Example of Review Text (Article Review)

The Review of Portfolios in Elt

                        Portfolios in ELT is the article that has author’s name Malisa Iturain. She is the teacher of British Council YL Centre, Barcelona. This article was first published in 2007, Barcelona. In this article, the author tries to inform the readers about Portfolios in ELT as a language teaching technique. European Language portfolios has been using since the mid 1900s in Europe. Language Portfolios are a collection of individual students’ work put together in a file or ring binder. They are could be added and taken away. LP consist of the passport, The language biography, and the dossier. LP have the advantages such as enhancing learners’ motivation, providing possibility to get new cultural experiences, and leading greater learner autonomy. Otherwise, LP also can be problematic with its large storage and consuming time.

                        In my opinion, this article obvious enough in informing the readers about English Language Portfolios. After reading this article, we are able to understand what ELP are. The article also contains the example of the passport, the language biography, and the dossier. Providing the examples helps us to get the main point of using ELP. The author writes the article in orderly, so we are able to get the point of each part of the article. On the other hand, this article uses a little bit difficult word. In some part, the readers confuse about the meaning. Some examples also be mentioned unclearly such as in passport part. Then about the title, it is not clear enough to engage the reader because it uses the abbreviation “ELT”. Some people do not understand what ELT is, especially for beginning learners. It will be better using clear and complete word. This article also does not support by scientific data. It is only depend on the author’s experience, so it is not strength enough in providing the advantages of using European Language Portfolios. One thing else is the author does not specify in what term of English that is able to use ELP method. It will be inappropriate using ELP method in all of English term such as grammar, listening, speaking, etc. Overall, this article is good enough in informing the English learner about ELP method. We personally get much knowledge about fun method in learning English. 

Example of Review Text (Movie Review)

Twilight Eclipse: Movie Review

By Mali Elfman

The Players:

Director: David Slade

Writer: Melissa Rosenberg, Stephanie Meyer (books)

Cast: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Billy Burke, Bryce Dallas Howard, Xavier Samuel, Ashley Greene, Nikki Reed, Kellan Lutz, Jackson Rathbone, Anna Kendrick, Peter Facinelli, Elizabeth Reaser

Cinematography: Javier Aguirresarobe

Original Score By: Howard Shore

Plot:

Once again, Bella Swan is caught between her addiction to vampire, Edward and her friendship with werewolf, Jacob. Meanwhile the Voultri are forcing Edward to “turn” Bella, Edward is trying to convince Bella to marry him, and Bella is just trying to get some from Edward. There’s now a vampire “war” going on, in which the werewolves and the vampires have to form a truce to overcome. And we start and end the film reading poetry in a field full of poppies. How sweet.

The Bad:

·         Same Old: Once again, Kristen Stewart is left stressing out and looking worried. Robert Pattison constantly looks like someone is pulling out his fingernails. Lets get something new for the actors to work on! At least in this film Bella seems to have a mind of her own even if she is being completely stupid.

·         Should Not Be Seen in IMAX: Despite the fact they’re trying to make this film a big spectacle and you would think with all the money/equipment they have it would be, the film does not hold up on an IMAX screen. All the flaws in the production are magnified and during the slower more “romantic scenes’ it’s hard to see past the bad make-up and engage in the story.

·         Production Errors: Aside from a few sets which left me feeling like I was watching a soap opera and a lack of wide shots, there are a number of scenes with vampires appearing in the light but not sparkling! (I never thought I would be saying this but) this film has a serious lake of sparkling. Stick to the rules you set for yourself! They needed to either re-light some of the scenes, explain something to us or add some damn sparkles!

·         The Make-Up: Come on guys, this is #3! Get it together! The contacts still look fake, I could see make up on Edwards arm and missing from his ears in extreme close-ups. These problems should not still be happening with the money going into these films. This may be a result of…

·         The Turn Around: The speed they’re turning these babies around makes them be more about quantity than quality. There’s no time for the little things and unfortunately all the little things really begin to add up in this film.

