Pragmatics – Interrogative Sentences In Linguistics

Interrogative Sentences In Linguistics - Questions, or interrogative sentences in linguistics, are broadly defined as utterances that require a verbal response from the addressee (Carter, 2006: 715). This type of illocution attempts to elicit particular information, typically in the form of an answer. The interrogative sentence asks a question, closed with an interrogation point and in the form of a question (Curme and George O., 1931; Merriam-Webster‟s Collegiate Dictionary, 1998). Interrogative sentences frequently occur in the conversations, for example: when asking about an event happened in the past.

Questions may range from forms involving imperatives, to simple interrogatives, interrogatives with modal verbs, indirect interrogatives, declaratives and reduced questions.

Discourse Analysis: Macrostructure, Superstructure and Microstructure in Critical Discourse Analysis

According to Teun Van Dijk. There are three elements of critical discourse analysis as follows: macrostructure, superstructure and microstructure. 

Macrostructure
Macrostructure focused on the global meaning that more emphasize on the meaning of discourse theme or topic. It is described by Dijk (2003 in Rosidi paper, 2007: 11) as follows:

“The meaning of discourse is not limited to the meaning of its words and sentences. Discourse also has more 'global' meanings, such as 'topics' or 'themes'. Such topics represent the gist or most important information of a discourse, and tell us what a discourse 'is about', globally speaking. We may render such topics in terms of (complete) propositions such as 'Neighbors attacked Moroccans'. Such propositions typically appear in newspaper headlines.”

Politeness and strategic interaction

In 1978, Brown and Levinson had published a revised version of paper for the first time, that discussed about the stronger case in cross-cultural universals. In this paper, there was a definitive nature of their work and the wide responses. consequently, it also meant to elicit from other sociolinguistics and discourse analysis therefore the theoretical framework will now be explained and discussed in a brief.

Brown and Levinson's starting point is "the extraordinary parallelism in the linguistic minutiae of the utterances with which persons choose to express themselves in quite unrelated languages and cultures".

Their main aim is to describe and account for this parallelism, and they set about achieving it by providing evidence from three unrelated languages (British and American English, Tamil and Tzeltal) the language spoken by Mayan Indians in Chiapas, Mexico), hence proposing a theory of politeness in which specific linguistic devices universally form the realisations of underlying politeness strategies.

In order to account for the systematic elements that they have observed in language use, Brown and Levinson construct a Model Person (MP). An MP, we are told, consists of a fluent speaker of a natural language who is endowed with the properties of rationality (the ability to reason from ends to the means that will achieve them) and face.

Problem Statement and The Most Important Aspects

To begin with, that is being the expert. The researchers should have good knowledge in their field.If the subject had been learned deeply, however it will be in the specific skill that the researchers used to be sensitive in their field.  Example: someone with the expertise on a teaching field, he should notice or be critics to the problems happening related to the teaching matters.

 After that, the following point is the academic program. The one who has been experienced in education program, definitely she/he will learn and know more about the academic field.

Euphemism Definition and Examples

Language is a power used to make one’s statement stronger. Someone uses language to influence people. Moreover, it can hide the fact to avoid misunderstanding between the speaker and the hearer or the writer and the reader. This is the same things with euphemism that implying the use of polite expression.

In language use, there is common way that is used by people to speak in polite expression, it is usually called euphemism. Euphemistic words and expressions allow us to talk about unpleasant things and neutralize the unpleasantness, e.g. the subject of death and dying, unemployment, and criminality (Wardhaugh, 1986:231).

Pragmatic Study: Theory of Deixis and The Definition

When language is spoken, it occurs in a specific location, at a specific time, is produced by a specific person and is (usually) addressed to some specific other person. Only written language can ever be free of this kind of anchoring in the extra linguistic situation. A sentence on a slip of paper can move through space and time, "speaker" – less, and addressee – less. All natural, spoken languages have devices that link the utterance with its spatio – temporal and personal context. This linkage is called "deixis." (Tanz in Fromkin, 2003: 217)

Definition of Deixis
Deixis is the way in which a small number of words, such as come, go, I, here and now require an addressee to be able to pick out a person, place, or time relevant in understanding how the word refers (Grundy, 2000: 23). Because I, Here, and now identify particular referents, it can be picked out to refer to if we like. We call these words indexical and this function of language deictic, borrowing the Greek word meaning pointing to or picking out. In addition, Levinson (1983: 54) states that deixis is the single most obvious way in which the relationship between language and context is reflected in the structures of languages themselves. The topic of deixis or as philosophers usually prefer, indexical expressions (or just indexicals), may be usefully approached by considering how truth – conditional semantics deals with certain  natural language expressions.
According to Renkema (1993: 76), deixis deals with connection between discourse and the situation in which discourse is used. The words deixis, which is derived from the Greek word meaning “to show” or “ to indicate”, is used to denote those elements in a language which refer directly to the situation, while deictic words are words with a reference point which is depend on the speaker or writer and is determined by the speaker’s or writer’s position in space and time.
Fillmore in Levinson (1983: 54) states that the importance of deictic information for the interpretation of utterances is perhaps best illustrated by what happens when such information is lacking. For example, finding the following notice on someone’s office door “I’ll back in an hour”, we do not know when it was written, we cannot know when the writer will return. A deictic center is a reference point which is related to a deictic expression or an expression that has a deictic usage which has to be interpreted. (Levinson, 1983 : 64). The central person is the speaker, the central time is the time at which the speaker produces the utterance, and the central place is the speaker’s location at utterance time.
The form of deictic is classified into two, namely deictic in which the context is required to determine the reference and non – deictic in which the reference is general rather than to particular identifiable persons (Grundy, 2000:6). In accordance with Levinson (1983: 68), deictic is used for gestural and symbolic, while non – deictic is used for non – anaphoric, and anaphoric.
Based on the preceding definition, it can be conclude that deixis is a words or expressions whose meaning depends on the context of the speaking. To know  the meaning of the language, we have to determine the speaker who produces the utterance, and the location of the utterance in space and time.

