Technology for Listening Skill

4th Journal of TLL Course

Technology will be very useful in teaching listening skill. With technology, teacher can provide native speaker voice in the class. Students surely have to get used to native’s accent. They have to be trained to notice and catch what they are talking with their original accent.

Based on my experience, noticing what foreigner said in their original accent is so hard at first. Let’s say if I hear an English song. At the very beginning, I always took a look to the lyrics because it was so hard to understand. But then as time goes by, I get used to their accent. Now I could notice some words in an English song.

When I was I student, I feel that teacher too much rely on technology, not their pedagogy. As the result, their teaching is not really creative. Just as usual: listening to two native speaker, and make a summary or write down what they are saying. Well, it was good, but I think they should add something that can be more interesting rather than just hear and write. They can make a game of it, they can make a role play of it.

Another thing that will be related to teaching listening skill is language laboratory. This facility includes headset. Students usually will be asked to put on their headset, and hear a conversation. But it will be very clear right? In fact, when you use your English skill to talk with foreigners, there will be some disturbance. Just like sound of motorcycle, sound of somebody else is talking and another unexpected sound.

Teaching is not and will not be very simple. That’s what I should know. I have to be prepared to teach listening skill with a good way.

Teaching Speaking with Technology?

3^rd Journal of TLL Course

I still do believe that technology is essentially just the package of strategy in teaching. Technology can be very useful in encouraging students’ motivation to learn. Most research has proven that motivation and willingness to learn is something that is very important to enhance the effectiveness of the learning process. Technology is not the main part, and that is what teachers should believe.

In speaking skill, for some people, is already interesting without the hand of technology. Especially for those who have “interpersonal intelligence”, they will be very enthusiastic to learn this. But we as the teacher should consider their ability or their proficiency level of English speaking skill. Lower level student tends to be more silent. In this case, technology will be very helpful.

When I was a student, the exposure of speaking skill is so much less than enough. Actually there are so many ways in making speaking skill interesting but some teachers did not notice that. The use of headset in the language lab actually will be interesting. But then it was become less interesting because teachers did not know how to use it and how to make it interesting. They did not know how to correlate technology and pedagogy.

Speaking skill will be a very useful for students. For me, this skill is the most important skill to be learnt. This is the essence of learning English.

Hopefully, I will be a teacher that could correlate technology and pedagogy in order to enhance students’ speaking fluency.

Essay 2 Humanistic Studies – Indonesia’s Multiculturalism

Differences tend to be common problem in Indonesia. Conflicts often happen because of difference. As we know, Indonesia is a country with so many differences of its citizen. I think we still remember about “Perang Sampit”, terrorism, conflict in Ambon, etc. Those are a very real sample how differences take role in making our unity fragile.

One of those differences is about different culture among Indonesia’s citizen. As we know, there are hundreds of cultures. They are spread from Sabang till Merauke. And of course, with different ethnicity, different way of thinking, different point of view in looking problems, multicultural issue can be a potential factor in making conflicts. Yes, Indonesia is a multicultural country. That is what we should be dealing as the citizen of Indonesia.

As an educated person, we can not ignore this. We have to do something to fix this and I propose education as the solution.

Education has a very important role in the development of Indonesia. Education also has a very big role in the development of every single person. So by adding multiculturalism issues in education, people will be grown up and develop with understandings of multiculturalism. So the awareness of multiculturalism better is taught at the early grade.

Actually, this thing has been added to curriculum. But it does not work as we are expected. We can see that so many conflicts still happen. People also still lack of tolerability in multiculturalism. So the implementation does not work optimally. Something should be changed. Teacher should not give the students this topic to be known only, but also to be understood and implemented in daily life.

Multiculturalism is a very crucial problem nowadays. But as the citizen of a country that consists of so many cultures, we can not be blind about this. We should be aware of this in order to keep us united. This is not an easy problem to be solved or a very hard problem that cannot be solved. Hopefully, this issue will not destroy our unity as Indonesia, and we can be tolerable of each cultures in Indonesia.

Journal 2 TLL - Responding to article written by Davies G. and Hewer S entitled “General Characteristic of Digital Media”

It is true and undeniable that technology offers us so many facilities. It is true that technology also make teaching and learning process easier and effective. But the questions are: “have Indonesian teachers maximized the usage of technology in their teaching and learning process?” and: “have the teacher in Indonesia used technology appropriately?”

According to my experience and my friends’ experience when we were students, there were so many teachers ignored and closed her/himself about the development of technology. They just used something that I call “the old way” in their teaching methodology. I think some of them were lazy to learn about it. Because as we know, technology required people who use it to learn how to operate it.

In the other hand, some teacher used this technology wrong. My uncle told me that his son was asked by his teacher to make a description about something. And his teacher asked my uncle’s son to find out material in internet. Do you know what happen? My uncle’s son totally copied the answer from the webpage. Can you imagine it? There were no thinking process when my uncle’s student doing this. It is no use. I bet that my uncle’s son will not know if someone asks him about what has been written in his description.

