Various Terms of ‘Teman’ in English

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Familiarity is the basis of friendship relationships that make relationships feel closer or deeper. In the English-speaking community, the concept of friends is not limited to a number of very close relationships. Here are the various terms of ‘Teman’ in English.

 

Friend

This word means Teman in Indonesian. In English, the term ‘friend’ is used specifically to refer to people who are personally and emotionally close to us.

 

Acquaintance

Even though we are not very closely related, someone we know is often referred to as a friend in Indonesian. However, in English, the proper term is acquaintance. Acquaintances don’t have a personal and emotional closeness to us, but we don’t feel awkward when we meet them.

 

-mate

We often use the word ‘friend’ to refer to people in the same class or boarding house (commonly in Indonesian called Teman sekelas, Teman sekamar, etc.). In English, the terms used are classmate and roommate/flatmate, and they are not always friends with us.

 

Colleague

This word is used to refer to a coworker or colleague. Even though in Indonesian it is called a work friend/teman kerja, in English a colleague is not always our friend because the relationship is only a professional matter.

 

Best friend

Best friend is the English equivalent of ‘good friend.’ Best friend is the person closest to us besides family and is always there in times of joy and sorrow. In informal English, ‘best friend’ is also referred to as bestie, homie, or buddy.

Translanguaging: Is it okay to use mixed languages?

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Are we allowed to use mixed languages in communication or every interaction discourse? 

Some people presume that using mixed languages will contribute to the intrusion with the first language – it reduces the regularity of the language being used. However, it gives advantage in achieving certain communication goals. 

The use of such mixed languages is commonly known as Translanguaging. The term translanguaging is often used to describe the phenomenon of using bilingual languages or mixing languages to produce certain outcomes. Initially, the term translanguaging came from Welsh bilingual education and was first used in the Welsh trawsieithu created by Cen Williams in 1994. In the Welsh context, it refers to pedagogical practice in which students alternate languages for productive use. On the other hand, Baker who first translated the Welsh term as “translanguaging”, defined it as a making meaning process, shaping experience, gaining understanding and insight through the use of languages. Further, Canagarajah defined it as a multilingual speaker’s ability to shuttle between languages that form repertoire as an integrated system. As García and Wei once revealed, translanguaging is an approach to use languages in communication as one linguistic repertoire with features that have been societally constructed as belonging to two separate languages.

These definitions imply that translanguaging is peoples’ communication skills in using the languages repertoire ​​as needed to achieve communication goals effectively. In this case, translanguaging represents not only the language but also the identity of its speakers formed through values, culture, and history.

Nowadays, translanguaging is a hot topic in education, especially in language learning classes or in international schools that use English as the language of instruction. In the context of learning English or in international classes, mixed languages can be used as a bridge between students to facilitate their learning process. For example, when an English-speaking teacher teaches in a class where students speak Indonesian-English. The students did not truly understand the difference between a pumpkin that was muddy and a pumpkin that was filled with mud. Therefore, students translate their comprehension into Indonesian, then explain and interpret their work. The teacher provides information in English, and the students revise their Indonesian. The insight has a benefit on improving students’ better understanding of the content and their comprehension of English.

Another example is when the teacher asked a student to spontaneously give a description of the black hole to other students in English. However, he had difficulty with English vocabulary, so he used Indonesian words to replace the words he did not know. It illustrates that when students have difficulty finding English words, the Indonesian they have will greatly help achieve their communication goals. Hence, he will undoubtedly be more comfortable in class communication, and others can well understand the message he conveys.

In conclusion, the use of mixed languages, such as the use of Indonesian in English classes to achieve certain communication goals, is not wrong or prohibited. This is allowed because it can make the students easier to understand the content of the lesson well.

EXPANDING STUDENT VOLUNTARY PARTICIPATION THROUGH COLD-CALLING TECHNIQUE

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Increasing engagement during class discussion is a challenge faced by education today, especially during the pandemic which requires students to study from home and reduce socialization with others. This can indirectly reduce the students’ enthusiasm to engage in-class learning actively. Although engagement can be measured in a variety of ways, participation in class discussions is the easiest response to quantify.

Voluntary participation, as simple as raising a hand to answer a question, can be an invaluable tool for teachers to measure the content understanding level of the students and make instructional decisions based on that data. Nevertheless, the problem with large group class discussions is often dominated by the voices of a few. Even in online learning settings, we will find many students with low voluntary participation in class. Whereas, by increasing the number of students sharing answers during class discussions, teachers will better understand how well most students understand the content.