Brown and Levinson’s (1987) Concept of Politeness In Face Threatening Acts

Sometimes in our daily lives, we can find acts that do not satisfy the “face wants” of the speaker and the hearer. The acts that threaten either positive or negative face of the hearer are called ‘Face Threatening Acts’ (Brown and Levinson). In other words, those acts infringe on the hearer’s need to maintain his/her self-esteem and are respected. Those acts that primarily threaten the addressee’s or Hearer (H’s) negative face want, by indicating (potentially) that the speaker (S) does not intend to avoid impeding H’s freedom of action, include orders, requests, suggestions, advice, reminding, threat, warning, offer, promise, compliment, and expression of negative emotion.
In contrast, there are acts that threaten H’s positive face such as expression of dissatisfaction, disagreement, criticisms, complaints, accusation, insults, out of control, irrelevance, bringing bad news about H or boasting about S, raising divisive topics, and blatant non-cooperation in an activity. All these acts indicate that the speaker does not care about the addressee’s feeling or want. For example, disagreeing with someone’s opinion also causes threat to his positive face, as it means that you indicate that he is wrong about something.

Brown and Levinson’s (1987) Concept of Politeness In Face

Brown and Levinson (1987) define politeness as behaving a way that attempts to take into account the feeling of people being addressed. In other words, being polite means that we try to keep our manners or behaviors and our language not to hurt other people’s feelings. Moreover, they proposed the concept of politeness strategies which are developed to save hearer’s face. Face refers to the respect that an individual has for him or herself and maintaining that ‘self esteem’ in public or in private situations.
Face
Brown and Levinson (1987)22 state their notion of “face” is derived from that of Goffman (1967) and English people which is related to the idea of being embarrassed, humiliated, or losing face. Thus, face is something that is emotionally invested, and that can be lost, maintained, and enhanced. In general, a person has to pay attention to his interlocutor’s face. In other words, the speaker and the hearer must cooperate in maintaining each other’s face in interaction based on the mutual vulnerability of face.
There are two kinds of face as divided by Brown and Levinson that everyone possesses. They are positive face and negative face. Positive face is defined as the desire of every member that his selfimage, wants, and opinion be liked and approved. Take for the example, a woman who spends most of her time gardening and takes care of her roses. She is proud of her and expects people admires her. Second, negative face is defined as the desire of every member that he has Freedom of Action as well as Freedom of Imposition. For example, there is a boy who loves watching TV but at the same time he has problem with his eyes’ health. Therefore, the mother warns him not to watch TV too much since it is not good for his eyes. Here, the boys has freedom to watch TV as much as he likes (Freedom of Action), but considering his eyes’ health, the mother forbids it which means the mother disturbs the boy’s freedom of watching TV.

Characteristics of Slang Language

Some of slang expressions are acceptable and the others are a rude and impolite. Words or phrases may be considered as slang if they fulfill one or more these characteristics (Slang of Duke.http://www.epinions.com):
1. Creative
Slang is created from a new term, so it needs the creativity of the creator. The creator is encouraged to produce new terms, which are imaginative, innovative, productive, even shocking, and amusing. The example of teenagers’ creativity is creating slang terms from the existing words. In this case, teenagers still use the original words, but acquire a new meaning, which is different from its original meaning. Some of them is constructed from the kind of colors, animals, and numbers,
2. Flippant
It means, slang produced has irrelevant meaning with the context. That makes this term considered as a rude, for instance, fucking chicken, bitch, motherfucker, and shit.

Slang Language

Definition

Slang is a specific word, phrase, or utterance, which is commonly used by young people in their community. It refers to unconventional words, so it is not appropriate to be spoken in a formal situation, such as in the school, university, or in the office. Frommer and Finegan (2004) wrote “Slang terms are often found in movies and music reviews, lifestyle pieces, and people columns” (p.243). While Anderson and Trudgill in Ulfa (2003) wrote that actually, slang is not language ordialect, it can be said as a code that produced by changing the existing language to the common one. Every language has a vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar, whereas slang has not. It just has vocabulary which is not profanity and ungrammatical. Dialect refers to the different language caused by geographical area, whereas slang is not restricted to one region or country (p. 24)

Slang that was widely used in the early twentieth century, firstly appeared in 1800’s when it was used by criminal classes in London (Maurer:2003). It was produced largely by social group, such as criminal classes, narcotic addicts, sexual deviant community, racial minority community, political organization, armed forces, rapper, etc, rather than by individual speakers. The first reason why they used slang was to make the expressions secret. Nowadays, teenagers often use it

in their daily communication with their community. By using slang, teenagers feel free in conversation with their community, every time and everywhere without anyone who understands the meaning.

