RESEARCH PROPOSAL

EFL TEACHER STRATEGIES FOR STUDENTS

IN ONLINE LEARNING
IN THE MIDDLE OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC
Nada vidya nadavidya02@gmail.com

STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY OF NORTH SUMATERA

FACULTY OF TARBIYAH AND TEACHER TRAINING
ENGLISH EDUCATION PROGRAM
2022

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 BAB I
INTRODUCTION

a. Background
We have been dealing with disease outbreaks caused by the Corona virus, which is often referred
to as COVID-19 (Corona Virus Disease-19). On March 11, 2020, the virus that began to spread on
December 31, 2019 in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, was declared a global pandemic (Organization,
2020). The COVID-19 epidemic has had a significant impact on all aspects of society, including
education.

Currently, the learning process is carried out using a distance learning system or online. The
government's sudden decision to disband or move from school to home caused confusion for many
parties. The unpreparedness of schools to implement online learning is a major factor in this chaos,
when in fact the government provides alternative solutions in providing student assessments as a
condition for promotion or graduation from educational institutions in times of emergency like this.

This shift in learning methods forces all parties to follow the path that can be taken so that it can
take place and the choice is to use technology as an online learning medium with practices that
require teachers and students to interact and transfer knowledge online.

Dabbagh and Ritland (2005:15) define online learning as an open and distributed learning system
that uses pedagogical tools (educational aids) enabled by the internet and network-based technology
to facilitate the formation of learning processes and knowledge through meaningful actions and
interactions. .

Teaching problems during the COVID-19 pandemic have become a serious problem around the
world, including Indonesia. Indonesia is also trying to address this issue as a top priority. All forms
of activities that cause crowds and direct interaction.

The victims of the COVID-19 outbreak are not only education at the SD/Ibtidaiyah,
SMP/Tsanawiyah and SMA/Aliyah levels, but also universities.

b. Identification of problems

The identification of problems in this study are:

1. A good learning model is needed at the elementary, junior high, high school levels.

2. Online learning that is carried out through E-Learning or Zoom is considered inefficient
because it cannot fully display the role of educators and students.

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c. Formulation of the problem

1. How is the development of students towards online learning?

2. What are the challenges a teacher faces in overcoming online learning?

3. What strategies are used by a teacher in conducting online learning?

d. Research purposes

The objectives of this research are:

1. To find out the development of students in terms of doing online learning

2. To find out what are the challenges faced by educators in conducting online learning

3. As an educator, there must be a strategy used for online learning so that learning runs
efficiently.

e. Benefits of research

1. So that we know what strategies are used so that learning continues to run effectively
and efficiently.

2. The existence of E-Learning does not hinder a student in learning although there are
bound to be obstacles to it.

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 CHAPTER II

CONTENTS

A teacher is a professional position that must be seen with competencies that support him in
carrying out his profession. The teaching profession has competency standards that must be taken
(Susanto, 2016). The important role of teachers, especially in conveying academic knowledge, is
very difficult to replace. This is very clearly seen when online learning is tried. Various obstacles
arise due to the lack of descriptions of students or parents who guide the available teaching
materials. This problem is certainly not something that needs to be debated to determine who is at
fault, but it is a discussion that needs to find a solution to be able to support children as students
who are able to complete their learning process in the midst of difficult times. pandemic.

Because changes in online learning have an indirect impact on student absorption. Not only that,
the distance learning system has several obstacles, including various regions in Indonesia, causing
not all areas to be reached by the service. internet and internet network distribution which is slow at
all times during the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to English teacher Sumariati-Budisatrya, the challenge in teaching English online is

that students have difficulty understanding learning materials, the emergency phenomenon of low
motivation awareness that causes low enthusiasm and quality of student learning. In addition, many
students complain of eye pain due to frequent exposure to cell phones up to 16 hours a day.
Sumiarti said there are four English teaching strategies that she uses in online learning.

1. Time management:we must be good at managing time well, make a schedule by writing
down what to do in one day. Have a target to be achieved.

2. Study room atmosphere:The second thing we need to pay attention to when studying
during the Pandemic is the study room, choose a comfortable study room.

