Search

Background: Self-efficacy and the use of learning activities in online learning platforms have been extensively researched recently and are considered factors of online learning success. However, little research empirically seeks the correlation between those variables, including in English as a foreign language (EFL) online classes. Purpose: To investigate whether there is a significant correlation between the use of online learning platforms and EFL students' self-efficacy in online learning in English classes. Method: This quantitative research used two questionnaires, i.e., the Online Learning Platform Questionnaire (OLPQ) and the Self-Efficacy Questionnaire for Online Learning (SeQoL). The use of online learning platforms measured in this study includes independent learning, virtual meetings, forum discussion, collaborative learning, and assessment; meanwhile, self-efficacy includes course completion, social interaction, academic interaction, interaction with lecturers, and the use of LMS. The sample of this research was 133 EFL students from three universities in Indonesia. The data was analyzed using Spearman's correlation at the significance level of 0.05. Results: The results show that independent learning, collaborative learning, and forum discussion correlate with most constructs of self-efficacy. Meanwhile, the results indicate no correlation between two constructs of online learning platforms, namely virtual meetings and assessments, and three constructs of self-efficacy, i.e., students’ social interaction, academic interaction, and students’ interaction with lecturers. Conclusion: This research shows that more frequent use of online learning platforms, especially those covering independent learning, collaborative learning, and forum discussion, results in higher confidence among EFL students to succeed in online learning. Suggestion: Therefore, this research suggests that lecturers consider using significant features of online learning platforms to enhance students’ self-efficacy in online EFL classes.

The present study highlighted the importance of pre-service teachers’ teaching competences in English Language Teaching (ELT). Facts show that empowering pre-service teachers is very important, but inspiring lecturers to implement a suitable teaching model takes time. Thus, this study aimed to determine how student-teacher conferences and video-recorded microteaching sessions (VRMS) affected pre-service teachers’ competences. Besides, the self-reflection of the pre-service teachers after watching their own teaching performance video and the conference with the lecturer was also investigated to see their behaviors towards their teaching performances. This mixed-method study involved one group and applied three main instruments to collect data: interviews (student-teacher conferences), checklists of teacher self-evaluation forms, and teaching practicum performance tests using a scoring rubric adapted from Brown (2000). There were 20 participants who were taking the Microteaching Course at the Department of English Education, Universitas Syiah Kuala, Banda Aceh, Indonesia. The study was conducted in one consecutive semester consisting of 16 meetings, each of which was 200 minutes long (4 credits). The results proved that student-teacher conferences and VRMS stimulated pre-service teachers’ teaching competences. Pre-service teachers grew their self-reflection after watching their own teaching videos and understood their strengths and weaknesses after getting student-teacher conferences. It implies that the improvement of their teaching competences resulted from a process involving the willingness to do self-reflection and the lecturer’s help in understanding what areas the pre-service teachers had to improve. The implications of the study are also presented and discussed in this paper.

The purpose of this study was to describe the proficiency level of English for Foreign Language (EFL) students based on their TOEFL scores. The samples for this descriptive quantitative study consisted of 30 English Education Department students from Syiah Kuala University and Ar-Raniry State Islamic University. The scores gathered from the organised TOEFL test were analysed according to the CEFR reference levels to categorise the English proficiency level of the students. The total TOEFL scores gathered showed that, on average, the students placed in the B1 (intermediate) level of English proficiency. Individually, there were four students in the A2 (elementary) level, 15 students in the B1 (intermediate) level, ten students in the B2 (upper intermediate) level, and one student in the C1 (advanced) level of proficiency. Regarding the skills proficiency, on average, the students achieved the B2 (upper intermediate) level in the first section, which was higher than the remaining two sections that averaged on the B1 (intermediate) level. The students’ proficiency levels found in this study showed that, on average, they were able to pass the universities’ TOEFL graduation requirement but still fall short for abroad scholarship admission.

This study explores the difference in self-efficacy between high school English language teachers with two levels of curriculum literacy. The data were collected using a curriculum literacy test and a self-efficacy scale that were delivered online to 251 English teachers in Indonesia. The respondents were split into two groups based on their curriculum literacy scores. The findings show that teachers with higher curriculum literacy levels were more self-efficacious than those with a lower level of curriculum literacy. This implies that curriculum related courses in preservice teacher programs need to be improved, and in-service teacher training should focus on curriculum knowledge.

This study aimed to find out the use of point-counterpoint strategy to improve students’ writing skills on discussion text for the second-grade students of Madrasah Aliyah Negeri (MAN) 5 Bireuen. This research used a quantitative method. The research subjects were 42 students from XI MIPA 1 and MIPA 2. Class XI MIPA 1 was an experimental group and Class XI MIPA 2 was a control group. Both classes were selected for students’ equal ability. The instruments used to collect the data were tests; pretest and posttest and questionnaire. The writing test was used for pretest and post-test. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistic to find the mean scores of the two classes. The mean score of the pretest in the experimental class was 63.61 and the mean score of the posttest in the experimental class was 77. Meanwhile, the mean score of the pretest in the control class was 63.80 and the mean score of the posttest in the control class was 74.47. The mean score of the experimental class was higher than the control class. Accordingly, the hypothesis of this research was accepted. In the questionnaire, the researchers found that almost all students choose “agree” toward the Point-Counterpoint strategy in writing discussion text.

