An Essay of a Weekly Report Presentation on October 13th, 2015

WEEKLY REPORT PRESENTATION

 

An Essay of a Weekly Report Presentation on October 13^th, 2015

Submitted as the Requirement to Fulfil an Assignment of

English as Foreign Language Methodology Course

Under the Direction of Prof. Dr. Hj. Nenden Sri Lengkanawati, M. Pd

 

Written by:

Rezki Firdaus

1407335

 

ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT

SCHOOL OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES

INDONESIA UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION

2015

This written is a weekly report presentation on Managing the Classroom, How to Plan a Lesson, Choosing and Using Materials and Commercial and Authentic Materials: Advantages & Disadvantages and Problems Teachers Face material in Harmer’s book in 2007b, Brown’s book in 2001 and Gebhard’s book in 2000. It was written to fulfil the EFL Methodology assessment. In writing this weekly report presentation on October 12^th, 2015, the writer would recall all of the fourth reading report presentation, question – answer, and give some comment as part of it. This weekly report presentation presented by Sinta Dewi as the first presenter, Nurfitri Habibi as the second presenter, Luthfiyatun Toyyibah as the third presenter and Hardiansyah as the last presenter.

1.    Report Summary of the Presentation

a.    First Presenter (Sinta Dewi); Managing the Classroom

Managing the classroom is important. Because, to achieve a successful and meaningful language teaching also supported by managing the classroom. By managing the classroom will affect to the students’ behaviour and classroom atmosphere. Based on what is the presenter present about Managing the Classroom, there are ninth variables should be mentioned in managing the classroom, such as: Teacher in the classroom, voice and body language, talks to the students, instruction, student talk and teacher talk, the use of L1, lesson stages, seating arrangements, and students grouping.

Let’s start with the teacher in the classroom. According to Harmer (2007), teacher in should aware with a physical presence in the classroom. It means that there are 4 aspects that were mention of him. First, Proximity. Proximity means that teachers have to be conscious how close they should be for their students. If the teacher to close with them, it will make them uncomfortable or considered cold and unfriendly. Next, Appropriacy. Appropriation here concern with the teachers’ decision on how close they should be with the student properly and how they should sit and stand in the classroom. Then, movement. Movement of the teachers during teaching and learning in order to keep the student’s interest and mood. Standing motionless in one place may bore students and move around constantly may create exhaustion and obstruct student’s focus. And the last, awareness. Teachers have to own awareness in assessing student’s progress on what has been learnt. Teachers also need to evaluate themselves so that they will gauge what should be improved and developed on maximizing teaching and learning.

Moreover, Fowler and Saraph (2010) has a different opinion how to manage the classroom. They divided it into 3 aspects, such as:  respectful, polite and motivating as a good rapport. It’s also supported by Osakwe (2014) who also claims that it is imperative for teachers to promote polite and respectful student interactions and address inappropriate student behavior in a positive manner.

Next, the use of voice and body language. According to Brown (2001) the use of voice should be considered by the teacher during teaching and learning activities. They must audibility, variety, and conservation. Audibility means that teachers have to make sure that everyone, including students in the back of the room is able to hear. It doesn’t necessarily mean that the teachers have to speak loudly or shout but it is a matter of projecting appropriate good voice to the students and articulating the words clearly. The Variety, it means that the teachers need to maintain students’ interest and mood by keeping up with variety. Conservation, due to the importance of voice in establishing meaningful teaching, voice should be conserved with good care.

In addition, Harmer (2007) statement about managing the classroom by using a body language. There are 4 items related to what Harmer’s stated; body, face, eye contact and distance and teach based on culture applied. Body means how the teacher uses all of their body language as the part of their learning activities in the classroom. The Face, the teacher can use any expression when they were teaching. Especially when teaching any expression of language. Eye contact, it’s also important when teaching and learning activities in a class to keep on with the eye contact with the students to make sure that they were focused on the learning activities are not. We have to manage our eye contact with all students’ and class environment. Distance and teach based on culture applied, especially in Indonesia, distance and touch sometimes will become missed perception between students, teachers or parents. Because, sometimes the need of the teaching of the students will be important depends on what is it for. So, follow the rule.

