Sabtu, 20 Desember 2008

Teaching Concept

Discourse Analysis
Ditulis pada Januari 28, 2008 oleh Pakde sofa

Discourse Analysis

The Functions of Language
Language exists to serve three main functions: experiential, interpersonal, and textual. Language experiential function serves language users’ needs to make meanings of their ‘world’, to label the various experiences they have. In other words, language is used to represent users’ thoughts. It is user to label things, feelings, attitudes, [...]

DIarsipkan di bawah: Bahasa, Inglish | 5 Komentar »
General Instructional Objectives
Ditulis pada Januari 25, 2008 oleh Pakde sofa


General Instructional Objectives


Teaching Aids

There are many kinds of teaching aids used by English teachers in teaching EFL. The following are the aids which you have to be familiar with.
A. Visual Aids.
A.1. Blackboard
Blackboard is available in almost every classroom. It is used in almost every language teaching. The teacher usually writes definition, words, [...]


UNDERSTANDING STUDENTS’ NEEDS AND INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN
Ditulis pada Januari 25, 2008 oleh Pakde sofa

UNDERSTANDING STUDENTS’ NEEDS AND INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN

Instructional design process is very complex. It is a systematic planning of instruction in which attention is ed elements (Kempf 1985:11). The four fundamental elements are objectives, materials, method, and evaluation. These elements are interrela sted in different ways, being sequential linear order (Tyler), reciprocal (Taba, Kemp), and sequentially [...]

DIarsipkan di bawah: Bahasa, Inglish | 1 Komentar »
Menengok Bahasan Psikolinguistik
Ditulis pada Januari 24, 2008 oleh Pakde sofa

Menengok Bahasan Psikolinguistik

Hakikat Psikolinguistik

Subpokok bahasan di atas telah membahas topik awal yang sangat penting dalam bab pengantar terhadap kajian psikolinguistik, yakni hakikat psikolinguistik. Pada pembahasan tersebut, dikemukakan sejumlah definisi psikolinguistik yang diberikan para ahli. Meskipun beragam, namun semua definisi secara umum merujuk kepada kajian bahasa dalam sudut pandang psikolog.
Selain itu, untuk mempermudah Anda dalam [...]

Cakupan Semantik
Ditulis pada Januari 22, 2008 oleh Pakde sofa

CAKUPAN SEMANTIK
Hakikat Belajar dan Pembelajaran
Dari uraian di atas; kita dapat menyimpulkan bahwa makna bahasa, khususnya makna kata, terpengaruh oleh berbagai konteks. Makna kata dapat dibangun dalam kaitannya dengan benda atau objek di luar bahasa. Dalam konsepsi ini, kata berperan sebagai label atau pemberi nama pada benda-benda atau objek-objek yang berada di alam semesta. [...]

DIarsipkan di bawah: Bahasa, Inglish | 9 Komentar »
The Principles of Classification Essays
Ditulis pada Januari 20, 2008 oleh Pakde sofa

The Principles of Classification Essays

Classification is one of the patterns of exposition. There are some principles in writing classification essays.

The principles of classification

One principle is applied at each level of classification

The member of the categories should not be overlap

It should be complete

Organizing the classification essay

Introductory paragraph

At least one developmental [...]


THE ESSAY
Ditulis pada Januari 20, 2008 oleh Pakde sofa

THE ESSAY

Elements of Essay
Main Parts of an Essay
An essay has three main parts: an introduction, a body, and a conclusion.

The introductory paragraph attracts the reader’s attention and informs the reader what your main topic of discussion will be. An introductory paragraph has two parts:

general statements

a thesis statement

[...]


THE PARAGRAPH
Ditulis pada Januari 16, 2008 oleh Pakde sofa

THE PARAGRAPH

The Elements of a Paragraph

A paragraph is a group of related sentences which develops one main idea or one main topic. A good paragraph has five basic elements: a topic, a topic sentence, supporting sentences, unity and coherence, A topic is what the paragraph is about or what [...]


Discourse Analysis
Ditulis pada Januari 28, 2008 oleh Pakde sofa

Discourse Analysis

The Functions of Language

Language exists to serve three main functions: experiential, interpersonal, and textual. Language experiential function serves language users’ needs to make meanings of their ‘world’, to label the various experiences they have. In other words, language is used to represent users’ thoughts. It is user to label things, feelings, attitudes, events, and others that constitute our environment.

The interpersonal function of language serves users’ needs to establish and maintain social relathionship with other members of the society. Language is used for a wide range of communication purposes users are trying to achieve. They use it to perform actions such as instructing, informing, inviting, showing likes and dislikes, and others. At the same time, users reflect their views on their social status in relation to the people they interact with. Social values are also shared and maintained through people’s use of languge.

Textual function of language, on the other hands refers to the capacity of language to ‘embody’ language users’ thoughts and actions. It gives forms to concepts and meanings language users intend to express by means of textual features or elements. The three functions of language can be identified at the same time in any piece of language used by speakers and writers.

You have learned about the three main functions of language. It is, then, time to check your comprehension of the above dicussions. Now, do the following exercises. When you finish, check your answers with the key answers provided in the last section of the module.


DISCOURSE AND CONTEXT OF SITUATION

Field of Discourse

Defined as language doing some jobs in some contexts of situation the job of a discourse is to represent the meanings of its context of situation. In representing such meanings of discourses may vary in their qualities, particularly in their unity and coherence. To judge the quality of discourse it is necessary to analyze the context of situation which can be inferred from the elements of the discourse. In analyzing a context of situation we focus attention on its three components or aspects, i.e. Its field of discourse, tenor of discourse, and its mode of discourse. In analyzing the field of discourse we need to identify its processes, participants, and its attendant circumstances.


Tenor of Discourse

If the field discourse refers to the content of discourse i.e. the processes, the participants, and the attendant circumstances involved WITHIN a discourse, the tenor of discourse refers to the PERSONS who are interesting by means of a discourse, i.e. the persons who are in charge of the production, the transmission, and the nature of the RELATIONS obtaining between the persons respective ROLES. The role relations comprise three aspects: the relevant AGENT ROLES, the relevant DYADIC STRUCTURE, and the relevant SOCIAL DISTANCE. These three aspects of the role relations are closely related to whether or not the social activity involving the discourse is institutionalized. An institutionalized activity tends to involve specific agent roles, a hierarchical dyadic structure, and a social distance that leans towards the maximal degree

Mode of Discourse

The mode of discourse refers to how language plays its role in social activities. The mode of discourse comprises three components or aspects too. They are LANGUAGE ROLE, PROCESS SHARING, and MEDIUM. The role of language may be CONSTITUTIVE or ANCILLARY. The process sharing ranges from the most ACTIVE to the most PASSIVE. Process sharing is closely related to CHANNEL, which may be PHONIC or GRAPHIC. The component, i.e. Medium, is divided into SPOKEN MEDIUM and WRITTEN MEDIUM. Medium refers to how linguistic elements are organized in a discourse.

Discourse and Field of Discourse

Entitled “Discourse and The Field of Discourse” this unit is mainly concerned with how elements of the field of discourse are represented by language, particularly by the experiential component of the semantic system. As the representation of the field of discourse, the experiential component is similarly composed of three kinds of elements, i.e. processes, participants, and attendant circumstances. Processes may be classified into three major types, i.e. material, mental, and relational processes, and three minor types, i.e. behavioral, verbal, and existential processes.

Each of the process types involves specific types of participant. The participant types include: Actor - Goal/Patient, Senser - Phenomenon, Carrier - Attribute, Identified - Identifier, Behaver, Sayer - Target, Existent, Beneficiary, and Range. Processes may also involve attendant circumstances. Circumstantial elements include: Extent and Location in Time and Space, Manner, Cause, Accompaniment, Matter, and Role.

The processes, participants, and circumstances which constitute the content of a discourse are interwoven in a coherent way, and are expressed by appropriate lexical and grammatical elements. By studying the lexical and grammatical elements we will be able to analyze the processes, participants, and circumstances which constitute that content of the discourse.


Discourse and Tenor of Discourse

The tenor of discourse is represented in discourse by the Interpersonal function of language. In the English Interpersonal system there are four major speech functions, i.e. statements, questions, offers, and commands, by means of which addressers and addressees exchange information as well as goods and services in appropriate, effective, and efficient ways. This is made possible by organizing pieces of information into propositions which consists of Moods and Residues. The Mood plays a vital role in interpersonal interactions because it embodies the essential elements required in interpersonal exchanges, i.e. persons/subjects, time reference, modality, and polarity. The verbal operators, which are limited in number but quite adequate in function, enable speakers and listeners to interact effectively and efficiently. With the aid of the Residue system, which incorporates a great variety of predicators, complements, and adjuncts, addressers and addresses are able to exchange practically all kinds of information, goods, and services.


Discourse and Mode of Discourse

The mode of discourse, which is the component of a context of situation that specifically refers to language, is represented by the textual function of language. The job of the textual component of the semantic system is to organize message. In the context of sentence, a message takes the form of theme plus rheme. The theme constitutes what a speaker wants to focus on. In functions as the starting point for the message to be expressed. Therefore, the theme is represented by the sentence constituent that occupies the front position. The elements following the theme constitute the theme, i.e. the elements of the message that relate to the theme.

A theme may be unmarked, i.e. typical, or marked, i.e. no typical. A theme is classified as a simple theme if its elements constitute one single constituent of a sentence, e.g. a nominal group, a nominalization, a prepositional phrase, an adverbial phrase etc. The other type is multiple theme, i.e. a message theme that consists of two or more units that constitute different constituent Unlike a simple theme which is always a topical/experiential theme, a multiple theme consists of one topical theme plus one or more non-topical themes, i.e. textual and/or interpersonal themes.

Every sentence-type - declarative, imperative, explanative, WH-interrogative, or Yes/No-interrogative - has a specific theme. Besides the specific theme - mostly a topical one - there may be one or more additional themes, so that the theme becomes a multiple theme. Except in Yes/No-questions, the additional themes are textual and/or interpersonal themes.

The Structure of Discourse

As members of a socio-cultural group we have been involved in various of social activity. This frequent involvement has made us aware that every type of social activity is structure in a distinct way, i.e.it consists of certain essential elements which are arranged in a specific way. Since a discourse constitutes the verbal expression of a social activity, the discourse would naturally have a structure which corresponds to that of the social activity it expresses verbally.

From experience we also know that structure is not the property of individual discourse and individual social activity only, but it is shared by discourse and social activities which belong to the same type. Every discourse type has a distinct structure which corresponds to the structure of the type of social activity that is verbally expressed by the discourse type. Classroom discourse would have a structure that differs from that of shopping discourse or problem-solution discourse.

The structure various types of discourse constitutes one of the focal objects of discourse analysis .The other focal object is the texture of discourse, i.e. how its meaning elements are interrelated. The structure and the texture of a discourse play a very important role in determining its unity and its coherence.

Discourse Structure and Contextual Confifuration

Every discourse type has a definite structure. It is for this reason that we can easily distinguish one discourse type from another, our knowledge of the structures of various discourse types also enables us to judge whether a sequence of utterances is a non discourse, an incomplete discourse, or a complete one. It also enable us to judge whether or not a discourse is well-formed. We have developed this knowledge mainly through our socio-cultural experience by participating in various kinds of social activity.

The various discourse types are technically referred to as registers or genres of discourse. Every registers or genre is closely related to a specific social activity because a discourse is essentially the verbal expression of the related social activity. Therefore the structure of the discourse (type)necessarily corresponds to the structur of the (type of) social activity. the basic unit of the social activity is technically referred to as contextual configuration, or shortened as CC. It is the structure of the CC that is actually expressed verbally by its related discourse. Every CC is structure in accordance with how a specific field of discourse is merged with a specific tenor and a specific mode of discourse. Our knowledge of the structures of various types of discourse as well as their relations to the structures of their CC’s enables us to participate smoothly and effectively in a greet number of discourses and their related social activities


Discourse Structure and Its Elements

A discourse is a semantic unit. Therefore, its structure consists of units of meaning which are exchanged by the agent roles, i.e. the speaker/writer and the addressee. The structure involves obligatory and optional elements may be iterated, but the iteration of elements has to be performed according to certain rules.

