Papers by Paulus Widiatmoko
SEED Journal, 2019
Teacher cognition has been known as what teachers think, know, and believe. Its origin could be t... more Teacher cognition has been known as what teachers think, know, and believe. Its origin could be traced back to the development of Psychology highlighted complex relationship between what people do, what they know, and what they believe. Educational researchers believe that in teaching, teachers' mental lives play a role in their instructional choices. This study reports a case of EFL English teachers' cognition towards the use of ICT to facilitate language skill practice. Attitudes on the use of ICT by thirty eight English teacher participants of a training program on the use of cloud-based apps were assessed resulting in a higher perceived level of affective factors and usefulness of technology products than the other two; their perceived control on their use and their behavioural intention to explore them. Further open-ended assessment and interview revealed familiarity with various technology products for language teaching as beginner users as the biggest percentages. Results of this assessment provided useful information for ICT training conducts suggesting effective methods and techniques of material delivery and assistance. Moreover, the findings revealed choices of approach and strategies to enhance ICT professional development covering both internal and external factors are related with their job responsibilities and nature.
As job competition is getting more challenging, higher education institutions need to cater for t... more As job competition is getting more challenging, higher education institutions need to cater for their students' career development. This paper discusses a case of an elective course preparing Indonesian students majoring in Information Technology (IT) hone their language and life skills to initiate their career steps. Focusing on writing skill to prepare application documents and oral competence to perform job interviews, this course applies principles of task based language teaching (TBLT) facilitated by strategy training of job hunting. The scaffolding activities cover classroom tasks dealing with life skills, namely soft-skill inventory, self potential identification, and examination of career interests. The course conduct is facilitated by the university e-class management system, a website containing job-interview videos, and web-based tools of document sharing. As the course output, learners are required to write a resume and a cover letter on their interest of job postings to be simulated in an interview session. A seminar of winning job competition by HRD managers and a short workshop by guest trainers discussing hands-on strategies to perform well in the selection process enrich the curricular activities. A model of ESP pedagogy to facilitate EFL students' initial career development is the ultimate objective of this course. INTRODUCTION ESP (English for Specific Purposes) pedagogy addresses the relevance between specific focus of language training and the communication purposes they perform in their job. In other words, the language competence resulted from classroom learning and practice should be pertinently applied into practice when they work. Dudley-Evans and St John (1998) point out that one of the main concerns of ESP deals with preparing learners to communicate effectively in the tasks prescribed by their study or work situation. Accordingly, Basturkmen (2010:8) states that in an ESP situation, it is understood that " learners would want to achieve 'real world' objectives, the ones requiring specific linguistic competencies ". Aligned with language programs to facilitate professional purposes, this study focuses specific needs of preparing students for job recruitment process. Mainly it addresses the needs of writing application documents and performing well in job interview sessions. Suggesting task based of language teaching (TBLT) as the framework, this paper reports the classroom tasks and elaboration of ICT to facilitate the learning process.
ESP classes are designed to teach language and communication skills that language learners need o... more ESP classes are designed to teach language and communication skills that language learners need or will need in their disciplines or professions . Applied to Medical English, these include oral communication with foreign patients during Medical examination in which aspects of language functions, Medical content, and cross-cultural appropriateness are elaborated. In this study classical sessions of practicing language functions for 48 Medical students are facilitated by English teachers and doctors. Subsequently, individual skill-lab sessions encouraging a real-like practice are administered, each assisted by a native speaker as an acting patient and a resource for cultural learning, a doctor in dealing with the Medical procedures, and an English teacher for coping with difficulties in the target language skill. Another skill-lab class reviewing these three stages ends the sessions. Students and collaborators" attitudes are assessed by means of questionnaires and interviews resulting in positive admittance of relevance between the course and professional needs specifically in relation with objectives, material selections, teaching methods. Other benefits and suggestions for the program development are proposed. The collaborative works and teaching methods in this study supposedly provide a model of ESP teaching practice to facilitate relevance between classroom pedagogy to students" future professional needs.