Talk to the students. Rough tone. In doing the rough - tune, teachers have to own a great deal of understanding with these three important points. First teachers have to know what kind of language that will be likely understood easily. Then teachers have to recognize what kind of information students wish to understand and the best way to deliver it. And the last one, teachers have to be familiar with the manner of conveying the concept such as intonation and tone. How we simplify the language that were used in the class to make the students easily understand the lesson through gesture, facial expression and mime.

Give instruction. Gebhard (2006) emphasizes that instruction should provide opportunity for the students to explore and to communicate language in a meaningful way. He lists some ways to give some instruction to the students’. First, by writing down the instruction on a board or by showing it using a projector screen. Second, giving the instruction verbally. Third, having students read the instruction and let them read or paraphrase them to the class. Fourth, dictating instruction and having students check each other’s dictation. Fifth, miming the instruction as students guess what they are supposed to do. And the last, whispering the instruction as student’s lean forward in their seat, and having students repeat the instruction to the person next to them in a whisper.

Student talk and teacher talk. It is important for the classroom organization since it is through language that teachers either succeed or fail to implement their teaching plans. If teacher talk too much can decrease the students’ opportunity in practicing their oral skill and doing other things such as reading and writing. In terms of acquisition, teachers talk is the main source of providing comprehensible input that learners receive. Students’ interaction should be maximized, but at the appropriate time, teachers also don’t necessarily have to hesitate to provide feedback during a discussion or summarize what have been learned. So, between TTT and STT should be balance. Teacher have to give a chance to the student if it is necessary for them to talk.

The use of L1. Grasping complex concepts. As the teacher sometimes we may to use the L1 in particular activities to make it balance between the students with low and high proficiency. Because, not all of the students understand what we are talking about if we always talk by using a native language. By using the L1 we can check the students’ understanding clearances. To see their understanding about the material of the lesson or the target language used.

Lesson stages. There are three steps that were presented by the presenter how to make a lesson stage; beginning, middle, and final. At the beginning, the teacher may start the lesson by providing material that can stimulate student’s interest so that the interactive learning can be generated. Teachers may say what students will be doing or what to be expected at the end of the lesson. Then, in the middle of the class activities. The teacher should give a clear explanation about today material. If the students keep confusing with the material, the teachers should make it clear enough to understand. So, the teacher can continue the lesson for the next meeting. By keeping the maintaining of the students’ understanding or focusing using some useful activities. For the final, teachers have to be able to come up with a summary or conclusion or the things that will discuss next.

Seating arrangements. There are four kinds of seating arrangement that provided by the presenter. First, orderly rows. Orderly rows, enables teachers to see students clearly which is beneficial for managing eyes contact and let the teachers walk up and down to check student’s development personally. In this type of arrangement, students have a great chance to receive the same message regarding the task or instruction given. However, this arrangement is considered too restrictive and it speaks volume about teacher’s roles which are the central of attention and dominance. Next, circle and horseshoe. Circle and horseshoe, is less dominant, which assures the sense of equality in the classroom. Students can see each other without having to interrupt teachers. In this position, there’s a great opportunity to initiate the intimate and potential atmosphere in which students are able to share feeling and information through talking and eye contact or expressive body movements. The last is separate tables. Separate tables can be useful in breaking that sense. Arranging students seated in the small group at individual tables offers a good advantage for teachers. They are able to check the student’s work easily and help students out to understand the hard concepts. Teachers may prompt in one table and explain in another. This seating arrangement, however, may cause trouble since students’ preference changes over the time.