Recently, slang is not only used by certain communities as secret expressions but also used commonly by teenagers. It is considered as a simple word or phrase which is not profanity and ungrammatical. Goodword (2006) stated that slang is a crucial part of a young person “coming of age,” one of the first detectable signs of their breaking away from their parents and their parents’

values. It is a cheap second language that express as the differences between young people who are about to enter adulthood from his or her parents’ generation (p.1). On the other hand, Mulyana (2001) said that “slang are words or phrases, which have specific, meaning, unique, deviate, even opposite with the real meaning used by certain community” (p. 280). However, some slang may be accepted as a standard speech, although in its original meaning, for example, bus from omnibus, jazz, which originally had sexual connotation, and VIP (Very Important Person).

Whereas some expressions of Indonesian slang are makan gengsi, (obstinate), udah (finish), PDKT (aprroach), naksir (love) as Faruq (2004) examined in his research A Study of Play of Words and Slang on “The ABG Problem” Section in Jawa Pos daily newspaper

!0 Moment Terpenting dalam Perjalanan Karir Oprah Winfrey

Siapa yang tidak kenal dengan wanita yang satu ini? Oprah Winfrey, seorang presenter hebat yang telah memikat jutaan hati penonton yang menikmati acara talkshow. She is The Queen of Talk. Banyak prestasi yang telah dicapainya selama meniti karir. Enam tahun belakangan,  ia berturut-turut masuk dalam daftar 100 orang yang paling berpengaruh di dunia.

Perjalanan karirnya yang sukses juga mewariskan sederet momen yang penting. Mulai dari Michael Jackson mengundang Oprah untuk Neverland. Hingga Tom Cruise memberitahu semua orang dia mencintai Katie Holmes sambil melompat-lompat di atas sofanya. Acaranya, The Oprah Winfrey Show, pertama kalinya mengudara pada tahun1986 dengan judul How to Marry the Man/Woman of Your Choice.

Berikut ini adalah momen penting dalam The Oprah Winfrey Show yang dikutip dari harian The Telegraph dan sumber lainnya.

1988 - Momen ketika Oprah berhasil menurunkan berat badannya sebanyak 30 kilogram (kg) dalam tempo waktu empat bulan. Ia berdiet ketat. dalam acaranya, Ia membawa lemaknya di kereta dorong untuk ditunjukkan ke depan publik.

1990 - Oprah menangis saat wawancara terhadap Truddi Chase, seorang wanita dengan 92 kepribadian.

1993 - ia berhasil mendatangkan Raja Pop Michael Jackson (MJ) ke studio untuk diwawancarai. Selama 90 menit wawancara MJ mengakui menderita kelainan pigmen kulit. Momen ini ditonton oleh sekitar 62 juta penonton. Setelahnya, Michael Jackson mengundang Oprah ke Neverland. Episode ini ditonton sebanyak 90 juta pemirsa.

1997 - Wanita ini mendatangkan pembawa acara televisi dan aktris Ellen DeGeneres yang bersedia keluar ke publik setelah pengakuannya sebagai seorang lesbian .

2000 - Oprah mewawancarai Nelson Mandela.

2004 - Ratu Chat show secara mengejutkan memberi hadiah kepada 276 pegawai dan penontonnya sebuah mobil Pontiac seharga US$ 28.400

2005 - Tom Cruise melompat ke atas dan bawah di sofa Oprah dan memberitahu semua orang dia mencintai Katie Holmes.

2006 - ia mendatangkan James Frey di 2006 dengan bukunya yang menceritakan tentang kisah pemulihan dirinya dari kecanduan obat. Setelah itu, buku ini menjadi salah satu buku terlaris di AS.

2007 - Oprah membuka sekolah di Afrika Selatan sebagai salah satu kegiatan amalnya lewat Oprah Winfrey Foundation.

2011 -Tentu saja momen berharga terakhir ketika pesta perpisahannya yang penuh dengan linangan air mata. Banyak artis terkenal datang menjadi saksi perpisahan dirinya dengan program talk shownya ini.

Awal Perdebatan Islam dan Negara di Indonesia.

Wacana tentang makna, penafsiran dan fungsi pancasila telah menjadi perdebatansepanjang sejarah perpolitikan Indonesia, setidaknya sejak bangsa ini merdeka, perdebatan ini selalu menjadi aktual di kalangan akademisi dan politisi Indonesia sampai saat ini. Apalagi didorong dengan lahirnya beberapa Partai Islam, permintaan diberlakukannya syariat Islam di Aceh (NAD), munculnya teroris-teroris yang  berkedok Islam, laskar serta organisasi yang bernafaskan Islam kanan, di antaranya Laskar Jihad, Hizbu Tahrer, Jaringan Islamiyah dan Front Pembela Islam (FPI). Selain itu yang paling jelas menjadi indikator perlunya kejelasan relasi Islam dan negara dalam kehidupan berbangsa terlihat pada menguatnya ide-ide pencantuman Syari‘at Islam dalam amandemen UUD 45 setiap ST MPR hasil pemilu 1999.

 

Hal ini juga sering terjadi dalam wacana politik Indonesia di penghujung tahun 1990-an yang juga sibuk memperdebatkan ideologi dan peristiwa-peristiwa politik yang pernah terjadi dalam sejarah bangsa ini, di antaranya mengenai hubungan Islam dan negara, peran ABRI dalam politik, dan bentuk demokrasi yang sesuai dengan negara ini.

