No abstract

This study attempts to investigate the choice of theme and thematic progression deployed in one of the considerably best undergraduate theses in a university in Indonesia. The choice of theme and thematic progression is constrained by the audience of a particular culture; therefore, the process of meaning making is culturally situated. The university, in effects, has its standard for grading academic writing, representing a culture that shapes meaning making processes. This study particularly focuses on how theme and thematic progression contributes to making meanings to meet the demands of the institution. This study employs a descriptive-qualitative research design embracing the characteristics of a case study approach. The data obtained from the best undergraduate student's thesis were analyzed from the perspective of Halliday's theme system and its progression. The analysis shows that the three types of theme: topical, interpersonal and textual themes, were realized in the thesis following the conventional features of good academic writings. The topical theme dominantly occupies the theme system chosen for the thesis. This study confirms that a good academic text shares its characteristics across cultures, suggesting that the teaching of academic writing in one culture could refer to the characteristics of good academic texts in other cultures.

Huruf Hijaiyah atau huruf arab digunakan untuk membaca Al-Quran oleh orang-orang muslim di seluruh dunia sejak zaman dahulu. Mempelajari huruf hijaiyah merupakan suatu langkah awal untuk membaca kitab suci Al-Qur’an. Untuk meningkatkan kemampuan membaca huruf hijaiyah pada anak sangat diperlukan pemilihan metode atau media pembelajaran yang tepat serta strategi yang baik, karena memiliki andil yang sangat besar dalam proses pembelajaran. Sistem android merupakan sistem operasi yang banyak diminati oleh masyarakat dunia, sehingga aplikasi pembelajaran yang akan dapat digunakan di mana saja dan kapan saja. Konten yang diperlukan oleh pengguna dapat diakses dengan mudah dan dilengkapi dengan fasilitas multimedia yang mampu menggabungkan antara teks, gambar, dan suara dalam satu device. Dalam media edukasi ini, penulis membuat aplikasi untuk mengenalkan huruf hijaiyah beserta suara cara pengucapanya, yang menarik agar anak usia dini tertarik belajar huruf hijaiyah. Aplikasi pembelajaran yang akan digunakan untuk usia 3 sampai 9 tahun ini berisi materi pembelajaran huruf hijaiyah sampai dengan latihan-latihan.  Perancangan aplikasi pengenalan huruf hijaiyah ini dikembangkan dengan pemrograman berbasis objek yaitu menggunakan Construct 2 berbasis HTML 5.

Abstract:Writing in a second or foreign language seems to be the most difficult language skill for language learners to acquire (Laksmi, 2006;Lestari, 2008;Negari, 2011). Some scholars proposed the implementation of SFL -genre based approach in teaching writing (Derewianka, 1990;Rothery, 1996). However, SFL genre based approach seems to be product or teaching outcomes oriented (Ahn, 2012;Emilia, 2011). Therefore, the concept of scaffolding in which possible supports the process of students" individual development is important to be emerged in the teaching stages of SFL -GBA (Bodrova & Leong, 1998;Mulatsih, 2011). As a result, This study focuses on the issue of scaffoldings in the teaching of writing discussion texts based on SFL -Genre Based Approach. It particularly aims to investigate how scaffolding processes are implemented in the teaching of writing discussion texts based on SFL-GBA and how they improve the students" writing performance. The data rely on teaching and learning process in a classroom with six students in a tertiary level as the focus participants. The method used in the data analysis adopted a qualitative design with reference especially to the theory of the scaffolding and SFL-GBA. The results of analysis show that scaffolding processes are implemented in terms of macro and micro scaffoldings and able to improve the students" writing performance specifically in terms of social function, schematic structures, and language features of discussion genre. It is recommended that future related research should be conducted in more diverse of educational settings to see how scaffoldings are implemented in a variety of teaching practices.

Genre-based pedagogy has been adapted to the Indonesian national curriculum for subject English since 2004. There has been reports of its success and it now remains as an important part of the language curriculum at schools. However, there is a couple of considerations need to be taken seriously in relation with genre-based adaptation. First, genre-based pedagogy, based on systemic functional linguistics (SFL) theory, was developed in Australia in English as a mother tongue and ESL classrooms. Indonesian classrooms are different from those in Australia, not least because they teach English as a foreign language. Secondly, the Indonesian curriculum is prescribed from the centre, and though teachers are required to follow the genre-based approach that has been adopted, it is not clear how well teachers have understood it or implemented it. This article aims to discuss critically the recontextualisation of genre-based pedagogy in the EFL classrooms in Indonesia by investigating the ways teachers interpret and implement the teaching of English under the genre-based pedagogy. The study reported here was drawn from an action research project and involved observing one teaching learning unit of the teachers trained to implement the genre-based pedagogy. The findings indicate that the genre-based pedagogy in Indonesian EFL classrooms has been recontextualised only in part, because the influence of other teaching methods tends to prevail. This is problematic to the interest of the national curriculum to improve students’ English literacy. The main goal of genre pedagogy which aims to uphold social justice through equal distribution of knowledge will not prevail if the principles of the pedagogy itself is not recontextualised properly.