But I’m guessing that won’t matter for most of you because the good outweighs the bad…

The Good

·         Romance: Undeniably hotter than before. This is what the fans want and David Slade delivers. Lots of making out, sexual tension and if the three leads don’t have a Ménage à trois by the end of the saga I’d be damned surprised!

·         Taylor Lautner: Once again, he keeps evolving from one film to the next and gives us something new to discover. In this film he’s stepped out as a big buff dude, with the cocky attitude to match.

·         Action: It’s faster, more intense, there’s more story behind it and it’s far for graphic than before. I actually forgot what film I was in for about 10 minutes and got to enjoy some good fight scenes.

·         The Pure Ridiculousness: With lines like “admit it I’m hotter than you” how can you not point and laugh?! In some of the earlier films the dialogue was just bad, but now it’s so bad it’s good! Or at least entertaining…

·         Tone: The film is a touch darker while still being targeted towards teenage girls. Nicely done.

Overall:

If you’re a fan of the first two films, this one is definitely a step up and will in no way disappoint. For the rest of you there isn’t anything new or mind-blowing to make it worth seeing for the first time.

Example of Review Text 2

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
Authors: Patricia Holt

I choose this article because this article was very unique. Human Intelligence was become complete. We have complexion in intelligence, such as brain intelligence and emotional intelligence. Both of them are so important. But, emotional has a major function as successful tester. Person who have more in emotional intelligence been become more social, more empathy, and they were self reliant and confident, trustworthy and dependable. And these, have more control in successful of life.

This article tells us about famous ‘impulse control’ test at a San Francisco lecture by Daniel Goleman, called “The Marshmallow Challenge”. In this test, four-year-old was individually called into a room at Stanford University during the 1960’s. There, a kind man gave a marshmallow to each of them and said they could eat the marshmallow right away, or wait for him to come back from an errand, at which point they would get two marshmallows.

Some of them covered their eyes or rested their heads on their arm so they wouldn’t have to look at the marshmallow, or played games or sang to keep their heads on their arms so they wouldn’t have to look at the marshmallow and waited for the promised double prize. Others, about a third of the group, simply watched the man leave and ate the marshmallow.
What is surprising about this test?, a dozen years later the same children were tracked down as adolescents and tested again. The ones who had resisted eating the marshmallow were clearly more socially competent than the others.

The author explain about recent discoveries in brain research that prove emotional stability is more important than IQ in determining an individual’s success in life. People that have better in emotional intelligence is more sociable, more and have more ability in the face of difficulty.

 I think it is good news. It can help us to develop our emotional intelligence more than IQ because future is something unpredictable. Probably, we will face any different kind of trouble and of course, we need self confidence to survive against pressure. This confidence should be trained by our experience of life.

Example of Review Text

The Review of “Fluency VS Accuracy”

Craig, 2011, Fluency Vs Accuracy, http://craigsenglish.com/blog/blog1.php/fluency-vs-accuracy

Based on the article of Fluency VS Accuracy, both fluency and accuracy have different meaning. Fluency is the communication ability while accuracy is something about making mistake or not. The importance of those two things is depending on the purpose why we learn English. Generally, fluency is more useful than accuracy for most English learners. Based on the writer’s experience in teaching English, feeling of making mistake is one of the causes why we can’t speak English fluently. Many people get good test score, but they speak English hardly. While others get low test score, but they can speak effectively. Getting more fluency practice is needed, and we also should input reading and listening skill. By watching movies, listening to the radio will help to increase listening skill. In order to increasing reading skill, we can read many magazines, newspapers, etc. By getting more practice, our language ability will improve faster than by studying grammar rules.

