Indonesian JELT: Indonesian Journal of English Language Teaching

Teaching – research nexus in higher education management: An overview

2021-05-26T05:02:21+07:00

This paper aims to critically review the nexus between teaching and research in higher education. This study investigates the issue such as why universities and policy makers are calling for stronger integration of teaching and research in spite of a considerable tensions among researchers, scholars, and all the concerned with regard to teaching-research nexus. The researcher argues that symbiotic relationship between teaching and research should be perceived and treated accordingly by academics, students, and policy makers to fully promote quality education in terms of creating new knowledge and contributing to the local and global community. The research approach adopted in this study includes views, reviews, and critics put forward in different literature. The findings suggest that the nature of teaching-research relationship is not always a clear cut one. The paper concludes that despite varied relationship between teaching and research, a positive nexus between teaching and research is more common and therefore, teachers, academic staffs, and policy makers should pay a critical attention to a symbiotic relationship between teaching and research.

The persuasive language of online advertisements featuring social media influencers on Instagram: A multimodal analysis

2021-05-26T05:02:23+07:00

The popularity of online advertising is increasing alongside the rising number of internet users, and one of the online platforms to advertise one’s products or services is Instagram. On Instagram, many advertisers opt for one viable alternative way of advertising: social media influencers. They typically hire popular figures to endorse their products, and the influencers will then post an image and a caption, persuading their followers to buy the products. It is intriguing to investigate how they make use of images and texts in Instagram to strengthen their persuasive act. Therefore, this paper aims to present a multimodality analysis where both the linguistic features and the images of Instagram advertisements of influencers are explored in relation to their communicative intent. The sample was built up from 24 Instagram ads posted by 13 Indonesian influencers. Several salient lexicogrammatical features were pinpointed, and the images were analyzed following the social semiotic approach called visual grammar. The findings revealed that the Instagram ads demonstrated vast amount of colloquial and informal language use, which was intended to establish familiarity with the audience. The image analysis also showed that influencers had roles to display themselves in the image to build credibility and trust as credible reviewers. The study has contributed to explicating how diverse language use on the internet is vis-à-vis traditional media, particularly the discourse of influencer advertising.

After class: Students’ social use of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF)

2021-05-26T05:02:23+07:00

International students have become an integral part of universities worldwide. Despite a number of studies on the use of English as a lingua franca (ELF) in an academic context, there are still comparatively fewer investigations into students’ social use of ELF outside of the classroom. This study investigated language use and self-perceived identities of international students using ELF in social interaction. Qualitative data was gathered via semi-structured interviews with eight students attending English-medium programs at a private university in Taiwan. Consistent with previous findings, analysis shows that the students perceived themselves as English language users as well as learners. But within relationships of friendship, they used ELF in very individualized and pragmatic ways. They also took guidance from each other and those perceived as more proficient models of English. The study adds valuable insight into self-reports of student social ELF use. As such, pedagogical implications and suggestions are discussed.

Reflections on translanguaging practices in English education in Japan

2021-05-26T05:02:23+07:00

This study is a reflection on critical incidents (Tripp, 1993) addressing the use and promotion of a learner’s first language (L1) and cultural knowledge as linguistic and cognitive resources for learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in Japan. Translanguaging, which was first introduced by Cen Williams (1994) to refer to the practice of interchanging languages in the classroom for productive use, was investigated to provide a deeper understanding of what seems to be relatively common practice across Japan. This paper outlines to fit with the broader study area of a larger collaborative inquiry involving university-based researchers providing English for Academic Purposes (EAP) in Japan. This paper outlines the background of English education in Japan and considers its current state to study possible additions and changes in the broader curricula.

Conversational dominance and politeness strategy on a political discussion among peers

2021-05-26T05:02:24+07:00

This paper aims to explore the differences of female and male linguistic features analyzed using the conversational dominance analysis and the common politeness strategies when discussing Kabinet Indonesia Maju (Onward Indonesia Cabinet). The participants were a group of Master Degree students consisting of two male and two female students. The data was gathered by conducting a focus group discussion, then the verbal utterance was orthographically transcribed. The writer used quantitative and qualitative methods to analyse the data. The finding showed that other-oriented interruption was the most-occurred dominance, in which both male and female participants interrupted the conversation to exhibit the agreement, support the speakers, and reinforce the flow of the conversation. The female participants did self-oriented interruption more than male participants to ask questions. This finding conversed Lakoff (1973), Coates (1991), and West and Zimmerman (1987)’s female language features in which the female participants stood for their own opinion, shared their critic, gave suggestions, and asked questions. This study found that the participants showed mostly positive politeness strategy which they agreed to each other's statement, supported one another's idea, and contributed new topics to the discussion to maintain the discussion. This paper concluded that gender is not the only factor determining linguistics features and politeness strategy in this discussion among peers. The other possible influencing factors were the participants’ relationship closeness, different cultural backgrounds, topic mastery, and their equal education level.