Software Penerjemah Kalimat Inggris-Indonesia Capai 80 Persen Akurasi

Badan pengkajian dan penerapan teknologi (bppt) diam-diam tengah mengembangkan software penerjemah (translation methods or translation method) kalimat inggris-indonesia. Sampai saat ini tingkat keakuratan translation methods or translation method diklaim telah mencapai 80 persen.
“untuk keakuratan di atas itu mungkin sulit karena tetap ada marjin kesalahan dalam setiap penerjemahan karena tata bahasa yang berbeda,” ujar oskar rian, koordinator pusat open source pusat teknologi informasi dan komunikasi bppt di sela-sela igos summit 2 yang berlansgung 28-29 mei 2008. Menurutnya, dengan akurasi 80 persen hasil penerjemahan kalimat dari bahasa inggris ke bahasa indonesia sudah cukup dapat dimengerti. Sebab, yang penting adalah tidak terjadi perubahan makna.
Software penerjemah bahasa (new translation atau sworn translations) yang dikembangkan bppt mampu memberikan akurasi sebesar itu karena menggunakan metode statistik dalam analisis. Software new translation atau sworn translations ‘dilatih’ untuk mengatkan antara kalimat asli dalam bahasa inggris dengan hasil terjemahan dalam bahasa indonesia maupun sebaliknya.
Dalam hal ini bukan proses penerjemahan /linguist translation kata per kata yang dipakai. Software juga tidak menerjemahkan berdasarkan urutan tata bahasa, melainkan data statistik hasil terjemahan yang sudah ada.
“staristikal sangat cepat, berdasarkan pengalaman statistik kalau ada kalimat seperti ini hasil terjemahan seperti apa,” jelas oskar. Ia mengatakan software linguist translation serupa yang sudah setara dengan hasil pengebangan bppt saat ini mungkin toggle text yang dikembangkan peneliti australia.
“kalau sistem punya bppt jadi, nanti akan dionlinekan,” ujarnya. Namun, pihaknya masih mengembangkan antarmuka agar mudah diakses. Software tersebut kemungkinan baru diluncurkan pada peringatan harteknas (hari kebangkitan teknologi nasional), agustus mendatang. Selain untuk orang indonesia, software tersebut juga akan bermanfaat untuk melatih orang-orang asing yang sedang belajar bahasa indonesia.

http://www.untukku.com

Badan pengkajian dan penerapan teknologi (bppt) diam-diam tengah mengembangkan software penerjemah (translation methods or translation method) kalimat inggris-indonesia. Sampai saat ini tingkat keakuratan translation methods or translation method diklaim telah mencapai 80 persen.
“untuk keakuratan di atas itu mungkin sulit karena tetap ada marjin kesalahan dalam setiap penerjemahan karena tata bahasa yang berbeda,” ujar oskar rian, koordinator pusat open source pusat teknologi informasi dan komunikasi bppt di sela-sela igos summit 2 yang berlansgung 28-29 mei 2008. Menurutnya, dengan akurasi 80 persen hasil penerjemahan kalimat dari bahasa inggris ke bahasa indonesia sudah cukup dapat dimengerti. Sebab, yang penting adalah tidak terjadi perubahan makna.
Software penerjemah bahasa (new translation atau sworn translations) yang dikembangkan bppt mampu memberikan akurasi sebesar itu karena menggunakan metode statistik dalam analisis. Software new translation atau sworn translations ‘dilatih’ untuk mengatkan antara kalimat asli dalam bahasa inggris dengan hasil terjemahan dalam bahasa indonesia maupun sebaliknya.
Dalam hal ini bukan proses penerjemahan /linguist translation kata per kata yang dipakai. Software juga tidak menerjemahkan berdasarkan urutan tata bahasa, melainkan data statistik hasil terjemahan yang sudah ada.
“staristikal sangat cepat, berdasarkan pengalaman statistik kalau ada kalimat seperti ini hasil terjemahan seperti apa,” jelas oskar. Ia mengatakan software linguist translation serupa yang sudah setara dengan hasil pengebangan bppt saat ini mungkin toggle text yang dikembangkan peneliti australia.
“kalau sistem punya bppt jadi, nanti akan dionlinekan,” ujarnya. Namun, pihaknya masih mengembangkan antarmuka agar mudah diakses. Software tersebut kemungkinan baru diluncurkan pada peringatan harteknas (hari kebangkitan teknologi nasional), agustus mendatang. Selain untuk orang indonesia, software tersebut juga akan bermanfaat untuk melatih orang-orang asing yang sedang belajar bahasa indonesia.

http://www.untukku.com

One of the most prevalent controversies in education today is the debate about what should or shouldn’t be taught in our schools. I am quite interested in studying the history of educational controversy and the teacher’s dilemma of balancing their obligation to teach and avoiding stepping on toes or people’s deeply rooted emotions and personal experiences.

In talking about different forms and comparisons of educational research methods (such as personal experience and tradition, authority, and actual research), I noticed in our class discussion some very personal overtones to what we were speaking of. Can we be biased or unbiased in our research? How sensitive or relevant is culture in education? If it is a potent ingredient to the educational mixture, how far do we take those cultural traditions or personal experiences, and how does it impede on the actual process of teaching our children? These are issues to which many human beings have emotional, personal ties to their views on some of these topics.

I find this especially relevant in the public education sphere. We have Christians in public schools who are being taught evolution against their wishes. Half a century ago, the argument was reversed. I personally believe that because both are based on a particular faith (Darwin’s evolutionary theory is still a theory, with many missing pieces), they should either both be taught as a popular belief from a neutral perspective, or both Intelligent Design and Darwinism should be left out of the curriculum. All sides of a story should be taught, especially when they lie in theory rather than fact.

During high school, I experienced a wide variety of diversity training. Black History Month was one of the main events at Emerald Ridge High School, and throughout the year (all three years, mind you), we had multiple speakers throughout the year come and speak to us about tolerance and “diversity”. The only thing I learned from my experiences was that “white” people will forever be indebted to minorities (no matter which kind) because of colonialism, the Crusades, and Christian exploration. In my American Studies classes, I remember learning the injustices of the Industrial Revolution, Civil Rights movement and other inequalities minorities faced throughout history. It made me aware that unless I am a “minority”, I am considered to be one that needs to continually learn tolerance, as if historical accounts from long ago make white people today a bad race. In other words, justification and leeway for reverse discrimination and reverse racism reared its ugly head in the public school forum. Where does the education end and the social indoctrination begin? I am positive that my teachers were merely teaching to district standards, at least. But this form of discrimination is inappropriate for the classroom as well.

I speak on the racial topic because I am eager to provide opportunity to any person, regardless of their race, gender, religious affiliation or any other cultural factor. However teaching to only one side of the social spectrum only provokes the pendulum to the other side. And with this mentality it will only continue back and forth. This, to me, is the most touchy of subjects so I speak with much reservation, but I need to know, how, as a teacher, I can help my students understand true equality – that is, that every one of my students is treated no differently than the other. And while I take into consideration any individual aspects of one’s character, race and creed are irrelevant in my classroom, just like Martin Luther King Jr. (and Christ) wanted it to be.

Teaching kids from multiple backgrounds is a blessing. The public school system, as flawed as it can be, is so fruitful in that, just like our nation, it is a melting pot of personalities. We merely stir it and create an emotionally charged barrier when all we teach is about racial inequality (regardless of who is unequal during the learning) and miss the forest amongst the trees. We are not putting it together, in perspective, when we only teach people to resent one another, especially for past wrongdoings.

Education swings back and forth between harsh grading and self-esteem building. Is it ethical for me to pass a student simply because they gave me a good reason for not turning in any homework? Is it ethical to get rid of “due dates” because it might be “stressful” on students? What are the expectations of a student in the classroom today vs. the past? Obviously the shifts in trends when it comes to our education has drastically changed in the last few generations. It will be interesting to see how our work ethic is affected by this as the self-esteem generations experience the real world of banking, mortgages, and jobs. Due dates are a reality, whether they make us feel good about ourselves or not. High achievers succeed above and beyond the low achievers, and that is simply an eternal way of life, whether we like it or not.
Long story short, I find a huge disparity between allowing students to learn in ways that fit them best and simply allowing mediocrity in the classroom out of fear of bursting one’s bubble. The distinction between providing a learning environment where students feel open and able to ask questions, to research the way they know best, to establish a studying method that effectively helps them learn the important material  and placing self-esteem above and beyond all else is huge. The former is proper, the latter is simply improper and absolutely detrimental in the long run. I am not sure if anyone will research this in class, but I do know that this is a growing trend amongst local schools. I just read an article a few days ago that the Seattle Public School District is talking about lowering the graduating average to a D. While it is passing right now, students are not allowed to graduate with such GPA’s. What caused the district to have to discuss this alternative rather than making a D GPA failing? No it’s not technically an “F”, but what good is a D average going to do a high school graduate? What caused the degradation of grades rather than a harder striving for more excellence?