One approach to increasing the number of student volunteers involved in class discussions is cold-calling the students. The term cold-call refers to any instance in which a teacher calls a student whose hand is not raised. Cold Call is intended to be an inclusive technique that has the potential to get more students doing more of the cognitive work. As a simple question method, teachers can use this technique to increase attention, boost energy, and better understand their students by calling on students to answer the oral question at random and not based on who volunteers to participate. This technique was used by Muhammad Rizky Wibowo (an English Language Education student batch 2018) in his School-Based Teaching Practicum and succeeded in making the class more interactive.

Some of the procedures that Rizky did to use the cold-calling technique in his class were; first, he framed the class session. After framing the class session, he names the question before identifying students to answer it. After that, make calls to students regardless of whether they have hands raised. Use simple questions to get students on board. Once they are prepared, the level can rise in a more advanced form. Finally, connect the thinking thread. If one student gets the answers only half right, the teacher can call other students to give it a hint and return to the first students another shot to get it entirely right.

It is in line with a study that found cold-calling effectively increased the number of students who answered questions voluntarily. Furthermore, in a class with high cold-calling, voluntary participation increased over time, and students became more comfortable participating in discussions. Other research has also confirmed that the more students practice participating in class discussions (even if via cold-calling), the more skilled the student becomes and the more comfortable he or she will be when using this skill.

Quality Education for Learners with Disabilities

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Quality education is right for everyone in the world, including people with disabilities. As one of the efforts to strengthen literacy and realize quality education for students with disabilities, Lu’luatul Awaliyah, an English Language Education student at Universitas Islam Indonesia batch 2017, pioneered the OPOR Initiative. OPOR stands for (One Person One Record) Initiative, which means that one voice from us can be helpful for others in need. This community exists to develop learning media for students with visual impairment in South Lampung.

OPOR was founded in February 2020, and this idea stems from a scientific paper. This program stems from concerns about the lack of learning facilities for students with visual impairment. In fact, there is only one special school for the disabled in this area. The school is located on the coast of South Lampung, but it lacks learning facilities and teaching. There is only one special teacher for visual impairment students, one special teacher for students with autism and mentally retarded.

It has become crucial since the COVID-19 appeared, which requires learning activities to be carried out from home. During the pandemic, students with disabilities were only limited by utilizing the existing learning facilities in their homes. Meanwhile, accessing information and learning media is quite tricky due to poor internet signal access and the inadequate ability of students and parents to access the internet. Therefore, OPOR exists to be a solution to facilitate accessible learning media that supports the learning of students with visual impairments.

In May and August 2020, OPOR realized an audiobook project in the form of DVD players. However, since December 2020, OPOR has received support through a Young Leader for Community Projects grant from the Pertamina Foundation to develop its program. In making learning media and others, OPOR is assisted by several offline volunteers from local youths and online volunteers who contribute their voices in recording for the audiobook.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Over time, OPOR is not only focused on providing facilities for students with visual impairment but also students with autistic and mentally retarded by facilitating learning media in the form of audiobooks, educational posters and pictures.

In addition to providing learning media, OPOR also regularly monitors and evaluates the learning process of students with disabilities. Furthermore, the OPOR audiobook has been distributed to several islands in Indonesia, including Sumatra, Kalimantan, Java, Sulawesi, Nusa Tenggara, Maluku, Bali, and Papua.

Hopefully, OPOR can help more people with disabilities in learning through the development of accessible media, which can be used anytime and anywhere. Hence, we as young leaders, let’s be part of the solution.

 

Growth and Fixed Mindset: How does your mindset contribute to your achievements?

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(Image from https://jnyh.medium.com)

 

The Rabbit and The Tortoise Story

Have you ever read the rabbit and the tortoise fable?

I think most of us are familiar with this common story.

 

There once lived a rabbit who was able to run fast, he liked to brag about how fast he could run. Tired of hearing the rabbit’s boast and arrogance, the slow and steady tortoise challenged him to a speed race. Then, all the animals in the forest gathered to watch.

 

The speed race began, the rabbit ran so fast for a while and then paused to rest. He turned to the tortoise and arrogantly said, “how do you expect to win by walking so slowly?”

Seeing the tortoise’s distance from him, the rabbit lay down in a shady tree and fell asleep.

