My "Extensive Reading" Assignments

Hi.. These all were my English tasks when I was in fifth semester. Hope these documents will give you much more knowledge in learning English. :)

1. Debating the Best Way to Learn a Language

          What is the best way to learn a new language? A small study of foreign language learning in adults compared two methods. One is known as the explicit or classroom method. This is the kind of traditional classroom teaching where students are taught a lot of information about grammar rules.
           The other method is known as the implicit or immersion method. The idea here is to learn much the way children do when they learn a native language. That is, by being with native speakers and absorbing the language that surrounds them, generally without a lot of explanation.

Teachers may combine these two methods into what Professor Michael Ullman calls immersion-style classroom teaching. But is that necessarily a better way to learn a language?

Mr. Ullman was the senior investigator for the new study. He is a professor of neuroscience at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington. He says he was surprised to find that combining the two methods might not help the brain in processing the new language. 

MICHAEL ULLMAN: "You know, if my life were on the line, and I had to learn a language, what would I do? I'm not sure. One possibility would be that, to start with explicit and then go to immersion, right? Start with classroom and then go to immersion. But there is this possibility that classroom could hurt later immersion. That's what, you know, one possibility of interpreting our data." 

The Public Library of Science published the study earlier this year. The twenty-one adults in the experiment learned Brocanto2, a thirteen-word language created for the study. The words and grammar rules relate to a computer game similar to chess that the learners played. For example, "Blom neimo lu neep li praz" means "The square blom-piece switches with the neep-piece."

The researchers tested the people three to six months after they had learned the language, to see how well they could remember it. The study found that those who had learned it with the immersion method had brain waves similar to those of native speakers of a language when speaking that language.

Professor Ullman says those who trained with the classroom method also became more native-like in their brain processing. But only the immersion group showed full native-like processing of the grammar.  Still, he says teachers should be careful how they use the results of his study.

MICHAEL ULLMAN: "You know I would not make any curriculum changes based on this. Nevertheless, it is suggestive, and I think it warrants further research to see whether in fact what kind of training might in fact be best not just for reaching the native brain bases but also for, you know, maximum proficiency in different aspects of language, like grammar, you know, syntax and lexicon. So I think further research is warranted. And it may be, for example, that a combination of classroom and immersion might be best. But we don't know that."

And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Christopher Cruise. You can find a link to the study at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.

        Student’s Comment

Explicit?, implicit?, or combined? Which is the best way? I suppose it depends on the purpose of learning foreign languages. When to write a pater or novel, explicit classroom method would be essential and first. When to exchange conversation, implicit immersion method would be favorable. Or if we combine the method of explicit and implicit method would be good for adults, because we adults have experience learning foreign language by grammar rules and it is easy way to understand a foreign language structure. And then we need to listen and speak a lot of words and phrases to absolve them. 

2.  New National Curriculum Leaves Teachers, Experts Confused

          Although the new national curriculum will become effective in only four months, teachers and education experts say that they are still in the dark over details about the new guidelines, with some saying that some of the subjects are too absurd to teach. The new curriculum, consisting of civic education and religion being integrated with science, was too complicated for teachers, let alone students to understand, said Retno Listyarti, the Indonesian Teachers Unions Federation (FSGI) secretary-general.

          Retno said on Wednesday that with teachers having only a few months to fully grasp the integrated subjects, they had yet to receive complete information from the Education and Culture Ministry about the new curriculum. So far, what is available for them is an incomplete document of standards and competency for the students. In the standards and competency document obtained by The Jakarta Post recently, for the subject of Indonesian, the basic competence required from students is accepting the language as a gift from God, a means that could unite the country amid differences in local languages.

        A sample of the standard and competency required from a fourth grade student in a science subject is that they could strengthen their faith by acknowledging that the complex relationship of the universe could be attributed to God, who has created it. The document leaves blank details on the integration of mathematics and religion. Retno said that the teachers will have problems with the new curriculum because of the lack of description about each integrated subject and the teacher’s guidelines. “I wonder how the ministry could say that they have almost completed the books for the students if they haven’t completed such a basic document?” Retno told the Post on Wednesday. 

          As previously reported, Education and Culture Minister Mohammad Nuh said that the new books both for students and teachers would be ready by the end of February, as they were already in the hands of proofreaders. He also told teachers to bear with the change, as they would be trained to adapt to the new curriculum in May. “Of course they were confused about the content of the curriculum — they haven’t been trained yet,” Nuh said on Monday.

        Meanwhile, Musliar Kasim, the deputy education and culture minister, said that the ministry could not distribute the completed documents on the guidelines as they were not yet considered official government material. “We will show the draft of the curriculum shortly, when we are ready,” he said.

          According to Musliar, 102,053 schools, including elementary schools, junior high schools and high schools, would implement the curriculum starting in the 2013/2014 academic year. He said that only the first, fourth, seventh and 10th grade students would study under the new curriculum this year. Only in the 2015/2016 academic year would all grades implement the curriculum, he said.

       Musliar added that schools that had already implemented a similar thematic integrated curriculum would be appointed as supervisors to guide the state schools to make their transition from the current curriculum to the new one. “Schools, state or private, that have applied a similar concept of curriculum, would be appointed as supervisors for the rest of the schools in their respective regency” Musliar said.

          Golkar lawmaker Zulfadhli questioned the idea, saying that not all regencies in the country had at least one school that had applied a thematic and integrated teaching methodology. National Mandate Party (PAN) lawmaker Nasrullah said that the main problem with the new curriculum was that it would be more time-consuming, as teachers would need longer hours of training before implementing the curriculum.

        “Every teacher would need a new pedagogic strategy to teach just one simple subject, and not all teachers would have that ability,” Nasrullah said.“I wonder how teachers could master a curriculum that requires them to combine the subjects into a narrative explanation in such a short period of time.” (nad)

             Summary of Content

The new curriculum that will be implemented on this year 2013, makes teachers and education experts confused, because so far, the Education and Culture Ministry only gives an incomplete document of standards and competency for the students. Not all the subjects have had the basic standard and competency, such as Math and Religion subject. Retno Listyarti, the Indonesian Teachers Unions Federation (FSGI) secretary-general, said that the teachers will have problems with the new curriculum because of the lack of description about each integrated subject and the teacher’s guidelines. Even in this new curriculum, Civic Education and Religion being integrated with Science. To respond this problem, The Education and Culture Minister, Mohammad Nuh said that the teachers obviously were confused about the curriculum because they have not been traine yet. In addition, the Deputy Education and Culture Minister, Musliar Kasim, said that only the first, fourth, seventh and tenth grade students of state and private schools would study under the new curriculum this year and in the 2015/2016 academic year would all grades implement the curriculum.

        Student’s Comment

I think during ten years, even more, Indonesia is still has been possessing big problem in education sector because one thing, that is curriculum. Considering this new curriculum that has problem in beginning of issue, both teachers and education experts criticize it. Because of many problem in this new curriculum, such as there is an incomplete document of standard and competency., unequal application of the curriculum in each school, both state and primary and civic education and religion being integrated with science. Eventhough this new curriculum has got critics by people, I personally think and hope that both government and teachers can apply this curriculum well so that the aim of eduacation will be achieve.