In analyzing the structure of a discourse we have to identify and describe its obligatory and optional elements, the sequence of those elements, and the iteration of certain elements.


The Texture of Discourse

Unlike discourse structure, which refers to the sequencing of the obligatory and optional elements of a discourse corresponding to a specific social activity, discourse texture refers to the interrelations of semantic elements contained in the individual messages of a discourse. Therefore, texture is not determined by the completeness of a discourse; an incomplete discourse may also have good texture.

Discourse texture is determined by how the meaning elements contained in the individual messages of a discourse are related to each other; the better the interrelations the better the texture. These semantic interrelations are realized by appropriate lexico-grammatical elements. Thus, discourse texture is primarily a network of relations among linguistic elements. These relations are referred to as co-textual relations, because they exist within the text itself, without directly involving its context of situation.

Althoug texture also contribute to the establishment of discourse unity, partioulary its co-textual unity,the main role of texture is elements as an integral network.


Texture, Cohesive Ties, and Cohesive Devices

The texture of a discourse is composed of the meaning relations among the individual messages that are involved in the discourse. These meaning relations are referred to as cohesive ties. Cohesive ties may be co-referential (i.e. referring to the same entity), or co-extensional (i.e. belonging to the semantic field)

Cohesive ties area formally represented by cohesive devices, i.e. lexico-grammatical elements which signify componential relations (such as ‘reference’ substitution’, and ‘ellipsis) pr organic relations (such ‘conjunctives’ and ‘adjacency pairs’. Such devices area classified as grammatical devices. Besides, there are lexical devices, which are sub-divided into those that signify componential relations (such and those that signify organic relations (such as ‘continuatives’).

Grammatical and lexical devices represent non-structural cohesion. In addition to these there are special device, such as ‘parallelism’, ‘theme-rheme’, and ‘Given-New’, which represent structural cohesion.

Discourse Texture and Coherence

The texture of a discourse is essentially a network of intermessages and intra-messages realtions of meaning. These meaning inter-realtions are realized by cohesive chains (of meaning) and bya chain interactions. Themore elements of a messages the greater the contribution to forming a cohesive texture.

This contributions will be still greater if each cohesive chain involves a large number of successive messages. Besides cohesive chains, chains interactions also play a very important role in developing the texture of a discourse. A chain interactions is a situation in which at least two elements oa a a cohesives chain stand in the same realtins to at least to elements ao another cohesive chain. The relations may be “actor an actions” “actions and acted-upon”, “actor and location”, etc. The more elemetns of a cohesive chain or other chains, the more cohesive the texture of a discourse is, the more coherent the discourse will be.

Besides the number and the length of cohesive chains which exist among successive messages, as well as the length and the number of chain interactions which involve the cohesive chains, the interrelationships of chain inteactions are also very important. The chain interactions within a discourse should be related to each other in such a way that they from an integrated network of chain interactions.

No chain interaction should be isolated from the network. Otherwise, the cohesiveness of the discourse texture will be less than optimal, and thus the discourse will not have optimal coherence.


General Instructional Objectives
Ditulis pada Januari 25, 2008 oleh Pakde sofa

General Instructional Objectives

Teaching Aids

There are many kinds of teaching aids used by English teachers in teaching EFL. The following are the aids which you have to be familiar with.

A. Visual Aids.
A.1. Blackboard
Blackboard is available in almost every classroom. It is used in almost every language teaching. The teacher usually writes definition, words, or sentences, he is teaching on the blackboard. He can draw some pictures to help him teach effectively. The teacher should plan and use the blackboard skillfiully in order to teach the language effiectively.

A.2. Picture.
Picture are very useful and effective media in EFL teaching. It can be used for teaching, speaking, listening comprehension, structure, vocabulary and cultural contents etc. In order to be effective and increase the students’ interest, the pictures used should be clear, and large enough to be seen by the whole class. Pictures taken from magazines, calendars advertisement are recommended to be taken and used for teaching EFL.

A.3. Flashcards.
Flashcards are a set of cards, measuring about 30 by 25 cm, which contain pictures or words on one side and their meaning on the other. These cards can be used to teach structures, vocabulary, etc. The flashcars containing words can be used for teaching games in which groups of students are holding cards in order to form the desired structure.

A.4. Chalts.
Charts contain series of pictures in the form of simple (Irawing (stick figures). These charts are used for giving oral drills in using structures, vocaloulary and speaking. They can also be used to teach guided writing in vvhich students are exposed to series of pictures and told to write a story about these pictures.

A.5. Conversion Cards.
Conversion cards are set of cards containing signs such as +, -, and ? which can be used to drill the students in transforming one structure (pattern) into another structure. e.g., from positive statement into negative one.

A.6. Calendar.
Calendar, a set of days, date, week and months of the year, and holiday marked, is a practical aid for teaching English tenses.

A.7. Flannel Boards.
Flannel boards are visual aid made up a board covered with flannel (woolen material) on which some pictures can be attached. Because of the replaceable and moveable pictures flannel board can be used for many purposes in EFL teaching such as for teaching writing, structure, vocabulary etc.

A.8. Models.
Imitative object, like toys, are useful means for teaching vocabulary. Since students can touch the model, or remove them with their hands, model can make the students remember the things longer than what they are taught by using pictures. Some common models used in EFL teaching are model clock, and coins or bank notes.

A.9. Maps.
Maps which are usually applied in geography lesson are used in EFL teaching. The detail drawing of maps, indicating roads, streets, buildings, rivers, and bridges, etc. can be used to teach students how to show direction in speaking and writing lesson.

A. 10. Slides.
A slide is a single film mounted on a frame, which contains pictures of various kinds. Slides are projected by using slide projector on the screen. The slide is very effectively used for various skills in teaching EFL. Since any pictures can be filmed, the use of slides are very flexible. Modem slide projeclors are operated by using remote control.

A. 11 Film Strips.
Film strips are series of films projected on the screen by using a special projector. Since they contain related pictures, they can be used for teaching oral as well as writing skills. The individual picture can be shown on the screen as long as it is needed.

A. 12. OHP (Overhead Projector)
This instrurnent is widely used loday. The teacher can draw pictures or write anything he wants to teach on a plastic transparency which are then projected on the screen. This instrument can be used for teaching any skills desired, such as writing, speaking, vocabulary ctc. even dictation. Well planned materials presented through OHP will make the teaching more effective.

B. Audio Aids.
B.13. Tapes.
Tapes are very familiar instruments. When materials are well prepared or well recorded, the lesson will be more interesting and effiective. Tapes can be used to teach aural as well, oral lesson such as speaking, listening comprehension etc.

B.14. Language Laboratory.
The new development in the use of tape as an audio aid is language laboratory. It is a room equipped with hearing and speaking instrument. Students can listen to recorded materials as well as record their own voice. In this way language laboratory can be used for individual as well as group practice. The teacher then can teach different skills, sush as what he can do with the tape recorder.

C. Audio Visual Aids
C.15. Films.
Films which are widely known can serve as a very useful means of teaching EFL. There are some films which are produced maily for teaching English. If English teachers can obtain good films they will get good advantages of using these films, because films can provide a wide range of stimuli, increase students’ interest, help improve students’ listening as well as speaking skills.

C.16. Television.
TV is now used effectively by EFL teachers. The TV programs which are planned carefully can reach a wide range of audience. Some video-taped materials are now available in the market. When they are well prepared and selected carefully, it can give advantages to the teacher, like those given by film.


Media Theory

The English teachers are recommended to use instructional media. The reasons are the media they are going to use will motivate the students to learn, will increase their interest, and will widen the channel of communication between the teacher and the students, so that the teaching will be more communicative and effective.

In fact learning is the acquisition of skills and knowledge which are in fact the result of taking, the responses caused by stimuli into the students’ mind which create sensory impression. The task of the teacher is to provide various kinds of stimuli, which can be done by using media. Besides, media can also serve as a substitute for the things which are difficult to find.

From the point of view of students life, the experience two realities one school reality and outside school reality which is more varied and rich. Media can function as a means of providing both realities. In this way media can make the students more interested in their study.

However, it demands more attention and ability of the teacher to use them in order that their use becomes more effective. The effectiveness of using media is also determined by teacher’s attitudes towards media.

Instructional media has three characteristics. First is fixative characteristics which refers to their ability to record the information and event, and reserve then for futures reproduction. Second, manipulative property (characteristics) which refer to their ability to transform of an object or event in many ways. Third, distributive property which refer to their ability to transport any event through space to millions of audience so that they can view the event at the same time and form. These three properties gave advantages to English teachers, such as it is possible to show or demontrate something which without media the students cannot experience this thing.


Media Selection Before you select media for teaching EFL , you have to ask five questions namely:

Whether the attainment of objectives requires a particular media.

What media property will help achieve the objective.

What particular response from the students I require from the use of media.

How the class will likely respond to the media.

How to evaluate the effectiveness of the media.

According to Curzon, the teacher had better not use media if the media could not accelerate, intensify and consolidate the students behavioral changes. According to Gagle media could contribute effectively to the growth of specific learning capabilities. Kemp (1985) mentions five criteria for selecting media namely:

Appropriateness refers to the suitability of media with the teaching

Level of sophistication refers to the relevancy of media with the level of students.

Cost or the expenditure which should be considered by the teacher and compared with learning benefit anticipated.

Availability refers to whether the media are within reach. If they are not available the teacher should find the alternative.

Technical quality refers to the guality of media in perforning thier functior well.

Besides knowing the criteria you have to know detail charateristics of the media that you possibly select in the future.

Computers can also be used to learn social science such as language. The advantages are that computer never gets tired can evaluate the students progress can accommodate many students control the leaming precess and functions with less error. Its limitations are they are expensive indiviuaIy learning is difficult to arange most program are in matematical science.

Filmstrips and slides are used in EFL teaching. Their advantages are the individual pictures can be help long on the screen for a discussion, pictorial or graphic can be used along or in combination the size permits easy storage they are cheap and do not require dark room. The sequence of slides call be altered out not of filmstrips they are easily made. the limitation of filmstrip are that the sequence cannot be altered less altractive compared with film carmot be made easily in the school.

Games and simulation is a simplified and operational model of a real life situation. Its characteristics are that is has rules structure and time limit. It enable students to take part in many vicarious events and roles. Its advantages are the students can seek problems it satisfied the students placing student in more realistic enviromnents can be coupled with the use of media and generate students interest. On the other hand its limitations are it often distort social situation, time consuming, and require only a few people.

Films are of two kinds namely 8 rnm and 16 mm. The 8 mm films are easy to operate by teachers as well as by students individualy or in groups. Films used as instruction media have some advantages namely they can record events as they happen can be used to create animation of drawings and bring other nation and people on the screen. However they have limitation are films are expensive and are not always suitable for the subject taught.

OHP is a projector operaled by using transparency on which the teacher writes or draws pictures which are projected on a screen. they have some advantages such as, because of its placement the teacher can have eye contact with the students while using the OHP, the OHP can be used in a bright room, and their materials can be produced easily by the teacher. The limitations are they need careful arrangement to avoid obstruction of the students sight, the limited number of OHP may cause some difficulties in scheduling their use.

Pietures are two dimensional visual representation of persons, places or things on the forrn of photographs, sketches, eartoons, murals, or charts, graphs, and maps. As instructional media pictures have advantages such as they are cheap, gave the same experience to the students, their visual detail enable students to study complicated object, can by used to correct misconception, stimulate further studies and can fokus students attention The limittation of pictures are that the size and distance of the pictures can cause distortion, the lack of color limits the proper interpretation, and students do not always know how to read pictures.

Tape recorders are electrical instruments with which a cassette containing recorded speech of native speakers is played. As a means of teaching EFL, tape recorder have their advantages and limitations. The advantages are they are widely available, can record events or people for later use, and their limitation are it is difficultt to locate the recorded item if it is in the midde of the cassette and due to the different systems it is somtime difficult to play one cassette with different reccord players.

Television is an electrical device to transmit still in or moving images with accompanying sound over a wire or through space. The device provide the viewers with program broadcast from TV station Because of this competent, TV has been used as a means of teaching. The advantages of TV can provide common base of experience for all viewers, brings to classroom people, places and events, helps students to become more critical viewers, enable students to see what is happening at that time, it help overcome the problems of the lack of talented teachers, video tape helps the program to be recorded and reproduced. The limitations are that the teaching programs of TV are difficult to match with the school prograrns, detailed images are difficult for students to see in a large room, it makes the students inattentive, some teahers consider TV as a threat that it might replace thern.