We can see how important technology, and how important to use it appropriately. So for Indonesian teacher, keep teaching and keep being updated for any kind of development of technology and also use it appropriately. The world will change and as a teacher, we should aware of those changes.

Essay 1 Humanistic Studies - Who am I?

Well, I am not got amnesia. I could still remember all of my friends, my family, my teachers and everyone around me. But if someone asking: “where do you come from?” I will say, I am live in Jakarta. I do not know from what tribe I was. If s/he keep questioning, I will say: “well, my dad is from Java, my mom is from Sunda, but I live and growth in Jakarta and not able to speak Java or Sunda.  Confusing, right? But it is happen. And this kind of problem not only happens to me, but also to some people who live and grown up in Jakarta.

Yes, Jakarta is the place of a lot of people from different cultural background. And in this city, we commonly use Bahasa more than use any other language from any tribe. Person’s like me also different from people. We are different in term of cognitive development toward difference among people. So somehow I feel grateful that I born and live in Jakarta.

People who are like me, for me, is a victim of globalization. Because of the development of Jakarta as the impact of its status as the capital city of Indonesia the growing period in this city will be different from another city.

It is not really bad in being different. It is even enrich our knowledge of people. Hope that this thing will bring more good than bad.

Journal 1 TLL - Responding to an article written by Mark Warschauer and Carla Meskill entitled “Technology and Second Language Teaching”

It is very interesting to know about the development of technology in teaching and learning process. I was surprised when I realized that even a blackboard is a very important invention on that era. Even Mark and Carla said that it was “the most ubiquitous” technologies in U.S. education. Now we can see how it develops. There are overhead projector, computer, LCD projector, etc.

That development should be the tools to make the teaching process effective. In the other way, based on my experience, there are some problems. When I was a junior high school, I feel more comfortable if my teacher taught me with whiteboard than if my teacher used overhead projector (OHP). That is because we need to be adapted when the teacher uses that.

It is also surprising to know that those technologies also influenced the teachers’ approaches in teaching language. For me, I did not really realize about those technologies and their influences in some approaches. That is because some of teachers in Indonesia are out of that in kind of new invention in education. 

In my opinion, technology is important for teacher. So teacher, especially in Indonesia, should be up to date with that thing. The technology used also has to be appropriate and contextual to the students. We can not act like an up-to-date teacher but does not use in the context. I do believe with some of my lecturers who say that something most important was to know who was our student and what they need.

Warschauer, M., & Meskill, C. (2000).Technology and second language learning.In J. Rosenthal (Ed.), Handbook of undergraduate second language education (pp. 303-318). Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Chocolate Can Really Be Healthy Too!

What actually is there in chocolate which makes them so tempting? Delicious creamy milk chocolate, rich dark types, hot chocolates, I really love each kind of chocolate which is available. Chocolate is universally loved all around the world. What is the exact reason for this love? Because they make us feel much better!
Chocolate actually is a great mood enhancer. Many chemicals found in the chocolate generate a feeling of wellbeing and euphoria. Is it really some wonder that we immediately reach for chocolate bar when we are down? It surely lifts our feelings. However as with any other thing, eating large quantities of chocolates can create many health problems for you as it induces too much sugar and fat in your daily diet.
It is a reality that dark types of chocolates are much healthier than their creamier milky version. This is so because the darker kind is much closer to the natural coca form which has many antioxidants capable of promoting a good health as it powerfully attacks all the free radicals which are present in our body and can cause us damage. Apart from this, a dark chocolate has much less sugar and negligible fat so it emerges out as a healthier option.
But what can you do if you love the milky white chocolate? Don't worry as you can surely find several healthy ways of enjoying it too! You can eat this chocolate in the moderate quantities. Also you can consider melting this chocolate in the fruits like strawberries and bananas. In this way you will get great taste of chocolate without over indulging in it.
If you want to enjoy the great Hershey bar, try to limit to those small pieces. It's for this reason that Hershey bar is actually divided! Just enjoy each of the pieces and get mesmerized by its great taste instead of eating this entire bar in an impulse.
It is true that a real chocoholic will never be able to quit eating the chocolates entirely, but you can easily find many ways to relish your piece without consuming too much. Apart from this, who would like to entirely quit eating the chocolates? Chocolates are those exotic foods which make our lives really worth living!

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Summary

Chocolate is universally loved all around the world. Chocolate actually is a great mood enhancer. It is a reality that dark types of chocolates are much healthier than their creamier milky version. If you love the milky white chocolate, you can consider melting this chocolate in the fruits like strawberries and bananas. Chocolates are those exotic foods which make our lives really worth living!

Comment

I don’t really think that chocolate is healthy. But then i read this article and know the fact of chocolate. And yeah, i think i should take chocolate to enhance my mood. Actually i’m in the side of people that love milky chocolate. But now i know that i can make it healthier by adding some fruits, like strawberry or bananas. But the important thing is don’t eat it too much.