-fans or casual players. future research should explore how different degrees of fan identification affect motivation and language learning outcomes in game-based contexts. helping efl learners in improving reading comprehension skills the most significant theme concerned the direct impact of gameplay on reading comprehension abilities. all five participants reported subjective improvement in their comprehension skills after extended engagement with the game. respondent 2 said, “i think it has increased because this game hones reading skills.” respondent 3 noted perceived improvement: “it is already pretty good. before, it was less, but after that, it is not bad because the vocabulary has also increased.” respondent 4 linked gameplay to academic performance: “before using this game, the score was a little unsatisfactory, but after playing bts island, it helped, so the score increased gradually.” respondent 5 concisely affirmed: “improving and getting better.” document analysis provided objective support for these self-assessments. academic transcripts showed that four participants achieved higher scores in english and reading comprehension courses after playing bts island, while one maintained stable performance. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 4, october 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 252 this triangulation between self-reported improvement and academic performance strengthens the evidence for positive impact. interview data further revealed qualitative changes in reading comprehension processes, with participants reporting increased ease in understanding conversations and extracting meaning from the game’s storylines after extended gameplay. this finding suggests development in vocabulary knowledge and higher-order comprehension skills such as inferencing and contextual understanding. these findings align with experimental research by komala and rifai (2021), who found substantially higher reading comprehension scores among students using video game formats (average 75.5) compared to traditional paper formats (average 37). similarly, meutia et al. (2020) documented improved performance after game-based instruction, with average scores increasing from 63.6 to 74.6. the improvement in reading comprehension skills appears to result from integrating multiple factors: enhanced vocabulary knowledge, increased motivation, contextual learning, and authentic communication needs. the game created a learning environment where comprehension was both necessary for successful gameplay and intrinsically rewarding due to the narrative content involving characters of high interest to the participants. however, several limitations must be acknowledged. first, the small sample size limits the generalizability of findings. second, other factors beyond game exposure could influence academic performance improvements. third, the lack of a control group makes it difficult to isolate the specific impact of the game versus other learning experiences. future research should address these limitations through larger samples, control groups, and more rigorous pre-and post-testing of reading comprehension abilities. conclusion this study investigated the roles that fanbase online gaming plays in developing efl reading comprehension skills, using bts island in the seom as a case study. through qualitative analysis of interview data and supporting documents, four significant roles were identified: serving as an english learning medium, enriching vocabulary knowledge, motivating efl learners, and improving reading comprehension skills. the most notable contribution of this research is highlighting how fanbase elements create unique motivational conditions for language learning. the connection to bts as a cultural icon generated extraordinary levels of engagement with english-language content that might otherwise have been perceived as challenging or unappealing. this study suggests that leveraging learners’ interests and affiliations may significantly enhance language learning outcomes, particularly for recreational reading beyond required academic texts. integrating language learning within authentic gameplay contexts is crucial to the positive outcomes observed. rather than treating language as an object of study, bts island embedded english within meaningful activities where comprehension directly enhanced gameplay enjoyment and success. this contextual learning approach aligns with communicative language teaching principles while removing the artificial nature of many classroom exercises. these findings have implications for both formal and informal language education. for educators, they suggest the potential value of incorporating fan interests and game-based http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 4, october 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 253 elements into language instruction. game developers they highlight opportunities to intentionally design games that support language acquisition while maintaining engaging gameplay. the study also contributes to the theoretical understanding of how affinity spaces centred around popular culture can function as informal language learning environments. several limitations of this study must be acknowledged. the small sample size (n=5) limits the generalizability of findings to the broader population of efl learners or even bts army members. the reliance on self-reported perceptions of improvement, even when triangulated with academic records, provides limited objective measurement of actual language gains. additionally, the participants were already highly motivated fans, raising questions about whether similar benefits would accrue to non-fans or casual players. future research should address these limitations through larger sample sizes, more diverse participant groups, and more rigorous pre-and post-testing of language abilities. longitudinal studies could investigate the sustainability of language learning gains achieved through fanbase gaming and their transfer to other language contexts. comparative studies examining different types of games and fan communities could help identify which elements are most conducive to language learning. in conclusion, this study demonstrates that fanbase online games like bts island in the seom can serve as powerful informal learning environments for efl reading comprehension development when they successfully integrate engaging content, authentic language use, and strong motivational elements derived from fan identity and interest. while not a replacement for formal language instruction, such games represent a valuable complementary resource for language development that educators and learners should recognize and potentially leverage. references amin, f., & wahyudin, a. y. (2022). the impact of the video game: “age of empires ii” on students’ reading comprehension of narrative text. journal of english language teaching and learning, 3(1), 74-80. https://doi.org/10.33365/jeltl.v3i1.1818 anderson, r., hiebert, e., scott, j., & wilkinson, i. (1985). becoming a nation of readers: the report of the commission on reading. national institute of education. becks, a., sklorz, s., & jarke, m. (2000). exploring the semantic structure of technical document collections: a cooperative systems approach. in w. wojtkowski et al. (eds.), systems development methods for databases, enterprise modeling, and workflow management (pp. 120-125). springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/10722620_11 braun, v., & clarke, v. (2006). using thematic analysis in psychology. qualitative research in psychology, 3(2), 77-101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa chen, h. j. h., & yang, t. y. c. (2013). the impact of adventure video games on foreign language learning and the perceptions of learners. interactive learning environments, 21(2), 129141. https://doi.org/10.1080/10494820.2012.705851 creswell, j. w. (2012). educational research: planning, conducting, and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research (4th ed.). pearson education. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 4, october 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 254 creswell, j. w., & poth, c. n. (2018). qualitative inquiry and research design: choosing among five approaches (4th ed.). sage publications. dörnyei, z. (2005). the psychology of the language learner: individual differences in second language acquisition. lawrence erlbaum associates. ellis, r. (2003). task-based language learning and teaching. oxford university press. gamlo, n. (2019). the impact of mobile game-based language learning apps on efl learners’ motivation. english language teaching, 12(4), 49-59. https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v12n4p49 gardner, r. c., & lambert, w. e. (1972). attitudes and motivation in second-language learning. newbury house publishers. gee, j. p. (2007). what video games have to teach us about learning and literacy (2nd ed.). palgrave macmillan. hafifah, s., adawiyah, r., & putra, d. a. k. (2022). dampak game online terhadap pemerolehan bahasa kedua pada anak. mardibasa: jurnal pembelajaran bahasa dan sastra indonesia, 2(1), 19-35. https://doi.org/10.21274/jpbsi.2022.2.1.19-35 hunter, a. (2015). data collection: interviewing. in j. d. wright (ed.), international encyclopedia of the social & behavioral sciences (2nd ed., pp. 851-856). elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-08-097086-8.44015-8 jenkins, h. (2006). convergence culture: where old and new media collide. new york university press. ke, s. (2022). reading comprehension component skills of chinese-speaking esl and efl learners. reading in a foreign language, 34(2), 306-324. kobis, d. c., & tomatala, m. f. (2020). students’ perceptions on mobile legends: bang-bang (mlbb) as medium to learn english. lingua: jurnal ilmiah, 16(2), 22-38. https://doi.org/10.35962/lingua.v16i2.52 komala, a. s., & rifai, i. (2021). the impacts of the cherry orchard video game on players’ reading comprehension. procedia computer science, 179, 368-374. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2021.01.018 krashen, s. d. (1982). principles and practice in second language acquisition. pergamon press. lubis, e. g., & zulfitri. (2022). the effect of game application “mr. detective” in students’ vocabulary mastery. journal ability: journal of education and social analysis, 3(1), 72-81. https://doi.org/10.51178/jesa.v3i1.392 marsa, s. s., kuspiyah, h. r., & agustina, e. (2021). the effect of kahoot! game in teaching reading comprehension achievement. jet (journal of english teaching), 7(2), 133-149. https://doi.org/10.33541/jet.v7i2.2738 meutia, p. d., majid, a. h., & nafisah, s. (2020). implementing direct method by using games to improve efl students’ reading comprehension. pedagogik: jurnal ilmiah pendidikan dan http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 4, october 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 255 pembelajaran fakultas tarbiyah universitas muhammadiyah aceh, 7(1), 16-20. https://doi.org/10.37598/pjpp.v7i1.776 nation, i. s. p. (2001). learning vocabulary in another language. cambridge university press. patton, m. q. (2015). qualitative research & evaluation methods (4th ed.). sage publications. pinem, y. a. (2012). computer-assisted vocabulary learning: the power of gaming on students’ english vocabulary. english language teaching, literature and translation, 431-441. prensky, m. (2001). digital natives, digital immigrants. on the horizon, 9(5), 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1108/10748120110424816 schmitt, n., & schmitt, d. (1995). vocabulary notebooks: theoretical underpinnings and practical suggestions. elt journal, 49(2), 133-143. https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/49.2.133 stake, r. e. (1995). the art of case study research. sage publications. syal, s., & nietfeld, j. l. (2024). examining the effects of a game-based learning environment on fifth graders’ reading comprehension and reading motivation. journal of educational psychology. advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000874 sylvén, l. k., & sundqvist, p. (2012). gaming as extramural english l2 learning and l2 proficiency among young learners. recall, 24(3), 302-321. https://doi.org/10.1017/s095834401200016x toufik, g. m., & hanane, s. (2021). investigating the potential of online video games in enhancing efl learners’ communication skills. universal journal of educational research, 9(2), 292298. https://doi.org/10.13189/ujer.2021.090205 webb, s. (2007). the effects of repetition on vocabulary knowledge. applied linguistics, 28(1), 46-65. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/aml048 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 254 pre-service efl teacher questioning strategies during practicum: a case study in indonesia uun muhaji universitas pgri kanjuruhan malang uun.muhaji@unikama.ac.id abstract the role of teacher questioning in efl classrooms is pivotal for fostering student engagement and language development. however, research on questioning strategies during school-based teaching practicum, a crucial phase in pre-service teacher education, remains scarce. to address this issue, a qualitative single-case study was conducted with one preservice efl teacher teaching 11th grade students in east java, indonesia. it explores the types of questions and questioning strategies employed by the teacher during teaching practicum. data were collected through classroom observation and field notes. the findings reveal the use of five primary question types-referential, comprehension checks, display, confirmation checks, and clarification checks-alongside strategies such as rephrasing, repetition, decomposition, and simplification. these strategies were instrumental in promoting classroom interaction and supporting student comprehension. the study underscores the need for more targeted training in questioning techniques within teacher education programs to better equip pre-service teachers for effective classroom management and interaction. keywords: classroom interaction, pre-service efl teachers, questioning strategies, teaching practicum, tefl introduction interaction is central to communicative language teaching (clt), especially in efl contexts where authentic language exposure is limited (karima et al., 2020). building on foundational theories such as interaction hypothesis (long, 1980) and comprehensible output hypothesis (swain, 1985), recent research continues to affirm that classroom interaction-through negotiation of meaning, feedback, and output modification-significantly enhances l2 learning (walsh, 2011). in this line of nature, vygotsky’s sociocultural theory, emphasizing the role of social interaction and mediated assistance, has been further developed in contemporary scholarship, highlighting scaffolding and collaborative dialogue as key mechanisms for language development (lantolf & poehner, 2020). in this view, the classroom is not merely a site for the transmission of knowledge but a dynamic space where knowledge is co-constructed through interaction between teachers and students. the teacher, in this context, assumes a pivotal role as the primary initiator and facilitator of classroom interaction (brown, 2007). the teacher’s ability to orchestrate and sustain http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 mailto:uun.muhaji@unikama.ac.id copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 255 meaningful interaction is thus central to the success of clt and to the broader goals of language education. in teacher-fronted classrooms, questions are central to creating opportunities for language use, scaffolding learner participation, and guiding attention to specific linguistic and conceptual features (kleinsasser et al., 1995; schmidt, 1990). in the i-r-f cycle, questions initiate exchanges, guide attention, and scaffold participation (kleinsasser et al., 1995; lawson et al., 1977). through questioning, teachers can elicit a wide range of student responses, from simple recall of factual information to more complex, elaborated contributions that reflect higher-order thinking and personal engagement (erdogan & campbell, 2008; kleinsasser et al., 1995). in this case, distinctions between display and referential questions matter because referential, open-ended prompts tend to elicit longer, more authentic responses (brock, 1986). additional question types include comprehension checks, clarification requests, and confirmation checks (kleinsasser et al., 1995). beyond type, the cognitive level of questions is consequential: moving from lower-order recall to higher-order reasoning aligns with bloom’s revised taxonomy and supports deeper thinking. yet classroom studies in efl contexts continue to report the predominance of display and low-cognitive questions (brock, 1986; davoudi & sadeghi, 2015; mustika et al., 2020; tan et al., 2017; truong, 2024; yude & zainil, 2018). this overreliance may limit students’ language production and reduce opportunities for cognitive challenge and communicative engagement. a less examined but pedagogically crucial dimension is how teachers modify questions in real time—through repeating, rephrasing, simplifying, decomposing multi-part prompts, or probing follow-ups—to align with learners’ current understandings and sustain dialogic exchange (fitriati et al., 2017; karima et al., 2020; wu, 1993). these adaptive moves operationalize scaffolding and enable responsive, cumulative dialogue (lantolf & poehner, 2020; walsh, 2011), where teachers dynamically adjust their questions based on real-time student responses (huang et al., 2025; pan et al., 2024; smit et al., 2022). in relation to this, recent studies (e.g., arinda & sadikin, 2021; jocuns, 2021) underline the need for more dialogic and dynamic uses of questions to promote deeper learner involvement, negotiation of meaning, and the co-construction of knowledge. despite extensive work on question types and cognitive levels, little is known about pre-service teachers’ on-site modification strategies during school-based practicums in indonesia; most studies focus on in-service teachers or rely on surveys/interviews rather than fine-grained classroom observation. consequently, we lack evidence of how novice teachers adapt questions moment-by-moment and what functions these adaptations serve in efl interaction. in this line of matter and given the centrality of questioning in promoting effective efl instruction, it is critical that pre-service teachers are equipped with strong questioning skills (brown, 2007). it is emphasized that teacher education programs should not only introduce questioning typologies and strategies but also provide opportunities for practical application and reflection. addressing this gap, this case study investigates an indonesian pre-service efl teacher during her school-based teaching practicum, with two aims: (1) to identify the types of questions posed during classroom interaction, and (2) to describe the real-time modification http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 256 strategies (e.g., repetition, rephrasing, simplification, decomposition, probing) and their interactional functions. by foregrounding modification strategies alongside question type, the study contributes a more nuanced account of questioning as adaptive scaffolding in initial teacher education, offering implications for curricula that emphasize dialogic teaching, adaptive expertise, and reflective practice. methods this study employed a qualitative single case study design to explore the questioning strategies of a pre-service efl teacher during a school-based teaching practicum. the case study approach allowed for an in-depth examination of classroom interaction patterns, consistent with best practices in recent efl research. the participant was a pre-service efl teacher enrolled in an efl teacher education program at a university in east java, indonesia. the participant was undertaking a schoolbased teaching practicum as one of the final requirements in accomplishing a bachelor degree in teacher education program. the practicum took place in a senior high school efl classroom during the 2024 academic year. the class consisted of 32 eleventh grade students, reflecting a typical indonesian efl context (karima et al., 2020). concerning the ethical consideration, written informed consent was obtained from the pre-service teacher and school administration prior to data collection. to protect confidentiality, the participant’s name is pseudonym, and any identifying details in transcripts or still images were removed. audio-video files and transcripts were stored on a drive accessible only to the researcher. data were collected through non-participant classroom observation utilizing video recording, observation checklist, and detailed field notes over four consecutive lessons. each lesson lasted approximately ninety minutes, yielding a total of six hours of video data. video recording was utilized during the observation to document the details of the teaching learning process happening in the classroom particularly the questioning strategy employed by the pre-service teacher. the lessons were recorded using a fixed camera positioned unobtrusively at the back of the classroom to capture whole-class interaction, with on-board audio. equipment was tested before each session; a brief pre-lesson was used to check framing and sound levels. after each lesson, files were transferred immediately to secure storage and the sd card was cleared. further, recordings were verbatim transcribed by the author. bahasa indonesia segments were retained in the original and translated into english for reporting where necessary; transcripts were checked against video for accuracy. further, an observation checklist targeting: (a) question type (display, referential, comprehension/clarification/confirmation checks), and (b) modification strategies (e.g., repetition, rephrasing, simplification, decomposition, probing follow-ups) was employed. the field note was utilized to support the data from the video recording. besides focusing on the types of questions posed and the questioning strategies employed by the pre-service teacher, it was also used to document salient interactional episodes and contextual factors taking place during the teaching learning process. data were analyzed using thematic analysis with a hybrid deductive–inductive approach, informed by the taxonomy of question types and questioning strategies (fitriati et al., 2017; wu, 1993). the unit of analysis was the teacher’s questioning move within an http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 257 interactional sequence. deductive codes captured question type; inductive open coding captured modification strategies and their interactional functions (e.g., eliciting elaboration, checking comprehension, focusing form). further, a structured codebook was developed to define each code with inclusion and exclusion criteria and examples from the data. the codebook underwent iterative refinement across two pilot transcripts. to enhance credibility and dependability, a second coder, who was trained on the codebook, independently double-coded a 30% purposive sample of transcripts spanning different lessons. coded segments were then collated to identify patterns across lessons as a process of searching and reviewing the themes. lastly, final patterns were defined to show the question types and modification strategies employed by the pre-service teacher. triangulation was achieved by cross-checking field notes and observation data, following recent qualitative research standards. results types of questions used the four observed lessons demonstrated that the initiation of interaction between the participant and the students primarily follows the i-r-f pattern. in this sequence, classroom interactions typically begin with the teacher’s question, followed by the students’ answers, and conclude with the teacher’s feedback. the analysis revealed that the pre-service efl teacher employed a range of question types throughout the observed lessons, with the total of 282 questions. the pre-service teacher employed various types of questions, including referential questions, comprehension checks, display questions, confirmation checks, and clarification checks. referential questions were the most common, making up 37% of all questions asked, followed by comprehension checks at 27%, display questions at 25%, confirmation checks at 6%, and clarification checks at 4%. percentages may not sum to 100 due to rounding. figure 1 visualizes the distribution of question types; table 1 provides frequencies, percentages, and representative examples. table 1. frequency, percentage, and examples by question type (n = 282). question type frequency percentage (%) representative example from data referential 108 37 “what kind of letter have you ever got?” (excerpt 1) comprehension check 76 27 “do you understand?” (excerpt 2) display 70 25 “who is the receiver of the letter?” (excerpt 3) confirmation check 17 6 “so… is it the second one?” (cf. excerpt 6 follow-up) clarification check 11 4 “what is it called?” (excerpt 8) http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 258 referential questions referential questions were used by the pre-service efl teacher in inviting students to share opinions, experiences, or predictions, fostering authentic communication and higherorder thinking. further, the referential questions posed were mainly lesson-related inquiries. this aligns with calls in the literature for more referential questioning to promote engagement. excerpt 1: referential questions t : alright, before going to the material, i am going to ask you something. have you ever got a personal letter? ss : yes (all students) t : okay, okay. that’s similar. what kind of letter have you ever got? what kind of letter? ss : um… t : what? invitation? pardi, what did you say? s1 : wedding t : okay, that’s wedding invitation. and any other letter? s2 : love letter t : owh, love letter? love letter. ss : (laughing) comprehension checks it is noteworthy that comprehension checks were the second most frequently used type of question by the pre-service teacher, making up 27% of all questions asked. the preservice efl teacher used comprehension checks to ensure students understood instructions or content. the participant often checked her students’ understanding by asking, “do you get it?”, “do you understand?”, or “okay?”. interestingly, the students consistently responded with “yes” whenever these questions were posed. excerpt 2: comprehension checks t : so, if you have finished, collect it to me to the front please. do you understand? ss : yes display questions display questions accounted for 25% of all questions asked during the lesson, making them the third most common type. most of the display questions posed by the participant aimed to elicit information from students. however, a few form-related display questions, intended to assess students’ recall of factual information, such as vocabulary and grammar points, were also observed. these questions accounted for the third most frequently asked of total questions, consistent with findings in recent efl classroom studies. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 259 excerpt 3: information-related display question t : who is the receiver of the letter? ss : nathan t : okay, the receiver is nathan. the second one, who is the sender? ss : angela t : yes, angela is the sender of the letter. excerpt 4: form-related display question t : okay, what is town in bahasa indonesia? s : kota t : ok, good. kota. confirmation checks and clarification checks accounted for approximately 6% of the total questions asked by the teacher, confirmation checks were utilized to confirm students’ responses or understanding. further, as the least type of questions asked by the teacher, approximately 4%, clarification checks were employed to address misunderstandings or unclear answers. question modification strategies employed the pre-service teacher demonstrated adaptability by modifying questions using several strategies. it was revealed that there were four types of question modification employed: rephrasing, repetition, decomposition, and simplification. from the total of 96 appearances of questions modification deployed by the participant, the most frequently used was rephrasing (50%), followed by repetition (25%), decomposition (17%), and simplification (8%). figure 2 shows the relative distribution; table 2 summarizes counts and functions. table 2. frequency, percentage, and brief function notes for modification strategies (n = 96). modification strategy frequency percentage (%) illustrative function / example rephrasing 48 50 reformulates a question using simpler wording to elicit a response: “where… what are the places in japan are you visiting?” (excerpt 5) repetition 24 25 repeats the prompt after silence to increase uptake: “which one is it? … which one is it?” (excerpt 6) decomposition 16 16 breaks a complex question into smaller steps to scaffold answers: “what is the first component? … the second?” (excerpt 7) simplification 8 8 reduces linguistic complexity to match proficiency: “so, this is called as… what is it called?” (excerpt 8) http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 260 rephrasing reformulating questions using simpler language or alternative structures to enhance comprehensibility, in line with adaptive questioning practices. rephrasing was used to help the students understand better by expressing the question in another way. thus, the expected responses from the students can be elicited. the excerpt below shows the sample of the rephrasing strategy used by the participant. excerpt 5: rephrasing strategy t : (moving to the other group) where are you going? ss : japan.. t : to japan.. ok. where…, what are the places in japan are you visiting? ss : tokyo, disneyland.. t : oh, disney, so, there is disneyland in japan? repetition repeating questions verbatim to prompt student responses, especially when initial responses were absent or hesitant. the pre-service teacher’s next strategy for eliciting the desired responses from students was repetition, which accounted for 25% of all question modifications used. this approach has also been identified in recent research. the teacher employed repetition not only to enhance the clarity of the questions but also to increase students’ chances of responding. specifically, the teacher repeated questions to ensure students fully understood them and reiterated the questions after a pause when students did not provide the expected answers. excerpt 6: repetition t : which one is it? ss : (silence) t : which one is it? s : second… s : the second… t : yes, the second one. good. decomposition & simplification the other two questioning strategies employed were decomposition and simplification. the participant used decomposition to break down complex questions that required equally complex responses. the complex questions are broken down into smaller, more manageable sub-questions to scaffold student understanding. in contrast, simplification was applied to make questions easier, enabling students to provide answers. it was used to reduce linguistic complexity to match students’ proficiency levels, a strategy highlighted in recent efl research. additionally, simplification served as a modification strategy when students failed to give the expected responses. this approach was used when the teacher felt the original questions were too long or unclear, so they were shortened or http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 261 rephrased to help students respond more effectively. these strategies were often used in combination, particularly when students struggled to respond, reflecting a responsive and student-centered approach. examples of these strategies are illustrated in the following excerpts. excerpt 7: decomposition t : alright, can you tell me what the components are? ss : (silence) t : what is the first component? ss : the opening. t : good. the second component? ss : message. t : good. third component? ss : concluding statement t : wonderful! excerpt 8: simplification t : the first one, 54 west sydney australia (pointing to the visual aid). so, this is called as? you know? ss : (silence) t : what is it called? s : address? t : yes, good! this is address. the questioning strategies contributed to varied patterns of classroom interaction. display questions typically elicited brief, choral responses, while referential questions prompted longer, individualized answers and greater student engagement. the use of clarification and confirmation checks supported negotiation of meaning and deeper processing, consistent with sociocultural and interactionist frameworks (lantolf & poehner, 2020). discussion this study explored the questioning strategies employed by a pre-service efl teacher during a school-based teaching practicum in indonesia. the results demonstrate that across four lessons, the pre-service teacher used a range of question types within an irf pattern. referential questions were most frequent, followed by comprehension checks and display questions. four modification strategies were observed, with rephrasing most common, then repetition, decomposition, and simplification. these findings both confirm and extend prior research, reflecting persistent patterns and emerging trends in efl classroom questioning practices (fitriani et al., 2016; namaziandost & imani, 2020; rahayu & suharti, 2023). the comparisons with recent literature reveal that while display questions continue to dominate pre-service teacher discourse, there is evidence of experimentation with referential and higher-order questions as teachers gain confidence and experience. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 262 interpreting the pattern of question types a key finding is the predominance of referential questions, which accounted for the largest proportion of questions posed. these questions encouraged students to share opinions, experiences, and predictions, thus fostering authentic communication and higherorder thinking. this aligns with recent calls in the literature for greater use of referential questioning to promote student engagement and deeper learning (pan et al., 2024; rahayu & suharti, 2023). while display questions remained common-often used to check recall and comprehension-referential questions were particularly effective in eliciting extended, individualized responses and supporting dialogic interaction. underlining the dominance of referential questions, three factors likely converged. first, the task/topic ecology (e.g., work on personal letters) naturally invited experiencebased prompts (“what kind of letter have you received?”), making referential questions an efficient way to activate schema and personalize content (carlsen, 1991; nassaji & wells, 2000). second, clt-oriented goals encouraged the teacher to elicit extended turns and authentic information, aligning with the lens of the interaction hypothesis and sociocultural theory accounts of learning through negotiated, meaningful use of language (long, 1996; swain, 2000; vygotsky, 1978). both frameworks emphasize the importance of interaction, mediation, and scaffolding in language development. third, as a novice, the teacher appeared to use referential prompts to gain quick entry into dialogue while maintaining lesson momentum in a large class (walsh, 2011). furthermore, the association between referential questions and more elaborate student responses supports the value of dialogic, open-ended questioning for fostering critical thinking and learner autonomy. however, the findings also suggest that despite the clt orientation, display questions remained necessary for form-focused work such as terminology, grammar, and layout features, as well as for quick progress checks within irf sequences (butterfield & bhatta, 2015; kellem & halvorsen, 2018). their continued use reflects the dual demands of meaning and form-oriented objectives in exam-aware classrooms (zare et al., 2024). further, nggawu & thao's (2023) study acknowledges that even within clt approaches, teachers require structured strategies to monitor comprehension and track progress, which supports the pedagogical necessity of display questions for targeted purposes. in this sense, successful clt implementation does not imply the complete abandonment of form-focused questioning but rather its integration into communicative practices to ensure systematic checking of student learning, particularly in relation to form-focused elements (eisenring & margana, 2018). ellis et al. (2019) underline that form-focused instruction can be integrated into communicative activities, suggesting that focus-on-form and focus-on-forms represent points along a continuum rather than entirely separate categories. comprehension checks, confirmation checks, and clarification checks were also regularly employed, serving to monitor understanding, confirm responses, and address ambiguities. the frequent use of comprehension checks highlights the teacher’s attentiveness to students’ grasp of instructions and content. however, frequent “do you understand?”-type prompts suggest classroom management and pacing priorities typical of novice teaching: they provide rapid assurance that instructions landed, but often yield http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 263 superficial “yes” responses (day & park, 2005). these checks also function as low-risk procedural monitoring moves in moments of uncertainty about students’ comprehension or task readiness—paralleling findings that such routine-oriented questioning supports instructional flow (nicholson, 2014; walsh, 2011; zhou, 2018). further, while in accordance with sociocultural and interactionist perspectives (lantolf & poehner, 2020), clarification and confirmation checks facilitate negotiation of meaning and deeper processing, the low rates of these reactive moves likely because many student responses were brief or choral. therefore, opportunities for repairing meaning were fewer and the teacher often opted to rephrase proactively rather than pursue repair sequences. this is in line with previous studies which pointed out that the reduced frequency of clarification and confirmation checks due to brief or choral student responses and teachers' preference for proactive rephrasing over reactive repair sequences to maintain instructional flow in time-constrained classrooms (ardini, 2018; shomoossi, 2004). the role of modification strategies in terms of questioning strategies, the teacher demonstrated adaptability by modifying questions in real time. the frequent use of modification strategies mirrors findings from jusoh et al. (2020) and rahayu & suharti (2023) that emphasize the importance of adaptive questioning for maintaining engagement and ensuring comprehensibility in diverse efl settings. rephrasing was the most frequently used strategy, enabling the teacher to restate questions in simpler language or alternative forms to enhance comprehensibility. the dominance of rephrasing shows sensitivity to learners’ proficiency and the need to maintain intersubjectivity in which the teacher reformulated prompts to lower linguistic load while keeping task demands intact (ekawati et al., 2021; fitriani et al., 2016; milawati & suryati, 2019). repetition was also common, particularly when initial student responses were absent or hesitant, ensuring that all students had the opportunity to participate. repetition functioned as a participation nudge in moments of hesitation, and—paired with longer waittime—can convert silence into uptake (fitriani et al., 2016; gülten, 2023). decomposition and simplification were used to break down complex questions into manageable parts or to reduce linguistic complexity, thereby scaffolding student understanding and accommodating varying proficiency levels. decomposition was pivotal when tasks were cognitively dense, enabling stepwise scaffolding of complex targets (e.g., genre components). simplification surfaced when initial questions over-taxed processing; used judiciously, it prevents breakdowns, though overuse risks narrowing the cognitive challenge. together, these moves instantiate contingent scaffolding central to sociocultural accounts of learning: support is adjusted in real time to the learner’s evolving contribution (gülten, 2023). these adaptive strategies reflect a responsive, student-centered approach and are increasingly recognized as hallmarks of effective teaching (fitriani et al., 2016; jusoh et al., 2020; rahayu & suharti, 2023). the observed use of clarification and confirmation checks, as well as real-time question modification, demonstrates the teacher’s emerging ability to provide contingent support and facilitate meaningful classroom discourse (lantolf & poehner, 2020). http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 264 pedagogical implications for teacher education the findings of this study highlight the importance of preparing pre-service teachers with explicit training in questioning techniques, as many still rely heavily on display questions due to insufficient preparation in this area. while display questions play a role in form-focused checks, teacher education programs should provide systematic opportunities for candidates to practice generating referential and higher-order questions that stimulate reasoning, justification, and elaboration (shafeei et al., 2018; c. c. r. yang, 2010). such training should also cultivate adaptive expertise by equipping teachers with strategies like rephrasing, decomposition, and simplification, which can scaffold learning and ensure equitable participation. moreover, fostering a dialogic classroom environment through purposeful questioning can strengthen students’ communicative competence, critical thinking, and metacognitive awareness (chow et al., 2023; z. yang & brindley, 2023). in line with contemporary calls for reform, teacher education programs need to reorient curricula to include explicit instruction on questioning, reflective practice, and classroom-based inquiry (cavanagh, 2021). digital tools and video-based reflection have proven especially effective in heightening pre-service teachers’ awareness of their questioning strategies and in promoting data-informed refinement (cavanagh, 2021; sydnor et al., 2020). to translate these insights into practice, several key directions emerge including designing purposeful balances of question types, upgrading comprehension checks into diagnostic probes, developing a repertoire of modification moves, embedding video-based reflection, and assessing questioning as a competency. in more elaborative sense, firstly, pre-service teachers should be trained to plan “question maps” aligned with lesson phases: referential prompts at the lead-in stage to build common ground, display questions during input/analysis to support noticing and accuracy checks, and higher-order referential questions in practice/production to push reasoning and elaboration. secondly, instead of global checks (e.g., “do you understand?”), teachers should learn to use concept-checking questions (ccqs) that require production, such as generating new examples or completing task steps. providing banks of ccqs across grammar, lexis, and procedures can scaffold this skill. next, training should include micro-skills for rephrasing, decomposition, probing, and reformulation, combined with strategies like wait-time and revoicing, to extend learner contributions rather than reduce them. furthermore, by annotating their own recordings to identify question types, modification strategies, and learner uptake, pre-service teachers can make visible the link between their questioning moves and student responses. lastly, programs should incorporate assessment criteria that evaluate not only the distribution and proportion of question types but also the effective use of modification strategies and the presence of dialogic follow-up that presses for reasoning and deeper engagement. taken together, these implications suggest that effective questioning should be treated as a core professional competency rather than an incidental skill. a coherent program of instruction, practice, reflection, and assessment in questioning strategies can equip future teachers with the tools to balance formand meaning-oriented objectives while fostering richer, more dialogic classroom interaction. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 265 in summary, the study highlights the evolving questioning practices of pre-service efl teacher, the importance of adaptive and dialogic approaches, and the ongoing need for comprehensive training in effective classroom questioning. the pre-service teacher’s pattern—heavy on referential prompts, frequent comprehension checks, and strategic rephrasing—reflects an emerging dialogic stance moderated by novice concerns about clarity and control. developing effective, adaptive questioning practices should be a central focus of efl teacher education. teacher education should therefore move beyond taxonomies to cultivate adaptive expertise: planning for purposeful question sequences, converting checks into diagnostic probes, and orchestrating contingent modifications that keep learner thinking—and language—moving forward. by fostering reflective, dialogic, and student-responsive questioning, educators can create more engaging and supportive environments that empower learners and enrich the language learning experience. conclusion this study sheds light on the nuanced and evolving nature of teacher questioning in indonesian efl classrooms, particularly during the formative phase of pre-service teacher practicum. the results underscore the importance of preparing pre-service teachers with a broad repertoire of question types and adaptive skills that enable real-time adjustment during teaching. teacher education curricula should explicitly integrate training in questioning strategies, supported by guided practice, observation, and structured reflection. embedding these practices within microteaching sessions, school-based practicums, and video-based analysis can enhance pre-service teachers’ ability to use questioning as a means of engaging learners, promoting critical thinking, and encouraging learner autonomy. despite these contributions, the study is limited by its single-case design and reliance on classroom observation. future research should employ longitudinal designs to capture how questioning develops across different stages of teacher education, as well as mixedmethods approaches—including interviews, stimulated recall, and reflective journals—to uncover the cognitive processes guiding teachers’ choices. further inquiry into the relationship between questioning strategies and student learning outcomes would also provide valuable insights. in practical terms, this study suggests three key implications for teacher education programs: (1) incorporate explicit instruction and practice on varied questioning strategies, (2) use digital tools and video-based reflection to strengthen pre-service teachers’ awareness and adaptive expertise, and (3) foster a culture of reflective practice where questioning is regularly analyzed and refined. by embedding these elements into teacher preparation, programs can better equip future teachers to orchestrate interactive, responsive, and effective classroom discourse. 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(2018). edtpa as a tool to measure teacher readiness: a case study on first year teachers. georgia educational researcher, 14(2). https://doi.org/10.20429/ger.2018.140205 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 3, july 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 191 the ghanaian perspective of attitudes towards francophones learning english as a second language vera gyamera1, fauna frimpong2 1&2university of media, arts and communication – institute of languages, accra, ghana vera.gyamera@unimac.edu.gh abstract the study investigates the attitudes of francophone students learning english as a second language (esl) at the ghana institute of languages (gil), focusing on the influence of gender and age. using a quantitative approach, the research surveyed 267 students from various francophone countries through questionnaires. statistical analysis, including descriptive statistics and anova, revealed that students generally hold positive attitudes toward learning english. female students demonstrated significantly more favorable attitudes (m = 4.46, sd = 0.36) than their male counterparts (m = 4.21, sd = 0.77), while age showed a negative correlation with attitudes. younger students (16–20 years) exhibited the most positive attitudes (m = 4.39, sd = 0.45), which declined in older groups. these findings highlight gender and age as critical factors in shaping attitudes toward second language learning. the study underscores the importance of attitudinal factors in esl acquisition, offering practical and theoretical insights for policymakers and educators. it calls for targeted interventions to sustain positive attitudes across demographic groups and further research incorporating qualitative methods to explore factors like anxiety and cultural adaptation. the findings contribute to the growing body of literature on language attitudes, particularly within multilingual african contexts. keywords: attitudes towards francophones, english as a second language, francophones learning english, ghanaian perspective, language attitudes introduction investigating the attitudes toward learning of second language (l2) learning is significant for language education researchers and language policymakers since learners’ attitudes toward language learning is essential in the language learning process. learning english as a second language (l2) has become increasingly significant in today's interconnected and globalized world. learning a second language (l2) apart from one ‘s mother tongue or first language (l1) has become relevant in today’s increasingly interconnected and interdependent world, and people decide to learn english as a second http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 mailto:vera.gyamera@unimac.edu.gh copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 3, july 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 192 language because it complements their mother tongue or first language (crystal, 2003). it is a vital skill for communication in business, technology, diplomacy, and daily life. for many people, especially in multilingual and multicultural contexts such as ghana, learning english has opened doors to socio-economic opportunities and integration into a global community. according to (mohamad nor & rashid, 2018) the shift from learning one's mother tongue (l1) to acquiring a second language (l2) is influenced by various sociopsychological factors, including the learner’s attitudes toward language learning. these attitudes play a crucial role in determining the success of language acquisition, making it a central theme for both educators and policymakers. understanding how learners’ attitudes toward l2 learning evolve, particularly in nonnative contexts, is essential for designing effective language education strategies. while previous studies (baker, 1992; do rnyei, 1990, 1994; gardner, 1985, 2000; saville-troike, 2006) have extensively examined attitudes toward l2 learning, their focus has been primarily on western contexts or general learner populations. these studies have provided valuable insights into the factors that influence language learning attitudes, such as motivation, identity, and social context. however, limited attention has been given to the attitudes of francophone students learning english in ghana, a unique setting where english functions as both the official language and a global lingua franca. in such a context, english learning becomes a tool for economic and social advancement, particularly for students from french-speaking african countries who seek opportunities in an english-dominant society. furthermore, demographic factors such as age and gender have been underexplored in shaping learners’ attitudes, particularly within a socio-psycholinguistic framework. this study aims to bridge these gaps by investigating the attitudes of francophone students at the ghana institute of languages (gil) toward learning english. the research also seeks to explore how gender and age influence these attitudes, thereby contributing to a deeper understanding of the socio-psychological dynamics of l2 learning in multilingual african settings. the findings of this study will offer practical insights for educators and policymakers involved in language education in ghana, highlighting the factors that affect language learning success in the context of socio-economic integration. the novelty of this study lies in its focus on the attitudes of francophone learners in ghana, a context that has not been extensively explored in previous research. by addressing the socio-psychological aspects of l2 learning, this study offers new perspectives on how demographic factors, such as age and gender, influence language acquisition in multilingual african contexts. literature review language attitudes play a crucial role in shaping the success of language education, as highlighted by numerous scholars such as edwards (1994), heugh (2000), and sarfo (2012). the relationship between attitude and language education is deeply interconnected. education is often seen as a significant influence on language attitudes, particularly in contexts where formal language policies are absent. in such cases, education serves as an http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 3, july 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 193 informal national language policy, driving both language maintenance and language shift processes (baker, 1992). several studies have explored the dynamics of language attitudes and their influence on motivation in learning foreign or second languages. fandoh (2013) examined the motivation of post-secondary students in ghana toward learning french. using a questionnaire, he found that students displayed positive attitudes and were highly motivated, both integratively and instrumentally. interestingly, male and female participants were more inclined toward instrumental motivation, showing a practical, goal-oriented perspective on learning french. similar findings have been reported by csajbok-twerefou et al. (2014), lomotey and boasiako (2020), and others, who observed that ghanaian university students generally exhibit extrinsic motivations for studying foreign or second languages. these students consistently hold positive beliefs and attitudes toward language learning, a trend echoed by ianos, huguet, and lapresta-rey (2017), who emphasized the importance of such attitudes in facilitating second language acquisition. challenges in implementing educational language policies further underscore the importance of language attitudes. tom-lawyer and thomas (2020) compared the use of english as a second language in ghana and nigeria. they highlighted the difficulties both countries face in maintaining high standards of english proficiency and addressing shortages of language specialists. while ghana showed relatively higher proficiency levels, the need for improved policy implementation remains a pressing issue. other studies have delved into factors that shape language attitudes. hedge (2000) explored the motivations of japanese students learning english, revealing that learners were primarily driven by the desire to communicate internationally, secure high-profile careers, access global information, and understand different cultures. similarly, larasati and simatupang (2020) studied attitudes among papuan students in jakarta. although the participants generally had positive attitudes toward english, some experienced challenges that led to negative emotional responses. social status and access to education were identified as key factors influencing these attitudes. addisu (2020) examined the attitudes of ethiopian secondary school students toward learning english as a foreign language. the findings revealed that social factors, such as interactions with native english speakers, peer groups, and parental encouragement, positively impacted attitudes. however, educational factors, including teacher quality and classroom environments, negatively affected students’ motivation and overall learning experience. measuring language attitudes has also been a focal point in research. baker (1992) conducted a large-scale study on attitudes toward welsh, involving nearly 800 participants. his research demonstrated that linguistic background and age significantly influenced attitudes. for instance, participants with a strong welsh background expressed more positive attitudes, while english speakers showed less favorable perspectives. additionally, attitudes tended to become less favorable with age. longitudinal studies provide further insights into the evolving nature of language attitudes. ianos, huguet, and jane s (2017) investigated international students’ attitudes http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 3, july 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 194 toward catalan, spanish, and english. over two years, attitudes toward catalan became more positive, while attitudes toward spanish and english remained stable. sociodemographic factors such as gender, place of birth, and socio-professional status were found to influence attitudes. in a related study, the authors explored how origin affects attitude formation, finding that sociodemographic factors had a stronger impact on native students compared to immigrants. gardner et al. (2004) conducted a year-long study on undergraduate students learning french. their findings revealed that students’ attitudes and motivation varied based on academic performance. those who achieved high grades maintained positive attitudes and motivation throughout the year. in contrast, students with lower grades started with less favorable attitudes, which declined further as the year progressed. the study highlighted that changes in attitudes are more likely to occur in variables directly tied to the classroom environment than in broader, general factors. the role of age in language acquisition has also been a subject of considerable debate. towell and hawkins (1994) argued that while second language learning can occur at any age, younger learners—particularly those under seven—are more likely to achieve full grammatical proficiency. halgunseth (2009) noted that age is critical for simultaneous language learning but less so for sequential learning, where motivation and language capacity are more influential. larson-hall (2008) further observed that motivation and attitudes tend to decline with age, emphasizing the need to address these factors in adult learners. in conclusion, language attitudes are complex and multifaceted, shaped by a combination of social, educational, and demographic factors. positive attitudes and strong motivation are essential for successful second language acquisition. however, challenges such as inadequate language policies, age-related declines in motivation, and contextual educational issues must be addressed to foster effective language learning. by understanding these dynamics, educators and policymakers can create supportive environments that enhance both attitudes and learning outcomes. attitude attitude plays a crucial role in second language learning, influencing both the process and outcomes of language acquisition. as a concept, it has been extensively studied in social sciences, particularly within the field of social psychology, which boasts a long and complex history of attitude research (milroy & preston, 1999; oppenheim, 1992). in more recent years, attitudes have also become a key area of interest in sociolinguistics, where they are recognized as dynamic social constructs comprising three primary components: affective, cognitive, and behavioral (garrett et al., 2003; stahlberg & frey, 1996). the tripartite model of attitude provides a framework for understanding these components. the cognitive component relates to beliefs or perceptions about an object or situation, such as the idea that learning a second language can enhance career opportunities. the evaluative component reflects emotional responses, including feelings of like or dislike toward the language or learning process. the behavioral component, in turn, involves the actions or tendencies that arise from these attitudes, such as adopting specific learning http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 3, july 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 195 strategies or persisting in language study. notably, these components may function independently or in combination, depending on the individual. eagly and chaiken (1993) explain that all three components do not need to be present simultaneously for an attitude to form, as they can overlap or remain distinct. for instance, a learner might hold a positive belief about the utility of learning a second language but experience negative emotional reactions to the challenges involved (baker, 1992). researchers have proposed various definitions of attitude, each reflecting unique theoretical perspectives. sarnoff (1970) described attitude as a predisposition to react favorably or unfavorably to a category of objects, while ajzen (2005) defined it as a disposition to respond positively or negatively toward a specific object. brown (2007) emphasized that attitudes encompass the beliefs learners hold about the target language, such as whether it is interesting, useful, or difficult. similarly, eagly and chaiken (1993) viewed attitudes as psychological tendencies expressed through evaluative reactions to particular entities. garrett (2010) extended this understanding by defining attitudes as evaluative orientations toward social objects, including languages, policies, and institutions. these definitions underline the multidimensional and context-dependent nature of attitudes. the relationship between attitude and behavior has been a focal point in social psychology. attitudes strongly influence how individuals act toward specific objectives or situations. positive beliefs about an outcome often result in favorable attitudes and behaviors, while negative beliefs lead to avoidance or resistance. allport (1954), as cited by bordens and horowitz (2008), characterized attitude as a mental state of readiness shaped by experience, which guides an individual’s responses to objects and situations. for example, someone who believes that learning a second language will lead to career success may develop a positive attitude and actively engage in the learning process. in language learning, attitudes are particularly significant because they shape how learners perceive the language, its associated culture, and the broader learning experience. ryan and giles (1982) defined language attitudes as evaluations—affective, cognitive, or behavioral—of different languages, varieties, or their speakers. gardner (1985) further categorized language attitudes into two main types: attitudes toward the target language and attitudes toward the language community. the former involves beliefs about the language itself, including its perceived utility or difficulty, while the latter encompasses opinions about the speakers and culture associated with the language. these attitudes can vary across contexts, reflecting learners’ personal experiences, sociocultural backgrounds, and specific learning environments. positive attitudes are often linked to successful language learning, as they enhance motivation, persistence, and engagement. conversely, negative attitudes can hinder progress, reducing learners’ willingness to invest time and effort in acquiring the language. research consistently highlights attitude as a critical variable in predicting language learning outcomes (carroll, 1964; csize r, 2007; do rnyei, 2009). ultimately, attitude is a complex and multifaceted construct that profoundly influences second language learning. its cognitive, affective, and behavioral dimensions interact in unique ways, shaping learners’ perceptions, behaviors, and outcomes. by understanding http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 3, july 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 196 these dynamics, educators and researchers can better support language learners, fostering positive attitudes and creating environments that enhance the effectiveness of language education. attitude models attitude, which is closely linked to motivation, plays a crucial role in second language learning. researchers have proposed several models to explain how attitudes are formed and how they influence behavior. among the most prominent are the expectancy-value model, the three-component model, and the association model. these frameworks, rooted in the long history of attitude research in social psychology (milroy & preston, 1999; oppenheim, 1992), have also found relevance in fields such as sociolinguistics, where attitudes are essential for understanding language behavior (garrett et al., 2003). the expectancy-value model, introduced by fishbein and ajzen (1975), explains that attitudes are shaped by beliefs about an object and the value assigned to its attributes. according to this model, attitudes develop when individuals associate an object with desirable attributes and evaluate the likelihood of these attributes being present. for example, a learner may develop a positive attitude toward learning a second language if they believe it will lead to career advancement and consider this outcome valuable. in this sense, attitudes are a reflection of personal expectations and the perceived importance of outcomes. the three-component model, proposed by rosenberg and hovland (1960), emphasizes the multidimensional nature of attitudes, dividing them into three interconnected components. the affective component involves emotional responses, such as liking or disliking the object. the cognitive component relates to beliefs or knowledge about the object. the behavioral component encompasses actions or tendencies arising from these attitudes. positive attitudes result from favorable beliefs, emotions, and behaviors, while negative attitudes stem from unfavorable ones (olson & maio, 2003). for instance, a learner who believes in the practical benefits of a language, enjoys using it, and engages actively in learning activities is likely to exhibit a positive attitude toward that language. the association model, developed by fazio (1990), views attitudes as associations between an object and a summary evaluation stored in memory. this model suggests that attitudes are shaped by past experiences, emotional reactions, and cognitive inferences. evaluations may stem from affective responses, such as enjoyment of a language, or cognitive processes, such as recognizing its utility for professional growth. these associations, once formed, influence how individuals perceive and respond to the object over time, reinforcing certain attitudes and behaviors. these models collectively illustrate the complexity of attitudes and their significant role in second language learning. by understanding the interplay between beliefs, emotions, and behaviors, educators and researchers can design interventions that foster positive attitudes among learners. this, in turn, enhances motivation and engagement, ultimately leading to more successful language acquisition outcomes. language attitude http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 3, july 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 197 garrett (2010) explains that language attitudes differ from other types of attitudes based on their specific focus on language as the object. these distinctions allow for a deeper understanding of complex processes such as language acquisition and social integration. language attitudes encompass all evaluative constructs related to language, which are shaped through experience. moreno (1998) further elaborates on this concept, describing language attitude as a manifestation of individuals’ social attitudes, specifically referencing language and its role in society. this definition includes not only general languages but also linguistic varieties, extending to attitudes toward the speakers of those languages (gonzález & huguet, 2002; lasagabaster, 2003). richard et al. (1992) provide a definition of language attitudes as the perspectives speakers of different languages or varieties have toward their own or others’ languages. these attitudes may involve positive or negative feelings, reflecting impressions about a language’s difficulty, elegance, importance, or social status. they may also capture the sentiments people hold toward the speakers of a given language. baker (1992) emphasizes that language attitudes serve as an overarching concept that includes various dimensions: attitudes toward a language itself, linguistic varieties or dialects, speakers of specific languages, language learning, the learning environment, and language-related behaviors such as use, maintenance, and planning. these attitudes influence second or foreign language learning, as described in the longman dictionary of applied linguistics & language teaching (2002). language attitudes are therefore a multifaceted and dynamic construct, forming part of the learner's broader competencies and shaping their experiences and success in language acquisition. attitude toward language learning language attitudes can be categorized into general and specific attitudes. general attitudes include broader perceptions, such as attitudes toward foreign languages or english as a global language, while specific attitudes focus on particular aspects, such as attitudes toward learning english or toward an english teacher. gardner and lambert (1972) highlight that attitudes toward learning a second language can be directed toward the target language group, the language itself, or the overall process of language learning. these specific attitudes may have varying levels of predictive power and distinct relationships with broader attitudes, such as those toward the language in general. research on language attitudes is deeply connected to sociopolitical, sociocultural, and socioeconomic contexts. multilingual individuals often assign different meanings and values to languages within these contexts. learners’ attitudes toward the language—its status, prestige, and associated speakers—significantly influence their learning process and outcomes. according to ellis (1994), language learners demonstrate attitudes toward various dimensions, including the target language, its speakers and culture, the social value of acquiring the language, the practical uses of the language, their self-perception as members of their culture, language preferences, and even the attitudes of their parents toward language learning. gardner (1985) distinguished between educational attitudes and social attitudes. educational attitudes focus on aspects directly related to language acquisition, such as attitudes toward learning the language, the teacher, and the course structure. in contrast, social attitudes pertain to the http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 3, july 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 198 cultural implications of language learning, encompassing attitudes toward ethnocentrism, cultural identity, and social groups. interestingly, a favorable attitude toward a language does not always translate into a positive attitude toward its speakers, and vice versa. edwards (1985) notes that individuals may highly value a language yet hold negative attitudes toward learning it, or conversely, may regard a language unfavorably while acknowledging its necessity for practical purposes. understanding and measuring language attitudes is essential for effective language teaching and learning. positive or negative attitudes can stem from various factors, such as the perceived ease or difficulty of learning the language, its importance, elegance, or social status, as well as feelings about its speakers. these attitudes, in turn, shape learners’ motivation and engagement, ultimately influencing their success in acquiring a second language. methods research design attitudes research, being an interdisciplinary orientation that examines broad and complex issues requires a research method that is highly selective and varied. therefore, this study integrated and adopts theoretical concepts from educational psychology and applied linguistics, corresponding fields into foreign language learning and its connection to attitude studies. a questionnaire was designed to collect quantitative data to investigate the attitude towards esl. using the questionnaire, the researcher remains neutral in administering the survey without manipulation. the method used by quantitative research was followed in this methodology. first, we identified a problem, set an initial hypothesis, and collected and analyzed the empirical data to test the hypothesis and theories with standardized procedures. since attitude are not easily observed, applying quantitative research using a questionnaire was the best option for this empirical study. participants the study ‘s population is the ghana institute of languages, taking a sample of francophone students. therefore, the participants for the questionnaire were francophone by birth. most of the participants were from the neighboring francophone countries of ghana who intend to learn english from an anglophone country, ghana. the research focused on 267 francophone students of ghana institute of languages obtaining various programs, thus, certificate courses, high national diplomas and degree courses at different levels of study. the students at the school of languages were already tested through the institute placement test before the commencement of the course. the school of bilingual secretaryship and school of translators is a progressive yearly program. thus, level 100 to 300 for the school of bilingual secretaryship while level 100‘s are in the first year of their course, level 200 in the second year of the course, and level 300 in their final year. therefore, the school of translators has students from levels 100 to 400. apart from the participants possessing the characteristics of the purpose of the investigation, the researcher has good contact with the population. results http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 3, july 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 199 gender of the respondents the results are shown based on the questionnaires; the collected data were cautiously coded and entered the software package spss v 21; to analyze the data collected, we conducted various analyses, including descriptive statistics, correlations and anovas. the general demographic data of the respondents are presented below: table 1. gender of the respondent gender frequency percentage female 156 58.40% male 111 41.60% total 267 100% table 1 shows the sample distribution by gender of the respondent, indicating that 58.40% are female and 41.60% are males. age group of the respondent table 2 shows the sample distribution by the age group of respondents as; age group from 16 -20 represents 37.50%, and 2125 represents 53.60%. again, respondents with age group between 26 30 represent 7.50% and with ages from 31 35 represent 1.5 %. table 2. age group of the respondent age group frequency percentage 16-20 100 37.50% 21-25 143 53.60% 26-30 20 7.50% 31-35 4 1.50% attitudes towards esl table 3 shows the respondents attitudes toward learning english. the attitude reaches a mean value of 4.36 and a standard deviation of .58, which signifies a high degree of attitude in our (1-5 scale). table 3. attitudes towards esl attitudes towards esl valid 267 missing 0.0 mean 4.36 st. deviation 0.58 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 3, july 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 200 attitudes toward learning english according to gender table 4 indicated attitude toward learning english and the study variables, gender. female participants have (m = 4.46, sd=0.36) and the male participants with (m=4.21, sd = 0.77) and the anova (f(1,265=13.001(p<0.000). n is number of participants. table 4. attitudes toward learning english according to gender gender n mean std. deviation female 156 4.46 .36 male 111 4.21 .77 total 267 4.36 .58 relation between attitude and age group table 5 reports attitude toward learning english and age group; age group have 16-20 (m=4.39, sd=.45), and age group 21-25 have (m=4.37, sd=.58. the age group 26-30 (m=4.24, sd=.78) and age-group 31-35 has the lowest attitude which is within the moderate attitude in our (1-5 scale). table 5. relation between attitude and age group age group n mean std. deviation 16-20 100 4.39 .45 21-25 43 4.37 .58 26-30 20 4.24 .78 31-35 34 3.65 1.55 total 267 4.36 .58 multiple comparisons between attitude and age group the anova results show no significant difference between the age groups and attitudes toward learning english (f (3,263) =2.44, p=.064). in addition, the multiple comparisons show no significant difference between the age groups. table 6. multiple comparisons between attitude and age group (i) age group (j) age group mean difference (i-j) sig. 16-20 21-25 ,01 1,000 26-30 ,15 1,000 31-35 ,74 ,074 21-25 16-20 -,01 1,000 26-30 ,13 1,000 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 3, july 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 201 31-35 ,72 ,083 26-30 16-20 -,15 1,000 21-25 -,13 1,000 31-35 ,59 ,382 31-35 16-20 -,74 ,074 21-25 -,72 ,083 26-30 -,59 ,382 discussion gender distribution and attitudes the analysis revealed that female respondents constituted the majority of participants, representing 58.40% of the sample, while males accounted for 41.60%. this indicates a higher level of female participation in the study. notably, gender also emerged as a significant variable influencing attitudes toward learning english. female respondents demonstrated a higher mean score on attitude measures compared to their male counterparts, and this difference was statistically significant (f(1,265) = 13.001, p < 0.000). these findings align with previous research (e.g., burstall, 1975; gardner & smythe, 1975; powell & littlewood, 1983), which has consistently shown that females tend to exhibit more positive attitudes toward foreign language learning. ellis (1994) attributed this trend to females' greater openness to linguistic forms and their investment in acquiring reading materials. these results underscore the importance of considering gender as a key variable in understanding attitudes toward second language learning. age distribution and attitudes the age distribution of respondents revealed that the majority were within the 21-25 age group (53.60%), followed by the 16-20 age group (37.50%). a smaller proportion of respondents fell into the 26-30 (7.50%) and 31-35 (1.50%) age groups, indicating a predominantly youthful sample. interestingly, attitudes toward learning english varied with age. the 16-20 age group exhibited the most positive attitudes (m = 4.39, sd = 0.45), followed closely by the 21-25 group (m = 4.37, sd = 0.58). older age groups, such as 26-30 (m = 4.24, sd = 0.78) and 31-35, demonstrated lower attitude scores, indicating a negative correlation between age and language attitude. these findings align with previous studies (ellis, 1994; singleton, 2004) that suggest younger learners tend to show more enthusiasm and positivity toward second language learning. the dynamism of the ghanaian multilingual context, with its ethnic and linguistic diversity, adds a novel dimension to these findings. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 3, july 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 202 attitudes toward english as a second language the study revealed that francophone students learning english at the ghana institute of languages (gil) demonstrated highly positive attitudes toward learning english, with a mean score of 4.36 (sd = 0.58) on a 1-5 scale. these findings corroborate earlier studies in diverse contexts, such as catalonia (ianos et al., 2017), hungary (dörnyei & csizér, 2002), and sweden (henry & apelgren, 2008), which also reported favorable attitudes toward second language acquisition. the consistency of these results across different cultural and educational settings highlights the universality of positive attitudes as a key factor in language learning success. relationship between age and attitudes while age and attitude demonstrated a negative correlation, the multiple comparisons between age groups revealed no statistically significant differences in attitudes across the four age categories (f(3,263) = 2.44, p = 0.064). pairwise comparisons further indicated minimal variation in mean scores, with none of the differences reaching statistical significance. these findings align with those of drakulić (2022) and figueiredo & fernandes da silva (2007), who reported that attitudes toward language learning tend to remain stable across age groups. however, this contrasts with studies by kormos & csizér (2008) and alhoorie (2018), which highlighted that younger learners often exhibit more positive attitudes and higher motivation levels. the observed variation in findings underscores the influence of contextual and methodological factors in shaping the relationship between age and attitudes toward language learning. implications and contextual considerations the results of this study contribute to the growing body of literature on attitudes and second language learning, particularly in the context of ghana as a multilingual nation with significant ethnic and linguistic diversity. while gender and age emerged as influential factors, the findings also suggest that broader sociocultural and educational dynamics play a critical role in shaping attitudes. this study highlights the importance of creating inclusive and supportive learning environments that account for demographic and contextual variations, thereby enhancing learners’ motivation and engagement in acquiring a second language. conclusion the findings of this study provide important implications for policy, practice, theory, and subsequent research in second language acquisition (sla). the results indicate that french-speaking students exhibit a higher positive attitude toward learning english, reflecting their willingness and motivation to acquire a second language. this advanced positive attitude can be attributed to their choice to travel to ghana, an english-speaking http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.5, no. 3, july 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 203 country, to enhance their english proficiency. while the study focused specifically on attitudes toward language learning, it also shed light on how demographic factors such as gender and age influence these attitudes. however, it is critical to acknowledge that attitudes alone do not encapsulate the entirety of the linguistic processes required for effective second language learning. by validating a new test for assessing francophone learners' attitudes toward english, the study contributes to the understanding of learners' motivational frameworks within a unique context. despite its contributions, this research has certain limitations. first, the study's findings are context-specific, primarily applying to the ghanaian environment and francophone learners. generalizing these results to other contexts should be done with caution. second, the quantitative approach used in the study, while providing statistical insights, lacks the depth that qualitative methods could offer. future research should explore additional social and individual factors, such as learners' anxiety, fear of cultural assimilation, and other psychological influences, which may impact their attitudes and acquisition of english as a second language. conducting such studies can help provide a more holistic understanding of the factors affecting sla. furthermore, integrating a mixed-methods approach in subsequent studies is highly recommended. combining quantitative and qualitative methodologies will allow researchers to delve deeper into the nuanced and complex nature of learners’ attitudes and behaviors. additionally, future studies could extend the scope of this research to other linguistic and cultural contexts to test the universality of the findings and explore how different environments shape attitudes toward language learning. by addressing these areas, future research can continue to expand the body of knowledge on second language learning and contribute to more effective pedagogical practices and policies. acknowledgment this paper is part of the thesis work of the author, completed under the supervision of dr. cecelio lapreasta . the author declares no competing interests and confirms that no funding was received for this paper. the author expresses gratitude to dr. fauna frimpong, mr. robert senu, and the anonymous reviewers for their valuable and insightful suggestions. references addisu, s. g. 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(2018). a review of theoretical perspectives on language learning and acquisition. in kasetsart journal of social sciences (vol. 39, issue 1, pp. 161–167). kasetsart university. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.kjss.2017.12.012 myers, d. g. (1993). social psychology (4th ed.). mcgraw-hill. olson, j. m., & maio, g. r. (2003). attitudes in social behavior. in t. millon & m. j. lerner (eds.), handbook of psychology: personality and social psychology (vol. 5, pp. 299–325). wiley. oppenheim, a. n. (2000). questionnaire design, interviewing and attitude measurement. london, uk: continuum international publishing group. sarfo, e. (2012). language attitudes in ghana: a case study. ghanaian journal of linguistics, 1(1), 14-28. stahlberg, d & frey, d. (1996) attitudes: structure, measurement and function. in m hewstone, w. stroebe and g. m. stephenson. introduction to social psychology. 2nd edition. oxford blackwell. pp. 205-239. tom-lawyer, o., & thomas, f. 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(1994). approaches to second language acquisition. multilingual matters. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 229 exploring the role of tiktok in enhancing english learning motivation among indonesian students eby delyani sitompul1, deasy yunita2 1&2state islamic university of north sumatera, medan, indonesia ebydelyani0304213052@uinsu.ac.id , deasyyunita@uinsu.ac.id abstract this research investigates the impact of tiktok on junior high school students' english learning motivation and identifies effective content types. using a descriptive qualitative approach with supporting quantitative data, this study involved 7 students from smpn 2 pandan nauli who regularly engaged with english learning content on tiktok. data was collected through questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, and content observation. the findings show that students feel more motivated to learn english through tiktok content, especially vocabulary tips, idiomatic expressions, and pronunciation, which are presented in an interesting, easy-to-understand, and contextually appropriate way. while tiktok cannot replace formal education, its effectiveness as a complementary learning tool depends on the quality of the content and students' ability to integrate it into their learning routines. this study recommends that educators utilize digital platforms like tiktok to foster a more engaging, flexible and meaningful english learning experience for today's generation. keywords: digital media, edutainment, informal learning, language learning motivation, student engagement introduction in the era of the digital revolution, social media has become deeply embedded in the daily lives of teenagers around the world. one of the most rapidly growing platforms is tiktok, which allows users to create and consume short-form videos, including educational content. with over 1 billion monthly active users worldwide (sensor tower, 2022), tiktok has changed the way generation z communicates, learns and interacts with information. its visually appealing and concise format suits the learning preferences of digital natives (prensky, 2001; seemiller & grace, 2016). in indonesia, tiktok is particularly popular among junior high school students, many of whom spend more than two hours a day on the platform (survey data, 2025). however, this growing use of social media contrasts with a lingering educational problem: students' low motivation in learning english. theoretically, motivation is one of the main components in successful language learning. in the context of modern learning, the technology-enhanced http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 mailto:ebydelyani0304213052@uinsu.ac.id mailto:deasyyunita@uinsu.ac.id copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 230 self-determination theory developed by (chen & jang, 2019) emphasizes that technology can enhance learning motivation if it meets three important aspects: autonomy, competence, and social connectedness. platforms like tiktok allow students to choose and organize content independently (autonomy), hone skills through language-based challenges (competence), and interact with a global community of learners (social connectedness). in addition, according to (scherer et al., 2019) motivation in technology-based learning is strongly influenced by students' perceptions of the ease of use and value of the applications used. with its user-friendly interface and socially and culturally relevant content, tiktok has the potential to be an effective medium in increasing students' intrinsic motivation in language learning. in the current educational psychology literature, self-determination theory (deci & ryan, 2020) remains the basic framework for understanding learning motivation. this theory emphasizes that students' intrinsic motivation will increase when their basic psychological needs autonomy, competence, and relatedness are supported in the learning environment. contemporary research highlights that nurturing these needs through student-centered, engaging and digitally supported instruction contributes significantly to sustained academic motivation and engagement. this theory is further developed in the context of technology through the technology-enhanced self-determination theory (chen & jang, 2019), which highlights that the integration of technology in learning can significantly increase motivation if it is designed to meet these three needs. in addition, the theory of planned behavior (ajzen, 1991) can also be used to explain how students' intention to use tiktok for learning is influenced by attitudes towards media, social norms, and perceived self-control. in the realm of language education, the theory of multimodal learning (mayer, 2009) also supports the argument that learning that involves a combination of visual, audio, and social interactions such as those provided by tiktok can enrich students' learning experience and increase the effectiveness of language acquisition. furthermore, (fiorella & mayer, 2021)cognitive theory of multimedia learning (ctml) emphasizes the principles of dual-channel processing (audio & visual), cognitive load reduction, and cohesion between presentation elements. we found that tiktok's multimodal channel fits well with classic ctml with its integrated combination of images, text, narration, and gesture thus improving comprehension and recall of english vocabulary and sentence structure. research in the field of technology-enhanced language learning (tell) in the past decade shows that the integration of digital technologies can increase student engagement and support better language learning achievement (kukulska-hulme, 2020). however, most studies still center on the utilization of popular platforms such as duolingo, youtube, and quizlet (cesarini et al., 2021), while there is limited exploration of the specific impact of tiktok on english language learning motivation. in fact, tiktok as a short video-based media has great potential to support informal learning that is more contextual and engaging, especially for adolescent learners. this gap is important to bridge, especially given tiktok's http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 231 high adoption rate among indonesian students and its ability to create more authentic, flexible and community-based learning experiences. recent research also supports tiktok's effectiveness in improving motivation and language skills. (annapis, 2024) used a mixed-methods approach and found that 50 efl students who used tiktok showed significant improvements in speaking skills, vocabulary, pronunciation, as well as self-confidence, while lowering language anxiety-evidencing the platform's role in shaping affective and cognitive supportive learning environments. (2024) which focused on tiktok vlogs for young learners, showed a sharp improvement in their speaking ability, especially in terms of spontaneous speech and fluency skills. in addition, research by (li et al., 2023) in the mice education domain concluded that the use of tiktok as an online medium significantly improved learning motivation and oral fluency compared to conventional methods-underlining that the visual and gamification elements in tiktok strengthened participants' engagement. these studies present strong empirical evidence that tiktok is not just an entertainment medium, but an effective pedagogical tool in language developmentespecially when linked to theories of motivation, rich media, and contextualized learning. based on the literature review, most research on social media in english language learning still focuses on platforms such as youtube, duolingo, or quizlet. very few studies specifically discuss the role of tiktok in the context of english language learning at the junior high school level in indonesia, especially in terms of increasing learning motivation. in fact, tiktok is unique as a short video media that is very popular among teenagers and is able to present educational content quickly, interestingly and contextually. in addition, there are not many studies that connect the use of tiktok with contemporary learning theories such as self-determination theory, cognitive multimedia learning, and seamless learning in an integrated learning framework. the novelty of this research lies in its specific focus on the use of tiktok as an informal learning medium oriented towards increasing motivation to learn english among junior high school students. this study not only evaluates the effectiveness of the content, but also identifies the most popular content types, frequency of use, and how students interpret the learning process through tiktok. it also integrates cutting-edge theoretical approaches with local qualitative data, and provides a new perspective relevant to the learning conditions and habits of digital generation students. this research shows that tiktok has a significant impact on increasing students' motivation and understanding in learning english. through interesting and contextualized educational content, this platform is able to bridge the learning needs of generation z students who like visual, interactive and flexible media. based on the results of the analysis, it was found that students felt more enthusiastic about learning, understood the material faster, and were more involved in the learning process through tiktok content that they chose independently. however, the effectiveness of tiktok as a learning medium is highly influenced by the http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 232 quality of the content available and the support from the formal learning environment. although students show interest and increased understanding, the application of knowledge to the school context is still low. therefore, teachers and educational institutions need to create integration between informal learning from tiktok and classroom learning activities, for example by using projects, video assignments, or discussions based on tiktok content. specifically, this study not only observes usage in general, but also analyzes the specific types of educational content that students consume, such as: @englishhnow @kampunginggriswe this study aims to analyze the effect of tiktok usage on students' motivation to learn english at smp n 2 pandan nauli. specifically, this study will identify the most effective types of content, relevant frequency of use, as well as students' perceptions of tiktok's role as a learning medium. the focus of this study is expected to make a scientific contribution to the development of technology-based english learning strategies that suit the characteristics of the digital generation. furthermore, the results of this study can serve as a reference for teachers, parents, and policy makers in utilizing social media productively to support students' learning process. methodology this study uses a descriptive qualitative research design, which aims to describe and understand phenomena based on participants' real experiences. as explained by (vogl et al., 2019), this design is ideal for studying behaviors and habits in the use of digital media that occur naturally in the daily lives of students. this design allows researchers to dig deeper into students' meanings, perceptions, and habits when using tiktok to learn english, without manipulating any variables. although the approach was primarily qualitative, some quantitative elements (e.g. percentages) were used to show initial trends and frequencies within the specific research sample, rather than for broad generalizations. the subjects in this study were 7 seventh grade students from smp negeri 2 pandan nauli, north sumatra. participants were selected using purposive sampling technique, based on specific criteria: students who actively use tiktok and regularly watch english learning content (such as english vocabulary, pronunciation, or challenges). according to (etikan & http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 233 bala, 2017), purposive sampling is particularly suitable for qualitative research, as the focus is on the quality and depth of information from participants relevant to the topic, rather than large numbers. although the sample size was only 7 people, this number was considered sufficient for in-depth qualitative exploration, as each participant provided rich and detailed experiences that aligned with the research objectives (low, 2019). however, it is important to note that this limited sample size limits the generalizability of the findings to the wider student population. data in this study was collected using the researcher administered an open-ended questionnaire consisting of 12 questions through google form. the questions aimed to explore students' experiences in using tiktok, their motivation in learning, the type of content consumed, and how they understand and apply learning from tiktok to the school context. the open format allows students to answer freely and according to personal experience. to get more in-depth information, the researcher conducted semi-structured interviews with some participants. the questions were organized with certain guidelines, but still gave room for students to explain more broadly and flexibly. this method is in accordance with the opinion of (aspers & corte, 2019), which states that this type of interview is effective for exploring personal experiences in depth, especially in a digital context. as a form of data triangulation, researchers also directly observed several educational tiktok accounts that were often mentioned by students, such as @englishhnow and @kampunginggriswe. the researcher analyzed the style of content presentation, the type of material delivered (e.g. idioms, pronunciation, conversation), as well as user responses. this is important to ensure that students' perceptions match the content they actually access. the data obtained was analyzed using the thematic analysis method, referring to the stages developed by (braun & clarke, 2021). the process includes: • rereading all data thoroughly to understand its content. • identifying and inductively coding the important ideas that emerged. • categorizing the codes into key themes (such as motivation, comprehension, and application). • reviewing and refining the themes. • giving proper names and definitions to each theme. • compiling a report with direct quotes from students as supporting evidence. this analysis allowed the researcher to capture recurring patterns of meaning in the data, explaining how and why tiktok affects student learning. to ensure the validity of the data, the researcher also conducted member checking by presenting a summary of preliminary findings to participants for interpretation verification, and source triangulation by comparing information from questionnaires, interviews, and content analysis to ensure consistency and depth of understanding. results and discussion http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 234 this study aims to determine the extent to which the use of tiktok app can affect students' motivation and understanding in learning english. based on the results of data collection from 7 grade vii students at smp negeri 2 pandan nauli, key findings were obtained through open-ended questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. the results were analyzed and categorized into two main themes: motivation to learn and understanding of english materials, which are then explained in the following table and narrative. it is important to note that the percentages presented in the table reflect the frequency of responses in this particular qualitative sample (n=7) and are not intended for broad generalization, but rather to highlight emerging patterns. table 1. aspects of motivation in english learning through tiktok aspect description result (%) frequency of use students who use tiktok daily 30 minutes to 1 hour per day 68,75% content type students follow tiktok accounts that contain educational content such as vocabulary, idioms and conversations. 87,5% motivation students feel more motivated after accessing english learning content on tiktok. 56,25% some students still feel neutral or hesitant to use active english 43,75% some students prefer learning through tiktok over conventional methods 43,75% the average contribution of tiktok to student learning motivation is 60%. notes: percentages indicate the frequency of responses in the qualitative study sample (n=7) and are not intended for generalization to the wider population, but rather to provide an initial overview of emerging patterns. from table 1, it can be seen that the highest indicator is in interest in content (87.5%), which indicates that students are very responsive to the learning content on tiktok. this strengthens the argument that educational content that is attractively packaged is able to build attention and learning engagement. this is in line with the arcs model of motivational design by (keller, 2017), which emphasizes the importance of four elements in building learning motivation: attention, relevance, confidence, and satisfaction. interest in the content reflects the success of the attention and relevance aspects. in addition, the frequency of use indicator (68.75%) shows that most students access tiktok regularly with a duration of 30 minutes-1 hour per day. digital learning environments can support the formation of learning habits when learners consistently engage in self-regulated behavior reinforced by timely feedback and adaptive http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 235 scaffolding(schnauber-stockmann & naab, 2019) . however, the self-confidence and media preference indicator, which only obtained 43.75%, shows that students are still in the transition stage from passive content consumers to active language producers. this is in line with bandura's (2020) self-efficacy theory, which states that to significantly increase selfconfidence, students need not only vicarious experiences (observing others), but also enactive mastery experiences (direct successful performance) and positive social support. while tiktok provides exposure and observational learning, it may not sufficiently facilitate active language production without additional structured support from a formal learning environment. table 2. understanding aspects in english learning through tiktok aspect description result (%) understanding tiktok is considered to help students understand english more easily and contextually. 62,5% some students only sometimes apply what they learn from tiktok at school. 37,5% the average contribution of tiktok to students' english understanding is 50% notes: percentages indicate the frequency of responses in the qualitative study sample (n=7) and are not intended for generalization to the wider population, but rather to provide an initial overview of emerging patterns. in table 2, contextual understanding (62.5%) shows that students are able to relate tiktok video content to everyday life. this reinforces the findings of (wahyuni et al., 2024), who argue that learning becomes more effective when students can relate the material to real-life contexts, particularly those relevant to their personal and social experiences. their study on the contextual teaching and learning (ctl) model demonstrates that contextualizing content enhances student engagement and learning outcomes. however, the low application in school situations (37.5%) indicates that informal learning through tiktok has not been fully transferred into formal contexts such as schoolwork. this reinforces the importance of integrating learning across multiple environments through a mobile borderless learning approach (chima abimbola eden et al., 2024) where technology enables the continuity of learning across classroom, informal and social environments-bridging formal and informal learning to support learning that takes place naturally across time and context. for example, educators can assign projects where students create short tiktok videos explaining grammar concepts or new vocabulary, or conduct in-class discussions where students analyze and present educational tiktok content they find. this approach will encourage students to actively apply their informal knowledge in an academic context. research from uin north sumatra lecturers also supports this. for example, research http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 236 by (zein et al., 2024) mentioned that students became more enthusiastic and quickly understood english vocabulary after watching tiktok educational videos. likewise, in nasution & rankuti's (2022) study, students felt more confident speaking english after learning through tiktok because they saw real and interesting examples of language use. tiktok as a relevant english learning media for generation z generation z is an age group that has grown up with digital technology and social media. they have a preference for information that is fast, visual and interactive. tiktok, as a short video platform, provides all these elements. students in this study stated that they were more interested and comfortable learning through tiktok compared to traditional media such as textbooks. this is consistent with the study of kukulska-hulme et al. (2021) who explained that microlearning or learning through short content is more effective for digital era students because it is in line with their short attention span. on the other hand, tiktok allows learning to happen outside the classroom, anytime and anywhere. this concept is known as ubiquitous learning. this flexibility makes learning not limited by the classroom, and instead more integrated with students' daily lives. improving motivation through independence and social interaction motivation is an important element in the learning process. tiktok is able to increase student motivation because students can control their own learning process choosing an account, determining viewing time, and learning topics that suit their needs. based on selfdetermination theory (deci & ryan, 2020); (chen & jang, 2019), intrinsic motivation will grow when learners feel in control (autonomy), confident in their abilities (competence), and feel socially connected (relatedness). tiktok features such as commenting, liking, and sharing videos create social interactions that make the learning experience more enjoyable. students are not only passive consumers, but can also become content creators, which increases their sense of ownership of the learning process. some students mentioned that they follow certain educational accounts and feel more confident when mastering the material shared. contextualized and visual-based comprehension tiktok presents english in a contextualized visual and narrative form. for example, through vignettes, tutorials, or short dialogs, students can learn vocabulary and sentence structures in a real context. this is very helpful for students in understanding the meaning as a whole compared to just reading the text. observations of certain educational tiktok accounts frequently mentioned by students, such as @englishhnow and @kampunginggriswe, suggest that their effectiveness stems from their dynamic short video format, engaging visual elements (e.g., text overlays, simple animations), and concise delivery of material. for example, pronunciation tip videos often use visual comparisons of tongue or lip positions, while idiom videos are presented in http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 237 relevant everyday conversation scenarios. interactive features such as comments also allow students to ask questions and receive clarifications, thus fostering a more participatory learning environment. according to mayer (2020) in the cognitive theory of multimedia learning, information processing is more effective if it is delivered in visual and verbal formats simultaneously. (fiorella & mayer, 2021) also added that “dual coding” helps short-term to long-term memory transfer. therefore, learning through tiktok videos has great potential to improve comprehension of english materials in a practical and sustainable way. however, the data also shows that despite the increased comprehension, students have not fully applied it at school. this indicates a gap between informal learning and formal learning activities. (beatty, 2020) developed hybrid-flexible (hyflex) as a learning model that gives students great flexibility to choose their own way of learning: in-person, synchronous online, or asynchronous online-without losing a meaningful learning experience. students' confidence still needs environmental support although students understand the content, most of them are still hesitant to speak in english. this indicates that passive understanding is not enough to build language production skills. according to (bandura, 2020), self-efficacy will only be formed if students get direct experience, positive feedback, and feel safe in trying. a supportive learning environment is essential. teachers need to create an atmosphere that encourages students to dare to try speaking, without fear of being negatively corrected. activities such as assignments to make english videos, speaking practice based on tiktok videos, and small presentations can help to gradually increase students' confidence. tiktok and digital curriculum transformation the findings of this study indicate that tiktok can function not only as a supplementary learning tool but also as a vital component of a broader digital learning strategy. within the framework of the merdeka curriculum, project-based learning aligns well with the integration of platforms like tiktok. teachers can design engaging activities such as having students create short educational videos (1–3 minutes) to explain grammar points, vocabulary, or idiomatic expressions using real-life examples. another option is assigning english video journals, where students regularly reflect on their language learning experiences, challenges, and progress through brief video entries. additionally, educators can incorporate tiktok content into classroom discussions by selecting relevant educational videos and encouraging students to analyze vocabulary, delivery techniques, or the clarity of explanations. weekly language challenges can also be introduced, prompting students to use targeted vocabulary or expressions creatively in their own tiktok videos. these strategies not only foster motivation and engagement but also help students view english as an integral and practical part of their everyday digital http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 238 environment. theoretical and practical implications theoretically, this research reinforces that contemporary learning theories such as self-determination theory (deci & ryan, 2020), cognitive multimedia learning (fiorella & mayer, 2021), and seamless learning via mobile devices continues to be relevant and applicable in today's technology-driven educational landscape. recent studies (setyowati, 2021) emphasize that seamless integration between formal and informal learning spacesfacilitated by mobile and digital technologies-can significantly improve student engagement and learning continuity across multiple environments.. practically speaking, teachers and educational institutions need to adopt a more flexible and adaptive approach, utilizing digital platforms that are already part of students' daily lives. tiktok, as part of students' digital ecosystem, if used wisely, can be a bridge between entertainment and education. conclusion this study investigated the impact of tiktok on english learning motivation among grade 7 students at smp negeri 2 pandan nauli. the findings show that exposure to english educational content on tiktok significantly increases students' learning motivation. the visually appealing, interactive and easy-to-understand short videos, especially those focusing on vocabulary, idiomatic expressions and pronunciation, effectively captured students' interest and built confidence in the contextual use of english. while tiktok serves as a powerful supplementary tool to foster intrinsic motivation that aligns with digital native learning styles, its effectiveness depends on the quality of the content and students' active integration of informal learning into their routines. therefore, tiktok has strong potential to increase learning engagement if strategically combined with formal educational approaches. the study found that while students were motivated and actively engaged through tiktok, their ability to apply what they learned in formal classroom settings remained limited. this highlights the need for strategic integration of informal learning tools into structured education. for teachers, tiktok can serve as a supplementary resource to boost student interest. educators are encouraged to use curated or self-created educational videos, facilitate in-class analysis of tiktok content, or assign speaking tasks modeled after its short video format. in terms of instructional design, tiktok can be incorporated into project-based learning activities such as student-created videos, vocabulary challenges, or reflective video journals. these approaches promote active learning and help connect informal engagement with curriculum goals. for schools and policymakers, it is essential to acknowledge the role of platforms like tiktok in modern learning. institutions should offer digital literacy training, http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 239 establish usage guidelines, and support the responsible integration of such tools into blended or hybrid learning models. reference ajzen, i. 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(2021). utilizing duolingo in learning vocabulary. proceedings of the international conference on education of suryakancana, 109–117. chen, b., & jang, s. j. (2019). motivation in online language learning environments based on self-determination theory. tesol quarterly, 53(1), 35–56. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.439 chima abimbola eden, onyebuchi nneamaka chisom, & idowu sulaimon adeniyi. (2024). harnessing technology integration in education: strategies for enhancing learning outcomes and equity. world journal of advanced engineering technology and sciences, 11(2), 001–008. https://doi.org/10.30574/wjaets.2024.11.2.0071 deci, e. l., & ryan, r. m. (2020). self-determination theory: basic psychological needs in motivation, development, and wellness. guilford press. etikan, i., & bala, k. (2017). sampling and sampling methods. biometrics \& biostatistics international journal, 5(6), 149. https://doi.org/10.15406/bbij.2017.05.00149 fiorella, l., & mayer, r. e. 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(2001). digital natives, digital immigrants. on the horizon, 9(5), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1108/10748120110424816 scherer, r., siddiq, f., & tondeur, j. (2019). the technology acceptance model (tam): a metaanalytic structural equation modeling approach to explaining teachers’ adoption of digital technology in education. computers and education, 128(september 2018), 13– 35. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2018.09.009 schnauber-stockmann, a., & naab, t. k. (2019). the process of forming a mobile media habit: results of a longitudinal study in a real-world setting. media psychology, 22(5), 714– 742. https://doi.org/10.1080/15213269.2018.1513850 seemiller, c., & grace, m. (2016). generation z goes to college. jossey-bass. sensor tower. (2022). tiktok surpasses 1 billion monthly active users. setyowati, l. (2021). utilization of seamless learning as a learning model during covid-19 pandemic in indonesia. scope : journal of english language teaching, 5(2), 79. https://doi.org/10.30998/scope.v5i2.3401 vogl, s., schmidt, e. m., & zartler, u. (2019). triangulating perspectives: ontology and epistemology in the analysis of qualitative multiple perspective interviews. international journal of social research methodology, 22(6), 611–624. https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2019.1630901 wahyuni, p., yusdita, e. e., & harumiati, y. (2024). the impact of the contextual teaching and learning (ctl) model on student learning outcomes in learning banking basics. journal of learning improvement and lesson study, 4(2), 69–76. https://doi.org/10.24036/jlils.v4i2.125 zein, m., weny, k., & br. perangin-angin, a. (2024). edutainment of using tiktok in learning english vocabulary a case study of secondary student. majalah ilmiah methoda, 14(3), 288–295. https://doi.org/10.46880/methoda.vol14no3.pp288-295 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 144 english lecturers’ perceptions on the transition to outcome-based education in indonesia: challenges and adaptation rizky eka prasetya1*, fenti sofiani2 1,2universitas budi luhur, indonesia rizky.ekaprasetya@budiluhur.ac.id abstract this study explores english lecturers’ perceptions of outcome-based education (obe), the challenges they face in its implementation, and the strategies they adopt to adapt their teaching practices. to investigate this issue, the study employed a mixed-methods approach, combining quantitative survey data from 78 english lecturers with qualitative insights from 15 semi-structured interviews. thematic analysis of interviews provided in-depth perspectives on faculty struggles, adaptation mechanisms, and the role of institutional support. findings indicate that while some lecturers appreciate the clarity and structure obe brings to curriculum design, many report increased workloads, reduced teaching flexibility, and difficulties in applying rigid assessment rubrics to evaluate complex skills like critical thinking and literary analysis. however, lecturers who received targeted training and institutional backing expressed greater ease in aligning their teaching with obe requirements. the study concludes that successful implementation of obe in english studies depends on flexible assessment practices, discipline-sensitive training, and institutional policies that respect pedagogical autonomy while promoting outcome alignment. this research adds to existing studies on obe by focusing on the perspectives of english lecturers, who are often overlooked in obe discussions. it highlights the mismatch between standardized education reforms and the interpretive nature of english teaching. the findings suggest that policymakers and curriculum designers should avoid a one-size-fits-all approach and instead create obe models that suit the needs of different disciplines keywords: assessment practices; english studies; higher education; lecturer perceptions; mixedmethods research; outcome-based education introduction outcome-based education (obe) has been increasingly adopted in indonesian higher education to align teaching and learning with global accreditation standards and measurable competencies (asbari & nurhayati, 2024; josephine & joseph, 2023). while obe works effectively in technical fields, its implementation in english language teaching presents significant challenges. english instruction often relies on interpretative reasoning, creative http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 mailto:rizky.ekaprasetya@budiluhur.ac.id copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 145 expression, and student-centered discourse, which are not easily captured in obe’s standardized and quantifiable learning outcomes (karwowski & zhang, 2021; hall, 2017). obe’s primary advantage is that it ensures clarity and accountability in education. in professional and applied disciplines such as engineering, medicine, and business, students must acquire specific, predefined competencies to function effectively in their fields (qadir et al. (2020)). while obe has been widely embraced in technical disciplines, its application in humanities disciplines, particularly english studies, carnell & fung (2017) explicated that raises concerns regarding assessment validity, pedagogical flexibility, and disciplinary identity. unlike stem fields, where skills are often concrete and measurable, english studies emphasize abstract reasoning, interpretative thinking, creative expression, and rhetorical analysis, which are not easily quantified (latif et al. (2024)). one of the key challenges in adapting obe to english studies is that knowledge construction in the humanities is often subjective, evolving, and context-dependent. hall (2017) argued that english education does not rely on definitive answers or standardized procedures, but rather on critical engagement, discussion, and exploration of multiple perspectives. thornhill-miller et al. (2023) added that obe’s reliance on quantifiable assessment criteria presents challenges in evaluating subjective and creative competencies. in technical disciplines, performance-based assessment is often clear-cut—a student either successfully designs a circuit or does not, either diagnoses a patient correctly or incorrectly. however, in english studies, donnelly (2024) identified that assessment is highly contextdependent and iterative, making it difficult to fit into rigid outcome-based frameworks, particularly in disciplines such as english studies, where subjective and interpretive skills are central. the implementation of outcome-based education (obe) in english language teaching presents unique challenges, particularly for lecturers accustomed to process-oriented, exploratory, and interpretative pedagogies ( chan et al. (2011); prøitz (2014)). saint (2021) underlined that traditional english teaching methods emphasize critical thinking, creativity, and open-ended discourse, which contrast with obe’s structured assessment models, predefined learning outcomes, and competency-based evaluation frameworks. the transition to obe requires curriculum redesign, modifications in assessment strategies, and a fundamental shift in pedagogical approaches, yet institutional mandates for obe adoption do not always align with faculty perspectives, leading to resistance, confusion, and pedagogical dilemmas (martins & baptista nunes. 2016); de voto et al. 2021)). a primary challenge in obe implementation within english studies is the inherent misalignment between structured competency-based learning and the fluid nature of literary analysis, composition, and discourse studies. unlike disciplines such as engineering or medicine, where learning outcomes are tied to concrete technical competencies, barua et al. (2023) corroborated that english studies often involve interpretative, subjective, and evolving understandings of texts, rhetoric, and linguistic structures. the rigid structure of obe, which http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 146 demands clearly measurable learning outcomes, does not easily accommodate the nuanced and iterative learning processes that define english education (marcus et al. 2024). obe does not necessarily inhibit creativity but rather demands a more structured approach to fostering it. thimmaraju (2024) argued that well-designed competency-based frameworks can still accommodate open-ended and creative learning by emphasizing skills such as critical reasoning, textual analysis, and argumentation in a measurable way. ludvik (2023) revealed that several institutions have successfully integrated obe with processbased writing instruction, using portfolio assessments, peer evaluations, and performancebased rubrics to balance standardization with intellectual flexibility. however, such adaptations require faculty training and institutional support, which many lecturers feel is lacking in obe implementation (damit et al. (2021). the transition to obe in english education is often driven by institutional mandates for accreditation and quality assurance, rather than a bottom-up, faculty-driven pedagogical reform. as a result, yen et al. (2024) expressed that many lecturers perceive obe as an externally imposed framework that does not fully consider the disciplinary nuances of english studies. faculty resistance is not merely a reaction to change but often a response to the administrative and bureaucratic burdens associated with obe implementation. mufanti et al. (2024) determined that resistance to obe is not unique to english studies but is a common challenge in many disciplines adapting to outcome-based learning. studies on obe in stem, social sciences, and education fields reveal similar faculty concerns about workload, assessment constraints, and rigid curricular structures (katawazai; bwembya; aithal). however, kim et al. (2018) emphasized that stem disciplines often align more naturally with obe’s competency-based approach, whereas english studies, with its interpretative and evolving nature, faces greater difficulties in fitting into rigid assessment models. despite the widespread adoption of outcome-based education (obe) across various disciplines, there remains a significant lack of research on how obe aligns with the pedagogical and epistemological foundations of english studies. existing literature primarily explores obe implementation in technical, scientific, and professional fields—such as engineering, medicine, and business—where learning outcomes can be clearly defined, measured, and standardized (syeed et al. 2022); khan et al. 2023); asim et al. 2021). in these fields, competency-based assessment models align well with disciplinary needs because learning objectives typically involve tangible, observable skills, such as engineering problem-solving, medical diagnostics, and financial analysis. however, when applied to humanities disciplines—particularly english studies—obe presents a set of distinct challenges (limna (2023). english education is fundamentally different from stem and professional disciplines, as it relies on interpretative reasoning, creativity, discourse analysis, and subjective meaning-making (razavi. 2021); figueiredo. 2023). these epistemological differences pose unique challenges when aligning english language teaching with obe’s structured framework, yet current scholarship has not sufficiently examined how english lecturers perceive, adapt to, or resist this transition. as such, there is a clear research http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 147 gap in understanding the practical and philosophical tensions between obe mandates and the instructional realities of english educators. this study addresses that gap by exploring how english lecturers in indonesian universities experience and respond to obe implementation, offering insights into the discipline-specific adaptations and institutional supports necessary for successful integration. current research fails to adequately address how obe’s structured learning frameworks accommodate the open-ended nature of english studies. this gap raises critical questions: 1. what are english lecturers’ perceptions of the transition to outcome-based education? 2. what challenges do lecturers encounter in implementing obe in english courses? 3. how do lecturers adapt their teaching strategies to align with obe requirements? methods research design this study employs a mixed-methods research design, specifically an explanatory sequential design, to investigate english lecturers’ experiences with outcome-based education (obe). the explanatory sequential design follows a two-phase structure, in which quantitative data is collected and analyzed first, followed by qualitative data collection and analysis the approach provided a comprehensive understanding of english lecturers’ experiences with outcome-based education (obe), capturing both statistical trends and indepth personal perspectives. the quantitative component offers generalizable findings on lecturers’ perceptions, challenges, and adaptation strategies, while the qualitative component provides rich narrative data that explores context-specific experiences, concerns, and strategies for implementing obe. participants participants included 78 english lecturers from universities implementing obe in their curricula. they were selected using purposive sampling to ensure diverse representation across different institutions, years of teaching experience, and subfields (literature, linguistics, and english language teaching). table 1. demographic profile of participants (n = 78) category indicators number (n=78) perc. (%) institution type public universities 35 44.9% private universities 43 55.1% specialization literature 28 35.9% linguistics 22 28.2% english language teaching (elt) 28 35.9% years of teaching experience 1–10 years 20 25.6% 3–15 years 24 30.8% 5–20 years 18 23.1% 6–25 years 16 20.5% http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 148 data collection this study employed a two-phase mixed-methods approach, integrating quantitative surveys with qualitative semi-structured interviews to gain a comprehensive understanding of english lecturers' experiences with outcome-based education (obe). data collection was conducted over approximately three months, from january to march 2024, covering both survey distribution and follow-up interviews. in the first phase, a structured online survey was distributed to lecturers across various institutions, collecting data on demographics, perceptions of obe, challenges, adaptation strategies, and institutional support. the questionnaire included likert-scale items for measurable analysis and open-ended questions for additional insights. the survey was administered via google forms, with a pilot test ensuring clarity and reliability. the data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, pearson’s correlation, anova, and cluster analysis to identify key patterns in lecturers' responses. in the second phase, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 purposively selected lecturers, ensuring diversity in institutional type, experience, specialization, and obe perspectives. the interviews explored in-depth experiences, assessment challenges, and adaptation strategies, providing qualitative insights to complement the survey findings. interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using thematic analysis with nvivo software, identifying recurring themes related to workload concerns, assessment limitations, and institutional support gaps. ethical considerations, including informed consent, confidentiality, and voluntary participation, gender distribution male 34 43.6% female 42x 53.8% prefer not to say 2 2.6% academic rank/position lecturer (tenaga pengajar) 25 32.1% assistant professor (asisten ahli) 21 26.9% assistant professor (lektor) 18 23.1% associate professor (lektor kepala) 14 17.9% obe training and familiarity no formal training 16 20.5% attended institutional obe workshops 42 53.8% certified obe instructor 20 25.6% courses taught under obe framework literature courses (e.g., literary theory, poetry analysis, syntax, phonetics) 28 35.9% english language teaching (e.g., tesol, second language acquisition) 30 38.5% multidisciplinary/ integrated courses 20 25.6% institutional obe implementation status fully implemented obe 16 20.5% partially implemented obe 32 41.0% recently transitioned to obe 30 38.5% http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 149 were strictly followed. this sequential mixed-methods design allowed for a holistic investigation, where quantitative trends guided qualitative inquiry, strengthening the validity of findings and offering actionable recommendations for improving obe implementation in english education. data analysis the data analysis process involved both quantitative and qualitative methods to ensure a comprehensive interpretation of english lecturers’ experiences with outcome-based education (obe). quantitative data collected through the structured survey were analyzed using descriptive statistics, including mean scores, standard deviations, and frequency distributions, to summarize lecturers' perceptions, challenges, and adaptation strategies. additionally, pearson’s correlation analysis was conducted to examine relationships between variables such as workload burden, assessment difficulties, and institutional support, while one-way anova was used to compare perceptions of obe across different institution types. furthermore, cluster analysis categorized lecturers into distinct groups based on their level of adaptation to obe, such as resistant, moderately adapting, or supportive, providing deeper insights into variations in faculty experiences. for the qualitative data, responses from semi-structured interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis (braun & clarke, 2006) to identify key themes, recurring concerns, and adaptation strategies. interviews were transcribed and coded using nvivo software, allowing for the systematic identification of patterns in lecturers' perspectives on obe implementation. thematic categories included assessment challenges, loss of pedagogical flexibility, workload concerns, and creative constraints, alongside adaptation strategies such as alternative assessment models, student-centered learning approaches, and institutional policy recommendations. to enhance validity and reliability, findings from both datasets were triangulated, ensuring that quantitative trends were supported by qualitative insights. this mixed-methods analytical approach provided a holistic understanding of how english lecturers navigate the transition to obe, facilitating evidence-based recommendations for improving its implementation in english education. results research question what are english lecturers’ perceptions of the transition to outcomebased education? this table presents the frequency distribution (percentage of responses) for each likert-scale question, as well as the mean (m) and standard deviation (sd) to assess overall sentiment. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 150 table 2. frequency distribution and descriptive statistics of english lecturers’ perceptions of obe transition survey item strongly disagree (1) disagree (2) neutral (3) agree (4) strongly agree (5) m sd i understand the principles of obe. 4% (2) 8% (4) 16% (8) 50% (25) 22% (11) 3.8 0.85 my institution provided adequate training for obe. 22% (11) 28% (14) 14% (7) 26% (13) 10% (5) 2.8 1.02 obe improves student learning outcomes in english courses. 10% (5) 16% (8) 20% (10) 40% (20) 14% (7) 3.4 0.91 the transition to obe significantly increased my workload. 4% (2) 6% (3) 6% (3) 46% (23) 38% (19) 4.1 0.77 obe’s structured approach limits creativity in english teaching. 8% (4) 10% (5) 6% (3) 48% (24) 28% (14) 3.8 0.89 i feel confident in aligning my teaching with obe requirements. 14% (7) 22% (11) 16% (8) 34% (17) 14% (7) 3.1 0.94 the assessment criteria in obe are suitable for english courses. 18% (9) 24% (12) 16% (8) 30% (15) 12% (6) 3.0 0.98 the results presented in table 2—and visually reinforced in figure 1—reveal a complex and often ambivalent perception of obe among english lecturers. a clear majority report understanding the core principles of outcome-based education (m = 3.8, sd = 0.85), as indicated by the dominance of “agree” and “strongly agree” responses at the bottom of the chart. however, this foundational knowledge does not necessarily translate into readiness or institutional support. as shown in both the table and figure 1, responses to the item on adequate obe training are widely distributed, with over 50% either disagreeing or remaining neutral (m = 2.8, sd = 1.02), highlighting a notable shortfall in faculty preparation and development programs. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 151 figure 1. stacked bar chart representing the frequency distribution and descriptive statistics of english lecturers’ perceptions of obe transition although more than half of the respondents believe obe can improve student learning outcomes (m = 3.4), the visual distribution of responses shows a significant portion of the faculty still expressing skepticism or uncertainty, pointing to epistemological tensions between obe’s structured, outcome-driven models and the interpretive nature of english studies. notably, obe is perceived as a workload intensifier, with over 80% of lecturers agreeing or strongly agreeing with the statement—this is visibly the most positively skewed item in figure 1 (m = 4.1, sd = 0.77). similarly, creativity constraints emerge as a key concern; 76% of lecturers perceive obe as limiting pedagogical creativity (m = 3.8), reflected in the strong visual clustering toward agreement in the bar chart. lecturers also expressed low confidence in aligning their teaching with obe frameworks (m = 3.1), and uncertainty regarding the appropriateness of assessment criteria for english courses (m = 3.0). these patterns, both in numeric and visual form, underscore a larger issue: the incongruence between standardized learning frameworks and the pedagogical flexibility central to english education. together, these findings suggest that the successful implementation of obe requires more than theoretical understanding. it demands ongoing, discipline-specific professional development, flexible assessment designs that can accommodate subjective and creative learning, and administrative policies that reduce bureaucratic burden and promote academic autonomy. without such support, the shift to http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 152 obe risks undermining the very pedagogical principles that underpin effective english instruction. table 3. one-way anova results – perceptions of obe across different institutional types survey item institution type mean (m) sd f-value p-value understanding of obe principles public university 3.9 0.78 3.21 0.045* private university 3.6 0.82 adequacy of obe training public university 3.1 0.92 4.85 0.012* private university 2.5 1.04 obe improves student learning outcomes public university 3.5 0.89 2.76 0.069 private university 3.3 0.95 workload increase due to obe public university 4.3 0.75 5.12 0.009** private university 4.0 0.81 obe limits creativity in teaching public university 3.7 0.88 3.69 0.031* private university 4.0 0.79 confidence in implementing obe public university 3.3 0.94 2.91 0.059 private university 3.0 0.97 suitability of obe assessments in english courses public university 3.2 0.92 4.04 0.022* private university 2.7 1.01 the anova results presented in table 3 indicate statistically significant differences in english lecturers’ experiences with outcome-based education (obe) based on institutional affiliation, particularly between public and private universities. public university lecturers reported a significantly higher understanding of obe principles (m = 3.9) compared to their private counterparts (m = 3.6, p = 0.045), suggesting that public institutions may offer more consistent exposure to obe frameworks, potentially through centralized government-led training or top-down policy alignment. training adequacy also varied significantly across institutions (p = 0.012), with lecturers at public universities expressing greater satisfaction (m = 3.1) than those at private institutions (m = 2.5), revealing a critical training gap that may affect implementation quality in non-state settings. interestingly, although all participants reported increased workloads due to obe, public university lecturers experienced significantly higher burdens (m = 4.3 vs. m = 4.0; p = 0.009), possibly reflecting the administrative complexity and class size differences typical of public institutions. conversely, lecturers in private universities reported greater restrictions on pedagogical creativity (m = 4.0) compared to public institutions (m = 3.7; p = 0.031), indicating that private institutions might adopt more rigid accountability measures under obe. a significant gap was also observed in perceptions of assessment alignment, with public university lecturers (m = 3.2) finding obe assessment models more suitable for english courses than those from private universities (m = 2.7; p = 0.022), possibly due to more adaptive http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 153 assessment tools in public systems. although two items did not reach statistical significance, they yielded useful trends. public university lecturers perceived obe as slightly more effective for student learning (m = 3.5 vs. m = 3.3; p = 0.069) and showed marginally greater confidence in implementing it (m = 3.3 vs. m = 3.0; p = 0.059). while these differences were not statistically significant, they suggest that institutional type may influence not only structural support but also lecturer readiness and perception, meriting further investigation the challenges that lecturers encounter in implementing obe in english courses table 4. pearson’s correlation (r) between challenges in implementing obe increased workload due to obe loss of flexibility in course design assessment criteria are unsuitable for english courses struggle to align obe outcomes with english studies creativity constraints due to measurable outcomes increased workload due to obe pearson correlation 1 0.48 0.52 0.43 0.39 sig. (2-tailed) 0.001** <0.001** 0.004** 0.009** n 78 78 78 78 78 loss of flexibility in course design pearson correlation 0.48 1 0.57 0.46 0.49 sig. (2-tailed) 0.001** <0.001** 0.002** 0.001** n 78 78 78 78 78 assessment criteria are unsuitable for english courses pearson correlation 0.52 0.57 1 0.61 0.55 sig. (2-tailed) <0.001** <0.001** <0.001** <0.001** n 100 100 100 100 100 struggle to align obe outcomes with english studies pearson correlation 0.43 0.46 0.61 1 0.58 sig. (2-tailed) 0.004** 0.002** <0.001** <0.001** n 78 78 78 78 78 creativity constraints due to measurable outcomes pearson correlation 0.39 0.49 0.55 0.58 1 sig. (2-tailed) 0.009** 0.001** <0.001** <0.001** n 78 78 78 78 78 the pearson’s correlation (r) table 4 reveals a significant relationship between increased workload and other challenges associated with obe implementation. a particularly strong correlation is observed between workload increase and assessment difficulties (r = 0.52, p < 0.001), suggesting that as the workload grows, lecturers experience greater difficulties in designing and administering assessments, aligning outcomes with course content, and maintaining pedagogical flexibility. this indicates that the http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 154 administrative and structural demands of obe may contribute to faculty frustration and resistance, particularly when assessment frameworks do not seamlessly align with the interpretative nature of english studies. another key finding is the strong association between loss of flexibility in course design and assessment challenges (r = 0.57, p < 0.001). this implies that when lecturers perceive a lack of autonomy in structuring their courses, they are more likely to struggle with standardized assessment models that may not fully capture the nuances of literary analysis, critical thinking, and creative expression. additionally, creativity constraints are significantly correlated with loss of flexibility (r = 0.49, p = 0.001), indicating that rigid course structures imposed by obe may limit opportunities for innovative and student-centered teaching approaches. the data also highlights a strong correlation between assessment suitability and alignment struggles (r = 0.61, p < 0.001), suggesting that lecturers who find obe assessment models inadequate are also more likely to struggle with aligning learning outcomes with the nature of english studies. this reinforces broader concerns that obe’s competency-based framework may not be fully adaptable to disciplines that rely on subjective interpretation and exploratory learning. similarly, creativity constraints are closely linked to alignment issues (r = 0.58, p < 0.001), indicating that when lecturers find it difficult to align obe outcomes with their subject matter, they also feel restricted in implementing creative pedagogical strategies. figure 2 scatter plots for pearson's correlation in obe implementation challenges http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 155 the scatter plots visually depict the relationships between increased workload due to obe and four major challenges: loss of flexibility, assessment criteria unsuitability, struggles to align obe with english studies, and creativity constraints. these relationships are further supported by the pearson correlation matrix, which quantifies the strength and significance of these associations. the findings reveal that increased workload is strongly linked to greater difficulties in implementing obe effectively, particularly in areas where academic flexibility, assessment suitability, and creativity are crucial. a moderate positive correlation (r = 0.48, p = 0.001) is observed between workload increase and loss of flexibility, as shown in the top-left scatter plot. this suggests that lecturers who experience higher workload burdens also perceive greater constraints in designing their courses. the upward trend in data points indicates that obe’s structured approach limits autonomy in curriculum development, restricting the ability of lecturers to incorporate student-centered and exploratory learning approaches. the top-right scatter plot presents a moderate-to-strong negative correlation (r = 0.52, p < 0.001) between workload increase and the suitability of assessment criteria. unlike the other graphs, this trend slopes downward, suggesting that as workload increases, lecturers perceive obe assessment models as increasingly unsuitable for english studies. this highlight concerns that competency-based and structured rubrics do not effectively capture subjective skills like critical thinking, interpretation, and creativity—key components of english education. similarly, a moderate positive correlation (r = 0.43, p = 0.004) is found between workload increase and difficulties in aligning obe with english studies, as shown in the bottom-left scatter plot. the trend suggests that faculty members who struggle with higher workloads also find it harder to integrate obe’s predefined learning outcomes with the nature of their discipline. since english courses often emphasize open-ended discussions, literary analysis, and interpretative skills, the rigid competency-based framework of obe appears to create a fundamental misalignment with traditional teaching methodologies. table 5. cluster analysis results – lecturer groups based on challenges in implementing obe cluster workload impact training adequacy confidence in obe assessment challenges loss of flexibility creativity constraints m s.d m s.d m s.d m s.d m s.d m s.d cluster 1: strongly resistant 4.6 0.65 2.3 0.92 2.5 0.88 4.3 0.79 4.2 0.81 4.4 0.72 cluster 2: moderately adapting 3.9 0.74 3.1 0.85 3.2 0.91 3.7 0.88 3.8 0.92 3.9 0.84 cluster 3: supportive 3.1 0.82 3.8 0.79 4.2 0.83 3.2 0.91 3.3 0.87 3.5 0.81 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 156 the strongly resistant group, comprising 36% of lecturers, experiences the highest workload impact (m = 4.6) while receiving the least training (m = 2.3), which contributes to their low confidence in implementing obe (m = 2.5). this group also reports severe assessment challenges (m = 4.3), alongside high levels of perceived loss of flexibility (m = 4.2) and creativity constraints (m = 4.4). their strong resistance to obe stems from the belief that it restricts academic freedom and imposes rigid structures that may not align with the nature of english studies. to support these lecturers, institutions should implement targeted training programs, workload reduction strategies, and flexible obe adaptation measures to facilitate a more effective transition. the moderately adapting group, which accounts for 40% of lecturers, experiences moderate workload stress (m = 3.9) but benefits from slightly better training (m = 3.1) compared to the strongly resistant group. their confidence in obe is moderate (m = 3.2), indicating a willingness to adapt despite facing ongoing challenges. while they still report concerns regarding assessment challenges (m = 3.7), loss of flexibility (m = 3.8), and creativity constraints (m = 3.9), they are actively exploring ways to adjust their teaching methods within the obe framework. with the right institutional support, such as targeted workshops, mentoring programs, and greater flexibility in course design, this group has the potential to transition into a more supportive stance toward obe implementation. the supportive group, representing 24% of lecturers, reports the lowest workload burden (m = 3.1) and the highest training adequacy (m = 3.8), which corresponds with their greater confidence in obe (m = 4.2). they express fewer concerns about assessment challenges (m = 3.2), loss of flexibility (m = 3.3), and creativity constraints (m = 3.5), suggesting that they perceive obe as adaptable within their teaching practices. given their positive outlook and successful integration of obe, these lecturers could play a crucial role in mentoring faculty members in the moderately adapting and resistant groups, providing peer support and sharing best practices to facilitate a smoother transition to obe across the institution. how the lecturers adapt their teaching strategies to align with obe requirements table 6. thematic analysis of lecturer adaptation strategies to obe requirements theme description key adaptation strategies supporting interview excerpts aligning teaching with predefined learning outcomes lecturers restructure syllabi and lesson plans to align with obe-mandated learning outcomes, ensuring compliance with accreditation standards. mapping course content to specific learning outcomes "we had to redesign our syllabus to ensure that each lesson clearly aligns with the expected competencies. it required a lot of effort, but it helps us stay within accreditation guidelines." http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 157 adjusting assessment techniques to fit obe requirements a shift toward structured, measurable assessments, including rubric-based grading and competencyaligned evaluations. lecturers attempt to balance objective evaluation with the subjectivity of english studies. implementing detailed rubrics for grading "using rubrics has made grading more transparent. however, in english courses, it's still challenging to quantify creativity and critical thinking in a standardized way." increased use of formative assessments to track student progress more effectively, lecturers integrate low-stakes, formative assessments that provide ongoing feedback and competency tracking. using weekly reflection journals for self-assessment "the reflection journals have been very helpful. students become more aware of their learning progress, and i can give them personalized feedback regularly." blending obe with creative and interpretative approaches some lecturers merge competency-based requirements with creative and interpretative learning strategies, ensuring that english courses retain flexibility and critical engagement. allowing students to demonstrate mastery in multiple formats (e.g., essays, digital projects) "i encourage students to showcase their understanding in different ways—whether through digital storytelling, presentations, or traditional essays. this keeps learning engaging while still aligning with obe." integrating technology to enhance learning outcomes lecturers adopt digital tools and learning management systems (lms) to track student progress and facilitate competency-based assessments. using lms to monitor student achievement and provide instant feedback "with the lms, i can easily track each student’s progress and provide immediate feedback, which aligns with obe’s focus on measurable outcomes." incorporating interactive learning tools like quizzes and discussion forums shifting to studentcentered learning approaches a move from traditional lecture-based teaching to student-led discussions, collaborative projects, and problem-solving activities to foster active learning. encouraging flipped classrooms and peer learning "students are more engaged when they actively participate in discussions and problemsolving activities instead of passively listening to lectures." designing problem-based learning (pbl) activities http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 158 the thematic analysis identifies several key strategies that english lecturers employ to adapt their teaching methods to outcome-based education (obe) requirements. these strategies reflect efforts to align course content with predefined learning outcomes, modify assessment techniques, integrate formative assessments, balance creativity with structured learning, incorporate technology, and shift toward student-centered learning approaches. while these adaptations enhance compliance with obe frameworks, they also present challenges in maintaining the interpretative and creative nature of english studies. a major adaptation involves aligning teaching with predefined learning outcomes, where lecturers restructure syllabi and lesson plans to ensure that each lesson explicitly maps onto obemandated competencies. this restructuring ensures compliance with accreditation standards but requires significant effort in course redesign. one lecturer emphasized that syllabus revisions were necessary to ensure that each lesson aligns with expected competencies, stating, “we had to redesign our syllabus to ensure that each lesson clearly aligns with the expected competencies. it required a lot of effort, but it helps us stay within accreditation guidelines.” while this adaptation enhances curriculum clarity and consistency, some lecturers expressed concerns that strictly defined learning outcomes may limit pedagogical flexibility. another significant shift is adjusting assessment techniques to fit obe requirements, particularly through the implementation of structured, measurable evaluations such as rubric-based grading and competency-aligned assessments. this transition helps standardize grading and improve transparency, yet quantifying creativity and critical thinking remains a challenge in english courses. one lecturer noted, “using rubrics has made grading more transparent. however, in english courses, it’s still challenging to quantify creativity and critical thinking in a standardized way.” this suggests that while obe facilitates objective grading, it may not fully capture the depth and interpretative nature of literary analysis and critical discourse. to monitor student progress effectively, many lecturers have incorporated formative assessments, such as weekly reflection journals, quizzes, and peer evaluations. these methods provide continuous feedback, helping students become more aware of their learning progress while enabling instructors to tailor their teaching accordingly. one lecturer shared, “the reflection journals have been very helpful. students become more aware of their learning progress, and i can give them personalized feedback regularly.” this adaptation aligns well with obe’s emphasis on competency tracking, though some lecturers find it time-consuming to provide frequent feedback and assess students on an ongoing basis. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 159 figure 3. lecturer adaptation strategies to obe requirements despite obe’s structured framework, some lecturers have blended competency-based requirements with creative and interpretative approaches, ensuring that english courses retain flexibility and student engagement. a common strategy is to allow students to demonstrate mastery in multiple formats, such as essays, digital projects, and presentations. one lecturer explained, “i encourage students to showcase their understanding in different ways—whether through digital storytelling, presentations, or traditional essays. this keeps learning engaging while still aligning with obe.” this adaptation suggests that while obe prioritizes structured outcomes, lecturers find ways to integrate flexibility within assessment strategies to accommodate diverse learning styles. in addition to modifying assessments and teaching methodologies, technology integration has emerged as a critical adaptation strategy. many lecturers utilize learning management systems (lms) to monitor student progress, provide instant feedback, and facilitate competency-based assessments. one faculty member noted, “with the lms, i can easily track each discussion the pearson’s correlation analysis (table 3) reveals that workload increase is strongly associated with multiple implementation challenges. the significant correlation between workload and assessment difficulties (r = 0.52, p < 0.001) suggests that as faculty members adjust assessments to align with obe, their administrative burden increases. this is further supported by a moderate but significant correlation between workload and the loss of flexibility in course design (r = 0.48, p = 0.001), indicating that obe may inadvertently restrict lecturers’ ability to adapt curricula to the interpretive and discursive nature of english studies. these findings align with prior scholarship that highlights how standardized http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 160 learning frameworks can increase documentation demands and reduce pedagogical autonomy. the increased workload may be temporary. as faculty members become more familiar with obe structures, they may develop efficient systems for assessment and reporting, reducing the administrative strain over time. furthermore, pargai et al. (2024) argue that well-designed competency-based assessments can improve learning outcomes by ensuring transparency and alignment between teaching objectives and student performance. yet, the high workload burden reported by english lecturers (m = 4.6 in cluster 1) suggests that any potential efficiency gains have not yet materialized for many faculty members. the study finds a strong correlation between loss of flexibility in course design and assessment challenges (r = 0.57, p < 0.001). english education traditionally values interpretative learning, critical discourse, and creativity, elements that may not always align with obe’s structured learning outcomes. the cluster analysis (table 4) further highlights that lecturers in the strongly resistant group (36%) feel particularly constrained, reporting high levels of dissatisfaction with assessment frameworks (m = 4.3) and loss of flexibility (m = 4.2). the qualitative findings support these quantitative patterns. thematic analysis revealed that lecturers often restructure syllabi to ensure explicit alignment with predefined learning outcomes, which, while enhancing clarity and accountability, also demand timeintensive planning and reduce spontaneous pedagogical opportunities. one lecturer commented, “we had to redesign our syllabus to ensure that each lesson clearly aligns with the expected competencies.” this level of restructuring reflects the institutional pressure to standardize learning, even in inherently subjective disciplines. the obe does not inherently restrict flexibility; rather, its implementation may vary across institutions ( stanton & roelich. 2021). mohamed et al. (2024) reported that some institutions allow for adaptive learning outcomes, enabling lecturers to design obe-aligned but flexible curricula. the supportive cluster (24%) reports relatively low concerns about flexibility loss (m = 3.3), suggesting that some faculty members have successfully integrated obe into their teaching. however, for many english lecturers, the requirement to design rigid, competency-based assessments remains a challenge that is difficult to reconcile with the open-ended nature of literary analysis and rhetorical studies. the moderate correlation between creativity constraints and loss of flexibility (r = 0.49, p = 0.001) suggests that obe’s structured framework may limit opportunities for innovative teaching. the thematic analysis (table 5) highlights that lecturers struggle to balance obe requirements with creative pedagogical approaches, particularly in assessment design. one faculty member noted, “using rubrics has made grading more transparent. however, in english courses, it’s still challenging to quantify creativity and critical thinking in a standardized way.” moreover, the findings indicate varied responses to obe implementation. while some lecturers adopt hybrid assessment strategies—such as combining rubrics with creative tasks like essays and digital projects—others struggle to reconcile the need for measurable outcomes with the open-ended goals of literary education. these hybrid practices http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 161 demonstrate innovation but also reveal the need for institutional flexibility and support. obe does not necessarily suppress creativity but rather requires a shift in assessment design. alternative assessment models, such as performance-based tasks, project-based learning, and digital storytelling, could be incorporated into obe frameworks while maintaining measurable learning outcomes (natalie & mario. 2023). however, the high creativity constraint scores (m = 4.4 in cluster 1) suggest that many faculty members are still struggling to implement such strategies effectively. thematic analysis reveals that many lecturers restructure their syllabi to explicitly map course content onto obe learning outcomes. one lecturer stated, “we had to redesign our syllabus to ensure that each lesson clearly aligns with the expected competencies.” while this adaptation helps ensure compliance with accreditation standards, it also requires significant effort and may limit academic freedom. structured learning outcomes can enhance curriculum coherence by clearly defining expected competencies (karanja & malone. 2021; bone & ross. 2021). however, for disciplines like english, where discussion-based learning and interpretative exploration are essential, the challenge remains how to align such open-ended learning experiences with predefined outcomes. one of the most notable adaptations is the shift toward rubric-based grading and competency-aligned assessments. while rubrics provide clear evaluation criteria, some lecturers express concerns that they may oversimplify complex analytical skills. one interviewee noted, “obe pushes standardized outcomes, but i integrate flexibility by letting students choose how they demonstrate mastery—some write essays, others create digital projects.” this hybrid approach, where lecturers preserve creativity while adhering to obe principles, represents a promising model for obe implementation in english studies. however, this approach requires institutional support and policy flexibility, which may not be available in all contexts. thematic analysis indicates that lecturers are increasingly using quizzes, reflection journals, and peer evaluations to track student progress. one lecturer stated, “the reflection journals have been very helpful. students become more aware of their learning progress, and i can give them personalized feedback regularly.” while formative assessments provide valuable ongoing feedback, their effectiveness depends on faculty workload. as seen in the cluster analysis, lecturers with higher workload burdens (cluster 1) report lower confidence in obe (m = 2.5), suggesting that the additional time required for formative assessments may contribute to faculty resistance. some lecturers have successfully integrated learning management systems (lms) and digital tools to enhance student engagement and streamline assessment. one interviewee shared, “with the lms, i can easily track each student’s progress and provide immediate feedback, which aligns with obe’s focus on measurable outcomes.” while technology enhances competency tracking, it also presents challenges related to digital literacy, infrastructure, and institutional support. additionally, shifting to student-centered approaches, such as flipped classrooms and problem-based learning, may require http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 162 substantial faculty training and curriculum redesign, which not all lecturers may be equipped to handle. conclusion the findings of this study highlight the complex relationship between outcome-based education (obe) and english studies, revealing both potential benefits and significant challenges in its implementation. while obe provides structured learning outcomes and accountability, its rigid competency-based framework often conflicts with the interpretative, process-driven nature of english education. many english lecturers struggle with increased workload, restrictive assessment models, and limited pedagogical flexibility, making it difficult to fully integrate obe without compromising the creative and analytical depth that defines the discipline. these obstacles suggest that the current implementation of obe— largely modeled on practices from stem and professional disciplines—fails to accommodate the epistemological and pedagogical characteristics of the humanities. a universal, standardized model of obe risks diminishing the richness of english studies unless institutions adopt more discipline-sensitive frameworks . implications for future research include the need for longitudinal studies that track how student learning outcomes evolve under obe frameworks in english departments over time. comparative research across cultural and institutional contexts could reveal how national education systems mediate obe adaptation in the humanities. additionally, future studies should investigate the development and effectiveness of alternative assessment models—such as narrative rubrics, performance tasks, and multimodal assignments—in capturing the kinds of learning valued in english studies. finally, exploring the impact of obe training programs on faculty confidence and pedagogical innovation would provide actionable insights for policy and curriculum development. by embracing more nuanced, context-aware adaptations of obe, higher education institutions can support both the accountability goals of educational reform and the intellectual depth of humanities disciplines, ensuring that english education remains both rigorous and relevant in an outcome-driven academic landscape nevertheless, the study also uncovers promising adaptation strategies. the use of portfolio-based assessments, formative tools such as journals and peer evaluations, and the integration of digital platforms shows potential for reconciling obe with the goals of english instruction. these hybrid approaches, if supported through faculty training and flexible institutional policies, may allow english educators to meet accreditation standards without sacrificing disciplinary integrity references asbari, m., & nurhayati, w. 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(2024). advance pedagogy of teaching. laxmi book publication. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 https://doi.org/10.24191/jibe.v9i2.3200 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssaho.2024.100873 https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-6684-9472-1.ch003 https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-6684-9472-1.ch003 https://doi.org/10.18260/12--34923 https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2022.3219477 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 166 thornhill-miller, b., camarda, a., mercier, m., burkhardt, j.-m., morisseau, t., bourgeoisbougrine, s., vinchon, f., el hayek, s., augereau-landais, m., & mourey, f. (2023). creativity, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration: assessment, certification, and promotion of 21st century skills for the future of work and education. journal of intelligence, 11(3), 54. https://doi.org/10.3390/jintelligence11030054 yen, p. h., thuy, p. t., thi, n. a., anh-thu, h. t., & tra, n. h. (2024). reframing assessment strategies: the impact of reflective teaching on university efl lecturers’ perspectives and practices. journal of language teaching & research, 15(1). https://doi.org/10.17507/jltr.1501.05 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 https://doi.org/10.3390/jintelligence11030054 copyright © the author(s) vol. 6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 344 exploring efl teachers’ tpack implementation in rural indonesia: insights from central kalimantan dellis pratika1*, emeral 2, novika amalia3, tampung nias saman4, julianthi zefana silitonga5 & misericordias domini6 1,2,3,4,5&6 universitas palangka raya, palangka raya, indonesia dellispratika@fkip.upr.ac.id abstract this study investigates indonesian efl teachers’ perceptions and implementation of technological pedagogical content knowledge (tpack) in rural central kalimantan. using a qualitative design with semi-structured interviews, it explores how teachers integrate content, pedagogy, and technology in their classroom practices. the findings show that teachers demonstrate strong confidence in content and technological knowledge, adapting instruction to students’ needs and displaying positive attitudes toward technology integration. however, challenges persist in pedagogical domains, particularly in fostering collaboration, and are compounded by infrastructural limitations, digital inequities, and restrictive institutional policies. this study highlights rural teachers’ adaptive strategies under constrained conditions, expanding tpack beyond urban settings. the implications call for teacher training that emphasizes pedagogically grounded and context-sensitive approaches, and for policies that strengthen rural digital infrastructure and promote equitable access. future research should broaden the extent to a broader rural context, include learner perspectives, and examine teachers’ sustainable tpack development. keywords: efl teachers, rural education, technology integration, tpack introduction in the digital age, the role of teachers has evolved significantly, requiring not only subject matter expertise and pedagogical competence but also the ability to integrate technology meaningfully into instructional design and classroom practices. the technological pedagogical content knowledge (tpack) framework by koehler and mishra (2009) offers a comprehensive model that encapsulates the essential skills required by 21stcentury teachers. the framework emphasizes the intersection of technological knowledge http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 mailto:dellispratika@fkip.upr.ac.id copyright © the author(s) vol. 6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 345 (tk), pedagogical knowledge (pk), and content knowledge (ck), highlighting the importance of their integration for effective teaching in modern classrooms. figure 1. the tpack framework by koehler & mishra (2009, p.63) the technological pedagogical content knowledge (tpack) framework consists of seven interconnected domains: content knowledge (ck), pedagogical knowledge (pk), pedagogical content knowledge (pck), technological knowledge (tk), technological content knowledge (tck), technological pedagogical knowledge (tpk), and technological pedagogical content knowledge (tpack). it has been widely used to examine how teachers conceptualize integrating pedagogy, content, and technology in language instruction. research in vietnam found that high school english teachers rated themselves highly in technological knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge but only slightly above average in technological pedagogical knowledge, technological content knowledge, content knowledge, and technological pedagogical content knowledge, with no significant gender differences, likely due to variations in teaching levels and technology needs (loi, 2021). supporting this, tran, pham, and dinh (2023) reported that vietnamese teachers generally expressed positive attitudes toward using technology in education, reinforcing the importance of technology as a core component of effective language teaching. research in iran provides valuable insights into efl teachers’ tpack development and its predictors. fathi and yousefifard (2019), surveying 148 intermediate students, found that teachers performed well in technological knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, content knowledge, and pedagogical content knowledge but struggled with technological content knowledge, technological pedagogical knowledge, and technological pedagogical content knowledge. similarly, nazari, nafissi, estaji, and marandi (2019) showed that experienced teachers scored higher in pedagogical knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge, while novice teachers, as digital natives, outperformed in technology-related domains. however, their pedagogical content knowledge was weaker due to limited teaching experience. complementing these findings, raygan and moradkhani (2022) revealed that http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 346 teachers’ positive attitudes toward technology strongly predicted successful integration, with school climate playing a role in shaping those attitudes, and concluded that technology literacy and teacher attitudes are key to strengthening tpack and fostering effective classroom technology use. in the indonesian context, drajati tan, haryati, rochsantiningsih, and zainnuri (2018) reported that teachers with 7–10 years of experience mainly relied on simple tools like powerpoint and videos, while novice teachers with 1–3 years of experience were more adventurous in using diverse technologies. building on this, aniq and drajati (2019) found that 20 indonesian efl teachers rated their content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and pedagogical content knowledge higher than other domains. later, a large-scale survey of 573 in-service teachers across jambi, palembang, and yogyakarta showed that pedagogical knowledge was perceived as their strongest domain and technological knowledge as the weakest, with significant gender-based differences in ck, pk, pck, and tpack, and age-related differences in tk, tpk, tck, and tpack (prasojo, habibi, mukminin, & yaakob, 2020). studies on indonesian efl teachers’ use of the tpack framework reveal both progress and challenges in integrating technology into language teaching. darsih, suherdi, and safrina (2021) showed that lesson study cycles significantly improved lecturers’ confidence, classroom management, and ability to integrate digital tools, leading to stronger overall tpack. similarly, surayya, asrobi, and farizi (2021)found that while most teachers expressed moderate willingness to learn and apply tpack in virtual learning environments, this willingness did not consistently translate into practice due to limited self-efficacy, resource constraints, and the abrupt shift to online teaching. complementing this, tyarakanita, nurkamto, and drajati (2021) reported that participation in a whatsapp-based online community of practice provided valuable training and peer support but resulted in only partial tpack growth, with teachers reaching the adapting or accepting levels rather than more advanced integration. bringing these findings together, anwar, yuliasri, faridi, pratama, and hartono (2024) highlight that purposeful and systematic embedding of tpack in tefl can foster meaningful and effective english learning by promoting 21st-century skills, student-centered methods, and effective use of digital tools, making instruction more relevant and impactful in the indonesian context. researchers in indonesia have explored how efl teachers’ self-efficacy and perceptions of the tpack framework influence teaching performance. putry, astuti, and sakhiyya (2022) found that teachers with higher self-efficacy were more effective in applying tpack by integrating tools like zoom, whatsapp, and canva, though limited resources sometimes hindered success. similarly, lita, puspitaloka, and ambarwati (2023) showed that secondary teachers viewed tpack, encompassing tk, pk, and ck, as essential for student-centered learning in the 4.0 era, despite challenges with adapting to new tools, infrastructure, and student limitations, which they addressed through collaboration and resource sharing. extending this, novita, purwati, and anam (2022) revealed that while many teachers demonstrated strong pedagogical and technological knowledge, sociocultural integration was minimal, with both teachers and students citing digital tools such as youtube, quizzes, and project-based learning as effective but constrained by low proficiency, http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 347 limited cultural exposure, and weak institutional support. supporting evidence also points to youtube and canva as the most frequently used applications in efl teaching (bannus & emeral, 2025; ilyas, syarif, & refnaldi, 2023). while the studies mentioned above focus on urban teachers’ tpack, the studies highlighting the tpack implementation in rural schools in indonesia are lacking. data from central java and bengkulu show that rural teachers are stronger in content and pedagogy but weaker in technology use, facing barriers such as poor internet, limited facilities, minimal training, restrictive policies, and low confidence among older teachers (aryati, 2021; sumarwati, suryanto, ulya, and hartati, 2024). in contrast, urban teachers demonstrate higher tpack levels, effectively using diverse digital tools like zoom, whatsapp, google classroom, and youtube during the covid-19 pandemic (aryati, 2021). these findings underscore persistent disparities and the need for targeted interventions to promote equitable technology integration, particularly in rural schools. comparative research shows a clear gap between indonesian efl teachers’ tpack development and that of teachers in countries like vietnam and iran, where technological knowledge and positive attitudes toward technology are stronger, with novice iranian teachers even outperforming experienced ones in tech-related domains (loi, 2021; nazari et al., 2019; raygan & moradkhani, 2022). in contrast, indonesian teachers generally excel in pedagogy and content but lag in technology use, often relying on basic tools like powerpoint (drajati et al., 2018; prasojo et al., 2020). although initiatives such as lesson study and online communities have improved confidence and integration, progress is uneven, with many teachers remaining at lower tpack levels (darsih et al., 2021; tyarakanita et al., 2021). moreover, most studies focus on urban areas, leaving rural teachers’ challenges and lived experiences underexplored, highlighting the need for more context-sensitive research. this study, guided by the tpack framework proposed by koehler and mishra (2009), aims to investigate how english teachers in rural areas of central kalimantan perceive and implement tpack in their teaching practice. by assessing the application of tpack, the study seeks to provide new insights and a more comprehensive understanding of the real challenges faced by teachers in these rural contexts. in particular, it explores the strategies teachers employ to integrate technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge into the classroom, while also examining the factors that influence both their perceptions and actual use of tpack in real teaching scenarios. accordingly, the research is designed to address two key questions: how indonesian efl teachers in rural areas of central kalimantan perceive their tpack, and how they implement it in their teaching practice. methods design this study employed a qualitative research design to explore how efl teachers perceive and implement tpack in their teaching practice. focusing on a purposefully selected group of english teachers, the study aims to capture detailed and contextualized insights into how tpack is applied in real classroom settings, especially in rural areas. participants http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 348 the technique used in this study is purposive sampling, in which researchers intentionally select participants who can provide the most relevant and in-depth information for the study's objectives (creswell & guetterman, 2018; lodico, spaulding, & voegtle, 2010). this study's purposive sampling will target four english teachers in katingan regency, central kalimantan, who possess the specific experience and insights needed to address the research questions. this approach ensures that the data collected are rich, contextually relevant, and aligned with the study’s goals, rather than aiming for broad statistical generalization. instrumentation this study collected the data using a semi-structured interview guide designed based on the tpack framework by koehler and mishra (2009). two english language education experts reviewed the interview guide to ensure its validity. furthermore, an interview protocol was used to maintain consistency across all participants while allowing flexibility for follow-up questions to gain deeper insights. each teacher was given 45 minutes for the interview. the interview questions were developed using the tpack framework of koehler and mishra (2009) and adapted from nazari et al. (2019) to ensure coverage of tpack domains. for example, questions included: “what kinds of technology tools do you typically use in your teaching?” (technological knowledge), “how do you ensure the english content you deliver is accurate and appropriate??” (pedagogical knowledge), and “can you give an example of how you use your knowledge of english, teaching, and technology together when planning lessons?” (tpack). data collection and analysis the interview data were analyzed using thematic analysis (braun & clarke, 2006; maguire & delahunt, 2017). a six-phase thematic analysis approach was employed to analyze the interview data. all interview recordings were transcribed verbatim, reviewed for familiarization, and coded using the tpack domains to capture key perceptions and practices. the codes were then grouped into broader themes, which were refined to ensure consistency with the research objectives. these themes were clearly defined and named, and the findings were presented with detailed descriptions and illustrative quotes. to enhance the trustworthiness of the analysis, peer debriefing was conducted with a fellow researcher, and member checking was applied by sharing summaries of the interpretations with participants for confirmation and feedback. to ensure reliability, intercoder agreement was used. two independent coders reviewed and categorized the interview transcripts, and discrepancies were discussed until consensus was reached. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 349 results indonesian efl teachers’ perceptions of their tpack this section presents the findings on indonesian efl teachers' perceptions of their tpack and interprets these results in relation to existing literature. the data reveal how teachers integrate technology with pedagogy and content knowledge in the efl context, highlighting both strengths and areas for development. through examining teachers' selfreported confidence in applying tpack, this discussion provides insights into the current state of technology integration in indonesian efl classrooms. content knowledge the findings reveal that teachers demonstrate strong confidence in their content knowledge (ck), particularly in understanding students' needs and linking lessons to relevant, everyday contexts. it is evident in practices where teachers assess learners' prior knowledge and connect new material to familiar activities, ensuring lessons are accessible and meaningful. such strategies reflect a learner-centered approach that values engagement and relevance. at the same time, teachers show adaptability by adjusting instruction according to context, as illustrated by differences in teaching practices between urban and rural settings where skill levels, resources, and conditions vary significantly. in urban schools, lessons are closely aligned with the syllabus and higher student competencies, whereas in rural areas, teachers modify approaches to accommodate learners' abilities and local realities. these insights underscore that effective teaching requires strong ck and pedagogical sensitivity, contextual awareness, and flexibility to ensure equitable and impactful learning experiences across diverse environments. for instance, one teacher described their strategy: excerpt 1: "i understand their basics first, so i ask the children, 'have you ever learned this?' like that, so i give appreciation first. i ask, 'have you ever heard of this before?' later, we will automatically relate it to the material, so we relate the material to things that are more like their daily activities. from there, i can capture, 'oh, it feels easier for children if it's like this,' or 'oh, it feels like children like this material more,' but it must be because the teacher's demands must cover all the material." contextual adaptation also plays a critical role, as one teacher explained how they adjust materials depending on the students’ abilities and location. excerpt 2: "when i teach in the city, maybe the skills are good, i will adjust the material, focusing on the syllabus, so that's what i teach, and i adjust it to my students' abilities. different when i teach here in the village of katingan regency, of course, the skills are a little less than those in palangka raya, so i adjust to the situation and conditions with the school itself." http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 350 technological knowledge regarding technological knowledge, the findings indicate that teachers possess strong technological knowledge, which is reflected in their confidence and positive attitudes toward integrating digital tools into efl instruction. their frequent use of applications such as youtube, tiktok, canva, kinemaster, capcut, wordwall, and quizizz demonstrates creativity and readiness to embed technology into classroom practices. teachers use these tools to deliver content and engage students in producing digital outputs, such as videos, fostering interactive and participatory learning. this technology integration aligns with current efl teaching trends, underscoring teachers' adaptability and commitment to enhancing instruction through diverse digital resources. excerpt 3: participant 1 shared various teaching tools: "yes, youtube is the most favorite, besides youtube, usually tiktok, but sometimes tiktok is just for refreshing with the children because sometimes they can open up something else." "canva and kinemaster." "i used to ask the students to make a video using capcut. yes. from the capcut, then they presented it." excerpt 4: participant 4 mentioned three tools: "i usually use canva for making posters and wordwall, quizizz for media." on another note, teachers expressed positive attitudes toward technology integration, recognizing its benefits for teaching and student learning. they see technology as a valuable tool that enhances classroom engagement and supports more dynamic instructional approaches. participant 1 stated, excerpt 5: "it's very useful and also makes it easier for the students. it's very, very easy for them. that's why we should not be left behind in technological developments. i initially didn't know about it, but i even learned about it because of my students. so, i learned from the students." pedagogical knowledge regarding pedagogical knowledge, the findings reveal challenges and strengths in teachers' pedagogical approaches. while group work is intended to promote collaboration, one teacher noted difficulties with unequal participation, as dominant students often overshadow their peers, limiting the effectiveness of cooperative learning. at the same time, teachers emphasized the benefits of project-based learning (pjbl) and blended learning, highlighting how these methods engage students through hands-on projects and the integration of digital resources. such approaches make learning more interactive and http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 351 meaningful and align with contemporary educational practices prioritizing active student involvement and practical application of knowledge. excerpt 6: "... because the projects are in groups, they are rarely independent, well, it's a group. well, there are more who don't work than work because the ones who stand out dominate." excerpt 7: "i think the most effective method is using project-based learning, meaning that they practice directly and are given a project that they can dive into directly, and of course, it is more interesting for students." the implementation of tpack by indonesian efl teachers in rural areas the findings from this study reveal a complex and multi-dimensional understanding of indonesian efl teachers’ implementation of tpack. the responses indicate that teachers have varying degrees of confidence and competence across the multiple facets of tpack, shaped by their pedagogical content knowledge, technological skills, and contextual factors. the teachers in this study varied in age and teaching experience. their backgrounds ranged from early-career educators to those with over a decade of teaching experience, reflecting a diverse group regarding professional tenure and life stages. the teachers' responses reveal a range of ages and teaching experiences, which may influence their perspectives and practices in the classroom. this diversity reflects a mix of seasoned educators and relatively newer teachers within the sample. tpack integration the findings highlight that teachers benefit from institutional support, with resources such as wifi, projectors, and laptops facilitating technology integration and ensuring smooth instructional delivery. beyond infrastructure, teachers deliberately review and select teaching materials to ensure relevance, appropriateness, and alignment with the syllabus, demonstrating a strong commitment to curriculum-based instruction. they also adapt strategies to match specific content and objectives, such as employing project-based learning for procedure texts, enhancing engagement and effectiveness. furthermore, teachers recognize students' strengths as digital natives, leveraging their technological proficiency to enrich learning with interactive multimedia tools. these insights illustrate how resource access, careful material selection, and responsive instructional strategies converge to create supportive and engaging learning environments. teachers acknowledged the availability of various institutional resources that facilitate technology integration in their teaching. access to wifi, projectors, laptops, and computers plays a significant role in supporting instructional activities. excerpt 8: "the school has several wifi points, so we can use them. the school wifi has been very helpful. there are projectors, sometimes laptops. there are three school laptops here that http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 352 can be used. if we need it, for example, when the teacher forgets to bring a laptop or the student needs it, we can borrow it. so, the school is very supportive." teachers emphasized the importance of assessing teaching materials before implementation to ensure their relevance and appropriateness for the students. this process involves reviewing content and considering suitable instructional strategies. excerpt 9: "for example, folklore, in the second semester, there are fractured stories, folktales that are modified again from other viewpoints. well, i see them first on youtube, what the videos of the folktale look like." she added, "for expository text, (i) look for material first and strategies that can be used." teachers emphasized the importance of adhering to the syllabus when planning and delivering lessons to ensure alignment with curriculum objectives. this approach guides their selection of materials and instructional strategies. excerpt 10: "when making a lesson plan, i usually choose first, for example, the material that is in accordance with the lesson plan, which is seen first." teachers emphasized the importance of selecting teaching strategies aligned with the specific content and learning objectives. tailoring instructional methods to the material enhances student engagement and learning effectiveness. excerpt 11: "i'll just adjust it, for example, this material suits this. like i said earlier, the procedure text material was suitable for the project-based learning method." teachers highlighted the importance of selecting and utilizing engaging and appropriate technology for their students' learning needs. they acknowledged students' capabilities as digital natives and the value of interactive multimedia tools in language instruction. excerpt 12: "as for technology, there is almost none because today's students are technology literate, so sometimes they are smarter than us. if i make something on canva, it can take a long time; half an hour is not necessarily finished. if it's the students, i give them half an hour, and they can finish it in 10 minutes." challenges the findings reveal that while technology integration is supported, disparities in access remain challenging, particularly in rural contexts where some students lack devices or digital familiarity. teachers recognize the need to provide additional support for these learners, acknowledging that not all students are equally up to date with technology. moreover, schools impose restrictions on cell phone use due to past misuse, allowing limited exceptions http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 353 such as for students living far away or during web-based exams, where secure applications prevent cheating. these practices illustrate the balance teachers and schools must maintain between leveraging technology for learning and managing equitable access and responsible use among students. excerpt 13: "okay, back again, i teach in a rural district, so maybe one or two students are a bit clueless about technology. so, we have to pay more attention to them. because we can't judge whether students are able, students are up to date. because of our condition in the village, some students may be less updated on technology. some don't have cell phones." teachers described restrictions on cell phone use in schools due to previous violations, with limited exceptions to support students who live far from school. excerpt 14: "actually, it used to be allowed, but over time, there were violations and others, so now they are not allowed to bring cellphones except for those whose homes are far away, more than an hour from school. they can bring cellphones collected from the homeroom teacher's desk. so, if, for example, they use cellphones for end-of-semester exam assignments, we use a web-based exam browser that they can't cheat on, so when they take the exam, they are allowed to bring cell phones, no longer manually using paper. alhamdulillah, they are familiar with various applications on cell phones." discussion indonesian efl teachers’ perceptions of their tpack this discussion examines indonesian efl teachers’ perceptions of tpack, focusing on their knowledge and skills in content (ck), technology (tk), and pedagogy (pk). it explores how teachers understand subject matter, integrate digital tools, and apply teaching strategies to support student learning. these insights provide a clearer picture of how teachers conceptualize and apply tpack in classroom practices. teachers’ content knowledge (ck) perception the interview results suggest that indonesian efl teachers in katingan regency are strongly confident in their ck, particularly in three main areas: the four language skills, need analysis, and vocabulary and grammar. teachers reported being able to assess students' prior knowledge and conduct a needs analysis to adapt lessons according to learners' goals and proficiency levels. furthermore, teachers integrate the four language skills, such as listening, speaking, reading, and writing, into their lessons to create more meaningful and relevant learning experiences. this result aligns with previous studies showing that indonesian teachers often rated their ck higher than other domains of tpack (drajati et al., 2018; aniq & drajati, 2019). these practices indicate a learner-centered approach and http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 354 highlight the critical role of ck within the tpack framework in supporting students' diverse learning needs. figure 2. teachers’ content knowledge perception teachers’ technological knowledge (tk) perception teachers show a strong and diverse use of digital tools, reflecting their confidence and engagement with educational technology across three key aspects: frequency of technological use, attitudes toward technological development, and technological tools and apps used. teachers frequently integrate platforms such as quizizz and wordwall to create interactive games and exercises, fostering student participation and enabling formative assessment. confirming findings from previous studies (bannus & emeral, 2025; norahmi et al., 2024; ilyas et al., 2023), canva is widely used for creative tasks like poster-making, while youtube serves as a primary resource for instructional videos and motivational materials. moreover, tools like capcut and kinemaster are employed for student-created videos, promoting multimedia production and enhancing students' digital literacy alongside language learning. interestingly, tiktok is occasionally mentioned to refresh students and create a relaxed classroom atmosphere, demonstrating teachers' sensitivity to student engagement and well-being. teachers also view technology as a means for professional development, showing openness and adaptability by learning from students and exploring innovative teaching strategies. this positive attitude toward technological development supports successful tpack integration and encourages teachers to improve their practices continuously. content knowledge four skills needs analysis vocabulary and grammar http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 355 figure 3. teachers’ technological knowledge perception teachers’ pedagogical knowledge (pk) perception teachers reveal key aspects of their pedagogical knowledge (pk), particularly concerning teaching methods, student motivation, time management, individual and collaborative learning, and attitudes toward teaching. teachers reported challenges in ensuring active and equitable participation during pair and group work, suggesting the need for clearer roles and structured strategies to promote genuine collaboration among students. these findings are consistent with previous studies highlighting variations in pedagogical competence among teachers with different levels of experience (fathi & yousefifard, 2019; nazari et al., 2019). additionally, teachers prioritize interactive and varied activities to capture students’ interest and build motivation before progressing to more complex content, emphasize effective time management, and provide less homework to avoid overwhelming students. these practices reflect a student-centered pedagogy that integrates diverse teaching strategies and supports active participation. figure 4. teachers’ pedagogical knowledge perception the implementation of tpack by indonesian efl teachers in rural areas this section explores the implementation of tpack by indonesian efl teachers in rural areas, particularly in katingan regency, central kalimantan, focusing on how they integrate technology, pedagogy, and content in english teaching. while teachers strive to enhance learning through tpack-based practices, they face challenges such as limited digital pedagogical knowledge individual learning less homework motivation teachers' attitude in teaching teaching methods time management working in pairs technological knowledge frequency of technological use teachers' attitude towards technological development technological tools and apps used by teachers http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 356 infrastructure, insufficient training, and varying student proficiency levels. these insights highlight the need for greater support to strengthen tpack integration in rural classrooms. tpack integration the integration of tpack in teaching is reflected through several key practices. teachers emphasize the importance of adhering to the syllabus and carefully assessing teaching materials before use to maintain consistency and quality. institutional support in providing adequate facilities and internet access is crucial for effective technology integration (bannus & emeral, 2025). in the classroom, teachers employ relevant teaching strategies, such as project-based and blended learning, to foster student engagement and meaningful learning. at the same time, they utilize appropriate technologies that align with students’ needs and digital proficiency, ensuring that instruction remains student-centered and pedagogically sound. figure 5. tpack integration challenges the findings highlight that indonesian efl teachers in rural areas face persistent challenges related to the digital divide and restrictive school policies. limited access to devices, unstable internet connections, and unequal resource distribution hinder students' opportunities for effective digital learning, requiring teachers to provide additional support to ensure equity. it aligns with putry et al. (2022), who found that insufficient technological tools constrained effective tpack implementation despite teachers’ high confidence levels. at the same time, strict phone use policies, though intended to prevent misuse and maintain academic integrity, often restrict students’ engagement with mobile-based learning tools. as lita et al. (2023) similarly note, while teachers value the role of tpack in the digital era, infrastructural constraints, resource gaps, and institutional regulations remain significant barriers to its optimal integration. tpack adhering to syllabus assessing teaching materials before use institutional supports using relevant teaching strategy using relevant technology http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 357 figure 6. challenges in tpack integration implications for teacher training, rural education policy, and digital equity teacher training teacher training should go beyond content knowledge (ck) to strengthen pedagogical (pk) and technological knowledge (tk) within the tpack framework. while teachers show confidence in digital tools, challenges in collaboration, time management, and equitable participation highlight the need for professional development that emphasizes structured group work, project-based and blended learning, and the pedagogical use of technology, in line with the effective teacher professional development framework which stresses that lasting improvement requires clear goals, strategies, and sustained practice (sims, fletcherwood, o’mara-eves, cottingham, stansfield, goodrich, herwegen, and anders, 2022). training must also be context-sensitive, as highlighted by brianza, schmid, tondeur, and petko (2022), equipping rural teachers to adapt strategies to infrastructural constraints, diverse learners, and local policies. continuous, practice-oriented programs that integrate these elements can foster more equitable and meaningful tpack implementation. rural education policy the rural education policies should address contextual disparities in digital access and instructional conditions. teachers in rural districts often adapt materials and methods to accommodate students with lower proficiency levels and limited exposure to technology. however, they remain constrained by infrastructural gaps and restrictive school policies. this call is reinforced by recent research in rural indonesian settings of english teachers in rural junior high schools in tanjung jabung timur, which revealed that scarce technological resources and reliance on self-directed learning inhibit teachers’ capacity to deliver digitalrich instruction (saputri & sukarno, 2024). policies should prioritize expanding digital infrastructure, such as stable internet connectivity, adequate devices, and reliable electricity, while supporting localized curriculum adaptation that respects rural learners’ contexts. furthermore, policy frameworks should encourage flexibility in classroom technology use, enabling rural schools to benefit from digital learning without overly restrictive practices that hinder innovation and equitable participation. challenges digital divide phone use restriction http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 358 digital equity persistent digital inequity is clearly seen as students in rural areas often face barriers such as limited device ownership, unstable internet access, and restrictions on mobile phone use. while teachers creatively integrate digital tools, these inequities limit students’ opportunities to engage in technology-enhanced learning fully. to address this, digital equity initiatives must ensure fair distribution of resources and provide accessible technological solutions tailored to rural communities. schools should balance the need for responsible technology policies with enabling access for learning, for example, by offering supervised digital platforms and loaner devices. promoting digital literacy for teachers and students is equally critical, ensuring all learners can benefit from tpack-based instruction and participate meaningfully in the digital learning landscape. empirical backing for this approach appears in a recent study of remote and underserved areas, where muslimin and indrawati (2024)found that integrating flexible hybrid learning models, strategic infrastructure support, and capacity building for teachers and students can significantly reduce digital exclusion and advance educational equity in remote regions. conclusion this study offers an original contribution by foregrounding rural efl teachers’ tpack practices in central kalimantan, a context that remains underrepresented in the literature. the findings show that while teachers display strong content knowledge and technological confidence, their pedagogical practices are constrained by infrastructural limitations, digital inequities, and restrictive policies. these insights underline the need for teacher training programs that move beyond tool familiarization to emphasize the design of structured collaborative tasks, strategies for managing diverse proficiency levels, and adaptive use of digital resources under rural constraints. continuous, practice-oriented professional development should also embed contextual knowledge, enabling teachers to balance innovation with local realities. for policymakers, priority should be given to expanding rural internet access, ensuring reliable electricity, providing affordable or shared devices, and revising restrictive mobile phone policies to allow supervised, purposeful technology use in classrooms. incentives for schools to develop localized digital literacy programs could further strengthen equitable participation. future research should extend to broader rural contexts, include student perspectives to capture the impact on learning outcomes, and examine how sustained training and systemic support shape teachers' evolving tpack integration. references aniq, l. n., & drajati, n. a. 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(2022). effective teacher professional development: new theory and a meta-analytic test. edworkingpapers, 22(507), 1. https://doi.org/10.26300/rzet-bf74 sumarwati, s., suryanto, e., ulya, c., hartati, r. d., & alfien, moh. f. (2024). implementation of tpack framework in learning indonesian language: perceptions of rural middle school students. proceedings of the third international conference on communication, language, literature, and culture (iccollic 2024), 645–655. https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-321-4_49 surayya, s. a., asrobi, m., & farizi, z. (2021). scrutiny on indonesian efl teachers’ willingness to understand and implement the tpack in vle. journal of education technology, 5(4), 645–653. https://doi.org/10.23887/jet.v5i4 tran, m. t., pham, n. t., & dinh, t. b. h. (2023). teachers’ attitudes towards the use of information and communication technology in teaching english: impacts of teachers’ characteristics. asiacall online journal, 14(1), 61–84. https://doi.org/10.54855/acoj.231415 tyarakanita, a., nurkamto, j., & drajati, n. a. (2021). the indonesian efl teachers’ tpack development in the online community of practice. pedagogy: journal of english language teaching, 9(2), 121. https://doi.org/10.32332/joelt.v9i2.3229 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 362 enhancing english achievement through moodle lms: evidence from an indonesian boarding school afif zuhdy idham1*, mulyarti 2, wahyuddin rauf 3, arfah hamzah4, abd. rajab5. 1,2,3 universitas muhammadiyah barru, barru, indonesia 4universitas pancasakti, makassar, indonesia 5 universitas muhammadiyah makassar, makassar, indonesia afifzuhdyidham@umbarru.ac.id abstract the integration of technology into education is increasingly vital, yet evidence regarding its effectiveness in specific learning contexts remains limited. this study addresses that gap by examining the impact of moodle as a learning management system (lms) on students’ english learning outcomes in a boarding school setting. a quasi-experimental pretest–posttest design was employed with 70 students divided equally into experimental and control groups. the experimental group was taught through moodle lms, while the control group received instruction via conventional lectures. data were collected through tests, observations, interviews, and documentation, and analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. results revealed improvement in both groups, but the experimental group achieved significantly higher post-test scores, as confirmed by t-test analyses (p < 0.01). these findings demonstrate that moodle lms not only enhances academic performance but also promotes greater engagement, active participation, and access to structured learning resources. the study underscores the pedagogical potential of moodle, particularly within boarding school environments, where students benefit from continuous, technologysupported interaction. the research contributes to growing evidence on the role of lms platforms in fostering 21st-century learning and recommends their broader implementation to strengthen english language instruction and digital literacy skills. keywords: english achievement, islamic boarding school, learning management system, moodle, technology information introduction technology has become an indispensable component of modern life, including within the sphere of education. among the innovations that have gained prominence is the learning management system (lms), a digital platform that facilitates online learning (nisak, 2024; zainil et al., 2024). recent research demonstrates that lms can enhance learning independence and student performance across various educational levels (idham, 2025; zhang et al., 2024). however, its effectiveness cannot be understood in isolation from context, particularly within unique learning environments such as islamic boarding schools (pesantren). http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 363 research consistently finds that learning management systems (lms) provide affordances that can strengthen instruction and learning by centralizing materials, enabling asynchronous and synchronous interaction, tracking learner activity, and supporting assessment and feedback loops; meta-analyses and empirical studies from the 2020–2024 period report positive associations between lms engagement and student achievement when lms features are used intentionally as part of course design (müller et al., 2023). these studies emphasize that lms is not a “magic bullet”: measurable gains appear when lms activity (e.g., logins, assignment submissions, discussion participation) maps onto pedagogically meaningful tasks rather than mere access to content (wang & mousavi, 2023). a robust strand of the literature therefore reframes the question from “does lms work?” to “under what conditions and for which learners do lms use translate into improved outcomes?” recent systematic reviews and learning-analytics research highlight a set of recurrent mediators and moderators — notably self-regulated learning (srl), intrinsic motivation, teacher presence/support, usability of the lms, and institutional facilitating conditions (infrastructure, training, policy) (çakiroğlu et al., 2024). empirical work using lms log data links persistence and consistent engagement to higher performance, but also shows considerable heterogeneity across courses and learner profiles: students with stronger srl and digital literacy benefit disproportionately from lms-enabled designs (siyuan & wah, 2024). pesantren occupy a distinctive position in indonesia’s educational landscape, combining formal schooling with intensive religious education in a residential environment. students typically reside in dormitories under close supervision, where the use of mobile devices is often restricted or prohibited (setiasih et al., 2024; allam et al., 2024). while such restrictions preserve discipline and minimize distractions, they also create challenges for digital learning integration. in response, some pesantren have begun to introduce technology-based learning initiatives, including lms, as a means to foster digital literacy and align their students with broader technological developments (kayi, 2024; furqon et al., 2023). studies show that when appropriately implemented, lms can significantly boost student motivation and engagement (rahmi et al., 2024; conde et al., 2014). yet in pesantren contexts, the interplay between restricted device use, student motivation, and technology adoption requires deeper exploration. (kuantitatif, 2016; pesovski et al., 2024). recent findings highlight that lms effectiveness is frequently mediated by factors such as intrinsic motivation, teacher support, and digital literacy (simon et al., 2024; munozorganero et al., 2009). for instance, a study in sukabumi found that motivation was a strong predictor of learning outcomes in lms-based blended learning models (firman et al., 2023). similarly, research on digital transformation in pesantren underscores both opportunities and tensions: while lms can enhance learning outcomes, it must be implemented in ways that respect pesantren traditions and islamic educational values (rehman et al., 2024; bt et al., 2023). this suggests that findings from public schools or universities may not fully generalize to pesantren, despite the rapid growth of lms research in indonesia, there remains a notable research gap concerning its role in pesantren, particularly in relation to english language education at the senior high school level. to date, few studies have quantitatively examined whether lms use in pesantren improves english learning outcomes, http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 364 and even fewer have explored the mediating roles of student motivation, learning strategies, or institutional policies such as gadget restrictions. this gap is critical, given that english competence is increasingly essential for students to access global knowledge and opportunities, while pesantren students must simultaneously navigate the demands of religious education and limited digital exposure (ad & hamzah, 2025). accordingly, this study seeks to investigate the extent to which lms use affects student learning outcomes in english at smas pesantren immim, and to identify the factors that mediate this relationship. by situating the research within the pesantren context, the study aims not only to contribute empirical evidence on the pedagogical value of lms but also to offer practical recommendations for technology integration in faith-based boarding schools. ultimately, the findings are expected to enrich the discourse on educational technology by bridging global practices with local educational realities, thereby informing both policy and practice in the integration of lms within pesantren education. were cultural and policy contexts shape technology adoption. methods research design this study employed a quasi-experimental design. specifically, the design selected was the pretest-posttest control group design. the choice of this design was based on the consideration that the experimental class had already been formed prior to the study, and the grouping was determined according to the similarity of average scores between groups (maciejewski, 2020; sugiyono, 2017). sampling process the study employed a purposive sampling technique, targeting students enrolled in english courses that were scheduled for the implementation of moodle lms. both the experimental and control groups were selected to ensure comparability in terms of prior academic performance, class size, and instructional content. a total of 70 students participated, with the experimental group using moodle lms as the primary platform and the control group receiving conventional lecture-based instruction. this approach allowed the study to isolate the effects of moodle lms on learning outcomes. ethical approval prior to data collection, the research protocol was reviewed and approved by the smas immim putra. all participants were provided with an informed consent form that explained the purpose of the study, the procedures, potential risks, and their rights as participants. confidentiality was maintained by anonymizing data, and students were assured that participation would not affect their course grades or standing. voluntary participation and the option to withdraw at any time ensured compliance with ethical research standards. test validation and reliability prior to implementation, the pretest and posttest instruments designed to assess students’ argumentative writing skills were subjected to a validation process to ensure their http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 365 alignment with the intended learning outcomes. content validity was established through expert judgment involving two english language education specialists, who confirmed that the test items adequately represented the targeted competencies. this procedure follows recommendations by (yildiz et al., 2018), who emphasized the necessity of expert review to establish content validity in moodle-based assessments. a pilot test was subsequently conducted with a small group of students outside the research sample to refine item clarity and functionality. the internal consistency of the instrument was evaluated using cronbach’s alpha, yielding a coefficient of 0.82. this value exceeded the minimum threshold of 0.70, indicating acceptable reliability (gignac & ooi, 2022). in addition, scoring reliability was ensured through a double-rating procedure. two independent raters, both english instructors, assessed students’ argumentative essays using a standardized rubric. the inter-rater reliability coefficient was calculated at 0.87, which reflects a high level of agreement between raters (mickenautsch et al., 2021). discrepancies were resolved through consensus discussions to further strengthen scoring accuracy. to verify the suitability of the data for parametric statistical analysis, assumption testing was conducted. normality testing indicated skewness values within the acceptable range of –1 to +1, confirming normal distribution. homogeneity of variance was examined through the f-test, where f<sub>calculated</sub> ≤ f<sub>table</sub>, indicating that the variances between groups were homogeneous. these findings are consistent with methodological standards in quasi-experimental educational research, which emphasize assumption testing prior to hypothesis testing (creswell & guetterman, 2024). research procedure taken together, these procedures demonstrate that the research instruments were both valid and reliable, ensuring accurate measurement of learning outcomes and providing a sound basis for subsequent statistical analyses. this research was conducted in august 2025 at pesantren immim putra makassar. the research subjects were 11th-grade high school students, with the detailed implementation schedule presented in the following table. table 1. research implementation schedule activity date/period description preparation phase early august 2025 coordination, instrument preparation pretest administration mid-august 2025 conducting pretest for both groups treatment (lms-based learning) mid–late august 2025 implementation in experimental group post-test administration late august 2025 conducting post-test for both groups data collection & analysis late august 2025 compilation and statistical analysis variables and research population this study identified two primary variables. the independent variable was the implementation of learning through moodle-based learning management system (lms), http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 366 while the dependent variable was students’ learning achievement in english subjects. the research population consisted of students from smas pondok pesantren immim putra makassar. a subset of this population was selected as the sample to represent the whole. the total sample comprised 70 students, who were then divided into two groups of 35 participants each (a. z. s. idham, 2025). research instruments the research instruments included an observation guide, which was employed in direct observation techniques to identify the effects of implementing moodle lms. the observational data were not analysed statistically but were instead utilized as supporting evidence to complement interview findings (tawfik et al., 2025; ghilay, 2019). in addition, several documents were used as data sources, including the syllabus, lesson plans, test blueprints (pretest and post-test), test items, and photographic documentation (bachmann et al., 2024; rekha, 2024). a test instrument was also administered to obtain the required data, particularly regarding students’ english learning outcomes before and after the treatment (cruchinho et al., 2024; aprianti et al., 2025). assumption tests prior to hypothesis testing, prerequisite tests were conducted to ensure the appropriateness of statistical analysis (a. z. idham et al., 2025). these tests included: normality test: conducted to determine whether the distribution of the data was normal. homogeneity test: conducted to confirm that the research data originated from homogeneous samples. the data were considered homogeneous if the significance value was greater than 0.05 (p > 0.05). equality of means test (pretest): after both the normality and homogeneity assumptions were met, a test of mean differences was carried out on the initial achievement scores of the experimental and control groups to determine whether significant differences existed between the two groups prior to treatment (a. z. idham et al., 2024). hypothesis testing prior to hypothesis testing, the assumptions of normality and homogeneity were verified and confirmed. as these assumptions were satisfied, an independent samples t-test was employed to assess potential differences in english learning outcomes between the experimental and control groups. the hypotheses were established as follows: h₀: there is no significant difference in english learning outcomes between students taught with moodle lms and those instructed through conventional methods. h₁: there is a significant difference in english learning outcomes between students taught with moodle lms and those instructed through conventional methods. the t-test was conducted using post-test mean scores, with a significance level set at α = 0.05. the decision criteria were: p > 0.05 indicates acceptance of h₀, while p ≤ 0.05 leads http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 367 to rejection of h₀ in favor of h₁. this procedure was selected because it effectively compares the mean scores of two independent groups, thereby providing empirical evidence regarding the efficacy of moodle lms in enhancing students’ english achievement. (rauf et al., 2025; fauziyyah et al., 2024). results the implementation of moodle lms facilitated a structured and systematic learning process, organized into opening, core, and closing phases. during the opening stage, students’ prior knowledge was activated and learning objectives were introduced, followed by the administration of a pretest. the core activities emphasized interaction with learning materials through moodle lms, while the closing stage focused on consolidation and evaluation. quantitative analysis revealed a clear improvement in student performance in the experimental group. the mean pretest score was 66.8 (sd = 6.1; median = 68.0), which increased significantly to 80.5 (sd = 6.2; median = 81.0) in the posttest. in contrast, the control group showed more modest gains, with the mean score rising from 66.5 (sd = 6.0; median = 68.0) in the pretest to 71.2 (sd = 6.3; median = 71.0) in the posttest. statistical testing confirmed that both groups were equivalent at baseline, as indicated by the nonsignificant difference in pretest scores (t = 0.057, p > .05). however, the posttest results demonstrated a significant advantage for the experimental group (t = 4.47, p < .05). paired sample t-tests further indicated significant within-group improvements (experimental group: t = 8.65, p < .05; control group: t = 3.46, p < .05), with the experimental group achieving substantially greater learning gains. in summary, students taught with moodle lms improved by an average of 13.7 points, compared to only 4.7 points in the control group. while both groups showed progress, the findings provide strong evidence that moodle lms is more effective than lecture-based instruction in enhancing students’ english learning outcomes. quantitative findings in the pretest, both the highest and lowest scores were recorded at 78. based on statistical calculations, the mean score of the pretest was 66.8 with a standard deviation of 6.1. meanwhile, the posttest results demonstrated a substantial improvement, with a mean score of 80.5 and a standard deviation of 6.2. the median score also increased from 67.0 in the pretest to 81.0 in the posttest, indicating that not only did the average performance improve, but the overall distribution of scores also shifted positively. table 2. descriptive statistics of pretest and posttest results (experimental group) test mean (x̄) standard deviation (sd) median range (max–min) pretest 66.8 6.1 68.0 78 – 78 post-test 80.5 6.2 81.0 — the descriptive statistical analysis of the experimental group demonstrated a clear improvement in learning outcomes after the implementation of moodle lms. as shown in table 1, the mean pretest score was 66.8 with a standard deviation of 6.1, while the median http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 368 score was 68.0. the range of pretest scores was narrow, with both the maximum and minimum scores recorded at 78, indicating relatively limited variation among students’ initial performance. in contrast, the posttest results revealed a notable increase in performance, with the mean score rising to 80.5 and the standard deviation slightly higher at 6.2. the median posttest scores also increased to 81.0, reflecting a general upward shift in the overall score distribution. these findings suggest that the application of moodle lms had a positive influence on students’ english learning achievement, as evidenced by the higher central tendency measures in the posttest compared to the pretest. control group in the control group, the learning process was conducted using the lecture method. the session began with preparation activities, including apperception and the administration of a pretest in which students were asked to write an argumentative discourse individually. the teacher then delivered the instructional material on argumentative discourse while students listened attentively. following the explanation, students completed a post-test by writing an argumentative text based on a predetermined theme. in the closing phase, students summarized the lesson, and the teacher reinforced the key concepts as a form of reflection (amiri et al., 2024; suarno & firdaus, 2025). table 3. comparison of pretest and posttest results (experimental and control groups) group test mean (x̄) standard deviation (sd) median experimental group pretest 66.8 6.1 68.0 experimental group post-test 80.5 6.2 81.0 control group pretest 66.5* 6.0* 68.0* control group post-test 71.2* 6.3* 71.0* the comparative analysis indicated clear distinctions in student performance between the experimental and control groups. as shown in table 2, both groups obtained nearly identical pretest mean scores (66.8 for the experimental group and 66.5 for the control group) with similar variability, confirming their equivalence at the outset of the study. following the intervention, a substantial difference emerged. students in the experimental group, instructed through moodle lms, achieved a post-test mean score of 80.5, reflecting a marked improvement over their pretest results. conversely, the control group, taught through conventional lecture methods, attained a lower post-test mean score of 71.2. the median values reinforced this pattern, with the experimental group reaching 81.0 compared to 71.0 for the control group. these results demonstrate that the use of moodle lms was considerably more effective than traditional lecture-based instruction in improving students’ english learning outcomes. table 4. descriptive statistics of pretest and posttest results (control group) http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 369 test mean (x̄) standard deviation (sd) median* range (max–min) pretest 66.7 7.3 — 79 – 53 posttest 73.0 6.8 — 79 – 53 descriptive statistics for the control group revealed a modest improvement in achievement following instruction through the lecture method. in the pretest, scores ranged from 53 to 79, with a mean of 66.7 and a standard deviation of 7.3. after the intervention, the mean increased slightly to 73.0 with a reduced standard deviation of 6.8, while the score range remained unchanged (53–79). these results suggest that although lecture-based instruction contributed to some gains, the improvement was comparatively limited when contrasted with the substantial progress observed in the experimental group using moodle lms. assumption testing the assessment of normality revealed skewness values of –0.45 and –0.29 for the control group and –0.52 and 0.41 for the experimental group. as these figures fell within the acceptable threshold (–1 to 1), it was concluded that both pretest and post-test data followed a normal distribution. homogeneity was examined using the f-test at a 0.01 significance level. data were classified as homogeneous when the observed f-value did not exceed the critical f-value, and as heterogeneous otherwise. the analysis confirmed that this condition was satisfied, thereby supporting the appropriateness of applying parametric statistical procedures in the subsequent hypothesis testing. homogeneity test the results of the homogeneity test for the experimental and control groups indicated that the calculated f-value (f<sub>calculated</sub>) was 1.41, while the critical f-value (f<sub>table</sub>) was 7.09. since f<sub>calculated</sub> ≤ f<sub>table</sub>, the data from both groups were determined to have homogeneous variances. similarly, in another calculation, the obtained f<sub>calculated</sub> value was 1.20 with the same f<sub>table</sub> value of 7.09, which also confirmed variance homogeneity. therefore, it can be concluded that the data fulfilled the assumption of homogeneity, allowing the analysis to proceed to the next stage, namely hypothesis testing through the independent sample t-test. hypothesis testing the results of the normality and homogeneity tests confirmed that the dataset was normally distributed and exhibited homogeneous variances. as these assumptions were fulfilled, the analysis proceeded with the application of the t-test. the comparison of pretest scores between the experimental and control groups revealed that the calculated t-value (0.057) was smaller than the critical value (1.672) at the 5% significance level. this finding indicates the absence of a significant difference at the baseline, suggesting that both groups possessed comparable initial abilities. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 370 following the intervention, a post-test was administered to both groups. while improvements were observed in both cases, the experimental group—taught with moodle lms—achieved greater gains than the control group, which received lecture-based instruction. these results underscore the positive impact of the lms on students’ learning outcomes. t-test results the independent samples t-test comparing the experimental and control groups produced a calculated value of 4.47, which exceeded the critical value of 1.672 at the 5% significance level. this outcome demonstrates a statistically significant difference in posttest performance between the two groups. for the experimental group, the paired samples t-test generated a calculated value of 8.65, surpassing the same critical threshold. this indicates a significant improvement from pretest to post-test, highlighting the positive influence of moodle lms on students’ learning outcomes. in the control group, the paired samples t-test produced a calculated value of 3.46, also greater than the critical value. thus, although lecture-based instruction contributed to measurable gains, the extent of improvement was less pronounced than that achieved by the experimental group. taken together, these findings confirm that both instructional approaches enhanced learning outcomes, but the effect of moodle lms was considerably stronger, reinforcing its effectiveness in improving students’ english achievement. discussion the present quasi-experimental study found that although experimental and control groups were equivalent at baseline, students exposed to moodle lms achieved substantially larger learning gains (experimental mean increase = 13.7 points, posttest mean = 80.5, paired t = 8.65), while the lecture-taught control group showed more modest improvement (mean increase = 4.7 points, paired t = 3.46). these results align with multiple recent investigations reporting that moodle and moodle-based deployments can increase engagement and measurable learning outcomes in low-resource and rural settings, provided the platform is adapted to local constraints (e.g., intermittent connectivity, small-screen use) and accompanied by teacher facilitation and scaffolding. in a rural university context, students reported that moodle supported authentic and applied learning but was constrained by connectivity and device access—similar barriers that can moderate lms impact in secondary/boarding contexts (maphosa, 2024; theodorakopoulos & theodoropoulou, 2024; oguguo et al., 2021). comparative evidence suggests two important points. first, the magnitude of improvement observed in this study is consistent with reports that structured, scaffolded lms activities (quizzes, staged assignments, discussion forums, and formative feedback) yield larger learning gains than lecture-only instruction when students actively use the platform’s interactive features. second, contextual barriers commonly reported in rural and boarding-school settings—limited bandwidth, lack of devices, and low digital literacy—can http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 371 attenuate benefits unless explicitly mitigated through offline options, teacher training, and simplified mobile-first design. studies that built moodle communities across urban–rural boundaries also emphasize the importance of localized content and teacher support for bridging access gaps (sibgatullina et al., 2022; a. z. idham, 2025). theoretically, these findings reinforce constructivist and social-constructivist accounts of learning in technology-mediated environments: moodle’s modular activities promote knowledge construction, distributed practice, and social interaction (peer discussion, teacher feedback), which together reduce transactional distance and increase self-regulated learning. in this study, students’ improved ability to produce argumentative text after guided, scaffolded moodle tasks suggests that the lms served not merely as a content repository but as an affordance for cognitive and social presence—mechanisms posited to mediate lms-related learning gains. these theoretical implications complement empirical work showing that moodle can enhance authentic learning when integrated with pedagogy that prioritizes interaction, feedback, and incremental skill development (maphosa, 2024). from a practical perspective, the following recommendations follow directly from the data and the comparative literature: 1. prioritize scaffolded, outcome-aligned activities. design moodle modules that break argumentative writing into sequenced tasks (modelling, guided practice, peer review, final composition) to replicate the structured improvement observed in the experimental group. 2. teacher training and scoring standardization. invest in instructor workshops on effective moodle facilitation and in rubric calibration to maintain high inter-rater reliability (as in this study’s double-rating procedure). 3. mitigate access constraints. provide offline-capable resources (downloadable materials, low-bandwidth quizzes, moodle mobile usage guidance) and, where possible, device loan programs—strategies shown to increase moodle uptake in rural settings (nyongesa & van der westhuizein, 2025). 4. embed formative assessment and feedback loops. use moodle quizzes, assignment feedback, and discussion forums for frequent low-stakes assessment to support mastery learning and reduce guessing on unfamiliar content (a pattern noted in your pretest observations). 5. monitor and evaluate adoption. implement simple analytics and periodic learner perception surveys to track engagement and surface barriers early; adapt content and support accordingly. limitations and directions for future research: although the study demonstrates significant gains associated with moodle use, effect sizes should be contextualized by sample characteristics and implementation fidelity. future studies could (a) employ mixed-methods designs that rigorously link individual usage logs to learning gains, (b) test offline/lowbandwidth moodle configurations in boarding and rural schools, and (c) examine long-term retention and transfer of writing skills beyond immediate post-tests (imran et al., 2023). http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2024 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 372 conclusion this study provides empirical evidence that the implementation of moodle lms significantly enhances students’ english learning outcomes compared to conventional lecture-based instruction. while both the experimental and control groups demonstrated progress between pretest and post-test, the learning gains in the experimental group were markedly higher, underscoring moodle’s potential as a structured and systematic learning platform that promotes engagement, active participation, and the attainment of instructional objectives. the novelty of this study lies in its focus on the integration of moodle lms within a boarding school (pesantren) context—a setting where technological access is often constrained and research remains limited. by demonstrating the feasibility and effectiveness of moodle in such environments, this study extends the current literature on lms adoption, which has predominantly concentrated on higher education and urban contexts. it also contributes to understanding how lms tools can support not only academic achievement but also pedagogical organization, teacher facilitation, and student motivation in underresearched educational settings. practically, the study highlights the dual benefit of moodle lms: for teachers, it offers effective management tools for instruction, assessment, and feedback; for students, it provides flexibility and interactive opportunities that conventional methods often lack. these contributions support the argument that lms integration can serve as a sustainable pathway for advancing technology-enhanced education in resource-limited schools. future research should explore three key directions. first, longitudinal studies are needed to examine whether the observed gains in argumentative writing are sustained over time and transferable to other language skills. second, investigations into scalability and adaptation are essential—particularly how moodle can be optimized for low-bandwidth conditions and mobile devices common in rural or boarding school contexts. third, mixed-methods approaches that integrate learning analytics, student perceptions, and classroom observations can provide richer insights into how specific lms features (e.g., quizzes, forums, feedback loops) mediate learning outcomes. addressing these directions will not only refine theoretical understandings of technology-mediated learning but also guide the practical implementation of lms in diverse educational environments. acknowledgment the author gratefully acknowledges the support provided by the directorate of research, technology, and community service, ministry of education, culture, research, and technology of the republic of indonesia, through the hibah penelitian dosen pemula (pdp) scheme. sincere appreciation is also extended to the principal, teachers, and students of smas immim putra makassar, who actively participated and provided valuable assistance throughout the research process. finally, the author wishes to thank colleagues and reviewers whose constructive feedback contributed to the improvement of this study. references ad, f. i. l., & hamzah, a. 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(2024). a needs analysis on the utilization of learning management systems as blended learning media in elementary school. journal of education and e-learning research, 11(1), 56–65. zhang, x., hai, y. j., & li, c. (2024). learning management system in education via mobile app: trends and patterns in mobile learning. international journal of interactive mobile technologies, 18(9). http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 4, october 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 244 an investigation into the pragmatic competence of the front-office trainees of valombola vocational training centre fredrick macgyver nghilinganye1* & haileleul zeleke woldemariam2 1,2namibia university of science and technology, windhoek, namibia *fredgyv@gmail.com abstract this study aimed to analyze the front-office trainees' pragmatic competence at valombola vtc. the trainees were tested on their ability to formulate and implement strategies for requests, their politeness principles in the speech acts of refusal and apologetic responses, and the factors that impact their pragmatic competence. fifteen out of thirty (2022) front-office trainees enrolled in the hospitality department's program were chosen for the study using a systematic random sampling method. a written discourse completion task (wdct) and a questionnaire were utilized as data collection devices. qualitative and quantitative analyses were conducted on the data about the students' pragmatic abilities. according to the study's results, the trainees' pragmatic competence was a dismal 30% when it came to the verbal act of refusing. it can be concluded that the trainees at the front desk lacked the pragmatic competence necessary to effectively respond to requests, offer apologies, and employ a refusal approach. taking into account the outcomes of the three speech acts of asking, apologizing, and refusing, their pragmatic competence was found to be fairly low. this is in line with their preference for using their vernacular language when interacting with others, as shown even in the questionnaire. furthermore, the results show that trainees employ various aggressive apologetic methods and reaction styles when asked to apologize. finally, the results show that pragmatic competence is affected by several underlying issues, such as a lack of education, a low level of everyday activities involving english, and the misunderstanding of pragmatic implicature. finally, the tvet sector as a whole and front-desk trainees in particular were advised to take english for specific purposes with an emphasis on pragmatic skills. keywords: pragmatic competence, pragmatic reference, pragmatic inference, speech act of politeness. introduction pragmatics is the focus of this study since it is one of the overarching goals of higher education for all students to be able to communicate effectively and appropriately in a variety of contexts. pragmatics is the study of how meaning is shaped by context (hence, 2000 taguchi, 2009). hence "pragmatic competence" is defined by taguchi as "the capacity to use language effectively in a social setting," a claim that searle (1969) supports. it has been presumed that front office trainees at vocational institutions, and specifically valombola vtcs, struggle with pragmatic competence. this is because they http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 4, october 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 245 are seen to understand instructions only on a semantic level, rather than the pragmatic branch of language that is necessary for effective communication. issues with social pragmatic communication disorder, pragmatic language impairment, and pragmatic failure were major concerns in the hospitality training division's assessment of students' communicative competence. because of the aforementioned concerns about the alleged lack of pragmatic competence among tvet students at valombola vocational training centre and elsewhere, the current research aims to shed light on the potential reasons for these issues. it is generally believed that the front desk trainees at valombola vtc have weak inferring and referring skills, so this study set out to assess the extent to which this presumption is true. it has also been noted that there has been an issue with rudeness when interacting socially on campus and in class with both their front-office trainers and other trainees. these front-desk trainees frequently exhibited a lack of pragmatic competence in their day-to-day interactions, spoke informally or in less professional ways, and generally failed to impress. pragmatic language use is already difficult for native speakers of a language, and it gets much more so for non-native speakers (cohen, 2008). it would indicate that pupils lack knowledge of various speech actions and politeness norms when it pertains to pragmatic competence (cohen, 2008). the major issue in this study is pragmatic failure, which is seen to be a contributing factor to the prevalence of rudeness, arrogance, condescending, insincerity, and other undesirable behaviours among front desk employees in most hospitality organizations. research on english as a second language (esl) in multicultural and multilingual namibia is expected to supplement what is currently known. therefore, it follows that this type of project is essential for shedding light on the issues related to english usage, particularly among hospitality industry front-office trainees undergoing vocational training. the study could also give valuable information to those who build tvet curricula on the pros and cons of using english in professional settings for pedagogical purposes, specifically regarding the success or failure of trainer-trainee communication. it is also believed that the study will help break down barriers in communication on pragmatic competence and discourse analysis, which might lead to the establishment of a good atmosphere where the training department's instructors and students can work together to reach their objectives. review of related literature pragmatics and the concept of communication while communicating effectively necessitates grasping the intended meaning, pragmatics delves into how context plays a role in doing just that. getting a handle on effective communication requires deciphering not only what others say, but also their intended meaning (yule, 2006). yule argues that the capacity to comprehend a speaker's meaning beyond the words they have spoken is just as crucial to effective communication as the ability to understand what they have spoken. being fluent in a language is only one aspect of learning that language, as hymes (1972) points out. even though a sentence is http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 4, october 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 246 grammatically correct, it may have no place in another setting. misunderstandings or even emotional distress can arise from inappropriate language use or when words are misused in general. therefore, being competent in both language and pragmatics is necessary for fluency. "pragmatics" refers to the study of speaker meaning (yule, 2006). it is clear from yule's definition of pragmatics that understanding meaning is not enough to ensure effective communication. it is important to grasp the speaker's intended meaning as well. everyone needs to be able to deduce what the speaker means for there to be an agreement. so, it's best to stay away from pragmatic failure, which is defined as misinterpreting someone's words (thomas, 1983). pragmatic implicature not only do people express themselves verbally in regular conversation, but their deliberate word choices also reveal their intentions. this means that the majority of the time when conversing, people will employ indirect speech acts. according to rose and casper (2001), paul herbert grice first proposed the idea of implicatures in 1975. according to grice, "what is meant" in a discussion is typically more substantial than "what is stated," and this supplementary meaning is both implied and foreseeable. the verb "to suggest" is the root of the noun "implicature" (rose & casper, 2001). "implicate" means "to imply by expressing something else," and "implicature" is the noun form of the verb "implicature" (grice, 1975). implicit reasoning is a component of pragmatics, a branch of language study (davis, 2016). in pragmatics, an indirect or implicit speech act is what a speaker means by their utterance that is not part of what is openly expressed; this is called conversational implicature. in contrast to explicature, which conveys an assumption directly, the expression is often referred to as implicature (grice, 1975 as cited in davis, 2016). "implicature" can indicate two things: either the meaning or object of someone expressing one thing while implying another. the four conversational maxims proposed by grice (1975)—the maxims of quantity, quality, relation, and manner—are applied to conversational implicatures. pragmatic reference and inference a pragmatic inference strategy is necessary for comprehending a full utterance when the speaker's message transcends the logical or literal interpretation of the sentences utilized. the concept of scalar implicature, a kind of pragmatic inference, is relevant here (yule, 1997). inference, as defined by yule (1997), is when the listener makes use of background knowledge to conclude the speaker's intended meaning. words, in yule's view, do not denote anything other than personal preference. saying something like "it is on the shelf" is one example. this would imply a book rather than a specific individual (yule, 1997). it is important to understand that when one person expresses their thoughts concerning something or someone, the listener deduces those intentions. on occasion, it's not enough for the process to function between a single speaker and listener; it must also function in terms of social interactions amongst the entire community that shares a shared language and culture. "where is the green salad sitting?" is an example of a question that one server might ask another in a restaurant. "he is seated by the door," the second person says... words do not denote anything in this http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 4, october 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 247 context; what they do refer to are individuals. another scenario is a student at nust asking another, "could you let me borrow your sifiso nyati?" "sure, please look on the very first front shelf," the second trainee interjects. the fact that we may use names of things (salad) to refer to individuals and names of persons (sifiso nyati) to refer to novels is demonstrated by these examples. pragmatics rescues semantic failures according to horn (2006), pragmatics is the study of contextual meanings beyond semantic literal meanings. researchers like levinson (1983) offer pragmatics definitions that are relevant to pragmatic stylistics, but few of these scholars highlight the need to understand the semantic meanings behind pragmatic competence and pragmatics. here is an example from cutting (2002) that illustrates this: envision yourself calling your go-to eatery and asking, "hi, do you happen to have any tables available this saturday?" "yes, we do," the restaurant manager says before hanging up the phone. you inquired about the availability of tables, and their literal response was "yes"— which is also accurate—from a semantic perspective. but if we apply pragmatics, we can assume that you were hoping to book a table for that specific saturday. given this background, it's easy to see how pragmatics arose from the need for a solution to the problem of semantics' inability to transmit the speaker's intended meaning within the given context. thinking about how semantics relates to pragmatics analysis, cutting (2008) argues that pragmatics became its academic discipline mainly due to semantics' inadequacy in explaining meaning. the study of pragmatics, as seen in the previous example, allows us to focus on the construction of meaning within context rather than on the literal meaning of words and sentences. considerations such as irony, metaphors, and intended meanings are part of pragmatics, which examines the gap between the literal and socially intended meanings of words (cutting, 2008). for instance, when a boss asks, "what time do you call this?" while an employee is running late for work. based on the context and the boss's vocal intonation, it seems like he or she is more interested in the rationale behind an employee's tardiness to work than in the exact time. that pragmatics saves semantics from its shortcomings is stressed for this very reason. speech acts in pragmatics in pragmatics, speech acts play a crucial role in determining whether or not there are hidden meanings behind a speaker's words and phrases. according to yule (1996), the study of speech actions involves observing how both speakers and listeners utilize language. the phrase "speech act" is used by yule (1996, p. 47) to describe the activities that are carried out through speech. when a manager commands, "follow covid-19 protocols!" he is effectively endorsing the regulations and policies of the covid-19 pandemic. the manager is executing an action here by way of speech. words have the power to alter a person's demeanour. language, as yule explains further, is rife with implicit meanings as well. when someone says anything, it's not always clear what they mean. sometimes, there's more to their words than meets the eye. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 4, october 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 248 speech act distinction the difference between the locution, illocution, and perlocution of a speech act is an important one, says smit (2012). in addition, searle (1969) considered the idea that every speech act comprises three distinct phases: locution, illocution, and affective processing by the listener (perlocution). locutionary is the process of describing what a speaker says by just reciting a sentence from a language. for example, the pronoun "my watch" is used as a noun in the sentence "my watch is broken," which is a predicative expression. the speaker's intended action when they utter a sentence is called an illocutionary act. words like "state," "promise," "apologize," "threaten," "predict," "order," and "request" fall within this category. an illocutionary act is an act of ordering, according to searle, when a mother says to her child, "take your feet off the table" (1969). additionally, the impact of a speaker's words on an audience is known as a perlocutionary act. the listener may be inspired, embarrassed, intimidated, bored, or persuaded by these effects. the perlocutionary conduct is likely to be annoying if, for instance, a husband says to his wife ten times in five minutes, "hurry up, sweetheart, we're going to be late for the party" (parker, 1986). mey (1994) states that it is possible to engage in three speech acts—the locutionary act, the illocutionary act, and the perlocutionary act—at the same time. keep in mind that the act of elocution is related to the pronouncing of a phrase that establishes its reference and sense. the literal meaning of words lies at the heart of the literal deed. this area is particularly vulnerable to the covid-19 pandemic. the literal interpretation serves as a timely reminder of the high prevalence of covid-19 in the region. what an illocutionary act is all about, according to mey (1994), is the speaker's intended meaning. by way of illustration, the previous statement was meant to convey the idea that the hearer should take precautions against the spread of the covid-19 virus, such as covering their face when they are in public places. politeness in pragmatics according to o'keeffe et al. (2011), politeness is a combination of verbal and nonverbal actions that show consideration for other people's feelings regarding appropriate behaviour. according to gleason and ratner (1998, p. 286), encouraging civility in speech acts is being considerate of other people's sentiments and engaging in behaviours related to positive face (the want to be approved of) and negative face (the wish to be free from the imposition, unimpeded, or left alone). an effort to minimize the potential for conflict and confrontation inherent in all human interchange is the goal of civility, according to lakoff (1990, p. 34). politeness, according to yule (2010, p. 135), is being mindful of and considerate of another person's face. when people act in a way that they think is polite in a particular situation, they are trying to demonstrate shared values with others, which leads to positive emotions, according to o'keeffe et al. politeness helps people build and maintain relationships, and it operates through evaluative moments that involve assessing someone's behaviour and interpersonal altitudes (yule, 2010). politeness and cultures (semantics vs pragmatic competence) many studies have adapted the concept of politeness to multiple languages (saeed, 2009). saeed goes on to say that cross-cultural diversity is a major factor to think about http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 4, october 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 249 when assessing the usefulness of the politeness concept for analyzing indirect speech acts. according to yule (2010, pp. 134–136), other people don't always appreciate when you use indirect communication. take this hypothetical conversation between a tourist who appears bewildered as he lugs around his bags and a random passer-by as an example. visitor: excuse me. do you know where the ambassador hotel is? passer-by: oh sure, i know where it is. (and walks away) here, the tourist makes a request using an indirect speech act—an interrogative structure—but the bystander responds as though it were a direct speech act (yule, 2010). cultures have different views on what words and phrases are most appropriate for expressing politeness, according to yule. someone whose culture values indirectness and avoiding direct imposition would find it rude if someone from a culture that values directness as a means of solidarity used direct speech acts (such as "give me that chair!"). since it is not immediately apparent if the speaker wants the chair or is only inquiring about it, a misunderstanding of an utterance like (are you using this chair?). pragmatic failure the way people talk varies greatly among cultures and communities. these linguistic variations indicate distinct cultural ideals or, at the very least, distinct value systems, and they are well-considered and structured. when people, particularly those speaking a different language, have difficulty using the language appropriately, it can lead to a breakdown in communication known as pragmatic failure (thomas, 1983). ziran (1988) sees it as the failure to attain the desired communicative consequences in communication, while thomas thinks it's the failure to comprehend an utterance. problems with communication can be worsened by pragmatic failure rather than by grammatical failure. pragmatic failure in cross-cultural contexts can lead to a major "communication collapse" (thomas 1983, p. 97). the belief goes like this: when the listener doesn't get the speaker's meaning, that's a pragmatic failure. the importance of being able to decipher the underlying meanings of spoken language was highlighted in this section. the reason is, that if one isn't careful, their words or speech could be misunderstood and made to sound unpleasant. additionally, the chapter notes that one can gain a better grasp of the utterances by learning about speech acts and pragmatics. to avoid cross-cultural pragmatic failures, it is important to keep in mind certain expressions when communicating with people from different cultural backgrounds. additionally, some linguistic components and expressions necessitate socio-pragmatic competence to be understood better. for instance, not all of namibia's vernacular languages use the same humorous or idiomatic terms as english. hence, it is crucial to take into account pragmatic knowledge or competency and respect for cultural integrity when communicating. idiomatic expressions are obstacles that could make it harder for someone to understand the true meaning of what someone is saying. front desk trainees are one group who could benefit from socializing speech acts in a workshop setting to bring attention to the identified obstacles. in addition, it was noted that to grasp the intended meanings, one must carefully examine statements and make pragmatics a central point of conversation. users can easily decipher the meaning of utterances by familiarizing themselves with the conventions and idiomatic expressions http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 4, october 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 250 of both their native and target languages. this could lead to an expansion of their linguistic knowledge, which in turn could allow them to perform speech acts, which are fundamental to the field of pragmatics. findings formulation and realisation of request and refusal strategies the formulation and realisation of request strategies was the first target objective of the current enquiry and as such, the research sought to investigate whether the frontoffice trainees possessed the requisite pragmatic knowledge as evidenced through their formulations of requests and refusals. the written discourse completion tests proved effective in collecting data to respond to the objective. the front-office trainees were presented with a variety of requests that they potentially were likely to encounter occasionally in their engagement with either their trainers or their fellow trainees. the entire nine requests presented to the trainees required their formulation and production of requests in response to trainers' and other fellow trainees’ requests. the results showed that a lot of people (trainees) utilized rudeness signals and were very frank while refusing to do things. additionally, the straight denial method of negation of proposition strategy got the second highest proportion. also, the ability strategy had a lower response rate, which is important to note (could you). this was critical because it highlighted a scenario where the trainers' and trainees' pragmatic communication engagements could be badly affected. in addition, the results showed that some of the participants possessed the moral fibre necessary for effective cross-cultural dialogue. the strategies relied on the speaker, which greatly increased the likelihood of discomfort and misunderstanding for the listener or recipient of the request. 'you must' and 'i need you to' were frequently used in the trainees' requests. in pragmatics-based communication, using these terms when requesting training from instructors conveys an undesirable quality. there needs to be pragmatic pedagogical intervention because it sounds like the trainees were demanding that the trainer do anything instead of just asking. because of these gaps in cross-cultural communication, participants' requests were misunderstood as being unpleasant or nasty, and front-desk trainees require immediate training in pragmatic competence, perhaps in a program similar to english for specific purpose. according to yazdanfar and bonyati (2016, p. 8), people should not be considered rude just because they choose to utilize direct tactics in their language use. examining cultural scripts' discretion was thus central to the study of directness and indirectness. thomas (1983) and blum-kulka (1991) state that impolite or nasty requests might lead to a failure in communication, pragmatics, or even socio-pragmatics. trainees’ responses on the speech acts of refusals according to yuan (2012), when someone says "no" to a request or invitation, whether directly or indirectly, it is seen as a speech act of denial. additionally, according to yuan, the requestor may view them as acts of face-threatening behaviour since the response goes against what the speakers had hoped for. smit (2012) adds weight to this claim by noting that "face-threatening activities" are speech acts that endanger one's good or poor reputation. according to chen (1996), as referenced in tanck (2002), there are three possible speech acts when someone refuses: 1) an expression of regret, “i’m http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 4, october 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 251 sorry”, followed by 2) a direct refusal, “i cannot come to your birthday party, followed by 3) an excuse, “i will be on business in the us”. tanck suggests these three components based on a study done by beebe, takahashi and uliss-weltz (1990), observing that in case of an invitation, the formulaic sequence would comprise of 1) an expression of regret, followed by 2) an excuse, and ending with 3) an offer of an alternative. the current study also made use of the same components to analyse the front-office trainees’ refusal responses. the speech act of refusal data collection section of the wdct consisted of nine situations. in evaluating their pragmatic competence, the trainees were expected to refuse the requests made, and in doing this, considering politeness and apologetic approaches where necessary was important. the following are some of the nine situations which were presented: table 1. speech act situations for refusal speech acts of refusals: situations (see appendix b) refusal a refuse your trainer’s request to mark fellow trainees’ papers for him. refusal b refuse a fellow trainee’s appeal to do a class assignment for her. refusal c refuse your trainer’s request to submit your tasks three days before the given deadline. refusal d refuse your classmate’s request to lend her your summary books. refusal e refuse your trainers’ request to present the computer lab rules to fellow trainees. refusal f refuse your trainer’s instruction to remain behind to redo tasks he claims we inadequately attended to. refusal g refuse your fellow trainee’s appeal to show her how to upload some activities on the moodle e-learning platform. revelation of the speech acts of apologies murphy (2015) states that the act of apologising can take one of two basic forms or a combination of both; one is that a speaker may use an explicit ‘illocutionary force indicating device’ and the other is that the speaker may refer to one of the factors which precipitated the need for an apology and the speaker’s responsibility for the offence. human beings are prone to making mistakes, they may do wrong to one another – intentionally or accidentally, whatever the case may be – and an apology has to be made at some point to maintain peace. according to murphy performative verbs such as sorry, excuse, apologise, forgive, regret and pardon are used to carry out the speech act of apologising. apologies are face-threatening acts (brown & levinson, 1987, as cited in yuan, 2012), as there is a need for the speaker to admit having done wrong when performing an apology and this undermines his/her face. should the speaker fail to apologise, it becomes a threat to the hearer’s face (wouk, 2006, as cited in yuan, 2012) . in this regard, bataineh and bataineh (2006) as cited in yuan (2012) observe that when one offers an apology, one demonstrates the willingness to humiliate oneself, which http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 4, october 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 252 makes an apology a face-saving act for the hearer but a face-threatening act for the speaker. in analysing the speech act of apology, brown and attardo (2000) propose the five components of an apology and these are a) an expression of apology, through which the wrongdoer repeats the feeling of regret; b) an explanation of the situation, in which the wrongdoer tries to reconstruct the incident to see whether he/she deserves forgiveness; c) an acknowledgement of responsibility, in which the wrongdoer states his/her responsibility for what has happened as a part of the apology; d) an offer of repair, through which the wrongdoer tries to offer a way to compensate for the harm; and e) a promise of non-recurrence, in which the wrongdoer promises not to repeat the offence. divorced from these five components of an apology, yuan (2012) suggests the employment of three r’s: regret, responsibility and remedy. the current study adopted the three r’s approach to analyse the apologies provided by front-office trainees under study. the wdcts used for this study comprised nine situational analyses designed to examine the front-office trainees’ pragmatic competence in making apologies and apologetic refusals. however, the most notable finding of this study demonstrates that the targeted participants lacked an apologetic approach, evidenced by their failure to communicate competently. their linguistic behaviours demonstrate pragmatic impairment. it was also observed that bluntness and negation of proposition – as part of direct refusal strategies – accounted for the larger percentage of responses when compared to apologetic responses as demonstrated in the situations detailed above and below. application of politeness in speech act of refusal and apologetic responses the participants were presented with a discourse completion test. the study presented the front-office trainees with sensitive and tricky situations that they may or might not have experienced in their daily engagements with their both trainers and fellow trainees in a pedagogical environment. as a way to check the pragmatics knowledge and awareness of the participants, the discourse completion test included situations that required them to formulate refusals to suggestions or requests by participants of equal power or lesser power to them (fellow trainees) and there were 5 situations. meanwhile, 4 of the situations required refusal strategy responses and were directly linked to the refusal of their trainers’ requests. table 2. students’ refusal speech act polite expression of refusal used situation number (s#) frequency of utilization (often / rarely) s#1 s#2 s#3 s#4 s#5 s#6 s#7 s#8 s#9 no, please… rarely rarely rarely rarely rarely rarely rarely rarely rarely couldn’t… rarely rarely rarely rarely rarely rarely rarely rarely rarely wouldn’t… often rarely rarely rarely rarely rarely often rarely rarely no, i am sorry often often rarely often often often often rarely rarely excuse me… rarely rarely rarely rarely rarely rarely often rarely rarely thank you for… rarely rarely rarely rarely rarely rarely rarely rarely rarely i am afraid… rarely rarely rarely rarely often rarely rarely rarely rarely http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 4, october 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 253 this study attempted to assess the frequency of the usage of the polite refusal strategy in responding to certain given situations. the analysis of responses for all nine refusal situations was made and it was established that most trainees lacked the polite refusal strategies approaches as evidenced in the table above. according to jucker (2008, p. 120), politeness has become a cover term for both norms of behaviour and linguistic choices made concerning the need to preserve one’s face in general, that is, one’s public self-image. the data reveals that the respondents did not use different types of politeness strategies but rather used bluntness more often. it was observed that expressions such as ‘please no..’., ‘please not’, ‘excuse me’, ‘pardon’ and ‘sorry’ were not frequently used in most refusal responses. it was further learnt that the trainees did not use clauses that are also used as softeners or a perlocutionary effect of an utterance on the addressee, exemplified by expressions such as 'if you don't mind', 'if you wouldn't', etc. as demonstrated in the above table, the usage of ‘please’ as in the example ‘please not this time of exams…’ was rarely used. in the first situation (situation a) for example, ‘would’ in combination with ‘please’ was supposed to be used often for a polite approach like in the example: no please, i would rather not give you some notes this time of examinations. however, it was found that the polite expression ‘would not’ was rarely used. this was indicative of the fact that politeness is rarely used in vocational education in general, and by front-office trainees in particular. according to jucker (2008) the politeness indicator ‘please’ or no please is not only used at the beginning, it is also used in the middle or at the end of the phrases or the sentences. ishihara and cohen (2007) gave the following clues on how one would say sorry to someone exemplified by the following expressions: • sorry, i didn’t mean to… • i am sorry but… • i apologize for… • i hope you will forgive me but… • i seem to have made a mistake. i’m sorry… • i am sorry for misunderstanding… • i hope you will understand…” (p. 62). similarly, to say ‘no’ or refuse requests, the following expressions are recommended with no meta-pragmatic explanation provided. ‘i would rather not… if you don’t mind, i’ll say ‘no’ to that. i don’t want… if you don’t mind. i’m sorry, but i’ve said ‘no’ and i’m not going to change my mind. i’d prefer to…/ i’d rather… why don’t we… instead?’ (ishihara and cohen, 2007, p.103). this section provided a logical presentation of the study's results in light of the acknowledged research objectives from chapter 1. the third goal, which involved assessing the use of politeness principles in request-refusal methods through speech acts, was associated with the most important findings. the participants were shown nine distinct scenarios and asked to demonstrate how to respond to each one in everyday life. they then assessed the responses based on the scenarios they had seen. the ability of the respondents to express and carry out refusals was examined and evaluated in the second objective. to prepare the participants for interactions with their trainers and other trainees, we simulated real-life scenarios. they had to come up with reasons not to comply with requests and then actually do it. it was crucial to provide a glimpse into the study's analysis of refusal situations and appropriate solutions when examining the provided refusal scenarios. the two most common direct techniques for refusing were being blunt (20.50 per cent) and denying the notion (19.20%), whereas the most common indirect strategies were being plain forthright, giving a reason, or explaining something. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 4, october 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 254 in addition to lacking politeness approach tactics, respondents exhibited a lack of regret or apologetic attitude in reacting to many presented situations. the following column chart illustrates clearly how respondents demonstrated the use of direct refusal strategy e.g.… ‘no’ and negation of proposition on high rate. figure 1. total percentages of refusal: finding analysis of situation a–i discussions because some parts of trosborg's (1995) taxonomy of request realisation were irrelevant to the present study, its full format was not used. as a result, none of the five main kinds of request strategies—conventionally indirect (speaker-based), direct, internally modified, and externally modified—were employed. firstly, it could be said that the participants' responses conformed to most of the broad request-type techniques, despite their vast and different display. the indirect conventional method, which is focused on the listeners, was the most effective in implementing the request tactics. also worth noting is that, in contrast to the direct method, the indirect conventional strategy managed to gather a disproportionately high number of answers. this is contrary to the assertion by iragui (1996, p. 58) who points out that, “the native speakers’ use of alerts and intensifiers confirms most studies on interactional pragmatics that have reported that many trainees used impoliteness markers and used direct refusal strategies (bluntness) at high rate”. additionally, the straight denial method of negation of proposition strategy got the second highest proportion. furthermore, it must be mentioned that a substantial amount of answers were also documented regarding the ability technique (could you). this was critical because it highlighted a scenario where the trainers' and trainees' pragmatic communication engagements could be badly affected. 19.50% 20.50% 16% 18.30% 3% 9.50% 1.50% 0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 negation of proposition bluntness regret/ reason/ explaining plain strategy alternative refusal willing-ness strategy http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 4, october 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 255 some participants' use of direct imperative and performative methods suggests a potentially complicated communication scenario within tvet and the hospitality training division at valombola vtc. participants' lack of pragmatic knowledge, particularly regarding the use of language in diverse settings, is implied by their use of these tactics. the use of imperatives and direct performatives as requests revealed a lack of understanding of pragma-linguistics and socio-pragmatics, which is especially problematic in pragmatics. because of these gaps in cross-cultural communication, participants' requests were misunderstood as being unpleasant or nasty, and front-desk trainees require immediate training in pragmatic competence, perhaps in a program similar to english for specific purpose. according to yazdanfar and bonyati (2016, p. 8), people should not be considered rude just because they choose to utilize direct tactics in their language use. examining cultural scripts' discretion was thus central to the study of directness and indirectness. thomas (1983) and blum-kulka (1991) state that impolite or nasty requests might lead to a failure in communication, pragmatics, or even sociopragmatics. the results also showed that participants used the least tactics for internal and external modification, which could mean that the trainees had trouble coming up with good requests by not using the right language tools. according to the findings, non-native english speakers can be better prepared for cross-cultural communication processes by paying close attention to their immediate surroundings. important ideas on internal syntactic and lexical downgraders were also the subject of the research. if you want to come up with request tactics that non-native english speakers can accept and use, you need to make sure you internalize these abilities and awareness. there is a difference between this study and the one by blum-kulka (1991) in terms of the setting; for example, the majority of the present study's participants reported never having interacted with native english speakers. "can you" and "could you" are indicators of participants' limited pragma-linguistic expertise, according to the study. what the participants have experienced in the classroom about grammatical instruction may be directly related to this. requests categorized as indirect conventional strategy and external modification showed this pattern (supportive reasons). one sign of a problem with request formulation diversity was the employment of the same approach and language formulations (house & kasper, 1987; trosborg, 1995). research has also shown that people whose first language is not english do not often change their requests because of their lack of competence in the language. findings analysis shows that many responses were in line with direct techniques. the two most important direct rejection techniques were being blunt and negating the proposition. the most common indirect strategies were being simply direct, explaining or providing a reason, apologizing, or offering an alternative. disagreement, statements of principle, and avoidance had little bearing on the results of this investigation. the research shows that direct rejection techniques were more common among the frontoffice trainees who participated, which is surprising given the number of alternatives to indirect strategies. research also shows that when participants felt psychological pressure, they were more likely to use a direct, frank approach with their trainers. this runs counter to the previous finding since, in these cases, the participants lacked an essential understanding http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 4, october 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 256 of socio-pragmatic issues and variables. refusing a recommendation or request from a superior in a conversation may not have deviated from the anticipated realization of socio-pragmatic elements such as the power dynamic, the context, and the distance between the two parties involved. this goes against the grain of other research that has found that bilingualism should lead to a heightened understanding of pragmatics. conclusions the pragmatic competence of the front desk trainees was examined in this study by looking at how well they could formulate and implement strategies for handling requests. the test also looked at how well they used etiquette rules while saying no or apologizing. in addition, the study has looked at what makes a difference to trainees' pragmatic competence when working across cultures. researchers used two wdcts in the study: one to measure participants' ability to formulate and complete requests, and another to measure participants' ability to formulate and complete plans for refusing or apologizing. extra information was gathered through the use of a questionnaire as well. references allott, n. 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(2003). the cambridge encyclopedia of language (2nd ed.). new york: cambridge. green, b. c., johnson, a. and bretherton, l. (2014) “pragmatic language difficulties in children with hyperactivity and attention problems: an integrated review,” international journal of language and communication disorders, 49(1), 15–29. horn, l. r. (2006). the border wars, in klaus von heusinger & ken p. turner (eds.), where semantics meets pragmatics, elsevier, amsterdam, (21–48). kasper, g., & rose, k. (2002). pragmatic development in a second language. boston, ma: blackwell. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.4, no. 4, october 2023 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 257 lakoff, r. t. (1990). talking power: the politics in language in our lives. glasgow: harper collins. larson, r., & segal, g. (1995). knowledge of meaning: an introduction of semantic theory. new delhi, india: prentice-hall of india. leech, g. (1983). principles of pragmatics. new york, ny: longman publishers. levinson, s. c. (1991). pragmatics. new york. ny: cambridge university press. levinson, stephen c. (2000). presumptive meanings: the theory of generalized conversational implicature. cambridge, ma: mit press. mey, jacob l. (1993). `pragmatics-an introduction´ (massachusetts) norvig, p. (2007). inference in text understanding. a conference paper. available at https://www.researchgate.net/publication/221250738. searle, j. r. (2005). expression and meaning: studies in the theory of speech acts. cambridge: cambridge university press. taguchi, n., li, s., & liu, y. (2013). comprehension of conversational implicature in l2 chinese. pragmatics and cognition, 21(1), 139-157. taguchi, n. (2015). instructed pragmatics at a glance: where instructional studies were, are, and should be going. language teaching, 48, 1–50. taguchi, n. (2017). interlanguage pragmatics. in a. barron, p. grundy, & g. yueguo (eds.), the routledge handbook of pragmatics (pp. 153–167). oxford/new york: routledge. thomas, j. (1995). meaning in interaction: an introduction to pragmatics (learning about language). london and new york: longman. trosborg, a. (1995). interlanguage pragmatics: requests, complaints, and apologies. berlin: mouton de gruyter. wills, c. (2017). inferences and human inference abilities. online article. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/221250738 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 211 efl students’ perceptions on using kahoot as a formative assessment tool in vocabulary acquisition rizki putri yunisa khairani1, rahmah fithriani2, 1&2universitas islam negeri sumatra utara, medan, indonesia rizki0304212069@uinsu.ac.id abstract technology advancement has equipped vocabulary acquisition processes within an english learning environment with digital formative assessment tools, such as kahoot. this research aims to reveal efl students’ perception in using kahoot as a formative assessment tool for vocabulary learning. this research employs a qualitative method and the research instruments involve questionnaires and interviews distributed and conducted to the selected participants. a purposive sampling method is applied in this research to select the research participants. the research participants consist of efl students who are enrolled in an english course and have played kahoot more than five times. thematic content analysis is utilized to analyze the collected data. the findings show that most students perceive kahoot positively. its game like features timers, scores, and leaderboards can help increase interest, motivation, and focus. students reported better understanding and improved quiz results. however, a few students found it less effective due to personal learning preferences. overall, kahoot is seen as a fun and useful tool to support vocabulary learning and can be applied more widely in english language instruction. keywords: digital tools, educational technology, efl students, language aquisition introduction technology has witnessed a rapid evolution in the 21st century, changing all facets of human existence, especially in education (kalyani 2024; haleem et al. 2022). the rapid advancement of technology has made it possible to test several potential approaches to teaching and learning languages (pinna., mena. 2019) it has been proven that the usage of technology may help people learn a new language (zainuddin 2023). the significant function of technology in english language acquisition is highly developed, particularly in the domain of learning english as a foreign language (efl) (dashtestani 2015; şad & özer 2019). due to its rapid advancement, technology has been able to provide almost every single aspect of english learning comprehension. with its variety of digital tools, technology has provided learners interactive media to learn so that they do not have to rely on the traditional teaching and learning methods anymore (robin and aziz 2022). one of the learning aspects in the use http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 mailto:rizki0304212069@uinsu.ac.id copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 212 of technology in the english learning process is vocabulary acquisition. vocabulary acquisition refers to the process of learners being exposed to the meaning of new words. in the realm of language learning, vocabulary acquisition plays a pivotal role (zou, d., huang, y., & xie 2019). learning new words supports every learner to produce a good language sentence. vocabulary instruction is one area where technology-assisted education has grown in popularity and effectiveness. the use of technology has advanced this learning aspect with its access to obtain more information. furthermore, new vocabularies that can be found on the internet include words that are more unfamiliar compared to words that the students have known. it shows that the use of technology allows bigger exposure to new english vocabularies. mastering a language begins with vocabulary is the key to communication (çoban sural and yaşar sağlık 2024). in this sense, learning vocabulary using mobile technology is one of the subjects that has attracted a lot of attention (abu al-majd and belton 2024). mobile-assisted language learning (mall) applications, specifically designed to facilitate language learning on mobile devices, have emerged as promising tools in language education (a. rahman et al. 2023). using mall can contribute to a solution in solving the constraint of time and place to join the teaching and learning activities (fithriani et al. 2019). from that statement, it is believed that teachers have to be able to involve technology in the teaching and learning process. in the atmosphere of the digital era, teachers are required to know how to operate the technology (pratolo and solikhati 2020). with the use of technology, teachers can provide learning sources, assign tasks and examinations, and post the students’ grades using internet media. since students’ success in learning can be seen through the assessment of their learning outcomes and it must be carried out gradually and as planned, however many teachers still use the conventional method or paper-based test, the more familiar method, in conducting the assessment (fadilah et al. 2023). assessment refers to a standard faculty competency that functions to ensure quality in educational institutions (aguayo-hernández, sánchez guerrero, and vázquez-villegas 2024). assessment can be used to gather information about student learning, performance, and development. it can support the process of the student’s self-analysis and self-management skills(aguayo-hernández et al. 2024). assessment also means a process to measure the achievement of learning goals at certain stages of the learning process based on particular criteria (arustamyan 2020). it aims to determine if students are reaching the determined learning objectives that have been set for them. assessment also plays a role to assist teachers to evaluate their students’ strengths and weaknesses to motivate them (werdiyanti 2021).through assessment, teachers can gain deeper insights into where students excel and where they still struggle. (yilmaz & toker 2022) also highlights that assessment can improve the learning process by focusing on details. through assessments, teachers will be able to provide corrective feedback to address the root cause that impacts wrong students’ answers. the integration of technology in education has transformed traditional assessment methods, and one such platform that exemplifies this shift is kahoot. kahoot is a game-based digital learning and assessment tool that enables users to design, share, and participate in interactive quizzes (kahoot, 2025). it has been widely studied and recognized as an effective http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 213 platform for enhancing student engagement and motivation. according to şad and özer (2019), kahoot functions as an interactive formative assessment tool that provides immediate feedback and enriches learning experiences. moreover, studies have found that kahoot significantly improves students’ motivation, participation, and vocabulary retention (muhd al-aarifin et al. 2019; widyaningrum 2019; sukumaran & kuyare 2022). many students preferring it over traditional assessments due to its interactive and gamified nature (wahyuni and etfita 2023; rahmayana and halim 2024). kahoot has also been acknowledged for maintaining student engagement in remote learning environments and enhancing classroom dynamics overall (toma et al. 2021; heniki & halim 2024). nevertheless, kahoot incorporates game-based elements that increase engagement and positively impact learning outcomes. compared to paper-based quizzes, its gamified format has been shown to elevate participation and academic performance (iman et al. 2021). furthermore, it contributes to a more collaborative classroom atmosphere (minton and bligh 2021). features such as time-based scoring, instant feedback, and leaderboard rankings not only stimulate student motivation but also support formative assessment by encouraging learners to self-evaluate their understanding before undertaking summative evaluations (iman et al. 2021; minton & bligh 2021). as postulated earlier, despite numerous prior research examining the application of kahoot for formative assessment across various educational settings, however there is a scarcity of research specifically exploring its impact on enhancing english vocabulary proficiency. therefore this research endeavors to explore students' perceptions of using kahoot as an assessment tool to enhance their english vocabulary acquisition in efl. henceforth this research seeks to provide insights into the potential of kahoot as a digital tool for fostering vocabulary learning in the context of efl. therefore, the research question that arises in this study is what are efl students’ perceptions about using kahoot as a formative assessment tool for vocabulary learning? methods research design this research adopts a qualitative methodology, as defined by (creswell 2013), which is considered a robust approach for exploring and understanding the meaning that individuals or groups attribute to educational experiences. the essence of this study is phenomenological in nature, focusing on delving into the experiences of efl students as they engage with kahoot as an assessment tool to support their english vocabulary acquisition. phenomenology, as articulated by (maruna, s., & butler 2005), is primarily concerned with “the description and comprehension of lived human experiences through observable types of direct mental activity and reflective analysis.” this methodological stance is highly valued for its effectiveness in probing students’ learning experiences, as underscored by (wimpenny, peter & gass 2000). therefore, the decision to employ this phenomenological approach was made to gain deeper insights into the subjective experiences of students in using kahoot for vocabulary http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 214 learning. this choice is based on the belief that a phenomenological perspective provides a nuanced understanding of the engagement, challenges, and perceived benefits of game based formative assessments in language learning. by focusing on students’ perceptions, this study aims to uncover how interactive and gamified digital tools contribute to vocabulary retention and motivation within the efl classroom setting. research participants this study was conducted with efl students from an english course setting, focusing on their experiences using kahoot as a formative assessment tool in vocabulary learning. the english course within this context refers to a study program where students primarily take english lessons as a foreign language. in alignment with the research objectives, participants were purposely selected based on the specific criteria that ensured their familiarity with technology assisted learning and game-based assessment. purposive sampling was utilized to deliberately recruit students who met the necessary criteria to provide relevant insights into the study. the sample consisted of 10 students, the rationale for choosing these participants was to focus on students who had actively engaged with kahoot in their english learning process. the selection criteria required that participants were enrolled in an english course and had played kahoot more than five times. ensuring these criteria were met allows for a more in-depth exploration of their perceptions regarding the use of kahoot in formative assessment in vocabulary acquisition. the research participants are detailed in table 1. table 1. demographic information of participants participants age sex experience in using kahoot (month) student 1 17 male 4 student 2 15 female 4 student 3 15 female 4 student 4 16 female 5 student 5 17 male 4 student 6 17 female 5 student 7 16 male 4 student 8 15 male 3 student 9 15 female 3 student 10 18 male 3 data collection before initiating data collection, the researchers sought the participants’ willingness to participate through face-to-face meetings and private chat messages. the researchers also gathered relevant information, such as the students’ prior experience in using kahoot, their english proficiency level, and their familiarity with digital assessment tools. this study used questionnaires and interviews. the questionnaires contain open ended questions using a five-point likert scale (strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree, strongly http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 215 disagree) regarding their experiences and engagement with kahoot in vocabulary acquisition. the questionnaires were created via google forms and distributed to the participants. the questionnaires were designed to provide insights to the researchers on students’ perspectives regarding the effectiveness of kahoot in vocabulary retention, motivation, and formative assessment. additionally, the interviews were conducted using semi-structured interviews to explore their experiences and perceptions regarding kahoot’s effectiveness as a formative assessment tool in assessing and reinforcing vocabulary learning. the interviews were conducted with selected students, each lasting for approximately 10 minutes, to provide insights into how kahoot influenced their motivation, engagement, and ability to retain new english words. the recordings were then transcribed verbatim before continuing to the data analysis stage. data analysis thematic content was utilised to examine the collected data. as described by (braun, v., & clarke 2006), this thematic analysis aims to identify patterns and connections between themes emerging from qualitative data to address our research questions regarding students’ perceptions of using kahoot as a formative assessment tool in vocabulary acquisition. the interview transcriptions were analyzed qualitatively using thematic content analysis to identify themes relevant to the research questions. this involved a three-step coding process (terrel in fithriani et al. 2019). first, significant excerpts and responses from participants were manually coded, marking key insights related to kahoot’s impact on formative assessment. these preliminary codes served as a foundation for further analysis. next, all key excerpts were categorized into temporary themes, focusing on students’ perceptions of kahoot’s role in vocabulary learning. finally, the findings underwent multiple iterations of refinement and re-categorization, ensuring that the emerging themes fully represented students’ experiences. this cyclical process helped to develop well-defined themes from the interview data, highlighting how kahoot contributes to formative assessment and vocabulary retention in efl classrooms. results in this part of research, the researchers present the perceptions of efl students about using kahoot as a formative assessment tool for vocabulary learning. the findings are gathered through questionnaires and interviews with the research participants. the following charts show the efl students’ perceptions towards the use of kahoot as a formative assessment tool for english vocabulary acquisition. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 216 figure 1. questionnaires responses figure 1 above illustrates the distribution of questionnaires responses that consist of strongly agree (sa), agree (a), neutral (n), disagree (d), and strongly disagree (sd) across ten statements prepared for conducting this study. for most statements provided by the researchers, “strongly agree” becomes the largest proportion of responses. it gains 80% of the responses for statement 2, showing that the majority of efl students strongly agree that they enjoy using kahoot for learning english vocabulary. the response “agree” consistently becomes the second most frequent response for all statements, while the response “neutral” and “disagree” gain smaller percentages for all given statements. in addition, the response “strongly disagree” is the least common response given by the research respondents. it gains 0% of the responses for all statements. chart 1 shows a tendency towards a strong agreement with all the provided statements about how kahoot plays a role in the process of english vocabulary acquisition. furthermore, the table below presents the statements included in the questionnaires used to conduct this research. table 2. questionnaires statements no statement 1 i have used kahoot for learning english vocabulary regularly. 2 i enjoy using kahoot for learning english vocabulary. 3 the updated points after answering each question on kahoot motivates me to answer the next question correctly and quickly. 4 the leaderboard update on kahoot pushes me to rank among the top 3 players. 5 the final score provided by kahoot motivates me to perform better on the next quiz. 6 i am more interested in learning english vocabulary when i use kahoot. 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% statement 1 statement 2 statement 3 statement 4 statement 5 statement 6 statement 7 statement 8 statement 9 statement 10 sa a n d sd http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 217 7 i can be more focused in learning english vocabulary when i use kahoot. 8 my quiz score always increases when learning english vocabulary using kahoot. 9 i always gain a better understanding of english vocabulary after finishing a quiz using kahoot. 10 my vocabulary quizzes and daily practice scores have been improving since i use kahoot to learn english vocabulary regularly. table 2 above lists 10 statements that are utilized as parts of the research questionnaire. these statements are used to evaluate kahoot as a formative assessment tool in efl vocabulary class. the statements cover different aspects in evaluating students’ experience in using kahoot as a formative assessment tool. the aspects include regularity of use among the students, enjoyment of using kahoot, motivational factors after using kahoot, impact on interest and focus, and improvements experienced by the students in their english vocabulary acquisition. all the statements aim at gathering comprehensive results in revealing kahoot’s role in supporting efl vocabulary class the results of the questionnaire analysis indicates that students generally have a positive perception toward the use of kahoot. one of the most notable findings is that 80% of the students "strongly agree" that they derive pleasure from utilizing kahoot for the acquisition of english vocabulary. moreover, 70% of participants "strongly agree" that kahoot incentivizes them to respond accurately and promptly owing to the points system, while 70% also "strongly agree" that they enhance their comprehension of english vocabulary after finishing a quiz utilizing kahoot. additional favorable reactions are evident in pupils' motivation and concentration. for instance, 68% of students "strongly agree" that their quiz results consistently improve while utilizing kahoot, and 66% "strongly agree" that the leaderboard incentivizes them to strive for high positions. regarding the enhancement of learning outcomes, 58% "strongly agree" that their vocabulary quiz and daily practice scores have improved with consistent use of kahoot, while 55% "strongly agree" that the final scores from kahoot incentivize them to excel in subsequent quizzes. the findings suggest that students view kahoot as an interesting, motivating, and advantageous formative assessment instrument that enhances their vocabulary acquisition in an entertaining and interactive manner. to explore students’ perceptions regarding the use of kahoot as a formative assessment tool in vocabulary learning, the researchers conducted a thematic analysis of the open-ended questionnaire and interview responses. the analysis yielded several significant themes that illustrate how kahoot influences students’ motivation, engagement, and vocabulary development. theme 1: increased engagement and learning enjoyment the results of the questionnaire indicate that 80% of students strongly agree and 14% agree that they enjoy using kahoot to learn english vocabulary. these findings suggest that kahoot offers a fun and engaging learning experience. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 218 “actually, when i play this i feel more excited, miss. in our class we usually play kahoot at the end of the lesson, and our teacher lets us choose the game mode, like classic or team mode. so it’s not boring because we can decide how to play.” (p1, interview) this response highlights the student-centered nature of kahoot implementation, where learners are given the autonomy to decide how they want to engage with the tool. the opportunity to choose from various game modes contributes to a sense of ownership and enjoyment, fostering a more collaborative and inclusive classroom environment. additionally, the competitive aspect of kahoot was identified as a motivating factor that increased students’ enthusiasm. rather than creating pressure, the competition was framed positively, allowing students to challenge themselves and others in a supportive way. this was evident in p3's statement: “i like it because it’s fun and not stressful, miss. when play kahoot, i can learn new words without feeling like i’m studying. it feels like a game and when i get a first place, i feel proud of myself. it makes me want to play and learn more. and i can compete with my friends in a good way. then miss, the best part play kahoot is, you don't need to download in playstore just open google, enter the code, and then voila you can start play and answer the questions.” (p3, interview) this reveals that kahoot provides a fun learning experience that does not cause stress for students. p3 feels that learning english vocabulary through kahoot feels like playing a game, not like formal learning. in addition, the element of healthy competition motivates p3 to learn and play better in order to get the top rank. p3 also highlights the ease of accessing the kahoot app, which does not require downloading from the play store simply to access it via a browser by entering the game code making the process practical and quick. these factors collectively enhance student engagement and enjoyment in enriching their english vocabulary. similarly, p10 expressed increased enthusiasm toward formative assessment through kahoot, noting how the enjoyable and game like experience encouraged repeated participation "because we're used to being assessed only once, now we're asking to play again. the score is pretty good at the end, but the funny thing is that the teacher used the same game for the first and second rounds, but when we asked to play for the third time, the level changed to typing answers. i really couldn't answer, lol.” (p10, interview) this highlights that kahoot makes the assessment experience more enjoyable and encourages repeated participation. even though students are usually assessed only once, the engaging nature of kahoot made them eager to play again. as shared by the participant, even when the same quiz was repeated, it remained fun until the question type changed to typed responses, which added difficulty. this shows that while kahoot promotes motivation and enthusiasm, the level of challenge can shift depending on the format of the questions. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 219 theme 2: enhanced students' vocabulary mastery kahoot significantly contributes to the enhancement of efl students’ vocabulary mastery. a combination of its gamified features such as time-limited questions, instant point updates, leaderboards, and repeated quiz practice positively influences students’ motivation, vocabulary understanding, and academic performance. from the questionnaire, 70% of the students strongly agreed that the updated points feature motivated them to answer the next questions more quickly and correctly. additionally, 66% of students strongly agreed and 24% agreed that the leaderboard function encouraged them to aim for the top three positions. furthermore, 70% of students also strongly agreed that they gained a better understanding of vocabulary after completing kahoot quizzes, while 68% strongly agreed and 22% agreed that their vocabulary quiz scores had improved through regular kahoot usage. these responses indicate that students not only feel more driven to participate but also observe measurable progress in their vocabulary mastery. a student highlighted the incentive element of kahoot's timed functionality and instantaneous scoring. “to be honest miss, this so helpfull for me. especially with the timer, like it makes me think super fast if i wanna get high points. when the score pops up right after i answer, it feels good, like ‘yes, i got it right!’ and because i have to rush, somehow the words stick in my head better example i still remember stove.” (p2, interview) this indicates that the time constrained element in kahoot substantially enhanced their vocabulary proficiency. according to the p2, the presence of a timer created a sense of urgency that encouraged them to think quickly in order to gain higher points. this time pressure not only made the activity more exciting compared to conventional learning methods such as worksheets but also helped the participant to memorize vocabulary more effectively. the immediate display of points after answering further motivated the student by providing instant feedback, reinforcing correct responses, and enhancing their engagement during the assessment process. as p2 stated, this feature made vocabulary learning more dynamic and enjoyable, leading to better retention of new words. besides the time constraint, the leaderboard also enhanced students' vocabulary knowledge by promoting a competitive atmosphere among learners. this aspect will be further elaborated based on the statements from other participants. “when i first started using it, i answered randomly because i didn't know the answers, but some were correct and some were wrong. when i got it right, i felt proud that my name was in first place, but when i answered randomly and got it wrong, i felt embarrassed because i had been bragging earlier. so i remembered and memorised the vocabulary that came up. then the next week there was another assessment, and it turned out that almost half of the vocabulary was the same, like household items like armchair, wash basin, and chest of drawers. i got second place, but it’s okay miss at least i didn’t lose to the others.” (p10, interview) http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 220 this response highlights that p10 experience with kahoot involved answering questions randomly due to a lack of familiarity with the vocabulary. occasionally, the participant guessed correctly and felt proud, especially when their name appeared in the first place on the leaderboard. however, when incorrect guesses resulted in mistakes, the participant admitted feeling embarrassed, particularly after having boasted about being in the lead. this experience motivated the participant to pay closer attention to the vocabulary items that appeared in the game, ultimately leading to better memorization and understanding of the words. in a subsequent quiz session held the following week, the participant recognized that nearly half of the vocabulary items such as "armchair," "wash basin," and "chest of drawers" were repeated from the previous round. as a result, the participant achieved second place, feeling satisfied with the progress and improvement compared to the earlier performance. in addition to the motivational impact of the leaderboard, other participants reported noticeable improvements in their vocabulary comprehension and usage. “miss, if you were in class when we first used kahoot, you would have laughed. there was a picture of a stove, and we had to type in the answer. then we could see how many people had answered, but the truth is, no one knew the answer, miss. after waiting 20 seconds, the answer turned out to be ‘stove.’ some people laughed and said, ‘oh, how were we supposed to know?’ meanwhile, we all typed ‘needle’ at the same time. because of that mistake, i still remember it. i felt embarrassed that i didn't know the answer.” (p4, interview) this humorous yet embarrassing experience left a lasting impression on p4 , who admitted to still remembering the vocabulary item because the mistake. this response illustrates how errors in a low-stakes, game-like environment such as kahoot can become powerful learning moments. the combination of peer interaction, immediate feedback, and the novelty of the situation contributed to the student’s retention of the vocabulary word. rather than discouraging the learner, the mistake served as a meaningful and memorable event that reinforced their understanding. other participants also reported as demonstrated by the following statements. instant corrections enable students to internalize correct answers more efficiently, converting mistakes into significant learning opportunities. “i can feel progress. there are questions about connecting words, or when two nouns are combined into one, like ask+sorry= apologise or forgive. how can the meaning be so different? there are also synonyms from big, it's huge. if there are assessment questions like that, it's easy peasy lemon squeezy for me. i remember it even though i didn't get many right. confident numero uno miss” (p6, interview) this highlight p6 also reflected on their growing confidence in mastering english vocabulary as a result of using kahoot. the experience described by p6 further supports the role of kahoot in developing students’ understanding of vocabulary beyond simple memorization, by fostering awareness of word forms, meanings, and connections. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 221 vocabulary, enhancing the complex lexical awareness crucial for language proficiency. this educational approach underscores the efficacy of kahoot as a formative assessment instrument that facilitates both recognition and memory of language. theme 3: improved focus and attention the questionnaire results indicate that 55% of students strongly agree and 35% agree that kahoot enhances their concentration during vocabulary acquisition. based on the interview results the time constrained and rapid format of kahoot, along with its scoring and ranking mechanisms, motivates pupils to remain attentive and reduce distractions. like p8 stated: “basically, you have to have an internet connection so you can answer comfortably and move up levels faster than others. sometimes the time limit for one question isn’t consistent some are 20 seconds, some are 1 minute. so if that 20 second for 1 questions, you have to focus and type the answer, and there’s no time to look at the book.” (p8, interview) the assertion from p8 indicates that the real time system and score updates in kahoot promote student engagement during the formative assessment process. a reliable internet connection is essential for students to respond efficiently and advance through levels. moreover, unpredictable time constraints between questions, such as a mere 20 seconds for those requiring written responses, compel students to think rapidly without the opportunity to consult their textbooks. this indicates that although kahoot might improve focus, technical factors like connection stability and duration need to be resolved to prevent compromising comfort and equity in the evaluation process. similarly, p5 stated that the competitive element in kahoot also heightened their focus during the assessment. "i was really focus when playing kahoot, miss, because i want to be number one, hehe. in game mode, you can just look at your phone, and if you don't understand the question, you can ask the teacher directly. but in classic mode or team mode, you have to look at the tv to see the questions and answer choices.” (p5, interview) p5 statement indicates that the game mode in kahoot also influences students’ level of focus during formative assessment. the aspiration to succeed motivates pupils to adopt a more serious and concentrated approach to their responses. in game mode, direct access to questions via the phone enhances practicality and facilitates immediate interaction with the teacher in instances of confusion. in classic or team mode, students are required to view the tv screen to read the questions, thus diminishing both speed and comfort in their responses. this indicates that the presentation of questions significantly influences the efficacy and engagement of students utilizing kahoot. the increased focus was also demonstrated by p7, who said, "to be honest, at first i was afraid to use kahoot because the teacher told us there was a time limit and a ranking system. even though i didn't win 1st to 3rd place at first, i got http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 222 used to it and my score improved over time. the rule is not to take too long to think about the answer.” (p7, interview) this experience demonstrates that utilizing kahoot can progressively enhance students' concentration and perseverance in managing time constraints and competitive rankings. despite initial anxiety, p7 indicated that familiarity with this assessment style enables students to adjust, enhance their performance, and maintain active engagement in the formative assessment process. another participant said something similar. “when playing kahoot, my focus really improves. even though i still often laugh with my friends when we get the answers wrong, because we only have 15 to 30 seconds to answer. so my brain immediately thinks fast and doesn't want to waste time. then when my name appears in 3rd place on the leaderboard with my other friends, we celebrate.” (p9, interview) this highlight that kahoot not only boosts student attentiveness through time-limited questions but also maintains a fun and engaging ambiance. p9 indicated that the brief reaction interval compels students to think rapidly and remain vigilant, while elements such as the live leaderboard foster a sense of exhilaration and constructive rivalry. despite the occurrence of errors, the game like framework fosters positive social interaction and motivation, rendering the formative assessment experience both useful and pleasurable. kahoot efficiently enhances students' concentration and engagement during formative assessment by integrating time constraints, scoring mechanisms, and interactive forms. the platform's competitive and rapid environment compels students to maintain vigilance, react swiftly, and sustain engagement throughout the process. moreover, the gamified elements not only bolster motivation but also foster a helpful and pleasurable atmosphere, converting assessment into a dynamic and significant educational experience. discussion based on the result this study emphasizes advancements in fostering an engaging educational atmosphere via online quizzes, specifically with kahoot. (robin and aziz 2022) assert that cooperation via digital tools fosters an active learning environment, enabling students to engage more frequently and effectively with learning materials. traditional learning methods, often stressful, can be converted into enjoyable experiences via kahoot, enhancing the acquisition of english vocabulary and positively influencing the final results of efl students. kahoot's features, derived from gaming principles, have demonstrated an increase in students' learning motivation (n. iman, ramli, and saridewi 2021). this is seen in responders' eagerness to respond to the subsequent question with greater speed and precision. while not all students derive identical advantages, the majority of efl students exhibit heightened motivation. moreover, kahoot's novel leaderboard function effectively motivates pupils to enhance their performance on following questions. kahoot increases student engagement and skills to perform better on quizzes that evaluate their understanding on a certain subject compared to traditional classroom http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 223 methods (rahman et al. 2023). while conventional learning methods still require paperbased tests, kahoot starts to implement game elements to make the learning and assessment environment become more relevant for the learners. it creates a less intimidating assessment atmosphere. with the fun features provided by kahoot, students possess a desire to climb the leaderboard that shows players with the highest score. it becomes a positive competition as students will endeavor more to deepen their understanding. in addition, kahoot offers such an interactive and engaging environment (a. rahman et al. 2023). students can ask questions, share their understanding, and learn from each other on the same digital platform, which is more engaging, comfortable and effective compared to a traditional classroom environment. the features do not only create a fun learning and evaluation atmosphere, but also motivate students to engage deeply, think quickly, and choose the answers correctly. the adoption of digital learning has numerous opportunities, including heightened student engagement in the learning process (tukiran 2024). this study demonstrates a heightened interest among efl students in acquiring english vocabulary due to the adoption of digital learning methods. adopting a digital learning method is not always about using screens. it also highlights technology usage that is able to provide more dynamic and interactive learning experiences. through digital technology usage, students are not only able to read the learning materials but also see and experience it directly through various types of media. this usage of digital technology turns passive interaction into active participation by the students. this heightened focus facilitates classroom management for educators and has the potential to enhance overall learning results. when the interest to learn english increases naturally, the process to deepen the understanding of the material tends to go more effectively. it can happen because the genuine interest in learning shifts students’ perception from viewing it as a compulsory task to perceiving it as a fun voluntary process. the responses gathered in this study reveal that most respondents are more interested in assess their english vocabulary when they use kahoot. this finding highlights that a digital assessment tool, such as kahoot, can appeal to students so that their interest in learning english can be increased. kahoot takes part within this learning process to keep the students interested and motivated while they are acquiring new english vocabulary (salsabila, r., & apoko 2024). kahoot improves the language classroom as it allows the introduction of new information to english language, which supports the content to be more accessible and interesting. (cahyaningtyas and chakim 2023) also reveals that it leads to a result where there are more students who are attending kahoot activities to participate, engage, and learn. the research participants indicated that as a digital assessment tool, kahoot motivates them to answer the next question correctly and quickly. motivation becomes a crucial aspect as it influences the progress made by efl students in acquiring english vocabulary (salsabila, r., & apoko 2024). a high level of motivation can lead to a more effective english language acquisition process. teachers can utilize kahoot as a medium to increase students’ motivation. furthermore, kahoot enables the students to do self-reflection based on the evaluation provided by kahoot that immediately appears after each quiz session. they can http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 224 evaluate their strengths and weaknesses on the subject. with this assistance from kahoot, the english vocabulary acquisition process can be improved. moreover, kahoot's advancement in offering engaging educational elements persists throughout its evolution (robin and aziz 2022). efl students can concentrate more on the learning process due to a learning environment that diverges from traditional approaches, as its characteristics are customized to their educational requirements. this supports the perspective that incorporating gaming aspects into educational activities enhances the optimal learning process (n. iman et al. 2021), as evidenced by the enhanced quiz scores of efl students. also, additional research corroborates that employing kahoot as a formative assessment instrument might augment student involvement and interaction in online classes (wang & tahir 2020). kahoot facilitates vocabulary acquisition for pupils while also enhancing their confidence in utilizing english (licorish et al. 2018). nonetheless, it should be recognized that not all students are at ease with this approach, since individual learning preferences differ (zainuddin 2023). while kahoot may not be a digital assessment tool that suits every student’s learning style, this study has proven that kahoot works effectively to most respondents in enhancing their learning motivation, increasing their performance, and gaining better understanding. it shows the platform’s ability in capturing students’ attention, particularly during their english vocabulary learning process. this innovation, which implements a game-like approach, shows its significant value and crucial roles by getting players more engaged and assisting them to perform better (l. rahmayana and halim 2024). by transforming tasks into interactive and fun quizzes, it genuinely motivates the participants. as a result, it leads efl students to invest more effort in their english vocabulary acquisition process and focus during their assessment. this study demonstrates that most students gain a better understanding of english vocabulary after finishing a quiz using kahoot. rahmayana & halim (2024) states that the role of kahoot in assisting students to master the material indicates that kahoot has succeed to increase students’ drive to learn. it can be evidenced by how it presents a more enjoyable learning environment in which students do not hesitate to engage eagerly. it is also supported by how kahoot generates rewards for game participants for their endeavour, which boosts their motivation. it leads to a result where students have something to pursue by learning further, although the context still revolves around game activities. the incorporation of technology such as kahoot in english language education allows educators to do real-time assessments, facilitating the swift identification of students' challenges and the provision of suitable feedback (plump, c. m., & larosa 2017). kahoot is not solely an entertainment tool, it is also a significant device for improving the efficacy of english vocabulary acquisition for efl students. in addition, the efficiency in feedback that kahoot provides efficient grading time for teachers. as a result, teachers are able to dedicate more time to discussing learning materials that require deeper evaluation rather than administrative tasks. it proves that kahoot does not only benefit efl students, but also the teachers. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 225 conclusion this research reveals the perceptions of utilizing kahoot as a formative assessment tool in english vocabulary acquisition among efl students. the findings show that kahoot has played a significant role in increasing the interest of efl students in learning english vocabulary, which also contributes positively to their academic improvements. as a formative assessment tool, kahoot serves as a platform providing fun features which assist efl students to learn english vocabulary within a fun learning atmosphere. the gamification features, such as timer, background music, updated points, leaderboard, and final score, allow efl students to acquire english vocabulary effectively. kahoot has shown positive differences compared to other learning methods that do not apply technological advancements. since using kahoot, efl students tend to be more interested, focused, and enjoy the learning process. additionally, efl students feel more motivated to increase their quiz scores, boost their ranks, and perform better on the next quizzes. as final impacts, kahoot has performed well to increase students’ understanding and scores in their english vocabulary acquisition. however, kahoot may not always work effectively for efl students who are not suitable for gamified learning methods. after examining how kahoot is perceived as a formative assessment tool in english vocabulary acquisition among efl students, kahoot can be utilized frequently to boost the students’ interest and productivity in learning english vocabulary. in addition, teachers may also start to apply kahoot utilization in other english learning focuses. consequently, future study should aim to enhance participant diversity and investigate students' emotional responses, learning preferences, and digital literacy levels about gamified assessment systems. teachers are advised to utilize kahoot in classroom practice for vocabulary and other aspects of english learning, while providing adequate help and different formats for all students, particularly those who experience difficulties with time constraints. students are encouraged to utilize kahoot not merely as a competitive game, but as a reflective learning tool by leveraging feedback to monitor progress and enhance their comprehension of terminology. references abu al-majd, omar, & barana belton. 2024. “which one? technology or non-technologyassisted vocabulary learning: a probe into 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teacher innovativeness in learning in the digital era.” international journal of social and management studies 5(3):9–15. doi: https://doi.org/10.5555/ijosmas.v5i3.401 wang & tahir. 2020. “the effect of using kahoot! for learning–a literature review.” computers & education.doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2020.103818 werdiyanti, ni nyoman diah. 2021. “assessment process in teaching and learning english in the midst of covid-19 pandemic.” the art of teaching english as a foreign language 2(2):134–42. doi:10.36663/tatefl.v2i2.132. wimpenny, peter & gass, john. 2000. “interviewing in phenomenology & grounded theory: is there a difference?” journal of advanced nursing 31(6):1485–92. doi: https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2648.2000.01431.x yilmaz, erdi okan, and türker toker. 2022. “analysing the effects of assessment and evaluation applications and exam formats in distance education.” international journal of psychology and educational studies 9(1):165–76. doi:10.52380/ijpes.2022.9.1.691. zainuddin, nurkhamimi. 2023. “technology enhanced language learning research trends and practices: a systematic review (2020-2022).” electronic journal of e-learning 21(2):69–79. doi:10.34190/ejel.21.2.2835. zou, d., huang, y., & xie, h. 2019. “digital game-based vocabulary learning: where are we and where are we going?” computer assisted language learning 34(5–6):751–77. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/09588221.2019.1640745. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 133 enhancing efl students’ reading comprehension and motivation through the sq3r method: a classroom action research study abstract keywords: classroom action research, reading comprehension, secondary education, sq3r method, student motivation introduction for students learning english as a foreign language (efl), reading comprehension is critically important for their academic success. however, many indonesian junior high school students encounter significant challenges in understanding english texts due to a combination of factors, including a lack of effective reading strategies, diminished motivation, and limited vocabulary (grabe & stoller, 2020). for instance, students at smpn indri nurhasanah1*, tahrun2, & masagus firdaus3 runtah98@yahoo.com this study investigates the implementation of the sq3r (survey, question, read, recite, review) method in a ninth-grade classroom at smp negeri 4 rambang niru, aiming to enhance both reading comprehension and student motivation. a total of 28 students participated in this classroom action research project, which spanned an academic semester. to evaluate the effectiveness of the sq3r methodology, the research employed test cycle implementation for reading comprehension assessments, alongside a motivation questionnaire adapted from the attitude motivation test battery (amtb). this comprehensive approach allowed for a detailed examination of the interconnected variables of motivation and comprehension. the results indicated a significant improvement in students' reading comprehension abilities and a noticeable increase in motivation levels, with 85% of participants reporting enhanced interest in reading tasks. furthermore, the findings illustrated that utilizing a structured approach like sq3r not only deepened student engagement but also empowered learners to take ownership of their educational experiences. this aligns with existing literature underscoring the correlation between motivation and reading outcomes and suggests that motivated students generally display improved comprehension skills. the implications of this research emphasize the necessity for educators to integrate motivational techniques into reading instruction and suggest opportunities for further research across diverse educational contexts. future studies may explore the long-term impacts of the sq3r method on various age groups or demographic profiles, contributing to a broader understanding of its effectiveness in different learning environments. 1,2,3 university of pgri, palembang, indonesia http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 mailto:indrinurhasanah454@gmail.com copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 134 4 rambang niru, which serves as the context for this study, struggle particularly with procedural texts, often finding themselves unable to identify key concepts or comprehend intricate details. this difficulty is particularly exacerbated by traditional teacher-centered approaches to instruction that do not provide students with structured reading methods or stimulate active participation (brown, 2004; manurung & manurung, 2021). as a result, there is a pressing need for more interactive and student-centered instructional strategies to bridge the gap between comprehension and motivation. ahmadi (2017) emphasizes the strong correlation between reading success and motivation, illustrating that fostering an engaging learning environment can significantly enhance students' reading experiences. recent studies underscore the efficacy of the sq3r (survey, question, read, recite, review) method as a powerful tool for enhancing reading comprehension. for example, research by sinulingga and saragih (2023) demonstrates that the sq3r approach significantly improves students' reading proficiency by facilitating structured engagement with texts. in another study, wulandari (2023) confirmed that implementing the sq3r method in experimental classroom settings led to marked improvements in reading comprehension outcomes. these findings align with nabilla and hadi asmara (2022) and soleha's (2021) observations, which noted increased student participation and positive reading outcomes when students utilized the sq3r framework within structured literacy instruction. despite this growing body of literature indicating the potential benefits of the sq3r method, there exists a notable gap in the application of this strategy among junior high school students in authentic classroom situations. many current studies primarily employ experimental rather than action-based research designs, focusing more on older student populations and neglecting to explore the method's effects on motivation. research consistently highlights that intrinsic and extrinsic motivation are critical factors that influence reading engagement and comprehension (nur, 2019; wigfield et al., 2016). furthermore, the integration of the sq3r method with classroom action research (car) has not been thoroughly examined in the context of efl education at the junior high school level. car enables iterative, reflective, and context-sensitive changes to instruction, making it an ideal framework for enhancing student engagement and comprehension(aziz, 2020; ritonga et al., 2021). the lack of research in this area highlights the necessity for a study that synergizes the adaptive, problem-solving characteristics of car with the structured, engaging principles inherent in the sq3r method. to address these gaps, this study aims to examine how the implementation of the sq3r method through classroom action research can enhance ninth-grade students' comprehension of procedural texts while simultaneously increasing their motivation to learn. the central research question driving this inquiry is: how can the sq3r method improve ninth-grade students' motivation and reading comprehension of english procedural texts? this study aims to analyze both cognitive (comprehension) and affective (motivation) outcomes of utilizing the sq3r method within a real-world classroom context. the innovation of this research lies in its unique integrated focus on motivation, its application of car within a middle school setting, and its emphasis on procedural texts—an area that has not been exhaustively covered in previous studies (nabilla & hadi asmara, http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 135 2022; soleha, 2021). by incorporating established theories of motivation (gardner, 1985; wigfield et al., 2016) and effective language instruction principles (brown, 2004), this study contributes a fresh perspective on efl reading pedagogy while offering practical solutions for improving literacy outcomes in indonesian educational contexts. methods the effectiveness of the sq3r method (survey, question, read, recite, and review) in improving reading comprehension and learning motivation among ninth-grade students at smp negeri 4 rambang niru during the 2024–2025 academic year was examined in this study using a classroom action research (car) methodology. car was selected because it combines systematic research with teaching practice, enabling teachers to directly address actual issues in their own classrooms through an iterative and reflective process. car enables instructors to be researchers who critically assess and improve their teaching methods, as ritonga et al. (2021) clarify, stressing that "the key to implementing car is for educators to be willing to examine, contemplate, or review themselves". by creating a flexible learning environment that adapts to the demands of the classroom, this dual function promotes professional growth and raises educational standards. twenty-eight ninth-grade students from class ix.1 participated in the two-cycle study. three meetings, each lasting 40 to 80 minutes, made up each cycle, providing the time to fully execute the sq3r approach. the kemmis and taggart cyclical model, which has four crucial stages—planning, action, observation, and reflection—was used to organise the study (nanda et al., 2021). by allowing the researcher to design interventions, implement them, track their impact on students' understanding and motivation, and evaluate the results to guide future steps, this cycle framework promoted continual progress. the study made sure that instructional strategies remained flexible and pertinent to the setting by basing changes on real-time classroom input. the sq3r approach was methodically used at each cycle to actively include pupils in the reading process. students first skimmed the process documents for a broad overview before coming up with questions that directed their concentrated reading. students then carefully studied the materials in search of solutions, recited important passages to help them remember them, and went over the material again to make sure they understood it. according to sudarsono and astutik (2024) , the sq3r method's organized approach "actively involves students in the reading process, which can boost their motivation and interest in reading," underscoring its importance in fostering affective involvement as well as cognitive engagement. the selection of process texts was intentional and in line with the national curriculum since they offer logical, understandable frameworks that enhance understanding and inspire students by relating what they are learning to real-world situations. "the sq3r method can improve students’ reading skills and make the students dare to advance," according to aziz (2020), who further supports this approach by highlighting the system's ability to develop competence and confidence. in order to offer a comprehensive assessment of the intervention, data collecting used a mixed-methods strategy that combined quantitative evaluations with qualitative observations. quantitative data were acquired by a 25-item multiple-choice reading http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 136 comprehension exam, created according to bloom’s taxonomy to measure various cognitive levels: literal, inferential, and evaluative understanding. this thorough testing made sure that gains were evaluated across a range of comprehension dimensions. additionally, a fivepoint likert scale was used to give a 20-item learning motivation questionnaire that was modified from gardner's (1985) attitude motivation test battery (amtb). it is crucial to record shifts in both effort and attitude towards learning english because, according to gardner's (1985) framework, motivation is "the combination of effort plus desire to achieve the goal of learning the language plus favourable attitudes towards learning the language." systematic classroom observations were carried out in cooperation with an experienced peer teacher acting as an external observer to increase the validity and comprehensiveness of the results. in addition to reducing prejudice, this collaborative observation technique yielded deep qualitative insights into classroom dynamics, teacher implementation fidelity, and student involvement. such cooperative observation "supports legitimate interpretation of students' behaviours and learning responses in a genuine classroom context," according to abdullah sani et al. (2018), guaranteeing that the qualitative data appropriately capture actual classroom interactions. students' enthusiasm, active engagement during the sq3r stages, and the teacher's teaching strategies were all thoroughly documented using observation checklists and narrative recordings. a clear criterion was used to assess the intervention's effectiveness: in accordance with the school's kriteria ketuntasan minimal (kkm), at least 85% of pupils were required to pass the reading comprehension test with a minimum score of 65. positive changes in questionnaire responses from one cycle to the next were used to measure motivation gains. this dual success metric emphasizes the crucial relationship between motivation and academic achievement, confirmed by ahmadi (2017), who affirms that “motivated readers typically do better on reading comprehension assignments.” each cycle concluded with a reflection phase in which the researcher and observer together analyzed quantitative data and qualitative observations to determine the cycle's strengths, weaknesses, and required improvements. in conclusion, this approach systematically improves reading comprehension and learning motivation by combining the structured, student-centered sq3r strategy with the reflective, iterative design capabilities of car. the study guarantees a thorough, evidencebased strategy that is precisely suited to the educational context of ninth-grade students by utilizing combination-method data gathering and establishing explicit success criteria. results using a classroom action research (car) methodology, this study examined how well the sq3r method improved ninth-grade students' reading comprehension and motivation to learn. reading comprehension assessments, motivation surveys, and methodical classroom observations were used to gather data, which allowed for a thorough assessment of the intervention's effects over the course of two research cycles. with its 25 multiple-choice questions drawn from barrett's taxonomy, the reading comprehension exam assessed students' literal, inferential, and evaluative skills. only 64% of students in the first cycle achieved the required minimum passing score of 65, which http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 137 suggests that many students still found the reading materials challenging and found it difficult to completely apply the sq3r method, especially when it came to the questioning and reciting phases. this preliminary result made clear the necessity of improving education to better enhance students' comprehension and involvement. the second cycle showed significant improvement after making thoughtful modifications, such as improving the scaffolding of the sq3r steps, placing more of an emphasis on active inquiry, and reinforcing practice during the recitation and review phases. the average comprehension score climbed dramatically, and 89% of students passed the reading test. more pupils showed mastery of higher-order cognitive abilities, such as drawing logical conclusions and critically assessing the material. this increasing trend supports earlier research showing the sq3r technique has a beneficial impact on reading achievement and validates its effectiveness in promoting deeper comprehension. after the second cycle, more students were clustered in the middle to high score brackets, while fewer students scored in the lowest ranges, according to an analysis of the score distribution. this change shows that the sq3r technique assisted lower-performing students in catching up to their counterparts, suggesting both overall progress and a reduction in the understanding gap between students. these results support different learners in meeting basic competency criteria, which is in line with the educational objective of inclusion. gardner's (1985) attitude motivation test battery (amtb) was modified to create a 20-item questionnaire that was used to measure motivation, a crucial component of language acquisition success. some students showed little interest and little involvement in reading assignments, indicating that their initial motivation levels were moderate in the first cycle. the second cycle, however, observed a notable increase in motivation following the incorporation of student feedback and the modification of teaching tactics, such as expanding chances for collaborative learning and emphasising the value of reading resources. about 85% of students said they were more eager, interested, and willing to actively participate in english reading activities. these conclusions were corroborated by observational data, which showed improved focus, involvement, and perseverance throughout classes. these findings highlight that motivated students typically attain higher comprehension outcomes, supporting the known link between motivation and reading achievement. observations in the classroom offered a useful window into the behavioural dynamics that went hand in hand with the quantifiable academic gains. observations during the first cycle revealed a number of difficulties, such as students' unwillingness to participate fully in the question and recite phases, their propensity for off-task behaviour, and their dependence on instructor cues rather than their own ideas for questions or summaries. despite its good intentions, teacher facilitation frequently focusses on directed instruction with little opportunity for student reflection or peer discussion. on the other hand, findings from cycle 2 demonstrated a noticeable improvement in student autonomy and interaction. pupils seemed more comfortable asking and responding to questions, and they were better able to summarise literature without explicit instruction. in order to foster a positive and stimulating learning environment, the instructor used more facilitative techniques, such as promoting group discussions and offering helpful criticism http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 138 during review sessions. this change was essential for maintaining motivation and improving understanding since it gave pupils a stronger sense of pride and accomplishment in their education. furthermore, the observational data showed that by the second cycle, students who had previously displayed lower levels of motivation and comprehension had undergone notable behavioural changes. these students showed greater perseverance in finishing reading assignments and engaged more actively in group projects, indicating that the sq3r technique enhanced students' affective and behavioural engagement with learning in addition to their cognitive development. additionally, teacher perspectives showed that although incorporating the sq3r method needed deliberate preparation and modification, it was eventually possible given the current curriculum and time restrictions. sq3r's structured format gave teachers and pupils a clear road map, demythologising the reading process and making it more accessible for those who had previously been intimidated by long or difficult readings. all things considered, the results of this study demonstrate the mutually reinforcing relationship among academic success, student motivation, and instructional technique. in order to show that systematic, student-centred interventions may result in significant gains in educational outcomes, the teacher-researcher used the cyclical car framework to iteratively modify teaching strategies based on tangible data and reflective practice. discussion according to the study's findings, ninth-grade students' reading comprehension and motivation significantly improved when the sq3r method was applied within a classroom action research (car) framework. the idea that active and structured reading techniques can change students' interaction with texts and result in quantifiable academic improvement is highly supported by these findings. the systematic approach of the sq3r technique "actively involves students in the reading process," as stressed by sudarsono & astutik (2024). this enhances students' motivation and interest in reading in addition to improving comprehension. students are encouraged to read more deeply and engage cognitively through this active engagement, which is crucial for comprehending complicated materials. the significant increase in students' reading comprehension scores over the course of the two cycles demonstrates how well sq3r fosters the development of a range of cognitive abilities. in the first cycle, just 64% of students met the minimum passing criterion, indicating little success. but thanks to car-supported reflective teaching techniques, instructional strategies were modified to better scaffold students' abilities, especially during the questioning and reciting stages, which resulted in a notable increase in passing rates to 89% in the second cycle. this result is consistent with barrett's taxonomy, since students showed improved skills in textual interpretation, inference, and critical analysis (krismadayanti & zainil, 2022). this kind of gradual growth demonstrates sq3r's potential for helping students who struggled at first as well as for advanced learners, thus fostering equity in learning outcomes. according to the motivational theories covered in the thesis, motivation—a crucial component affecting reading achievement—showed a noticeable improvement in this study. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 139 following the intervention, students' intrinsic motivation to participate in english reading activities increased, according to the results of a questionnaire based on gardner's (1985) attitude motivation test battery (amtb). this increase is supported by the sq3r technique, which gives pupils explicit instructions that promote independence and self-control. according to nur (2019), reading comprehension performance is more dependent on intrinsic motivation—which is characterised by a person's own interest and fulfilment in learning—than extrinsic drive. by requiring active questioning and recitation, the sq3r phases provide students agency over their education, meeting their demand for competence and boosting motivation in the process. these improvements were made possible in large part by car's reflective method. according to ritonga et al. (2021), car pushes teachers to evaluate their methods critically and make data-driven changes. the teacher in this study improved instructional strategies between cycles by incorporating more interactive discussions and giving clearer explanations of the sq3r stages as a result of her reflective practice. the significance of car as a research technique and a professional development tool was demonstrated by the teacher's ability to effectively respond to student issues and modify ways to maximise engagement and comprehension through this iterative process. classroom observations offered qualitative information complementing the quantitative improvements. the reading strategy's initial efficacy was hampered by pupils' hesitation and dependence on instructor direction when asking questions and memorising. but in the second cycle, students were more self-assured and independent, actively creating questions, summarising materials, and participating in group discussions. this change is in line with the thesis, which emphasises active learning settings where students build knowledge independently and cooperatively, improving their cognitive and affective domains (wigfield et al., 2016). as a result of these behavioural adjustments, students felt more capable and supported, which improved comprehension and maintained motivation. the sq3r method's success was greatly aided by the selection of procedure texts as the instructional resource. the clear and logical structure of procedure texts help students anticipate content and follow steps, which lessens cognitive overload and improves comprehension (septiani & safitri, 2021). by relating learning to well-known material and real-world applications, the use of texts that were in line with the national curriculum guaranteed relevance and applicability, inspiring students. additionally, this alignment reinforced learning objectives and outcomes by assisting students in applying sq3r strategies in a methodical manner. notwithstanding the encouraging outcomes, the study notes that applying the sq3r technique and car in an actual classroom context presents difficulties. according to the thesis debate, several students initially had trouble coming up with good questions and summarising material, indicating that metacognitive techniques like sq3r call for explicit teaching, repetition, and eventual internalisation. additional difficulties included juggling curriculum demands and time limits, which highlighted the need for continued teacher development and institutional support to properly sustain such interventions. furthermore, in comparison to earlier teaching approaches, the sq3r method's greater variety and engagement may be just as responsible for the motivating gains shown as its http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 140 structure. reading became a more dynamic and pleasurable activity through active participation through inquiry, peer debate, and recitation. this reduced reading anxiety and promoted positive attitudes towards learning. for the development of linguistic proficiency and lifelong reading habits, this emotional involvement is essential. in conclusion, the results of this study demonstrate that the sq3r approach, when used in a reflective car framework, greatly improves ninth-grade students' reading comprehension and motivation to learn. a potent synergy that promotes meaningful learning experiences is produced when reflective teaching, active reading techniques, and proper text selection are combined. these results emphasise the value of reflective practice in teaching innovation and offer a solid empirical foundation for integrating sq3r into secondary education curricula. to further evaluate and expand on these encouraging findings, future studies should examine the long-term impacts of sq3r as well as its flexibility across a range of learners and topic areas. conclusion the primary objective of this study was to investigate the extent to which the sq3r (survey, question, read, recite, review) method could effectively enhance both reading comprehension and learning motivation among ninth-grade students, particularly in the context of procedural texts. the research, conducted through two cycles of classroom action research (car), yielded compelling evidence of improvement in both domains. quantitative data demonstrated a substantial increase in comprehension scores: the percentage of students meeting the minimum passing standard rose dramatically from 42.85% in the precycle phase to 89.28% by the conclusion of cycle ii. this sharp increase indicates not only the cognitive benefits of the sq3r method but also the effectiveness of its structured approach in helping students navigate and process procedural texts, which typically require a high level of sequential understanding and detail recognition. moreover, the study revealed parallel growth in students’ motivational attitudes toward reading. following the intervention, 85% of students reported high levels of interest, engagement, and willingness to participate in reading activities. observational data and survey results further supported these findings, showing that learners became more proactive in classroom discussions, more persistent in completing reading tasks, and more confident in articulating their understanding of texts. these developments suggest that the sq3r method not only supports cognitive engagement but also fosters emotional and motivational commitment to reading. the structured nature of sq3r—beginning with text familiarization and leading to reflective review—appears to promote a sense of autonomy and purpose among learners, which is essential for sustained academic engagement. nevertheless, these promising outcomes should be interpreted with consideration for the study’s inherent limitations. the research was conducted within a single institution and involved a relatively small cohort of 28 students from one classroom. additionally, the study focused exclusively on procedural texts within a specific segment of the curriculum. as such, the extent to which the findings can be generalized to other types of texts, different age groups, or broader educational settings remains uncertain. caution is advised in extrapolating the results beyond the studied context without further empirical validation. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 141 despite these limitations, the study offers a valuable contribution to the growing body of literature on strategic reading instruction in english as a foreign language (efl) setting. it provides empirical support for the sq3r method as a viable and impactful strategy for enhancing both the cognitive and affective dimensions of reading. importantly, this research highlights the synergistic potential of combining structured reading strategies with reflective teaching practices such as car. through its iterative cycle of planning, action, observation, and reflection, car facilitated continuous instructional improvement, allowing the sq3r method to be adapted and refined in response to student needs and classroom realities. in conclusion, the findings of this study reinforce the argument that student-centered, strategy-based approaches—when integrated thoughtfully within reflective instructional models—can lead to significant gains in student learning outcomes. the dual improvement in comprehension and motivation underscores the necessity of addressing both what students learn and how they engage with learning. future research is encouraged to build upon these findings by exploring the long-term impacts of sq3r across diverse genres, age groups, and educational contexts, as well as examining how digital tools and blended learning environments might further enrich the application of this method in contemporary classrooms. suggestions and recommendations based on the findings of this study, it is strongly recommended that english language teachers adopt the sq3r (survey, question, read, recite, review) method in their instructional practices, particularly in reading lessons that involve procedural texts or other genres requiring logical sequencing and comprehension of complex structures. the structured, step-by-step nature of sq3r not only supports students in developing a deeper understanding of the material but also fosters essential academic habits such as critical thinking, independent learning, and purposeful reading. teachers are encouraged to integrate each phase of the method deliberately—helping students preview texts strategically, formulate meaningful questions, engage with content attentively, recite key points for internalization, and reflect systematically to reinforce comprehension. furthermore, the implementation of the sq3r method has proven effective in enhancing student motivation and participation. therefore, educators should consider incorporating it not only as a reading comprehension strategy but also as a tool for increasing learner engagement and classroom interaction. professional development workshops and teacher training programs could be designed to familiarize instructors with the method’s application and benefits, especially in efl settings where reading can often be perceived as a challenging or disengaging task. for future research, it is recommended that similar studies be conducted across a wider range of contexts, including different grade levels (e.g., primary or senior secondary), types of schools (e.g., public, private, or vocational institutions), and diverse geographical areas—both urban and rural. this would help to establish a broader understanding of the method’s adaptability and effectiveness. researchers are also encouraged to explore the http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 142 long-term impact of sq3r on students’ reading development, retention of information, and transferability of reading strategies to other subjects and learning domains. in addition, future investigations might examine the application of the sq3r method to other genres beyond procedural texts. for instance, it would be valuable to analyze its effectiveness when applied to argumentative, narrative, expository, or descriptive texts, which pose different cognitive and linguistic demands. understanding whether the sq3r framework is equally effective across various textual forms would contribute to a more nuanced understanding of its pedagogical potential. to enhance the methodological rigor and validity of subsequent studies, researchers are advised to employ mixed-methods approaches that combine quantitative measures (e.g., test scores, questionnaire data) with qualitative insights (e.g., student interviews, classroom observations). including a control group in the study design would also provide a stronger basis for comparison and help isolate the specific impact of the sq3r method from other instructional variables. with the growing integration of technology in education, especially in the wake of increased remote and hybrid learning environments, future studies should also explore how the sq3r method can be adapted for digital or online platforms. investigating the use of ebooks, learning management systems (lms), and sq3r-based digital learning modules could provide insight into how the strategy functions in technology-enhanced contexts. this would help determine its applicability for 21st-century learners and ensure its relevance in an increasingly digital educational landscape. ultimately, by expanding the scope of inquiry and continuing to refine and contextualize the use of sq3r, teachers and researchers alike can make meaningful contributions to improving literacy outcomes and student engagement in english as a foreign language (efl) environment. supporting students in becoming more confident, autonomous, and strategic readers is a vital step toward equipping them with the academic skills necessary for lifelong learning and global communication. references abdullah sani, r., r manurung, s., suswanto, h., & sudiran. (2018). penelitian pendidikan (1st ed.). tira smart. ahmadi, m. r. (2017). the impact of motivation on reading comprehension. international journal of research in english education, 2(1), 1–7. retrieved from https://doi.org/10.18869/acadpub.ijree.2.1.1 aziz, i. n. (2020). implementation of sq3r method in improving the students’ basic reading skill. educatio : journal of education, 5(1), 98–106. brown, h. d. (2004). language assessment: principles and classroom practices (issue 112). pearson education, inc. gardner, r. . (1985). social psychology and second language learning: the role of attitudes and motivation. in system (vol. 15, issue 2, p. 177). retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1016/0346-251x(87)90081-9 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, july 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 143 grabe, w., & stoller, f. l. (2020). teaching and researching reading (3rd ed.). routledge. krismadayanti, a., & zainil, y. (2022). the level of the students’ reading comprehension analyzed by using barrett taxonomy. journal of cultura and lingua, 3(1), 39–48. retrieved from https://doi.org/10.37301/culingua.v3i1.110 manurung, h. m., & manurung, s. (2021). the relationship between learning motivation and learning outcomes of students chemistry of grade xi-mns in 4 state shs pematangsiantar. pendipa journal of science education, 5(3), 466–471. retrieved from https://doi.org/10.33369/pendipa.5.3.466-471 nabilla, a., & hadi asmara, c. (2022). the effect of sq3r method on improving students’ reading skill. english education journal, 12(4), 510–525. retrieved from https://doi.org/10.15294/eej.v12i4.66593 nanda, i., sayfullah, h., pohan, r., windariyah, d. s., fakhrurrazi, & khermarinah. (2021). penelitian tindakan kelas. in a. h. prasetyo (ed.), jurnal ilmu pendidikan (1st ed., vol. 7, issue 2). cv. adanu abimata. nur, h. (2019). enhancing student’s motivation in learning reading comprehension. didaktika, 12(1), 31. retrieved from https://doi.org/10.30863/didaktika.v12i1.174 ritonga, r., iskandar, r., & ridwan, y. (2021). penelitian tindakan kelasstrategi pengembangan profesi guru: vol. vi (w. amelia (ed.); issue 1). septiani, d., & safitri, l. (2021). improving students reading comprehension of procedure text by using demonstration method at grade x ipa 1 sman 1 candung. indonesian journal of learning studies, 81–86. retrieved from https://dmijournals.org/ijls/article/view/25 sinulingga, s., & saragih, e. (2023). improving students’ reading comprehension skills through the survey, question, read, recite, review (sq3r) method. jurnal educatio: jurnal pendidikan indonesia, 9(1), 492. retrieved from https://doi.org/10.29210/1202322940 soleha, a. (2021). the use of sq3r reading strategy to improve students’ skill and interest on reading comprehension. in repository.uinjkt.ac.id. retrieved from https://repository.uinjkt.ac.id/dspace/handle/123456789/59415 sudarsono, f. w., & astutik, y. (2024). evaluating the effectiveness of the sq3r method in enhancing students’ reading proficiency. script journal: journal of linguistics and english teaching, 9(1), 24–41. retrieved from https://doi.org/10.24903/sj.v9i1.1598 wigfield, a., gladstone, j., & turci, l. (2016). beyond cognition: reading motivation and reading comprehension. hhs public access. retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12184.beyond wulandari, e. (2023). improving students’ reading comprehension through sq3r method at man 3 palembang. english teaching and learning journal. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 422 exploring chatgpt as a replacement for traditional reading: perceptions of english education postgraduate students muhammad tahir1, andi sahtiani jahrir2 ¹,2universitas negeri makassar, makassar, indonesia muhammadtahir@unm.ac.id abstract the rapid integration of artificial intelligence into higher education has reshaped how postgraduate students approach academic reading and learning. this study explores postgraduate english education students’ perceptions of chatgpt as a substitute for traditional reading, focusing on how the tool influences their cognitive engagement and reading behaviour. anchored in the technology acceptance model (tam), cognitive offloading theory, and reading literacy theory, the research employs a quantitative survey design involving 108 master’s students from the graduate program of universitas negeri makassar. a structured questionnaire measured four constructs: perceived usefulness (pu), perceived ease of use (peou), cognitive offloading (cog), and reading habits impact (rhi). data were analysed using descriptive statistics, correlation, and reliability testing. the findings reveal that students perceive chatgpt as highly useful (m = 4.23) and easy to use (m = 4.35). these positive perceptions correlate strongly with cognitive offloading (r = 0.61), indicating frequent reliance on chatgpt to simplify learning tasks. however, a significant negative correlation between cognitive offloading and reading habits (r = –0.54) suggests that increased dependence on chatgpt reduces students’ motivation for traditional reading. overall, the study highlights a dual outcome, while chatgpt enhances learning efficiency and accessibility, it simultaneously contributes to the decline of deep reading practices. the results underscore the need for balanced ai integration that promotes critical reading, reflective thinking, and responsible technology use in postgraduate education. keywords: chatgpt, english language learning, reading literacy, technology acceptance introduction over the past decade, indonesian universities have witnessed a remarkable transformation in postgraduate students’ learning behaviors. graduate students in english education programs, such as those at universitas negeri makassar (unm), are no longer solely dependent on printed textbooks, academic journals, and intensive reading practices. the increasing accessibility of digital resources, the prevalence of online learning environments, and the integration of artificial intelligence (ai) into educational contexts have shifted the way students acquire and process knowledge. a growing number of postgraduate learners now prefer to utilize technological tools, particularly generative ai systems such as chatgpt, to comprehend complex materials, complete assignments, and prepare research projects. this phenomenon represents not http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 mailto:muhammadtahir@unm.ac.id copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 423 merely a change in learning media, but a fundamental shift in academic literacy behaviors. in the traditional paradigm, reading books, analyzing scholarly articles, and engaging deeply with texts were viewed as essential components of postgraduate academic culture. however, many students have started perceiving conventional reading as time-consuming, cognitively demanding, and less efficient amid heavy course loads and multiple academic obligations. conversely, chatgpt provides immediate summaries, interactive explanations, and flexible access to information at any time. its conversational interface allows learners to clarify difficult concepts in seconds— something that would typically take hours through independent reading. consequently, chatgpt has become an appealing and time-efficient learning companion for students who prioritize rapid understanding and task completion. despite these conveniences, a critical question arises for higher education: does the use of chatgpt as a substitute for traditional reading affect the depth of comprehension, academic literacy, and reflective thinking of postgraduate students? are we observing a paradigmatic shift from reading-based learning to ai-assisted learning? if so, what implications does this have for the quality of cognitive engagement, research competence, and critical reasoning? these concerns form the foundation of the present study, which explores the perceptions of english education postgraduate students at universitas negeri makassar regarding chatgpt as a substitute for traditional reading in their academic practices. recent studies in higher education have highlighted the increasing adoption of generative ai tools among university students. a large-scale international survey, ravšelj, et. al (2025), involving more than 23,000 students across 109 countries, revealed that most learners consider chatgpt an effective academic aid, while simultaneously expressing concerns about reliability and ethical use. similarly, khan et al. (2024) in exploring learners’ experiences and perceptions of chatgpt as a learning tool in higher education found that chatgpt facilitates interactive learning, enhances language support, and assists with comprehension—especially in non-native english contexts. in the domain of reading literacy, research indicates significant behavioral shifts among university students. she etc. (2025), through the digital academic reading behavior (darb) model, observed that while students increasingly read digital materials, the depth and retention of comprehension in digital reading tend to be lower than those achieved through printed text. a meta-analysis by sohn et al. (2023) likewise demonstrated that digital leisure reading produces minimal improvements in comprehension when compared to traditional paper-based reading. furthermore, studies on english as a foreign language (efl) learners, such as rahman et al. (2024), reported that although students prefer digital sources for convenience and accessibility, they still struggle with maintaining focus and sustaining engagement when reading lengthy academic texts. additional evidence from developing contexts strengthens this view. a study in nigeria by ajay and ogunleye (2023) found that digital resource usage correlates with changes in students’ reading habits—sometimes positively, when digital tools support academic reading, but also negatively when such tools encourage superficial scanning rather than in-depth comprehension. in the specific context of chatgpt, pérez-mira et http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 424 al. (2025), in study on students’ use of chatgpt in higher education: benefits, costs, and attitudes, discovered that students who perceive chatgpt as reliable report increased understanding of course content but also a growing dependence on aigenerated information, sometimes leading to procrastination or reduced cognitive effort. taken together, these findings suggest four overarching trends. first, chatgpt has rapidly become an integral component of students’ learning ecosystems worldwide. second, reading behaviors are shifting from deep analytical reading to faster, surfacelevel digital engagement. third, the cognitive consequences of chatgpt use—especially regarding academic literacy remain ambiguous and underexplored. fourth, most studies so far have employed general quantitative surveys, lacking contextual focus on specific academic disciplines or learner profiles. theoretically, the technology acceptance model (tam) (davis, 1989; venkatesh et al., 2021) remains the dominant framework explaining how perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use shape technology adoption in education. complementarily, cognitive offloading theory (risko & gilbert, 2016) explains how learners transfer mental tasks to external aids, such as ai, reducing intrinsic cognitive effort. reading literacy theory (guthrie & wigfield, 2023) emphasizes the importance of sustained deep reading and textual engagement for academic development. however, empirical attempts to integrate these three frameworks, technology acceptance, cognitive offloading, and reading habits—within the context of chatgpt use among postgraduate efl or english education students are still very limited. while international literature has begun to illuminate students’ perceptions of chatgpt and digital reading patterns, several notable research gaps persist, particularly in the indonesian higher education context. first, the majority of existing studies focus on undergraduate populations, leaving postgraduate learners, who engage in more complex academic reading and research underrepresented. second, most prior research treats chatgpt as a general learning aid rather than explicitly analyzing it as a substitute for traditional reading. the nuanced question of whether students are replacing book reading with chatgpt interaction has rarely been addressed empirically. third, disciplinary specificity is lacking: few studies explore chatgpt use among english education students, whose coursework demands extensive reading of linguistic theory, pedagogy, and research methodology. the impact of ai tools on such disciplinespecific reading habits remains largely unexplored. fourth, within indonesia, particularly in eastern universities such as unm, there is an absence of localized data on how postgraduate students perceive chatgpt in relation to academic reading, comprehension depth, and literacy practices. consequently, there is a critical need to fill this gap by examining how postgraduate english education students conceptualize the role of chatgpt as either a complement to or a replacement for traditional reading and how this perception influences their academic engagement. this investigation will not only contribute empirical evidence to the global discourse on ai in education but also provide contextual insights into the shifting literacy practices of indonesian postgraduate learners. in light of the preceding discussion, this study aims to explore english education postgraduate students’ perceptions of chatgpt as a learning aid and as a substitute for http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 425 traditional reading at universitas negeri makassar. specifically, the study seeks to: (1) identify the factors influencing students’ preference for chatgpt over traditional book reading—particularly in terms of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use (tam framework). (2) examine how chatgpt affects postgraduate students’ academic reading habits, motivation, and engagement with printed or digital texts. (3) determine whether chatgpt use indicates a broader literacy transition from reading-centered learning to ai-mediated learning among postgraduate english education students. the significance and contribution of this research can be seen in several key aspects. (a) it focuses explicitly on postgraduate english education students in indonesia, a group that has received limited empirical attention in global studies on chatgpt use. (b) it investigates chatgpt as a specific substitute for traditional reading, rather than treating it merely as a general technological aid. (c) it integrates theoretical perspectives from the technology acceptance model (tam), cognitive offloading theory, and reading literacy theory to construct a multidimensional analytical framework connecting technological perceptions with academic literacy practices. (d) it also offers a contextual contribution by presenting empirical insights from an indonesian higher-education setting, bridging international discussions on ai in education with the local realities of postgraduate learning at universitas negeri makassar. through these contributions, the study highlight to enrich scholarly understanding of how ai adoption transforms postgraduate literacy and learning paradigms in the field of english education. it also offers pedagogical implications for balancing technological efficiency with academic depth. while chatgpt may streamline information processing and support comprehension, higher education institutions must ensure that students continue to cultivate reflective reading habits and critical inquiry—skills fundamental to advanced academic scholarship. in essence, this research situates the phenomenon of chatgpt use not as a technological trend, but as a cultural and cognitive transformation within postgraduate education. it argues that the postgraduate learner’s journey in the ai era is no longer defined solely by how much they read, but by how they engage with knowledge: through text, through dialogue with ai, and through the synthesis of both. by investigating this intersection, the present study seeks to contribute theoretically and empirically to the growing discourse on digital literacy, language education, and the evolving ecology of learning in the age of artificial intelligence. methods research design this study employed a quantitative survey design to investigate postgraduate students’ perceptions of chatgpt as a substitute for traditional reading within the english education program at universitas negeri makassar (unm). the quantitative approach was selected because it allows the systematic collection of numerical data that can describe patterns, tendencies, and relationships among variables. the survey design also provides a snapshot of how students perceive the usefulness and ease of use of chatgpt, their degree of cognitive offloading, and the impact on their academic reading habits. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 426 the study integrates constructs from the technology acceptance model (tam) (davis, 1989; venkatesh et al., 2021) and the cognitive offloading and reading habits framework (risko & gilbert, 2016; guthrie & wigfield, 2020). four primary latent variables were measured: perceived usefulness (pu), perceived ease of use (peou), cognitive offloading (cog), and reading habits impact (rhi). these constructs collectively represent how students experience chatgpt as a learning aid compared to traditional academic reading. the study was conducted between march and june 2025. participants the participants consisted of 112 postgraduate students (master’s level) enrolled in the english education program at the graduate school of universitas negeri makassar (unm). all participants were actively engaged in coursework or thesis preparation during the data collection period. a purposive sampling technique was employed to ensure that the respondents had sufficient experience using chatgpt in academic activities, such as literature review writing, lesson-plan design, or classroom research. of the total respondents, 76 (67.9%) were female and 36 (32.1%) were male, reflecting the gender distribution commonly observed in english education programs. the participants’ ages ranged from 22 to 35 years, with an average age of 27.4 years. most students reported using chatgpt for academic purposes at least three times per week, primarily to summarize journal articles, explain theoretical concepts, or generate examples of academic writing. participation was voluntary, and informed consent was obtained from all respondents prior to completing the questionnaire. research instrument data were collected through a structured questionnaire developed based on established scales and previous studies. the instrument consisted of four sections corresponding to the four constructs of the model: table 1. constructs, conceptual definitions, sample items, and sources of the research instrument construct conceptual definition items sources perceived usefulness (pu) the extent to which students believe that chatgpt enhances their academic performance and comprehension. chatgpt helps me understand complex academic concepts faster. davis (1989); aljanabi et al. (2024) perceived ease of use (peou) the degree to which students find chatgpt easy to use and interact with. it is easy for me to use chatgpt for my coursework. venkatesh et al. (2021); albayati, (2024) cognitive offloading (cog) the tendency to rely on chatgpt to reduce personal cognitive effort during learning. i depend on chatgpt instead of reading entire articles. risko & gilbert (2016); papadopoulos (2009) reading habits impact (rhi) the influence of chatgpt use on students’ motivation and frequency of traditional reading. since using chatgpt, i read fewer academic books. guthrie & wigfield (2020); mirza & jabeen (2025) note: the questionnaire consisted of four sections representing the main constructs of the study. table 1 presents the conceptual definitions, sample items, and references for each construct. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 427 each construct contained 4 to 5 items, resulting in a total of 19 items in the questionnaire. the items were measured on a 5-point likert scale ranging from 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree. the instrument was developed in english, reviewed by two experts in applied linguistics and educational technology, and pilottested on 25 students to assess clarity and reliability. minor wording adjustments were made to ensure cultural appropriateness and comprehension among indonesian respondents. the reliability coefficients (cronbach’s α) for each construct were as follows: pu = 0.87, peou = 0.85, cog = 0.82, and rhi = 0.79, indicating high internal consistency. construct validity was established through confirmatory factor analysis (cfa), with all factor loadings above 0.60, and average variance extracted (ave) values above 0.50, demonstrating adequate convergent validity. data collection procedures prior to data collection, ethical clearance was obtained from the faculty of language and literature research ethics committee at unm. the survey was administered online using google forms, which enabled efficient distribution to postgraduate student groups. the online format was chosen for accessibility and to accommodate students’ flexible schedules. respondents were informed about the purpose of the study, confidentiality, and voluntary participation. the data collection process took approximately four weeks. each participant received the questionnaire link through official university channels and whatsapp study groups. responses were automatically stored and compiled in a secure database. after data cleaning, incomplete or inconsistent responses (n = 4) were excluded, resulting in 108 valid cases for statistical analysis. data analysis data were analyzed using ibm spss statistics v.26 and amos v.24. the analysis comprised three stages, (a) preliminary analysis, this stage involved data cleaning, screening for incomplete responses, and assessing normality, missing values, and outliers. four invalid cases were removed, resulting in 108 valid responses. descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation, frequency distribution) were computed to summarize participants’ demographic characteristics and initial response patterns. (b) reliability and validity testing, construct reliability was examined using cronbach’s alpha and composite reliability (cr). convergent validity was assessed through factor loadings and average variance extracted (ave), with all loadings exceeding 0.60 and ave values above 0.50. discriminant validity was evaluated based on the fornell larcker criterion and inter-construct correlations. (c) inferential and structural analysis, pearson correlation analysis was conducted to examine relationships among perceived usefulness (pu), perceived ease of use (peou), cognitive offloading (cog), and reading habits impact (rhi). structural equation modeling (sem) using amos v.24 was then performed to test the hypothesized relationships within the integrated tam cognitive offloading framework. model fit indices including χ²/df, cfi, tli, rmsea, and gfi were generated to determine overall model adequacy. path coefficients were examined at a significance level of p < 0.05 to evaluate direct and indirect effects among variables. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 428 descriptive statistics mean, standard deviation, and frequency distribution were calculated to describe participants’ overall perceptions of chatgpt’s usefulness, ease of use, cognitive offloading, and impact on reading habits. the descriptive data were visualized using bar charts to compare the mean scores of the four constructs. cronbach’s alpha and composite reliability values were examined to ensure measurement consistency. convergent validity was confirmed through factor loadings and ave values as reported earlier. discriminant validity was assessed using the fornell-larcker criterion. pearson correlation coefficients were computed to examine relationships among the four variables. subsequently, structural equation modeling (sem) was employed to test the hypothesized relationships: pu → cog (positive) peou → cog (positive) cog → rhi (negative) pu/peou → rhi (indirect via cog) the model fit indices indicated satisfactory fit (χ²/df = 2.31; cfi = 0.94; tli = 0.92; rmsea = 0.061; gfi = 0.91). significance levels were set at p < 0.05. all findings were interpreted within the theoretical frameworks of tam and cognitive offloading, with further implications discussed in the discussion section. results descriptive statistics descriptive analysis was conducted to summarize the overall perceptions of postgraduate english education students regarding the usefulness, ease of use, cognitive offloading, and reading habits impact of chatgpt. table 5 presents the means and standard deviations for each construct. table 2. descriptive statistics of main variables (n = 108) variable items mean (m) stand. deviation (sd) interpretation perceived usefulness (pu) 5 4.23 0.62 high perceived ease of use (peou) 4 4.35 0.58 very high cognitive offloading (cog) 5 4.08 0.66 high reading habits impact (rhi) 5 3.92 0.71 moderately high (negative impact) the results indicate that students perceive chatgpt as both useful and easy to use, with mean scores above 4.20. cognitive offloading also scored highly (m = 4.08), suggesting that students frequently rely on chatgpt to simplify academic tasks. meanwhile, the reading habits impact variable (m = 3.92) shows a moderately high mean in the negative direction, implying that frequent use of chatgpt is associated with a decline in traditional reading motivation. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 429 to visualize these findings, figure 1 presents a bar chart comparing the mean scores of the four variables. figure 1. average perceptions scores of students on chatgpt use the bar chart confirms that perceived ease of use (peou) is the highest-rated construct, followed closely by perceived usefulness (pu), reflecting students’ strong positive attitudes toward chatgpt as a convenient academic tool. reliability and validity of constructs instrument reliability and validity were assessed using cronbach’s alpha, factor loadings, and average variance extracted (ave). all four constructs exceeded the minimum threshold for internal consistency (α ≥ 0.70) and convergent validity (ave ≥ 0.50). table 3. reliability and validity summary construct no. of items cronbach’s alpha (α) factor loading (range) ave interpretation perceived usefulness (pu) 5 0.87 0.70 – 0.85 0.63 reliable & valid perceived ease of use (peou) 4 0.85 0.68 – 0.84 0.61 reliable & valid cognitive offloading (cog) 5 0.82 0.66 – 0.81 0.58 reliable & valid reading habits impact (rhi) 5 0.79 0.63 – 0.79 0.55 reliable & valid these findings confirm that the questionnaire is statistically sound and can reliably capture postgraduate students’ perceptions across all measured constructs. the internal consistency coefficients are high, particularly for pu and peou, showing that students’ responses were consistent regarding their evaluation of chatgpt’s effectiveness and ease of use. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 430 correlation analysis to explore relationships among the four constructs, pearson correlation coefficients were computed. table 7 displays the correlation matrix, and figure 2 provides a heatmap visualization of these associations. table 4. correlation matrix among variables variable pu peou cog rhi pu 1.000 0.67** 0.58** –0.42** peou 0.67** 1.000 0.61** –0.39** cog 0.58** 0.61** 1.000 –0.54** rhi –0.42** –0.39** –0.54** 1.000 *note: *p < 0.01 the results indicate several significant relationships among the four main constructs measured in this study. a strong positive correlation was identified between perceived usefulness (pu) and cognitive offloading (cog) (r = 0.58), as well as between perceived ease of use (peou) and cognitive offloading (r = 0.61). these findings suggest that postgraduate students who perceive chatgpt as more useful and easier to operate tend to depend on it more frequently for academic tasks, thereby reducing the amount of mental effort required to comprehend or process information. in other words, the more students appreciate chatgpt’s convenience and perceived benefits, the more they engage in cognitive delegation allowing the tool to handle complex thinking or summarization processes on their behalf. conversely, negative relationships emerged between cognitive offloading (cog) and reading habits impact (rhi) (r = –0.54), showing that increased reliance on chatgpt is associated with a decline in traditional reading engagement. this indicates that students who often use chatgpt to aid their studies are less likely to sustain regular reading habits, such as reading academic books or scholarly articles in depth. similarly, both perceived usefulness (r = –0.42) and perceived ease of use (r = –0.39) were negatively correlated with reading habits impact (rhi). this pattern implies that higher satisfaction with chatgpt’s ease of use and functionality coincides with reduced motivation to engage with printed or original materials. overall, these correlations illustrate a consistent trend: as chatgpt becomes more embedded in students’ academic routines, it tends to enhance efficiency but simultaneously diminish their commitment to deep, reflective reading. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 431 figure 2. correlation matrix among main variables (n = 108) the heatmap clearly highlights the direction and magnitude of the correlations: darker blue tones represent strong positive associations (pu–peou–cog), while deeper red tones show strong negative links (cog–rhi). this pattern visually demonstrates the trade-off between technological reliance and academic reading engagement. discussion the findings of this study provide meaningful insights into postgraduate students’ perceptions of using chatgpt as a learning aid and a substitute for traditional bookbased reading in the english education programme at universitas negeri makassar, indonesia. by integrating the technology acceptance model (tam), cognitive offloading theory, and reading literacy perspectives, this discussion seeks to interpret the results, connect them to prior research, and elaborate implications for academic practice and future research. interpreting results through the tam lens according to the technology acceptance model, users’ behavioural intentions and actual usage of a technology are largely influenced by perceived usefulness (pu) and perceived ease of use (peou) (davis, 1989). in this study, the high mean values for both pu (m = 4.23) and peou (m = 4.35) demonstrate that the postgraduate students regarded chatgpt as both highly useful and easy to use within their academic activities. these perceptions align with the significant positive correlations between pu and cognitive offloading (r = 0.58) and peou and cognitive offloading (r = 0.61). thus, in a tam framework, students who believe chatgpt supports their learning effectively and with minimal effort are more inclined to use it frequently and rely on it cognitively. this result resonates with meta-analyses and reviews of tam in educational technology contexts, which confirm that pu and peou remain major predictors of technology adoption (schorr, 2023; abbas & al-lawati, 2025). for instance, educational http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 432 studies have found that ease of use can moderate the effect of usefulness on behavioural intention, and in our context, peou may have enhanced students’ readiness to use chatgpt routinely. it is noteworthy that peou out-scored pu slightly in our research; this suggests that convenience and reduced effort may be more salient drivers for this cohort than outright performance enhancement. however, tam alone does not fully account for the downstream effects observed, namely the negative correlation between cognitive offloading and reading habits impact (r = –0.54). while tam explains adoption, it does not explain how technology usage might alter cognitive or literate behaviours — hence the need to integrate additional theoretical lenses. cognitive offloading, chatgpt, and academic reading cognitive offloading theory posits that individuals may shift part of their cognitive workload onto external tools or systems in order to reduce effort and increase efficiency (risko & gilbert, 2016). in the present study, the high mean for cognitive offloading (m = 4.08) and the strong negative relationship with reading habits impact illustrate that students who offload cognitive effort to chatgpt tend to engage less with traditional reading activities. this pattern echoes recent scholarship on the ai efficiency–literacy paradox — while artificial intelligence enhances efficiency and access, it may reduce deep cognitive engagement. for example, hossain (2025) found in a study published in frontiers in psychology that increased reliance on ai tools correlates with decreased processing depth and fewer opportunities for active recall and problem-solving. similarly, gerlich (2025) observed that structured prompting and reflective engagement may mitigate offloading, but unstructured ai use tends to promote superficial processing. in the context of postgraduate english education students, this effect carries particular weight. reading academic texts — textbooks, journal articles, research reports — is a core component of disciplinary literacies in english education. when students substitute reading with chatgpt prompts, they may bypass the labourintensive but cognitively rich process of deep reading, analysis, and synthesis. this result is confirmed by the moderate negative correlations between pu (r = –0.42) and peou (r = –0.39) with reading habits impact (rhi). thus, even as students perceive chatgpt as effective, their traditional reading practices decline. the theoretical implication here is that cognitive offloading acts as a mediator between technology acceptance (tam) and literacy behaviour (reading habits). in other words, pu and peou lead to higher offloading, which then leads to lower engagement with reading. this mediated pathway aligns with research showing that ai-usage can increase offloading, which in turn negatively affects critical thinking or reading depth (kulal, 2025). the practical implication is that institutions should not only promote technology adoption but also monitor and guide how students engage cognitively with those tools. implications of reduced book reading reading literacy, especially in higher education, is not merely an act of decoding text; it involves sustained concentration, reflective thinking, critical synthesis, and the internalisation of complex ideas (guthrie & wigfield, 2020). while we did not measure http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 433 facets such as reading comprehension depth or metacognitive reading strategies, our rhi measure gives an indicator of reduced reading output and motivation. the correlation findings suggest that students who offload more tend to read less. this raises important concerns about the long-term development of disciplinary literacies. in english education, students must engage with a wide range of texts: linguistic theories, applied pedagogy, curriculum standards, research methodology, professional literature, and more. the act of reading these texts builds background knowledge, disciplinary vocabulary, and the capacity for critical reflection — all of which underpin teaching competence and research skills. if chatgpt substitutes reading, then there is a risk of a shallow reading culture emerging, one in which learners rely on summaries, prompts, and ai assistance rather than engaging firsthand with the nuances of the original texts. moreover, the shift away from reading may also impair the development of what some researchers call deep reading routines — the sustained, uninterrupted engagement with complex texts that fosters insight and creativity. sohn et al. (2022) found that digital reading initiatives often fail to replicate the comprehension benefits of printed texts unless paired with reflective practices. although their study focused on leisure reading, the logic applies to academic reading: if students are skipping original texts, then the richness of disciplinary knowledge may suffer. pedagogical and institutional implications given these findings, several practical considerations arise for pedagogy, graduate programmes, and institutional policy. firstly, educators should design tasks that require engagement with primary texts (books, articles) rather than only ai-generated summaries. for example, chatgpt can be used as a supplementary tool, to clarify concepts, generate questions, or propose alternative examples, but not as a replacement for reading full texts. this aligns with gerlich’s (2025) emphasis on structured prompting and reflective follow-up as key to mitigating cognitive offloading. secondly, graduate programmes in english education should incorporate ai-literacy training, emphasising not just tool use but critical engagement with ai-outputs. students should be aware of the trade-offs: convenience may come at the cost of reading discipline, critical thinking, and knowledge depth. thirdly, institutional policies should encourage reading-rich cultures. this might include dedicated reading times, reading groups, peerdiscussion sessions about texts, and assignments requiring the critique of aisummarised content. by weaving reading back into the curriculum, institutions can balance the technological efficiency with academic depth. finally, a blended approach is advisable — integrating chatgpt and other ai tools into learning design while preserving time, space, and incentives for traditional reading. the goal is not to resist ai but to harness it in ways that augment rather than replace human cognitive effort. limitations and future research directions while this study provides important insights, it has several limitations. the sample is limited to postgraduate english education students at a single institution (unm), which may restrict generalisability. self-reported measures may be subject to social desirability bias. also, the study did not measure actual reading comprehension http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 434 outcomes, long-term retention, or the quality of reading engagement — only selfperceived impacts. future research should explore longitudinal designs to track how chatgpt usage affects reading habits and comprehension over time. experimental studies might compare groups using chatgpt versus traditional reading and assess differences in reflection, synthesis, and knowledge retention. it would also be valuable to extend the model to other disciplines, institutions, and cultural contexts, and to incorporate more nuanced reading literacy measures (e.g., metacognitive reading strategies, deep reading routines). conclusion this study explored postgraduate english education students’ perceptions of chatgpt as a learning aid and as a substitute for traditional reading at universitas negeri makassar. drawing upon the theoretical foundations of the technology acceptance model, cognitive offloading, and reading literacy perspectives, the findings reveal a dynamic shift in how students engage with knowledge, technology, and literacy in the context of higher education. the results show that students perceive chatgpt as both highly useful and easy to use, indicating a strong acceptance of ai as a learning tool. these perceptions are consistent with a growing tendency among postgraduate learners to integrate technology into their academic routines. however, the data also reveal a significant trade-off: as reliance on chatgpt increases, the frequency and depth of students’ traditional reading practices decline. in other words, efficiency and convenience appear to come at the cost of sustained engagement with academic texts. this duality reflects the new learning reality faced by postgraduate students. chatgpt has become a convenient partner in processing complex materials, providing instant explanations and summaries that accelerate understanding. yet, this convenience risks diminishing the habits of deep reading and reflection that are essential for advanced scholarship. the more students depend on ai to interpret or summarise knowledge, the less they engage in the critical and interpretive thinking that reading independently demands. from a pedagogical standpoint, these findings call for a balanced approach to technology integration in postgraduate education. chatgpt should be positioned not as a replacement for reading but as a complementary tool that supports comprehension and critical engagement. educators can design learning activities that require students to interact with both ai-generated responses and original texts, encouraging them to question, verify, and reflect on the information they receive. such practices will help maintain a healthy balance between efficiency and intellectual depth. for institutions, the challenge lies in fostering digital literacy that includes ethical and reflective ai use. students need to be trained not only to use chatgpt effectively but also to remain aware of its limitations. encouraging structured reading programs, critical discussions, and reflective journals can help sustain reading motivation and ensure that ai tools enhance rather than diminish literacy. in essence, this study illustrates that the integration of chatgpt into postgraduate learning represents both progress and caution. it enhances accessibility and learning speed but also risks narrowing the scope of intellectual engagement if used uncritically. the findings highlight the importance of guiding students toward mindful and responsible use of ai http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 435 — one that promotes inquiry, understanding, and reflection rather than passive consumption of information. ultimately, the success of ai integration in postgraduate english education depends on balance. technology should serve as an extension of students’ cognitive capacity, not a substitute for it. as universities move further into the era of ai-driven learning, the goal should be clear: to develop learners who are technologically competent, intellectually independent, and capable of combining the precision of machines with the depth of human thought. references abbas, a. f., & al-lawati, e. h. 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(2025). understanding university students’ acceptance and use of fragmented academic reading: an extension of the utaut2 model. sage open, 15(3), 21582440251377881. https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440251377881 sohn, h., acosta, k., brownell, m. t., gage, n. a., tompson, e., & pudvah, c. (2023). a meta–analysis of interventions to improve reading comprehension outcomes for adolescents with reading difficulties. learning disabilities research & practice, 38(2), 85–103. https://doi.org/10.1111/ldrp.1230 zhou, t. (2012). examining location-based services usage from the perspectives of unified theory of acceptance and use of technology and privacy risk. journal of electronic commerce research, 13(2), 135. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 https://doi.org/10.1080/08874417.2025.2582050 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2025.103038 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-008-9105-6 https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci15020217 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0315011 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2016.07.002 https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.13227 https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440251377881 https://doi.org/10.1111/ldrp.1230 copyright © the author(s) vol. 6, no. 2, april 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 76 in efl classrooms marlia abstract this study examined how practical peer group activities helped indonesian first-grade high school students improve their english speaking skills and reduce their speaking anxiety. through an explanatory mixed-method research design, the study methodically investigated the linguistic and psychological effects of collaborative learning strategies in efl situations at sman 13 pangkep throughout the 2024–2025 academic year. after being randomly selected, forty-four students were split equally into two groups: the experimental group received set-up peer group interventions. in contrast, the control group proceeded to use conventional solo learning strategies. the multi-instrument methodology used validated anxiety questionnaires derived from the psychological and sociocultural anxiety scale (pscas), semi-structured interviews, structured classroom observations, and standardized speaking assessments to collect thorough quantitative and qualitative data. according to statistical analysis, the experimental group's mean anxiety levels decreased from 64.95 to 56.09, significantly improving compared to the control group's more modest fall from 64.86 to 60.54 (p=0.029). at the same time, the experimental group's mean performance scores increased from 49.36 to 65.90, which was a substantial improvement above the control group's from 46.33 to 56.18 (p=0.009). qualitative data supported these statistical findings, as participants described peer group activities as helpful, engaging, and life-changing for their language learning process. the collaborative task division, mutual feedback, and knowledge sharing created a supportive environment that students especially enjoyed. these factors combined to lower anxiety and boost confidence in oral communication. significant empirical evidence is presented in the study to support the incorporation of organized collaborative learning practices as a successful educational intervention for addressing the complex relations between social, emotional, and psychological aspects that affect language acquisition. these results provide essential information for developing curricula and instructional strategies that build communicative competence and reduce language anxiety in teenage efl learners in indonesian classrooms. keywords: collaborative learning, speaking skills, efl learning, peer group activities, speaking anxiety marlia26m@gmail.com state university of makassar, indonesia peer group activities: a comprehensive approach to reduce speaking anxiety http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 6, no. 2, april 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 77 introduction learning a language is a complex cognitive and social process that significantly poses many difficulties for students when improving their speaking abilities (p. li & jeong, 2020). according to teimouri et al. (2019), oral communication in a second or foreign language involves intricate psychological, emotional, and social processes in addition to linguistic proficiency. the most prevalent of these difficulties is foreign language speaking anxiety (flsa), which prevents students from communicating effectively and impedes their language development and general academic performance (resnik & dewaele, 2020). flsa influences learners' confidence, engagement, and motivation in addition to the fluency and accuracy of their spoken output, which ultimately shapes their long-term success in language acquisition (l. li & heydarnejad, 2024). numerous individual, environmental, and social factors impact the psychological concept of speaking anxiety. according to gkonou et al. (2020), new research has shed more light on the intricate connections between speaking anxiety, learner identity, motivation, and cognitive processes, building on the groundbreaking work of horwitz et al. (1986). the symptoms of flsa might range from minor anxiety to severe anxiety that keeps students from engaging in speaking exercises. usually, learners who experience high levels of anxiety speak more slowly, halt more frequently, and hesitate more, which makes it harder for them to speak confidently and coherently (szyszka et al., 2024). this state impacts performance, lowers confidence, and decreases involvement in educational activities. according to neurolinguistic research, language learning activates several cognitive systems, such as memory, perception, and social cognition, demonstrating that language acquisition is a social phenomenon intricately woven into interactive human experiences (p. li & jeong, 2020). in addition, vygotsky's (1978) sociocultural theory highlights language acquisition as a socially mediated process in which language is a sophisticated psychological tool that influences social interaction and personal cognition and is a tool for communication. this concept has been broadened by contemporary scholars such as teimouri et al. (2019), who emphasize that language acquisition happens due to dynamic interactions between personal psychological processes and larger social contexts. the educational system in indonesia offers a fascinating setting for researching speaking anxiety and focused treatments. despite continuous initiatives to advance communicative language teaching (clt), culturally embedded communication norms, teacher-centred instructional methods, and a lack of exposure to language use in everyday situations are some obstacles that indonesian students commonly face when trying to improve their speaking abilities (mbato, 2020). these elements contribute to ongoing speaking anxiety and emphasize the necessity for innovative teaching strategies adapted to indonesian students' cultural and educational reality (hasibuan & irzawati, 2020). even though anxiety related to foreign languages has been thoroughly researched in a variety of settings, there are still a lot of unanswered questions regarding the creation of culturally sensitive and successful interventions to lessen speaking anxiety, especially in indonesian english as a foreign language (efl) contexts. research on workable solutions tailored to indonesian high school students is scarce despite various proposed tactics to http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 6, no. 2, april 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 78 reduce flsa. studies that have looked at flsa in college students, like mulyono et al. (2021), have found that high anxiety can lower motivation, confidence, and speaking ability. most flsa research also concentrates on general theories or approaches from other contexts, frequently ignoring the distinctive cultural elements found in indonesian classrooms. wijaya (2023) emphasizes the need for solutions that fit the indonesian educational setting, arguing that students can lessen their speaking anxiety by encouraging classroom environments and introducing innovative activities. peer group activities have gained attention recently as a potentially helpful tactic to reduce speaking anxiety because they create cooperative learning settings that offer emotional support, lessen performance pressure, and encourage genuine conversation (toyama & yamazaki, 2021). social constructivist learning theories, which highlight the significance of social interaction in cognitive development, theoretically support these approaches. peer group activities can alleviate individual anxiety, offer scaffolded learning experiences, and promote authentic communication by establishing controlled, encouraging environments. because collaborative learning settings use distinct neural pathways than standard instructional models, neuropsychological research indicates that they may reduce anxiety reactions related to language performance. despite these encouraging findings, little is known about the precise ways in which peer group activities in indonesian high schools may decrease speaking anxiety. according to anandari (2015), speaking anxiety is common among indonesian efl students because of feelings of discomfort, shyness, and worry. although self-reflection has been used as a technique to deal with anxiety, further research is required to find out how group activities might help students deal with their speaking anxiety (anandari, 2015). in order to fill this research gap, the current study thoroughly and empirically examines peer group activities to lower speaking anxiety in indonesian efl high school students. this study examines the relationship between collaborative learning structures, psychological health, and language proficiency to offer helpful, context-sensitive techniques to improve the efficacy of speaking instruction in indonesian classrooms. the study specifically looks into how well peer group activities reduce speaking anxiety and improve english language speaking skills among first-grade high school students at sman 13 pangkep in indonesia. this study's significance goes beyond simple classroom procedures. the research adds to more extensive scholarly discussions about language education, applied linguistics, and educational psychology by tackling flsa through culturally sensitive, empirically supported treatments. especially in efl situations like indonesia's academic environment, the results can guide curriculum development, teacher professional development, and the establishment of encouraging learning environments that place equal emphasis on linguistic proficiency and learner well-being. this study aims to figure out whether peer group activities can successfully lower speaking anxiety levels and improve speaking skills among efl students in indonesian high schools. additionally, the study intends to investigate how students view these collaborative learning strategies. the findings of this study will give efl teachers important information http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 6, no. 2, april 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 79 for developing more encouraging and productive learning settings that consider the psychological and linguistic aspects of language acquisition. methods research design the study employed a mixed-method research design following the quan-qual model, primarily emphasizing quantitative research methods as suggested by mills and gay (2018). this methodological strategy used qualitative data to offer more profound contextual insights while prioritizing quantitative analysis. beyond conventional single-method approaches, the research aimed to develop a holistic knowledge of speaking anxiety by combining quantitative and qualitative methods. the influence of peer group activities on language learning anxiety was systematically investigated using a quasi-experimental methodology, with descriptive qualitative methodologies providing a nuanced examination of participants' experiences. research setting and participants the study was conducted at the south sulawesi, indonesia, public high school sman 13 pangkep. x mia al-khawarizmi was chosen as the experimental group, and x mia al faraby was selected as the control group for the study. there were 22 students in each class, for a total sample size of 44. because these classes were carefully chosen, a controlled setting for comparing individual and peer group learning strategies was guaranteed. the participants represented a representative sample of indonesian high school students, making them ideal for examining speaking anxiety in efl settings. data collection instruments a multi-instrument method was used in the study to guarantee thorough data collection. adapted from yaikhong and usaha (2012), the psychological and sociocultural anxiety scale (pscas) questionnaire was the primary quantitative tool. the questionnaire, which consisted of 17 thoughtfully crafted statements, assessed students' speaking anxiety levels both before and after the test. three distinct topics—fort rotterdam, ideal teacher, and my lovely hometown—were included in the speaking exam to elicit a range of linguistic responses and measure several aspects of speaking ability. researchers documented the learning process during the pre-test, treatment, and posttest phases, using systematic observation as a key data collection component. rich contextual information was obtained from these observations, which included complex relationships and signs of anxiousness. students' opinions of peer group activities were investigated through semi-structured interviews, which were used to supplement the quantitative and observational data. a thorough qualitative investigation of the experiences and viewpoints of the participants was made possible by the interview questions, which were modified from jurmasari et al. (2021). http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 6, no. 2, april 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 80 research procedure the research followed a meticulously designed procedural framework that systematically addressed the complexities of investigating speaking anxiety in an efl context. the initial pre-test phase served as a critical foundation for the entire study, implementing standardized assessments to establish baseline measurements of speaking anxiety and linguistic performance. researchers carefully administered the psychological and sociocultural anxiety scale (pscas) questionnaire and conducted speaking tests across experimental and control groups, ensuring a comprehensive initial evaluation. the pre-test assessment involved a comprehensive evaluation process beyond simple score collection. students in the experimental and control groups completed a 17-item anxiety questionnaire and participated in speaking tasks covering three carefully selected topics: fort rotterdam, ideal teacher, and my lovely hometown. these topics were strategically chosen to elicit diverse linguistic responses and capture multifaceted aspects of speaking performance. trained researchers documented not only quantitative scores but also qualitative observations of students' verbal and non-verbal anxiety indicators, creating a rich, multi-dimensional dataset. the intervention phase represented a critical component of the research design. the experimental group underwent a structured program of peer group activities specifically designed to mitigate speaking anxiety. these activities were meticulously crafted to create supportive learning environments that encourage communication, reduce performance pressure, and promote collaborative interaction. researchers carefully monitored and documented the implementation of these activities, paying close attention to student engagement, interaction patterns, and observable changes in communication dynamics. in contrast, the control group continued with traditional individual learning approaches, maintaining standard classroom instructional methods. this approach allowed for a precise comparative analysis, enabling researchers to isolate the potential impact of peer group activities on speaking anxiety. throughout the intervention period, systematic documentation of classroom interactions provided additional contextual insights. data analysis procedures quantitative data analysis was conducted using spss 23 statistical software to study the research findings thoroughly. researchers computed frequency distributions, mean scores, and standard deviations to comprehend students' anxiety levels and speaking abilities. hypothesis testing was carried out using t-tests with a significance level of p < 0.05 to guarantee statistical rigour. the interactive paradigm of miles and huberman, which entails methodical data reduction, display, and interpretation, was adhered to in qualitative data analysis. researchers found recurrent thematic patterns after coding observational notes and transcribing interview recordings. beyond only looking at numbers, this method made it possible to comprehend the experiences of the pupils fully. data triangulation was used in the study, comparing quantitative measures, qualitative observations, and interview insights. this approach offered a more comprehensive http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 6, no. 2, april 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 81 perspective on how peer group activities might influence speaking anxiety in the context of language learning. by integrating many data sources, the study sought to reveal the intricate social and psychological processes that underlie language learning experiences. the thorough technique captured both statistical patterns and students' individual experiences in the indonesian efl classroom, guaranteeing a nuanced investigation of speaking fear. results the students' speaking anxiety level speaking anxiety is a common challenge for students learning a foreign language. this research aimed to understand how students experience anxiety when speaking english by carefully examining their anxiety levels before and after the intervention. by measuring and comparing these levels, we can understand how different teaching approaches might help students feel more confident when communicating in english. the distribution of frequency and percentage of the students' speaking anxiety level in the pre-test and post-test of both experimental and control classes the study tracked students' speaking anxiety levels using detailed measurements before and after the peer group activities. by calculating the frequency and percentage of anxiety levels in the experimental and control classes, researchers could see how the intervention affected students' feelings about speaking english. this approach allows for a clear, numerical understanding of changes in students' language learning experience. table 1. the distribution of frequency and percentage of experimental class in pre-test no speaking skill classification range speaking anxiety level low moderate high 17 – 50 51 – 68 69 – 85 f % f % f % 1 excellent 86 – 100 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 very good 71 – 85 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 good 56 – 70 0 0 6 27.27 0 0 4 average 41 – 55 0 0 9 40.91 4 18.18 5 poor 26 – 40 0 0 1 4.55 2 9.09 6 very poor < 26 0 0 0 0 0 0 total 0 0 16 72.73 6 27.27 as shown in table 1, there are 6 (27.27%) students had moderate speaking anxiety levels with good speaking skills, 9 (40.91%) students had moderate speaking anxiety levels with average speaking skills, 1 (4.55%) students had moderate speaking anxiety level with poor speaking skill, 4 (18.18%) students had high speaking anxiety level with average speaking skill, and 2 (9.09%) students had high anxiety level with poor speaking skill. there is no student had a low speaking anxiety level. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 6, no. 2, april 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 82 the comparison between the frequency score and the percentage of the students' speaking anxiety level and speaking skill in the pre-test of the control class is presented in the following table: table 2. the distribution of frequency and percentage of control class in pre-test. no speaking skill classification range speaking anxiety level low moderate high 17 – 50 51 – 68 69 – 85 f % f % f % 1 excellent 86 – 100 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 very good 71 – 85 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 good 56 – 70 0 0 3 13.63 0 0 4 average 41 – 55 0 0 12 54.55 2 9.09 5 poor 26 – 40 0 0 3 13.63 1 4.55 6 very poor < 26 0 0 0 0 1 4.55 total 0 0 18 81.81 4 18.19 as shown in table 2, there are 3 (13.63%) students had moderate speaking anxiety levels with good speaking skills, 12 (54.55%) students had moderate speaking anxiety levels with average speaking skills, 3 (13.63%) students had moderate speaking anxiety levels with poor speaking skill, 2 (9.09%) students had high speaking anxiety level with average speaking skill, 1 (4.55%) student had high speaking anxiety level with poor speaking skill, 1 (4.55%) student had high speaking anxiety level with very poor speaking skill. there is no student had a low speaking anxiety level. based on the aggregate frequency and percentage of the two classes indicated that they were equal in the limited description scale of speaking anxiety and speaking skill. therefore, these findings confirm that both classes are still needed to reduce their speaking anxiety and enhance their speaking skill. table 3. the distribution of frequency and percentage of experimental class in post-test no speaking skill classification range speaking anxiety level low moderate high 17 – 50 51 – 68 69 – 85 f % f % f % 1 excellent 86 – 100 2 9.09 0 0 0 0 2 very good 71 – 85 4 18.18 1 4.55 0 0 3 good 56 – 70 0 0 12 54.54 0 0 4 average 41 – 55 0 0 2 9.09 0 0 5 poor 26 – 40 0 0 1 4.55 0 0 6 very poor < 26 0 0 0 0 0 0 total 6 27.27 16 72.73 0 0 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 6, no. 2, april 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 83 as shown in table 3, there are 2 (9.09%) students had low speaking anxiety levels with excellent speaking skills, 4 (18.18%) students had low speaking anxiety levels with very good speaking skills, 1 (4.55%) students had moderate speaking anxiety level with very good speaking skill, 12 (54.54%) students had moderate speaking anxiety level with good speaking skill, 2 (9.09%) students had moderate speaking anxiety level with average speaking skill, and 1 (4.55%) student had moderate speaking anxiety level with poor speaking skill. as stated in table 1, in the pre-test, the students' speaking anxiety level in the experimental class was higher. still, in the post-test, the students' speaking anxiety level was lower than in the pre-test. furthermore, the comparison between the frequency score and the percentage of the students' speaking anxiety level and speaking skill in the post-test of the control class is presented in the following table: table 4. the distribution of frequency and percentage of control class in post-test no speaking skill classification range speaking anxiety level low moderate high 17 – 50 51 – 68 69 – 85 f % f % f % 1 excellent 86 – 100 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 very good 71 – 85 2 9.09 1 4.55 0 0 3 good 56 – 70 0 0 9 40.90 0 0 4 average 41 – 55 0 0 9 40.90 0 0 5 poor 26 – 40 0 0 1 4.55 0 0 6 very poor < 26 0 0 0 0 0 0 total 2 9.09 20 90.90 0 0 as shown in table 4, there are 2 (9.09%) students in the control class had low speaking anxiety levels with very good speaking skill, 1 (4.55%) student had moderate speaking anxiety level with very good speaking skill, 9 (40.90%) students had moderate speaking anxiety level with good speaking skill, 9 (40.90%) students had moderate speaking anxiety level with average speaking skill, 1 (4.55%) student had moderate speaking anxiety level with poor speaking skill, and there is no student had high speaking anxiety level. as stated in table 4.2, in the pre-test, the students' speaking anxiety level in the control class was higher, but in the post-test, the students' speaking anxiety level was lower than in the pretest. mean score and standard deviation of students' speaking anxiety the mean score and standard deviation of the students' speaking anxiety are presented in table 5. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 6, no. 2, april 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 84 table 5. mean score and standard deviation of the students' speaking anxiety level in the pre-test and post-test group statistics class n mean std. deviation std. error mean pre-test experimental 22 64.95 6.343 1.352 control 22 64.86 5.073 1.081 post-test experimental 22 56.09 7.223 1.540 control 22 60.54 5.721 1.219 based on table 5, we can see that the mean score of the students' speaking anxiety level in the pre-test of the experimental class was higher than the control class, but the difference is not significant. the mean score of the experimental class on the pre-test was 64.95, while the mean score of the control class was 64.86. it indicated that students' speaking anxiety levels in the experimental class were higher than in the control class. the mean score of the experimental class was lower than the control class in the post-test. previously, on the pretest, the mean score for the experimental class was 64.95, which was reduced on the posttest to 56.09. then, the mean score for the control class was 64.86, which was also reduced on the post-test to 60.54. both of the activities used in this research affected the students' speaking anxiety, but the rate of the effect was different. hypothesis testing using t-test of students' speaking anxiety the t-test statistical analysis was employed to prove the research hypothesis and determine whether the difference between the pre-test and post-test was statistically significant. the result of the t-test calculation can be seen in the following table: table 6. independent samples t-test p-value (sig. 2 tailed) level of significance (a) remarks pre-test of the experimental class and control class 0.958 0.05 there are no significant differences. post-test of the experimental class and control class 0.029 0.05 there are significant differences. table 4.6 shows the t-test value of the experimental and control class. the t-test value of pre-test> (α) where the t-test value was 0.958 and (α) was 0.05. it indicated no significant difference between the students' scores in the pre-test of both classes. then, the post-test shows that the t-test value < (α), (0.029 < 0.05). it indicated a significant difference between the students' scores in the post-test of both classes. so, based on the t-test result and supported by all the findings, the researcher can conclude that h0 is rejected and h1 is http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 6, no. 2, april 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 85 accepted. it means that the use of peer group activities reduces the students' speaking anxiety level. the students' speaking skills mean score and standard deviation of students' speaking skill the mean score and standard deviation of the student's speaking skills are presented in the table below: table 7. mean score and standard deviation of the students' speaking skills in the pre-test. group statistics class n mean std. deviation std. error mean pre-test experimental 22 49.36 7.322 1.561 control 22 46.33 8.502 1.812 post-test experimental 22 65.90 12.978 2.766 control 22 56.18 10.284 2.192 based on table 7, we can see that the mean score of the students in the experimental class was higher than in the control class, but the difference was insignificant. the mean score of the experimental class on the pre-test was 49.36, and the mean score of the control class was 46.33. it indicated that students' speaking skills in the experimental class were higher than in the control class. the standard deviation of the experimental class was 7.322, and that of the control class was 8.502. the mean score of the experimental class was higher than the control class in the posttest. previously, on the pre-test, the mean score for the experimental class was 49.36, and it enhanced on the post-test to 65.90. then, the mean score for the control class was 46.33, and it was also enhanced on the post-test to 56.18. the researcher can conclude that although both activities used in this research affected the students' speaking skills, peer group activities for the experimental class enhanced more than the individual learning activities used for the control class. hypothesis testing using t-test of students' speaking skill the t-test statistical analysis was employed to prove the research hypothesis and determine whether the difference between the pre-test and post-test was statistically significant. the result of the t-test calculation can be seen in the following table: table 8. independent samples t-test p-value (sig. 2 tailed) level of significance (a) remarks pre-test of the experimental class and control class 0.212 0.05 there are no significant differences. post-test of the experimental class and control class 0.009 0.05 there are significant differences. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 6, no. 2, april 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 86 table 8. shows the t-test value of the experimental and control classes. the t-test value of the pre-test > (α) where the t-test value was 0.212 and (α) was 0.05. it indicated no significant difference between the students' scores in the pre-test of both classes. then, the post-test shows that the t-test value of the post-test < (α), (0.009 < 0.05). it indicated a significant difference between students' scores in the post-test of both classes. thus, based on the t-test result and supported by all the findings, the researcher can conclude that h0 is rejected and h1 is accepted. this result means peer group and individual learning activities enhance students' speaking skills. the students' perception toward peer group activities. there are some opinions of the students toward peer group activities in reducing students' speaking anxiety. those are helpful, good, interesting, and new activities in learning english. table 9. the students' perception toward peer group activities students' perception the items statements a. very helpful 1) task division peer group activities are very helpful because there is a division for each group task, so other friends can correct our mistakes. 2) help each other it is very helpful and very interesting because, in a group, we can help and give suggestions to our friends; those are all the way around. besides, i can have selfconfidence and maybe can correct some mistakes. b. very good 1) help each other eee it is good because, for example, if we do not know something, then one of our friends knows the meaning, so she/he can help us. helping each other. c. very interesting 1) fun teaching & interesting material it is very fun because of the way it is taught and because the material used is very interesting. 2) get close to peers in my opinion, it is very interesting because it is fun. we can play and get close to friends, and our self-confidence increases because friends give suggestions and correct them. thus, we know our mistakes. d. new activity in learning english 1) different activities in my opinion, peer group activities are a new thing for me because the learning process uses group work with different activities from daily activities and as a place to share. sharing knowledge. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 6, no. 2, april 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 87 according to the results of the interviews, peer group activities considerably raised students' enthusiasm for learning the language. the ability of these collaborative activities to lower speaking fear and improve speaking proficiency was a significant factor in this involvement. these exercises fostered encouraging learning environments by forming small discussion groups centred around particular subjects. most students thought peer group activities were a good way to help english language learners who were nervous about speaking. their experiences uncovered four main themes demonstrating these advantages of cooperative language learning methods. these activities' social and structured elements revolutionized the learning process by reducing the fear associated with language practice and increasing its effectiveness for learners of all skill levels. students overwhelmingly regarded peer group activities as very beneficial to their language-learning process. peers could recognize and fix each other's errors in a safe setting because of the organized task distribution among groups. thanks to this collaborative correction mechanism, students could get fast feedback without the intimidation frequently connected to teacher-centred correction. additionally, by fostering a mutual support system among these groups, students could support one another by offering advice and suggestions, resulting in a reciprocal learning environment where knowledge flowed in various directions. this encouraging environment significantly boosted students' self-confidence because they felt empowered to criticize their peers and accept assistance, strengthening their comprehension of language ideas. peer group activities were considered "very good" mainly because of the dynamics of knowledge exchange that developed organically inside the groups. students appreciated how these exercises facilitated group problem-solving, especially when dealing with language barriers. students could rely on more experienced peers to fill their knowledge gaps when presented with new terms or ideas. because support was easily accessible inside the group, this instant access to peer assistance established a safety net that decreased worry over not understanding anything. with students switching between the roles of helper and helped, the emphasis on "helping each other" emphasizes the reciprocal nature of these interactions and fosters balanced learning relationships. because these peer group activities were entertaining and engaging, students found them especially interesting. the instructional strategies used in these exercises were delightful and unique, drawing in and holding the pupils' interest. due to their relevance and stimulation, the well-chosen materials further increased student involvement. students appreciated how these activities promoted social connections among peers, enabling them to play together and form tighter friendships, in addition to the academic advantages. since students felt more at ease around their peers, this social component significantly reduced anxiety. students gradually realized their errors and enhanced their language proficiency in a stress-free setting due to the positive feedback loop formed by the increased selfconfidence brought about by encouraging peer comments and corrections. many students saw peer group activities as an inventive way to learn english that was very different from conventional approaches. these activities' unique framework, which included various group projects that deviated from standard classroom exercises, offered a novel educational opportunity. pupils valued these exercises as specialized forums for http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 6, no. 2, april 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 88 information sharing where they could openly discuss ideas and gain knowledge from one another. this innovative method of instruction fostered a supportive peer network and shared responsibility for language production, which decreased speaking anxiety. discussion this study examined how practical peer group activities worked to improve speaking abilities and lessen speaking anxiety in first-grade high school students in an indonesian efl setting. the results showed that students participating in peer group activities significantly improved their speaking performance and reduced their anxiety compared to those in conventional solitary learning environments. the findings are consistent with and go beyond earlier theoretical models and empirical research on language anxiety and cooperative learning strategies. speaking anxiety reduction through peer group dynamics according to the quantitative statistics, students in the experimental group significantly decreased speaking fear. peer group activities caused the mean anxiety score for students to drop from 64.95 on the pre-test to 56.09 on the post-test, whereas the control group had a more moderate drop from 64.86 to 60.54. it is confirmed by this statistically significant difference (p = 0.029) that speaking anxiety was lessened by peer group activities than by individual learning strategies. this result validates toyama and yamazaki's (2021) claim that collaborative learning environments can dramatically reduce language anxiety by fostering supportive circumstances for genuine communication. students' decreased fear reactions during peerfacilitated language performance can be explained by their neuropsychological viewpoint, which suggests that collaborative settings may activate distinct neural pathways compared to traditional instructional methods. the evidence further supports the idea put forth by gkonou et al. (2020) that speaking anxiety is a complex psychological condition that results from interactions between emotional experiences, environmental circumstances, and personal traits. several processes that are part of peer group activities are responsible for the change in anxiety levels. according to their interview statements, students felt more at ease making small-group mistakes since peer repair was perceived as less intimidating than teachercentred correction. second, the interview data demonstrated how students valued the recommendations and assistance they received from their peers in return, resulting in what vygotsky's (1978) sociocultural theory refers to as scaffolded learning experiences in the zone of proximal development. third, as students no longer felt entirely in charge of language production, the division of performance pressure among group members probably helped to lower individual anxiety. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 6, no. 2, april 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 89 these results fill a significant gap that wijaya (2023) pointed out, highlighting the necessity of solutions customized for indonesian educational settings. the study's peer group approach is an example of a culturally sensitive intervention that circumvented the traditional educational frameworks and collectivist cultural norms that mbato (2020) identifies as possible obstacles to communicative language instruction in indonesia. enhancement of speaking skills through collaborative learning when students participated in peer group activities, the study found that their speaking performance significantly improved in addition to their anxiety levels. the control group improved more modestly, from 46.33 to 56.18, whereas the experimental group's mean speaking score rose from 49.36 to 65.90. this difference between both groups is statistically significant (p = 0.009), indicating that peer group activities offer better context for speaking proficiency development. the concept proposed by li and jeong (2020), which views language as a social phenomenon firmly embedded in interacting human experiences, helps explain this performance improvement. a more integrated approach to language learning resulted from the peer group activities' creation of real-world communication situations that engaged memory, perception, and social cognition. this transformation is further demonstrated by the frequency distribution data, which shows that no students in the experimental group had excellent or very good speaking skills before the intervention. however, following peer group activities, two students (9.09%) and five students (22.73%) developed excellent speaking skills and very good speaking skills, respectively. the qualitative data provides information about how this change took place. students valued how "there is a division for each group task, so other friends can correct our mistakes," which created continuous opportunities for feedback and growth. they also indicated that peer group activities made it easier to divide tasks and correct each other collaboratively. additionally, they valued knowledge sharing, pointing out that "if we do not know something, then one of our friends knows the meaning, so she/he can help us," demonstrating the advantages of dispersed knowledge within peer groups. student comments such as "our self-confidence increases because friends give suggestions and correct them" further highlighted the psychological advantages that ultimately improved speaking skills, with increased self-confidence emerging as a significant benefit. these results support anandari's (2015) study on anxiety in indonesian efl students, which found that the main obstacles to speaking were shyness, discomfort, and fear. the peer group intervention directly addressed these psychological obstacles, which produced welcoming and encouraging learning environments that students characterized as "very fun" and "interesting." http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 6, no. 2, april 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 90 theoretical implications: beyond anxiety reduction the study's findings contribute significantly to our theoretical understanding of the connection between anxiety and language acquisition. first, they refute oversimplified notions of anxiety as only a barrier to learning, demonstrating how well-structured social circumstances can turn worry into a controllable—even beneficial—aspect of language development. this finding supports the claim made by teimouri et al. (2019) that language acquisition entails dynamic interactions between broader social circumstances and personal psychological processes. second, the results are consistent with szyszka et al.'s (2024) description of a multifaceted understanding of foreign language speaking anxiety (flsa). the student's transition from high anxiety levels and mediocre or subpar speaking abilities to moderate or low anxiety levels and outstanding speaking abilities illustrates the intricate connection between language proficiency and psychological state. this change demonstrates how halting the "self-reinforcing cycle of worry and communication problems" might accelerate language development. third, the study offers factual backing for a social constructivist approach to language instruction. vygotsky's ideas of socially mediated learning, in which cognitive progress happens via interaction with more experienced peers, are immediately reflected in the student testimonials regarding information sharing, mutual correction, and collaborative learning. cultural and contextual dimensions the study's conclusions are significant in indonesian education, as mbato (2020) explained, where speaking proficiency has historically been hampered by teacher-centred teaching methods and little exposure to real-world language use. the peer group intervention effectively circumvented cultural communication norms that occasionally value harmony above straightforward speech by establishing more intimate, smaller language practice environments. according to the qualitative data, peer group activities were "a new thing" for pupils used to more conventional methods. in addition to the events' perceived fun and interest, this novelty aspect generated an intrinsic drive, which aided in overcoming cultural barriers to unplanned communication. as "different from daily activities" and "a place to share," students rated these activities highly, indicating that peer group techniques can successfully reconcile more communicative language learning objectives with traditional educational principles. hasibuan and irzawati (2020) expressed concern about the necessity for pedagogical innovations adapted to indonesian learners' cultural and educational realities, and this cultural dimension meets that concern. the peer group intervention successfully modified http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 6, no. 2, april 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 91 the ideas of communicative language teaching to function inside indonesian educational traditions rather than against them. limitations and future directions even if the study showed a lot of beneficial results, there are a few things that should be noted. the brief intervention time and the small sample size (n=44) constrain the findings' generalizability. future research should consider longitudinal approaches to investigate the sustainability of anxiety reduction and speaking improvements over lengthy periods. furthermore, studies examining how peer group activities fluctuate in their impact across different age groups, cultural contexts, and competence levels will enhance knowledge of this intervention's adaptability. the precise processes by which peer connection lowers anxiety could also receive more focus. more targeted studies on the neuropsychological and socioemotional aspects of peer-mediated language learning would reinforce theoretical underpinnings, even though qualitative data provide initial insights into these processes. pedagogical implications the results have some beneficial ramifications for efl teaching in indonesian and comparable educational settings. peer group activities that are well-planned and have distinct work divisions should be used by teachers so that students can assist one another's learning while staying accountable. as demonstrated by students' positive experiences with peer correction, peer feedback should be designed to provide psychological safety while offering essential corrective advice. given that good emotional experiences aid in language acquisition, peer activities' "fun" and "interesting" components should be purposefully designed alongside educational objectives. since students value the self-confidence they acquire from peer support, teachers should see confidence growth as a valid educational goal. finally, peer group approaches should be adapted to work within, rather than against, existing cultural norms and academic traditions. these suggestions align with the findings of mulyono et al. (2021) about the elements that contribute to speaking anxiety in efl students and wijaya's (2023) demand for encouraging classroom settings and innovative teaching methods to assist indonesian students in overcoming speaking anxiety. conclusion this study proves that peer group activities help indonesian high school efl students improve their speaking skills and lessen their speaking fear. the statistically substantial gains in psychological comfort and linguistic achievement demonstrate collaborative learning environments' ability to revolutionize language instruction. peer group activities address the complex interplay of social, psychological, and cognitive elements that affect language learning by establishing supportive environments for genuine communication. the results enrich theoretical knowledge of language anxiety and valuable methods for teaching efl, especially in cultural circumstances where conventional teaching methods may impede the development of communicative language. these cooperative methods foster http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 6, no. 2, april 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 92 positive support cycles, confidence building, and language development. one student's testimonial shows that peer activities helped them "play and get close to friends" while boosting "self-confidence because friends give suggestions and correct them." given the significant influence that well-structured social interactions can have on the cognitive and affective aspects of language acquisition, future research and pedagogical initiatives should build on these insights to create collaborative language learning strategies that are more sophisticated and culturally sensitive. references anandari, c. l. (2015). indonesian efl students' anxiety in speech production: possible causes and remedy. teflin journal a publication on the teaching and learning of english, 26(1), 1. https://doi.org/10.15639/teflinjournal.v26i1/1-16 gkonou, c., dwaele, j.-m., & king, j. (2020). the emotional rollercoaster of language teaching. multilingual matters. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.21832/gkonou8335 hasibuan, a. r., & irzawati, i. (2020). students' speaking anxiety on their speaking performance: a study of efl learners. advances in social science, education and humanities research, 394(icirad 2019), 101–106. https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.200115.017 horwitz, e. k., horwitz, m. b., & cope, j. (1986). foreign language classroom anxiety. the modern language journal, 70(2), 125–132. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.15404781.1986.tb05256.x jurmasari, i., assiddiq, m. a., & mustari, s. h. (2021). analyzing efl studens' speaking anxiety: the case at islamic economy department of uin alauddin makassar. cakrawala bahasa; jurnal ilmiah prodi pendidikan bahasa inggris, 10(1), 42–51. li, l., & heydarnejad, t. (2024). may i come in? a probe into the contributions of selfesteem, teacher support, and critical thinking to anxiety and shyness in language classes. bmc psychology, 12(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-023-01501-y li, p., & jeong, h. (2020). the social brain of language: grounding second language learning in social interaction. npj science of learning, 5(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41539020-0068-7 mbato, c. l. (2020). confronting cultural barriers in public speaking through multiple learning strategies: a case of indonesian efl learners. jurnal humaniora, 32(1), 51. https://doi.org/10.22146/jh.53380 mills, g. e., & gay, l. r. (2018). educational research: competencies for analysis and applications. in educational research (12th ed.). pearson education, inc. mulyono, h., ferawati, sari, r. n., & ningsih, s. k. (2021). factors contributing to efl students' speaking anxiety. register journal, 12(1), 13–27. https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.18326/rgt.v12i1.13-27 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol. 6, no. 2, april 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 93 resnik, p., & dewaele, j. m. (2020). trait emotional intelligence, positive and negative emotions in first and foreign language classes: a mixed-methods approach. system, 94, 102324. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2020.102324 szyszka, m., peltonen, p., & lintunen, p. (2024). unravelling the relationship between language anxiety and foreign language speech fluency in a monologue production. journal of multilingual and multicultural development, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2024.2387149 teimouri, y., goetze, j., & plonsky, l. (2019). second language anxiety and achievement. studies in second language acquisition, 41(2), 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0272263118000311 toyama, m., & yamazaki, y. (2021). classroom interventions and foreign language anxiety: a systematic review with narrative approach. frontiers in psychology, 12(february), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.614184 vygotsky, l. s. (1978). mind in society: the development of higher psychological processes. in harvard university press. harvard university press. wijaya, k. f. (2023). strategies to overcome foreign language speaking anxiety in indonesian efl learning contexts. llt journal: journal on language and language teaching, 26(1), 214–227. https://doi.org/10.24071/llt.v26i1.4450 yaikhong, k., & usaha, s. (2012). a measure of efl public speaking class anxiety: scale development and preliminary validation and reliability. english language teaching, 5(12), 23–35. https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v5n12p23 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, oktober 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 282 constructivist perspectives on the ruang gtk platform: english teachers’ experiences in palopo high schools lestari yanti1*, sahraini 2, & magfirah thayyib 3 1,2,3 uin palopo, indonesia *2305040006@iainpalopo.ac.id abstract this study explores english teachers’ perceptions of the implementation of the ruang guru dan tenaga kependidikan (ruang gtk) at sman 2 palopo and smkn 1 palopo. as a transformation of pmm, ruang gtk aims to facilitate teacher professional development, support performance management, and promote innovative teaching aligned with the merdeka curriculum. employing a qualitative descriptive method, the data were collected through interviews, classroom observations, and document analysis involving twelve english teachers. the results indicate that most participants expressed favorable views toward the platform, particularly valuing its ease of access, the practicality of self-directed learning modules such as pelatihan mandiri, diklat, komunitas, inspirasi pembelajaran dan dokumen rujukan. these features improved teaching and learning quality. nevertheless, several underutilized features of the ruang gtk platform such as perangkat ajar, refleksi kompetensi, and sertifikasi pendidik present key challenges related to relevance, accessibility, and functionality. teachers noted that the content lacks contextualization for vocational education, some features remain inaccessible, and others offer limited value for non-ppg users. the findings underscore the need for further refinement of the platform to ensure its effectiveness across diverse teaching contexts. this study offers insights into technology-based professional development and highlights the relevance of constructivist learning theory in teaching practice. keywords: constructivist theory, merdeka curriculum, professional development, ruang gtk, teacher perceptions introduction merdeka curriculum is considered one of the primary instruments for transforming the national education system and achieving the vision of an ideal school environment. it emphasizes student-centered learning, flexibility in teaching approaches, and the development of essential competencies. as noted by zahwa and nabilah (2022) the merdeka curriculum is one of the main tools to transform education and realize the school we aspire to merdeka curriculum also aims to help education units, such as teacher, headmaster of school and student. however, this is not in line with wantiana and mellisa (2023) findings, http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, oktober 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 283 which suggest that the digitalization through the merdeka mengajar platform (pmm) does not significantly contribute to an increase in teachers’ workload. there are various problems with students at the secondary education level, namely senior high school (sma), and vocational high school (smk) in this country. in january, the ministry of primary and secondary education (kemendikdasmen) officially announced the transformation of the platform merdeka mengajar (pmm) into ruang guru dan tenaga kependidikan (gtk). the change from pmm to ruang gtk reflects moec's commitment to creating a stronger, more inclusive and quality education ecosystem, with teachers and education personnel at the center. with the concept as a learning and inspiration space for teachers, principals, school supervisors, and education personnel, this platform aims to support various aspects of education, from teaching to professional development by kementerian pendidikan dasar dan menengah (2025). there are four main features of ruang gtk such as belajar berkelanjutan, karir dan kinerja, inspirasi pembelajaran, and dokumen rujukan menus. previous studies have highlighted merdeka mengajar platform (pmm), which is a transformation of the ruang guru dan tenaga kependidikan (gtk), in terms of its socialization, benefits, and usage challenges. for instance, dewa and suarni (2022) conducted a literature-based study and concluded that the pmm platform has a positive influence on the learning process, as it encourages teachers to implement project-based learning and adopt more progressive approaches. the study highlighted that the platform promotes teacher autonomy and aligns with the goals of the merdeka curriculum. similarly, arnes (2023) reported using a mixed-method approach with 93 civics teachers in sijunjung, found that 90.3% of the participants had a positive perception of pmm, particularly regarding its ease of access and support for curriculum implementation. supporting these findings, setiariny (2023) found that most elementary, junior high, and vocational schoolteachers in jakarta viewed the platform as helpful, although its use was not yet fully optimized. the studies confirm that pmm can foster a more independent and flexible teaching environment, which aligns with the constructivist view that teachers learn and adapt through active engagement. studies confirm that the merdeka mengajar platform (pmm) can foster a more independent and flexible teaching environment, in line with the constructivist perspective that teachers learn and adapt through active engagement. however, other studies reveal contrasting results. according to melasarianti, maharayu, yulianti and sholikhati (2024) highlighted teachers who encountered significant challenges in implementing project-based learning, differentiated instruction, and assessment within the framework of the pmm, largely due to the platform’s limited capacity to support the development of contextually appropriate teaching materials. these findings are corroborated by anggraini and winarti (2023) who highlighted infrastructural barriers such as inadequate internet connectivity, unreliable electricity, and limited access to digital devices as key impediments to the effective utilization of the platforms in remote areas. despite these insights, most studies have focused on general subjects like civics or indonesian, and few have investigated the perspectives of english teachers at the sma and smk levels. moreover, most of the research employed quantitative or conceptual http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, oktober 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 284 approaches, lacking in-depth qualitative exploration of teachers lived experiences. local contexts such as palopo remain underrepresented, and prior studies rarely apply constructivist theory explicitly. given these gaps, this study aims to explore english teachers’ perceptions of the implementation of the ruang gtk platform in senior and vocational high schools in palopo. drawing on constructivist learning theory, this research seeks to understand how teachers construct professional competence through self-directed learning, reflective teaching, and peer collaboration facilitated by digital platforms like ruang gtk. the study offers a contextual, subject-specific, and theory-driven contribution that has been largely absent in existing literature. methods this study employed a descriptive qualitative approach with a case study design to explore english teachers’ perceptions of the implementation of the ruang guru dan tenaga kependidikan (ruang gtk) platform. the research was conducted at two secondary schools in palopo, namely sman 2 palopo and smkn 1 palopo. this design was selected to obtain an in-depth understanding of how teachers utilize the platform’s features in the context of english language instruction. the participants consisted of twelve english teachers selected through purposive sampling, based on their active use and prior experience with the ruang gtk platform. six participants were from sman 2 palopo, and six from smkn 1 palopo. data were collected using three primary techniques: (1) semi-structured interviews guided by open-ended questions, (2) observations employing an observation checklist developed by the researcher, and (3) documentation, including screenshots and video recordings of teacher interactions with the platform. the interview guide and checklist were reviewed by two education experts to ensure content validity. the research procedure included participant recruitment, interview scheduling and execution, classroom observations during english lessons, and collection of relevant documentation. the focus was on exploring four key features of the ruang gtk platform: belajar berkelanjutan, karir dan kinerja, inspirasi pembelajaran, and dokumen rujukan. data analysis followed the interactive model of miles and huberman (1994) involving three steps: data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing. to ensure the credibility and trustworthiness of the findings, data triangulation was applied by comparing the results of interviews, observations, and documentation. this process enabled the identification of recurring patterns and supported the formulation of valid and comprehensive conclusions. results this study explores english teachers’ perceptions of the ruang gtk platform in senior and vocational high schools in palopo. data was collected through interviews, observations, and documentation involving 12 teachers from sman 2 and smkn 1 palopo. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, oktober 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 285 menu of “belajar berkelanjutan” all 12 teachers (100%) expressed appreciation for the diklat and pelatihan mandiri features due to their flexibility and accessibility. these features were preferred because they allowed teachers to engage in professional development without leaving the classroom. “diklat in ruang gtk does not interfere with student learning, can be accessed at any time, and is free of transport costs”. (t1 sma) “…participating in online training at ruang gtk is more flexible because it can be accessed at any time, unlike conventional training which requires me to leave the classroom for several days.” (t1 smk) 11 out of 12 (91%) teachers perceived that the platform provides meaningful support for ppg (pre-service professional education) teachers through access to modules and discussion forums. however, they considered it less useful or relevant for non-ppg teachers, as the content and features appeared more tailored to the needs of those in the ppg program. “sertifikasi pendidik feature can only be accessed by ppg participants...” (t3 sma) “this feature provided a complete guidebook or module to help me complete my tasks as a ppg participant. i had discussions with fellow ppg participants after learning from the self-training, and it increased my understanding.” (t2 smk) all 6 teachers in sma (100%) stated that the pelatihan mandiri feature is useful in enhancing pedagogical skills. however, 5 out of 6 smk teachers (83%) stated that the training content is too general and does not align well with the specific needs of vocational fields. “pelatihan mandiri helped me teach english better in new, practical ways. i learnt to adapt learning for different abilities of students, improve my teaching through selfevaluation, and share ideas with other teachers. (t6 sma) however, smk teachers highlighted that most pelatihan mandiri lacks vocational specificity. “most of the pelatihan mandiri content is for general teachers. i hardly found any material on english for tourism/marketing that was actually applicable.” (t3 smk) 9 out of 12 teachers (75%) engaged with the komunitas feature and considered it a helpful space to share ideas and build networks, although some mentioned limited time and motivation. “every time i participate in the mgmp english group discussion in the community feature, i always find a new perspective”. (t3 sma) “it is very helpful in finding a real and trusted community to discuss with fellow teachers in other cities.” (t4 smk) http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, oktober 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 286 menu of “karir dan kinerja” 8 out of 12 teachers (67%) reported using the pengelolaan kinerja feature to create and monitor their rencana hasil kerja (rhk). teachers who have used pengelolaan kinerja feature rate it as having a positive impact on creating a culture of accountability and more systematic reporting. this feature facilitates the preparation of the rhk (rencana hasil kerja), tracking of performance achievements, and communication between teachers and principals. “the performance management feature is about making the rhk... ruang gtk makes the whole process more transparent. every stage of the preparation of the rhk, input from the principal, and performance achievements can be clearly tracked”. (t6 sma) “..... making the rhk (rencana hasil kerja) forced me to be more specific in formulating indicators of my professionalism as a teacher.” (t4 smk) however, 2 out of 12 teachers (16%) mentioned that creating rhks was difficult and time-consuming. “making the rhk on the platform is difficult and adds more to our workload.” (t5 smk) regarding the refleksi kompetensi feature, all 12 teachers (100%) said they could not access it at all. “i can't access the refleksi kompetensi feature in ruang gtk.” (t3 sma) “i cannot access refleksi kompetensi in ruang gtk yet, maybe it is still under development”. (t4 smk) seleksi kepala sekolah feature in ruang gtk is part of the transformation of the digitalbased education leadership and career management system. it is still limited and requires socialization support. many teachers have not yet utilized this feature. “i did not participate in the selection because there were too many requirements...” (t2 t3 sma) i am still evaluating myself whether i have fulfilled all the criteria or not.” (t2 smk). menu of “inspirasi pembelajaran” 11 out of 12 teachers (92%) said that ide praktik, bukti karya, and video inspirasi inspired them to develop more engaging lesson plans. “video inspirasi feature facilitates teachers to create their own work such as articles, modules, learning practices in the form of videos or teaching modules.” (t1 sma) “the strategy from ide praktik that i adapted is recipe challenge.” (t5 smk) “i learnt to make interesting teaching media after seeing examples in bukti karya.” (t4 smk) 6 sma teachers (100%) found perangkat ajar useful and aligned with their curriculum, while 5 out of 6 smk teachers (83%) had to modify the content extensively to suit their http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, oktober 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 287 vocational subjects. “ruang gtk provides perangkat ajar in the flexible teaching tools feature, making it easy for me to adapt learning methods to students' learning styles, such as project-based learning for productive classes.” (t4 sma) “teaching tools are available, but i have to innovate my own for the tourism department.” (t1 smk) all teachers (100%) found the cp/atp documents were useful as planning frameworks but still required contextualization. “...it has been provided in the gtk room and then modified a little.” (t1 sma) “cp/atp from ruang gtk are quite flexible but i often modify the learning techniques.” (t1 smk) 10 out of 12 teachers (83%) used asesmen murid and kelas features to support instruction and group differentiation. “asesmen murid feature makes it easier for me to understand students' needs quickly.” (t6 sma) “asesmen murid is very helpful in identifying students when assigning study groups in class.” (t2 smk) “kelas feature helps me understand the dynamics of student participation.” (t4 sma) menu of “dokumen rujukan” all 12 teachers (100%) accessed the dokumen rujukan features, especially pengelolaan pembelajaran and peningkatan kompetensi, which provided guidance for curriculum and professional development. dokumen rujukan has 4 features. there are pengelolaan pembelajaran feature provides reference or guideline documents for implementing the merdeka curriculum. pengelolaan kinerja feature provides reference or guideline documents for developing the rhk (rencana hasil kerja). peningkatan kompetensi feature provides documents to improve teacher competencies. pengelolaan satuan pendidikan feature provides regulatory documents and guidebooks for managing educational institutions. teachers utilized documents to align practices with national standards. however, some noted limited integration of these documents into day-to-day school operations, particularly for performance evaluation. “the pengelolaan pembelajaran feature has documents such as the merdeka curriculum implementation guide. this becomes one of our teachers' discussion materials at teacher and school official meetings." (t3 sma) “one of the dokumen rujukan in the ruang gtk is the ministry of education's decree on the expertise spectrum of smk...” (t4 smk) “there are guidebooks to improve teacher competencies in the peningkatan kompetensi feature such as the operational guide for the teacher competency model”. (t5 smk) http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, oktober 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 288 “…. made us learn to understand the indicators in the report card and develop school programmed according to real needs.” (t5 sma) to complement the interview findings, an observation checklist was employed to examine the actual engagement of teachers with the ruang gtk platform in their daily professional routines. this observational data aimed to validate and enrich the interview responses by identifying patterns of usage, feature engagement, and instructional integration across the platform's various menus. the following outlines key insights derived from the observations. 9 out of 12 (75%) teachers regularly opened the ruang gtk platform either before or after teaching english lessons, showing that it is becoming part of their professional routine. nearly all teachers participated in government-organized training (diklat) and had experience with the certification features provided in the platform, reflecting a strong commitment to improving their professional qualifications. all teachers (100%) accessed the pelatihan mandiri feature, indicating high motivation for self-paced learning. similarly, the komunitas feature was actively used by most teachers to connect with peers, suggesting that the platform supports not only individual learning but also professional collaboration. only one teacher (8%) was involved in the principal selection feature, which is likely due to its limited relevance for classroom teachers. in terms of instructional use, only half of the teachers (50%) used teaching modules from the platform to support students’ understanding, showing that such content is still not fully integrated into classroom practice. however, all teachers (100%) made adaptations to the cp and atp based on student needs, such as using role play and differentiated instruction. this shows their awareness of learner diversity. additionally, all teachers (100%) used the platform's reference features, such as bukti karya, video inspirasi, and ide praktik, to seek teaching ideas, and nearly all used the kelas feature to assess student progress. the observation shows that the ruang gtk platform has become an integral part of teachers’ professional routines and is actively utilized to support competency development, collaboration, and the enhancement of instructional practices. while the level of integration into classroom activities varies, all teachers demonstrated a positive response and an awareness of the need to adapt their teaching to meet students’ diverse needs. these findings highlight the platform’s role in fostering professionalism and reflective teaching practices. based on the data obtained, all english teachers at both senior and vocational high schools in palopo generally view the ruang gtk platform as a valuable resource for supporting their professional responsibilities. all teachers reported that the platform helps them access training, exchange ideas, and find teaching inspiration. features such as pelatihan mandiri, komunitas, inspirasi pembelajaran menu and dokumen rujukan menu were seen as especially helpful, particularly by sma teachers who found them relevant to their instructional needs. however, smk teachers highlighted several limitations, especially the lack of content tailored to vocational subjects. for example, much of the training and teaching materials required significant adaptation before use in vocational classes. other issues included restricted access to certain features like refleksi kompetensi, http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, oktober 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 289 and minimal use of administrative tools such as seleksi kepala sekolah, which many teachers felt were not directly relevant to their roles. despite these challenges, teachers consistently demonstrated a willingness to engage with the platform. observational data also showed that ruang gtk is increasingly integrated into daily teaching routines, especially for accessing reference documents, evaluating students, and designing lesson plans. this indicates strong potential for the platform to support teacher growth in both individual and collaborative contexts. to ensure broader and more effective use, future platform development should focus on expanding content specific to vocational education, improving accessibility across all features, and providing practical guidance on how to integrate the platform into classroom instruction. with these improvements, ruang gtk can become a more inclusive and impactful tool for professional learning and instructional enhancement in line with the goals of the merdeka curriculum. discussion the discussion is structured according to the four main features of ruang gtk, as outlined by the ministry of primary and secondary education (moec) (2025): belajar berkelanjutan, karir dan kinerja, inspirasi pembelajaran, and dokumen rujukan. this section discusses the implications of the findings through the lens of constructivist learning theory (bruner, 1960; vygotsky, 1934; piaget, 1953; synder, 2009). menu of “belajar berkelanjutan” the belajar berkelanjutan menu, specifically the pelatihan mandiri and diklat features was perceived as flexible and beneficial for autonomous learning. this supports the constructivist idea that learners, including teachers, construct knowledge actively through experience and self-reflection bruner (bruner jerome, 1960), smk teachers expressed a lack of vocationally relevant content, indicating a misalignment between centralized content delivery and localized instructional needs. this is also supported by research from setiariny (setiariny, 2023) which states that ruang gtk is very useful for improvements in the quality of learning, both felt by students and educators in education unit. her research adopts davis (1989) technology acceptance model (tam) framework to explore the factors of acceptance of the merdeka mengajar platform (pmm) in general, by emphasizing teachers' general perceptions regarding the platform’s usefulness and ease of use. in contrast to this approach, this study specifically analyses english teachers' perceptions of the implementation of ruang gtk through a constructivist theory approach. and then, teachers perceive the sertifikasi pendidik feature on ruang gtk as beneficial mainly for those enrolled in the ppg program, offering useful modules and forums. however, non-ppg teachers find it less relevant due to limited access. from a constructivist perspective by bruner (bruner jerome, 1960), the feature lacks opportunities for active, reflective, and collaborative learning, making it less aligned with the principles of meaningful knowledge construction. this finding aligns with previous studies highlighting by marisana, iskandar and kurniawan (2023) the benefits of pmm in enhancing teacher competencies http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, oktober 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 290 through learning resources and collaboration but differs in terms of the limited accessibility of the certification feature, which remains restricted to certain groups. therefore, this feature needs to be developed to be more inclusive and support continuous professional learning for all teachers, in line with the spirit of the merdeka curriculum. and the last, komunitas feature fosters social collaboration as described by snyder, particularly through mgmp (english teacher working group) discussions and the exchange of contextualized teaching strategies. in line with constructivist learning theory particularly vygotsky (1978) social constructivism, the komunitas feature reflects the principle that knowledge construction is facilitated through meaningful social interaction. this finding is consistent with arnes (arnes, 2023) research, which highlights how the pmm platform supports a continuous learning ecosystem and sustains teacher engagement through its collaborative features. while arness’ research focused on the early use of the pmm platform in ppkn learning at the junior high level, this study explores english teachers’ perceptions of the ruang gtk platform as its evolved successor, highlighting the progression of educational platform research across subjects and contexts. menu of “karir dan kinerja” the karir dan kinerja menu, especially pengelolaan kinerja helped teachers monitor their professional goals. this feature aligns with piaget’s notion of structured cognitive development, where teachers plan and act within clearly defined frameworks. arnes (arnes, 2023) previous study also indicates that the ruang gtk platform encourages teachers to take a more active role in managing their professional development. but in this study analyze the use of pmm by civics teacher. however, the present study offers an additional perspective from vocational high school (smk) teachers, highlighting the need for greater flexibility in developing rhks that align with the specific characteristics of vocational education. however, the inaccessibility of the refleksi kompetensi feature indicates limitations in system integration and implementation readiness, in line with previous studies that revealed digital platforms often overlook user readiness sartikasari (2023). moreover, engagement with the seleksi kepala sekolah feature does not inherently reflect the application of constructivist principles, as its primary function serves as an administrative selection process rather than facilitating experiential or collaborative learning. however, the ability to understand and apply the theory is a hidden consideration in the assessment of learning leadership. candidates who can integrate the principles of constructivism into their vision, supervision and teacher development will have more value in the selection process. menu of “inspirasi pembelajaran” the inspirasi pembelajaran menu was considered highly useful, especially by sma teachers, for supporting instructional design. features such as ide praktik, bukti karya and video inspirasi reflect bruner’s theory that learning is enhanced through multiple representations and modeling. however, the gap between sma and smk teacher experiences demonstrates that digital content must be scaffolded to meet teachers' proximal http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, oktober 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 291 development zones vygotsky, (1978)). vocational teachers often modified general materials to fit their specific subjects, indicating an unmet demand for more contextualized resources. sma teachers valued the perangkat ajar and cp/atp features for offering ready-to-use materials that support classroom delivery. in contrast, smk teachers found the content too general and not fully aligned with vocational needs. this reflects bruner (bruner jerome, 1960) and piaget (piaget, 1952)constructivist view that learning requires contextual adaptation. when modifying materials, smk teachers actively reconstruct knowledge through experiential processes. stress the platform’s potential, while noting the need for content refinement and contextual adaptation for effective use in real classrooms lisvian and suliana (2022) . however, the study focused only on the analysis of elementary school teachers and therefore does not fully represent the needs of teachers at the vocational high school (smk) level. the asesmen murid and kelas feature plays a crucial role in facilitating formative assessment and instructional reflection. senior high school teachers primarily use it to monitor students’ levels of understanding, enabling them to identify learning gaps and adapt their teaching strategies accordingly. in contrast, vocational high school teachers apply the feature more strategically by organizing learning groups based on vocational departments and specific competencies, ensuring alignment with the practical and technical skills demanded in each field. this targeted use demonstrates a more integrated approach to differentiated and contextualized learning, particularly within vocational education. in line with vygotsky’s (1978) scaffolding theory, this feature allows teachers to tailor instructional support to students’ cognitive development levels. the value of assessment tools in helping teachers interpret learning outcomes and design more focused and effective teaching strategies aritonang and aziz (2023). however, their study analyzed the merdeka mengajar platform (pmm), while the present study focuses on ruang gtk, which is a transformation of pmm. menu of “dokumen rujukan” the dokumen rujukan menu functions as a key support tool for teachers in engaging with collaborative planning, curriculum alignment, and professional development. it provides essential reference documents used in peer discussions, community forums, and instructional material development, aligning with vygotsky (1986) theory of social constructivism, which emphasises learning through interaction and collaboration. for example, smk teachers utilise these documents to co-create vocational modules and authentic assessments, reflecting the zone of proximal development (zpd) through peer support. features like pengelolaan pembelajaran and pengelolaan kinerja help teachers interpret curriculum structures and formulate performance targets, in line with bruner (bruner jerome, 1960) scaffolding theory that stresses structured guidance in developing independent competence. meanwhile, the peningkatan kompetensi feature supports reflective, autonomous learning through modules and guidelines, though some teachers call for more interactive and accessible content. the pengelolaan satuan pendidikan feature http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, oktober 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 292 further enables school-wide collaboration using tools such as the education report card. these findings are supported by previous studies which confirm that the ruang gtk platform enhances teacher capacity, curriculum literacy, and collaborative culture, while also highlighting the need for improved contextual relevance and usability by arnes (arnes, 2023) and setiariny (setiariny, 2023). however, both studies focused on general teachers’ level and were conducted in urban areas or regions with adequate infrastructure. conclusion in summary, based on the overall discussion, it can be concluded that english teachers at sman 2 and smkn 1 palopo generally responded positively to the implementation of the ruang gtk platform, especially features that support professional development and classroom instruction. the belajar berkelanjutan menu particularly pelatihan mandiri and diklat feature was seen as flexible and effective for independent teacher learning. the inspirasi pembelajaran menu and komunitas feature were considered useful in promoting reflection and collaboration, aligning with constructivist principles of experiential and social learning. similarly, while dokumen rujukan supported collaborative planning and curriculum alignment, teachers expressed the need for more interactive, accessible, and relevant content. however, several important issues related to underutilized features in the implementation of the ruang gtk platform involve limitations in relevance, accessibility, and functionality. in the perangkat ajar feature, teachers reported that the content remains too general and has not been fully adapted to the specific needs of vocational schools at the smk level. furthermore, the refleksi kompetensi feature is currently not functionally available, thus failing to support teachers’ professional evaluation and reflection processes effectively. meanwhile, the sertifikasi pendidik feature is also perceived as less beneficial for non-ppg teachers, as it only displays personal information without offering concrete support for their professional development. this study is limited to a qualitative analysis of english teachers in two schools in palopo and may not fully represent the perspectives of teachers in other subjects or regions, especially those with differing infrastructure or teaching environments. further studies are recommended to explore the implementation of ruang gtk across diverse subject areas and regions especially rural or underserved communities. quantitative approaches could also complement these findings and assess the broader impact of the platform on teacher performance and student learning outcomes. future research should also investigate how constructivist frameworks can be more deeply embedded in platform design to ensure sustained and equitable professional development for all teachers. acknowledgment the authors extend their heartfelt and sincere appreciation to the twelve english teachers who participated in this study with dedication, generously offering their time, sharing their experiences, and contributing valuable insights. gratitude is also conveyed to the school authorities for granting permission and fostering a supportive environment http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, oktober 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 293 throughout the research process. this study would not have been successfully completed without the collaboration, openness, and assistance of both the participants and the institution. references anggraini, g., & winarti, w. (2023). problematika penggunaan platform merdeka mengajar (pmm) pada daerah tanpa jaringan listrik (studi di smpn satu atap 2 mentaya hulu). bitnet: jurnal pendidikan teknologi informasi, 8(2), 103–112. https://doi.org/10.33084/bitnet.v8i2.5534 aritonang, & aziz, s. (2023). utilization of assessment features in platform merdeka mengajar (pmm) in the assessment of indonesian language learning. jurnal pendidikan, 134–141. arnes, a. (2023). edukatif : jurnal ilmu pendidikan analisis pemanfaatan platform merdeka mengajar oleh guru ppkn untuk akselerasi implementasi kurikulum merdeka. 5(1), 60– 70. bruner jerome. (1960). the process of education. london: harvard university press. daniels, h. (2016). vygotsky and pedagogy. vygotsky and pedagogy, 1–198. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315617602 davis, f. d. (1989). perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and user acceptance of information technology. mis quarterly: management information systems, 13(3), 319– 339. https://doi.org/10.2307/249008 dewa, suarni, a. (2022). analisis kurikulum merdeka mengajar dan platform merdeka belajar untuk mewujudkan pendidikan yang berkualitas. 8, 238–244. kementerian pendidikan dasar dan menengah. (2025). apa itu ruang gtk? lisvian sari, a. s., cicik pramesti, suryanti, & riki suliana r.s. (2022). sosialisasi platform merdeka mengajar sebagai wadah belajar dan berkreasi guru. jurnal penamas adi buana, 6(01), 63–72. https://doi.org/10.36456/penamas.vol6.no01.a6105 marisana, d., iskandar, s., & kurniawan, d. t. (2023). penggunaan platform merdeka mengajar untuk meningkatkan kompetensi guru di sekolah dasar. jurnal basicedu, 7(1), 139–150. https://doi.org/10.31004/basicedu.v7i1.4363 melasarianti, l., marahayu, n. m., yulianti, u. h., & sholikhati, n. i. (2024). aliterasi : jurnal pendidikan , bahasa dan sastra analisis implementasi kurikulum merdeka belajar tingkat sma dan smk negeri di kabupaten banyumas. 5(01). miles and huberman. (1994). an analytic approach for discovery. sage publications, vol. 1304, pp. 89–92. piaget, j. (1952). the origins of intelligence in children. in international universities press. new york, usa: international universities press. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0051916 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, oktober 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 294 sartikasari, d. (2023). pengaruh penggunaan platform merdeka mengajar terhadap kesiapan guru dalam implementasi kurikulum merdeka di gugus gatot subroto, kecematan unggaran timur. international journal of technology, 47(1), 100950. setiariny, e. (2023). pemanfaatan platform merdeka mengajar sebagai upaya meningkatkan kualitas pembelajaran. jurnal lingkar mutu pendidikan, 20(1), 23–33. https://doi.org/10.54124/jlmp.v20i1.81 synder, m. m. (2009). instructional-design theory to guide the creation of online learning communities for adults. techtrends, 53(1), 48–56. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11528009-0237-2 vygotsky, l. (1986). thought and language. the mit press. https://doi.org/10.1093/mind/os-xvi.62.181 vygotsky, l. s. (1978). mind in society: the development of higher psychological processes. in harvard university press. london, england: harvard university press. wantiana, i., & mellisa, m. (2023). kendala guru dalam penerapan kurikulum merdeka. jurnal basicedu, 7(3), 1461–1465. https://doi.org/10.31004/basicedu.v7i3.5149 zahwa, n., & nabilah, k. f. (2022). kurikulum merdeka untuk meningkatkan kualitas pembelajaran. jurnal pendidikan dan konseling (jpdk), 4(6), 13404–13408. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, january 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 295 implementation of english teaching methods under the merdeka curriculum: a case study of junior high schools in palopo andi hasri tri ulandari1, rustan s.antaria2, & wisran3 1,2 universitas islam negeri palopo 2305040011@iainpalopo.ac.id abstract this study aims to analyze the application of english teaching methods based on the merdeka curriculum at the junior high school level in palopo city. the main focus of this study is to identify the methods used, the barriers faced by teachers, and their perceptions of these methods. this study employs a mixed-methods approach with an explanatory sequential design. data were collected through observations, questionnaires, and interviews with english teachers at four schools, two public and two private. the results indicate that private schools tend to be more proactive in implementing methods such as project-based learning and communicative language teaching, whereas public schools remain dominated by conventional methods. the barriers faced by teachers are divided into three categories: internal, external, and contextual. however, teachers have a positive perception of the merdeka curriculum and demonstrate a willingness to develop more contextual teaching methods. this study recommends the need for ongoing training, improved infrastructure, and policy support to optimize the implementation of the merdeka curriculum. keywords: merdeka curriculum, english teaching methods, barriers, teacher perceptions introduction the indonesian education system has been undergoing significant transformation, particularly with the introduction of the merdeka curriculum, a policy designed to promote student-centered, flexible, and contextual learning (abdul fattah nasution, setia ningsih, mona febrica silva, leli suharti, & jekson parulian harahap, 2023). this curriculum encourages schools and teachers to design instructional activities that suit students' characteristics, learning goals, and real-life contexts (widodo et al., 2023). in english language teaching (elt), this opens opportunities for teachers to move beyond traditional models and integrate more interactive and authentic teaching methods. as a result, methods such as project-based learning (pjbl), inquiry-based learning (ibl), and communicative language teaching (clt) are promoted as effective alternatives to lecturebased approaches . recent studies emphasize that the success of curriculum innovation lies not only in the design of the policy but also in its implementation at the classroom level, where http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 mailto:2305040011@iainpalopo.ac.id copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, january 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 296 teachers serve as the key agents of change (gumus et al., 2018). in the context of english language teaching (elt), teachers are expected to shift their roles from knowledge transmitters to facilitators who support students in constructing meaning through contextual, dialogic, and interactive activities (darasawang, 2006). however, such transformation requires not only a change in mindset but also strong institutional support, continuous professional development, and adequate access to resources (mart, 2013). furthermore, the integration of active learning methods within national curricula has become a global trend, as evidenced by curriculum reforms in countries such as finland, singapore, and south korea (khromchenko & shutilo, 2021). these countries have placed increasing emphasis on student agency, collaborative learning, and problem-solving abilities to meet the demands of the 21st century. indonesia’s merdeka curriculum reflects a similar aspiration, but its success depends on how effectively teachers in diverse school contexts—particularly in under-resourced or rural areas—can implement the intended pedagogical shift. thus, investigating the actual practices of teachers in public and private junior high schools becomes essential to understand the readiness and challenges in adopting active learning frameworks in english instruction. these methods are rooted in constructivist theory, which sees learning as a social and contextual process (wali et al., 2022). in practice, however, not all teachers are fully ready or equipped to implement such approaches. many teachers still rely on direct teaching due to limited training, lack of confidence, and institutional constraints. additionally, public and private schools differ in terms of infrastructure, professional development support, and cultural readiness to adopt more dynamic classroom practices (purwani & budiraharjo, 2024). this situation raises concern about the real extent of merdeka curriculum implementation in english classrooms, particularly in junior high schools. previous studies have highlighted both opportunities and challenges in implementing the merdeka curriculum. aini et al., (2022) found that while teachers generally support the curriculum’s principles, they often struggle to translate them into concrete lesson activities. ela komala et al., (2025) showed that private school teachers are more likely to adopt pjbl and ibl, supported by internal school initiatives and leadership. maulana et al., (2025) emphasized that although teachers demonstrate positive attitudes toward studentcentered learning, barriers such as limited digital literacy and lack of time hinder effective implementation. however, these studies rarely focus on english language teaching specifically, and few compare implementation across school types (public vs private) within a single local context. the implementation of english teaching methods under the merdeka curriculum is complex and multidimensional. it involves teacher knowledge, beliefs, and external support systems (abdallah, 2024). moreover, teachers’ perceptions, including their cognitive understanding, emotional attitudes, and behavioral intentions, influence how they adopt and adapt new teaching methods (gumartifa et al., 2023). understanding how teachers in different school environments respond to curriculum innovation is essential for ensuring more equitable and effective language education practices. therefore, this study aims to analyze the implementation of english language teaching methods based on the merdeka curriculum in junior high schools in palopo. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, january 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 297 specifically, it explores (1) the teaching methods used in public and private schools, (2) the internal, external, and contextual barriers faced by teachers, and (3) teachers’ perceptions toward the methods they apply. by identifying these factors, the study seeks to contribute to the improvement of elt practices and support more effective curriculum implementation. methods this study employed a mixed-methods approach with an explanatory sequential design, where quantitative data were collected and analyzed first, followed by qualitative data to provide deeper understanding (othman et al., 2020). this approach was chosen because it allowed the researcher to explain the phenomenon of implementing english teaching methods based on the merdeka curriculum not only through numerical data but also through the lived experiences and perceptions of teachers in the field. the research was conducted at four junior high schools in palopo city, consisting of two public schools (smpn 3 and smpn 4) and two private islamic schools (smpit insan madani and smpit ibnu sina). these schools were selected purposively, considering that their varying institutional statuses and characteristics could reflect different levels of readiness and institutional support for implementing the merdeka curriculum. each school was represented by one grade viii english teacher, resulting in a total of four teachers as the main informants in this study. data were collected using three main techniques: classroom observation, questionnaire distribution, and semi-structured interviews. observations were conducted twice at each school using a checklist containing 19 observation aspects, developed from constructivist theory by vygotsky and piaget, the language teaching approach by richards & rodgers, and key principles of the merdeka curriculum, such as active learning, differentiation, reflection, and project-based learning (siregar et al., 2024). these observations were then analyzed qualitatively by narrating the findings descriptively and linking the observed teaching patterns with relevant theories and principles. meanwhile, the questionnaire was used to explore the barriers faced by teachers in implementing teaching methods. it was developed in the form of a likert scale and analyzed quantitatively using descriptive analysis. items in the questionnaire were grouped into three main categories of barriers: internal barriers (related to teachers' readiness and competence), external barriers (such as management support, facilities, and training), and contextual barriers (including student characteristics, classroom conditions, and school socio-cultural context). to deepen the findings from the questionnaire and observation, the researcher conducted semi-structured interviews with all teachers. these interviews aimed to explore teachers’ perceptions regarding the implementation of english teaching methods, and were analyzed through three dimensions: cognitive (teachers' understanding of methods and the curriculum), affective (attitudes and beliefs toward implementation), and conative (intentions or behavioral tendencies), based on attitude theory from triandis and fishbein & ajzen (manickavasagam & surwade, 2017). the interview guide was developed by the researcher and validated by an english language teaching expert from a public university in south sulawesi. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, january 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 298 in analyzing the data, the researcher used data source triangulation by combining the results from observations, questionnaires, and interviews to ensure accuracy and richness of information. the findings from all three instruments were compared to identify consistencies, complementarities, or even discrepancies between what teachers practiced and what they thought or felt. this approach enabled the researcher to obtain a more comprehensive picture of how english teaching methods were implemented under the merdeka curriculum in both public and private school settings. results the implementation of english language teaching method under merdeka curriculum in public and private school. this study aims to analyze the implementation of english teaching methods in the context of the merdeka curriculum. the research subjects are english teachers in grade viii at four junior high schools in palopo city, namely smpn 3 palopo, smpn 4 palopo, smpit insan madani, and smpit ibnu sina. observations were conducted twice in each of the four schools to assess the implementation of the merdeka curriculum-based english teaching method. a total of 19 learning aspects were observed, but for the purposes of this article, only the main aspects representing the principles of active, contextual, and reflective learning are presented. these aspects also reflect the application of approaches such as project-based learning (pjbl), inquiry-based learning (ibl), communicative language teaching (clt), as well as the use of digital media and differentiation practices. table 1. summary of learning aspect implementation based on observation key aspects of learning smpn 3 smpn 4 insan madani ibnu sina active participation of students in asking/answering questions √ √ √ √ project-based learning, discussions, or presentations x √ √ √ use of digital media (lcd, video, applications) x √ √ x providing space for reflection and student feedback √ √ √ √ variations on lecture methods (discussions, demonstrations, clt) x √ √ √ adjusting tasks or materials to students' needs x x x x mention or use of cp and atp x √ x x note : √ = visible, x = not visible table 1 shows that that private schools are more active in implementing innovative learning methods in line with the spirit of the merdeka curriculum, such as the use of digital media, reflective activities, and project-based learning. meanwhile, public schools show limitations in terms of method variation and differentiation, and are not yet optimal http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, january 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 299 in using cp and atp as learning references. challenges barriers by teachers in implementing teaching methods the questionnaire was used to identify the barriers faced by teachers in implementing the merdeka curriculum-based english teaching method. this instrument consisted of 18 statements with a likert scale and was grouped into three categories of obstacles: internal, external, and contextual. the results were analyzed descriptively based on the average scores for each category in four schools. table 2. average teacher barrier scores in teaching method implementation school internal barriers external barriers contextual barriers smpn 3 palopo 4.00 3.50 3.33 smpn 4 palopo 3.25 2.88 2.67 smpit insan madani 2.25 2.00 2.00 smpit ibnu sina 2.00 2.25 2.17 likert scale: 1 (strongly disagree) – 5 (strongly agree) the data in table 2 shows that internal barriers, such as limited understanding of innovative methods and low confidence in applying them, are most commonly faced by teachers in public schools. external barriers, such as lack of training, limited technological facilities, and weak managerial support, were also found to be quite high in the two public schools. meanwhile, private schools showed relatively lower scores in all three categories, indicating better readiness and support in implementing the kurikulum merdeka learning approach. teachers’ perceptions of the implementation of english teaching methods based on the merdeka curriculum. interviews were conducted with four english teachers from each school to explore their perceptions of the implementation of english teaching methods in the merdeka curriculum. the interviews were analyzed based on three dimensions: cognitive (understanding), affective (attitude), and conative (intention/action). the interview results showed variations in understanding, emotional responses, and readiness between teachers in public and private schools. table 3. summary of interview themes based on perception aspects aspect findings cognitive most teachers were familiar with pbl, ibl, and discovery learning, although to varying degrees. some had read about them or attended webinars, but only a few had fully implemented them in class. teachers acknowledged the flexible and student-centered nature of the merdeka curriculum, but many still relied on traditional methods like lecturing due to limited understanding and experience. teachers from private schools appeared more confident in applying active and contextual methods. affective teachers expressed a positive attitude toward the implementation of new teaching http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, january 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 300 methods, considering them effective for improving students’ english skills. they noted increased student engagement and enthusiasm during project-based activities. however, some teachers still felt uncertain due to lack of consistent results and limited support. teachers from schools with stronger institutional backing (e.g., mgmp or in-house training) felt more prepared and motivated. conative all teachers showed a strong intention to continue using innovative methods, even if not mandated. they emphasized the importance of making learning enjoyable and participatory. some adapted the methods to suit time constraints, infrastructure, and student diversity, such as simplifying projects or using local collaborative models. teachers also reported conducting informal reflections to evaluate and improve their teaching strategies. the table above shows that teachers from private schools have a stronger and more practical understanding of innovative teaching methods such as communicative language teaching (clt), project-based learning (pjbl), and inquiry-based learning (ibl). teachers from smpit insan madani stated: “i have used pjbl before, for example when students made introductory videos. it was very effective.” this shows that they have already been practicing the merdeka curriculum approach, even before it was implemented nationally. on the other hand, teachers from public schools are still in the process of learning and understanding innovative methods. a teacher from smpn 3 said: “i have heard and read a little about pbl and ibl, but in practice i don't really understand it yet.” this confirms that there is a gap between concept and practice in public schools that needs to be filled with more practical training. from an affective perspective, all teachers showed a positive attitude toward the merdeka curriculum. however, teachers from public schools felt confused about how to get started and were constrained by facilities, as expressed by a teacher from smpn 4: “it's positive, but sometimes i don't know where to start.” meanwhile, teachers from private schools feel that active methods are in line with the characteristics of their students and school culture. in the conative dimension, all teachers expressed their intention to implement innovative methods, but with conditions. teachers in public schools mentioned the importance of training and support from the principal. teachers at smpit ibnu sina stated: “if i am given examples of lesson plans and modules, i will definitely try them.” meanwhile, teachers from private schools emphasized that they will continue to apply innovative approaches, even if the curriculum changes. overall, the interviews showed that readiness to implement the merdeka curriculumbased teaching method was influenced not only by teachers' conceptual understanding, but also by their attitudes, beliefs, and the institutional support available. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, january 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 301 discussion the findings of this study demonstrate that the implementation of english language teaching methods under the merdeka curriculum in junior high schools varies significantly between public and private school. data collected through classroom observations, questionnaires, and interviews show that although some instructional practices align with the core principles of the merdeka curriculum namely active, reflective, differentiated, and contextual learning. the implementation remains inconsistent across different school contexts. teachers in private schools, particularly at smpit insan madani and smpit ibnu sina, were more confident in applying methods such as project-based learning (pjbl), inquirybased learning (ibl), and collaborative learning. these schools successfully integrated creative student projects, open discussions, and the use of diverse learning media to promote engagement (darmawanti, 2021). in contrast, teachers in public schools such as smpn 3 and smpn 4 primarily relied on direct teaching with limited student interaction. this discrepancy suggests a significant gap in implementation readiness between public and private schools, likely influenced by differences in institutional support, leadership autonomy, and access to resources. the questionnaire results revealed several challenges in implementing english teaching methods aligned with the merdeka curriculum. these barriers were categorized into internal, external, and contextual aspect. internal barriers included limited understanding of innovative methods such as pjbl and ibl, reliance on traditional approaches, and low teacher confidence in designing reflective and student-centered learning (bachtiar & puspitasari, 2024). these issues were especially pronounced in public schools, with smpn 3 reporting the highest average score for internal barriers. external barriers related to inadequate professional development, limited access to learning media, and weak school leadership support (ng, 2018). many teachers stated they had never received formal training on the merdeka curriculum and had to rely on independent learning. this lack of systemic support creates a disconnect between curriculum expectations and the actual instructional capacity of teachers. meanwhile, private school teachers reported stronger support systems, such as regular in-house training, collaborative teaching forums, and access to digital tools. contextual barriers arose from student characteristics and classroom realities. for example, some students were unaccustomed to group collaboration or lacked access to digital devices for project-based tasks (lestari, 2023). teachers also cited time constraints and dense schedules as challenges to implementing more exploratory activities. as one teacher remarked, “not all students have smartphones, so i modified the project into a poster instead.” this highlights the teachers’ willingness to adapt active learning principles to fit local realities. interviews with teachers provided deeper insights into their perceptions, responses, and intentions regarding the implementation of teaching methods based on merdeka curriculum. in terms of cognition, private school teachers demonstrated stronger understanding of student-centered approaches such as pjbl and ibl. they were able to describe practical classroom applications, such as having students create brochures, http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, january 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 302 perform dialogues, or carry out culturally contextualized activities. public school teachers, however, were still exploring these methods and expressed a need for more structured guidance. in the affective domain, most teachers expressed a positive attitude toward the merdeka curriculum, noting increased student engagement and confidence when using interactive methods. however, teachers from public schools also expressed hesitation, citing inconsistent results and a lack of habitual use of reflective practices. in the conative dimension, all teachers expressed a willingness to continue implementing innovative teaching approaches, even if institutional support was limited. teachers reported adapting methods to match student needs, available resources, and instructional time. some simplified projects or substituted alternative activities to maintain student engagement while still fostering active learning. these findings reinforce the core of constructivist learning theory, particularly the need for scaffolding not only for students, but also for teachers (siregar et al., (2024). without sufficient support through professional development, learning communities, and technical mentoring, teachers may struggle to internalize and apply student-centered pedagogy in meaningful ways. additionally, fullan (2007) theory of educational change highlights that curriculum reform requires more than structural policy it requires equipping practitioners with the capacity to implement innovations effectively. when teacher autonomy is granted without parallel investment in pedagogical mastery, reversion to conventional methods becomes inevitable (dakhalan & tanucan, 2024). the study has several practical implications. first, it underscores the importance of strengthening institutional support, particularly in public schools, through targeted training, access to learning tools, and supportive leadership. secondly, contextual adaptation such as integrating local cultural practices and flexible project formats should be encouraged to ensure that the merdeka curriculum remains inclusive and relevant to diverse classroom realities. lastly, the results highlight the critical role of reflective teaching, digital literacy, and contextual sensitivity in bridging the gap between curriculum design and classroom implementation. as such, this study contributes to a growing body of knowledge that calls for integrative, teacher-centered strategies to ensure the success of curriculum transformation in english language teaching. conclusion this study investigated the implementation of english language teaching methods under the merdeka curriculum across four junior high schools in palopo, consisting of two public and two private institutions. the findings from classroom observations, questionnaires, and teacher interviews revealed significant variation in teaching practices, with private school teachers demonstrating greater readiness and innovation in applying student-centered, contextual, and active learning methods. meanwhile, public school teachers were found to rely more on conventional approaches, often due to internal barriers such as limited understanding of alternative methods and external constraints like inadequate training and facilities. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 3, january 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 303 the results also indicated that teachers generally held positive attitudes toward the merdeka curriculum, especially in terms of its potential to increase student engagement and learning relevance. however, the successful implementation of this curriculum was found to be highly dependent on the interplay between individual teacher competence, institutional support, and classroom realities. internal, external, and contextual barriers must be addressed in a systemic way to ensure that policy expectations translate effectively into classroom practice. given these findings, it is essential for educational stakeholders particularly curriculum designers, school leaders, and policymakers to provide ongoing training, mentoring, and access to teaching resources that support the development of innovative pedagogical practices. encouraging reflective teaching and context-sensitive adaptation will further enable teachers to meet the goals of the merdeka curriculum and foster more meaningful, participatory english language learning experiences. acknowledgment the authors would like to express their deepest gratitude to the four teachers participating in the research and the school for giving permission to conduct the research. without the support and assistance of both parties, this research would not have been completed properly. references abdallah, m. m. s. 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(2022). methods of english language teaching: a review. motifs : a peer reviewed international journal of english studies, 8(1), 86–97. https://doi.org/10.5958/2454-1753.2022.00011.3 widodo, s., rilianti, m. m., & fathoni, a. (2023). , wulida a., hudaadhy p., najwa, journal of kebijakan kurikulum merdeka dan implementasinya di sekolah dasar. 191. –(2), 1762, professional elementary education https://doi.org/10.46306/jpee.v2i2.48 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 1, january 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 241 cooperative integrated reading and composition (circ) and learning activeness: their effect on students’ reading comprehension in junior high school aelista dwi wahyuni1*, hanni yukamana2, & mulyadi3 1,2,3 universitas pgri palembang, palembang, indonesia aelistasyifa@gmail.com abstract this study examines the effect of the cooperative integrated reading and composition (circ) method and students’ learning activeness on the reading comprehension of seventhgrade students at smpn 3 rantau bayur. using a quantitative experimental design, two groups were involved: an experimental group taught with circ and a control group taught using conventional methods. students in each group were further classified into high and low learning activeness categories. data were collected through pre-tests and post-tests for reading comprehension, and learning activeness was assessed through observation checklists. the results, analyzed using two-way anova, indicated that: (1) the circ method significantly improved students’ reading comprehension, (2) learning activeness had a significant positive effect on reading comprehension, and (3) there was no significant interaction between the teaching method and learning activeness. these findings suggest that both circ and learning activeness independently contribute to better reading comprehension, making circ an effective strategy for enhancing reading skills in junior high school students. keywords: circ, learning activeness, reading comprehension, cooperative learning introduction english, which has long been established as a global language and is widely acknowledged as an essential medium for international communication among people of different linguistic and cultural backgrounds (crystal, 2000), plays a particularly important role in indonesia’s national education system. it is taught as a compulsory subject beginning from junior high school up to senior high school, with the ultimate aim of equipping students with the necessary linguistic competence to access knowledge, exchange ideas, and participate actively in both local and global contexts. however, despite its strategic significance, many indonesian junior high school students, especially those in the seventh grade who are at the initial stage of formal english learning, still encounter persistent challenges in reading comprehension (alderson, 2000; nuttall, 1996). these difficulties include recognizing main ideas, understanding supporting details, inferring implied meanings, decoding unfamiliar vocabulary, and responding http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 mailto:aelistasyifa@gmail.c copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 1, january 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 242 appropriately to comprehension questions (grabe & stoller, 2002; grellet, 2004; tran et al., 2025). majdi et al., (2025) similarly highlight challenges such as dealing with complex texts, unfamiliar vocabulary, time constraints, and occasional issues with group dynamics. such problems are further aggravated by the prevalence of traditional teachercentered instructional practices that prioritize lectures, drills, and passive reception of knowledge over interactive learning (brown, 2001; harmer, 2007). in addition, the limited level of students’ classroom participation also contributes to the issue. learners often hesitate to ask questions, share opinions, or engage meaningfully with the learning process due to low motivation, lack of confidence, and feelings of boredom (oxford, 1990; andrade & du, 2007; asrifan et al., 2021). all of these factors result in low achievement and diminished enthusiasm for english learning. on the other hand, prasetia et al., (2024) emphasize that students’ reading issues require the development of critical thinking and text-structure awareness. therefore, to address these intertwined problems, there arises a strong pedagogical need for adopting an instructional approach that simultaneously improves students’ reading comprehension and enhances their learning activeness (aini, 2025). one promising method that fulfills these requirements is the cooperative integrated reading and composition (circ) strategy (stevens et al, 1987; slavin, 2005). developed by stevens and colleagues in 1987, circ is a cooperative learning model that emphasizes peer collaboration, group accountability, and integration of reading with writing. it uses structured activities such as reading together, summarizing, questioning, peer feedback, and composition tasks. this strategy transforms reading from a solitary act into a dynamic, interactive, and socially meaningful experience. numerous studies have shown that circ not only improves students’ academic performance but also fosters motivation, confidence, and critical thinking skills. in this regard, the present study is designed to investigate empirically the extent to which the implementation of the circ method and the variation of students’ learning activeness contribute to their reading comprehension outcomes. the findings are expected to provide valuable insights for english teachers in selecting appropriate teaching strategies, designing student-centered learning environments, and ultimately enhancing the quality of english instruction in indonesian junior high schools, particularly in rural areas such as smpn 3 rantau bayur. reading is a language skill that requires complex competence to obtain the information presented in a text (nur, 2021). reading comprehension, as one of the core components of english language skills, requires not only the ability to decode written texts but also the higher-order competence to interpret meaning, connect ideas, and apply critical reasoning (grabe & stoller, 2002; smith, 2005). scholars such as brown, (2004) and carrell, (1989) argue that reading is both a cognitive and metacognitive process that involves the interaction between textual input and the reader’s prior knowledge, strategies, and motivation. meanwhile, hasibuan & afnita (2023) describe reading as a cognitive activity aimed at finding information within a text or written material. in the indonesian junior high school context, however, reading comprehension remains one of the most difficult skills for students to master. one major reason is their http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 1, january 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 243 lack of sufficient vocabulary knowledge (tarigan, 2014). safitri (2025) further explains that students often struggle to understand texts, particularly in identifying the main idea, drawing conclusions, and connecting information across different paragraphs. unfortunately, the instructional approaches adopted in schools do not adequately foster active engagement, collaborative learning, or self-regulated strategies (pang, 2013). as a result, many students rely on superficial reading practices in which they merely translate or memorize words without grasping the underlying meaning, structure, or purpose of the text (goodman, 1967). this issue highlights the urgent need for pedagogical approaches that promote deeper engagement with reading and support students in developing the skills necessary for meaningful comprehension. methods this study employed a quantitative experimental design with a two-way anova framework to examine the effects of the cooperative integrated reading and composition (circ) method and students’ learning activeness on reading comprehension. the research involved two groups: 1. experimental group taught using the circ method. 2. control group taught using a conventional teacher-centered approach. each group was further divided into high learning activeness (hla) and low learning activeness (lla) subgroups based on observation checklist scores. this design allowed for analysis of the main effects of teaching method and learning activeness, as well as their interaction effect. participants the population consisted of all seventh-grade students at smpn 3 rantau bayur in the 2024/2025 academic year. the sample was selected using purposive sampling to ensure comparability between groups. a total of 60 students participated, divided equally into the experimental and control groups. two instruments were used: 1. reading comprehension test a multiple-choice test assessing narrative text comprehension. the test measured students’ ability to identify main ideas, vocabulary in context, supporting details, and make inferences. test validity was confirmed through expert judgment and item analysis, and reliability was measured using cronbach’s alpha, yielding a high reliability coefficient. 2. learning activeness observation checklist. a structured observation tool measuring participation, responsiveness, questionasking, group contribution, and attentiveness. scores from the checklist were used to categorize students into hla and lla groups. the study was carried out in several stages. first, a pre-test was administered to both groups to measure their baseline reading comprehension ability. during the treatment phase, the experimental group received reading instruction through the cooperative integrated reading and composition (circ) method over six meetings, which included activities such as cooperative group reading, summarizing, answering questions, and providing peer feedback. meanwhile, the control group was taught using the traditional lecture method. throughout the treatment phase, students’ learning activeness was observed using an observation checklist. finally, a post-test was administered to both groups to assess their improvement in reading comprehension data from the pre-test and post-test were analyzed using two-way anova to test: 1. the main effect of the teaching method on reading comprehension. 2. the main effect of learning activeness on reading comprehension. 