Academic Journal of Educational Sciences

ON LEARNING TECHNOLOGIES: TO CONTROL OR TO BE CONTROLLED

2025-06-03T04:08:55+00:00

In this article, learning is viewed as an activity that has five major elements, namely, total-involvement, self-initiation, self-evaluation, being pervasive, and being meaningful (Rogers, 1983). In their learning activities, students use various learning technologies like books and such Internet applications as YouTube, Facebook, Google, WhatsApp, and TikTok to facilitate their learning so that they can significantly improve their cognitive, psychomotoric, and affective competences. Yet, it is observed that some students fail to use those learning technologies effectively. This is shown by the fact that they still find it quite difficult to master some basic skills needed to succeed in their lives after schooling. It is, therefore, crucial that the students have to be able to effectively use any learning technologies they have in order to improve their competences. In other words, the students need to be able to control their usages of their learning technologies in such a way that those learning technologies can help the students improve their competences and, therefore, they are not controlled by those learning technologies, that is, they use most of their time using those learning technologies for things which are not conducive for their better and brighter future. The author argues that to be able to control and not to be controlled by those learning technologies, students should have big dreams of their future, work harder and pray wholeheartedly, have steely determination, and have great discipline in doing whatever is necessary to succeed in their lives, in and beyond school.

Sara Douda's Essence of Symbols: Expressions of Art, Culture and Faith of the Loli Community West Sumba

2025-06-03T04:08:55+00:00

The Sara Douda dance is a form of oral tradition of cultural arts that combines movement elements from the original dance of the Loli community accompanied by energetic traditional music, namely gongs and drums, as a powerful medium for expressing the experience of faith, namely thanksgiving to the Almighty for giving His grace in the life of Loli society. Sara Douda is full of verbal and non-verbal symbols, rich in meaning, messages and cultural values for the Loli community, used for social interaction and is also an expression of faith to the Highest. To obtain the meaning of symbols in Sara Douda cultural poetry, the author used qualitative methods to search for information related to Sara Douda tradition by conducting interviews in the Tarung-Loli village of West Sumba. The aim of this research is to obtain an overview of the essence, form and meaning of the Sara Douda cultural symbol as a form of expression of art, culture and faith of the Loli people in the study of Contextual Theology with Paul Tillich's perspective which is packaged in the title "Sara Douda Symbol: Expression of Art, Culture and Faith of the Loli Community West Sumba”. Sara Douda is a cultural symbol of the Loli people and also a symbol of their faith. Religious symbols allow individuals to access Divine reality and express their experiences of faith within a cultural context. The verbal and nonverbal symbols in Sara Douda show the Loli Community's faith and belief in God, the Creator of heaven and earth as in the phrase of Ama wolo Ama rawi. Their offerings of praise and expressions of gratitude have been expressed through poetry in the form of couplets and lines as well as beautiful dances from time to time, from generation to generation until now. It can be said that the essence of Sara Douda culture is a means for Loli people to carry out theology contextually in social life.

AN ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH SPEAKING ANXIETY OF ENGLISH DEPARTMENT STUDENTS OF TRIBUANA KALABAHI UNIVERSITY

2025-06-03T04:08:54+00:00

This study aims to know the levels of students' speaking anxiety, identify the factors that cause students' speaking anxiety, and how they overcome their anxiety. The researcher used a descriptive qualitative method. The study subjects were the third-semester students of the English Department of Tribuana Kalabahi University consisting of 12 girls and 8 boys. The researcher used two technique to collect the data. The first technique was the FLCAS questionnaire developed by Horwitz (1986). The second techique was an interview. Based on the results of the questionnaire, there were five categories of students' anxiety levels in speaking English namely: High level of anxiety (50%), moderately high anxiety (15%), moderate anxiety (10%), moderately low levels of anxiety (5%), and very low levels of anxiety (20%). The researcher found seven factors that cause students' anxiety in speaking English, namely: Low self-confidence, fear of making mistakes, excessive worry during the exam, lack of preparation, and overthingking. The researcher also found three strategies by the students to overcome their anxiety in speaking English, namely: Change their mindset, improve speaking skills, and prepare before speaking.

Keywords: Students' Speaking Anxiety Levels, Factors of Students' Anxiety in Speaking English, Strategy to Deal With Students Speaking Anxiety.