 

Slow and steady the tortoise constantly going and running without ever giving up until the finish line. When the tortoise was very close to the finish line, all the animals cheered loudly and woke the sleeping rabbit. Suddenly, the rabbit woke up and started running again, but it was too late. The tortoise has crossed the finish line and won the race.

 

Children’s fable “the rabbit and turtle” is a perfect example of having a fixed or growth mindset. Instead of believing himself to be slow, the tortoise challenged himself to fight the rabbit.

On the other hand, the rabbit boasts of his abilities and thinks that he will win the race from the slow and steady tortoise. This is what a fixed mindset looks like.

 

Transferring the story into context, if you were asked do you have a growth mindset or a fixed mindset, what would you say?

Do you look like a tortoise? people who demand improvement despite challenges, or people who are stuck and reluctant to develop abilities like a rabbit?

 

Growth vs Fixed Mindset

The concept of a growth and fixed mindset was first introduced by Carol Dweck, a Psychologist at Stanford University. This is proposed to understand the effect of people’s belief on their own abilities, which has implications for learning.

 

People with a fixed mindset believe that their abilities are fixed traits. For example, if you are not good at something, you believe that you will never be good at it – failure is permanent. Besides, people with a growth mindset believe that practice and effort can make their abilities grow and develop over time. It emphasized by Dweck that growth mindset people can understand that their talents and abilities can be developed through effort, good teaching, and persistence.

 

For instance, a study of 7th grade students who were taught that abilities can be formed and developed with effort and hard work. It found that students with a growth mindset earned scores higher than students with a fixed mindset.

 

Additionally, people with a growth mindset pay attention to the mistakes made, the next task is to correct those mistakes. Therefore, having a growth mindset can reduce fatigue, depression, anxiety and behavioral problems.

 

What Should I Do to Cultivate A Growth Mindset?

A study found that teaching a growth mindset to students can change the way they think about achievement and ability with intention and effort. Further, the following are several ways to cultivate a growth mindset.

 

Reward The Process

Learn to appreciate the process of doing something rather than just focusing on the final result. Whereas, people often reward those who achieve excellent results, this can be against a growth mindset. In his study Dweck showed that rewarded effort can improve performance. For example, in the simple case of wanting to be a debate competition winner. Instead of focusing solely on “debate winner,” appreciate and enjoy the small steps you take each day to reach the goal (i.e. reading books, study groups, gain more insights, and togetherness).

 

Accept failure as part of the process

It is easy for us to feel disappointed every time we fail at something. There is a famous quote from Michael Jordan (a legendary basketball player) “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed; I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.”

 

Failure is part of the learning process. Imagine if Jordan gave up at his first try, we might never know who he is now. Hence, see failures as a means to improvement rather than a means to an end – live at the process.

 

Believe in the Benefit of Self-improvement and Learning.

Ultimately, we can change and become better from the mistakes and failures that we made. Through this case we can learn to be better, and reap the salary of our efforts.

 

Maintaining a Good Mood to Support Distance Learning

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Written by Lu’luatul Awaliyah

Edited by Fatwa Hapsari Alwihani

It’s been a hard year, dealing with the corona virus that has been prescribed upon us. It requires us to keep our distance in all matters, including learning. A full year we do distance learning, it is not uncommon for us to feel bored, right?

Moreover, we still have to do distance learning this semester, therefore it is important for us to build a good mood to support learning so that we can get proper knowledge. McMillan (2013) revealed that mood is the key that determines the acquisition of learning experiences. Thus, if we have a good mood, then we will have a good learning experience too.

Therefore, in this article I will share some ways on how to maintain a good mood in order to support distance learning.

 

1. Take Your Time

If anything, what we have now is time. Breath and Relax. Now is the time to seek and figure out who we are and what we want.  It is very important during this pandemic to use the best possible time, between study time, time at home, and refreshing time. In this case, we can manage our time by making a daily plan in the form of a schedule, so that what we do is in accordance with what portion we want to achieve on that day and so that it doesn’t widen everywhere. Furthermore, there are two ways to make better use of our time;

    • Being Productive

Current situation demands us not to involve in some kind of direct competition, organization, or internship. However, we can try online certification as an alternative. In this pandemic covid 19 eras, there are many institutions held online short courses or webinars. In particular, we can take the TOEFL or IELTS preparation course to improve our English skills and abilities. Thus, when pandemics end, we can take the test immediately.

