Lecturer: Hartoyo MA, Ph.D

Utami Dewi K. (0708066047)

English Department

Post Graduate Program

University of Muhammadiyah Prof. Dr. HAMKA

Jakarta
Monday, January 7 2008

INTRODUCTION

Writing skill is one of the hardest part in teaching English because it needs consistency and formula to help students or learners are able to write with ease. First, something that we should think about is the circumstance which can support its ability. If the circumstance is available included the materials, capability, knowledge or information, willingness to learn also psychology which I can say in this word ‘mood’ or ‘feelings’ , it would be a great part in writing something although not the scientific one. In most cases, we found that starting to write is a kind of ‘disaster’ for several students because they should find idea, antithesis of the problem, recommendation until the solution.

THE DESCRIPTION

It was an extraordinary class I saw in Labschool Kebayoran Baru. It has special class for special subject, so is English. Most of them were great in supporting our teaching writing observation because they might be learning English also at home, like what I said circumstance is one of supportive part. They were very enthusiastic, active, and energetic. Furthermore, before we arrived, they performed welcome song, it was great for being with them at least for 40 minutes run.

Short Information

Place : Labschool Junior High

Date and Time : Friday, January 25 2008, 10.40-11.20 am.

Skill : Writing

Class : 7 A (Acceleration)

Theme : I’ve lost my rucksack and Feelings

Teacher : Alaidin and Tami

Observer : Tami, Wirhayati, Desmal

Facilitator : Tami, Romlan

Round : 2 session (+ 40 minutes)

The observation of the first session

The teacher was Pak Alaidin, it was the first time for him in teaching English in the formal class but he could accomodate the situation. He was quiet familiar to attach with them and had clear voice. He could deliver the materials well by utilizing its formal book which the picture inside, then he asked them to read and write by dictating. He asked two of them to write on the board and corrected their mistakes in non-threathening way. Finally, he could manage the time and finished it on time.
The weaknesses:
1. He utilized school book as a source only.
2. He started without warming up the class and elaborating the lesson straightly.
3. Some students were busy talking at the back, the information were not spread completely. It might be caused of his unclear explanation that overwhelm them.

The observation of the second session

I was trying to become the second teacher with some materials which I created by myself but still in writing skill. The supportive materials are:

1. Ice breaking and game

The contents are song and jumbled words about feelings.

2. Worksheet

There is an identity form which student should fill, started from the name, date of birth, and favorite food. The last question the teacher asked is why they love to eat that food so much. For warming up, by asking ‘why’ they will think the reason by exploring their mind about its taste or something more.

3. Flash Card

The teacher asked three students to perform a kind of short fairytale episode by using flash card, the dramatic play was presented three times until they understood the story goes. After finished to play the role, each of them should re-write the dialogue and mostly they knew it.

4. Pictures

5. Video

6. Song

The Observation

1. Building Knowledge

Second teacher opened the lesson by greeting and asking several students’ names, then she asked ‘silly’ question if something we should know from the first meeting is his name, one of them mentioned it, she gave award to him a thousand rupiah which she had already prepared for warming up. Previously, she did not start straightly to the lesson but let them enjoy with the games; arranging the lyrics of the song and saying one of the feelings people have randomly. The aim of ice breaking is to stimulate them to be ready, enjoy also to help them have a short overview about the theme. It is prestigious to show some visual aids, she used power point, song and movie CD, pictures also flash card. Next, she focused on the writing skill by distributing a worksheet for each which has a list of identity that they should complete. Last question she asked from the worksheet was ‘what is your favorite food?’ and ‘why do you like it?’. After finished, three of them represented others to come in front of the class and share the written information. Teacher knew by asking ‘why’ children would struggle to give reasons for food they like best, it would keep them thinking and playing with idea. She tried to be movable and always walked through the path, decided to stand up without sitting at all so that they would pay attention. After submitted those worksheet, she gave more question about kinds of feelings they knew, one by one answered responsively and she appreciated them by saying ‘good’, ‘nice’, ‘great’ and sometimes two thumbs up.

2. Modeling of Text
There are several questions she provided, they should fill in the blanks and write down the right word from the abbreviation. Still the theme is about feelings. Here is the example below:
I am so…because his asst. rejected my proposal.
Revised: I am so (sad, upset, angry) because his assistant rejected my proposal.
The school bldg. is being renewed, because the old one was spooky. We are very…
Revised: The school building is being renewed, because the old one was spooky. We are very afraid.

3. Practice/ Joint Construction of Text
First, teacher used colorful flash card which dialogue below, another three practiced in front of the class and others re-write the sentences of the dialogue in detail. It enhanced to practice writing grammatically. It also pursued them to pronounce the correct words loudly.
Second, she used four kinds of pictures without any statements on them. Students should discuss in pairs about the activities people do and how they feel at that time in the pictures. At a glance, after they are finished writing then they re-tell each picture.