I personally think that the Fluency VS Accuracy article is obvious enough to state where the writer’s position is. The writer obviously tries to persuade the reader about the importance of fluency in learning English. The writer states a lot of his point of view in the whole of this article. After reading this article, I am able to understand what the fluency and accuracy are. Besides, I also get a lot of point of views why the fluency is more useful than accuracy. The writer also provides his own experience in teaching English, so it is strengthen his opinion about English fluency. Showing the real examples in giving suggestion on how to improve our English ability also helps me as the reader get the knowledge or message value easily. The explanation in this article has good arrangement or in orderly. On the other hand, this article uses little bit confusing words. It can make the readers understand the meaning of the text hardly. The writer uses some inappropriate diction to show his arguments. Besides, there is no scientific data in supporting the writer’s arguments. At glance, it seems that this article is too subjective because it depends on the writer’s experience only. There are a lot of advantages of fluency in English that are providing in this article, while there is no sufficient information about accuracy. Overall, this article is good enough in persuading the readers about the issue. 

Example of Descriptive Text 2

My Favourite Fried Rice

So far I have already eaten many kinds of food, but there is one food which becomes my favourite food. It is fried rice. I do really like the fried rice a lot, and I can eat it as much as possible. Even though I have already been full, I am still able to eat fried rice. I am always in good feeling when I eat the fried rice. I have already become addicted to the fried rice. I have eaten many kinds of the fried rice in many places. All of the fried rices that I have eaten have no difference taste a lot.

In making fried rice, there are some steps. First of all, heat the fried oil and fry the egg. Then mix with the onion, garlic, salt, and chili as the seasoning flavor. Next, fry together with the rice and add the tomato sauce. Fry all of the ingredients till cooked. The fried rice looks reddish when it is already done. It has salty and hot taste. When the fried rice gets into my mouth, it feels like a lava explosion. Then when I smell the fried rice, it is sharp, fried, and spicy. The smell of fried rice always makes me feel hungry. I usually eat the fried rice with my friends at home and sometimes in the restaurant. The best time to eat the fried rice is in the evening.

As an Indonesian, I eat the rice as the main food. The fried rice is my favorite food. I eat fried rice almost every day. Because I like to eat the fried rice, I already bought the fried rice in many places. The fried rice tastes very good and yummy. The fried that I have already eaten has almost the same ingredients and taste. In brief, all of the fried rices that I have already eaten are the same.

Example of Argumentative Text

Homeschooling for Better Education

The development of country depends on the development of its education system. Today, the education system in Indonesia doesn’t effective yet in producing good quality of human sources. There are a lot of factors that influence this aspect, and one of them is the ineffective system that has been used in many public schools. Every parent wants their children to have good quality of education, moral and spiritual value, and good study environment, while the public schools can’t provide these things. The parents feel unsatisfied to the education system that has been used in public school. Start from these reason, a lot of parents apply homeschooling system for their children. There are some Indonesian famous figures that also use homeschooling such as Ki hajar Dewantara, K.H. Agus salim, Dr. Seto Mulyadi, and Buya Hamka (Kompas, 2005). In certain aspects, I believe homeschooling is obvious good to make better education system in Indonesia.

On the contrary, there are some arguments that consider homeschooling as not good system for education. For instance, Sudigdo Adi, member of PDI-P faction, states “Homeschooling will create individual person because there is no social activity as in public schools” (Tempo Interaktif, 2007). The individual character of the children is created because the studying process is done in the home. The process in homeschooling involves parents and student only while in the public school provides social interaction among the students. However, all of these contrast ideas of homeschooling have been rebutted by providing some facts and increasing the system in homeschooling. As Dhanang Sasongko , the secretary-general of Homeschooling Association, said that applying homeschooling doesn’t mean to sterilize the social environment. The students are exposed to all variables of real life. They often do outside activities such as visiting the orphanages or going to camp ground (Tempo Interaktif, 2007). The studying method of homeschooling doesn’t obligate the students to study inside the home. They can also do studying process outside of home as long as they feel comfort. The homeschooler can also have intensive interaction or study with the teacher while it doesn’t happen in public school. Besides, homeschooling provides a safe environment, both physically and emotionally. The students will take away from negative environment such as drugs, sexual harassment, bullying, and peer-pressure.