Students Grouping. There are four ways in grouping students, such as: by grouping whole class, group work or pair work, solo work, class to class. The whole class grouping can provide the sense of belonging that students are part of the team. This grouping type is appropriate for presenting information and practice drilling. However, there is a small chance for individual student to participate willingly and contribute in the discussion since speaking in the whole class can be inhibited and demanding. Group work or pair work promotes cooperative activity in which students can be triggered to be actively involved in experimenting language and doing more activities. This also may encourage students’ independence and self-confidence. However, it is not without its own problems. Student’s preference plays a big role in this type of grouping. Students might feel unconvinced to work with friends. Some can be silent and others may be dominating. The disruptive behavior such as frequently used by L1 may also happen. Solo work, can relax students so that they can focus on their needs and progress. Students can work at their own speed; have their own thinking time and can be individuals. Class to class, is good for survey, discussion, lecture and presentation. This enables higher level students to feel positive to help the lower and the lower level students feel encouraged by being engaged with the smart ones. Yet, this can be time consuming.

Related to the research of Fowler & Şaraplı (2010) showed that there are two major points that students expected from teachers; intrinsic factor and extrinsic factor. Intrinsic factor includes allowing students to freely express their opinions, using embarrassment to correct students, the teacher is friendly and respectful toward students, and the teacher shows enthusiasm for the subject. Extrinsic factors concern with items that relate to how a student feels a teacher should physically manage the classroom. Students expect teachers to be clear with behavioral expectation, time management (come on time and start the lesson based on the schedule), and grouping style.

The other related research was done by Lotfy (2013) who found that seating arrangement is a priority to encourage students on task participation. Additional finding of the research showed that students’ preference on seating arrangement influenced by their view of how shy or talkative they are in the classroom.

The last was conducted by Osakwe (2014) showed that the techniques for promoting well-managed classroom includes having leadership and management that will provide direction, planning, supervision, co-operation and coordination of teaching-learning process; teachers should have a positive role model; and there should be proper application of instructional materials and comfortable sitting arrangements to facilitate learning.

b.   Second Presenter (Nurfitri Habibi); How to Plan a Lesson

Related to how to plan a lesson, Habibi give the outline what is going to discuss. The outline was the definition of the lesson plan, format of lesson plans, and the guideline for lesson plan. Planning a lesson plan is not as easy as what we thought. To make a good plan for a lesson we should know the element of the lesson plan itself. Brown (2001) defines a lesson plan as a unified set of activities that cover a period of classroom time. By setting a good lesson plan, we know the way we are going to teach, how do we evaluate the process of teaching and learning activities.

Based on what have been show up by the presenter. There are 2 functions how to make a good plan in a lesson. The good lesson plan helps the teachers to ensure; the instruction in line with the curriculum goals and the goal are achieved. The instruction in line with the curriculum goals means that the instruction that were made by the teacher completely in line with the curriculum goal. So, what is going to reach achieved well. Especially, according to the four skills; speaking, reading, listening and writing.

The importance of lesson planning. There are 4 points related to the importance of lesson planning; it is a map, sign of professionalism, gives opportunities to adjust material, and helps predicting and anticipating the problem. Map, lesson plan is a guide for the teacher when doing a teaching and learning activities. So, we will teach based on what we have planned beautifully. As a sign of professionalism, we professionally plan the teaching and learning activities not out of the context. By making a good lesson plan it gives opportunities to adjust material. Teacher adjusting the material to make the class activities become more colorful every time. A teacher who has a good lesson planning will helps predicting and anticipating the problem will face in the classroom activities.

According to Brown (2001) a format of a good lesson plan divided into six items, such as: goals, objectives, materials, procedures, evaluating and extra class work. Goals are means what going to achieve by the teacher written directly in a lesson plan. Objectives, what kind of knowledge that will achieve with the students’. Materials: what kind of material that will be taught by the teachers. Procedure: what will be done by the teacher and students in class activities. Evaluation: how do we evaluate the students’ activities in a class. Extra class work: give the students’ such as home work to see what today’s achieve.