4. Independent Construction of Text
Teacher played the movie about children who are playing on the ground. The purpose is to force them to write what they have watched before by asking several questions, such as:
Who are they?
What are they doing?
Where are they?
When do they celebrate it?
How do they perform?
How do they feel?
From those questions above and her first time teaching junior high students, she got something new that by brainstroming the formula, students will be able to write, that is, by utilizing 4W+1H (Who, What, Where, When, and How).

The weaknesses:
1. Time management
Actually, the lesson run out of time, she needed more minutes to finish the materials but she could not continue.
2. The teacher did not do correction on the spot and write on the board.
3. She had low voice that could not reach the audiences at the back./p>

In short, the solutions for progresive teaching-learning process are time management is important to be jotted down, voice influences much the audience, body language and movement supports the lesson, several games are needed for warming up, utilizing many visual aids and not only a formal book is a main point, giving short instruction will help to understand and avoid overwhelm the students.

UTAMI DEWI K. (0708066047)

As we know that computer is a tool only, but it has many functions to support our daily lives. Although, computer is just a ‘gadget’, people need it, of course it is also a supportive media for children in a learning process. They can absorb and gain the information and knowledge easily, effectively, and faster. So, parents or teachers can provide them with computer which is specialized designing for children.

On the contrary, it can not work well because of some factors such as: the connection needs time sequence, it needs more financial to make it available, and children in early childood do not have ‘filtration system’ in their brains so, they are able to get inappropriate information for their ages or they might not be familiar with the instruction. In this writing, there are some tips which are useful for adults to follow when they are interested to provide computer in language learning for their kids.

Firstly, parents should wait until children are ready to sit properly in front of the computer. Parents can help them to concentrate with the program they are dealing with. It has many kinds of program. Moreover, children are guaranteed not to be boring to sit along all day.

Second, seeking for suitable program designed for children based on their ages and characters. Usually, music can stimulate the cognitive functions, it can stimulate their brains such as: memory, language, and analysis. By enjoying the music, the capacity of the memory can grow gradually become bigger and bigger. Children can have enrichment by learning the vocabulary from music, they are also able to catch up the verbal action and try to communicate it again.

Third, make it fun, computer should be fun and entertaining them, because by having a such of interesting game can encourage them to learn more and try another facilities. A few ways to make it fun are giving them colorful pictures or by singing songs.

Fourth, your supervision are needed. Could you imagine if they can work well and they are already familiar with it, means that they can work with inappropriate program also, right? So that, parents may not leave them alone.

Fifth, limit the time to play with it, children should have time to study by reading books or get interactions with others. By playing with computer all the time, it can spend a lot of money, time, eye irritation, and children can be individualistic person. So, personal touch and real communication are very crucial also. Parents should concern that another activities such as reading books and playing time are as important as working with computer.

Finally, by considering those five aspects, parents and children can be cooperative playmaker in language learning process assisted by computer.

Utami Dewi K. (0708066047)

English Department

Post Graduate Program

University of Muhammadiyah Prof. Dr. Hamka

Jakarta 2007

THE ANALYSIS OF THE READY – MADE COMPUTERIZED LANGUAGE LEARNING PROGRAMS

1. LEARN ENGLISH

The advantages:

• There are vary of games about the activity and everything met in daily life such as; food, color, shopping, countries etc. So, it will be more attractive and fun.
• Before starting to play the games, there are also many options which game that the player would like to try based on the level of intelligence and balanced with his/ her capacity (hard, easy, word practice, speaking practice, etc).
• We can print out the task which we have done and finished.
• We could know the result, point, and respond directly.
• Colorful, interesting, has alot of pictures and characters.
• We can choose any game which we love best.
• The pronounciation is clear enough.
• The higher level of learners could learn sentences and not only a phrase or words. Furthermore, its sentence is supported by a character.

• We could record our voices and replay. So, we could evaluate our mistakes and failures in spelling and pronounciation.
• I have implemented it to a 4 grade student of elementary school and it works well.

2. The Issue in English

The advantages:

• Someone speaks up, tells story about truth experience.
• I can operate it in winamp.
• There are several people who incharge inside from many countries with different informations and pronounciations.
• Our auditorials are functioning.
• It works for Senior High School students.

The disanvatages:

• Monotoniously
• The caracters are not movable widely, we only see their faces and gestures. So, it is not really attractive for children.
• Sometimes different spelling could influence our hearings and meanings.

