Journal Article Critique #9 (CAR)

Citation: Widiana, I W. & Jampel, I N (2016). Improving Students’ Creative Thinking and Achievement through The Implementation of Multiple Intelligence
Approach with Mind Mapping. International Journal of Evaluation and Research in Education (IJERE). 5. 246-254

The article is aimed to improve students’ creative thinking in learning science using multiple intelligence and mind map. The research was conducted to the students in SD 8 Tianyar, Bali. Multiple intelligences is the seven components that consists of linguistic-verbal intelligence, logical-mathematic intelligence, spatial-visual intelligence, rhythmic music intelligence, kinesthetic intelligence and interpersonal intelligence. In this research, it is combined with mind map in science learning.

The results of the study showed that improvements have occurred in creative thinking skill (CTS) and learning achievement (LA). This improvement occurred because of some factors, including the following factors. First, the teacher gave recognition for the effort made by the students, the students’ participation, and the students’ success in learning by giving them additional scores.

From this article, I think this method can be applied in EFL class because it has a good impact for students’ performance not only in academic view but also non academic view.

Journal Article Critique #9 (CCU)

Citation: Yoganeh, M. T & Raessi, H. (2015). Developing Cultural Awareness in EFL Classrooms at Secondary School Level in an Iranian Educational Context. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences. 192. 534 – 542

This article is about a research in Iranian students to develop cultural awareness in the case of learning English. In learning foreign language, it is necessary to also learn about its culture. However the fact is that an English teacher only teaches about the linguistics and literature elements, not the culture. That is why this research aims to enhance students' knowledge of culture as the main goal for incorporating cultural content in EFL classrooms.

The participants of the research were 291 Iranian EFL secondary-school teachers from three provinces of Ilam, Kermanshah and Kurdistan in Western Iran who were randomly selected from three largest cities of each province. As the findings implied, the teachers have positive attitudes towards incorporating cultural content in teaching. However, one of the main objectives of this study was to seek whether or not there is a gap between teacher's perceptions and practices in teaching culture in EFL classrooms. According to the findings, this gap prevails in an Iranian educational context. On the one hand, the teachers of this study considered it important to incorporate culture into teaching.

Journal Article Critique #10 (CCU)

Citation: Linares, S. M. (2016). Othering: Towards a Critical Cultural Awareness

in the Language Classroom*. HOW. 23. 129-146. 10.19183/how.23.1.157

This study aims to seek to summarize the literature on the notion of othering and its pedagogical possibilities to promote critical cultural awareness rising in the language classroom. The purpose then is to bring society to the classroom setting for pupils to face it and learn first-hand how to negotiate othering manifestations and seek further understandings on its context of production and reproduction.

I think the findings on the article are appropriate with the common issues in EFL classroom because it needs critical cultural awareness to live with other society in diversity. Then, language classrooms constitute perfect sites to provide new educational and cultural opportunities for students to empower themselves and learn how to critically read, interpret, reflect, evaluate, and reinterpret new meanings of the Other’s social identity. In this sense, pedagogical tools such as cultural products, critical cultural incidents, qualitative research methods, and role-plays serve as engaging instruments to make students cross-culturally aware and avoid reductionist and essentialist cultural visions, this by letting them experience a diversity of perspectives and realities embedded within the culture of the target language.

Journal Article Critique #10 (CAR)

Citation: Fahrurrozi. (2017). Improving Students’ Vocabulary Mastery by Using Total Physical Response. English Language Teaching. 10. 118-127. 0.5539/elt.v10n3p118

This article aimed to know how TPR method can improve vocabulary mastery in the third grade students of elementary school Guntur 03 South Jakarta, Indonesia. The background of this study was because of the basic problems of the teacher in teaching English to the students which is lack of method in the way they deliver the material. One of the methods that can be applied by teachers in an effort to improve the competence of students in learning English, especially in the mastery of vocabulary is by applying the method of Total Physical Response (TPR).

The study implemented to in the classroom to improve learning outcomes of students; vocabulary of students physically, activates students through role-modeling that can be translated to students as the meaning of a word in the English language so that the students' understanding of vocabulary increases. Besides the application of TPR in the classroom, it can also make English language learning of students who previously daunting for even more fun so that students can follow the learning process to the optimum result.