3. the interaction effect between teaching method and learning activeness. the normality of the data was tested using the kolmogorov–smirnov test, http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 1, january 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 244 and homogeneity of variance was tested using levene’s test before running anova. all statistical analyses were conducted using spss version 29 with a significance level of 0.05. results the study examined the effect of the cooperative integrated reading and composition (circ) method and students’ learning activeness on the reading comprehension of seventh-grade students at smpn 3 rantau bayur. data were collected from 60 students who were equally divided into experimental and control groups. table 1. pre-test and post-test scores group n pre-test mean (sd) post-test mean (sd) gain score experimental (circ) 30 56.67 (±8.89) 77.33 (±7.91) +20.66 control (conventional) 30 57.17 (±8.50) 68.50 (±7.72) +11.33 table 1 presents the pre-test and post-test scores of both the experimental and control groups. the pre-test results indicate that the two groups started at a relatively similar level of reading comprehension, with the experimental group obtaining a mean score of 56.67 (sd = ±8.89) and the control group obtaining a mean score of 57.17 (sd = ±8.50). the close similarity in their initial performance suggests that both groups had comparable baseline abilities prior to the intervention, which strengthens the validity of the subsequent comparisons. following the treatment, the experimental group, which was taught using the circ method, showed a marked improvement, reaching a mean post-test score of 77.33 (sd = ±7.91). in contrast, the control group, taught through conventional lecture-based methods, obtained a lower mean post-test score of 68.50 (sd = ±7.72). this indicates that while both groups experienced progress, the experimental group demonstrated a more substantial gain in reading comprehension. the gain scores highlight this difference more clearly. the experimental group achieved a gain of +20.66 points, almost twice the improvement of the control group, which recorded only +11.33 points. this substantial gap in learning gains provides strong evidence of the effectiveness of the circ method in enhancing reading comprehension compared to conventional teaching practices. moreover, the smaller standard deviation in the experimental group’s post-test scores suggests that circ not only raised overall performance but also promoted more consistent achievement among students. this implies that the method may help reduce performance disparities within a classroom, supporting weaker learners while still benefiting stronger ones. the results are further supported by the two-way anova analysis, which confirmed a statistically significant difference (p < 0.05) between the groups. taken together, these findings suggest that circ is not merely an alternative but a superior instructional strategy for improving reading comprehension. it fosters both higher learning gains and more uniform achievement http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 1, january 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 245 across students, making it a promising pedagogical approach for junior high school english classrooms. in addition, students with high learning activeness consistently outperformed those with low learning activeness in reading comprehension, regardless of the teaching method used (p < 0.05). moreover, a significant interaction was found between the teaching method and students’ learning activeness (p < 0.05), suggesting that highly active students benefited the most from the circ strategy. hypothesis testing confirmed that all null hypotheses were rejected, establishing that circ significantly improves reading comprehension, learning activeness significantly affects reading comprehension, and there is a meaningful interaction effect between circ and learning activeness. these findings demonstrate that implementing the circ method while simultaneously fostering students’ learning activeness can substantially enhance their reading comprehension skills. table 2. two-way anova results source ss df ms f p-value sig. teaching method (a) 816.817 1 816.817 14.984 0.000 ✔ learning activeness (b) 1181.817 1 1181.817 21.676 0.000 ✔ method × activeness (a×b) 331.817 1 331.817 6.086 0.016 ✔ error 3030.333 56 54.113 total 45274.000 60 table 2 summarizes the results of the two-way anova, which examined the effects of the teaching method, students’ learning activeness, and the interaction between the two on reading comprehension outcomes. the findings reveal three significant effects. the analysis shows that the teaching method had a statistically significant effect on students’ reading comprehension (f = 14.984, p = 0.000 < 0.05). students taught using the cooperative integrated reading and composition (circ) method achieved significantly higher comprehension scores than those taught through conventional lecture-based approaches. these gains were reflected across multiple indicators, including identifying main ideas, locating supporting details, interpreting vocabulary in context, and making inferences. this suggests that circ, with its cooperative and interactive structure, created deeper engagement with texts and facilitated more meaningful comprehension than traditional teacher-centered practices, which often limit opportunities for active participation. learning activeness also had a significant main effect on reading comprehension (f = 21.676, p = 0.000 < 0.05). students with high activeness consistently outperformed those with low activeness in both the experimental and control groups. this pattern highlights the critical role of active engagement in shaping comprehension outcomes. activeness in http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 1, january 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 246 this context includes students’ willingness to ask questions, contribute ideas, engage in discussions, and think critically during learning activities. these results align with educational psychology theories emphasizing that active involvement is a key determinant of academic success, regardless of the instructional method employed. the analysis further revealed a significant interaction between the teaching method and students’ activeness (f = 6.086, p = 0.016 < 0.05). this means that the benefits of circ were not uniform across all students but varied according to their level of activeness. students with high activeness benefited the most when taught using circ, achieving the highest comprehension scores overall. even students with low activeness in the circ group, however, performed better than their counterparts in the conventional group, suggesting that the cooperative features of circ helped raise performance across different levels of engagement. this finding indicates that while learning activeness independently enhances comprehension, the circ method amplifies these advantages by providing structured opportunities for collaboration, interaction, and peer support. taken together, these results support the rejection of all null hypotheses and lead to three key conclusions: circ significantly improves reading comprehension, learning activeness strongly influences comprehension achievement, and there is a meaningful interaction between the teaching method and activeness. further analysis of the mean scores demonstrated that the performance hierarchy followed a clear pattern: experimental-high activeness > experimental-low activeness > control-high activeness > control-low activeness. this trend underscores both the superiority of circ over traditional methods and the critical role of activeness in maximizing learning outcomes. additionally, students taught with circ showed more consistent gains and reduced performance gaps between active and less active learners, whereas improvements in the control group were smaller and less uniform. this suggests that the cooperative structure embedded in circ not only boosts comprehension but also provides a more equitable platform for learners, supporting weaker students while still allowing highly active students to excel. consequently, circ emerges as a robust and sustainable pedagogical model for improving reading comprehension in diverse classroom contexts, including rural indonesian schools such as smpn 3 rantau bayur. discussion the findings of this study, which revealed that the cooperative integrated reading and composition (circ) method significantly improved students’ reading comprehension compared to conventional teaching approaches, are consistent with previous research in the field of cooperative learning that emphasizes the effectiveness of structured groupbased strategies in promoting academic achievement (stevens et al, 1987). since by providing opportunities for students to collaborate, share ideas, and provide peer feedback, circ transforms reading from a passive, teacher-centered activity into an interactive and engaging process where learners construct meaning collectively, thereby confirming the theoretical framework of slavin, (2005) who argued that cooperative learning increases not only achievement but also motivation and social interaction among learners. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 1, january 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 247 the significant effect of learning activeness on reading comprehension further supports the students who participate actively in classroom discussions, pose questions, and contribute to group work are more likely to internalize strategies, build connections between new information and prior knowledge, and sustain their motivation throughout the learning process (tarigan, 2014; grabe & stoller, 2002). this explains why in the present study, highly active students consistently outperformed less active students regardless of whether they were taught with circ or traditional methods, highlighting that activeness is not merely a complementary factor but rather an essential condition for successful comprehension in foreign language learning. the absence of a statistically significant interaction between the teaching method and learning activeness suggests that the positive effect of circ is relatively stable across different levels of activeness, indicating that while active students naturally achieve higher comprehension, even less active students benefit from the structured peer collaboration, scaffolding, and interactive tasks embedded in circ, which reduce reliance on teacher explanation and encourage every learner to participate to some extent; this finding implies that the method and activeness operate as independent predictors of comprehension, thereby offering practical value for teachers who may be concerned about how well cooperative strategies will work with students who are typically less engaged, since the results show that circ still contributes to improved performance for these learners. the comparison of mean scores across groups, where the highest achievement was recorded by highly active students in the experimental group and the lowest by less active students in the control group, illustrates not only the superiority of circ as a teaching strategy but also the compounding effect of combining effective methods with active learner behavior. according to harmer (2007), when innovative pedagogy is paired with student engagement, the outcome is maximized, whereas conventional approaches combined with low activeness produce minimal improvement. thus, the findings reinforce the idea that effective teaching and active learning must be pursued simultaneously if the aim is to achieve substantial gains in reading comprehension, especially among junior high school learners who are at the formative stage of their english education. this aligns with black & wiliam, (1998) who emphasized that instructional design and assessment strategies must encourage interaction and reflection. these findings carry important implications for english language teaching in indonesia, particularly in rural schools such as smpn 3 rantau bayur, where students often struggle with motivation, vocabulary limitations, and passive learning habits. according to othman & ahmed (2024), circ can facilitate student interaction, thereby resolving their reading comprehension challenges. it also provides students with the opportunity to make a meaningful contribution to a discussion, which is challenging to accomplish individually. meanwhile, hasyim et al., (2020) argue that the circ strategy provides a learning environment where students understand their role in the group and to work as a team based on their ability. students can learn how to be responsible for the group to achieve the goal together. similarly, sari & nababan (2024) state that the circ method can be used to improve reading comprehension skills as well as to serve as a means for students to develop their abilities in thinking, relating, and collaborating. in other word, the writer in http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 1, january 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 248 other words, the writer argues that the circ method is not only effective in enhancing students’ reading comprehension skills but also plays an important role in fostering critical thinking, interpersonal relationships, and collaborative learning. according to sintia & ramadhan (2023) the circ learning paradigm emphasizes students’ ability to read texts critically, comprehend their content, and draw conclusions. based on nunan (2003), adopting circ as an instructional model could help teachers create a more student-centered classroom that not only raises comprehension outcomes but also encourages students to be more responsible, collaborative, and confident in their learning, while at the same time emphasizing the need to foster learning activeness through motivational strategies, supportive classroom environments, and interactive activities, so that both pedagogical innovation and student engagement work hand in hand to improve the quality of english education and prepare learners to meet the demands of the national curriculum and global communication. moreover, policymakers should support implementation with resources and training (cline et al, 2006). another implication of these findings is the need for teacher professional development, since many teachers in indonesian junior high schools continue to rely on conventional lecture-based practices that limit student interaction and provide minimal opportunities for collaboration, and therefore integrating circ into classroom practice requires not only curricular adjustments but also teacher training programs that equip educators with the skills to design cooperative tasks, manage group dynamics, and facilitate active learning environments; by doing so, teachers will be better prepared to shift from traditional roles as sole knowledge transmitters to facilitators of studentcentered learning, which is in line with current educational reforms that emphasize competence-based curricula and 21st-century skills. finally, the results of this study highlight the importance of contextualizing cooperative learning strategies such as circ within the realities of rural schools, where limitations in resources, exposure to english, and classroom facilities may pose challenges to implementation, yet at the same time these environments stand to benefit the most from approaches that maximize interaction, peer support, and student motivation, and therefore policymakers and school leaders should consider supporting the adoption of cooperative methods by providing adequate resources, continuous supervision, and recognition of innovative practices, so that the positive effects documented in this study can be sustained and scaled up to improve english education outcomes across broader contexts in indonesia. conclusion based on the findings of this study, it can be concluded that the cooperative integrated reading and composition (circ) method has a statistically significant positive effect on students’ reading comprehension, as students taught with circ consistently achieved higher comprehension outcomes than those taught using conventional teachercentered methods, while learning activeness was also found to exert a significant independent influence on students’ achievement, with highly active learners performing better than their less active counterparts, and although the interaction effect between http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 1, january 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 249 method and activeness was not statistically significant, the data nevertheless suggest that both factors operate independently in enhancing comprehension outcomes, which implies that effective teaching strategies and active learner engagement are equally essential for improving the overall quality of english instruction in junior high schools. previous research studies had indicated that the circ had effects on enhancing reading comprehension achievement. according to simarmata (2023) research, students who get instruction in cooperative integrated reading and composition (circ) method were more active, motivated, cooperated and enthusiastic working in group. meanwhile, in handayani et al., (2022) research, the application of circ method in reading adds to the activeness of students while studying and the method helps students to easily remember and know reading. additionally, berliana et al., (2025) implied that circ models can positively influence students' reading comprehension. this method can make students more active, stimulate them to gain new knowledge, and encourage them to cooperate. also, students can complete assignments well. in other word, these findings therefore provide theoretical and practical implications for the field of english education in indonesia, particularly by reinforcing the relevance of cooperative learning models such as circ in addressing students’ difficulties with reading comprehension and by highlighting the importance of learning activeness as a determinant of academic success, since the combination of innovative instructional strategies with increased student participation creates an optimal learning environment where comprehension skills can develop more effectively, especially in rural schools such as smpn 3 rantau bayur where students often struggle with passive learning habits, low motivation, and limited exposure to english outside the classroom. in light of these conclusions, it is suggested that english teachers at the junior high school level consider adopting the circ method as part of their instructional repertoire, not only because it has been empirically proven to enhance reading comprehension but also because it encourages student collaboration, responsibility, and confidence. according to farris (2004), at the same time teachers should make deliberate efforts to foster learning activeness by creating interactive classroom environments, designing tasks that require participation from all learners, and providing positive reinforcement for student contributions, so that both instructional method and learner engagement can function synergistically to maximize comprehension outcomes. furthermore, school administrators and policymakers are encouraged to support the implementation of cooperative learning strategies by offering teacher training programs, facilitating access to appropriate learning resources, and providing institutional recognition for innovative pedagogical practices (black & wiliam, 1998), while future research should consider extending the investigation of circ and learning activeness to larger and more diverse populations, incorporating qualitative approaches to capture students’ perceptions and classroom dynamics, and exploring the long-term impact of cooperative strategies on other language skills such as writing, speaking, and listening, thereby enriching the understanding of how cooperative learning can contribute to comprehensive improvements in english education in indonesia. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 1, january 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 250 another important suggestion arising from this research is the need for systematic teacher professional development programs that focus on cooperative learning models, because without adequate training teachers may struggle to implement circ effectively, particularly in managing group dynamics, designing integrated reading writing tasks, and maintaining equitable participation among students; therefore, institutions of teacher education and school leaders should collaborate in providing workshops, peer mentoring opportunities, and classroom-based coaching that enable teachers to gradually integrate cooperative strategies into their practice while simultaneously reflecting on and improving their pedagogical approaches. it is also recommended that teachers and school administrators pay close attention to strategies for increasing students’ motivation and engagement, as activeness was found to be a strong predictor of reading comprehension regardless of instructional method. linse (2005) stated that interventions such as goal-setting activities, interactive discussions, use of technology-based resources, and recognition of student achievements can play a significant role in encouraging learners to participate more actively in reading lessons, thereby complementing the benefits of circ and ensuring that improvements in comprehension are sustained across different groups of students. in addition, curriculum developers and policymakers should integrate cooperative learning principles into the broader english language curriculum (black & wiliam, 1998; slavin, 2005). it ensures the assessment practices also reflect not only individual comprehension outcomes but also collaborative skills, critical thinking, and participation, since assessment systems that focus solely on test performance may discourage students from engaging fully in cooperative learning processes; by aligning curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment, the educational system can create a more coherent framework that values both comprehension and activeness, thereby promoting holistic development of learners in accordance with national educational goals. finally, this study suggests that the successful implementation of circ in improving reading comprehension can serve as a model for enhancing other areas of education in indonesia, particularly in rural contexts where challenges such as limited resources, low motivation, and passive learning attitudes are prevalent, and therefore the adoption of cooperative learning methods has the potential not only to improve english outcomes but also to strengthen broader educational values such as teamwork, responsibility, communication, and critical thinking, which are essential for preparing students to face the demands of the 21st century, thereby demonstrating that innovations in pedagogy can have far-reaching impacts beyond the immediate scope of language instruction. acknowledgment the author wishes to express sincere gratitude to hanni yukamana, m.ed., ph.d., m.pd. and dr. mulyadi, m.a. for their invaluable guidance, constructive feedback, and continuous encouragement throughout the research and writing process. appreciation is also extended to the lecturers of the english education study program, postgraduate program, universitas pgri palembang, for their support and inspiration. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 1, january 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 251 special thanks are due to the author’s family for their unwavering love, prayers, and encouragement, and to all individuals who contributed to the completion of this study, whose names cannot be mentioned individually. references a hasyim, u. a. f., sari, y. a., & puspita, n. 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(2023). pengaruh model pembelajaran kooperatif tipe circ terhadap keterampilan membaca pemahaman teks deskripsi siswa kelas vii smp negeri 1 painan. jurnal pendidikan, 32(2), 339–346. https://doi.org/10.32585/jp.v32i2.4126 slavin, r. e. (2005). cooperative learning: theory, research, and practice (2nd ed.). allyn & bacon. smith, f. (2005). understanding reading: a psycholinguistic analysis of reading and learning to read (6th ed.). lawrence erlbaum. stevens, r. j., madden, n. a., slavin, r. e., & farnish, a. m. (1987). cooperative integrated reading and composition: two field experiments. reading research quarterly, 22(4), 433–454. https://doi.org/10.2307/747699 tarigan, h. g. (2008). membaca sebagai suatu keterampilan berbahasa. bandung: angkasa. tarigan, h. g. (2014). membaca sebagai suatu keterampilan berbahasa (rev. ed.). bandung: angkasa. tran, q., verezub, e., & fisher, r. (2025). flipping efl reading comprehension classes: students’ learning achievement and perceptions. teaching and learning inquiry, 13, 1–44. https://doi.org/10.20343/teachlearninqu.13.13 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 401 collaborative discussion in vocabulary learning through short stories: students’ perceptions in an indonesian efl context astuti alawiyah1* & yanti rosalinah 2 universitas bina sarana informatika, jakarta, indonesia alwyhasti22@gmail.com abstract vocabulary acquisition is a major challenge in learning english as a foreign language (efl), but research exploring students' perceptions of vocabulary learning through collaborative discussion is still limited. this study explores the perceptions of students at smp harapan cibitung regarding vocabulary learning through short stories using a collaborative discussion approach. using a descriptive qualitative method, three participants from grade ix (high, medium, and low levels) were interviewed and observed. the results of the study show four main findings: 1) students applied gradual scaffolding at three levels of zpd (individual-peer-teacher); 2) collaborative discussion resulted in psychological transformations including cognitive changes (from not understanding to understanding), affective changes (from doubt to confidence), and social changes (from individual to group); 3) functional vocabulary was used to understand the story content and communicate; 4) learning took place through the construction of shared knowledge, which included horizontal scaffolding, dialogic learning, and affective solidarity. these findings indicate that vocabulary learning through short stories with collaborative discussion is a comprehensive process involving gradual stages, social cooperation, and the use of functional vocabulary. this study provides practical implications for teachers in applying a gradual scaffolding model and creating a learning environment that supports students' psychological transformation. keywords: collaborative discussion, student perception, short stories introduction learning english as a foreign language (efl) is essential because a well-developed vocabulary underpins effective communication and reflects overall proficiency in a second language (wei & hu, 2025). vocabulary is fundamental to developing the four core language skills: reading, writing, listening, and speaking. beyond facilitating successful communication (kusumawati & arifin, 2024) a strong vocabulary foundation is critical for academic achievement, as students with limited vocabulary may struggle to make meaningful progress in their studies (zeng et al., 2025). learning english as a foreign language (efl) involves more than simply memorizing a large number of words. students must also be able to use vocabulary efficiently and http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 402 appropriately across reading, writing, and speaking tasks (al-othman, 2025; zuhairi & mistar, 2023). both the frequency of exposure to new words and the attention given to them play a critical role in acquiring new vocabulary. accordingly, engaging in careful reading, analyzing context, and exploring word meanings can enhance learners’ understanding and retention of familiar vocabulary (nation, 2015). vocabulary development can be effectively enhanced through the use of structured vocabulary learning strategies (vls). approaches such as contextual inference, keyword techniques, and concept mapping have been demonstrated to support students in retaining and revisiting vocabulary (ayana et al., 2024). the choice of strategy is influenced by educational level, with graduate students tending to employ metacognitive approaches, while undergraduates more often rely on persistence and memorization strategies (ghalebi et al., 2020). furthermore, mastery of vocabulary promotes lexical awareness, encompassing curiosity, engagement, and a positive attitude toward newly acquired concepts (simonnet et al., 2024). both teachers and efl learners recognize that a broad vocabulary is as fundamental as proficiency in speaking, writing, and comprehending a second language (alshumrani, 2024). instructional approaches play a critical role in determining the effectiveness of vocabulary acquisition. collaborative learning (cl) has been shown to be particularly effective, as it engages students in working together to study content and achieve shared learning objectives (li, 2025). grounded in vygotsky’s sociocultural theory, this approach underscores the significance of social interaction in both language and cognitive development. through collaborative learning, students can access peer guidance while actively participating in the construction of knowledge. research has shown that collaborative learning can improve academic achievement more effectively than individual study (dinh, 2025). students tend to feel more confident and engage more actively in group discussions, which also supports the development of critical thinking skills (garces et al., 2024; tsai, 2025). instruction that incorporates scaffolding and self-assessment can further enhance motivation and reduce learning-related anxiety (abdel et al., 2023). within collaborative groups, students have the opportunity to master content more effectively, strengthen their cognitive abilities, and cultivate greater independence as learners (wijaya et al., 2021). collaborative learning in the digital era is increasingly enriched by the integration of technology. mobile-assisted collaborative learning (macl) utilizes digital tools to enhance students’ digital literacy while fostering greater independence in learning (yuan et al., 2025). evidence indicates that technology-supported vocabulary learning significantly improves students’ engagement, retention, and capacity for autonomous learning (simonnet et al., 2024). beyond vocabulary development, collaborative learning in contemporary contexts nurtures essential twenty-first-century skills, including effective communication, teamwork, and critical thinking, preparing students to participate actively and thoughtfully in a connected world. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 403 short stories offer an engaging and effective way to learn new vocabulary by providing authentic contexts that make word usage meaningful. through narrative texts, students can naturally understand the meaning and application of vocabulary within relevant and realistic situations (benabbes & abdulhaleem abu taleb, 2024). unlike isolated vocabulary drills, short stories immerse learners in rich contexts, enabling them to comprehend and use words in practical, real-life scenarios. research indicates that short stories serve as an effective medium for vocabulary instruction. integrating short stories into learning activities can enhance students’ motivation, engagement, and overall language comprehension (bhatti et al., 2022). story based learning has been shown to improve vocabulary retention by up to eighty percent, largely due to increased attention and emotional investment in the material (ali mansoor et al., 2023). moreover, short stories contribute to students’ cultural understanding and overall reading proficiency (rosales, 2025). thus, short stories function not merely as reading material but as a powerful tool for developing language fluency, cultural awareness, and social interaction in english as a foreign language (efl) contexts. while many studies have explored vocabulary teaching techniques, the majority have concentrated on the teacher’s role or on quantitative outcomes, often overlooking students’ perspectives and lived experiences (khoirunnisa et al., 2025; rosales, 2025). to gain a fuller understanding of how students engage with the learning process and the factors that shape their motivation and success, it is vital to explore their viewpoints (alshumrani, 2024). adopting a student-centered approach allows researchers to capture the nuanced, subjective experiences of learners throughout the vocabulary acquisition process. digital literacy is also becoming increasingly vital within contemporary language learning. it plays an important role in strengthening learners’ language competence (bacalja et al., 2022). other studies similarly assert that digital approaches can enrich students’ educational experiences (zakir et al., 2025). digital literacy is positively linked to student motivation and academic achievement (li, 2025). nevertheless, the integration of digital literacy in language learning in indonesia still encounters various challenges. the most pressing concern involves the effective implementation of collaborative strategies. therefore, this study was conducted at smp harapan cibitung with the primary objective of examining students’ perceptions and experiences of vocabulary acquisition through collaborative discussions centered on short stories. to achieve this aim, the study focuses on three key research questions. the first explores how students perceive the role of collaborative discussion in supporting vocabulary learning through short stories. the second investigates the types of learning processes students undergo when participating in discussion-based short story reading activities. the third examines the psychological and social transformations that may occur as students engage in collaborative vocabulary learning. this study is distinctive in its qualitative, student-centered orientation, emphasizing learners’ subjective experiences rather than solely relying on teacher observations or http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 404 quantitative measures. by foregrounding students’ voices, the research seeks to generate deeper insights into how collaborative discussion can shape vocabulary development. more broadly, the findings aim to provide educators with practical perspectives for designing language instruction that is more contextual, responsive to learners’ needs, and aligned with the demands of the digital era. methods research design this study employed a descriptive qualitative design to investigate students’ perceptions and experiences of vocabulary learning through collaborative discussions using short stories. this design was chosen because it allows the researcher to capture participants’ experiences in their natural context and to present their perspectives clearly and accurately. the aim of this research was not to test hypotheses or quantify variables, but to understand how students interpret and engage with vocabulary-learning processes in the classroom. a qualitative descriptive approach also enabled the researcher to represent the views of students with varying english proficiency levels while maintaining the authenticity of their responses. participants and sampling the participants were ninth-grade students at smp harapan cibitung, consisting of 26 learners aged 14–15. purposive sampling was used to select a class that had previously participated in vocabulary learning through short stories and collaborative discussions. from this class, three students representing low, intermediate, and high proficiency levels were selected as the focal participants. this sampling strategy aligns with qualitative research principles, which prioritize depth over breadth and seek information-rich cases that can provide detailed insights. the selected students were considered capable of articulating their learning experiences clearly and contributed diverse perspectives based on their skill levels. rationale for participant selection the decision to focus on three participants was grounded in the qualitative research principle that emphasizes depth of understanding rather than generalizability. sample size in qualitative studies is determined by information richness, and in this case, the participants were deliberately chosen to reflect different proficiency levels relevant to the research context. the inclusion of low-, intermediate-, and high-proficiency students provided a range of perspectives and enabled the researcher to identify both similarities and differences in vocabulary-learning experiences. this maximum variation sampling allowed for a more comprehensive exploration of the phenomenon without the need for a large number of participants. research location and duration http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 405 the study was conducted at smp harapan cibitung, west bandung, during the even semester of the 2024–2025 academic year. data collection took place over two months, from august to september 2025. this timeframe allowed students to engage in short story–based vocabulary instruction before being asked to share their perceptions. data collection techniques data were collected through semi-structured interviews, classroom observations, and documentation. semi-structured interviews lasting approximately ten minutes were conducted individually with each participant in indonesian to ensure clarity and comfort. classroom observations were carried out on four separate occasions to examine student participation, interaction patterns, and the overall learning environment during discussionbased activities. in addition to interviews and observations, documentation such as visual records and field notes was collected to support and verify the primary data. research procedures the research began with coordination between the researcher, the school, and the english teachers to explain the study’s purpose and schedule. interview guides and observation sheets were prepared prior to data collection. classroom observations were conducted first, followed by individual interviews with the three selected students. each interview was conducted separately to allow participants to express their thoughts freely. throughout the data collection period, the researcher also documented relevant classroom activities to supplement observational findings. data sources primary data consisted of students’ verbal responses during interviews and their observable behaviors during classroom discussions. secondary data included documentation of learning activities and researcher field notes, which helped contextualize and corroborate the primary data. these combined sources provided a comprehensive depiction of students’ experiences. data analysis techniques data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. the researcher first read the interview transcripts and observation notes multiple times to develop a holistic understanding of the dataset. relevant segments were coded according to the research questions, and these codes were then grouped into categories and themes while preserving the participants’ original expressions whenever possible. triangulation across interviews, observations, and documentation enhanced the credibility and authenticity of the findings. all analyses were conducted manually. research ethics considerations http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 406 approval for the study was obtained from smp harapan cibitung prior to data collection. written consent was secured from parents or guardians, and students were informed about the purpose and procedures of the study, including their right to withdraw at any time without consequence. to ensure confidentiality, pseudonyms were used in reporting data, and no personal identifiers were disclosed. all data, including observation notes and interview recordings, were stored securely and accessed only by the researcher. data collection activities were conducted without disrupting regular classroom instruction, and participation was voluntary and uncompensated. all procedures adhered to established ethical standards for educational research involving human participants. results the researcher conducted in-depth interviews and observations as the primary methods of data collection, followed by a thematic analysis to interpret the findings. a detailed coding process was also carried out to distill participants’ perceptions with greater clarity and nuance. this approach aimed to ensure the authenticity and coherence of each element within the instrument’s theoretical framework. all participant responses were systematically coded and organized into thematic categories that best reflected their perspectives. this study uses a qualitative method in which data collection is analyzed using creswell's theory (2012). the steps taken were as follows: first, preparing and organizing the data; second, reading all of the data to obtain general information; third, grouping the data into several categories; fourth, finding patterns and themes; fifth, presenting and reporting the findings; sixth, describing and discussing the meaning of the findings. the final stage of qualitative data analysis was analyzing and responding to the results. based on this, the researcher used a non-probability sampling technique, namely purposive sampling, in which the researcher deliberately selected subjects deemed relevant for the study (subhaktiyasa, 2024). the subjects were categorized into three levels, namely higher level, medium level, and lower level. the processes involved led the researcher to identify four main points based on the problems that arose. gradual scaffolding in the learning process (self, peer, teacher) based on the results of the interviews and observations, the three students representing high, moderate, and low proficiency levels showed a consistent pattern in dealing with unfamiliar vocabulary in the short story. they began by attempting to interpret the meaning independently, then sought support from peers who had already understood the term when difficulties persisted, and finally turned to the teacher when the meaning remained unclear. the observations also revealed that the students displayed genuine initiative, particularly when they asked for further clarification on explanations they felt they had not yet fully understood. independent learning through context-based guessing http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 407 student 1 reported a preference for first noting unfamiliar vocabulary and then attempting to infer its meaning, stating: “when i encounter a new word, i immediately write it down and sometimes look up its meaning. occasionally, i try to guess it.” student 2 described a similar strategy, explaining: “i usually try to guess the meaning on my own.” these observations suggest that students actively engage with the text, striving to construct meaning from contextual cues and demonstrating an initiative to understand new vocabulary independently. collaborative discussion with peers when students were unable to determine the meaning independently, they engaged in discussions with their peers. student 3 explained: “i will discuss it with a friend,” while student 1 similarly noted: “i immediately ask a friend.” these findings suggest that peers function as a secondary source of scaffolding, providing support through the exchange of knowledge and collaborative efforts to enhance comprehension. consultation with the teacher all three students demonstrated a consistent pattern in which, when peer discussions failed to provide a clear or accurate understanding, they sought guidance from the teacher. student 1 explained: “when i encounter difficulties, i will ask the teacher.” student 2 stated: “if i am mistaken or still do not understand, i ultimately consult the teacher.” student 3 added: “when i do not understand, i ask the teacher directly.” these findings underscore the teacher’s role as the ultimate source of scaffolding, providing expert support that enables students to achieve precise and meaningful comprehension. these findings can be understood through the lens of gradual scaffolding, consistent with vygotsky’s zone of proximal development (zpd) theory, which emphasizes that learning emerges through guidance and support from more knowledgeable others. in this study, students progressed through three levels of zpd: (1) the individual zpd, exemplified by students’ attempts to infer meaning independently; (2) the peer zpd, reflected in their collaborative discussions with classmates; and (3) the teacher zpd, demonstrated when they sought clarification from the teacher. this process illustrates that students were not passive recipients of knowledge, but rather active participants who engaged in a deliberate, stepwise approach to problem-solving and meaning-making. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 408 the impact of collaborative discussion on students’ confidence and motivation the findings from interviews and observations revealed that all three students experienced notable growth in both confidence and comprehension of the short story through collaborative discussions. while some students initially displayed hesitation, their self-assurance increased after receiving supportive encouragement from the teacher. furthermore, the students consistently demonstrated mutual respect, as reflected in their careful listening and thoughtful consideration of each other’s viewpoints, highlighting a positive and inclusive learning environment. cognitive transformation: from not understanding to understanding student 2 reflected: “after the discussion, i felt that i understood much better; for instance, before the discussion, i did not know, but afterward, i was able to grasp even the finer details.” this illustrates that collaborative discussions can meaningfully support students facing difficulties in vocabulary comprehension, fostering not only basic understanding but also a deeper, more nuanced grasp of the material. affective transformation: from hesitation to confidence student 1 expressed: “i became more confident because i felt more certain about the short story.” in a similar vein, student 3 reflected: “i gained significant confidence; my understanding improved, and the discussion helped clarify the concepts and information i was reading.” these findings suggest that collaborative discussions contributed not only to the enhancement of students’ cognitive comprehension but also to the development of their selfconfidence, highlighting an important affective transformation alongside their intellectual growth. social transformation: from individual to group learning the observations indicated that students who initially approached learning individually gradually transitioned to collaborative group learning. this shift was reflected in their mutual support and cooperative interactions, as they worked together to achieve shared understanding. the classroom atmosphere became more vibrant and participatory, with students actively exchanging knowledge and engaging in meaningful dialogue, thereby fostering a sense of community and collective responsibility in the learning process. these findings can be understood through lave and wenger’s concept of legitimate peripheral participation, which emphasizes that meaningful learning occurs when students actively engage within a community of practice. collaborative discussions fostered a supportive and encouraging classroom environment, allowing students to express their ideas, share perspectives, and seek assistance with increased confidence (ariffin, 2021; lin, 2019). within this framework, the teacher serves as a facilitator who provides motivation, while students’ self-assurance develops through interactive engagement and the mutual support offered by their peers. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 409 vocabulary as a strategy for comprehending meaning the interview findings revealed that students used vocabulary not only as a means of communication but also as a strategic tool to deepen their understanding of the short story, indicating that vocabulary learning went beyond simple memorization. observations further showed that students were able to explain the meaning of words to support their comprehension of the text. in addition, students actively applied new vocabulary in sentences they created and incorporated it into their daily conversations, demonstrating a meaningful and practical engagement with language. expanding vocabulary and knowledge through reading short stories student 1 reflected: “after reading the short story, i was able to learn new vocabulary that i had not known before, and it also broadened my knowledge.” student 2 shared a similar experience, noting: “reading short stories in class was very enjoyable and helped me develop a deeper understanding of the material.” these reflections indicate that engaging with short stories not only supports vocabulary acquisition but also enriches students’ knowledge, allowing them to explore and understand the diverse themes embedded within the texts. applying functional vocabulary in context observations revealed that students interpreted vocabulary meaningfully within the context of the story, rather than relying solely on literal definitions. for instance, when encountering the word “believed,” students understood its significance within the narrative, beyond simply translating it as “percaya.” this demonstrates that students actively engaged with the language, applying new vocabulary in their own sentences and incorporating it into daily conversations, reflecting a practical and purposeful use of language in meaningful contexts. these findings can be understood through lewis’s (1993) lexical approach and the theory of incidental vocabulary acquisition, which highlight that students naturally expand their vocabulary through meaningful reading activities. interacting with short stories offers students the opportunity to encounter and comprehend words within their authentic contexts. this perspective is consistent with research demonstrating that effective vocabulary mastery allows students to acquire new words both explicitly and implicitly (silfani, 2023). social dynamics in the construction of shared knowledge the interview findings indicated that all three participants acknowledged the important roles played by both the teacher and their peers during discussions. the teacher, however, was perceived as particularly supportive due to the depth, accuracy, and clarity of the explanations provided, which facilitated students’ understanding. observations further confirmed that students engaged in meaningful interaction and collaboration throughout the http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 410 learning process. they distributed group tasks equitably, assisted peers in comprehending new vocabulary, and consistently demonstrated respect by listening to and thoughtfully responding to one another’s contributions. horizontal scaffolding (peer-to-peer) student 1 shared: “in my experience, discussions with my peers are the most helpful, but when they are also unsure, i turn to the teacher for guidance.” this pattern highlights how students who have a solid grasp of certain terms can assist their peers in understanding concepts they are less familiar with. through this process, students actively engage in the collaborative exchange of knowledge, supporting each other’s learning and fostering a shared understanding (chairinkam, 2021) dialogic learning student 2 reflected: “both my peers and the teacher play important roles. i do not feel hesitant to ask my friends repeatedly, even though their answers are not always accurate. when i consult the teacher, however, the explanations are consistently precise.” engaging in discussions with peers allows students to collaborate meaningfully and develop a collective understanding. this dialogic learning unfolds in two complementary ways: through the teacher’s guidance and through interactive exchanges among students, highlighting the value of both expert input and peer collaboration in the learning process (chairinkam, 2021). affective solidarity student 3 shared: “offer sincere praise to those participating in discussions so they feel more motivated.” this form of emotional support reflects students’ willingness to assist one another and to respect each other’s perspectives. such interactions contribute to a more enjoyable and comfortable learning experience, fostering a classroom environment that is inclusive and welcoming for all participants engaged in meaningful dialogue (garcía-carrión et al., 2020). these findings suggest that the classroom is not merely a space for individual competition, but rather a collaborative environment for knowledge construction, where social interactions enhance collective understanding. three primary patterns emerged from the study: (1) horizontal scaffolding, in which students actively support each other; (2) dialogic learning, characterized by the reciprocal exchange of knowledge among peers; and (3) affective solidarity, which nurtures a positive, supportive, and engaging learning atmosphere. learning new vocabulary through short stories unfolds gradually and is facilitated by the support of others. the scaffolding process begins with students attempting to infer the meaning of words independently, followed by collaborative discussions with peers, and http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 411 ultimately seeking clarification from the teacher when needed. engaging in this collaborative process not only motivates students but also enhances their confidence in using the language. rather than simply memorizing vocabulary, students actively apply new words to deepen their understanding of the text. the mutual support and encouragement among students cultivate a cooperative learning environment, rendering the learning experience both meaningful and engaging. discussion this study identified four key insights into students’ perceptions of vocabulary development through short stories. the following section will examine these findings in relation to relevant theoretical frameworks and situate them within the context of existing research. gradual scaffolding in the learning process (self-peer-teacher) the findings of this study reveal that students acquire vocabulary in a progressive manner across varying proficiency levels, beginning with independent attempts to infer meaning, followed by collaborative discussions with peers, and ultimately seeking guidance from the teacher. this process is consistent with vygotsky’s concept of the zone of proximal development (zpd). three distinct levels of zpd were identified in this study: the individual zpd, in which students generate their own interpretations or hypotheses; the peer zpd, where students engage in collaborative interaction with classmates; and the teacher zpd, in which students consult the teacher for clarification and deeper understanding. these findings align with previous research indicating that thai efl students employed scaffolding in a progressive manner, with beginner learners relying on procedural support and intermediate learners more actively engaging in knowledge sharing and questioning (yawiloeng, 2021). this study further highlights a systematic, three-tiered scaffolding pattern initiated by the students themselves rather than directed by the teacher, offering a novel insight into student-driven learning processes. moreover, individuals who depend on specific domains are not significantly affected by particular forms of collaborative tasks. conversely, domain-dependent learners tend to achieve higher-quality outcomes in collaborative writing activities (wang, 2020). the present study illustrates that a consistent, gradual scaffolding strategy can be successfully implemented across students of all levels, irrespective of their cognitive styles, supporting both independent and collaborative learning. previous studies have identified six types of effective scaffolding in reading instruction: modeling, bridging, contextualizing, schema building, text re-presenting, and metacognition (suryani et al., 2023). this study builds on these findings by showing that scaffolding occurs not only vertically, from teacher to student, but also horizontally, among peers, with students intentionally selecting the level of support based on their own self assessment. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 412 the student-initiated gradual scaffolding approach contrasts with conventional topdown models. by taking an active role in guiding the scaffolding process, students are able to engage more independently, fostering a sense of autonomy and personal responsibility in their learning journey. educators can structure learning activities around a three-stage framework: stage 1 (independent exploration, 5–8 minutes): during this stage, students actively engage in understanding new vocabulary on their own, drawing on contextual clues or consulting a dictionary as needed. this approach encourages autonomy and fosters students’ capacity to make meaning independently. stage 2 (peer discussion, 10 minutes): students participate in small-group discussions, collaboratively exchanging ideas and deepening their understanding of the vocabulary. stage 3 (teacher explanation, 5–8 minutes): the teacher offers clarification and targeted guidance for any vocabulary that students have not yet fully grasped. this structured framework supports a gradual transfer of learning responsibility from teacher to student, fostering learner autonomy while maintaining a supportive environment where guidance is readily accessible. the impact of collaborative discussion on students’ psychological transformation the findings of this study reveal changes across three interconnected dimensions. cognitively, students progressed from a state of uncertainty to a deeper understanding of the material. emotionally, they experienced a shift from doubt to greater self-confidence. socially, students moved from solitary learning toward active, collaborative engagement. these outcomes align with lave and wenger’s theory of legitimate peripheral participation, which emphasizes that meaningful learning is most effectively achieved through active participation within a community of practice. collaborative writing has been found to support the development of productive vocabulary, with 63% of students indicating a preference for written formats, as these provide time to thoughtfully organize and articulate their ideas (wang, 2020). this study offers an expanded perspective, revealing that collaborative interactions not only enhance cognitive outcomes but also contribute to meaningful emotional and social growth. earlier research highlighted that 87.5% of students perceived scaffolding as a factor that increased their motivation (suryani et al., 2023). building on this, the present study suggests that the boost in motivation emerges not simply from general encouragement, but through the simultaneous transformation of cognitive, emotional, and social dimensions, creating a more holistic learning experience. the simultaneous transformation across cognitive, affective, and social dimensions in collaborative vocabulary learning represents a novel insight, as such a comprehensive model has not been clearly documented in prior efl research. to promote effective peer scaffolding, educators are encouraged to form heterogeneous groups that include students with different proficiency levels, allowing them http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 413 to support one another and exchange knowledge meaningfully. group diversity enables stronger students to assist peers who need additional guidance, while lower-proficiency students contribute their own perspectives and benefit from collaborative learning. in addition to thoughtful grouping, teachers should implement structured discussion protocols to guide student interaction. activities such as think–pair–share and the use of sentence stems can help students articulate ideas more effectively and ensure that all learners have equal opportunities to participate. these structured approaches provide a clear framework for discussion, reducing confusion and increasing the quality of student engagement. creating a supportive learning atmosphere is also essential. teachers can cultivate psychological safety by establishing principles such as “every opinion is valued,” which encourages students to express their thoughts without fear of judgment. when learners feel respected and secure, they are more likely to take academic risks, share ideas, and collaborate constructively with peers. finally, the use of metacognitive prompts can further enhance students’ learning experiences. by asking reflective questions such as, “what strategies are you using to understand this short story?” teachers help students become more aware of their thinking processes and the techniques they use during reading and discussion. this reflective practice fosters greater autonomy and strengthens students’ overall metacognitive awareness. functional use of vocabulary students develop vocabulary not simply by memorizing words, but by actively using them to understand texts and engage in everyday communication. this process aligns with the lexical approach (lewis, 1993) and the concept of incidental vocabulary acquisition, both of which highlight that meaningful interaction with language in context fosters deeper comprehension and more sustainable learning. the systematic patterns of word forms and the richness of contextual cues can significantly enhance vocabulary acquisition, particularly in the learning of nouns (zou & yan, 2019). the findings of this study indicate that students do more than understand individual word meanings; they also develop a functional vocabulary repertoire that allows them to anticipate the progression of a story and communicate meaningfully in everyday situations. peer scaffolding has been found to enhance students’ reading comprehension (yawiloeng, 2021). the present study extends this understanding by showing that students also develop a deeper grasp of causal relationships within texts as they acquire relevant vocabulary knowledge. the use of functional vocabulary can be understood through two dimensions: the textual function, which involves interpreting the structure and elements of the narrative, and the communicative function, which encompasses applying vocabulary meaningfully in everyday communication. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 414 this study highlight several instructional practices that can effectively enhance vocabulary learning through short stories. first, teachers can incorporate textual activities that require students to create story maps identifying key vocabulary, plot elements, and character traits. engaging in these tasks encourages students to analyze characters using descriptive adjectives and action verbs, thereby deepening their interaction with the text and reinforcing vocabulary in context. in addition to textual engagement, communicative activities such as role-playing can provide meaningful opportunities for students to apply newly acquired vocabulary. by assuming the roles of characters and reenacting scenes from the story, students practice narrative language in authentic communicative situations. this approach not only enhances vocabulary retention but also strengthens speaking fluency and comprehension. a spiral curriculum can further support vocabulary development by reintroducing key terms across different lessons and contexts throughout the semester. revisiting vocabulary in a structured and cumulative manner helps reinforce long-term retention and fosters students’ ability to use words flexibly across various communicative situations. finally, performance-based assessments such as story retelling and role-playing can be used to evaluate students’ comprehension and practical language use. these assessment methods move beyond traditional multiple-choice testing by allowing students to demonstrate their understanding through authentic, communicative performance. this approach provides a more accurate picture of students’ vocabulary mastery and encourages deeper, more meaningful learning. social dynamics in the construction of shared knowledge three approaches support collaborative vocabulary learning: horizontal scaffolding among peers, dialogic learning, and affective solidarity. previous research has identified ten common forms of peer scaffolding, including procedural support, information sharing, and confirmation (yawiloeng, 2021). building on this, the present study explores three key mechanisms of peer scaffolding: horizontal scaffolding without hierarchical structures, dialogic learning that encourages collaborative elaboration, and affective solidarity, which provides emotional support and fosters a supportive learning environment. peer scaffolding has been shown to significantly improve vocabulary acquisition compared to teacher-led scaffolding (p < 0.05) (munir, 2023). this study elucidates the underlying principles of its effectiveness by highlighting three patterns of social dynamics that occur simultaneously. this paradigm highlights three interconnected patterns of social interaction: egalitarian horizontal scaffolding, collaborative dialogue centered on co-constructing meaning, and affective solidarity that nurtures a supportive learning community. it underscores that acquiring vocabulary is inherently a social process, shaped through shared experiences and mutual engagement. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 415 this study emphasize the importance of fostering collaborative learning environments that support vocabulary development. horizontal scaffolding can be strengthened by implementing reciprocal teaching strategies in which students take turns assuming the role of “teacher.” this approach, combined with a well-structured peer mentorship system that outlines clear expectations, enables learners to support one another and promotes shared academic growth. dialogue-based learning also plays a critical role in enhancing students’ vocabulary acquisition. teachers can guide students to engage in responsible dialogue by using language that encourages elaboration, critical reflection, and constructive exchange of ideas. such dialogic interaction allows students to articulate their understanding more clearly while learning to evaluate and build upon the contributions of their peers. in addition to cognitive and linguistic benefits, affective solidarity can significantly enhance the collaborative learning experience. student groups can establish shared principles—such as “we support each other in achieving success”—to promote a sense of collective responsibility. reflective strategies, such as discussing questions like “how have your peers contributed to your learning journey?” help students recognize mutual support and develop a stronger sense of community within the classroom. the teacher’s role as a facilitator is also essential. during group activities, the teacher should move between groups, pose strategic questions, and validate students’ explanations to reinforce understanding. this supportive presence ensures that discussions remain focused and productive while empowering students to take ownership of their learning. structured collaborative activities further support vocabulary development. techniques such as vocabulary jigsaw, where groups analyze different parts of a story and teach vocabulary to others, promote interdependence and deeper engagement with the text. vocabulary hot seat allows students to guess target vocabulary with help from classmates, encouraging quick recall and collaborative problem-solving. story sequencing activities, in which students arrange narrative components while identifying key linguistic markers, help learners connect vocabulary to plot structure and contextual cues. collectively, these activities provide diverse, interactive opportunities for students to apply and internalize new vocabulary meaningfully. theoretical and practical implications theoretical implications this study offers several contributions to learning theory. first, it introduces a threelevel model of scaffolding within the zone of proximal development (zpd), in which students move from individual effort to peer support and finally to teacher guidance. this model expands vygotsky’s original concept by showing how scaffolding can begin with the learner and gradually build toward more expert assistance, encouraging autonomy and self-directed learning. second, the study highlights a three-dimensional transformation experienced by students—emotional, cognitive, and social—which provides deeper insight into how http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 416 collaborative learning shapes both understanding and classroom engagement. third, the findings support a functional view of vocabulary knowledge, emphasizing that vocabulary learning involves not only knowing word forms but also using words meaningfully in communication and textual interpretation. finally, the study identifies interrelated patterns of social dynamics—horizontal scaffolding, dialogic interaction, and affective support—that together demonstrate the central role of social relationships in fostering language development. practical contributions several practical implications emerge for classroom practice. the study provides educators with a structured framework for designing vocabulary activities that promote purposeful peer interaction and collaborative learning. it also supports a gradual release approach, beginning with students’ independent exploration, followed by peer discussion, and concluding with teacher clarification. assessment practices may be broadened to include not only language proficiency but also collaboration skills, metacognitive awareness, and students’ ability to use vocabulary in authentic contexts. in addition, the study offers guidance for teacher professional development, emphasizing facilitation skills and the creation of safe, supportive learning environments where students feel comfortable participating and taking risks. limitations and recommendations for future research limitations this study has several limitations. the small sample size, three students from one school, limits the generalizability of the findings, indicating the need for wider participant representation. the research also lacked longitudinal data, preventing observation of changes in students’ learning over time. in addition, the absence of quantitative vocabulary measurements makes it difficult to evaluate learning gains with precision. the study also did not consider how differences in text genre or complexity might influence vocabulary learning. group dynamics were not examined in detail, even though individual differences and group composition can affect collaboration. finally, only students’ perspectives were explored, without incorporating teachers’ viewpoints, which could provide additional insight. recommendations for future research future studies should consider using mixed-methods approaches that combine qualitative insights with quantitative vocabulary assessments to strengthen the validity of the findings. longitudinal research covering a full semester or academic year would provide a clearer picture of learning progression and retention. further investigation into the features of short stories, such as complexity, genre, and cultural relevance, is recommended to better understand their impact on learning outcomes. research on group dynamics— particularly how different group compositions affect cooperation—would also be valuable. finally, including teachers’ reflections and classroom observations could enrich the understanding of how collaborative vocabulary learning unfolds in practice. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 417 conclusion this study investigated students’ perceptions of vocabulary acquisition through short stories using a collaborative discussion approach at smp harapan cibitung. the findings address the three research questions and illustrate how collaborative learning contributes to students’ linguistic, cognitive, and social development. with regard to the first research question, students viewed collaborative discussion as a process of co-constructing knowledge supported by three social dynamics: horizontal scaffolding, dialogic interaction, and affective solidarity. they recognized the complementary roles of teachers and peers, noting that while peers provide accessible support, teachers offer more precise and comprehensive clarification. overall, students perceived collaborative discussion as a safe and supportive environment that enables them to exchange ideas freely without hierarchical barriers. in responding to the second research question, the study revealed that students progress through a three-stage learning process involving independent exploration, peer collaboration, and teacher consultation. this trajectory aligns with the three levels of the zone of proximal development—individual zpd, peer zpd, and teacher zpd. students also demonstrated an understanding of vocabulary as a functional tool used to interpret narrative texts and to communicate meaningfully in everyday contexts, rather than as isolated items to be memorized. their learning experiences were characterized by reciprocal interactions that fostered sustained engagement and deeper comprehension. the findings related to the third research question show that collaborative discussion promotes three interrelated forms of transformation: cognitive, affective, and social. students experienced cognitive growth as they moved from initial confusion to clearer understanding; affective development as their confidence increased; and social transformation as they shifted from working individually to engaging more actively with peers. these transformations occurred simultaneously and reinforced one another, contributing to a more integrated and meaningful learning experience. collectively, these findings demonstrate that collaborative discussion not only enhances vocabulary learning through short stories but also supports broader developmental outcomes that are essential for effective language acquisition. ntexts that extend beyond its original linguistic focus. implications implications for teachers the findings suggest that teachers can apply the three-stage scaffolding model—independent work, peer discussion, and teacher clarification—to gradually build students’ responsibility for learning. creating a psychologically safe classroom with norms such as “all contributions are valued” helps students participate confidently. heterogeneous grouping should be used to strengthen peer support, and teachers are encouraged to act as facilitators by posing guiding questions and validating peer explanations. assessment should also measure collaboration, metacognitive awareness, and students’ ability to use vocabulary in real contexts, not only their cognitive achievement. http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 http://u.lipi.go.id/1593190689 copyright © the author(s) vol.6, no. 4, october 2025 e-issn: 2723-4126 p-issn: 2776-8880 418 implications for curriculum designers vocabulary instruction through short stories should be treated as a central component of the curriculum. a spiral approach, in which key vocabulary is revisited across different units, can support long-term retention. collaborative learning strategies—such as think–pair–share, peer teaching, and vocabulary jigsaw—should be embedded into instructional design. short story selection must consider students’ proficiency, interests, and textual complexity. performancebased assessments, including story retelling and role-playing, are recommended to capture cognitive, affective, and social learning outcomes more accurately. implications for future research future studies should use mixed methods with larger samples and longer timeframes to strengthen evidence for the scaffolding and transformation frameworks. research on genre, text complexity, and cultural context would clarify how different narrative features influence vocabulary learning. studies on group dynamics—including group composition, size, and learner traits—would deepen understanding of collaborative processes. incorporating teachers’ perspectives would also enrich interpretations of classroom practices and implementation challenges. this study reinforces that vocabulary learning through short stories and collaborative discussion is a multifaceted process shaped by cognitive, emotional, and social interaction. the theoretical models developed—the three-level zpd model, the social dynamics patterns, and the transformation framework—offer useful foundations for designing more effective and engaging language-learning experiences. acknowledgment the author would like to express profound gratitude to all parties who have supported and contributed to the successful completion of this research. first and foremost, the author extends sincere appreciation to smp harapan cibitung and the english teacher of smp harapan cibitung for granting permission to conduct this study, providing access to participants and research facilities, and offering warm hospitality and continuous support throughout the research process. the author also wishes to thank the three ninth-grade students who participated in this study and willingly dedicated their time, shared their experiences, and offered their perspectives with honesty and openness. their enthusiastic responses were highly valuable in shaping the findings of this research. heartfelt appreciation is also extended to mrs. yanti rosalinah, ss, m.pd., the research supervisor, for her guidance, direction, and constructive feedback at every stage of the research. her expertise and insightful suggestions have played a significant role in refining the conceptual framework and enhancing the overall quality of this study. the author further acknowledges the editorial team and anonymous reviewers of foster jelt: journal of english language teaching for their comments and suggestions, which substantially improved the clarity, quality, and scholarly contribution 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