Jensen in Murcia (2001) and Harmer (2007), define the format of lesson plan into six items: the description of the students’ and class, aims & objectives, procedures, anticipated problems, extra material/activities, material to be used. Has almost the same point with Brown, Jensen and Harmer also stated the format of lesson plan, including the description of the students’ and class, which means that we should know what kind of students’ that we are going to teach. We know the level of proficiency of our students. Is it a higher level students’ or lower level students, this is a young learner or an adult, and so on. Jensen and Harmer state the goal of lesson plan as the aims of lesson plan. They also give a suggestion to give a statement how do we anticipate a students’ in a lesson plan. What kind of material that were used in the class activities?

Woodward, 2009; Cicek & Tok, 2011; NCLRC, 2003-2007; and Ducan & Met, 2010 stated the consideration for planning a lesson. They’re a student, the goal, objectives, the content and material, and the last is activities. A student, we know what kind of students’ that we are going to teach, is an elementary level, intermediate level or the advance ones. Goal objective, to make a clear operation in teaching and learning activities we also pay attention with the goal for our lesson activities. Content and material, based on this part we should be careful to choose the content and material that will be delivered to the students. Also, because we have to pay attention with the culture of the place where we are teaching with.

According to Brown (2001) the guidelines to plan a lesson should be started well including; how to begin planning, variety, sequencing pacing (teach them from the easiest one to the hardest one), timing (transition between previous lesson to the next activities should be achieve by the students’), gauging difficulty (students’ perspective about the lesson), individual differences, students talk and teacher talk, adapting to an establish curriculum, and classroom lesson notes. Set overall goals, state the terminal objectives, state enabling objectives and making a scrip (to anticipate unexpected word to the students).

c.    Third Presenter (Lutfiyatun Toyyibah); Choosing and Using Materials

What are the materials in EFL classroom? The material is the element to help teachers in presenting a lesson. It usually guides the teaching learning process in the classroom. Because the usage of materials is varied among classes, teachers have to pay attention in choosing and then applying/using it in the classroom. Materials include anything that can be used to facilitate the learning of language (Tomlinson 1998a, p. 66 in Nunan, D and Carter, R.). The materials can be in the form of printed or not. Unprinted materials could be linguistic, visual, auditory or kinesthetic, internet. Printed materials can be in the form textbooks or course book.

According to who creates the material, Gebhard (2009:101) state that there are four areas which prefer to create the materials. They are publishing company, government agencies, curriculum team of school level and classroom teachers. He also differentiates kinds of school determine in materials that suit the students. Here is the category of materials can be developed or used in different conditions of school: 1) Teaching in private language school or business; the teachers who teach in a private language school or business could adopt commercial materials. Commercial materials could be in the form of EFL or ESL texts, audiotapes, a disk with accompanying workbooks, videotapes with worksheets for students and computer programs. 2) Teaching in a public school with educational system centralized: teachers who teach in a public school in a country with a centralized educational system can use materials produced or selected by a government education committee. 3) Teaching at a certain university, well established private language schools, some ESL K-12 schools, and corporations with language programs: teachers who teach in those conditions could adopt the local texts and materials. Moreover, teachers who have experience in teaching EFL or ESL are usually members of a curriculum development of language program.

Related to the coursebook selection Harmer (2007:147) highlighted the options for coursebook use. They are by omitting the lesson, replacing the coursebook lesson with our own, then adding materials in the book, and adapting what is in the book. By omitting the lesson, it would solve the problems somehow. Teachers have power in deciding whether they would use the coursebook or not. If there are inappropriacy, for example, inappropriate in culture, choice of words, or anything, the teacher could leave one of the materials from the coursebook. It can be said the teacher can “pick and choose” what materials are suitable to their students.

Replacing the coursebook lesson with our own. The materials that are created by the classroom teacher would probably gain much more interest to the students or even the teachers themselves. If the teacher covers the same topic, the students can revise the materials from the coursebook. Thus, they can combine it. The teacher has a number of options in using the materials. The teacher also can replace the text with another one that fits to the unit.

