This research focuses on pedagogical competence of English teachers’. This research aims to find out pedagogical competence of English teachers in teaching English at SMP Negeri 13 Palu. Data collection techniques used were questionnaire, interview and observation. The observation was used to find out the students perception on the teacher's pedagogical competence in teaching English. The interview was used to determine the pedagogic competence of teachers in teaching English. The observation was also used to see the process of teaching English in the classroom. The result of questionnaire showed that students’ perceive on English teachers’ when teaching English were very good pedagogical competence in mastering the characteristics of students, ability to develop curriculum/syllabus, developing students potential and evaluation of learning outcomes. The results of interviews with four English teachers showed that there were some difficulties in learning they are in the use of technology and developing the potential of students. The results of the observations show that the pedagogic competence of four English teachers in teaching English is in the good. In general, the pedagogical competence of the English teacher at SMP Negeri 13 Palu is generally in good criteria.

The objective of this research is to find the effect of problem-based learning to the speaking ability of the tenth grade students at SMK Muhammadiyah 1 Palu. This research employed experimental research of quasi-experimental design. The samples were the students of X Farmasi as the experimental group and the students of X TKJ A  as the control group. They were selected using convenience sampling technique. The data were collected through pretest and posttest analyzed by using t-test formula to compare the mean score of the experimental and control groups. The result of the data analysis shows that t-table (1.968) higher than t-value (0.96), so the hypothesis is rejected. It means problem-based learning has no effect significantly to the students speaking ability. That  caused by several factors such as situation, teaching implementation, and students participation.

This research aims to find out the types of teacher’s communication strategies and the dominant strategy used by English teachers in teaching English at SMA Lab school Untad Palu. This research design was qualitative study, more especially descriptive qualitative approach. The subject of this research was the English teachers of SMA Lab school Untad Palu. In collecting the data, the researcher used observation and interview. The data were analyzed by using Tarone's Taxonomy. This study showed that the communication strategies used by the teacher were: 46% language switching, 27% literal translation, 14% circumlocution, 8% appealing for assistance and 6% approximation. Based on the result, the most frequent communication strategies is language switching which is found 17 times. This is due to the fact that students still have limited English knowledge, and the teacher adapts the situation by following them using a lot of L1 in order to make it easier for them to learn English. Thus, this finding may imply that English teacher is expected to use and select the effective strategies to overcome the communication problem in the classroom.

The aim of this research is to find out the techniques used by the teachers in teaching vocabulary at SMA Negeri 14 Sigi and to find the students’ responses toward the teachers’ tecniques in teaching vocabulary at SMA Negeri 14 Sigi. This study employed descriptive qualitative research. The research instruments used to collect the data were interview and questionnaire. The findings show that there are two English teachers in SMA Negeri 14 Sigi, the first teacher (Y) used three techniques in teaching vocabulary: jumble word, making a match and games. Meanwhile the second teacher (E) used two techniques in teaching vocabulary: using picture and using video. The teacher used those techniques to improve students’ vocabulary mastery. The teacher can give the material clearly to the students by using those techniques. Based on the questionnaire, mostly the students were interested in learning by used that techniques. so can be seen if they enjoy the teaching learning process of English. The implication of this findings is the teacher needs to use other techniques that is interesting in teaching learning process and also use the other media to support teaching learning process.

This research aims to identify the strategies used and find out the effective strategies used by the second-semester students of English Education Study Program in learning vocabulary. This research applied qualitative research, especially case study. The participants were 20 students filling out the questionnaires and six students answering the interviews. The participants of this research were selected by using purposive sampling technique. The instruments of data collection were questionnaires and interviews. The data gathered were analyzed by google form and descriptively. The data analysis results show that most students always use an electronic dictionary to find out the meaning of a word in determination strategies. Next, in social strategies, most students prefer to interact with their friends through group discussion in class or asking the meaning of a new word. Then, in memory strategies, most students often remember a new word from its pronounced. In cognitive strategies, they often use context in the text to explain the meaning of a word. While, in metacognitive strategies, most students often use an English song to learn new words and watch videos related to the deep pronunciation of English. The effective strategies were watching videos or movies. Then, they often make new vocabulary notes to memorize the words and remember a new word when it is pronounced. They also use an electronic dictionary to find out the meaning of the word. In general, most second-semester students almost use all the strategies in the taxonomy of vocabulary learning strategies. The strategies most often used are using media, electronic dictionaries, interacting with other people, remembering new words when they are pronounced, and using context in the text to explain the new word's meaning.