The Technique of Producing Sample Media

Pictures can be drown in many ways. Before you draw pictures you have to consider the type of paper you are going to use, the size of the pictures and the type of pictures. In order that the pictures will last long you have to think of the way to protect the pictures from decaying. If you cannot draw pictures well you can copy and enlarge the pictures by using methods of sguares, slide projector or pantograph. To make the pictures clear use contrasting colors.

Flash cards are sets of cards containing pictures of action, things etc. The size is 25 x 30 cm. Behind the flash cards the names of the pictures or the letters are written in small letters. The pictures drawn are in the forms of stick figures, pictures in detail, or photographs cut out from a magazine.

Conversion cards are sel of small cards measuring 10 x 15 cm which + - ? signs used in transformation drill. A chart is a display board made from thick paper or cardboard. It contains related pictures usually in stick figures. Charts can also be used for calendars by providing slots for days, date and months.

Flannel boards are made from boards or plywood covered with flannel cloth on which some teaching materials in the form of cut out pictures pasted in the back with rough texture are placed. These materials are moveable and replaceable so that they can provide the students with various visual stimuli. Puppets can be made from different rnaterials among others from paper bags, from ball, from cardboard and cement. In using paper bags, you just draw a face, twist the two corners for ears, and held the bottom with rubber band on your wrist. In using balls, you draw faces, on the ball, make holes for the neck, and use stitched clothes for its dress. The cement plaster can be made into heads, make faces and paint them. A short piece of bamboo stuck to the heads can be their necks which are then covered with clothes for their dresses. The bamboo should be big enough for your finger. A figur cut out from a cardboard can be a puppet, by cutting hands into three section, and then join them with strings, and then using barnboo sticks for the body and hands to move them can make the conversation lively.

Clock face can be made from thick cardboard of 25 x 25 cm. The clock is draw on the board which is covered with white paper. The bour hand and the minute hand can be made from strong cardboard and painted black. The hands are fastened in the center of the clock by using paper fastener and small flat rings attached to it.


PLANNING ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEST

The Significance of English Tests

The reasons for giving test to the students among others are to motivate students, to reinforce their learning and to measure the student performance in language learning. Beside it can also be a feed-back to the teacher to improve the future process of teaching and learning. The teacher will be able to locate areas of difficulty the students are facing. According to Heaton (1988) there are four approaches in language testing namely

essay translation approach according to which the forms of the tests ara essay writings translation and grammatical analysis.

structural linguistic approach. which test student language skill separately, concentrating on the student mastery of phonology, grammar and vocabulary. These are tested by using sentences separated from the context.

integrative approach which emphasize meaning and the total communicative effect of the language. The integrative characteristic is indicated by the use of cloze tests and dictation, which are assumed to measure different skills.

communicative approach, this approach has similarity with the integrative approach, both approaches emphasize meaning in their test rather than structures and form. However, there differences between these two. Communicative approach is totally concerned with how a language is used for communication.

According to Harris (1969) there are four purposes of language test.

screening tests, used to determine the readness to join programs, such as an entrance examination used to select the students who are ready to study in a university.

placement tests which serve to place students according their level of competence.

diagnostic test which are used to diagnose the students’ strengths and weaknesses.

aptitude test, to measure and to predict the student performance.

achievement test used to measure the extent to which the students have achieved the objectives.

evaluative tests which are used to evaluate the whole programs. This kind of tests are usually used in educational research.

Viewed from the maker of the test there are two kinds. a) The teacher made test assumed to have content validity since is constructed on the basis of curriculum the students have learned. b) The standardized tests prepared by experts, and tried many times to improve their validity and reliability. They are used for wider population, who the test makers are not familiar with


Charactics of Good Tests
The characteristics of a good test are:

valid

reliable

practical and

discriminating

A test is said to be valid if it measure what to be measures. There are several types of validity namely

Face validity which indicates that a test looks valid to other testers especially its appearance, composition, items, organization and contents.

Content validity indicates that the test reflects what the students have learned or the contents of the curriculum.

Empirical validity which shows that the results of the test have high correlation with the results of the valid criterion measure.

Concurrent validity when the results of the test is correlated significantly with the present results of valid rating or test.

Predictive validity when the results of the test are highly correlated with the results of later valid measurement.

Construct validity is indicated by the test ability to measure specific characteristics in accordance with the theory of language behaviour or language learning.

Reliability. A test is said to be reliable if it can produce stable or consistent scores although the test is administered at different times. Reliability is a very important characteristic of a test a test is not valid unless it is reliable. There are some factors which affect the reliability of a test, namely the sample performance, the number of items, the administration of the test, the student motivation and other factors beyond the control of the tester (such as student sickness etc.).

There are several techniques of estimating the reliability of a test.

By using test retest technique. A test is used twice and then the results are correlated to see the consistency of measuring.

By using parallel forms of the same test. Both are administered and then the results are correlated. The coefficient of correlation will indicate the reliability of the test.

Split-half technique with which a test is divided into two and then both are correlated using a particular formula. The result will indicate the whole reliability of a test.

Other characteristics of a good test is practicality which involves considering some factors when selecting the test, namely economy, ease of administration, and ease of interpretation. Economy involves considering whether the test will take a long time to administer and to score. Ease of administration involves the consideration of whether the test is easy or complicated to administer. ease of interpretation includes the consideration of the reliability, the validity and norms for appropriate reference group. Finally, the characteristic of a good test is discriminating which refers to the capacity of the test to discriminate among the testees (peserta ujian) performances that is differentiate the bright from the low candidates.


Table of Specification (Kisi-kisi Tes)

Before you write any test, the thing to do is make a kind of table of specification. It is a blue print of your test, in the form of table or matrix, which contains a sample of performance and types of tests you are going to use. The sample performance which are going to be tested are selected on the bases of the objectives of a particular instructional plan (such as lesson plan, etc.). The selection of the types of test depends on the objectives. There are two types of tests, oral and written test. The following step is to determine the number of item you are going to write, and their percentages. The number of item is decided on the basis of what is emphasized.

To write an achievement test some factors should be considered. The table of specification performances should include covered by a lesson unit and what have been learned by students in several meetings. The types of test selected are oriented to the types of sample performances mentioned in the lesson objectives and the number of items should be determined on the basis of time allotted to do the test.

In writing a final semester test, the first thing to consider is the semester program. The table of specification should contain wide variety of sample performances, selected on the basis of their priority, and the number of items should be based on the time allotment.

That is his English cannot be understood because of his serious mistakes in structure vocabulary and pronunciation. On the contrary, the student performance is given the score of 4 if he can express his opinion well, on his expression can be understood well with good grammar pronunciation (streis and intonation). So the components must be clearly stated such as grammar vocabulary, pronunciation and the organization of ideas. The ecah component should be discribed in term of its its characteristic. For example, students grammar is still full of mistakes, his pronounciation is good the contents is in accordance with his topic, his vocabulary is used correctly.

For objectives scores, the measurement should be repeated many times to reduce their subjectivity. It would be better if the teacher uses more than one rater in scoring the performance. The scores of each rater (penilai) are combined and then averaged. The result is the score he should use.

Table
Before you begin to write a particular test examine the previous table of specification, which contains specific information of the number of items you are going to write. After that you still to summarize these items what skills are going to be measured, the technique of measurement used, the aspects to be measured, kinds of items, and the technique of scoring. These are included in one table with five column. see the following examples.


Writing Good Test and Interpreting The Test Rusults

Language performance can be evaluated by using objective and subjective types of test. Before writing any test. the first using to do is to make a table of specification which summarize what type of sill is going to be measure the technique of measurement, aspect to be measured, kinds of iteg and method of scoring. After this, and considering the previous table of specification final table can be made. In accordance with the technical guide of the implementation of 1994 English curriculum this table should contain language skill to be evaluated, themes, information about this theme class, indicator showing the desired achievement, number of item the form of the item and the item number. In this unit some techniques of writing tests have been presented such as how to write objective tests, comprehension tests, listening comprehension tests, reading comprehension tests, writing and speaking tests, and vocabulary tests.

Finally the statistical techniques of interpreting test scores have been discussed these include making table of frequency and ranking the scores, to get meaningful interpretation of the scores. Besides some formulas are presented to find the mean of the scores and the standard deviation of the scores. The concept of mode and median, as well as the concept of normal curve have also be presented which can be used to compare individual scores with the score of students as a whole.


SPECIAL TECHNIQUES FOR PROBLEM CLASSES

How to Deal with Weak Classes

Up to now you have learned something about the techniques of dealing with weak classes or less able classes. Less able classes consist of students who are weak in productive aspect. To cope with this kind of class three principles are used to modify the techniques and activities. These principles are: a) limitation of aims, b) simplification of materials and c) tighter control over learner production.

Limitation of aims can be carried out by concentrating on perceptive skills in teaching English to the students. This means understanding is more emphasized rather than producing a language. Three techniques are used namely

questions and answer in the mother tangue (Indonesian)

question in the foreign language and answers in the mother tongue

completion of a table of information from reading or listening

As for the simplification of materials you can teach your students to understand only. For teaching structure especially the new one, the students are taught not to produce it but hear it and respond to it, because it will take time for the weak learner to understand its form and meaning. Besides this technique, students are taught the new structure with one verb only.

To carry out the technique of tighter control you can use simple presentation and controlled exercise. Besides this, you can also use phase out technique namely by erasing some parts of dialogue which should be memorized by the students.


How to Deal with Mixed Ability Classes

So far you have learned that mixed ability class is a class which contain at least three of their categories of very able, able, less able students. To deal with group the teacher should be able to organize the groups that are representative of different ability levels or mixed.

Dictation is useful for mixed ability class because it can provide the students with various activities. The very able students can write the whole text dictated, whereas the able students are given a text, with some missing words. The less able students are given a multiple choice.

Reading can be taught to the students by using work sheet of different types. The very able students are given difficult questions whereas the able and the less able students are given multiple choice questions.

Writing exercises of free composition. Writing a letter based on the text for mixed ability groups is given by using some particular techniques. For group A (the very able students) an exercise of writing a letter based on certain information is given, whereas for group B - the students are given a task to write a straight forward letter, after the teacher discuss the contains with the students. For group C (less able students) the exercise is in the form of guided composition on the form of substitution tables, or sentence completion.

In teaching speaking to the group of mixed ability, the use of dialogues or small drama recommeded.

In this unit you have learned some terms such as:
Streaming
non streaming
mixed ability
work card
sheet card
guided composition


How to Deal with Large Classes
A large class is a class of 30 or more students. A large class usually create management and organization problems. To deal with this large class some techniques and activities are suggested. Those are:

Reorganizing the teaching room to allow sufficient space for activities such as drama, role play etc.

Pair-work, students are paired with each other and told to work in pair

Group work - students are grouped and told to finish a particular task together

Class section. Class is modified for example it is devided into two so that the teacher can attend to each from time to time

Team teaching. The teacher cooperates with his colleague in teaching the large class.


How to Deal with Classroom Physical Condition Problems


So far you have learned the problems of classroom physical conditions. These include the problem of

brightness

temperature

accoustics

lines of vision

layout of the desk

the possibility of moving the furniture

the significance of other furniture

a storage

facilities for displaying pictures,

You have also learned how to overcome these problems. Some suggestions on how to overcome these problems have also been presented. The most important point is that you have to do your best to implement these suggestions when you teach your students.
Some words which you have to remember are:
brightnes
acoustics feature
lines of vision
patterns
echo
pair work
group work
furniture
buletin board
black board
facial expressions
display

Based on The book title TEFL IV by Nurbahri















UNDERSTANDING STUDENTS’ NEEDS AND INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN
Ditulis pada Januari 25, 2008 oleh Pakde sofa

UNDERSTANDING STUDENTS’ NEEDS AND INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN


Instructional design process is very complex. It is a systematic planning of instruction in which attention is ed elements (Kempf 1985:11). The four fundamental elements are objectives, materials, method, and evaluation. These elements are interrela sted in different ways, being sequential linear order (Tyler), reciprocal (Taba, Kemp), and sequentially linear and reciprocal (Stenhouse). Three examples of instructional models are given in this module. PPSI model is simple. Dick & Carey’s model is more complex. Kemp’s model is even more complex.