Adding materials in the book. If there is a condition where the students look bored with the materials, the teachers may add some activities or exercises to revive the students’ activities. There are three categories related to how to provide in adding materials in the book: personal engagement, word formation, and word games. Personal engagement, to find the personal engagement, the teacher can ask the students “which words have a positive meaning for you?” or “which words have a negative meaning for you?” While asking, we also observe the personal reaction to words. The teacher can also ask which word they find easy to pronounce or which word difficult to pronounce. In that moment we ask the students, we have to consider that these words belong to the students themselves, not to the teacher or even to the textbook. Word formation, the teacher can ask so many questions about how the words are constructed. The teacher can also ask how many verbs can be changed into adjectives. The teacher can ask in which syllable should stressed on in every word. Word games, everything would be more interesting by game, so does the list of words. The words list can be used for expansion by giving the students a sentence like; “the doctor examines the patient”. Then the teacher asks the students if any of them would make would make a longer sentence than “the multi-talented handsome doctor examines a beautiful tall Javanese patient who is standing in line for an hour to see the doctor”. The teacher can order the students to work in pair. A student has to guess what the word writes on the hat that he/she used.

Adapting what is in the book. In adapting textbook in class, many teachers do not use it line by line. Sometimes it is because the teacher knows what first should be given because of the appropriateness. In reality, teachers have to decide which book to be used in the classroom. But then it is emerging with question like based on what basis they said that one book is more appropriate and better to another. Based on that reality, teachers could start with analyzing the textbook under consideration to see how it is compared to other textbooks. The best way of doing this is to select the areas of interest, like layout, instructions, methodology etc.

According to the research of Allwright (1990) that materials should teach students to learn, that they should be resource books for ideas and activities for instruction/learning, and that they should give teachers rationales for what they do. The textbooks are too inflexible to be used directly as instructional material.

O'Neill (1990) argues that materials may be suitable for students' needs, even if they are not designed specifically for them, that textbooks make it possible for students to review and prepare their lessons that textbooks are efficient in terms of time and money, and that textbooks can and should allow for adaptation and improvisation.

Wen-Cheng. Wan et.all (2010) highlighted that teachers spend much time in using textbooks in class, so choosing the appropriate one is important. Even though the core of teaching learning process should be on students, it is rather not surprisingly that in reality, students potentially have few choices and thus little control of the educational process.

d.   Last Presenter (Hardiansyah); Commercial and Authentic Materials: Advantages & Disadvantages and Problems Teachers Face

He started with the question who creates the materials available to the EFL/ESL teachers? According to Gebhard (2006), there are four creators who available to make the materials to the EFL/ESL teacher: publishing companies, government agencies, curriculum development team at the school level and classroom teachers. Generally publishing companies are producing full series of the texts for beginner through advance proficiency level and mostly it is used by private language school. Meanwhile the Government agencies and curriculum committee produce the text based on the values that has been stated in the constitution. This kind of text generally is used by the public schools. In the other hand, some countries allow their teachers to make proposals to produce the texts. After being approved by the committee, the text is produced and used in the school.  In another level such as higher education or well established private language school, the experience teachers usually produce their own materials, based on their experience in teaching EFL/ESL.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Commercial Materials. Gebhard (2006) mentions some advantages and disadvantages by using commercial materials. There three advantages by using the commercial materials that was stated by Gebhard’s. They are save time, well organize and completed by the teaching manual. Commercial materials could save times because the teachers do not need to make new materials for teaching, and the learners do not need to look for other materials. Furthermore, a commercial material is already well-organized, it can systematically guide the teacher and students step by step through a series of lessons. And then commercial material was completed by the teaching manual or companion websites also provide lesson plans with some useful suggestion or technique, it means that it can help the teacher a lot in teaching activities especially for the new teachers.