UAD TEFL International Conference 2014
This study discusses a case of material development for a compulsory, non-credited, pre-ESP matri... more This study discusses a case of material development for a compulsory, non-credited, pre-ESP matriculation program for EFL college learners. Focusing on students' speaking competence, this program has been designed to elaborate the practice of four language skills. However, it was observed that some instructors did not appear to demonstrate comprehensive understanding of integrated teaching. Four strands of a language lesson proposed by Nation (1996) were then adopted as the framework of material design in which activities for each session are assigned into language input, language focus, language output, and fluency practice. Receptive skills such as reading and listening are assigned as language input to provide contextual and meaningful samples of grammar, functions and vocabularies. To help students notice these linguistic features, language focus activity facilitating accuracy practice is subsequently presented. Being exposed to the language samples and their accurate use, learners are expected to be more prepared for speaking and writing tasks in language output and fluency practice. Collaborating with the instructors, a module of twenty four units with six progress tests and a final test was designed. Trying out the material, the instructors acknowledged that it offered more systematic presentation of tasks from preparing students for the lessons to language production and fluency practice. Moreover, it was admitted that to a great extent integrated teaching of language skills has been facilitated in this material.
LLTC Conference 2014
The development of ICT has inevitably brought changes in many aspects of language learning and te... more The development of ICT has inevitably brought changes in many aspects of language learning and teaching. One of the them deals with easier access to various types of multimedia material such as streaming videos, DVD, and other formats providing authentic or non-authentic language samples. Supported by compatible software, hardware, and media literacy, teachers nowadays can easily bring the benefits of these materials in their classes. Adopting videos for language skill practice, teachers certainly need to consider effective teaching techniques to apply. This study, therefore, suggests techniques to use videos as language input for EFL speaking classes. First of all, visual, verbal, and contextual clues in the media make up rich modality of learning that could facilitate activation of students' background knowledge during pre-activity. Furthermore, as an input prior to the skill production, language elements such as grammar, language functions, or vocabularies could be emphasized for the students to notice. Related to this idea, in his theory of noticing hypothesis states that input does not become intake for language learning unless it is noticed. Moreover, this study also elaborates video presentation as a lead-in or pre activity for more engaging oral language production.
JETA Conference 2014
This study offers a discussion on aspects of language input-and-output in developing classroom ma... more This study offers a discussion on aspects of language input-and-output in developing classroom material for a compulsory, non-credited, matriculation classes called ICE (Introduction to College English). Based on an evaluation of the previous material, elaborations of receptive (listening and reading) as language input and productive language skills (speaking and writing) as language output are chosen as the foundation of the revised one. Developing students' speaking skill as the focused language output is facilitated by ability to formulate written organization of ideas to enhance its fluency. Moreover, language input provides contextual samples of language focus in forms of grammar, function, or vocabularies the students need to notice for later productive skill practice. The result of this study is a module for twenty four meetings divided into six groups of topics assessed by six progress tests and a final test.
60th TEFLIN International Conference, Aug 27, 2013
The development of information and communication technology (ICT) has brought choices of teachin... more The development of information and communication technology (ICT) has brought choices of teaching material and delivery techniques. The availability of supporting facilities is the fundamental requirement. The next one deals with the teachers’ preparedness, which is related to their attitude towards the technology and the required technical skills to use it. The foreign Language Training Center of Universitas Kristen Duta Wacana has provided every class with audio-video facilities connected to the internet; therefore, this study discusses an attempt to facilitate the teachers’ familiarity, utilization, and elaboration of those multimedia supports in their teaching practices. To begin, a questionnaire was distributed to elicit their attitudes towards video material for teaching English. This could be further categorized into its usefulness, necessities prior to its application, and potential problems. It was found out that they admitted positive usefulness of video material and stated some technical problems as its potential barriers. A need for training of video material preparation was also identified. A training program was then administered to familiarize the teachers with the hardware and software for video material download, preparation and presentation. As the next step in encouraging the integration of video material in their lessons, Paul Nation’s four strands theory (2007) and pre-whilst-post watching stages were adopted to construct classroom activity plans.
1st ELC Conferene UNY Yogyakarta, May 2013
This study suggests the inclusion of video material in four main types of activities that make up... more This study suggests the inclusion of video material in four main types of activities that make up a language course. As it is proposed by Paul Nation (1996), four stages that should be allotted roughly equal amounts of time are meaning focused input, meaning focused output, language focused learning, and fluency practice. Video material considering its rich entities to facilitate different modality of learning has the potential to be applied in all of the four stages. As a source of input, video provides visual and auditory clues to complement language samples in context in which later on help them to produce the language (language output). As a means for language focus activity, video material could be replayed for the students to notice the language use in the context. The video could also be edited to emphasize and practice the focused language element or grammar. Whereas, for the sake of language fluency practice, video material provides various choices of activities leading to fluent use of the language element or grammar in appropriate communication needs. In this paper, samples of language tasks denoting the application of video material in those steps are presented.