3. Speak English

The advantages:

• It has a vary of games (numerical and words).
• The alphabet is effective for kindergarten and elementary school.
• The conversation is useful for secondary students.
• It tells about different situations and places (at restaurant, station, etc).
• We are trained to be able in using question.

The disanvatages:

• There is not character alive.
• There are long sentences which could be difficult to be understood for elementary students.
• There is picture but not movable.

4. Sing a Song

Sir, I’m so sorry. Actually the CD doesn’t work well. I’ve tried many times to open it in different computers but it’s useless, but I still try to evaluate based on my opinion from our last training several sessions ago.

The advantages:

• Enjoyable

• It is effective for preschooler.

• There are alive moving characters.

• Interesting for listening and teaching vocabulary.

• Learn with rhyme is easier, quicker, and fun.

English Department

Post Graduate Program

University of Muhammadiyah Prof. Dr. HAMKA

Jakarta 2007

Lecturer: Hartoyo, Ph.D

ICT IN COMPUTER ASSISTED LANGUAGE LEARNING

MID-SEMESTER TEST

1. Assignment

BEGINNING ENGLISH WITH YOUNG LEARNERS

The development of our educational system in formal or informal scope is always being renewed and become more progressive. Of course, it is kind of a huge responsibility not only for teachers but also parents and government itself. Then, there is an effort which has been done by the ‘doer’ of pre-school such as; increasing the motivation of pre-schooler in learning language especially English and implementing it into daily life. One of the effort is by holding music as a tool of learning and communicating process which is specialized for children age between 4-5 years old.

As we know that music can stimulate children’s growth in increasing the function of brain such as; memory, language, and analysis. It is a moment whenever children are having social interaction among their peers. According to Santrock and Yussen:1992 stated that there are three domains of growing process which are related and influenced each other; a. Biologcal process (physical growth involves brain, neuron system, bones, hormonal, and five senses), b. Cognitive process (capability in the way of thinking, communicating, and absorbing knowledge from the surroundings), and c. Psycho-social process (The changes of emotional, feelings, and personality aspects also how the children can deal with those changes when they are communing with others to find and build their self-identity). Furthermore, in the term of music as a tool which is very helpful in learning process, the writer is going to describe deeper about the strengthness and weakness also advantage and disadvantage of music for kindergarten age.

The writer thinks that Suggestopedia methodology is the most suitable for this learning process. Hartoyo remarked:

“The rationale or considerations are the process of learning how to use a FL/ target language can be accelerated through tapping the learners’ mental powers. In this respect, building up learners’ attitudes towards their teacher is essential. The focus is speaking (being able to use a target language/ foreign language for everyday communication)”.

First, the strengthness of music as a tool in learning English for children is they can effectively learn rhymes easily and quickly and they appearing to enjoy learning and reciting them. Rhymes are prefabricated language. Most are made up of prefabricated phrases; and ones where new words are slotted into the same verse or a different verse, are similar to prefabricated routines (Opal Dunn:1979).

Second, the weakness of music as a tool of learning English for pre-schooler is sometimes if there is a way of giving children a complete text with a complete piece of meaning from the very first lesson there will be isolated items of language, especially if not linked to situations, are often much more difficult for young beginners to understand, use or remember (Dunn 1979: 10).

Third, Dunn said that the advantages of music as a tool of learning English for kindergarten are when the children know the rhyme, it can be used for teaching other plurals, eg. one cat-two cats and as a game which any child who adds the name of an object after saying four, drops out the game. Young beginners seem to feel that when they can speak a lot of English quickly rather like an adult and this is something that they appear to want to do. Moreover, rhymes can be bonus in language learning whereas language learned in a rhyme can often be transferred to another situations in the classroom.

Finally, the disadvantages of music as a tool of learning English for them are if the rhyme is playing slowly beat in reciting words it will be easier for them to follow and understand but, if the beat of rhyme is little bit faster it will be quite difficult to know the words and the meanings. Next, the system disturbance might be happened suddenly when when they work with the rhyme, for instance the rhyme is not clearly enough to recite or quite long to remember because of the electricity or the sound system.

Actually, all the methodologies of learning English are very helpful and important in encouraging children to speak up and communicate especially in daily life. In summary, utilizing music as a tool of language learning for children age has strengthness and weakness also advantages and disadvantages.

References:

Hartoyo, M.A., Ph.D. Individual Differences in CALL. UPT UNNES Press. Semarang, 2006.

Dunn, Opal. Beginning English with Young Children. Macmillan Publishers LTD. London and Basingstoke, 1983. 