    • Being Collaborative

Do small things that help people. We can work collaboratively with some communities and policy makers to help the others around us. We can create an initiative movement to assist children’s learning during the pandemic era.

 

2. Do What Make You Happy

The second way to stay in our good mood is to do things that make us happy. Everyone has their own way of being happy, so it depends on each of us. For me, there is an easy way to make me happy. That is doing my routine as in a normal life before pandemic. You can try these cycles;

    • In the morning, we wake up and do sports, cycle, and do things like normal times, because indirectly it will provide a good stimulus to us.
    • then, do the daily work that you have designed previously.
    • When we start getting tired, we can take a break, we can listen to music to relax our minds. In this case, Innes (2016) found that music-listening could boost mood and well-being. Anyway, please listen to music in English, so that even though we are resting, our brain can still learn to process the context and storyline of the music, learn English (of course), and we can learn critical thinking skills.

Tips: if you are confused about the type of work that gives you happiness, think about the kind of life that you want to lead, and let the vision lead the way.

 

3. Don’t Try to Do It All at Once

Do not try to do it all at once. Trying to do everything all at once can be counter-productive. Start with one thing each day: one thing that is most important, the one thing that would either make everything else easier. in the task alternating, we do get a lot of things done: but not trying to do them all at once, instead by choosing to work in phase, focusing on different things at different times.

If you have some schoolwork or homework, don’t procrastinate, set the schedule right away, and do it little by little, don’t pile up assignments and finish them all at once in one day. It can make you quickly bored and tired.

I realized that the key to achieving things is to prioritize and minimize the distraction that may get in the way of achieving the single most important thing we choose to do.

As also expressed by some lecturers at Ohio State University that they prioritize students’ mental health, student learning mood, happiness, and most importantly students can understand the material without burdening them.

 

4. Don’t Take It Personally

We are surrounded by family and friends. Do not do all the stuff alone. Never hesitate to ask for help. If boredom attacks us, we can have such a small talk with family. It may seem just a simple thing but it means a lot for some people to strengthen their family bonds. Moreover, most of us are physically separated with friends, we also can make a video call with them, wish them good health, and ask their opinion about something that pops up in our head. Try to communicate what we need; thus, they will understand and help us.

 

As a student, the most important thing in this pandemic era is how to maintain our good mood during learning activities. A good mood produces a comfortable feeling and it makes us easier to gain new knowledge. Good luck and hopefully it will be useful.

 

 

References:

Ayunda, M. (2018). Dear Tomorrow: Notes to My Future Self. Yogyakarta: Bentang Pustaka.

Bower, H, G., Monteiro, K, P., & Gilligan, S, G. (1978). Emotional Mood as a Context for Learning and Recall. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior Stanford University.

Burns, D, D. (2004). Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy. Los Angeles: HarperCollins Publisher.

Chen, L., Zhou, S., & Bryant, J. (2007). Temporal Changes in Mood Repair Through Music Consumption: Effects of Mood, Mood Salience, and Individual Differences. Media Psychology. DOI: 10.1080/15213260701283293.

Goldingay, S., & Land, C. (2014). Emotion: The ‘e’ in engagement in online distance education in social work. Journal of Open, Flexible and Distance Learning, 18(1), [58–72].

Heid, Markham. (APRIL 26, 2018 10:12 AM EDT). You Asked: Is Listening to Music Good For Your Health?. TIME. Retrived on 28 Agustus 2020, 06:00 AM, from Time.com.

McMillan, W. (2013). Transition to university: The role played by emotion. European Journal of Dental Education 17, 169–176. Doi: 10.0000/eje.12026.

Reinecke, L. (2017). Mood Management Theory. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. DOI: 10.1002/9781118783764.wbieme0085.

Why is it Difficult to Learn English?

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By Alifa Rismayanti

Edited by Salma Maulani

Leonardoenglish.com

 

The majority of EFL students are facing many difficulties in learning English as one of the compulsory subjects in school. Moreover, there are many adults in EFL countries experiencing those difficulties as well.  It resulted in many individuals questioning the factors that cause English become a very difficult language for some people.