I think this method is used by commonly teacher for teaching young learners because they usually learn something by using an action.

Journal Article Critique #8 (CCU)

Citation: Al-Wossabi, S. A. N.. (Desember, 2016). Promoting Communicative Skills and Cultural Understanding among Saudi EFL Students Joining Summer English Programs at US Universities: A Web-Based Project. 7. 6.

The aim of this journal is to enhance the oral English competence for Saudi Students. The research is conducted to the Saudi EFL Students who is joining summer English program at US University. There are some students enrolled to US University in order to develop their English competence especially in Listening, speaking, reading, writing, grammar, and vocabulary. The teaching method was used web-based project. The students only attended to the class room only for first 20 hours then they studied through web site for the rest.

The result showed that the web based project can develop students’ competences in sociolinguistics, speaking skill and listening skills because when they lived in US, they lived with the native family and they learnt the culture of them. in this case, the cultural understanding was very needed in order to prevent their cultural shocked. As it is known that Arabic and American have different culture, by learning cultural awareness they can easily adapted with the native people there. And finally they can learn to improve their English skills by living with the native family there because they communicate with them everyday.

Journal Article Critique #8 (CAR)

Citation: Juriah. 2015. Implementing Controlled Composition to Improve Vocabulary Mastery of EFL Students. Dinamika Ilmu. 15. 137-162.

This article has aims to know how controlled composition teaching techniques implemented by English teacher, controlled composition teaching technique improves vocabulary mastery of sixth grade students in SDN 27 Samarinda. This study was conducted in two cycle and each cycle consists of four phases. Using controlled composition technique to improve vocabulary mastery, the researcher had done his research and it was proved that this technique can improve students’ vocabulary mastery in understanding meaning, pronouncing the words well, and spelling the vocabularies.

Controlled composition technique teaching teaching and learning involves students totally in learning process, it also has three aspects; students as learning subject, teacher as mediator and facilitator, and the situation set by the teacher to get effective and planned learning process. This technique makes the students be more active in learning process.

In my opinion, this technique is appropriate in teaching vocabulary to young learners because it has been known that young learners are learning something by experiencing so they call as active learners. 

Journal Article Critique #7 (CAR)

Citation: Dewi. R. S, Kultsum, U, Armadi, A. (December 19, 2016). Using Communicative Games in Improving Students’ Speaking Skills. English Language Teaching. 10. 63-71. 10.5539/elt.v10n1p63

This journal article is a collaborative action research between the researcher and some of the teachers in a junior high school in South Tangerang. They did a research about how the implementation of communicative games in improving students’ speaking skills. As it is known that speaking is one of the skills which have to be mastered in learning English, the fact says that in Indonesia students still have difficulties in speaking English. The problems come from the students themselves and the learning process. For those reasons, the researcher tried a new activity solve the problems by using communicative games.

The method used in this study was a collaborative action research which consists of two cycles and each cycle consisted of four phases; planning, acting, observing, and reflecting. In collaborative action research, the teacher acted as an observer while the researcher acted as teacher who taught by using communicative games. The teacher was as an active participant who was not only functioning as an observer but also taking actions by making lesson plan and giving assessment.

The result shows that the use of communicative games can improve students’ speaking skill. In my opinion, this method is appropriate to teach speaking skill for the junior high school students because they are still categorized as young learners, and young learners usually learn something by doing. That is why using games in the process of teaching and learning is suggested.

Journal Article Critique #7 (CCU)

Citation: Alsamani, Abdul-Aziz Saleh (May 15, 2014). Foreign Culture Awareness Needs of Saudi English Language Majors at Buraydah Community College. English Language Teaching. 7. 6.

This is the seventh article journal which I had read about cultural awareness. In this article, the researcher observed about the needs of Buraydah Community College of Saudi English Language Major in Foreign Culture Awareness. This study aimed to identify which cultural aspects are suitable in teaching English for Saudi students. The study was administered to three main categories of subjects: students, teachers, and experts in the field of teaching EFL. The required data were collected using a Culture-awareness Diagnostic Test and a Culture-Awareness Needs Assessment Questionnaire.

