This study reflects the best practice of the English immersion program designed for EFL learners.  Through observation in the research site and interview with eight participants (two language managers and six language learners), the modified model is discovered as the guidelines in ruling the project in which curriculum, English proficiency, and language management are the main points. Besides, Informal learning becomes the hot issue of this study since the English zone facilitates English informal interaction between language partners and learners which enhances English learning experiences effectively and motivates them to use English. The finding also reported that English immersion program emerges learning community, personal qualities development, English language acquisition, and self-efficacy, language awareness and language exposure The study may contribute to the body of knowledge in second language acquisition and recommend schools or universities and other related institutions to implement English immersion program as the alternative solution for English language learning in non-native speaking countries.

Di era revolusi industri 4.0, teknologi harus menjadi alternatif pilihan yang digunakan oleh guru dalam menyampaikan materi kepada siswanya, sehingga pembelajaran menjadi lebih kontekstual, faktual, dan mampu membangun kemandirian belajar para siswa. Seperti contoh pengajaran berbasis gamifikasi menjadi sangat penting ketika lingkungan belajar yang ditunjang dengan teknologi dapat membantu para siswa memperoleh pengetahuan dengan cara-cara yang menantang dan menyenangkan. Kemandirian belajar dan berpikir kritis dapat terbentuk dan ditingkatkan melalui pembelajaran berbasis gamifikasi ketika pembelajaran menghendaki siswa berperan aktif dan bertanggung jawab terhadap keberhasilan belajarnya sendiri, di samping berkat bantuan bimbingan guru. Workshop pengembangan media pembelajaran berbasis gamifikasi terbukti dapat memecahkan masalah yang dihadapi para guru, khususnya guru-guru di lingkungan pondok pesantren Al Amin Sindangkasih Kabupaten Ciamis yang berkenaan dengan kemampuan menciptakan pembelajaran bahasa berbantuan teknologi (technology-aided teaching) yang masih rendah. Program ini dapat membantu para guru dalam memanfaatkan teknologi untuk kegiatan pembelajaran di kelas, bahkan di luar kelas. Workshop ini diikuti oleh 20 orang peserta yang berasal dari MTs dan MA Persis-Pondok Pesantren Al Amin Sindangkasih Kabupaten Ciamis selama dua bulan. Materi yang diberikan berkenaan dengan pemilihan materi belajar yang sesuai dengan kebutuhan dan kemampuan peserta didik (material selection) dan pengembangan media pengajaran dengan bantuan teknologi gamifikasi. Program ini dikemas dalam bentuk workshop pengembangan media pembelajaran berbasis gamifikasi dengan tahapan: orientasi, diskusi, ekplorasi materi, aksi, tes, dan refleksi. Data dikumpulkan melalui observasi, interview, dan dokumen, sehingga kinerja peserta dan instruktur selama pelaksanaan program dapat terkontrol dengan baik dan menghasilkan kualitas pembelajaran berbasis teknologi yang efektif dan terukur. Program ini diharapkan pula mampu membantu pemerintah, sekolah atau guru dalam bidang peningkatan profesionalitas guru seperti yang diamanatkan dalam UU No. 14 Tahun 2005 tentang Guru dan Dosen, khususnya di lingkungan Pondok Pesantren Al Amin Sindangkasih Kabupaten Ciamis.

Activities of reading numerous easy texts known as Extensive reading have successfully proven in building the students’ reading motivation and interest. Different from intensive reading which forces students to comprehend all of the words in the text, this activity is really beneficial to develop a love of reading. In this study, several activities have been conducted in an online extensive reading classroom. Not by giving comprehensive questions like intensive reading, this kind of activity provides interesting classroom activities underlying their general understanding of the text, such as creating reading logs, joining group discussion, giving response on the text, creating creative writing such as making a letter to one of the characters on the story, changing ending/beginning of the story, etc. Thus, this study focuses on scrutinizing classroom activities in an online extensive reading classroom by focusing on investigating the student’s voice. A survey encompassing 149 students was conducted in order to find their perception related to the activities of extensive reading in the virtual classroom. The findings show that most of the students show positive perception on the activities. The use of online platforms such as blogs, WhatsApp, zoom and google classroom also contribute on the students’ enjoyment and engagement. It undoubtedly forces them to be active in the classroom and show their best performance during joining the classroom activities.

In the process of teaching listening, anxiety is believed as a negative factor contributing to the students’ poor listening comprehension and quite possibly the affective factor that the most persistently hinders the learning process. Thus, investigating its existence and delving its factors become salient in order to help the students overcome their listening learning barriers. This present study attempts to depict the condition of the students’ listening anxiety in an Academic Listening (AL) class in an Indonesian tertiary context. 20-items of Foreign Language Listening Anxiety’s (hereafter, FLLA) questionnaire were administered to 97 students taking that course. Having finished analyzing the levels of students’ listening anxiety, in-depth interviews were conducted to four students who were considered having high listening anxiety to disclose the underlying factors. The research result revealed three pivotal issues; a) 54.6% of the students had a relatively high level of listening anxiety, 18.5% had moderate listening anxiety, and 26.8% had a low level of listening anxiety; b), 75% of the chosen measured items showed an extreme level of the students’ listening anxiety, and c) the major factor contributing the listening anxiety was inadequate listening proficiency involving the inability to deal with the rapid speech rate and range of lexical choices.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced all sectors to stop their activities. As a result of this, learning activities were suddenly changed to online methods. Seeing the phenomena that occur around researchers, the decreasing of students' motivation during online English learning can be a serious matter. If the demotivating factor cannot be known, it will be difficult for the teacher to overcome it. To fill this gap, the researcher intends to look for the factors that cause demotivation in students during online English learning. An exploratory case study was employed as the research design and semi-structured interviews were selected as the data collection technique. The data were analyzed using thematic analysis based on demotivating factors (learning contents and materials, teachers’ competence and teaching styles, inadequate school facilities, and lack of intrinsic motivation). Research reveals that there are two major factors of demotivation experienced by students: (1) internal factors; (2) external factors. Internal factors consist of lack of interest; undirected study goals; negative habits, and external factors consisting of surrounding elements; teaching style; teaching materials and teaching content; learning facilities; sudden transition. In conclusion, the teaching and learning practices should encourage students to have positive experiences and not demotivate them in learning English such as using interesting online tasks.