To be comprehensive and exact Kemp has suggested ten elements in the instructional design process in which the learning needs of students is placed in the middle of the oval pattern to show its importance in the instructional planning system.

An instructional design process is beneficial for the school administrator who wants the evidence of successful learning, the designer who wants evidence that a satisfactory program has been designed, the teacher who wants to see learners gain the required competencies, and the learners who want to be successful in their studies.

Before instructional design is made, data should be collected from different sources. In the curriculum change these data can be obtained from the students, the parents, the teachers, and the society as well. Data can be obtained by using questionnaires, interviews, school observation and even tests.


Analysis and Identification of Students’ Needs In Learning English As a Foreign Language

Students have widely different needs because of differences in cultural background, age, and previous educational background. Even if they are homogeneous, they have different learning styles and needs.

Indonesian educational system is centralized so that the same high school curriculum of 1994 has been used throughout Indonesia since its implementation in 1994. Though national survey revealed that both students and parents expect that the teaching of English be directed towards the acquisition of oral communication, the administrators and policy makers in the national system of education determined thet reading skill is the first priority. However, the EFL syllabus being made flexible, allows the EFL teachers to use topics that interest their students as long as they derive from the same theme.


The Priority of Students’ Needs In Learning English As a Foreign Language

In learning English as a Foreign language generaly students try acquiring both receptive and productive skills for communication. Receptive skill includes listening and reading which are passive skills. On the other hand, productive skill includes speaking and writing which are active skills.

Being a centralized system in education the government has decided the students’ needs and its priority. The latest curriculum, the 1994 SMU curriculum has put reading as its primary objectives and listening, speaking and writing as secondary.


Problems in The Teaching and Learning of English As a Foreign Language

There are two factors affecting students to learn English as a foreign language, the linguistic factors and the non-linguistic factors. The linguistic factors among others is the fact that English and Indonesian are two different languages. They have different system of sounds, vocabulary, structure, and culture. Thus Indonesians learning English means learning a different system of sounds, vocabulary, structure, and culture. It really takes a long time. Linguistic factor also includes first language interference. This process is unavoidable especially when adult students learn a foreign language. They can not really master the language fully because of their fossilized errors especially in pronunciation and intonation.

There are at least 8 points that belong to the nonlinguistic factors. They are students, teachers, objective, method, environment, evaluation, and time. The students must be highly motivated and in small groups. The teacher must be a good model with good qualification both in the language and methodology. The objective must be specific, not too much so that it is attainable. There is no best method of teaching English as a foreign language. All methods are good depending on the objective sought. Communicative Approach is not appropriately used when the stated objective is the skill in reading college textbooks written in English. Studying English in the Indonesian setting is hard work.

English is only spoken and used in the classroom. Outside the classroom few people speak English. English exposure in Indonesian setting is quite rare. The Australians and Americans coming here as tourists now speak Indonesian. Evaluation of any instructional program should be based on the objective that we have stated earlier. If the objective ls too ambitious the program is difficult to evaluate and we can not justify precisely whether it is successful or failing.

Finally, the time for learning a foreign language should be enough. Four or five periods of 45 minutes is far from being sufficient. This is made worse when the class is crowded with less motivated students.


CHARACTERISTICS OF STUDENTS





The Developmental Stages in The Acquisition of English As a Foreign Language

The acquisition of English as a foreign language is not necessarily the same as that as a second language let alone as a first language. Students start studying English as a foreign language at 12 (Yunior High School), three or four periods of 45 minutes a week. These students have been fluent in their first language so this will interfere the acquisition of English as a foreign language, the so called first language interfere. The first language interference happens in all aspects of language-phonology, morphology, and syntax.

Since English is studied as the first foreign language and it is neither used as an official language nor a medium of instruction at schools the process of acquisition runs very slowly. Learning English should ideally start when you are still very young in a place conducive to learning the language.


Characteristics of Good EFL Students

Students are the central element in the teaching and learning process. The teacher, on the other hand, is a facilitator, assisting them in many ways to obtain the maximum result in learning. For this matter it is important for us to know their positive characteristics. In this way, we, the teachers, can manipulate these positive characteristics for their benefit.

These positive characteristics are among others motivation, personality (creative, active, persevering), good learning strategies, and talented.


Characteristics of Bad EFL Students

There are many characteristics of bad EFL learners, among others are:
First, lack in motivation due to different reasons. The teacher should diagnose the less motivated students to find the reasons of their behaviour before giving treatment.
Second, negative attitude toward English and the people who speak it is another problem.
Third, being introvert is another characteristic of bad EFL students. These students are usually shy, passive, receptive, and permissive - all the qualities that are not conducive to language learning.
Fourth, lack in perseverence is another problem. Students will have no great effort in learning. They give up trying to learn so easily.
The teacher should try to modify all these bad qualities if successful learning is desired.


Learning Strategies in EFL

In the teaching and learning process the students employ various learning strategies while the teacher employs various teaching strategies and learning strategies since the teacher should also learn.

The more learning strategies the students have, the more they learn. So it is the duty of the teacher to teach the students how to learn.

The recent trend is for the teacher to act as a facilitator. In this way the students will be more active and creative.

Learners are grouped into ‘concrete’, ‘analytical’, ‘communicative’, and ‘authority oriented’. The teacher’s duty is to modify the less favourable element into the more favourable so that optimal learning will be made possible.

Teachers should teach the students how to learn and to activate English outside the classroom. They should inform their students all the advantages of knowing English to increase their motivation to learn it.

To learn English outside the classroom can be done in various ways. Listening to BBC, VOA, ABC regularly can increase your listening skill. Watching British or American good films in TV can enrich your vocabulary and structures. In fact, you can learn listening and passive speaking in films. Meeting and talking to foreigners can increase your listening and speaking skills.

Make it your hobby to visit a library and borrow English novels. There is no better way to learn reading skill than to read. Reading English novels will also increase your vocabulary. Select a novel which is not too easy and not too difficult so that you will get much enjoyment in reading.

After reading a novel, make a short note about the novel. You will practice your writing skill. Make it your hobby too to leave a note or memo to a roommate or a friend also in English.


INTRODUCTION
The Characteristics of Good EFL Teachers

In order to be a successful teacher, first of all you must be a good teacher since a bad teacher will never be successful .
First, you should be a good model. Try to acquire English in such a way that you become as a native speaker.
Second, you should know what to teach. Study the present EFL syllabus and instructional materials which are written based on this syllabus.
Third, you should know how to teach English or you should know methodology. You should be good at implementing various teaching skills such as opening the lesson, presenting the materials, giving reinforcement, asking questlons and closing the lesson.
Fourth, your own personality should be taken into consideration. You should have a positive attitude to what you are doing. You should be nice to look at, fair and patient and helpful to your students.
And finally, you must willing to do self evaluation, to get feedback to improve your teaching.


The Effective Classroom Management

In the classroom the teacher has two different tasks, instructional and managerial task is very important since it is a prerequisite to effective instruction. In other words, school management affects instructlon. Bad management will cause poor instruction.

Ihere are five approaches to classroom management. They are Auhtoritarian Approach, Permissive Approach, Behaviour-Modification Approach, and Group Process Approach. The first two approaches should ideally be rejected since they are inhumane and unrealistic respectively. The remaining three approaches should be combined to make the Pluralistic Approach because none is perfect.

In teaching EFL the Pluralistic Approach can be done by first knowing your students, second creating good classroom climate, third making good preparation and fourth collaborating with colleagues especially other EFL teachers lnside or outside school. These four activities if done properly can generate effective classroom management which affects classroom instruction.


The Effective Classroom Interaction

Classroom interaction involves a teacher and his/her students.

When the Authoritarian system of classroom management was still prevailing, one way interaction was popular. The teacher was dominatlng the classroom, leaving the students mostly passive

When the students have gained more important roles, there hlas been a progress in the kind of classroom interaction. One way interaction has become two-way interaction, where the students have the same right as their teacher in asking questions and explaining things.

With the increasing need of SAL in TEFL, the classroom interaction is now directed more toward the students with the teacher functioning as a facilitator.

Byrne has classified interaction in the EFL classroom into two different approaches. The first approach which was often adopted by traditional teachers has typical characteristics : whole class, teacher controlled, and accuracy activities.

The second approach which is adopted by progressive teachers has guite the opposite characteristics than the first : pairs and groups, learner directed and fluency activities.

As a more progressive teacher you should be able to combine the two approaches into one-a Balanced Approach because you will probably need to use both ways in turn depending on what you teach.

Finally there are four areas of EFL interaction according to Byrne’s model. They are :

Accuracy activities controlled by the teacher and done wlth rhe whole class. e.g. drills.

Accuracy actlvities directed by the learners and done in pairs or occasionally in group. e.g. mini-dialogue practice.


Based on The book title TEFL IV by Nurbahri


Menengok Bahasan Psikolinguistik
Ditulis pada Januari 24, 2008 oleh Pakde sofa

Menengok Bahasan Psikolinguistik


Hakikat Psikolinguistik

Subpokok bahasan di atas telah membahas topik awal yang sangat penting dalam bab pengantar terhadap kajian psikolinguistik, yakni hakikat psikolinguistik. Pada pembahasan tersebut, dikemukakan sejumlah definisi psikolinguistik yang diberikan para ahli. Meskipun beragam, namun semua definisi secara umum merujuk kepada kajian bahasa dalam sudut pandang psikolog.

Selain itu, untuk mempermudah Anda dalam memahami hakikat psikolinguistik, pada bagian selanjutnya telah disajikan konsep-konsep yang berkait dengan psikolinguistik. Pembahasan antara lain meliputi telaah singkat mengenai tata bahasa dan fungsinya dalam pemahaman dan produksi kalimat; dikotomi performasi dan kompetensi; struktur dan fungsi kalimat.

Struktur dan fungsi kalimat dibahas secara lebih terperinci, mengingat inilah pokok yang akan menjadi kajian dalam keseluruhan rangkaian modul ini. Dalam pembahasan struktur kalimat juga dibahas struktur lahir dan cara-cara penggabungannya. Kemudian, dalam bidang fungsi kalimat, dibahas berbagai hal berkaitan dengan tindak tutur, isi proposisi dan struktur tema dalam kalimat.

Nah, kini marilah kita melihat ruang lingkup dan signifikansi psikolinguistik pada sub-pokok bahasan kedua.

Ruang lingkup dan Signifikasi Psikolinguistik dalam Pengajaran Bahasa

Pada pembahasan di atas, disajikan pendapat para ahli mengenai lingkup yang menjadi ranah kajian psikolinguistik. Sama halnya dengan definisi, pada lingkup kajian pun, dijumpai keragaman rumusan. Meskipun demikian, semuanya merujuk kepada hal yang sama, yakni bagaimana manusia memahami bahasa, memproduksi bahasa dan bagaimana mereka memperoleh kedua kemampuan tersebut.

Pemahaman dapat didefinisikan dalam dua sudut pandang: dalam arti sempit dan dalam arti luas. Dalam arti sempit pemahaman berarti proses mental untuk menangkap bunyi-bunyi yang diujarkan seorang penutur untuk membangun sebuah interpretasi mengenai apa yang dia anggap dimaksudkan oleh si penutur, sedangkan dalam arti luas, hasil interpretasi tersebut digunakan untuk melakukan tindakan-tindakan yang relevan.

Produksi sering diidentikkan dengan berbicara, meskipun produksi juga mencakup menulis. Dalam berbicara, juga menulis, seorang penutur melakukan dua jenis kegiatan, yaitu merencanakan dan melaksanakan yang meliputi tatar wacana, tatar kalimat, tatar konstituen, program artikulasi dan artikulasi. Terakhir, pada bagian yang ketiga, dibahas signifikasi dan sumbangan-sumbangan yang dapat dan telah diberikan psikolinguistik bagi pengajaran bahasa. Dalam bagian ini dibahas dua aliran psikologi dan sejumlah pendekatan yang dilandasi teori-teori pemerolehan bahasa.

