Studies in English Language and Education
Studies in English Language and Education (SiELE) is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by the Department of English Education, Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Universitas Syiah Kuala, Banda Aceh, Indonesia. The journal presents research and development in the field of teaching and learning of English language, general linguistics and literature. Authors must register to this journal before submitting their work and they must follow the Author Guidelines of the journal. Submissions that do not adhere to the guidelines provided will be rejected. Please submit your article through the online submission of this journal. You may address further inquiries to the Editor at sielejournal@usk.ac.id. From 2014-2020, SiELE Journal published twice a year, in March and September. From 2021 onwards, it publishes three times a year in January, May, and September. The journals have a policy of “Zero Tolerance on Plagiarism”. We recommend that authors check their articles with plagiarism prevention tools (ithenticate.com, turnitin.com, etc.) before submission.
Articles
954 Documents
Analyzing the English translation of the novel ‘Laskar Pelangi’ (The Rainbow Troops)
Burhanuddin Yasin, M.Ed.;
Ika Apriani Fata;
Husyitiara Husyitiara
Studies in English Language and Education Vol 5, No 1 (2018)
Publisher : Universitas Syiah Kuala
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DOI: 10.24815/siele.v5i1.9864
Initial studies show that there are some translations of literary works (from Indonesian to English) where the quality of the translation is questionable due to the loss of information, the addition of information, and the skewing of information. This is the main reason why this research was made. In this research we sought to assess the translation classification and quality of the English version of the novel ‘Laskar Pelangi’ (The Rainbow Troops). The translation classification of Falk et al. (2011)was employed. The translation quality was analyzed using the framework by Nababan et al. (2012). The research employed a documentation technique of descriptive qualitative study. The study found that among 3556 (words, phrases and sentences) data there are 1889 data classified as loss of information, 1527 data categorized as addition of information, and 140 data labeled as skewing of information. The translation quality of this novel was found to be less qualified since its accuracy and acceptability were both low and readability was found to be medium. In order to improve the accuracy, acceptability and readability of a translation, the authors suggest that the translator should have both good translation capabilities as well as cultural understanding of both the source language and target language.
Student-teacher conferences and video-recorded microteaching sessions in developing pre-service teachers' teaching competences
Saiful Marhaban;
Usman Kasim;
Arifin Syamaun;
Teguh Sulistyo
Studies in English Language and Education Vol 10, No 1 (2023)
Publisher : Universitas Syiah Kuala
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DOI: 10.24815/siele.v10i1.26026
The present study highlighted the importance of pre-service teachers’ teaching competences in English Language Teaching (ELT). Facts show that empowering pre-service teachers is very important, but inspiring lecturers to implement a suitable teaching model takes time. Thus, this study aimed to determine how student-teacher conferences and video-recorded microteaching sessions (VRMS) affected pre-service teachers’ competences. Besides, the self-reflection of the pre-service teachers after watching their own teaching performance video and the conference with the lecturer was also investigated to see their behaviors towards their teaching performances. This mixed-method study involved one group and applied three main instruments to collect data: interviews (student-teacher conferences), checklists of teacher self-evaluation forms, and teaching practicum performance tests using a scoring rubric adapted from Brown (2000). There were 20 participants who were taking the Microteaching Course at the Department of English Education, Universitas Syiah Kuala, Banda Aceh, Indonesia. The study was conducted in one consecutive semester consisting of 16 meetings, each of which was 200 minutes long (4 credits). The results proved that student-teacher conferences and VRMS stimulated pre-service teachers’ teaching competences. Pre-service teachers grew their self-reflection after watching their own teaching videos and understood their strengths and weaknesses after getting student-teacher conferences. It implies that the improvement of their teaching competences resulted from a process involving the willingness to do self-reflection and the lecturer’s help in understanding what areas the pre-service teachers had to improve. The implications of the study are also presented and discussed in this paper.
Indonesian EFL students’ perceptions of effective non-native English teachers
Ummi Zurrahmi;
Anita Triastuti
Studies in English Language and Education Vol 9, No 1 (2022)
Publisher : Universitas Syiah Kuala
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DOI: 10.24815/siele.v9i1.21720
Effective non-native English teachers (NNETs) are essential to facilitate students to develop their English mastery. However, while students are directly affected by teachers’ instructions, they have been limitedly involved in teacher education and development research. The current study aims to explore the qualities of effective non-native English teachers (NNETs) from students’ perspectives in Tanjungpinang, Indonesia. This study was mixed-method research specifically an explanatory sequential design. In the quantitative phase, 380 students were selected using cluster sampling techniques. Meanwhile, in the qualitative phase, six students were purposely selected based on their English proficiency levels and gender. The instruments used were a questionnaire adapted from Park and Lee (2006) and an interview guide. To analyze the questionnaire data, descriptive and inferential statistical analyses were employed. MANOVA test was run to seek significant differences by students’ gender and English proficiency levels. Meanwhile, the qualitative data were coded to identify the emerging patterns. The results show that the qualities concerning teachers’ socio-affective skills gained the highest mean scores compared to those concerning teachers’ subject matter knowledge and pedagogical skills. This study also confirms that there was a significant difference among students in perceiving effective NNETs by English proficiency levels. This study is expected to help various stakeholders to improve pre and in-service EFL teacher education and development in Indonesia.