This research aims to find out students' perception of the English subject and provides an overview of the students learning outcome at SMA Negeri 1 Jangka Buya, Pidie Jaya. The instruments used in this research are questionnaires, interview guides, and documentation. Students' perceptions are classified into three categories: education, economy, and social interaction, and one group of negative question models support the other three. The student's perception of English is dominant in education. Generally, the students of SMAN 1 Jangka Buya come from dayah (Islamic school). They believe that mastering English can help them promote Islamic teachings more effectively. The negative question is the second dominant result; most students admit that language is a medium to build up connection and communication verbally or through written text. Meanwhile, in the economy category, students believe that we can increase income with English language skills. It is also shown that students who have good grades in English also have a high perception of certain categories. In comparison, students who have low perception get low learning outcomes on the English subject. So that, the students' perception and background must be hardly noticed by the teacher in planning a good teaching and learning process.

The Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) is an examination used to evaluate a non-native English speaker’s proficiency in the English language. This study was conducted to investigate the obstacles faced by the junior lecturers of Syiah Kuala University in achieving the required TOEFL scores. This research applied a focused description as a method of collecting the data and was located within qualitative research. The population of this research was 23 junior lecturers of Syiah Kuala University who were participating in a training class at the Language Centre of Syiah Kuala University and are in preparation for further study in either home country or overseas universities. The instrument of data collection is a questionnaire guide with google form that was sent to 23 junior lecturers. The questionnaire was used to find out the obstacles faced by the junior lectures in achieving the required TOEFL scores. The collected were analysed by using compiling the percentage, adopting the formula proposed by Sudjono. The finding shows that junior lecturers faced obstacles in answering listening to long conversations with a percentage of 93.3% and avoiding similar sounds with a percentage of 80%. The specific obstacles in the structure written expression section were the skill in answering coordinate connectors, agreement after certain words, and parallel structure with coordinate conjunctions questions with the percentage 60%. The other obstacles were skills in answering agreement after prepositional phrases and skill in agreement after prepositional phrases questions with the percentage 67.7%. Then, the obstacles faced by them in reading comprehension were in recognizing main ideas and determining meanings of difficult words questions with the percentage of 67.7%. It is suggested that the junior lecturers should improve their English proficiency before they take the TOEFL test.

This study aims at finding the high and low achievers’ learning style preferences and the teachers’ understanding about the students’ learning style preferences in learning English at MAN 1 Banda Aceh. The survey of this study used a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods. A questionnaire was used to explore the students’ learning style preferences, while an interview was used to get specific information about the teachers’ opinions on students’ learning style preferences in learning English. Willing (1988) category of learning style that consists of communicative, concrete, authority-oriented and analytical learning styles were used. The result of the questionnaire showed that the high achievers’ dominant learning style was the communicative one with a mean value of 3.12 and a standard deviation of 0.65. At the same time, the low achievers also favoured communicative learning style with a mean value of 3.11 and a standard deviation of 0.63. While the interview shows that the teachers were aware and understood well about students’ learning style preferences in learning English. In conclusion, by understanding their characteristics in absorbing information, the students can develop the skills in various ways to make it easier, faster and more successful for them in their learning.

This research is motivated by the fact that deaf students have the same rights to get education and access to learn English. However, they need support and specific accommodation designs according to their abilities. Teaching English to deaf students is still a problem and varies based on the situation. Therefore, this research aims at describing how English teachers teach deaf students, what problems teachers face in teaching English for deaf students, and the strategies they use. The method used in this research was qualitative, while the subject was English teachers. The instruments used to collect the data for this research were observation, interview and documentation. Besides, the data were analyzed using the qualitative data analysis procedures by Yin (2011). The results indicated that there were several problems faced by EFL teachers in teaching the deaf students. It can be categorized into linguistic and nonlinguistic. Likewise, each strategy is implemented based on the problems and depends on the teachers’ teaching experiences. It is suggested to provide an extensive training program for English teachers and facilitate the learning media to get the success of teaching and learning process for the deaf students.

Learning via teaching has been accepted as one of the best ways to achieve a deep understanding of a topic. This research was aimed at seeking scientific evidence to support this claim by comparing the scores the university-level EFL students obtained through the learning by teaching technique and those obtained by students who were taught traditionally using a teacher-centered approach. The experimental group consisted of 22 students who were taught pedagogical content knowledge, i.e. English Language Testing, traditionally for half of the semester and then teaching students at another university afterward. The control group consisted of 24 students who were taught language testing traditionally by the same instructor for the whole semester. Both groups were given a test to measure their content knowledge achievement; one test at the beginning of the semester and one at the end of the semester. Two-way ANOVA was used to compare the two groups’ scores, and find out how the differences in the scores was affected by the type of instruction. The results showed that there was significant evidence that the students’ scores improved significantly in both groups. However, the difference in test scores between pre-test and post-test did not depend on the type of instruction. Because the experimental group could achieve the same performance as those of the control group regardless of the shorter instruction period, it can be concluded that learning by teaching has potential as an effective method for teaching pedagogical content knowledge. Suggestions for possible modifications of this technique are discussed in this paper.