2
Aliran-aliran Pemikiran dalam Psikolinguistik

Pada subpokok bahasan ini, kita telah membahas sejumlah konsep pendapat-pendapat para teorisi mengenai bagaimana seseorang memahami dan merespons terhadap apa-apa yang ada di alam semesta ini. Kita telah berbicara mengenai pandangan-pandangan kaum mentalis dan kaum bahavioris, terutama dalam kaitan dengan keterhubungan antara bahasa, ujaran dan pikiran. Menurut kaum mentalis, seorang manusia dipandang memiliki sebuah akal (mind) yang berbeda dari badan (body) orang tersebut. Artinya bahwa badan dan akal dianggap sebagai dua hal yang berinteraksi satu sama lain, yang salah sati di antaranya mungkin menyebabkan atau mungkin mengontrol peristiwa-peristiwa yang terjadi pada bagian lainnya. Dalam kaitan dengan perilaku secara keseluruhan, pandangan ini berpendapat bahwa seseorang berperilaku seperti yang mereka lakukan itu bisa merupakan hasil perilaku badan secara tersendiri, seperti bernapas atau bisa pula merupakan hasil interaksi antara badan dan pikiran. Mentalisme dapat dibagi menjadi dua, yakni empirisme dan rasionalisme.

Kedua pendapat ini pun memiliki pandangan-pandangan yang berbeda dalam memahami persoalan gagasan-gagasan batin atau pengetahuan. Semua kaum mentalis bersepakat mengenai adanya akal dan bahwa manusia memiliki pengetahuan dan gagasan di dalam akalnya. Meskipun demikian, mereka tidak bersepakat dalam hal bagaimana gagasan-gagasan tersebut bisa ada di dalam akal. Apakah gagasan-gagasan tersebut seluruhnya diperoleh dari pengalaman (pendapat kaum empiris) atau gagasan-gagasan tersebut sudah ada di dalam akal sejak lahir (gagasan kaum rasional). Bahkan di dalam kedua aliran ini pun, terdapat perbedaan pendapat yang rinciannya akan kita bahas nanti.

Kemudian, diketengahkan pembahasan mengenai empirisme. Dalam kaitan ini telah dibahas kenyataan bahwa kata empiris dan empirisme telah berkembang menjadi dua istilah yang memiliki dua makna yang berbeda. Setelah itu, dibahas pula isu lain yang mengelompokkan kaum empiris, yakni isu yang berkenaan dengan pertanyaan apakah gagasan-gagasan di dalam akal manusia yang membentuk pengetahuan bersifat universal atau umum di samping juga bersifat fisik.

Pada bagian selanjutnya, telah dibahas pendapat-pendapat kaum behavioris, antara lain pendapat-pendapat John B. Watson, pendiri behaviorisme. Watson menganggap bahwa kesadaran merupakan tahayul-tahayul radius yang tidak relevan terhadap studi psikologi. Watson mengatakan bahwa keyakinan pada adanya kesadaran berkaitan dengan keyakinan masa-masa nenek moyang mengenai tahayul. Magis-magis senantiasa hidup. Konsep-konsep warisan masa praberadab ini telah membuat kebangkitan dan pertumbuhan psikologis ilmiah menjadi sangat sulit. Kriteria Watson dalam menentukan apakah sesuatu itu ada atau tidak ada adalah berdasarkan apakah hal tersebut dapat diamati atau tidak dapat diamati.

Selain itu telah pula diketengahkan pendapat behaviorisme epifenomenal. Sebagian besar bahavioris setelah Watson menganut materislisme, yakni yang doktrin dasarnya adalah bahwa hanya ada satu hal di dalam semesta ini yaitu materi. Pendapat ini merupakan pendapat yang sangat ekstrim. Mereka merumuskan posisi mereka bahwa pada umumnya tidak ada penolakan terhadap keberadaan akal. Meskipun demikian, dalam praktiknya mereka tidak berbeda dari Watson, sebab tidak ada seorang pun pendukungnya yang mendukung studi mengenai akal. Banyak di antara mereka mengambil pandangan epifenomenal yang menyatakan bahwa akal ada, tetapi hanya merupakan salah satu refleksi dari proses-proses badaniah yang tidak mempengaruhi peristiwa-peristiwa di dalam badan. Sebagian behavioris lain mengambil pandangan reduksionis. Mereka memberikan kemungkinan kepada akal untuk tegak berdiri, seperti badan, tetapi mereka meyakini apa pun yang terjadi di akal akal juga terjadi di dalam badan. Pendapat ini berbeda dengan epifenomenal yang berpendapat bahwa badan merupakan realitas utama. Dengan mengambil posisi ini seseorang meyakini bahwa untuk mengetahui akal harus melalui studi mengenai badan maka tidak ada keperluan untuk mempalajari akal. Dengan demikian, sisi akal menjadi ciut dan tinggallah badan.


Dalam subpokok bahasan kedua ini telah dibahas hal-hal berikut: daya-daya akal dan alat pemerolehan bahasa, isi dan operasi alat pemerolehan bahasa, dan argumen-argumen Chomsky bagi alat pemeroleh bahasa. Dalam kaitan dengan daya akal dan APB, Chomsky menyatakan bahwa manusia dilahirkan dengan akal yang berisi pengetahuan batin yang berkait dengan sejumlah bidang yang berbeda-beda. Salah satu sari pengetahuan tersebut berkait dengan bahasa. Chomsky menyebut pengetahuan batin yang berkait dengan bahasa ini sebagai language acquisition device atau yang lebih populer sebagai LAD, yang dalam modul disebut sebagai alat pemeroleh bahasa atau APB. Chomsky berpendapat bahwa daya-daya dalam bidang yang berbeda yang disebut di atas, relatif mandiri satu sama lain. Artinya tidak saling berkait. Bahkan dalam kaitan dengan pemerolehan bahasa, Chomsky berpendapat bahwa bagi pemerolehan bahasa, pengetahuan batin saja sudah cukup dan pengetahuan matematis serta pengetahuan logika tidak diperlukan dalam kegiatan ini.

Dalam hubungannya dengan isi dan operasi APB, Chomsky membagi isi APB menjadi tiga kelompok, yakni gagasan substantif; gagasan formal, dan gagasan-gagasan yang oleh Steinberg disebut sebagai gagasan-gagasan konstruktif.

Masing-masing dari ketiga jenis gagasan ini akan dirinci disertai contoh-contoh seperlunya. Gagasan-gagasan substantif adalah gagasan-gagasan yang muncul dalam sejumlah relasi atau dijalankan oleh sejumlah operasi, misalnya ciri-ciri fonetis, ciri-ciri sintaktik, dan ciri-ciri semantik.

Pada bagian akhir subpokok bahasan diketengahkan argumen-argumen yang dikemukakan Chomsky dalam mempertahankan APB yang tertuang dalam bentuk empat argumen, yakni (1) keunikan tata bahasa, (2) data masukan yang tidak sempurna, (3) ketidakselarasan intelegensi, dan (4) kemudahan dan kecepatan pemerolehan bahasa anak.

Keterkaitan antara bahasa, Pikiran dan Ujaran

Pembahasan pada sub pokok bahasan di atas meliputi keterkaitan antara bahasa, pikiran dan uraian. Pembahasan difokuskan pada anggapan-anggapan kaum behavioris mengenai keterkaitan antara bahasa dengan pikiran, yang kemudian diikuti oleh argumen-argumen yang menentang anggapan tersebut. Namun, untuk kepentingan modul ini, hanya dua anggapan yang paling penting yang disajikan. Dua anggapan lainnya hanya disarikan dan disajikan secara singkat pada bagian akhir pembahasan. Anggapan-anggapan bahwa:(1) bahasa merupakan landasan bagi pikiran, (2) bahasa merupakan landasan utama bagi pikiran, (3) bahasa mempengaruhi pandangan, persepsi, dan pemahaman manusia mengenai dunia di sekelilingnya serta mengenai budaya tempat ia hidup memiliki argumen argumen yang kurang kuat. Bukti-bukti bahwa anak-anak yang belum bisa berbicara telah mampu memahami ujaran orang yang berbicara kepadanya, kenyataan bahwa orang tuli dapat memberi respons yang memadai terhadap orang yang berinteraksi dengannya, dan kenyataan bahwa multibahasawan hanya memiliki satu keyakinan dan pandangan hidup, serta kenyataan bahwa orang-orang yang memiliki bahasa yang sama memiliki persepsi yang berbeda mengukuhkan kelemahan argumen tersebut.

Proses pemahaman dan Produksi Bahasa

Pada subpokok bahasan ini telah dibahas proses produksi dan pemahaman bahasa. Pada bagian terdahulu dikemukakan kelemahan model-model sintaksis yang dianut oleh Chomsky dan kawan-kawannya. Kemudian, pembahasan diakhiri dengan alternatif orientasi penjelasan yang berdasarkan analisis semantik. Setelah itu disajikan alasan-alasan serta contoh analisis yang berdasarkan semantik dalam produksi bahasa. Terakhir disajikan sebuah ilustrasi proses produksi bahasa lengkap dengan definisi tahap-tahap proses yang terlibat.

Pada bagian kedua disajikan penjelasan mengenai pemahaman bahasa. Pada bagian ini pun diajukan alternatif penjelasan berdasarkan sudut pandang proses analisis semantik. Alasan-alasan serta contoh-contoh proses pemahaman dikemukakan pada bagian selanjutnya. Terakhir barulah dikemukakan satu ilustrasi analisis berdasarkan semantik terhadap sebuah kalimat sederhana.

Namun, perlu diingat bahwa model yang dikemukakan masih sangat sederhana dan baru pada tahap awal perkembangannya. Para psikolinguis masih harus berusaha keras untuk mendapatkan model yang eksplisit untuk menjelaskan proses produksi dan pemahaman bahasa.


PEMEROLEHAN BAHASA

Hakikat, Permasalahan dan Tahap-tahap Pemerolehan Bahasa Pertama

Dalam subpokok bahasan ini telah dibahas sejumlah topik dasar mengenai pemerolehan bahasa. Pertama, definisi bahasa telah disajikan pada awal subpokok bahasan. Definisi yang dikemukakan oleh Ellis dan definisi yang dikemukakan oleh Krashen yang mewakili dua definisi yang berbeda telah dengan tepat dibahas pada awal pembahasan. Dengan demikian, hakikat pemerolehan yang berbeda dengan belajar telah Anda pahami sejak awal.

Pada bagian selanjutnya, permasalahan yang lazim dijumpai pada saat seseorang mengkaji kegiatan pemerolehan bahasa dan penelitian dalam bidang ini telah pula dibahas dengan memadai. Permasalahan-permasalahan tersebut meliputi masalah kesinambungan/ketidak-sinambungan perkembangan, kebatinian/kelahiriahan bahasa, dan kesenjangan antara pemahaman dengan produksi bahasa.

Bagian akhir subpokok bahasan ini digunakan untuk memaparkan urutan perkembangan pemerolehan bahasa, cara analisisnya serta interpretasinya. Pembahasan dimulai dengan paparan mengenai ujaran awal, ujaran satu kata, kemudian ujaran dua kata dan kombinasi tiga kata serta cara memahami dan menganalisisnya.

Kini bersiap-siaplah untuk mengerjakan tes formatif 1 untuk menguji hasil belajar Anda pada subpokok bahasan ini.

Pemerolehan Bahasa Kedua

Dalam subpokok bahasan ini telah dibahas sejumlah model dalam teori pemerolehan bahasa kedua. Pembahasan telah meliputi model-model Akulturasi, Akomodasi, Wacana, Keragaman Kemampuan, dan Monitor. Model-model yang disebutkan lebih dulu hanya dibahas secara selintas, sedangkan model monitor dibahas secara mendalam.

Model Monitor, yang didasarkan atas lima hipotesis yang dikemukakan Krashen (Pemerolehan-belajar, Urutan Alamiah, Input, Monitor, dan Saringan Afektif) dianggap memiliki keunggulan yang lebih dibandingkan dengan model-model lainnya. Meskipun demikian, tidak berarti bahwa model ini tidak memiliki kelemahan. Sejumlah kritik telah dikemukakan para ahli mengenai hal tersebut.