These things all perplex me and I am anxious to learn about them through research and throughout my time in the educational program. I do know the most important thing to me is children’s education. Do they learn? Are they being stimulated? Is my teaching impacting them in a positive way? I am striving and greatly desirous of this. I think I am off to a good start .

Metode terjemahan (Translation Methods) adalah metode yang banyak dipakai dalam pengajaran bahasa asing. Prinsip yang dijadikan landasan dalam metode ini adalah bahwa penguasaan bahasa asing yang dipelajari itu dapat dicapai dengan jalan latihan-latihan terjemahan dari bahasa yang diajarkan ke dalam bahasa ibu murid atau sebaliknya. Latihan-latihan terjemahan ini merupakan latihan-latihan utama dalam metode ini.

Metode terjemahan (Translation Methods) terutama ditujukan untuk bahasa tertulis. bukan untuk bahasa lisan. Oleh karena itu. latihan-latihan untuk penguasaan bahasa lisan tidak terdapat dalam metode ini. Dengan demikian tujuan yang dapat dicapai dengan Translation Method ini hanya terbatas pada membaca, mengarang dan terjemahan, sedangkan kemampuan berbicara diabaikan.

Segi-segi yang menguntungkan dalam Translation Method ini adalah
1) Metode ini praktis. dapat dipakai pada setiap jenis dan keadaan sekolah, tidak memerlukan banvak tenaga dan biaya. Guru yang mengajarkannya tidak perlu terlatih betul dalam bahasa yang diajarkannya itu. Guru Linguist Translation tak perlu menguasai betul ucapan tata bahasa dan vokabuler bahasa yang diajarkannya itu. Tang perlu dikuasainya hanyalah teks yang akan dipergunakannya. Metode ini mudah dilaksanakan dan dapat dipakai dalam kelas yang jumlah muridnya besar Dalam pengajaran bahasa asing tampaknya metode ini banyak sekali terpakai, dan di Indonesia tampaknya metode ini masih banvak terpakai dewasa ini (Sworn Translations).

2) Dalam tempo yang cepat guru Linguist Translation dapat menanamkan pengetahuan tentang kata-kata. Hal ini dimungkinkan oleh pemakaian bahasa ibu murid dalam hampir setiap situasi pengajaran. Dengan jalan memberikan terjemahan. memberikan penjelasan-perjelasan dan batasan-batasan dalam bahasa ibu murid tentang bahan yang diajarkan itu dapatlah dihindarkan pemborosan waktu dan tenaga yang tak perlu

3) Pembelajar dapat segera menguasai arti kata-kata yang diajarkan dan kebingungan pembelajar terhadap arti kata-kata dan aturan-aturan tata bahasanya dapat dicegah (Sworn Translations). Oleh karena latihan membandingkan kedua bahasa itu. maka kesalahan-kesalahan pemakaian bahasa bagi pembelajar dapat dihindari.

massofa.wordpress.co

Dukung Kampanye Stop Dreaming Start Action Sekarang

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How to teach numbers for kids
குழந்தைகளுக்கு நாம் எண்களை எப்படி சொல்லிக் கொடுக்க வேண்டும்?
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அதிக சுறுசுறுப்பாக இருக்கும் குழந்தைகளை சமாளிப்பது எப்படி ?

This week end project with my son

Continuation of How to make your kid busy – calming tips for hyperactive children – part 1

how to teach numbers to kids - Gurgaon House

• Take a chart paper from your collection. Ask your kid to select the chart paper because some kids like white chart or yellow chart or light blue chart …
• Ask them to draw diffrent shapes in the chart paper. In this project I tried balloon shapes accordding to my son’s wish
• You write the number in such a way that no two continuous numbers appear near by.
• Ask your kid to color it. You say a number and kid has to find and color it. In this way this process will become a game for the kid.
• After all the numbers 1 to 50 or 1 to 100 were colored you stick this chart in a wall. Whenever the kid is looking at the chart you ask them to identify a number.
• After 10 or 15 day definitely they get familiarized with these numbers.
• Who else can get benefited of this method, School teachers. In the same way they could try out different shapes, flowers, animals, vegetables … etc,.
• This project will pass your weekend in a useful way.

INTRODUCTION

A language teaching syllabus involves the integration of subject matter (what to talk about) and linguistic matter (how to talk about it); that is, the actual matter that makes up teaching. Choices of syllabi can range from the more or less purely linguistic, where the content of instruction is the grammatical and lexical forms of the language, to the purely semantic or informational, where the content of instruction is some skill or information and only incidentally the form of the language. To design a syllabus is to decide what gets taught and in what order. For this reason, the theory of language explicitly or implicitly underlying the language teaching method will play a major role in determining what syllabus is adopted. Theory of learning also plays an important part in determining the kind of syllabus used. For example, a syllabus based on the theory of learning espoused by cognitive code teaching would emphasize language forms and whatever explicit descriptive knowledge about those forms was presently available. A syllabus based on an acquisition theory of learning, however, would emphasize unanalyzed, though possibly carefully selected experiences of the new language in an appropriate variety of discourse types.

The choice of a syllabus is a major decision in language teaching, and it should be made as consciously and with as much information as possible. There has been much confusion over the years as to what different types of content are possible in language teaching syllabi and as to whether the differences are in syllabus or method. Several distinct types of language teaching syllabi exist, and these different types may be implemented in various teaching situations.

THE DISCUSSION

1. The meaning of syllabus

Widowson (1984), and Brumfit (1984) point out that “ a syllabus is a practical thing or a public statement which is based on concepts of language, language learning, and language use”.

Dubin and Olshtin (1992: 28) give detailed description on what syllabus is. The point out that syllabus is a document which ideally describes:

• What learners are expected to know at the end of the course, or course objectives in operational terms?
• What is to be taught or learned during the course? (in the form of inventory items)
• When it is to be taught, and at what rate of progress? (relating the inventory of items to the different levels and stages as well as to the time constrains of the course)
• How it is to be taught, suggesting procedures, techniques, and materials?
• How it is to be evaluated, suggesting testing and evaluating mechanism?

2. Type of syllabus design and its underlying theory

a. Structural/grammatical (formal) syllabus

This syllabus is based on Classical Humanism approach. In classical humanism tradition, the content is a cultural heritage that is knowledge which has been identified and agreed to be universal, unchanging, and absolute.

The purposes of this syllabus are to transmit knowledge of the language system to the learners and to ensure that they master the grammar and vocabulary of the language.

The teaching procedures and learning experiences will include drilling of grammatically correct sentences, explanation of theory and memorization of lists of vocabulary.

The assessment is based on the learner’s ability to produce grammatically accurate language.

The content of language teaching is a collection of the forms and structures, usually grammatical, of the language being taught. Examples include nouns, verbs, adjectives, statements, questions, subordinate clauses, and so on.

The weakness of this type is its aim for the elite. Its aim is to teach the entire system regardless the fact that not all parts of the system is useful for all learners.

b. Notional/functional syllabus

This syllabus based on Reconstructionism approach. Reconstructionism places its emphasis on objectives. The main purpose of education is to bring about some kind of social change. In this system, practical aspects of education are the first priority.

The objective of this program is “on the social function of language as the central unit of organization”.

The role of the teacher is a model of native speaker to be imitated and as organizer and manager of learning experiences predetermined in advance.

Finney (1996:5) shows us the special attraction of this syllabus which provides three characteristics:

· Clarity of the goal

The objectives of a learning program are clear to both learners-teacher, which facilitates the selection of learning materials and activities.

· Ease of evaluation

Where there are clearly specific objectives of the success of the learners and the program can be easily evaluated to some extent that the objectives have been fulfilled.

· Accountability

In both formal and informal sectors, the model provides clear method for needs identification, establishing learning purpose, and providing measurable products of the educational program.

The content of the language teaching is a collection of the functions that are performed when language is used, or of the notions that language is used to express. Examples of functions include: informing, agreeing, apologizing, requesting; examples of notions include size, age, color, comparison, time, and so on.