Task-based material design for academic purposes: Learners' English writing skill improvement
Audi Yundayani;
Lidwina Sri Ardiasih
Studies in English Language and Education Vol 8, No 1 (2021)
Publisher : Universitas Syiah Kuala
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DOI: 10.24815/siele.v8i1.18169
English Writing for Academic Purposes (EWAP) seems daunting for higher education students in the Indonesian context. Genuinely, the ability of EWAP is one of the study skills required in the academic field. Preliminary research has shown that EWAP materials have not been identified based on students’ needs. This study focuses on the students’ need analysis of the EWAP materials, including confirming the quality of the task-based material design that enhances the students’ skills of the EWAP. The study used the educational research and development method, involving non-English learners from a private college in Indonesia. Researchers used the test, the semi-structured interview, and the questionnaire as instruments. The observation was also carried out to describe implementing the task-based material design of the EWAP. The results indicate that students need task-based material as an authentic EWAP material that focuses on learning to communicate through interaction. It also gives them the ability to focus not just on the use of languages but also on the learning process itself. The task-based EWAP materials have a significant influence on the development of students’ writing skills. As a result, this approach is well suited to foster a learning desire to write in a context-approximately as a means of expressing their intentions. Besides, the study’s findings show that students were very enthusiastic about engaging in the learning process.
The validity and reliability of writing attitude scale for EFL learners in the Indonesian context
Setyowati, Lestari;
Karmina, Sari;
Sukmawan, Sony;
Shafie, Latisha Asmaak
Studies in English Language and Education Vol 10, No 3 (2023)
Publisher : Universitas Syiah Kuala
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DOI: 10.24815/siele.v10i3.28462
Having a positive attitude in writing is very important since the positive attitude will make the students approach writing in a good way and will enable them to finish the writing task well. Thus, an appropriate instrument to measure the writing attitude is needed. Yet, scarce research is dedicated to investigating the validity and reliability of the writing attitude scale. This research is intended to investigate the validity and reliability of the writing attitude scale adapted from Podsen (1997) which was originally developed from the Daly-Miller Writing Apprehension Test (Daly Miler, 1975b). The design of this study was an observational, non-experimental study with a cross-sectional design, in which the researchers focused on analyzing Podsens (1997) Writing Attitude Scale (WAS). The population of the study was 96 students who took the Essay Writing course in the English Department, at a public university in East Java. The data were in the form of numbers on an ordinal scale. The researchers used the Content Validity Ratio (CVR) to analyze the validity and Cronbach alpha to check the inter-item correlation coefficient in SPSS 25. The result of the study shows that the CVR analysis was 1, and all items in the questionnaire were valid (p=.000.000) as shown in the Pearson product-moment analysis. Secondly, the internal consistency of Podsens (1997) Writing Attitude Scale was high (r.877). This implies that the instrument is applicable because it possesses validity and is highly reliable in measuring students writing attitudes.
Improving Reading Comprehension Using Contextual Teaching and Learning (CTL)
Yudha Aprizani
Studies in English Language and Education Vol 3, No 2 (2016)
Publisher : Universitas Syiah Kuala
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DOI: 10.24815/siele.v3i2.4964
This study aimed to find out whether teaching-learning reading comprehension using Contextual Teaching and Learning (CTL) would get better results than using Direct Instruction approach. The research used a quantitative method. The population of the research was students from the Islamic University of Kalimantan Muhammad Arsyad Al-Banjari. The researcher used cluster random sampling to select two sample groups, the control group and the experimental group. The control group with 25 students was the class that continued to use the Direct Instruction approach. The experimental group, with 20 students, was the class tested using the CTL approach. The test was a written test with five multiple choice questions plus an essay test. The test was used to obtain the data. The students’ scores were the data for the study of reading comprehension comparing CTL and Direct Instruction. Based on the results of the study, the researcher found that CTL was more effective than Direct Instruction because the null hypothesis was rejected and the alternative hypothesis was accepted so that CTL was found to be better for teaching reading skills. CTL encourages materials that are related to the students’ surrounding so that it helps them use English related to their daily activities.
