English Grammar Interactive Quiz for Indonesian Learners
Edi Rakhmat Widodo
Grammar as an integrated part of a Language is so
central in determining meaning. Grammar is the set of rules which determine the
way in which units such as words and phrases can be combined in a language
(David Crystal, 1997). Therefore to master a language including English, a
learner cannot be free from grammar. In learning English, in fact, many
Indonesian learners face various obstacles which can be in the form of negative
attitude of people around, lack of tuition matching with their level of English
understanding, feeling shy of having low competence in English. Negative
attitude of the surrounding people discourages the learners to improve or even
maintain their English since it can affect the learners’ ability to benefit
from neighboring English use such as an instruction
(Jayne Moon, 2005). And the classical process of learning English with varied
levels of mastery, which happen in most of Indonesian formal schools, makes
their teachers not easy to treat each student individually in line with their
grammatical problem. Based on the reason, a computer assisted language learning
(CALL) in the form of grammar quiz is needed to assist them have autonomous
learning. The quiz can be given repeatedly with randomized order so that the
learners may not remember only the answer of the problem due to the same
sequence. In each quiz, the learner may choose to have the feedback given or
not. Thereby, those who have understood the related material of the question,
on one hand, may skip the feedback and continue to the next question. On the
other hand, those who need to know the advice provided in the feedback, they
may display it. Interactive English grammar quiz software is mostly imported from
English speaking countries so that the design including the feedback is given
in English. For beginner English learners in
This article tries to discuss
about the possible interactive quizzes to develop, meaningful and motivating
feedback, and the supporting media. Moreover some tips for developing
interactive quizzes are briefly discussed. All these things are expected to
help the English learners get free from the mental burden and even encourage
them to learn more. Another important objective of this paper is that the user of
the software will gets joy because it may make students ready to learn more
easily and can even change negative attitudes (Dobbi DePorter, 1999:26).
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Widodo, E. R. (2005, March). English grammar interactive
quiz for Indonesian learners. Paper presented at LIA International
Conference,
Website: www.geocities.com/eltindonesia
Email:
eltindonesia@yahoo.com