The weakness of notional syllabus is inadequate to cater all the learners’ need to learn. It is not easy task to formularize what language function the learners are likely to communicate.

c. Situational syllabus

This syllabus is based on Progressivism approach. Progressivism places its emphasis on methodology and learning process. The purpose of education is to enable the individual to progress towards self-fulfillment; it is concerned with the development of understanding, not just the passive reception of knowledge or the acquisition of specific skill.

The model is concerned with learners who are responsible for their own learning. Learners are seen as active participants who build their own learning.

The teacher role is as facilitators of learning, and as negotiator of lesson content and process. They are also responders to their learners’ need and encouragers of their learners’ responsibility.

The content of language teaching is a collection of real or imaginary situations in which language occurs or is used. A situation usually involves several participants who are engaged in some activity in a specific setting. The language occurring in the situation involves a number of functions, combined into a plausible segment of discourse. The primary purpose of a situational language teaching syllabus is to teach the language that occurs in the situations. Examples of situations include: seeing the dentist, complaining to the landlord, buying a book at the book store, meeting a new student, and so on.

The weakness of this syllabus is that it seems difficult to implement since the situation itself is difficult to define.

d. Mixed Syllabus

It is a syllabus that integrated aspects of all the three mentioned syllabuses. This integrated model is attempted to synthesize the content-oriented model, the objective-oriented model and the process-oriented model. It is also called “a proportional syllabus”.

According to Yalden (in Finney, 1996:10), there are three principles which can form syllabus design, namely:

· A view of how a language is learned which would result in a structure-grammar-based syllabus.

· A view of how a language is acquired which would result in a process-based syllabus or functional-based syllabus.

· A view of how a language is used which result in situational syllabus.

This syllabus includes all levels all the time but the emphasis changes at different stages of learning. It consist three components: the structural, functional, and experimental.

The learning process ultimately depends on the interaction between the teacher and the learners in the classroom, and on the teaching approaches, activities, materials and procedures employed by the teacher.

Teachers must be reflective, analytic, creative, and open to new methods and new ideas.

3. Choosing and integrating syllabi

Although the four types of syllabus content are defined here in isolated contexts, it is rare for one type of syllabus or content to be used exclusively in actual teaching settings. Syllabi or content types are usually combined in more or less integrated ways, with one type as the organizing basis around which the others are arranged and related. In discussing syllabus choice and design, it should be kept in mind that the issue is not which type to choose but which types, and how to relate them to each other.

4. Practical guidelines to syllabus choice and design

It is clear that no single type of content is appropriate for all teaching settings, and the needs and conditions of each setting are so idiosyncratic that specific recommendations for combination are not possible. In addition, the process of designing and implementing an actual syllabus warrants a separate volume. Several books are available that address the process of syllabus design and implementation both practically and theoretically. These books can help language course designers make decisions for their own programs. However, a set of guidelines for the process is provided below.

Ten steps in preparing a practical language teaching syllabus:

1. Determine, to the extent possible, what outcomes are desired for the students in the instructional program. That is, as exactly and realistically as possible, defines what the students should be able to do as a result of the instruction.
2. Rank the syllabus types presented here as to their likelihood of leading to the outcomes desired. Several rankings may be necessary if outcomes are complex.
3. Evaluate available resources in expertise (for teaching, needs analysis, materials choice and production, etc.), in materials, and in training for teachers.
4. Rank the syllabi relative to available resources. That is, determine what syllabus types would be the easiest to implement given available resources.
5. Compare the lists made under No. 2 and 4. Making as few adjustments to the earlier list as possible, produce a new ranking based on the resources’ constraints.
6. Repeat the process, taking into account the constraints contributed by teacher and student factors described earlier.
7. Determine a final ranking, taking into account all the information produced by the earlier steps.
8. Designate one or two syllabus types as dominant and one or two as secondary.
9. Review the question of combination or integration of syllabus types and determine how combinations will be achieved and in what proportion.
10. Translate decisions into actual teaching units.

5. Example of syllabus

SYLLABUS

• Study Program : English
• Course Code : 1062020
• Course : Pronunciation and Phonetics
• Credit hours : 2
• Prerequisite Unit : None
• Semester : 1

Course Description :

This course is designed to help the students to speak English clearly and comfortably engage in authentic conversations. The students will be given the opportunity to acquire knowledge and understanding the production of sounds, and to acquire the skills necessary to describe, define and transcribe consonants, vowels and certain non-segmental features. The course also includes the distribution of sounds in English and fundamental concepts related to contrast and meaning in sound contrast. At the end of the course, the students are introduced to characteristics sound patterns of various accents of English.

Standard Competency

The students are able to:

