language literacy | Islamic University of North Sumatra (UISU), Medan (original) (raw)

Papers by language literacy

This study is aimed at analysing how non-married couples plan language planning for their daily c... more This study is aimed at analysing how non-married couples plan language planning for their daily communication and language management for their future children when they are married. The researcher used descriptive qualitative methods. In qualitative research, data are in the form of words, schemes, and images. The population of this study is all non-married couples arround Langsa as many as 50 couples. Data were collected using questionnaires for non-married couples. The result of the research shows that the couples have many good planning to plan the language for them and their future children. Besides, there are still many who want to use local language. Non-married couples in Langsa city prefer Indonesian language as the mother tongue for their children so that the children will be able to easily communicate with people arround in the future. As a national language, Indonesia language should be taught from the very early stage of a child.

This research is aimed at analysing the teenagers' cultural values towards their vernacular and I... more This research is aimed at analysing the teenagers' cultural values towards their vernacular and Indonesian languages. The populations of this research are teenagers around Langsa, especially in old sub district of Langsa named Meurandeh village. They are boys and girls with the age range from 12 to 21 years. The data were collected using questionnaires. The research result shows that teenagers' love and appreciation to their vernacular language have been gradually fading because their parents rarely use the vernacular language and even many have not used it in their home. Only few of them who still consider that it is important to keep their identity. The number of the teenagers who use it as their means of communication with one another in their area is also very low. It is also shown that they do not significantly play a role in preserving the cultures of the region since the preservation is mainly done by the old. It is clear that if the old do not preserve the culture of the region, the culture may gradually vanish. Many of the teenagers tend to use Indonesian language rather than their vernacular language in their daily communication.

The study deals with language ideology linked with gender categories and the research is conducte... more The study deals with language ideology linked with gender categories and the research is conducted by using descriptive qualitative method (Cresswell, 2008). Language ideology and gender categories are closely related. Language ideologies are thus best understood as beliefs, feelings, and conceptions about language that are socially shared and relate language and society in a dialectical fashion (Voloshino, 2006). The paper highlights the influence of the society and the area in which the language is communicated as one of the main contributors to the speech differences between men and women, which later on contribute to their social differences. In other words, the differences or similarities, if existing, between male and female speech characteristics will be presented in the paper, taking into consideration the attitude of speakers and their communication habits and characteristics.Therefore, the research shows that ideology may not be divorced from the material reality of the sign and the sign may not be divorced from the concrete forms of social intercourse. From the data, it is seen that fifteen respondents, that is 90% states that there are differences while women and men talking, especially differences in gesture and intonation. This means that language only exists in actual interaction; but language ideologies give it a life outside of that interaction and link it to other interactions. Language only exists in interaction in context, but language ideologies including the language ideologies of professional linguists abstract from interactions in context and thus open language to social manipulation.

This study deals with " The Shift of Acehnese Language in Pulau Kampai Community ". The aims of t... more This study deals with " The Shift of Acehnese Language in Pulau Kampai Community ". The aims of this research are: (1) to obtain the reasons of language shifting that has happened in Pulau Kampai, and (2) to find out what factors that caused shifting of Acehnese language in Pulau Kampai. This research used descriptive qualitative method. The subject of research is the second generation of Acehnese community in Pulau Kampai. The researcher found that the shifting pattern of Acehnese language among Acehnese community in Pulau Kampai is bilingual subordinate patterns that exist in the second stage. The Acehnese community (the second generation) still uses Acehnese language predominantly but there are some new words that come from other languages that are used to replace some words in Acehnese. The shifting of Acehnese language happened due to four interconnected, i.e. (1). Migration (Acehnese community in Pulau Kampai is newcomers from the other areas: from Beurenuen, Sigli, Tamiang and Aceh Timur, (2). Number of the speakers (Acehnese community is minority community, (3) Demography, (Location of new area), and (4) Economic factor (a condition that requires Acehnese people to meet or join other workers) causing language shift.