The result of the study shows that it is needed for the Saudi students as the EFL learners need to learn about different aspects of foreign culture to develop their culture-awareness and that they depend mostly on audio-/visual media to learn about the target culture. In my opinion, I agree that learning cultural awareness must be supported by media in order to see the real fact about culture. If learning culture only takes from the theory and explanation, the students become less interested in learning that culture. 

Journal Article Critique #6 (CCU)

Citation: Lumkes, J. H.. Hakket, S. Vallade, L. 2011. Hearing versus experiencing: The impact of a short-term study abroad experience in China on students’ perceptions regarding globalization and cultural awareness. United State. Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

This article is about the impact of short-term study abroad experience in 15 students of agricultural faculty. They participated two part short-term course in different country. The first part of the course was taken in the classroom in March–April 2008 and the second part was a 16-day study abroad course in China in May 2008. The students were studying Globalization, Agriculture and Environment. The result showed that after having two short-term courses in different countries, the students’ experience was increased. the study abroad experience profoundly altered the students’ cultural self awareness and outlook on global political issues.

From this research, it can be learnt that cultural awareness is also caused by the place we learn something. No matter the purpose is, if we learn something in different place and with different people, we can also be affected by the environment around us.

Journal Article Critique #6 (CAR)

Citation: Cuticell, M. Coyne, M. Ware, S. M. Oldham, A. Rattan, S. L. 2014. Improving Vocabulary Skills of Kindergarten Students through a Multi-Tier Instructional Approach. Intervention in school and clinic. 50. 150-156.  10.1177/1053451214542041

Vocabulary skill is a basic skill in learning English. For kindergarten students, it is a must learning vocabulary in order to learn new language. If they have difficulties in learning vocabularies, it will cause their reading skill. This article will try to solve the problem in kindergarten students by using a Multi-Tier Instruction Approach. It is an approach which has a classroom activity in kind of small group discussion. Students are divided into small group and then they were given the instruction which consisted of effective vocabulary instruction (Tier 1) and intensive vocabulary intervention (Tier 2). 

The treatments were given in 4 days activity. It begun with the review target words, tell about the picture, picture score, materials, and example pictures. The result showed that the children who had difficulties in learning new vocabularies could improve their ability after giving the tier 2 instructions. It indicated that instruction is important in learning vocabularies for kindergarten students.

Journal Article Critique #5 (CAR)

Citation: Uztosun, Mahmet Sercan. 2014. An Action Research Study Designed to Implement Student Negotiation to Improve Speaking Classroom Practice in Turkey. Educational Action Research. 22. 488-504. 10.1080/09650792.2014.904238

This article is a study which conducted in a speaking class in the first-year students in an ELT department at a university in Turkey which consist of 32 students. The aim of the research is to implement the students’ negotiation in improving speaking practice.  The data were collected by using interview, observation, and questionnaire, and then were analyzed by using case analysis and content analysis.

In implementing the students’ negotiation, the research begun by listening students voices to improve classroom practice. The students were asked about the material that they wanted to learn. If the students do not find an activity interesting and useful, their motivation to be involved will probably decrease. Student negotiation is a way of collecting data from students to design classroom activities. And the results showed that involving students in decision-making resulted in positive attitude change and increased motivation. It means that the student negotiation seems to improve classroom practice through making it possible to provide classes relevant to students’ needs and wants.

From the explanation above, the research can be implemented in the process of teaching and learning process in ELT class of Indonesia because it is needed to know what students’ needs and wants in order to teach the appropriate material to them.

Journal Article Critique #5 (CCU)

Citation: Brown, Jac. 2011. Decision making styles East and West: Is it time to move beyond cross-cultural research?. Australia. Academic Journals.

Decision making styles between Eastern and Western people are different. This study is talking about the difference decision making between Australian, Malaysian, and Singapore people. The participants of the research are six hundred and seventy three university student in those three countries. This study explores patterns of decision making within the context of culture, age, and sex. The countries of Australia, Malaysia, and Singapore are particularly interesting because all three are in the Asia-Pacific region where a common context is shared.