This research investigated the students’ responses to listening difficulties in taking the listening section of the TOEFL test and their efforts made to overcome the difficulties. This study is descriptive qualitative research that used the online questionnaire attached in the google forms to gather data needed. The questionnaire was distributed to 100 medical students at UP3BI class (Unit Pengembangan Program Pendamping Mata Kuliah Bahasa Inggris (UP3BI) of Syiah Kuala Language Center. The questionnaire was divided into two. Part one consisted of students’ personal information on the listening skill questionnaire. It was found that watching English TV programs or movies (65.10%) and listening to English songs (60%) as the highest rank of students’ efforts made to overcome listening difficulties of the TOEFL test. Section two of the questionnaire consisted of listening difficulties. It was found that most respondents were difficult to understand the native speaker’s pronunciation (64%). In addition, it is suggested that for English lecturers, other researchers, institutions, and testing organizers to contribute a standardized knowledge of the TOEFL test and also to provide a conditioned testing place for a better improvement of listening TOEFL in particular. Besides, the test takers or students should practice and learn more about listening TOEFL as often as possible. Therefore, they will get used to listening and can minimize the difficulties during taking the TOEFL test.

English is one of the compulsory subjects at schools in Indonesia, including at junior high schools. This study was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of implementing an interactive approach in teaching reading comprehension. It also investigated the students' responses toward the implementation of an interactive approach in teaching reading. The true-experimental design was carried out in this study along with the pretest and post-test. Two classes of the first-grade students of SMPIK Nurul Quran in Aceh Besar were chosen as the sample of the research with total population sampling technique. This sampling technique was employed because of the limited individuals to be randomized as samples. Each group consisted of 20 students for the experimental class and 20 students for the control class. The instruments used in this study were test and questionnaire. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics through SPSS Version 20. The results show that the use of an interactive approach improved students’ reading scores and they also gave positive responses toward the use of interactive approach in teaching reading. Therefore, the alternate hypotheses of this research was accepted. It means that the implementation of interactive approach could increase students’ reading scores significantly as compared with the students who were taught by using the bottom-up approach. The students also had positive responses to the implementation of interactive approach during teaching and learning reading comprehension. It can be concluded that interactive approach is one of the effective approach for teaching reading comprehension.

This research is aimed at investigating the use of Duolingo media in learning English as students’ assignment at eleventh grade students of methodist senior high school. A case study was used as the research design. The participant was an English teacher and 30 eleventh-grade students of Methodist school. The data were collected by interviewing the teacher and giving students questionnaires in order to attain the data needed for this reseach. The interview result was analysed by using procedure of data analysis from Miles and Huberman (1994), while the result data of the questionnaire was analyzed by using percentage formula from Sudjana (2002). The research finding shows that the teacher and students consider that using the Duolingo media was effective in learning English because it improved students’ willingness to do the assignment at home via Duolingo media and language skills in learning English. In conclusion, Duolingo media can be applied in by students to finish English assignment at home because it maked students excited and interested to do the homework by Duolingo.

This research was aimed at measuring the level of cadets’ anxiety in speaking English and finding out the dominant aspects of speaking anxiety faced by maritime cadets at Malahayati Merchant Marine College. To obtain this objective, the study was conducted at Malahayati Merchant Marine College. The participants of this study were 174 second-semester cadets at Malahayati Merchant Marine College and 15 English teachers. The data were obtained through questionnaires. Descriptive quantitative was used in describing the data. The data demonstrated that Maritime cadets’ level of speaking anxiety was moderate level, with average percentage of 58%. Furthermore, communication apprehension was dominant aspect in cadets’ speaking anxiety. Lastly, both the teachers and the students should be aware about English speaking anxiety because somehow it can be a barrier in learning English.

This research aimed at identifying the influence of using English songs on students’ achievement in pronouncing English words at SMP Islam Cendekia Aceh Besar Academic Year 2018/2019. The population of this research was all VII Grade students. The sample of the research was divided into 31 students of the experimental group and 32 students of the control group. The experimental group was taught by using English songs technique while the control group was not taught by using English songs. This research was experimental research, under quasi experimental research. The data were taken from an oral test method or sound of production and questionnaire which were given in the learning process. The result of the research shows that the English songs technique can influence the students’ achievement in pronouncing English words. It is concluded from the post-test that there was a statistical difference in the mean score between the experimental and control group. The mean score of the experimental group was 81.51 and the mean score of the control group was 60.37. It means that the mean score of the experimental group is higher than the control group. Moreover, the result of z-test indicated that the students taught by using an English song had a better improvement in English word pronunciation in which z-score (9.05) was higher than the critical value (1.96). It could be concluded that English song strategy effectively improved students’ achievement in pronouncing English words.

This study investigated the acts of code switching by lecturers and student in thesis defence examination at a university in Banda Aceh, Indonesia. The study involved five participants (four lectures and one student) of the English Language Department. Data from recordings were used to analyse the types and functions of code switching that occurred during the defence. The types of code switching were analysed based on Poplack, and the functions of code switching were analysed based on the theories by Gumperz, Hoffman and Holmes. The result showed that there were three types of code switching found in 109 examples during the interactions between the lecturers and the student, they were: intra-sentential switching (77.06%), inter-sentential switching (15.59%), and tag switching (7.33%). In term of the functions of code switching, 10 functions were identified from 68 switches, they were: addressee specification at 22.05%, followed by interjections (16.17%), loanwords (16.17%), message qualifications (11.76%), transfer of the subconscious markers (8.82%), proper names (8.82%), quotations (5.88%), message reiteration (4.41%), personalization versus objectification (2.94%) and specific features of Islamic terms (2.94%) as the least. It can be concluded that in this case, code switching allowed the participants achieve a wide range of important and interesting ends in their discourse during the thesis defence examination.