    Untuk memperjelas tahap-tahap perjuangan umat Islam Indonesia dalam merespon perdebatan Islam dan negara. M. Rusli Karim membagi menjadi empat tahap. Tahap pertama, 1912 hinggga proklamasi kemerdekaan, tahap kedua 1945-1955, tahap ketiga, 1955-1965 dan tahap keempat 1965 sampai sekarang. Perdebatan ini mulai aktual sejak dibentuknya Badan Penyelidik Usaha-Usaha Persiapan Kemerdekaan Indonesia (BPUPKI) sebagai upaya persiapan kemerdekaan yang diharapkan, dan telah disetujui oleh pemerintahan Jepang. Hal ini juga dinyatakan dalam pidato Perdana Menteri Kuniaki Koiso kepada Parlemen Jepang pada tahun 1944 yang menjanjikan kemerdekaan Indonesia dalam "waktu dekat".

 

Akan tetapi kalau kita teliti lebih dalam bahwa persinggungan antara Islam dan negara di Nusantara ini sudah berlangsung lama sebelum Indonesia merdeka yakni di bawah tekanan kolonial Belanda dan Jepang, namun demikian untuk melacak isu tentang istilah negara Islam di Indonesia bukanlah suatu pekerjaan mudah, karena sejauh ini yang diketahui hanyalah pemimpin-pemimpin Sarekat Islam (SI) seperti Surjopronoto dan Dr. Sukiman Wirjosandjojo yang telah mewacanakan suatu kekuasaan atau pemerintahan Islam di akhir tahun 1920-an. Saat itu Surjopronoto menggunakan tema een Islamietsche regeering (Suatu Pemerintahan Islam) sementara Sukiman memakai istilah een eigen Islamietisch bestuur onder een eigen vlag (Suatu kekuassan Islam di bawah benderanya sendiri) semua ini digunakan untuk menciptakan kekuasaan Islam di Indonesia yang substansinya sebagai alat mencapai kemerdekaan

 

Barangkali wacana dan teori tentang Negara Islam ini belum banyak ditulis secara terperinci oleh pemimpin Islam pada saat itu, sehingga dalam sidang BPUPKI pada 1945 wacana ini terkesan begitu aktual diperdebatkan karena secara resmi peristiwa ini muncul pertama kalinya dalam panggung politik Indonesia.

Solidarity and Politeness

Tu and Vous

According to Brown and Gilman (1960), Tu and Vous began as a genuine difference of singular and plural. The distinction is that grammatically there is a singular you (T) and a plural you (V) but usage requires that you use vous with the individuals or certain occasions. In a book entitled savoire-vivre en France, it is said that Tu should be use between spouse, close relatives, or the people working or living closely together, while Vous should be used with strangers, to those who have no ties of any kinds, between inferior and superior.

Since there is no precise rule for shifting from vous to tu, it is best to wait until the other person uses it to address you before you use it to address him or her. If you cannot judge who has ‘power’ or which proper conditions to use tu or vous, it is better to use politeness and wait until the other use ‘solidarity’. 

Address Terms

Address by title alone is the least intimate form of address in that title usually designates ranks or occupations as in colonel, doctor, or waiter. Some language employ the kinship terms to use address terms. One of the other peculiarity systems of naming and addressing is giving a name to and address to the non-human like pets. there is an interesting terms said by Robinson about the address terms. He argues that a society in which a person’s status derives from the achievements, a few distinctions is made. 

Politeness

In using a language, we use a device that the language employ to show certain relationship to other. We must use the language properly. We can demonstrate our feelings to other and our awareness of social controls. Such awareness is also shown through a general politeness in the use of language. It does not mean that we must always be polite. Oppositely, impoliteness may happen depends on the existence of standard or norms of politeness. Some languages have a complex rules of politeness, for instance, Javanese, one of the important language in Indonesia, is a language in which it is nearly impossible to say anything without indicating the social relationship between the speaker and the listener in terms of status and familiarity.

Structuralism and Claude Levi Strauss

Claude Lévi-Strauss is the best known and most influential structuralist. Because of his influence, Lévi-Strauss is an excellent example of structuralist approaches. The main influence on the work Lévi-Strauss' work is multifaceted and that he was influenced not only by other anthropologists but also by linguists, geologists and others. Lévi-Strauss brings into anthropology these and other influences which have shaped his thinking and anthropological thought through his work. The main aspects of Lévi-Strauss' work can be summarized under three headings, they are:
a)    Alliance Theory
Lévi-Strauss' theoretical contributions to social anthropology are numerous and significant. The best known of these is "alliance theory." Alliance theory stresses the importance of marriage in society as opposed to the importance of descent. Its basic supposition is that the exchange of women between groups of related men results in greater social solidarity, and that the result of this cohesion is better chances of survival for all members of the resultant kin group. Lévi-Strauss' claims that the regulating of marriages through prescription and preference and the proscription of other types of marriage creates a "exchange" of women in simple societies. This interchange, accompanied by exchanges of gifts, ensures the cooperation of the members of these groups.
His analysis of the incest taboo is fascinating. For Lévi-Strauss the link between nature and culture in humankind comes from this universal proscription. In the incest taboo nature transcends itself and creates culture as the controlling element of human behavior. Sex and other drives are regulated by culture, man has become a cultural entity.
b)    Human Mental Processes
There is unity in the way the human mind functions. Lévi-Strauss claims that, although the manifestations may be very different, the human mental processes are the same in all cultures. The unity of the mental processes results from the biology of the human brain and the way it works. As a result of this unity, e.g. the classification of the universe by "primitive man" has the same basis as when it is done by any group, it is done through models. The fact that resultant models of this classification may be different is irrelevant for him. The analysis of myth in Lévi-Strauss is also based on the premise about the unity of the human mind.