There are several reasons why non-native speakers are experiencing the learning process difficult, even some of them think that English is “the weirdest language”. The first reason is many words in English have double consonants but the pronunciation is very different. It leads to the confusion of many learners and frequently wondering “How do they say that?” or “how can I say this word?”. Let’s see on the given example below:

 

via boredpanda.com

 

Based on the example above, it is very clear that the same letter combinations can have a totally different pronunciation. The word “through” is read /θruː/; “Tough” is read  /tʌf/; “Throughout” is read /θru(ː)ˈaʊ /; “Thought” is read /θɑːt/; and “though” is read  /ðoʊ/. Each of those words has a different meaning depending on its context; as a conjunction; a noun; a preposition, etc. Moreover, these pronunciations can be more varied when it gets influenced with accents and dialects. For instance, the English language differences between the British accent and American accent. Albeit the words or phrases are the same, it can have different sounds or meanings depending on its context.

Regarding the pronunciation issue, there are also other cases that most people believe that double “o” letters meet in a word, the output sound is /u:/ or /ʊ/. For example, in the word “wood” the output sound is /wʊd/ and the word “school” is /skuːl/. However, in the word “blood” the output sound is /blʌd/. Those are the common challenges in pronunciation for most learners.

The second factor is English has a strange vocabulary pattern. For instance, the word “pineapple”, the tropical fruit that consists of aromatic and edible yellow flesh. The word pineapple has no correlation with the word pine (an evergreen coniferous tree) and apple (a round red or green skin fruit of a tree). Some people might have a hard time understanding the word because it does not make any sense.

 

Via memedroid.com

 

Besides pronunciation, grammatical issues also occurred to learners. For instance, to explain something that happened in the past, past tense is used. In order to use the past tense, the first thing that learners learn is usually adding “ed” at the end of the verb such as “work” becomes “worked”. However, irregular verbs do exist like the word “sink” becomes “sank”. It does not necessarily mean adding “ed” at the end of a sentence then the sentence becomes past tense.

Furthermore, there are a lot of grammatical rules that need to be learned in order to master the language. Beside English has 16 tenses, there are many other rules in grammar. Furthermore, there is also a possibility that the English grammar is different from the grammar of the learner’s first language. For example, in the sentence “this is a white shirt”, one of the grammar rules is to put the adjective first followed by the noun. However, in Indonesia language, the grammar is to put the noun first followed by the adjective. That is the case where there is a noun and an adjective, it will be more confusing if there are 2 or more adjectives to describe the noun. For instance, between “this is an old white shirt” and “this is a white old shirt”, which one do you think is grammatically correct? There is only one correct answer even when both sentences make sense.

As a result, in order to overcome the challenges mentioned above, it is very essential to familiarize and expose ourselves with English. It is very obvious that English  is an international language which can enable us to understand many different perspectives around the world and can also open up many opportunities to enhance ourselves in many aspects. Especially when we want to expand our career, many international companies are seeking multilingual professionals every year.

 

Reference :

Nuria Egam, Why Can English Be Difficult to Learn? Retrieved from
https://www.newcollegegroup.com/blog/can-english-difficult-learn/#:~:text=It%20has%20been%20called%20one,find%
20learning%20English%20particularly%20difficult%E2%80%A6

Squline, 18 Manfaat Belajar Bahasa Inggris di Era Globalisasi
https://squline.com/manfaat-belajar-bahasa-inggris/

Learn English with EnglishClass101.com, 5 Reasons to Learn English
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YagwZCEjkds

Pictures by: https://www.boredpanda.com/funny-english-language-jokes/?
utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic

Dictionary by: https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/

Fostering Learning Autonomy: Why Does It Matter?

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Written by Chintya Arlita

Edited by Willy Prasetya

Photo by Onyengradar via Shutterstock

 

“This is what Indonesia needs in the future. I am sorry, but the world doesn’t need children who are good at memorizing.” ─ Nadiem Makarim.

With the new education policy introduced by Nadiem Makarim, Merdeka Belajar, Indonesian learners are given more freedom to take charge of their learning. They no longer learn by only remembering information; rather, they are taught how to critically select relevant information and understand it.

Why is autonomy in learning essential? learners are more engaged in the classroom when they have the control of their own learning. This is caused by at least two reasons: self-efficacy and intrinsic value.

When given learning autonomy, learners are empowered to learn according to their abilities and interests. Individual growth can be achieved when learners are autonomous because they make their own decisions based on their interests and take control of their own choices. As a result, they become more confident and responsible with themselves in achieving their goals.

In addition, by learning autonomously, learners can discover values from what they have studied, which may lead to a more meaningful learning experience. When they have reached this point, they will be able to feel more satisfied in whatever they do. Even if they make mistakes in learning, the satisfaction is certain because they have the freedom to become reflective and evaluate themselves for improving themselves.