In every advantages that also has the advantages. Gebhard (2006) also state the disadvantages by using commercials materials. He also divided the disadvantages into three item: ideological conflict in teaching, without the consideration of culture and geographic, and marginalize the teachers’ role. Ideological conflict in teaching, this conflict cause by the texts which is usually made based on the author’s or publisher’s ideas and perspectives about teaching. For examples some text writers believe students should memorize words and grammar before they practice speaking, writing, or reading while others think that a lot of practice in the target language is more important to develop their language ability. Without the consideration of culture and geographic, whereas we know that the consideration about it is necessary, since we cannot teach about winter to the students who live in tropical country. Marginalize the teachers’ role, this conflict can have negative consequences on what goes on in the classroom. The teachers blindly follow the materials.

McGrath (2002) stated that if the teachers’ way in teaching only focus on textbook, it will decrease the students’ interest since there is no more the element of unpredictability, everything is already there.

What are Authentic Materials? According to Gebhard (2006) who stated that authentic materials is “anything that is used to communicate”. Moreover, Nunan & Carter (200:68) said that “authentic materials are the kind of texts that are not designed for teaching aims”. Based on those statements, it can be concluding that authentic material is anything reflects to our real world and not specifically designed for teaching activities.

What types are available? Authentic listening or viewing materials: silent films; TV commercial, quiz show, cartoons, news, comedy shows, dramas, movies and soap operas, radio news, ads, professional audio taped short stories, novels, pop, rock, country, film, children’s songs, home videos, professionally videotaped travel logs, documentaries, and sales pitches. Authentic Visual Materials: slides, photographs, paintings, sketches, drawing by children, stick figure drawings, wordless street signs, silhouettes, calendar pictures, pictures from travel, news, and popular magazines, ink blots, postcard pictures, wordless picture books, stamps, X-ray etc. Authentic printed materials: newspaper article, cartoons, advertisements, movie advertisement, astrology columns, sports reports, and obituary columns. Realia used in EFL/ESL Classroom: dolls, puppet, currency, key rings, scissors, etc.

Disadvantages and Advantages of Authentic Materials. Gebhard (2006) mentions that the first disadvantages for using authentic materials is take time and effort to locate authentic materials, and then it is difficult to make it comprehensible for students, the last is some students will not accept authentic materials and media being a valuable learning source. Moreover, Guariento and Morley (2001) remind us that the use of authentic materials make especially lower level students confused and demotivated by the complexity of language and performance condition unless the simplest authentic texts are carefully selected by teachers.

Gebhard (2006) also stated why we should use the authentic materials. Authentic material can reinforce for students the direct relation between the language classroom and the outside world. Secondly, it offers a way to contextualized language learning, and the last is it offers students a valuable source of language input since they can be exposed to more than just the language presented by the teacher and the text.

Regarding to the advantages, Peacock (1997) cited in Richard (2001), mentions several reasons for using authentic materials in classroom.  They are: (1) they prepare learners for real life, (2) they meet learners’ need, (3) they affect learners’ motivation positively, (4) they encourage teachers to adopt effective teaching methods and (5) they present authentic motivation about culture.

Rodngam (2011) in his research entitled “The use of authentic materials to enhance vocabulary for listening comprehension of Mathayomsuka 6 students in the English and Japanese program at Winitsuka School, Lopburi Province, Thailand” finds that the use of authentic materials really help students enhance vocabulary for listening comprehension more effectively. Moreover, the use of authentic materials also had positive effect and helped increase students’ performances, comfort and self-confidence to listen the target language.

Do Thi Thanh Tra (2011) in his research entitled “Using authentic materials to motivate second year English major students at Tay Ban University during speaking lessons” It is suggested to use authentic material for increasing students’ motivation to learn speaking. Because, the result of his data confirmed the hypothesis that authentic materials could enhance the motivation of second year majored English students at English faculty, Tay BAC University when learning speaking.

In addition, Rashid Hamed Al Azri and Majid Hilal Al Rashdi (2014) in his journal entitled “The Effect of Using Authentic Materials in Teaching” conclude that the use of authentic materials in language teaching is supported by many researchers. They regard the use of this type of materials as a useful means to motivate learners, arouses their interest and expose them to real language they will face in the real world.

