OKARA: Jurnal Bahasa dan Sastra

English as a Lingua Franca Awareness of the Pre-service English Teachers in Assessing Students’ Speaking Assignment

Mon, 29 May 2023 08:57:54 +0700

The permeating use of English promotes a contact language among people from multicultural backgrounds called English as a Lingua Franca (ELF). Pre-service English teachers going to the teaching practice thus need to be aware of ELF trends to engage with their students in the classroom. This study seeks to explore the ELF awareness of the pre-service English teachers in assessing the students' speaking assessment. Twenty pre-service teachers from three geographically different universities were recruited. They were asked to establish the speaking rubrics assessment based on the given video and were invited to Forum Group Discussion (FGD) for their underlying reasons for scoring. The results indicated that University A developed ELF awareness as they demonstrated open-mindedness, tolerance, less value on errors, and emphasis on intelligibility both personally and professionally. Meanwhile, Universities B and C openly state that Native speakers’ English is the only proper English, and any other use beyond it is a defect. The discussion suggests that the different geographical locations may cause different exposures to speakers of English. The study suggests that pre-service English teachers actively explore the ongoing trend in English Language Teaching with the Faculty of Education to provide continuous support in the process.

The Indonesian Terms of Disease Names: A Corpus Linguistic Study

Hernina Hernina, Yenny Karlina, Devi Ambarwati Puspitasari — Mon, 29 May 2023 00:00:00 +0700

The Indonesian terms of disease names are unique. Despite being different from their medical terms, Indonesian terms of disease names contain elements of figurative language. This study aims to analyze stylistic naming. The data were Corpora from articles, social media forums, and online news on health for 2013-2023, involving 1.206.281.985 tokens from the Indonesian-Leipzig Corpora Collection (ILC) and 39.294 tokens collected for the 2023 Health Forum Corpus (HF). Data analysis concerned the wordlist and collocation feature to see the frequency, trend, and pattern, and the concordance feature examined the language style of the names. The study does not find any evidence of changes in health terms over the past decade, such as “penyakit jantung” (heart disease), "headache," and "hospital." However, it does uncover some interesting findings regarding the formation of disease names. Affixation and compounding are the primary word formation processes. The stylistic elements of disease names were hyperbolic figures, such as "gagal ginjal" (chronic kidney disease), and symbolic figures, such as "kaki gajah" (filariasis) and "mata ikan" (clavus). In conclusion, the names of diseases followed a particular pattern, but the specific terminology used might vary based on linguistic factors and cultural understanding.

Leftist Narratives in Tempo Books: Van Dijk’s Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) Perspective

Mon, 29 May 2023 10:44:54 +0700

The text in a narrative has hidden meanings. It is necessary to dismantle and reconstruct the new meanings using critical discourse analysis (CDA). Related to that, this study aims to explore leftist narratives in Indonesia as contained in two books published by Tempo through van Dijk’s perspective of critical discourse analysis (CDA). This study used a descriptive-interpretative method which refers to CDA. The results reveal: First, the structure of the topic’s discourse raises the subject that Tempo is on the leftist side through diction, which depicts them as religious, kind, diligent, intelligent, and having a strong sense of nationalism. Microstructurally, in terms of setting, the leftists are those who were close to Sukarno, often recited the Quran (Muslims), repeatedly discussed with the public, and defended them. While in terms of graphics, Tempo books tend to be printed in red, symbolizing communism. Second, social cognition reporting in Tempo tends to side with the PKI and criticize Suharto concerning the G30S/PKI Movement. The two books reveal the ideological conflict between communism (Russia and China) and capitalism/colonialism (the United States and its allies). Third, from the aspect of context, leftists are innocent people and are the only victims of the regime in power.

Acehnese Local Wisdom Through the Lens of Acehnese Novelists During the Times of Political Conflict and Peace Agreement

Wildan Wildan, Yunisrina Qismullah Yusuf, Budi Arianto, Rajab Bahry — Mon, 29 May 2023 11:06:32 +0700

Acehnese novelists have a role in expressing and preserving the socio-cultural conditions of the Acehnese people in Aceh, Indonesia, especially regarding the points of local wisdom in their works. This study deals with local wisdom as reflected in the novels by Acehnese novelists from 2005 to 2011, the times in which the Acehnese people endured the political conflict and peace agreement with the Indonesian government. It covers the aspects of forms and use of local wisdom embedded within the novels as narrated by the Acehnese authors in these rough times. It employed the qualitative-analytical method and content analysis technique. A number of nine selected novels written by Acehnese novelists and published between the years 2005-2011 were chosen for data analysis. The results showed that the local wisdom in the novels was categorized into four themes: (1) belief in myths, (2) preservation of historical values, (3) safeguarding traditional houses, and (4) the practice of greetings and nobility. This study has revealed the local wisdom believed and practiced by the Acehnese society through the novels. They take part in shaping the direction of society's life. These pearls of wisdom cover all sides of life to support a strong and bonded society.