The aims of this research are to identify the functions, types and the formation of slang words/phrases in the film “Fury”. This research is qualitative research with content analysis design. The data are slang words/phrases from the conversations of the film. The data were collected through observation with observation guide as the instrument. The result of the research shows that the functions of using slang in the film were to show emotion, rebellion, humor, toughness, creative, vibrant, informality, stylization, conciseness, and forcefulness. The types of slang used in the film were hip-hop slang, slang in University of Leicester, inner city slang of New York, general slang, and specific slang. The slang words/phrases in the film were formed by suffixation, final combining, reversed form, compounding, clipping, and word manufacture.

Reading material is one of the required subject stated in the curriculum at English Department of State Islamic Institute of Lhokseumawe which is designed by the lecturer for her own class. In order to create high quality material, the lecturer has to consider the procedure of reading material development according the theory that stated by expert. The research objective of this study were the types of reading text used by the lecturer in teaching, and to describe the process of reading materials development the lecturer did. The research subject was the lecturer who teach Reading Comprehension III at English Department of State Islamic Institute of Lhokseumawe. The data of this research were collected by using two research instruments, there were interview guide and documentation. In order to collect the data, the lecturer was given the questions of interview. Furthermore, in order to find out the type of reading text used by the lecturer, the researcher used the documentation. Finally, all the data were analyzed by using procedure of data analysis in qualitative methodology, there were three steps; first, organization and familiarization; second, coding and reducing process, and the last was interpreting and representing. From the data analysis result, it is found that first, the lecturer used one descriptive text for the first material and the rest belongs to expository text; and Second, the lecturer used five of seven steps of Tomlinson model in developing material process there were; First, identification stage to identify the needs of the students; Second, exploration of the need; Third, contextual realization stage; Fourth, pedagogical realization stage; Fifth, production of materials.

Teachers’ understanding of how both content and process standards affect their preparation on the lesson plan (RPP) is still weak. There is a lack of learning assessment, basic competence, indicators, teaching materials, and learning models and their use which is not appropriate based on the Indonesian 2013 curriculum. This research was aimed at finding out the English teachers’ understanding of two main elements of the 2013 curriculum; content and process standards that lead the teachers to prepare appropriate lesson plan (RPP) which has a direct interaction with the instructional process. The selected samples were six English teachers from different levels of junior high schools in Banda Aceh. The questionnaire and interview guide were used as research instruments. The result of the teachers’ understanding of the content standard of 2013 curriculum showed that the English teachers had an fairly good understanding of the standard of the content of the curriculum 2013 as indicated by an average score of 65.23, while teachers’ understanding of process standard of curriculum 2013 showed the English teachers already had a good understanding of the standard of the content of the 2013 curriculum, as shown by an average score of 72.21. Overall, the average score of lesson plan (RPP) preparation was 65.16 which was categorized as being fairly good.

The objective of this research is to find out whether QAR strategy is effective in reading comprehension of recount text. This research uses experimental research design. This research took place at Madrasah Tsanawiyah Negeri Model Banda Aceh. A second grade class was chosen as the research sample, which consisted of 36 students. The research instrument used to gather the data was a set of essay tests, which were divided to pre-test and post-test. The result of the research was analyzed by using paired t-test formula. The calculation result shows that the observed t value is less than t lower critical vaue in the t distribution table (-5.624 2.030) at the 0.05 level of significance with 35 degree of freedom. It means that null hypothesis (H0) is rejected, which proves that Question Answer Relationship strategy effectively improves the second grade students’ reading comprehension of recount text.

This paper reports a case study of students’ writing development at state junior high school in Indonesia. The common problems in writing are developing main ideas, vocabulary and grammar subsequently using listing technique is one of the ways to generate ideas. It develops and arranges students’ ideas well. The purpose of this study is to find out whether listing technique can improve students’ writing skill or not with quantitative design. There were 23 students as the sample in which design randomly. The instruments were test and lesson plan. There were two test; pre-test and post-test. The result of test found that there was significant difference of the students’ writing skill between pre-test and post-test after teaching by using listing technique. To prove the hypothesis, the writer used t-score formula. Based on data analysis t-score was 12.5, meanwhile t-table was 2.074. Also, listing technique could improve students’ ability of writing aspects. Therefore, the writer concluded that teaching writing descriptive text by using listing technique gave good effect for students’ writing skill and the ability in aspects of writing; content, vocabulary and grammar. Keywords: Developing writing skill, listing technique, EFL Copyright © 2015 by Al-Ta'lim All right reserved