Toddler Magazine, vol. 8/ 2007 page. 9

The article of University of Paramadina in ‘Children’s Seminar’

Hug your child everyday. The simple concept is an important gesture, and the physical embrace is a way of connecting with your child who feel loved and cared for having high self-esteem and do well in their endeavors. Young children have a need to be loved and cuddled, especially by the adults they live with, and guess what – it will do you as much good as it does your child. Remember, there is always time to fit in a big hug!.

Do be aware that if your child gets used to hugs from home and then goes off to school (and expect a teacher to give a hug) where the teachers may show affection differently, this does not mean that the teacher does not like your child. It means the teacher has different style than the one your child is used to.

Taken from Nizamia Newsletter on August 2007, volume 22 – No. 20

I am still shocked with Ravi’s best wish, my lovely son who is still in elementary school. He is nine years old, but he seems growing older than his age. I am ashamed and feeling so empathy. I am imagining how handsome and adorable he is. “Oh… I’m just like mirroring myself” I said.

Two weeks ago, he asked me whether my boss was very bad because I always spent my time to go to work and work all the time. Even on holiday I should go to work out of town or attend so many seminar and meeting abroad with my boss. Of course, I do not have time for my lovely Ravi.

Luckily, my wife is my great housewife. I am very proud to have her in my life. Even though, my wife is a well-known journalist in one of the famous mass media, still she is focusing herself to her family, me and Ravi. If she is really obsessed with her career, she could become a very professional journalist.

“I could not play with mommy all the time dad!” said Ravi “because mommy can not act to be a warrior, she can not play chess and swim at all, see.. mommy is afraid of water” Ravi added.

But then, I always have to finish my duty.

At 10.15 pm, while my wife is opening the door for me, she is wishpering that Ravi is still waiting. Astaghfirullah! I just remember that this morning I promised him that I would like to play chess after home.

“Hi… dad! are you tired?” he seems so sad.

“I’m sorry my dear, I had my crucial meeting today” I give him reason and I hope that he would not be angry. I see that on the table, chess board is already being prepared neatly. I also see a piggy bank of Ravi is opened widely.

“It’s okay dad, so we can still continue to play, right?. I have prepared it. Oh ya… could you lend me some money?” asks Ravi then he counts his. I wonder why he asks me for some money in this late night.

“Of course, you may, but for what honey? and why did you crash your piggy bank?” ask me. I take my wallet to take out some money that Ravi wants to borrow. I feel guilty.

“Ten thousands rupiah, can I?”. I give 10 thousands to him but I’m still asking why and what for.

“Actually, Mommy said that you’re very busy but it does not mean that you do not love me. So, I asked her if your time is so priceless, your salary would be bigger too. You may get a lot of salary from your boss because you use your holiday to work also. If I can count your salary per hour, it will be hundred thousands, then for half hour it means you will get fifty thousands, right dad?” Ravi asks for my agreement and I nod down and say yes. “Oh ya, this is my fifty thousands” he added.

I only have forty thousands, so I borrow you ten thousands, because I just want to buy your time to play with me for half hour. Can I? Don’t worry dad, I will return your ten thousands tomorrow if my money is enough, ok dad!. So, let’s play!”.

I do not know what I should do at that time when my dear son gives me money on my palm only to have my half hour. “Oh my Godness, my son is an orphan”.

Taken from: Chici Sukardjo “Bolehkah aku memanggilmu AYAH?” (Gema Insani press, Jakarta 2004)

NAPS Newsletter, Original Title: Ternyata, Anakku Anak Yatim

]]> http://tamiku.wordpress.com/2007/07/27/my-son-is-an-orphan/feed/ 0 tamiku http://tamiku.wordpress.com/2007/07/27/hello-world/ http://tamiku.wordpress.com/2007/07/27/hello-world/#comments Fri, 27 Jul 2007 07:58:59 +0000 tamiku ]]> Utami Dewi Kusumaningsih
Jl. H. Usman Rt. 005 Rt.006 No.31 Rempoa Ciputat 15412
Phone: 081-317947857
E-mail: tamidewi@yahoo.co.id

Personal Information
Birthplace: Jakarta
Date of Birth: September 23, 1983
Gender: Female
Status: Single
Religion: Moslem

Formal Education
Strata 1 degree at UMJ, with GPA 3.22, Jakarta, 2005.
Senior High School of SMUN 47 Jakarta, 2001.
Junior High School of SLTP YPUI, Jakarta, 1998.
Elementary School of SDN 08 Bintaro Pagi, Jakarta, 1995.

Training/ Courses
English Language at LB LIA Ciputat

Organization Experiences
Secretary of HIMAKOM
Mapala STACIA UMJ
Ikatan Mahasiswa Muhammadiyah
Badan Eksekutif Mahasiswa FISIP UMJ
JPPR (Jaringan Pendidikan Pemilih untuk Rakyat)