This paper is part of a study which addresses the reliability of Foreign Language Anxiety Scale (... more This paper is part of a study which addresses the reliability of Foreign Language Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) in Malay version. Researchers find that the reliability of an instrument is closely associated with its validity, and an instrument cannot be valid unless it is reliable. However, the reliability of an instrument does not depend on its validity. Therefore, this paper investigates the reliability of the instrument called FLCAS in Malay version. FLCAS is widely used in collecting data relating to language anxiety and perhaps the most reliable and comprehensive tool in language anxiety. This paper objectively measures the reliability of FLCAS by using Cronbach's Alpha, the most widely used objective measure of reliability. The sampled population involved 302 respondents from the government secondary schools in Putrajaya Federal Territory, Malaysia. The items had been translated into the Malay language and back translated into English. Results show that the internal consistency of Crobanch's Alpha 0.90. It can be concluded that FLCAS in Malay version is an appropriate instrument to measure the levels of language anxiety among the Malaysian secondary school students who learn English as a second language.

This study focuses on Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) covering formal, non... more This study focuses on Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) covering formal, non-formal and informal learning preparing young people with the knowledge and skills required in the world of work. English has become an important language in Malaysian higher learning institutions used as a medium of interaction and for other educational purposes. For this study, the researcher would like to highlight the impacts of blended learning on students' writing performance. This is due to the concerns regarding students' difficulty in English writing. The study used experimental research design to conduct the study that involved 60 students from semester 1 who took Communicative English 1. The study has been conducted on two groups, which were experimental and control group. The students had to answer the questionnaire regarding teacher centred approach (control group) and blended learning approach (experimental group). Students also do writing test to be correlated with the result from questionnaire of SPSS version 23 using Kendall's correlation as a tool to analyse the result. The result shows that blended learning has a positive effect to most of students in experimental group.

The research is concerned with the local wisdom of Kembar Mayang in wedding tradition of Jawa eth... more The research is concerned with the local wisdom of Kembar Mayang in wedding tradition of Jawa ethnic. Local wisdom can be in the forms of knowledge, skills and policies used for the welfare of the peoples concerned. Tied to this, Kembar Mayang, about a meter in height, has been known as a pair of symbolic ornaments made of janur or coconut leaf, trunks of banana tree, fruits and flowers of five colors and usually presented in the wedding tradition of Jawa ethnic. The research is conducted by means of descriptive qualitative method and supported by phenomenological approach. Data collection technique and procedures cover observation, interview, questionnaire and documentation with 20 key informants consisting of community leader, scholars, and community members. The results show that there are four points of local wisdom in Kembar Mayang: Maintaining Family Honour, termed keris-kerisan in the form of dagger-shaped webbing; Mutual Protection, termed payung-payungan in the form of umbrella-shaped webbing; Fidelity, termed manuk-manukan in the form of bird-shaped webbing; Tenacity and Sacrifice, termed walang-walangan, in the form of praying mantis-shaped webbing. Kembar Mayang as a cultural heritage is to be preserved to be used as a guideline in social life.

This paper presents part of a study that investigates the washback effect of a School-Based Oral ... more This paper presents part of a study that investigates the washback effect of a School-Based Oral Evaluation (SBOE) performance from the teachers' perceptions. It also investigates the causal relationship between students who have passed in the school-based oral evaluation (SBOE) with fear of negative evaluation. The participants are 302 of form four students and four English teachers from the Putrajaya Federal Territory government secondary schools in Malaysia. It is a mixed-method study in which the data were collected in sequential, analysed separately, and then explained. The quantitative data were collected by using FLCAS, the School-Based Oral Evaluation (SBOE) results and the qualitative data were collected from the semi-structured interviews with the English teachers and guidelines on SBOE from the Ministry of Education Malaysia. The quantitative method used descriptive statistical analysis, whereas the qualitative method used content analysis. Students' result in the mid-term examination 2017 shown that they had scored high marks in the SBOE. The quantitative results revealed that the students had experienced low mean level of fear of negative evaluation. The teachers reported that students had shown positive attitude during the SBOE and English class interaction. They were focused, confident, responsive and not panic. There is a positive washback effect of SBOE on the students' result. High results in SBOE affected the mean level of fear of negative evaluation. The partial eta-squared showed the value of 0.106 which is considered high. This study suggests two broad future tasks. The first task involves the development of national curriculum in English language which is dependent upon oral English language. The second task focuses on the development of English language training and skills for the English teachers.

