Summary of Journal Article : he Problems in Professional Competence of Teachers in Teaching English Subject at Vocational High Schools by Syamsinar

Source : Syamsinar. 2015. The Problems in Professional Competence of Teachers in Teaching English Subject at  Vocational High Schools. ELT Worldwide. Vol. 2( 2)

The journal is generally focused on seeking the teachers problems dealing with professional competence in teaching English. The professional competence is one of the important competencies which must be improved and mastered by the English teacher of vocational high school especially toward mastering the subject matter of language aspects. Moreover , this researh is based on Regulation of the Minister of National Education of the Republic of Indonesia No. 16/2007. 

The research conducted by using descriptive qualitative method and applied the purposive sampling in choosing sample of research. It held at  SMK I Somba Opu and SMKN 2 Somba Opu in Gowa, South Sulawesi. The participants was the experienced and inexperienced teacher from each school and eight students. The data were collected by using three instruments: questionnaire, interview and observation checklist.

 

            The findings to this journal found several problem occure to English   teachers   in   professional   competence   in   teaching   English   at vocational high schools in Gowa. There are, lack of pronounciation, lack of vocabulary of special term for various departement, difficulty to communicate the lesson by using English, difficult to acieve the basic competence and learning objectives, lack of teaching planning, difficult to select appropriate materials, difficult to adapt the material relevan to student’s departement, difficult to update material from many sources, lack of teacher development activities, not using information and communication tehcnology for effective communication and lack of classroom management.

          In conclusion, the English teachers' competence especially in linguistic aspect, the major problem faced by the teachers is dealing with lack of the vocabulary of special terms. Then,  the professional competence  of  English  teacher  at  SMKN  1  Somba Opu  and  SMKN  2 Somba Opu were still low. Moreover, among the group of an experienced teacher, it was found that an experienced teacher of English who comes from another discipline is not the same with the real experienced teacher of English in terms the professional competence.

Summary of Journal Article : 1. Language and Ideology in Text on Globalization : A critical discourse Analysis by Mustafa Ar

Source : Ar, Mustafa. 2015. Language and Ideology in Text on Globalization ; A critical Discourse Analysis. 5 (2) www.ccsenet.org/ijel

 

The journal discussed how discourse and ideology are interconnected in texts on globalization, especially the global economy. Accorrding to the textual and sociological analysis , there are  two central interrelated ideologies in the discourse of globalization: new capitalism and neoliberalism. These political economic ideologies are construed linguistically through vocabulary and socially through universalization. Specifically, the main objective of this journal is to analyze how the discourse of globalization is constructed in Opinion-Editorials (signed newspaper articles) and political speeches and to identify what ideology is embedded in those texts.

The sources of texts come from two types of genres: newspaper OP-Ed articles and speeches on globalization, particularly global economy. The Op-Ed articles come from the Washington Post and China Daily. Moreover, The speeches for the U.S. data were chosen from the remarks of Ben Bernanke and Frederic Mishkin and the speeches by President George W. Bush and Barack Obama. The texts were collected by browsing the sites, using the keywords ‘globalization’, ‘global economy’, and ‘world economy’, appearing in the title or in texts. Six Op-Ed articles and eight speeches were selected. The texts altogether consist of 30.969 words. The study refers only to texts that have been made available online between 2005 and 2011.\

This journal found  that several word commonly shows in economic article and speech include : development, growth, international, reform, open, investment, capital, change/exchange, liberalization, labor, management, competition, technology, free+market/ free+trade and communication/telecommunication. Moreover, the most common keyword is “development”.  It used in a broad economic context, meaning the application of human, financial and natural resources to satisfy human needs and well-being.

In conclusion,   new capitalism is a form of capitalism that has attempted to dominate the power in the global economy, politic and other social aspects of human life.  Then, neoliberalism is ideology and  the political project that attempts to achieve the full development of new  economies. Neoliberalist sees globalization as an inexorable economic logic in the contemporary capitalist society.  In short, globalization is real; however, people need to be aware of both its discursive and material processes

Summary of TedTalk Video (The enchanting music in a Sign Language by Christine Sun Kim)

        Christine Sun Kim was born in deaf. However it doesn’t mean she cannot play the music. Interestingly, she is an American sound artist. Here the summary of her explanation of the sound in sign language.

                In history of American Sign Language, French language was brought to America during the early 1800s, and time went by mixed with local signs, it envolved into the language we know today as ASL. So it has history of about 200 years.