c)    Structural Analysis of Myth
Lévi-Strauss' work on myth parallels his interest in mental processes. He attempts to discover unconscious the regularities of the human mind. The use of the structuralist models of myth allows for the reduction of material studied to manageable levels. The dominant manner to accomplish this goal is based on the use of the following concepts:
1.    Surface and Deep Structure
To discover the model/structure of a myth one must explore the deep structure of a myth. The surface structure provides us with the narrative, the deep structure with an explication of the myth. This is accomplished by discovering the major binary opposition(s) in the deep structure.
2.    Binary oppositions
These occur in nature and naturally in the human mind. They are such things as night and day, left and right or nature and culture. Nature and culture often functions as a binary opposition in tales. However, depending on the tale or myth the binary opposition changes. For example, the binary opposition life and death is a useful one to explicate "Sleeping Beauty." Here, the deep structure of the story suggests that when the thirteenth fairy declares that Sleeping Beauty is to die at her fifteenth birthday that a life versus death binary opposition is posited. A mediation to solution the problem is now necessary.
3.    Mediation
A binary opposition can be mediated by finding a solution to the opposition created by the binary. The mediation to the culture/nature binary opposition is that culture transcends nature. In the case of "Sleeping Beauty" the nature of the mediation is quite different but equally embedded in within the subject matter. Here the life versus death binary opposition is mediated by the twelve fairy's action: death is transformed into one hundred years sleep.

Hegemony Theory

The word of hegemony is from Greek, from the word ‘hegeisthai’ meaning ‘to lead’. Cultural hegemony is the philosophic and sociological concept, originated by the Marxist philosopher Antonio Gramsci, that a culturally-diverse society can be ruled or dominated by one of its social classes. It is the dominance of one social group over another, e.g. the ruling class over all other classes. The theory claims that the ideas of the ruling class come to be seen as the norm; they are seen as universal ideologies, perceived to benefit everyone whilst really benefiting only the ruling class. The dominant class controls ideological space and limits what is thinkable in society. Dominated classes participate in their domination, as hegemony enters into everything people do and think of as natural, or the product of common sense—including what is news, as well as playing, working, believing, and knowing.

            Actually, hegemony is a balance between the political Society and civil Society or hegemony of a social group over the entire national society, exercised through the so-called private organizations, such as the Church, the unions, the schools (Gramsci 1994c. ). Hegemony is thus an ideological dominance of society, in which the subordinate levels of society allow the ruling class to exercise social and economic dominance, with the consent of the subordinate classes in the support of the common good. In Gramsci's view, political forces aiming at social change can only gain the upper hand if they are able to mobilize and take charge in society on their own premises (Englestad, 2003).

 The central idea of this theory is the stability of the International System requires a single dominant state to articulate and enforce the rules of interaction among the most important members of the system.

That the concept of hegemony works is evident in that marxism has been able to flourish in the Western Capitalist world and Gramsci's theory of hegemony has been explored further by Althuser, Laclau and Chomsky .

The existance of Hegemony theory nowadays

An example of consent via gentle persuasion and enforcement (force) of a national cultural perspective, could be found in the New Zealand anti-smoking stance, or "Smoke Free New Zealand." Via the media, government departments and places of learning, smoking has been labeled so socially evil, that the idea of smoking in public has become shameful and socially unacceptable. The prohibitive cost of tobacco is punitive and laws have been passed to enforce where people may smoke. (Force). I would argue that the cultural ideology of a smoke free society in New Zealand has been introduced in a hegemonistic way.

Another example is by the fact that we all live in societies where there are power structures. According to Gramsci's theory of hegemony, these systems of power cannot be maintained by force alone. People have to do things, willingly and happily, in their everyday lives that keep the powerful people on top. Coercion alone does not work. If the President of the United States threatened to put to death Americans who did not hang flags from their homes, that president would be overthrown. However, plenty of Americans hang flags from their homes willingly and happily, and this is an everyday behavior that helps the government remain in power.

12 Lagu Anak-anak Yang Menyesatkan !

Di waktu sekarang, lagu anak anak tidaklah setenar jaman semuda saya dulu. Waktu kecil, beberapa channel di TV bahkan menyediakan acara khusus yang memutarkan lagu lagu anak contohnya acara Tralala Trilili, Dunia Anak, dll. ada beberapa lagu populer sepanjang masa kaya' Balonku dan Bintang Kecil yang seakan sudah wajib diajarkan ke anak-anak.  Ternyata di antara lagu anak-anak yang populer tersebut, ada yang banyak mengandung kesalahan, mengajarkan kerancuan, dan menurunkan motivasi. 

Berikut buktinya:

1. “Balonku ada 5… rupa-rupa warnanya… merah, kuning, kelabu.. merah muda dan biru… meletus balon hijau, dorrrr!!!” Perhatikan warna-warna kelima balon tsb., kenapa tiba2 muncul warna hijau ? Jadi jumlah balon sebenarnya ada 6, bukan 5!

2. “Aku seorang kapiten… mempunyai pedang panjang… kalo berjalan prok..prok.. prok… aku seorang kapiten!” Perhatikan di bait pertama dia cerita tentang pedangnya, tapi di bait kedua dia cerita tentang sepatunya (inkonsistensi) . Harusnya dia tetap konsisten, misal jika ingin cerita tentang sepatunya seharusnya dia bernyanyi : “mempunyai sepatu baja (bukan pedang panjang)… kalo berjalan prok..prok.. prok..” nah, itu baru klop! jika ingin cerita tentang pedangnya, harusnya dia bernyanyi : “mempunyai pedang panjang… kalo berjalan ndul..gondal. .gandul.. atau srek.. srek.. srek..” itu baru sesuai dg kondisi pedang panjangnya!