Self-confidence is the core point of this research. Self confidence is a feeling that makes peopl... more Self-confidence is the core point of this research. Self confidence is a feeling that makes people think that they will do better after their efforts, a feeling that they can know more over time, a feeling that they can change themselves to adapt to the environment.There are three points of discussion under the topic. The first is self-confidence in facing family problem. There is no family without a problem and every single problem could be settled by means of self-confidence. This is followed by self-confidence in love as the second point. Love is a universal nuance that comes to everybody's uplifting or crushing the person concerned and again by self-confidence love becomes a ladder to betterment in life. The third is self confidence in self-identity. A man will never be considered a man unless he has self-identity, which may appear in various forms, one of which is social standing. The main theory of self-confidence in taken from Brown stating that confidence is the belief that one will perform in a correct proper effective way. This research is conducted with descriptive qualitative method proposed by Krathwohl (1998), exploring social issues to be an epitome of guidelines. The results show that the protagonist has a strong self-confidence in facing family problem, love and self-identity. He faces a lot of problems in his family and this happens because he is an adopted child. However, through his strong self-confidence he could settle all the obstacles nicely and finally his self-confidence gives comfort to him.

The focus of the study goes to the protagonist " s heroism in making his country a peaceful state... more The focus of the study goes to the protagonist " s heroism in making his country a peaceful state. There always seems to be a hero in everyone " s life; everyone has one, and many act as one. A. hero is simply a man admired for his achievements and noble qualities. Despite the accuracy of any dictionary, a hero can be defined according to the mind of the beholder. Heroes have been constructed in many fictional literary works and myths, as well as in reality. This research is conducted by means of descriptive qualitative method proposed by Krathwohl (2010), and the theory of heroism applied is the one proposed by Kohen (2010). There are three forms of heroism showed by Kadji, the protagonist of the novel: courage, sacrifice and suffering. Kadji is still young but urged by his courage, he is ready to take an official assignment to finish the enemy of his state, named Shamad. The study is conducted by applying descriptive qualitative method with purposes of describing, explaining and validating things related to the data taken from the novel. From the research result it is seen that Kadji in quest of the enemy experiences sacrifice and suffering but motored by his courage all is settled down to the upmost outcome. Kadji is a real patriot for his state and his clans as he has shown a spirit of heroism in all his steps. Kadji has proved himself to be a hero. It is in line with what Kohen (2010) claims that heroes are people who transform compassion or a personal virtue into heroic action or a civic virtue. He has proved so much to his forefathers of his fatherland that they do not tolerate traitors.

The study is centered on marital disharmony reflected from the protagonist, Elaine Conti, in runn... more The study is centered on marital disharmony reflected from the protagonist, Elaine Conti, in running her family life. Marital disharmony can occur if the spouses do not spend sufficient time together or if they do not have common interests. Elaine Conti is married to a famous actor of Hollywood, Ross Conti, but their marriage is not running smoothly as Elaine cannot put herself in a proper place of a good wife. The analysis shows that any relationship is hard and any relationship can lead to a range of arguments and difficulties. However when it comes to marriage all of these difficulties are exacerbated, which is a shame because the steaks are also exacerbated. A break up means potentially losing home, meaning legal and financial difficulties and it may mean putting the rest of the family and particularly any children through a lot of difficulties. This is seen that Elaine, the protagonist, cannot play her role as a good wife in the family caused by her extravagant lifestyle, committing adultery and insatiable passion. The method used here is Descriptive Qualitative proposed by Koul (1990) and the results show that her attitudes in running a marriage life have caused a marital disharmony, in line with the main theory referred to as the base of the study proposed by Hendrix stating that extravagance, adultery and insatiable passions are the main causing factors to marital disharmony.

