Journal of English and Education (JEE)

Exploring Elementary School English Teachers' Voices in Gaining Students' Attention in Learning

Suryanto Suryanto — 2024-05-23

Student attention plays a pivotal role in learning. It becomes the gateway to learning engagement, behavioral management, and academic achievement. This research investigates several methods elementary school teachers use in Indonesia to capture and maintain students' attention during English language instruction. This study examines the methods and challenges faced in the interaction process, which is crucial for successful learning. The research utilizes a qualitative descriptive study design, including in-depth interviews with three experienced English teachers. The findings indicate that teachers use many interactive and sensory-stimulating methods, including games, total physical response activities, songs, gestures, and visual aids, to attract and hold students' attention. These methods are essential for sustaining involvement and accommodating learning preferences and cultural contexts. However, teachers need more resources, training needs, and a diverse array of students' interests and learning styles, all of which might hinder the execution of these methods. This research emphasizes the need to provide teachers with customized training and resources to use attention-grabbing methods successfully. This study adds to the broader conversation on educational methods in linguistically and culturally diverse settings, indicating that improving teacher support and resources is crucial for promoting successful English language instruction at the elementary school level.

Practicing Intertextuality in English as a Foreign Language: An Indonesian EFL Learner’s Experiences

Chintya Arlita — 2024-05-31

The existing studies on intertextuality In Indonesia mainly focuses on the contexts of mass media and literature, so little is known about intertextuality within the context of higher education, not to mention the one involving multiple languages including English. The present study explored intertextuality practices of an Indonesian EFL learner. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed thematically. The findings pointed out that the participant’s ability to practice intertextuality was highly influenced by his well-developed reading habit. Furthermore, it was indicated that intertextuality practices helped the participant better understand texts and their underlying aspects, find connection of texts with other discourses, and establish relevance of texts within real-life settings. By discussing how an Indonesian EFL learner practiced his intertextuality for academic and non-academic purposes in higher education, this study may provide as an empirical contribution for the growing body of research on intertextuality practices in Indonesia.

The Influence of Using “THIEVES” Strategy on Junior High School Students’ Reading Comprehension

Yanda Islami — 2024-05-31

Though reading in English is an imperative skill for students, teaching reading somehow still becomes a problem. This research aimed to investigate the influence of using the THIEVES (Title, Headings, Introduction, Every first sentence in a paragraph, Visuals and vocabulary, End-of-chapter questions, and Summary) strategy on reading comprehension among the eighth-grade students of a junior high school at Serang, Banten, Indonesia. This is a quasi-experimental study, specifically a non-equivalent control group design which aims to compare the outcomes between an experimental group (n= 33) that received the THIEVES Strategy intervention and a control group (n= 34) that was not taught using the strategy. The results indicated a significant improvement in the experimental group’s reading comprehension scores compared to the control group. The result also leads to the rejection of the null hypothesis (H0) and accepting the alternative hypothesis (Ha) since the p-value shows Sig = .000 which means that the result is lower than .05. This experiment confirmed that THIEVES strategy has an influence on reading comprehension skills among students. The researchers then recommend English teachers to use an engaging and innovative strategy to captivate students’ interest and prevent boredom.

Question Types on Reading Comprehension in TOEFL Test: An Implication in Teaching Reading TOEFL to Students

Tira Nur Fitria — 2024-05-31

Reading section in TOEFL is challenging because there are many texts and test items to be completed in a relatively short time. Thus, test-takers should read quickly and precisely. This study describes the types of reading comprehension in Pre-Test and Post-Test TOEFL and its implications in teaching reading TOEFL. This research is descriptive and qualitative. The result analysis shows that several types of reading questions in Pre-Test and Post-Test TOEFL are 1) idea of passage questions, 2) directly answered questions, 3) indirectly answered questions, 4) vocabulary questions, and 5) overall review questions. When teaching TOEFL reading to students, it is important to employ several general strategies. These include introducing the various categories of reading questions, followed by questions that refer to specific sentences in the reading. Additionally, providing explanations on how to answer the questions is essential for effective comprehension. The TOEFL reading teaching strategy involves introducing various types of reading questions, and exercises that refer to certain sentences in the reading, as well as providing explanations on how to answer the questions. Through this approach, students can gain a better understanding of the structure and types of questions that may appear in the TOEFL exam.

The Relationship Between Indonesian EFL Learners’ Vocabulary Knowledge and English Competencies

Lintang Wilujeng Hartini — 2024-05-31

English vocabulary mastery is considered important in Indonesian education, but the actual vocabulary mastery of high school students is still below the target. It becomes a concern whether the low vocabulary knowledge is correlated with English skills. Thus, this study investigated the relationship between Indonesian students’ English vocabulary knowledge and English competencies. A total of 108 high school students completed a productive vocabulary test (Lex 30). The students’ scores from their English class served as the data for English competence. The Lex30 result and the English scores were then tested using Pearson correlation. The findings showed that the students’ vocabulary knowledge and English competencies had positive correlation. Despite no specific measurement of the vocabulary size from the lex30 score, it was relevant to measure students’ vocabulary knowledge required for their performance in general English skills (reading, writing, listening, and speaking). Thus, the positive correlation indicated that students with good vocabulary knowledge might also had good English scores. This study's specific contextual focus may restrict the applicability of the findings to other contexts. Therefore, future research should diversify the sample, incorporate a wider range of assessment tools, and explore the impact of different teaching methods on language skills in various settings.