Based on the researches above we can see that authentic materials can increase students’ motivation. It can be a good point for teachers to use it. As we know that learners need to be motivated to succeed in learning language. In addition to get the learners motivated the materials should be motivating and enhance the learners’ interest.

What Kinds of Technology Do EFL/ESL Teachers’ Use? Generally, the first think which comes to our mind when we hear about technology might be words computer, internet, software, mobile phone, website, and e-mail so on. But Gebhard (2006) said that technology is much more than that. Technology is scientific and industrial know-how or expertise. Moreover, Gebhard (2006) shows the development of technology from low through high technology. He explained about it by using a continuum scheme from low to high technology.

A Technology Continuum

Low Technology                                                                                       High Technology

Sticks Earth Air Clouds

Chalk Blackboard Crayons Paint Kazoo Scissors Paper

Overhead Projector Slide Projector Filmstrip Projector Audiocassette Recorder Radio Telephone VCR Video Camera

Digital Video Camera Computer/Internet Cell Phone Digital Audio Recorder Digital Satellite

Based on the scheme above we can see that technology in education is not only about computer, internet, website, mobile phone, or e-mail. But technology is everything around us that can be served as teaching tools.

Hanson-Smith (2001) believes that when text is read on the computer, learners’ motivation and learning skill improve. Leis (2015) support smith’s opinion. The use of smartphone in teaching learning activity is suggested and smartphone should be viewed as teaching aids. The result of his research entitled “Smartphone Assisted Language Learning and Autonomy” shows that students who were encouraged to use their smartphones during class were inclined to study more in their free time as well as show signs of autonomy by taking charge of their learning and consider ways to improve their own study habits and English proficiency.

Problems Teachers Face. Gebhard (2006) mention problems some EFL/ESL teacher face include the following: 1) The “I am forced to teach from the book” problem. Some EFL/ESL teachers are required to follow a text that has been set by the policy maker. Sometimes the actual lesson plans are provided and the supervisor will make sure that they follow. This kind of policy will decrease teachers’ creativity in using or improving materials and media. Unfortunately, some teachers take the shortcut and simply follow the prescribed lessons. However, other teachers find their way to add the additional material while adapting to the prescribed lesson. They might use recorder, pictures, games, and video. Some teachers also provide a lesson based on authentic materials and media. These kinds of act are encouraged since it makes wider chance to increase students’ interaction not only with the book but also with the other students and teachers. 2) The “Let the Textbook Do the teaching” Problem. As previously mentioned that text book has certain advantages. It saves time, novice teachers can learn something about teaching from following text, and the teaching manual has been set. In spite of the advantages so helpful for the new teachers, adhering to a text without considering the effect on the students can trivialize the experience for students. Of course not all teachers accept the constraints imposed on them by text. Some teachers want to be more than just technician. They realize that text can’t be followed blindly, it should be evaluating. Whether it is appropriate for their students or it is not. More over some teachers can give more authentic language materials and media as well as know the best decision taken to meet some students’ need. 3) The “How do I locate useful websites for my students?” Problem. The usage of internet in this era is inevitable. The benefits of it help teachers a lot in providing the teaching materials to support learning activity. Gebhard (2006) said he ever face the problem for choosing the recommended website for EFL/ESL students. So, he decided to ask internet-using teacher and EFL/ESL students which website they find to be the most useful. Surprisingly, they come up with many of the same sites.

2.    Question and answer

a.    What is the differences between low technology and high technology? (Imas Suparsih)

The differences between low technology and high technology is based on the use of that kind of technology. We know the time when do we use low technology and high technology. We know the level proficiency of the students.

Prof. Nenden answer: It’s depend on the situation to know both low and high technology.

b.    What’s your opinion (all presenters) about authentic material not for teaching materials? (Lestiyani Sunarto)

Authentic material is design for teaching but not made by the teachers. Authentic material doesn’t design for teaching aims but we can use it. For example: Audio visual movie, newspaper, magazine, etc.