- develop knowledge of the process of speech production

- develop an understanding of producing and classifying speech sounds

- develop the knowledge of sound patterns of various English accents

- recognize phonetics transcription and produce the English speech sounds well

- acquire self-monitoring and self-correcting skills for problem areas

- use English-English dictionary effectively

Basic Competencies	Indicators	Learning experiences	Teaching Materials	Time	Tools/Teaching aids/Resources	Evaluations
To understand the differences in rules and pattern between English sounds, spelling, and pronunciation	The students are able to: 1. explain the differences between English sounds and spelling 2. apply the rules and patterns of English spelling and pronunciation in context	1. To discuss English spelling system 2. To discuss regular features of English pronunciation and spelling 3. To discuss examples of regular features of English pronunciation and spelling	Spelling and pronunciation: - The English spelling system - Regular features of English pronunciation and spelling	100	OHP, LCD, Notebook, Standard English-English Dictionary, Kelly, G. How to teach pronunciation. 2004: 122-125	quiz
To recognize English sounds and how to produce them	The students are able to: 1. explain the individual sounds of English 2. explain the process of how sounds are made	1. To analyze the individual sounds of English 2. To discuss the English speech production process	Individual sounds of English: - How speech sounds are made - Consonants and vowels	100	OHP, LCD, Notebook, Standard English-English Dictionary, Kelly, G. How to teach pronunciation. 2004: 1-9	quiz
To understand the parameters in producing English consonants: phonetic transcription and the rules of production	The students are able to: 1. explain the concepts of describing English consonants 2. describe English consonants 3. to produce English consonants correctly 4. to produce phonetic transcription for English consonants correctly	1. To discuss the description of English consonants 2. To listen to sample of speech containing English consonants 3. To practice producing English consonants correctly 4. To practice transcribing English consonants	The description of English consonants: - place of articulation - manner of articulation - voicing - Phonetic symbol for consonants	200	OHP, LCD, Notebook, Standard English-English Dictionary, Kelly, G. How to teach pronunciation. 2004: 47-53	quiz
To understand the parameters of English vowels, phonetic transcription, and the rules of production	The students are able to: 1. explain the concepts of describing English vowels 2. describe English vowels 3. to produce English vowels correctly 4. to produce phonetic transcription for English vowels correctly	1. To discuss the description of English vowels 2. To listen to sample of speech containing English vowels 3. To practice producing English vowels 4. To practice transcribing English vowels	The description of English vowels: - Tongue height - Frontness /backness of tongue - Tenseness /Laxness - Lip rounding - Phonetic symbols for vowels - Diphthongs	100	OHP, LCD, Notebook, Standard English-English Dictionary, Kelly, G. How to teach pronunciation. 29-36	quiz
To understand the way of pronouncing English sounds in context: based on the pronunciation rules for grammatical endings, its application in context	The students are able to: 1. produce English sounds in positional variation correctly 2. explain the pronunciation rules of grammatical endings 3. to pronounce words with grammatical endings correctly 4. to produce phonetic transcription correctly	1. To listen to sample of speech containing contrastive and non-contrastive English sounds 2. To discuss the rules of contrastive and non-contrastive English sounds 3. To practice pronouncing contrastive and non-contrastive English sounds 4. To listen to sample of speech containing grammatical endings 5. To discuss the rules of pronouncing grammatical endings 6. To practice pronouncing grammatical endings 7. To practice producing phonetic transcription	English sounds in context: - Positional variation: contrastive and non-contrastive sounds of English - Grammatical endings: the regular past tense, the plural, possessive, and third person singular	100	OHP, LCD, Notebook, Standard English-English Dictionary, Lane, L. 2005. Focus on Pronunciation 2. Unit 13 and unit 19	quiz
To understand the concept of syllable structure and syllable types: by recognizing the consonant cluster and applying the rules of pronouncing the consonant cluster correctly	The students are able to: 1. explain the concept of syllable structure 2. give examples of each syllable types 3. give examples of consonant clusters 4. to pronounce consonant cluster correctly 5. to produce phonetic transcription correctly	1. To discuss the syllable structure 2. To discuss the example of syllable types and consonant cluster 3. To listen to sample of speech containing consonant cluster 4. To discuss the rules of pronouncing consonant clusters 5. To practice pronouncing words containing consonant cluster 6. To practice producing phonetic transcription	Syllable structure: - syllable types - consonant cluster	100	OHP, LCD, Notebook, Standard English-English Dictionary,	quiz
To understand the definition stress: being aware of rules of word stress, understanding the differences between major and minor stress, applying the rules of placing word stress correct-ly, and developing strategies to do self-correcting and self- monitoring	The students are able to: 1. explain the definition of stress 2. identify major and minor stress 3. produce the word stress correctly	1. To discuss the definition of stress, major and minor stress 2. To listen to sample of word stress 3. To discuss examples of placement of word stress 4. To discuss the rules of word stress 5. To practice pronouncing word stress correctly 6. To record students’ pronunciation 7. To evaluate the students’ recordings 8. To correct the students’ pronunciation	- Word stress and vowel reduction: - What is stress? - Major and minor stress - Placement of word stress	100	OHP, LCD, Notebook, Standard English-English Dictionary,	quiz
To understand the rules of sentence stress: in application and developing strategies to do self-monitoring and self-correcting	The students are able to: 1. explain the definition of sentence stress and tonic syllable 2. identify sentence stress and weak forms stress 3. give examples of sentence stress 4. produce sentence stress correctly	1. To discuss the definition of sentence and tonic syllable 2. To listen to sample of sentence stress and weak forms 3. To practice pronouncing sentence stress and weak forms 4. To record students’ pronunciation 5. To evaluate the students’ recordings 6. To correct the students’ pronunciation	Sentence stress: - sentence stress and tonic syllable - sentence stress and weak forms - raising awareness of word and sentence stress	100	OHP, LCD, Notebook, Standard English-English Dictionary,	quiz
To understand the points in defining intonation: being aware of the connection between grammar and intonation, attitude and intonation, discourse and intonation	The students are able to: 1. explain the definition of intonation 2. identify the link between grammar and intonation, attitude and intonation, discourse and intonation 3. give examples of grammar and intonation, attitude and intonation, discourse and intonation 4. produce intonation correctly	1. To listen to sample of speech focusing on intonation 2. To discuss the rules of pronouncing intonation 3. To practice pronouncing intonation 4. To record students’ pronunciation 5. To evaluate the students’ recordings 6. To correct the students’ pronunciation	Intonation: - What is intonation? - Grammar and intonation - Attitude and intonation - Discourse and intonation	100	OHP, LCD, Notebook, Standard English-English Dictionary,	quiz
To understand the points in defining linking and intrusion, assimilation and in applying them	The students are able to: 1. explain the definition of linking and intrusion, assimilation 2. give examples of linking and intrusion, assimilation 3. produce linking and intrusion, assimilation correctly	1. To discuss the definition of linking and intrusion, assimilation 2. To listen to sample of linking and intrusion, assimilation 3. To practice pronouncing linking and intrusion, assimilation 4. To record students’ pronunciation 5. To evaluate the students’ recordings 6. To correct the students’ pronunciation	Connected speech: - Linking and intrusion - Assimilation	100	OHP, LCD, Notebook, Standard English-English Dictionary,	quiz
To understand the points in defining elision, juncture, and contraction and in its application	The students are able to: 1. explain the definition of elision, juncture, contraction 2. give examples of elision, juncture, contraction 3. produce linking and intrusion, assimilation correctly	1. To discuss the definition of elision, juncture, contraction 2. To listen to sample of elision, juncture, contraction 3. To practice pronouncing elision, juncture, contraction 4. To record students’ pronunciation 5. To evaluate the students’ recordings 6. To correct the students’ pronunciation	Connected speech: - Elision - Juncture - Contraction	100	OHP, LCD, Notebook, Standard English-English Dictionary,	quiz
To identify common pronunciation errors: by developing strategy to correct the errors	The students are able to : 1. give examples of common pronunciation errors 2. make correction	1. To discuss the examples of pronunciation errors 2. To discuss the strategies to correct the errors	Common pronunciation errors: - English vowels - English consonants - Stress, rhythm, intonation	100	OHP, LCD, Notebook, Standard English-English Dictionary,	quiz
To be aware of the differentiating English accents by identifying various English accents	The students are able to : 1. identify the characteristics of various English accents 2. understand the speech produced by speakers of different English varieties	1. To watch movies containing different accent of English 2. To discuss the characteristics of different English accents 3. To discuss potential difficulties in comprehending different English accents 4. To discuss possible strategies to overcome the difficulties	Accents of English: - RP - General American - Australian - Indian	100	OHP, LCD, Notebook, Standard English-English Dictionary,	quiz

C. CONCLUSION

In general this paper is intended to present models or type of syllabus and the philosophy or values underlying the design of syllabus. There are three main streams of value system underlying the design of syllabus, namely: (1) Classical Humanism which underpins the Grammatical Syllabus. (2) Reconstructionism which underpins the Notional Syllabus. (3) Progressivism which underpins the Situational Syllabus.

In making practical decisions about syllabus design, one must take into consideration all the possible factors that might affect the teach ability of a particular syllabus. By starting with an examination of each syllabus type, tailoring the choice and integration of the different types according to local needs, one may find a principled and practical solution to the problem of appropriateness and effectiveness in syllabus design.

Having observed the weakness of each type of syllabus has, a Mixed-Focused Syllabus is proposed. Allen formulates it as the variable focus syllabus. This is likely a blend of all three. This is suggested to be the most realistic model.

BY:

ARDIKA RIZKY SAPUTRI

A 320060313

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

SCHOOL OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION

MUHAMMADIYAH UNIVERSITY OF SURAKARTA

INTRODUCTION

Animal communicate through a wide variety of means. In general, they have the same reason in communicate with one another. At basic, they communicate to get food, to find mate, to warn, to threaten, etc (Steinberg, Nagata, and Aline, 2001:160). Many animal use sound signal, but many also use other modalities substances involving smell as signal, as in the case of ants. Visual signal may be used by dogs and body movement may be used by bees. Animal are obviously able to communicate at some level with one another, even sometimes with human being as well.

If animal have their own system of communication, is it possible to teach them some sort of human language? Several studies which have been conducted show that although animals do naturally can talk like human being, this does not mean that they are incapable of talking human language. Scientists have made attempts to teach language to chimpanzees. Such scientist attempts were conducted by psychologist in the 1920s through 1940s. The result of other examination will be discussed in here.

THE DISCUSSION

1. Animal Language

The characteristics that distinguish human language are obvious when it is compared with animal communication system. Animals are clearly able to communicate at basic level, with one another and/or with humans. The message they convey, however, are usually very limited in scope and can be interpreted only in the context of the immediate situation. There are several researches to see how animals communicate with each other:

a. Fish

Ø Sensing Electricity

Using a sense very different from either hearing or vision, certain fish communicate and sense their surroundings with electricity. “Just as the eyes are organs that evolution has fine-tuned and engineered to optimally detect light, ears are optimal organs for detecting sound, and taste buds are chemical receptors, these fish have very sophisticated receptor organs for detecting electric fields,” says physiologist Dr. Brian Rasnow, now at Amgen.

A wide variety of fish can detect electric current. Some, like the shark, use the sense to “see” prey. Some sharks can detect a field as weak as “five nano volts per centimeter, which is equivalent to stretching out a one-and-a-half-volt battery over 30,000 kilometers,” Rasnow says.

But some fish have taken their electric sense a step farther; they produce electricity. Electric eels have been known since before humans understood the nature of electricity. Some smaller, gentler cousins also produce electric fields, albeit weak ones. Two families of freshwater fish have evolved the ability to create electric fields around their bodies. Their ability to sense minute changes in these electric fields, the fields of other electric fish, the weak fields produced by all living things and disturbances in all these fields produced by inanimate objects in their environment, makes up a sense and a system of communication as different from vision as hearing is from vision and as different from hearing as vision is, Rasnow says.