If Tomorrow Comes, a novel written by Sydney Sheldon, is a story of intrigue and revenge. Tracy W... more If Tomorrow Comes, a novel written by Sydney Sheldon, is a story of intrigue and revenge. Tracy Whitney is a young, beautiful and intelligent woman and about to marry a wealth man until, suddenly, she is betrayed, framed by a ruthless Mafia gang, and then abandoned by the man she loves. Only her ingenuity saves her and helps her fight back. The significant theme of the novel is suffering, which is the focus of the study with two major points of discussion: the causes and the effects of suffering, subdivided into avarice and loss of trust as a part of the first major point and courage, revenge and hypocrisy as the second major one. The study is conducted with descriptive qualitative method proposed by Dawson (2004) pointing out that qualitative descriptive research is appropriately used to analyze social phenomena. The result shows that the protagonist, Tracy Whitney, faces a lot of suffering from the beginning of the story; that is from the tragic of her mother's death till she is out of jail. All the sufferings are triggered by avarice of a small group of bandits of white collars having a great personal interest who stand against Tracy and loss of trust from her fiancé, the one whom she expects to be with her in time of difficulty. Owing to her sufferings, Tracy becomes strong mentally but she also turns to be revengeful woman of significant hypocrisy.

This study is about heroism in the novel The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling. There are three poin... more This study is about heroism in the novel The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling. There are three points of discussion under this title: giving protection, defending rights and gratitude. Defending rights is associated with heroic deeds. A hero is a random citizen that rises to an occasion and performs an action of superhero proportions. Gratitude implies thankfulness or an appreciation of benefits conferred together with a desire, when practicable, to return those benefits. Defending rights is tied to human rights which are universally applicable to one and all. These are the significant components of heroism. One of the relevant and outstanding modern theories of heroism applied here is proposed by Gibbon (2009) stating that hero is just an average man who fights to solve a common problem in today's society. The study is conducted with Descriptive Qualitative Method proposed by Haughman (2009) in which he states that Qualitative research is a form of social inquiry that focuses on the way people interpret and make sense of their experiences and the world in which they live. Kipling leads children down the jungle path into adventures beyond their day to day imagining and along the way he shows the value of ‗doing for yourself', of 'learning who to trust'. The result shows that heroism is highlighted through the major characters and the conclusive points are some of the significant characters such as Mowgli, Father Wolf, Mother Wolf, Hathi, and Bagheera have done heroic deeds. Their heroism is presented in the forms of giving protection, defending rights and gratitude.

The research is about the protagonist " s multi-potentiality with three points of analysis: multi... more The research is about the protagonist " s multi-potentiality with three points of analysis: multi-potentiality in career, in self-discipline and making friend. Multi-potentiality exists when strong genetics and a desire to practice come together to create superior ability. Discipline means order or code of behaviour. Self-discipline refers to the ability to control one " s own feeling is very important. Self-Discipline leads to overcome one " s own weaknesses. Life without Self-discipline is no life. There are many valuable things in life, but friendship may be one of the most important. To live life without the experience of friendship is life without living. Human interaction is a necessity to survival, but developed friendships are essential to the successful well being of anyone. True friendship is a feeling of love, sharing and caring. The theory of multi-potentiality is proposed by Timoty (2008) stating that from knowledge and skills comes multi-potentiality, a set of personal characteristics that enhance one " s ability to achieve expertise in an accelerated manner. These traits allow one to improve at quicker rates than others in their field that are at the same level of expertise. Descriptive qualitative method by Bickman (2010) is applied to analyze all the data concerning multi-potentiality and conducted to demonstrate association or relationships between things in the world around us in this matter, significant events in the novel and how all the events are molded into a story. The result shows that the protagonist has multi-potentiality in the forms of ability in career, self-discipline and making friends.

The study has three points of discussion. The first deals with the rights of woman in obtaining p... more The study has three points of discussion. The first deals with the rights of woman in obtaining property especially the one inherited from parents. The second does with the roles of women in the family. Once women married, their property rights are governed by English common law, legally absorbed by their husbands. Furthermore, married women could not make wills or dispose of any property without their husbands' consent. The third deals with the roles of women in society. A woman is surely forbidden to do any type of job or business. All is done by man. The main theory concerning property rights of women is proposed by Shanley (2000) who states that from the legal 'unity' of the husband and wife, it follows that a married woman could not sue or be sued unless her husband is also a party to the suit, could not sign contracts unless her husband joins her. And for the research method, the Descriptive Qualitative Approach proposed by Bogdan and Biklen (1992) is applied, concerning the opinions, experiences and feeling of individuals producing subjective data. It elaborates social phenomena as they occur naturally. The finding shows that all the female characters in the novel get into the problems of property rights, standings in family as well as in the society.