Teaching and learning process since the pandemic time has shifted away from the traditional face to face classroom into online distance learning, and this will be undergo in the post pandemic. This case study aimed to investigate the effectiveness use of the combined modes of synchronous and asynchronous in e- language learning for university students. While both types of that learning approach have its importance in different scenario. The research questions to be answered in the study was how the adoption of synchronous (discussion activity platform) and asynchronous (learning content platform) would be more effective in e- language learning. 55 university participants from the second semester of English Department who joined the online creative writing class in synchronous and asynchronous language learning activity received the survey questionnaire as the sampling of the collected data. The data from the interview was also obtained to get the learners insights regarding the course experiences.The results showed that the applying of the combination approach in online learning has been greatly effective in helping the learners in terms of the community interaction and  material engagement. Moreover, the learners’ response about the using blended mode of synchronous and asynchronous for their learning is very positive. Some suggestions to enfold the problems over the online learning  are also provided.

There are some problems in teaching English faced the high school many teachers and students. Based on the observation in one of good senior high schools, it was found out some weaknesses in teaching English. The teaching process relied on the exercises in the student book. The teaching activity was more teacher center. The teacher never made development on the materials, which were more challenging. As a result, the students were not trained to have critical thinking. This could be seen when the teacher asked questions, they answered using short answer, without any elaboration. This influences the ability of their critical thinking. Actually, graduates of high schools should be equipped with skills to face the Industrial era 4.0. The skills are Critical Thinking, Creativity, Collaboration, and Communication. All teachers can train those skills when they teach, including English teachers. Therefore, this research aims at describing how the teaching model Sekawan-P can enhance the students’ critical thinking in speaking skill. The study was a Lesson Study (LS) program between an English teacher of SMAN 1 Kediri and three lecturers of Nusantara PGRI Kediri University. They worked together to solve the problems mentioned above using this teaching model. They revised the existing lesson plan and materials, made improvement, and revised the teaching plan. The results show that after they applied Sekawan-P, the critical thinking of the students developed. It can be seen on how they delivered their arguments in speaking skill.

Teaching English as a foreign language to young learners in Indonesia requires specific strategies because young learners have different characteristics compared to adults. It demands English teachers to have sufficient metacognitive knowledge to promote students’ critical thinking skills. Therefore, this research paper presents findings on teacher’s metacognitive knowledge to promote EFL young learners critical thinking. A case study was employed involving one class of fifth-grade students with one English teacher and three instruments to collect data, namely classroom observation, interview, and document analysis. The data analysis was done by referring to the theory of metacognitive knowledge and stages in promoting critical thinking in EFL classroom. The findings reveal that the teacher performed three types of metacognitive knowledge, such as person, task, and strategic knowledge. These types of knowledge determined teacher’s strategy in running the class. It was indicated from the teacher’s statement showing that metacognitive knowledge guide herself through what, why, and how to implement learning strategies and predict outcomes by considering students’ needs and characteristics. Consequently, the students were able to analyze, evaluate, compare, contrast, and construct new information from their previous knowledge and experience.Keywords: Critical thinking, EFL young learners, English language learning, Indonesian educational context, Teacher’s metacognitive knowledge

For many years, teacher-student interaction has been indicated to considerably affect student learning. In recent years, research concentration has moved from attempting to evaluate the potent ways of classroom interaction for student learning and how it can be developed. Due to the intricacy of the classroom interaction procedure, the answer to this question is profoundly contingent upon some reasons, such as the learning condition. The aim of this project is to study the classroom interaction process in an online learning context in which English is learned as a foreign language.  This is review research employing content analysis technique we intend to examine the published research articles to find out the teachers’ strategies/tools and the contribution of the strategies to students’ language learning in online classroom interaction. This can build up an understanding of the most effective techniques to develop the students’ involvement with the learning process.  The result of the analysis is that most teachers use synchronous and asynchronous online classroom interaction and blended learning in which teacher-students, student-student, student-teacher, and student-learning sources are met through discussion. This strategy is mostly preferred by teachers to give students a chance to get involved in communication, collaboration, interaction, and participation. This strategy is believed to be able to engage students in developing language learning opportunities; therefore, this can be a good model for better classroom practices.

Driving students to be a critical thinker in their process of writing is hardly a challenge. As an effective process of writing depend on how well they develop their critical thinking skills, helping them build the critical thinking in writing is considered as a way to make a correct judgment independently and create an environment that raises their best writing. The current study attempts to investigate whether the use of questions could generate students' critical thinking in their writing process. The participants were 38 English Department students who encountered argumentative writing class in University degree. The subjects were assigned into a mix method on a quasi-experimental study involving pretest -posttest with some features of semi structured interview to know their level of satisfaction from the gained score. The results of the study showed that the significance of exploring questions in helping students' critical thinking for meaningful learning, especially in the connectivity and coherency of their writing product and also the flow of the sentences. Moreover, the students are being actively involved in meaningful communicative language during the process of writing. This good engagement contributes for the positive classroom management.