3. “Bangun tidur ku terus mandi.. tidak lupa menggosok gigi.. habis mandi ku tolong ibu.. membersihkan tempat tidurku..” Perhatikan setelah habis mandi langsung membersihkan tempat tidur. Lagu ini membuat anak-anak tidak bisa terprogram secara baik dalam menyelesaikan tugasnya dan selalu terburu-buru. Sehabis mandi seharusnya si anak pakai baju dulu dan tidak langsung membersihkan tempat tidur dalam kondisi basah dan telanjang!

4. “Naik-naik ke puncak gunung.. tinggi.. tinggi sekali.. kiri kanan kulihat saja.. banyak pohon cemara.. 2X” Lagu ini dapat membuat anak kecil kehilangan konsentrasi, semangat dan motivasi! Pada awal lagu terkesan semangat akan mendaki gunung yang tinggi tetapi kemudian ternyata setelah melihat jalanan yg tajam mendaki lalu jadi bingung dan gak tau mau ngapain, bisanya cuma noleh ke kiri ke kanan aja, gak maju2!

5. “Naik kereta api tut..tut..tut. . siapa hendak turut ke Bandung .. Surabaya .. bolehlah naik dengan naik percuma.. ayo kawanku lekas naik.. keretaku tak berhenti lama” Nah, yg begini ini yg parah! mengajarkan anak-anak kalo sudah dewasa maunya gratis melulu. Pantesan PJKA rugi terus! terutama jalur Jakarta- Bandung dan Jakarta-Surabaya!

6. “Di pucuk pohon cempaka.. burung kutilang berbunyi.. bersiul2 sepanjang hari dg tak jemu2.. mengangguk2 sambil bernyanyi tri li li..li..li.. li..li..” Ini juga menyesatkan dan tidak mengajarkan kepada anak2 akan realita yg sebenarnya. Burung kutilang itu kalo nyanyi bunyinya cuit..cuit.. cuit..! kalo tri li li li li itu bunyi kalo yang nyanyi orang, bukan burung!

7. “Pok ame ame.. belalang kupu2.. siang makan nasi, kalo malam minum susu..”

Ini jelas lagu dewasa dan untuk konsumsi anak2! karena yg disebutkan di atas itu adalah kegiatan orang dewasa, bukan anak kecil. Kalo anak kecil, karena belom boleh maem nasi, jadi gak pagi gak malem ya minum susu!

8. “nina bobo oh nina bobo kalau tidak bobo digigit nyamuk”

Anak2 indonesia diajak tidur dgn lagu yg “mengancam”

9. “Bintang kecil dilangit yg biru…”

Bintang khan adanya malem, lah kalo malem bukannya langit item?

10. “Ibu kita Kartini…harum namanya.”

Namanya Kartini atau Harum?

11. “Pada hari minggu ku turut ayah ke kota. naik delman istimewa kududuk di muka.”

Nah,gak sopan khan..

12. “Cangkul-cangkul, cangkul yang dalam, menanam jagung dikebun kita…”

kalo mau nanam jagung, ngapain nyangkul dalam-dalam.

retrieved from 

Kelebihan dan kekurangan penilaian portofolio

Setiap konsep atau model penilaian tentu ada kelebihan dan kekurangannya, begitu juga dengan penilaian portofolio.
Kelebihan model penilaian portofolio, antara lain sebagai berikut:
1.    Dapat melihat pertumbuhan dan perkembangan kemampuan peserta didik dari waktu ke waktu berdasarkan feed-back dan refleksi diri.
2.    Membantu guru melakukan penilaian secara adil, objektif dan dapat dipertanggungjawabkan tanpa mengurangi kreatifitas peserta didik.
3.    Mengajak peserta didik untuk belajar bertanggungjawab terhadap apa yang telah mereka kerjakan, baik dikelas maupun diluar kelas dalam rangka implementasi program pembelajaran.
4.    Meningkatkan peran serta peserta didik secara aktif dalam kegiatan pembelajaran dan penilaian.
5.    Memberi kesempatan kepada peserta didik untuk meningkatkan kemampuan mereka.
6.    Dapat digunakan untuk menilai kelas yang heterogenantara peserta didik yang pandai dan kurang pandai.
Adapun kekurangan penilaian portofolio, antara lain sebagai berikut:
1.    Membutuhkan waktu dan kerja ekstra.
2.    Penilaian portofolio dianggap kurang reliable dibandingkan dengan bentuk penilaian yang lain.
3.    Ada kecenderungan guru hanya memperhatikan pencapaian akhir sehingga proses penilaian kurang mendapat perhatian.
4.    Tidak tersedianya kriteria penilaian yang jelas.
5.    Penilaian portofolio masih relatif baru sehingga banyak guru, orang tua dan pesesrta didik yang belum mengetahui dan memahaminya.
6.    Sulit dilakukan terutama menghadapi ujian dalam skala nasional.
7.    Dapat  Menjebak pesrta didik jika terlalu sering menggunakan format yang lengkap dan detail.

