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This study investigates the Indonesian National Curricula documents that stipulate the competencies to be achieved in English in upper secondary school in Indonesia. Both curricula claim to promulgate communicative competence. Using document analysis as its method, the study examines how the notion of communicative competence is represented in the two current curricula. It identifies, interprets and thematically organizes the representations of linguistic, sociolinguistic and pragmatic competences, as well as of general competence. It finds that while both curricula do not specify the linguistic competence to be achieved, they do specify a limited range of contexts in which learners are to develop sociolinguistic competence, and a limited range of pragmatic functions. While the curriculum of 2006 is organized around the four language skills, the 2013 English curriculum is organized around the development of attitudes and personality, and the paradigm of scientific enquiry. We argue that this paradigm is at odds with a coherent notion of communicative competence.

Communication strategy is one of the most important components in foreign language learning because it assists students to surmount communication difficulties. This research sought to examine types and frequent types of communication strategies used by EFL students in classroom speaking activities, that are Discussion, Presentation, and Simulation. This is a mixed-method research since it represents research that involves collecting, analysing, and interpreting quantitative and qualitative data. The researchers used an observation sheet to observe students’ communication strategies in three different classroom speaking activities. The subjects of this research were 20 undergraduate students of English Department who studied a content course, selected by using purposive sampling. The results of this research reveal that students employed 12 types of communication strategies, which are: message abandonment, literal translation, code-switching, foreignizing, approximation, word coinage, circumlocution, use of the all-purpose word, self-repair, appeal for assistance, mumbling, and fillers. The most frequent strategy utilized is self-repair (36.2%), followed by fillers (28.5%) and code-switching (11.8%), whereas the least frequent employed strategy was foreignizing (0.4%). It is recommended that lecturers train students to use communication strategies and integrate them as part of speaking activities in any content courses.

Teacher appreciation is one of the most important components that may impact teachers’ competency. This article aims at finding out to what extent school’s appreciation for English teachers correlates with their competency. This is a quantitative study that used a correlational research design. This research was conducted in Pidie district, Aceh, Indonesia, with a total sample of 92 senior high school English teachers from different senior high schools and vocational schools (SMA and SMK), who are both civil servant and non-civil servant English teachers. To collect data, the modified questionnaire of Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) from Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) was used as the instrument, particularly to figure out the frequency of how teachers feel being appreciated by headmaster, teachers and people in school, and other people outside the school, as well as the frequency of how teachers develop their competence in various professional development activities. Statistical calculation was done to find out correlation between the two variables. Based on the results, it was found that appreciation of teachers and teachers’ competence have a positive and significant correlation (r=.66). This suggests that relevant parties in and outside of schools should increase their appreciation for English teachers in order to improve English teachers’ competency, which will further enhance students’ achievement.

Many institutions, including universities in Indonesia, use Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) to evaluate students’ accuracy in English use. Among these universities is Universitas Malikussaleh, that utilizes TOEFL like system to assess students’ ability and as a requirement before sitting for their thesis defense. To have a better understanding of this test implementation, a focus group discussion (FGD) was conducted with 50 students along with four English lecturers on the application of minimal TOEFL score requirements at the university. Four topics were raised in this study, they are (a) perspective on the test requirements, (b) test preparation, (c) attitude during the test, and (d) test result expectation. The results showed that all students and lecturers believe the score benchmark was too high for the students to achieve. The students’ preparation for the test was also significantly unsatisfactory. The lack of preparation could be the reason that a majority of students receiving a low score.

This study examined the acquisition of English plural marking, i.e. plural -s marker on nouns without quantifiers (lexical plural marking) and nouns in contexts with quantifiers (phrasal plural marking). It was carried out within the framework of Processability Theory. There were ten participants involved; they were young adult Indonesian learners who learned English as a second language in a formal context. Data collection was carried out at two points in time within one semester, namely at the beginning and the end of the semester. At each point of time, the participants were assigned translation tasks from Indonesian into English. The translation tasks aimed specifically to elicit the targeted morphological structures based on the PT hierarchy. The data was analysed by using distributional analysis; its finding was then examined by means of implicational scaling on the basis of the emergence criterion, the purpose of which is to determine the acquisition points of the morphological forms under scrutiny. The research finding demonstrates that the development of plural marking of the participants follows the sequences as predicted in PT; each participant first acquires plural –s marker on nouns without quantifiers, and then they acquire that marker on nouns with quantifiers.

This qualitative case study was to explore the teachers’ perspectives toward the causes of EFL (English as a foreign language) students’ sentence errors. To collect data, the researchers utilized semi structured interviews with six EFL teachers in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, and the data were presented by including the excerpts of the participants’ responses to the interview questions. The findings revealed that the students’ sentence errors were made as a result of linguistic factors such as negative transfer, lack of vocabulary and lack of knowledge and non-linguistic factors, which are poor motivation, limited time to review the class material at home, excessive drill on simple sentence, and less attention to the teachers’ explanations in the classroom. It is suggested that teachers should overcome all of these causes by using various methods to help learners avoid sentence errors in the future.

This study aims to find out whether the use of teaching techniques, teaching media and the teaching process conducted by a teacher teaching English to young learners at a private bilingual school in Banda Aceh were based on the principles of teaching English to young learners. A qualitative method through descriptive design was applied in this study. To collect the data, an observation checklist was used during the observation. The data were then analysed by using the model of data reduction, data display, and conclusion. The findings of this study revealed that the teacher used seven types of teaching techniques, seven types of teaching media and ten teaching principles. Hence, this research is expected to enrich teachers’ knowledge about teaching English to young learners by using appropriate techniques, media and based on the principles of teaching English to young leaners, especially in Aceh, Indonesia. It can benefit the readers since the way the teacher implemented the technique, used the media, and applied the principles in teaching English to young learners were considered successful so that the readers may apply them in the same area of teaching.

This study reports the challenges and solutions found by Acehnese lecturers during the implementation of British Parliamentary Debate System (henceforth, BPDS) in teaching critical thinking to university students. This study uses the qualitative approach, from observations to in-depth interviews, to discover the problems in the implementation of the debate techniques in teaching speaking as experienced by the lecturers. The subjects of the study were five lecturers who have been teaching English speaking courses at five private higher education institutions in Aceh, Indonesia. The results showed that there were three challenges found in the implementation of BPDS; these included the institutional, procedural, and intellectual challenges. The institutional challenges comprised limited meeting quantity and limited duration in a class meeting. The procedural challenges were the insufficient duration of case building for beginner students and the inability of BPDS to cover the population of average-range students in a class. Meanwhile, the intellectual challenges were the lack of students’ general knowledge and poor speaking skill. From the interviews, the lecturers also proposed some solutions to these problems, and they are discussed in this paper.

This paper aims at reporting how teachers (re)construct student identity in their English as foreign language (EFL) classroom interactions. Even though it is empirically proven that in classroom interactions teachers represent their identity and, to a certain extent, subconsciously intend to shape student identity, empirical data are required for justifying how the (re)constructions of student identity occur. Based on the observations and in-depth interviews with two content course English teachers of a state Islamic higher education institution in Indonesia, this study revealed that teachers were shown to make efforts and endorsements to build student identity from the earlier stages of their teaching. Despite the fact that (re)constructions of student identity by the teachers were sporadically and spontaneously done in classroom interactions, it was found that the teachers’ commitment to build students’ character was the point of departure of the student identity (re)constructions. It is interesting to note that teachers utilized some cultural factors as effective triggers for the teachers to construct student identity. Some recommendations are also proposed for further investigations of the processes of character buildings as well as student identity representation within dynamic sociolinguistic nature of classroom interactions.