Kepedulian Mahasiswa PTM FPTK IKIP Malang terhadap Keselamatan Kerja Bengkel

Ojek sebagai Alternasi Pemenuhan Kebutuhan Transportasi di Pedesaan

To conduct teaching English in the classroom, a teacher requires good preparations such as lesson planning preparation. Lesson plan needs to be developed by a teacher as a direction or road map towards all activities to be done by the teacher and students in the classroom in order to achieve one or more specific competencies appropriately and effectively. There are some English teachers who still face difficulties in developing effective and systematic lesson plans for a teaching program. In fact, they tend to imitate or even copy the ones provided in the textbook and the internet. The scarcity of English teachers in having trainings and workshops related to teaching, syllabus, and lesson plan development was also the problem in this study. Furthermore, the research conducted related to or the same as this study in Indonesia is rare. Considering these problems, a study related to an analysis of English lesson plan academic year 2012/2013 at the first semester of Madrasah Aliyah Swasta (MAS) Darul Ulum, Banda Aceh was conducted. There were nine lesson plans analyzed as they were developed by the teacher for one semester.The objective of this study was to investigate whether the English lesson plans provided by the only teacher of English at the first semester of MAS Darul Ulum, Banda Aceh are appropriate with the Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan (KTSP) or school-based curriculum or not and to find out the difficulties encountered by the teacher of English in developing the English lesson plans in terms of non-component of lesson plan basis and component of lesson plan basis as well as the efforts made by the teacher to overcome the difficulties. For this purpose, the writer conducted a qualitative research employing four different techniques of research, namely, content analysis, questionnaire, interview, and documentary study.The qualitative data were obtained from the content analysis checklist, the questionnaire distributed to the teacher of English at the first semester of MAS Darul Ulum, Banda Aceh as well as the interview conducted to the teacher of English at the first year and the principal of MAS Darul Ulum, Banda Aceh, and also the document such as syllabus.The findings showed that the lesson plans developed by the teacher at the first semester of MAS Darul Ulum, Banda Aceh generally met the standard determined by the KTSP, Standard of Content, and Standard of Process. Specifically, all of the components of a lesson plan were covered in the lesson plans developed. However, there were deficiencies found in 6 components from most lesson plans developed by the teacher, namely, materials, methods of teaching, teaching activity, time allocation, resources, and assessments. The analysis of the questionnaire data verified by the interview data also showed that the teacher of English at the first semester of MAS Darul Ulum, Banda Aceh faced 5 difficulties related to non-component of lesson plan basis, namely, (1) lack of time because of high load of teaching, (2) lack of ability in matching between students’ aptitude/ability and appropriate method of teaching, (3) difficulty in developing lesson plan based on KTSP related to students’ individual differences, (4) difficulty in developing lesson plan based on KTSP related to students’ encouragement to be active learners, and (5) lack of ability in matching between technique of teaching and students’ learning styles. Meanwhile, the difficulties of component of lesson plan basis faced by the teacher were 4, namely, (1) difficulty in adjusting between materials of study and appropriate method, (2) difficulty in arranging the steps of teaching activity especially in pre-teaching stage, (3) difficulty in matching between methods or strategies and the competency to be achieved by the students, and (4) difficulty in matching between resources such as media or tools of learning and materials of study. Moreover, there were 4 efforts made by the teacher to overcome the problems of non-component of lesson plan basis, namely, (1) consulting to a colleague or the teacher in the similar subject of teaching, (2) learning from books, journals, and internet, (3) participating in Musyawarah Guru Mata Pelajaran (MGMP) or subject teacher discussion group, and (4) participating in seminars or workshops related to concept of teaching-learning, curriculum, syllabus and lesson plan development. Meanwhile, there were 5 efforts made by the teacher to overcome the problems of component of lesson plan basis, namely, (1) consulting to a colleague or the teacher in the similar subject of teaching, (2) learning from books, journals, and internet, (3) participating in MGMP, (4) conducting classroom action research, and (5) participating in seminars or workshops related to curriculum, syllabus and lesson plan development. It suggests that the teacher still has a few problems and deficiencies related to the teacher’s competence and pedagogic competence especially in terms of developing lesson plan. However, in terms of efforts conducted to overcome the difficulties, it suggests that the teacher is a teacher who has good personality competence. Key Words: Analysis, Lesson Plan, School-Based Curriculum, Standard Of Competency, Basic Competence, Indicators Of Competency Achievement

This study involved the teacher and students who were taking Speaking II class at the English Department of State University of Malang. The data was collected by conducting a non-participant observation, recording, and interview. Based on the analysis, the present study reveals that classroom interaction (CI) is the realization of a lesson plan which is organized in patterns of CI. There are five patterns of CI identified. The most dominant pattern is student-student (S-S) CI. Nine interactional strategies are used by the teacher and ten by the students. Speaking II class can be facilitated by implementing certain classroom procedures. The students communicative ability is described in terms of the frequency of use of the interactional strategies throughout the semester.