KONSTRUKSI TES OBYEKTIF JENIS ISIAN DALAM PEMBELAJARAN BAHASA ARAB

A.  Pengertian Tes obyektif

Tes ini dikenal dengan istilah tes jawaban pendek (Short answer test), tes “ ya-tidak”, dan tes model baru (New type test), adalah salah satu jenis tes hasil belajar yang terdiri dari butir-butir soal (Items) yang dapat dijawab oleh testee dengan jalan memilih salah satu diantara beberapa kemungkinan jawaban yang telah dipasangkan pada masing-masing items, atau dengan jalan menuliskan (mengisikan) jawabannya berupa kata-kata atau symbol-simbol tertentu pada tempat atau ruang yang telah disediakan untuk masing-masing butir item yang bersangkutan.

B.  Penggolongan Tes Obyektif

Sebagai salah satu jenis tes hasil belajar , yang dapat dibedakan menjadi lima golongan, yaitu:

1.   Tes obyektif bentuk Benar-Salah (True-False Test).

Tes ini dikenal dengan istilah tes obyektif bentuk “benar-salah” atau tes obyektif “ya-tidak”. Tes ini adalah salah satu bentuk tes obyektif dimana butir-butir soal yang diajukan dalam tes hasil belajar itu berupa pernyataan (Statement). Tes obyektif ini bentuknya adalah kalimat atau pernyataan yang mengandung dua kemungkinan jawaban ya atau tidak.

Keunggulan Tes Obyektif Bentuk True-False, yaitu:

a.   Pembuatannya mudah.

b.   Dapat dipergunakan berulang kali.

c.   Dapat mencakup bahan pelajaran yang luas.

d.   Tidak terlalu banyak memakan lembaran kertas.

e.   Bagi testee, cara mengerjakannya mudah.

f.    Bagi tester, cara mengoreksinya juga mudah.

Adapun Kelemahannya, yaitu:

a.   Tes obyektif bentuk true-false membuka peluang bagi testee untuk berspekulasi dalam memberikan jawaban.

b.   Sifatnya amat terbatas, dalam arti bahwa tes tersebut hanya dapat mengungkap daya ingat dan pengenalan kembali saja. Jadi sifatnya hanya hafalan.

c.   Pada umumnya tes obyektif jenis ini reliabilitasnya rendah, kecuali apabila butir-butir soalnya dibuat dalam jumlah yang banyak sekali.

d.   Dapat terjadi bahwa butir-butir soal tes obyektif jenis Ini tidak bisa dijawab dengan dua kemungkinan saja, yaitu betul atau salah, contoh:

B-S : Tes obyektif lebih baik daripada tes subyektif.

B-S : Ilmu Pengetahuan Sosial lebih berguna untuk dipelajari ketimbang Ilmu Pengetahuan Alam.

2.   Tes obyektif bentuk Menjodohkan (Matching Test).

Tes ini sering dikenal dengan istilah tes menjodohkan, tes mencari pasangan, tes menyesuaikan, tes mencocokkan dan tes mempertandingkan.

Cir-ciri Tes Obyektif bentuk Matching sebagai berikut:

a.   Tes tediri dari satu seri pertanyaan dan satu seri jawaban.

b.   Tugas testee adalah mencari dan menempatkan jawaban-jawaban yang telah tersedia, sehingga sesuai atau cocok atau merupaka pasangan, atau merupakan “jodoh” dari pertanyaannya.

Keunggulan Tes Obyek Bentuk Matching, sebagai berikut:

a.   Pembuatannya mudah.

b.   Dapat dinilai dengan mudah, cepat dan obyektif.

c.   Apabila tes jenis ini dibuat dengan baik, maka factor menebak praktis dapat dihilangkan.

d.   Tes jenis ini sangat berguna untuk menilai berbagai hal, misalnya:

-     Antara problem dan penyelesaiannya.

-     Antar teori dan penemunya.

-     Antara sebab dan akibatnya.

-     Antar singkatan dan kata-kata lengkapnya.

-     Antara istilah dan definisinya.

Kelemahan Tes Obyektif Bentuk Matching, sebagai berikut:

a.   Matching tes cenderung banyak mengungakap aspek hafalan atau daya ingat saja.

b.   Karena mudah disusun, maka tes jenis ini acapkali dijadikan pelarian bagi pengajar, yaitu dipergunakan kalau pengajar tidak sempat lagi untuk membuat tes bentuk lain.

c.   Karena jawaban yang pendek-pendek,  maka tes jenis ini kurang baik untuk mengevaluasi pengertian, dan kemampuan membuat tafsiran (Interpretasi).

d.   Tanpa disengaja, dalam tes jenis ini sering menyelinap atau masuk hal-hal yang sebenarnya kurang perlu untuk diwujudkan.

3.   Tes obyektif bentuk Melengkapi (Completion Test).

Tes ini sering dikenal dengan istilah tes melengkapi atau menyempurnakan.

Ciri-ciri tes obyektif bentuk completion adalah:

a.   Tes tersebut terdiri ats susunan kalimat yang bagian-bagiannya sudah dihilangkan.

b.   Bagian-bagian yang dihilangkan itu diganti dengan titi-titik (………..).

c.   Titik itu harus di isi atau dilengkapi atau disempurnakan oleh testee dengan jawaban –( yang oleh tester)—telah dihilangkan.