Furthermore, homeschooling has been chosen as alternative studying process and has been legalized in our education regulation (UU SISDIKNAS) chapter 20 on 2003. Homeschooling be explained as informal education and can be equivalent to formal school by passing the national standard examination (UU chapter 27 line 2). It’s obvious that homeschooling can be applied by the parents without any legalize problem. Basically, the curriculum of homeschooling is designed by the ability of the students, and this theory is supported by Howard Gardner’s theory about multiple intelligences. In homeschooling system, the students are able to express all of their ability or intelligences intensively by showing individual creativity and being independent person. They will be ready to face the real life and compete with other people over the world. There are many famous figures in the world that can be success without formal studying such as Benyamin Franklin, Thomas Alfa Edison, KH. Agus Salim, Ki Hajar Dewantara (http://www.pormadi.wordpress.com). These fact has been shown us that homeschooling system can create good quality of human sources. In contrast, public school can’t make students express their real intelligences because there is no intensive studying process in the class. The students in the formal school have been taught by classic method of studying and have been limited by some formal rules. Therefore, the students’ intelligences will not develop as in homeschooling. These facts have shown to us that homeschooling provides better education system and creates good quality of human sources.

The next priority is the flexibility of homeschooling that eases the parents to manage the students studying process. In homeschooling system, the teaching process can be done by the teacher or tutor, so the parents may not master the entire subject of study. It’s really wrong perception if homeschooling makes the parents in difficulty to handle children education. As Dr.Seto Mulyadi stated in his paper that it’s appropriate for the parents to manage the education of their own children because parents have responsibility of it. By involving parents to take a big role of the education for their children, it will make sure that parents will grow their children as what they hope. The children will have good development of both intellectual and emotional because they have really good monitoring from the parents. In addition, homeschooling may give advantage in budgeting. Remembering the fact that education budget is not cheap anymore, homeschooling is good solution to overcome the unsatisfied feeling of the parents to the education system in public school. By applying homeschooling, the parents can control the payment and guarantee the quality of education by themselves. It’s obvious that homeschooler will get maximum advantages of education.

By considering some aspects above, it’s clear that homeschooling is able to provide better education system for the children. Homeschooling have a lot of advantages such as providing safe environment, getting flexible curriculum and system, and maximizing the education quality. In addition, homeschooling is good choice to create good quality of human sources. In vice versa, public school can’t provide all of these things as well as in homeschooling. There are a lot of complex problem that happen in public school that have been shown in newspaper. Finally, I believe that homeschooling is better overall because of how bad public education has become.


REFERENCES
“Homeschooling” model pendidikan alternative. (2005, August 29). Kompas

Sekolah rumah VS sekolah umum. (2007, September 24). Tempo Interaktif

Simbolon, Pormadi. (2007). Homeschooling: Sebuah Pendidikan Alternatif. Retrieved November 12, 2007, from http://pormadi.wordpress.com/2007/11/12homeschooling/

Undang-Undang RI No. 20 Tahun 2003. (2003). Bandung: Fokusmedia.

Example of Descriptive Text

The Criteria of My Dream Husband

Everybody has each best time. By getting married, people feel the best time in their life just like old says that marriage is kind of heaven life in the world. Marriage then becomes important thing because we will through it whole of our life. Therefore, choosing a good life partner is extremely essential. Everybody has his/her criteria of life partner, so do I. In choosing a husband, I have some criteria.

A Moslem is the fundamental and important criteria in choosing a husband. Having a Moslem husband can bring happiness here after. He should do his obligation to pray routinely and never miss single time of praying. Then my husband in the future should remind me to pray on time. I interest if he will wear religious dress at home.

Another criteria in choosing a husband is good character. He should be a wise and patient man. I hope that his words are really soft like silk. Then it’s better if he would like to think twice before doing something. So, he can be responsible of something. I want that he will never use violence to solve family problem. For the last, wisdom of a husband is very needed in forming good family.