Weakly electric fish live in muddy water and only become active at night. In this lightless environment, weakly electric fish use their electric sense like many other animals use sight or hearing, to “see” where they are going, to find prey, and communicate with each other. They can distinguish the electrical discharge of their own species, and can further determine the size, sex, maturity and even possibly the individual identity of any fish of their own species that passes by. Each fish, in other words, broadcasts many aspects of its identity in fluctuations and characteristics of its electric field. This sense, however, has its limits.

Some females try to sneak in to lay eggs among those of the dominant female. These females remain electrically quiet. If the royal couple drives them off, sneaker females will lay eggs elsewhere, in which case, her eggs remain unfertilized. Non-mating females thus appear so excited by the male’s electrical love song that they lay eggs even in the absence of a male. In laboratory playback experiments, scientists can duplicate this effect, playing a love song that causes lone females to lay eggs in an aquarium.

Another species, this one a bottom dweller, shows different mating behavior. A male will mate with any female who responds to his call. Successful fertilization in this species is complicated compared to most fish. She lays only one egg at a time, and the male must fertilize it just as she lays it, or it spurts to the river (or aquarium) bottom to remain unfertilized. To signal the male, the female chirps just as the egg is about to emerge.

Swimming in a muddy river and relying on your electric field can pose a problem, however. What happens if another electric fish swims by? Your frequencies may overlap. “It’s like CB radio when the channel is too noisy,” Rasnow says. “The only sensible thing to do is switch to another frequency.” Scientists studying electric fish call this the Jamming Avoidance Response (JAR). Two passing electric fish change frequencies, each moving its frequency slightly away from the others. This response functions as a reflex, like the leg-jerk reflex when the doctor taps you on the knee. On the other hand, electric fish sometimes synchronize their frequencies, for reasons scientists have yet to fathom.

Ø Fish and sound

Fish also communicate with sound, for example is toadfish. Toadfish make two other sounds. Grunts, warnings that apparently tell rival males to back off or potential predators to stay away, last only two tenths of a second. The so-called boat whistle lasts nearly a second, may attract females as well as humming does, and might identify individuals. In the distantly related bicolor damselfish, females can distinguish individual male chirps and males can tell the chirp of their nearest neighbor from the vocalizations of more distant males.

Fish sounds function mainly in mate attraction, but are also used in school coordination, and they travel well under water. Scientists have observed fish responding to a sound signal from half a mile away.

Fish produce sounds in a variety of ways, often with organs much less specialized for the task than the vocal apparatus of other vertebrates. Grunts appear to come from grinding teeth, the sound amplified by the air-filled swim bladder. And special muscles in or near the swim bladder itself can cause it to vibrate like a drumhead.

Fish hear or feel sound in two ways. Some have small bones connecting the inner ear to the swim bladder, creating in effect a single large ear. Fish have no outer ears, and therefore no need for the middle ear bones that connect the eardrum to the inner ear. But they do possess an inner ear similar to those of other vertebrates.

But fish also detect vibrations in the water with a unique lateral line system similar in many ways to our inner ears, where organ of hearing in our inner ears forms a coil that of fish lies stretched out along its side. The lateral line tube stretches the length of a fish, and sometimes branches around its head. The tube connects to the water by way of small pores in the skin and scales. Mucus fills the tube, just as in our cochlea. When a pressure wave strikes the fish, it jiggles the mucus and bends small hairs that project into the mucus in bunches. The hairs trigger nerve impulses, which travel to the brain. While fish cannot determine the location of a sound detected through the single swim bladder, they can locate sounds detected by way of the lateral line.

b. Elephants

The biologists, Loki Osborn and Russel A. Charif of the Bioacoustics Research Program at Cornell University, watch with relief. They had broadcast a call recorded from a female in estrus, but neither they nor the rest of their team, videotaping in a tower near the water hole, heard a thing. The sound, below the lower threshold of human hearing, forms part of the remarkable infrasonic communication system of elephants.

Humans can hear many elephant calls, from the famous shrill trumpets to low groans. But until Katherine B. Payne of Cornell analyzed a tape she’d made of Asian elephants at Portland, Oregon’s Washington Park Zoo, no one knew that the deepest elephant sounds we hear, called grunts or rumbles, were merely the mild overtones of sounds so low and powerful they travel unhampered for miles through Asian forest. African elephants use similar signals.

Elephants live in layered societies, and like any social animal must communicate. These largest of land animals communicate with every sense: touch, taste, smell, vision and hearing. All work at close range, within a small band of elephants browsing together, or between mother and calf, or mating male and female, for example. With their long trunks, elephants can keep track of odors on the ground as they walk head up, and they routinely touch and smell each others’ bodies with their trunks.

But it was their sense of hearing that baffled early naturalists and makes long-distance communication—and therefore elephant society and mating—possible. Small groups of related adult females and their young of both sexes form the basic unit in elephant society, called a family. Females remain in families for life. The family often contains three generations, and may remain stable for decades or even centuries. Families associate with one to five other families, probably consisting of more distant relatives. These so-called bond groups in turn belong to larger groups, called clans.

William Langbauer, of the Pittsburgh Zoo, and several colleagues, including Charif, has characterized several specific infrasonic calls based on when they occur and how elephants hearing these calls react. Elephants appear to produce their extremely low-pitched sounds with a larynx similar to those of all mammals, but much larger.

When individual family members reunite after being separated, they greet each other enthusiastically, and the excitement increases with the length of time separated. They trumpet, scream and touch each other. They also use a greeting rumble, which begins at a low 18 Hz, crests at 25 Hz—just audible to humans—and falls back to 18Hz. An elephant attempting to locate its family uses the contact call, a relatively quiet low tone with a strong overtone audible to humans. Immediately after contact calling, the elephant will lift and spread its ears and rotate its head, as if listening for the response. The contact answer is louder and more abrupt than the greeting call, trailing off at the end. Contact calls and answers may continue for hours until the elephant successfully rejoins her family. At the end of a meal, when it’s time to move on, one member of a family moves to the edge of the group, typically lifts one leg and flaps her ears. She repeats a “let’s go” rumble, which eventually rouses the whole family, who then hit the road.

Unlike the highly social females, males leave their families at about 14 years of age. They travel alone or congregate in small loose groups with other males, occasionally joining a family on a temporary basis. When males come into musth, they wander widely, searching for receptive females.

Females typically come into estrus only once every four years, and then for only four days. So competition is intense, and males must have some way of finding mates from long distances. A male in musth repeats a distinctive set of calls called musth rumbles, listening for a response afterward. Males who hear this sound keep away, as bulls in musth are aggressive and dangerous. Females, however, answer with the so-called female chorus. This consists of several females answering with a call similar to the greeting rumble, but somewhat lower. Females will also give this call when a musth male joins their group or when they smell the strong urine of a musth male. A male homes in on the female chorus, hoping to find a female in estrus. After mating, the female rumbles out the post-copulatory sequence, a group of six grunts with strong overtones. She repeats this sequence several times, continuing for up to half an hour.

All of these calls serve as short-range communication in elephants. Documenting the effectiveness of long-range communication has proved technically difficult, however, even among radio-collared elephants. Despite the difficulties, says Charif, “Elephants may routinely know the whereabouts (and maybe activities) of other elephants that are several miles away from them. When a biologist in the field observes the behavior of a group of elephants, s/he may be missing a lot of subtle long-range interactions.”

2. Teaching Language to Animal

Scientists have made attempts to teach language to animals. Such attempts are motivated by their curiosity whether animals have their own language for communication. They also curious whether human beings can teach them some sort of human language. Such curiosity has led scientists to conduct serious investigations on the possibility that animals can be taught human language. For example:

1. N’kisi project

The N’kisi Project is a series of controlled experiments and ongoing research in interspecies communication and telepathy conducted by Aimee Morgana and her language-using parrot N’kisi. The images shown above are stills from the video document "Initial Interspecies Telepathy Experiments", a research project with the collaboration and support of Dr. Rupert Sheldrake.

N’kisi is a captive bred, hand raised Congo African Gray Parrot. He is 4-1/2 years old, and his species has a life span similar to humans. He has received teaching in the use of language for 4 years. He is now one of the world’s top "language-using" animals, with an apparent understanding and appropriate usage of over 700 words. Aimee intuitively taught N’kisi as one would a child, by explaining things to him in context. (This goes beyond typical interactions with a "pet", involving many hours per day of teaching and conversations.) He is treated as a member of the family. N’kisi was not trained like a performing animal, and does not just mimic or use speech "on cue". Instead, he has been allowed to develop his own creative relationship to language as a means of self-expression. N’kisi speaks in sentences, showing a grasp of grammar in formulating his own original expressions. He is capable of actual conversations. He often initiates comments about what we are doing, feeling, looking at, thinking, etc, which is how we discovered his ability to read minds. N’kisi often demonstrates telepathy in spontaneous situations, and also communicates love, compassion, and a keen sense of humor. Language-using animals are like "animal ambassadors" helping to bridge the worlds of other species with our own. In the wild, parrots live in large flocks with complex social interactions, which have yet to be studied.