The results are discussed in terms of cultural differences, such as; beliefs, values, and behaviors. This study got some hypothesis, one of them is that Asian respondents would score higher on non-vigilant decision making styles than Australian respondents. The hypothesis was partially supported as the Malaysian sample reported higher scores on hyper-vigilance than the Australian sample. But the other hypothesis reflected different things. This is caused by the different culture  of those three countries, because different culture also makes different way of thinking of people.

Journal Article Critique #4 (CAR)

Citation: Holubová, Renata. 2010. IMPROVING THE QUALITY OF TEACHING BY MODERN TEACHING METHODS. Problems of Education in the 21st Century. 25. 58-65.

The topic of the journal is about how to improve the quality of teaching by using modern method. As we have known that the quality of teaching of teaching must be improved to achieve the best learning outcome from the students. This study is a classroom action research which was conducted to high school students during physics lesson. It contained one cycle with four phases: planning, acting, reflecting, evaluating.

The modern methods being applied for this research were Problem-Based Learning, Consensus Decision-Making. Brainstorming, Mind Map, Heuristic Methodology, and The Effectiveness of Lectures with Interactive Activities. 

The research was begun with observation during the lesson in the class, then continue with the interview with all interested teachers. In interviewing, the researcher discussed their teaching and their opinion with the new methodology. 

The result of the study showed that Interactive teaching methods can help us to teach science for understanding. But it is necessary to change the role and position of the teacher in the classroom. It is different when we are teaching language. we can use all of the interactive methods in teaching language especially English.

Journal Article Critique #4 (CCU)

Citation: T. S, Vershinna & Kocheva O. L. 2015. Adaptation of Foreign Students to the Foreign Culture Learning Environment Using the Six Thinking Hats Method. US. Canadian Center of Science and Education.

The topic of the journal article is about the implementation of Six Thinking Hats method in the adaptation of the students who are learning foreign language in foreign culture learning environment. The subject of the study here were the foreign students from Korea, China, Taipei, etc who are studying Russian language in a class. Therefore the Six Thinking Hats method is applied to make them easier in adaptation with the environment.

Six Thinking Hats method is a method which is conducted in a small group consisted 6 people in maximum. There are 6 hats with different colors; red, white, yellow, black, green, and blue. Each of the color has different meaning and function for a person who wears it. The white hat is impartial and objective, directs one’s attention to information, dry facts and figures. The black hat is pessimistic and requires indication of disadvantages, critical assessments, challenging of the words and figures, and search for potential risks. The yellow hat is optimistic, opposite of the black one, aimed at seeing potential benefits (of very different nature, not only the material well-being) and advantages, requires search for positive aspects of the analyzed phenomenon. The green hat thinks out new ideas, investigates opportunities, searches for alternatives, and modifies the existing ones. The red hat allows to state intuitive guesses and feelings on the matter, not explanations. The blue hat operates the working process, kicks into gear at the initial stage of discussion to determine the forthcoming tasks, and finally to summarize the achieved, if necessary, and designate prospects. The research material was using fiction, newspaper, etc to find the most appropriate topic being discussed in a group. 

The result of the study showed that it the application of the Six Thinking Hats method in teaching foreign language in multicultural students class was able to expand the borders of cross-cultural communication. I think this method is also going to be a good way to teach English in EFL country to minimize cultural awareness. 

Journal Article Critique #3 (CCU)

Citation: Shemshadsara, Zahra Ghorbani. 2012. Developing Cultural Awareness in Foreign Language Teaching. US. Canadian Center of Science and Education.

This journal article is about developing cultural awareness in foreign language teaching. As we have known that the development of students’ cultural awareness starts by encouraging them to recognize their cultural identity in relation to other cultures,  Knuston (2006) suggests teachers should analyze students’ real world and academic needs in terms of cultural knowledge, awareness or ability to function in appropriate ways (Kuuston, 2006, cited in Beaudrie, et al (2009), p. 167-169).