Pada bagian akhir subpokok bahasan ini telah pula diketengahkan sebelas hipotesis mengenai pemerolehan bahasa kedua. Modul ini telah menggunakan buku Rod Ellis secara esktensif karena itu, untuk memperdalam pengetahuan Anda, akan sangat baik Anda juga turut membaca buku tersebut. Kini selamat mengerjakan tes formatifnya.


BAHASA SEBAGAI SISTEM KOGNITIF DAN PENDEKATAN KOGNITIF TERHADAP BAHASA

Hakikat Bahasa sebagai Sistem Kognitif serta Model Kognitif sebagai Perspektif dalam Psikolinguistik

Pada subpokok bahasan di atas telah dibahas dua bagian besar yang diharapkan dapat memberikan gambaran kepada Anda mengenai bahasa sebagai sistem kognitif, pendekatan kognitif dan bahasa sebagai sistem komunikasi.

Pada bagian awal telah disajikan paparan mengenai definisi kognitif dan model kognitif sebagai pendekatan dalam psikolinguistik. Di dalam paparan tersebut, Anda menemukan penjelasan mengenai kelebihan-kelebihan bahasa atas kemampuan lain manusia dalam menopang kehidupan manusia. Kemampuan manusia dalam memahami dan menyimak ribuan bahkan jutaan kata dalam kehidupannya serta hakikat kemampuan tersebut akan disinggung secara garis besar pada pembukaan sub pokok bahasan ini.

Kemudian, juga akan dibahas bagaimana bahasa memainkan peranannya dalam komunikasi dengan manusia lain. Paparan ini akan meliputi ciri-ciri utama bahasa manusia seperti yang tercermin dalam definisi-definisi bahasa. Hakikat bahasa sebagai sistem vokal, kemanasukaan bahasa, dan fungsi komunikatifnya telah diuraikan agak mendalam dalam bagian ini. Bahasa sebagai sebuah sistem terstruktur memulai pembahasan, kemudian diikuti oleh pembahasan bahasa sebagai lambang bunyi. Pada bagian tersebut dibahas, bahwa bahasa bukanlah bunyi yang sembarangan dan caka, melainkan terstruktur secara rapi sehingga bunyi-bunyi yang tidak terangkai menurut sistem fonologis sebuah bahasa umumnya sulit untuk dikenali oleh penutur asli bahasa tersebut. Pada bagian selanjutnya pembahasan dikembangkan pada pembahasan mengenai, iapasa sebagai lambangnya bunyi vokal. Dalam pembahasan ini di bahas bahwa hanya bunyi-bunyi tertentu saja yang tergolong pada bunyi bahasa. Kemudian, pembahasan diakhiri dengan membahas bahasa sebagai sistem komunikasi berdasarkan keterikatan antara ciri-ciri generik tindak komunikasi, ciri-ciri konteks komunikasi dan pemilihan ragam bahasa yang cocok untuk tindak komunikasi bahasa tersebut.

Proses Pemahaman dan Produksi Bahasa

Pada subpokok bahasan kedua, Anda telah mendapatkan penjelasan mengenai kreativitas bahasa dan kaidah-kaidah yang mengaturnya. Pada satu sisi, bahasa memiliki sifat kreatif dan lentur, di sisi lain bahasa juga memiliki kaidah-kaidah yang membatasi kreativitas dan kelenturan tersebut. Sudah bisa Anda duga bahwa paparan dalam bagian ini akan sangat menarik bagi Anda. Secara garis besar, paparan ini meliputi ciri-ciri bahasa manusia yang berkaitan dengan ciri kreativitas bahasa, seperti ketidakterikatan pada rangsangan luar maupun rangsangan dalam, keterikatan ungkapan bahasa manusia dengan situasi penggunaannya, dan kemampuan sebuah bahasa dalam menghasilkan kosakata baru dalam upaya mewadahi temuan-temuan baru dalam konteks budaya tempat bahasa tersebut digunakan.

Selanjutnya sub pokok bahasan ini berkaitan dengan kaidah-kaidah yang mengatur pembentukan ungkapan-ungkapan kebahasaan. Dalam perjalanan Anda membaca nanti, Anda akan mulai memahami mengapa meskipun manusia memproses jutaan kata-kata dan ungkapan-ungkapan baru, keasingan ungkapan-ungkapan baru ini tidak terasa dan tidak tersadari.

Pada bagian kedua dari sub pokok bahasan ini, telah dibahas relevansi teori kognitif dan teori perkembangan kognitif dengan pengajaran bahasa. pembahasan akan dimulai dengan upaya-upaya awal ke arah penggunaan teori kognitif Piaget ke dalam pengajaran bahasa serta penilaian mengenai ketetapannya. Kemudian, diikuti oleh pendekatan Taylor dan Taylor yang mengemukakan pendekatan proses komputer dalam menjelaskan proses kognitif manusia serta keterkaitannya dengan belajar bahasa.

KETERKAITAN PSIKOLINGUISTIK DENGAN PENGAJARAN BAHASA

Model-model keterkaitan antara bahasa, kognitif dan Sosial dan Peranan Pengajaran

Pada subpokok bahasan ini telah dibahas dua hal penting sekaitan dengan pembahasan mengenai pemerolehan bahasa kedua, yakni pembahasan mengenai keterkaitan antara kognitif, bahasan dan sosial dan peranan pengajaran formal dalam kegiatan pemerolehan bahasa. Melalui pembahasan tersebut, sub pokok bahasan ini telah berhasil menegaskan kembali fungsi kemampuan kognitif, fungsi kemampuan berbahasa dan fungsi seseorang. Dengan demikian, apa yang telah Anda pelajari pada Modul 5 dapat Anda lihat kaitannya dengan pengajaran bahasa yang akan segera Anda pelajari pada sub pokok bahasan berikut. Mari kita ringkaskan kembali pada yang Anda telah pelajari pada sub pokok bahasan ini.

Pada bagian awal telah disajikan tiga model keterkaitan antara faktor-faktor bahasa, kognitif dan sosial. Sekaitan dengan itu, telah diketengahkan tiga model utama, yakni: model reduksionis, model interaksionis dan model terpadu. Ketiga model ini menjadi landasan penelitian dan pemahaman peranan dan keterkaitan faktor kognitif, faktor bahasa, dan faktor sosial dalam komunikasi bahasa. Kelebihan dan kelemahan masing-masing model juga telah dibahas secara umum dalam bagian ini.

Pada bagian selanjutnya, telah dibahas mengenai peranan pengajaran formal dalam proses pemerolehan bahasa. Pendapat-pendapat para ahli dalam bidang ini dikemukakan dan dibahas. Kemudian juga disajikan berbagai hasil kajian dalam bidang ini. Pendapat-pendapat tersebut terangkum dalam tiga aliran utama: aliran lintascara, aliran non-lintascara, dan aliran keragaman.

Aliran pertama, yakni aliran lintascara, berpendapat bahwa belajar dapat berkembang menjadi pemerolehan, dan sebaliknya pemerolehan dapat kemudian dilanjutkan dengan belajar. Di lain pihak, aliran non-lintascara berpendapat bahwa pemerolehan tidak dapat berkembang menjadi belajar, dan begitu pun sebaliknya. Pemerolehan dan belajar merupakan dua hal yang berbeda. Terakhir, aliran keragaman beranggapan bahwa pembelajar memiliki pendekatan yang berbeda-beda sesuai dengan latar belakang mereka masing-masing dan sesuai dengan jenis dan karakteristik bahan ajar yang dipelajari: Meskipun demikian, ketiga aliran ini beranggapan bahwa pengajaran formal hanya dapat membantu mempercepat pemerolehan dan bukan menentukan hasil pemerolehan.

Cakupan Semantik
Ditulis pada Januari 22, 2008 oleh Pakde sofa

CAKUPAN SEMANTIK

Hakikat Belajar dan Pembelajaran

Dari uraian di atas; kita dapat menyimpulkan bahwa makna bahasa, khususnya makna kata, terpengaruh oleh berbagai konteks. Makna kata dapat dibangun dalam kaitannya dengan benda atau objek di luar bahasa. Dalam konsepsi ini, kata berperan sebagai label atau pemberi nama pada benda-benda atau objek-objek yang berada di alam semesta. Makna kata juga dapat dibentuk oleh konsepsi atau pembentukan konsepsi yang terjadi dalam pikiran pengguna bahasa. Proses pembentukannya berkait dengan pengetahuan atau persepsi penggunaan bahasa tersebut terhadap fenomena, benda atau peristiwa yang terjadi di luar bahasa. Dalam konteks ini, misalnya penggunaan bahasa akan tidak sama dalam menafsirkan makna kata demokrasi karena persepsi dan konsepsi mereka berbeda terhadap kata itu. Selain kedua konsepsi itu, makna kata juga dapat dibentuk oleh kaitan antara stimulus, kata dengan respons yang terjadi dalam suatu peristiwa ujaran.
Beranjak dari ketiga konsepsi ini maka kajian semantik pada dasarnya sangat bergantung pada dua kecenderungan. Pertama, makna bahasa dipengaruhi oleh konteks di luar bahasa, benda, objek dan peristiwa yang ada di alam semesta. Kedua, kajian makna bahasa ditentukan oleh konteks bahasa, yakni oleh aturan kebahasaan suatu bahasa.

Penamaan

Uraian di atas menunjukkan bahwa beberapa konsep dasar dalam semantik penting untuk dipahami. Contoh, pengertian sense berbeda dari pengertian reference. Pertama, merujuk kepada hubungan antar kata dalam suatu sistem bahasa dilihat dari kaitan maknanya. Sedangkan yang kedua merujuk kepada hubungan antara kata dengan benda, objek atau peristiwa di luar bahasa dalam pembentukan makna kata.
Begitu pula dengan pengertian tentang kalimat, ujaran dan proposisi perlu dipahami dalam kajian antik. Dalam keseharian, kerap tidak kita bedakan atau kalimat dengan ujaran. Kalimat sebagaimana kita pahami satuan tata bahasa yang sekurang-kurangnya terdiri dari subjek dan predikat. Sedangkan ujaran dapat terdiri dari satu kata, frase atau kalimat yang diujarkan oleh seorang penutur yang ditandai oleh adanya unsur fonologis, yakni kesenyapan. dalam semantik kedua konsep ini memperlihatkan sosok kajian makna yang berbeda. Makna ujaran, misalnya lebih banyak dibahas dalam semantik tindak tutur. Peran konteks pembicaraan dalam mengungkapkan makna ujaran sangat penting. Sementara kajian makna kalimat lazimnya lebih memusatkan pada konteks tatabahasa dan unsur lain yang dapat dicakup dalam tata bahasa dalam bahasa Inggris, misalnya unsur waktu dapat digramatikakan yang terwujud dalam perbedaan bentuk kata kerja.
Mengingat pentingnya konsep-konsep itu, Anda sebagai pembelajar semantik hendaknya mencermati batasan dan penerapan konsep itu dalam kajian makna bahasa.


PERAN KONTEKS DALAM PEMAKNAAN BAHASA
Relativitas Bahasa, Pemaknaan Bahasa

Dari perbincangan kita dalam bagian modul di atas terlihat bahwa bahasa sangat erat kaitannya dengan budaya. Keduanya ibarat dua muka dari satu mata uang. Sebagaimana diyakini oleh sebagian ahli bahasa, language is a part of culture.
Pandangan seperti ini, ternyata berimbas pula pada kajian makna bahasa. Para pakar di bidang semantik cenderung terbagi ke dalam 2 kubu dalam melihat masalah ini. Pertama, kelompok yang menyatakan bahwa kajian makna bahasa seharusnya terlepas dari konteks (dalam cakupan yang luas adalah budaya) mengingat begitu banyak unsur konteks yang tidak dapat diwadahi oleh kaidah semantik. Pandangan ini tentu lebih cenderung dianut oleh pakar yang memusatkan kajiannya pada semantik bahasa (Linguistic Semantics). Para pakar dalam bidang ini lebih cenderung mengkaji makna bahasa hanya dari sisi peran kata dan kaitan antara kata dalam sebuah kalimat dalam membentuk makna bahasa. Kalaupun ada unsur konteks yang dimasukkan ke dalam kajiannya hanya sebatas unsur-unsur dari bahasa, seperti waktu yang dapat digramatikalkan. Dengan demikian, kajiannya cenderung mengurangi konteks penggunaan bahasa.
Kedua, kelompok yang menegaskan bahwa konteks tidak dapat dipisahkan dari kajian makna bahasa. Oleh karena itu, kajian makna bahasa yang dilakukan kelompok ini memperhitungkan konteks penggunaan bahasa. Kecenderungan ini, misalnya tampak dalam kajian Pragmatik (Pragmatics).
Berdasarkan kedua kecenderungan ini kita tentu dapat menentukan ke arah mana kajian makna bahasa yang kita lakukan. Mengingat kajian makna bahasa tidak hanya mencakup makna kata dan makna kalimat saja melainkan juga makna ujaran, tentu lebih bijak bagi kita apabila kajian makna bahasa mempertimbangkan kedua kecenderungan itu.