Keunggulan tes obyektif bentuk  completion, adalah :

a.   Tes model ini sangat mudah penyusunannya.

b.   Jika dibandingkan dengan tes obyektif bentuk fill in, tes ini lebih menghemat tempat(menghemat kertas).

c.   Jika bahan yang disajikan cukup banyak dan beragam, maka persyaratan komperhensif dapat dipenuhi oleh tes model ini.

d.   Tes ini dapat digunakan untuk mengukur berbagai taraf kompetensi dan tidak sekedar mengungkap taraf pengenalan atau hafalan saja.

Kekurangan tes obyektif bentuk completion adalah:

a.   Pada umumnya tester lebih cenderung menggunakan tes model ini untuk mengungkap daya ingat atau aspek hafalan saja.

b.   Dapat terjadi bahwa butir-butir item kurang relevan untuk diujikan.

c.   Karena pembuatannya mudah, sehingga tester sering kurang hati-hati dalam menyusun kalimat soalnya.

4.   Tes obyektif bentuk Isian (Fill In Test).

Tes ini biasanya berbentuk cerita atau karangan . Kata-kata penting dalam cerita atau karangan itu beberapa diantaranya dikosongkan, sedang tugas testee adalah mengisi bagian-bagian yang telah dikosongkan itu.

Keunggulan :

a.   Dengan menggunakan tes ini, maka masalah yang diujikan tertuang secara keseluruhan dalam konteksnya.

b.   Butir-butir tes ini berguna sekali untuk mengungkap pengetahuan testee secara utuh mengenai suatu bidang.

c.   Cara penyusunan itemnya mudah.

Kelemahan:

a.   Tes ini cenderung lebih banyak mengungkap aspek pengetahuan atau pengenalan saja.

b.   Jika  tes tertuang dalam bentuk cerita, maka tes ini umumnya banyak memakan tempat.

c.   Tes ini sifatnya kurang komperhensif karena hanya dapat mengungkap sebagian saja dari bahan yang seharusnya diteskan.

d.   Terbuka peluang bagi testee untuk bermain tebak terka.

5.   Tes obyektif bentuk Pilihan Ganda (Multiple Choice Item Test).

Tes ini sering dikenal dengan istilah tes obyektif bentuk pilihan ganda, yaitu salah satu bnetuk tes obyektif yang terdiri atas pertanyaan atau perntyataan yang sifatnya belum selesai, dan untuk menyelesaikannya harus dipilih salah satu (lebih) dari beberapa kemungkinan jawab yang telah disediakan pada tiap-tiap butir soal yang telah disediakan.

Tes ini dikatakan objektif karena para siswa tidak dituntut merangkai jawaban atas dasar informasi yang dimilikinya seperti pada tes esay. Pada tes jenis ini, jawabab pada umumnya sudah disediakan atau sudah diarahkan dan lebih bersifat pasti.

Secara garis besar tes objektif dapat dibedakan menjadi tiga kelompok:

a.   Tes jawaban bebas atau jawaban terbatas, mengungkapkan kemauan siswa

b.   Tes melengkapi mengungkap kemampuan siswa dengan memberikan spasi atau ruang kosong untuk diisi dengan jawaban (kata) yang tepat.

c.   Tes asosiasi, mengungkap kemampuan siswa dengan menyediakan spasi yang diisi dengan satu jawaban atau lebih, dimana jawaban tersebut masih memiliki keterkaitan dan bersifat homogen antara satu dengan lainnya.

Kemiripan dari ketiga tes di atas adalah :

1.   Masing-masing tes memerlukan hafalan dari para siswa.

2.   Masing-masing menuntut jawaban singkat dari para siswa.

3.   Masing-masing tes pada umumnya direncanakan untuk mengungkap pemikiran siswa tentang materi pembelajaran yang dikategorikan sebagai definisi atau batasan, pengetahuan tentang fakta dan prinsip-prinsip pengetahuan.

Perbedaan dari ketiga tes di atas terutama dilihat dari format atau bentuk tesnya. Tes jawaban singkat atau bebas merupakan yang item-itemnya dibuat dalam bentuk pertanyaan. Tes melengkapi bentuk itemya memiliki satu spasi atau ruang kosongdan harus dijawab siswa, dan tes asosiasi memiliki ruang kosong yang diisi dengan jawaban yang memiliki kaitan satu dengan lainnya.

Tes objektif jenis isian ini masih berkaitan dengan tes esai, karena tes ini masih menuntut jawaban bebas dan singkat dari para siswa. Namun, karena tes tersebut hanya memberikan kesempatan kepada siswa menjawab dengan satu kata dan biasanya telah terikat dalam definisi, fakta, dan atau prinsip-prinsip pengetahuanmaka tes tersebut disebut sebagai tes objektif jenis isian.

 

Studying English in an English-speaking country is the best but not the only way to learn the language

In this global era, English is considered as an international communication media. There is a dozen of ways to facilitate us in studying English, one of which is by studying in an English-speaking country like America or British.

For some people, it is likely adequate to study English in a short course for several months as long as they are willing to work hard. All they need to do here are about practice. They do not have to wait for the chance to go abroad comes in order to practice speaking English only. There are a lot of people who can speak English fluently without going to the English-native country, so basically studying English according to them is not something so complicated because it can be applied everywhere as the fact that English language has widely been used in most countries.

However, since the language is not only a fluent speaking but also a cultural understanding, to study English in native-speaking country is still much better because it will give the students a more natural atmosphere in the process of language acquisition. The native environment will bring an ease to the students in learning English. They will know how to apply an accepted language in interacting with the society.

As the conclusion, although there are many ways to study English but studying this language in an English-speaking country is the best because it has a natural environment supporting the process of English learning.