Indonesian Journal of Learning and Instruction

VOCABULARY GROWTH THROUGH INDEPENDENT READING: A CASE STUDY OF EFL STUDENTS

2025-06-16T07:22:39+07:00

This study investigates the relationship between independent reading frequency and vocabulary growth among EFL students at Universitas Muhammadiyah Gresik. Using a quantitative research design, data were collected from 50 undergraduate students majoring in English through a close-ended questionnaire. The results of this study underscore the critical role that regular independent reading plays in enhancing vocabulary acquisition and overall language proficiency among EFL students. Specifically, the strong positive correlation between reading frequency and vocabulary growth (r = 0.62, p < 0.01) indicates that students who engage in independent reading activities more frequently tend to experience greater improvements in their vocabulary. This finding is further supported by the subgroup analysis, which revealed that reading books and academic articles had the strongest correlation with vocabulary growth (r = 0.65, p < 0.01 for books; r = 0.58, p < 0.01 for academic articles). These materials often provide rich and varied contexts for encountering new words, which facilitates deeper understanding and retention. The findings highlight the need for educational strategies that encourage all students to read more frequently and diversely. Future research could explore additional factors that influence reading habits and vocabulary growth among EFL students. For instance, studies could investigate the impact of motivation, reading interest, and the availability of reading materials on students' reading frequency and vocabulary acquisition. Additionally, research could examine the role of socio-cultural factors, such as family background and peer influence, in shaping reading habits. Furthermore, longitudinal studies could track changes in reading frequency and vocabulary growth over time to provide insights into the long-term effects of independent reading.

CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF PHONEME CHANGES IN THE REDUPLICATION PROCESS IN JAPANESE AND SUNDANESE REDUPLICATION

2025-06-16T07:22:40+07:00

This study was conducted by contrasting or analyzing the similarities and differences in phoneme changes in Japanese-Sundanese Reduplication. This research aims to determine the similarities and differences in Vowel and consonant phoneme changes from the reduplication process of both languages. This research is a qualitative study with a descriptive contrastive analysis. The objects of this research are vowel and consonant phonemes that run into changes in the Japanese-Sundanese reduplication process. The results of this study indicate that vowel changes in the reduplication process do not have similarities, while the differences are generally that not all nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs in Japanese can be reduplicated, whereas, in Sundanese, they can. In the reduplication process, vowel phonemes in Japanese do not run into phoneme changes, whereas in Sundanese, changes occur in the first and second vowels of the base word. For the comparison of consonant changes, Japanese-Sundanese has similarities, namely, the consonants /r/, /n/, and /m/ in Japanese-Sundanese do not run into phoneme changes, while the differences are that in Japanese, consonant phoneme changes occur at the initial phoneme, whereas in Sundanese, consonant phonemes do not run into changes.

IMPROVING STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILL AND INTEREST THROUGH DUOLINGO AS GAMIFICATION APPLICATION

2025-06-16T07:22:41+07:00

Abstract: This experimental method focused on the effectiveness of Duolingo as a gamification application strategy to improve students’ speaking skills and interest, and to confirm the correlation between them. The participants were the tenth graders of SMAN 1 Mande selected randomly to be the experimental and control classes. The instruments were the pre-post speaking skill test and the pre-post speaking interest questionnaire. The analysis revealed that the significant score (2-tailed) or (P) of the post-speaking skill test obtained by both experimental and control classes was 0.00. Thus, the significant difference was confirmed. The quality of the experimental class on speaking skills was higher than that of the control class. It was decided that Duolingo, as a gamification application strategy, had an effective impact on improving speaking skills. Moreover, all significant scores (2-tailed) or (P) of the post-speaking interest questionnaire obtained by both experimental and control classes were 0.00. Thus, the significant difference was confirmed. The quality of the experimental class on speaking interest was higher than the control class. It exposed that Duolingo, as a gamification application strategy, had an effective impact on improving speaking interest. The experimental class achieved a mean score of 88.47, whereas the control class obtained a mean score of 79.17. The experimental class achieved a mean post-speaking interest score of 123.75, whereas the control class scored 99.69. Whereas, correlation coefficient was 0.007. Moreover, the significance score between speaking interest and speaking skill in the experimental class was 0.963, which was more than 0.05. Therefore, it implied that students’ speaking skills did not correlate significantly with their speaking interest. It could be concluded that Duolingo, as gamification, was quite effective in improving students’ speaking skills and speaking interest, but there was no correlation between speaking skills and speaking interest

Keywords: Duolingo; gamification; speaking skill; speaking interest.