According to Evertson and Weinstein (2006), teachers' actions to create a positive and
collaborative learning environment facilitate students' academic learning and follow the usual rules
of social and emotional learning. Classrooms need to be managed properly to promote a healthy
learning environment that encourages productive learning and high results (Regina, 2014). Online,
you don't want to spend too much time as a student, so you need to plan what you really want to do.
It is much more difficult (Fatmawati, 2021) because there is more preparation to be done and you
need to follow up after class. Education and learning that encourages students to learn to maximize
their abilities. This includes activities such as maintaining good student-teacher relationships,
performance appraisals, and task management. These activities aim to create and maintain optimal
conditions for the ongoing student learning process. The attitude of teachers who are not good can
be the cause of student behavior that is not good (Cummings, 2000). Classroom management
includes actions that teachers take to assist and assist teachers in creating, implementing, and
maintaining a positive learning environment and following and establishing steps to achieve the
desired outcomes of their actions. ..Teachers need to not only plan lessons to reduce inappropriate
behavior, but also have a positive impact on students (Shore, 1993). This means that positive
performance in a well-managed classroom can support education and learning while encouraging
participation in classroom activities, while negative performance in poorly managed classrooms

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encourages student learning. And can have a negative impact on participation in activities,
exacerbating classroom management problems. .. Therefore, the management strategy outlined
provides control event arrangements that can help increase positive interactions by increasing the
power of positive social events broadcast by teachers and students.

3. Do notdoubt: we need to have a consistent schedule, the schedule and goals we set will help
us not to procrastinate anything.

4. Stayhealthy: The most important thing is to stay healthy during this pandemic. Maintaining
a good night's sleep and living a healthy and rewarding life can really help streamline your
self-study schedule during a pandemic and evaluate nutritious food.

One possible reason for the discrepancy between research on the effectiveness of instructional
techniques and their application in educational practice is for educators to determine their promising
effectiveness and which students can actually apply them. It is difficult to screen related studies
(Pressley, Goodchild, Fleet, Zajchowski & Evans, 1989).

Utari Tampubolon as a teacher at SDN 060790 suggested that students enjoy the video so that
online learning is more effective. In this digital age, there are many tools available to help teachers
teach online. In addition, the material provided is in accordance with the needs of students.

In e-learning, students need a computer or laptop to access the materials and lessons, but many
do not, but most students can use a mobile phone to open a search engine. Have (Dahlstorm et al.,
2013). This type of learning method is called mobile learning. M-learning (mobile learning) is a
combination of e-learning and mobile computing that gives you access to any learning application
anytime and anywhere (Motiwala, 2007). People's attitudes towards the use of mobile phones are
very helpful because m-learning allows them to learn anytime, anywhere (El Huseen and Kronje,
2010).

As the teachers at Santonikolaus School said, Megala Larasati has the following teacher
challenges when teaching online:

1. Teachers need to improve their technology skills. Because during the covid19 pandemic,
teachers and students never meet to study at school, and technology is very important and
necessary in this situation.

2. Creating motivation and participation in distance learning for students can be a daunting
task for teachers. With my limited technical knowledge, it is very difficult to prepare
interesting educational and learning activities.

3. Some students have financial problems and cannot afford a smartphone for each child, so
they have to take turns using a smartphone with their parents and siblings. Parents often
complain to teachers because they have to spend a lot of money to buy internet quota.

According to the third statement, students find it difficult to follow digital learning without
internet access and reliable technology. Restricting internet access is the duty of local students to
study, resulting in delays in submitting assignments (Selvanathan, Atikah & Alyani, 2020).
However, for those who have access to technology, online learning is more effective in many ways.

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 Our respondent, Yanti Elisabeth Sianipar, S, Pd. as a teacher at UINSU, it is said that he uses
various applications that are used on devices to teach in online learning such as:

 Zoom in

 Google Class

 Google Slides Quizizz

 MyON

 Dojo Class

 my campus

"ClassDojo is free to use by about 200,000 teachers" (Colao, 2012, Part 6). ClassDojo is designed
to help classroom teachers follow certain behaviors, both positive and negative, for each individual
student. Companies report that teachers who use ClassDojo experience a 45-90% increase in
positive behavior and a 50-85% increase in the incidence of negative behavior” (Colao, 2012,
Section 5). Feedback encourages and motivates students to do better work. In addition, creating
avatars, creating class rules, and selecting each icon) all build loving and supportive relationships
between students and teachers. Help (Pianta, 1999). In addition, it promotes the development of
students' social skills and self-regulation (Bears & Watkins). ; 2006).

