This study is primarily designed for investigating the tertiary students’ perspectives on the writing difficulties of essays. This study was conducted in explanatory research in which quantitative and qualitative data were obtained from the web-based questionnaire and semi-structured interview, then analyzed separately. 21 undergraduate students have enrolled in the survey and 6 of them were invited to the interview section. This research reveals tertiary students' problems in essay writing course are categorized into: affective problems which raise from students’ and lecturers’ attitude while teaching and learning Essay Writing Course, cognitive problems that considered as the difficulties in the areas of writing viewpoint, transferring language, and the process of writing, and linguistic problems in the area of lexico-grammar, vocabulary, and the structure of the essay. Due to the findings, those aspects of academic writing should be serious attention for both EFL students and teachers to overcome the problems. The findings of this study have implications for EFL writing course designers as basic data of material improvement and for researchers particularly in the realms of language and education.

This current study is to examine both EFL instructor and students concerning the use of Duolingo for English speaking proficiency. To serve this purpose, an explanatory research design was employed. A set of questionnaire and semi-structured interview developed as the primary instruments for this current study. One EFL instructor and ten EFL students in one of the private Islamic Senior High School in Situbondo, Indonesia, involved as research participants in this study. In general, they perceived Duolingo in a positive ways. The findings resulted from semi-structured interview carried out with EFL instructor and the samples of the students revealed that Duolingo facilitated him/her in managing the classwork and assessment. However, some participants also reported several drawbacks. Conclusions, limitations, and recommendations were made for the further research.

Kemampuan berbahasa Inggris menjadi salah satu keterampilan yang sangat dibutuhkan seiring dengan kemajuan ilmu pengetahuan dan teknologi. Namun faktanya dari berbagai hasil studi, banyak siswa mulai dari tingkat sekolah dasar, menengah, hingga tinggi masih menghadapi kesulitan meningkatkan kemampuan berbahasa Inggris, terutama kesulitan di bidang keterampilan produktif untuk tujuan komunikatif lisan maupun tertulis. Kesulitan ini juga dialami oleh siswa pada salah satu Madrasah Tsanawiyah di Kabupaten Jember. Oleh karena itu, diperlukan adanya program kegiatan pengabdian masyarakat untuk membantu meningkatan kemampuan komunikasi siswa dalam Bahasa Inggris. Program berupa pelatihan Bahasa Inggris interaktif berbasis cooperative learning ini menjadi salah satu solusi untuk mengatasi permasalahan diatas. Program pelatihan ini dilaksanakan selama kurang lebih tiga bulan antara bulan April – Mei 2019 yang terdiri dari delapan kali pertemuan dan beberapa kali evaluasi. Hasil dari program pelatihan menunjukkan partisipasi aktif dan antusiasme yang tinggi dari siswa sekaligus respon yang positif pihak guru dan sekolah.