 Kim has draw of ‘p’ tree as her current definition of silence which demonstrate of many level of sound until the lowest sound ever, and probably we’ll never reach complete silence.  It was a very obscured sound. She was born deaf, and  was taught to believe that sound was not part of her life. She believe it to be true. But now, she realize that sound is on her mind every day. As a deaf person living in a world of sound, it’s as if she was living in a foreign country, blindly following its rules, customs, behaviors and norms without ever questioning them.

          So how Kim understand sound? Kim watch how people behave and respond to sound. The people are like her loudspeakers, and amplify sound. She  learn and mirror that behavior. At the same time, Kim have learned that she create sound, and have seen how people respond to her. All of these things she term “sound etiquette”. Kim thinks about some etiquette more than average person does.  She is a yper-vigiliant around sound and always waiting in eager nervous anticipation around sound, about what’s to come next. 

In deaf culture, movement is equivalent to sound. In the year 2008, Kim had the opportunity to travel Berlin and Germany for artist residency. However, she had been working as a painter. She visited different museums and gallery spaces, and she noticed there was no visual art there where at that time, sound was trending. It struck her because everything was audiotory. Now sound has come into her art territory. Kim actually know sound very well. Sound doesn’t have to be something just experienced through the ears. It could be felt actually, or experience as a visual or even as an idea. 

So Kim decided to reclaim ownership of sound and put it into her art practice. Then, everything that she had been taught regarding sound and decided to do away with un learn. She started creating a new body of work. Interestingly, the art community give her support and attetion when she presented her work to them.

There’s a massive culture around spoken language. And just because she don’t use her literal voice to communicate, in society eyes, it’s as if  she don’t have a voice at all. So Kim need to work with individuals who can support her as an equal and become her voice.  And that way, She is  able to maintain relevancy in society today. So at school, at work and insitutions, Kim work with many different ASL intrepreters. And their voice become her  voice and identity. They help her to be heard. And their voices hold value and currency.  So, she didn’t continue this practice, she feels that she could just fade off into oblivion and not maintain any form of social currency. So with sound as her  new art medium, she dwelved into the world of music.

Summary of TedTalk Video : Linguistic of Genius Babies by Patricia Kuhl

Patricia Kuhl and her colleagues have exposed babies to different sounds and „rewarded“ them (they are allowed to watch a cute teddy bear drumming on a plastic drum), if they have recognised and turned their head to a new sound. At the age of about 6-8 months, the babies could recognise all the sounds of all languages perfectly. Already at the age of 10-12 months they had “zeroed in” on their own language and were only able to distinguish the sounds of that language, but no more those of other languages.

For example, when Japanese babies were examined in comparison to American babies, they were on the same level with how well they could distinguish the English sounds r and l at the age of 6-8 months. After 10-12 months, the American babies had zeroed in on the r and l sounds and could distinguish them better than before. However, the Japanese babies had zeroed in on Japanese, in which language these sounds do not occur in the same form, and were significantly worse at distinguishing the r and l sounds.

As a subsequent attempt, Kuhl and her colleagues placed American babies, in the critical period between six and ten months, in the laboratory with a Mandarin native speaker who spoke and read to them for 12 sessions. Afterwards these babies were just as good at distinguishing two Mandarin sounds as Taiwanese babies that had been exposed to the language for 10 months.

Kuhl describes the babies as little statisticians who „zero in” on sounds that are often presented to them. If they are exposed to Mandarin sounds they learn to distinguish them just as well. Fascinatingly, the sounds have to be presented to the babies by people. When the babies only heard the sounds on the television or over the radio for 12 sessions, there was no improvement of the recognition of Mandarin sounds at all.

Summary of TedTalk Video (How to learn from mistake by Diana Laufenberg)

Diana Laufenberg is a teacher who shares a few things she’s learned about how most school’s teach and how most children learn. In the 1930’s, when Diana’s grandmother was in gradeschool, the purpose of going to class was to get information.  Students got all of their information from teachers and stored it all in their brains. When Diana was in school, information became more readily accessible in the form of encyclopedia’s and textbooks.

At the same time the internet became popular, she started teaching in Kansas. After the first year of teaching, she decided she needed to change her approach to teaching. Instead of she posed a challenge to her students: put on an election for your own community. They took ownership of the challenge, exceeded all expectations, and were able to learn while they created something useful and impactful.

 As her career progressed she was also witness to how meaningful and authentic students were when they were given a chance to speak freely. The final point she makes is about the culture of failure that exists in school. Students are taught that there is one right answer, a way of thinking abetted by the multiple choice tests at the front of academic assessment. Diana says it doesn’t make sense to tell kids to never be wrong when so much can be learned from failure. Kids need to be allowed to fail, process, and learn from their experiences in school.