A linguistic study of English double negation and its realization in Arabic
Sahar Abdulsalam Alshargabi;
Dina Fahmi Kamil;
Ali Hussein Hazem
Studies in English Language and Education Vol 9, No 3 (2022)
Publisher : Universitas Syiah Kuala
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DOI: 10.24815/siele.v9i3.24267
The studies on multiple negation have been conducted intensively in linguistics, but very few studies have focused on multiple negation in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). Although multiple negation appears in informal varieties, researchers find it an important topic for research. First, as linguists, we believe that all kinds of language varieties are worth studying. Second, the complexity of the structure of multiple negation raises queries about the difficulties that Arab students will encounter when they attempt to translate them from English to MSA. Our study focuses on double negation (DN) because, unlike other types of multiple negation, it yields a positive interpretation. This paper begins with a review of studies on multiple negation in English, MSA, and other languages, using a framework of generative grammar and the minimalist program. We then report on our empirical study of 60 randomly selected Arab students of English who were asked to translate 20 sentences containing multiple negation into MSA. To determine whether the intensity of their exposure to English would impact their understanding of these negative English structures, the students studying at levels two and four were selected. The students’ responses were quantitatively analysed. The results showed that MSA exhibits both DN and negative concord constructions. Moreover, the syntactic analyses of DN provided by Watanabe (2004) and Giannakidou (2000) concord with DN in MSA with some considerations. Additionally, all the sampled students had difficulty translating these types of sentences, indicating that intensity of exposure did not cause differences in performance.
The dilemma of English as a medium of instruction policy in science college programs
Munassir Alhamami;
Abdullah Almelhi
Studies in English Language and Education Vol 8, No 3 (2021)
Publisher : Universitas Syiah Kuala
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DOI: 10.24815/siele.v8i3.21218
Achieving science undergraduate programs learning outcomes relies on the students’ proficiency in the language of instruction, a challenge that many policymakers ignore. This study is to understand the influence of English as a medium of instruction (EMI) policy in four undergraduate science programs, namely, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Mathematics, in Saudi Arabia. The data were collected from the following groups of participants: 1461 science alumni records, 769 current undergraduate science students’ surveys, and 111 science university instructors’ surveys. The results of alumni records indicated that grades of the intensive English program in the first year predict the alumni cumulative grade point average (GPA) once they finish their four-year program. The results demonstrated that the higher is the alumni’s English proficiency, the better is their cumulative GPA. The results of the current science students’ questionnaire showed their preferred language of instruction could be predicted by their attitudes and society’s attitudes. Most of these students preferred to learn sciences in their native language (Arabic), which contradicted the policy of the current program. The instructors’ questionnaire results showed that instructors held divergent perspectives on the usage of EMI and students’ native language in the undergraduate science programs. To conclude, educationists and programs policymakers need to locate more attention and interventions toward the language of instruction. It is also recommended that universities provide science students with more English courses. Science students should also have English for science purposes courses to familiarize them with the science terms and prepare them to read science materials.
Errors in writing made by Malaysian rural primary school pupils
Halipah Harun;
Muhammad Kamarul Kabilan
Studies in English Language and Education Vol 7, No 2 (2020)
Publisher : Universitas Syiah Kuala
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DOI: 10.24815/siele.v7i2.17009
This study is to identify errors made by rural primary school pupils in writing and to get information about the causes or sources of errors that lead to pupils’ writing problems. The conceptual framework concerns four types of errors committed by rural primary school pupils in writing, namely tense, spelling, and vocabulary. The study is based on Corder’s (1971) Error Analysis (EA) and Richards’ (1974) Causes or Sources of Errors as its theoretical framework. It was conducted at two rural schools with 44 pupils of Primary 5, aged 11, as the research sample. A written task was taken as the study instrument in order to answer two research questions. This study has revealed that tense is the most frequent error committed by the pupils, followed by punctuation, vocabulary, and spelling. Moreover, the pupils’ errors are caused by both interlingual and intralingual transfer. It is concerned with rural primary school settings in Kerian where the majority of the pupils use the Malay language as their medium of instruction. In addition, this study has its implication for English Language Education in Malaysia, in which it affects rural pupils’ performance especially in Primary School Achievement Test also known as Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR) in English Writing paper. Some adjustments in the education system and the total involvement from education departments are meant to better reduce the number of low performers, especially in English writing to enhance the level of English proficiency in rural schools.
Native vs. non-native EFL teachers: Who are better?
Kurniawati Kurniawati;
Dini Rizki
Studies in English Language and Education Vol 5, No 1 (2018)
Publisher : Universitas Syiah Kuala
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DOI: 10.24815/siele.v5i1.9432
This paper discusses possible advantages of having Non-Native English-Speaking Teachers (NNESTs) to teach English as a Foreign-Language (EFL) especially in Asian countries when they are often regarded as inferior to their Native English-Speaking Teachers (NESTs) counterparts. A native speaker fallacy has emphasized that NESTs are better teachers of EFL and have put NNESTs at a disadvantage. Actually, NNESTs possess advantages that can make them better teachers for teaching English in an EFL/ESL setting connected with their own EFL learning experiences and with sharing the same first language and cultural background with their students. While considered to have lower English language proficiency and lower self-confidence compared to NESTs, NNESTs who have made the effort to become quality teachers can position themselves as ideal English teachers in their own environment.