CCU 9

Citation: Nurcahyoko, Kunto. (2016). Cultural Snapshot: Fostering Crosscultural

Understanding Through Cultural Project, International Journal of Education, 4(4): 29-37.

This study aims at investigating Indonesian university students’ perception on cross-cultural understanding after doing Cultural Snapshot Project. Cross cultural understanding is a mandatory course for students majoring in English Education In Pamane Teaching College, Indonesia. After joining the class, students are expected to be able to understand the concept of culture as part of daily life and improve their understanding toward cross cultural aspects.

The course aims at helping the students to understand cultural phenomenon and how to response multiculturalism within society. As the students are teacher candidates, they are required to comprehend the material on cross cultural understanding. Such comprehension is vital because teachers are not only required to have knowledge and skill on the taught subjects but also to assist students in being tolerant individuals.

The result reveals that Cultural Snapshot Project has given the opportunity for the students to better realize cross-cultural understanding in their environment. In conclusion, the study shows that Cultural Snapshot Project has specifically enhanced students’ perception of multiculturalism in three major areas: cultural sensitivity and empathy, social tolerance, and understanding of diversity.

CAR 9

Citation :

Arung, Fernandes. (2016). Improving the Students’ Speaking Skill through Debate Technique, Journal of English Education, 1(1), 70-76.

This article mainly discuss about the use of debate technique to improve students’ speaking skill in SMA Negeri 1 Lasasua. The participant are 31 students of XI/IPA-2 class. The researcher use Classroom Action Reasearch as the design or method in this research. From this article, I agree that debate technique is an effective way to improve students’ speaking skill. Not only the speaking ability, but also their critical thinking. They have to be able think fast and logically. Debate also make them work really well with their group to defend  the opponent group. The main point or main purpose of speaking is to communicate with other people. Through debate, the students can communicate well and build a good team work. The researcher use two cycle of tests to measure whether there is an improvement in their speaking ability. In the first cycle, the students’ average result was 64 and in the second cycle, the average result was 78,4. So, it is proven that debate technique can improve student’s speaking skill.

When I become a teacher someday, I will use debate technique as one of my learning activities. However, I will use topic that related with their daily life so that it is not that difficult for them to make an argument. Because in my opinion, the students often find difficulties when they make an argument because they do not really know the topic or the motion of the debate.

CAR 8

Citation:

Othman, mala.,  Sahamid, Husniah., Harrith, Muhammad., Hashim, Rosnani., & Mohamad, Faizah. (2015). The Effects of Debate Competition on Critical Thinking among Malaysian Second Language Learners. Middle-East Journal of Scientific Research 23 (4): 656-664.

This article journal mainly discuss how debate competition can develop students’ critical thinking. The participant of this research are forty second language learners in Malaysia, aged 16 years old. The researcher conducted this research with pre-test and post test. Also, a survey was undertaken to gauge their perception of the thinking process they had experienced.

In debate competition, two teams will debate over a problem that called ‘motion’, in front of the judges or adjudicators. They have to provide a better argument with strong facts and the way they deliver their argument also being scored by the judges. After listen to the opponent group, they have to be able to do rebuttal over the opponent’s argument. In this case, critical thinking play a big role. because, if we do not think fast or our argument is not strong, the opponent group will see it as weaknesses and it easier for them to rebut our argument.

As a result, in the pre-test and post-test there are some improvements in the students’ critical thinking. Also, in the survey that given to the students, it shows that the majority of the students (83,8%) respons positively that debate competition can improve their critical thinking.

CCU 8

Citation: Martinez, Dolores. (2012). Critical learning: critical discourse analysis in EFL teaching,  journal of 

 language teaching and research, 3(2): 283-288.

 

This paper aims to demonstrate how critical discourse analysis can be implemented in foreign language teaching in order to help students develop their internal values and critical thinking skills. The main principles of critical discourse analysis can be incorporated in order to turn a song, a t-shirt slogan or an email into the subject of linguistic exploitation and socio-cultural debate.  Critical discourse analysis promotes the application of critical thinking to social situations and the unveiling of hidden connections between language use, ideology and power.

CDA promotes the application of critical thought to social situations and the unveiling of strategies in texts. Discourse analysis, and more specifically, critical approaches offer the learner new skills to interpret society and culture. Teachers can improve their teaching practices by investigating actual language use both in and out of the classroom. Likewise, discourse analysis stimulates students to reflect on the huge amount of analysable information they receive every day through different means.

Discourse analysis is not restricted to significant texts and contexts. Journalists, writers of e-mails, composers of songs and creators of slogans are conscious of the potential of words to have an impact on the reader and shape his feelings and behaviour. Critical learning awakens students’ curiosity about their surrounding information and leads them to think that they can be manipulated while they think they are just being informed.

CAR 7

Citation :

O. Doody., and M. Condon. (2012). Increasing student involvement and learning through using debate as an assessment, Nurse Education in Practice, (12): 232-237.

After read this article journal, I learn that the purpose of this research is to identify the use of a debate as an assessment method within an intellectual disability nursing programme and a student’s reflective comment on the process, and their experience of a debate as their assessment method.

In nursing program, the students have to be able to think critically to provide effective care whilst coping with the expansion in their role associated with the complexities of current healthcare systems. Because if the nurses have a good critical thinking and problem solving skill, it will help them to provide efficient and quality healthcare. Based on the research it is shown that debate as pedagogical method can improve students’ critincal thinking and oral communication skills. The learning process will be facilitated if the education process begins by bringing out students’ perceptions, evaluating and testing it, after that they have to integrate their opinion or perception with the new, more refined ideas or opinion in the person’s belief system.

After read this article journal, I got some  important information that the lower order thinking skills of knowledge, comprehension, and application focus on rote learning or what students should think, whereas the higher order thinking skills of analysis, synthesis, and evaluation focus on how to think. To make the students develop their higher order thinking, instructional strategies are better suited to be implemented than traditional strategies.

When I become a teacher, I will use debate technique to promote the students’ critical thinking as well as their oral communication skill because students learn more effectively by actively analysing, discussing and applying content in meaningful ways rather than by passively get the information from the teacher.