The purpose of this study is to develop students’ cultural awareness in order to prepare students for intercultural communication. This study is about a critical analysis of assumptions and influences of culture awareness in language teaching and learning.

This study is important to be implemented to the related classroom which has different culture especially in language. Because language is closely entwined with culture, language teachers entering a different culture must respect their cultural values. As Englebert (2004) describes: “… to teach a foreign language is also to teach a foreign culture, and it is important to teach a foreign culture, and it is important to be sensitive to the fact that our students, our colleges, our administrators, and, if we live abroad, our neighbors do not share all of our cultural paradigms (cited in Leveridge, 2008, p. 100).

Journal Article Critique #3 (CAR)

Citation: Asrari, Slamet. 2017. The Use of Cooperative Round Robin Discussion Model to Improve Students’ Holistic Ability in TEFL Class. International Education Studies. 10. 139-147. 10.5539/ies.v10n2p139

 This article journal is about the implementation of Round Robin discussion in TEFL Class in the fourth year students in Muhammadiyah Gresik University. The purpose of the research is to improve students’ holistic ability in TEFL class. It is a classroom action research which was conducted to 10 male and 15 female students.

The journal has two cycles and each cycle conducted in 8 meetings. This is a collaborative action research; it means the researcher involved some teachers or lecturers in doing the research. Each cycle has four phases, those are: planning, implementing and observing, and reflecting. ( Kemmis and McTaggart: 1992). The data have both qualitative and quantitative data, and they were also collected both qualitatively and quantitatively.

The qualitative data was collected by eight times classroom observations by the team teaching (three lecturers) as observers of TEFL course in every classroom teaching activity, while the quantitative data. Then, it was analyzed through both quantitatively and qualitatively. Qualitative data analysis is interpreted to explain the emerging commonalities implementation of the planned strategy. On the other hand, the quantitative technique is implemented to analyze the result of pop-up quiz and questionnaire.

From the data collection and data analysis, it can be concluded that Round Robin Discussion model can improve students’ holistic ability. It can improve students’ critical thinking skill, presentation skill, confidence, and students’ independent learning who enrolled TEFL course for the fourth semester students via several modifications and improvements.

Journal Article Critique #2 (CAR)

Citation: Risnani, Sumami and Astina Komang. 2016. Implementation of Project-Based Learning (PjBL) through One Man One Tree to Improve Students’ Attitude Behavior to Support Sekolah Adiwiyata. International Education Studies.10. 134-141. 10.5539/ies.v10n3p134

The title of the article is Implementation of Project-Based Learning (PjBL) through One Man One Tree to Improve Students’ Attitude and Behavior to Support Sekolah Adiwiyata. The research was conducted in SMAN 1 Torjun Sampang in the academic year of 2015/2016. The subjects were the students of XI-6 of SMAN 1 Torjun Sampang, East Java, Indonesia, they were 22 students (18 boys and 4 girls) in a class. The research was aimed to improve students’ attitude and behavior toward environmental conservation using “One Man One Tree” PjBL.

The research was a collaborative classroom action research because it involves both teacher and researcher. It had two cycles which each cycle consisted of two meetings. The researcher used general steps and procedures of CAR, those are; start, identification of Problem, Cause of the problem and alternative solution, Planning, action/observation, reflection, revision of a new cycle. (Fatchan et al, 2009). The research was also involving the three geography teachers as the observers and helps the teacher, while the researcher acted as planner, model or teacher, and the reporter of the findings.

Based on the action which was doing at the first and second cycle, it was found that One Man One three Project-Based Learning (PjBL) model improved students’ attitude. It was proved by the average score of the post-test, which measured by the Likert scale (strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree, and strongly disagree), in cycle I is 86 while the average score in cycle II is 93.2 or categorized as high. The model can also improved students’ behavior which was proved by the average post-test score in cycle I is 69. The average score in cycle II is 90.4. so it can be concluded if there was an improvement in students’ behavior using one man one tree model.

Jounal Article Critique #2 (CCU)

Citation: Park, Yong Joon & Yang, Youjin. 2013. How to Share Korean Language and Culture with Pre-Service Teachers in the United State. Canadian Center of Science and Education.

