This study aimed to provide an overview of the sociology-economic conditions of the people in Debegan village of Mojosongo, Surakarta after receiving training on miniature craft and aircraft using styrofoam materials from the IAIN Surakarta Research and Service Institute (LP2M) team. The study was expected to provide access to create economic empowerment for village communities. As previously known, the city of Surakarta is a vocational city promoting the community uniqueness to be managed in the form of social, cultural and economic activities. The method used in this study is Participation Action Research (PAR). Participatory Action Research (PAR) is a research method carried out in a participatory manner among citizens in a lower level community whose spirit is to encourage transformative actions. The findings and results of the study showed that this activity received relatively good enthusiasm from the people of Debegan village, Mojosongo, Surakarta City. The level of attendance and frequency of the attended meeting was always more than 20 out of 30 participants. This shows that the 80% target audience attendance was reached  successfully. This activity requires further follow up to the training that has been given, with the hope that the community will not only be skilled in making crafts from Styrofoam waste but also have marketing and network skills.

This present study aims to describe tertiary students’ writing strategies and their response in accomplishing final exam. Grounded in a qualitative approach by using case study as the research design, 27 undergraduate students of an Islamic higher education institution volunteered to participate. Data were collected through semi-structured interview and documentation. The data were analyzed by reducing and transforming the data, then drawing conclusion. The study findings showed that the undergraduate students employed two types of writing strategies, i.e., free writing and brainstorming. There were 20 students using free writing strategy, and seven of them using brainstorming strategy. Most of them shared their positive responses in using the writing strategies, such as the feeling of happy and comfortable in accomplishing final exam. They narrated that using free writing strategy was very helpful to write an article journal better and more structured. On the contrary, there were also some EFL students who showed negative responses, e.g., the feeling of dizzy, lazy, and difficult to draft their ideas. This study recommends some empirical insights on how university teachers and faculty members manage final exams to accelerate students’ writing strategies.

Di Indonesia, sering dihadapkan pada kesalahpahaman ketika siswa bahasa L2, dalam bahasa Inggris ini, memiliki komunikasi. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menganalisis tanggapan pujian yang digunakan oleh mahasiswa sarjana Jurusan Bahasa Inggris Universitas Negeri Semarang terhadap kinerja presentasi kelas dan kelancaran berbahasa Inggris mereka. Data dikumpulkan menggunakan pendekatan alami yang memungkinkan kuliah memberi mereka pujian setelah menyelesaikan presentasi mereka dalam bahasa Inggris. Data dianalisis menggunakan kerangka kerja Tran‟s (2007). Pujian diberikan dengan dua cara komunikasi, yakni menggunakan bahasa Inggris dan Bahasa Indonesia. Hasil yang diperoleh dalam hal pujian yang diberikan dalam bahasa Inggris adalah para siswa merespons menggunakan bahasa Inggris,  tetapi tetap menggunakan perilaku komunikasi Bahasa Indonesia. Sementara itu, mahasiswa diberikan pujian dalam Bahasa Indonesia memiliki tanggapan yang berbeda. Dapat disimpulkan bahwa, mahasiswa dapat mentransfer perilaku bahasa dalam menanggapi pujian meskipun dalam beberapa aspek masih menggunakan perilaku Bahasa Indonesia sebagai L1 mereka ketika memiliki komunikasi dalam bahasa Inggris sebagai L2 mereka