The pandemic coronavirus is forcing educational institutions to shift rapidly to distance and online learning. It forces teachers and students to apply blended learning even though they may not be ready to teach and learn in fully online contexts. Hence, this research aims to explore teachers' and students' perceptions at Parahikma Institute of Indonesia regarding the use of blended learning as media learning during the pandemic coronavirus.  This research was a qualitative design applying phenomenology. The technique of selecting participants was convenience sampling. The participants of this study consist of nine students from the third, fifth, and seventh semesters who were enrolled in the English Education Department and three lecturers who taught English at Parahikma Institute of Indonesia. This study utilized semi-structured interviews as the single data collection method. The data collected were analyzed using thematic analysis. The result of this study covered two parts, namely the teachers' and students' perceptions. In terms of teachers’ perception, the teachers reported some advantages regarding blended learning such as effective learning, autonomous learning and easy to use. However, there were challenges for the teachers in teaching through blended learning such as poor internet connection, time-consuming, and less experience. On the contrary, regarding students’ perceptions, students also reported benefits the blended learning like flexible learning, motivation, interaction, and improving their ICT skills. In addition, poor internet connection and incomprehensible materials were considered as the problem that hampers their learning.

The central theme of this paper discusses the developmental history of character education (CE) and some definitions that have been referred to it. It first explores the historical development of character education that is mostly sourced in American history. Within this section, it is shown that character education seemed to decline between 1940s and 1960s, yet such other approaches to character education started emerging as `values clarification` and `moral dilemma discussion`, although they both appeared to have different underlying theories. It then moves to some definitions of character education that have been put forward by different experts in the field; within the same title, the author of current paper also provides his own definition based on the mentioned facts.

Flipped learning to date has generally been implemented within a blended classroom. However, the growing number of fully online courses and the existence of Covid-19 have shown the need to try using flipped learning in a fully online class. This paper aimed to explore student achievement and perception in an online flipped grammar class. A paired-sample t-test showed a significant difference between student pre-test and post-test scores with a medium effect size after attending the online flipped course for one month. The interview and questionnaire data revealed students’ overall positive perception toward the introduction of flipped learning within the course. Students mentioned that the flipped approach made the course more interactive and provided them opportunities to ask questions to the teacher with an immediate answer. They also expressed their positive attitude towards the use of different learning platforms (e.g., LMS, Zoom) and modes (synchronous and asynchronous) that could ease their learning experience within the course. Nevertheless, students recommended that the virtual meeting via Zoom needs to be limited in time duration.

This paper starts with the introduction concerning the development of the pedagogical implementation of second language acquisition (SLA) from communicative language teaching (CLT) to task based language teaching (TBLT). Within the same section, the definition of a task is also provided. It then continues to the design of the lesson plan by implementing the six-step model for TBLT as suggested by Nunan (24); the rationale for each of the step is presented. Lastly, it culminates with the evaluation over the principles applied in the design of the lesson plan.

This paper begins with the test specifications of the two tests – the First Certification in English (FCE) and the Business Language Testing Service (BULATS). It will then go on to the evaluation of the test usefulness: reliability, (construct) validity, backwash, and practicality (Bachman & Palmer, 1996; see Kunnan, 2004 for a slightly different perspective). This paper explores the test specifications at the outset in that a test would be evaluated (as estimated) based on the test purpose and construct that it is trying to measure (Luoma, 2004). To begin the evaluation, the test (score) reliability would be evaluated first, for a test would not be considered valid if it is not reliable (Brown, 1996; but see Moss, 1994 when a test could be valid without reliability). Throughout this paper, the term “test(ing)” will be used more or less synonymously with “assess(ment)” and “measure(ment)”, in that Bachman and Palmer point out that in the field of language testing these terms have been very broadly defined “as the process of collecting information” to make decisions (2010, p. 20). (See Bachman, 1990; Cohen & Swedlik, 2010; Douglas, 2010 for the distinctions, e.g., a test is a tool for assessment.)