Most of the teachers who answered the questionnaire found that offline learning was more
effective. Rachmach, N. According to (2020), more and more students prefer offline learning to
online learning because they are very involved in the classroom and help them better understand the
class topic. He claims that offline classrooms also improve students' communication skills.
According to Wright, BM (2017), the majority of students are motivated to use offline systems
rather than online systems. 64% of students are more motivated in offline classes and 57.1% more
motivated in online classes. Allen, M., Bourhis, J., Burrell, N. And Mabry, E. (2002) describe in
their study the replacement of offline learning by different preferences in the choice of learning
methods. However,

Meanwhile, another respondent, English teacher Sumariati Budisatrya assessed that each of these
learning methods has advantages and disadvantages, both online and offline. Moore et al. (2011)
Online learning is defined as "learning through the use of internet networks with accessibility,
connectivity, flexibility, and the ability to create various types of learning interactions." Online
learning is best done when teachers and students have technical devices such as smartphones,
tablets, laptops, etc. that can access information anytime, anywhere (Cendra, Gazali & Solihin,
2020). (Gikas & Grants, 2012). Singh and Thurman 2019). All these devices must be supported
using platforms or media such as Zoom, Webex, Google Meet, Google Classroom, Edmodo,
Schoology (Enriquez, 2014), WhatsApp (Zhou et al., 2020). (i.e., 2014). Jumareng et al. , 2016;
Jumareng et al. , 2021). Previous research has shown that online learning offers teachers many new
and valuable experiences when they become aware of the media and tools they may use (Goodyear
2015).

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 As the cause of the coronavirus, many human activities have been moved online as much as
possible (Kramer & Kramer2020). The lucky few continue to work from home and participate in
remote conferencing via Zoom and other conference calling technologies (Kominers & Gonzalez,
2020). In fact, learning and teaching is remote (Kessler et al., 2020; Lemay & Doleck, 2020b) as
schools and universities have shifted to online learning and teaching.

According to Thompson (1998), successful distance learning is:

 Very encouraged;

 Independent;

 Active learner with excellent organizational and time management skills;

 Self-discipline to study without external memory;

 Ability to adapt to new learning contexts.

This list of highly desirable characteristics explains why distance learning has such a high
turnover rate. Only the most independent distance learners will survive without the encouragement,
verification, and scaffolding that most learners need to succeed. Thompson is not the only one to
comment on student characteristics.

Many attempts have been made to establish methods for predicting student success or failure off-
campus to provide additional support to those who need it (eg Parker, 1999). Surprisingly, some of
these studies argue that providing a supportive learning environment for all distance learners from
the start is preferable. References to well-known theories on learning facilitation provide an
explanation of why distance learning often fails and the principles to consider when creating it.
Mentkowski (2000), Bransford et al., Ramsden (1992). Some well-known explanations of what
makes a great learning experience exist. (1999). Chickering and Gamson (1987) seven ideas
relating primarily to undergraduate education,

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 CHAPTER III

METHODOLOGY

The method used in this research is qualitative. Data is collected from Google Forms. Qualitative
research goes beyond explanation and aims to give researchers a deeper understanding of the
phenomenon. Quantitative research is usually concerned with studying and explaining phenomena
at a certain level (Hagen, 1992). , Quantity, occurrence, etc. Richards (2005) describes qualitative
data as a complex record of observations, explanations, and stories that cannot be reduced to
numbers under some circumstances. Extensive one-on-one interviews between researchers and
participants reach a small number of people and provide insight into different situations.

One-on-one interviews are a way to help people gain awareness, understanding and experience
about a subject and help them gather detailed data. The data for this study were obtained by
distributing questionnaires to several English teachers. This study uses a questionnaire method
using Google Form. The survey was conducted online using Google Forms with five respondents as
a sample. The survey was distributed by sending an online survey to respondents who worked as
English teachers in Self Administered.

The research questions that participants answered were:

1. In your opinion, what is the best English teaching strategy during the COVID-19 pandemic?

2. As a teacher, what should you do to make online learning more effective?

3. What platforms, applications or media do you use while teaching during a pandemic?

4. What are the challenges of teaching English online?

5. Do you think your students learn more effectively online or offline?

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