Interspecies Telepathy Experiments

N’kisi would often describe what Aimee was thinking about, reading, or looking at in situations where there were no possible ordinary clues. When Aimee saw Rupert Sheldrake’s book Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home she contacted him, and they collaborated in designing an experiment to try to replicate and document this phenomenon under controlled conditions. Based on a pre-specified list of key words, a selection of photographs depicting items from N’kisi’s unedited vocabulary was prepared, sealed in opaque envelopes, then randomized and numbered by an independent party. No one knew what image was in any of the envelopes, which is known as a "double blind" test. In a series of timed two minute sessions, Aimee was videotaped as she looked at these images, while another synchronized camera filmed N’kisi in his cage. Aimee was in an enclosed room on a different floor, with no possible line of sight for any ‘cueing’. Their locations were approximately 55 feet apart, and separated by several solid walls. In responding to the tests, N’kisi generally put target keywords and descriptions in related sentences, and he often described a detail at the exact moment that Aimee noticed it. N’kisi appears to telepathically "surf" the leading edge of Aimee’s consciousness, responding to the spontaneous moment of discovery rather than to any consciously projected thoughts. Aimee found that her state of mind was critical, and if she intentionally tried to "send" the information, it wouldn’t work. N’kisi responded best when Aimee’s full attention was genuinely immersed in exploring the images, without any thought of the experiments. Three independent transcripts were made of each test session, and there was a remarkably good agreement between the transcribers. These transcriptions were done "blind", meaning the transcribers did not know what pictures Aimee was looking at, nor when each trial period began and ended.

Analysis and Scoring of Experiment Results

"Hits" and "misses" were scored when at least two out of three transcribers verified that N’kisi had said one of the 19 key words used in selecting the images, such as "flower". N’kisi said one or more of these key words in 71 trials, and the statistical analysis is based on these tests. (We discarded several trials with the target "camera", as N’kisi often made direct comments about the cameras we were using). As an animal, N’kisi could not be expected to fully understand the experiment parameters, and there was no guarantee of his participation. Our experiment design left him free to say whatever he wished during the sessions. Non-scorable comments consisted of N’kisi’s attempts to contact Aimee, or unrelated chatter about events of the day. "Hits" were key words corresponding to the image Aimee was looking at during a particular trial. As there was no way for N’kisi to understand the need to restrain his comments to the strictly timed two-minute test period for each image, many of the "misses" scored were his continued repetitions of "hit" comments from previous images in the session. Assuming N’kisi was saying these words at random, there would have been 7.4 hits. In fact, he scored 23 hits. This result is highly significant statistically. Using the standard binomial test, the odds against chance are one million to one. Statistician Jan van Bolhuis at the Amsterdam Free University also kindly carried out a Randomized Permutation Analysis for us, in which N’kisi’s comments were randomly assigned to the test images in 20,000 different permutations run by a computer. Only 5 of these randomized permutations gave 23 or more hits. In this extremely objective method, the probability of the result we observed was less than 0.0005, or in other words, the odds against this result being due to chance were more than 2,000 to one. However, these strict scoring methods ignore many of N’kisi’s most interesting responses. For example, in one image of a car, the driver’s head was sticking out of the car window. Just as Aimee noticed this unusual detail, N’kisi said "Uh-oh, careful, you put your head out." Although this is clearly relevant, our scoring method allowed only the pre-specified target word, "car". Including these comments, possibly relevant responses were made in 32 of the 71 trials.

As this study was strictly controlled against cues from any normal sensory means, and chance coincidence has been ruled out, these experiments provide compelling evidence of interspecies telepathy. This phenomenon is currently unexplained within the dominant scientific model. We are continuing our research and documentation of this astonishing phenomenon, as Aimee and N’kisi’s ongoing work exploring avian language use opens a fascinating new window into our understanding of the animal mind. The fact that these experiments statistically prove that N’kisi’s use of speech is not random also gives evidence of his sentience and intentional use of language. Though our work is just beginning, N’kisi has already shown aspects of intelligence that animals were thought to be incapable of, particularly a species that shares so little genetic similarity with humans. Globally, parrots are the most endangered of all birds, with the greatest number of species currently facing extinction due to poaching and habitat destruction. We hope our work will help people to realize the amazing abilities and awareness of these intelligent birds, and encourage greater care of these precious beings and the planetary environment we share.

CONCLUSION

Humans can talk about anything they like and anytime they want. This important property does not exist in animal communication system. The researches with animals clearly indicate that animals have only a rudimentary language capability.

Most animals in the wild have a fixed number of signaling systems which convey a set fixed number of messages and these messages are sent in clearly fixed circumstances. Most animals, which are taught human language, indicate that they can only reach a very elementary level of human achievement. They cannot advance further than that.

ARRANGED BY:

ARDIKA RIZKY SAPUTRI

A 320060313

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

SCHOOL OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION

MUHAMMADIYAH UNIVERSITY OF SURAKARTA

Article #24, June 11, 2005

“Students’ feedback on my teaching method for the current semester”

After many unsuccessful attempts to generating students’ feedback on my teaching methods and how this course might affect their perspective and behavior in approaching the remaining core courses before graduation and in their career I decided to include two questions in the final exam that I expected would shed some insight.

The required question, which I told class two weeks ahead of the final exam that it will be part of the exam, directed the students to focus first on the diligent A and B students and then to target the C and D students in their teaching methods in case they might have to teach a course in Human Factors and the third part was to restructure the course materials and which chapters should have to be developed further. 

Now, any logical person would expect the students to have prepared detailed answers to these questions since it is an open book and open notes exam, but unfortunately, I didn’t have any shred of evidence that any student did prepare a written answer. 

You would also expect students to be lenient in teaching this course but their reaction was even harsher.

 Students required that drop quizzes be delivered on a weekly basis after students hand in a chapter summary, that case studies be debated in class, a few lab workshops and many more assignments. 

A student suggested attaching a CD copy of the course material so that they would not have to carry books.

They suggested that summarizing chapters as assignments might force students to read, a suggestion that I did try in a previous semester but was discouraged because the endeavor ended up with students heavily copying from one another and I carrying home heavy loads and wasting more time flipping through useless pages.

I think that frequent and consistent drop quizzes are an excellent tool although it will cost me dear time for grading and from teaching time.

Actually, I didn’t expect even the most diligent students to read the whole course materials. 

I provided hints and suggestions on the best way to assimilating the material that would help them navigate through the content of the course. 

I encouraged them to browse through the whole course contents and focus on the graphs, tables and figures and try to comprehend the subject matters by analyzing and using them as facts in their analyses.

May be you would have a better assessment of the students’ harsh requirements, if given the opportunity to teaching, after I expose the load they shouldered throughout the semester.

Besides the mid-term and final exams, each student had to submit two assignments, two lengthy lab projects; three extensive take home exams that covered most of the chapters, three quizzes for 45 minutes each, two presentations to class of graphs, tables and figures, reading revised articles that I assigned them and a take home exam on a research paper concerning hand tool design. 

Not a single student was exposed to a research paper before and it was a pretty tough awakening for the students planning for higher education. 

I think that the students lacked an appreciation of the time allocated to managing a class that prohibits many well meaning teaching plans. 

In many instances, I had to read in class the assignments and take home exams questions and provide directions because I noticed that the students tended to dig these assignments up from their folders before a long lapse of time. 

The time allocated for students’ presentation takes up more than a third of the teaching hour and fielding questions takes the best of the second third 

There are no lab credit hours for this course and still students believe that they can set aside free hours for doing lab projects necessary for assimilating this course.

The alternatives restructuring of the course materials did not differ much from mine.

The optional question for bonus points asked the students to select 3 topics of interest to them, provide catchy titles and explain in two paragraphs for each topic how it might apply and improve their careers. 

Although I have assigned to the students articles that I wrote as an introduction to the course materials only one student offered complete sentence titles; the rest just named the topics. 

It appears that their preferred topics were: risk and errors, designing interfaces, work environmental factors that might affect performance, human-computer interface and hand tool design. 