Prof. Nenden answer: authentic material is better to use in language teaching especially in Indonesia.

c.    What kind of authentic materials should be choosing natively or based on our culture? (Firdha Zainu Syarifa)

Authentic materials should be choosing based on the native language that were used in that country. So, the material is suitable with the condition of that country.

d.    How important the feedback for student with high achiever? (Dian Ardiansyah)

Both of them is important to give some feedback. For the higher achiever: give a knowledge by knowing the strength and weaknesses of students’. By giving them the feedback to keep attention to the assignment doing by the students’. Important to give knowledge then they can improve the knowledge. By give feedback, the students’ can know which one the right then the teacher can see the improvement of them. By giving the feedback will increase the student’s motivation and confidence.

Prof. Nenden answer: Both of the low and high achiever need the feedback. By giving them the feedback they will always:

C Entanceable

C Not intenseable

C Enrich students’ self confidence

C Evaluating ourselves

e.    What is your suggestion for choosing material? Who should be the creator of the materials? (Slamet Suwanto)

Focus on the instruction. The creator of the materials should be: publishing company, government agencies, curriculum teams of school level or classroom teachers.

Prof. Nenden answer: in Indonesia it’s so easy to published some books but it will be different in abroad. My own experience, I need more than one year to published a book with a native writer.

f.     Is it necessary for teacher to tell the objectives of the lesson in elementary level? (Ghea Kyat Priyanka)

Yes, of course it is important. No matter junior/higher will explicitly explain the objective to the students’ so they can have a picture about the teaching and learning activities.

Prof. Nenden answer: Yes, it’s important. e.g: in TOEFL listening test there is an introduction before starting the test.

g.    How to design the material with a gifted and disabilities student? (Ahmad Zaki Mubarak)

Treat the students’ effectively based on their ability. Higher achiever can teach the low achiever. Make sure that when the students’ of high achiever teach the lows were not intimidating them.

3.    Comment

Actually, it’s for all of the presenter. All of the presenter have done a good presentation. They were present what they have understand the materials that given to them. They do the best what they can do. Understanding the reading material is not as easy as what we thought. To make a clear understanding with the material we not only need to read one times, but also more than one times, repeated, and repeated again. So we can find what is the point of the book writer means. After understanding the reading book material. It should be supported with another resources and previous research that related to our material. It also enriches our reading understanding to get the information.

Even though, they have done some mistakes. It is a part of studying. So, we have improving our 4 skills again and again. By improving our ability in using four skills, insyallah it will better and better in a time.

For the first presenter it can be concluded that there are no teaching plans or goals can be implemented and achieved if the classroom is not in good management. Teaching and learning cannot be conducted in chaos. Therefore, the classroom should be well managed and maintained to establish positive productive learning environment which can relatively help, if not eliminating, minimizing the disruptive behaviors, and attaining teaching and learning purposes. Moreover, the keys to promote well organized classroom is good planning, consistency, disciplines, and experience.

For the second presenter. To make a good lesson planning we have to follow the rule as well as we can do the best.

For the third presenter, actually teachers have their right in using textbook, they could state their position in using textbook. They may adapt, add, replacing or even omit some of the materials in the textbook. They also can utilize materials from themselves if the materials in the textbook seem do not appropriate to the students or to the learning situation. To check that the textbook good or not, the teacher can use some of the criteria then put checklists on it to ensure that the textbook filled with something you as a teacher needs. You can use the criteria from Harmer or Grant that have been elaborated above. In the end, teachers have their own authority whether they want to continue used the textbook or not. It is adaptable to any kind of situation.

And for the last presenter, for the next time presentation have to pay attention with how to point reading report or anything else. For the conclusion of the presentation material it can concluded that by knowing the advantages from these two kinds of materials teachers will know about the right material for their teaching activity. Furthermore, based on the example of the applications of high technology on teaching language activities which is served by Gebhard and the related researchers, teachers should have wider perspective toward the use of technology in terms of open-mindedness.