Anxiety Caused by Too Many Cats in Bohumil Hrabal’s “All My Cats”

Edward Owen Teggin, Yostiani Noor Asmi Harini — Mon, 29 May 2023 00:00:00 +0700

All My Cats is an autobiographical novel representing Hrabal’s fatal anxiety from the potential mental conflict with domesticated animals. This article examines the concept of anxiety and the potential for domesticated animals, in this example, cats, to exert agency and impact the lives of their owners in autobiographical literature. Bohumil Hrabal's All My Cats has been selected due to the prominence of literary signifiers of anxiety, his ambivalent attitude toward cats (love and hate) throughout the text, and Hrabal’s specific interpretation of what his cats did for him and to him in emotional terms. The methodology selected does not presuppose that cats, or animals in the broader sense, possess agency on an equal footing with humans. Rather, they can exist in an interdependent or collaborative state with humans. This may be seen as a form of an unwritten social contract between animals and humans in a domestic setting. In the case of Hrabal and his cats, his perception of his cats and what they attempt to communicate to him is most interesting in this regard, particularly when viewed through the lens of anxiety and the literary signifier.

Animate or Inanimate: How Does Animacy Affect Relative Clauses Production for Indonesian and Foreign Learners

Arti Prihatini, Fida Pangesti, Petrus Ari Santoso, Ho Ngoc Hieu — Mon, 29 May 2023 12:06:14 +0700

In second language learning, relative clauses are widely studied. However, research comparing Indonesian and foreign learners’ clauses based on animacy has not been widely done. Besides, animacy affects the difficulty of producing relative clauses. Therefore, this study investigates the role of animacy in the production of relative clauses, the relationship between movement distance and the production of relative clauses, and the role of animacy in conformity with the rules of relative clauses. This research employs a descriptive case study. Data was collected from documents on popular article texts of Indonesian and foreign learners of the University of Muhammadiyah Malang. The data were analyzed based on the generative transformation theory developed by Noam Chomsky. The study results show that animacy plays a significant role in producing relative clauses. Indonesian and foreign learners compose more relative clauses on inanimate nouns, which function as subjects, objects, and complements. Foreign learners create more relative objects than subjects. Based on distance, short-movement relative clauses are very productive for Indonesian and foreign learners. Most Indonesian (97%) and foreign (85%) learners have produced relative clauses that conform to the rules. However, relative clauses with inanimate head nouns often break the rules.

Conversational Analysis on Politeness in Online Class Discussions: Exploring Turn-Taking and Relational Work Strategies Between Lecturer and Students

Mon, 29 May 2023 13:37:05 +0700

In the teaching-learning process, the lecturers usually play the role of dominant turn-takers. Meanwhile, students mostly perform as small turn-takers. In EFL classrooms, different turn-taking patterns are essential to analyze to identify the students' language politeness during the turn-taking process. The present study analyzed the turn-taking and relational work concerning politeness in online class discussions. For this study, a conversational analysis was performed on online class(es) discussions between students and lectures. A video recording of a classroom conversation between ELT and TEFL was employed. The study found that 16 out of 40 quotations displayed a turn-taking of the Appealing Strategy (AS). The relational work strategy of Being Cooperative (BC) was cited in 22 of 40 quotes. In relational work strategies, BC indicated that the students' responses related to what the lecturer mentioned. Turn-taking and relational work strategies could be one of the tools to determine the students' politeness by combining the characteristics as politeness indicators that focus on students' answers when speaking with the lecturer. Further investigations on gender disparities that use turn-taking and relational work to maintain politeness in online lecturer-student dialogues may prove insightful.

Students’ Voices of Teachers’ Online Written Feedback

Lailatus Sa'adah, Rosi Anjarwati, Mohammad Romadhoni, Eva Nikmatul Rabbianty — Mon, 29 May 2023 14:06:20 +0700

Feedback should be beneficial to learners; it should provide information about their performance of a task or activity. This study aims to explore students' concerns and expectations toward teachers' online written feedback through photovoice. Participants involved fifteen students of a writing course. To obtain the data, a photovoice was used following Wang et al.'s SHOWeD protocols based on the theme "students' voices on teachers' online written feedback to promote discussion among participants and researchers about critical topics to generate solutions. Two instruments were used to collect the data; documentation in the form of the participants' photographs and a semi-structured interview with each participant. The result revealed that students had raised some points regarding the teacher's online written feedback. These points include: 1) online written feedback is sufficient; 2) online feedback should show the strength of students' writing; 3) students' revision will improve students writing quality; 4) students need a comfortable place, correct times, and snacks when revising. The study concludes that instead of simply making suggestions, as is customary when providing feedback, the students require the teacher's assessment of their strengths. The findings suggested that teachers and lecturers should consider the points when providing online written feedback to students.

The Patriarchal Power for Traditional Chinese Women in Pearl S. Buck’s “The Good Earth”

Mosleh Habibullah, Ulfa Sufiya Rahmah — Wed, 31 May 2023 00:00:00 +0700

The subordination of women in society has become a common phenomenon. The woman's life in traditional Chinese culture is portrayed as someone who must be obedient, submissive, polite, have manners, and be loyal to her husband and others. The Good Earth novel reflects the life of traditional Chinese women in patriarchal power and the role of female characters. This study aims to describe the Chinese community traditions that govern women's lives in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and elucidate the orthodox tradition's effect on the role of female characters. The method applied was Library Research through the Sociological and Psychological Approaches. The data were obtained from The Good Earth novel and secondary data, such as the library, books, critics, writer’s biography, and a novel summary. The research revealed that women had a low position in social status in ancient China. We are familiar with the name of the patriarchy set by Confucius, as illustrated by figure O-lan, Wang Lung's wife as a female character in the novel and character theories, and his contribution will be used as the basis for analysis. The research summarizes that the teachings of the Confucian Philosophy of Culture influence patriarchal power.