A couple students interested in medical technology engineering wanted more emphasis on the biology aspects of the body structure. 

Only one student mentioned the cognitive preference for this single course.

Many students signed petitions to re-include the elective course of “risk assessment and occupational safety and health” for the fall semester but the administration refused to consider these petitions two years in a row.

Affective domain is generally assumed to influence Second Language Acquisition (SLA). Affective factor here refers to the emotional side of human behavior. The development of affective states or feelings involves a variety of personality factors, both feeling about one self and about others with whom he/she comes into contact. A comprehensive definition of the affective domain can be outlined into five levels of affective known as Blooms Taxonomy (1964): Receiving, Responding, Valuing, Organizing the values into system, and value system. There follows the description of each:

1. At the first and fundamental level, the development of affectively begins with receiving. A person must be aware of the environment surrounding them.
2. Next, a person must go beyond receiving to responding, that is committing himself in at least some small measure to a phenomenon or a person. Such responding in one dimension maybe in agreement, but in another higher dimension, the person is willing to respond voluntarily without pressure, and then to receive satisfaction from the responds.
3. The third level of affectivity involves valuing, placing a worth on a thing, a behavior or a person.
4. The fourth level of the affective domain is the organization of values into a system of beliefs, determining interrelationships among them, and establishing a hierarchy of values within the system.
5. Finally, an individual characterized by and understands him in terms of his value system. It is at this level that problem solving, for example is approached on the basis of a total, self consistent system.

The above taxonomy was first intended for educational purposes, but it now has been widely used to understand the affective domain of human behavior in general, included verbal behavior. The basic concepts of Receiving, Responding, and Valuing are universal. Second language learner need:

a) To be receptive both the target language and these with whom they are communicating with that target language.

b) To be responsive both to the person as well as the context of the communication

c) To be willing to place a certain value on the communicative act.

Thus, understanding how human being feels, responds, believes, and values is very important in relation to second long learning. Language is interwoven into the whole aspect of human behavior. Studying language cannot be separated the whole person, a being who has physic, cognition, and more importantly emotion.

The Affective Factors

1. Self-Esteem

Self-Esteem is a feeling of self-worth. It is a personal judgment of worthiness that is expressed in the attitude that individual holds toward him. It expresses an attitude of approval, and indicates that extent to which an individual successful and worthy. (Cooper Smith, 1967; Brown, 1980; 2000)

Shavelson, Hubner, and Stanton (1967) propose a trio hierarchy to account for a self-system:

a) Global self-system

b) Specific self-system

c) Task self-system

People usually derive their sense of self system from two different sources:

1. The accumulation of experiences with themselves and with others.

2. The assessment of the external world around them.

v Studies of Self-Esteem

The global self esteem refers to the way individual’s overall self esteem. It is the general assessment someone make of his own worth over time and across a number of situations.

Specific self esteem refers to the way individuals perceive themselves in various life contexts (social interaction, education, work, home, etc) or on certain characteristics (gregariousness, empathy, and flexibility)

The tasks self esteem refers to the evaluation or perception individuals give to themselves on specific tasks. In second language acquisition context, it may relate to an individuals’ self evaluation of a particular aspects of the process: Speaking, writing, or even a special kind of classroom exercise.

2. Empathy

Empathy is an individual’s capacity to put oneself in another’s place. That is the process of reaching beyond the self to understand what another person is feeling.

In more comprehensive definition, empathy is usually as “the projection of one’s own personality of another in order to understand him or her better” (Brown 1980: 107; 2000: 153).

It is also defined as “a process of comprehending in which a temporary fusion of self-object boundaries permits an immediate emotional apprehension of the affective experience of another” (Guiora, 1972: 142).

Two important aspects to develop empathy based on Hogan and Guiora’s agreement:

© An awareness and Knowledge of one’s own feeling

© Identification with another person

In other word, people can only empathize or know someone else only if they actually know themselves.

v Studies on Empathy

Several researches have carried out studies on empathy and language learning. Guiora et al. (1972) reported a positive correlation between pronunciation accuracy of fourteen French teachers and their score on the Momentary Expression (MME) test; a test designed to measure degrees of empathy. A study conducted by Naiman, Erohlich, Stern, and Fedesco (in Brown, 1990) however, reported no significant correlation between empathy and language success. They used Hogan’s empathy scale, a test battery usually used to discover characteristics of the good language learner.

The contradiction findings of the researches are not unexpected. Studies on personality variables are often problematic in the accuracy of the test used to measure the traits. Methodological problems of such MME and Hogan’s empathy scale are cases in point. They can accurately identify personality extremes (schizophrenic, paranoid, psychotic behavior, etc), but cannot differentiate among the normal people (Brown, 1980: 109; 2000:154).

The implication of the researches findings is that empathy needs to be defined cross-culturally, different cultures express empathy differently.

Indeed, human being is a social animal and the major mechanism for maintaining the bonds of the society is language. It is the major tool used by individuals to transact with others, the process of reaching out beyond the self of others. Empathy is one of transactional variables applied in second language.

Communication, as well, requires a degree of empathy. In order to communicative effectively someone needs to understand other person’s affective and cognitive states. An individual will fail to communicate when he falsely assumes other person’s affective and cognitive states. In order to make correct assumption, he needs to transcend his own ego boundaries so that he can send and receive message clearly.

Empathetic communication is easier to achieve than written communication. In oral communication, someone can get feedback immediately from the hearer. A misunderstood word or ideas can be directly questioned by the hearer, and the speaker repeats the expression until it is clearly interpreted. In written communication, on the other hand, some one cannot get immediate feedback from the reader. Thus, he must be able to communicate ideas by means of a clear empathetic judgment of the reader’s affective and cognitive state thus; the problem of empathy is crucial in second language learning.

3. Anxiety

Anxiety is one of the affective factors, which are generally assumed to influence second language acquisition. Anxiety is associated with feelings of uneasiness, frustration, self-doubt, apprehension, or worry (Scovel, 1978: 134).

Scovel further distinguishes anxiety into two types, they are:

© Facilitative anxiety : Motivates the learner to ‘fight’ the new learning task. It gears the learner emotionally for approval behavior.

© Debilitative anxiety : Motivates the learner to ‘flee’ the new learning task. It stimulates the individual emotionally to adopt avoidance behavior.

The two types of anxiety based on Oxford (1990):

© Helpful anxiety : It is a positive factor relates to some concern or comprehension over a particular task to be accomplished.

© Harmful anxiety : It is a negative factor that may relate to nervousness or tension which rids someone from accomplishing the job; some self-doubt which should be avoided at all costs.

v Studies of Anxiety

Several studies on the correlation between anxiety and second language acquisition have been conducted. The studies have suggested the benefit of facilitative or helpful anxiety in learning second language. An empirical research has been conducted by Gardner, Smythe, Clement, Glieksman (1976) on the components of the integrative motive. One of the components is termed as ‘French Classroom Anxiety’, feelings of anxiety in the French classroom situation.

The study shows a negative correlation between the French classroom anxiety and the scores of speech skills. This negative correlation indicates, according to Gardner, that the more anxious the students are the less proficient in speech skills they will be.

The other example is the study competitiveness and anxiety in second language conducted by Kathleen M. Baley (1995). This is a diary study of her own competitiveness and anxiety while learning French as a foreign language. She realized that sometimes her drive to compete with other members of the class hinder her second language acquisition. Other times, however, this motivated her to try harder (as the case of facilitating anxiety when she completed an intensive review so she would feel more at ease during oral classroom work. Beside it is motivating and encouraging; her experience also suggests that it is not the individual’s permanent predisposition to anxiety but rather the strength of the anxiety he is feeling at the moment (state anxiety) which determines whether the anxiety is facilitative or debilitative.

This is in accord with Oxford (1990) who suggests that anxiety can be experienced at two levels:

© At the deepest or Global level : Trait anxiety is more permanent predisposition to be anxious. Some people are generally anxious about many things.

© At a more momentary or Situational level : State anxiety is experienced in relation to some particular event or situation.

4. Motivation

Motivation is commonly thought of as an inner drive, impulse, emotion, or desire that moves one to a particular action (Brown, 1980: 118). In general human beings usually have innate needs or drives through their intensity are often conditioned by environment.

Six desires or needs of human beings that underlie the construct of motivation based on Ausubel (1968: 368 – 379):

1. The need for exploration

Ex: The mountain climber climbs the mountain to probe what they do not now before.

2. The need for manipulation

The need to operate the environment that we do not know before.