Having good education is my next criteria for my dream husband. By having a husband who has good education, he will be able to lead me to through this life. Beside that, he will be a good father to teach the children. Then he is able to share his wide knowledge to both myself and the children. If my dream husband has high education, it can motivate the children to have high education too.

Based on the description above, it’s true that having some criteria in choosing a life partner is necessary. Marriage is for our life here after, so we should be careful in choosing life partner. Education, religious, and character are the aspects that I consider in choosing my life partner. As a woman, I recommend for other women to consider the criteria of your dream husband.

Essay

English for Young learners: Why is It Important?

English is known as the international language because it has been spoken almost all of the people in the world. Recently, many people interest to learn English as their second language (ESL) or foreign language (EFL). The number of English learners in each country whole of the world is increase every year.

Because of many importances of English as International language, the learners of English language is not only adult people but also youth. The point of learning English is knowing how to use English language rather than just knowing it (Lightbown & Nina, 1999:161). In order to reach the maximum of learning English, it is essential to introduce English in the early age of young learners. There are several reasons why it is important to learn English in the early age.

Learning English language in the early age is easier than in the old age. As Scott and Lisbeth (1995:2) state, “the children in the early age use language skills long before they are aware of them. They also will have some sort of language awareness and readiness which they bring with them into the foreign language classroom.” Besides, Lightbown and Nina (1999:4) said in her article that there was no proof that a child’s brain had a limited capacity for languages just like their knowledge of one language must disappeared if their knowledge of the other language grew. So, young learners are able to learn English language easily. They can memorize a lot of vocabulary, and they can practice to use English as soon as possible.

The next reason of the importance in learning English in the early age is the speaking English ability of young learners. Because language is a habit, it is good for young learners to speak English in their daily life as much as possible. When people start to learn English language in their early age, they have more time to practice their English ability. It will be different if people start to learn English when they become adult because they have little time to practice English language. Therefore, learning English for young learners is important in order to develop their English speaking ability.

The readiness in facing era globalization is one of the importances why English language is learnt in the early age. In this era globalization, we should compete each other to get the best in any field. We need to face many things and many people whole of the world in order to reach our goal. English is used as the international communication. So, if we don’t know anything about English language, of course we can’t face the challenges in this era globalization. We also can’t reach our goal. Otherwise, we are able to face and get our best in any kind of field if we learn English language in the early age. Beside that, we will have good English skill to communicate with the entire people whole of the world. That’s all because we learn English language in the early age, so we have readiness in using English language to face era globalization.

In order to widen the knowledge, we should have good skill of English language. In this time, almost all of the knowledge sources are written or spoken in English such as Internet, newspaper, news on television, books, encyclopedias, etc. Then almost all of the education institutions use English as the standard language of study (http://www.saching.com). The teachers speak English in teaching, and the books are also written in English. From the fact above, English language is really needed for us to get more knowledge. So, by learning English language in the early age, we have already had good skill to get and develop our knowledge.

The last reason of the importance in learning English for young learners is the possibility that English is required for job fields. Now days, a lot of companies are looking for the employers who are able to speak English. The skill of English language will determine the quality of the employers. By learning English language, we will have good English skill. If we learn English language in the early age, our English ability will improve day by day. Then we will ready to use English language when we are adult. Having a good skill in English will help us to find a good job. In another word, having good English skill will brighten our future.

In conclusion, English for young learners is really important because of some reasons. By learning English language in the early age, people have more time to develop their speaking English ability, and they can get good both education and job. Finally, they will ready to face era globalization.

REFERENCES

Lightbown, Patsy M. & Nina Spada. 1999. How Languages are Learned. New
York: Oxford University Press.

Scott, Wendy A & Lisbeth H.Y. 1995. Teaching English to Children. England:
Addison Wesley Publishing Company.

http://www.saching.com/Article/The-importance-of-English-Language-/3556