Research into students’ expectations towards native English speakers or teachers has been commonly investigated for years, yet the significant exploration of native teachers’ perceptions towards their foreign students are rarely examined. This study tries to find out the Native English Speaker Teachers’ (NESTs) expectations in teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) students. The data were compared with Gani et al.’s (2015) previous study of EFL learners’ expectations toward their native teachers. The participants in this study were two native English teachers who are currently working at Universitas Syiah Kuala, Banda Aceh, Indonesia. The interview was selected as the instrument to collect the data. The interview guide was designed and formulated based on a list of questionnaires that originated from Wu and Ke (2009). The interview with each teacher was recorded and the results were transcribed. The findings show that NESTs generally have similar expectations with the EFL students regarding speaking rate, learning environment, accent preferences, and assignments. However, diverse expectations occurred on the subject of syllabus design, grading system, grammatical correction, and pronunciation articulation. The results are further discussed in the paper. Consequently, the findings of this study can be used as a reference for both native teachers and EFL students in fulfilling the goal of learning in the classroom.

This study aims to find out the problems faced by student teachers in an internship program in designing lesson plans at schools. A lesson plan is one of the essential instructional designs that should be considered to achieve a successful teaching and learning process. For teachers, a lesson plan is a guideline that will be used in teaching to achieve learning objectives. This research used a qualitative method. The participants were selected by using purposive sampling. They were seven students of the English Education Department of Universitas Syiah Kuala who were taking an internship program. The data collection was carried out through document analysis and interviews. The results showed that all student teachers strived to design their lesson plans based on the 2013 Curriculum. There were several problems faced by the students, such as (1) formulating the indicators of competency achievement, (2) writing learning objectives, (3) finding suitable materials, (4) selecting learning methods, (5) choosing learning media and resources, (6) formulating activities, and (7) creating an assessment. The results of the interview also revealed the same. Thus, it is recommended that student teachers should receive more training, both theoretically and practically, in designing the lesson plan based on the 2013 Curriculum as required by the Ministry of Education in Indonesia.

This study aimed to examine the EFL (English as a foreign language) students’ oral presentation of storytelling. The students performed retelling of narratives such as fables, legends, myths, and fairy tales using their smartphones and video recorder. The participants of the study were 19 students enrolled in the Drama in ELT (English Language Teaching) course at Universitas Syiah Kuala, Banda Aceh, Indonesia. It employed participant observation and interviews to collect data. The results of the study revealed that for non-language aspects, the lowest score was for ‘dress code’ (M=2.1), meaning that the students did not make any efforts to dress and use props that were related to the stories they were telling. While for the language aspects, the lowest score was for ‘communicative abilities with the audience’ (M= 1.2). This shows that even though the participants recorded their performance, and there was no audience watching them directly, they still faced barriers and a lack of confidence when presenting the storytelling. The interviews further supported the findings from the observation such as not being able to use appropriate props for their performance, lack of eye contact, switching voices, use of gestures, difficulty in remembering the script, and needing somebody else to do the recording for them. Therefore, the students need more practice in front of audiences to overcome the problems in the future to ensure that the use of storytelling can improve their oral performance.

This research investigated EFL Indonesian students' perception of using e-dictionaries in learning English. The subjects were 50 students still studying at a university in Banda Aceh, Indonesia. They completed a questionnaire, and ten were selected to be further interviewed. The questionnaire and interview questions were developed from several theories proposed by experts. The results of the study showed that the students had a positive attitude toward the use of e-dictionaries. Although e-dictionaries provided some benefits for students’ language learning, especially in vocabulary, such as ease of use, time, and place, the students also faced some difficulties using them. These included incomplete information on the definitions offered for words searched, uncomfortable and constant pop-up advertisements on the apps, cost and internet quota, and finally, eye health issues where students could not read their smartphone screen for some time duration. It is hoped that as the dominance of digital technology increases, more applications in the future can resolve these problems to better assist students in language learning.

This qualitative study principally aimed to discover how songs can be used to promote students' affective domain in listening class activities. One English teacher and twenty-five 8th-grade students of a public junior high school in Greater Aceh, Indonesia, were involved in this study. The data were collected through classroom observation. This present study followed Krathwohl, Bloom, and Masia’s (1973) five observation criteria of the affective domain framework. Subsequently, the teacher and four selected students were interviewed for additional data. The results demonstrated that songs have a positive impact on students' affective domain. Students become enthusiastic about learning listening skills. They listened well and remembered the title of the new song (receiving phenomenon); actively participated in the classroom activities (responding phenomenon); demonstrated their problem-solving ability by working together (valuing); and effective time management (organization). Despite their ability to cooperate in group activities, they had no self-reliance when working individually (internalizing values). However, the students agree that the classroom environment was more comfortable and enjoyable. The results of the study suggest that teachers should consider using songs to not only teaches the knowledge but also the culture associated with the song itself when it comes to teaching listening. Aside from the cognitive aspects, teachers should also maintain and track students' progress in the affective domain.