The title of the article is How to Share Korean Language and Culture with Pre-Service Teachers in the United State. It was an article which had an aimed to describe the way of two teacher educators helped pre-service teachers develop their multicultural awareness in career preparation of Early Childhood Education. As it had been known that the school have become more racially, ethnically, and linguistically diverse (Watanbe, 2010), the researcher assumed that pre-service teacher should aware of their future classroom environment, including students who have linguistically and culturally diverse backgrounds. For that reason, the researcher conducted this study in order to describe how to share Korean language and culture in the United State.

The research was a kind of action research which had two cycles, and each cycles consisted of four phases (planning, acting, observing, and reflecting). The subjects of the study were 74 pre-service teachers enrolled in a teacher education program located in a Midwestern region of the USA. Seventy female and four male pre-service teachers participated in this study. For the ethnicity, 98% were White and 2% were Black or Hispanic.

The data were collected both quantitatively and qualitatively. The collected quantitative data were analyzed using SPSS. The qualitative data were separately analyzed by both authors and the analyses were compared. From the data, it can be concluded that the action of the researcher who conducted the research was meaningful for pre-service teachers who would work with racially, culturally, and linguistically diverse children in the USA. Based on our reflection, we believe that the action research cycle worked well for the forum preparation and future plans. some thought that future forums could be better with more hands-on activities rather than lectures, and some of them also thought that more time was necessary for each session.

Journal Critique Article #1 (CCU)

Citation: Lemanski, Jenifer L. , 2012. Western Media Meets Eastern Tradition: Examining The Views Of Chinese-American Women On Beauty. USA. University of Texas-Pan American.

The purpose of the study was to to fill a gap in the existing literature by using qualitative methodologies to examine the views of Asian-American women about beauty. To get the data, the researcher used in-depth interview with 11 Chinese-American women, prompted by mass media images of both Chinese and Western celebrities.

The research was begun with the introduction of different culture which affected to different characteristic. The mass media had been brought a big change to the women, so that it became more important to the women than anything.

To find out the answer of research question, the research used qualitative method of in-depth interviews and auto-driving, a technique in which photos, texts, or other in a snowball-sampling approach through two Chinese-American former classmates of the author.materials are used to help facilitate discussion with the participant. The subjects were obtained 

Journal Article Critique #1 (CAR)

Citation: Arifani, Yudhi. (2016). The Implementation of Team-Based Discovery Learning to Improve Students’ Ability in Writing Research Proposal. International Education Studies. 9. 111-119. 10.5539/ies.v9n2p111

This is my first article on my new blog, and it also becomes my first time to write a journal article critique. Actually, this article is about a classroom action research journal. It told how the effective way to write research proposal is. This is an interesting topic because nowadays, the most difficult problem for some undergraduate students is writing research proposal.

The objective of the research was to improve students’ ability in generating a research topic from reputable journal articles, developing thesis proposal draft, and writing comprehensive thesis proposal. It is started from the introduction which is stated that writing research proposal is one of compulsory subjects for EFL students at university level in Indonesia so it becomes hard challenge for every teacher to be able to teach how to write good research proposal.  

The research questions were concluded from the introduction, those are: a) How does the implementation of team-based discovery learning improve students’ ability in generating a research topic from reputable journal articles? b) How does the implementation of team-based discovery learning improve students’ ability in developing their research proposal draft? c) How does discovery learning improve students’ ability in writing comprehensive research proposal?

The research questions were answered by using some theories and research. Begin with the factors improving the quality of research proposal learning, and then the definition, advantages of team-based discovery learning. This research was using a classroom action research as the method, and it contained two cycles in the action. In each cycle, there were four phases those are planning, action, observation and reflection. 

As it’s known that classroom action research can be seen both quantitatively and qualitatively, this research was using quantitative method to measure the reliability and validity of the instrument. In my opinion, this is one of the difficulties in constructing a classroom action research. I haven’t understood whether it is a must or not to measure the requirements of the instruments, because in general, especially in students’ undergraduate thesis, they don’t measure the validity and reliability of the instruments.