To conduct teaching English in the classroom, a teacher requires good preparations such as lesson planning preparation. Lesson plan needs to be developed by a teacher as a direction or road map towards all activities to be done by the teacher and students in the classroom in order to achieve one or more specific competencies appropriately and effectively. There are some English teachers who still face difficulties in developing effective and systematic lesson plans for a teaching program. In fact, they tend to imitate or even copy the ones provided in the textbook and the internet. The scarcity of English teachers in having trainings and workshops related to teaching, syllabus, and lesson plan development was also the problem in this study. Furthermore, the research conducted related to or the same as this study in Indonesia is rare. Considering these problems, a study related to an analysis of English lesson plan academic year 2012/2013 at the first semester of Madrasah Aliyah Swasta (MAS) Darul Ulum, Banda Aceh was conducted. There were nine lesson plans analyzed as they were developed by the teacher for one semester.The objective of this study was to investigate whether the English lesson plans provided by the only teacher of English at the first semester of MAS Darul Ulum, Banda Aceh are appropriate with the Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan (KTSP) or school-based curriculum or not and to find out the difficulties encountered by the teacher of English in developing the English lesson plans in terms of non-component of lesson plan basis and component of lesson plan basis as well as the efforts made by the teacher to overcome the difficulties. For this purpose, the writer conducted a qualitative research employing four different techniques of research, namely, content analysis, questionnaire, interview, and documentary study.The qualitative data were obtained from the content analysis checklist, the questionnaire distributed to the teacher of English at the first semester of MAS Darul Ulum, Banda Aceh as well as the interview conducted to the teacher of English at the first year and the principal of MAS Darul Ulum, Banda Aceh, and also the document such as syllabus.The findings showed that the lesson plans developed by the teacher at the first semester of MAS Darul Ulum, Banda Aceh generally met the standard determined by the KTSP, Standard of Content, and Standard of Process. Specifically, all of the components of a lesson plan were covered in the lesson plans developed. However, there were deficiencies found in 6 components from most lesson plans developed by the teacher, namely, materials, methods of teaching, teaching activity, time allocation, resources, and assessments. The analysis of the questionnaire data verified by the interview data also showed that the teacher of English at the first semester of MAS Darul Ulum, Banda Aceh faced 5 difficulties related to non-component of lesson plan basis, namely, (1) lack of time because of high load of teaching, (2) lack of ability in matching between students’ aptitude/ability and appropriate method of teaching, (3) difficulty in developing lesson plan based on KTSP related to students’ individual differences, (4) difficulty in developing lesson plan based on KTSP related to students’ encouragement to be active learners, and (5) lack of ability in matching between technique of teaching and students’ learning styles. Meanwhile, the difficulties of component of lesson plan basis faced by the teacher were 4, namely, (1) difficulty in adjusting between materials of study and appropriate method, (2) difficulty in arranging the steps of teaching activity especially in pre-teaching stage, (3) difficulty in matching between methods or strategies and the competency to be achieved by the students, and (4) difficulty in matching between resources such as media or tools of learning and materials of study. Moreover, there were 4 efforts made by the teacher to overcome the problems of non-component of lesson plan basis, namely, (1) consulting to a colleague or the teacher in the similar subject of teaching, (2) learning from books, journals, and internet, (3) participating in Musyawarah Guru Mata Pelajaran (MGMP) or subject teacher discussion group, and (4) participating in seminars or workshops related to concept of teaching-learning, curriculum, syllabus and lesson plan development. Meanwhile, there were 5 efforts made by the teacher to overcome the problems of component of lesson plan basis, namely, (1) consulting to a colleague or the teacher in the similar subject of teaching, (2) learning from books, journals, and internet, (3) participating in MGMP, (4) conducting classroom action research, and (5) participating in seminars or workshops related to curriculum, syllabus and lesson plan development. It suggests that the teacher still has a few problems and deficiencies related to the teacher’s competence and pedagogic competence especially in terms of developing lesson plan. However, in terms of efforts conducted to overcome the difficulties, it suggests that the teacher is a teacher who has good personality competence.

Wearable electronic sensors have recently attracted tremendous attention in applications such as personal health monitoring, human movement detection, and sensory skins as they offer a promising alternative to counterparts made from traditional metallic conductors and bulky metallic conductors. However, the real-world use of most wearable sensors is often hindered by their limited stretchability and sensitivity, and ultimately, their difficulty to integrate into textiles. To overcome these limitations, wearable sensors can incorporate flexible conductive fibers as electrically active components. In this study, we adopt a scalable wet-spinning approach to directly produce flexible and conductive fibers from aqueous mixtures of Ti 3 C 2 T x MXene and natural rubber (NR). The electrical conductivity and stretchability of these fibers were tuned by varying their MXene loading, enabling knittability into textiles for wearable sensors. As individual filaments, these MXene/NR fibers exhibit suitable conductivity dependence on strain variations, making them ideal for motivating sensors. Meanwhile, textiles from knitted MXene/NR fibers demonstrate great stability as capacitive touch sensors. Collectively, we believe that these elastic and conductive MXene/NR-based fibers and textiles are promising candidates for wearable sensors and smart textiles.

X-rays are a penetrating form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths ranging from 10 pm to 10 nm. Similar to visible light, X-rays provide a powerful tool to study the atoms and elemental information of objects. Different characterization methods based on X-rays are established, such as X-ray diffraction, small- and wide-angle X-ray scattering, and X-ray-based spectroscopies, to explore the structural and elemental information of varied materials including low-dimensional nanomaterials. This review summarizes the recent progress of using X-ray related characterization methods in MXenes, a new family of 2D nanomaterials. These methods provide key information on the nanomaterials, covering synthesis, elemental composition, and the assembly of MXene sheets and their composites. Additionally, new characterization methods are proposed as future research directions in the outlook section to enhance understanding of MXene surface and chemical properties. This review is expected to provide a guideline for characterization method selection and aid in precise interpretation of the experimental data in MXene research., (© 2023 The Authors. Small Methods published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

