Students’ engagement is widely believed to be the single most significant predictor of persistence in learning process. It is generally reflected in active participation such as listening to presentation, expressing opinions, asking questions, and working on assignment. However, the idea of being embarrassed in front of peers and the feeling of being reluctant to disturb others can often be intimidating for many students and might prevent them to ask questions during class discussion. As the consequence, meaningful discussion that is expected to happen during the lesson oftentimes takes another form of side conversation such as whispering, note passing, and text messaging, the so-called backchanneling. In addition to this, the class size has also been generating another problem. The larger the class is, the greater challenges the teachers face to engage students in their learning. To address this issue, this research investigates how TodaysMeet, a digital backchannel chat platform, promotes students engagement in an Indonesian EFL large class and transfers the side conversation to the forefront. A number of 41 college students took part in this single-case study approach. The research data were taken from interviews, classroom observations, and students' task submission. The degree of students’ engagement was measured in 3 types of engagement i.e. emotional, behavioral and cognitive engagement. Research findings suggest that the digital backchannel promotes students engagement with learning activity, and enables lecturers to provide immediate feedback on the students understanding over the lesson material.

The objective of this research is to develop a model of learning speaking English for students majoring in English Language Education in STKIP Kusuma Jakarta, and to examine the effectiveness of CALL-Based instruction the model in improving students’ speaking skill. The research was conducted using system approach model of Dick and Carey, and was carried out from October 2012 to July 2014 in 3 stages i.e. preliminary stage; model development stage; validation, evaluation, and revision stage. The data were obtained through tests, questionnaires, interviews, observation, and expert judgments. The English speaking test was designed to measure students speaking skill before and after the implementation of the model. Then, the data were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. The research findings showed that the development of the model can improve the students’ speaking skill through the increase in the mean score before the implementation of the model, 61 to 69 after implementation of the model. The testing of hypothesis using paired-samples t-test resulted in a probability value (sig) 0.000 < α = 0.05 which means that there is a significant difference on students speaking skill before and after implementing the CALL-based instruction model. It can be concluded that the model is effective in improving the students speaking skill in English Education Study Program of STKIP Kusuma Negara Jakarta.

This research aimed to investigate students’ acceptance of online learning during the pandemic by describing factors that sustain their engagement. The importance of this research is that by portraying their engagement in online learning, there would be suggestions for selecting effective strategies. A descriptive method was taken as the research method. A closed-ended e-questionnaire distributed to 263 respondents was employed in collecting data and resulted in 75% response rates. The study concluded that more than 50% of students accepted that online learning was useful, but the technology was not easy to use. Their acceptance of online learning has influenced their engagement in the online learning environment and making them quite resourceful in responding to the practice of online learning during the pandemic. The most engaging factor in sustaining students’ engagement was peer collaboration. Therefore, teamwork, peer-teaching, and peer assessment were among the main activities to sustain online learning engagement. Also, the communities of practice (CoP) could be lecturers’ first choice to sustain students’ engagement in online learning to anticipate the loss of authenticity in the learning context and trade the inexistence of concrete class, supporting facilities, and peers. The CoP could also make the learning context authentic. By implementing the two strategies, effective constructivist online learning should be achieved.

The purpose of this study was to describe the experience of a language learner in an Indonesian student exchange program in Japan aimed to enable students to learn the language and culture directly in their home country. This experience was captured through a descriptive case study conducted to obtain a clear picture of what happened and find out what aspects could cause language concussion; and how the influence of language shock on the social acculturation of language learners. Data were collected through observation and interviews. The results showed that the language shock experienced by the Research Subjects in the target language environment included linguistic aspects at the phonological and morphological levels. Sociolinguistic aspects at the level of the use of a variety of respect. Anxiety also occurs due to the loss of signs and symbols of social relationships commonly known by the Research Subjects. Therefore, cultural differences between Indonesia and Japan should be anticipated so as not to cause difficulties in carrying out social acculturation.

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