One simple yet excellent idea of giving learners a chance to be autonomous is a special day in which teachers let their learners decide what they want to learn without grading their learning. With such opportunity, learners have the full authority to optimize their potentials without any fear of judgment. Another way of instilling autonomy in learners is conducting a project-based learning. With such an approach, learners have more time to plan, explore, and experiment with whatever they need to do to complete the project. Learners who have worked autonomously tend to enjoy their learning process. There are at least two reasons for this: alignment with their passions and a sense of achievement.

Education should guide all individuals in the journey of searching for meanings to understand what they need in life. Although there is no accurate definition of a meaningful life since everyone has different backgrounds, the journey of finding a meaning is certain. To make the process meaningful, everyone should be given the freedom to take control of their learning and along the way, it can lead them to find their life purpose, which is vital for their self-worth.

Should English Be Taught in Early Age?

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By. Mehrunnisa Ani Mufti
Edited by Salma Maulani

 

Wherever we travel in the world, we can see advertisements and signs using English. Whenever we enter a restaurant or hotel in foreign country, they will use English to communicate with us. Indeed, English is an international language that has already spread around the world. People from various countries learn English. However, when is the right time to learn English? Is it from an early age or when we have already grown up? There are two sides in our society about whether English should be taught at an early age. Indonesian government believes that if English is taught in childhood it will burdens students in learning other subjects. While some parents are convinced that English should be taught at childhood because it will make their children easier to understand the international language. Although there are challenges in learning English in early age, such as students’ lack motivation, decreased sense of nationalism, and the large number of students in a classroom, there is some evidence that those problems can be overcome by using various games, setting a particular goal in teaching to grow students’ nationalism, and using group work in the classroom.

Garton (2013) believes that students in early age have a lack of motivation in learning English. However, motivation can be increased from learning activity and teachers who understand the context.  Listia (2008) states that to increase students’ motivation, teachers should make learning activity more fun by using the right method and various games based on the children’s cognitive, physical, and emotional level. Also, by providing colored textbooks. The research conducted by her, where the increasing of students’ motivation in learning English is in line with the use of interesting learning methods such as using games, puzzles, interesting pictures and songs in the teaching and learning process. In addition, teachers should know the context of teaching English. McMillan (2017) states that a good context explains function and meaning, and gives students a reason to use what is being taught and communicated. From that, it can engage students to learn English because they know how the language is meaningful to them and how they have the connection with the language. It is in line with Rhalmi (2013) that states learners will have motivation to learn English if they acquire the language meaningfully. 

Opponents also maintain along with the pressure of widespread globalization, learning English can affect a sense of nationalism (Kawai, 2007). However, it depends on how the teachers teach English to the students. Fanani (2008) believes that if teachers set a particular goal in order to improve students’ sense of nationalism, it can increase the sense of it to the students. In order to objectify it, Fanani (2008) has already mentioned two ways to improve students’ nationalism through learning English activities; inserting nationalism value and using Indonesian songs in learning English. In particular, he argues that while teaching English teachers can internalize the value of nationalism which the students can get the beneficial things from internalization because of the unity combination of manner and value. To internalize the values of the English teaching materials, Fanani states that teachers can identify the values of nationalism that can be merged into teaching materials, for example comprehending and obeying the values carried in the 1945 Constitution and Pancasila. Then, finding the sources (written in English) adjusted with students’ grades about teaching materials related to Indonesian nationalism. The second way mentioned by Fanani (2008) is using Indonesian songs. He believes that all children love to sing, play, and repeat short songs.  He observed that using nationalism songs with English lyrics can be very useful to raise students’ sense of Indonesian nationalism. One example of the song is “Hari Merdeka” which has been translated into English. 

The final argument stated by opponent, Listia (2008) is that learning English at an early age in school is less effective because of the large number of students in the class. However, there are a lot of ways to overcome that. Listia (2008) observed that it can be overcome by dividing students into groups or pairs. By applying this method, it can increase interaction between students and make the learning atmosphere more varied. Therefore, students can show their abilities maximally without being shy because they work together. In addition, teachers can manage them easily because they shouldn’t check one by one. On the other hand, the arrangement of the classroom can overcome ineffective teaching and learning activity in a big member of class. This is consistent with research conducted by Hayes (1997) which states that learning English by rearranging the classroom tools (tables and chairs) into several groups. With this, teachers can recognize and see the students’ work clearly rather than in the classroom arrangement in rows. Hayes (1997) also states that if the class becomes noisy because of a large member of class, teachers can use signals (example: a clap of the hands) and give the instruction in a loud voice.

