Abstract:Technology is changing the world we live in. It affects the way people see, think, and learn their environment and communicate with others. In the educational field, there have been previous studies revealing the positive attitudes toward the use of mobile devices and applications. However, the empirical studies of the practice of how to use a specific mobile device and application effectively are done in a limited scale. Taking the experimental research method, this study investigated the effectiveness of the use of Instagram application on the students' performance in writing descriptive texts. The main research question was centred around whether there was significant difference in the ability of writing descriptive text between students who were taught using Instagram and those who aren't. Involving random sampling technique, this study involved 50 students of a private high school in Yogyakarta as the research sample. The empirical data were collected through pre and post tests. The data were analyzed quantitatively applying t-test computation and descriptive analysis. Results of the study indicate that there is significant difference in students writing score between those taught using Instagram and those who aren't. In conclusion, teaching students writing by using Instagram pictures are more effective than teaching without using Instagram pictures. In other words, the use of Instagram is effective in teaching writing descriptive texts.

Pictures use in an educational setting fits the idiom: old but gold. There have been plenty of studies revealing how good the use of pictures in the classrooms is. Pictures have been long known to have the ability to help motivate, demonstrate, and instruct the students during a learning process. This study is a sort of complement to the phenomenon as it focuses on researching the use of pictures in a classroom. Specifically, it aims at finding out the effectiveness of the use of picture cues in teaching writing.The study belongs to experimental research involving two groups of experiment and control. The eighth-grade students of a private junior high school in Central Java Indonesia are chosen as the subject of the research during 2017/2018 academic year. Employing a sample population technique, the study involves a total number of 56 students who are equally divided into 28 students as the experimental group and 28 students as the control group. The experimental group is taught using picture cues while the control group is taught without picture cues. Pre-test and post-test are used as techniques to collect the data. As for the data analysis technique, it’s done quantitatively applying both descriptive and inferential statistics.The result of the research shows that there is a significant difference in the students’ writing ability between those taught using picture cues and those who are not. This can be seen from the difference in the mean score between them. The result of the pre-test shows that at the beginning, both experimental and control groups have slightly different ability in writing with the mean scores 51.32 and 47.86 respectively. Meanwhile, the result of the post-test indicates an obvious difference between them in which the experimental group gains 65.75 as its mean score and the control group gets 59.14. Furthermore, the application of Independent t-test calculation results in a score of 0.000, which is lower than 0.05. This means that the use of picture cues is effective. Based on these results, it can be concluded that the use of picture cues is effective to teach writing to students.

After finishing secondary education level, one can hardly expect that he will be able to perform well in English. One cause is that it is assumed that English learning process emphasizes more on the students cognitive rather than on their psychical needs as human beings. Teachers tend to ignore what \'s the so called education from the neck up. Based on the writer's personal experience during her schooling phase, this paper, therefore tries to offer English teachers the humanistic approach applied in an EFL writing class. This approach is worth considering since its main principle is bringing the learning process towards a more affective situation by combining the subject matter to be learned with the feelings, emotions, experiences, and lives of the students. In this paper, the discussion of what humanistic approach is and why it is worth considering especially in a writing class are elaborated in details. In addition, a model of a classroom application will also be given.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, teachers, including Muhammadiyah schools, encountered difficulties in terms of methods in relation to online learning. One of suitable learning model is project-based learning as it able to help students develop various positive characters, including Islamic characters. The purpose of the community service is to provide project-based online learning training for English teachers at Muhammadiyah Elementary Schools in Yogyakarta City to develop the Islamic character of students during the Covid-19 pandemic. The method is carried out through three main stages: pre-activity, main activities, and post-activity. The result is that the English teachers of Muhammadiyah Elementary School has knowledge about project-based online learning to develop the Islamic character of students during the Covid-19 pandemic. Based on the responses, it showed that the participants enthusiastically welcomed the program and hoped that it could be continued.

Education topics and talks on pre-service teacher training program and Lesson Study have individually been discussed and appeared in many journals among disciplines. However, the empirical studies on the issue about the connection between them and how they can relate and benefit one another are limited and rarely done. This study aims at investigating pre-service English teachers' perspectives towards Lesson Study, particularly in terms of their knowledge, experience, and plan for it. This study involved seventeen pre-service teachers (PST) in a teacher education faculty in Indonesia who participated as the research subject. Empirical data were collected through interview and Focus Group Discussion (FGD). Data analysis used a descriptive qualitative method. Results of the study showed that: (1) In terms of knowledge about Lesson Study, all PSTs have good knowledge about Lesson Study. In addition, they also show positive response towards Lesson Study, (2) In terms of experience with Lesson Study, most of the PSTs have had experiences with Lesson Study activities. The experiences mostly occurred when they were being directly involved in Lesson Study activities as students, (3) In terms of the plan to do Lesson Study, the majority of the PSTs are planning to take and do Lesson Study in the future, especially when they become real teachers at schools.