3. The need for activity

For movement and exercise, both physical and mental.

4. The need for stimulation

Ex: in doing something, we need the stimulation feeling, ideas, or even people to do.

5. The need for knowledge

In processing the exploration, manipulation, activity, and manipulation, we need knowledge to solve the problem, so we will get the best result.

6. The need for ego enhancement

After doing that’s all, we will be known and respected by others people

The six needs mentioned above are especially relevant to second language acquisition. Just, an example of a child who is motivated to read sees reading meets the needs, such as for exploration, stimulation and knowledge. On the contrary the child who is not motivated sees no way in which reading meets his needs. Thus, foreign language learner who is instrically or extrinsically meeting needs in learning the language will be positively motivated to learn.

Two types of motivation based on Robert Gardner and Wallace Lambert, which drive learners to learn foreign language:

© Integrative motivation : Motivation in which the learners wish to integrate themselves within the culture of the second language group. They wish to identify themselves with that society and become part of it.

Ex: In using language “how are you?” is too formal, the young is usually say “Whatz up”. So the young learner prefers use “Whatz up” than “How are you”.

© Instrumental motivation : Motivation to acquire foreign language for utilitarian or instrumental purposes such as furthering career, improving social status, meeting and educational requirement, and so forth. They have career or academic orientation.

v Studies on Motivation

Izzo and Lukman, investigated that instrumental motivation perform higher result, and leads more successful then does the Integrative one. Contrast with Izzo and Lukman, Clement and Kruidenier explain that the type of motivation and its strength are likely to be determined less by some generalized principle and more by who learn what and in what condition.

Some learner in some condition are more successful in learning if they are integratively motivated while others people in different context can take benefit from instrumental motivation.

Another dimension of motivation construct is:

© Intrinsic : the motivation which comes from the inside of the learner.

© Extrinsic : the motivation which comes from the outside of the learner.

Researches on motivation are more powerful than the extrinsic one. Burner (in Brown, 2000:165) claimed that one of the most effective way to help both children and adults think is to free them from rewards and punishment. Anyhow, successful language teaching should place ultimate efforts to intrinsically motivate students to succeed in their tasks what the teachers should do is to tap on to the learners’ natural inquisitiveness and then captive them in a process of a self confidence building, self determination, etc.

Source:

Fauziati, Endang. —-. Applied Linguistics. Surakarta: Muhammadiyah University Press.

Grammar is central to the teaching and learning of languages. It is also one of the more difficult aspects of language to teach well.

Many people, including language teachers, hear the word “grammar” and think of a fixed set of word forms and rules of usage. They associate “good” grammar with the prestige forms of the language, such as those used in writing and in formal oral presentations, and “bad” or “no” grammar with the language used in everyday conversation or used by speakers of nonprestige forms.

Goals and Techniques for Teaching Grammar

The goal of grammar instruction is to enable students to carry out their communication purposes. This goal has three implications:

1. Students need overt instruction that connects grammar points with larger communication contexts.
2. Students do not need to master every aspect of each grammar point, only those that are relevant to the immediate communication task.
3. Error correction is not always the instructor’s first responsibility.

Overt Grammar Instruction

Adult students appreciate and benefit from direct instruction that allows them to apply critical thinking skills to language learning. Instructors can take advantage of this by providing explanations that give students a descriptive understanding (declarative knowledge) of each point of grammar.

1. Teach the grammar point in the target language or the students’ first language or both. The goal is to facilitate understanding.
2. Present grammar points in written and oral ways to address the needs of students with different learning styles.
3. An important part of grammar instruction is providing examples. Teachers need to plan their examples carefully around two basic principles:
4. Be sure the examples are accurate and appropriate. They must present the language appropriately, be culturally appropriate for the setting in which they are used, and be to the point of the lesson.
5. Use the examples as teaching tools. Focus examples on a particular theme or topic so that students have more contact with specific information and vocabulary.

Assessing Grammar Proficiency

Authentic Assessment

To develop authentic assessment activities, begin with the types of tasks that students will actually need to do using the language. Assessment can then take the form of communicative drills and communicative activities like those used in the teaching process.

For example, the activity based on audiotapes of public address announcements (Developing Grammar Activities) can be converted into an assessment by having students respond orally or in writing to questions about a similar tape. In this type of assessment, the instructor uses a checklist or rubric to evaluate the student understands and/or use of grammar in context.

Mechanical Tests

Mechanical tests do serve one purpose: They motivate students to memorize. They can therefore serve as prompts to encourage memorization of irregular forms and vocabulary items. Because they test only memory capacity, not language ability, they are best used as quizzes and given relatively little weight in evaluating student performance and progress.

Using Textbook Grammar Activities

Textbooks usually provide one or more of the following three types of grammar exercises.

Mechanical drills: Each prompt has only one correct response, and students can complete the exercise without attending to meaning. For example: George waited for the bus this morning. He will wait for the bus tomorrow morning, too.

Meaningful drills: Each prompt has only one correct response, and students must attend to meaning to complete the exercise. For example: Where are George’s papers? They are in his notebook.

(Students must understand the meaning of the question in order to answer, but only one correct answer is possible because they all know where George’s papers are.)

Mechanical drills are the least useful because they bear little resemblance to real communication. They do not require students to learn anything; they only require parroting of a pattern or rule.

Meaningful drills can help students develop understanding of the workings of rules of grammar because they require students to make form-meaning correlations. Their resemblance to real communication is limited by the fact that they have only one correct answer.

Metode terjemahan atau translation methods adalah translation method yang banyak dipakai dalam linguist translation atau sworn translation bahasa asing. Prinsip yang dijadikan landasan dalam translations methods atau sworn translations ini adalah bahwa penguasaan bahasa asing yang dipelajari itu dapat dicapai dengan jalan latihan-latihan new translation dari bahasa yang diajarkan ke dalam bahasa ibu murid atau sebaliknya. Latihan-latihan linguist translations ini merupakan latihan-latihan utama dalam translations method ini.
Urutan bahan yang diberikan dalam pelajaran biasanya sama dengan urutan bahan yang diberikan dalam translation methods tata bahasa. Pilihan terhadap kata-kata yang diberikan didasarkan atas leks yang dipakai. Dalam setiap pelajaran diberikan aturan-aturan tata bahasanya, daftar kata-kata beserta new translationsnya dalam bahasa ibu murid dan latihan- latihan linguist translations dari dan ke bahasa yang diajarkan ini.
Metode terjemahan atau translation method terutama ditujukan untuk bahasa tertulis. bukan untuk bahasa lisan. Oleh karena itu. latihan-latihan untuk penguasaan bahasa lisan tidak terdapat dalam translations methods ini. Dengan demikian tujuan yang dapat dicapai dengan metode sworn translations ini hanya terbatas pada membaca, mengarang dan terjemahan, sedangkan kemampuan berbicara diabaikan.

Segi-segi yang menguntungkan dalam metode sworn translation ini adalah
1) Metode new translation ini praktis. dapat dipakai pada setiap jenis dan keadaan sekolah, tidak memerlukan banvak tenaga dan biaya. Guru yang mengajarkan translations method tidak perlu terlatih betul dalam linguist translation yang diajarkannya itu. Guru tak perlu menguasai betul ucapan tata bahasa dan vokabuler bahasa new translations yang diajarkannya itu. Tang perlu dikuasainya hanyalah teks yang akan dipergunakannya. Metode ini mudah dilaksanakan dan dapat dipakai dalam kelas yang jumlah muridnya besar Dalam pengajaran bahasa asing tampaknya metode ini banyak sekali terpakai, dan di Indonesia tampaknya metode ini masih banvak terpakai dewasa ini.
2) Dalam tempo yang cepat guru dapat menanamkan pengetahuan tentang kata-kata.

Hal ini dimungkinkan oleh pemakaian bahasa ibu murid dalam hampir setiap situasi pengajaran. Dengan jalan memberikan terjemahan. memberikan penjelasan-perjelasan dan batasan-batasan dalam bahasa ibu murid tentang bahan yang diajarkan itu dapatlah dihindarkan pemborosan waktu dan tenaga yang tak perlu
3) Pembelajar dapat segera menguasai arti kata-kata yang diajarkan dan kebingungan pembelajar terhadap arti kata-kata dan aturan-aturan tata bahasanya dapat dicegah. Oleh karena latihan membandingkan kedua bahasa itu. maka kesalahan-kesalahan pemakaian bahasa bagi pembelajar dapat dihindari.

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