Peran Konteks Situasi, Pemaknaan Bahasa, Budaya dan Majas

Kajian makna bahasa sebagaimana disitir oleh Firth dan Malinowski sulit dipisahkan dari konteks penggunaan bahasa. Mereka, antara lain beranggapan bahwa bahasa merupakan wujud dari tindakan penggunaan bahasa yang bergantung pada situasi penggunaan bahasa.
Dalam memerinci ketergantungan makna bahasa pada konteks situasi berbahasa, para pakar antara lain menyarankan agar ciri-ciri yang melekat pada situasi harus teridentifikasi. Ciri yang menyangkut penutur dan pendengar, tempat bertutur serta objek yang dibicarakan, misalnya merupakan unsur-unsur situasi berbahasa. Kajian yang menekankan pada unsur ini lazimnya tercakup dalam pragmatik.
Kajian lain yang menekankan pada konteks situasi tampak dalam kajian makna bahasa yang kemukakan oleh kaum behaviorist. Bloomfield, misalnya menyatakan bahwa makna bahasa sangat bergantung pada hal ini. Pemaknaan terhadap ujaran sangat ditentukan oleh persepsi pengguna bahasa akan situasi berbahasa yang dihadapinya.
Ciri-ciri situasi berbahasa ini tentu idealnya dapat diwujudkan melalui unsur-unsur kebahasaan. Salah satu contoh upaya penggambaran konteks berbahasa dalam kajian makna adalah lewat penggunaan kata ganti atau yang lazim dikenal dengan deiksis. Deiksis, antara lain menggambarkan unsur-unsur peristiwa berbahasa, seperti aspek waktu, ruang, dan objek berikut peristiwa yang dirujuk dalam penggunaan bahasa.
Tentu saja tidak semua unsur yang melekat pada situasi berbahasa dapat diwujudkan melalui unsur bahasa, kata atau kalimat. Untuk itu, peran nirlinguistik, aspek-aspek di luar bahasa perlu diperhitungkan dalam kajian makna bahasa.

SEMANTIK LEKSIKAL, HUBUNGAN MAKNA, MEDAN MAKNA DAN KOMPONEN MAKNA
Semantik Leksikal

Makna bahasa sebagaimana terungkap dalam uraian di atas dipengaruhi sekurang-kurangnya oleh hubungan antara bahasa dengan (1) objek atau (2) peristiwa di luar bahasa atau oleh hubungan di antara unsur bahasa dalam suatu sistem bahasa. Kajian makna bahasa yang lebih memusatkan pada peran unsur bahasa atau kata dalam kaitannya dengan kata lain dalam suatu bahasa lazim disebut sebagai semantik leksikal.
Kajian makna dalam semantik leksikal lebih mendasarkan pada peran makna kata dan hubungan makna yang terjadi antarkata dalam suatu bahasa. Hubungan makna antar kata baik yang bersifat sintagmatik dan paradigmatik kerap digunakan untuk menjawab permasalahan makna kata. Kajian makna kata dalam konteks ini pada gilirannya tentu dapat menjawab permasalahan makna kalimat. Sebab sebagaimana kerap dikemukakan oleh ahli semantik bahwa makna kalimat bergantung pada makna kata yang tercakup dalam kalimat tempat kata itu terangkai. Peran kajian makna kata berdasarkan hubungan makna ini terasa penting mengingat tidak semua makna kata dapat dijelaskan oleh keterkaitannya dengan objek yang digambarkan oleh kata itu. Makna kata-kata yang bersifat abstrak, misalnya hanya mungkin dapat dijelaskan maknanya oleh hubungan makna antarkata dalam suatu bahasa.

Medan Makna dan Komponen Makna

Makna bahasa terutama makna kata dapat kita petakan menurut komponennya. Pandangan seperti ini, tampak dalam teori medan makna yang menyatakan bahwa kosakata dalam suatu bahasa terbentuk dalam kelompok-kelompok kata yang menunjuk kepada lingkup makna tertentu, misalnya perkakas dapur atau nama-nama warna. Dalam suatu medan makna, antara kata yang satu dengan kata lainnya menunjukkan hubungan makna yang dapat dikelompokkan ke dalam 2 golongan. Pertama golongan kolokasi yang menggambarkan hubungan sintagmatik antara kata-kata yang terdapat dalam suatu bidang tertentu atau medan tertentu. Kedua golongan ’set’ yang cenderung menggambarkan hubungan paradigmatik antarkata dalam suatu bidang tertentu.
Untuk menggambarkan hubungan antar kata dalam suatu bidang tertentu dapat diungkapkan melalui komponen makna yang tercakup dalam kata-kata dalam suatu bidang tertentu. Komponen makna menunjukkan bahwa setiap kata maknanya terbentuk dari beberapa unsur atau komponen. Misalnya, kata-kata yang menggambarkan kekerabatan, seperti ‘ayah’, “ibu’, ‘adik’. ‘kakak’ dapat kita lihat komponen maknanya dalam diagram berikut.

Selain untuk menunjukkan hubungan makna antarkata, komponen makna juga berguna, antara lain untuk perumusan makna dalam kamus dan untuk menentukan apakah kalimat yang digunakan dapat diterima atau tidak secara semantik. Tentu saja untuk mengungkapkan komponen makna tersebut perlu dilakukan melalui analisis yang lazim dikenal sebagai analisis komponen makna. Analisis ini dalam kajian semantik leksikal tentu cukup menonjol mengingat manfaatnya yang cukup beragam dalam mengkaji makna kata dan hubungan makna antarkata dalam suatu bahasa.


Sinonimi, Antonimi dan Hiponii

Dalam unit ini kita telah mempelajari beberapa konsep yang berkaitan dengan:

sinonimi;

antonimi;

hiponimi.

Beberapa istilah yang perlu Anda ingat yang berkaitan dengan ketiga konsep di atas adalah berikut ini.

Hubungan sinonimi sempurna dan tidak sempurna

Parafrase (paraphrasing).

Antonimi biner (binary antonymy).

Kebalikan (converses).

Antonimi bertingkat (gradable antonymy).

Kontradiksi (contradictory).

Hipernim/superordinat.

Plosemi

Dalam unit ini kita telah mempelajari 3 konsep penting dalam hubungan makna, yaitu

homonimi;

polisemi;

ambiguitas.

Istilah-istilah yang harus Anda ingat adalah:

homograf;

homofon;

structural ambiguity;

lexical ambiguity.

SEMANTIK DAN TATA BAHASA (SEMANTICS AND GRAMMAR)

Serbaneka tentang Tata Bahasa

Kita telah mempelajari beberapa konsep yang berkaitan dengan:

tatabahasa formal (formal grammar);

tatabahasa nosional (notional grammar);

kategori tata bahasa (grammatical categories);

tatabahasa dan leksikon (grammar and lexicon);

hubungan-hubungan gramatikal (grammatical relations).

Beberapa istilah yang perlu Anda ingat yang berkaitan dengan ketiga konsep di atas adalah:

gender, sex, tense, time;

countable and uncountable (mass) nouns;

surface structure vs deep structure;

deep subject/objects;

subjects, objects, agents, complements;

gramatikal gender;

enumeration;

interpretive and generative

Dalam unit ini kita telah mempelajari beberapa konsep yang berkaitan dengan hal-hal berikut.

Komponen dan kalimat (components and sentence).

Tatabahasa kasus (case grammar).

Jenis kalimat dan modalitas (sentence types and modality).

Beberapa istilah yang perlu Anda ingat yang berkaitan dengan ketiga konsep di atas adalah berikut ini.

Semantic components or semantic properties (komponen-komponen makna).

Projection rules (aturan-aturan pemroyeksian).

Amalgamation (penggabungan).

Paths (jalur).

Berbagai istilah yang ada hubungannya dengan tata bahasa kasus, seperti berikut.
a. Agent (pelaku/perantara).
b. Patient (yang dikenai pekerjaan).
c. Instrument (alat untuk melakukan pekerjaan).
d. Cause (penyebab terjadinya sebuah pekerjaan);
e. Experience (yang mengalami proses terjadinya sebuah pekerjaan).
f. benxefactive (yang mendapatkan keberuntungan dari akibat adanya pekerjaan).
g. Locative (tempat terjadinya sebuah pekerjaan).
h. Temporal (waktu terjadinya sebuah pekerjaan).

Declarative and statement.

Interrogative and question.

Imperative and command.

Mood and modality: emphatic, period, quotative, report, and indefinite and question

Epistemic and deontic.

MAKNA UJARAN

Bahasa Lisan dan Tulisan, Topik dan Komentar, Tindak Tutur, Tindak Lokusi dan Perlokusi

Dalam unit ini kita telah mempelajari beberapa konsep yang berkaitan dengan hal-hal berikut.

Perbedaan antara bahasa lisan dan bahasa tulisan dilihat sari sejarah perkembangan kebahasaan manusia, pemakaian bahasa dalam kehidupan sehari-hari, dan cara penyampaian pesan/makna.

Hubungan antara topik (topic)dan komentar (comment) dalam ujaran

Teori tindak tutur (speech acts) dalam kaitannya dengan makna ujaran

Tindak lokusi, ilokusi, dan perlokusi (elocutionary, illocutionary, and perlocutionary acts) dalam hubungannya dengan makna ujaran.

Kondisi Felisitas, Pra Anggapan, Implikatur Percakapan Semantik dan Pengajaran Bahasa

Dalam unit ini kita telah mempelajari beberapa konsep yang berkaitan dengan hal-hal berikut.

Kondisi felisitas (felicity conditions) dan hubungannya dengan makna ujaran.

Peran praanggapan (presuppositions) dalam membentuk makna ujaran.

Peran implikatur percakapan (conversational implicature) dalam membentuk makna ujaran.

Peran semantik dalam pengajaran bahasa Inggris.

Sumber buku semantics karya Wahyu Sandayana


The Principles of Classification Essays
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The Principles of Classification Essays


Classification is one of the patterns of exposition. There are some principles in writing classification essays.

The principles of classification

One principle is applied at each level of classification

The member of the categories should not be overlap

It should be complete

Organizing the classification essay

Introductory paragraph

At least one developmental paragraphs for each category

Concluding paragraph

Strategies for coherence

The use of transitions

The use of articles

The use of key words


Classification Essays and Other Writing Strategies

Classification essays are a combination of two or more writing strategies. The most common combinations are examples and comparison and contrast.

Transition words can be very helpful in developing classification essays. They can be used to introduce examples, or to show the contrast between two or more categories.

A process analysis essay is the form of expository writing in which the writer explains a process to the readers. The process that the writer presents consists of steps or procedures that are arranged in chronological order. This order is the same as the order found in narration.

The process analysis essay explains how to do something or how something is made. The writer explains or describes the readers the steps or the procedures that should be followed to recreate the similar result. Therefore, the writer has to present every step clearly so that the readers do not make any mistakes in performing the tasks.

Organizing the Process Analysis

Process or process analysis is the form of expository writing in which the writer demonstrates or instructs a process to the readers. For example, how to make gado-gado, or how to make a pan cake. In process writing, the writer may only describes the process but does not want or insist the readers to follow the instruction. This type of process is called an explanatory process essay. However, when the writer wishes the readers to do something, he instructs the readers to do it. This type of process is called an instructional process. However, in both cases, a step-by-step analysis of the procedure is necessary.


There are three types of a cause and effect relationship that we ecounter in our everyday life. These are a single cause that leads to a single effect, a single cause that results in multiple effects, and multiple couses that lead to a single effect.