Ti 3 C 2 T x MXene (or "MXene" for simplicity) has gained noteworthy attention for its metal-like electrical conductivity and high electrochemical capacitance-a unique blend of properties attractive toward a wide range of applications such as energy storage, healthcare monitoring, and electromagnetic interference shielding. However, processing MXene architectures using conventional methods often deals with the presence of defects, voids, and isotropic flake arrangements, resulting in a trade-off in properties. Here, a sequential bridging (SB) strategy is reported to fabricate dense, freestanding MXene films of interconnected flakes with minimal defects, significantly enhancing its mechanical properties, specifically tensile strength (≈285 MPa) and breaking energy (≈16.1 MJ m -3 ), while retaining substantial values of electrical conductivity (≈3050 S cm -1 ) and electrochemical capacitance (≈920 F cm -3 ). This SB method first involves forming a cellulose nanocrystal-stitched MXene framework, followed by infiltration with structure-densifying calcium cations (Ca 2+ ), resulting in tough and fatigue resistant films with anisotropic, evenly spaced, and strongly interconnected flakes - properties essential for developing high-performance energy-storage devices. It is anticipated that the knowledge gained in this work will be extended toward improving the robustness and retaining the electronic properties of 2D nanomaterial-based macroarchitectures., (© 2022 The Authors. Macromolecular Rapid Communications published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

MXene inks are promising candidates for fabricating conductive circuits and flexible devices. Here, MXene inks prepared from solvent mixtures demonstrate long-term stability and can be employed in commercial rollerball pens to write electronic circuits on flexible substrates. Such circuits exhibit a fast and accurate capacitive response for touch-boards and water level measurement, indicating the excellent potential of these MXene inks in electrical device fabrication.

Regenerated silk fibers typically fall short of silkworm cocoon fibers in mechanical properties due to reduced fiber crystal structure and alignment. One approach to address this has been to employ inorganic materials as reinforcing agents. The present study avoids the need for synthetic additives, demonstrating the first use of exfoliated silk nanofibers to control silk solution crystallization, resulting in all-silk pseudocomposite fibers with remarkable mechanical properties. Incorporating only 0.06 wt% silk nanofibers led to a ≈44% increase in tensile strength (over 600 MPa) and ≈33% increase in toughness (over 200 kJ kg -1 ) compared with fibers without silk nanofibers. These remarkable properties can be attributed to nanofiber crystal seeding in conjunction with fiber draw. The crystallinity nearly doubled from ≈17% for fiber spun from pure silk solution to ≈30% for the silk nanofiber reinforced sample. The latter fiber also shows a high degree of crystal orientation with a Herman's orientation factor of 0.93, a value which approaches that of natural degummed B. mori silk cocoon fiber (0.96). This study provides a strong foundation to guide the development of simple, eco-friendly methods to spin regenerated silk with excellent properties and a hierarchical structure that mimics natural silk., (© 2022 Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

Three-dimensional lithium (Li) hosts have been shown to suppress the growth of Li dendrites for next generation Li metal batteries. Here, we report a cost-effective and scalable approach to produce highly stable Li composite anodes from industrial hemp textile waste. The hemp@Li composite anodes demonstrate stable cycling both in half and full cells.

High aspect ratio two-dimensional Ti 3 C 2 T x MXene flakes with extraordinary mechanical, electrical, and thermal properties are ideal candidates for assembling elastic and conductive aerogels. However, the scalable fabrication of large MXene-based aerogels remains a challenge because the traditional preparation method relies on supercritical drying techniques such as freeze drying, resulting in poor scalability and high cost. Herein, the use of porous melamine foam as a robust template for MXene/reduced graphene oxide aerogel circumvents the volume shrinkage during its natural drying process. Through this approach, we were able to produce large size (up to 600 cm 3 ) MXene-based aerogel with controllable shape. In addition, the aerogels possess an interconnected cellular structure and display resilience up to 70% of compressive strain. Some key features also include high solvent absorption capacity (∼50-90 g g -1 ), good photothermal conversion ability (an average evaporation rate of 1.48 kg m -2 h -1 for steam generation), and an excellent electrothermal conversion rate (1.8 kg m -2 h -1 at 1 V). More importantly, this passive drying process provides a scalable, convenient, and cost-effective approach to produce high-performance MXene-based aerogels, demonstrating the feasibility of commercial production of MXene-based aerogels toward practical applications.

The exciting combination of high electrical conductivity, high specific capacitance and colloidal stability of two-dimensional Ti 3 C 2 T x MXene (referred to as MXene) has shown great potential in a wide range of applications including wearable electronics, energy storage, sensors, and electromagnetic interference shielding. To realize its full potential, recent literature has reported a variety of solution-based processing methodologies to develop MXenes into multifunctional architectures, such as fibres, films and aerogels. In response to these recent critical advances, this review provides a comprehensive analysis of the diverse solution-based processing methodologies currently being used for MXene-architecture fabrication. A critical evaluation of the processing challenges directly affecting macroscale material properties and ultimately, the performance of the resulting prototype devices is also provided. Opportunities arising from the observed and foreseen challenges regarding their use are discussed to provide avenues for new designs and realise practical use in high performance applications.

The increasing interest toward wearable and portable electronic devices calls for multifunctional materials and fibers/yarns capable of seamless integration with everyday textiles. To date, one particular gap inhibiting the development of such devices is the production of robust functional fibers with improved electronic conductivity and electrochemical energy storage capability. Recent efforts have been made to produce functional fibers with 2D carbides known as MXenes to address these demands. Ti 3 C 2 T x MXene, in particular, is known for its metallic conductivity and high volumetric capacitance, and has shown promise for fibers and textile-based devices when used either as an additive, coating or the main fiber component. In this spotlight article, we highlight the recent exciting developments in our diverse efforts to fabricate MXene functionalized fibers, along with a critical evaluation of the challenges in processing, which directly affect macroscale material properties and the performance of the subsequent prototype devices. We also provide our assessment of observed and foreseen challenges of the current manufacturing methods and the opportunities arising from recent advances in the development of MXene fibers and paving future avenues for textile design and practical use in advanced applications.