Proceeding at The International English Applied Linguistics Seminar and Workshop, Feb 26, 2013
This study offers a discussion of accommodating students’ multiple intelligences (MI) in planning... more This study offers a discussion of accommodating students’ multiple intelligences (MI) in planning a lesson. The underlying idea is on the consideration that in delivering a lesson, teachers deal with students’ complexities, one of which their MI. Howard Gardner (1996) puts intelligence as the potential for finding or creating solutions for problems, which involves gathering new knowledge. Thus, by experiencing various tasks exposing different application of MI in the lesson, students are more likely to experience more opportunities to maximize their learning potentials. Several steps to accomplish this purpose were firstly identifying students’ MI. A set of test based on Howard Gardner model of MI was distributed to sixteen students of level 3 English Preparatory Program at Duta Wacana Christian University, Yogyakarta. Based on the test results, then the language tasks were assigned into their corresponding MI. To comprehensively elaborate elements of the lesson plan, it was necessary to describe each task in terms of purpose, material, steps, and time. Finally, some recommendations and samples of language tasks accommodating multiple intelligences are presented.
TEFLIN 2011 Conference
Videos have been known as excellent materials to enhance language learning. However, delivering v... more Videos have been known as excellent materials to enhance language learning. However, delivering video material as it is often does not promote students’ active participation during language tasks. This paper discusses techniques of editing and delivering video material to help teachers engage the students, which in turn facilitates their language learning. Principles of multimedia inclusion into classroom activities by Mayer, 2001 were taken as the framework of this study. First, students learn better from words and pictures than from words alone (multimedia principle). Second, students learn better when corresponding words and pictures are presented near rather than far from each other on the page or screen (spatial contiguity principle). Third, students learn better when corresponding words and pictures are presented simultaneously rather than successively (temporal contiguity principle). Finally, students learn better when extraneous words, pictures, and sounds are excluded rather than included (coherence principle). The edited videos were then put into trial in an EFL tutorial class as pre-activities before tasks, as a source of language input for the students to facilitate their language productions, as a media of practicing language elements, and as post learning activities. From the evaluation, students admitted that the video material helped them practice listening comprehension (mean 3.3), vocabulary (mean 2.7) and grammar (mean 2.8). Furthermore, the videos provided visual illustrations for the students to produce the language (mean 3.22) and they found the lesson more entertaining (mean 3.5).
A Proceeding at Systemic Functional Linguistics: "Applied" and Multiculturalism, Dec 2011
A sample of 129 university students enrolled in Introduction to College English (ICE), a compulso... more A sample of 129 university students enrolled in Introduction to College English (ICE), a compulsory non-credited English tutorial program, was surveyed to obtain answers to the following questions: (1) What are their goals for learning English? (2) What are their attitudes toward the program? (3) What variables are positively correlated and influence the students’ positive attitudes towards the program? The statistical analysis indicated that the students mostly based their desire to learn English within these five groups; personal interest, future career, academic life, social networking, and passing a compulsory subject. The highest number of student respondents wanted to learn English in order to increase their career marketability (mean: 3.9343), as well as to improve their academic opportunities (mean: 3.7891). In regard to the efficacy of the program, it was determined that most of the respondents admitted a positive attitude towards the program (mean: 4.2272). A Pearson correlation test identified four variables positively correlated with the students’ positive attitudes towards the program. They were the students’ positive motivation (coefficient: 0.566), their allocated time to study English (coefficient: 0.244**), their positive attitude towards teaching methods (coefficient: 0.707**) and their understanding of the objectives and rules of the program (coefficient: 0.662**). Implications of the research result towards teachers’ role and classroom teaching practices would be elaborated
Proceeding at Teaching English to Young Learners (TEYL)
Jurnal Sastra Inggris Universitas Kristen Maranatha Bandung, Feb 2008
Talks by Paulus Widiatmoko
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Papers by Paulus Widiatmoko
Talks by Paulus Widiatmoko