The Signal Words and Expressions Used in Cause and Effect Essay

Cause and effect relationship essays are usually indicated by the use of signal words or expressions. The words or expressions that indicate causes are: due to, because, since, if, owing to, as a result of, caused by, because of. While the words or expressions used to indicate effects are: as a result, consequently, for this reason, so, therefore, thus, causes, leads to.


Introduction to argumentative writing

State your opinion, belief, or point of view

List all possible reasons to support your opinion, belief, or point of view (logical or emotional)

Think of your (possible) opponent’s point of view

Think of why your point of view is better than your opponent’s point of view

Organize the information (1–4 above) into a clear, concise essay

Think of the persuasion vocabulary terms you might want to use in your essay

Write the first draft of your argumentative essay

Ask your friend(s) to read your first draft and to give comments on it

Revise the first draft (Repeat step 8 if necessary)

An argumentative essay is an essay in which the writer presents his belief, his opinion, or his position and supports his belief, opinion or position with reasons or evidence.


Types of Argumentative Essays

An argumentative essay writer may convince his position, belief, or opinion using logical persuasion or emotional persuasion. With logical persuasion, the writer uses evidence that is believable and has strong reasoning. With emotional persuasion, the writer uses dramatic experiences of his own or from others that can deeply touch the readers’ feeling (of disgust, anger, fear, compassion, excitement, or pity).


Stating Opposing Arguments

An argumentative essay may sound more convincing if the writer challenges the opposite point of view. In his essay he may show good points from the opposite point of view,but he also shows that his own point of view is better than the opposite point of view.


Faulty or Sound Logic

In an argumentative essay, the writer has to be very careful in using logical reasoning. Some reasoning sounds logical but other reasoning sounds illogical.


Important Vocabulary

In writing argumentative essays it is good to use certain words or phrases to signal the writer’s main idea.
Organizing Your Information on an Argumentative

When you are writing an argumentative essay, start first with thinking what your point of view is, and imagine every possible reason to support your point of view. Second, imagine the opposing point of view and think of every reason why people have that opposing point of view. Third, think of why your reasons are stronger and that your point of view is stronger than the opposing point of view. Fourth, try to organize the information you have already thought about into a clear, concise essay. In writing the essay, try to use persuasion vocabulary terms. Finally, after you have finished your first draft, ask your friend to read and to give comments on your first draft. Then, based on your friend’s comments you can start writing your final draft.


Writing the Draft

Writing argumentative essays is an important skill needed in our daily academic life. To write a good argumentative essay, we must be able to present our belief or statement with strong supporting reasons or evidence. The purpose of our argument in our essay is to convince (not to win arguments). We can argue with other people based on logical or emotional persuasion. With logical persuasion we are trying to use logical evidence (facts, statistics, examples), with emotional persuasion we are trying to appeal to the readers’ emotion (using disgust, anger, fear, compassion, excitement, or pity) to convince other people that the position or the belief we are taking is right.

Sometimes, in our argument, we have to state the opposing argument but we have to convince the readers that our argument is more sound/better than the opposing argument. When we are trying to appeal to logic, we have to make sure that we are using sound (not faulty) reasoning. Some common expressions used in argumentative essays are “In my opinion”, “From my point of view” , “As I see it” , “I think” , I believe”, “I feel”, “I conclude”, etc. .

The steps in writing an argumentative essay are usually as follows

THE ESSAY
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THE ESSAY


Elements of Essay

Main Parts of an Essay
An essay has three main parts: an introduction, a body, and a conclusion.

The introductory paragraph attracts the reader’s attention and informs the reader what your main topic of discussion will be. An introductory paragraph has two parts:

general statements

a thesis statement

The body of your essay discusses your major points, one by one. It contains as many paragraphs as necessary to explain the controlling ideas in the thesis statement.

The concluding paragraph reminds your reader of what you have said. A concluding paragraph consists of:

a summary of the main topics (major points); or

restatement of your thesis in different words

your final comment on the subject, based on the information you have provided.


Outlining

Before you begin to write, it is important to organize your thoughts and to plan your essay. An outline is a tool to help you. In an outline, you write down the main points and subpoints in the order in which you plan to write about them. With an outline in front of you, it should be relatively easy to write an essay on a certain subject. You can also use your outline to see if an essay is well organized and if the paragraphs discuss the thesis statement.

Remember, there are many ways to write outlines. It is not necessary to follow any strict outline form. However, keep in your mind that if there is no 2, you do not use the numeral 1. Also, if there is no b, there is no a. Subgroups are indented to the right and, as you move to the right, the ideas become more and more specific.


Examples in an Essay

In an example essay, you develop a topic with examples to illustrate the topic or prove the thesis. There are two cautions that you should keep in mind if you use examples for support. First, remember that in formal academic writing, such as research papers. theses, and the like, examples are considered the weakest kind of support, so use them infrequently. Second, be sure that your examples really prove your point.

How many examples we use in an example essay depends on the topic. Some topics require numerous examples, whereas others can be effectively developed with three or four extended examples (illustrations). Thesis statements that state or imply “most’ or “all” may need numerous examples for adequate support; thesis statements that are more moderate, stating or implying “some” or “a few”, can often be supported with fewer. but more developed, examples.

In addition, the examples you use to develop the thesis statement should be ‘representative’. This means that you should choose examples that will fairly support the thesis, since an example is a “representative member” of a class or category .

Finally, when an essay contains several examples and details, it is necessary to consider the order of their presentation. Even though there is no set or prescribed pattem, there are some common patterns that might be considered guidelines. You can organize the examples according to importance, familiarity, and time.

Transition Signals in the Example Essay

You have Iearned from this unit that you can introduce examples by using one of the following phrases:
For example, ……………………………………( sentence ) ……………………………………………….
For instance, …………………………………….(sentence ) ……………………………………………….
One
Another
An example of …………………………(noun phrase ) ………………………………………..
A second
A third
……………………………………..( noun phrase) …………………..is an example of
such as ……………………….(noun phrase) ……………………………………


THE COMPARISON AND CONTRAST ESSAY
Points of Comparison

When you compare two things, you point out their similarities. When you contrast two things, you emphasize their differences. Here are some important points to remember when writing about the similarities and differences between two items:

The items that you compare and/or contrast must be from the same general class. So, you could compare a sports car with a station wagon, but you would not compare a car with a boat.

When comparing and contrasting two things, people, countries, and so forth, it is best to restrict the points of comparison. Therefore, you should be selective and choose the most significant points for comparison that would support the central idea in your essay.

The thesis statement for a composition that compares and contrasts should tell the reader:

what two things or people are being compared and contrasted;

whether the composition will emphasize the similarities or the differences.


Patterns of Organization
You should have learned from this unit that there are at least two ways to organize a comparison and contrast essay. You may use block organization or point-by-point organization.

In block organization, you discuss the same points of comparison for two things or people. The points are discussed in the same order under each section. Thus, you discuss all of the points for one thing or one person in one block (which can be one or more paragraphs), and all of the points for the other thing or the other person in another block (which can be one or more paragraphs).

In point-by-point organization, you make a sentence-by-sentence comparison of the features for the two things or people. Thus, you discuss a particular point of comparison about one thing or one person and then immediately discuss the same point about the other thing or person.


THE PARAGRAPH
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THE PARAGRAPH

The Elements of a Paragraph
A paragraph is a group of related sentences which develops one main idea or one main topic. A good paragraph has five basic elements: a topic, a topic sentence, supporting sentences, unity and coherence, A topic is what the paragraph is about or what the paragraph discusses. This topic is usually expressed in a topic sentence.

Thus, a topic sentence announces what you are going to write. A good topic sentence has a focused controlling idea which limits or controls and announces the aspect of the topic you are going to write, Supporting sentences develop what you state about your topic in the controlling idea. A focused controlling idea in the topic sentence helps you produce supporting sentences which are relevant with the controlling idea.

Supporting sentences that are all relevant with the controlling idea in the topic sentence produce a unified paragraph. A unified paragraph discusses only one main idea stated in the topic sentence, or more specifically in the controlling idea. Besides being unified, a good paragraph should also be coherent. A paragraph is coherent if the movement from one sentence to the next is logical and smooth. The following paragraph checklist help you check your paragraph to see if your paragraph is already good.

Paragraph checklist
Topic sentence

Does your topic sentence have a controlling idea? ____

Is the controlling idea already focused? ____

Supporting sentences

Unity
Do all of the supporting sentences directly support ____
the controlling idea in the topic sentence? Coherence

Do you apply key noun repetition and pronouns appropriately?____

Do you use transition signals appropriately? ____

Are all of your sentences arranged logically? ____


The Narrative Paragraph

Narrative paragraph is a paragraph about a story or series of events organized by time order. In other words, when you write a narrative paragraph, it means that you write a story. And a good narrative paragraph has three important qualities. First, it tells a series of events or actions. Second, the events are organized chronologically or by time sequence. And the last, it shows the writer’s point or purpose.

Narration is more often about past story, but sometimes it is also about repeated present story. In this module, the first is referred to as past narration and the second as present narration. Past and present narration have several similarities and differ mainly in when the story takes place. Therefore, in writing both present and past narration, you need to keep yourself aware with your choice of verb tenses.

To achieve coherence in your narration, you should make use of appropriate time expressions to show clearly to your readers the relationship among the events in your story. Besides, your skill in choosing appropriate tenses is also very important for this purpose.

Last but not least, make yourself sure that you keep in your mind your point or purpose of writing. It will help you achieve unity in your paragraph by telling you which ideas to include and to exclude.


DESCRIPTIVE PARAGRAPH

Description of A Place
In descriptive writing, actually you are painting a picture with words. The topic sentence for a descriptive paragraph should give the topic (the place you are describing) and the controlling idea (the dominant impression, idea, or attitude). In descriptive writing, therefore, you need to support the dominant impression with descriptive details. Descriptive details are concrete and specific. They are word that appeals to one of our five senses - sight, smell, touch, taste, or hearing. Always strive to make details specific as vague descriptions suggest that your thought is vague and imprecise. Moreover, specific details makes writing more interesting.

In descriptive writing it is often important for reader to be able to “see” in their mind the place being described. To help readers see the place, you must organize the supporting details in your description according to space. In spatial organization, you first describe ion part of the place, then move on to describe another part of the place, and so on. Thus, you show the relationship of things to each other in space and guide the reader through space.


Description of a Person

In describing a person, you could describe the physical appearance, the behavior, or both. At this point, the discussion is restricted to physical appearance, since for the most part the principle of organization is spatial. You can describe a person’s appearance in many ways. You can describe the person’s clothes, manner of walking, color and style of hair, facial appearance, body shape, and expression. You can also describe the person’s way of talking. Just what you select depends on the topic and the purpose.

Remember, you are the painter with words so you want your description to be clear, coherent - logically arranged. A strong controlling idea and more descriptive details make the description more interesting. When describing a person, you are not obliged to describe every single details about the person’s appearance. Sometimes it is better to focus on one or two outstanding features that convey something about the person’s character. Such a description gives the reader the general impression about the person.

THE EXPOSITORY PARAGRAPH


Specific Details as Support

In expository writing, the writer is trying to prove the point he is making by providing the reader with supports. Good proof is factual detail.

Factual details are facts and information that explain the main idea and make it specific. They provide answers to the questions who, what, why, when, where, and how. Factual details make the main idea believable to the reader and thus provide effective support. Therefore, a writer must test each detail to see whether or not it will prove the controlling idea. Not only should support be specific; it should be relevant as well. Remember, all of the details in a paragraph must support the controlling idea of the topic sentence and all the sentences in the paragraph should relate to the controlling idea in order to make the paragraph unified.


Examples and Illustrations as Support

When you use examples and illustrations to support your point (controlling idea):

Make sure that your examples or illustration really support your point.

Introduce them with appropriate transition signals. Three common transitions are for example, for instance, and e.g. (from Latin exempli gratia, for example).


Organization of Examples and Details

These are the important points you should have learned from this unit:

When a paragraph contains several details and examples, it is necessary to consider the order of their presentation. In the expository paragraph, there is no prescribed or set pattern of organization to follow; the ordering depends upon the subject and often upon the author’s logic. However, there are some common patterns that might be considered guidelines: order of importance, order of familiarity, and chronological order.

Each method of organization has special words and expressions

Resourse : The Book title Advanced Writing