It should be evident that the arguments against learning English in early age are not acceptable. Many challenges mentioned by opponents can be solved in many ways. First, students who are not motivated in learning English can be prevented by fun learning activities and the understanding of context that belongs to the teacher. Second, the process of learning English which makes sense of nationalism faded can be overcome by implementing nationalism values and using Indonesian songs while learning English. Third, over-participants in class can be dealt with classroom management. To overcome those challenges, training should be given to the teachers who teach English to childhood, and parents should control them at home. 

 

 

References

Hayes, D. (1997). Helping Teachers to Cope with Large Classes. ELT journal, 51(2), 106-116.

Garton, S. (2014). Unresolved Issues and New Challenges in Teaching English to Young Learners:

                  The Case of South Korea. Current issues in language planning, 15(2), 201-219.

Fanani, A. (2015). Using English to Enhance the Elementary School Students’sense of Nationalism.

                 Educate, 4(2).

Kawai, Y. (2007). Japanese nationalism and the global spread of English: An analysis of 

                Japanese governmental and public discourses on English. Language and Intercultural
Communication, 7(1), 37-55.

Listia, R., & Kamal, S. (2008). Kendala Pengajaran Bahasa Inggris di Sekolah Dasar. 

                 Retrieved on February, 11, 2011. 

Rhalmi, M. (2013, July 18). Meaning and Context in Language Teaching. Retrieved from

https://www.myenglishpages.com/blog/meaning-and-context-in-language-teaching/.

Mcmillan, S. (2017, September 19). Setting Context. Retrieved from

http://eslarticle.com/pub/teaching-english-to-speakers-of-other-languages-t/139590-Setting-Context.html

Things in college life that online learning can never replace

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Written by Willy Prasetya

Photo by the Author

 

When COVID-19 struck, all classes were shifted online. Teachers were working hard to find the best way to deliver lessons online, while students were struggling to deal with challenges in online learning. Despite the great effort to make online learning as meaningful as face-to-face classes, there are things in college life that will never be replaced.

 

Missing the taste of independence

As universities were closed due to COVID-19, most of us went back to our parents’ houses. Since then, we have been living under our parents’ authority once more. The responsibility to do household chores or to help our parents at work becomes inevitable. While some of us can balance our time for coursework and home duties, some others are having difficulties in dealing with multiple responsibilities.

In addition, while living with our parents, it is likely that we are missing the opportunities to practice independent decision-making that we did when living far from home. We stopped having our own routines, cooking our own meals, managing money for ourselves, choosing what non-academic activities to follow, or making other decisions related to our personal lives without much intervention from our parents.

 

Missing the social dynamics

I personally believe that what makes college more memorable is not the coursework but the social dynamics. Hanging out with friends, having an argument with a professor, doing something silly that makes everyone laughs during a class, and falling in love with a classmate will always be relevant topics to discuss even long after we graduate from college. While coursework in college makes us more knowledgeable, it is the social dynamics that makes us mature.

Conflicts, such as a quarrel with a roommate over the responsibility to clean the house, a disagreement in a student organization meeting, or a tension between two friends due to miscommunication, are important parts of social and emotional development for young adults . Due to campus lockdown, there are fewer interactions among us, resulting in fewer social dynamics.

It is true that online communication still enables us to stay in touch with friends and teachers. However, online communication also makes it easier to avoid conflicts or problems by simply turning off notifications or being irresponsive. In face-to-face college interactions, that is less likely to happen since we still need to attend classes in person and see our classmates or friends, including the ones we are having a problem with.

With the prolonged campus lockdown, a few of us may experience reverse culture shock when we have to go back to the complex social dynamics in college after the pandemic, particularly if staying at home has become the new comfort zone for us.

 

Every cloud has a silver lining

Despite what is missing from college life during the pandemic, we have the chance to learn new things. Online learning enables us to use various virtual tools and navigate the Internet more efficiently. In addition, by staying at home almost all the time, we can learn new skills, such as cooking, making arts and craft, or decorating rooms.

More importantly, this pandemic has taught all of us to appreciate things that we used to take for granted: greetings in the hall, small talks while waiting for classes, food sharing with friends during lunch, and many more. When the pandemic is over, hopefully we will rebound to a life full of appreciation and gratitude.