Piezoelectric fluoropolymers convert mechanical energy to electricity and are ideal for sustainably providing power to electronic devices. To convert mechanical energy, a net polarization must be induced in the fluoropolymer, which is currently achieved via an energy-intensive electrical poling process. Eliminating this process will enable the low-energy production of efficient energy harvesters. Here, by combining molecular dynamics simulations, piezoresponse force microscopy, and electrodynamic measurements, we reveal a hitherto unseen polarization locking phenomena of poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-trifluoroethylene) (PVDF-TrFE) perpendicular to the basal plane of two-dimensional (2D) Ti 3 C 2 T x MXene nanosheets. This polarization locking, driven by strong electrostatic interactions enabled exceptional energy harvesting performance, with a measured piezoelectric charge coefficient, d 33 , of -52.0 picocoulombs per newton, significantly higher than electrically poled PVDF-TrFE (approximately -38 picocoulombs per newton). This study provides a new fundamental and low-energy input mechanism of poling fluoropolymers, which enables new levels of performance in electromechanical technologies.

Superelastic aerogels with excellent electrical conductivity, reversible compressibility, and high durability hold great potential for varied emerging applications, ranging from wearable electronics to multifunctional scaffolds. In the present work, superelastic MXene/reduced graphene oxide (rGO) aerogels are fabricated by mixing MXene and GO flakes, followed by a multistep reduction of GO, freeze-casting, and finally an annealing process. By optimizing both the composition and reducing conditions, the resultant aerogel shows a reversible compressive strain of 95%, surpassing all current reported values. The conducting MXene/rGO network provides fast electron transfer and stable structural integrity under compression/release cycles. When assembled into compressible supercapacitors, 97.2% of the capacitance was retained after 1000 compression/release cycles. Moreover, the high conductivity and porous structure also enabled the fabrication of a piezoresistive sensor with high sensitivity (0.28 kPa -1 ), wide detection range (up to 66.98 kPa), and ultralow detection limit (∼60 Pa). It is envisaged that the superelasticity of MXene/rGO aerogels offers a versatile platform for utilizing MXene-based materials in a wide array of applications including wearable electronics, electromagnetic interference shielding, and flexible energy storage devices.

We demonstrate the first use of pure films of two-dimensional (2D) transition metal carbides and nitrides (Ti 3 C 2 T x MXene) as an electrode material for electrogenerated chemiluminescence (ECL). The Ti 3 C 2 T x MXene electrodes exhibited excellent electrochemical stability in the cathodic scan range and produced bright reductive-oxidation ECL using peroxydisulfate as a co-reactant with the tris(2,2'-bipyridine)ruthenium(ii) ([Ru(bpy) 3 ] 2+ ) luminophore.

Two-dimensional titanium carbide (Ti 3 C 2 T x ), or MXene, is a new nanomaterial that has attracted increasing interest due to its metallic conductivity, good solution processability, and excellent energy storage performance. However, Ti 3 C 2 T x MXene flakes suffer from degradation through oxidation due to prolonged exposure to oxygenated water. Preventing the occurrence of oxidation, i.e., the formation of TiO 2 particles, was found to be crucial in maintaining MXene quality. In the present work, we found that freezing aqueous MXene dispersions at a low temperature can effectively prevent the formation of TiO 2 nanoparticles at the flake edge, which is known as the early stage of oxidation. The Ti 3 C 2 T x flakes in frozen dispersion remain consistent in morphology and elemental composition for over 650 days, compared with freshly synthesized MXene, which in contrast exhibits flake edge degradation within two days when stored at room temperature. This result suggests that freezing a MXene dispersion dramatically postpones the oxidation of MXene flakes and that the stored MXene dispersion can be treated as freshly prepared MXene. This work not only fundamentally fulfilled the study on temperature dependence of MXene oxidation but has also demonstrated a simple method to extend the shelf life of MXene aqueous dispersion to years, which will be a cornerstone for large-scale production of MXene and ultimately benefit the research on MXenes.

2D transition metal carbides and nitrides called "MXene" are recent exciting additions to the 2D nanomaterials family. The high electrical conductivity, specific capacitance, and hydrophilic nature of MXenes rival many other 2D nanosheets and have made MXenes excellent candidates for diverse applications including energy storage, electromagnetic shielding, water purification, and photocatalysis. However, MXene nanosheets degrade relatively quickly in the presence of water and oxygen, imposing great processing challenges for various applications. Here, a facile solvent exchange (SE) processing route is introduced to produce nonoxidized and highly delaminated Ti 3 C 2 T x MXene dispersions. A wide range of organic solvents including methanol, ethanol, isopropanol, butanol, acetone, dimethylformamide, dimethyl sulfoxide, chloroform, dichloromethane, toluene, and n -hexane is used. Compared to known processing approaches, the SE approach is straightforward, sonication-free, and highly versatile as multiple solvent transfers can be carried out in sequence to yield MXene in a wide range of solvents. Conductive MXene polymer composite fibers are achieved by using MXene processed via the solvent exchange (SE) approach, while the traditional redispersion approach has proven ineffective for fiber processing. This study offers a new processing route for the development of novel MXene-based architectures, devices, and applications., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest., (© 2019 The Authors. Published by WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.)